[newbie] WoW found quite early - suggestions?

[anon123]

I don't use it because I don't like killing NPCs, so I'm not sure of the actual corruption rate

If you like taking your time and don't care about turn count like me, it's definitely not worth it. Undoubtedly a stellar item with fantastic bonuses, and I have no problem with killing Guth'Alak, but it's too corrupting for my taste.

About immunities. If you wish for rings of elemental mastery, you get =Fire =Cold =Elec on an item slot that's unlikely to have anything much better on it.

And to get the most from book reading: get your Learning up. Use blessed crystals of knowledge if you have some. Use starvation and/or sickness to get +6 from the Oracle if you can remove dooming from an altar. Drink all blessed potions of learning. Wear the crown of science and rings of mental stability if you have some, bless any potions of boost learning you might have, bless the books.

[Silfir]

You can already get the Ring of the High Kings and the elemental gauntlets; that's not counting corpses. Not a very good wish in my book.

[anon123]

You can already get the Ring of the High Kings and the elemental gauntlets

And they give +6 PV combined, but the rings grant three immunities and you can ask for more than one, which makes them pretty good as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, I just thought I'd bring them up, since everyone was discussing immunity. Here in the forums they don't seem to get mentioned much, not even to say "the GB says this but they aren't worthwhile".

[Maul]

And they give +6 PV combined, but the rings grant three immunities and you can ask for more than one, which makes them pretty good as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, I just thought I'd bring them up, since everyone was discussing immunity. Here in the forums they don't seem to get mentioned much, not even to say "the GB says this but they aren't worthwhile".

Generally, my opinion is that immunities aren't very necessary for everyday use. If a vortex hits you and you are resistant, you'll survive from high HP and you'll take little damage if you stack two resistances. Intrinsic resistance+1-2 items (e.g. elemental gauntlets) together make elemental damage trivial.

[gut]

immunity desirability is ranked by quantity, not quality. Fire, Cold, Lit, Acid.

GoGS, AoLS, 7LB's. all fun, but you can't take them into the toughest part of the game, and can be smashed/exploded at any point. Keep your wishes stored in wand form and use them for SoCR as needed. You will gain corruption blessings this way. Here is a short list of blessings the shield will give you, that I didn't even list as part of the original SoRS package deal:

+8 PV, nice eh?
teleportitis, but only if you have tp control. if not, just remove it temporarily. it will come back later. this will also reduce your turn count DRASTICALLY, thus resulting in LESS corruption on many levels.
antanea to explore your environment
+6 DV via unholy aura. If you don't like angering shoppies, just remove it. 99% of the game is not played around shopkeepers though
bulging cranium (Le: +6, Wi: +4, Ap: -6, PV: -4, To: -3).
12 eyes Pe: +6
acid spit
regen
+6 DV thin and nimble
1/10 weight Not so great by itself, BUT now you get quickling tree

pair that SoRS with the boots of great speed for an ultimate quickling tank PC!

[Maul]

immunity desirability is ranked by quantity, not quality. Fire, Cold, Lit, Acid.

GoGS, AoLS, 7LB's. all fun, but you can't take them into the toughest part of the game, and can be smashed/exploded at any point. Keep your wishes stored in wand form and use them for SoCR as needed. You will gain corruption blessings this way. Here is a short list of blessings the shield will give you, that I didn't even list as part of the original SoRS package deal:

+8 PV, nice eh?
teleportitis, but only if you have tp control. if not, just remove it temporarily. it will come back later. this will also reduce your turn count DRASTICALLY, thus resulting in LESS corruption on many levels.
antanea to explore your environment
+6 DV via unholy aura. If you don't like angering shoppies, just remove it. 99% of the game is not played around shopkeepers though
bulging cranium (Le: +6, Wi: +4, Ap: -6, PV: -4, To: -3).
12 eyes Pe: +6
acid spit
regen
+6 DV thin and nimble
1/10 weight Not so great by itself, BUT now you get quickling tree

pair that SoRS with the boots of great speed for an ultimate quickling tank PC!

boots of great speed

nope.avi

Here are also a few other blessings that the SoRS will grant you:

Mana battery! Waste (n-1) remaining wishes as you try to wish for a SoCR to clean that mess up!
Poison hands! You pick up the heap of 97 uncursed potions of poison.
Stiffened muscles! Free 2 St and 4 PV! What could possibly go wrong?

Now, I've never completed a game with extensive use of corrupting artifacts, but I've experienced many times just how fast corruption piles up with them. So, Gut, how many ultras have you completed that involved using the SoRS from before the ToEF till the end?

[gut]

the 'speed boots' was a joke. honestly, if you just did the quickling tree... why would you need more speed?
figured that would be obvious, but oh well -_-

i don't do ultras as I don't like scumming for a wand of foo creation, and scumming for a scroll of whatever, and scumming for a boar skull, and scumming for an amulet of life saving, and scumming for a...

[nipon621]

Steel golems see invisible and are very good at shrugging bolt spells. Just to warn you. Ball spells will be a big help against them. Personally I would actually spend a wish on the lightning ball spell now because it will melt them like nothing else, but some might consider that a waste of a wish.

If not, I strongly advise to wish for the acid ball spell before DF. You don´t have to read your books to exhaustion immediately after wishing. You can also, say, read once, use the spell to make darkforge much safer, grab the crown of science for +9 learning, then drink all potions of boost learning and then finish reading the books. Blessing your books before reading helps too.

Regarding the SoRS, it's a very powerful item indeed, but sacrificing 6 wishes for it? Sorry gut, that's madness.

An interesting dilemma to be sure. If I had wishes to burn and my wizards DV/PV was in the tank I would certainly consider ball lightning just for DF... but I dont find it to be nearly as useful as some other spells over the course of the game (ie; acid ball).

Sorrow, from my own harrowing experience of raiding DF for my first time (done it several times since), I would strongly recommend not actually fighting those things if you can help it at all. Make liberal use of monster detection and magic mapping/blind teleport (depending on your willingness to use map spoilers). They definitely see invisible, can crit for about 100 Hp, and I have never successfully landed a bolt spell on them. The first time, I raided it at xp level 12 to have a chance at grabbing some DSM and came back later for the crown. It was kinda annoying but definitely safer. Had trouble enough taking them out at xp 18 with acid ball. At that point i wasn't in grave danger of dying, but I didnt have enough spell efficacy to make my PP last for more than a single kill (cuz I refused to let them surround me - spell economy be damned).

Do the morgia first

[grobblewobble]

Of course, morgia first.

The thing is, he doesn't have teleport control yet, so teleporting around the golems is not an option unless you wish for a blink dog first. In that case, I'd rather wish for ball lightning, kill the golems (with willpower >= 32 this will be very safe and easy, you never have to stay in melee range) and gain xp while doing it, then sip the pools in DF to gain teleport control.

Telerobbing DF without fighting is slightly risky in any case. If you're unlucky, your teleport to the up stairs on the way back could misfire if a golem blocks the stairs. No need for any such risk when you're swimming in wishes.

[sorrow]

Now, a quick update (I know the progress is slow - but I have very little time for playing).

While farming for morgia and pacifying the Big Room, one of the items dropped was amulet of teleport control (yay!). So, I hopped to the DF to find no decent armour (in fact, about 75% of the stuff was clothes). I also managed to find a spellbook of Lightning Ball and learnt it. In the mean time I grabbed the RoHK (funny, it always turns out that it is much easier than I expect). Anyway, I am now at level 16, with To, Dx and Wi all around 25. The plan for now is to hop to DF again, having Wi on 32 (with Nonnak's sword and amulet of Wi+3), to get exp and the Crown. I think I also have enough blessed stomafilias to sacrifice to remove dooming. The wish would then go for Acid Ball and learning it, while wearing CoS. And then - dive into CoC for more exp, before ToEF.

Side question about RoHK, theoretically: with 7lb I can outrun basically anything there - so this means I could just grab the ring and flee? I always killed the dude and never noticed if the ring is there all the time.

Other side question: does the Oracle always leave corpse? If so, +6 Le sounds tempting (I have means of death ray resistance, and some decent missiles). I think I have killed her in one of my games, but I cannot remember exactly.