The Tavern

LRD is an extremely satisfying way of dispensing with curse skulls. A bit like popping bubblewrap.

Smite-targetting is +fun.

EDIT: The blushing emoticon tells me this is probably in the wrong place. Hmmm.

Using crossbow at 0 skill is a trap. First orc wizard will get to "almost dead" by one shot and will die to second one. But later you will get this:

Code:: The bolt hits the orc wizard but does no damage. You shoot a bolt. The bolt closely misses the orc wizard. You shoot a bolt. The bolt closely misses the orc wizard. You shoot a bolt. The bolt barely misses the orc wizard. The orc wizard seems to speed up. You shoot a bolt. The bolt barely misses the orc wizard. ... You die...

Yes, I should have retreated to a corner but I was lazy, the corner was very far

Edit.

Code:: Attack: Ogre Abyssal Knight vs. orc wizard (4000 rounds) (2014/06/07/11:19:55) Ogre Abyssal Knight: XL 1 Str 16 Int 11 Dex 9 Wielding: +0,+0 crossbow with 30 bolts, Skill: Crossbows orc wizard: HD 3 AC 3 EV 12 Crossbows | AvHitDam | MaxDam | Accuracy | AvDam | AvTime | AvSpeed | AvEffDam 0 | 6.4 | 18 | 52% | 3.4 | 150 | 0.67 | 2.2

Yes, a trap. 2.2 AvEffDam, Orc Wizard has 9-21 HP.

That early pickup of a +4+3 Shortsword of Protection will not save your Lv6 DrWz when D:4 decides to spawn Edmund; Grinder; Natasha and Pikel in close proximity to each other. [As I found out by Blinking into one after another]. I managed to kill Grinder and jumped to XL6 from XL4, but then the other three found me.

To make things worse an OOD Giant eyeball decided to spawn and freeze me, and even then, when I finally went down to D:5 to escape, an Orc Wizard hit me for 20 with a Wand of Flame instantly.

And now I have to worry about a XL 6 DrWz Ghost on D:5 with Summon Imp, Magic Dart, Blink and a +4/+3 Short Sword of Protection's AC boost. Thank the gods I didn't hit XL7.

I've been having fun with my new friend The +7+7 Singing Sword lately. For those of you who don't know, this is a Fixedart Bastard Sword that frequently chats to the player, but when you get into battle, it starts shouting at the enemies and lightly damages every single enemy in LoS every turn. (The enemies "recoil from the noise" and take damage.)

This is a great ability in a lot of situations. It tears apart things like Slime Creatures and Starcursed Masses, for instance! And almost the entire way through Vaults it does wonders against everything you fight basically.

But, here's some situations I've found over my last two long games where this little guy stops being such a delight.

The Royal Jelly, in Slime:6. Every turn the Singing Sword's screams cause TRJ to take a tiny bit of damage and to spit out more jellies, over and over, never stopping. ;_; When what you want is burst damage and nothing else, this isn't a good effect! I ended up going Jiyva because I couldn't figure out how to kill that thing and I was already badly mutated.

And the other thing? Don't worship Zin while using the Singing Sword. If you put a Sanctuary up, and the Sword starts screaming at enemies who are running away, they will take damage and Zin will get very angry and revoke your Sanctuary instantly as well as a big chunk of your piety. x_x I'd imagine TSO does the same thing if the screams damage a paralyzed/confused enemy too, but haven't tested.

Oh and a minor, third thing? Singing Sword is NOT compatible with Spectral Weapon. This makes me sad.

As cool as Singing Sword is, after this last game, as a HESk where I got seven Runes and then died in mortal combat versus Lom Lobon (down to the wire, but juuust didn't quite make it), I think I'm going back to normal weapons for a long time. <:) Boy that was a great game though, and a fantastic death.

P.S: If anyone would like to hunt down and kill my "Intangible HESk" ghost in Pan somewhere on the CSZO server, I'd really appreciate it!

Do not punch jellies with a Demonspawn Monk with claws. It dosen't work. Especially when they spawned inside a vault with loot for them to eat.

Despite being mindless, Jellies do not care about you closing doors.

'The Jelly eats the door!'
'The Jelly splashes you! [15 damage]'
'You die...'

octopodes are fucking awful.

Running into a Gnoll with a Spear of Dragon Slaying on D:2 as a Draconian sucks.

raikaria wrote:Running into a Gnoll with a Spear of Dragon Slaying on D:2 as a Draconian sucks.

Anything with a weapon of dragon slaying yeah even later on like say d3 with Siggy + a scythe of dragon slaying...yeah that sucks too.

raikaria wrote:Running into a Gnoll with a Spear of Dragon Slaying on D:2 as a Draconian sucks.

dont worry it doesnt get any better later. I guess thats what draconians get for being such a strong species.

I've got a new one.

Daggers do not cut off Hydra heads.

I'm playing an Elf short-blade specialist who found a really good Dagger early-game, but later got an even better Cutlass. I'm SO GLAD I kept the Dagger as an emergency backup weapon, during Swamp. It helps too that one of my randart Rings has +Rage, and berserking with that +9 Dagger is extremely capable of slaying any of the 30+ Hydras I stumbled across through my trip down Swamps!

And yes, I'm aware that I could've just as easily kept a Fire-branded short-sword as backup instead... if I wasn't worshipping Dithmeinos, you see. I'm happy I found a good alternative.

e1999 wrote:dont worry it doesnt get any better later. I guess thats what draconians get for being such a strong species.

Heh, as a Demonspawn main, I know your pain bro. Holy Wrath weapons, especially in the hands of Rupert or Saint Roka early-mid game... *sigh* Lost some good ones back in the day.

Never trust shopkeeps who tell you they don't know what an item does - they are just trying to pawn their junk off on you.

One shop had TWO un-ID'd artifact robes; one turned out to be a crappy +0 rPois (which I already had on a ring) with -3 dex. The other was Misfortunes, and gave me a level of Blurry Vision from the contamination.

I'm certainly never shopping there again.

Matanui3 wrote:Never trust shopkeeps who tell you they don't know what an item does - they are just trying to pawn their junk off on you.

One shop had TWO un-ID'd artifact robes; one turned out to be a crappy +0 rPois (which I already had on a ring) with -3 dex. The other was Misfortunes, and gave me a level of Blurry Vision from the contamination.

I'm certainly never shopping there again.

Thank goodness those shops aren't persistent from game to game!

0 EV and negligible AC don't mean an hydra will be hit at all by three full magazines of a Rod of Inaccuracy.

What an apt name.

Hydras don't have 0 EV, they have 0 AC and 5 EV.

Attacks can miss actual 0 EV targets anyway, though.

Whatever. They're shit at both anyways.

Something that doesn't prevent them at all from feeling extremely lucky against inaccuracy bolts (which are awesome nonetheless)

As a newish player I just learned that Rage can paralyze after it ends. Of course my character (XL 16) died because of this after drinking a potion of rage. It wasn't even such a dangerous situation, I just wanted to try the potion. Tbh I don't get why there is no warning in the game about this. It's neither in the description nor is the item typed as dangerous. I get a warning for every only remotely dangerous action but not for a 10% chance of paralysation that can mean instant death in a lot of situations?

Kolbur wrote:As a newish player I just learned that Rage can paralyze after it ends. Of course my character (XL 16) died because of this after drinking a potion of rage. It wasn't even such a dangerous situation, I just wanted to try the potion. Tbh I don't get why there is no warning in the game about this. It's neither in the description nor is the item typed as dangerous. I get a warning for every only remotely dangerous action but not for a 10% chance of paralysation that can mean instant death in a lot of situations?

For future reference, if you are attacking or butchering the turn your berserk ends, the chance of getting a post-berserk paralysis is 0%. (Technical details: There is something called a berserk penalty which goes up the more consecutive turns you don't attack or butcher, taking more and more from the berserk duration the higher it gets, and if berserk ends with the berserk penalty in place paralysis can occur. If you see a message like 'You feel an urge to hit something' that means berserk penalty just hit 2, for example.)

haha what

Good to know. The real question is, does attacking empty space count for that?

what. the. fuck

Everything you need to know is in the learndb now:

[14:25] <Patashu> ??berserk[2]
[14:25] <Sequell> berserk[2/8]: berserk_penalty starts at 0 whenever you berserk, resets to 0 whenever you attack or butcher a corpse (You enjoyed that.) and increments by 1 for doing non-berserk actions. After incrementing berserk_penalty, you lose 10*berserk_penalty auts from berserk duration. Messages are printed when berserk_penalty increments to 2/4/6.
[14:26] <Patashu> ??berserk[4]
[14:26] <Sequell> berserk[4/8]: When berserk ends, 210-540 auts slow and exhaust for twice that. You can pass out (1d4 paralysis) if you fail these checks: 1) If Trog worshipper and not penitent, piety/150 to not pass out 2) If berserk_penalty is 0 at the end, don't pass out (see {berserk[2]}) 3) With 1 in 10 + (rage_mutation_level * 25) chance, pass out

PSST DEVS, maybe post berserk paralysis could be reworked? It's kind of dumb that it's rare + the condition that leads to it occurring requires source diving to confirm

EDIT: If you swing at nothing does that increment berserk_penalty ('You feel a strong urge to attack something.' at 2 for example) or do nothing?
If it does nothing, it's better than waiting if you want your berserk to continue + if you want to not pass out at the end.
If it does increment berserk_penalty, it's better than waiting if you want your berserk to time out ASAP (but of course passing out is still possible).

I'm attacking the darkness!

Using hatch to enter Cocytus 7 is not a brilliant idea.

Code:: The hatch slams shut behind you. You sense a powerful magical force warping space. Marking area around the ice statue as unsafe for travelling. Marking area around the ice statue as unsafe for travelling. 2 ice statues, 2 Ice Fiends, Antaeus and an elemental wellspring come into view.

If you try to cast blink while out of mana, it does not set your next use of a spell to blink.

Ended up in my panic casting Shroud and getting my VsWz killed.

It might be a bad idea to use spectral weapon against an opponent with an axe; the cleaving attack will hit both you and the spectral weapon, meaning you take extra damage due to the damage sharing.

Don't throw weapons with the Distortion ego while wielding them.

Even though your OgNe has felt completely overpowered, when you play carelessly and get down to 33 HP in Zot and there's a grey draconian monk next to you, you should blink away at once. In this case, AC 20, EV 16 isn't good enough for one more round against [Attack1: 35 (hit: plain), Attack2: 20 (kick: plain), Attack3: 15 (tail slap: plain)]

RIP OgNe of Kiku, you really rocked in the Tomb.

Sprucery wrote:Even though your OgNe has felt completely overpowered, when you play carelessly and get down to 33 HP in Zot and there's a grey draconian monk next to you, you should blink away at once. In this case, AC 20, EV 16 isn't good enough for one more round against [Attack1: 35 (hit: plain), Attack2: 20 (kick: plain), Attack3: 15 (tail slap: plain)]

RIP OgNe of Kiku, you really rocked in the Tomb.

AC 20, EV 16 is quite shockingly low for a melee character in Zot.

Magipi wrote:AC 20, EV 16 is quite shockingly low for a non-dragonform character in Zot.

FTFY

Well, it was an ogre. +6 SwampDA, +2 hat, +2 cloak, Dodging around 18 thanks to a manual, Dex about 15 (put most increases in Int). I wielded a great mace of protection when I was not meleeing (died wielding a +9 GSC of pain).

For what it's worth, Vaults:5 was the easiest ever. With death channel I got a pretty huge spectral army pretty fast. And Tomb was just wonderful.

Well that still are very crappy defences, for example my winning OgNe had 32/25, other Og had 47/22, 48/10, 46/16.
I'm pretty positive I even had an Og with 40ish Ev, but Lantea is down so I can't check

Well, I can't argue with that. Sure hope I'd had better defences. Still, the reason I died wasn't that I went to Zot with those stats, but because I played otherwise stupidly.

If you are not sure whether Fear affects demonspawns in Pan, go check it in wizard mode before proceeding. Especially if you are playing a sudden death tournament game.

It is not a good idea to attack Crazy Yiuf with sandblast while wielding stones. When he berserks you with his chaos staff, you're stuck berserking with stones in hand.

Sprucery wrote:It is not a good idea to attack Crazy Yiuf with sandblast while wielding stones. When he berserks you with his chaos staff, you're stuck berserking with stones in hand.

With berserk active, hitting him awkwardly with those stones will still have +10 damage, so it might not be so bad.

the actual important lesson was "do not engage Crazy Yiuf in melee range"

damiac wrote:With berserk active, hitting him awkwardly with those stones will still have +10 damage, so it might not be so bad.

Well, it was close. My NaEE got C.Y. to nearly dead before the bastard quaffed some healing and proceeded to beat me to a pulp.

Learned 4 new things from a single death, mostly related to habits and autopilot.
1) Yes, identifying potions by quaffing is bad. But not when you are with Jiyva who has already given you Frail 1 and also gives you ability to cure mutation later. Dying with "3 potions of heal wounds (unknown)" is stupid.
2) Yes, you have checked abilities when Prince Ribbit had come into view and you knew you had no "Slimify". But it does not mean the ability cannot be granted while you are retreating to stairs. Have "force_more_message += You can now turn your foes to slime" in your RC!
3) Yes, you used to "Request Jelly" for sacrificing loot on an already explored floor but it does mean you cannot try to hide behind the Jelly if you have no other options any way.
4) Don't stand on upstairs hoping Prince Ribbit would blink away, it will attack you 11 times without ever blinking. You don't hope Orc Priest will stop smiting you or Fiend will stop tormenting you, do you?

Really stupid death.

Code:: 10901 | D:8 | Noticed Prince Ribbit 10914 | D:8 | Acquired Jiyva's third power 10915 | D:8 | =================== Autoexit: lost:20 current:35 10920 | D:8 | HP: 3/66 [ice beast (11)] 10921 | D:8 | =================== Autoexit: lost:22 current:3 10924 | D:8 | Mangled by Prince Ribbit

Sorry for multiposting but the lesson is really exciting.
I have just been self-banished from Hell by casting Phase Shift. Jiyva gave me Wild Magic 1 and I didn't notice it. Failure rate went from 5% to 80% :shock:

Statue Form went from 2% to 26%, Deflect Missile from 4% to 73%. This is nuts.

This was a few games ago, but it was a pretty valuable one:

Fog does not work reliably (at all?) over lava. As such, it is not a good way to save yourself from an imminent death from Hellion Island.

On a related note, don't try to sneak around near hellion island just for an enchant armour scroll. Or anything else. Just stay away.

Zot trap can be useful.

1)

Code:: (Deep Elf Berserker) You are on level 1 of the Tomb of the Ancients. Oh no! You have blundered into a Zot trap! An unnatural silence engulfs you. There is a Zot trap here. There is a stone staircase leading down here.

The trap was adjacent to stairs to Tomb 2 and gave me Silence.

2) The same character, the same trap.

Code:: Health: 58/201 AC: 39 Str: 14 XL: 27 A spear hits the iron dragon zombie, but does no damage! The iron dragon skeleton bites you but does no damage. The iron dragon skeleton completely misses you. The iron dragon skeleton barely misses you. You slice the greater mummy!! The greater mummy convulses!! The greater mummy is almost destroyed. The wight hits you but does no damage. The power of Zot is invoked against you! You are cast into the Abyss! To return, you must find a gate leading back. You sense a powerful magical force warping space.

Escaped from a pack of monsters. Really lucky, the trap could have dealt me direct damage instead.

Reading a scroll of summoning in Crypt can get you a friendly silent spectre. This could be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you were planning to kill the monsters (and how they were planning to kill you…)

When you stumble into a room you just cant handle, filled with orc priests, and you successfully blinked away towards the stairs to freedom with less that 20 hp left on your health bar and only a few tiles to cover... Don't save that potion of haste or that second blink scroll because you are _just_ out of range of those priests. Like me, you probably aren't.

"I've always tried to teach you two things: first, never let them see you bleed."
"And the second?"
"Always have an escape plan..."

Before going berserk, quaff any potion that you might regret not quaffing later.
Ring of Flight cannot be evoked again until it has already expired and killed you.
Having Fire Storm at 50% fail rate with Int and fire gear means you won't be reliably casting it in the near future.
The slime den is easy with your mid-level spells UNTIL you reach the slime queen (rTele).

cloud4ge wrote:Having Fire Storm at 50% fail rate with Int and fire gear means you won't be reliably casting it in the near future.

But it does mean your ghost will murder you with it later.

Unarmed character is the least luck dependent one with regards to gear. First source of rF+ was found in Zot 4, no rElec ever, but who needs them with Dragon Form and Statue Form. Of course there was luck in finding the spells.

Posthumous joke:

12516 | Lair:3 | Got a warped great sword
12517 | Lair:3 | Identified the +10 great sword of Eternal Vigilance {holy, Int+7 Dex+4} (You found it on level 3 of the Lair of Beasts)
12524 | Lair:3 | Noticed a six-headed hydra
12528 | Lair:3 | Slain by a six-headed hydra

I expected "Slain by a nine-headed hydra".

The Tavern

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