Pakellas

[bcadren]

Now that Pakellas is in trunk (and I won a game with him). Thought I'd write a bit about how he practically plays with a few tips.

Pakellas only has two normal granted powers; but they show remarkable versatility throughout the game.

Early Game:

• Quick Charge means practically unlimited wands; spamming {Polymorph, Draining, Fire, Confusion, Paralysis, etc.} in any remotely dangerous situation feels like a non-cost. Since you don't Regen MP naturally; use Quick Charge outside of battle whenever your MP is full to keep your wands close to full as possible.
• Device Surge can be used for effectively a single turn of MP-powered wands++. 3 MP for 1.5; 6 MP for 2.25; 9 MP for 3.375. Much better than the mutation.

Mid Game:

• You unlock Supercharge in midgame; you'll probably want to use it on a rod you'll use regularly for the rest of the game. Personally, I chose a Lightning Rod; Clouds, Destruction, Ignition and Shadows are other good choices.
• You should be slowly replacing wands with evokers (sack of spiders; phial of floods; disc of storms; etc.) Quick charge will transition into only being used for escape wands as you get them (Heal Wounds, Haste, Invisibility, Teleportation).
• Device Surge vastly boosts evokers; you probably should use it in situations when evokers are call for.

Late Game:

• Spam Heal Wounds, since recharging is cheap. Quick Charge makes it nearly free. This makes Pakellas' help in Hell almost on tier TSO, Elyvilon and Makhleb. You similarly have nearly unlimited haste and teleportation.
• At high evocations with Device Surge, a Rod of Clouds gets Acidic Fog more than half the time. Corroding and significantly damaging even hell lords. Note: rCorr makes you immune to Acidic Fog.

Cost:

• Pakellas turns off normal MP regen; meaning the only normal magic that is worthwhile are spells that are very MP-efficient.
  • Wands and Rods effectively replace Conjurations and Hexes; so no reason to bother with those anyways.
  • Because MP regen is stopped; Pakellas worshipers need to be able to handle weaker enemies with no spell help. "Pure" Conjurers, Enchanters and Summoners are a particularly bad idea.
  • Spells that may be worth considering still:
    • Blade Hands, Blink, Lightning Spire, Controlled Blink, Repel Missiles, Deflect Missiles, Ignite Poison (combo with rod of clouds poison clouds), Animate Dead, Death Channel, Silence, Death's Door.
    • Anything where the MP cost will be made up quickly or for a unique defensive effect. Remember: Recharging a Wand of Draining is cheaper than caster Bolt of Draining; etc.

[Croases]

Spectral Weapon is another good spell to pick up.

Also, Pakellas is limited by piety rather than MP, the regen-on-kills effect is such that you'll gain back your maximum MP fairly quickly. Don't be afraid to learn and cast utility spells if the situation calls for it.

[xentronium]

How does the god interact with VS bite?

[kizuato]

Real good advice.
Though I found Pakellas's two major weakness.

First one is Anti-magic brand. Cause Pakellas blocks MP regen, Anti-magic weapon is serious threat.
Second, Mutation. Since amulet of resist mutation is gone, mutation is much more threat to all, but Pakellas is even more fragile.
Mp - powered wand (Zapping a wand costs 3-9 MP) makes her helpless.

[kizuato]

How does the god interact with VS bite?

I heard it work.

[Aethrus]

I just played a 5-rune game with a DD of Pakellas and never hit six stars of piety. I floated around 4-5 all game. Anyone else have that experience?

Note also guys, magic and ambrosia potions are not considered channeling to Pakellas. Quaff yourself MP no problem.

[bcadren]

I just played a 5-rune game with a DD of Pakellas and never hit six stars of piety. I floated around 4-5 all game. Anyone else have that experience?

Note also guys, magic and ambrosia potions are not considered channeling to Pakellas. Quaff yourself MP no problem.

Using /HW as your only source of healing? ...similar happens with Elyvilon. You strain your piety using it that constantly. I haven't done it; but I'd say with a DD you'd want to use |Swarm or |Shadows for meat shields and/or Arbalest for primary damage away from Evocations (avoiding melee so you don't have to heal). Probably consider Necromut on a DD^Pakellas if you're doing extended. Though that'd go for any DD^Not TSO.

[agentgt]

I play on cbro so I have been playing pakellas for some time now. Pakellas is possibly my favorite god in the game. It (Pakellas) really changes the game and gives the game a sort of DoomRL feel to it. Grunt did a great job (I think it was Grunt who made Pakellas).

He is absolutely fantastic for Mu and is the new Nemelex (nemelex used to be like the best god for Mu).

The only thing I find annoying and its not really Pakellas fault but the whole rod wielding tedious as F$@!$.

[Pollen_Golem]

Is there some kind of Mummy-Nemelex synergy?

e: Oh, I get it - being forced to not carry any potions

[bcadren]

Is there some kind of Mummy-Nemelex synergy?

e: Oh, I get it - being forced to not carry any potions

Mummy-Pakellas synergy makes sense (/HW can cure rot) and you get the two strongest potions in wand form: /HW /Haste. Mummy/Nemelex? Uhh...I don't get it. Wouldn't drawing the Helix Card rot you?

[Pollen_Golem]

Helix Card is now only found, not gifted, but yeah it has a nasty effect (degeneration I think)

[agentgt]

You guys probably didn't play old nemelex much. Old nemelex you could spam deck of wonders for pot experiences. And Mu had the best chance of getting it because of the shear amount of shit to sacrifice. I had an mu at XL17 before entering lair and helix degeneration isn't really that bad on mu...

The other thing that nemelex did for mu was get fedhas like power early. I say fedhas meaning uber strong "*" for early game. Old nemelex did this for Mu and very fast. It was very easy to build piety.

Pakellas for Mu is great because he gives a Fedhas/Oka "*" power option (ie instantly helps early). Recharging decent wands early on particularly for Mu is worth it IMO.

[Pollen_Golem]

I scummed 0.11/0.12 Nemelex, not sure if that's as old as when you scummed but I found scumming old Nemelex early can have extremely variable outcomes e.g. only 1 deck after clearing lair.

[agentgt]

Yes but so is Pakellas... and most gods that give gifts... except I guess ole nemelex would kill you now and then

[Lasty]

You unlock Supercharge in midgame; you'll probably want to use it on a rod you'll use regularly for the rest of the game. Personally, I chose a Lightning Rod; Clouds, Destruction, Ignition and Shadows are other good choices.[*]

It's possible that this has been changed since I last played Pakellas, but when I played the god, iron rod was the correct choice: first, it lets you get off 3 shots instead of 2 right out the gate. Second, with Pakellas's super-charge ability, you could take out almost any monster in the game with one point-blank shot, and often clear out a bunch of the area behind that monster too.

In general, supercharging is really only worthwhile on the rods that take exactly 6 charges, since the gain relative to the normal operation of that rod is the largest.

[Sar]

Can you supercharge a disco of storms?

Edit: wow, "a disco of storms", I swear it was a typo but it's too good to fix.

[prozacelf]

You unlock Supercharge in midgame; you'll probably want to use it on a rod you'll use regularly for the rest of the game. Personally, I chose a Lightning Rod; Clouds, Destruction, Ignition and Shadows are other good choices.[*]

It's possible that this has been changed since I last played Pakellas, but when I played the god, iron rod was the correct choice: first, it lets you get off 3 shots instead of 2 right out the gate. Second, with Pakellas's super-charge ability, you could take out almost any monster in the game with one point-blank shot, and often clear out a bunch of the area behind that monster too.

In general, supercharging is really only worthwhile on the rods that take exactly 6 charges, since the gain relative to the normal operation of that rod is the largest.

I supercharged a rod of clouds in the Pak game I won, and I agree that iron rod would have been the better choice, for the simple reason that I so rarely needed 3 separate clouds in one fight. I think inaccuracy would also be a good choice since you could get 6 inacc bolts, and with a +10 recharge rate you might even be able to get the 7th off by the time you've shot the first 6, although I obviously didn't try it.

EDIT: Also, Sar, you can only supercharge rods or wands. But you might be able to use device surge on disc of storms? I never thought to try it on something that wasn't a rod or wand. On the plus side, if you evoke something that can't use the surge, it doesn't expend the surge.

[Sar]

I guess I'll settle for the irony rod then!

[bcadren]

But you might be able to use device surge on disc of storms? I never thought to try it on something that wasn't a rod or wand. On the plus side, if you evoke something that can't use the surge, it doesn't expend the surge.

I used device surge on a Phial of Floods and one-hit an OoF with it...so...