Back and hacking...
I picked up Nethack today for the first time in a while. Spore distracted me at first, then my computer broke (and still isn't exactly fixed) and then NaNoWriMo happened. If my main computer worked, it'd be Football Manager 2009 time. But it doesn't, so now it's Nethacking time again.
I swear, it seems like all my Nethack ability was drained after my ascension. I can't really do that well. For quite a while now, the only class I've played is Barbarian. Now that I've ascended Barbarian, I feel like it's time to play something else. Wizard seems cool, but I can't quite get the hang of little to no melee. I love Melee, but I also love casting spells. I didn't cast (successfully, anyway) a single spell during my Barbarian ascension. I started reading random spell books near the end in hopes of getting a spell with a non-100% failure rate. No such luck.
So, in light of the fact that I don't want to be Melee deprived, I figure I'm left with the following class choices: Valkyrie, Samurai, Caveman, Knight, Monk. None of those classes are particularly good with spells. I used to consider Monk my best class (as it held my top score for a long, long time. Recently shattered, of course, by my Barbarian.) Maybe I should pick Monk back up. The Quest for Monk is supposedly really, really hard. (And my propensity for attacking things head on in melee may get me killed during my Quest, I understand.)
Anyway, let's do a game recap from last night so this post isn't me entirely whining about not being good.
Decided to play a Lawful Valkyrie. Valkyries are supposed to be like easy Barbarians, or so I hear. (And, for the record, Cavemen are like hard Barbarians.) I picked Lawful for easy access to Excalibur. Doing all right. Find the entrance to the Mines on dlvl 2, decide to let that go for now. I've found that going into the mines so early is a bad idea, as I was still lvl 1 at the time. I find (and eat) a floating eye on dlvl 3. Early telepathy is always welcomed. No way to blind myself yet, though. I find some Orcish Ringmail which, I decide, is better than nothing. Find a cursed helm that my pet didn't seem to mind standing on for some reason. Not sure if that's a rare bug or if I missed something. So, now I have a helm stuck to my head. -1, so it's essentially like a no AC helm. Could be worse. I find some High Boots that don't appear to be anything special. But, they're extra AC and thats good. AC is 4 by dlvl 4. That's decent, by my standards. (Keep in mind, as a Barbarian, I fought my way through the castle with -4. I ascended with -23 and was told by several people on Usenet that they would have never risked an ascension run with an AC like that. My standards for good AC are apparently quite different than most.) I proceed downwards and, by dlvl6 am at level 5. Get surrounded by Rothes. This can't be good. My brave dog Growl is fighting them off for me. I say to him, "Stay here! I'll be back with Excalibur!"
I run back up to dlvl 2 which has two fountains and dlvl 1, which has 1. Surely three fountains is enough to get Excalibur? Dip in the first. Dries up immediately and gives me a few gold coins. The second one dries after two dips, gives me nothing. I run down to dlvl1 and dip. Dries up after 1 dip and now I'm next to a Water Demon. Oh my, I haven't thought this through. Demon paralyzes me and gets 6 or 7 uncontested hits on me. I'm 3 steps away from the stairs and nearly dead, so I run down them and am followed. Crap. I run back up them and now there's 4 Water Demons. Where'd the other 3 come from? A few more hits and I'm done.
I should have #prayed as soon as that demon followed me, really. I had an (unidentified) Ring of Free Action, and that would have avoided this entire mess. But oh well. I don't wear unidentified rings around, as that can lead to big problems. Actually, I shouldn't've been trying for Excalibur at all at level 5. Should have waited until 8 or so.
So, that's how it went last night. Gonna try something else tonight. Maybe one of the classes I've never played with at all. (Tourist and Archeologist for the record. I think I finally broke down and tried Healer a few months ago, not sure though.)
So, in the future, hopefully you'll see more posts from me again.
I swear, it seems like all my Nethack ability was drained after my ascension. I can't really do that well. For quite a while now, the only class I've played is Barbarian. Now that I've ascended Barbarian, I feel like it's time to play something else. Wizard seems cool, but I can't quite get the hang of little to no melee. I love Melee, but I also love casting spells. I didn't cast (successfully, anyway) a single spell during my Barbarian ascension. I started reading random spell books near the end in hopes of getting a spell with a non-100% failure rate. No such luck.
So, in light of the fact that I don't want to be Melee deprived, I figure I'm left with the following class choices: Valkyrie, Samurai, Caveman, Knight, Monk. None of those classes are particularly good with spells. I used to consider Monk my best class (as it held my top score for a long, long time. Recently shattered, of course, by my Barbarian.) Maybe I should pick Monk back up. The Quest for Monk is supposedly really, really hard. (And my propensity for attacking things head on in melee may get me killed during my Quest, I understand.)
Anyway, let's do a game recap from last night so this post isn't me entirely whining about not being good.
Decided to play a Lawful Valkyrie. Valkyries are supposed to be like easy Barbarians, or so I hear. (And, for the record, Cavemen are like hard Barbarians.) I picked Lawful for easy access to Excalibur. Doing all right. Find the entrance to the Mines on dlvl 2, decide to let that go for now. I've found that going into the mines so early is a bad idea, as I was still lvl 1 at the time. I find (and eat) a floating eye on dlvl 3. Early telepathy is always welcomed. No way to blind myself yet, though. I find some Orcish Ringmail which, I decide, is better than nothing. Find a cursed helm that my pet didn't seem to mind standing on for some reason. Not sure if that's a rare bug or if I missed something. So, now I have a helm stuck to my head. -1, so it's essentially like a no AC helm. Could be worse. I find some High Boots that don't appear to be anything special. But, they're extra AC and thats good. AC is 4 by dlvl 4. That's decent, by my standards. (Keep in mind, as a Barbarian, I fought my way through the castle with -4. I ascended with -23 and was told by several people on Usenet that they would have never risked an ascension run with an AC like that. My standards for good AC are apparently quite different than most.) I proceed downwards and, by dlvl6 am at level 5. Get surrounded by Rothes. This can't be good. My brave dog Growl is fighting them off for me. I say to him, "Stay here! I'll be back with Excalibur!"
I run back up to dlvl 2 which has two fountains and dlvl 1, which has 1. Surely three fountains is enough to get Excalibur? Dip in the first. Dries up immediately and gives me a few gold coins. The second one dries after two dips, gives me nothing. I run down to dlvl1 and dip. Dries up after 1 dip and now I'm next to a Water Demon. Oh my, I haven't thought this through. Demon paralyzes me and gets 6 or 7 uncontested hits on me. I'm 3 steps away from the stairs and nearly dead, so I run down them and am followed. Crap. I run back up them and now there's 4 Water Demons. Where'd the other 3 come from? A few more hits and I'm done.
I should have #prayed as soon as that demon followed me, really. I had an (unidentified) Ring of Free Action, and that would have avoided this entire mess. But oh well. I don't wear unidentified rings around, as that can lead to big problems. Actually, I shouldn't've been trying for Excalibur at all at level 5. Should have waited until 8 or so.
So, that's how it went last night. Gonna try something else tonight. Maybe one of the classes I've never played with at all. (Tourist and Archeologist for the record. I think I finally broke down and tried Healer a few months ago, not sure though.)
So, in the future, hopefully you'll see more posts from me again.