Halls Hopper
Posts: 55
Joined: Saturday, 2nd July 2011, 14:45
Crusader, early game
Wiki guide says that crusaders "are among the most powerful choices for melee characters due to having good offensive melee power and survivability without impeding spellcasting" and "in Crawl 0.8... they are no longer the only competitive choice for melee characters due to buffs to heavy armour, but are still among the best". OK, this is great and all, I have only one question, HOW THE F do you keep one alive?!
No, seriously, I tried different recommended race/class combinations:
Around 70% of my KoBe's can clean Lair 1-7 without much effort.
Around 40% of my HEWz's can safely get to Lair.
All my MDFi's usually die somewhere between Temple and Lair.
- it's not that much, but:
Around 80% of my MfCr's die before the Temple (and the rest die shortly after).
None of my HECr's have ever got to Temple.
Bot says "you're a mfcr that's like cheating", but it seems more like a ultrahard challenge combo to me. I usually start my DCSS session by killing 10-20 crusaders, then saying "screw that" and cleaning the Lair with KoBe. It's not like I'm dying to anything in particular, it's probably something fundamentally wrong with my gameplay. What am I doing wrong?
OK, onto MfCr.
I usually try to play safe, lure enemies to corridors, etc., still it feels like I'm too fragile without any damage output.
Rage is good... if it works. At the beginning, it often fails (success=fair), and as I only try to rage on tougher enemies (ogres, orcish patrols), failed rage is usually gg right there.
Raising Charms by victory dancing with freezing aura brings two major problems: first, there's usually no spare exp in the early game (even if I turn Polearms off) so it's probably pointless, and second, spell hunger and starvation. Is it really worth it?
- so, basically, I can't rely on Rage (it fails = I die), and training Charms = starving.
If I just avoid harder enemies, soon it feels like I'm avoiding everything except rats, because enemies down there are even more harder.
HECr. Rage is better at start (success=good), but outside of it, it's not uncommon to be 2-shotted on D2. Even cockroaches are killing me. Trying to play this looks like a gamble, and I usually lose it before D4.
So, how should I play crusaders to survive early game? I really need some help.
- For this message the author Hydralisk has received thanks: 3
- Bim, Grildrak, MyOtheHedgeFox