Most difficult race/class combination

[koctyxa]

Mist Elven Mindcrafter would be hard, Dark Elven Merchant. What are the others? Which race + class is the least chosen by players - does Steam provide such statistics?

[grobblewobble]

Thief and merchant are the most difficult classes, as they are bad at melee and magic and not particularly great at ranged combat either. The worst races for them are the most fragile ones: grey elf, mist elf, etc.
My personal vote for worst combination would be Mist Elf Thief.

A chaos knight with a bad set of corruptions is hard too, in a different way.

Least chosen, that's a different question. Probably Human Fighter, people tend to find both the race and the class boring.

[Mobius]

Mist Elven Mindcrafter would be hard, Dark Elven Merchant. What are the others? Which race + class is the least chosen by players - does Steam provide such statistics?

Oddly, on my current high score list, #2 is Dwayne, Mist Elven mindcrafter - gate closer. Was my first Mindcrafter win, and wasn't too crazy after getting to level 16 or so.

[Grond]

Mist elf is definitely the most difficult race, at least for classes where they don't get much special starting equipment. They end up staying in range of one-shot deaths the longest, and will miss out on some basic iron equipment. Their increased resilience in melee is almost cancelled out by their low HP.

It's harder to say what the most difficult race/class combo is. Thief has detect traps, which should cut down on the truly unavoidable mist elf splats. Merchant has thrown coins, which are enough to deal with early-game enemies safely. Mist elf beastfighter deserves a dishonorable mention for starting with bad equipment, no true berserk, and no missiles. But they get bailed out somewhat by having better toughness and a +6 PV heir gift.

I could see oddball combos like troll elementalist getting picked even less than human fighter. It would be interesting to see the statistics for this (maybe when we get official servers?).

[blunk]

Merchants scroll/ring merchants are not easy, with sub 15 in phys stats (ill/lazy background) it gets rough with pretty much any race.
Thrown coins arent that good because of extra energy cost.

Dark elves lack dodge but the find weakness and alertness are very nice.
Try a ratling merchant, decent stats but UTTER CRAP for skills, potentially no literacy and wooden club as eq.

Insta splat is somewhat rare for me nowadays, it's more likely bad SMC, or continius health chipping in ud combined with no pv/dv drops.
So the races that regen health slow which incidentily also are the ones with low Toughness are usually difficult, especially if combined with lower dex than normal and no gear.

Other than the usual stuff poison gets bad fast and gargantuan rats in particular are good at causing disease to low Toughness characters.

I'd say early game rng is more relevant, an exceptional smc find (like an eternium shield or eternium 2h sword) makes any character is capable.
On the other hand even a strong character can screw up with a mixed tension room or mixed vault in ud.

My least chosen are any pure caster and the beastfighter, I like to play with toys and thump them on the head of my foes, which is totally unrelated to power.

[Carter]

I could see oddball combos like troll elementalist getting picked even less than human fighter. It would be interesting to see the statistics for this (maybe when we get official servers?).

troll elementalist is kind of fun. You play him like a warrior with magic as absolute last resort.

i've always found Merchants and Necromancers really difficult to start. Once you get a character to about level 15 its all just time, RNG and if you don't make any major mistakes.

[Mobius]

Finally got my Level 50 Mist-Elf to L+, so I can crown and go ultra.
At that level, it's quite difficult to go all the way from CN to L+. Whip of the snake wasn't making it happen.
So ended up wishing for scrollbook of cure light wounds, summoning monsters, making them fight each other, then cure them.

Now time to kick some Andor Azz

[shockeroo]

Depends a bit how you define difficulty. Having scored many wins and ultras, I define it by how hard it is to win the game (as opposed to how hard it is to survive for a while).

I find Dark Elves easy in general. Find Weakness means they can melee effectively throughout the game and Awareness is hugely powerful. They also have great Dexterity and they're good at magic. In the hands of a skilled player I think they're one of the best races.

Mist Elf Barbarian probably sucks pretty bad, as would High and Grey elf Barbarians. I'd be way more confident with a Dark Elf Farmer or Merchant than either of those!

I've also found Chaos Knights quite difficult so far. Mist Elf Chaos Knight is probably up there.

I don't fancy Troll Wizards much either.

I personally swore of Druids 15 years ago after accidentally killing too many animals and something bad happening as a result. I haven't tried them again since, but as a caster class they're probably not super hard if you're careful.

Finally I still find r/c's without Healing at best annoying if you don't have the Candle starsign. I don't really play them [without candle] though, so it's hard for me to say.

[Soirana]

Depends a bit how you define difficulty. Having scored many wins and ultras, I define it by how hard it is to win the game (as opposed to how hard it is to survive for a while).

Huh? Anything who can survive for awhile can win passably easy. Late game (I would say after ToEF and Casino) is relatively easy and stunningly similar for lots of class/race combos.

~20 years ago GE barbs were very popular choice (I never understood why however).

[shockeroo]

Huh? Anything who can survive for awhile can win passably easy.

Only 2% of Steam players have an ADOM win, compared to say, the 23% that hit level 10. So I'd say a huge proportion of the player base struggle to get far into the game.