Warmonger Strategies

[OneMoreNameless]

Warmonger is the (non-vicious) badge that I've earned for the least number of dungeons, even compared to purist. Not because it's necessarily always the most difficult, but because the lack of glyphs as leverage for killing monsters seems to make for very few powerful strategies and those eventually get dull. So far I only have two setups that I can reliably win with:

* The human monk carrying platemail and a compressed Really No Longer That Big Sword while worshipping Taurog. Buy whatever helps to get started, convert it all later for the inventory space to death protection spam against the boss if needs be, regen-hack everything to pieces in the meanwhile. Yawn.

* The orc berserker carrying dwarven gauntlets while worshipping the Glowing Guardian. Tank-hack magic users in dungeons where they happen to make easier targets. Don't actually convert health potions unless you need the extra piety for Cleansing physical-resistant bosses.

Any other viable combinations to liven up my badge collecting? One fairly ridiculous idea that occurs to me is to play an assassin, prep Earthmother for a single shot of Entanglement, then immediately boost my level with an Amulet of Yendor. Who needs glyphs when you can insta-gib 3/4 the dungeon! Now as to how that character would then actually fight a boss without poison ...

[Sidestepper]

Rogues of Glowing Guardian work well. They benefit from Absolution more than any other class and can leverage Cleansing better than anyone else.

Priests make surprisingly good Warmongers on undead-heavy maps. Creeplight Ruins is the perfect place to try it.

Paladin of Dracul can handle almost any map Warmonger style. I think it was Blovski who first suggested this one.

I am convinced that a Monk or Paladin with the Bearmace and a lucky Binlor find could pull it off. The idea would be to pile up resistances and store away some piety for Stone Heart if it turns out that there are lots of Goo Blobs.

EDIT: Assassin of Tikki Tooki with Orb of Zot and Whupaz might work. It could definitely handle single-boss maps.

[FDru]

Orc Rogue / GG

Orc Berserker / Taurog

Basically want to abuse the damage bonus and the fact that you're going to be converting glyphs like crazy. Could possibly work well with halflings/gnomes if going GG for the double conversion bonuses. But I tend to just stick to Orcs for simplicity.

[Blovski]

I think Sidestepper's covered it pretty much, though I'd add Vampires if you happen to have them unlocked (though if you're up against Goo or TS that gets sticky).

Glowing Guardian Rogue is (as with basically everything else in the game) miles away the easiest choice. Vampires are reasonably good if you have them unlocked. If you're experienced with Tikki Tooki, he can also work surprisingly well.

The Dracul Paladin with a Vampiric Sword (or Dragon Shield for a slightly less challenging but lower-piety run but then I prep that shield so much I always do something else if possible) is a fun change of pace.

Edit: I tend to be missing Hoarder. I never know what to go for with that.

[FDru]

[Lujo]

Any glowing guardian worshipping Orc or Dwarf can do it, I've done it with warlords (talk about no class benefits )

I think anyone worshipping binlor could do it with a Bear Mace on maps with only one boss (I've done a grimms grotto Binlor Gorgon warmonger).

A binlor worshipping halfling can do it. A binlor halfling priest can do it amazingly well, with a trisword especially.

A well prepped Orc Rogue can do Supreme Slayer warmonger.

Taurog monk/berserker depending on boss. Taurog monk is stronger than Taurog berserker IMO, depending on boss.

A drac worshiping bloodmage might be able to do it (halfling would be able to get loads of piety early, and it's pretty much smooth sailing from there provided you have a means to upp your health).

[Blovski]

@FDru - I've been slowly ticking off hoarder with Crusaders mostly.

@Lujo - I raise you a Binlor Gorgon Warmonger labyrinth

[Wargasm]

Wouldn't half-dragons do pretty good at Warmonger by virtue of doing immense KB damage? Sure, you can't PISORF or IMAWAL to set up KBs, but I'd think on at least a few maps you could do without. Bonus points if you can get Spirit Pact and convert all your mana potions.

So far as Hoarder, Wizard and Tinker are both pretty good for that. Although Tinker is considerably less good at Miser. I mean, you could, especially if you score the Armoury as your secret subdungeon, but there's probably easier ways than playing the guy focused on shopping.

[Lujo]

[Blovski]

Nah, I think this was back when Rexx was a wuss. I did have to use him to break a wall or two and it took a few tries but I managed to clear enough space with the bear mace to work within.

@Wargasm, Half-dragons are alright. You are sort of dependent on positioning, so if you get a boss like Ironman somewhere you can't feasibly knock him into anything it gets grim quite quickly.