Spider Stomper
Posts: 187
Joined: Thursday, 6th November 2014, 17:19
Location: Canada
FoAK: some lessons learned, and some Qs
- My experience in the last few years is mostly starting as a caster; and
- I've written this post so that it could also be instructive to greener crawlers also
I've started about a hundred FoAKs with a spear (since I love Polearms and Conjure Flame), and more than half of my attempts have ended very quickly while still in the Abyss looking for as many items as possible before even using the Lugonu ability: Depart the Abyss.
The furthest I've made it is Depths:5, and I got some great advice from better crawlers for that (https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=25558).
Another promising FoAK unexpectedly committed suicide (https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?p=330341#p330341) ...or was it secondary murder on my part?!? )
So my "Lessons Learned" mostly for pre-Lair are ( but I might still be wrong ):
- Don't be too aggressive in the Abyss trying to get "one last item"; leave the Abyss before a one-shot kill is possible. (I've learned a lot about Abyss monsters that way! lol)
- Concentrate skills training on: +Figthing, *Polearms, and +Invocation with just Level 1 for Stealth (since it seems good-enough not to wake up anything pre-Lair on the edge of LOS).
- Even if a Book is found before Lair, it's unlikely to help much even for Lair unless it's Animate Skeleton or Conjure Flame; anything else requires too much skill investment or won't be as helpful as reaching minDelay.
- Use branded Short Swords with no skill investment if that brand will help against a specific monster. Venom brand seems very useful by running away from same speed monsters.
- Don't use Shaft ability unless you've visited at least 2 levels down since you could get shafted down 3 levels! That being said, if easily doable, peek down up to 3 levels below by moving just a handful of spaces from the going backup staircase.
- Don't try to kill Crazy Yiuf unless you've visited at least 2 levels down.
- If your polearm is not branded, Crazy Yiuf's Quaterstaff of Choas is a great per-lair secondary weapon but awful for Lair. (I have mixed experience with using it in Orc)
- If no rPois once Lair entrance is found, try down to D:12 and even Orcish Mines..but treat D:12-14 as if it was a branch end since you don't want to Shaft into an unexplored D:15
- Don't over invest in Invocation; the goal is to get "Enter the Abyss" by Lair:3 (since you might try to shaft yourself and end up in L:6).
- Corruption is not to be used below 75% HP!
What I am still wondering about:
- In general, is getting a spear or trident to minDelay the highest priority? ...or is getting the Distortion brand on it more important (using Lugonu's last Ability)?
- Since I'm trying to get a FoAK into a solid caster (preferably Earth) for the late game ...maybe even for 15-runes, I've always selected INT at every 3rd level since STR and DEX seem good enough for pre-Lair.
- Is Level 1 for Throwing or Slings worth the puny investment like it is for Stealth ...or is it mostly useless like it is for Short Swords?
I also welcome any other suggestion/advice ...especially if any of the above is far from *optimal*.
Cheers