WONAFYT

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Revision as of 10:18, 3 July 2013 by Lujo (Talk | contribs) (Strategy)

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This page is about the Full/Beta Version of the game, if you are looking for the Alpha/Free Version, see Alpha:WONAFYT
WONAFYT.png
WONAFYT
5 Mana Points  Missing info
Effects
  • Teleports a random monster of the player's level (or lower, if unavailable) to a empty tile next to the player and slows it.
  • Monsters are teleported to a random tile horizontally or vertically adjacent to the player. If all such tiles are filled, glyph targets a random diagonally adjacent tile.
  • Unaffected by magic resistance. Fails if no same-level or lower-level monster exists.
  • Afflicts the target monster with Trait: Slowed Slowed (+1XP when killed, temporarily loses Trait: First strike First strike, Trait: Counters fireball Counters fireball, Trait: Cowardly Cowardly).
Hotkey

The monster summoning glyph is a utility glyph that can seem less powerful in comparison to other glyphs because it has have very few immediate benefits. However, using this glyph correctly has many long-term benefits, notably the creation of slowed popcorn that is easy to harvest for strategic leveling.

This glyph is likely to spawn very close to the player, making it ideal for use during early exploration as a means of using mana that would otherwise be wasted. It is also an excellent way to clear low-level chokepoints and reduce the chance of having your hand forced by an unlucky monster placement.

Understanding WONAFYT

New players may be misled by this glyph into attempting to kill same-level monsters over higher or lower level monsters. This is generally accepted to be an inefficient choice: they grant no bonus experience, but are strong enough to deplete your health and mana. In terms of how much experience reward you get for how much effort you expend, this is a horrible deal and you should constantly be striving to avoid fighting these monsters, either fighting weaker monsters that you can kill effortlessly or stronger monsters that are worth bonus experience.

New players may be further confused by the inclusion of the slow effect on monsters. Most equal-level monsters are too strong to kill in a single blow, and slow will expire as soon as you strike them. This means that you usually cannot capitalize on the +1 experience bonus immediately after the monster is summoned unless you are strong enough to kill it in a single attack. Any character strong enough to do this should be capable of defeating considerably more powerful monsters and earning large amounts of bonus experience for doing so. The slow effect is only venerable in the long term, when you have grown strong enough to dispatch the monster in a single blow.

The only exception to these general rules is in case a player has the Balanced Dagger item, in which case summoning equal level monsters to fight becomes a strong strategy if executed correctly.

Strategy

To use this glyph to its full potential, go to an explored and largely empty part of the dungeon to summon monsters, then leave them there without attacking. This will corral weaker monsters that might otherwise be blocking hallways and place them out of your way, forming what is known as a popcorn bowl. Since slow never expires unless you attack the slowed monster itself, you can continue exploring and leveling up and return much later to kill them in a single strike and gain the +1 XP bonus, allowing you to strategically level up at the most opportune time. In many ways, WONAFYT functions as a less expensive but much less controllable and practical version of Glyph: WEYTWUT WEYTWUT.

WONAFYT appears to be random, however teleportation follows certain rules:

1) Monsters will always be teleported to empty tiles directly adjacent to the player first. 2) Monsters will always be teleported to non-diagonal tiles if possible. 3) The teleport prioritizes monster with equal level as the player, and never teleports higher level monsters. 4) The other priorities are: non-slowed monsters, monsters without magic resistance, monsters with magic resistance (with a chance to fail equal to the magic resistance), already slowed monsters

If used correctly WONAFYT is as effective as Glyph: WEYTWUT WEYTWUT for a fraction of the cost, needs no targeting, and pulls monsters out of unexplored territory saving exploration.

This glyph is generally only useful during early exploration; hence the tendency to spawn close to the player. During later exploration its mana cost is rarely worthwhile, and as a higher-level character it's unlikely that you will ever be able to slay the monsters it summons in a single blow in order to take advantage of its slow effect (unless you are an Class: Assassin Assassin). As a result, if you've already explored more than half the dungeon you should ignore this glyph completely in favour of glyphs with more immediate effects.

For characters who have the Item: Balanced Dagger Balanced Dagger there is an additional strategy: With the Dagger one gets the same XP for a same-level monster as for a monster one level above the character level, in that sense fighting same-level monsters is not a complete waste of ressources. After the first attack the slow effect will expire. But since WONAFYT first targets not slowed same-level monsters, one can use the glyph to slow the monster for the final blow (in such a case WONAFYT is superior to WEYTWUT because of the lower mana cost).