Posted on 9.9.2006 10:07
Last updated on 16.9.2006 13:58

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8218. on the Ladder (of 18813)
1465. on the ToME Ladder (of 3141)
38. for this player (out of 39)

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On 9.9.2006 10:07 strda221@student.otago.ac.nz wrote:
As the name would suggest, Limbo Dancer is an attempt to gun for a low-level win, in this case in terms of XP, rather than in terms of level. The basic strategy is the anti-magic archer.

So far, so good. Limbo Dancer, having had insane luck with dungeon markets, killed off the Necromancer as soon as he was allowed to enter Dol Guldur (level 34). He's now looking for the Ring, and has offed both the Watcher and Shelob. I'm debating about whether to just gun for Sauron here; at level 30 I sneaked down to level 99 of Angband (playing like a lost soul on steroids), so it's not as if accessing him will be difficult. Also, the remaining Ring-holder possibilities (with the exception of Ar-Pharazon, whom I'm not going after due to no means of breathing), are pretty XP-intensive anyway.

On 9.9.2006 11:37 strda221@student.otago.ac.nz wrote:
Sauron dropped the Ring the first time round. I'm going to wear it, of course (though it'll make my HP a bit "interesting") , but need to see if I can get more Slay Evil ammo first.

On 9.9.2006 13:59 strda221@student.otago.ac.nz wrote:
Update:

Sauron defeated, but Morgoth has been posing problems. Big problems. I was sure that my anti-magic field was 100 percent effective, but Morgoth was able to get off the occasional summons with some regularity. Ugh. Needless to say, I had Morgoth down to four stars, but had fired all my Slay Evil ammo. I simply lacked the firepower to kill him in time, and ended up getting breathed on by some loveable critter.
Limbo Dancer was killed, but brought back by the Ring.

Currently I've gone back to the dunegon markets in hope of picking up a few Scrolls of Mass Genocide and speed potions. But with less than 300 HP now I have a horrible feeling that Limbo Dancer might well end up dancing in Limbo - being able to defeat Sauron, but unable to do the same to Morgoth.

On 10.9.2006 06:46 strda221@student.otago.ac.nz wrote:
Another update:

Limbo Dancer vs Morgoth Round Two was going Ok, partly due to having a better bow, until, down to four stars again, Morgoth managed to summon (un-genocidable) special opponents. Oh joy. The upshot was that I had to make a swift retreat and reconsider my strategy here.

Having done the calculations, it seems that my problem is that Limbo Dancer's anti-magic field is only 95 percent effective. In order to boost that to 100 percent, he either needs to wait a couple of levels and push his anti-magic skill up a bit, or find a "worse" Dark Sword than my current one. I've still got a bit of room to move on the first option (the current lowest XP winner has 1.4 million XP), but at the moment Morgoth is taking a back seat to scumming Ancient Dragons in the hope of getting that elusive Dark Sword. I do, of course, only kill those dragons that are indicated as carrying the things.

On 10.9.2006 09:10 Opalius wrote:
Can't you read any enhancing scrolls on you crossbow?

On 10.9.2006 14:28 strda221@student.otago.ac.nz wrote:
*Beats head on desk repeatedly*

I clean forgot about enchanting up the crossbow. Damn, damn, damn. I'll pop into the nearest Scribes and do a bit of steal-scumming to get the scrolls.

I'm still a bit wary of that hole in my anti-magic field though, especially now that it is more difficult to replemish my stocks of Slay Evil Ammo due to not being able to scum the Lothlorien House Quest any more for skeletons. Morgoth (unlike Sauron, who doesn't resist Acid) resists everything, so I'll be needing alot of shots to bring him down. I think I'll keep Dark Sword hunting until I get to level 38, when I'll consider having another go at him.

On 11.9.2006 05:35 strda221@student.otago.ac.nz wrote:
Another update:

Good news and bad news. The good news is that thanks to a slightly better Dark Sword and an improved anti-magic skill, my anti-magic field is at something like 99.6 percent, which I can live with.

The bad thing is that I went after Morgoth again, had him down to three stars, only for him to breath nether at me. This took me from 390 HP to -23 HP in one go (and I resist nether!). Limbo Dancer was once again brought back by the Ring, but he now needs to restock on ammo. And he's now only got 260 HP to deal with. Ugh.

On 11.9.2006 11:37 strda221@student.otago.ac.nz wrote:
Ugh. Double ugh.

Got breathed on by Nexus Hounds while running towards a void jumpgate in deep Angband. Am now down to 167 HPs.

I'm starting to think that conventional tactics (fire crossbow bolt and phase door when Morgoth gets close) might be unwinnable from here: I'm essentially playing Russian Roulette (Angband Roulette?) every time I face Morgoth. He doesn't need to do anything magical (he *can't* do anything magical in the face of all that anti-magic), he just either needs to breathe or fire a rocket to kill me in one hit. Any suggestions on how to rescue the situation would be appreciated. I feel like such a fool for letting the HP-shrinking-resurrection cycle start in the first place.

On 12.9.2006 11:46 strda221@student.otago.ac.nz wrote:
Another update:

Out of desperation I turned the Stupid Monsters option on in the hope of keeping Morgoth from firing off something fatal. Unfortunately, down to five stars, he decided to fire a rocket.

This is just tragic. Limbo Dancer can't die (he's now on 115 HPs), yet he can't kill Morgoth. Fancy tactics involving the Ring of Flare and terrain manipulation are out, since I left Flare in my (now destroyed) homes.

On 12.9.2006 13:30 remuz@free.fr wrote:
Solution, hard to set up though : find a pilar of perma rock in a vault, and pillar dance around it with Morgoth (I did it once, with a weak warrior that couldn't tank Morgy properly).

On 12.9.2006 14:00 strda221@student.otago.ac.nz wrote:
Thanks for the suggestion! I was about to give up on this character, but it seems there's a slim chance after all.

I think I'll take yet another trip back to the dungeon markets to pick up more speed potions and possibly scum the footware shops for some boots of speed. Pillar dancing someone of Morgoth's speed means having to move really quickly over a longish period of time - at 115 HPs one hit and I'm dead (again).

On 12.9.2006 15:42 remuz@free.fr wrote:
Yes, this pillar dancing technique assume that you can predict perfectly the turns where you have a 'free turn'. I cannot remember the inner workings, but you should try to get some round number (say, 40 or 50, adjust with your explor setting), and look at the formules to know how often you get this free turn.
You then need to figure out your relative moving patterns before he comes to contact (detection is your friend), since you will not be allowed any mistakes.

On 13.9.2006 02:17 strda221@student.otago.ac.nz wrote:
It just occurred to me that since my major means of attack is a ranged attack, and since I get two shots in per turn, I don't actually need to find an actual pillar - I just need to find a small squarish vault and dance around the outside of the vault, firing once at Morgoth (him being on the outside as well) then running behind the corner. The nice advantage of that would be that it would allow me to easily recover fired ammo. Of course, first things first, more speed potions.

On 13.9.2006 11:46 strda221@student.otago.ac.nz wrote:
Currently stair-scumming the depths of Angband looking for a level that contains both a suitable vault and Morgoth. So far have only found one, though was unable to take advantage due to some threatening-looking Hounds.

The good news is that I've now got decent boots of speed, which combined with the potions should take me to +37 speed. The bad news is that I now have so few HPs that the Ring's drain life property slowly sends my HP to zero every time I do something other than resting (that's resting with an R. Staying in the same place by pressing 5 also permits the drain to continue).

On 16.9.2006 10:03 strda221@student.otago.ac.nz wrote:
After endless stair-scumming I finally found an appropriate level. Problem was that Gothmog showed up, forcing me to kill him first, then just before Morgoth tunnelled through, I then bumped into Saruman and the Mouth of Sauron. This just made things too awkward, so I had to leave the level. More stair scumming. Oh joy.

At least Gothmog dropped Fingolfin's hand-gear.

On 16.9.2006 13:58 strda221@student.otago.ac.nz wrote:
As luck would have it, the game decided to crash soon after I left the previous level - the upshot of which was that I was once again facing the Morgoth, Saruman, and Mouth of Sauron trifecta. I was so sick of stair-scumming that I just decided to fight them then and there (to hell with the XP),and after a lengthy running-around-the-vault session, Limbo Dancer emerged victorious.

This is easily the ugliest win I have ever had, and the sheer amount of scumming involved really dampens my enthusiasm at having finally knocked off Morgoth.

On 18.9.2006 04:56 Lul wrote:
No bad to cheat! I'ts in the game it must be permitted. Is not always able to play game the elegance fashion.

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