Grey Wolves: We'll Bite Yer Bloody Shins Off

[Grey]

My sincerest apologies for my lateness in starting up this thread. However, I did have a very legitimate reason - I was extremely drunk.

Welcome to the Wolves of Grey! We are the not the rag-tag bunch of low-life cockroaches that infest the rest of this competition. No, we are strong and proud and here to show the other teams how to fight like men with beards. Sign up here now... if you dare!

Players:
Grey
meh
vogonpoet
Kato
nlgraham

Characters:
Drakeling Mindcrafter - dead (level 1 in SMC)
Dark Elven Archer - level 17 in Dwarftown
Dark Even Ranger - level 16 in Dwarftown
Troll Assassin - level 11 in Dwarftown
Dwarven Thief - dead (level 15 in DH2)

Mission Summaries:

Mission 1:

Drakeling mindcrafter (vogonpoet): Failure.
Dark Elven Archer (nlgraham): Success.
Dark Even Ranger (Kato): Success.
Troll Assassin (meh): Success.
Dwarven Thief (Grey): Success.

Mission 2:

Dark Elven Archer (Grey): Success.
Dark Even Ranger (meh): Success.
Troll Assassin (nlgraham): Success.
Dwarven Thief (Kato): Failure.

Mission 3:

Dark Elven Archer (meh): Success.
Dark Even Ranger (nlgraham): Still playing.
Troll Assassin (Grey): Still playing.

[vogonpoet]

Well then, my beard is ginger rather than grey, but its mightily bushy, so hopefully Grey won't mind.

I like playing the DElf kind I have to admit. Obviously good archers, I also like to play them as merchants and assassins, although I am not terribly successful with the latter two.

Our troll is a troll, and the other two are stout races indeed, so its all good really.

Classes I always avoid: Farmer, Ranger.

Classes I would avoid as a Dark Elf: thief, mindcrafter (very tricky start), necromancer (starting with a tract of chaos would suck).

Classes I would avoid as a Troll: elementalist.

Classes I would avoid as a Dwarf: None.

Classes I would avoid as a Drakling: None.

I guess I quite like most of the classes

R/C combos I love: Delf Assassin, Delf Archer, Dwarven smiths, trollish mindcrafters, trollish wizards, drakish wizards, drakish barbarians.

[gut]

...




Pathetic.

[meh]

I generally prefer melee classes like beastfighter, barbarian, monk and ranger. For this challenge, I would also rate healer very highly.

Many otherwise good classes start without healing, which can be quite a big obstacle here. Our troll or drakeling might be able to survive the early rounds without, but I wouldn't want to try it with a dark elf or even a dwarf. Getting healing before going down the UD is also quite risky.

Classes that I'd avoid are wizard (not worth spending an early pick on and will be selected by someone else soon enough), paladin (I just don't like them) and merchant (worst of them all).

[Grey]

I don't understand the aversion to wizards - if we get first pick we should have one. A dark elf wizard, if held very carefully by the hand at first, could easily be an unstoppable powerhouse by the time he leaves the UD. If we don't get first pick and someone else gets wizard, then it's not stopping us getting whatever's second on our list.

Paladin I think is a very good class for us to get. They're one of the few classes that can match up with a dark elf fairly strongly (priest and wizard being the only others really), and if not for the dark elf then a dwarven paladin would be almost guaranteed success in a UD dive. If we end up with a newish player that wants something easy to roll with then a dwarven paladin would be perfect.

The troll of course is reserved for whichever is the weakest class we end up with.

What do people think of bards and mindcrafters? The random skillset of bards are very hit and miss, and we don't have a gnome or hurthling to guarantee starting SLBs. If kept alive though they are amazing - possibly a good one for the troll. Mindcrafters on the other hand are very tricky to keep alive, but extremely good if one knows how to use them. Confusion would help a lot with dangerous monsters in the SMC and UD. A drakeling mindcrafter could be invincible with enough food. However I have no experience with mid-late game mindacrafters...

[vogonpoet]

Troll mindcrafter = awesome soon

[Kato]

Sweet...I'll join up here. I prefer to play not on the server though. I should also warn that sometimes, I play a little slow...but yeah. I am currently working on my first win with a dwarven paladin that I have posted up about. He's in the air temple right now...just haven't had much time to play this weekend and this morning. Work. bleh. ehehehe

I'm not too experienced with melee characters. But after working my current paladin, I am going to be trying more of them I have played a lot with wizards and archers and while I have not won, I have had a lot of success with them. I have had a wizard or two to a point where I should have won...but oops. Things happen

Never played a mindcrafter or bard...or a lot of the classes. In fact, the classes that I have played the most are wizards, clerics, archers and lately paladins. I generally tend to stick with the elven races. Never played much of the others save for humans and dwarves here and there. God...I've been playing this game since 1999...I really need to branch out some I think. ahahaha

I understand a lot of techniques and scumming and stuff...but I'm not the best in putting them all in order. When I start a character, I base their strength on a few things. I always go hit the SMC first until I'm lvl 3-5 and I get the water blankie. Then I might hit the town to train with yergius...otherwise, I then head to the puppy cave and see how that pans out. If it doesn't look good, then I back out and try for the village dungeon or druid...whichever quest seems best for the character. Every once in a while I will hit the ID for a bit...otherwise, I am ready to try and dive the UD. If I can get a character through all of these hoops, then they are off to a good start. But that's not always the case and there are times I should be more careful with my characters or back out of that pattern..but it's hard to break. But I will do as needed for this challenge

[meh]

I think a first pick would be better spent on a beastfighter than a wizard. Of course, wizards aren't bad either, just make sure I don't end up with one in the early rounds.

I'm not particularly fond of mindcrafters or bards either. The bard should be above all "bad" classes in case it gets lucky, but I wouldn't pick it during the first two rounds at least.

I'll probably make a list of my personal preferences.

EDIT: Here it is. Many of these I considered very close to each other, so some of the ordering is a bit arbitrary.

Beastfighter
Healer
Ranger
Monk
Barbarian
Wizard
Druid
Priest
Archer
Elementalist
Paladin
Weaponsmith
Farmer
Bard
Fighter
Assassin
Mindcrafter
Necromancer
Thief
Merchant

[Kato]

So I haven't had a chance to read the whole thread...but how is this game going to be played?

[nlgraham]

Count me in. I've not yet won, but I've come astonishingly close multiple times only to die to a fit of unrestrained stupidity (meleeing doppleganger kings, forgetting about the ghost lords on D50 before unleashing a Greater Mental Wave, etc). The way I play I almost always go for a first kill in Holeinthewall, then dive the SMC/UD even without healing, and while I die more often than I live, I still do alright.

I like spellcasters that can melee or meleers that can spellcast: Paladins, priests, druids, monks, weaponsmiths I tend to do well with. I also have tons of experience with mindcrafters, as I tend to be masochistic like that. Troll mindcrafters are awesome up front but never get that great, as mindcrafter powers are linked to levels and the really nice ones (greater telekinetic blast, teleport self) don't come until the 30s and 40s. I think a dark elf mindcrafter, if held by the hand and allowed to bum around UD1 to gain a few levels, could rock the world.