Sunday, 1st January 2012, 14:23 by cerebovssquire
I'd say the easiest right now is DDEE. You have great single-target conjurations, a good way to deal mass area damage even if you are surrounded, tons of HP, damage reduction even on smiting and hellfire, Makhleb, and last but not least one of the strongest and most reliable ways to ninja runes. I killed all the lords without a problem using Iron Shot/LCS/Shatter, so if you don't want to ninja that isn't really a problem.
DEFE and DEIE are very easy. With Vehumet you should get one of the storms up pretty soon, and your magic apts will allow you to get Haste, Controlled Blink, some high-level necromancy spells (Borgnjor's Revivication and Death's Door, and if you want Necromutation you could get it too I guess). HE works decently too, though you should probably put more emphasis on hybridising here. But they have good apts for Charms, Translocations, Conjurations and Fire/Ice Magic too. You could also consider Air Magic.
The classic spellless-heavy-armour-melee Okawaru > TSO character is simple and pretty solid. I got my first win with one of these (DDFi) and as long as you don't treat Tomb like the Orcish Mines it's very easy. Two-handers are even stronger than they usually are in extended, because shield help so little, so I'd recommend MiGl (axes) or something. Don't forget to get a lot of Invocations skill for good Cleansing Flame damage. You don't really have anything much better to put your experience in if you don't want to experiment with heavy armour casting.
I also like Okawaru > TSO > Zin. Zin offers protection from a lot of annoying stuff in extended (miasma, mutations, hell effects, stat loss, etc), can imprison even Executioners, Fiends and pan lords, and Sanctuary offers a way out of almost any situation bar paralysis and random teleporting on a totally unexplored very dangerous level (I once had problems on Tomb:2, and only survived closely, but otherwise I never had to fear anything much on my other Zin wins). You keep TSO's biggest benefit, a holy wrath weapon, and trade healing-for-kills and angels for something of comparable strength and greater reliability. You can also cure all mutations you might have amassed by now, for instance from Zot or Elf.
Basically every high-level character who can cast Haste, Swiftness, Controlled Blink and Apportation and has a strong melee weapon can go TSO and win quite easily, too. High Elves, Humans, Centaurs, Deep Dwarves, many character types are suitable for this crusader/warper type. Medium armour (EV -2/-3), MDA or robes are the best picks for these, depending on race.
Strong melee weapons for blessing, ordered by class, are roughly this. The rest is pretty bad.
Axes: Executioner's axe > battleaxe > broad axe (unsure about the last two since I've never used either, but I don't know if the rather weak shield or 3 base damage is worth more. Tending towards the latter though)
Long blades: Triple sword > demon blade > double sword
Polearms: Bardiche > trishula (this is a tough once. But after I've allruned one or two holy bardiche and two trishula characters I think the bardiche is easier. It deals more damage and good luck blocking that burst of hellfire with your shield) Reaching really does make a different when you can reach through other monsters to get to tormentors, hellfirers and smiters quickly, and walking one step less towards that hellion/tormentor can be a boon too. I have one memorable Cerebov fight where I was berserk and he summoned a tormentor behind him; I could just oneshot the tormentor and continue killing Cerebov.
Short Blades: you probably don't want to be using these anyway, but if you must for whatever reason, use a quickblade
Maces: demon whip > eveningstar if you really must. I think now that great maces are buffed they are still inferior to all other decent two-handers.
Staves: can't say if a holy lajatang is worth much because I have never used one but looking at the numbers they are really bad even with buffed base damage. For instance, the executioner's axe will be 20/7/holy wrath, battle axe is 17/7/holy wrath, the bardiche will be 18/7/reaching/holy wrath, the great mace is better at 18/7/holy wrath. The lajatang is 16/7/holy wrath. Sure, it takes only 14 skill, but I don't think experience is much of a problem by extended.
(damage/min delay/brands)
If you want to use a staff I'd say take a staff of air or earth if you are good at the corresponding skill. It was good on my DDEE anyway.
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