Serious Attempt - Suggestions

Usually I do Rogue+Small+Perma+Random. I haven't gotten past floor 6?

This time I am just doing Rogue+Small+Perma.

My skills:
Necro
Math
Warlock
Astro
Magic T
Blood M
Burglary

So far I have:
Necro to Rift (Max, 6 slot)
Blood M to Spirit Stealer (3 slot)
Math to Zenzizenzizenzic (4 slot, the skill I just got)
Warlock to Mantle (2 slot)
Burglary to Lucky Pick (2 slot)
Magic T (1 slot)
Astro (1 slot)

I am almost done with floor 3. I clear out even large Monster Zoos so fast...

Should I go up Astro/Warlock and become a better fighter/have more defense?
Should I finish up Blood M and get more staying power?
Should I go up Magic T and get more magic power?
Do I need more anti-trap ASAP? (Burglary?)

My items are not great right now, I think I only have 3? absorb.

Also, should I usually be using my Pact+Mark (How many Marks?) and going in and fighting? Or using my Curses and killing from a distance? Currently I use a mixture, but I think going in and fighting is dangerous (also I I don't usually run all enchantments when I go in close).

I do have an enchanted Scaled Armor I could be wearing (and maybe should if I am going into fight?)

 

Now that I have thought more about it, I Think I will want to max Magic T and Astrology and get at least one more in Math and Blood M before I finish, so should probably skip Burg/Warlock.

Then I will have mobility, recovery, some trap detection, some buffs (probably will not run mark), and single target (eldritch), far AoE (rift), and close AoE (stars) attacks all available. And everything will be cheap but rift (but even rift will not be outrageous) and the buffs.

JM

 

Still, not sure (I play in small sets, as a break, and the game is heavy for my macbook air).

Zenzizenzizenzic is very costly to run, Rift seems overkill fo small groups(~5), and I don't have anything that is really strong but not eldritch strong agaisnt small numbers of targets.

 

And dead, I was trying to melee and got countered by a sleeping super carrot. On the same monster I had tried to do Curse of Golden Ratio and it was way too expensive for damage done. 168k points, second best attempt.

I will try a serious attempt again sometime. But not today!

 

Your skills were completely warrior-less. Never melee anything if you have no warrior skills, especially on floors 4 and deeper. As a Wizard/Rogue, You rely completely on ranged attacks, and also escape moves if you get caught in melee. By the way, what should I equip my Main/Off hand if I'm going warriorless? Shields? Tomes? Weapons that only encourage me to get killed in melee?

 

Warlock seems like an odd skill choice -- I'd substitute Ley Walker. Then I'd definitely go Astrology (as you then could have sufficient mana to keep up the big Astro buffs, which are great, go great with Necro, but can be big mana hogs). Also, instead of Mathemagics, maybe Fungal Arts or Alchemy or Fleshsmithing. You already get a good teleport (and stealth) from Burglary.

/edit
BTW, when I do a Warlock build, I make my entire build about Warlock (ie. a warrior with mana). Everything supports melee. When I make a NEcro build, I make everything about Necro, and filling in for the weaknesses of necro (the need for mana, and necro resists and a relatively weak start until my resist gets up there).

Each of those builds (Necro vs. Warlock, but especially Warlock) have so many needs that don't overlap that you are probably spreading yourself too thin by taking both. They don't do well as a second thought -- they are best when they are the center of the build. In other words, you have to make up your mind which way you want to go, and choose skills accordingly (melee vs. caster)

 

I took warlock to try to give me some 'defense' and 'early game'. The level 1 warlock skill is great in the early game. The level 2 is maybe OK? (but I think that not having mana has been terrible at times).

I have a really hard time not meleeing at all, it just requuires a ton of mana to only cast.

What level of mana/regen/arcane power/sagacity(is this right?) do people have when they start on DL4?

I am currently working on a serious attempt with a pure warrior:

Beserker Rage 1
Master of Arms 1
Burglary 2
Tinkering 1
Smithing 3
Perception 4
Clockwork Knight 7

My goal is to get to Tinkering 7 (Tinkering 4 skill, I think) and build the clockwork awesome weapons/armor (I already have the boosting goggles). I probably also want Perception 5. Then up Beserker Rage and Master of Arms.

I have some good equipment so far, and am ready to make full plate (although that will kill my mana, which I use for the rebreather skill sometimes). I recently found a hatchet with +10 necro damage + resistances (4? different ones) so I can crit for over 50.

JM

 

This is very similar to builds that I've used. Sometimes I'll have something different instead of berserker rage, although I like that a lot. Maybe unarmed, or thrown or paranormal investigator or communist or battle geology. There's a lot of different skills I think that you can throw into that slot.

 

With Warlock, I was also thinking about that Necro seemed strong for Melee with the middle skills.

Maybe most people just ignore those?

 

What should I construct next? I just made full plate. I don't have Tinkering 4 yet.

I currently have what is in the picture. The weapon is great but got cursed by a golem... I am trying to not melee them at all but made a mistake once.

 

And died on level 9 to a evil chest (named diggle) who did 28 per hit, I could have escaped too, just didn't realize how injured I was.

Am very sad (he was almost dead so I thought I could take a hit and kill him).

 

Pure warrior builds go so fast right up until you find something that hits harder than you.
Sounds like you played it risky. You should try Fungal Arts with a Warrior build. The blungecap give you vampiric, which is absolutely awesome. The puffballs confuse the heck out of even very high level monsters. Zoos can be overwhelming if they have range or can dig behind you, but if you are careful, it is really fun.

 

Most creatures did 0 or 1 to me, even the next most dangerous thing only did 8.

When I was beserking I had 40+ absorb, and I had 9 blast/fire resist and 16! peircing resist.

I had no problem with Zoos due to Clockwork Knight (jump in, jump out)

 

I am on Level 9 again, I think that is another point where things have gotten harder.

I made a few ventures into Wizardlands, but nothing too exciting this time (the only previous time I ventured in I died instantly).

I have a very nice helmet (buffed by krong many times before he cursed it once, still very nice), and a not so nice communist armor (kong cursed it twice and refused to buff it).

I should be doing encrusting, I have only done one so far (Hud on helmet, it is a very nice helmet).

The build is (so far):
Communist 6
Tinkerer 1
Smithing 6
Wand Lore 1
Burglary 2
Rogue Scientist 8
Clockwork Knight 4

I am thinking to finish Clockwork Knight to get the final attack and then up Wand Lore or Burglary. Any recommendations? I actually feel like I don't do enough damage (I have a 40 damage weapon from an evil chest).

What encrusts should I be getting? I don't have any experience with them.

Should I build a new communist armor and not let krong at this one?

Jon

 

In your situation, I might do Burglary first, because you have several decent attacks at this point, and as you say, things are starting to get tough. When things start to get tough, you have to start thinking two ways -- Defense and Avoidance. Burglary gives you the latter.

As far as encrusts are concerned, that will be limited by what mats you have available. I don't have a good reference on those recipes, but I seem to recall one with 4 aluminum (???) that increases magic reflect and resist which is cool. Unless there's a specific reason to get a single high-instability encrust, (or I just don't want to risk an item that I'm unlikely to improve on), I usually try to add about 3 different low-instability encrusts (particularly when encrusting my weapon).

 

So here is my nice helmet and on the 9th floor. There is a ring that is nice, but not sure if I should take it over my resist ring.

Thank you for the advice, I will start increasing Burglary then and not finish Clockwork Knight.

 

And died on level 10, I should have kept the lower level monster blocking me until I had quaffed a bit more healing potions. Also, I think I should have encrusted my mirror darkly shield better.

Time to start over, I think I will retire the communist for a bit.

Total points is 1064600 though.

 

If you're going pure wizard you should use an orb in your off hand for the increased magic power/mp regeneration as well as resists.

If you're going pure rogue or ranged then tomes make an especially useful offhand since their damage is added to ranged attacks as well.

If you can't find a decent orb or tome then any shield with relevant resists (especially against enemies ranged/magical attacks) is a good choice.

 

I have another serious attempt. It was meant to be pretty hard, not sure what I should do next? I am on D. L. 11. I haven't done any Krongs and have never done Encrusting. My crafting is only good enough for arrows/potions right now.

It is
Flesh 2/Burglar 2/Perc. 5/CK 7/R.Scientist 7/P. Investigator 4/Geo. 2

I have many options for weapons and arrmor, should I be trying to krong some of the nice non-artifacts I have? Should I start encrusting? I know I have many more holy grenades to buy.

I currently have Sagan's cloak, I have some very nice armors but if I change to them my magic skill drops and it is much more dangerous (right now I can wade into Muscle Diggles and Arch Diggles because my heal keeps up my mana and health...)

What resists and block/dodge/absorb do I need before venturing deeper?

 

saw this a week ago. didnt know what to say. reason is that you have not focused on any defensive skill of note and that means eventual death unless you hve a lot of support spells or ranged gear.