So I've never beaten ADOM. But I am determined to do so. I just need a bit of coaching.
So I have a Grey Elf Wizard. I've gone through the small puppy cave, the unremarkable dungeon, Keethrax's dungeon, pyramid, Thundrar's quests, dwarven graveyard, ring of high kings. I don't think I'm ready for the Tower of Fire, but I'm not sure where to go to get ready.
I think next thing on my list is to get (pre)crowned. Thanks to some wands of create door, Magic Lock, and a chaos rat, the big room should be safe soon. I'm thinking I can get crowned offering stomafillia, maybe abusing stomacemptia and devil roses to get other stats higher. I've got white dragon scale mail, so the chances of getting fire immunity are a little better.
But what next? Should I go to the infinite dungeon and look for the equipment I need? Delve into the CoC and get the water orb before the fire orb?Any experienced players want to help me out?
Getting a water orb as a caster is a huge boon - it's a hugely useful item for all characters regardless, especially before ACW, since the guaranteed panic button heal and bonus to Willpower granting greater confusion resistance/recovery rate is very, very good to have. Also some bonus HP.
For a wizard, with willpower trained to 25 with herbs, the Orb becomes basically a 'must have' - +10 to Wi, optionally combined with +5 from Sword of Nonnak [with a good shield of course] and some amulets of perseverance will grant greatest possible range on ballspells, and since castings of those are both expensive and kinda scarce, you'd love them to cover the most possible area - especially if you find the spellbook of Ice Ball before the ToEF - honestly, it's probably the only thing you should bother to look at in ID at this point
I would definitely recommend getting the water orb before the fire orb. For one, the water temple is a fair bit easier than the ToEF, and it's generally a good idea to do easier things first, hopefully gaining a few levels in the process making the harder things slightly less hard. For two, the water orb is a very nie artifact, especially for a wizard.
It gives +10 willpower when equipped in the tool slot, and can also be used for an emergency full heal at the cost of some corruption. Both of these are very nice for the tower. While it's better to avoid using the healing if you can, having a source of healing that cannot possibly be destroyed no matter what the RNG throws at you is a nice safety net. The willpower bonus is useful for all characters in resisting the confusion attack of the ACW, but is doubly useful for wizards, since most spells scale with willpower. You'll especially be wanting to hit the break point of 32 Wi that gives ball spells increased radius. This shouldn't be a problem with herbalism, the water orb, and the sword of nonnak. If you're lucky enough to have iceball and high willpower, you can chew through the ToEF remarkably easily.
If you don't have ice ball, then you may want to consider doing the rift and the library before taking on the tower. These are tough areas in their own right, and can generate some very nasty enemies, but if you keep on your toes and are prepared to run away at the first sign of trouble then they're not usually deadly. The reward of every spell in the game, plus a few SoCR is definitely well worth it. It depends on how good your climbing is, and also on whether you prefer the known quantity of the tower, or the somewhat more RNG-dependnt nature of the rift.
I think next thing on my list is to get (pre)crowned.
If you've completed all the areas and quests you mentioned, then you've already generated the black torc, AMW, ankh, Big Punch, elemental gauntlets, the sword of Nonnak and the ring of the High Kings, in addition to the si - which means you must be at the very least level 32 for a precrown. Unlikely that you're there now, and unlikely that you can do it easily without generating further artifacts, unless you make an AKW wish. Precrowns are best done in the early game when you find a an altar and stable patch of stomafillia in the UD, or an altar in PC: 5.
As for your question: I would get the water orb as emergency healing, stash the snake's corpse in DT's shop, then get Wi and To as high as possible for the Tower via herbs, and take on it (how's your fire resistance? Fireproof blankets? Rings of ice?). If you're not playing one of those prereleases where Darkforge has been nerfed, I'd try to get the guaranteed wand and teleport control if you don't have them already, then raid DFG in hopes of something good (RDSM). And for a wizard, there is always at least one great item there, the crown of science.
Also, posting a VLG of your character would allow us to make accurate suggestions
As others have said, I recommend getting the water orb, then crowning (or vice versa), and also trying Darkforge out for the items found there. After that, if you have enough castings of Frost Bolt and optionally Ice Ball (on the ACW himself, any kind of non-fire ball spell will be effective), you are probably ready to give the tower a try.
Last edited by aerol; 03-05-2013 at 06:18 PM.
Playing since gamma 10, when necklaces looked like &s. Lithium man. Brass + Lithium. OCG. Illiterate barb. One race and one class to go.
Corpses don't rot in a shop? You learn something new every day...
I'm on p5, might get p11 after I do some personal accounting... :P
I'll get official stats up later, as I'm not at the machine that I play on. I should have enough fire resistance with a ring, the elemental gauntlets, and I'm pretty sure I've eaten a fire beetle or lizard corpse. No rings of ice though, but as a wizard that shouldn't be as much of an issue if I'm high enough level. Sword of Nonnak + crystal tower shield + white dragon scale mail should keep me tanky enough for the water orb. +20 Burning Hands can't hurt either...
I assume the wand of teleport you refer to is above the assassins guild? I've got teleport control, but no reliable forms of teleport itself (Used my 1 scroll to avoid a room of 20+ cave lions). I've never done much in dark forge before, I assume the usual guidebooks have sufficient information on how to survive / exploit that place?
There should be plenty of teleporting devices on the level where you can find the wand of teleportation
Burning hands are quite useless in the tower of eternal flames though!
And Darkforge is a bit dangerous, especially for weakling wizzies. Lightning Ball works very good though. If you don't have it you could try lightning bolts but those work much less nicely. You can also just teleport around most dangers with the wand though
Well yes burning hands is pointless in ToEF. But I do love the smell of fried water grue.
I'm thinking the plan for Darkforge is to get that wand o teleport, raid the rooms with stuff, and maybe see if I can take on the steel golems w/ Lightning Ball.
I'm thinking the plan for Darkforge is to get that wand o teleport, raid the rooms with stuff, and maybe see if I can take on the steel golems w/ Lightning Ball.
Indeed so. I don't take on the golems, because one critical hit from those guys can mean game over. But I suppose that with Lightning Ball, Wi over 32 and emergency teleportation it's a relatively risk-free way to get some XP.
What do I do next?
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Originally Posted by NMBLNG
