Memorable Highlights * I've always wanted to make a character whose primary mode of operation was attrition, and finally had the opportunity. This guy wasn't much of a bruiser, but had gobs of defense. good AC, EV, Shields, and MR, permanent repel missiles from Qazlal, permanent racial spirit shield, decent resists and temporary boosts to resists from Qazlal, shroud of golubria, and gobs of regen and magic regen. The idea was that if an encounter got dicey, all I had to do was kite enemies a bit to regenerate. Since mobs mostly avoid Qazlal's clouds, it was usually easy to get out of melee range. Any shooters or casters would have most of their shots blocked by my shield and reflected back at them or repel missiles would make them miss. I would often regenerate more than a single HP each turn, so I wouldn't have to run for long before I could turn back and start poking at them again with my trident. Another extremely useful defensive bonus was the vine stalker antimagic bite, which made ancient liches and other casters much, much easier, since there were fewer summons or painful conjurations to deal with. * I haven't played in a long time (0.11.0). Lots of things have changed. This made me much more risk-averse than I used to be. I died 33 times before this character (though a couple of those deaths were experiments). * Qazlal seems really good, even though I'm pretty sure I wasn't using him optimally. He seems like he would work exceedingly well with a ranged character. While he would still be okay with a melee guy, I feel like ranged characters are where he would really shine. Effectively preventing mobs from passing through squares with clouds is huge for ranged characters, and the defensive bonuses he gives are considerable. I didn't use his summon elemental power at all, but disaster area was massive and seems like a very effective panic button, even with somewhat lousy invocations. Upheaval would also really shine in a ranged build, for hitting annoying enemies that hide behind others with smite targeting, though I didn't use it much. * I really wanted the vampirism brand because it further tilted the attrition balance in my favor. I planned on going axes from the beginning, thinking that if I could find an axe with the vampirism brand, it would tilt things multiplicatively when surrounded via cleave + vampirism and better open up tiles to escape to in combination with Qazlal's clouds. Sadly, I never found a broad axe with vampirism or really any decent broad axe at all, so I wound up using an artifact trident that I found early on for most of the game (the +9 trident of Tartarus {pierce, +Rage MR+ Str+4}) and replaced it with a demon trident of vampirism I found much later and enchanted the shit out of it. Tridents were still a decent choice, since reaching could often be used for free hits on enemies waiting on the far side of a cloud. * This character had anti-stealth. The big disadvantage to Qazlal's clouds is that they're loud, so it was often the case that I'd walk down some stairs and hear 20+ things screaming or roaring in the distance. This was very unnerving, but it often resulted in big fights concentrated around staircases and relatively empty floors, which was nice. * Reflection is amazing with decent shield skill. Many casters and shooters would kill themselves with it before I reached them. * Vaults: 5 is no joke. I squandered a massive amount of resources trying to clear it, but the lack of corners and hallways made it really difficult. Eventually, I just grabbed the rune and made a break for it, because it was turning out to be too costly to be worth clearing. * The orb run is much tenser than I remember. Lots of pan lords and daevas and fiends and orb guardians. * Finding multiple copies of the Necronomicon, the Grand Grimoire, and other high-end books, but never finding a book with blink or swiftness, both of which would been a massive help.
* I've always wanted to make a character whose primary mode of operation was attrition, and finally had the opportunity. This guy wasn't much of a bruiser, but had gobs of defense. good AC, EV, Shields, and MR, permanent repel missiles from Qazlal, permanent racial spirit shield, decent resists and temporary boosts to resists from Qazlal, shroud of golubria, and gobs of regen and magic regen. The idea was that if an encounter got dicey, all I had to do was kite enemies a bit to regenerate. Since mobs mostly avoid Qazlal's clouds, it was usually easy to get out of melee range. Any shooters or casters would have most of their shots blocked by my shield and reflected back at them or repel missiles would make them miss. I would often regenerate more than a single HP each turn, so I wouldn't have to run for long before I could turn back and start poking at them again with my trident. Another extremely useful defensive bonus was the vine stalker antimagic bite, which made ancient liches and other casters much, much easier, since there were fewer summons or painful conjurations to deal with.
* I haven't played in a long time (0.11.0). Lots of things have changed. This made me much more risk-averse than I used to be. I died 33 times before this character (though a couple of those deaths were experiments).
* Qazlal seems really good, even though I'm pretty sure I wasn't using him optimally. He seems like he would work exceedingly well with a ranged character. While he would still be okay with a melee guy, I feel like ranged characters are where he would really shine. Effectively preventing mobs from passing through squares with clouds is huge for ranged characters, and the defensive bonuses he gives are considerable. I didn't use his summon elemental power at all, but disaster area was massive and seems like a very effective panic button, even with somewhat lousy invocations. Upheaval would also really shine in a ranged build, for hitting annoying enemies that hide behind others with smite targeting, though I didn't use it much.
* I really wanted the vampirism brand because it further tilted the attrition balance in my favor. I planned on going axes from the beginning, thinking that if I could find an axe with the vampirism brand, it would tilt things multiplicatively when surrounded via cleave + vampirism and better open up tiles to escape to in combination with Qazlal's clouds. Sadly, I never found a broad axe with vampirism or really any decent broad axe at all, so I wound up using an artifact trident that I found early on for most of the game (the +9 trident of Tartarus {pierce, +Rage MR+ Str+4}) and replaced it with a demon trident of vampirism I found much later and enchanted the shit out of it. Tridents were still a decent choice, since reaching could often be used for free hits on enemies waiting on the far side of a cloud.
* This character had anti-stealth. The big disadvantage to Qazlal's clouds is that they're loud, so it was often the case that I'd walk down some stairs and hear 20+ things screaming or roaring in the distance. This was very unnerving, but it often resulted in big fights concentrated around staircases and relatively empty floors, which was nice.
* Reflection is amazing with decent shield skill. Many casters and shooters would kill themselves with it before I reached them.
* Vaults: 5 is no joke. I squandered a massive amount of resources trying to clear it, but the lack of corners and hallways made it really difficult. Eventually, I just grabbed the rune and made a break for it, because it was turning out to be too costly to be worth clearing.
* The orb run is much tenser than I remember. Lots of pan lords and daevas and fiends and orb guardians.
* Finding multiple copies of the Necronomicon, the Grand Grimoire, and other high-end books, but never finding a book with blink or swiftness, both of which would been a massive help.
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