The Tavern

I see there were a couple related threads fairly recently (on Air noise, and spell noise), but to pose a specific question:

Is it worth using Lightning Bolt on an AE?

In my experience, at the time you get it castable (especially under Veh), you're really not prepared in other ways to have a quarter of the level at your door. I never use it, only because it's SO loud. Am I wrong?

If it is worth it, how? Luring extensively? Using LBolt to deal with the resultant dudes? Static Discharge?
My question presumes a lack of melee/AC/EV...

Use it around stairs. Swiftness should help, though it is worse now.

It's very easy to set up a bounce on a specific monster, and it does more damage than your other options when you do. It's definitely the fastest way for an AE to take out large and scary things at range, and sometimes killing things fast is worth other sorts of drawbacks. The noise can cause complications, but as long as you have a pre-planned escape route you should be able to get away. If you hear any croaks or hisses when you use it, you should consider running before you actually see the source of those noises step into LOS.

I would say that if you're not going to use LB you should probably not play AE.

AE or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Worship Quazlal

Lightning Bolt is very spellpower dependent: its accuracy is bad, ots range depends on spellpower, and, of course, damage. Vehumet and other sources of wizardry decrease casting failure but don't increase spellpower, meaing the spellpower is very low when you first start casting it.

Keep cranking the spellpower and LB becomes very effective.

What KoboldLord wrote. Also: Walls reduce noise propagation significantly, so the noise is quite bearable in levels with lots of twisted passages. This kind of terrain is also where LB is most useful because of bouncing.

Another problem is that lair enemies have pretty much the highest EV in the game (really bad for lightning bolt, especially at low power) and that's probably where you're using lightning bolt. It wrecks everything outside of lair just fine.

Thanks for the replies, guys; I shall endeavour to make more liberal use of it on my next AE.



I did not know that.

It might be worth explicitly stating the conclusion of all this information put together: That Lair, due to its terrain and its monster set, is a particularily bad place to cast low powered LB. Therefore AE have an even stronger incentive than other book starts for transitioning to melee early. Since this makes the char beefier, it also makes Shock and Static Discharge safer to cast.