Temple Termagant
Posts: 6
Joined: Tuesday, 2nd July 2013, 05:07
Abyss makes me want to give up
This is my first post, and I apologize if this has already been raised on the forums (I'm sure it has, in some form).
I'm just about ready to give up with Crawl, due to the constant gut punch of getting slaughtered in the Abyss. I have been playing almost exclusively Minotaur Berserker, with the understanding that this is one of the easier class/race combos; I've chosen this straightforward class b/c I want to get to a point where I feel I can reliably progress through most of the game, and then worry about branching out to more interesting or challenging race/classes. However, I am routinely winding up in the Abyss around character level 14-20 and simply not emerging alive.
My strategy is more or less always the same -- race to find an exit and ignore *all* else. No fighting whatsoever, just moving. I quaff whatever protective potions I have immediately upon arriving, put on any resistance oriented rings, quaff speed or agiltiy if I got it, and then just run in one direction, avoiding each and every monster in my path. I've been banished down there like 12 times now and have only successfully escaped twice. Lately, I've been using the Lantern of Shadows to build me a posse of shadows to distract or block the mobs of enemies that invariably find me despite running away from them. But then a Bone Dragon or Starcurs'd Mass swarm catches up, and maybe my speed or resistance has worn out by that point, and I'm a goner. The worst is getting stuck in little corners and being surrounded by monsters, even though I studiously attempt to avoid such situations. Back on the home dungeon plane, I have grown incredibly wary of banish-capable enemies (Sonia, Psyche, elves, ogre mages, chaos or distortion wielders), to the point of paranoia where I'll wander around bedecked in whatever magic resisting equipment I have even if I have other far more powerful items. I have yet to spot a Lugonu altar to convert as some people advise, but would gladly piss off Trog if it meant living another day. And yet I still end up getting plopped down there unexpectedly and not escaping.
Am I being subjected to worse than average luck? Or is there some obvious trick I'm missing? I hope this is a flaw with my gameplay, since I can alter that. Should I be standing my ground, fighting enemies instead of avoiding them? Even as a level 15 MiBe with maybe a good axe or two and a decent (20-25) AC? Because I am getting so fed up with this, I'm worried one more Abyssal YAAD may set me off Crawl for good, which I don't want since otherwise I have been loving the game so much.