Tuesday, 26th April 2011, 04:31 by mageykun
My usual rune order goes something like this:
swamp and/or snake, vaults, shoals, abyss, slime, zot-tomb (interchangeable), hells, pan.
Long wined explanations, opinions:
The snake 5 vault is probably the safest, unless you luck out and get one of the easy swamp ends. The abyss can be safely done as soon as you have a reliable way to move fast, have rMut, an energy means of teleport, and lev/fly and/or dig to keep from getting trapped in corners. If you can't move fast (wrong race, chie, no swiftness) you have to wait until you can safely deal with all(or most) of the denizens. In the right circumstances, it can be safer than vaults:8.
Some may say the shoals are less dangerous than the vaults. I'll agree. However, the shoals are less forgiving than the vaults. In the vaults, a miscalculation, or coming in unprepared, can be survived. Retreat is possible. The shoals are wide open, non-linear, filled with fast creatures, ranged attackers, and specialized spellcasters that hit hard and fast. Miscalculations are met with death. Putting off shoals:1 till after vaults:8 is probably overkill, but I prefer safe to dead.
Slime is the first branch you should seriously consider not doing. It's entirely possible for your character to possible of getting through the zot:5 orb gauntlet, but still die in jiyva's hell. You want rmut for sure, corrosion proof equipment (artefacts, or +5 or better enchantment), every equipment slot possible filled, and hungerless dig. The best solution I've found to slime is to dig highways through the place. Remove the acid wall damage from the equation and you're halfway home. The other half is loads of caution in clearing the enemies.
As far as I'm concerned, Zot:5 and Tomb:3 are interchangeable. Both require careful creeping and luring to fight powerful opponents one on one. If you can fight your way through Zot:5, you can do the tomb, although you have to be very cautious of the torment and death curses in a way you don't in Zot. (to call on my earlier example, tomb and zot have similar difficulties. But tomb is less forgiving). Your mileage may vary with build. If you plan on ninja-ing the orb (say, via tele roulette), you probably aren't prepared to fight your way through the tomb.
I do hells before pan, although the hells are harder. A fixed, more challenging monster set, nasty, horrible hell effects, harder rune maps. However, the hells are easier to retreat from, and it's easier to ninja runes from the lords of hell than the unique pan lords. As a bunch, the hell lords seem less aggressive or relentless on the attack, and are easier to sneak by with stealth. The advantage of doing Pan last is it's the infinite branch- so you're doing victory laps! Plus, it's such a relief not to have hell effects in your life and constant fiends tormenting you that even the more powerful unique Pan Lords seems refreshingly easy in comparison. Cruising through Pan is your reward for a game well played- I don't think it's as much fun with hell hanging over your head.
As a caveat, all my really powerful characters to date have been mele hybrids. Pure casters may disagree with this wildly.
Edit: KoboldLord is totally right though. Always pick rune order based on your circumstances in a given game. For instance, a Paladin may find Tar easier than Slime. Tomb easier than Zot. A naga may want to put off the abyss due to slowness. A merfolk may be less afraid of the shoals. Etc. Don't be afraid to stop and think, or to ask the community if you're not sure where a given character should go!
- For this message the author mageykun has received thanks:
- tcjsavannah