code:
#+STARTUP: showall

* Sprinting [2020-02-07 Fri 09:51]

** proc sprinted

*** deletion pass from bottom up

done OH
[2020-02-07 Fri 09:56]

*** headingfy

done OH
[2020-02-07 Fri 10:01]

*** lazy

done OH
[2020-02-07 Fri 10:08]

*** promote

done OH
[2020-02-07 Fri 10:08]

*** file

done OH
[2020-02-07 Fri 10:13]

*** file to depth=1

done OH
[2020-02-07 Fri 10:16]

*** sort tasks

done OH
[2020-02-07 Fri 10:19]

** [[id:CFBEC8C5-BDCA-4E8B-A865-8BAA5FDD87F7][process my cotw runs into topical content and refile the headings]]

task setup
[2020-02-07 Fri 10:20]

stopped recording.
[2020-02-07 Fri 10:20]

video:

2020-02-07-1022
Textmind | 2020-02-07 | proc sprinted

Mostly DCSS notes.
Continuous audio commentary.
Simple process. Some minor interruptions for technical issues.
[2020-02-07 Fri 10:22]

** play DCSS

2020-02-07-1728
HOFi Ely - Giac - D:1 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Blind read 1-stack scrolls.
Recovered from shaft without loss.
Crushed D:6 Wraith Ossuary, with trapped Flying Skulls
Cleared D:6
Cleared D:3 Beogh ghost vault.

AC = 27 at XL9. Piety 1p. Becoming OP.
[2020-02-07 Fri 17:28]

** play DCSS

*** /

can distortion be sold in shops unidentified?

This implies not:

http://crawl.chaosforge.org/Identification

> Be careful when identifying weapons lying around the dungeon: weapons of distortion can have dangerous effects if you unwield them, such as dealing heavy damage, heavy glow or casting the user into the Abyss.

> Anything bought from a non-antique shop will automatically be identified. This is especially useful for identifying harmful potions or jewellery (such as potions of degeneration or an amulet of inaccuracy), as all of these are quite cheap and identifying them this way will prevent you from harming yourself by experimenting with them.

Cool. So I can buy those weapons!

2020-02-07-1947
HOFi Ely - Giac - D:7 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared thru D:8 and breached D:9.

Suspect I can buy antique shop weapons without disto risk, based on wiki insinuation. Will do that next time.
[2020-02-07 Fri 19:47]

Experimented with polymorphing big slime creatures. It's a bad idea. Their HD is pretty high compared to other defenses.

*** /

2020-02-08-0628
HOFi Ely - Giac - D:9 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Killed Erica
Cleared D9-10
Ely 4p
Breached D10 Lair
[2020-02-08 Sat 06:28]

mistitled it in YT, need to fix once upload it.
[2020-02-08 Sat 08:53]

2020-02-09-1152
HOFi Ely - Giac - Lair:1 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Shafted to Lair:2
Did Volcano. Stone Giant, Efreet and Gargoyle.
Cleared Lair:1
Blind-quaffed experience pot 2-stack.
Cleared Lair:1 simulacrum ice cloud vault. Some commentating-induced micro errors, culminating in the possibility of post-zerk paralysis near an uncharmed hydra simulacrum. Didn't anticipate that Ely's conduct would result in this dilemma.
No meaningful reason to do the vault so soon, except feeling OP. Lesson: Never do a rune vault or equivalent before clearing the following floor or two. It'll keep.
[2020-02-09 Sun 11:52]

*** /

2020-02-09-1756
HOFi Ely - Giac - Lair:3 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Lair:3
Game has Spider and Shoals.
Breached Lair:4
Found large shield.
[2020-02-09 Sun 17:56]

*** /

Always leave rune vaults and equivalent for after branch floors are cleared.
So that one can retreat both upstairs and down when dealing with the vaults.
[2020-02-10 Mon 10:26]

Artifact armors can be blind-equipped with a cancellation for *contam
The major concerns are distortion in weapons and harm in amulets.
[2020-02-10 Mon 10:36]

max Rupert:
Establish ally APT advantage immediately.

minor redzone when resisted a cast at 5%.
2.5% to paralyze

the simalucrum vault was not redzone
[2020-02-10 Mon 11:34]

should've managed rupert fight with Textmind, since was redzone as soon as I saw him.

2020-02-10-1149
HOFi Ely - Giac - Lair:4 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Lair
Killed redzone. Low % redzone. Should've aggressively popped allies.
[2020-02-10 Mon 11:49]

2020-02-10-1416
HOFi Ely - Giac - D:11 - DCSS

Another breakthrough in commentary performance quality.

Spoiler:

Cleared D11
Breached D12

Overprepped for it after clearing Lair. Ely = Easy.
[2020-02-10 Mon 14:16]

*** /

shafted from D13 to D14 into a disconnected 4-tile hallway surrounded by trees.
If didn't have Teleport, would die there.
report as bug.
[2020-02-11 Tue 07:32]

2020-02-11-0803
HOFi Ely - Giac - D:12 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared D12
Cleared Orc:1 disconnected entrance cheaply. Declined to continue.
Started D13. Shafted D:13-14.
Fought bee vault and half the floor. Retreated to D13 in good order.
[2020-02-11 Tue 08:03]

*** /

Never enter a branch's rune vaults without leaving and doing another branch first.
[2020-02-12 Wed 10:04]

remove scroll of noise from useless item list

2020-02-12-1139
HOFi Ely - Giac - D:13 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared D:13, D:14, Orc:1
Orc:2 Ice Cave - Ice Beasts, Ice Statues, and Ice Dragons
Killed Erolcha
[2020-02-12 Wed 11:39]

*** /

2020-02-13-1305
HOFi Ely - Giac - Orc:2 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Orc:2
Shopped for strategic upgrades to prep for Lairiable branches. Still missing rPois.
Fault bought 140g useless amulet. Didn't matter.
Blind quaffed 1/2 !mut, favorable result. To clarify upcoming branch decision.
Cleared D:15

No significant resources spent. IIRC 2/10 Disint charges.

Plan to alternate between Spider and Shoals. If had rPois would focus Spider.

Plan to buy the Faith amulet once Beogh piety and army are significant, to turbocharge the smite+bless steamroll.
[2020-02-13 Thu 13:05]

*** /

2020-02-14-0859
HOFi Ely - Giac - D:15 - DCSS

Spoiler

Cleared Dungeon vaults. Killed Roxanne with reflection.
meliai is pronounced mel ee a
Cleared Spider:1. Moderate danger, minor expense.
Alarm trap led to stair camp, which proved rPois important for Spider, contra Hellmonk et al.
Breached Shoals:1.
[2020-02-14 Fri 08:59]

*** /

2020-02-15-0538
HOFi Ely - Giac - Shoals:1 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Shoals:1
Breached Shoals:2
If monster caught in net, leave floor to preserve net intact.
[2020-02-15 Sat 05:38]

*** /

2020-02-16-1220
HOFi Ely - Giac - Shoals:2 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Shoals:2. Pacified Kraken and Disto trident.
ID'd Faith for Beogh later.
Breached Spider:2
[2020-02-16 Sun 12:20]

*** /

2020-02-17-0657
HOFi Ely - Giac - Shoals:2 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Spider:2. Killed Arachne with allies. Pacified Entropy Weaver. Played Blinkaway with Alarm Trap swarm finale. Nonrenewable resources spent: 1/18 Enslavement.
Breached Shoals:3
[2020-02-17 Mon 06:57]

*** /

2020-02-18-0351
HOFi Ely - Giac - Shoals:3 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Shoals:3
Breached Shoals:4
Cleared Spider:3

Wasted 200g on a helmet. Bought a nice plate armor for gish transition.
Stepped on webs deliberate to pull only websense monsters into ambushes. Effective.
[2020-02-18 Tue 03:51]

*** /

2020-02-19-0020
HOFi Ely - Giac - Shoals:4 - DCSS

Audio's a little funky. Weird USB issue. Solved going forward, if I remember to do a pre-recording check.

Spoiler:

Cleared Shoals:4 cheaply.
Killed Ilsiuw via patience and stairdance.
TIL: No Berserk when mesmerized.
[2020-02-19 Wed 00:20]

Tested in wizmode and concluded I was wrong about Shoals:4 vault entrances having a predictable interior orientation. It looks random. Should find their entrances at a safe distance for a small pull.
[2020-02-19 Wed 02:08]

*** /

2020-02-20-0138
HOFi Ely - Giac - Spider:4 - DCSS

Audio issues again. Appears to be a Camtasia compatibility issue with my mic. Figuring this stuff out is the main purpose of these vids.

Spoiler:

Looted Shoals
Cleared Spider:4. rPois chainmail very important. Botched two pulls, causing yellowzones. Spent a Teleport.
Significant ration attrition. Had to zerk Emperor Scorpions.
Death Scarab end vault. Should've spent a Blink Scroll. Immo+zerk in web corner tactic worked great.
Ely clutch, of course. Very important for Spider.
[2020-02-20 Thu 01:38]

*** /

I should go back to recording in fullscreen, since I don't need to see the mutify status anymore.
[2020-02-20 Thu 04:32]

*** /

looted spider
[2020-02-20 Thu 23:39]

re-equipped for Elf.
[2020-02-20 Thu 23:56]

breached elf entrance
[2020-02-21 Fri 00:09]

HO should save a priest if he doesn't find a beogh altar, to permit conversion at Elf

cleared elf:1 and skim-looted
[2020-02-21 Fri 01:59]

done recording
[2020-02-21 Fri 02:05]

2020-02-21-0205
HOFi Ely - Giac - Elf:1 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Breached Elf:1. Converted to Beogh. Cleared floor easily enough.
Distraction error cost 1/5 Blink scrolls to avoid potential malmutation.
Regen artifact armor clearly correct choice. Allows necro steamroll and economical low-level casting with +wiz.
Weapon diversity shone vs hydra fire dragon vault and vs elves in general.
[2020-02-21 Fri 02:09]

*** play dcss

cleared elf:2 except hall of blades
with skele steamroll
lost a net learning to zerk high AC dancing weapons, instead of netting
gave a demon summoner an opening, be more careful
[2020-02-22 Sat 01:27]

open HoB doors before getting marked. they don't open it in response to mark.
[2020-02-22 Sat 02:38]

Confusing Touch counters Dancing Weapons and high EV monsters in general.
[2020-02-22 Sat 03:25]

2020-02-22-0326
HOFi Ely - Giac - Elf:2 - DCSS

Confusing Touch counters high EV.

Spoiler:

Cleared Elf:2 except HoB.
Cleared 2/3 of Vaults:1 to find a Vaults Sentinel. Kited him to Elf:2.
Sloppy Hall of Blades Vaults Sentinel pulls. Supposed to open both doors beforehand, then bring him downstairs so the horn can wake them and the mark pull them out. They won't even open the wooden doors with only a mark.
Moderate resource expenditures, some waste. No yellow zones.
Training Hexes to primary to exploit low MR.
[2020-02-22 Sat 03:26]

I should +8 venom dagger poison the elf first, then Confusing Touch to delay.
[2020-02-22 Sat 03:57]

*** /

2020-02-23-0259
HOFi Ely - Giac - Elf:2 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Elf:3 except end vault.
Minimal resource expenditure. No yellow zones.
Confusing Touch ineffective at 25%. Countered Blademaster with Blink, venom demon trident and regen.
Got a pack of orc reinforcements and trained them. Gained 2 named allies. Trained two wizards to sorcerer, a priest to high priest, and an orc to knight. 1:1 training via stairdance is highly effective.
[2020-02-23 Sun 02:59]

There are diminishing returns on subsequent applications of Antimagic, so it's better to switch after landing a hit.
The antimagic duration applied is unknowable from swing damage, because it's a dice roll. So after a solid hit, switch to other brands until the monster casts another spell. That's a decent heuristic.

sequence:
antimagic
venom
draining
confusing touch
polearm
[2020-02-23 Sun 17:47]

*** play dcss

created equipment macros
[2020-02-23 Sun 19:16]

2020-02-23-2205
HOFi Ely - Giac - Elf:3 - DCSS

Doctrine: Once 1:1 training isn't leveling orcs per kill, switch to steamroll with full army to outpace Beogh piety decay.

Audio speed changes partway through due to experimenting with voiceover settings.

Spoiler:

Cleared Elf:3 end vault via Vaults Sentinel extraction. Killed Aizul.
Lesson learned: Kill the Vaults Sentinel before he pulls too many to the stairs, or it may become impossible to stairdance. Can always get another Vaults Sentinel.
Alternatively, stop training orcs 1:1 for faster kills to keep up with the reinforcement rate.
Failure to do so led to some yellow zones and red zones while stairdancing.
Elf:3 loot is incredibly good, so be patient. The end vault is like a whole additional floor.
[2020-02-23 Sun 22:05]

*** play DCSS

should always do my interstitial looting in a separate video.
[2020-02-24 Mon 16:38]

2020-02-24-1641
HOFi Ely - Giac - looting Elf - DCSS

No audio. Looted Elf. Moved stash to Vaults. Shopped. Re-equipped.
Gained weapon flexibility with high MR and rElec.
[2020-02-24 Mon 16:41]

*** /

2020-02-24-1907
HOFi Ely - Giac - Vaults:1 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Cleared remainder of Vaults:1 and looted.
Nothing significant happened, except received another Beogh reinforcement wave.
Extra MR+ and weapon flexibility performed great.
[2020-02-24 Mon 19:07]

*** play dcss

2020-02-24-2205
HOFi Ely - Giac - Vaults:2 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Started Vaults:2. Salt portal. Trained 2 orcs to warriors. Shafted 2 floors.
Recovered at the cost of coupla Iceblasts and a few Smites.
Entered Salt portal. Didn't risk dropping items, unsure when time's up.

Giac is dominant in Vaults. Should've bought RElec ring sooner and noticed the MR+ ring in Elf:2 sooner. Then could've had the same dominance in Elf:3, with strong resistance coverage and weapon flexibility.

Why no venom dagger vs troll: Their defenses are low except high HP and regen, and offense is high. So venom dagger is a waste because a slow kill hardly works (asymmetrical poison mechanics) and the dagger gives up too much AED. However the venom demon trident would've worked fine vs low troll EV, so I should've opened with that. Similar reasoning for ogres.

Venom dagger is relevant vs high EV blinkers such as elves, and high AC monsters.
[2020-02-24 Mon 22:05]

*** play dcss

2020-02-25-1036
HOFi Ely - Giac - Desolation of Salt - DCSS

Forgot to record the first few steps. Nothing happened except I read a Magic Mapping.

Spoiler:

Cleared and looted Desolation of Salt, at moderate expense and minimal risk. Found rPois cloak.
Looted everything relevant to self despite full inventory at no loss but stones supply.
Polymorph counters Ironbrand Convokers.
Just nuke Peacekeepers; retreating lets them warcry and barb.
Could've been more respectful of Imperial Myrmidons, but it's hard to engage them without taking some risk.
[2020-02-25 Tue 10:36]

*** play dcss

drop off at stash
retrieved phial
[2020-02-25 Tue 14:52]

do inventory
gift orcs
[2020-02-25 Tue 14:58]

check spells
[2020-02-25 Tue 15:01]

2020-02-25-1503
HOFi Ely - Giac - out of combat - DCSS

No audio. Managed inventory and follower gifts. Carrying poison needles again.
[2020-02-25 Tue 15:03]

*** /

2020-02-25-1826
HOFi Ely - Giac - Vaults:2 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Vaults:2. Uneventful. Trained orcs.
[2020-02-25 Tue 18:26]

Won't switch to Faith amulet, cuz Blink+Regen and a +6 Reflect alternate are too strong.
Regen simulates Faith anyway by reducing piety decay.

Don't bother with Vaults Sentinels beyond Vaults. Beogh's Recall is enough, and kiting a Vaults Sentinel through followers is annoying. After Beogh, HOFi will have Zin and be overleveled.
[2020-02-26 Wed 02:04]

*** /

2020-02-26-0239
HOFi Ely - Giac - ghost vault and looting - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Challenged Vaults:2 ghost vault early for 3 Identify scrolls. Wasn't worthwhile. Cost acid, an orc sorcerer, and 2-3 smites. Figured he'd be easy with stairdancing. Lesson learned: Never do vaults early, regardless of how easy it looks.
Rest of the session was just looting and gifting.
ID scrolls didn't reveal anything useful.
[2020-02-26 Wed 02:39]

Could've saved that orc sorcerer if I'd ordered "guard" and then descended. Then recalled in a smaller pack with room to summon.
[2020-02-26 Wed 02:55]

*** /

2020-02-26-1202
HOFi Ely - Giac - Vaults:3 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Vaults:3 uneventfully. Exploited Vaults Sentinels. Trained orcs.
[2020-02-26 Wed 12:02]

Summoned monsters can attack while one uses stairs. I suppose I just missed whatever the Neqoxec did, misattributing it to a prior turn.

Nope, I didn't miss it. He just didn't do anything. Dunno why.
I guess because he was just summoned?
So ascending was a 1 turn delay, and he didn't get to act during that turn.
Maybe he had a bit of negative energy, causing him to miss his turn?
Does this always happen with summons?

Nope.
My guess is that the aiming prompt covered up whatever the Neqoxec did. Or it's a bug or fluke.
[2020-02-27 Thu 15:01]

*** /

2020-02-27-1550
HOFi Ely - Giac - Loot Vaults:3 - DCSS

Looted, did inventory and gifting.

I overvalued Strength*(base damage) and undervalued demon whips! Fsim corrected me.

Current doctrine is to use orc gifts to identify gear of secondary interest to me that's dangerous to blind-wield.
But this means I never give the best stuff to my orcs, cuz there's always more to gift-ID.
So instead I should use the Brand Weapon scroll blind wield trick to identify all the 2h weapons, and then gift my orcs the best ones.

I can still gift my orcs unidentified uninteresting artifacts, if ID scrolls are short, though.
[2020-02-27 Thu 15:50]

*** play DCSS

2020-02-29-0221
HOFi Ely - Giac - Vaults:4 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Playing tilted, got irritated with lemming management, tried to skip stairdance training by taking Alork out on the floor. Disaster ensued. Moral: never take orcs onto an uncleared floor. Recall and retreat instead. Fighting orcless lets Beogh reinforce.
[2020-02-29 Sat 02:21]

*** play dcss

2020-02-29-0359
HOFi Ely - Giac - loot Vaults:4 - DCSS

Looted vaults:4. Gifted orcs.
[2020-02-29 Sat 03:59]

*** play dcss

2020-02-29-0459
HOFi Ely - Giac - Depths:1 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Depths:1. Uneventful.
Orc training far less effective with two knights instead of one.
[2020-02-29 Sat 04:59]

*** play dcss

Accidentally autotraveled off-camera from (cleared) Depths:1 to stash.
[2020-03-04 Wed 00:40]

shopped and equipped.
[2020-03-04 Wed 01:04]

2020-03-04-0116
HOFi Ely - Giac - loot Depths:1 - DCSS

No audio. Looted Depths:1 and did out-of-combat admin.
Scored a draining quickblade. Equipped poison needles. Learning Earth spells.
Noticed potential of Ice MR+ ring.
Caster side coming online, moving into primary territory.
[2020-03-04 Wed 01:16]

*** /

2020-03-04-0344
HOFi Beogh - Giac - Depths:2 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Depths:2.
Alternating between orc training and skeleton steamrolling for Beogh reinforcements. Too easy.
Casting a lot now.
Found Abyss entrance. Beogh endgame time.
[2020-03-04 Wed 03:44]

*** /

2020-03-04-1010
HOFi Beogh - Giac - loot Depths:2 - DCSS

Looted Depths:2. Gifted orcs.
Donned faith. Entered Vaults:5 unbuffed.
[2020-03-04 Wed 10:10]

*** /

2020-03-04-1636
HOFi Beogh - Giac - Vaults:5 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Vaults:5, mostly with stairdancing. Killed Mennas.
Straightforward clear. Minor resource expenditure and casualties, for the floor.
Bit of trouble with a Tengu Reaver after Teleported. Corona counters them, not Confusing Touch.
Plenty of orcs and piety leftover to snipe Geryon.
[2020-03-04 Wed 16:36]

*** /

2020-03-05-0034
HOFi Beogh - Giac - loot Vaults:5 - DCSS

Looted Vaults:5. Re-equipped for Vestibule. Gifted orcs.
Some nice weapon upgrades, including Mennas' +2 scourge and an elec broad axe.
Descended the stair without -tele sling equipped, which was an error. Need to stop descending during loot sessions.
[2020-03-05 Thu 00:34]

*** /

2020-03-05-0317
HOFi Beogh - Giac - Vestibule - DCSS

Spoiler:

Got stuffed at Vestibule cuz didn't recall orcs into downstairs battle early enough.
Took very heavy casualties, then pushed through. Finished Murray and Geryon.
Cleared Vestibule.
Killed remaining followers on Slime walls. Converted to Zin with Faith amulet for lotsa free piety. Dropped amulet and donated.

Aggressive permafollower stairdancing: max damage per daut.
1. If need meatshield to descend, order elites follow. Quickly reascend with pull.
2. Else, descend solo, then ascend with pull into large ambush.
3. Else, advance off stairs alone, and recall to ambush adjacents or block LoF.
4. Then, if near stairs, repark followers upstairs for mobility, LoF and casualty prevention.

Beogh does this when training isn't feasible. GhAs Yred does with with poison needle kiting and stealth to limit resting time and therefore rotting. HP recovery and damage output is shared.

Beogh training stairdancing:
1. Isolate trainable orc
2. Descend solo
3. Ascend with pull and tank for trainee
[2020-03-05 Thu 03:17]

*** play DCSS

HOFi will never convert away from Good Gods even for zigging, since he lacks a good answer to Torment with his -3 Transmut. I guess super lategame skills maxed he could, but I'll cross that bridge if I ever come to it.
[2020-03-05 Thu 23:57]

deprecated banned and obsolete weapons in stash
[2020-03-06 Fri 00:04]

Looted Vestibule
[2020-03-06 Fri 00:08]

Re-equipped for Slime
[2020-03-06 Fri 00:25]

Redid spells.
[2020-03-06 Fri 00:43]

2020-03-06-0050
HOFi Zin - Giac - loot Vestibule - DCSS

Looted Vestibule
Re-equipped for Zin and Slime
Redid spells.
[2020-03-06 Fri 00:50]

*** /

2020-03-07-0418
HOFi Zin - Giac - Slime:1 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Slime. Killed TRJ. Dealt with Beogh wrath. Overleved for branch, so minimal difficulty. Played the branch too fast and sloppy.

Slime didn't increase Zin piety nearly as much as expected. I should've delayed Slime until farmed full Zin piety in Abyss, which grants 100% mutation resistance at 160 piety and improves Recite strength, important vs some Slime denizens. Instead, now I must enter Abyss with significant malmutations and reach full Zin piety before can quaff them off. Or else switch to another good god, quaff, equip Faith, switch back to Zin. Would lose accumulated piety from donation and Slime.

Acidic Blobs: counter with ranged weapons, Blink and Reflection.

Shining Eyes: Recite did far less than expected. Forgot that it varies by Invo AND piety.
Forgot arrows for Sticks to Snakes. Forgot to use summons, Curare and Portal Projectile. They have no attack but being adjacent doesn't seem to increase probability of malmutate, instead they skip turns. Antimagic melee therefore works.

TRJ: Normally I'd quaff haste and get an easy kill on TRJ in the open with a couple of Immolates, using the AI's midrange preference to achieve full-surround detonations. But since Giac is overleveled, I decided to experiment instead. Wanted to see whether it's practical to use evocable Blink to similar effect, and save a Haste potion.

Verdict: It's too unreliable, even with a huge HP pool. The pack scatters and it's too hard to get TRJ surrounded for a detonation. Harassment from acid blobs and fast meleers limits options. However, with Inner Flame and Sticks to Snakes, I think it can work. The regular detonations will prune pack size, potentially permitting a zero-expense TRJ kill. Something to try next time.
[2020-03-07 Sat 04:18]

*** /

Beware TRJ's movement AI shift at emergency flag: he unconditionally retreats far. Herding fails   at that moment.
[2020-03-07 Sat 22:02]

Huh, I guess I just did Slime too fast. After I traveled back, my donation kicked in and I'm at 5 pips piety!
Should've re-equipped after 1st floor, that would've gotten it.
Still, should do Abyss before Slime.
[2020-03-07 Sat 22:04]

looted Slime
[2020-03-07 Sat 22:10]

brand weapons
acquire
equipped for Abyss
[2020-03-07 Sat 22:47]

2020-03-07-2249
HOFi Zin - Giac - loot Slime - DCSS

Zin donation kicked in when traveling back from Slime after clearing it. Cleared the branch too quickly. All the more reason to max out Zin piety in Abyss first.
Looted Slime and equipped for Abyss.
Branded quickblade, got +4 elec qb. Nice.
Acquired a book, got Shroud of Golubria. Handy.
[2020-03-07 Sat 22:49]

*** /

2020-03-08-0112
HOFi Zin - Giac - Abyss:1 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Going fine except for the Lurking Horrors.
Trying to counter with Sticks to Snakes, without success.
Breaking even on Teleport scrolls, no other resources spent.
Hit Piety******. Ready to de-mutate!

Lurking Horrors: Hex the low MR. Offscreen explosions: Iceblast and Fulminant Prism. Sticks to Snakes can also work, it's finicky though. Just as likely to produce an unwanted detonation. Avoid.
[2020-03-08 Sun 01:12]

*** /

2020-03-08-1104
HOFi Zin - Giac - loot Abyss:1 - DCSS

Hauled loot back.
De-mutated with just one mutation pot. Lucky. Zin OP. Kept my +2 AC.
Got arrows.
[2020-03-08 Sun 11:04]

*** /

2020-03-08-2336
HOFi Zin - Giac - Abyss:1 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Doing alright. Still room for improvement. E.g. more blinking. Handle liches better.
Still haven't done the S2S Inner Flame Blink party. Oughta try that.
Playing a bit mindlessly, but it is boringly easy. Minimal resource expenditure, earning a profit.
Passwall OP.
[2020-03-08 Sun 23:36]

Once I finish playing through this run, I'll be ready to write the HOFi guide that will eventually support my definitive HOFi run. Cool.
[2020-03-09 Mon 02:10]

After experimenting with TRJ in wizmode, my conclusion re the effectiveness of S2S+Inner Flame is that it's supplemental damage, not sufficient in itself. Still need to quaff the haste potion. Then it's an excellent addition to the core Immolation strategy, great for picking off the pack.

There's no reason to skimp on resources for this kill. Hit it as hard and fast as possible. A stitch in time saves nine is very true in this case. Haste is required.
[2020-03-09 Mon 02:25]

*** /

2020-03-10-0052
HOFi Zin - Giac - loot Abyss:1 - DCSS

Amnesia'd Ice spells for Mana Viper.
Rationalized Abyss skill training.
Minor equipment changes.
[2020-03-10 Tue 00:52]

*** /

The reason to take gates down into the Abyss is so that one still can spawn a gate via kills while searching for the rune.
It's unwise to bypass the kill gate when it spawns, and exploring without descending will trigger the kill exit before one descends deep enough to find the rune.

2020-03-11-0044
HOFi Zin - Giac - Abyss:1 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Farmed Abyss uneventfully. Found my rhythm.
Looted a nice gauntlet gear upgrade. Reconfigured gear.
Abyss favors certain kinds of loot and refills those categories quickly. It's a good way to stock up before proceeding, and fill in inventory gaps.
[2020-03-11 Wed 00:44]

*** /

Tested TRJ lig strat. Phantom mirroring TRJ, retreating yours, tormenting, does work. But torment now spawns jellies. And your TRJ just dies to Azure Jellies, doesn't kill much, and interferes with AoE attacks. Not worth.

Yeah, no need for Vuln. Don't melee either, due to hand burn.

Haste. Attack at range until LoF blocked, then Torment. That puts some of the pack at 1/2 HP and makes the pack large enough. PProj and net when TRJ is at blast center. Then Scattershot to detonate.
[2020-03-11 Wed 02:18]

update macros for changed Ice MR+ ring
[2020-03-11 Wed 09:59]

2020-03-11-1639
HOFi Zin - Giac - Abyss:1 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Beogh wrath expended. Can now dive Abyss for rune.
Found Book of Battle. Learned Sos and Spectral Weapon.
Will train Charms to primary for maximum melee synergy.
Should work well with Blink and Recite.
[2020-03-11 Wed 16:39]

TRJ Lig strat:
Haste Resistance hallway Lig
Phantom Mirror for initial damage till he dies or expires
Torment Immo Scattershot
PProj Net
Berserk the leftovers
[2020-03-11 Wed 17:45]

*** /

Hell Sentinels
watch the spines
Acid counters
Use mana viper for antimagic

at normal hunger, resting for donation to kick in
oh it already did, apparently, no more zin wrath

gotta be careful with s2s strat not to anger zin.
but it's a good counter to profane servitors

*** /

2020-03-13-0143
HOFi Zin - Giac - Abyss:1 - DCSS

No audio commentary.

Spoiler:

More Abyss farming. Diving to Abyss:3 now. Occasionally gets hairy. Mostly too boring to commentate, though.

S2S + Inner Flame + Blink counters Profane Servitors, which lack rF+.
Got Zin wrath from S2S + Inner Flame detonation killing allied snake. Donate and wait fixed it.

Hell Sentinel:
Strengths: Immunities, AC+++, spines, tracer blaster.
Average: Speed, Acid, Antimagic, melee
Weak: Holy, EV

Tactical counters:
1. Separate (Blink etc) or scare (Holy Word, Sanctuary)
2. Hobble (Imprison, net, Recite) or haste
3. Get soft cover (enemies, S2S, Butterflies)
4. Retreat

Found a potential rune vault, started killing guards. But Crystal Ball dropped my MP from 3/4 to 0, so retreated.
[2020-03-13 Fri 01:43]

*** /

2020-03-13-1549
HOFi Zin - Giac - equipage Abyss - DCSS

Out of combat. Re-equipped.
Big +Int ring. Swapped spells for Darkness and Poison Vapors.
[2020-03-13 Fri 15:49]

*** /

2020-03-14-0312
HOFi Zin - Giac - Abyss:1 - DCSS

Spoiler:

No audio. Abyss-running is inconsistently interesting.

Finally got the rune. Got good at Abyss running.

Guardian Golem is amazingly effective in the Abyss. It's a cheap tank, which is obviously great for an endurance themed-branch. It neutralizes the fragility of Spectral Weapon and Mana Viper.
Combine with Zin's Vitalize + Crystal Ball for nigh unlimited MP.
Now HOFi Zin can sit back and Portal Projectile sling bullets past his front line of Mana Vipers into the Ancient Lich, while Imprisoning any tormenters summoned.
Then switch to Holy Scourge with Spectral Weapon when the ALich finally closes.
That's the kind of OP an essential combo is expected to deliver!

Given all the disto and chaos weapons in the rune vault, I'm glad I didn't try to charge in. Better to patrol outside near an exit, and gradually pull out the residents.

Digging Wand is an essential tool for busting Abyss Rune Vault bunkers. I was lucky to coincidentally have it along. Passwall isn't enough, even with Sanctuary.

Fulminant Prism would solve multiple Abyss problems: Harassing pursuers, detonating Lurking Horrors offscreen, trimming Starcursed Masses. It's important to have. I'll need to free two spell levels to memorize.

Candidates:
Poison Vapours: Lackluster in Abyss. Only meaningful vs Raiju, and too slow for that. Poison is for monsters that don't close fast. Hexing works better on Raiju, or Spectral Weapon polearming. Portal Projectile is better for smite-targeted damage.
Sandblast: Losing value at this point, but still nice for piercing occasional high EV 0 AC threats.
Summon Butterflies: haven't used it. Dubious value in Abyss's open spaces. Sticks to Snakes is a substitute at this point. It's a better screen vs e.g. Hell Sentinels.

I reckon next Abyss run I'll skip Poison Vape. It wasn't worth training as a Raiju counter.

Spatial Vortex/Maelstrom: just avoid them. They don't chase well, and take too long to kill. Sandblast, Shroud of Golubria and Blink counter.

Tormenters: definitely need a forcemore for them, I keep mistaking them for abominations. Terrible graphics. Just Imprison them.

The battle at the Rune Vault bunker was fun and well done, I thought. Next time I should quaff Haste to more easily suppress reinforcements and snag the rune before the Abyss kicks me elsewhere. Definitely worth quaffing as soon as confirm it's a rune vault.

As for distinguishing rune vaults, regular structures are usually either exits or rune vaults, occasionally minor treasure vaults. Heavily fortified ones are rune vaults. The floor tile "crystal squares" indicates a rune vault, but not all have it. A stone arch also indicates a rune vault, and is always one "crystal squares" floor.

Rune vaults tend to be packed, to discourage a reckless frontal assault. There aren't that many vaults, but they vary wildly. Patiently await one suited to your character. Ideally, set up a kill exit a short distance away. Then Haste and harry until the path is clear. It will take awhile, and teleporting out may be safer than dealing with reinforcements. With the rune, finding new exits will be easy.
[2020-03-14 Sat 03:12]

Sticky Flame and Passage of Golubria were two more strong spells that I undervalued.
Sticky Flame amps damage for free MP and solves the EV problem. Good vs Starcursed Masses, Raijus, Profane Servitors. Good for improving damage rate.
Passage of Golubria allows medium-distance translocation with -Tele, mitigating my -Tele gear and helping hold monsters at range to keep HP up.
Compared to these, the level 1 spells are obsolete except Apportation. And Darkness is also lackluster. Imprison is a better solution than Darkness, usually. And Darkness constricts my Blink.
[2020-03-14 Sat 15:33]

Yep that's everything.
[2020-03-14 Sat 15:35]

PoG is better than Swiftness in Abyss, because one needs ways to jump over enemies to get to Starcursed Masses, and to rapidly LoS scary monsters.
[2020-03-14 Sat 16:19]

*** /
*** /

re-equipped
[2020-03-14 Sat 18:04]

updated weapon letters
[2020-03-14 Sat 18:05]

updated macros - weapon letter
[2020-03-14 Sat 18:10]

spells done
[2020-03-14 Sat 18:22]

Staff of Energy covers case that Crystal Ball of Energy drops MP to zero, and recovers from MP drainers as well.
Dig for busting treasure vaults.
[2020-03-14 Sat 18:24]

prep done.
[2020-03-14 Sat 18:27]

2020-03-14-1828
HOFi Zin - Giac - re-equip for Abyss - DCSS

No audio.

Will continue Abyss to confirm lessons learned from previous session.
Major spells changeout to fix some seriously suboptimal choices.
Added Staff of Energy for unlimited MP.
Added Digging to bust treasure vaults.
Dropped some weapons I wasn't using.
[2020-03-14 Sat 18:28]

*** /

I suspect that on one's first visit to the Abyss after acquiring the rune, there's a large "welcoming party" to dissuade further farming.
But this is not repeated on subsequent visits.
Could be randomness.
[2020-03-14 Sat 21:12]

now that's how to counter a Raiju pack!
Guardian Golem, Sticks to Snakes, polearm, Spectral Weapon, and Sticky Flame if one's adjacent. Portal Projectile javelins if out of reach.

Passage of Golubria + Sticky Flame works perfectly to suppress annoying Starcursed Masses while one kills the bigger threats.

And of course Summon Lightning Spire does solid work in most group combats.
[2020-03-14 Sat 21:28]

***

2020-03-14-2335
HOFi Zin - Giac - Abyss post-Rune - DCSS

Spoiler:

Proof that I can keep farming indefinitely.
Vastly superior tactics compared to last run. The spell swaps are proven correct.
Action economy FTW. Summons, S2S, Sticky Flame and Spectral Weapon add up fast.
Didn't remember to Portal Projectile javelins.
Using Crystal Ball at 3/4 to 2/3 MP seems adequate to avoid MP0. Unlimited MP.

Maybe Abyss spawn rate is more aggressive post-Rune?
Tactics still need tightening, but presumably that's what the rest of Extended is for.
Generally, spell elemental attacks through resistances aren't worth it.
[2020-03-14 Sat 23:35]

Should double-tap Starcursed Masses with Sticky Flame so it lasts the whole combat. Other strong enemies too.
Check in wizmode that duration stacks.
it does, but there's a tier effect I don't understand, so the duration stacking may not be linear.

SLS counters bone dragon? Yes, 33% damage is good vs 20 AC. Low EV.
[2020-03-15 Sun 01:29]

Overused Sticky Flame. Don't waste it on rF+ targets.
Overused Spectral Weapon. Don't use where weapon type only needs a coupla hits.
Guardian Golem is almost always handy to soak hits.
SLS isn't useful vs Bone Dragon. 33% damage isn't compelling, even though it ignores AC. Holy Wrath way better.
Use portal projectile javelins more, to force enemy to waste turns walking.
Blink clear, then Golubria to desired position.
Mana Viper permits 2 at once; use them.
[2020-03-15 Sun 01:39]

*** /

2020-03-15-0414
HOFi Zin - Giac - Abyss dive for 5 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Redoing with the tactical adjustment from last time. Solid performance.
Build isn't fully optimized for Abyss. Would like to Amnesia Tukima's and Confusing Touch for Fulminant Prism. But close enough to try Abyss:5.
Was hectic. Had to spend minor resources. Went fine.
Reckon that's good enough.

Giac can outdamage reinforcements to spawn an exit, or else survive till Teleport. Would need to be silenced to have serious trouble, and silence is an HOFi's friend.

Exploding Tomahawks are actually useful in Abyss, vs Starcursed Masses. Reaches places Iceblast can't, via Portal Projectile. Was missing Fulminant Prism, which allows retreating before Starcursed Masses.
[2020-03-15 Sun 04:14]

*** /

2020-03-16-0612
HOFi Zin - Giac - re-equip for Abyss - DCSS

No audio.

Final Abyss re-equip.
Enough Amnesia to learn Fulminant Prism.
Acquisition rolled poorly on armor.
Added Staff of Summoning. Stronger allies may be worth extra turn to weapon swap. Summoning is often batched.

Plan is to dive Abyss:5 a bit more, see how Fulminant Prism changes things.
I like combining it with SLS and Golem while retreating.
Challenge in lower Abyss is maintaining mobility while doing enough damage. This may work.
[2020-03-16 Mon 06:12]

*** /

Oops, thought I could safely damage Guardian Golem
Guess that's only Spectral Weapon and ?Spire.

2020-03-16-1339
HOFi Zin - Giac - Abyss:5 dive - DCSS

Spoiler:

Ran Abyss:5 to prove Giac can stay indefinitely. He can.
Fulminant Prism makes a huge difference.
It counts towards Song of Slaying, so combine the two to overwhelm even Abyss:5's reinforcement rate.
Should've used Song of Slaying whenever Fulminant Prism, since it's red loud.

Only thing Giac must run from are Tormenters. Which I could've killed via retreating with Fulminant Prism.
I didn't realize that the Abyss terrain change effect was releasing monsters early from Imprison.
[2020-03-16 Mon 13:39]

Abyss:
Fighting retreat with Fulm Prism, SLS, Spectral Weapon, Golem and Song of Slaying.
[2020-03-16 Mon 14:04]

*** /

Current spells look good. Some transloc spells might be interesting once Tloc is trained higher.

for now, I'll keep the regen rcorr plate on.
for Hell and Pan it should continue to be useful, since both lack secure rest points, similar to Abyss, and can exit into Abyss.
Plus, I lack a good source of rCorr otherwise.

However, the other armors may be superior later.
[2020-03-17 Tue 11:28]

macros?
1 done
2 done
6 done
4 done
3 done

macros done
[2020-03-17 Tue 11:44]

2020-03-17-1147
HOFi Zin - Giac - equip for Depths - DCSS

Re-equipped for Depths.
Added blowgun and common consumables.
Adjusted macros.
[2020-03-17 Tue 11:47]

*** /

Can't hurt my guardian golem either.

2020-03-17-1306
HOFi Zin - Giac - Depths:3 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Cleared Depths:3
First stair, took a little risk, SoSing the whole pull. Had the Fan of Gales tho.
Uneventful clear.
Vault with Ancient Lich a little risky at one point.
Overall, played a bit too aggressive for no good reason.
Can't totally disrespect Depths.
[2020-03-17 Tue 13:06]

*** /

2020-03-17-1729
HOFi Zin - Giac - Depths:4 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Depths:4
Got too cocky with aggressive exploration pattern, cost me a redzone, Haste and Heal Wounds.
Should've Sanctuaried, still can't take Depths seriously.
Can't teleport with rElec up, which is a problem.
Get an alternate rElec.
rapier will do for extra rN+ without -Tele as well.
[2020-03-17 Tue 17:29]

Confuse stops Shapeshifting? Nope.

*** /

2020-03-17-1842
HOFi Zin - Giac - Depths:5 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Cleared most of Depths:5.
Big Caustic Shrike pack camping downstair. Fan of Gales blew them away. Valuable.
Handled that group later at a chokepoint.
Played it correctly this time, begrudgingly exercising caution.
Unsure how to get rid of the "I'm OP now, play recklessly" reflex. It's useless.
[2020-03-17 Tue 18:42]

*** /

2020-03-18-0314
HOFi Zin - Giac - Depths:5 Zot entrance vault - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Depths:5 Zot vault, with Curse Toe.
Cleared Zot:1 and noisy-breached Zot:2.

Zin counter to Curse Toes:
1. Kite to green zone with door escape
2. Imprison
3. Buff up, maybe Golubria escape route
4. Acid
5. Antimagic / Mana Vipers
6. Damage

Spamming Zin non-free abilities dropped me to Piety 5*. Should use Recite as first line. Don't need to do the Vitalize infinite MP trick unless my line of retreat is cut off.
Donated 500 gold since I have no use for it anyway. Should fix the issue shortly. Plenty of time to build up cash with TSO later. May as well use it while it's useful.

Just getting used to fighting indoors with the new spell rotation. Fun to figure out the optimal.
No significant resources used, besides piety and some acid on Cursed Toe.
I should use Curare on dragon/draconian breath dispellers. No better target for it in the game.
[2020-03-18 Wed 03:14]

no vision limit on guardian golem ally protection. abusable. retreat him when not wanted underfoot.
maximize Recite by keeping Zin piety at 200, so don't spam vitalize for infinite MP when branch lacks massive incoming piety.
max Recite, first target, hold at edge of screen to string out pulls
[2020-03-18 Wed 04:38]

*** /

New Abyss tactic:
Always cast when MP reaches max
results in pre-buffed steamroll
result: excellent

Absorbing into the burning starcursed mass quenches it?

farmed Abyss till max Zin piety

The new plate armor is tempting... but not enough to give up the regen plate yet.
The latter is too good for running the Abyss.
Also I lack a decent rCorr artifact.

2020-03-19-0124
HOFi Zin - Giac - Abyss:1 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Farmed Abyss from Zin piety ~160 to 200 (max).
Struggled a bit at first, then found the rhythm.
Instead of always Vitalizing for infinite MP, be precasting whenever MP at max.
Then switch to infinite MP Vitalize if the fight warrants it.
Don't dip too far below 3/4s MP for Crystal Ball
Although it's not too hard to create separation and recharge with Staff of Energy if temporarily depleted.
Found some nice loot. Abyss farming still quite profitable.
[2020-03-19 Thu 01:24]

*** /

2020-03-19-0413
HOFi Zin - Giac - looting - DCSS

Looted and re-equipped.

Considering when to ditch current *Contam rCorr plate:
I do have a nice artifact rCorr ring of +Int...
I think resistances would be manageable without the *Drain armor

Once I switch to TSO, Regen will be much less valuable, and the +4 slay will be equivalent to regen thanks to heal on kills. So that's the time to switch.
Cuz I won't be running Abyss anymore, so the Regen armor will be obsolete.
[2020-03-19 Thu 04:13]

*** /

2020-03-19-1518
HOFi Zin - Giac - Zot:2 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Zot:2-3.

Curare failed to prevent Quicksilver Dragon from breathing
It's a missing feature. Curare should prevent breath attacks.

Curse Toe has no melee attack. Couldn't kill me when trapped.

Best to leave the Zot:3 vault until TSO, for better Torment resistance. Need statue form to hande Curse Toe with other heavy hitters.
It's a good spot for Holy Word
Orb of Fire, Ancient Lich, Curse Toe, lotsa Draconians, Death Cob

Forgot that Zot has delayed Teleport. Should've Teleported as soon as entered vault, to limit exposure. Instead redzoned.

Otherwise an uneventful clear. Casting whenever MP is full is OP.
[2020-03-19 Thu 15:18]

*** /

2020-03-19-1745
HOFi Zin - Giac - Zot:3 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Zot:4 cleared EZ.
[2020-03-19 Thu 17:45]

*** /

Does Faith improve piety transfer at max piety?
I know it does at min
test it.

TSO makes going 2h much more attractive thanks to heal on kills and divine shield, which can be improved at will with a reflection amulet when blockable ranged attacks are a factor.

No need for S2S after switching to TSO. Everything will be rPois or immune.
As chaff they're still ok, but TSO has less need to retreat thanks to HoK.

switching normally zin200->tso = 100
same with amulet on, and with penalty, it's a loss.
so there's a break-even point for wearing an amulet to boost starting faith when switching gods
probably it's just an initial bonus

raw switch gives 15
switch with faith on gives 15
eh?
maybe I was wrong and wearing faith doesn't boost god-swap piety.

2020-03-19-1945
HOFi TSO - Giac - god switch - DCSS

No audio.

Looted Zot. Switched to TSO. Re-equipped for Crypt.
[2020-03-19 Thu 19:45]

*** /

Perhaps I should burn off Beogh wrath on Hell upstair instead of in Abyss
less long tail risk
Probly yeah

Getting rN++ from TSO now

does swiftness help with stairdancing? nope.

A lightning spire pre-cast is insurance against paralysis, as is a Guardian Golem

2020-03-20-0555
HOFi TSO - Giac - Crypt:1 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Cleared Crypt easily, of course.
Practiced optimal spell rotation to prep for Tomb.
Forgot Statue Form counter to Flayed Ghosts, once.
[2020-03-20 Fri 05:55]

*** /

No significant loot from Crypt.
Unsurprising.

It's correct to delay Crypt this much due to the possibility of meeting Khufu therein.

can I memorize abjuration? otherwise problems.
SL5, castable

amnesia:
Inner Flame?
Fulm Prism?

Without rN+, I doubt Mana Vipers will be effective against Tomb's casters
Perhaps I'd be better off simply amnesia'ing that

Yeah. I'll just use angels instead. Better to save Guardian Golem HP to support them, rather than Mana Vipers.

Gotta have abjuration or else fight hordes of emperor scorpions.
Plus, aliches will summon tier:1 demons, and I need an answer to that.
this way I needn't worry about elemental damage
which makes Statue Form much more viable.

Whoah, I haven't trained summons to primary
that's foolish, it's build critical

It'd be nice to have beastly appendage. Oh well. Not hurting for melee damage.

I've got an MR vulnerability when in Statform and Lig, partially mitigatable by switching weapons
will have to do.

no cloud immunity, but statue form works for ushabti miasma

2020-03-21-0523
HOFi TSO - Giac - loot Crypt - DCSS

No Audio.
Prepped for Tomb. First time playing it IIRC.
Swapped Mana Viper for Abjuration.
[2020-03-21 Sat 05:23]

*** /

Useless to summon vs the greater mummies, they just abjure them back

Nice, TSO piety restores as fast as I spend it

I walked into that ambush, thinking it was clear cuz I'd already been noisy
forgot to magic map the floor! that would've alerted me to the acoustics.

Yeah, the layout favors a delayed rush. Lesson learned.

Maybe I should've kept going with the angel out. TSO is a momentum fighter.

Tomb:1
Preferred down hatch:
is in the inaccessible section
on the hemisphere opposite from the sucker's entrance?
yep

Cool, wiz mode C-e tells vaults and uniques on the floor
[2020-03-21 Sat 19:21]

TSO with buffs = total domination of Tomb
too bad I wasted spell levels on useless summons that just get abjured.
abjuration was absolutely necessary
[2020-03-21 Sat 19:50]

2020-03-21-1951
HOFi TSO - Giac - Tomb:1 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Cleared Tomb:1 and dropped down correct hatch to Tomb:2 small rooms.
Operational errors: Advanced deep into Tomb:1 center-room ambush.
Ring of Teleported into Tomb:1 disconnected section. Roughish fight. How to do better next time?
Haste, Fog, two warriors, brill, abjure, c-flame, scourge, SoS, spectral weapon, clear adjacent, then fusti the rest, with portal projectile if necessary.
In an ambush, hafta establish fire superiority immediately. Hence two warriors and c-flame.
TSO piety is infinite in Tomb, spend to win.
Nets aren't useful, cuz want monsters to close. Except uniques I suppose.
[2020-03-21 Sat 19:51]

*** /

ok, the plan for Tomb 3:
Lig for Torment immunity in the corner. also can't be netted. this resolves the net traps.
fog and fight. TSO for regen.

this is also the plan for doing Tomb:2 middle.
Statform, Golubria to a corner and dig in, literally, with Treeform

bah, even spectral weapon gets insta-abjured

*** /

2020-03-22-0032
HOFi TSO - Giac - Tomb:2 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

A bit sloppy, but fine for first-time Tomb:3 clear
biggest mistake:
Not spending piety enough. 2 angels always. cleansing flame whenever MP neutral, at least.
Not spending buffs enough. Don't let HP get low.
It's perfect for lig. Dig in.
Immolation was just OK. It blocks fog, which is suboptimal. And I think it does damage through Treeform. Should've equipped my rF+ at least.
I got into a situation that called for Immo cuz I wasn't Cleansing Flaming enough.
Ending the branch at 200 TSO piety, which is silly
I should be riding the line between Piety 5* and 6* to ensure I'm getting my money's worth
Since I'll be switching to Ely anyway immediately.
So no point in saving up.

Those doctrine adjustments will make a smooth clear.
Oh and need to be better about avoiding Zot traps.
Got zotted a few times needlessly.
[2020-03-22 Sun 00:32]

sharing above
[2020-03-22 Sun 00:37]

*** /

My tomb:3 performance was flawed at all levels.
Strategically, the goal is to lig on the hatches only.
One presses through to the hatches.
This yields a better monster intake funnel, without wide-lane full-screen approaches, and limited by the two door chokepoints. Only 180 degrees of view are walled, providing an ideal 180 degree range for cleansing flame, which is better than the 90 degrees I was getting in a corner.

The first Statform runs to the two hatches are stealth runs. Double angels to facilitate movement. C-flame to clear a path.

Red noise only when on the hatch.

This avoids the obvious kill-funnel of the hatch ingresses, which is a suicide stand.

The goal of the two scouting runs is to find a location with acceptable trap density. Zot traps aren't acceptable with scarabs batty triggering them repeatedly. Dispersal traps are almost as bad, ruining the positioning of c-flame and protecting fragile undead from adjacent combat. Statform and lig both favor melee over ranged.

If no favorable uphatch can be found, then it's time to consider unsavory alternatives
but the door chokepoints of the wings are the priority place to fight, even if one can't stand right on the upstair due to traps and traffic shape.

weapon diversity and abjurable spells are wasted, so drop them for usable resources

fighting near a hatch is important so one can retreat if death curses hammer a dump stat. work off the drain in Pan and return at full strength. Don't hesitate to hammer piety since it's infinite via Pan.

under normal combat conditions, only retain one angel. this concentrates TSO's buffing actions on one unit, improving his survivability, eases unit management, and minimizes interference with the protag's tactics.

shatter is relevant for Tomb due to scarab swarms and stone walls, both. so is darkness and silence. etc.

if one must teleport far away from both hatches to fight sustainably, red noise or alarm there first to reduce density elsewhere.

cflame needs 180 degrees for sustainable MP clawback

The lack of rF makes Immolation relevant if one can stack it.
Hexing isn't particularly relevant; Greater Mummies resist them; Death Scarabs can't be frenzied. Leave Vuln behind; not worth risking a surprise lich.

Silence is worthwhile once on the hatch; too risky before.

Swiftness is great for the initial scouting runs.
LRD is relevant for ushabtis and fragging scarabs at range

ring of flames is ideal, and can be combined with Phial for steam cover

ozocubu's armor is a must for statform and lig!
Recall is handy for angel transport

yeah, I missed a ton on this first run.
[2020-03-22 Sun 05:42]

*** /

looted Tomb.
excellent loot! Well worth challenging before Hell and Pan, which are infinite.
A finite known challenge is far easier to meet, with essential OP.
Not that I did it correctly this time.
[2020-03-22 Sun 06:00]

will need to re-equip from scratch, I reckon
will do pan first to get Ely piety up.
[2020-03-22 Sun 06:04]

gotta bring Silence to Tomb for uniques, otherwise can get ugly.
If entrance is insta-burned, Teleport and Silence
Just need somewhere to c-flame, Teleport when overwhelm starts.
definitely magic map.
[2020-03-22 Sun 06:17]

may as well switch to Ely now to compare rN

With Ely's heals, my need for Regen is far less, and in forms melding armor, need for MR+ is much higher.
Regen amulet is still useful for Forms blink, though.
Reflect amulet permits rF+ shield, which permits fire AoE

way overtrained Summoning doing Tomb, oops.

Leda's Liquefaction goes well with Treeform cuz Giant, IIRC, meaning no melee penalty for water
good for Tomb

malmutators: S2S counters neqoxecs but not cacodemons
I've got Phial and Box of Beasts as well. And SLS, Golem, Spectral Weapon, Silence scroll, Fog. Good enough.

*** /

armor's settled

guess I'm not looting much for my first Pan run
dunno what to bring.

maybe I should try hell first and only switch to Pan if I can't earn a piety profit
that will simplify equipage.
but which branch of hell?
neither fire nor Ice for this run
I'm set up for demons, so probably dark?

Yeah, the next branch to do is obviously Tartarus
very similar to Tomb, except with Ely this time.
much easier to prep for.

no plans to loot on the clearing runs, so I can load up.
diving runs will be lighter loadouts.
[2020-03-22 Sun 11:37]

should bring S2S arrows for mutators
ok, good enough
[2020-03-22 Sun 11:41]

2020-03-22-1142
HOFi Ely - Giac - loot Tomb - DCSS

No audio.

Started to re-equip for Pan, realized it would be easier and simpler to focus on exploring Tartarus fully first. Pan's unpredictability is harder to prepare for, requiring better artifacts. Tartarus is nearly a continuation of Tomb.

Unlikely I'll need to farm Ely piety in Pan anyway. I can always claw back to 100 Ely piety by farming Abyss with Zin safely, and restock consumables simultaneously. Easy to donate gold for it.
[2020-03-22 Sun 11:42]

uploading
[2020-03-22 Sun 11:48]

*** /

Doh, Oz's armor doesn't work with Statueform.
Hope it works with LIg, at least.

Hm, statform only gives one pip of rN

I should explore with Regen up, and swap amulets only when I need reflect or MR+

Crap, I forgot to bring cancellation for contam.

huh, my EV increases in statue form!

This contam is nuts
I'm gonna have to farm cancellation now?

The contam is a problem
It's solvable by switching to Zin to quaff of the mutations.

Can Zin clear parts of Hell?
It's too risky. He has no answer to Torment.

I can switch to Zin, donate, quaff of the malmuts, and then switch back

That's it. If I go deeper, I must risk malmuts.
how is this supposed to work, really?
just dive it? I dislike that solution.
Although I suppose it isn't so bad, since every upstair is a complete exit.

maybe I've got the wrong idea about Hell
and Good Gods isn't the answer for HOFi
I need lichform instead
I need to switch to another god, probably Uskayaw
so save that for zigs.

Alternatively, accept massive malmutation while doing Hell.
which doesn't sound like a good idea at all.

so Hell's out. Which leaves... Pan, Zig, ascension, right?

Good Gods don't have a good counter to Pan's mutation, either.
Sounds like it's time for Usk, then.
So I can necromut to counter mutators and tormenters.

I guess Necromut is the answer.
Converts Curing into Cancellation for Contam, and into Lig for Torment.

So I'll have to convert to Zin.
The problem is that Transmutations is so low and bad at -3

I won't have Necromutation online immediately, without brilliance. x15
must decide where to farm XP, as well.
Abyss has too much mutation.
Pan is an option. Mutation is rare there. Lotsa demonspawn, which is manageable. Exits Abyss, which is ok.

So switch to Usk and farm Pan until Necromut's castable
Then do Hells for predictability
Then do remaining Pan runes
Then Zigs.

I could level Tmut and Spellcasting with zin by farming Abyss, but that would be boring.

Essential HOFi simply isn't meant to do all of Extended, I reckon.

Is Ely or TSO better in Pan?
Surely TSO is. Doesn't need to retreat. Lotsa demonspawn for heal on kills. Can block LoF with angels to kill mutators fast.

Yeah, it was my mistake to try to do Ely Hell next. Wrong choice.

The contam hits are too frequent. Cleaned out my Cancellation stockpile. Ely doesn't work in Hell for HOFi. She doesn't work in Hell, period. She has no place in Extended.

I guess she can dive it while accepting mutations, but that's risky.
occasionally switching to Zin to cleanse the mutations and farm abyss once they pile up too much.

even with necromut, still need cancellation to counter petrification, which would easily be lethal
actually no you don't. just cast statue form to gain petrification immunity!
the other hell effects aren't so bad, right?

stat drain just means switching to abyss or pan for a bit to work it off. no big deal.
and petrification seems much rarer than contam, anyway.

the problem with TSO in pan is corrupting pulses from demonspawn and wretched stars when taking Abyss exit.
it's not that bad, TSO is good at working off temporary debuffs by earning XP. angels still work.

yeah, re-equip for TSO Pan. do that.
then Usk for Hell, Zigs.
[2020-03-23 Mon 01:39]

*** /

2020-03-23-0142
HOFi Ely - Giac - Tartarus:1 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Partly cleared Tartarus:1. Ran out of Cancellation and got Frail malmut from repeated Contam Hell effects. Underestimated the frequency and severity thereof. Ely would have to dive Hell and accept heavy malmutation. Too risky. I'd rather full clear to permit Tele escapes from Hell effects.

Decided to go TSO Pan next. Plan to do Hell after that with Usk and Necromut. Neutralizes Contam and Torment.

Usk appreciates in value as character DpD (Damage per Daut) increases, and as onscreen monster count and unique strength increases. This makes him an excellent late-game god. He's high invo and so is HO. His passive effects require neither MP nor activation nor cooldown, making him very efficient for late-game action economy.

This sort of thing is why I'm not trying to play perfectly. Testing strategies comes before tactical refinement. Attempting the latter would only delay the former. And since the latter is downstream of the former, doing the latter first would necessitate rework.
[2020-03-23 Mon 01:42]

git committed
[2020-03-23 Mon 01:54]

*** /

Doom Hound's call creates monsters. Doesn't convoke them.
He won't howl your enemies while enslaved, unfortunately.
[2020-03-23 Mon 02:14]

Ok, I was wrong. Ely is essential for Hell. She counters the malmuts. You're just supposed to tank them.
quaff off frail though; would prefer to avoid that one.
[2020-03-23 Mon 04:12]

Question: Does resistance to malmut occur as malmuts stack?
Nope, one collects all the malmuts and then further malmut does nothing. Sigh.
So there's no point in quaffing off frail, it'll just return.
mutation resistance stacks when applying neutral and beneficial mutations to oneself via !mut.
[2020-03-23 Mon 14:05]

hm, that sentinels mark was a wizmode bug
I should restart the app, just to be safe
guess it occurs when I quit a wizmode char and then open a saved game
regen far less valuable since I'll get shy

Should be using the crystal ball in combat I guess.

re-equipped for max malmuts:
  reduced scrolls to just magic mapping
  dropped heal wounds.
  got blowgun and confuse needles for doom hounds with pproj when LoF blocked
[2020-03-23 Mon 14:19]

*** /

Should Ely do Zigs? The reason would be purification, and Pacify, to a lesser extent.
Heals on demand is nice. Zerk on demand is nice.
Stat drain resistance and malmut mitigation provide long-term endurance.
Can probably stay out of malmut with !mut
Zin could vitalize every time, but not enough vs tormenters and silencers.

I suspect Usk is just better.
[2020-03-23 Mon 14:35]

Usk wrath should be endurable with Zin in Abyss or maybe Zin in Hell. Can sit in Hell on upstair until have to sanctuary due to Tormenter adjacent, then farm Abyss to replace piety.
Breaks up the tedium of just farming Abyss, accelerates the clock by waiting while mostly resisting Hell effect.
Best way to burn wrath. Nice.
[2020-03-23 Mon 14:38]

I get unlimited neutral god switches this way for extended, cool.
Hm, could even switch to Jiyva, only face Zin wrath, could tank it in Hell while resting.
Might be a good way to get rid of huge number of malmuts after clearing Hell. Jiyva cleanse them in Abyss and Hell.
Just don't visit stash until done.
Then abandon Jivya for Zin and clean up the rest of the way.
Sounds good.
[2020-03-23 Mon 14:41]

Absolutely no resting in Hell. Use resources to restore points: staff of energy, lesser healing. Burn rations for speed. Explore near full always.
[2020-03-23 Mon 14:56]

doh, pressed macro on upstair and left tartarus

Should I take the floor skip stair?
There's no reason not to, except if I think I can earn Ely piety on Tartarus 2
let's do that, this time
going slow to gain experience

*** /

2020-03-23-1528
HOFi Ely - Giac - Tartarus:1 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Changed mind, decided to do Ely Hell after all.
Decisive factor - max malmuts is doable with Ely.
So that's the plan.
Cleared thru Tartarus:2. Going fine.
Ely piety is only breaking even, though, which bodes ill for lower floors.
Guess I shouldn't be hammering lesser healing after fights. Try to rest outside instead.

The tedium of constantly swapping to maximize rN+ versus Tormentors is annoying.
Maybe Ely isn't the right choice for Tartarus. It's more suitable for TSO.
Maybe Ely is best suited for Dis, which should feature more natural holiness monsters.
He can outfight stat drain, usually. Farm Pan if not.
Slow is mitigated by allies.
What about petrification? Hasn't happened yet, must be rare.
Statue Form doesn't cancel petrification, once it lands!
However the high AC and GDR presumably helps one survive.
Lig is still a good move for surviving petrification
I think it's worth the risk.

Since I'm already worshipping Ely, I should switch to Dis, I suppose.

Anyway, Cancellation is an adequate answer to Petrification. And spending time in Stat Form reduces the odds of it landing. Quaffing Ambrosia is another counter to it.

Yeah, if Ely fits anywhere, it's Dis. TSO won't earn piety from killing the natural holiness monsters, so he's relatively weaker there.
TSO is probably correct for Fire and Ice branches, since it's harder to have rN+++ and a full elemental resistance.
[2020-03-23 Mon 15:28]

I like the idea of just diving Hell with TSO and Song of Slaying
Minimizes exposure to Hell effect malmuts
Once a path is carved, unlikely to see too many adds
High monster density suits TSO. Lig counters multi-torment.
Pan when stat drained.
[2020-03-23 Mon 18:45]

maybe should move by PoG in Hell?
I suspect that Beastly Appendage is useless, should fsim it vs e.g. skeletal warrior
also S2S seems worthless, particularly without inner flame.
Amnesia those two and get Inner Flame to add flame cloud damage. Speed is king.

keep Ozo's armor, it's key for Treeform's immobile vulnerability
[2020-03-23 Mon 18:50]

*** /

looks like I was marked as a wizmode bug. oh well.

Looks like Passage of Golubria is far less effective on the second cast.
No, i just screwed up. Didn't need to walk to the new one. Enter the old exit instead.

Hm, I could go max stealth for this
with shadow dragon armor
I could enchant it up
can probably get away with it
let's try it
will probably be worth it in missed mutations

amazing! that's a huge stealth score for an HO!
perhaps I should be challenging Hell wearing that?
statform for all combat
hm.

can I use frenzy needles on starcursed masses?
nope, it's immune to needles, although this isn't mentioned in the docs.
so are wretched stars
probably because non-living

anything else in the abyss I should frenzy?

confusion needles counter apocalypse crabs.

bestial app adds 10% damage vs skeletal warrior

I can swap fulm prism for stick flame to suppress starcursed masses
since this is a stealth run, and fulm is noisy

no reason to unblack with -tele
doesn't stop abyss effects
good for stealth tho

*** /

2020-03-24-0054
HOFi Ely - Giac - prep for Abyss - DCSS

No audio.
Re-equipped for Abyss stealth run for Ely piety.
Shadow dragon armor. Swapped Fulm Prism for Sticky Flame.
Brought confusion needles to counter apocalypse crabs.
Will use fast travel: Pass of Gol, Swift, Crystal Ball / Energy Staff + Purify
[2020-03-24 Tue 00:54]

Pass of Gol works very well together with Swift
Frustrates monster efforts to collapse

Yeah, maxing Ely piety in Abyss is super easy
and trains the same skillset as moving fast Hell
Spells for the two branches are reasonably compatible, as well.
[2020-03-24 Tue 02:21]

Dis is clearly for Ely
lotsa natural holiness monsters

Tartarus is definitely for TSO, due to the silent spectres
Cocytus seems weak for those who can handle watery terrain, but of course requires rC+++
The necessity of two elemental resistances at +++ for Cocytus and Gehenna argues for TSO, as well.
That leaves Dis for Ely.

I guess TSO farms piety for Hell blitzing in Pan.
And mutations are simply allowed to accumulate until Hell and Mnoleg are cleared.
Then batch cleared.

There's still the question of how to kill Dispater
I guess Ely heals are handy

Does an allied Ghost Moth apply antimagic? That might be the key to Hell's boss fights.
yep ghost moths work. Probably worth Heal Othering them to keep them up.

Doom Hounds are another argument for TSO Tartarus.
TSO's clflame counters Erishkigal's EVmax.

low HD is a vulnerability of 3/4 of Hell's bosses, except antaeus.
Dispater's lowest.
Confusing Touch has a 26% chance vs Dispater! Incredible.

Hellions also have terrible HD:7. Confusion Needle + Portal Projectile counters their smite targeting.
Same with Tormenters. Interesting.
And Cacodemons, to a lesser extent: HD13

Passwall works in Pan
It's clearly TSO territory
must be ready for all resistances and also keep rN up for demons about, so TSO is a no-brainer.

Pan is definitely harder than Hell. Lack of escape is the key factor.

TSO doesn't farm piety in another branch to do Hell. He doesn't need to. He generates plenty.

jiyva can farm trash item piety with faith amulet to remove mutations

*** /

how to counter Hell Sentinels?

hm, I reckon frenzy needles, and branded needles in general, are the key to Dis

yeah it's very viable at a reasonable skill level on Dispater

Hell sentinel is tougher
unsure what to do about it, except frenzy near monsters

nets provide an expensive escape from them.

how about a combined tactic, then:
net, needle, apport the net
ok, that works. cool.

still need a damage source while it's confused
I guess holy with spectral weapon and guardian golem works ok
lotta spiny damage

hm, wasn't getting spiny damage while he was confused
is that the key?
I dunno, but it can't hurt.

Spiny is just a 1/3 change mitigated by AC

hm. anyway.
i wonder whether mana vipers would help?

lotsa LRD targets, with metal walls

summon forest isn't effective in Hell
dryad not rTorment

shadow creatures is garbage
mana viper is hte primary spell of interest remaining

Beastly Appendage is useless against Dis' high AC targets

Need more amnesia
I screwed up the god-branch sequence of this character, anyway
But I've figured it out now. Doubt there will be further changes.
At least not until I get to zigs.

So I've over-expended Amnesia and Cancellation
Would rather not continue with a suboptimal spell set, or farm more amnesia.

Passwall is useless in Tomb as well, and LRD should be learned for Tomb.
right? lotsa LRD targets in Tomb? besides stone walls.
yeah definitely LRD in tomb
plenty of derived undead to inner flame, don't need S2S

does the switch to Ely and farming Abyss piety cost too many amnesia?
want passwall to farm Abyss
but also want it for Pan, so that's fine
what about S2S? handy in both?
demonspawn lack rPois, and handy to block malmut LoF
Sticky Flame is just a damage spell, not relevant for HO, who needs utility from his limited spell selection. Skip it.

anyway, I'm gonna dump this character's '3dashboard, quit him, and start the next species.

*** HOFi Giac

**** Doing

***** task stack

amnesia: passwall 2, S2S 2, Sticky Flame 4, Slow 2
learn: LRD 5, MV 5

equip for Dis
  spells?
  final check

clear Dis with Ely
  rapid travel + song of slaying
  triple visitation
  Dispater low HD: confusing touch / confusion needle

***** stractics

rapid travel: Swift + Golub + Ball/Energy + Purify
Lig + Ozocubu's armour

**** equipment macros
***** 1 unblack

PT regen amulet
PD< MP
Ps> int
wi weapon: rN++ sling

***** 2 oocc

PF reflect amulet
PD<
Ps> rCorr
we weapon: +Int axe

***** 3 rN+ rings

Pl> first get rC+ up
Pc<

***** 4

***** 6 staff of energy
Vu
**** HOFi god-branch progression:

Ely: Lair, Orc, Dungeon, Poison and Water if flight
Use Ely piety on Elf:1 entrance
Beogh: Elf:1-2, bypassing vaults and Hall of Blades.
Vaults:1 until find a Vaults Sentinel pet
Elf:1-2 vaults with Sentinel. Elf:3 same.
Vaults:1-4
Depths:1 to Abyss entrance
Kill Beogh followers and piety at Vaults:5 ambush. Otherwise forfeit their gear.
If they're still alive, do Vestibule
If they're STILL alive, kill them on Slime entrance walls with recall.
Otherwise you fight them if they're in LoS when convert, or else (I think) they vanish with gear.
Zin. Donate. Wait till piety arrives.
Farm Abyss to max Zin piety.
Wait on upstair on floor 1 of friendliest Hell branch (Cocytus, Gehenna, Dis, depending on defenses), until Beogh wrath expired.
Slime:1-5
Farm Abyss till rune
Vaults:5, Zot:1-4
TSO: Crypt, Vestibule, Tomb, Tartarus, Cocytus & Gehenna
Ely: Farm Abyss to max piety, Dis
Clear malmuts with Zin (plus Jiyva if short !mut)
Usk: Zigs
Zin: donate to max piety, Zot:5, Ascent

could Dis be Zin? Are tormenters common in Dis?
common enough zin is a bad idea.
plus flayed ghosts require statform. scary when in treeform! reason to have holy word.
[2020-03-25 Wed 16:33]
*** /

Think about this for a moment.
Anything I need to learn running the rest of extended with HOFi?
probably, but I've already significantly overleveled this character
and I'll probably pick up a lot that's transferable doing other melee species' extended.
fine to switch now.
[2020-03-25 Wed 16:35]

Goodbye, Giac!
I should save his morgue.
[2020-03-25 Wed 16:36]

*** /

Hm, weapon choice?
Axe is the obvious, but is that really a good idea?
kills extend rage
focused damage results in early kills, reducing incoming damage
more incoming attacks is more chances for retaliation

he doesn't start with a shield, so dodging adds significant riposte value
he's going to be a weapons master, so there's no lockin
falchions are rarer than hand axes
falchion allows exploiting early branded daggers

let's ask fsim about adders
hand axe: aed = 1.95 + 1.1 = (+ 1.95 1.1)3.05
falchion: aed = 1.9 + 1.65 = (+ 1.9 1.65)3.55

falchion dominates. unsurprising vs single foes.

I think I'll take falchion, in order to better shape incoming damage.

A kill gives at best 20% chance of extending rage
Advantage of the axe is that more damage is possible when surrounded.
But MiBe will be stealthy and lacks armor and shield to start, so being surrounded is a bad idea.
And does he really need more damage?
I assume that if he's zerked, he'll win. The issue is when he's not.
Falchion provides some extra damage while retreating and slowed.
synergizes with acrobat tanking, mibe specialty

weapon choice only impacts the early game here
so I feel falchion is correct, for stronger 1v1 non-zerk
zerk is OP early, will always win.
[2020-03-25 Wed 16:51]

*** /

started MiBe Naicw (falchion)
[2020-03-25 Wed 16:52]

oh, it's wizmode bugged. got a weird message
need to restart the client.

pick a new name
started MiBe Gemahiss (falchion)
[2020-03-25 Wed 16:54]

worse vault, too bad.

Cleared D:1
found 3x enchant weapon scrolls, added to falchion
instant D:2 adder, crushed with zerk.
Gemahiss is well-established now.
[2020-03-25 Wed 17:09]

*** /

2020-03-25-1717
HOFi Ely - Giac - Abyss:1 - DCSS

Spoiler:

Farmed Abyss to max piety. No permanent malmuts taken. No resources spent. Easy.
Stealth from Shadow Dragon scales. Pass of Gol + Crystal Ball.
[2020-03-25 Wed 17:17]

*** /

2020-03-25-1851
HOFi Ely - Giac - prep for Dis - DCSS

Re-equipping for Dis.
Investigated Dis with wizmode.
Found that Confusion/Frenzy needles and nets are key.
Mistakes in god-branch sequence thus far left me with an amnesia shortage and the prospect of further shortages.
Decided to quit Giac and start the next species.
Learned enough from this run, and he's getting too overtrained to be relevant, due to excess farming from sequence errors.
[2020-03-25 Wed 18:51]

*** /

2020-03-26-1226
MiBe Trog - Gemahiss - D:1 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Note that the MiBe restarts were not start-vault scumming. There were legitimate reasons for each one. Leftover wizmode pollution can cause strange bugs such as exploration trap effects in explored areas. Failure to pick a unique name leads to confusion of morgue files. I wound up with a worse starting vault as a result of the restarts.

Started MiBe Gemahiss (falchion).
Cleared D:1
found 3x enchant weapon scrolls, added to falchion
instant D:2 adder, crushed with zerk.
MC (main character) is well-established now.

Needless yellowzone vs early club hobgoblin due to laziness.

Ya'll haven't seen a mostly-2h sneaky walking armory MiBe, so prepare to have your meta rocked

Well, you've probably seen my walking armory HOFis by now, maybe even seen him sneak through Abyss...
[2020-03-26 Thu 12:26]

*** /

Good thing I excluded that stair, since the prior noise attracted an adder!
[2020-03-26 Thu 18:25]

Definitely a mistake there, should've prioritized leaving the floor after teleporting away from Sigmund
Was still wondering whether Tele was the right play.
Playing distracted.
[2020-03-26 Thu 18:39]

autopickup just cost me a tile
typoed tab! very bad now.

Sigmund down via Hand + Zerk: A good kill, I think.

shafted D2-D4
[2020-03-26 Thu 18:48]

Hm, Trog doesn't always block post-zerk para
could've died vs robin's pack? how long it lasts?
lasts a "few turns". ok.
chokepoint probly would've saved me.
[2020-03-26 Thu 18:56]

falch: 6.3 aed
qstaff: 4.5 aed
XL 1 vs 7
hm.
higher base damage.
pierces AC.
if find shield, xtrains with maces and polearms, at least.

alternative is sling
already have enough melee damage
need skirmishing help
sounds right.

ah crap
when I did "repeat action" via ` on the second yak fsim, it bugged out and ID'd all my consumables
because there was a forcemore like so:
huh well I can't make the forcemore repeat now.
"You feel a rush of knowledge.
You throw a tomahawk."

That's where it happened.
Crap.
During the "repeat command", it hit "y" in wizmode

This is why I stopped fsimming yaks earlier
switched to elephants
I need a mid-level representative monster, weaker than elephant, stronger than adder

I'll have to quit this game
let's find a monster for fsim first though
for future fsimming

ice beast is a candidate
I prefer untyped damage tho
iguana could work
crocodile is what I like
so adder, crocodile, elephant
AC increases with depth.
sounds good.
[2020-03-27 Fri 00:48]

strong character. too bad.

2020-03-27-0049
MiBe Trog - Gemahiss - D:2 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Shafted D:2-4
Cleared thru D:5
Killed Sigmund, Robin, Ijyb.
Wizmode mistake led to ID'ing all consumables. Run tainted by inadvertent cheat. Had to restart.
Strong character. Too bad.
To avoid this mistake in future, avoid fsimming monsters starting with "y".
Monster fsim progression: adder, crocodile, elephant.
[2020-03-27 Fri 00:49]

*** /

Hm, revisiting the falchion question.
I still like it.
I'm ok with making the switch to heavy weapons later.
MiBe is about shoring up weaknesses, not maximizing his already ridiculous strengths.
[2020-03-27 Fri 02:11]

MiBe just headbutted a plant!
Thought that was only retaliatory.

D1 plate is silly

terrance fight:
manipulated kiting so that he would be at low energy for the free turn he gets to hit me
didn't want to risk having to step to him at the start of the berserk
which would shorten the duration and risk me not being able to finish him.

zerking natasha dangerous, cuz she can reincarnate and quickly counterattack
want to stick to halls until she's dead. make noise.

Bah, AC still at 11, thought I could get 12.
could've wizmode checked that.

didn't expect that swap
fortunately in .23 monsters don't use iceblast
strange AI behavior there

In this case I wanted the howl.
repulsion is better than AC
more rolls, and ranged is MiBe weakness

I could go sling and buckler
but 2h seems the better route?
the bow gives ranged strength
more important than melee defenses, I reckon.
especially for just a buckler.

Cleared D8

2020-03-27-0402
MiBe Trog - Gemahiss - D:2 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Killed Terence, Natasha, Ijyb.
Cleared thru D:8.
Eschewing buckler for shortbow. 2h Be.
Using +3 protect flail.
[2020-03-27 Fri 04:02]

*** /

XL1 MiBe vs adder
mace: 2.1 + 1.1 = 3.2
falchion: 1.9 + 1.6 = (+ 1.9 1.6)3.5

No reason to choose mace.
Could argue for hand axe, but the repositioning power of the falchion is a better response to early mobs. Falchion is almost 50% better than mace at repositioning!

Retaliation,  riposte, and the need to have someone adjacent to hit while zerked, all reduce the value of cleave. Zerking is much more about positioning, and that's what falchion delivers. Not to mention excellent single-target damage, permitting MiBe to take out lone strong threats or focus on the biggest threat in a group.

The chaotic uncertainty introduced by cleave as to whether one will have an adjacent target next turn renders axes much less valuable. Zerking often needs to be precise to prevent very bad outcomes. It's a fragile state with severe limitations.

This becomes more true as Trog piety increases, and the odds of extension for a kill increase.

It's amusing that the most iconic combo in DCSS wants the most derided weapon - the falchion, deprecated even by the wiki itself!
[2020-03-27 Fri 04:59]

*** /

mark was caused by wizmode pollution
restart client
I was using wizmode to test stuff on a different character before switching back to jeereteh
to confirm that falchion is correct starting weapon for MiBe

Harm wouldn't be the worst on MiBe
particularly this high AC one.
so I could try on the amulet blindly now.
protection amulet and early plate makes him an AC specialist
Harm benefits tanks.
and his archery damages at range.

he's got 2 heal wounds as well.
can always remove it and get drained.
when would drain be acceptable, though?

in Lair, probably.

AC is pretty ridiculous for D:7
let's try it. casual is for experimentation.

faith. very nice.

I'll blind read my scrolls on a visitation upstair
if I get brand weapon, +3 dagger or morningstar?
eh, decide then.

oops, should've read ID on the pot

Enchanted the shortbow
I won't face serious skirmisher fire until shoals, medium from orc
lair is very low skirmisher fire
so good time to go 2h
take out enemy mages

probably shouldve zerked the ogre

oops, way overleveled fighting.

D:9 Orc AND Lair. Wow.

A very dominant performance.
My favorite play was dealing with the bee swarm. Wrecked.
Low MR.

2020-03-27-2207
MiBe Trog - Jeereteh - D:9 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Looted D:8. Cleared D:9.
Orc and Lair entrances.
Char OP.
[2020-03-27 Fri 22:07]

*** /

fsim: eleph. net aed.

dire flail: 11 - 2.1 = 8.9
flail +2 crush: 9.9 - 2.1 = 7.8
flail prot +3: 8.6 - 1.6 = 7
scim +3: 7.1 - 2 = 5.1
glaive: 6.6 - 2.2 = 4.4
+2 trid pierce: 6.5 - 2.1 = 4.4
war axe: 6 - 2.2 = 3.8
+1 hand axe chop: 5.6 - 2.1 = 3.5

polearms are equiv, but glaive will win zerked? maybe. speed.
dire flail wins.

gaining .6 extra riposte damage isn't better than taking .4 less damage via prot.

offense is beating defense. guess I've already got enough AC.
and that's vs a mild multiattacker, too.

not much changes between croc and elephant.

re-equipped
[2020-03-28 Sat 03:10]

*** /

oops, time is still frozen!!
I'll wait a turn?
there, waited a turn
wait another just to be sure
ok that was 3 turns, plenty penalty

forgot to use TLA to regen

Polearms to secondary allowed easy hydra kill with the flame glaive
polearms are situational but handy

I should've buffed sooner in the volcano killhole
wasn't considering light rF+ armor
playing fast cuz MiBe
didn't recognize the map, didn't know it was small
wasn't sure monsters would show up
should've remained in a lookout point to see them coming, and fallen back gradually
so I would've known to buff up.

Trog's 2h gifts make 2h a no-brainer

The flame longbow is OP. Char is OP.

2020-03-28-0410
MiBe Trog - Jeereteh - Lair:1 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Fsimmed weapon collection. Educational.
Cleared Lair:1-2
Volcano: Bit dicey due to blind killhole and late buff.
Char OP now. 2h walking armory build proven.
[2020-03-28 Sat 04:10]

*** /

str gloves: 13.6
AC: 12

str gloves are better.
boosts EV 1 point

insect vault. sigh.

2020-03-29-1533
MiBe Trog - Jeereteh - Lair:3 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Cleared Lair and Orc.
Needlessly yellowzoned in Orc end vault.
Should've been more diligent about yelling around corners.
Should've retreated with bro in arms while slowed.
Storm Bow OP.
[2020-03-29 Sun 15:33]

*** /

Ok, piety isn't reaching max cuz it's getting diverted to gift timer
and have gotten some amazing god gift weapons as a result
so the piety bar is deceptive

one !mut isn't useful. two would be.

shoutitis for 2 good muts. Nice.
well effectively one good. still fine.
I prefer monsters to come to me. shouting is fine. no stealth.

should've ID'd the trident and blind-wielded the longbow, bah.

reckon I can handle the abyss with the storm bow though, right?
and bros in arms.

nice, +Blink! that's huge. rpois too.

I could carry the other bow for relec monsters, rare as they are. it would be better.

So he's now the marks-minotaur
A BULLseye every time!
The foe is caught on the HORNS of a dilemma - to close or not to close?
The aMAZEng minotaur is the mage's nightmare - magic immune plate archer brute!
And the fact that he's now a blink archer to boot... it's just ridiculous.

12% failure on the blink is fine, am plenty tanky to try again.
evocables are lackluster, and don't need the extra MP for casting.

I did pay for doing the Orc:2 end vault prematurely with a needless yellow zone, due partly to carelessness, but still.

I'll carry the regen in case I'm abyssed
or if I expend a ton of piety, and prefer it.

shafted 3 floors
fear of shafts is why I did orc:2 early, since I knew MiBe could handle it. reducing low% risks.

2020-03-30-0327
MiBe Trog - Jeereteh - D:10 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Looted Orc.
Cleared D10. 5 shafts in total, down to D15. Not a problem.
[2020-03-30 Mon 03:27]

Remember to swap to a polearm when a gap develops while zerking. prevents further occurrences and is a fast action, minimizing the penalty.

In fact, best to wield a polearm pre-emptively while zerking, for that reason.

Blinking around the ogre genus heavy hitter in corridors near black put me by a basilisk - bad news. Just fight/zerk in those instances. More predictable.

*** /

The Jeereteh game is already won thanks to the Storm Bow and vorpal backup.
However, I have an unanswered question about MiBe starting weapon
Namely, is spear > falchion?
I know the falchion outperforms on fsim, but there are other considerations
reaching is a huge boon for MiBe zerk, and halberds come very early off gnolls.
so I want to restart and try it.

say goodbye to Jeereteh!

It just makes sense for MiBe to wield a polearm
He doesn't fear underrun due to horns
He doesn't need a shield
He does need reach to compensate for range disadvantage
and most importantly to keep the zerk attack chain going through gaps

IRL, his ridiculous strength makes a reach weapon the logical choice to eliminate opponents before they can touch him.

Plus, his ridiculous strength results in lots of one-hit kills, which with reach translates into active defense, like a MfSk with SoS and polearm.

I'm liking it. MiBe is made to stand and swing. Reach greatly increases the circumstances in which its safe to zerk, which makes everything else much safer.

delaying the D4 gnoll fort is paying off, as the monsters disperse out into the green zone.

nets > teleport

wow, D4 hornet almost beat me in a zerk
that was a redzone. down to 34 HP.
should've summoned bro in arms at 67% instead.
paralysis there would've been death.
should've netted as well as Bro in Arms.

Patrol the perimeter and the gnolls emerge from the fort

2020-03-31-0219
MiBe Trog - Woumoij - D:1 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Good run from D1-D7, except serious redzone vs the D5 hornet.
Just one moment of danger in all of early Dungeon.
Primary challenge of early MiBe is recognizing that one moment per 7 floors when maximum countermeasures are required.
I'm not trying to play with that level of concentration right now.
It was an unforced redzone. I had the stealth and disengaged. Then should've summoned Bro, whose shout would've pulled hornet. Net for easy kill.
Instead I stupidly decided to save piety. Decision made no sense. Was going too fast, on automatic, didn't apply brakes for redzone monster.
Ah, I know why. Because I was "busy" considering flail vs spear for the hornet's AC.
Should've written down thoughts in '1sprinting to avoid stupid mistakes.
Anyway, goal of the run was to evaluate starting weapon choice, not be perfect. But that is disappointing.

Gnoll fort. Menkaure. Crazy Yiuf. Terence. Jessica.

MiBe (spear) proved its superiority to the falchion start. Spear requires far less finicky positioning to safely zerk, because zerk adjacency gaps are far less finicky with reach. The lower damage of the spear doesn't matter due to the huge Str of MiBe, plus zerk at will. Spear gets upgraded to halberd as first 2h weapon early enough to keep pace with AC progression.

Update: Fsim says flail was wrong choice vs hornet, spear much better. Cuz zerk loves swing speed - quickblades are crazy.
[2020-03-31 Tue 02:19]

*** fsim answering the hornet question that was bugging me

zerked mibe XL7 vs hornet
spear vs flail

leveled stock MiBe (spear) to XL7
polearms = SL 11.3

aed:
spear 12.5 + 3.4 - 5.0
flail 10.4 - 3.1 - 5.4

Spear outperforms flail, in an even comparison!
And the reason is weapon speed. Unexpected.

What about when not zerked, though?

spear 4.3 1.2 5.2
flail 4.9 1.2 5.3

now average hit damage for the flail is double, so that's the factor that dominates.
interesting.

So spear really is the best for MiBe, due to weapon speed being the most important factor when every swing is already so damaging from zerk.

Does that hold all the way to quickblades? What about 2h vs 1h?

when not zerked:
halberd still outperforms both. glaive is same as halberd.
dagger is garbage
quickblade outperforms all

maybe swing damage is more important vs monsters with GDR, not just AC.

prediction: quickblade dominates when zerked.

quickblade: 21.7 3.1 5.2
yep, total domination.

But it's nevertheless impractical for zerking, because it's guaranteed to generate gaps in adjacency that cause duration penalties.

what about dagger? 11.7, outperforms flail! wow.
and halberd? same as flail. huh.

well, the SL tested is under spear mindelay, so I reckon that explains it. Next weapon tier doesn't become better until reaching mindelay.

So lessons:
Speed determines zerk damage, so minimize distance till skill cap.
Jumping to 2h normally improves aed, but thereafter distance to skill cap penalty applies.

I made a bad call choosing flail instead of spear to zerk the hornet, and it very nearly killed my char.
[2020-03-31 Tue 02:59]

*** /

Late Lair, early Orc makes interesting choice.

hm, I doubt gargoyle monsters can zerk, cuz non-living.

definitely correct to do Orc:1 before D:11, given how tough the latter was.
Had to spend resources after a Tele trap.
Went well, though. Think I played it correctly.

Did leave an unnecessary opening for Erica to Slow me, due to misguided Piety preservation. Bad habit. Wouldn't have changed outcome, though.

2020-04-01-0229
MiBe Trog - Woumoij - D:8 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Cleared thru D:11 and Orc:1 and Lair:3.
Killed Pikel, Grum, Erolcha, Fannar, Harold, Maurice, Sonja, Erica, Rupert, Snorg.
Nothing too tough. One Teleport trap forced some spend.
Cranking out gifts via Faith Amulet.
2h walking armory archer.
[2020-04-01 Wed 02:29]

*** /

goal:
finish uploading
then delete surplus vids

done
[2020-04-03 Fri 17:50]

** delete surplus vids

almost 3/4 of imac HDD disk space now available. excellent.
before it was about 3/4s full IIRC.
[2020-04-03 Fri 18:17]

** play dcss

*** /

Looted Lair:1-3
shopped. Bought rPois ring.
re-equipped
[2020-04-04 Sat 18:00]

If I'd zerked immediately, I would've had to retreat upstairs after the spiny frog saw me, and then kill him later.
Now I can handle him this stairdance, reducing the odds the stair will be camped heavily.

it was worthwhile to zerk since I'll need that long to recover the HP anyway.

Cleared Lair:4 easy.
Killed Nergalle with stairs, and Nessos with Para.
Ant vault with queen and 2x entropy weavers.
[2020-04-04 Sat 18:41]

Choose next floor:
Lair:5, Orc:2, or D:12

Lair:5 probably safest.
[2020-04-04 Sat 18:42]

*** /

L:5 was so easy, can probably push on L:6
don't do the end vault yet, though.

catoblepas vault should be safe with rCloud

Didn't expect the rest of those packs to show. Should've retreated to hatch instead.

Cleared Lair:6.

Vs Azrael, should've opened with acid when he was one tile away, and then zerked with the amagic lajatang
without stairdancing
betware his nuke. zerk's +HP counters damnation.

trog why???
gifted me a disto lajatang
why would he do that to his followers?
that's a bug
worst brand for a zerker.
ugh.

so... risk abyss or use brand weapon?
XL 15's a bit low for Abyss, and snorg's regen is low AC
trog does offer alternate regen.
no stealth would be rough.
burn the brand weapon instead.

*** /

artifact ring is very nice. would clean me out.
invis cloak would be great for post-zerk

question is what do I need for the rest of Dungeon?

Can do Spider after that. Clarity and rPois.
Would need flight for Swamp tho. Not cheap.
And rElec for Elf.

Since am OP, should play conservative
Reserve the price of the stuff I need: rElec and flight.

buy nothing.
[2020-04-05 Sun 03:30]

*** /

cleared D12 easily
easier than Orc:2, but less shaft risk.

D:13 mildly challenging
When behind enemy lines, quickly resort to Trog's Hand and Bro in Arms combo.

I should switch to xbows, since they're compatible with shields

Maybe MiBe should focus 1h and shield?
after all, he probably gets best zerk performance with a humble 1h spear
it's the fastest swinging reach weapon

maybe he shouldn't go 1h at first, because trog mostly gifts 2h weapons
but once his armory builds up enough to support a strong 1h equipage, then he can switch.
and still go 2h on some branches, but default to 1h when there are archers.

*** /

Stealth is quite valuable for swapping armor, means getting caught naked is much safer.

looted d:14
switched to shield and fustib
re-equipped
looks good. nice set of branded 1h weapons.
just takes MiBe a while to get geared for 1h

i have weapons thru i, and only two are trog gifs - the fustibuli
he seems biased towards 2h

A timely shield, to meet the arrows of outrageous centaurs!

*** /

There's no way I should do Spider before Swamp, right?
The cost is buying a silly +Fly plate armor.

I could do spider in rPois chainmail with Invis cloak, instead.
and hope to find a flight ring.
That would potentially save 673 gold, which is no small sum.

I'm prepped to dominate Spider: clarity, +7 blowgun, shield, rpois armor
Let's try that.

bought it.
Still need to save gold for +Fly if I don't find it in Spider.

stealth is great in spider, due to low spider HD, and swarming tendency.

*** /

Shield works well in Spider, despite lack of archers, because it slows combat, giving time for one's venom damage to kill.

A shield also improves mobility, crucial for repositioning to mitigate swarms, and to venom kite.

Spider favors light fast weapons anyway to apply venom and overcome spider EV, so 1h is preferred.

*** /

2020-04-06-1707
MiBe Trog - Woumoij - Lair:4 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Cleared Lair:4 easy.
Killed Nergalle with stairs, and Nessos with Para.
Ant vault with queen and 2x entropy weavers.
Cleared Lair:5
Cleared Lair:6. Spent a BiA mitigating a yellowzone due to laziness.
Killed Azrael. Yellowzoned.
Trog gifted disto weapon. That's a bug. He shouldn't try to convert his followers to Lug, and Disto is terrible for zerk. Branded it off.
Decided to save gold to determine needs when Dungeon done. Right call.
Cleared D12. Easier than Orc:2, but shaft risk.
D13 camped triple stair, took hatch. BiA and TH to counter rush. Shield would've helped vs centaurs.
Cleared D14.
Trog gifted +4 ice fustib. Switched to shield and 1h. Could've done so sooner. Better in Dungeon due to archers.
Cleared D15.
Considered Swamp but deferred due to expensiveness of +Fly. Bought rPois chainmail and +Inv cloak instead.
Cleared Spider:1 easily. Excellently equipped for it.
[2020-04-06 Mon 17:07]

*** /

should've equipped rC+ vs asterion's freezing weapon
good use of a net to land curare thru shield and acid
could've backed up and used web instead, maybe
that was also my escape insurance though. fair enough.

Makes sense to enchant blowgun early, since it's king in Spider, and falls off later.
still crucial in extended for confusion and frenzy

Spider:2 cleared.
Lotta uniques and Entropy Weavers.
Cautious approach clearly best, to defeat in detail.
Killed Asterion, Donald, Arachne,

*** /

Can't justify doing Spider:3 before Swamp:1
Guess I'll buy the +Fly armor?
But I did find rCorr
and if I buy rElec ring, then Spider:3 becomes pretty safe.
Major resistances covered.
And I could get +Fly in Elf, probably.
MiBe is strong enough to skip Swamp.
Will need rElec soon anyway.

Bah, can't afford flight armor
which suggests I should press on into Spider:3 end vault
probably safer than starting elf.

Had to spend a 1/4 blink on the Spider end vault because got unlucky with a zerk and didn't get extra rage despite many kills, leaving me with two emperor scorpions. Bro in Arms couldn't tank them.

Otherwise the alarm pull out of the vault went great.

Actually, I think the rule is that emperor scorpions must always be isolated and killed via web kiting.
it was my error to think I could zerk multiple emperors
at most can zerk one.
so that fault cost me 1/4 blink scrolls.

*** /

now I don't have enough gold to by +Fly for swamp
does that mean I should do Elf next?
I have a couple of flight potions to tide me over in case of shambling mangroves
so I can at least start swamp.

looted spider:3-4
re-equipped
did Dungeon vaults

nah, don't risk getting shafted into deep swamp without +Fly.
Elf is next.

plenty of archers, so shield is sound.

*** /

Misplay caused me to take a malmut - blurry vision - on Elf:1.
went too deep into room instead of shouting to the chokepoint
Tried to retreat with vermin DE mages in view.

That amulet is very nice.
Acrobat grants MiBe positioning flexibility, which synergizes with zerking.
Have gotten enough Trog gifts by now. Plenty of weapons and ammo.

Overall, Elf:1 was a great success, despite the unfortunate malmut, which can be solved with money.
Perhaps I should do Slime after Elf, since I'm already malmuted?
But MiBe goes good gods, so Slime is for Zin.

Stick to the standard progression. The malmut is negligible. still a positive set.

lotsa great longblades in elf. worth looting.

*** /

accidentally left magic mapping
not good. need 2 for deso of salt

Cleared and fully looted Deso Salt. Nice.
Char is well-established now.
Got a very solid +3 plate rF+

Kek, a blink archer MiBe
Now that is overkill

I reckon with the wands mutation I should train Evo to primary, since extra MP allows me to empower more wand shots. so I'm fully using the skill.
and anyway evo should be primary on MiBe cuz it's his only source of magic.

That disto eveningstar was worth netting.

*** /

do combat penalties for invis while lacking sinv still apply?
nope
not surprised they got rid of that
should probably bring it back though

bought +Fly for all gold (670)
re-equipped

*** /

inv and fly counter shambling mangroves

*** /

re my ill-advised swamp drake charge into the Elf:3 end vault:

Doubted they'd risk friendly fire by firing through me, but the AI didn't care. That Iron Shot!

So that was a redzone out of pure laziness.
Well, not pure. I was testing some things. So kinda worthwhile.

Just testing whether I could charge in with the swamp drake.

It doesn't work at all for elf. It's a Spider strat only.

The high level elves have too many HD for mephitic, and they tend not to run into the clouds like spiders do. The drake's better at not gassing them.

The cheese tactic for Elf:3 is definitely Vaults Sentinels. No question about it.

*** /

Good stopping point. Mistakes were made, lessons learned. Productive.

2020-04-12-0042
MiBe Trog - Woumoij - Spider:2 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Cleared Spider
Killed Asterion, Donald, Arachne,
Learned lesson: Always isolate and web-stab emperor scorpions.
I reckon Vaults costs a rune so one can't cheese both Lairiable end-vaults with Sentinels. Which means one should usually cheese the other!

Good call delaying +Fly plate and Swamp till after early Elf. rElec etc better. Wound up killing Louise in Swamp. +Inv trivialized Shambling Mangroves.
Dropped Faith for Acrobat artifact.
Cleared Desolation of Salt without magic mapping.
Artifact Blink bow. Still doing 1h.
Evo to primary.
Cleared Elf:2
Cleared Swamp:1, starting 2
Kited Swamp Drakes into Elf. Mediocre, not worth.
Needlessly redzoned in Elf:3 end vault proving that point.
Use Sentinels instead.
[2020-04-12 Sun 00:42]

*** /

Oops, forgot to record a little gameplay
went back to Swamp and killed 2 hydras with fustib

Cleared swamp:2
found hat of alchemist in easy swamp:2 ghost vault. OP.
re-equipped. bought reflection amulet and spirit shield

*** /

The way to do Vaults:
Consider it a Sentinel preserve
Use them to crack the second Lairiable end vault and any difficult floor or vault thereafter, thru Zot:5 if possible.
Would be nice to park them somewhere yet still clear Vaults:5 with a piety burst if appropriate
Could just park them on Vaults:3-4 I suppose.

*** /

wiki> Wearing an amulet of the acrobat grants a tremendous +15 boost to evasion, but only on turns in which you make no actions other than moving or waiting. Riposte attacks and minotaur headbutt counters negate this benefit, as do the moving attacks of Wu Jian followers.

Are the riposte and butt exceptions still true?

*** /

Enchanted draining eveningstar, cuz close to max.
end tier weapon for pre-extended, when monsters vulnerable to negative energy
good to capitalize on it now
and other weapon types are good enough to fulfill their roles
eveningstar is best 1h for percentage damage, and since am at mindelay, acceptably fast swing speed for applying drain as well.

*** /

looted swamp:3

1 str is worth about 1/2 slay at XL20

prefer +4 archery to +3 Dex

3 acq scrolls, 1 useful item. a marginal improvement. jewelry one was a waste at this stage, since resistances covered.

re-equipped

*** /

cleared Swamp
re-equipped for vaults

saving $ for lightning rod and relevant gear
rather than buying up consumables, since I already have plenty
also keeping a reserve in case need to buy !mut

*** /

Whoops, forgot I'm supposed to be farming sentinels and convokers.
although farming with a single entrance is a bit tricky
perhaps I should clear the first floor, just to get established.

I should probably unblack with -Tele

re clearing Vaults:1 without capturing pet Sentinels or Convokers:
I just don't feel comfortable dallying on a one-entrance floor
either I'm close to the entrance and risk getting stuffed, or I'm far from it and risk being cut off.
so my solution is to blitz to prevent monster overhwhelm

*** /

that was a great zerk, and flawless tactics

*** /

Just one long mark is enough to pull plenty of elves out of the elf:3 end vault by sitting on stairs
then park the sentinel on elf:1 and defeat in detail

Hm, should DE Elementalist be kept as a free source of digging?
Haste makes him difficult to escape. Fireball can kill self.
I doubt it would be that useful.

Cleared Elf:3 end vault
Trivial with Sentinel

Worth kiting one into Slime?
Probably yeah, for pre-clearing Slime:5?
But fast TRJ would show first to stair from Mark
so maybe not.

*** /

advanced stash to Lair entrance
Looted Elf
re-equipped

convoker clear of second half of Depths:2 very comfortable.
kited him between 2 stairs
dealt with intelligent monsters first, leaving low density dummies for cleanup snacks.

best to deal with intelligent monsters near stairs, since they can cast spells, some of which develop power over time, e.g. summons, hexes etc.

*** /

Wait, I need to consider Trog wrath, and escaping it.
Para and zerker surround.
good time to be 2h for blink archery

Ok, no para unless it's a fire miscast.
durable summons, temporary zerk.
stat drain. rot and sickness. slow.
This sounds like an Ely Abyss theme.
Purify fixes all that.
The problem is getting her piety high enough.
Can make it work, though.

Probably Ru makes sense for final MiBe god.
With magic apts so low, it's easy to sac them
wear heaviest armor, become an aura tank
power leap a lot to close to melee
permits a vamp weapon, good for zigs.

*** /

2020-04-14-0007
MiBe Trog - Woumoij - Swamp:2 - DCSS

No audio.

Spoiler:

Accidentally skipped recording killing two hydras at the start. Showed log.
Cleared swamp:2
found hat of alchemist in easy swamp:2 ghost vault. OP.
The way to do Vaults:
Consider it a Sentinel preserve
Use them to crack the second Lairiable end vault and any difficult floor or vault thereafter, thru Zot:5 if possible.
Cleared Swamp:3. Archery gloves.
Cleared Vaults:1
Cleared Elf:3 with Sentinel: ez.
Cleared Depths:1-2, with convoker pet. Found Abyss.
Planned Extended.
[2020-04-14 Tue 00:07]

*** /

re-explored Dis in wizmode
Ely doesn't generate nearly enough piety per floor to handle Dis.
Hell effects are mostly unholy summons and direct damage
TSO is the answer to both. Keeps it moving.
The smattering of natural holiness is just Dis flavor. It's not enough to change the god choice.
[2020-04-14 Tue 00:24]

Hm, trog does do paralysis. Nasty.
lasted 7 turns in my test.
well, Ely heals are good for staying out of 7 turn death range.

Sitting on a Hell upstair is also a decent way to tank Ely wrath, if one already has high piety.
Stairdancing skips most of the zerk packs, allowing one to meet them later when their zerk is over.

*** /

moved stash to D:14
looted depths
shopped
switched to Ely
re-equipped

*** /

not sure what just happened there.

*** /

switch to 1h and xbow? loses blink... but blink archer weak without apport.
could get apport with fire dragon scales, probably.
would counter trog wrath and give some stealth
passwall nearing castability too.

Although Abyss is low skirmisher, shield is still important to conserve HP, particularly while swapped to TLA.

2h hasn't done so well in Abyss, so let's try 1h I guess.
flight not that important either

switched to 1h and elec xbow with high stealth

finished the re-equip
we'll see how he fares.

*** /

yep. stealth and shield working way better than the blink archer setup in Abyss
xbow better in abyss cuz fewer shots means less cleanup after
also am getting apport castable, which helps

totally forgot to train invo after switching to ely. whoops.

*** /

Having trouble in Abyss with Trog wrath at XL23 with Ely
Think it's too early.
Trog is fine in Abyss. MR+ and Regen from Trog's Hand. +Invis counter neqoxecs. Bro in Arms counters post-zerk slow. Ammo gifts obviate need to pick up ammo. Just use sling.
Can at least farm it enough to get the rune, without worrying much about mutation accumulation.

Wuomoij died an unnecessary death in Abyss:2 to a Trog wrath pack in tight quarters, surrounded.
Just didn't want to keep playing him after the error of abandoning trog early
could've fixed it with wizmode, but I wasn't feeling it.
So I didn't heal him while fighting. Just let him die.

started new MiBe Kyrov
easily cleared thru D7

when should MiBe abandon Trog?
seems he can farm Abyss indefinitely once he finds +Inv
so he should train up all available skills first.

after that, switch to Ely and invis+teleport Trog's wrath packs.
[2020-04-17 Fri 04:26]

*** /

MiBe endgame:
TSO: Crypt, Vestibule, Tomb, Hell (Tar, Geh, Coc, Dis)
TSO: Pan
Usk/Ru: Zig, Ascent
[2020-04-17 Fri 14:42]

*** /

played around in wizmode zigs with MiBe.

Based on my testing, seems pretty clear that Usk is the standard Zig god.
With Makhleb the Evil variant.
Ru's not very relevant.

Is TSO viable?
I can't see it working, no

yep, primaries are Usk/Makhleb
then secondary gods get picked based on species idiosyncacies. Main exception class are casters going for magic gods. Endurance is important. E.g. Veh might work.
[2020-04-19 Sun 02:37]

*** /

quit MiBe Kyrov
[2020-04-20 Mon 17:47]

*** /

started MfSk Wamodier
doing well other than a fumbled starting vault rush due to commentary.
D:3 acrobat amulet and confusing touch = well established

2020-04-21-0136
MfSk - Wamodier - D:1 - DCSS

Audio commentary. MfSk essential build explained.

Spoiler:

Cleared thru D5.
Fumbled starting vault rush.
Early Acrobat amulet.
Bounced from swamp Ossuary.
Trouble with Confusing Touch until experimentally proved that duration stacks and decays linearly.
Worshipped Ely.
[2020-04-21 Tue 01:36]

*** /

2020-04-22-0225
MfSk - Wamodier - D:6 - DCSS

Audio commentary.

Spoiler:

Cleared D6-7.
Killed Joseph and Menkaure.
Added Transmutations starting book.
[2020-04-22 Wed 02:25]

*** /

2020-04-23-0142
MfSk Ely - Wamodier - D:8 - DCSS

Audio commentary.

Spoiler:
Cleared D:8-9
Acquired 2x, 1 useful armor.
Entered D:10 Lair
Entered Lair:1 Gauntlet.
[2020-04-23 Thu 01:42]

*** /

2020-04-24-0351
MfSk Ely - Wamodier - Gauntlet - DCSS

Audio commentary.

Spoiler:

Cleared Gauntlet poorly.
Cleared Lair:1-4
Killed Erica and Sonja.

Getting the hang of the complex tactics of an extreme hybrid by the end.
[2020-04-24 Fri 03:51]

get book of callings for Guardian Golem + Spectral Weapon

*** /

cloud immunity = immune to dreamsheep?

*** /

looted D:10
moved stash to D:10

2020-04-25-2349
MfSk Ely - Wamodier - Lair:5 - DCSS

Audio commentary.

Spoiler:

Shafted to Lair:6, tough escape.
Cleared Lair:5
Cleared D:10-11
Killed Sonja, Yiuf, Nergalle.
[2020-04-25 Sat 23:49]

*** /

looted D:11
memorized guardian golem

*** /

looted Lair:6
fsimmed elec dagger < rapier

re-equipped
should blind-wield launchers immediately, even ?artifacts

*** /

2020-04-28-0205
MfSk Ely - Wamodier - Lair:6 - DCSS

Audio commentary.

Spoiler:

Cleared Lair:6 and bee vault.
Re-equipped.
[2020-04-28 Tue 02:05]

*** /

2020-05-04-2332
MfSk Ely - Wamodier - Orc:1 - DCSS

Audio commentary.

Spoiler:

Cleared Orc:1-2, rest of Dungeon
Killed Jorgrun, Harold, Urug, Maurice, Snorg.

Using split shield and bow build.
[2020-05-04 Mon 23:32]

shared all but the last upload
when i updated camtasia, it wiped the failed upload list
now I gotta find and upload it manually
[2020-06-06 Sat 01:07]

started manual upload
[2020-06-06 Sat 01:14]

*** /

quit MfSk Wamodier
[2020-08-14 Fri 10:41]

*** /

started DrWp Zolafail
clearing D4 ez
[2020-08-14 Fri 11:51]

2020-08-14-1151
camtasia filename
[2020-08-14 Fri 11:53]

at game start, start wizmode
to avoid typos while activating it while trying to do something else
and getting the first keystroke eaten by the force-more, causing destructive commands.

quit DrWp Zolafail
started DrWp Ampamm

reached OP form:  Blink + Minor Destruction
quitting at XL11 in Lair:1
[2020-08-14 Fri 19:13]

DrWr Makhleb - Essential build - early game

Watch to learn how to play the essential Draconian.  See the guide:

Spoilers follow!

DrWr Ampamm lacks armor but finds Makhleb, reaches Lair and gains Lesser Destruction.  At that point the build is complete, and I quit on Lair:2 after killing Urug.  Secondary spellbook was Book of Maledictions IIRC.
[2020-08-14 Fri 19:43]

recording mistakes I made last time:
don't use fullscreen.  need to see the recording red light.
use pauses to think.  don't motormouth or dawdle.
[2020-08-15 Sat 15:00]

*** /

started TeAE Viamanum

it's worthwhile to train an SL in Dodge immediately

Static Discharge is for multiple foes, high AC and high EV.

ice_cave_statue_garden_transporter
good vault
[2020-08-16 Sun 04:43]

*** TeAE Veh -- Essential Build -- Early Game Demo

Demo of the essential TeAE Veh early game.  See the coming guide on Saidit s/dcss for details.

Spoilers below!

TeAE Viamanum winds up very overpowered due to good drops, and reaches Lair.  He then goes all out in an Ice Cave far too difficult for him, escaping with his life and half the loot.

After that I quit the character; no reason to play it out.  Morgue:
https://github.com/cyberthal/dcss-my-games/blob/imac-demo/morgue/morgue-Viamanum-20200816-044806.txt

*** DrWr Makhleb - Essential build - Early game

Learn how to play the essential Draconian Warper of Makhleb!

Read the guide: https://saidit.net/s/dcss/comments/63ia/drwr_makhleb_blink_dragon_of_greater_destruction/

I forgot my recording best practices due to being rusty.  I made a checklist, so the video will have better production quality.

Spoilers below!

DrWp Ampamm lacks armor but finds Makhleb, reaches Lair and gains Lesser Destruction.  At this point the build is complete, and I quit on Lair:2 after killing Urug.  Secondary spellbook was Book of Maledictions.

Morgue: https://github.com/cyberthal/dcss-my-games/blob/imac-demo/morgue/morgue-Ampamm-20200814-191333.txt

*** /

above from '3dashboard
[2020-08-16 Sun 15:28]

*** /

started DsAK Sal Emon

XL2 DsAK fsim vs Kobold

buckler: AED 2 - .6 = 1.4
shield: AED 1.7 - .9 = .8

Buckler is almost 2x better!
[2020-08-16 Sun 17:03]

Got Bend Space at D2 cuz found Abyss exit

If a D3 Orc Priest has good armor, blitz him with resources.

Wolves and fast monsters - escape with Haste rather than Teleport on open levels.  They'll run you down, "remembering" where you are.  DCSS stealth mechanics.

Can't break trail.  Memory decay.  So just outrun with Haste.

Bug: Corrupt monsters (starcursed mass at least) kill player's derived undead
[2020-08-17 Mon 11:49]

quit DsAK Sal Emon at Lair:1
[2020-08-17 Mon 14:03]

*** /

recorded
[2020-08-18 Tue 02:07]

test fast light vs slow heavy antimagic brand performance

HuGl
breach Lair entrance with Zin's Vitalize before switching to Ely, to avoid needing to quaff.

Quit HuGl Gudot
[2020-08-19 Wed 20:17]

started export.
[2020-08-19 Wed 20:23]

*** /

started FeCj Tetoxkin

incentivize retreating out of dungeon when entrance vault stuffed
score like a draw
minor penalty to discourage start scumming

Packs telepathically reunite.
Separate Robin from her pack.

Ijyb shouldn't spawn with wands she won't use.

quit Tetoxkin on Lair:1 in good shape.
[2020-08-21 Fri 18:04]

*** DsAK Lug -- Essential Build -- Early Game -- Sal Emon

UPLOAD COMPLETE

Watch how to play the essential Demonspawn build -- an Abyssal Knight.

Guide coming soon on s/DCSS: https://saidit.net/s/dcss/

Spoilers below!

DsAK Sal Emon found the Abyss exit.

Redzoned vs an armored D3 Orc Priest; should've blitzed him with Throwing Net.

On an open layout map, don't try to break contact with fast monsters via Teleport, especially trackers.  They'll just run you down again; DCSS lacks the concept of breaking a scent trail.  Use Haste to outrun them instead.

I neglected to switch from +1 Falchion to +3 Flail, which happily served to demonstrate that the starting weapon is adequate till Lair.

3 adjacent stairs forced a Corrupt on D10, and a camped Lair entrance required some Bend Space Iceblast kiting.  I never needed to Banish anything, although some foes required resets.  Bend Space Sling kiting was key.

Morgue:  https://github.com/cyberthal/dcss-my-games/blob/imac-demo/morgue/morgue-SalEmon-20200817-140107.txt

*** /

uploading maintenance.
[2020-08-22 Sat 09:31]

*** /

started DEWz Foiliwkue
clearing D1 well
[2020-08-22 Sat 16:08]

I think it's better to commentate directly into the morgue via text notes than to speak into the video audio
then my thoughts can be reviewed in context without transcription!
cool.
no more crappy audio either
[2020-08-23 Sun 13:20]

quit Foiliwkue after clearing Lair:1
[2020-08-23 Sun 15:09]

*** FeCj Kiku - Essential Build -- Early Game

Watch how to play the essential Felid build -- a Conjurer of Kiku.

https://saidit.net/s/dcss/comments/67rw/fecj_kiku_black_sabbath_scaredy_cat/

Spoilers below!

Had to spend resources on some fights, including Joseph, Erica and a scary L1 Swamp Worm vault.  That's Felid life, though.  Power develops slowly, requiring patience.  Didn't lose any lives.

Quit after clearing most of Lair:1, to avoid tedium.

Morgue: [[https://github.com/cyberthal/dcss-my-games/blob/imac-demo/morgue/morgue-Tetoxkin-20200821-180420.txt][Tetoxkin]]

*** /