Can Ranged Weapons be Your Only Killdudes?

[MainiacJoe]

Assume you have an ammo god. Is it feasible to only train a ranged weapon? I suppose there's nothing wrong with shooting at things from range 1, it just isn't the first thing that comes to mind.

[duvessa]

Yes, easily. Here are some examples:
http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/minmay/morgue-minmay-20140117-064807.txt
http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/antiskillrobin/morgue-antiskillrobin-20141216-153351.txt

[cut1less]

Another example, with Slings!

https://pastebin.com/raw/nZeKG4vr

If you'd feasibly do more damage and at a faster rate with the ranged option, there's no reason not to use the ranged option all the time, especially if you have the ammo for it.

[Airwolf]

With Oka/Trog, I think the early game is the only time ammo can be a problem.

[tasonir]

To be fair, those morgues do have some melee weapon skill trained and did use some melee attacks. It just isn't important that they be strong melee attacks or that you've trained melee skill significantly. Saving a little bit of ammo here and there on things that are not at all threatening is a good idea, and there's enough ammo for the threatening things.

I'd probably still toss around 5 or 10 skill into a melee weapon in the late game, when 10 skill is very cheap, for convenience.

[duvessa]

To be fair, those morgues do have some melee weapon skill trained

Look at the antiskillrobin morgue again.

  Code:

 O Level 27 Fighting
 O Level 27 Bows
 + Level 11.7 Armour
 O Level 27 Dodging
 - Level 1.1 Stealth

If you require never doing damage with anything other than 'f' then you will probably have ammo problems until ammo gifts start. I assumed the OP didn't mean that, so hitting rats with a no-skill weapon and using wands and BiA would be fine.

[tasonir]

well, two of three had some melee skill, then The larger point is that you probably want to hit some things with melee, but it's perfectly fine for that melee attack to be only for weak things. You can go 95% ranged attacks in crawl.

[watertreatmentRL]

If you really want to stick to a ranged only conduct, do two kinds of launchers with one of them slings. You'll have no problems.

[njvack]

If you really want to stick to a ranged only conduct, do two kinds of launchers with one of them slings. You'll have no problems.

You'd probably need to start slings and startscum the early game to make sure you had enough rocks and an early altar.

I think it would be a very tedious game :/

wait holy crap do hunters really get to start with 6 javs, 2 nets, and 4 throwing?

[Psieye]

I once did a really stupid Ce build that trained bows, crossbows and a little slings as well. Because 'no melee attacks' conduct. Quit around Vaults because so tedious.

[VeryAngryFelid]

I once did a really stupid Ce build that trained bows, crossbows and a little slings as well. Because 'no melee attacks' conduct. Quit around Vaults because so tedious.

I guess it was tedious because of kiting and low damage.
I did similar run with Ogre of Oka, throwing large rocks with finesse was quite fun, silver javelins ruled vs orbs of fire.

[Magipi]

Quit around Vaults because so tedious.

What was tedious in it? That you had to collect the ammo after fights?

[tasonir]

wait holy crap do hunters really get to start with 6 javs, 2 nets, and 4 throwing?

Aside from maybe the nets, this isn't as overpowered as it sounds, because the changes to throwing to be considered a weapon and not use unarmed combat's formulas. Javelins are quite slow initially, and while it's strong, only being able to fire 6 times is a huge drawback, and the damage is not nearly as high as it used to be. With 10 base damage, it's a quarterstaff which you can only use 6 times. Yes, quarterstaves are strong, but the limited uses are a real drawback, and they no longer scale well into the late game.

[njvack]

Huh, thanks. I remember javelins being super strong, guess not quite so much now.