Lord Estraven wrote:
I'm trying to figure out how to deal with different deities.
Well, my
god spoiler is good through v2.3; I can't attest to anything that might have changed since 2.4.
Lord Estraven wrote:
Manwe
- Always have prayer turned on, because there is no benefit to keeping it off (and you can't gain piety without praying).
Actually, Manwe piety decreases slightly faster while you're praying. Not by much, but in the early game I usually try to make an effort to only pray while I'm killing evil monsters.
Lord Estraven wrote:
- Put a few points into prayer right away, if possible? I think? Does this impact piety gain/loss?
Not AFAICT.
Lord Estraven wrote:
- Start killing dragons in the mountains as soon as you can, to keep your piety up.
- After that, dunno. There are evil monsters all over the place, so maybe just pick dungeons full of trolls and whatnot.
In my experience, Manwe piety will usually sink in the Downs, but will get back above sea level by the end of Orc Cave, and will generally be okay from there. (Of course, that's based on my policy of clearing every level; YMMV.) By mid-Moria, I'm usually gaining piety fast enough that I don't even bother turning prayer off anymore.
Lord Estraven wrote:
- Maybe play as an elf? No idea how useful that is.
Anything elven helps a little with Manwe, depending on your WIS.
Lord Estraven wrote:
Tulkas
- Keep prayer turned on and kill lots of evil monsters. Tulkas doesn't think too hard about ethics, I guess.
With Tulkas, you only lose piety while you're praying, and you still gain some piety for killing evil monsters if you're not praying, though significantly less than if you are. Generally I follow the same policy as with Manwe: in the early game, keep prayer off except while you're killing, and eventually you'll be gaining piety fast enough that you can pray full-time.
Lord Estraven wrote:
Melkor
[...]
- Play as an Orc or a Troll? Or maybe a half-Ogre?
None of those help. Avoid anything elven, though, as they hurt significantly with Melkor.
Lord Estraven wrote:
Yavanna
[...]
- Play as an Ent, I guess? If you dare? I hate that speed penalty, though innate ESP is pretty awesome.
ESP?
[sound F/X: source diving] Ah, sense orc/troll/evil, starting at level 20. Yeah, that's pretty good. And yeah, being an Ent does help a bit with Yavanna. As for the speed, yeah, you'll spend a lot of the early game with Explor cranked up to "running", until you get to the speed-boosting items in Deathwatch.
Yottle wrote:
Melkor is trivial. Kill lots of stuff while praying.
No need to pray, actually; you get the same piety either way.