The "tips for Gando" thread continued!

[Variaz]

Another thing that would help you is confidence. Don't be shy about posting your build. I recently posted one of my builds that failed, but that can help peoples not repeat the same mistakes. (in my case, it was not raising dex high enough in the beginning.)

Half of Portralis is about having a good build with good items. The other half is how you actually play the character. This mean taking the time to detect enemies, look at elites/bosses and examine their abilities, know when to run and/or use a scroll of teleportation(NEVER go in a dungeon without some. And I mean NEVER.). Don't "Blind Rush", it doesn't work in Portralis. Also, especially for melee characters, try to always get the first strike. This means wait for slower enemies to approach you, or back away from faster ones until they're next to you. Then attack. Take that Blade Dancer for example. She's very fast, and attacks with lots of attacks per rounds, and all her attacks are very accurate. But attack her first, and she'll probably die, her AC not being that high and having not too much hp.

[Gando]

Your tips are all worthy and good but help not a wit because it is my bane that I lose attention when Im playing and do "stupid" things. Sometimes I pay for them. I have been playing and losing characters to bands for a few years now and so Im quite familiar with alot of the 'tactics' of the genre, and most of those tips are smart for any version of angband or tome. The problem I have is that I lose patience...and sometimes I bite off more than my character can chew. Poor guys lose alot of teeth that way. Ive never won a game of Angband or Nethack though I have had several level 50s in TOME and over that in Furyband. I am the king of goofing up a perfectly good character by merely pushing the wrong number on the keypad.

I do not lack confidence as much as I am confident my characters still suck but I am not ready to give in and ask for help yet. I hate being frustrated and so eventually I may capitulate but for now Im toughing it out hoping I will eventually figure out the combinations that work for MY playing style.

If you are curious Ill post a dump of my current fiasco...a celestial paladin on its way to becoming a lord of justice if I dont give up on it. So far I have found 0 items worth keeping so dying <strike>8</strike> er 9 times hasnt been all that inconvient except in the expense of buying supplies over and over again.

dump below:

[Portralis 0.3.0 Character Dump]

Name : Dumbluck Age 19 STR: 13
Sex : Male Height 74 INT: 5
Race : Celestial Weight 168 WIS: 18
Class : Paladin Alignment 0 DEX: 5
Death Count 9 CON: 10
CHR: 12

Level 12 Max Hit Points 262
Experience 662 Cur Hit Points 262
+ To Hit 8 Max Exp 662 Max SP (Mana) 0
+ %To Damage 40 Exp to Adv. 850 Cur SP (Mana) 0
+ To AC 24 Gold 0
Ability P 8 Stat Points 1 Blows/Round: 2
Skill Points 0 Blows/Round(2): 2
Class Level 6 Shots/Round: 1
Class Kills 155 Wpn.dmg: 39-122
Wpn2.dmg: n/a
Sht.dmg: n/a
Sht2.dmg: n/a
Infra-Vision: 0 feet
(Character Background) 0
You are a messenger of heaven sent in Portalis to protect
innocents from evil. You have silver eyes, large shining
silver wings and a shining, fair skin.

---------- CHARACTER'S SKILLS ---------- --- MISC. INFO ---

a) Fighting: 26 A) Polearms: 0 Wpn.dmg: 39-122
b) Spellcraft: 5 B) Daggers: 0 Wpn2.dmg: n/a
c) Shooting: 0 C) Axes: 0 Sht.dmg: n/a
d) Throwing: 0 D) Rods: 0 Sht2.dmg: n/a
e) Defense: 6 E) Martial Arts: 0 To_h : 8
f) Agility: 8 F) Bow: 0 To_d : 40
g) Stealth: 0 G) Crossbow: 0 To_a : 24
h) Combat Feats: 0 H) Firearms: 0 AC : 0
i) Dual Wield: 0 I) Elemental: 0
j) Leadership: 0 J) Alteration: 0
k) Alchemy: 0 K) Healing: 0 Dual Wield: No
l) Crafting: 0 L) Conjuration: 0 Press 'u' to toggle.
m) Swords: 10 M) Divination: 0
n) Blunt: 0 N) Magic Defense: 0


Remaining skill points: 0 Press one of the letters to increase the skill.
Press 'x' to view next skills page(if any).
-------------- RESISTANCES --------------

Fire: 0
Cold: 0
Electric: 25
Acid: 0
Poison: 0
Light: 100
Darkness: -100
Warp: 0
Water: 0
Wind: 25
Earth: 0
Sound: 0
Radio: 0
Chaos: 0
Physical: 0
Mana: 0

Im not posting this for suggestions yet though Im imagining winces as people scan this. Just hold the comments please until you hear me screaming at the top of my lungs "I cant take it anymore!!"

==edit== It has occured to my feeble brain that I left out some details from the dump which would be helpful. Ive been using the wiscasting spells for summoning, healing and light elemental damage. I find light elemental works great against magic returners and physical returners alike as it doesnt damage my Celestial. I use a heal/light circle, a light/lowertohit circle, a summon rats, a summon devlings, a summon canines, a summon orcs/goblins, and several heal varients plus a light (rad 1) ball. My money is low as Ive been spending it on a variety of scrolls, potions, and utility items (9k or so left at the moment.) Every single time Ive died with this character Ive lost a whole bag of items...maybe Ill learn to WoR before I get to -10 speed eventually.

Ive been considering taking 6 levels of priest before LOJ to get the increase wiscasting ability. Also I have been holding off on spending my ability points so that I can either spend them on Shining Armor (which is just now available) or save them for the other classes. Not sure which Ill do yet...have to think it through.



Thanks,
Gando

[Gando]

Ok I guess now Im screaming: "I cant take it anymore!!!" after the last death by my own summons inexplicably turning on me I need someone to tell me why. And tell me why I seem to be unable to make a viable character that survives past the first chapter.

The main problem Im facing is that after innumerable deaths I no longer can afford to equip anything (and more to the point I cant find equipment I need in the stores or dungeons) and the character build I so cleverly managed to survive the first dungeons with no longer suffices against any random dungeon monster....The frustration builds until I want to rip the gory life threads from the still beating heart of the game and fry them with the heat of my wrath.

Any help will be appreciated...though I have to say at this point Im feeling rather pessimistic.

[Frumple]

Tips for making cash, eh? Well, the most profitable means of getting cash before ~character level 20 is in three-ish forms.
1. Spellbooks. Even the cheapest sells for about 500... except maybe missile. Don't bother with it. Or war blessing. Everything else sells better.
2. For items and armor in general, if it's not steel or better, don't pick it up. Seriously. We're not kidding.
3. Cavet to #2 is rods. Any rod will sell for at least 2k. Bronze plated ones will sell for 4k or better.

Remember the y command. This makes gold piles, which you can stuff into your house. You want to do this before going downward, because sooner or later, a double-magic skeletal mage will one-round you. This will happen, and it's about three times as likely if you're carrying more than 15k gold.

Also, if you're feeling comfortable with a small gold glut, buy massive amounts of scrolls, various basic equipment (Steel armor is a bloody blessing, no joke.), multiple useful amulets/rings/whatever, stuff 'em in your house(s) then go spelunking.

Lastly at the moment (things to do, bleh) -- and this actually helpful for even higher level dudes, if you're looking to quickly restock your gold/equipment/whatever after a death -- is Purple Jellies. They multiply. They start showing up on D(ungeon)level 3. I personally farm the hell out of the jellies, as, unlike molds, they don't have a ranged attack and, unlike worms, they don't move. If you really wanna' farm the blazes out of them in short order, a diagram of the perfect farming setup.

########
PPPPPS
-----------<@

The # is a wall, the P a Purple jelly, the S a silver one, and the @ is you. --< is the direction in this case you'd be shooting. Set up a macro that spams a low-cost (preferably wisdom-cast and something you're immune to) spell to along the front of line and you can just hold down the macro button and slaughter the jellies as they spawn without fear of any retaliation. Loot will pile up in very short order. Boomerangs are also very useful for this, as they don't return physical damage.

All at the mo'. Perhaps more later, after I have more food.

--
Oh... and don't feel particularly bad about starting to get slaughtered when you start hitting late teens-levels and beyond. Things get really dicey at that point, and honestly, you're going to die and die a lot somewhere in there. It eases up (a little) when you start hitting blues and suchlike, but not much. Mid-game definately feels like the hardest part of Port so far. Not that I've gotten into late-game yet...

[Gando]

Thanks for the tips frumple...the only thing aobut the purple jellies I didnt know was the macro strategy...I havent really had much luck in finding them lately...when I do its usually a matter of sitting there for a long time waiting for a respawn and hoping its something I can kill.
I realized that about steel items yesterday as I was restocking my pally (now deleted) though I dont think that triage will be an effective choice since Ive never found a steel item on a monster or on the floor. I managed to find several steel mails (def 30) in the shop and shininged them at level 12 ability for a nice bonus....but beleive it or not though I managed to scrounge up 4 ...they all disappeared one by one as monsters killed my pally mercilessly and routinely. Not sure what the point of having 700+ac is if it doesnt help you much.

Anyway Im going to try a holy defender build like the old one Phlinn suggested last year...it wont work the same way since the skill points are different and class levels are uber rare now but should get it working at about level 30 or so if I can survive that long. Wish me luck.

Frumple said: "Remember the y command. This makes gold piles, which you can stuff into your house. You want to do this before going downward, because sooner or later, a double-magic skeletal mage will one-round you. This will happen, and it's about three times as likely if you're carrying more than 15k gold."

yeah tell me about it...I found that out the hard way more than once....darned 1hitters. Oh and a boss archer skelly got me once too.

[Variaz]

Here's a tip also... I see in your dump that at level 12, your dex was 5, and it's a melee build. DO NOT NEGLECT DEX for melee characters!! It can GREATLY increase your hit_rate. With a hit rate of 8 at character level 12, you'll have trouble hitting even the weakest monster if it's high enough in levels. If you're not convinced, go read my clumsy spearmaiden build I made in the previous alpha. Don't repeat the same mistake as I did with her.

[kipar]

I'm now neglecting other stats for dex))) Now my kobold shadow stalker on level 12 have effective damage per turn about 12k (dex gives a lot of atacks and poisoning daggers to +600 are really dreadful)
For most of my characters the only needed stats are dex and con (and wis for magic-oriented)



And as a general tip (how I'm making my builds):
you should choose three main components:
1 - the main atacking power (melee or firearms or wis-bolt or etc), maybe summoning or soul guardian simulacrum, and its power must be increased every level both by stats and skills (and possibly abilities)

2 - main defense from physical atacks (defender's iron skin, shields, magic blood, agility or rogues evasion, maybe just stealth or high CON etc)
3 - main defense from magical atacks (imho best is magic defense, but it's better to add something if it's fail: elemental lord abilities or BlockMagic defender ability or rogue evasion etc)

The main Portralis difference in terms of fight (imho) are _fastly_ increasing damages - and monsters will instakill you if you hasn't nice protection and they'll instakill you even if you has a protection but monster appears too high - so it's element of game, you just must be powerful enough to kill enough monsters before they'll kill you

[Gando]

The thing is...its not my stats that get me killed usually (its not because of a botched hit (or low damage hit) but because a) my fingers fumble and I do x instead of y...my pet kills me for no reason...I get hit by something that does incredible damage from out of the blue etc. Id probably be dying regularly from traps too if they were active elements in the game. So its not because my dex was 5 with that particular build which was naked by the way (no gear at all).

I am mindful that all the stats play a part. Of course it can be a difficult choice to make when there are so few stats to allocate and so many that are needful. But I think that is part of the game...the constantly dying thing is an aspect I could do without...as much as Ive died in angband and tome varients it hasnt been this often...Im not sure it is such a great boast that this game is too hard for me but that might just be the case. Im a reasonably intelligent (iq 130 something) experienced gamer (42 years old and been gaming since I was a tot) though not a power player per se but here is a game that just defeats me. :/ sorry to say it.

To amend that last statement: still alive with my holy defender wannabe...so there is still hope for me yet.