No barnacled rune???

[Nordon]

Hello everyone,

It seems my game forgot to spawn a barnacled rune of Zot.
I've checked shoals like 3 times - exploring fully, hiding map, exploring again.
Can anyone give me a tip? Or did I encounter a bug?

Current dump: http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/Nordon/Nordon.txt

Also, game tips are welcome.
I'd really like to take this char into extended, perhaps do some ziggs.
What spells should I aim for? What gear should I be looking for? What should I be training?
So far, I've lost ~5 gargs (one had all the runes) to ziggs.
All have gone the GDA/CPA route and this time I'm going for lighter armour (lucky PDA (; ) and more dodging/EV with spell backup.

[MDvedh]

You are probably giving the wrong dump file, because it says there is swamp and snake unexplored, and we are talking about shoals.

For zigs you want some strong aoe damage (like firestorm) with reliable source of manaregen, as well as some buffs (haste, rep field, dmissle).

Also a good friend of mine cleared the whole zig completely spell-less with Gr of TSO, he was cleansing everything cleansable and bashing non-cleansable dudes. The only important equipment I can recall was a ring of regen, everything else is general defensive stats like rf, rc, mr, whatever. Though, it sound suicidal for me.

[Nordon]

It shows my current dump. Game ended in YASD anyway.
So far I've lost a fuckton of Gargs to Ziggs.
Best try so far was dying at Zigg L26.

[Mankeli]

It shows my current dump. Game ended in YASD anyway.
So far I've lost a fuckton of Gargs to Ziggs.
Best try so far was dying at Zigg L26.

May I ask are you trying some kind of challenge build or entering the zig too early or why are you losing characters there?

[MDvedh]

Best try so far was dying at Zigg L26.

I've won a bunch of melee-oriented characters and some of them were 15 runes but I never dived into zig past zig:6 or zig:7, because risk/reward ratio sound too bad for melee characters.

[starless]

Clearing a Zig without any spells is doable, but very risky. Some of the levels with multiple Pan lords can be really tough.
Axes are recomended, scrolls of fog are useful as well. I've done it with a Mummy (before Cleaving was introduced) and a Hill Orc.

[rchandra]

there's a big difference between melee zig and spellless zig.

[Sandman25]

I believe Zigs are cleared for fun, not to improve chances of winning. There is nothing in Zig 27 loot that cannot be generated as Zig 7 loot.

[Nordon]

Exactly what sandman25 said.
I just want to complete one.

As far as melee goes, best run was a GDA full melee gargoyle that had max resistances and was wielding axes.
I'll just carry on killing Gargoyes until I do it.
I think I'll attempt some runes where I only get enough str for plate and continue with investing into dex and int until I have a decent EV and some spell backup.