Young Multizapper's Handbook

[starless]

After playing DDEE for a week it's time to switch to the very opposite. DGAE is probably the most fun in the early game, mainly due to Shock which allows you to multizap a target or several targets at once.

So, do you have any formulas for quadzaps?
So far the only one I know and use is this, guaranteeing 4 zaps on the target:

Screen shot 2011-01-19 at 10.14.24 PM.png (49.14 KiB) Viewed 7417 times

[mageykun]

This page in the wiki has lots of multizap diagrams, including two for quadrazap.

[starless]

Yep I was looking at these before.
Honestly, I haven't been able to pull off the first one as it seems quite situational, and the 2nd requires rElec + you are in a kind of a precarious position

In my example you can use Swiftness to lead them around a corner and quadzap them from afar which seems much safer. But I haven't been able to come up with other 4-zap patterns so far.

Btw, the one I use is listed as a trizap on this page.

[mageykun]

I've definitely used the risky one- getting sandwiched between two walls with an enemy is pretty much bound to happen if you keep playing air elementalists. It's harmless with rElec and not too suicidal once you've got some hp built up.

Huh. Just counting out eight steps, I would think you're right- that should give 4 hits, not 3. That page may need an update.

Don't have any other patterns for you though. Usually I relied on Bizaps, as they're easy and plentiful (all you need is a wall). My last good HEAE ended up relying on sticky flame midgame when shock stopped cutting it, and then spamming the air elemental fan later until his unfortunate end in Tomb:3 (summoning an army of air elementals for no mp and then hasting them? Hell yes). Course, both those have been nerfed now, so I'll need a new strategy next time. By the time I got lightning I wasn't bothering with zap patterns either- mostly useful for crowd control.

[starless]

In this situation as discussed before you actually get a pentazap, e.g. zapping the target 5 times!

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[starless]

Thanks. I will try that with Shock as well.

Shockingly, I haven't yet found a book with Lightning Bolt in it :>

[tormodpwns]

Shockingly, I haven't yet found a book with Lightning Bolt in it :>

Well that sure is shocking.

[LunarHarp]

At some point they changed the range of shock so the wiki article for multizapping is still outdated.

If you find a large pillar and a normal speed enemy it is possible to multizap them over and over again running away with swiftness.

  Code:

xxxxxxx
......x
x.xxx.x
x.xxx.x
x.xxxox
.@.....
xxxxxxx

And run up after zapping to set up the next one and repeat until dead.

  Code:

xxxxxxx
.@....x
x.xxx.x
x.xxx.x
x.xxx.x
..o....
xxxxxxx

This works for a surprisingly long time for air elementalists which having trouble getting books. I have taken down hill giants and ugly things this way. With lightning bolt you can do this to take down a dragon in two castings. However, bouncing bolts becomes much less useful in some branches because of the layout. For instance, this situation is far less common in the lair when I want it the most. I have avoided the lair if I don't have better spells because black mambas and spiny frogs have killed my AE very quickly. Although I haven't played with the improved static discharge yet so maybe this isn't an issue now.

In cases where I get ran down by a fast enemy I tend to use bizaps. Especially if I can run around a corner to so I don't have to hit myself:

  Code:

xx.x
xxkx
.@.x
xxxx


[starless]

A question:

Doess Acc+ bonuses from rings and armour affect beam/spell accuracy?
If so, how about the rebounding zaps?

[starless]

Thanks.
So is there a way to improve spell accuracy? Does higher spellcasting skill help?

[starless]

Yes, makes sense. I did not realize spell power included not only the damage of the spell but its accuracy as well.

[LunarHarp]

Does anyone know if you can slow down the shock animation to better see what is going on? It often is gone before I really know exactly what happened. Perhaps this is what I get for not playing with the lovely tiles.

[LunarHarp]

So with the new air elementalist book in trunk right now I thought it would be good to resurrect this thread for people's zapping enjoyment. The crawl wiki's page on multizapping is still wrong. I will get to that in a bit. For now I wrote a strategy guide on the wiki for using shock effectively which should cover the basics of not dying to those orc priests and centaurs without mephitic cloud.

http://crawl.chaosforge.org/index.php?t ... s_Handbook

[JeffQyzt]

...For now I wrote a strategy guide on the wiki for using shock effectively which should cover the basics of not dying to those orc priests and centaurs without mephitic cloud.

http://crawl.chaosforge.org/index.php?t ... s_Handbook

Thanks! Great resource. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it would be really nice if you could go in an update some of the examples with the "zap here" arrows like you did on the first ones (e.g. it's not clear on the double-wide hallway example.)

[sxoz]

Good stuff!

One tactic I use a lot that I'm not sure if you'd want to include, is if you happen to be in an open area you can still get bizaps pretty easily if a monster is chasing you. You have to position the monster against the wall by running along it, let it catch up to you, then step away from the wall and aim behind the monster. You can keep bizapping it as it will happily sit against the wall as it pummels you.

  Code:

Example:

#      #
#     @#
#      #    Run up along the wall...
#   M  #


#      #
#     @#
#     M#   Monster will eventually run along the wall, too. Wait for it to get next to you...
#      #


#      #
#    @ #   Step back from the wall, and...
#     M#   <-- aim at the wall behind the Monster, repeat until one of you dies.
#      #

Assuming you can take multiple hits from the Monster, this works pretty well if you have no hallways to bounce in.

[LunarHarp]

It is everyone's now which is what is great about the wiki, henzell, or the dev wiki. Anyone can edit it if you have a good idea

The wall thing is great, I'll put it in right now.

[nicooo]

Does anyone know if you can slow down the shock animation to better see what is going on? It often is gone before I really know exactly what happened. Perhaps this is what I get for not playing with the lovely tiles.

It's the same with tiles.

Is there a way to slow down _all_ missile/beam/etc animations?

[JeffQyzt]

I think that as of next release, multi-zaps are restricted to 2 bounces anyway, so most of this becomes moot.

[thevogonpoet]

I understood the bolts bounce the same, but only harm enemies twice. So multizaps hitting as many mobs as possible twice become the most efficient way... seems a bit of a shame really.

[jejorda2]

If the bolt misses once, then hits, then passes again, does the third pass have a chance to hit?

[galehar]

If the bolt misses once, then hits, then passes again, does the third pass have a chance to hit?

seems so.