Abandoning Xom!
rlund
puny weapon (usually a vanilla hand-axe or a mace), and often I run
across critters like imps, ogres, or sigmund which can kill me before
my crappy weapon does enough damage to kill them.
I then remembered that chaos knights start with a puny weapon, but
with +4 to it (+1 - +3 on damage), so I started rolling chaos knights
under Xom, then immediately abandoning him in the beginning. This
turns out to be highly amusing, in a sometimes devastating way, since
every few thousand turns, Xom decides to screw with you, in
potentially dangerous ways.
Even when I choose a new god, Xom keeps meddling. My question is,
does he ever stop?
tenaya
> I've recently been a tad frustrated that fighters start with such a
> puny weapon (usually a vanilla hand-axe or a mace), and often I run
> across critters like imps, ogres, or sigmund which can kill me before
> my crappy weapon does enough damage to kill them.
So, don't fight them until later.
>
> I then remembered that chaos knights start with a puny weapon, but
> with +4 to it (+1 - +3 on damage), so I started rolling chaos knights
> under Xom, then immediately abandoning him in the beginning. This
> turns out to be highly amusing, in a sometimes devastating way, since
> every few thousand turns, Xom decides to screw with you, in
> potentially dangerous ways.
Xom is a tough god; far too capricious for my tastes/skill. Go with
Mahkleb, maybe; that worked for my first win.
>
> Even when I choose a new god, Xom keeps meddling. My question is,
> does he ever stop?
Sure, eventually. Something like 20k or 40k turns, IIRC.
garron
> On Dec 16, 10:01 am, rlund <rl...@google.com> wrote:
>
> > I've recently been a tad frustrated that fighters start with such a
> > puny weapon (usually a vanilla hand-axe or a mace), and often I run
> > across critters like imps, ogres, or sigmund which can kill me before
> > my crappy weapon does enough damage to kill them.
>
> So, don't fight them until later.
Yeah, running is an important skill to learn. With imps, a good trick
is to lure them up some stairs with you, swing at them until they
blink, then go back down the stairs. If you really want to kill ogres
when you first see them, you should be able to easily by going
berserk, so consider either a berserker or crusader maybe? Just make
sure nothing else is around for when you calm down...
Peter Huebner
@n31g2000vbt.googlegroups.com>, --._-..-_-..-@garron.cjb.net says...
>
> On Dec 16, 4:22 pm, tenaya <tenayaten...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Dec 16, 10:01 am, rlund <rl...@google.com> wrote:
> >
> > > I've recently been a tad frustrated that fighters start with such a
> > > puny weapon (usually a vanilla hand-axe or a mace), and often I run
> > > across critters like imps, ogres, or sigmund which can kill me before
> > > my crappy weapon does enough damage to kill them.
> >
> > So, don't fight them until later.
>
> Yeah, running is an important skill to learn.
And I still fail to do so, it's irritating to say the least.
> With imps, a good trick
> is to lure them up some stairs with you, swing at them until they
> blink, then go back down the stairs.
I like it :) Usually I just leave them behind until I find something of
holy wrath or cold.
> If you really want to kill ogres
> when you first see them, you should be able to easily by going
> berserk, so consider either a berserker or crusader maybe? Just make
> sure nothing else is around for when you calm down...
Stalker ... fire a few stings into the ogre until it gets close, hit it
a couple of times with your poison enchanted dagger and retreat ...
maybe fire off a mephitic cloud to get a chance at backstabbing as well.
Ogres don't stand a chance against stalkers. Who, by the way, also seem
to start out with a +x+y=4 weapon, albeit a dagger.
I'm back to trying stalkers; just not entirely sure what a good religion
for stalkers is. Trying Makhleb at the moment ...
-P.
serg271
> Xom is a tough god; far too capricious for my tastes/skill. Go with
> Mahkleb, maybe; that worked for my first win.
>
Excellent summoning ability it gave me around 30%-50% of hostile, both
for Minor and Greater Demons. Could be RNG of cause, but it happened
quite persistently in two games.
Esk
>
> It seems to me Mahkleb was seriously nerfed in the last version. With
> Excellent summoning ability it gave me around 30%-50% of hostile, both
> for Minor and Greater Demons. Could be RNG of cause, but it happened
> quite persistently in two games.
I've had the same problem with Makleb, causing me to abandon him for
Trog or Okawaru instead. It's a pity because I usually found him more
fun. (I'm pretty much a newbie -- never won, only once or twice picked
up a rune). Did he used to be more predictable, then?
getter77
I think, success with his Invocations is tied to your Invocations
skill...higher the better. The "Excellent" part just relates to
getting the skill/power to activate in the first place---hostile or
otherwise.
serg271
Yep, my impression was that at 4.* Makleb demon summoning was no worse
than Nemelex summoning deck, with similar level of Invocation-
Evocation. Right now Nemelex beat Makleb hands down.. It give better
summoning, little worse ranged attack(on stacked deck), defense,
portals and doesn't require Invocation, only Evocation, which have
other uses too. That may mean Nemelex is for nerf too though...
Erwin M.
Correct. The success rate is simply the chance of the gate opening.
Hostility chances do seem to have been turned way up in the 0.5.x
releases. It's never been completely safe even at skill 27, but now it's
always a calculated risk.
One tactic that's worked reasonably well in my last few Makhleb runs is
to immediately summon another demon or two if a hostile pops out. Unless
the RNG is being particularly cruel, you're not likely to get 3 hostiles
in a row, so you can use the friendlies to screen your retreat.
Robert
> One tactic that's worked reasonably well in my last few Makhleb runs is
> to immediately summon another demon or two if a hostile pops out. Unless
> the RNG is being particularly cruel, you're not likely to get 3 hostiles
> in a row, so you can use the friendlies to screen your retreat.
My approach to Makhleb is to summon a 1 when things are about to get
hairy, but I am still at full health. If it's friendly, great. If not,
immediately initiate a teleport sequence. But my Makhlebites tend to
be tankish and by midgame can retreat from a hostile Executioner for
2-3 turns well before they stand any sort of hope of defeating one.
The closest I've come to losing a game from a hostile Makhleb summons
was on Elf:7, when I did not immediately notice that the Blue Death
was hostile, and then it cast shadow creatures...
Erwin M.
> On Dec 17, 7:54 am, "Erwin M." <erwin...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> One tactic that's worked reasonably well in my last few Makhleb runs is
>> to immediately summon another demon or two if a hostile pops out. Unless
>> the RNG is being particularly cruel, you're not likely to get 3 hostiles
>> in a row, so you can use the friendlies to screen your retreat.
>
> My approach to Makhleb is to summon a 1 when things are about to get
> hairy, but I am still at full health. If it's friendly, great. If not,
> immediately initiate a teleport sequence. But my Makhlebites tend to
> be tankish and by midgame can retreat from a hostile Executioner for
> 2-3 turns well before they stand any sort of hope of defeating one.
Oh yes. Retreat from a hostile summon should always involve a teleport
out. I bring in another demon or two as a distraction, in case the
teleport doesn't carry me as far away as I'd like.
> The closest I've come to losing a game from a hostile Makhleb summons
> was on Elf:7, when I did not immediately notice that the Blue Death
> was hostile, and then it cast shadow creatures...
What's fun is getting a Blue Death in the Hive and seeing it cast shadow
creatures...and getting plants. How do plants stack up against killer
gazebos?