Thursday, 13th October 2011, 02:51 by Blade
I started the second thread back linked back there (I highly recommend reading it; it has a lot of tips relevant to you); I was in almost the exact same position you are (DrFE was, in fact, my most-played combo). I haven't used many DrFE's lately, and all of mine petered out at about the same place you're hitting, but I have a few ideas you can try nonetheless:
You might want to try DEFE a couple of times. They can't tank nearly as many hits as DrFE, but that's about the only adaptation your play style would need. You already have the early game pattern figured out pretty well; Flame tongue until you can get Sticky Flame castable and then use a combination of the two to push further. A few specific enemies to watch out for:
- Imps. Pick up every weapon that might be branded; you're looking for something that can get past their nasty regen (holy wrath works wonders, freezing is great also, electrocution may work, Crazy Yiuf's staff will usually nail them). If you can't handle one, take it upstairs, wait for it to blink away, and go back down. They're not worth the time it takes to defeat them.
- Orc Priests. Sometimes, they aren't too big of a deal, but if they have you in LoS and you can't start hitting them in one or two turns, RUN. They can and will kill you in a few turns if you aren't very careful around them.
- Centaurs. Avoid the OOD ones until you have Sticky Flame; after that, close the gap quickly and sticky flame them, then fire off flame tongues from melee range until they die.
- Former player ghosts. Lv.7+ Draconians are nasty with their draining breath; Fire Elementalist ghosts are also terrifying with their ranged sticky flame wiping you out in just the way you get monsters, and their fireballs dealing huge damage.
- Electric eels. Sometimes, open levels with lots of pools will generate; electric eels are often all over in there and they will tear you to pieces. Slam an exclusion on their pools and go elsewhere; if they're infesting an entire level, skip it.
- Uniques are always dangerous, but just about all of the early ones can be taken down with Sticky Flame if you're careful (this includes Sigmund and, to a lesser extent, Grinder [if you can, though, get away from Grinder]).
- In general, any monster that has ranged attacks or is faster than you is a threat to watch out for. You should be able to handle all the big hitters in melee pretty easily; all you need is one turn of being attacked before you can get Sticky Flame in and run away for the kill -- Ogres, Trolls, and Hill Giants are the prime examples of this.
I've really taken a liking to using Vehumet with Deep Elf Fire Elementalists; with his bonuses, Fireball should be castable at Very Good or better before Lair. My strategy has been to get it up to Great or Excellent, then focus on spellcasting (+4 aptitude!!!) until the hunger becomes a non-issue. Sticky Flame + Flame Tongue can take care of just about every threat in the Lair, so you don't really need to worry about branching out until after that. For level-up stats, I always go strength until it's at 7 or 8, then int forever after.
Go into the Lair without rPois. Past about D:12, the chance of getting overwhelmed by monsters is a lot worse than the danger of poisonous monsters in the Lair. The poisonous monsters in there can be treated the same way as the poisonous monsters in the dungeon; they hit hard, but sticky flame will cause them to run before they deal too much damage and then finish them from a distance. You can just about always afford one hit from a hydra; don't be afraid to Sticky Flame them. Blink Frogs will hurt, but they're really fragile and they won't usually surround you too brutally, so...sticky flame! (they'll blink away frequently and usually die from the damage; if they don't, it doesn't matter -- just rinse and repeat). Packs of Yaks are a lot easier if you can separate them; if you can't, run away as you fire sticky flames off. They'll fall soon enough.
Post-Lair (possibly only clear it down to 6 or 7 just in case big nasties are waiting deeper), it's time to think about branching out. Use the spellbooks you've found and figure out a workable set; as a deep elf, you can do *whatever you want*. Charms, especially, are very nice. Learning Freezing Cloud from the second book Vehumet gifts you can help you deal with fire-resistant monsters, in addition to being a nice tool to escape from enemies (you don't need any ice magic; conjurations and possibly air are plenty). Don't enter Snake or Swamp without rPois (or be very careful when doing it and look for a swamp dragon to get a hide from). With Hive, you can go for either rPois or Ignite Poison (Ignite Poison in the Hive is a beautiful thing), whichever you find first. Shoals...careful in there if you don't have Repel/Deflect Missiles. The main dungeon can usually be cleared down to Vaults if you have hungerless Fireball and another option (pumping spellcasting really is worth it. Vehumet-reinforced, hungerless fireballs are incredible.). Orc...same deal. Even the first few levels of Elf and Vaults are manageable without any non-guaranteed equipment/spells.
...that's pretty much it, really; DEFE 101, the way this newbie managed it. You should be able to figure out what to do from there with time.
Berserkers and SpEn are also good options if you want to get a rune; advice for those is covered in the linked threads.
Good luck! If bobross419 and I are anything to go by, you should be getting your first rune fairly soon. The important thing is really just getting past that wall with one or two characters; after that, others should follow.
(also, having read your latest post...Vehumet really is a great god for FEs. If you don't convulse at the thought of even coming near him, I would really recommend trying him a little bit. It's a lot easier to have fun getting far in the game than it is doing the first few levels again and again. If you want a combination that works well with Nemelex, SpEn is a great option; I got my first rune with a SpEn of Nemelex [and got bored of playing him soon afterward; he's still languishing in the swamp after a couple of weeks])
EDIT: woah, this came out way longer than I intended. Sorry if I bored you with my long-winded DEFE guide)
(I am actually quite serious about this one, if there's any build that can take out practically any threat the moment it shows up it's a Berserker.)
