Vicious Dungeon Strategies

[JaggerMcDagger]

No alchemist 3?! But that mean's I'll always have number 2, just sitting there!

[Lujo]

Love the can reference, very much in spirit of things ^^

And the discrepancy between the regular game and the VICIOUS content has been brought up before, and I've been on the "regular skill progression doesn't prepare you for most VICIOUS in the least bit" part of the field. I've always had trouble with Vicious, as they require reductive gameplay, at least the way they were envisioned. It's more about learining what you don't need to use than how to use everything at your disposal. However...


...making a habit out of playing vicious Gaan'Telet a with its random floor distribution it's sort of a game within a game standalone roguelike thingy. I think it might even be easier to just see how far you can go over and over and over than make the logic leaps required to transition from HARD to non-endurance run Vicious. But that's only me.

I haven't been to Naga City for ages, but whatever worked in Vicious Gaan'Telet ussually worked well there, I remember enjoying it quite a bit.

[gjaustin]

Naga City is sooo much easier now. Too much easier IMO.

You get four monsters (worth 19 exp I think) each wave! And there's shops in there that sell both Kegs and an Amulet of Yendor!

[The Avatar]

You also get no above ground altars and you have to buy below ground ones...

[Lujo]

You also get no above ground altars and you have to buy below ground ones...

This might actually make it harder, I was always beating it with a %res stacking altar slalom where all the Gaan'Telet strats worked but with less effort.

[gjaustin]

You also get no above ground altars and you have to buy below ground ones...

Losing topside Pactmaker stinks, but you get so much gold in the arena that you end up being able to afford all the altars you want anyway.

[JaggerMcDagger]

So I beat dragon land with a berserker, but not really sure what other characters would be doable without insane luck. I'm assuming that it is out of the reach of mortals to beat vicious dungeons with every character, so what ones should I try next?
I feel like kind of a noob for asking, but what are some of the good characters for both naga city and namtor?

[The Avatar]

Then I am no mortal.

http://www.qcfdesign.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2158&start=60#p15271

Naga City requires a balanced character. Resist staking monks and Paladin's are great, HALPMEH is an incredible glyph. You almost NEED poison to win. It's incredibly useful.

Namtar is best slain by a Warlord. I tend to whupaz form 2 and fireball form 3. If you've ever reached the underworld, before you enter get 6 or so exp from leveling. There are imps in there you can use to level, like the monsters in Naga City arena.

[Roonespism]

So I beat dragon land with a berserker, but not really sure what other characters would be doable without insane luck. I'm assuming that it is out of the reach of mortals to beat vicious dungeons with every character, so what ones should I try next?

The three classes I did dragon isles with to get the quest done were:

Fighter - Saving a mountain of potions for the matron shouldn't be too difficult, considering you'll get the easiest level 10 ever above-ground and dwarvern gauntlets (or something of roughly equal stand-and-fight power) should let you bowl over the minibosses.

Assassin - Gibs the minibosses, matron goes down to repeated attack->poison->lemmisi.

Bloodmage - Before a recent patch that nerfed mage plate and gave the matron retaliate: fireball, winning as a magic-only bloodmage was pretty easy. Although I guess it still wouldn't be too tricky...

[Fran]

But to be fair avatar, you did some of them during some versions of the game were specific strats were a lot more powerful than now. You're still one hell of a pro, but certain things are harder now than they used to be.
Don't make the poor guy feel like a noob when there is no need to.

I'd suggest getting used to the sorcerer and trying some Vicious Halls of Steel runs. If you can clear that dungeon with 3 different classes, you get access to the vampire, which has an easier time in most vicious dungeons, especially Naga City. This in turn helps you to get a feeling about how the dungeons work so that you can think about things that could work there. It also has the bonus that you can playtest things in Hard Halls of Steel, which should help you improve your gaming with some moments of success inbetween.