Pulsing surge of power room - doable?

[LexyBoy]

Currently playing a DE mindcrafter who seems to be doing pretty well - just cleared the Water temple which was the first place anything was scratching me thanks to some nice armour (PV around 30, including Crown of Leadership as precrowning gift). No decent weapons yet (I can barely lift Big Punch) so the SfB took about 30 prods with the Sword of Nonnak before dying which was a bit silly.

Aaanyway, on the level below the water temple I get "you feel a pulsing surge of power". Eyes of the mind reveals a room with a vampire (presumably the guardian, also why can I see it?), 4 mimic hiveminds, 3 shadow wyrms and the rest snakes. Obviously my first thought was to mind blast them, avoiding the vampire, but quickly found that (1) the snakes are chaos vipers, and (2) shadow wyrms are undead (duh!). So now I am being very tempted to open it up and try my luck with melee/TKB/wands in the hope that there's a nice weapon there (I think the artifact is a weapon but not 100% due to the mimics). I reckon I could melee the wyrms (from memory they aren't so tough, and I have undead slayers) but I worry the mimics will be too tough to melee and hard to kill with mindcraft. I do of course have an amulet of free action (and plenty of healing). Around 120 HP and ~70/30 on Normal. What would you do?

tl;dr - level 19 char vs mimic hiveminds = death guaranteed?

[Blasphemous]

It depends on how experienced the mimics are. Though even low level ones may occasionally hit hard, especially when they panic, which they often do.
Why not use offensive wands against mimics and them melee the rest? You can use a choke point to dispatch them one by one.
Also, if you have a scroll of familiar summoning, maybe just try to get something nice in DH2, like a greater earth elemental that will easily clean the room for you without any danger.
120 HP is a bit low for that thing.

[grobblewobble]

What would you do?
Do you have any source of invisibility? I'd try to grab the artifact with minimal fighting.

Mimic Hiveminds can hit hard but as long as you're paralyzation resistant they're not too bad. Confusion blast, then melee them should be okay.

[LexyBoy]

I only have potions of invis for the moment. Think I'll give it a go, and if it looks a bit too hairy teleport out and tackle it the next time I'm passing (hopefully after the ToEF).

At the moment I'm lugging the snake corpse to Gluth'Alak (will be amazed if I can manage this even though it's cooked) and plan to find Blup's mum for an alignment boost which will hopefully allow me to get crowned.

[SirTheta]

Cooked bless snake corpse will last a long time. You'll be fine.

[JellySlayer]

I'd be more scared of 4 mimic hiveminds than of one vampire. Mimic hiveminds can hit for 100+ damage each and usually have 160+ speed. Nasty things. Wouldn't fight them without paralysis resist for sure.

[LexyBoy]

Hmm OK. Still not done this - the only time I've had to play recently I've used alternating between scumming the big room for equipment and saccing stuff for crowning on D:3 which I probably could have done much earlier (I started saccing at "very close", offered ancient scythe and big punch, still only "very close", 5 days of livesaccing later and I remember reading that sometimes it gets stuck there. Prayed, crowned, and now still at very close so at least I've got some prayers in hand :).

Guess I'll give it a go as the alternatives are ToEF (with 140 HP and limited weapon options) or get the RotHK and I'm bored of waiting for a \oI to drop. At least for the ToEF I should be able to boost my 16 St before facing the wyrm for what I plan to be a very unfair fight (paralysation FTW).

[Soirana]

At least for the ToEF I should be able to boost my 16 St before facing the wyrm for what I plan to be a very unfair fight (paralysation FTW).
FTW part my not go as you plan actually...

[LexyBoy]

FTW part my not go as you plan actually...

Ah... well, that leaves me with poisoning, blinding and confusing to try out. Getting pummelled to death is always an option too.

[LexyBoy]

Oh, forgot to update (as if anyone cares).

Explored down to wall of flames then took the room on. All went fine in the end but for the unprepared it would certainly be dangerous/lethal. Dug to 1 square away and plucked my harp for a bit, then opened it up. All chaos vipers gone (replaced with summoned shadows), a couple of the mimics moderately injured already. Mimics taken out with TKB at coward alternating with confusion/melee (I love a bit of whip of slaughtering action), shadow wyrms in melee without confusion (obviously).

Gained in return one level (nice) and one hammer of the gods (crap). HK and ToEF done now, now just waiting to be splattered by the cat lord (yes I realise that I have no excuse, being a mindcrafter and all).

[Superteeth]

Gained in return one level (nice) and one hammer of the gods (crap). HK and ToEF done now, now just waiting to be splattered by the cat lord (yes I realise that I have no excuse, being a mindcrafter and all).

I recently murdered the stupid cat lord with my mindcrafter. I don't care about that stupid ring, so once I accidentally killed a cat (with no excuse, of course), I went on a cat-killing spree to increase the experience the cat lord gave. I had to train climbing, so I wandered around the mountains killing packs of cave lions. One thing I can tell you is to definitely try to get to level 30 before fighting the cat lord. Just hold on to one potion of unholy water, gather as many potions of invisibility as you can (remembering not to uncurse the unholy water), and dip the potions of invisibility in the unholy water (maximum four per unholy water, so if you have more make more to be safe). Hopefully the way to the stairs down is clear on the cat lord level (use eyes of the mind to be sure), and get to level 30 on vaults and greater vaults lower down. Return at level 30 and tear the bastard to bits with greater telekinetic blast after throwing a cursed potion of invisibility at him (refresh the blindness every 5-6 turns). Remember to equip the water orb and be in coward mode, and wear two of your best shields. Don't let him get near you, even while he is blind. The cheap bastard will still hit you quite often if you are by him.

[mewmew]

Also you can make unholy water if needed, just drop water on an unaligned altar.

[Superteeth]

In my experience this just results in the deity of the altar saying *THANKS, HERETIC* and taking the water. Maybe it'll work with you?

[Blasphemous]

In my experience this just results in the deity of the altar saying *THANKS, HERETIC* and taking the water. Maybe it'll work with you?

It depends on your standing with the deity associated with uncoaligned altar.
If it's relatively high, deity will treat the water as a gift.
If it's low, the potion should be cursed. A waste of potions of water if you ask me.
It's best to just generate a corruption trap on his level and let him trigger it a bunch of times.
He will turn into a wmopc that is far more manageable and you still get full experience for killing it, just as if it was still the cat lord.

[SirTheta]

ime, sequence when extended dropping, say 500 unique items on non-coaligned altar is:
-grumbles for a while as piety decreases
-curses maybe up to five things
-consumes maybe up to three things
-summons stuff [rats if N altar, for instance] - at this point, extended drop is aborted.

This assumes you haven't like already nerfed your piety with that god heavily by, say, switching. So, it should be pretty easy to get to cursing levels.

[LexyBoy]

Interesting stuff. I had earlier dropped some water on L altar hoping to have it blessed, having just fallen to N+ from nomming whights, so that explains the *THANKS HERETIC*.

Currently level 25 after clearing a lesser white dragon vault. Not sure how many cats I've killed but will be double figures with the big room grinding I've done since accidentally a cat. Last char I got this far had no problem at all and was IIRC similarly levelled, though he was a duellist. I have basically no means of corruption removal so I have to be as quick as possible really (1 SoCR which I am saving for mana battery or stiff muscles).

Oh, and Eyes of the Mind is fucking awesome, especially on p18 where you see *everything*. Anywhere even slightly dangerous I just use it every couple of steps.

[mewmew]

It's best to just generate a corruption trap on his level and let him trigger it a bunch of times.
He will turn into a wmopc that is far more manageable and you still get full experience for killing it, just as if it was still the cat lord.

But he is so fast and hits hard, it should be very dangerous to run around a corruption trap hoping that he will eventually turn into a chaos jelly.