Wednesday, 14th October 2015, 23:56 by Aule
Okay, you're getting the starting spellbook down, and that's good. You basically learn what enemy is vulnerable to which spell and you run with it. Slimes and jellies get cflame. Player ghosts, hydras, and spiny frogs, the same. Same for anything undead. You don't even need a wall with undead, as they'll walk into it if you just step around the lit square. Centaurs and orc priests (and pretty much anything sentient) get meph, first thing. I look for a good shot spell, a good bolt spell, a good AoE spell, and a few support spells after the starting book. For a bolt, I'll take what I can get, but usually go with fire, depending on training. For shot, I like iron shot if I can get it, but I'll also take orb (but that takes some getting used to, and more learning about nearby conditions, etc.). For AoE, freezing cloud wins hands down for me.
Veh is especially good for Wz because the extended range means that basically nothing is out of range of some spells. The return on MP for kills is also pretty amazing, especially if you don't give a hoot about spell noise (as I don't) and take on mass quantities at a time gladly. As mephed creatures kill themselves and each other, and you kill what you can, you keep getting refilled even without a staff or crystal ball. I've used Chei with Wz and had a winning version of the TrWz that I killed just by getting sloppy in Zot. That's a whole other learning curve, though, because the speed issue can really get you hurt fast. But the stat boosts are pretty amazing. Slouch is amazing, too, but I was always perhaps too conservative using it. As for Sif, Ive never been happy. There's just not enough there to draw me, I guess.
I always plan on doing extended, so I commit the cardinal sin of actually exercising choice when it comes to choosing a god, training skills and such. I don't care if the altar I'm looking for is on D:8, I'm going to wait until I come to it (and in the meantime I get to wear-id ammys without worrying about the faith one). I train spellcasting constantly, always the highest, and always first to 27. This is quite a challenge on my current attempt of TrWz, whose aptitude is -5, but that's okay.
Early game goes like this for me: start game; set training to manual, turn on spellcasting only; at XL2, memorize blink (unless Fo) and imp; train sc at *, tloc and summ at + until they are < 20% fail; as spell points become available, memorize meph, cflame, rmsl; train conj, pois and air at + until fail ~15% for meph; train conj and fire at * until fail ~15% for cflame; don't train charms for rmsl because you can get it to cast without it. The percentages seem high, but it's just to get them usable for the early game, because as sc and conj rise through the game, all the starting spells will be at 0%-1% before long anyway.
Weapons are the only thing I leave up to the rng gods, I suppose, but even then I have a preference for trident or demon trident, because you get to hit 3x the number of squares as you would otherwise, which is especially helpful when you have a horde of stumbling, mephed enemies you can dispatch by poking them. I'll train a few integers for whatever I currently have, but I'm not ever going for super-strong melee with a Wz, anyway, so toward the end of the game it usually boils down to what randart or fixedart has the best combinations to augment my character sheet.
I only train charms if I find haste, and memorize it when I do. I train fire and cold decently, but also earth and air, too, because there are certain spells that have excellent uses that I will always memorize when they arrive: LRD, force lance, and airstrike. Fireball is always great for mid-game. Freezing cloud is da bomb for same. By then end of mid-game, I'm trying to get a level 9 online, usually either firestorm or glaciate. Doesn't matter which because usually I'll end up with both, plus LCS and tornado to boot. I've tried summons, but they just end up getting in the way towards the end, so I've made do without them, although I will sometimes make an exception for shadow creatures. I've never used necromancy on a Wz. I've tried poison, but it's of almost no use in extended.
This all in the good case, of course, and reflects only my preferences, not commonly accepted good gameplay. Most times this plan of action fails, but when it does succeed it is very fun, for me.
Good luck to you on yours.
- For this message the author Aule has received thanks: 2
- BugHunter, daggaz