Getting intrisic invisibility in early game: rocks or sucks?

[Al-Khwarizmi]

OK, so I got intrinsic invisibility before the arena in the character I'm playing (a drakish wizard), by drinking from a pool in CoC:2, and I'd like to know the opinions of the experts about this.

I'm a bit torn about this issue... on the one hand, intrinsic invisibility is great. On the other hand, I don't really like losing the money from the arena, and especially the Tactics skill.

I personally don't like it much when I play wizards (that is, 99% of the time), because with this kind of chars and TH I mostly can be invisible when I like at not a great cost. So it's quite annoying to miss the arena rewards. But let me know what you think.

[mike]

Not an expert, but I've had it a couple times. On a wizard, it sucks a little, as you can get perm-invis from bookcasting anyway. With teleport and 1-2 potions of visibility you can still do the arena, though. So maybe: rob some shops if you feel like it, do griffyard/DH/pyramid (way easier now), and if you can't find a pot by then go pool sipping.

[Necropassion]

I would not complain about getting such a nice intrinsic early. You could probably wait for your char to be really tough, and then gulp down a blessed potion of visibility before the arena. Of course, this requires you to be able to take down your opponents quickly as visibility pots are rarely abundant...

[Grey]

Who needs tactics if 80% of the monsters can't see you in the first place? Perfect for wizards who can keep bolting everything in absolute impunity. Great for assassins who can backstab things nicely.

[JellySlayer]

Normally, it is good practice to avoid pools until after the PC has completed the arena. Given the other possible risks from pools (dooming, aging, teleportitis, to name a few), it isn't usually worth the risk so early unless there's some really compelling reason to do so. Being unable to (easily) complete the arena deprives the PC of tactics, some nice items, and Big Punch--quite a respectable early game weapon if the PC hasn't been too lucky up to this point. The arena also gives the PC the backstabbing skill, which, it is worth mentioning, is pretty good if you happen to be invisible.

That said, invisibility is a fantastic intrinsic for almost any class, since, by and large, you can always pick where and when you want to fight since few early game monsters can see invisible; cats become essentially a non-issue once you have it; your damage increases dramatically in combination with the backstabbing skill; many annoying early-game areas (SMC, animated forest/DH, hostile big room, etc.) can be crossed much more easily than would be possible otherwise; many dangerous early-game monsters can be avoided entirely (eg. vortices). Of course, if you have spells, many of these effects can be reproduced in principle, but not as conveniently.

[Molach]

Well it sure helps survivability. But it sure hinders the arena, and live-saccing.

Very early game I might try a pool-sip or two (for instance in the UD), if I am not desperate to have the character live. If something bad happens (dooming->pool dries) he can always be succeeded by his long lost brother...(reroll). If I get invisibility then, I'll keep it and put it to good use, and hope it goes away when pool-sipping the DH later on.

[Maul]

As for me, I don't care about all the Arena money or Tactics if I get a permanent intrinsic invisibility that doesn't even make me any hungrier. After all, I have characters (usually non-mages) who can't secure permanent invisibility until late in the game, or even find a potion of invisibility by the time the character needs it (Griffyard, Pyramid).

[F50]

intrinsic Invisbillity rocks, moreover, you'll loose it (and hopefuly gain it again) at the darkforge pools while looking for an AoLS and be able to do the arena then.

[Silfir]

Against the enemies who do see invisible you probably still want tactics. Melee characters enjoy few benefits from being invisible - once they swing their weapon against their chosen foe DV immediately becomes important again. Of course, if you're careful you can only be attacked by one enemy at a time, provided no one of them sees invisible. Invisibility is even more useless if you don't have Backstabbing, and many melee characters would get that at the same time as Tactics. Casters love being invisible - casters also usually get a spell for that. Mindcrafters probably get the greatest benefits from being permanently invisible. Still, there's no excuse to drink from pools in the early game except maybe a deathwish

If you have any way of dealing with cats available, there's no reason not to do 19 arena fights the minute you arrive at the arena (Lithium Man guys might be exempt from this). After that you are pretty much free to drink from whatever pool you want, since you need only one potion of visibility to get to the last fight.

[quik]

I always thought that the sooner you drink from pools the better, so that wasting the char isn't that bad... But you guys suggest drinking pools after the arena and I wonder how do u deal with dooming, stat drains...