Wednesday, 20th March 2019, 16:11 by Siegurt
So:
Slime is one really hard fight, requiring an unusual resistance, with a few possibly mildly dangerous fights leading up to it (to clear out Slime:5) also possibly requiring/desiring some resistances (rC+/rN+ are both helpful) There are a few strategies that help deal with TRJ in a minimally dangerous way, if you can execute one of those strategies (or are just way overpowered, even if just as a short-term thing) and can handle the mop-up, you can kill TRJ
V:5 doesn't have any *single* monster that is as hard as TRJ, but there are way more that you have to fight all at once, the supply isn't infinite, and you'll get to rest eventually, you may have to teleport one or more times if you don't have a renewable source of healing (vampiric or Mak will often suffice on a well-built character to avoid teleports). You can force the fights into the two-width corridors at the edge to contain the number of things you have to fight at a time (and increase the utility of things like wand of clouds, fire lamps, and lightning rods.)
Abyss:3 (don't go deeper unless you like punishing yourself) is filled with a nearly unlimited stream of things that range from unconsequential to somewhat dangerous, the biggest danger in the abyss is *standing still and fighting stuff* unlike the vaults, you can never "clear out" the abyss, you'll be subjected to a nonstop stream of things as long as you sit there and make noise by killing stuff, eventually it *will* whittle away your hps, and you'll be no closer to finding a rune if you stand still, since terrain shifts, any advantage given by containing the number of things that can attack you at a time is limited, generally speaking you want to avoid, avoid, kill something bothersome (or that can harry you at range) and then keep avoiding. The rune vaults are highly variable, you have to be willing to ignore one you can't handle, mostly the thing that kills people in the Abyss is impatience, and a desire to just kill everything they see.
So the easiest 3rd rune is usually:
Slime if you can set up and use one of the safe methods of killing TRJ, or have sufficient burst-power to kill him more traditionally (in one of the corridors so he doesn't surround you, summons of your own can help with this too), and can handle acid blobs and Azure jellies, and have the MR needed to avoid being perma-confused by a cloud of eyes, and either don't mind picking up some bad mutations, or can avoid them with e.x. summons or other methods. When I say 'burst damage' I mean some kind of boosted damage, for example might+agility+heroism+finesse can get a MiGl over the hump, but you couldn't sustain that if you needed that setup to kill everything in V:5.
V:5 is the easier than slime if you don't have all the requirements for TRJ, the resistances helpful in V:5 (rN+ and rElec) are both non-overlapping with Slime's and not really as important (Other resistances also might help, but not with any specific predictability, whereas, for example, Shadow Dragon breath always hurts without rN+ and it's really hard to avoid being hit with in it's entirety) I find V:5 to be good for characters who can sustain combat for a long time, if you're going to not stairdance, V:5 can be stairdanced, but doing so can occasionally trap you, if you're going with a stairdancing routine, you need a consistant way to kill wardens at range, behind enemies (so some kind of smiting/peircing attack that does enough damage to kill them) I don't personally like the stairdancing method, because you're right in the middle of the floor and are going to be mobbed from all sides, I personally feel like it leaves me less in control of the situation than beelining for a corridor and fighting it out there (if I'm fighting in a corridor, I can mostly contain the things I am fighting to one to three in melee range and can direct firepower down one hallway, however stairdancing is probably the better option for V:5 if you've got high burst damage and little sustainability, particularly if that burst comes in a package you can use to reliably take down non-adjacent wardens. Don't try to do V:5 if you can't either kill wardens to stairdance, or don't can't sustain a prolonged engagement in a corridor against a large chunk of V:5 nasties.
Abyss is more like a chase than a combat, trying to treat it like a combat will probably just get you killed. Abyss is easier when you: have above average mobility and/or stealth and can kill things quickly, and can heal up while running away. Standing still is the actual enemy in the Abyss, monsters are just there to try to trick you into falling victim to it. The Abyss is probably the trickiest of the three, and is *definitely* the most annoying, it can feel like it takes forever to find the rune (or it might drop in your lap immediately, who knows!) there's places where the rune is inaccessible if you don't have flying (and flying helps with the mobility aspect generally) so that's a nice thing to have in the abyss, there's no specific resistance that you can count on being helpful. Having a reliable way to confuse/paralyze/slow or just plain old delay (e.x. summons) enemies so you can walk away from them is helpful. You'll need to be able to recognize things that can be threats to your 'walking away' plan and be able to neutralize them quickly. Stealth helps you shake monsters that are tailing you, but isn't the most important thing in the world, nor is additional mobility (both of those are helpful, but not dealbreakers) the thing that's *always* helpful in the abyss is additional regeneration, being able to heal on the move makes a big difference, safe places to rest are very very infrequent. Since the abyss has a long teleportation delay, being able to recognize when a situation will go south *very very* early is good (and being able to prolong how many turns you stay alive is good, fragility is really bad in the abyss, and burst combat power is also not very helpful) Glass cannons, slow healers, lound combat-noise-makers, and slow movers will have the hardest time in the abyss (Comparitively speaking of course) summons (and other temporary allies) work pretty well in the abyss, but animate dead does not (Zombies are slow and a lot of stuff doesn't leave corpses)
So generally speaking I find the vaults to be the "middle" of the three, more "explody" builds might be better off with TRJ (or ones where you have the right setup), characters that will find the Abyss the easiest of the three are rare for me, but possible (Probably non-fragile summoners will be best off, but I don't play very many non-fragile summoners, personally) If I don't have a particularly specialized build, I'll probably go with the vaults, as it's the one I'm most comfortable with.
This high quality signature has been hidden for your protection. To unlock it's secret, send 3 easy payments of $9.99 to me, by way of your nearest theta band or ley line. Complete your transmission by midnight tonight for a special free gift!
- For this message the author Siegurt has received thanks:
- nago