Slime Squisher
Posts: 377
Joined: Friday, 1st February 2013, 21:08
Shard shrike in depths
- Shrikes are capable of delivering huge damage per attack and they might attack more than once per turn. I will not do maths here, but I think something around 150 is completely within their range (with no rC). I doubt anything can top that without buffs.
- Player cannot reliably escape shard shrikes even with blink/teleport scrolls because of speed 30.
- A single source of rC is mandatory, but even with it throw icicle isn't something to sneeze at.
- Shrikes tend to park themselves at a distance. They cannot be killed with weak auxiliary ranged weapon; they have too high HPs for that.
- Player does not have a guaranteed access to rC in depths. Even if rC can be attained by e.g. ring swapping, accidental stumbling upon shard shrike can lead to instant death. One entering cocytus knows that rC is mandatory and can prepare beforehand; one entering depths cannot prepare for every type of attack (fire/cold/elec/more).
I do not think that any other monster shares such properties at this point of game. Fast monsters have mediocre attack strength; strong monsters are relatively slow. Here we have a case of a strong, extremely fast monster, tricky to fight in a melee and with ranged attack that requires a specific resistance.
Can we consider removing shard shrikes from depths? I believe they are more suited to Zot, if you really want them in non-extended game.