Just beat Monk Gold! (Spoilery discussion)

[TheSchachter]

So, after having the challenge unlocked for a good few months and giving it the occasional attempt/series of attempts, my Orc Monk finally took down that ridiculous 2260HP boss. It was really challenging, but man did it feel gratifying to see that *Win* combat prediction!

The thing is, today was the first time I even had a run where I felt I'd gotten a good chance at winning; I found Taurog pretty early and getting his sword through two glyph conversions made all the difference. Suddenly I didn't feel like I was fighting a ridiculous uphill battle. I lost that round, but it was mainly because the other altar was Jehora and I didn't really know what to do with it (I tried converting at 100 piety and then desecrating Taurog for Chaos Avatar out of desperation, but I already knew I wasn't going to win that one). Next attempt gave me Taurog and Earthmother together, and that was the winning combination; Taurog until I got sword, shield and armor then convert to EM and use plantation to fuel as many vine form and corrosion boons as possible, while leaving some leftover for clearance. Funny thing is, I didn't even need Apheelsick, which I had previously assumed was practically necessary. I found Halpmeh late and that turned out to be all I needed for the boss. I believe I had a Health Potion left over and I was still ready to desecrate Taurog for an extra shot of Clearance (2 Halpmeh + a few extra blackspace squares = a few more attacks, which would've been worth it even at reduced strength).

Now that I've done it, I'm wondering: Are there any reliable solutions to this challange other than early Taurog (which I got to thanks to Pissorf)? What to do with Taurog + Jehora or EM + Jehora? I'd love to know what other ways other players have beaten this. In terms of difficulty, it felt practially as hard as Naga City, but with much more restricted options...

So yeah, I'm really curious to hear what everyone else thinks of this challenge, and what aspects of the Monk/Dungeon might still be eluding me...



And also: Why do so many of the class challenges have such cramped layouts? I've also been playing Priest Silver, and while I'm pretty sure I *get* it, I've yet to beat it because every dungeon layout feels really annoying, with most monsters that block passages being *just* too strong for my character (though that might be specifically because I don't get it? ) I was just thinking this, in fact, because I feel like I might enjoy the challenges a lot more if they didn't tend to feel unfair in their layout. They're also more punishing than most Hard dungeons (the silver ones, that is). Some of them are really cool though (I'm thinking Thief silver and Wizard silver off the top of my head).

[The Avatar]

If you get APHEELSIK or HALPMEH you can win this with any god (or no god!), but otherwise Taurog alone or Taurpg into EN work. Nice job,

[TheSchachter]

I just gave it a few more tries, and did ok (though I lost) with only Earthmother alone, but I'm really at a loss as to how I would do this challenge without any gods, even with Apheelsick/Halpmeh. I find I end up using too much blackspace and end up running out too early during the boss if I don't find Taurog early...

What kind of top-level Monk skills/knowledge would I need to pull that off? The slime pits are pretty vicious already, what with the weakening, curse, corrosion that's all over the place...

[The Avatar]

If you want to pull it of Faithless, get lucky. It's all about picking off really nice meat men kills using lots of glyphs (BICEPS, HALPMEH, APHEELSIK, etc), so if there aren't enough nice meat men you are in serious trouble.

[dislekcia]

Whurgarbl and any kind of poison are an amazing, non-god-based combo for the Monk. If you can find a way to get that rolling, your regen fighting should be a lot more effective, giving you more blackspace in general.

[The Avatar]

Uh, there aren't any shops and you're forced purist, but on the whole I agree. That is actually my primary use for Whurgarbl (the secondary being keeping burning on a monster for extra damage).

[Lujo]

And stacking burning fast enough and not breaking it with regen fighters. You can really up your fireball damage that way.

[Dreamdancer]

[Naoya]

Yup, it does. A fireball does the number of burning stacks as additional damage. So if you have 5 stacks on a monster, every fireball will deal 5 damage more. Same applies to Whurgarbl... I think.

[booooooze]

I tried a lot with monk gold, found it almost essential to have the added resists + shield from Taurog. Kept trying to do Jehora/EM, got frustrated.