Zot Defence

[Zzz]

Okay. So I've been trying Zot Defence lately. It's like being a newb all over again!
I know there was a thread about it with a couple guidelines but no idea where it is, and I'm wondering what you successful defenders might have to say now; since that thread is kind of old anyways.
And um, how is it fair in the slightest to send the Lernean Hydra after a xl 9 character? I know it's supposed to be a challenge and all but come on!
Also go one shot steamballed by the second boss - a steam dragon.

No but seriously, someone tell me the secret. How the hell do you win with the difficulty of regular crawl x 10,000,000... ?
In Depth Guide please.

[Yunor]

Zot Defence use to be nearly impossible when you had to use exp instead of zot points.
Now, a broad range of characters have a decent chance...Zot Defence is even more unpredictable than normal Crawl though...

Race choice:
You want something with a good leveling apt because zot abilities come with XL.
Special cases: Trolls are a solid choice if you don't want to die early (you still will )
Mummies are OK, but it'll take a lot of tries to get started.
Demonspawn can be great, especially demonic guardain.
Other then that, stuff with good aptitudes, like Na, DE, HE, etc.

Class choice:
Summoners are probably the best, Death Knights are really good too.
Berserkers are ok if you want to spam ice statues, since you don't have to worry about freezing cloud killing everything.
Warpers have a nice book. Plus, all Zot Defence characters immediately have cTele.
Generally, something that will keep you alive until you can use zot points.

God choice:
This is probably the most important choice in the new Zot Defence.
Vehumet (for Summoners): MP for collateral kills is the only thing you'll have for a while. Later, the books are amazing.
A Zot Defence Summoner of Vehumet can expect to be spamming imps, canines, and ice beasts for a good portion of the game. Then you're suddenly spamming demonic horde, abominations, ugly things, shadow creatures (these are actually quite good even if it is D:1), and W's.
Yredelemnul: Yred is tailored for Zot Def or something. Animate remains is nice, but Animate Dead is the best. You'll have a huge horde of zombies in no time with Yred. The bonus is that your slaves resist cold, so fill free to use ice statues (I've found that the freezing clouds will still kill zombies over time though) Later, free undead slaves to help defend.
Jiyva: Free Jellies. Zot Def has a bunch of extra items too. You can slimify big things to get acid blobs, death oozes, and azure jellies. The downside is that the jellies will attack your structures if they're in the way of their meal. (That's why you play a Warper with apportation). All G's and J's won't attack anymore.
Sif Muna: Perfect Mummy Summoner god. Probably not as nice as Vehumet if you can't channel indefinitely.
Nemelex Xobeh: Never tried before....but I want to!

Zot points:
I like to put burning bushes on the Orb because they see invisible.
Using a lot of plants is cheap and effective.
Oklob plants will be the base of your defence for a while.
Use ice statues carefully. They have some really great spells, but they can kill you/ your allies.
If you're doing good, save your Zot points. You'll want to have a spending spree when silver statues and orange crystal statues are available. Those two have no drawbacks, and are useful.
The game gets a whole lot easier when you can Zot-port.
I've never used traps, only alarm traps. However, I'm not qualified to say they're entirely useless.
After this point, Zot Defence usually crashes and restarts my character, so I don't really know what >XL20 is like.

Tl;dr: Play a TrDK, a NaWr, a DsSu, or a DESu. Pick Vehumet, Sif, Jiyva, or Yred.
Note: I'm far from a ZD expert, and have never won a ZD game before.

[RFHolloway]

summon imp is probably the most important spell - primarily for getting shadow imps that suddenly mean you get a whole lot of zombies.

some traps on the choke points will help on the early game - as will som initial missiles. (perhaps 4 dart traps on each side at the beginning - they help generate ammo as well)

[stevelinton]

How do you get into the treasure rooms? Surely most characters will not get a wand of disintegration and no one starts with a book with teleport in it?

[Kate]

You get teleport self as one of your Zot abilities later on.

[orshelack]

If you go Nemelex could you wall off the orb with tomb cards?

[Blade]

You could, but they get erased after a few turns.

When I tried it in wizmode I couldn't even find the card in the first place.

[TehDruid]

I gave it a try tonight... Very hard. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Are you supposed to build your defences in the orb chamber? Where do the mobs spawn? My guess would be the stairs that lead out of the dungeon. Sometimes the mosters are very random and can even carry very good gear. In one game, my first unique was a Sky Beast and I had my major skills at 3-4. Well, you get a pot of berserk and a pot of speed on non-mummies, ofc.

Ran a TrMo of Lugonu for teh lulz and corrupted the orb chamber. I died by the demons, naturally. First time I use the ability!

Definitely something different to play other than original crawl, though. It's a pretty good place to try out divine abilities and experiment with combos, if you don't want to use WIZMODE.