duvessa's spell guide for cool people


Ask fellow adventurers how to stay alive in the deep, dark, dangerous dungeon below, or share your own accumulated wisdom.

Halls Hopper

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Post Wednesday, 5th July 2017, 23:27

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

I haven't found the Fulminant Prism. Has it been removed, or did i just miss it?

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Post Wednesday, 5th July 2017, 23:35

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

I moved it to the level 1 spoiler tag as a joke. I've moved it to the correct place now.

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Post Saturday, 8th July 2017, 01:57

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

duvessa wrote:Freeze
Does 1d(3+floor(power/3)) cold damage. (Yes, power 24 and 25 are the same.)
Easily the best level 1 direct damage spell. High AC-ignoring damage and it even slows adders for you. Decent even in Lair since there are so many cold-blooded monsters (there are better options against hydras, though). Not really useful after that.

What about the mini-stun? Does it still have the mini-stun?

Summon Butterflies
Summons min(8,2+1d3+floor(random2(power)/10)) butterflies with a summon duration of 3. Excellent for clogging corridors and blocking line of fire; any character that can cast spells should learn this spell. Butterflies do have 25 EV, so they don't reliably block projectiles.

Can prevent monster spawning (mostly just useful for blocking hell effects I guess) and can be used to influence blinks, maybe some other niche things.

Passwall
Mainly for stabbing; usually too slow to be a better escape option than walking away. Excellent for muckrobin as it allows you to hide in some arrival vaults, protecting you from most OOD spawns.

Displaces monsters, which is probably just noticeable in certain vaults if you want to kill a human or zombie in a box or something. Used to be able to drown you but I don't know what it does now instead - does it just fail if there isn't appropriate terrain on the other side?

Teleport Other
This is a really bad hex, but a really bad hex is still pretty good. Unlike other hexes it doesn't help you kill the monster but it does have a good chance of temporarily getting rid of it after a few turns.

Xom seems to love this spell in a really weird way.

Control Undead
I'm pretty sure this is a pet spell for at least one dev because that's the only way I can explain it 1. replacing Dispel Undead on Ne, 2. being guaranteed by Kiku while Dispel Undead isn't, 3. still existing while Enslavement was removed despite it doing the same thing. So yeah, this spell is just as busted as Enslavement.

I think that was my idea; it was a pet spell of mine at the time but I'm no longer protecting it so we can get rid of this one now.

Had some other questions and comments but they're especially minor.
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Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Saturday, 8th July 2017, 02:07

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

mikee wrote:
duvessa wrote:Freeze
Does 1d(3+floor(power/3)) cold damage. (Yes, power 24 and 25 are the same.)
Easily the best level 1 direct damage spell. High AC-ignoring damage and it even slows adders for you. Decent even in Lair since there are so many cold-blooded monsters (there are better options against hydras, though). Not really useful after that.

What about the mini-stun? Does it still have the mini-stun?
No.
mikee wrote:
Passwall
Mainly for stabbing; usually too slow to be a better escape option than walking away. Excellent for muckrobin as it allows you to hide in some arrival vaults, protecting you from most OOD spawns.

Displaces monsters, which is probably just noticeable in certain vaults if you want to kill a human or zombie in a box or something. Used to be able to drown you but I don't know what it does now instead - does it just fail if there isn't appropriate terrain on the other side?
Yes.

Dungeon Dilettante

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Post Wednesday, 19th July 2017, 14:47

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Thanks, this is really helpful. had been having trouble relearning the spells, this breaks them down really well.

I found what you said pretty accurate across the board. Ignition was really helpful for the royal jelly. easier to get online by slime pits than firestorm and in more books, plus arguably just better against TRJ due to the damage>summon>more damage loop. but otherwise firestorm was king.

Halls Hopper

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Post Tuesday, 25th July 2017, 11:23

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

duvessa wrote:Necromutation
One of the worst spells in the game. The only places where this form's benefit outweighs its drawbacks are Tomb, Coc, and certain zig levels, and getting it for Tomb is massive overkill (even getting Statue Form for Tomb makes more sense). It is genuinely very good in ziggurats, but those aren't part of the real game and you have unlimited xp by then anyway.
Elsewhere, you are trading the ability to use potions and the two best necromancy spells in the game (Borgnjor's and DDoor) for the privilege of having 6 more AC, a necromancy enhancer that doesn't matter because you can't cast the best necromancy spells, and some resistances that don't matter either. And it's level 8 with an awkward second school.


Wait, was it nerfed recently or something?

This was my favorite spell ever because it removed hunger completely, allowing Fire Storm spam without caring about spell hunger. The resistances were also awesome…

The wiki agrees with me:

Having this spell is a game-changer. No hunger means that you can play like a mummy (but with the aptitudes and stats of your race), as long as you recast the spell once in awhile. Spam your big spells, wear amulet of regeneration and abuse Sif Muna's channeling; the hunger won't affect your living form as long as you do it all as a lich. Unlike a real mummy, you can just stop recasting this spell and heal your stats and rot as a living person. You can also go back to the world of the living to kill pesky creatures that use Dispel Undead.


Though that article is marked as only up to date with version 0.14! Did something change?

bel

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Post Tuesday, 25th July 2017, 11:32

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Nvm.
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Post Tuesday, 25th July 2017, 12:27

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Nothing has changed, and Duvessa's reasons have always been valid. NM is an expensive spell with some benefits and some drawbacks. I would agree that you are better off learning Death's Door or Borg to avoid death in the Tomb or Ziggurats (or any any other situation). In the extended game, where you are likely to use NM, spell hunger should not be that much of a problem to justify learning this spell, except maybe if you are a spriggan.
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Post Tuesday, 25th July 2017, 12:59

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

floatboth wrote:[...]
Wait, was it nerfed recently or something?

This was my favorite spell ever because it removed hunger completely, allowing Fire Storm spam without caring about spell hunger. The resistances were also awesome…

Though that article is marked as only up to date with version 0.14! Did something change?

The spell has not significantly changed.

In my view, spell hunger is an annoyance, rather than a true restraint. Most areas of the game have edible comestible corpses, and on top of that there is usually plenty of perma-food around. That means reducing hunger does not make Necromutation noticeably stronger.

The resistances can be useful. 6 AC is nice, 40 MR if OK. rPois+++/rC+ are only marginally useful for character that can have enough XP to cast Necromutation. rN+++ is a bit more useful in extended, but again not amazingly so, as other sources exist.

Torment immunity would be the most common reason for enjoying Necromutation I would guess. It's nice in areas where Torment is very common and a significant threat, like Tomb, CoC and certain Zig floors. In many other places Necromutation can be a serious liability, as many very strong effects are blocked by it, notably quaffing potions of curing, haste, berserk, agility, invisibility, resistance, etc.

Getting confused anywhere moderately threatening can be really bad, because then scrolls, spells, movement and some invocations are unavailable too! And of course it's possible to get 'more confused'.

Necromutation also blocks some of the best necromancy spells in the game (Regeneration, Death's Door, Borgnjor's Revification), which seems strange because anyone able to cast Necromut can usually also cast the other high-level necromancy spells.

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Post Tuesday, 25th July 2017, 23:20

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

floatboth wrote:The wiki agrees with me
Is this supposed to sound like a good thing?

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Post Wednesday, 26th July 2017, 08:50

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

duvessa wrote:Is this supposed to sound like a good thing?


I think the point was that the opinion is shared by other people also.
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Post Wednesday, 26th July 2017, 09:00

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

I believe argument about Borgnjor's Revification is weird, the spell makes Necromutation more attractive IMHO. I mean I always get Borgnjor's Revification online first and then Necromutation becomes something like level 7 Transmutations instead of level 8 Necromacy/Transmutations. Would you honestly go for single school level 7 spell which can make you laugh at torment and death curses?

Argument about Death's Door looks a bit weird to me too, I tried using the spell multiple times and every time it was very dangerous when it expired (especially in Hell with its direct damage out of nowhere effects, and that was in old versions where wand of HW still existed!). I believe in about 90% cases where you want to cast Death's Door, you would not need it if you were under Necromutation. The rest 10% are covered by Borgnjor's Revification easily.
Or just point me to a game where Death's Door was spammed by a non-Fe and non-Sp (fast species with tiny HP after 1-2 torments).
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bel

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Post Wednesday, 26th July 2017, 09:17

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

VeryAngryFelid wrote:
duvessa wrote:Is this supposed to sound like a good thing?


I think the point was that the opinion is shared by other people also.

I don't want to crap on the good people who write stuff on the wiki, but this just means that one person agreed with poster on something. Who knows who that is, and why they said whatever they said.

I looked at their contribution history and found this guide for DEFE by the same person who wrote the Necromutation stuff. They say that they have won twice in their Crawl career. In the guide, they say that the first thing one should do is to train spellcasting (alone) to 14, before touching any of the other skills. This is weird advice, to say the least.

The wiki should be used sparingly and with a decent sized grain of salt. I used it myself (and do it now) when I was starting out. The bare facts there are usually more-or-less fine, the commentary much more dubious (as the poster noted, it has not been updated since 0.14).

Besides, there's nothing really objectionable in the stuff written about Necromutation; the advantages and disadvantages listed are correct. What people differ on is whether these advantages are worth the cost or not. Usually, extended has plenty of XP anyway, that some wastage is not a big deal. The tone of "this spell is great" or "this spell is crap" is a much different thing, of course.

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Post Wednesday, 26th July 2017, 09:49

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

bel wrote:In the guide, they say that the first thing one should do is to train spellcasting (alone) to 14, before touching any of the other skills. This is weird advice, to say the least.


You interested me enough to read much of that guide. I see that it was written when rPois allowed to eat poisonous chunks so the advice is not as bad as it looks, I still remember how annoying it was to starve with lots of permafood because of nausea. I imagine it might be even worse for casters who spam conjuration spells. This is what happens when game hides damage and accuracy from player: people start to believe spell power is irrelevant and rush to fireball for accuracy :)
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Post Saturday, 2nd September 2017, 09:41

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Obvious in context, but I think meph cloud means to say that monsters with HD >=21 have a 49 in 50 chance to resist confusion?
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Post Monday, 11th September 2017, 07:25

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

4Hooves2Appendages wrote:I've seen people suggest that Discord is good in Zot, but I haven't tried it myself.


Works very well on draconian packs, who have low MR, travel in packs, and are one of the few Natural-type groups in the endgame. I'll let others speak to whether it's strategically sound to invest in it.

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Post Tuesday, 24th October 2017, 17:34

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Summon Hydra has a "durationuration"; Shroud of Golubria's maximum spellpower is 200, not 50. (Editing this just in case the guide is ever revised.)
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Post Wednesday, 6th December 2017, 16:52

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

This guide is most charitably described as inconsistent and most accurately as bad.

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Post Wednesday, 6th December 2017, 17:31

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

GuideCritic wrote:This guide is most charitably described as inconsistent and most accurately as bad.


This critique was overpriced and can only be described as both bland and an assault on the finer senses, in the same way that one might languish on the cold grey moors of England without the faintist hint of tea, or a war, or a sunrise on the horizon. It is as if the critic has critiqueéd only for the sake of criticism, with no hope or desire to affect real change in the human condition. It left me..the same as when I came: Sad, and longing for meaningful companionship.

2/10, would not critique again.
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Post Wednesday, 6th December 2017, 17:46

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Eh, just lay back and think of England.
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Post Wednesday, 6th December 2017, 18:18

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Okay fine, guess I DO have to elaborate a little.

Some entries are very good and informative and teach us cool tricks you can do with spells, so props to that. Others, not so much...

Some spells have othing but the technical description of it, and, while certainly useful, is not exactly what I expect people looking on help with spells to expect from this guide.
Also sometimes the technical side of things gets a little too overbearing at times and adds a lot of clutter with little relevant information.

You say yourself no anecdotes, but many of your entries don't even offer as much, it's "this spell is a-gud and this a-spell is a bad".
Why is good? Why is it bad? Who should learn it? How should it be used, what can it be used for etc. That's what people banging their head against the desk because they died the 1000th time playing a spell-using character come looking for in a guide.
Everything containing "no personal experience" and "not much to say about it" could use some fleshing out.

Take haunt for example. There's plenty of interesting stuff to say about it since it is quite different from other summoning spells: it is smite-targeted, requires a target and expires shortly after the target dies, the wraiths often apply slow to even tough monsters and applying haunt multiple times can take care of almost any foe. Other summons can have trouble taking down key targets that are far away from you, especially if there's something in the way; haunt is maybe not the optimal but the in-the-same-school solution can deal with that due to it's smite targeting and tendency to surround the victim.

Overall, the guide could do with a little bit less of sodium. I'm sure your opinions on game balance are all fine and dondo, but they have lost little here, you are here to teach us about dem spells; there are better places to discuss game balance.
"X/Y is still broken, period." Is not useful information. Telling us that it is very good and why and how to use the spell would be. Also either don't refer to nerfs or at least be more specific about the version/nature of the nerf, if it adds anything of value to the entry. Use overpowered/underpowered/broken less.

Also refrain from stuff like "if you don't do it like that, you are wrong anyway". It is not necessary in any way.

Always assume that you are explaining stuff to a complete noob.

PS: Hydra form's heads cannot be chopped off, it has a fixed head count once you activate it. There, so nobody can say I'm only criticizing witout helping.

PPS: Yeah Cigutovi's isn't great overall, but it is better than Ozo's in one aspect (the other being SH): It can be used with any armour type. That probably doesn't sweeten the deal enough, but is worth mentioning for completeness.
And while on the subject of Ozo's, always expect to never find it in your game when assessing the defense of forms.

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Post Wednesday, 6th December 2017, 18:44

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Now thats a spicy a-meatball!

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Post Wednesday, 6th December 2017, 18:47

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Shtopit wrote:Eh, just lay back and think of England.

It is England which bores me so. I should rather be hunting lions in Africa, or sailing the cape to the southern colonies, or even trying my hand at the till in the New World. Anything but England.

bel

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Post Wednesday, 6th December 2017, 19:36

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

GuideCritic wrote:Some spells have othing but the technical description of it, and, while certainly useful, is not exactly what I expect people looking on help with spells to expect from this guide.

I can't parse this sentence. The guide violated your expectations, or it violated your expectations of what other people would expect?
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Post Thursday, 7th December 2017, 11:45

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Then I guess that, when mothers of young brides recommended them just to lay back and think of England on their wedding night, they actually meant "Don't get too excited".
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Post Thursday, 7th December 2017, 21:23

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

@guidecritic - I agree with most of your points, but I think the critical difference is just who duvessa intended the guide for vs who you think the guide is intended for. Duvessa's targeting experienced players who already know how most of the spells work, have won crawl (probably several times) etc. You could say these people need the guide less, but the guide also serves as a way to vent frustration over things that are too strong, or too weak, poorly designed, etc.

PS. Hydra form is terrible and it really needs to give halfway decent defenses to be useable.

PPS. Necromutation should be used to avoid torment if you have no other solution to it (such as just killing things quickly first, having high defenses/regen, or statue form). I don't get why people would cast necromutation for spell hunger - if spell hunger is really, really bothering you, eliminate it entirely the cool way - worship chei. You only need 37 int (and 27 spellcasting) to make level 9 spells hungerless.

Here's a sample morgue with hungerless firestorm and tornado: http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/tasonir/mor ... 213819.txt

I started that character with Vehumet, but switched to Makhleb for repeated ziggs - even with Makhleb it still had 39 int, so hungerless level 9 spells. I don't play very many casters so I don't really have great examples, I should probably play a more pure chei mage soon. When I do "mages" I tend to break my usual form and pick some other god too.

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Post Thursday, 7th December 2017, 22:42

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

guidecriticcritic wrote:
GuideCritic wrote:This guide is most charitably described as inconsistent and most accurately as bad.


This critique was overpriced and can only be described as both bland and an assault on the finer senses,


Do we even have a captcha on forum registrations?
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Post Tuesday, 26th December 2017, 18:08

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

freeze was the ish when that bug in .15 (.16?) let you smite-target @ full range
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Post Wednesday, 3rd January 2018, 23:56

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

tasonir wrote:@guidecritic - I agree with most of your points, but I think the critical difference is just who duvessa intended the guide for vs who you think the guide is intended for. Duvessa's targeting experienced players who already know how most of the spells work, have won crawl (probably several times) etc. You could say these people need the guide less, but the guide also serves as a way to vent frustration over things that are too strong, or too weak, poorly designed, etc.


That's not a guide, then. That's a way to vent frustration over personal opinions regarding game balance. If you're going to write a guide, write a guide. If you're going to armchair game balance, armchair game balance. Don't do one and dress it up like the other, because that helps nobody.

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Post Thursday, 4th January 2018, 01:12

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

laularukyrumo wrote:
tasonir wrote:@guidecritic - I agree with most of your points, but I think the critical difference is just who duvessa intended the guide for vs who you think the guide is intended for. Duvessa's targeting experienced players who already know how most of the spells work, have won crawl (probably several times) etc. You could say these people need the guide less, but the guide also serves as a way to vent frustration over things that are too strong, or too weak, poorly designed, etc.


That's not a guide, then. That's a way to vent frustration over personal opinions regarding game balance. If you're going to write a guide, write a guide. If you're going to armchair game balance, armchair game balance. Don't do one and dress it up like the other, because that helps nobody.

It's clearly labeled as a "guide for cool people" If you don't find it guide-like it implies that Duvessa doesn't think your cool. Maybe nobody thinks it's guide like, but everyone is unwilling to admit they aren't cool.
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Post Thursday, 4th January 2018, 02:01

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

laularukyrumo wrote:That's not a guide, then. That's a way to vent frustration over personal opinions regarding game balance. If you're going to write a guide, write a guide. If you're going to armchair game balance, armchair game balance. Don't do one and dress it up like the other, because that helps nobody.


I am approximately as cool as Satan's red-hot throne, and I found this extremely useful as a guide.
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Post Friday, 5th January 2018, 21:38

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Care to update to let cool people know your take on Borgnjor's Vile Clutch?
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Post Saturday, 6th January 2018, 05:02

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

I don't think I'll update this guide for 0.21 as that's a lot of work, but my take is that the spell's concept and design are bad and its power is unremarkable.

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Post Tuesday, 9th January 2018, 02:55

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

I think it's interesting in that it's aoe for earth, which is generally a school which doesn't have much aoe. LRD is excellent but since they have to be next to a wall, chances are you are only hitting things on one side of the aoe, unless it's a pillar with open space around it.

Clutch lets you aim your aoe anywhere you want, which is a new ability for earth. Not all that sure why it needs necromancy, but hey, you get that anyways assuming you found regeneration, so no real change there.

It's also new for earth spells in that it just doesn't work sometimes, unlike a stone arrow/iron shot that can literally kill any monster in the game. I know shatter has some of the same restrictions but it's a level 9 spell and mostly just used for breaking tomb anyways.

This isn't to say that I think it's great or that it's bad, I just haven't really tried it out very much yet. Some people might like the targeting restrictions on LRD, others could find them annoying, etc. I like LRD, although clutch not working on certain mobs (insubstantial? I don't remember all the cases) is annoying and I clearly don't yet remember what the rules are.

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Post Wednesday, 24th January 2018, 06:37

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

I've been pretty happy with Vile Clutch; it seems to do a lot of damage.

What do you guys think it the optimal spell layout for Gnolls? I.e., you can wear armour and still have any level 6/7 spell you want, without bending over backwards to level awkward schools?

For example, right now I've got 50 spell slots at level 22, and a layout of Borgnjor's Vile Clutch, Iskenderun's Mystic Blast, Mephitic Cloud, Tukima's Dance, Yara's Violent Unravelling, Animate Dead, Summon Butterflies, Deflect Missiles, Summon Forest, Summon Lightning Spire, Regeneration, and Summon Mana Viper. I'm thinking about dropping IMB and Mephitic Cloud for the Iron Shot & Spellforged Servitor combo, or maybe dropping Summon Forest to make room for Invisibility (which pairs nicely with Yara's) or Haunt (which will cost $1500).

Crypt Cleanser

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Post Wednesday, 24th January 2018, 17:09

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

I don't think there's a single optimal list for all gnolls even at endgame. God selection could change the list (by excluding necromancy, for example); your combination of int,str, access to wizardry, and body armour will affect whether or not you can cast level 8s and possibly even level 7s; and your list changes once you start doing zot because pog/cblink are no longer optimal.

For the character in question I'd much rather ditch Yara's than summon forest. Invis is a good spell but it's a waste of turns and mp to use it to set up Yara's. Iron shot only servitor is mostly a gimmick but gnoll can actually pull it off without too much effort and being able to cast iron shot yourself is very nice, so that idea is more reasonable. It will be inferior to malign gateway though.

Spider Stomper

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Post Thursday, 25th January 2018, 02:14

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

I like punishing things that try to haste/buff versus me, but maybe I've overestimating the impact and frequency of that trick.

Tomb Titivator

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Post Saturday, 27th January 2018, 00:16

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Notes on yara's: It is a hard counter to a few things that stabbers may have a hard time with, things that see invis, self buff, and have high MR. Specifically, spriggan packs (the air mage will repeatedly cast deflect missiles, zerkers will zerk). Consider learning it if the spriggan forest spawns in depths. Also liches (haste) and top teir elf mages (haste or RMsl) are great targets. It is very good in the Desolation of Salt, and has uses in Snake Pit (the sharpsooters use portal projectile). It has situational uses otherwise, but you generally have solves for other things elsewhere in the hex tree.

It is an ok spell without discord, but only a reasonable pickup if its a cheap investment on a weakish character that doesn't have good solves for the above threats. Its not very constructive in the sense that transmutations doesn't build into much that is useful, and it is a level 5 spell that often is not incredibly useful in sbranches.

Yara's competes with silence, which is a much more constructive spell (builds into Dmsl) that does very similar things with a few different and slightly more uses.

Being able to play more aggressively in combination with discord is the major reason for learning it.

Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Saturday, 27th January 2018, 02:12

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Yara's doesn't work on monster berserk, and monster Portal Projectile isn't an enchantment at all (it's like the old player version, one cast per projectile). It does remove spriggan berserkers' Trog's Hand though.

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Spider Stomper

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Post Saturday, 27th January 2018, 20:59

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

The few times I have used Yara's, it always seems to do minimal damage to the enchanted monster but more to its surrounding. It seems a waste of spell slots even if you happen to have both schools trained.

Mines Malingerer

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Joined: Monday, 2nd March 2015, 11:55

Post Saturday, 3rd February 2018, 13:44

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Yara's is really an anti-haste spell in my book. Situational, yes, but with haste removed from PLAYER'S spell-books it's very handy to have a way to negate the speed advantage if something big gets hasted (Cerebov, I'm looking at you, m8).

As for nercomutation, I'm say complete mutation immunity is really, REALLY a huge deal in extended. It allows you:
- to lock in a good mutation set
- to safely ignore malmutation, making many mobs MUCH less of a priority
- to abuse spells and abilities that bring magical contamination

And no one forces you to stay in lichform if you'd rather not, canceling it takes one action. Plus, again, you can buff with all your potions and THEN go into lichform. So as long as you can spare XP and spell levels, necromutation is one of the best quality-of-life spells in the game.

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VeryAngryFelid

Shoals Surfer

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Post Saturday, 10th February 2018, 01:45

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Bretty gud. I learned a few things.

I was kind of disappointed by the lack of stuff on fulminant prism though, it's my fave spell in the conjurer's starting book. You can hit people out of los (oklob plants or statues included), it's got good damage for its level (outstanding if you hit multiple things) and is conducive to good kiting play (cast at max range and walk away, repeat) and can block shots in a pinch. It's also pseudo smite targeting, for nuking priests and sorcerers.

It does generate a lot of noise, though.

Lair Larrikin

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Joined: Sunday, 22nd January 2017, 02:47

Post Monday, 12th February 2018, 22:54

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Is it possible to use glaciate with a mass summoning spell like summon butterflies or sticks to snakes to create a barrier with the resulting ice blocks?
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Pandemonium Purger

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Location: Sydney, Australia

Post Tuesday, 13th February 2018, 00:19

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

Paperbell wrote:Is it possible to use glaciate with a mass summoning spell like summon butterflies or sticks to snakes to create a barrier with the resulting ice blocks?

I tried it in wizmode and it looks like it works, summon butterflies -> glaclate leaves you with 'butterfly shaped block of ice'. It should work with any non-insubstantial monster 60% of the time, from a wizmode dive.

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Paperbell

Mines Malingerer

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Post Saturday, 16th June 2018, 03:32

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

I think Borgnjor's Vile Clutch is strong, ridiculously strong if you are a durable caster or have a way to prevent monsters from trying to move.
Smite targeting+AoE is always a big plus, and the damage quickly ramps up way above what any other lvl 5 could do.
Downsides are the awkward schools, the constriction not being too reliable in itself and the awkward insubstantial exceptions.
To compensate it really, really dicks over summoners/archers/things that don't move a lot.

On a gnoll it's my best spell whenever I find it, think it's right up there with conjure flame in usefulness.


Fulminant Prism is another spell that I like a lot, but isn't really covered here.
- smite targeted, big AoE
- can hit things out of sight, blocks fire(!)
- irresistible/can't be dodged and does the most damage of all lvl 4 spells
The delay is a drawback but when I find it early on a blaster I tend to go out of my way
and get a few cheap points in hexes just to boost it a bit.

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Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Saturday, 16th June 2018, 03:32

Re: duvessa's spell guide for cool people

crap why does this forum software have a "bump" button sorry
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