Ru Apocalypse Drain - How Bad Is It?

[MainiacJoe]

I have a GhGl^Ru that has finished Lair, Orc and Dungeon. This is the farthest I've gotten a Ru character before. I am definitely noticing and appreciating the passive aura. I've used the Leap and the Draw Out Power in emergencies thus far. My question about apocalypse, is whether this makes a good offensive option in a target-rich environment, or whether its drain is so great that it ought only to be used as a panic button.

[VeryAngryFelid]

Yes, it is a panic button.

[amaril]

If you can kill everything w/o apocalypse, don't use apocalypse. Definitely don't try to get a bunch of monsters on screen to maximize its power. Apocalypse is one of the best panic buttons in the game though, and is worth using against anything you need dead asap, even a single target. The drain isn't bad if you don't spam it.

[Lord Haart]

Early game, it shines. Its cost is significant but you probably don' have many options against being overwhelmed yet, so if being overwhelmed looks like a threat, it's 100% better to eat the drain than to spend non-renewable escape options or die.

Mid-game, it shines situationally. It's bad to spam it against chaff (you should have a better way of dealing with chaff), and it's actually a very bad idea to use it against a single dangerous enemy accompanied by chaff (because it's not actually guaranteed to neutralise said enemy, and you might need Draw Out Power more down the line); however, if you get several legitimately threatening enemies on your screen, Apocalypse is guaranteed to neutralise some of them, and thus rocks. And it's not something that should happen often, so you won't suffer from the drain that much.

In Extended, though, it shines. As i've recently discovered, in most Extended locations its drain cost becomes negligible: about three 1-demons or top-tier dragons, or an alich and a half, or less than a dozen 2-demons. And since Apocalypse now does more crowd control than direct kills (though it still clears chaff very effectively, and is insane at triggering scrolls of Immolation), you get to refund part of the cost right after using it.


In general, the main reason why i'm not telling you "screw the drain, just use Apocalypse whenever you don't feel like otabbing and save yourself the consumables" isn't drain being bad, it's Draw Out Power being awesome as well.

P. S. Also, if you're not a caster, Apocalypse whenever there are ghost moths nearby - you won't keep that mana anyway.

[Moanerette]

I've used the Leap and the Draw Out Power in emergencies thus far.

Power Leap can be used more often than that, as long as being exhausted won't leave you too vulnerable. I'm playing my first Ru game and it's a terrific god.

[tasonir]

While I'm not recommending this as a general strategy, I think someone did a proof of concept apocalypse only troll, who just spammed apocalypse as their main offense. All of their skills were zero, and they won anyways.

[VeryAngryFelid]

Yes, that was me, I had fighting drained all the way down to zero+19(0.0) at Lair 6

[Zhorgal]

I agonized with Ru for a long time thinking that Apocalypse would be very situational. Actually, it isn't. You just can't use it very often but shouldn't be stingy with it.
Oh, don't get overconfident. It's very easy to get overconfident with Ru because of its power.
There are several people who have used Ru as the killdudes. That's how powerful it is.

[MainiacJoe]

That character was killed by Jorgrun's Petrify. I'd not ever had that land before, and Jorgrun is a unique I encounter fairly often. I won't underestimate that again!

I did use Apocalypse a couple times before that, and I was pleased that the drain wasn't so bad. I think badwiki describes it as four skill levels? Definitely not that!