Team Silfir: From Zero to Hero in Six Small Steps

[Silfir]

Greetings, friends!

I trust you, like me, know that the unsafest place to be in this challenge is in the team of either gut or Grey, who would ruthlessly sacrifice all their team members just to stick it to their respective sworn enemy! Fear not, for none of this shall pollute this place. Our sole goal is to brave the challenges of ADOM on our own, together, with the help of friendly discussion and superior strategy. As Captain of this team, I vow to hear every voice and consider every suggestion, but will not waver in my decisions. United we stand, and united we shall take the cup home!



These are the races as they came as a result of the pool:

Hurthling, Human, Orc, High Elf, Dwarf

The result of the class picking, with placement on my list in brackets, is as follows:

Paladin (1), Healer (4), Elementalist (5), Monk (8), Merchant (19)

We got a bit hosed on the Merchant (as we happened to take the last spot in both the first and last picking round), but the others are very solid classes, fully capable of both living through the UD run in the first mission and becoming powerful enough to succeed later.



Team Roster:

1. Silfir (captain)
2. Subconscious
3. Molach
4. Harwin
5. Sradac

Current Score:

Mission 1: 3
Mission 2: 2
Mission 3: 0
Total: 5

Mission One lineup:

1. Silfir - Dwarven Merchant - Killed by river and spider factories
2. Sradac - Human Elementalist - Completed!
3. Molach - Orcish Monk - Killed by Small Cave
4. Harwin - Hurthling Healer - Completed!
5. Subconscious - High Elven Paladin - Completed!

Mission Two:

1. Harwin - Human Elementalist - Completed!
2. Silfir for Subconscious - Hurthling Healer - Completed!
3. Sradac - High Elven Paladin - Killed by crazy berserking dark elven warrior

Mission Three:

1. Harwin - Hurthling Healer
2. Subconscious - Human Elementalist

[Subconscious]

I guess this team fits me as I don't have chance to play on server at this moment.
My suggestions for classes:

Hurthling: I think Monk is the best choice, or at least the most natural. Archer, Paladin, Assassin, Ranger, Priest, Beastfighter?

Human: I don't play humans but I think they are pretty much the same as Hurthlings.

Orc: Melee classes (of course). Paladin or Priest would be my choice if candle is not rolled.

High Elf: Archer or any mage-type class.

Dwarf: Any class will do. I'd prefer ones with healing but Barb or Assassin would be good too.

[Silfir]

Dwarfs have both good Learning and high combat stats. That makes them okay for semi-spellcasting classes that are otherwise weak... Reading up on it, I see that dwarves actually get the best pet of all the races (trolls being equal), so if we get the bard, we should definitely make it dwarven bard.

Human can be stuck on everything with okay results. They are the jack of all trades, after all. Orcish paladin/priest... How good is the everburning torch?

I'm not sure. With this setup we are prepared for a wide range of possible class setups.

All fellow team members: If you can think of a generally underrated class that you feel very confident playing, name it, and I'll try to put it higher on the list so we'll be more likely to get it - and if you like, do it the other way around too. For instance, I happen to like fighters, so Fighter will likely end up higher on my list than gut's.

[Molach]

I'm here! Let's get this road on the show.

Classes: I'd prefer stuff that starts with healing. Possible exceptions being barbarian (with right race this can survive fine) and archer (again, can rule with the right race (elf). This way we can go immediately to the SMC and UD. Entering SMC after obtaining healing and being level 6-8 ish is risky.

Paladin is nice, and will give an easy char to play with high elf (elven chain mail) or dwarf (11+ PV). Dwarf is pretty easy anyhow, but paladin is a good way to get "rid" of the frail elf. Priest is another very safe option for the high elf, starting again with elven chain and a long bow, even.

I'll try to post a sort of list for classes in a bit.

Archer - **** no healing but great range (which can destroy anything). High elf would be best here, with arrows and starting with a elven chain mail. However, not worth spending our "prime" picks on"

Assassin - ** no healing makes this tough to take through the UD. Great late-game potential with nice skillset. Best race mabye dwarf (better fit skillwise, and tough enough to last)

Barbarian - **** no healing again, but powerful enough to survive. If one gets 3 talents can be used to obtain a killer weapon to ease passage, so mabye hurthling barb then.

Bard - *** no special love for them. But have a pet, so SMC should be easy. Also any animals found diving UD can be turned on enemies. Probably a class a veteran player can survive with ease.

Beastfighter - **** healing and herbalism. After a few levels they will survive almost anything, and speed increases (athletics and class power) make them run away at need. Easy to play, but tough mid-game. Good class for hurthling. .

Druid - *** animals neutral is a pain, but not deadly. Decent skills and starting spellbook of lighning bolt should make the start easy with these guys. Standard equipment is leather armor and a shield, so they get basic PV covered.

Elementalist - **** healing. I see them as fighter classes with magical backup (all get the same spells on levelup, so no real benefit to playing a magic class), and anyway should breeze through UD. Decent long-time potential, just don't rely on the spells

Farmer - * bottom of the list for me. If we get one, the toughest race we can field. They do get a doggie to help through the SMC, mabye a very quick run to get healing chaotically can be worthwhile for them.

Fighter - *** Pretty decent. Havent played them seriously, but with the right class (orc, human, dwarf, high elf) they get good PV at the start.

Healer - *** Decent. Easy to survive, somewhat hard to do damage. So if you do not find a workable weapon, you will die due to the "not killing the enemy before he kills you"-syndrome.

Merchant * again a difficult one. Bottom 2.

Mindcrafter ** - good longtime potential, but rough start. Dwarf or orc to buff him up and add some racial healing. Fighter with confusion backup first 20 levels.

Monk *** - Weak starting out, great in the long run.

Necromancer *** - No healing, but guaranteed frost bolts can clear most nasties. Also pray to find more books on the way, and keep corpses handy to animate in times of need. Veteran player could probably win this. Long-time potential is excellent.

Paladin **** - can be a tank. Easy to take it easy with.

Priest **** - underrated. Easy to play, at least once a few books roll in.

Thief ** - hard to keep alive, hard to keep enemies dead. takes a while to shine.

Weaponsmith ** - hard to keep alive. If one finds a forge in ud much is decided...

Wizard - ***** - too easy.

[Silfir]

Welcome to the team, Molach. I agree - all races with Healing will be highly contested simply because Healing is so helpful. I guess they'll end up evenly distributed between the teams though...

[Harwin]

I've never played on the server - now seems like a bad time to start.
Sign me up.

I've won with a mindcrafter before, so I'm at least somewhat comfortable with them - but they were very fragile getting healing in the VD - and I never tried the SMC with them.

I think any class w/o healing(or Candle-born or troll) to start is going to need to go the Kranf Niest route so as not to level up too much. But I've never tried that quest myself - I always feel bad killing Jharod.

[Subconscious]

This might be a personal detestation but elementalists should be rated lower than four stars.
Why?
The main reason is the very low learning capabilities of skills. They also start with low points on skills.
This means that their 'healing' skill is close to nothing. And it takes many levelups to get it to decent.
They don't find as many spellbooks as their other mage counterparts - and they are not very good at learning spells from them. Also their stats are not that great, I disagree at the "fighter classes with magical backup" point since they are pretty fragile. Paladin would be far better choice for that, and when it comes to combat magic wizards & co. are much more powerfull than them when they find the 'burning hands' spell.
...Oh and did I mention their class powers are useless?

/end of hate.

If we need less-used classes I myself am able to play rangers and assassins with great success.

[Molach]

I forgot rangers - they are great. 4 stars.

Elementalists are safe. They get almost no books, and don't need them. Fighter with spell backup. And thats a good backup. Train missile and melee extensively. But I also agree that paladins are better. Give pallys five stars, for good measure.

[Sradac]

Sign me up!

As for classes, from my experiences

Orc - actually make very well Elementalists, when you use melee as primary and magic as a secondary. Their decent array of skills make up for the weak skill set of the elementalist.

Hurtling - Archer or Monk I would say, that extra talent is good and can get them their archer talents that much faster, plus the natural marks in slings.

Human - Hmm...really anything would work here. Since they have no strengths and a short life span, I would say either wizard or priest here. Druid as well, friendly animals makes survivng a bit easier early game, and makes the chances of bad kitty karma drop dramatically.

High Elf - Archer, Assassin, or even a fighter. I've had pretty good luck with high elf fighter surprisingly. Paladin might work as well.

Dwarf - Walking tanks. Could go one of two ways here, give them a caster so they're both buff and magic capable or a strong melee char to improve even more on their good physical stats. Barbarian, Paladin, Elementalist, Priest, Healer, Pretty much anything would work with a dwarf.


Orc Elementalist = Very underrated.

[pblack]

I'm up for the challenge as well. Sign me up if possible.

Well, i think that many of us feel comfortable with certain combos. I for one tend to fare very well with thieves (the only reason why I haven't won with one is because i get bored upon reaching the casino and delete most of my Pc's there...specially after I steal an artifact w/o the casino keeper noticing. It seems like cheating...lol), but it doesn't justify putting it on the top 10. I think it can be onf the top 15 (as opposed to the expected low teens position) and if we get it, i would step up to play it.

Orc is probably one of the best race for it on the account of having find weakness and being on the tough side. But being a desirable race for other stronger classes, I would play a thief with any other of these classes. High elf is nice for having dodge but it's the toughest to guarantee survival, specially with a weakling thief.

hurthlings might be exceptional since the extra talent might mean HEIR. I guess it is the truly preferred class for me. On top of that, good rock throwing means better early survival and archery means going for Quick/Lightning shot. Also, Thieves can get whirlwind. Wich might be junk to some but in a challenge, any artifact is useful. specially w/ normal endings.

Humans are always an option, of course. And dwarves might be better off with some other class, but they are tough and that's always good.

To sum it up. Put thieves in the top 15 on my account, definetely before mindcrafters (if those don't go to the low teens already). Another good class IMO is assassin but thats already top 10 for sure, so I won't bother.

In the end I would step up to play and underdog. If we get mindcrafters i think dwarves might make a good one. But the priority is making at least one really strong combo that someone has real confidence with. Orcs and dwarves are the toughest race and will probably serve this purpose. If we get archer, definetely go high elf. It's one of the few classes that can guarantee better survival for the race (along with wizard and with some luck, necro's). Personally, playing carefully as I intend to play. I can put my neck on the line for a hurthling thief for now. The ability to lock/unlock doors from the start is very underrated, i tend to control levels very well like that. The stat drain from the doctor isn't that relevant since it's only mental stats, and detect traps makes stone block traps one less threat.

Another question: what's the prefered strategy? Is it permitted to enter the small cave at level 1 and leave for the VD then come back afterwards? If not, i guess we would be better of speeding to get healing ASAP (before level 5 at least). Also, inside the UD, I guess it's not wise to roam around waiting for somwthing bad to happen while you are trying to gain a few exp. points right? The objective is to get to the other side, we can level up in a safer way in the CoC. That would be my opinion anyway. What do you all think?