In need of advice

[Aielyn]

I'm currently playing a High Elven Wizard (yeah, I know, but I'm still working on getting my first win, and I'm pretty good at training up my HE Wizards to be pretty damn good in melee, as well as magic). She (I generally play a female, just so that I might satisfy that frog quest thing) has been trained up to mastery with Clubs and Hammers (level 11 with C&H, also level 7 with Shields). She's currently level 21, has defeated the Snake from Beyond, has intrinsic invisibility, intrinsic teleport control (recently gained from a blink dog corpse - dog was killed by another monster in the big room; before that, I was using a ring of teleport control), and was crowned L+ (got Staff of the Wanderer) and given acid immunity. She is also intrinsically poison, cold, acid, and shock resistant, and recently gained fire resistance from a fire beetle. She has a ring of regeneration and a blessed necklace of rapid healing.

In terms of stats, prior to special effects, she has St 21, Le 29, Wi 28, Dx 28, To 27, Ch 20, Ap 20, Ma 29, Pe 21. She has To+5 from bracers of toughness, St+4 from gauntlets and girdle of strength, and Ap-4 from horns corruption (second corruption). She also has the extremely thin and nimble corruption (first corruption) - obviously, not wanting to get rid of that one any time soon. Her Climbing skill is only at 64, so the rift is out of the question at this point. Speed while burdened is 102.

As luck would have it, two ring shops have been generated, one right below Dwarftown, another a few floors further down. Already, she found a RoDS in the ring shop, and used the wish for an AoLS to save Khelavaster. Another RoDS has been generated in the shop, now, on a restock, which I've bought and blessed, and I'm trying to figure out what to wish for with it.

She has Alchemy at 100, and a PoGA requires a potion of longevity and a potion of ultra healing (giving a second use for the potions given by Khelavaster). Potion of Longevity itself can be made using a stomafillia herb and a potion of invisibility (great, since PoI is useless when you've got intrinsic invisibility). She currently has one uncursed and two blessed potions of Ultra Healing, and six stomafillia herbs. When creating it using alchemy, PoGA will almost certainly be generated blessed.

She has used Teleport Control to head into the Darkforge storerooms, but no red dragon scale mail (did get an eternium ring mail of defense, though - had [+4,+9], down to [+4,+8] after a bit of damage) and nothing notable for my character in the weapon room except a phase dagger (there was a sword of sharpness, but as she hadn't trained in swords, it wasn't a good enough choice). She's got the Ring of the High Kings, has defeated Nonnak and Holy Watered Griff's grave, collected and sold the Phial of Caladrial, defeated the Pyramid, slaughtered most of the assassins in the Assassin's Guild, gotten Courage from the Old Barbarian, taken out the Banshee with ease, saved the cute puppy and cleared out the vault in the Puppy Cave, saved Yriggs, and defeated Hotzenplotz.

In terms of Thrundarr's quests, I've done the first three, but can't beat the Arena with intrinsic invisibility, and haven't found any potions of visibility.

I could perhaps head into the Water Dragon's Lair to reunite Blup with his mother, as I found a Ring Mail of the Sea that I could to survive the trip. Other than that, the Tower is the next goal.

Between the intrinsic fire resistance, the Ring of the High Kings, and the Elemental Gauntlets, I've got 3 fire resistances - I need one more to survive it safely, and I would rather wear a blessed Ring of Ice, rather than use a Ring of Fire Resistance in the second ring slot (although RoFR is available from the Ring shops).

So, what should I use the RoDS wish on? Obvious choices that come to mind are Seven League Boots, Red Dragon Scale Mail (but I think my Eternium Ring Mail of Defense is better, except for the immunity), Ring of Elemental Mastery (I assume this can be wished for...) which can replace RotHK - note that Ring of Elemental Mastery gives immunity to the three elements I didn't get from crowning, Crown of Fire, Potions of Visibility (to take on the Arena, and hope for Rolf's Savior from Thrundarr, boost to tactics through Tactics from Bart would also be nice), Bracers of Resistance/Regeneration (although my bracers of toughness {To+5} are probably better, and I can even get a bracers of toughness {To+7} from Waldenbrook's, if I want). Also possibly either potions of longevity or potions or invisibility (whichever is likely to produce more of them).

Food Preservation is also a theoretical possibility, as the snake from beyond's corpse is currently sitting in Waldenbrook's shop, got it there by teleporting from stairs to stairs on the way back. I'd wish for Alertness, but apparently it's a non-wishable skill. Find Weakness is an option, but I just don't think it beats any of the options I mentioned earlier, especially prior to defeating the Tower.

Another option is to get items that improve my abilities in the tower - currently using an adamantium warhammer of defense (+1, 2d3+7) and a large mithril shield (+3) [+7,+4] - a tower eternium shield or a large eternium hammer would be plausible options.


A few last things...

- She does have 6 uncursed arrows of dragon slaying (+3, 1d6+3) that can be made use of against the ACW.
- She knows (relevant to Tower): Frost Bolt (599 knowledge), Acid Ball (481 knowledge), Lightning Bolt and Magic Missile, Stun Ray, Web, Darkness and Light. She also knows, amongst other spells, Identify, Strength of Atlas, Slow Monster, Teleportation, and Magic Map.
- I generally avoid the various scummy techniques, like sickness, ring of weakness, etc. Stairhopping the ID is only a method of last resort.
- She has not spoken to the Dwarven Mystic, and thus can get Rolf's Companion, which does give fire resistance... but she'd be useless with it in melee.
- Elapsed time is already over 114 days.

Also, does taking things from the water dragon's lair affect alignment at all? If so, is it just a once-off alignment change, or one per item taken? Is it a large effect?


UPDATE: Spent some time in the Big Room while waiting, now almost 117 days elapsed, and a bit of progress worth mentioning. Found a better shield, Medium Crystal Shield (+2) [+9,+4]. Also found a cursed PoGA, which I promptly blessed and drank. Found boots of sneakiness [+0,+3] {Dx+2} and a Cloak of Adornment {Ap+4} (not that that last one matters, just figured I'd mention it).

[blob]

I would chat with the mystic and then go for the tower. You should be able to make it without any special tower-friendly wishes with your level and stats. Train up the Stun Ray spell in the wilderness (10-15 effectivity, or whatever you have patience for)- you will eventually get the W with it. You can also use the lightning bolt and some guys between you and the W, actually combine that with Stun Ray for safety. Potions of Cure Corruption is also nice to throw at him, as well as disabling potions of course.
Wield two shields and Coward Tactics for casting spells, don't worry if you have to cast spells out of HP, but make sure to heal. You may lose a point of Mana or two, but that really has little effect on gameplay.
I would use the wish on the boots, you will eventually find enough PoI. Note that one ring of ice is not enough in the tower, you may lose equipment anyway. I usually plan for only fireproof equipment unless I have to bring other stuff for a decent chance of survival.

[AlterAsc]

- She does have 6 uncursed arrows of dragon slaying (+3, 1d6+3) that can be made use of against the ACW.

Remember, that ACW has 50 DV(or smth like that), so if your to-hit with missiles is low, it's better not to waste any time shooting.

[Aielyn]

I would chat with the mystic and then go for the tower. You should be able to make it without any special tower-friendly wishes with your level and stats. Train up the Stun Ray spell in the wilderness (10-15 effectivity, or whatever you have patience for)- you will eventually get the W with it. You can also use the lightning bolt and some guys between you and the W, actually combine that with Stun Ray for safety. Potions of Cure Corruption is also nice to throw at him, as well as disabling potions of course.
Wield two shields and Coward Tactics for casting spells, don't worry if you have to cast spells out of HP, but make sure to heal. You may lose a point of Mana or two, but that really has little effect on gameplay.
I would use the wish on the boots, you will eventually find enough PoI. Note that one ring of ice is not enough in the tower, you may lose equipment anyway. I usually plan for only fireproof equipment unless I have to bring other stuff for a decent chance of survival.

Thanks for the advice, blob. I did just that - I nabbed Rolf's Companion from the mystic, and used it as the final source of fire resistance. It actually, technically, was a slightly better weapon than my warhammer, despite not having trained up axes (although the eternium warhammer that a fire elemental dropped within the temple itself beats it out).

Didn't end up needing a particularly high effectiveness for Stun Ray, as it turns out. Got him on the second ray, first time, and on the first ray, second time that I needed to stun him. Otherwise, I flung Lightning Bolts at him to reduce the chance of killing other foes around me. Also, used some of my dragon slaying arrows - hit him once out of four shots fired, seemed to do a decent amount of damage.

Almost died at one point - he came out of the stunned state not far from me, I used an Acid Ball to hit him, he panicked, moved one space, then sent two energy bolts my way, knocked me down to 30 HP. Didn't take any chances, prayed immediately. Then another acid ball was enough to kill him.

I didn't bother doing the "two shields" bit, as the damage from the heat would have caused issues. Having said that, I just now realised that I completely forgot about turning Coward on.

Regarding the ring of ice - I did have access to a second one, if I wanted to buy it from a ring shop... but I didn't bother. One was enough for near-perfect protection, after using magic map and teleport to skip through the lower levels. Did lose my Cloak of Defense, though. Not a huge loss, really.

Best part was, managed to get the ACW corpse back to Dwarftown, to sell to Waldenbrook. When I'm ready, I'll make a single trip with multiple corpses.


Still not sure what to use the RoDS wish on, but I suppose I can put that off a bit, while I pass beyond the flame wall.

[JellySlayer]

Intrinsic resistance + elemental gauntlets + RoTHK gives all the fire resistance you need. You need four sources, but intrinsic counts for two. Red dragon armor is a waste at this point IMHO, unless your regular armor is really bad, ditto for elemental mastery ring.

Pots of invisibility aren't totally useless, btw. if you curse them, they make a good thrown weapon (blindness). Using them for PoGA is perfectly sensible though, since pots of ultra healing are probably the limiting factor anyway.

For your wish, answer depends on one question: Do you have the invisibility spell and see invisibility intrinsic (mummy wrapping is fine)?

If yes, then you should do the following:
Find a small room where you can safely bounce magic missiles.
Wish for an ancient karmic wyrm.
Magic missile it to "criticall wounded"
Cast invisibility on it.
Cast slow monster on yourself.
Kill it with magic missiles.
Get 8 million experience. This should put you at about level 35ish. Pretty much nothing else you can do at this point will make as much of a difference.

The important thing to note: the ancient karmic wyrm will not attack you as long as you remain invisible provided that:
You only attack it with magic missiles and use the invisibility spell. Never use melee; never use missiles, even thrown potions.

[edit]If you're feeling brave, you can also try wishing for an emperor moloch. This will summon ~25 greater molochs onto the level. Killing them all should push you to level 50. On the other hand, greater molochs are a bit trickier to kill, since they have massive HP and PV, and do happen to see invis. They're ~60 speed though, so they can be easily avoided. If you've got teleport, farsight and a ton of acid ball casting though, this might be worth considering. Barbarian glade is a decent place to try this. Also... if you see any of them picking up a dropped moloch armor, it's probably best to teleport as far away as you can.

[edit2]If you throw the Phial of Caladrial at humanoids (up to and including the archmage), it will blind them temporarily. It's a pretty sweet artifact.

[Guru]

Personally, I would wish for "seven league boots", although I'm no vet. It makes a difference in most fights, and it gives yet another escape route if you get in above your head..

Good point in selling the guardian corpses to Waldenbrook, I always walk the whole way with one corpse at a time :P This will at least save one trip

[Silfir]

"pairs of seven league boots" though, of course

[Guru]

Of course :P

[Aielyn]

Thanks for the suggestions.

JellySlayer - while certainly an interesting idea, it seems rather scummy to me. My levels are going up quickly enough as it is, anyway.

Guru - that's what I'd have gone with, I think... but it's no longer necessary. Not only did I find seven league boots in the casino gift shop (which I promptly bought, along with a few other nice items - no artifacts in there, though), but when I headed back to take on the Ogre Lord/Ettin/various Giants greater vault that popped up a few levels earlier, I found another pair.

I'm thinking that things are going to go quite smoothly from here. The greater vault gave me two very nice artifacts. The lesser of the two is the Crown of Leadership - Ch+18 isn't that big a deal, but since it grants See Invisible, gives confusion resistance, and is [+2,+7], it's still a very nice item to get.

The greater of the two, though, provides me with the two immunities I was missing. Nature's Companion - +15 speed, [+2,+8], and Fire and Shock immunities, definitely a nice thing to find. Makes up for losing my eternium ring mail of defense to a lousy eye of destruction on the way down.

Next up is the Battle Bunnies - plan on taking out Bugs by teleporting to him straight away. Then to get the RotMC.

[JellySlayer]

Nothing wrong with scumming a little bit for your first win

At this point, you probably don't need the extra XP all that much. It's pretty killer doing the ToEF at level 30+, but between the archmage, the Earth temple, greater vaults, and, if you're interested, the real AKW, you should hit level 50 no problem.

I'd probably just save the wish at this point--you might need some extra acid ball books or something. You can never have too much acid ball Or maybe some SoCRs if your supplies get low.

Just be careful and watch your HP. You're in position to get a win out of this, it would be shame to lose it now. Don't be afraid to cast from HP in the big battles--losing a point or two (or six) of Mana doesn't really matter when you're in the Mana Temple or D:50 or Earth temple and desperate to kill something.