Best start in 10 years

[Shinae]

Just have to share this. I just got the best start ever for my new gnome assassin. Good starting stats and lots of stat increases since beginning. I went to HMV and found couple of adamantine weapons to dual wield. Three floors of herbs before dwarf town. I just hit dwarf town and did dwarf quest to identify my equips and found out that I have Amulet of Life Saving, 2x Blessed Rings of Djinni Summoning and Ring of Ice in my inventory. I'm like woah! And did I mention I found blink dog corpse on the way to HMV. I did the village quest for healing skill as well. Going to get crowned as L+ soon.

Over 10 years and never ever have I been this lucky. I also found Cloak of Invisibility, but it burned before I knew I had Ring of Ice in inventory. This gnome is going to have lots of fun! I have to try go uber dagger dual wield route this time. Any suggestions for good wish targets for an assassin? One wish is probably going to be red dragon scale mails, because survivability and fire immunity. But second wish for Eternium daggers? Phase daggers maybe? Can I get several with a wish? SLB?

[JellySlayer]

You will get one eternium dagger from saving Khelly. Not sure if it is worth the wish for the second one unless you really want it for the style points. Bloody daggers or Daggers of Death would be better in terms of damage output anyway, though ideally you'll need to rustproof them at the very least. Dual wield bloody daggers or daggers of death would be very stylish too.

Regeneration items are an awesome, often overlooked choice. It's really hard to get regeneration in the early game, and it's a super powerful intrinsic. Might be a good way to offset the lowish DV you'll have without a shield.

[grobblewobble]

Yes exactly, wish for bloody daggers, then bless and rustproof them. This is much more fun than phase daggers and early on they are more effective, because monster PV is not that high.

Also make sure to max your dual wielding skill as soon as you can, it makes a huge difference.

[Shinae]

Totally forgot about regeneration option, haven't played that much lately. I might go that route, since I already got adamantium weapons and going to get crowned soon, so there is high chance to get decent weapon from crowning. It's probably more wise to play safe instead of going stylish dagger route. =D

[Blasphemous]

Assassins make terrific archers. Consider getting a good archery setup though perhaps not with the wishes.
Try to get crowned and see if you get a slaying weapon. There's executor, serpent's bite and kinslayer.
Also farslayer could be nice.
Assassins start with alchemy so try to train it to 100 and see what potions you need for PoGA.
Might be something you already have and alchemy skill dice increase can be abused with the double wish exploit, if you don't mind that sort of thing. Look it up, I posted that one in the "undocumented" thread.
In some cicrumstances, that alchemy skill makes herbalism and/or gardening a viable wish as well.

As always, I'd keep a spare RoDS for emergencies, when shit hits the fan and you need backup, you can always rely on nice stuff from an on-demand wish.

[Blank4u47]

Playing a gnome right? You get the bonus xbow improvement speed, so Fletchery may be an option for you! Possible slaying ammo and lotsa quarrels

[grobblewobble]

As always, I'd keep a spare RoDS for emergencies, when shit hits the fan and you need backup, you can always rely on nice stuff from an on-demand wish.

You know you will end up winning (or losing) the game with an unused wish because it is TooAwesomeToUse (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TooAwesomeToUse)

[Blasphemous]

If it's just one then I would use it but the OP has two.
But you're probably right, I sure did end up with a lot of these RoDS unused in my games.
That's why I usually skip the puppy quest and only wish for the dog on my way out.

[JellySlayer]

Early game you might as well just use it right away. Post ToEF when you've basically got a complete set of gear anyway, there's little harm in saving a wish, but IMHO early in the game you're just making life harder for yourself for no reason. You can always use it creatively and djinni strangle a shopkeeper or something to get a bit of extra value.

[Cactus]

...
This gnome is going to have lots of fun! I have to try go uber dagger dual wield route this time.
...

If you want to have fun dual-wielding daggers now and with style, either wish for
1. bloody daggers and rings of regeneration (as JellySlayer suggested)
or wish for
2. knives of endurance and rings of slaying.

I'd go for the latter option, well aware of the fact that it won't be enough damage for the late game. But right now (just completed first DT quest) it'll be awesome: Two sources of +Regen plus a bunch of extra HP to go with that, not to mention at least +4 extra PV (since you probably maxed out To already with your three herb levels). To-hit will be quite formidable as well if you add two =ofSlaying to the +6 the knives usually have.

[Jeremiah]

Personally, I wish for skills, because loot is just too easy to get. Sometime if I do get an early game wish I get a shield so I can start leveling up shield right away.

There is nothing wrong with going dual daggers, just remember to level up your range skills as well. And it might be handy to have some levels in spear and shield for a quick defensive swap.

I like to play melee with most my skill in the main type of weapon I plan to use, some skill in all range weapons, some skill in shield and spears for defensively attacking, and some skill in unarmed. I try to get it all set early in the game when the mobs are weak.

[Shinae]

I wished for Red dragon scale mails. Got two. And Rings of Regeneration and got 3. Funny part is that I went past animated forest and saved Khelevaster and found 2 more rings of regeneration. So I got now 5 rings of regeneration.. I kind a felt I wasted that wish there.

[Soirana]

Regeneration items are an awesome, often overlooked choice. It's really hard to get regeneration in the early game, and it's a super powerful intrinsic. Might be a good way to offset the lowish DV you'll have without a shield.

Depends on the luck with pots of Exchange. couple potions and stacking rings might give good results with new dipping rules in D12.

[Shinae]

I found total 5 wishes. But my dualwield win attempt ended to unlucky crit from one of the big red dragons in FGJC greater vault. No good artifact drops either, nothing really useful to boost my survivability. Was fun with several wishes, but whole run lacked those nice useful artifact drops.

[mjkittredge]

That's why it's good to go for 2 precrowns if possible, and crown right after getting Ancient Mummy Wrapping. 3 chances to get a endgame artifact to carry you through

[blunk]

That's why it's good to go for 2 precrowns if possible, and crown right after getting Ancient Mummy Wrapping. 3 chances to get a endgame artifact to carry you through

Wow thats a lot of grind, I assume you live sac, or do you pour in gold at the end?

[Blank4u47]

That's why it's good to go for 2 precrowns if possible, and crown right after getting Ancient Mummy Wrapping. 3 chances to get a endgame artifact to carry you through

Ouch! That's waaay too much work! Imo not worth it for just an extra 1 or 2 artifacts. I'd rather just clear darkforge and do FGJC 5. There's bound to be an ok weapon at least in darkforge which can last you through FGJC5.

[Shinae]

I go straight to crowning if I don't find nice altar before dwarf town, but if I find early altar in UD, PC and Village dungeon I often do precrowning. Haven't bothered to do two precrowning in years. Even with stoma herbs it's too much of a grind these days. I'm not sure if they altered piety rules or something, but getting 2 precrown seems a lot harder now than it was before.

[Blank4u47]

Yep he altered piety rules, you lose piety much faster the more precrowns you do. Also a great weapon to use mid game if you are truly unlucky is big punch, it's got good enough dmg to get you into darkforge pretty easily if you carry some healing sources with you.

[Grond]

Yep he altered piety rules, you lose piety much faster the more precrowns you do.

Is there a ticket documenting this? I couldn't find anything about this in the changelog.

[Blank4u47]

I only know from another thread a while ago. I don't precrown so I don't have actual experience for comparison. I'll let you know if remember where I heard it from.

I ressurected the old thread, it mentions piety issues pretty in depth. Looks like I was self refferencing in this thread though :/

[Grond]

Read through that; there's also a bug report complaining about increased piety decay after precrowning. So far it just looks like high piety message levels (favors, greatly favors, extremely/absolutely close) being tied to the number of precrownings (even when you are eligible to crown), combined with piety decay being a percentage.

Edit: And then there's this: http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3560 , which could also explain things (piety still going up but message moves from favors to very close)...

[Blank4u47]

Ah ok, I think I misremembered things a bit, thanks for looking into it!

[Phoobnahr]

just to share the converse side of this thread's insane luck, I'm currently playing a grey elf wizard named Adolf. He is the first character I've made in a long, long time that wasn't [f]ate decided, and for some reason he has been plagued by a combination of bad luck and stupid mistakes that I havent made in over a decade...

First of all, despite being a grey elf wizard he has pretty weak learning (he's at level 15 and about to enter the pyramid and his learning is stubbornly stuck at 17. I spent 20,000 gold training my learning with Garth (four sessions of 5000 each), and only got two increases, but he's also had two occasions where he lost learning, the only thing i've done that can possibly drain the learning stat is passing through a dull room in the upper CoC, so he's pretty stupid for a grey elf wizard. Additionally, he's been plagued by a distinct lack of offensive spellbooks. The lack of offensive spellbooks combined with his poor learning leads to him always being almost out of offensive spells. Going into the Pyramid now and my only offensive spells are burning hands and acid bolt, and both of those are below 200 casting points. I started with alert and miser and got Treasure Hunter with my first talent from leveling up, so I'm swimming in spellbooks, but none of them are offensive spellbooks. I also just had not one, but two waterproof blankets dissolved by an ankheg, and I didn't notice they were gone, so when I swam across the river I lost most of my scrolls and two unidentified books.
That covers it for the bad luck... on the topic of stupid mistakes, I did two at once and they were both kinda doozies... I finished the first quest from the ancient dwarf, but when he identified my equipment I forgot to ask him for the second quest, so after proceeding through the animated forest I returned to find that he asked me to kill another random monster... goodbye marble wand... also, while crossing the animated forest (I always tunnel around it), I encountered an invisible ogre magus in the hallway I was making, and my only offensive spell at the time was burning hands... I literally didn't think about the consequences at all, but just scorched him to death, meaning that now the entire animated forest is permanently hostile to me... I haven't used a fire spell in the animated forest in 15 years... I also haven't reached the animated forest without receiving the quest in a comparable amount of time... just dumb...

But it hasn't been all bad... I had to use the dwarven halls to get around the animated forest, and while I was passing through there I happened to find a set of White Dragon Scale mail... I also got Preserver from a Pulsing Power room in the Caverns of Chaos (first one I've ever found), so as long as I can keep from making anymore stupid mistakes and hopefully find some offensive spellbooks, I've got a pretty decent character here... and it would feel great to get a win on the first non-[f]ate decided character in a long time...

(edit: Adolf also just found a girdle of Giant Strength (the first and only one I've ever found in 1.2)

[mjkittredge]

yeah I live Sac. Things I do to speed it up - search for altars in big open rooms like Puppy Cave cavernous levels, or other high spawn areas like Small Cave. I mine out tunnels through walls so the monsters can all run over to me by the altar. And I read books next to the altar, almost always gets interrupted for another sac.

Second one can be tedious, and if I've had luck with herbs or sold lots of Si in HMV I sac stoma or gold to finish it off faster. I can understand some people not having the patience.

[mjkittredge]

Ouch! That's waaay too much work! Imo not worth it for just an extra 1 or 2 artifacts. I'd rather just clear darkforge and do FGJC 5. There's bound to be an ok weapon at least in darkforge which can last you through FGJC5.

I've had TERRIBLE luck over the years with Darkforge, think the only artifact weapon I've found was Black Thumb or something equally useless. And FGJC5 is typically too hard when I first encounter it, have to come back at level 35 or so if it's undead or ancient fire wyrms.

On the other hand I've had excellent luck with getting useful precrowns. Anytime you get Protector, Perserver, BoW, Executor, ect it is a huge boost. And heck even Aylas Holy Scarf or Crown of Leadership add enough dv/pv to drastically increase your chances of winning.

[Blank4u47]

I've had TERRIBLE luck over the years with Darkforge, think the only artifact weapon I've found was Black Thumb or something equally useless. And FGJC5 is typically too hard when I first encounter it, have to come back at level 35 or so if it's undead or ancient fire wyrms.

On the other hand I've had excellent luck with getting useful precrowns. Anytime you get Protector, Perserver, BoW, Executor, ect it is a huge boost. And heck even Aylas Holy Scarf or Crown of Leadership add enough dv/pv to drastically increase your chances of winning.

Dang! Although I rarely get an artifact weapon from darkforge, I usually get an eternium weapon! Sometimes I get some ok armor too... if I want to settle for crystal scale. Normally I don't bother with artifact weapons anyways, there's only a few awesome ones out there that I feel are truly worth switching out for, but I never get them anyways.