Mist Elf Archers - surprisingly good

[magpie]

I've been playing around with the new races lately ... and I've found that ME Archers are pretty good!

Pros:

Beginning with mithril gear, including mithril arrows and a mithril dagger. Having a decent melee weapon at the start of the game can help quite a bit.
Good Awareness score and modifier.
High Learning, which means 4-5 skill ups per level.
High Dexterity, at least as high as other elves, and maybe even higher (I haven't made enough to be sure of this latter point).

... with the well-known Mist Elf weaknesses, of course.

Also, you don't start with very many mithril arrows, and you usually start with 4-5 small stacks of them, which is a little bit of a pain, but it's not too bad once you run into a few kobolds and raiders to increase your stash of normal arrows.

Right now, I have one at level 11, who's done all the Terinyo quests, and while I need to be really careful, it's doing pretty well. Starting with Candle has helped a lot, of course.

Has anyone played a ME archer into the late game?

[SirTheta]

My new favorite mist elf class is actually weaponsmith (and not just because I got to TOEF on my first try!).

Pros:
-(almost) always start w/ 17 St and can start with a To potential of 16-17 with a few rolls (if taking the Tree starsign, which you should be doing anyway). This usually means you can get TH by level 6 (if taking Hardy as your second starting talent) and ITP by 15.
-smithing means you can up your PV considerably assuming you do a simple trip through the UD. PV isn't as important for mist elves, but it's still a nice boon.
-start with a ring of fire resistance and detect traps
-find weakness!
-since mist elves get terrible shop prices, you can save all your higher metal gear to melt down for ingots!
-like all mist elves, usually have an okay learning score and always start with mithril gear

Cons:
-die increases on several key skills (like alertness and stealth) fall off to +1 in the 60s

[JellySlayer]

Well, archers are pretty much godly on any race, so it's not surprising that they do well as Mist Elves. Certainly, not having to engage things in melee and being able to dual-wield shields basically full time is a pretty nice perk.

Healing/Candle is not really worth it for Mist Elves, IMHO. Herbalism/Gardening/Raven is much more useful to them. HP regeneration is not a huge deal when you have such a small amount of HP and one or two blessed spenseweeds is all you need to get to full HP. My first Mist Elf win was a Farmer back in pre7. I think I finished the game with a Healing skill of like 65 and no Candle. It was just never worthwhile to bother increasing it (and it's really difficult to increase anyway).

[Grey]

What the mist elf archer heir gift? Winged mithril arrows?

[grobblewobble]

40 winged mithril arrows of hunting

[Carter]

Has anyone played a ME archer into the late game?

the major problem for ME anything is the tower, simply because you can't wear the gauntlets, and you still want a ring of ice. That means you need to have something else that gives you the fire resistances, which can be quite tough to get. Then you have the wyrm who can instagib alot of ME. You basically need to find a crown of fire or red dragon scale mail, or be crowned with fire imm unless you have bulk spenseweed, which an archer won't have.

[Carter]

Healing/Candle is not really worth it for Mist Elves, IMHO. Herbalism/Gardening/Raven is much more useful to them. HP regeneration is not a huge deal when you have such a small amount of HP and one or two blessed spenseweeds is all you need to get to full HP. My first Mist Elf win was a Farmer back in pre7. I think I finished the game with a Healing skill of like 65 and no Candle. It was just never worthwhile to bother increasing it (and it's really difficult to increase anyway).

Its a good point. One you have a ME with over say, 150 hp you would have found something that regenerates wounds anyway, so healing is then not required anyway.

[magpie]

Its a good point. One you have a ME with over say, 150 hp you would have found something that regenerates wounds anyway, so healing is then not required anyway.

Healing/Candle is not really worth it for Mist Elves, IMHO.

Yeah, that's true, but I don't re-roll star signs until I get the one I want - I just roll with whatever star sign I'm given. The last ME Archer I played was a Tree sign, who died pretty early - but that was to an exploding door at a much lower level, so ...

My second-best character on ADOM was a Dwarf Warrior who didn't really find much good equipment until the late game - so that forced me to play very carefully, which isn't my usual style (I'm pretty impatient, which is death for any ADOM character). So I think how carefully you play is really the deciding factor in how successful a character will be.

the major problem for ME anything is the tower, simply because you can't wear the gauntlets, and you still want a ring of ice. That means you need to have something else that gives you the fire resistances, which can be quite tough to get. Then you have the wyrm who can instagib alot of ME. You basically need to find a crown of fire or red dragon scale mail, or be crowned with fire imm unless you have bulk spenseweed, which an archer won't have.

Thanks!

Ah, yeah, that's true. No gauntlets? They are so easy to get, it's easy to forget that they are pretty important for quite a long time in the game. I guess stocking up on wands early, and blasting through other creatures, will be a decent way to deal with the AKW?

[magpie]

I hate smithing - I've tried, and I just find it even more boring that herb-scumming or grinding the ID. But I understand it's pretty powerful if pursued throughout the game.

I have a question - how many people never pursue smithing, and usually manage to finish games pretty easily?

And how many people find smithing to be a crucial factor in their (near-)victorious games?

[Grey]

I guess stocking up on wands early, and blasting through other creatures, will be a decent way to deal with the AKW?

Well as an archer you can take down the Wyrm easily enough if you get some arrows of slaying or dragon slaying. Alternatively dip a stack in poison. As long as you keep him out of direct line you'll be okay.

You might want to train up rocks a little before the Tower and use them on most of the denizens. They don't burn as easily in there and as an archer they should work fine for pulverising things. But minimise time in there anyway, making a beeline for the stairs and getting to the ACW as soon as you can.

As for smithing, don't bother, it's a waste of time. I did it on one game because it was an extra challenging run (drakeling spit only for attacks) and it ended up making things too easy. It takes ages and detracts from the fun of the game.