I've been on break from this game for a while, and Orandulum messaged me yesterday to let me know he'd beat UV Angel of Impatience. I casually mentioned that I'd never managed to beat it, and he expressed surprise on the grounds that he felt it to be an easier AoMs. So I figured I'd do a few runs.
It became pretty apparent in my first few attempts that Orandulum's assessment was not entirely correct. I survived the AoMs early game by abusing the fact that Marine can immediately take two levels in Badass and effectively be playing with 200% health, without compromising his ability to get Vampyre ASAP; the overheal-on-level-up aspect of AoMs actually makes the challenge very abusable for Marine. After a few failed attempts at getting Vampyre off the ground, I did what any self-respecting scrub would do and switched back to my usual Scout build.
Two things went kinda wrong. First, I was at scarily low (around 8%) health during one of my level-ups, which led me to buy a point in Iro (which immediately went to good use as I caught the edge of Mancubus splash before even taking an action; I'm reasonably sure I would have died without it). Second, shortly after buying Gunrunner, I hit tab and sprinted at the nearest enemy, only to find that I wasn't firing for some reason. Because, as you may have guessed from the title, I hadn't actually purchased Gunrunner, I'd mistakenly purchased Shottyhead. Contrary to my title, Shottyhead is not OP.
Of course, I'm a motherfucking Scout so I grab double invulns and stair-dive to the Mastermind.
After playing this game for a long time, you get a pretty good feel for what the AI is likely to do, you get to know the movement habits of various enemies and how to bait and whether or not you've got cover from them. Interesting thing about the Mastermind fight: I don't really know the Mastermind's AI at all, because I've never fought it "fairly", I've always punched it in the face repeatedly, Gunrunner'd it, nuked it, fired at it off-screen with Int(2), or just used boring old invulnerability. With a horribly underpowered trait and invulnerability worn off, it was time to learn; I took around 50% of my health trying to figure out where I could stand and how I could safely hurt it. I dealt the bulk of my damage with rocket launcher splash damage, but towards the end found myself kind-of-but-not-really kiting the Mastermind around pillars. Flinch really helped, as did slightly odd pathing behaviour around pillars near walls.
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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AAA, level 10 Hell Baron Lt. Colonel Scout,
defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
He survived 1240125 turns and scored 177085 points.
He played for 2 hours, 2 minutes and 28 seconds.
He was a man of Ultra-Violence!
He killed 669 out of 834 hellspawn. (80%)
He was an Angel of Impatience!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 1
Levels completed : 1
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Cyberdemon's Head
UAC Star (silver cluster)
Untouchable Badge
Chessmaster's Token
Hell Champion Medal
Eagerness Silver Badge
Eagerness Gold Badge
Eagerness Platinum Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 28/60 Experience 43703/10
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +0 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +0
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Ironman (Level 1)
Finesse (Level 1)
Hellrunner (Level 2)
Reloader (Level 2)
Juggler (Level 1)
Dodgemaster (Level 1)
Shottyman (Level 1)
Shottyhead (Level 1)
Rel->Rel->SM->HR->HR->DM->Iro->Fin->Jug->MSh->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] blue armor [2/2] (76%) (T)
[b] [ Weapon ] shotgun (9d3) [0/1] (P1)
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] shell box (x65)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] rocket launcher (6d6) [0/1] (F1)
[b] green armor [1/1] (100%)
[c] blue armor [1/2] (49%)
[d] red armor [4/4] (99%) (T)
[e] red armor [4/4] (77%)
[f] shotgun shell (x50)
[g] shotgun shell (x8)
[h] shotgun shell (x50)
[i] shotgun shell (x50)
[j] shotgun shell (x50)
[k] shotgun shell (x50)
[l] steel boots [1/1] (100%)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Plasma - internal 0% torso 20% feet 0%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
92 former humans
60 former sergeants
20 former captains
131 imps
81 demons
165 lost souls
28 cacodemons
28 hell knights
13 barons of hell
11 former commandos
12 pain elementals
1 revenant
15 mancubi
8 arch-viles
2 bruiser brothers
1 Cyberdemon
1 Spider Mastermind
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He left the Arena as a champion!
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
He sounded the alarm on level 9!
Level 12 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 13 he found the Medical Powerarmor!
On level 15 he assembled a tactical boots!
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
He left level 21 as soon as possible.
Then at last he found Dis!
On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : floor
You reload the shotgun.
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : floor
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : floor
You quickly reload the shotgun.
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : floor
You quickly reload the shotgun.
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : floor
The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations! You defeated the Spider
Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
You feel relatively safe now.
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
241 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
194 of those were killed.
3 of those were killed by something unknown.
21 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 10 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
13 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
1 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
9 killed the bitch and survived.
3 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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