EV Minotaur

[WalrusKing]

It occured to me recently that the minotaur Dodging apt is actually quite good, but I'm finding difficulty figuring out whether or not there is actually a time you'd ever want to go EV minotaur, as your casting aptitudes are still all hot garbage. What would be a good time to go EV/medium armor on a minotaur?

[nago]

You can either:
a) take advantage of both their excellent armor and dodging and str and dex, training both skills while wearing plate armour (or whatever best heavy armour the game spawns). You'll get excellent AC+EV values, plus you'll still usually enough exp to train a lot of other support skills - evo, throwing, whatever, also some low tier spells (lv.3 or so) if you wanna. You should aim for like 20+ish str and the rest in the dex. You could go for like 15ish armor early on and then train dodging but if you don't micro manage the training it you should be still fine. This is the easiest way, the gear to use is straightfoward, you have few core skills to train and so on.

b) You could consider that Mi have extremely high apts in all psychical skills, so as long as you aim to learn three or four magic skills at most is like only to play a sligthly worse spellcaster than a Hu - but with still more HP, so actually kinda good.
I would suggest to start still with a melee background (protip Ne and some others are a melee background) because it's kinda hard to start with a magic Mi right on the scratch. As you'll have a shitty int, you should aim for spell who don't care really much for spell power - I'd say Necro, Summoning, obviosly Charms and so on. Go for light or medium armour (ring mail, dragon armour, even a robe of Archimagi), put all points into int, you'll still have good dex being a Mi and so EV values. You may choose some God which help spellcasting like Ash. This is kinda "hard char" to play you'll need to try a bit around to understand what spells are good, when train what skill among a lot different, and so on.

c) Go chei. You'll be able to easily cast in plate lv.6 conjuration spells with high spellpower and tons of HP/EV/AC. Enjoy to slaughter everything until you need to move and you're dead

While what I wrote is about Mi, it's is still kinda true for many of other races: Mi apts and stats are among the most extreme, you cast still easily adapt those "play stile" for others, like HO, DD, Hu, and so on.

Actually, considering that there is still a lot of experience in the game, what really matters are the stats of the race and the gear you find: e.g.in most games a Mf will have problems to be a heavy armour caster. HO otherwise will struggle to get good EV, especially when casting in plate, but if you find the fencer's gloves you'll could easily get some cheap EV. Similarly, if I find a +5 leather armour with +6 slay early on with a Mi, I could think to go with light armor route (hoping to get some good books with time)

[tabstorm]

1. Pick MiGl with staves
2. Take Chei and Str on level ups
3. Hold down buttons
4. Win game

You will have high EV too. Medium armor is fine, most good spells are level 4 or less anyway.

[WingedEspeon]

if you can find an early steam or mottled hide on something like MiGl it is probably a decent choice just to enchant it up because it will give you good defenses now, and you will end up playing a more EV focused character.

Honestly going pure EV or pure AC is kindda stupid IMO (Unless you are a felid or something). I have a character in CPA on the experimental server clearing depths in CPA and about to hit 30 EV with no EV+ items (without Chei). I did get very luck with drops, but I still think it shows my point.

[The Ferret]

A pure melee, pure EV win is certainly possible... I did it as a challenge; MfGl^Gozag. Wore only a robe, didn't rely on stabs, and no spellcasting whatsoever (only memorized Corpse Rot so I could train Necromancy for the pain brand). I did use a large shield, which might have been cheating but whatever.

[cerebovssquire]

I have played a ton of this type of character and it certainly is very easy to win. It's particularly nice if you care about the duration of the game. Usually I just end up going for plate armour anyway since it can be rF/Mr+ and doesn't impair EV that much, but if a medium dragon armour presents itself early I'll often wear that. Nearly all minotaurs in here in somewhat recent times will be played like this: http://crawl.akrasiac.org/scoring/players/elynae.html

[daggaz]

Minotaurs can get a solid EV score even in CPA. Pump dex, toss a few extra points into Int so that your character isnt completely Gumped, and you are solid.

[WingedEspeon]

A pure melee, pure EV win is certainly possible... I did it as a challenge; MfGl^Gozag. Wore only a robe, didn't rely on stabs, and no spellcasting whatsoever (only memorized Corpse Rot so I could train Necromancy for the pain brand). I did use a large shield, which might have been cheating but whatever.

I took a look at that character and besides the large shield you had a full 16 AC. Yes, you didn't sac any EV for it but you still had about have as much AC as you had EV. A character in Steam dragon armour can get a lot more AC, especialy with Ozos, and still doesn't sac any EV. I never meant that relying mostly on EV wasn't a viaible stratigy to win, but it gets a lot easier if you play an AC/EV hybrid.