Healer melee advice (warning game spoliers included), please.

[blunk]

Hi.

I would be happy for some expert advice.

I've got a decent dwarf healeress going. (lvl 16)
I regen like crazy (trollbloodx2, troll corpse and healing 100).
Have found a lot of sweet stuff but as usual some areas are lacking.
No awesome armors or shields either but amw and tower mithril shield suffice for now (18-22 PV).
Str and good melee weapons are an issue, until just recently.
Despite eating a lot of ogres I'm only at 16 (26) str.
(Thundarr quests done incl graveyard+pyramid)

My next goal was supposed to be high king....
I can't hit air elementals (I can out run them), according to wiki high king have same DV as air eles.
I got:
Ad spear (+1,d8+9), skill 10
ad warhammer of slaughter (+3,3d5+9), skill 5
battle axe of devastation (+0, 5d6+8), skill 2
big punch , skill 1 (weight is an issue here)

What to do? keep to spear or practice other weapons?
go deeper to maybe water temple before high king? (I got djinn ring to get wish-->amu to save khelavaster)

Note: I'm far from an expert on this game and abuse wiki/guide a lot.
I generally do ok to this point with melee chars.

[yhal003]

You don't want to fight SK in melee, not if you can help it. This thing is prone to rage, and when it rages it is deadly, at least for mid-level chars. He is a lot stronger than both Rahep and undead dwarf. Blessed undead slaying ammo and good speed works best. Thrown potions of holy water also work - last time I needed 5 or 6 of them. But those are better used for something else. If you have no ammo (humanoid slaying also works) just leave him for later.

Also, if you read wiki and guides, you should know that there are few other problems on this level. Confusion resistance is a must and so is good standing with your deity (prayer can clear confusion).

[AlterAsc]

Big punch is your only decent weapon, start training with it. You can return to other weapons if you get one made of eternium. Or of less metal but with exceptional prefix. When you get maces' weapon skill to lvl6 or so, you can probably raid DF by berserking golems one on one and recovering in between fights. If there are no good weapons in DF then you can continue wielding BP.

Oh, and if your strength is 16 and potential is 26, then it's time to walk around Strained! - that will get str to 18.

[Arbot]

As far as weapon choice is concerned I would go with Big Punch, as long as you can handle the weight. if not be on the look out for a girdle of carrying. Also unless you are planning on an ultra (which I would suggest reconsidering if you are) saving Khel isn't worth a wish unless you don't have anything better to wish for. Red Dragon Scale Mail(s) or a Girdle of Giant Str would both be worthwhile wishes at this point. RDSM is more or less a set of eternium plate mail with Fire immunity for the tower. GoGS would solve your weight issues as well as increasing your melee power considerably

[Blasphemous]

If you're playing the version with ice queen realm then go get the quest to kill Haggar and spend some time hitting & eating frost giants in FGJC cave.
That should push your St to ~22, maybe more and with big punch and high regen, you should be fine against them.
You might also check out the greater vault there for a potentially nice artifact weapon or maybe bracers of war.
With 22+ strength and big punch, skele king shouldn't be a problem, assuming you have confusion resistance and decent willpower.
Also, gremlin cave is a nice place to quickly level up weapon marks to lvl ~7 or even 9, without running the risk of uber-gremlins.

[plllizzz9]

Also unless you are planning on an ultra (which I would suggest reconsidering if you are) saving Khel isn't worth a wish unless you don't have anything better to wish for.

please don't spread this horrible misinformation, 6 blessed potions of ultra healing, a blessed spellbook of teleportation and 6 blessed scrolls of chaos resistance [which can translate directly into big stat gains from eating guardian corpses] are very well worth a single wish.

[divij]

i think the long and short of it is you need to train your St by doing encumbrance training....goto the main map and enter any place, eat blessed stomaphilia and go strained! till you reach 18 St and then overburdened till you reach 20 (you will get Dx loss on overburdened). also you need to use big punch.. get it to lvl 7-8 and then go kill SK

[mjkittredge]

As far as weapon choice is concerned I would go with Big Punch, as long as you can handle the weight. if not be on the look out for a girdle of carrying. Also unless you are planning on an ultra (which I would suggest reconsidering if you are) saving Khel isn't worth a wish unless you don't have anything better to wish for. Red Dragon Scale Mail(s) or a Girdle of Giant Str would both be worthwhile wishes at this point. RDSM is more or less a set of eternium plate mail with Fire immunity for the tower. GoGS would solve your weight issues as well as increasing your melee power considerably

6 Scrolls of Chaos resistance isn't worth it???? He'll be wanting those later when he's got Poison Hands, Mana Battery, Babbling Mouth, Unholy Aura, ect ect ect.

Yeah RDSM and GoGS are very nice and will help more in the short term, but he can wish for those later too. Once Khele is gone he's gone.

[Soirana]

Hi.

I would be happy for some expert advice.

I generally do ok to this point with melee chars.

Not sure how it is after rewamps but healers used to be more of spellcasters with problem to find books.

On current situation: use Big Punch, get water orb [in general easier than high kings provides extra healing if needed especially with Khelly's scrolls zand elemental gauntlets], look for options to loot darkforge [about time of getting water orb most chars have some construct slaying ammo].
As a healer I used consider library to be high priority as healers don't really make cut as mellee fighters in mid-game.

Assuming healers reading abilities have not been nerfed to ground saving Khelly is worth for TP book alone [as healer].

[Mansku]

About GOGS, is it just me or do they end up destroyed in the next few minutes after you get them?