U5->Z1: Ambush question

[BattleLamia]

The trap I'm in.

The character dump.

The ideas I have are;
Stair dance of doom which would most likely lead to my death.
Drop down, buff, read TP scroll and hope to survive until teleport.
Slither as fast as I can to the escape hatch.

Side note: C3: Vault hasn't been looted.

[Magipi]

Holy shit, this is ugly.

There is a quicksilver dragon in the welcome committee, and his breath can cancel your tele status, so option 2 is unlikely to work.

Let's wait for a top player to solve this.

[Nebukadnezar]

1. Stair dance.
Buffed (hasted) this would work.
The char has all the resists, high AC, high HP.
If char returns to U5 he can even Cblink if something went seriously wrong, but:
a) a quicksilver dragon and a purple draconian can both dispel all buffs.
b) a cob can slow him
c) Gold Dragon can push him from stairs

a,b,c can each lead to a very high # of incoming attacks.


2. TP
When is the timer set for a tp to kick in ?
a) when the scroll is read in U5 ?
b) each turn tp has a % to trigger depending on the rules of the actual floor ?

If a) would be true, reading a tp-scroll in U5 (buffed) and going down to Z1 would solve the immediate problems


3. Z1->Z2
There i no way to say whether the char can even enter the tile.

[bel]

I would read teleport and fog and quaff/cast invis.

[Implojin]

Go upstairs, rest, buff yourself with heroism, agility, and haste, read teleport, swing your weapon a few times, go back downstairs, your teleport will activate either immediately or within another couple of auts, quaff invis if teleport lands somewhere dangerous, if the landing is really bad read another teleport and fog. Move towards the nearest soft wall and make an LOS-blocking killhole with 2 charges of digging, fight from inside the killhole, quaff might and use finesse prior to fighting if the nearby monsters look dangerous. Use a phantom mirror or two on any nearby OOFs to make things safer if you need to while you're moving towards soft walls to make your killhole.

[amaril]

If you pass a lot of time the monsters will wander, causing the situation to (most likely) diffuse. There still may be dangerous monsters by the stairs, but it will be easier to stairdance.

[tasonir]

About 4 slouches should solve this entirely. Oh wait, you went with the less optimal okwaru...dang. Ummm, stairdancing is probably your best bet. If you wait until you get as much around you as you can (safely) without letting the golden dragon into melee range, you can't get knocked off the stairs. Aside from that, the only real threat to you here is the torment, which should be fairly unlikely to happen more than once. You have rF++ and rN+++ and rElec, so it's unlikely you're going to take much damage, not to mention 66 AC.

Stairdancing will be perfectly safe. As a side note, keep regeneration on when going down stairs, and make sure you use it here often. While you're waiting for things to get next to (but not the golden dragon) is a great time to cast regen. Other options like quaffing haste or agility are also good uses of turns.

[4Hooves2Appendages]

It really depends how patient you are.

I would not recommend fighting this.

Given that you have no scroll of blinking and the quicksilver dragon, you might not be able to tele away, which could get you killed. Similarly, haste could get dispelled.

A risky path would be: Haste, Tele, move away from QSDragon, try to keep out of line of fire, buy keeping enemies between you and the dragon. Hope for the best. You could also try fear.

A safer strategy would be: Go up the stairs. Change god to Zin, donate money twice, go to Crypt/Tomb until you have full piety, it won't take that long. You could also choose to wait out wrath, maybe via Pan/Abyss. Haste, go down stairs, use Sanctuary to immediately, then either Tele or go down to Z:2.

Generally, I would pre-haste before entering Z:1, or U:1 for the first time if available. It does tend to increase your options slightly.

[VeryAngryFelid]

What I learned from this thread is that mutation roulette is a smart thing to do. It would be very frustrating to lose a character this late due to having 8 moths of wrath in view.

+1 for teleport + fog and/or sack of spiders.

[stickyfingers]

"Smart", as in, like losing a character in Zot specifically due to blurry vision. Sure.

And on topic, go upstairs, clear Crypt:3 (use digging on the grates, one at a time), maybe hope for some better shield, as this one is mediocre. If there's none, dump your 7 ?EA into it. Then return to Zot entrance, use agility, invis (haste no longer contaminates, so it's safe), haste, swiftness and tele, then go down. Use !fog if there's a lot of monsters in LOS.After tele kicks in, maybe use digging if you land in somewhere not-safe. Also these:

  Code:

+2 pair of gloves of Parts Unknown {*Corrode Int+5 Dex+7}

are significantly better than your current gloves. The latter are okay to use through this ambush due to the curse toe, but after that you should switch.

[Airwolf]

The safer strategy is Okay wrath?!?

[BattleLamia]

I'm currently weighing the ideas presented in this forum and will make my move on Saturday, the 6th, until I return.

I'm interested in the idea of seeing if the monsters move so I can go back to Crypt 3 and possibly get the Abyss Rune. Do note that I'm not really interested in doing extended, at least not with this run.

From what I've gathered so far the good play would be to go up the stairs; buff with Heroic, Finesse, Agility, Haste, Regen and read the teleport scroll; pop a fog scroll, and bag of spiders.

Please keep giving your ideas!

Also these:

  Code:

+2 pair of gloves of Parts Unknown {*Corrode Int+5 Dex+7}

are significantly better than your current gloves. The latter are okay to use through this ambush due to the curse toe, but after that you should switch.

I apologize that I'm still new and I don't really see how those are better, sure they have +2 to AC but I feel that *Corrode will be a large issue.

[scott9027]

Not that I agree, but +5 Int is a LOT of intelligence and +7 Dex is a TON. *Corrode doesn't proc all that much in my limited experience - and if it did, you would be down to 50+ AC (still a beast).

+7 Dex and training some dodging would have exponential returns on your overall defenses. Granted, with your current dodging skill, the +7 dex loses almost all its value.

[duvessa]

+7 Dex and training some dodging would have exponential returns on your overall defenses.

The returns on raising dex and training dodging are definitely not exponential. In fact, they're almost always sublinear.

[scott9027]

+7 Dex and training some dodging would have exponential returns on your overall defenses.

The returns on raising dex and training dodging are definitely not exponential. In fact, they're almost always sublinear.

Busted for hyperbole, rightfully. You must admit it would be worth training some dodging, no?

[braveplatypus]

+ Switching to a stronger late game god and grinding out oka wrath in extended.

You could have 30 ev instead of 6 and it wouldn't change how you approach a trap like this (or how dangerous it potentially is) at all.

[VeryAngryFelid]

"Smart", as in, like losing a character in Zot specifically due to blurry vision. Sure.

My understanding is that those players who do mutation roulette just quit immediately if they get blurry vision and no mutation chunks are left. "Smart", yes

[tasonir]

+ Switching to a stronger late game god and grinding out oka wrath in extended.

You could have 30 ev instead of 6 and it wouldn't change how you approach a trap like this (or how dangerous it potentially is) at all.

Granted having higher EV might not change the best way to approach an entrance like this, but surely going from 6 to 30 EV would make this considerably less dangerous.

I still hold the stairdancing would be quite safe due to him resisting everything that's here (fire/negative/elec), having 66 ac, and 285 hp. I like to abuse stairs fairly often.

But going for a teleport is also a good choice, if you prefer. While possible, the chances that the quicksilver dragon dispels teleport is somewhat low, especially if you block its fire with other monsters.

[Rast]

Stairdancing is fine.

So is up, teleport, wait 1, down. I wouldn't even waste the potion of haste.

With your AC and HP basically anything is OK other than than fighting 8 zerked enemies at once.

[Magipi]

Stairdancing is fine.

So is up, teleport, wait 1, down. I wouldn't even waste the potion of haste.

With your AC and HP basically anything is OK other than than fighting 8 zerked enemies at once.

Both stairdancing and trying to teleport may end up fighting 8 zerked enemies at once.
The quicksilver dragon can remove the tele status, and also can trample you off the stairs.

[BattleLamia]

Thank you everyone for the help!

The game is over and was successful.

Click here if you would like to see the results.

[tasonir]

Congrats! But you left out the whole how did this fight go part! Did you teleport or stairdance?

[BattleLamia]

I apologize.

I went and finished the vault in Crypt 3 and went for the Abyss rune hoping things would wander which they more or less didn't. Since I didn't know if the enemies would move or not I acted as if they hadn't before entering Zot 1 again.

I buffed with Heroic, Finesse, Agility, Might and Invisibility. 100% forgot to read my teleport scroll before going up.

Once I got up I popped a scroll of fog and read the teleport scroll. The QSD was right next to me so I murdered it as quickly as possible. With teleport still active I stair danced which ended up saving me when I walked down the stairs with several dragons and the Orb of Fire.

I hope that helps clear up how I dealt with it.

[4Hooves2Appendages]

Given that description of events I feel almost justified in offering Zin as the solution.