New Nemelex is overpowered. Use it while you can!
Posted: Monday, 20th January 2020, 12:33Hi!
Use the new Nemelex Xobeh before devs figure out what's going on. It's very inexpensive artillery support.
21 Invocations is admittedly high, but Deal Four can wipe out half of the guardians at Vault:5 and severely wound the rest. Early in the game, a couple of skill levels lets you one shot hydras with energy orbs. Degeneration might sound scary, but it can instantly save you if demonologists start summoning 1's. Polymorphed monsters lose their spellcasting skills and any summons they have are instantly dismissed. I'm sure you'd rather degenerate a Nicola than let him zap you when you lack electricity resistance. Last time I checked equipment they have is dropped on the ground. Storm and Wild Magic can really devastate groups of tough enemies.
I don't know the exact threshold, but Invocation at 15 can sometimes summon a friendly pandemonium lord. Sometimes your own illusion, or a floating blade, or a few yaktaurs/naga sharpshooters. Summons are a bit unreliable but I had a friendly catoblepas cripple several uniques, like The Enchantress.
The kicker: activated powers were balanced with old, deadly Nemelex in mind. The one that could banish you or swap your stats permanently. Drawing a single card from a deck is no less powerful because it depends only on your current piety and costs Nothing (technically also a card from a deck but they regenerate pretty quickly as you explore, just have enough Invocations so it's cost-effective). In practice you don't need piety-costing abilities 90% of the time. Triple Draw against tricky enemies like non-living so you don't waste a turn for instance polymorphing them. Deal Four when you're in a hurry to deal lots of damage before they close in. Then you can safely follow up with summoning.
Polymorphing monsters with high Invo is rarely dangerous in practice, Storm causes explosions of lightning far from you if there are no monsters next to you, etc. Deck of Escape is a bit more tricky, but even Shaft is optional because it generates one on your space but you still have a chance to move. I had the escape deck Slow me as well as the enemies occassionally, but I pulled a few dozen cards from it and no major accident happened. The Tomb is very nice if there's at least 1 square between you and monsters - you can wait out poison, hostile enchantments, corrosion, heal.
The nice thing is that it goes really well with Demonspawn, who have the Invocation aptitude of +3. Just watch out for noise. It allowed my current Demonspawn Fighter (Dodging/Shields/Stealth) to collect 4 runes.
The bad thing is that you can't predict what exactly is going to happen - sometimes a bolt of acid, maybe loud explosions, polymorphing, or one hit kill with orb. Unless you use cheap Triple Draw. But if it can carry a squishy demonspawn, it can work for anyone. Still much stealthier than Qazlal.
Use the new Nemelex Xobeh before devs figure out what's going on. It's very inexpensive artillery support.
21 Invocations is admittedly high, but Deal Four can wipe out half of the guardians at Vault:5 and severely wound the rest. Early in the game, a couple of skill levels lets you one shot hydras with energy orbs. Degeneration might sound scary, but it can instantly save you if demonologists start summoning 1's. Polymorphed monsters lose their spellcasting skills and any summons they have are instantly dismissed. I'm sure you'd rather degenerate a Nicola than let him zap you when you lack electricity resistance. Last time I checked equipment they have is dropped on the ground. Storm and Wild Magic can really devastate groups of tough enemies.
I don't know the exact threshold, but Invocation at 15 can sometimes summon a friendly pandemonium lord. Sometimes your own illusion, or a floating blade, or a few yaktaurs/naga sharpshooters. Summons are a bit unreliable but I had a friendly catoblepas cripple several uniques, like The Enchantress.
The kicker: activated powers were balanced with old, deadly Nemelex in mind. The one that could banish you or swap your stats permanently. Drawing a single card from a deck is no less powerful because it depends only on your current piety and costs Nothing (technically also a card from a deck but they regenerate pretty quickly as you explore, just have enough Invocations so it's cost-effective). In practice you don't need piety-costing abilities 90% of the time. Triple Draw against tricky enemies like non-living so you don't waste a turn for instance polymorphing them. Deal Four when you're in a hurry to deal lots of damage before they close in. Then you can safely follow up with summoning.
Polymorphing monsters with high Invo is rarely dangerous in practice, Storm causes explosions of lightning far from you if there are no monsters next to you, etc. Deck of Escape is a bit more tricky, but even Shaft is optional because it generates one on your space but you still have a chance to move. I had the escape deck Slow me as well as the enemies occassionally, but I pulled a few dozen cards from it and no major accident happened. The Tomb is very nice if there's at least 1 square between you and monsters - you can wait out poison, hostile enchantments, corrosion, heal.
The nice thing is that it goes really well with Demonspawn, who have the Invocation aptitude of +3. Just watch out for noise. It allowed my current Demonspawn Fighter (Dodging/Shields/Stealth) to collect 4 runes.
The bad thing is that you can't predict what exactly is going to happen - sometimes a bolt of acid, maybe loud explosions, polymorphing, or one hit kill with orb. Unless you use cheap Triple Draw. But if it can carry a squishy demonspawn, it can work for anyone. Still much stealthier than Qazlal.