by The Avatar on Sat Sep 21, 2013 4:34 am
Ah, the weekend. Back to review work!
Part 110: Ugh, this is going to be a long one. Well, based on the length, this could be pretty close to a win, if not a win. You could totally win this depending on the class you play. The best are monk, rogue, bloodmage, and paladin. Wizard and sorcerer are darn good choices too. Your only two preparation mistakes are taking elites instead of apothecary (you really want to be able to cancel the weakening and corrosion of the statue and illusion) and your potion kit should include either a fortitude and burn, if not both. The health vs attack is debatable. Since you are stacking resists, you should probably gone with attack, especially with the first strike combo. Very good thinking with Taurog there. And there is the third preparation mistake. That bear mace is just not good. You want to grab skullpicker and the armor. The Curse Scroll will provide the twelfth mana. Compress immediately. Please. You should just explore. And that is why you explore. Actually, the bear mace into a wall would have killed the zombie. The Hero's Helm is definitely worth it. You know what would have been better than dwarven gauntlets? The orb of zot! That level 3 zombie isn't really the smartest kill, but it is good. You should pick up LEMISI and use it a couple times. That was a waste of a good LEMISI. What a shame. Well, nevertheless, that is going to be a good first kill. With one fireball that is a kill. Taurog will not be angered. The BURNDAYRAZ will bring you to EXACTLY 0, which means you remain unpunished. Thank you for remembering to compress. Mistake. You should have IMAWALed the wraith. He's bloodless, so therefore less valuable. Aaaaand Cowardly. You always regret it. There is nothing actually good to use your health on (except that level 3 zombie). This has been a nice start. Well done. You could kill a level 5. DRAC! What luck! And you remember the cowardly. Actually, there wasn't THAT much reason to keep the bear mace, so whatever. What about that level 6 wraith? If you can take a hit you can totally kill him. In VGT, bloodless monsters are the key to IMAWAl. That was a waste of tiles. It was actually very smart to prep Taurog--a real stroke of genius. You are forgetting first strike. And you attacked her. More wastefulness. That level 7 is too much. Now you see that level 6. Good. Despite all of these smaller things I am pointing out, this has been well done so far. You could actually mid fight level up kill right now. Just fireball him twice, level, attack, and kill. Well, shame you didn't notice, but that's okay. You have magic resist, just in the form of your dragon shield. I'm glad you realized the IMAWAL bloodless thing! See, you could have kill him. One fireball is enough. Please stop wasting exploration. Well, you'll live. See, you should have done the math. You wasted a bunch of tiles. SCORE! AN EARLY ILLUSION! You lucked out massively with this. The illusion is always accompanied by the curse scroll, which is the best item. GOOD! You are correct in regen fighting him. Taurog gives you so much piety that it doesn't matter. Good choice. I'm actually unsure of whether the magic or physical item is better. Wizards are miserable without magic res, but magic is less common than physical. THE ORB! YES YES YES! With a conversion into TT this will be easy now. You can totally win. Heck, you were set up to win without it! You can't actually win that fight right now without a dodge. Actually, there is one monster left in there other than him. Well, you better hope you dodge. LUCKY! That was massive. That dodge saved your life! Use the bloodstains to find them. AND THE CURSE SCROLL! That was a poorly done fight. If you can take two hits, it doesn't mean you SHOULD take both hits, especially when a fireball would let you totally avoid one of them. Good job not picking up mana potions. You will probably need to get rid of more curse. Okay, you DEFINATELY need to get rid of more curse. Well, now you can see why you should prep apothecary or burn salve+fortitude tonic. The prime popcor to target is whatever is blocking your next stairwell, because that will have to be harvested anyways. EM does not get rid of Weakening or Corrosive. GG does, but it is EXPENSIVE. You can, it is a top off kill. When your body was ravaged by the curse/trap the besets you upon entering the floor, you were corroded. IT IS A TOP OFF KILL! YES! GOOD JOB! And that is why you explore EXACTLY how much you need to. That was a waste. If you want to go to someone before Drac, it is TT. The extra dodge+10 gold and maybe the reflex+quicksilver is more caluable. That was a waste. You always explore topside FIRST (except the walls, those don't matter). The reason is you might be short on some boosters, shops, glyphs, or more popcorn exp. WEYTWUT really isn't that valuable. Actually, you can beat Horratio fairly soundly WITHOUT the orb of zot. Heck, the only time I used that combo was the original bronze Tri-Quest. Ouch. ONE SHORT! You should convert into drac, then take sanguine, or EM and greenblood. You could have saved yourself a weakening... which is BIG. The thing is you aren't going to LOSE EM piety. You can always take plantation upstairs later. Good choice switching to Dracul. The Tower is all about resist stacking, so getting 15% more each is HUGE. All off the disadvantages are bad. The ones you actually have to be worried about are 3 curse if you don't expect it, an early no exp floor, a late first strike floor (if you use first strike), and the revealed floor. Especially if it coincides with the massive binlor floor. You should be regen fighting dragons. They are probably the toughest monsters in the mix (not counting the mini-bosses). Heh, usually warlocks are the worst. Lucky first striker... The elite, the dancing blade, and the illusoin are the mini bosses to be watching out for. You are forgetting you can take TT for the extra 10 gold. Nevertheless, you can still win fairly easily. YES! You realized the concept of killing guys you will already have to kill later. And hat is why you PREP THE TONIC AND SALVE! One note is you can use your quicksilver and reflex on an especially tough monster. It isn't that big for Horatio, but it can be big for saving a weakening on the illusion or to help kill the troll. The thing is with Horratio your potions actually aren't THAT important. You can spare ALL of your potions and still win fine. Why NOT pick up and use that compression seal immediately? GG can actually be REALLY nice for dodging poisons or mana burns. Yeah, no exp monsters will never raise your piety. That was a bad kill. Only kill stuff RIGHT in your way. That was easy. My ideal in VGT is 4 blood tithes. Seriously, I have been doing VGT a fair amount recently and I have practically made it into a formula. The cracked amulet can be nice to avoid debuffs. See, this is why GG conversion can be VERY useful. Also, the amulet is usually exactly how much you need for a mid fight. Heh, this is rather easy with a rogue... VGT provides you with ALL of the gods. It's the TROLL FLOOR! That is great! It is a shame is conincided with Retaliate: Fireball, but even still is is VERY USEFUL. You should use your quicksilver and reflex on the troll. That warlock will be very problematic. You can regen fight him (very inefficiently), or you could use a quicksilver/reflex. A rogue with 155 hp? There is something wrong with that. MORE HP! Regen fighting isn't always bad. Regen fighting a same level guy is BAD. In this case it is inevitable but whatever. You should have just use a reflex/quicksilver. You need to consider not saving things. Sometimes the best use for a reflex tonic is mid-run, especially in VGT. NO! Health potions are much more valuable vs Horratio due to his low damage. The mana potion is not in your way. JUST USE A POTION. You have already wasted SO MUCH on this fight, when you could have saved by just using one potion immediately. Actually, you didn't need it. You could have explored ONE MORE tile with burning and been fine. You really can't afford to forget burning. One of those potions is quite a few hits on Horratio. Now the troll. Save the popcorn. It may or may not be amid fight level up, but you need to be ready for curse. Banking on dodges is not a good policy. Actually, it doesn't even effect his fast regen. See, the troll is good after all. This is ridiculous. 195?! And now there is the worst curse. This has gone downhill pretty fast. You can still make it rather easily and win, but you have thrown out your slam chance. Wow, that weakening has hurt you SO MUCH. You keep being just a few damage short of kills. You can't be praying for dodges. That just doesn't work. Honestly, you can use blood pools. There is some in the bottom right corner and in the binlor room. Just imagine that you aren't a rogue. For every monster you have to regenerate 4 extra tiles. How painful. I told you that cracked amulet can be helpful. It is a shame you hadn't already killed the poisoner. ONLY 3 FLOORS! There's the curse curse! Blood hunger? Good choice! I was going to suggest it, but it is good. It hurts you pretty significantly on the resist fronts, but Horatio has low damage and you can first strike the monsters. Just hope Horatio has the first strike curse. It is totally fine to use popcorn for health. Just don't waste that level up. Please. AND YOU BROKE 200 AS A ROGUE!!! Nicely done, sir! Wow, you really have gotten some lucky dodges. This is a win unless you totally mess something up. AND THERE IS TT! You can join him, grab dodge, get cash, and GET OUT. You could desecrate a meaningless god or smash an altar to convert back. Well, that's a shame. There's the opportunity. You want AS MANY TITHES AS POSSIBLE. Well, that is fine. You'll just get your level up later. Wow, Yang showed up in the no-exp floor. That is lucky. PACTMAKER! There is your conversion out of TT. Except you don't realize it. Shame. Magic attack enemies are everybody's bane at the end except the berserker. Then there is usually one monster that is your bane too, or one of the magic monsters is a double-bane (usually the warlock). You should try to get at least 3 sanguine. Blood swell usually isn't as valuable as sanguine, so it can be worth using consensus to get a third level. Oh no. That is going to hurt you. You aren't slow, you are just RELATIVELY slow... That really was a stroke of bad luck. Both the dancing blade AND the first strike floor last. Whatever. You can totally use blood pools. I've used half (OR MORE) or my blood pools and still ROFLstomped Horatio. Good. You should even get a fourth if/when possible. Now is when your lifesteal hurts you. It would have been very nice to have an extra 10%. Man, that weakening is so painful. Oh how nice it would be to have a fortitude tonic. Every fight! EVERY FIGHT! Honestly, I'm not even going to complain about you using these bloodpools. I often have to do the same things with worse classes (man the fighter is a pain to win with, or ANYBODY hoarder). You should take another level of sanguine. You are boxing yourself in. painfully. If you took one more this would be MUCH more efficient. Heck, you could have hit 5 levels. Maybe you still can! You should have used your fireballs on the blade. The mana potion wouldn't even net you one fireball. If you explored two of your tiles it would be worth it. I agree with that potion use, but realize you still have tiles would have been much better. That was the bloodless floor. Shouldn't over sanguine when you have tiles. You have already had your full share of dodges. You should have taken the pool over the middle tile. You already have to go there. Seriously, name one good reason you are NOT taking more sanguine. 5000! What fun! It really isn't as bad as it seems. I promise. You have been provided so many resources that it really isn't that bad. You could use TT to get the orb... Dwarven gauntlets are a good buy, but the keg of health is the best. The best is buying a keg and a potion and then pick up the sword. Good thinking. And the fight begins. There usually isn't much to comment on for this fight. Just hack and win or lose. You should have taken a fourth level of sanguine FOREVER ago and then a fifth. As long as you don't take another level of lifesteal or desecrate any bad altars you will win. One small note: You can regen fight Horatio. AND MISTAKE! DON'T BLOODSWELL! There are so many bloodpools, and there is almost no limit to the amount of sanguine you can take. TT? Are you even thinking? That is stupid and suicidal. He will almost instantly be pissed off and destroy you. Wow. Your dodging is obscene. Oh dear god. That's it. Goodbye. Well, I'm going to skip to notes. You totally should have won. You brought him under 1500.
STRATEGY NOTES: Great strategy choice. Taurog->anyone->Drac is GREAT, and resist stack+rogue is key. You should be taking AS MUCH SANGUINE AS POSSIBLE. All 7 levels if you can. Prepping either apothecary or bringing a salve and tonic is KEY.
GENERAL NOTES: Seriously, this was well done. You need to consider using one offs to save large amounts of exploration, but other than that it is just a few minor notes. Just read the above paragraph/text wall.
Part 111: What a fun number. ROUND 2! REEEEEADY, FIGHT! Okay, that was not a good choice. You are just banking on luck, one of his moves is removed early, and most important of all, NO SPELLS WORK! You are totally wrong about magic res too. It is not a large percentage of your monsters. Once again, YOU NEED THOSE POTIONS. The correct move is RBS. No. the slayer wand doesn't even work on them. Just go with the RBS. It is SO MUCH BETTER. Dang. That means goos and the final boss will screw you. Whatever. You aren't going to make it too far with this combo. You need to tailor your strategy to your class more in this case. I don't think a level 1 goo counts as a wall... Now this is just wasteful. It is better to just kill the level 1s and one level 2. It is far more tile efficient. Frankly, you should take the shield too, if not the helm just for the 5% damage. You should convert glyphs. You are a berserker of TAUROG! The tower shield is a vary valuable buy. You are far too focused on the orb of zot. It isn't as good as you think. I promise. Why did you convert HALPMEH over PISORF? HALPMEH IS MUCH BETTER. YOU ARE DOING THE MATH! YES! YES YES YES YES YES! Good job. You really should convert that PISORF. Dracul doesn't like any glyphs. He dislikes a couple, but likes when you convert them. The binlor floor! It's nice to get that early. How about CONVERTING PISORF? That dragon is still a BIT out of your league. Yes, things tend to be difficult without halving monsters damages. You shouldn't be exploring. Seriously, you always want to explore when you shouldn't and vice versa... YOU HAVE A COMPRESSION SEAL. US IT. You should never get rid of that BURNDAYRAZ. It is your last shot at killing goos and a lot of other things. And you forgot that meatloaf. Well, you are totally going to be screwed soon enough. Goos will destroy you and so will the illusion. If you compare the wizard to the berserker, the only thing the berserker has is 30% extra damage and some magic res. You need to use a potion. You can't kill anything. That one weakening is screwing with you. And a goo. That is game practically. It is worth just leveling up. You just wasted the whole floor when you could have leveled through popcorn or regen fighting a golem. The pactmaker floor is the second biggest, not "pretty small". You are doing rather pitifully right now. You should have used a potion or popcorn instead of wasting all of this popcorn. Seriously, this is so wasteful. And now you hit the goo. Seriously, the orb isn't really necessary. You really should have used either the reflex or quicksilver. You aren't going to win this anyways. The goo fights are far too inefficient. This run was over before it started. You should have used a fireball on the goo. That is really going to hurt. Why the tunnel-vision on gods? Only drac or EM? What about GG for magic attacks and poison cure? What about TT for dodging and reflex? And that is what you get for overexploring. One less tile and that saved you 6. It was knockback. You need to watch position. You are running out of resources so fast. Man, you'd be surprised how much that -30% hurts. This is pretty much your final floor. Maybe you'll make it to the next, but this is pretty much over. See, it ISN'T going well. You are low on exploration, you haven't hit the revealed floor and you HAVE hit the big exploration floor. Pactmaker is a good choice. Just take body pact. It will cost piety and raise your resists. Exploration is running out, aaaaand now the sword. The coup-de-grace for your berserker. Actually, there are 5 more tiles where the gold could be. Wicked Guitar would be wicked valuable. That means you wasted 2 hits. Whatever. It is rather irrelevant. You should always fireball first on death protection monsters so you can get in more hits.Well, that pretty much concludes your run. You have a good amount of exploration, but that counter: fireball+Illusion is game over. Well, I hope you had fun! And you died anyways. You were not even kind of close. That was going to be a fail.
STRATEGY NOTES: You really need the tonic and salve. Also, RBS is totally essential for your berserker.
GAMEPLAY NOTES: I'm proud to say there aren't many general gameplay notes I can give you. Just read the above summary and look for the little things.
EDIT
Part 112: Again? Okay. Crusader is not a half bad pick. His real power is the immunity. Good thinking with Patches. Ugh. NOT THE ELITES. I have a question. Why are your videos always approximately 2 updates behind? Well, you are going to be suffering the weakening. That was a big mistake. Honestly, you don't need the orb THAT much. Usually if you make it to Horratio with the majority of your blood pools, it doesn't matter. You just need to be willing to take as much sanguine as possible. Heck, if you make it with all of your blood pools, you can win it without whupaz. Good. You know how many level ones there are. That's helpful. Good, you know how patches works. Now just pray he gives you resists. Momentum. That's why your crusaders bonus is off. You are immune to poison. Man, you have the BEST luck with dracul. That actually isn't going to work because you don't do enough damage without your fireballs. There is a health booster in plain sight that would allow you to take a hit from him... What about killing a higher level monster? You are only beating up on a same level monster. You're better off using popcorn. If you use compression and either quicksilver or reflex it would open up a slot. That was a waste. Well, at least you noticed the booster. MOMENTUM. Remember it. You are leveling too inefficiently. Wow, patches is giving you some of the lamer effects (As in not resist up). You could have top off killed that guy. What a shame. You should mid fight level up a level 8. Whatever. A level 7 isn't half as good, but its better than nothing. Patches teleported you into exploration. Classic. Seriously, you are far too focused on the orb of zot. You really don't need it. That means the bridge troll is there, so use the reflex to kill him and open up some inventory space. You really should get the armor. Gold can actually be a life saver. There, perfect opportunity. You can kill the troll using reflex, get the armor, and still have an inventory space. Patches keeps going after 10. It is not worth conversion as a crusader. USE THE REFLEX TONIC. And you blew it. He has fast regen. You should use a potion. The reflex tonic. Wow, that is painful. You shouldn't be regen fighting. The tonic would save you a large amount of tiles AND net you an inventory space. Seriously, the first potions that you use if you must is the tonic. Either on the bridge troll or the illusion. Wow. Nice damage. Immortal Yang is a VERY weak enemy. You should really take body pact in VGT. It is very useful. Heh, this is very easy right now. Depending on how things play out, you could win this. I don't know though, you wasted so much exploration on that bridge troll. ALWAYS GET BLOOD SHIELD FIRST. Grim Malus curses you, but you are immune (LUCKY). Wow, crusader really is one of the easier VGT runs. Burning pop off! Good job exploring topside first. Piercing wand really won't do much vs Horatio. It nets you (with 4 mana potions) -15% resists. It is good, but not THAT valuable. On the note of resist reduction, if you see a BICEPS, leave it lying around until you reach Horratio. It should be your main glyph. He does keep helping. It's okay though. You should have kept him longer but you'll be fine. The tower shield is DEFINITELY the best thing. Why not the keg first? Ah, the illusion. Good. Please realize you can use the reflex on the illusion. Wrong. 3 without reflex, 2 with. If you kill a retaliate: fireball monster with a fireball it can't retaliate (because it's dead). Ah. Insight. That's bad. If only you had gotten the Binlor floor first. WHAT?! YOU ARE USING HEALTH POTIONS?! NO! NO NO NO NO NO! THAT IS TERRIBLE. Your reflex/quicksilver were FAR less valuable. You are immune to curse from monsters. You let this curse in in order to get the resists too. Tough. JUST EXPLORE. You should have used popcorn, then your fireball+mid fight level up to kill the golden statue. Really, you need to use your excess mana. Why? You should kill the goo first. WHAT?! YOU ARE USING BLOOD POOLS WITH TONS OF EXPLORATION LEFT? WHY? Now you are just shooting your run in the foot. That might cost you the game. And you weren't thinking. You just needed to explore a couple tiles. You are playing VERY stupidly right. now. You are ruining all of your prospects by drinking obscene amounts of blood WHILE YOU STILL HAVE EXPLORATION. Save the long rant for Horratio. Always. You are going to be knockbacked if you stay there. Seriously, now you are accidentally drinking bloodpools? YOU HAVE EXPLORATION. USE IT. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?! YOU HAVE EXPLORATION, SO USE IT. You are thiowing away ALL of your bloodpools (and by that I mean your win). That was stupid. Now you can't beat him. You could have mid fight level uped him. This is pathetic. JUST USE A REFLEX TONIC OR QUICKSILVER POTION AND STOP WASTING ALL OF YOUR BLOODPOOLS! Don't pickt htat up. Kill the goo first. Good. You're falling behind the monsters stats. That weakening has hurt you so much. You really should have at least bought a tonic... If you had taken body pact you would be totally fine right now. You are immune to curses you don't bring upon yourself. In the case of the scroll and bloodswells it is a package deal. You can't get the reward unless you get the curse. Seriously, you really need to THINK about your bloodpools. Well, at least you remembered to fireball. It saved you a hit. Ugh. You keep throwing away your bloodpools. If a wizard shows up next floor you won't even be apple to take a hit from it. You can use it right now. You have IMMUNITY. And there's the wasted bloodpool. Seriously, why does it never occur to take another level of blood tithe. It is 5 health for more sanguine. NO! TAKE MORE SANGUINE. It is ridiculously valuable vs Horatio. Might you consider prepping a salve and tonic. I promise you won't regret it. You actually won't be able to. If you hadn't wasted all of your bloodpools so early and kept picking them up you could have, but now you can't. Ouch, the dancing blade again. See, this is why you take body pact. You actually do have a mid fight level up with your popcorn, but I would save it for Horatio. Yeah, you have almost no chance now. Yeah, you should have beem looking for exploration FOREVER ago when you were using bloodpools. Honestly, that wand is not that valuable. Save the other fireball. What a dumb waste. You were going to hit him, so you could have saved that for taking 2 DPs of the sword. Well, your loss. You really should have picked up Yang's Sword forever ago. Why don't you take MORE sanguine? You aren't doing anything with that 100 (which should be about 160) piety. Oh, you realized your max piety. WHY WILL YOU NOT TAKE MORE SANGUINE? WHY?! Actually, it probably isn't worth it now, but if you had take it ASAP you would have saved quite a few bloodpools. Probably enough to win. You should use that one tile of expiration. All of those little level 1s are bloodpools too. If you had taken sanguine earlier... Well, we have reached Horatio. Why did you never pick up Yang's Sword? No, that was a large mistake. That is one less bloodswell you can take. Wrong. You whupaz first, then use resist wand. Well, at least you realized it. Well, that's that. This won't be a win, but it could have been. Soooooo close. That was stupid. Now you can't use bloodswell.
STRATEGY NOTES: Seriously, you are totally undervaluing your sanguine. I try to take 4 levels AT LEAST. Especially once I reach Horatio. The other key you are missing is BODY PACT. With both of those (OR EVEN ONE) you had a win. The other major VGT strategy note, is you can't be afraid to use your reflex potion (and you shouldn't be prepping a quicksilver, the kit should be fortitude, burn, reflex, and whupaz) as it also opens up a slot. Come back with these strategy notes and you have a win. ALso, rogue will be easier.
RECOMMENDATION: You should cool down from the vicious craze. Vicious is the best, but you have so many interesting and fun class challenges to do! Also, the new items will be very beneficial to your item pool. Additionally, I HIGHLY recommend you do the first Triple Quest (in the goat glade). It is meant for a kingdom with less progression than yours (I went in purist and won), but it is a fun exercise and a good challenge (so don't go purist like I did).
We made an expansion and it is awesome. Really, you should check it out, especially if you're looking for some extra challenge.
Download over at ddmod.weebly.com!