Are there any required skills that I’ve been missing? Several times now I’ve tried to make a Mountain Dwarf character (usually going for Yred, they are just linked in my mind since the update) and they splat hard feeling way too squishy. They didn’t SEEM that much worse than a Mino so I didn’t get it. Finally, even with a -3 apt I trained Dodge up to 3 (Almost nothing!) and it’s made a world of difference.
What else is there that is necessary without being obvious? I would do stealth but a heavy armored melee char doesn’t seem to make sense.
Fight, Maces, and Armor just stay on (Maces Focused), Dodge, Shield, Stealth turned off at 3 (Still using buckler), and Evocation at 5.5 for wands and invis scarf.
I’ve never done a hybrid fighter/caster and the only Fire or Necro spell I have that seems worth it is Dispel Undead. But do I want to put 6 or 8 or whatever points into one spell?
I recommend training shields a bit more with the idea of switching to a better shield if you can. Also, if you are wearing heavy armour, which is likely, given that you are going maces&flails, dodging won’t have too much of an impact until you get to higher strength. I usually go fighting, whatever weapon skill I am using turned up, shields, and armour for strength brutes.
Training Dodging to 3 probably wasn’t a thing that made a world of difference, on a low Dex species like MD all it gives is 1-1.5 EV at most, if I had to guess.
Combat in DCSS is deliberately designed to be very swingy, there are a lot of rolls, and a lot of rolls are like 1 to x type. So you can’t really solve the game by figuring out skill training targets, nor small differences in training (a couple of levels here instead of a couple of levels there) matter that much at all.
Besides your starting combo, dungeon generation has the most impact on the difficulty of any particular run: order of enemies you fight, terrain you fight them in, consumables you find and ID, and gear you find. So in your run where you put points into Dodging you probably fought easier enemies in a more favourable order with better items and better combat luck, it happens, but it doesn’t make Dodging a required skill.
If you want to improve your success rate with any species, focusing on proactive consumable usage and identification is of utmost importance, as well as learning which early game enemies are a no-no for your particular combo (orc priests murder Gr and Sp, adders murder VS, ogres and wights murder Na), or in general (D:2 gnoll packs are super deadly for absolutely everyone but Sp).
In my view, the existence of Sonja and Nessos is basically the game’s way of telling you that you should always train at least 5 levels of Evocations: it’s a good investment in any case, but counts as a strict requirement as the solution to these otherwise-extremely-deadly uniques.
I’m not a pro at this game and have never won, so I might be wrong — if anyone thinks better, please correct me!
I think the only necessary skill for every character is Fighting, which is why I don’t understand how one is supposed to deal with the -2 aptitude (the lowest in game) that Deep Elves (always splatted) and Spriggans (never played yet ) have for it. (Trolls also have -2, but they have minus everything anyway and they’re super strong and have a +30% HP aptitude.) I guess -1 is still manageable so I don’t really consider it a major issue.
MDFi of Yred? If I was piloting, I’d invest in Weapon, Fighting, Evoc, Invoc, Shield & Armor. Those will be enough to get me 3 runes.
Ranged, Throwing, and Spells will certain increase my versatility, but I don’t need them to win. Esp with Yred.
Yred gives me pets. Pets provide escape options and can compensate for ranged attack power (i.e., with yell-attack target).
Yred also gives me a really strong ranged attack (Torch). Sure, Torch can only be used a few times per level, but I’m going to fire it liberally since I lose all the charges when I leave the level anyway. Torch does good damage and is cheaper to power up than say, Fireball–i.e., Torch only needs Invoc, Fireball needs Conj and Fire. This XP efficiency is doubly true given MD’s amazing Invoc apt. And upping Invoc also gives the added bonus of making Yred’s panic button stronger too.
Now, I might invest in Ranged, Throwing, or Spells, depending on what I find, but none of those will take priority over getting the primary skills going. I’d invest in such skills after I’m ahead of the power curve.
Dodging? Later too.
Stealth? In a heavy armor MD? Nope. The return on XP invested just isn’t worth it.
If you want a great time learning the ropes on hybrids, try MDCA. Turn on armor, fighting, weapon, and fire magic and just roll through. Scorch is great (try it when your enemy is invisible!). Wear plate ASAP. Eventually get a shield and add it to the list. Train spellcasting to an even .0 or .5 when you need slots. Once ignition is castable (typically right before vaults 5) all the pre-depths runes are easy (well, tomb isn’t exactly easy, but with a good stack of lignification it’s not as hard as some builds).
) have for it. (Trolls also have -2, but they have minus everything anyway and they’re super strong and have a +30% HP aptitude.) I guess -1 is still manageable so I don’t really consider it a major issue.