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Thread: The Beggars Opera or: What about Poverty Runs?

  1. #61

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    After the last defeat its clear more than ever that this poverty challenge can be beaten. All it needs is proper planning, lots of patience and – not to forget – a big portion of luck. Luck to get the right intrinsics from a pool. Luck that you are not afflicted with bad corruptions. Luck to avoid any random mistake. Easier said then done. No?

    The battle plan for the next run(s):

    PC:5, CoC Big Room and R5:1-3 are all good places for farming XP up to level 20+ thanks to the high spawning rate. You not only can train attributes but also aquire lots of intrinsics: Poison resistance, Fire Resistance, Cold Resistance, Lightning Resistance, Acid Resistance, Teleportitis, Teleport Control, Resistance against Paralyzation, Invisibility, the ability to see invisible creatures, luck and fate smiles. At the end its just a matter of time even though invisibility and resistance against paralyzation are still quite hard to get due to the low corpse rate (vaults might help here!).

    Early pool sipping at level 1-6 will make sure to get death ray resistance and tactics. If things go wrong a quick restart will make sure that the loss of time is only minimal. Resistance against petrification, sleep or stun was never an issue and might be skipped.

    The Ice Frost Domain will push XP after level 20 really fast with some careful management. Just make sure not to fight both Golems at Speed 10. It hurts. Using random encounters in between will not only regain speed but also provide essential food.

    Yes the leveling will still need several hours of farming but at the end its all about patience.

    Tower of Eternal Flames is easy going for ~350 speed Drakelings. Just make sure to use First Aid constantly. As i always start my monks with 24 Willpower confusion nearly never is an issue against the ACW so you will get time for 3-4 attacks before retreating again. Repeat until dead.

    The Water Temple is even easier when building up several corridors so you never will get cornered if random spawns join in. Hit & run until everything is dead.

    The Banshee is all about building up long tunnels while also making sure to have level 25 in the pocket if a random spawn moves in from behind. Acid Spit will do the rest even though up to 30 attacks might be needed with bad luck.

    The Eternal Guardian is easy going with Speed >130. Move two spaces away from him and spit once to make him hostile. After that its all about running down the stairs. Even though he might attack you once there will be no clone.

    As i skip the casino the battle bunnies will be next. Kicking through the walls will give them no time to breed and with level 25+ the bunny master should be no challenge.

    After dying once to a ravaging Cat Lord i am always making sure not to kill cats. Only a peaceful Cat Lord is a good Cat Lord.

    The Air Temple is again about preparation. Usually i build here lots of small corridors to get enough room even if lots of summons are swarming the place. Once the Master Summoner shows up and no high DL enemies are around its a good time to go for him. Switch places might help again. After that its all about getting him down fast using BE.

    Earth Temple is the place where tactics, corruptions like Rage or Horns and find weakness will shine. Your Unarmed Weapon Skill should be at level 14 at this time (or at least 13). High speed (130+) will make sure to hit the Ancient Stone Beast without retalation even though it will still take a lot of time draining its HP slowly but surely (always switch to coward when retreating to negate incoming rocks). Just make sure to kick lots of small corridors for maneuvering while also killing all of its guards first. The rest is then just a matter of time and damage. If you lack the latter one you will be doomed like one of my monks before.

    Mana Temple: About this one i am still not sure. In my fight Nuurag-Vaarn was (nearly) never using Death Ray in close combat and he also forgot about his powerful confusion so just punching him down might work best even though he will drain strength quite a bit while also push your corruption a lot. Will have to test this one more!!

    Using the Orbs on D:48 was no big deal while the ice on D:49 forced the monk to kick walls over and over again before reaching the stairs. Not really hard.

    D:50 is where the real fun begins. Waiting many turns first is essential to regain speed. But the main problem seems to be not only the lever switching Balors but even more the wall moving Ghost Lords and Greater Earth Elementals that can easily trap a character. With careful hit & run along with some prayers there might be a way around them. The Balors alone are no challenge as they are helpless against hit & run. Any further advices here? Corruptions might also get a problem as in my case the random darkness made it really hard to get a clear view on the battlefield. Maybe next time...
    Last edited by Harpagornis; 06-24-2018 at 07:10 PM.

  2. #62

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    Okay i tested the fight against Nuurag-Vaarn a bit more and the result is pretty amazing:

    After 25 fights with close combat using BE my level 28 monk got only hit once (!) by death ray for 175 damage. The rest was dogded thanks to Alertness!
    Stat drain is completly random. In several fights Nuurag-Varn only drained dumb stats so the power loss will most likely be minimal. Thats good news too.
    For some reason he never ever uses his powerful confusion in close combat - which was another step to his downfall. Oh, he also does not like poison!
    The victory:loss ratio when blindlessly attacking him until one is dead was quite amazing. At the end it was a flawless 25:0 for the monk. Amazing stuff.

    It seems that one might survive this fight even without death ray resistance. Not to forget: Its quite interesting that the Chaos-Arch-Mage is much easier than the Ancient Stone Beast. After reading so many evil things about Nuurag-Vaarn i feared the worst. But at the end he is nothing more than a good old punching ball. At least for monks...
    Last edited by Harpagornis; 06-25-2018 at 09:57 AM.

  3. #63
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
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    5,739

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    Just a comment about D:50... the ghost lords and greater earth elementals that you encountered there were summoned by a balor (or possibly were from a threat room somewhere on the level). They aren't guaranteed spawns, so it's entirely possible you won't see them on your next visit.

    Alertness + high speed have a big effect on dodging spells/death rays. Monks are pretty much immune to them at high levels.
    Hoping to win with every class, doomed. Archer, Barbarian, Bard, Beastfighter, Druid, Elementalist, Farmer, Fighter, Monk, and ULE Priest down.

  4. #64
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Lithuania
    Posts
    4,280

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    Quote Originally Posted by JellySlayer View Post
    Just a comment about D:50... the ghost lords and greater earth elementals that you encountered there were summoned by a balor (or possibly were from a threat room somewhere on the level). They aren't guaranteed spawns, so it's entirely possible you won't see them on your next visit.
    I don't think it is realistically possible to close D:50 without seeing ghost lord... unless Zen Monk challenge.
    So far rolled 15 casters with RoDS and shamelessly killed them within 200 turns. For eternium glory!
    (after 15 I stopped counting...)

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