Please release the monster classes. They want to be free...

[The Avatar]

Agreed, if you only had potions it would be about the same, but with other effects such as sanguine the old one would be better.

[Joist]

I think I have a scum-less method for Dragon Isles. Same strategy as VHoS, orc berserker prep taurog and tri-sword. Go hard convert every glyph, I think you'll be able to have a standardised battle against the matron. WHUPAZ on the first attack, then another attack, then your resists are smashed but 4 death protections from taurog will see you through.

I had to kill some popcorn to get the last death protection but now that I think about it I should have prepared one beforehand. Saving my prepped reflex potion could have worked too. Oh, I guess I could have saved a quicksilver potion as well, I don't usually prep those though.

Fight the mini-boss at level 6 with a mid-fight level up, then a couple of pots should down him. I needed my other pots against the poison dragons in the subdungeon.

I would have got warmonger if I hadn't accidentally picked up a LEMMISI

[The Avatar]

It's the most obvious choice. Others would be assassin, warlord, priest, and rogue, but those are more overall good choices that work in almost all Vicious dungeons.

[Darvin]

[Joist]

@ Avatar: That's true, but they all require a lot of luck. If things don't go their way they are boned. Most of them don't have a solid god choice, or if they do they can't prep it because the cost is prohibitive. My fair (broken builds aside like piercing wand into the negatives or 2000 damage crusader) successes have only been berserker, assassin and warlord. Berserker and warlord were the easiest but I have like 2 assassin wins and 30 assassin deaths, most of those are me banging my ahead against matron.

Haven't got a priest or a rogue through yet, not sure which god to go with for priest and not sure how to use the alchemist scroll on the rogue (psst, you should put up a run through with an alchemist scroll rogue).

With the berserker and carefully thought out play I'm pretty sure I can win every time. Luck isn't going to come along and knee me in the balls.

@ Darvin: Yeah, some glyphs I don't convert in practise, I was just checking that it was doable "worst case scenario" ie: no good glyphs. Among the glyphs I wouldn't convert are apheelsik, imawal, getindare, endiswal if I spot a hidden sub-dungeon.

and just some numbers which I think are correct. Let's say you get to 160 damage, which is on the low side, you need to deal 1428 damage to matron. 1st attack is with a WHUPAZ knocks and it knocks her down to ~770, then you just need 5 more attacks. That's 6 all up. So the first 3 you still have lingering resistances, you can get them in and it will cost you a health pot or a few dark tiles. The next 3 you can get using taurog, 3 death protections cost 90 piety and you can pre-buff one.

The only painful bit is the poison dragons on the bridge that do physical damage. I usually use a reflex potion on one and 2 health pots on the other.

[The Avatar]

Ugh. Yeah, the elites suck.

160 on the low side? What are you prepping? Tri-Sword?

Alchemist scroll is pretty straight forward for them. At level 1 activate with a strength potion, level 2 your other non-whupaz potion prep, 3-6 mana potions, 7-9 store-bought potions, 10 whupaz.

[Joist]

Yes tri-sword. Then you have the extra berserker damage boost. 5 preps + 3 apoths + 5 * 2 in dungeon is 18*2 is 36 + 50 at level 10 is 86, then you have +6 or so from orc conversions is 90, say, then +50% from boosters and +20% from from being a beserker and +10% from perserverance badge is 162. Oh yeah, taurog's sword too.

And that is if you can't find any other damage boosting items (dwarfen gauntlets, the other badge etc) or get an extra conversion from buying stuff at the shops.

Sure you become beefy with the alchemist scroll but I just don't find it that useful. You get a small boost at the start of combat but the only advantage is really when using potions, or getting level ups and those don't come along in every battle. I mean, it obviously works since so many people love it, I just don't really get how people use it effectively

[The Avatar]

Just level up as if you actually were getting 23 per level (8 in the case of rogue, 25 in the case of priest). If your so used to high damage just play a rogue--it'll feel much closer towhat your playing now.

[Joist]

You mean 18 for rogue and 26 for priest?

I think I rely on regen fighting too much. Compared to buffing resists buffing health doesn't help your regen fighting at all.

[gjaustin]