YAAP: Tara the Valkyrie
Julie Bernstein
first time I thought I had a real chance. Nothing terribly unusual to
report, but I did want to pat myself on the back for achieving my
highest score ever, by a wide margin: 8,587,530 points. To Odin's altar
I brought Vorpy, Fire and Frost Brand, Mjollnir, Magicbane, Dragonbane,
the Bell, Book, and Candelabrum, Orb of Fate, and a sack full of gems. I
achieved level 30 and ended with a -26 armor class and max 314 HP. Took
over 100000 moves (lots of polypiling and other diversions).
Highlights (spoilers likely):
I wanted to try a no-genocide game, but I got too annoyed by the liches.
I usually genocide them before I even see my first L, so having to
battle them constantly was too annoying. I also genocided ; after seeing
how many of them were swimming in the moat around the Wizard's castle.
(They can drown you even when you're levitating, correct?) I'll just
have to try a challenge ascension some other time with my preferred
character, the Priestess (I've ascended at least three times with that
class already).
I wish I had genocided h too, as I got mind-flayed three times. The last
time was particularly annoying and stupid. I was wearing a +4 helm of
brilliance which I greased even though it was rustproof, to make it
harder for the tentacles to hold on too. But when I was surrounded by
the Wiz and several other nasties, including an h, I got the brilliant
idea to re-grease my helmet after the grease wore off. (Previously I had
killed most flayers by tossing Mjollnir at them, but I was using Vorpy
now and the h was right next to me...) Unfortunately, my can of grease
was cursed, and I dropped my weapon. Managed to lose four points of Int
before I could wield it again. And of course, this would be the one game
where I decided not to waste precious inventory space on a towel. (You
would think I'd have learned something from the late great Douglas
Adams...)
I wasted a few wishes on things like armor, a magic marker, and a wand
of polymorph. I enjoy polypiling but had a really hard time getting
anything useful. I did end up with more gems than usual though. Orcus's
level is a great place for polypiling gems due to all of the boulders.
Much better to make a lot of small piles of rocks than trying to
polypile one big stack of them.
I relied on Mjollnir up until I got the Book, and then switched to Vorpy
and Magicbane. I'd wield Magicbane to ward off curses until the Wiz
showed up, then switch and try to behead him. Had to kill the bastard 21
times. I wanted to save all my wands of death for Pestilence but did use
one charge on the Wiz when he got too annoying.
Pestilence was the only real problem after leaving the dungeon. The air
elementals didn't even bother me on the plane of Air this time.
Unfortunately Pestilence was at the last altar I went to (thanks to
however posted the hint about checking for where the riders are first)
and the wands of death kept missing him. Miraculously, between my
blessed unicorn horn and potions of full healing, I managed to ward him
off long enough to get to Odin's altar. I survived without using a
single amulet of life saving. (Only ended with two spare in this game
though - in my Samurai ascension, I had five left!)
So much for V. Now the only classes I have left to win with are Knight,
Rogue, and Monk. (Several of my ascensions were pre-3.3.1, but all have
been post-3.0.) Then I'll start on the various races...
Back to real life for awhile,
- Julie
P.S. This may have been covered before, but why is Vlad the Impaler such
a wimp??
--
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Remove NOSPAM from address to e-mail me.
nyra
>
> For some reason I've had a lot of trouble with Valkyries. This was the
> first time I thought I had a real chance. Nothing terribly unusual to
> report, but I did want to pat myself on the back for achieving my
> highest score ever, by a wide margin: 8,587,530 points. To Odin's altar
> I brought Vorpy, Fire and Frost Brand, Mjollnir, Magicbane, Dragonbane,
> the Bell, Book, and Candelabrum, Orb of Fate, and a sack full of gems. I
> achieved level 30 and ended with a -26 armor class and max 314 HP. Took
> over 100000 moves (lots of polypiling and other diversions).
Bell, book and candlestick give something like 1,75Mio score.
Other possessions aren't very important for computing score -
the biggest chunk will be about 200 000 for gems, likely. Really
high scores are only achieved by exterminating insane numbers of
creatures. Spending 100 000 moves or more is a reliable method
of increasing score, if you can't create monsters at will :)
> Highlights (spoilers likely):
>
> I wanted to try a no-genocide game, but I got too annoyed by the liches.
> I usually genocide them before I even see my first L, so having to
> battle them constantly was too annoying.
This really depends on your weaponry; a valkyrie with a highly
enchanted Mjollnir should be able to tear up Master Liches quite
easily, but i can't remember whether Arch-Liches are lightning
resistant.
And high-power liches have that habit of summoning more
high-power liches... very annoying; that's why genocideless _is_
a bit of a challenge.
I also genocided ; after seeing
> how many of them were swimming in the moat around the Wizard's castle.
> (They can drown you even when you're levitating, correct?)
Yep. Provided they can catch you, and i think you're never 100%
safe from that - unless you wear oilskin or grease your cloak.
You really should have been able to polypile up a can of grease.
> [mind flayer woes] I was wearing a +4 helm of
> brilliance which I greased even though it was rustproof, to make it
> harder for the tentacles to hold on too. But when I was surrounded by
> the Wiz and several other nasties, including an h, I got the brilliant
> idea to re-grease my helmet after the grease wore off. [...]
> Unfortunately, my can of grease
> was cursed, and I dropped my weapon.
The stupidest move i ever made with a mind flayer also involved
a greased (elven leather) helmet. The MF un-greased it, and i
wanted to re-grease it, but couldn't remember the inventory
letter off-hand, so looked at my inventory and applied my can of
grease on the "elven" item i saw: "You cover your elven boots
with a thick layer of grease. [hit,suck,munch] You feel very
stupid!" I certainly did, but at least it didn't kill me.
> So much for V. Now the only classes I have left to win with are Knight,
> Rogue, and Monk.
Congratulations, and good luck!
Kate Nepveu
> For some reason I've had a lot of trouble with Valkyries. This was the
> first time I thought I had a real chance. Nothing terribly unusual to
> report, but I did want to pat myself on the back for achieving my
> highest score ever, by a wide margin: 8,587,530 points.
Congratulations.
[...]
> So much for V. Now the only classes I have left to win with are Knight,
> Rogue, and Monk. (Several of my ascensions were pre-3.3.1, but all have
> been post-3.0.) Then I'll start on the various races...
I'd think Rogue and Monk would be easy if you've ascended, say, A and P,
respectively (I'm guessing on the similarity to A, though). Good luck
with them.
> P.S. This may have been covered before, but why is Vlad the Impaler such
> a wimp??
Well, vampire are just vampires...
Kate
--
http://www.steelypips.org/ kate....@yale.edu
Nethack Spoilers; The Paired Reading Page; Book Reviews; Book Log
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Jorge Estrada
> > was cursed, and I dropped my weapon.
>
> The stupidest move i ever made with a mind flayer also involved
> a greased (elven leather) helmet. The MF un-greased it, and i
> wanted to re-grease it, but couldn't remember the inventory
> letter off-hand, so looked at my inventory and applied my can of
> grease on the "elven" item i saw: "You cover your elven boots
> with a thick layer of grease. [hit,suck,munch] You feel very
> stupid!" I certainly did, but at least it didn't kill me.
This is worse than you think. Elven leather helms act as if their
greased. There is no need to apply any.
Jorge
David Carson
> Julie Bernstein schrieb:
> Bell, book and candlestick give something like 1,75Mio score.
Really? Wow. I've never taken them with me, I always toss them the instant
I've used them to open up Moloch's Sanctum. I won't do that again!
>>I wanted to try a no-genocide game, but I got too annoyed by the liches.
>>I usually genocide them before I even see my first L, so having to
>>battle them constantly was too annoying.
>
> This really depends on your weaponry; a valkyrie with a highly
> enchanted Mjollnir should be able to tear up Master Liches quite
> easily, but i can't remember whether Arch-Liches are lightning
> resistant.
>
> And high-power liches have that habit of summoning more
> high-power liches... very annoying; that's why genocideless _is_
> a bit of a challenge.
My last game (a wizard), I decided to do no genociding. (actually, I lie, I
genocided Disenchanters when I first read a scroll and found it was
genocide). I've been wiping out L's and h's for so long now that I'd
actually forgotten what they're like.
I think L's are overrated. Of course I was magic-resistant, and was
wielding Magicbane so I was hard to curse, but I never had any problems
with any liches. Killed about 20 of them, of various types, and actually
found the chasing-to-the-stairs more entertaining than most of Gehennom.
h's, though.. nope, never again. It's alright at first, you spot them, and
hammer them with spells, wands and missiles. But once you've hit 18 int, so
their corpses are no use.. and you're starting to get into situations like
the amulet summoning monsters all around you, it's just too painful. I just
found it too hard to avoid being sucked. I don't know when they started
making you forget identified items (they sure didn't in 3.1.3) but that's
just hell. No way. Genocide forever.
As an aside, this was the first game I've ever died on the astral plane
(after 4 or 5 ascensions). A related fact is that this was the first game
where the altar I wanted was the third one I went for. :-( Charged Death
first.. nope, wrong altar. Went for famine, managed to lose my last "oLS
when he and the returned Death cornered me, ARGH wrong altar again. Finally
all three of them were after me. Pestilence made me sick, I cast cure
disease and felt better. Then before I could act again, he hit me 4 times
in a row (??! and I was at max speed and unburderned!) and killed me. Damn!
I feel like a mug, this has gotten so much harder than it used to be! I'm
doubly proud of my one 3.3.1 ascension, now.
Cheers!
David...
Jorge Estrada
> Highlights (spoilers likely):
> So much for V. Now the only classes I have left to win with are Knight,
> Rogue, and Monk. (Several of my ascensions were pre-3.3.1, but all have
> been post-3.0.) Then I'll start on the various races...
>
>
> Back to real life for awhile,
>
Congrats, and goodluck in completing the set.
David Damerell
>Julie Bernstein <ju...@enyadatta.NOSPAM.com> wrote:
>>P.S. This may have been covered before, but why is Vlad the Impaler such
>>a wimp??
>Well, vampire are just vampires...
Someone, last Saturday, suggested making his toughness proportional to the
player's.
--
David Damerell <dame...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> flcl?
Peter Snelling
> > The stupidest move i ever made with a mind flayer also involved
> > a greased (elven leather) helmet. The MF un-greased it, and i
> > wanted to re-grease it, but couldn't remember the inventory
> > letter off-hand, so looked at my inventory and applied my can of
> > grease on the "elven" item i saw: "You cover your elven boots
> > with a thick layer of grease. [hit,suck,munch] You feel very
> > stupid!" I certainly did, but at least it didn't kill me.
>
> This is worse than you think. Elven leather helms act as if their
> greased. There is no need to apply any.
Is that true? I don't see any check for an elven helm inside
u_slip_free.
--
Peter Snelling, P.Eng. (snel...@nortelnetworks.com)
Nortel Networks, Ottawa, Canada
Standard Disclaimer: My views only, not my employer's
Jorge Estrada
Julie Bernstein
> Kate Nepveu <kate....@yale.edu> wrote:
> >Julie Bernstein <ju...@enyadatta.NOSPAM.com> wrote:
> >>P.S. This may have been covered before, but why is Vlad the Impaler such
> >>a wimp??
> >Well, vampire are just vampires...
>
> Someone, last Saturday, suggested making his toughness proportional to the
> player's.
[more spoilers likely below]
I think his toughness should be somewhere in between the quest nemesis
(of course these vary) and the Wizard. I mean, he is guarding one of
the objects that is required to win the game, after all. And half the
time I come upon him, besides the fact that he is meditating and I get
a free first hit, he zaps me with a wand of striking or some such. I
mean, please.
IMHO the whole tower is just a free resting place in Gehennom to get a
guaranteed amulet of life saving and even a chance at a wish from a
throne. Sure, some of the vampire lords on the top level can be a
challenge if you're not level-drain resistant, but they're no worse
that the ones in the Valley of the Dead and elsewhere... by the time
you make it to Vlad's tower, you should be pretty damn tough or you'll
never survive your encounter(s) with the Wizard.
- Julie
--
Julie Bernstein | ju...@enyadatta.com | http://www.enyadatta.com/