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[Peter5930]

After a 150 or so attempts, the Phobos anomaly is the furthest I've made it on N! AoB.  My strategy was to lure formers and imps into doorways so that I could kill them with one or two knife hits and where they wouldn't leave corpses that could regenerate, while avoiding demons, hell knights and cacodemons until I reached the chained court and picked up the chainsaw, or unless I was berserking.  Lost souls are ok, since I can back away from them and then kill them with one hit when they catch up with me usually, often without taking damage once I reach brute 2.  If I try to take on demons, hell knights and cacodemons before I get the chainsaw or when I'm not berserking, I quickly run out of medkits.

I gift drop the formers to get them into doorways and with the imps I either poke my head out to get their attention and hope I dodge the fireball, or wait for them to random-walk their way into the doorway.  I use running and zig-zagging to approach monsters in the open when I don't have any other choice, or just charge at them head on in the case of sergeants, but that means taking 2-3 shotgun blasts to the face, so I avoid it if at all possible.  The only good thing about sergeants on AoB is that they can take out whole groups of monsters via friendly fire.

The pistols and shotgun in my inventory are from clearing items from doorways so that I can either drop a medkit/armour there or close the door.

Anyone got any advice for dealing with the Phobos anomaly when going for a MVr build?  I got mauled to death in the room with all the nightmare demons and cacodemons.

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (v.0.9.9.6G) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Peter5930, level 6 Mancubus 2nd Lieutenant Marine,
 was eaten alive by a nightmare demon on level 8 of the Phobos base.
 He survived 40864 turns and scored 81745 points.
 He played for 52 minutes and 33 seconds.
 He opposed the Nightmare!

 He killed 218 out of 288 hellspawn. (75%)
 He was an Angel of Berserk!

-- Special levels --------------------------------------------

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 1
  Levels completed : 0

-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------

  None

-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------

  ###########################################################
  #################################.................#########
  #################################..................######..
  ########...O.................####...................###....
  ########.....................####...................#......
  ########.....................####...................#......
  #.|||.^#.................i...#......................#......
  #......#.....................#......................#......
  #......#................i.O.c#......................#......
  #....../..............O.....cc......................#......
  #......#....................c#X.....................#......
  #......#................i..Oc#......................#......
  #.|||.^#.................i...#......................#......
  ########.....................####...................#......
  ########.....................####...................#......
  ########.....................####...................###....
  #################################..................######..
  #################################.................#########
  ###########################################################
  ###########################################################

-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------

  Health 0/60   Experience 11682/6
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +4  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +6

-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------

  Class : Marine

    Tough as nails   (Level 2)
    Brute            (Level 2)
    Berserker        (Level 1)
    Badass           (Level 1)

  Bru->Bru->TaN->Ber->TaN->Bad->

-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------

    [a] [ Armor      ]   nothing
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   chainsaw (4d6)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   nothing
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   combat knife (2d5)

-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------

    [a] pistol (2d4) [5/6]
    [b] pistol (2d4) [6/6]
    [c] pistol (2d4) [4/6]
    [d] pistol (2d4) [4/6]
    [e] pistol (2d4) [5/6]
    [f] pistol (2d4) [5/6]
    [g] shotgun (8d3) [1/1]
    [h] shotgun (8d3) [1/1]
    [i] combat pistol (3d3) [15/15]
    [j] combat knife (2d5)
    [k] combat knife (2d5)
    [l] combat knife (2d5)
    [m] combat knife (2d5)
    [n] bulk mod pack

-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------

    None

-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------

    57 former humans
    17 former sergeants
    25 former captains
    38 imps
    8 demons
    39 lost souls
    9 cacodemons
    9 hell knights
    1 baron of hell
    2 arachnotrons
    5 former commandos
    5 pain elementals
    3 nightmare demons

-- History ---------------------------------------------------

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 8 he finally was eaten alive by a nightmare demon.

-- Messages --------------------------------------------------

 you. Your red armor is completely destroyed! You are hit! You dodge! The
 missile hits the nightmare demon. You dodge! The missile hits the nightmare
 demon. The nightmare demon hits you. The nightmare demon hits you. The
 nightmare demon hits you. You are hit! The nightmare demon dies.
 You use a large med-pack. You feel fully healed. You are hit! You dodge! The
 missile hits the nightmare cacodemon. The missile hits the nightmare demon.
 The nightmare demon hits you. The missile hits the nightmare demon. The
 nightmare demon hits you. You are hit! The missile hits the nightmare demon.
 The missile hits the nightmare cacodemon. You dodge! The missile hits the
 nightmare demon. The missile hits the nightmare demon.
 You dodge! The missile hits the nightmare demon. The nightmare demon dies.
 The nightmare demon hits you. The missile hits the nightmare demon. You
 dodge! The missile hits the nightmare demon. The nightmare demon dies. You
 dodge! The missile hits the nightmare demon.
 The nightmare demon hits you. You die!... Press <Enter>...
 lying here.

-- General ---------------------------------------------------

 589 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 567 of those were killed.
 2 of those were killed by something unknown.
 5 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.

 15 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 9 killed the bitch and survived.
 6 showed that it can outsmart hell itself.

--------------------------------------------------------------


[AlterAsc]

You were lvl6, but didn't have MVM. Not good.One more level of TaN is not worth it.
You didn't take any of health globes.Were you in full hp and in berserk?If you were not berserking, then taking both of them would greatly help in surviving initial ambush and getting to the door.
Armor.You could've bulk-modded it, or you could have equipped it when you got to the door.With MVm and red/blue armor and 1 lvl of Tan you take 1 dmg in berserk, so it's not that hard to kill them one by one.
Another choice for B-mod would be your chainsaw.

[Peter5930]

Yeah, I miscalculated when I took the second TaN; I only realised after I'd taken it that I wouldn't be able to take MVr at level 6.

My idea with the phobos anomaly was to run to the other end of the hallway like I was doing in my pacifist runs and only apply the bulk mod once my armour was damaged since it would slow me down, but I was still too slow and a sitting duck with no HR/DM/scout bonus, and I ended up taking about 40hp of damage each second once the nightmare demons closed in on me, by which point all I could do was burn through my two medpacks and wait for the end. 

I forgot about the berserk bonus from large health globes; I've only come across one large health globe outside of the Phobos anomaly on all my AoB runs so far, so I wasn't in the habit of thinking of them as berserk packs.  My health was at about 178% when I passed them, and I did what I'd normally do in that situation; leave the health globes for healing up after the fight.

[Napsterbater]

Critical to taking on early-game demons and cacodemons in melee is run mode, you need far fewer medkits. Don't even bother with sergeants, even with run mode, you're gonna take too much damage. Instead spend lots of time hiding behind a door with a medkit luring the zombos into melee range.

[Klear]

In the anomaly, it might be a better choice to strip naked rather than take the red armour.

[Peter5930]

Critical to taking on early-game demons and cacodemons in melee is run mode, you need far fewer medkits. Don't even bother with sergeants, even with run mode, you're gonna take too much damage. Instead spend lots of time hiding behind a door with a medkit luring the zombos into melee range.

Any advice for imps?  I can't giftdrop them and it can take ages for one of them to walk into a doorway for me to kill it unless I move into it's LOS and risk taking a fireball to get it's attention, and unless I have a tracking map, it's hard to maintain my concentration while repeatedly hitting the wait key until one appears.  I try to judge roughly where they might be by sound, but it's fairly hit and miss. 

Also, I didn't know that run mode helped with melee; the wiki says that the melee damage you deal is halved in run mode, but does the -4 accuracy penalty that monsters get give you a net advantage?

With sergeants, I mostly take damage at the base entry when they pop out of the front door before I reach cover, at the start of levels where I'm dumped in a wide open space and find sergeants on both sides of the first door I duck into, and from stragglers when I've giftdropped most of the formers out of a level but need to track down the last few.  In the latter case, it just means sometimes taking a single shotgun blast at maximum visual range and then luring the sergeant into a doorway for disposal.

[Klear]

Any advice for imps?  I can't giftdrop them and it can take ages for one of them to walk into a doorway for me to kill it unless I move into it's LOS and risk taking a fireball to get it's attention, and unless I have a tracking map, it's hard to maintain my concentration while repeatedly hitting the wait key until one appears.  I try to judge roughly where they might be by sound, but it's fairly hit and miss.

You can set the waiting time in config to some ridiculous number. Just be careful on levels with a live nuke.

[Peter5930]

You can set the waiting time in config to some ridiculous number. Just be careful on levels with a live nuke.

Could you explain this is more detail or give me a link to something that explains it?  Can I set it so that pressing the wait key means I automatically wait until I'm interrupted by being hit or something entering my LOS?  I often take unnecessary hits from repeatedly tapping the wait key and not stopping the moment something pops into range.

[Klear]

Oh, right - do you know the run command? You press "," and then direction, and the doomguy moves in that direction until enemies come into range (or there is lava/obstacle in his way). Well that command works with waiting as well. In config, there is a preset maximum number of turns this will make you wait. If you are ambushing monsters a lot, it can be helpful to make the number bigger, but even the standard length should help you immensely.

[Uranium]

Could you explain this is more detail or give me a link to something that explains it?  Can I set it so that pressing the wait key means I automatically wait until I'm interrupted by being hit or something entering my LOS?  I often take unnecessary hits from repeatedly tapping the wait key and not stopping the moment something pops into range.

Pressing the run command key - by default it's "," allows you to run in a single direction until you're interrupted by an enemy coming into view, stepping next to lava/acid, stepping on an item or coming near a door. You can also use "." as a direction, which will make you stand still while you wait - useful for waiting for an enemy to come into view. As Klear said though - if you set the maximum wait time to a high number, be extremely careful using it on levels where live nukes spawn.

offtopic: loving the use of Dappertron as your avatar, Klear :)

[Peter5930]

Thanks; it works great.  I've always just used the numberpad for movement, with num5 being my wait key, and I'd never used the run command before.  I set the wait period to 2000, and now enemies automagically appear when I use it.

[Klear]

As long as you're not speedrunning and there are no nukes/flowing lava around, you can wait for a long long time in a minute.

@Uranium

Thanks =)

[Napsterbater]

Any advice for imps?

These guys I just run diagonally at until I reach melee range, they're only a little more dangerous than former humans, since they miss a lot because of dodge. Also you can walk out until they see you and shoot at you, then you can retreat behind a wall or pillar and wait for them to come to you. Chances are you'll dodge the first fireball, then you'll only take a hit or maybe two while you cut them up.

You should learn how dodge works, how to always move out of the line of fire with every move. Sometimes this means making lateral moves that don't bring you closer, but still mean you don't get hit as much. Once you do this then tactical boots/armor become much more valuable.

Also, I didn't know that run mode helped with melee; the wiki says that the melee damage you deal is halved in run mode, but does the -4 accuracy penalty that monsters get give you a net advantage?

I don't think damage is halved anymore. Whenever I play AoB, run mode is key to getting me through Hell's Arena, I die too much without it. The accuracy hit is more than balanced out by the dodge bonus.

[Klear]

I should give running a try again, maybe it will enable me to at last beat AoB UV. I tend to stop running whenever I need to attack, whether I'm using melee or ranged  weapons (hell, even if I'm using shotgun, that's a pretty annoying bad habit...)

[Reef Blastbody]

Scout + Hellrunner 3 + Dodgemaster + Finesse 2 + WK2 + Tac Armor (A) + Tac Boots (A) + Running = NEED FOR SPEED PHOBOS

I think you could probably make yourself faster with modded boots/armor but probably not dodgier. I wonder if it is possible to become so fast, you wouldn't *need* to dodge.

"Are you saying I can dodge plasma volleys?"
"No. I'm saying when you're ready, you won't have to."