Priest Silver

[TheSchachter]

Yet another topic about the challenges, since I've been focusing more on these recently. Earlier today I beat Priest Silver, but I really feel like it was more down to luck rather than skill; I was playing a Halfling and found the Trisword and a Keg o' Health(!), along with finding Weytwut early. My next try was going to be Orc, but an earlier attempt made me feel as though I wouldn't outlast the boss as anything other than Halfling... I have to say, I found it much more difficult than the other Silver challenges, with the possible exception of Bloodmage Silver (which I really liked). That being said, on Bloodmage Silver, when I won I actually felt like I'd "gotten" it, whereas in Priest Silver's case I just felt lucky.

Part of the difficulty I find with this particular dungeon (though it feels like it applies to a lot of them) is how cramped the map feel. In a few instances I gave up shortly after starting it because it felt kind of unfair (locked in by tough monsters, no glyphs found for a while due to being blocked off by monsters). I don't know the stats for the monsters but they felt like they were as strong as Vicious level monsters. Regardless, from what I can see you start off unable to kill level 2 Zombies (let alone anything else) without Getindare/Weytwut, which I found to be the only two really reliable glyphs (especially along with Cydstep, which is perfect for Potion spiking). ItemsA lot of the runs felt a bit pointless, which is unusual for this game. All in all, I don't think I'd have gotten it without the two lucky buys I got in my winning run, which left me with one Health Potion leftover and all glyphs except Weytwut converted (so I couldn't have done it without the keg in that particular run).

So, I'm wondering what everyone else thought about this challenge, since I haven't seen it discussed much (I checked Lujo's class challenges writeup, and he mentions it's probably a bit too difficult, but not much else). Am I missing a blatantly obvious strategy for this one? I prepped Whupaz (don't think the boss is manageable without it), the Strenght potion for an early high-level kill, and replaced the standard mana potion with a Reflex which I ended up keeping for the boss. I also prepped Bezar's Elite Items specifically in hopes of the Keg or of Yendor (found Zot once, but the boss does so much damage that by the time I could take advantage of it it barely made any difference and I ended up dead.

So, yeah. Thoughts? (other than TL; DR )

[Waldo0]

I cleared it with orc now.

Used Whupaz at lv8 just before leveling up, then his Hp was 1665.

The lvl9 priest damage was 140~160(undead) per hit, so I should hit 10~12.

Full health = 1hit
Quick Silver + Reflex = 3hit
7 Health potion = 7 hit
One more Health potion in Potion shop = 1hit
also you can use items or glyph = normally 1~2 extra hit

So, If orc priest can level up to 9 without Health potion or just using 1~3 Health potions.

Orc priest can clear it.

[booooooze]

I just redid it a few times. Lost a few, won a few. Halflings only needed to get to lvl 7 to endure the boss, nothing special. I take a dodge in place of your strength potion.

From what I saw in the shops, it seemed to (generally) favor high conversion items (more than 2x gold cost), which is nice. Didn't get anything special in the runs I won (trisword would have been lovely).

Fireballs are all you need to beat a lvl 2 zombie when you're 1. You can definitely regen fight them. LEMMISI always spawns, I got APHEELSIK frequently as well, which is pretty helpful. All glyphs are useful.

[The Avatar]

It is one of the more difficult silvers (and usually requires whupaz, at least for new players), but I think it's fine.