CIP: DeCj, 3 runes done, where next?!

[zedzed]

Hi all,

Running a DeCj with Ice as my main spell school, although I've branched into a few other areas.
I've got 2 three rune victories before, but this char looks good enough to head on further.

I've got quite a few offensive spells (too many?) at no hunger and v. low failure: Orb of Dest, Ice Storm, Lehudib's Crystal Spear, Chain Lightning, Bolt of Cold and Freezing Cloud.
Utility spells are: Deflect missles, controlled blink, summon Ice beast and apportation.

So - I've 3 runes from Snake, Shoals and Vaults .... where to next? I've not quite made D27 yet, so I guess that's what I'll do while I'm waiting for you guys to pass comment - but which branch should I go for next? Also ... what am I missing (from resists)? There's an amulet of conservation I might go back and get from a shop in Orc 4, but apart from that I think I'm carrying most of what I've found that I might need later. Any advice on tactics too - I've no source of "holy" damage - will that hinder me later on demons and the like?

Cheers,
Dez

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.12-a0-810-gca4da61 (tiles) character file.

DeCj the Archmage (Deep Elf Conjurer)              Turns: 94287, Time: 10:23:31

HP 134/134       AC 11     Str 12      XL: 25   Next: 14%
MP  50/50        EV 19     Int 41      God: Vehumet [******]
Gold 4747        SH 12     Dex 12      Spells: 10 memorised, 16 levels left

Res.Fire  : + + +   See Invis. : .   A - spear of Twoih {elec, rF++ MR Str+3 Stlth-
Res.Cold  : + . .   Warding    : +   J - +1 robe {rC+ rF+}
Life Prot.: + . .   Conserve   : .   K - +1 elf buckler {rflct}
Res.Poison: +       Res.Corr.  : .   L - +2 wizard hat {Int+3}
Res.Elec. : .       Clarity    : .   i - +1 cloak {rPois}
Sust.Abil.: . .     Spirit.Shd : .   B - +0 pair of elf gloves
Res.Mut.  : .       Stasis     : .   T - +2 pair of boots {Stlth+}
Res.Rott. : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .   q - amulet of warding
Saprovore : . . .   Levitation : .   w - +5 ring of intelligence
                    Ctrl.Flight: .   N - ring "Pehi Skuic" {rPois Dex-3 Int+3}

@: extraordinarily resistant to hostile enchantments, fairly stealthy
A: herbivore 1, Str +1
a: Renounce Religion
}: 3/15 runes: serpentine, barnacled, silver


You are on level 4 of the Vaults.
You worship Vehumet.
Vehumet is exalted by your worship.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 8 branches of the dungeon, and seen 55 of its levels.
You have visited the Abyss 1 time.
You have also visited: Bailey.

You have collected 6492 gold pieces.
You have spent 1765 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 A - the spear of Twoih (weapon) {elec, rF++ MR Str+3 Stlth--}
   (You found it on level 8 of the Dungeon)   
   
   Occasionally, upon striking a foe, it will discharge some electrical energy
   and cause terrible harm.
   
   It affects your strength (+3).
   It greatly protects you from fire.
   It increases your resistance to enchantments.
   It makes you much less stealthy.
Armour
 i - a +1 cloak of poison resistance (worn)
 B - a +0 pair of elven gloves (worn)
 J - a +1 robe of resistance (worn)
 K - a +1 elven buckler of reflection (worn)
 L - a +2 wizard hat of intelligence (worn)
 Q - a +0 elven buckler of cold resistance
 T - a +2 pair of boots of stealth (worn)
Magical devices
 e - a wand of heal wounds (5)
 o - a wand of hasting {zapped: 3}
 C - a wand of disintegration {zapped: 3}
 I - a wand of teleportation (3)
 P - a wand of heal wounds (6)
 U - a wand of digging
Comestibles
 b - 10 bread rations
 n - 3 rotting chunks of rock troll flesh
Scrolls
 c - a scroll of holy word
 l - 2 scrolls of fog
 p - 3 scrolls of teleportation
 F - a scroll of enchant weapon I
 G - 2 scrolls of blinking
 H - 2 scrolls of magic mapping
 M - 2 scrolls of recharging
 R - 6 scrolls of remove curse
 W - 2 scrolls of enchant weapon II
Jewellery
 f - an amulet of resist corrosion
 g - a cursed ring of teleportation
 h - an uncursed ring of ice
 j - an uncursed ring of protection from magic
 k - an uncursed ring of see invisible
 q - an amulet of warding (around neck)
 s - a ring of life protection
 w - a +5 ring of intelligence (right hand)
 y - an uncursed ring of magical power
 z - an uncursed ring of sustain abilities
 D - an uncursed ring of life protection
 E - the ring "Stronir" {Fire Int+1 Dam-1}
   (You found it on level 5 of the Vaults)   
   
   [ring of fire]
   
   It affects your intelligence (+1).
   It affects your damage-dealing abilities (-1).
 N - the ring "Pehi Skuic" (left hand) {rPois Dex-3 Int+3}
   (You took it off a yaktaur captain on level 5 of the Vaults)   
   
   [ring of poison resistance]
   
   It affects your intelligence (+3).
   It affects your dexterity (-3).
 O - an uncursed ring of levitation
 S - a ring of intelligence
 Z - an uncursed ring of wizardry
Potions
 a - 4 potions of heal wounds
 m - 2 potions of brilliance
 r - 2 potions of magic
 t - 2 potions of berserk rage
 u - 2 potions of cure mutation
 v - 3 potions of speed
 x - 2 potions of restore abilities
 V - 4 potions of curing
 X - 2 potions of resistance
Magical staves
 d - an uncursed staff of channeling
 Y - a staff of cold


   Skills:
 - Level 7.4 Fighting
 - Level 2.0 Polearms
 - Level 4.0 Armour
 - Level 14.0 Dodging
 - Level 2.4 Stealth
 - Level 6.0 Shields
 - Level 10.0 Traps
 O Level 27 Spellcasting
 + Level 24.4 Conjurations
 - Level 7.2 Charms
 - Level 11.0 Translocations
 - Level 20.0 Ice Magic
 - Level 10.1 Air Magic
 - Level 5.0 Earth Magic


You have 16 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Failure   Level  Hunger
a - Deflect Missiles      Chrm/Air       ########..   1%          6    None
b - Ice Storm             Conj/Ice       #########.   1%          9    None
c - Chain Lightning       Conj/Air       #########.   1%          8    None
d - Lehudib's Crystal Sp  Conj/Erth      #########.   1%          8    None
e - Controlled Blink      Tloc           N/A          2%          7    None
g - Summon Ice Beast      Ice/Summ       ########..   1%          4    None
h - Bolt of Cold          Conj/Ice       #########.   0%          6    None
i - Freezing Cloud        Conj/Ice/Air   #########.   1%          6    None
j - Apportation           Tloc           ########..   0%          1    None
k - Orb of Destruction    Conj           #########.   1%          7    None


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (24/27)            Temple (1/1) D:7             Orc (4/4) D:6
    Elf (3/3) Orc:3          Lair (8/8) D:13         Shoals (5/5) Lair:5
  Snake (5/5) Lair:4        Slime (0/6) Lair:7       Vaults (5/5) D:16
  Blade (0/1) Vaults:4      Crypt (0/5) Vaults:2   

Altars:
Ashenzari
Cheibriados
Elyvilon
Fedhas
Kikubaaqudgha
Makhleb
Nemelex Xobeh
Okawaru
Sif Muna
Trog
Vehumet
Xom
Yredelemnul
Zin
the Shining One

Shops:
D:4: =  D:10: *  D:11: [  D:17: [  D:20: %  Orc:3: (+%  Orc:4: =[*=  Elf:1: [  Elf:2: %  Shoals:2: *
Snake:5: !  Vaults:5: *(

Portals:
Hell: D:21 D:22 D:23 D:24
Abyss: D:24
Pandemonium: D:24
Trove: Elf:2 (give +3,+6 ring of slaying)

Annotations
Shoals:5 Ilsuiw


Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You digest meat inefficiently.
Your muscles are strong (Str +1).




[hxy]

Just a bit of nit-picking.. your skill levelling can use a bit of help. For instance, there's no need to push Spellcasting all the way to 27 before you even hit Zot. Fighting could use some spare XP, to boost your max HP a bit.
At this stage, you can even do Slime now if you're careful.
You should also think of some means to quickly recover MP. Veh does give a bit of MP per kill, but that won't be enough. Sublimation of Blood is good until Zot, but beyond that you'll probably want to use the Crystal Ball. Use the staff of channeling while you train up Evocations.
And do pick up Flight/Control Teleport/Haste/Swiftness if you can find the spells.

Edit: Regarding "holy" damage - Lehudib's Crystal Spear & Ice Storm are enough to clear the rest of the game, no need to poke things with a weapon.

[zedzed]

Thanks for the comments hxy.

Yeah - spellcasting went to 27 to get Ice Storm hungerless ... that way I could pretty much spam it on vaults:8 and get decent MP back as it was killing 3 or 4 mobs per cast. Agreed it's probably not optimal though

I've found plenty of spellbooks - so pretty sure I could learn any of the utility ones suggested. Only one free slot though - I guess maybe swiftness and when I'm down to 9MP it's controlled blink to a safe distance and then swiftness and then run!

Crystal ball - never used it (this is my first serious caster!). It looks risky to me (assuming wiki is right?!). At max. evocations still has 11% chance of confusion or stat loss??

[ZoFy]

Crystal ball - never used it (this is my first serious caster!). It looks risky to me (assuming wiki is right?!). At max. evocations still has 11% chance of confusion or stat loss??

The chance of suffering a divination miscast is actually 9/(Evocations*6), which is ~5.6% for max Evo. Otherwise, the crystal ball either gives mana or does nothing. Out of all those miscast, the only one you'd really worry about, is the MP drain, since confusion can be dealt with clarity or potions of curing, and int drain is restored naturally (but slowly) or with potions.So, with enough Evocations investment, it wouldn't let you down too much, Vehumet will lower the frequency of situations when you'd want to use CBoE... and you actually don't have better options. Be ready to run/tele away or drink a potion of magic if things go wrong.
These statements were based on bots information,
Yes, you can totally do Slime at this point (might quaff brilliance to speed up the TRJ fight!) and extended too, if you find Necronomicon. Well, it's manageable without lichform and Revivification/Death's Door but probably not for the first time.

[hxy]

Your spells could use some shuffling to make way for the more useful utility spells.. I'd suggest you let go of these:
- Chain Lightning
- Summon Ice Beast
- Freezing Cloud
- Orb of Destruction

Oh, and pick up Summon Butterflies too if you find it. Use it to block line of sight against neqoxec etc.

[pikkle]

CBoE can still misfire at max evocations. Not often, but often enough that you'll want to carry a staff of channelling for backup. Try to use CBoE when you're above 1/2 mp and it'll work brilliantly almost every time. You'll be drowning in curing pots by the time you hit extended, so confusion isn't much of an issue, but carry that staff of channelling.

[zedzed]

Thanks for the replies guys

Evocations now at 20 something-ish, and CBoE working fine for channelling above 50% MP.

Went to Slime, took out TRJ and got the rune. Sadly nothing decent in loot - I'm still running with basic gloves and nothing really that's a great artefact.

Re: spells - agreed - Chain lightening not really used much so will drop that. Summon ice beast was really just for protection going down stairs - is summon butterflies better because it generates so many (more) per cast? i.e. line blocking only. OoD - it's my current long range single target nuke - should I just be ice storming everything now?

Also ... my next location ... where should that be? Zot 1 to 4? Hell? Tomb/Crypt?

[cerebovssquire]

Chain Lightning is a very good spell. Its use may be a little unintuitive though, since it seems like an AoE spell at first glance - it's actually one of the best single-target spells in the game. It oneshots fiends and is great against many high-HP threats in extended (Geryon and Cerebov, to name two). Probably redundant with Crystal Spear though. However, another possibility besides Ice Storm/Bolt of Cold/LCS is keeping Ice Storm, LCS and Chain Lightning but tossing Bolt of Cold, which gives you a greater variety of damage types. Or just going Ice Storm+LCS or Ice Storm+Chain Lightning, using the slots for Borgnjor's Revivication or Death's Door.
Furthermore, if you plan to further your direct damage options, I recommend getting Tornado+Ice Storm+Chain Lightning. The reason for this being that you can deal damage with Tornado (which works like a buff) and Ice Storm/Chain Lightning in the same turn, while there's some redundancy with having more than a couple high-level conjurations which are a one-turn cast.

[zedzed]

Thanks Cereb - more to think about. Was wondering about getting statue form online as it would give so defence and 50% reduction to torment (I think?) - but Earth and Air oppose to I guess I have to either go all out attack(tornado+ice storm) or buff up defense then attack(statue form + ice storm and LCS).

Edit: I could also add Shatter to my attack if I focus next on Earth (so statue form then shatter for a crowd, or LCS for single target). Probably makes Ice Storm redundant thou - but with Earth at +1 and currently lvl 12, and lvl 9 spells hungerless it's an option I guess. Or maybe I'm getting carried away trying all the options as I've never been this far with a spell caster before

[KoboldLord]

Statue Form also gives an effective -33% penalty to spell damage per unit of time, so it's actually a remarkably terrible spell to use if you're not planning to use the damage bonus from physically hitting things. Casting Ice Storm twice will nearly always prevent further incidences of Torment damage anyway, because the source of that Torment damage will be dead.