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[defazer]

My first win at the Archangel of Light Travel challenge, and a full one for that! I know this won't impress any veterans, but I still have this tiny feeling of pride about this small personal victory. It feels great to feel myself learning, improving and gradually becoming able to successfuly tackle the more and more tougher challenges. :3

I went for the easy route of HNTR+Marine/Vampyre, and ditched the pistol and ammochain at the beginning for a shotgun and occasional shells. Things were going relatively normal until the level 9, where I got very lucky at the Hell's Armory - by the virtue of having some Invulnerability left while entering, careful use of cornershooting and being missed by Shambler's lightning bolts at least 3 times, I managed to avoid all damage completely, thus scoring an extra rare modpack. The armory yielded the onyx and nano modpacks (IMHO, the best combination ever!), as well as a nuclear plasma rifle, which replaced the shotgun entirely and freed up a slot for a spare medkit. I don't think I could have won, if not for this.

For the Onyx pack, choosing how to use it was easy - while I usually always use them on armor if any are found, I've chosen to assemble the Lava boots (since I couldn't go for cerberus boots nor have an emergency envirosuit stored up) and did not regret it one bit. The Nano-pack, though, was sitting in one of the two inventory slots for a few levels (I just couldn't get myself to use this treasure, not while that small Tech in the corner of my mind kept trying to persuade me to go for Wizkid and get something truly awesome), until I've found a shiny suit of red armor in a tought spot and finally made my mind. It served very well on its own, until Halls of Carnage provided me with the Power mod to complete the Power Armor assembly. And from there, things rolled pretty much easily. With the lava boots, Lava Pits were a piece of cake, and the lava element replaced the phase device. And after just one more level of Hell, the battle-hardened, berserking marine had finally come to the damned city of Dis. Had to bid goodbye to his trusty rifle, he descended into the newly-created opening and faced the TRUE EVIL with just the armour suit and boots, a spare medkit and a blood-stained chainsaw, and achieved an unexpectedly easy victory. :3

Some random thoughts:
I usually can't resist the urge to complete all possible optional levels (and yes, this did lead to a LOT of silly YASDs), but I might be finally getting over it. I've even skipped the Vaults and Limbo, my favourite tackling levels, despite the feeling that I was prepared enough to survive those - Vault, because I had just one Phase device and didn't want to risk ruining the perfect killcount, and Limbo, because 1) the population of the central island might have forced me to use the only medkit I had, 2) trying to off the monsters off-screen with the plasma rifle would have taken a lot of time, and 3) trying to off them up close and personally was a bit of a dangerous perspective. Eventually, I decided that the loot and the fact of achievement were not worth the risk and/or time, but I didn't stop doubting if it was the right choice. What do you think?

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Alt, level 11 Cyberdemon Lt. General Marine,
 nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
 He survived 115984 turns and scored 121135 points.
 He played for 7 hours, 6 minutes and 55 seconds.
 He didn't like it too rough.

 He killed 707 out of 707 hellspawn. (100%)
 This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
 He was an Archangel of Travel!

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

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 7
  Levels completed : 7

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

  Medal of Prejudice
  UAC Star (bronze cluster)
  Shambler's Head

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

  ###########################################################
  ......................................................%..%#
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  ....................................................|}....#
  ................................................%....X|.%.#
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  ###########################################################

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

  Health 160/80   Experience 55256/11
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +6  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +9

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

  Class : Marine

    Ironman          (Level 2)
    Tough as nails   (Level 2)
    Brute            (Level 3)
    Berserker        (Level 1)
    Badass           (Level 2)
    Vampyre          (Level 1)

  Bad->Bru->Bru->Ber->TaN->MVm->Bad->TaN->Iro->Iro->Bru->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   powered red armor [5/5] (80%)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   Longinus Spear (8d8)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   lava protective boots [2]
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   nothing

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

    [a] large med-pack

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

    Bullet     - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Melee      - internal 60%   torso 85%   feet 60% 
    Shrapnel   - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Acid       - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 85% 
    Fire       - internal 60%   torso 95%   feet 100%
    Plasma     - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 

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

    126 former humans
    87 former sergeants
    23 former captains
    65 imps
    66 demons
    206 lost souls
    58 cacodemons
    27 hell knights
    9 barons of hell
    2 arachnotrons
    6 former commandos
    9 pain elementals
    2 revenants
    2 mancubi
    3 arch-viles
    5 elite former humans
    2 elite former sergeants
    2 bruiser brothers
    1 shambler
    1 lava elemental
    1 agony elemental
    1 Angel of Death
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind
    1 John Carmack

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

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  On level 7 he marched into the Military Base.
  He purified his fellow comrades.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
  On level 9 he assembled a lava boots!
  He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
  On level 12 he romped upon the Abyssal Plains.
  He slaughtered the beasts living there.
  On level 14 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
  On level 14 he assembled a power armor!
  He sounded the alarm on level 15!
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 17 he assembled a piercing blade!
  On level 17 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
  On level 17 he found the Longinus Spear!
  He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
  On level 22 he entered the Lava Pits.
  He managed to clear the Lava Pits completely!
  He sounded the alarm on level 23!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  He overloaded a nuclear plasma rifle on level 24!
  He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
  Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.

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

 The lost soul hits you. Carmack raises his hands and summons hellspawn! The
 lost soul hits you. The lost soul hits you. The lost soul hits you. You need
 to taste blood!
 You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies. The lost soul hits you. The lost
 soul hits you. You need to taste blood!
 The lost soul hits you. You need to taste blood!
 John Carmack reloads his rocket launcher. You need to taste blood!
 You hit the cacodemon. The cacodemon dies. You're going berserk! The lost
 soul hits you. You need to taste blood!
 You are hit! The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. You need to taste blood!
 You hit John Carmack. The lost soul hits you. You are hit! The lost soul
 dies. You dodge! The missile hits John Carmack. You are hit! You are hit! You
 need to taste blood!
 You hit John Carmack. John Carmack dies. Congratulations! You defeated John
 Carmack! Press <Enter>...
 You feel relatively safe now. You're going berserk!

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

 545 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 416 of those were killed.
 2 of those were killed by something unknown.
 49 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 21 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 54 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 7 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
 22 killed the bitch and survived.
 25 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

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


[LuckyDee]

You've all the reason to be proud, not in the least because you've awoken me from my slumber long enough to post something again. Great stuff, and good choice of master trait. But did you consider that taking levels in IRO actually decreases your chances of going berzerk? I suffered a painfully stupid YASD at the hands of the Mastermind once, and have subsequently been very careful of taking this on melee builds. Although opinions will likely differ on this matter...

[defazer]

Thank you! ^^

I didn't think about it, no. Given my playstyle, though, the usefulness of an extra health buffer turned out to be far more important than the Berserk triggering on hits (not to mention I tend not to rely on it in general). First, since I couldn't stock up on medkits, it was important to be able to survive between finding random health powerups, healing items and, after taking Vampyre, fragile monsters and Pain Elementals. Second, since I always had a secondary ranged weapon, I didn't have to engage many opponents in melee with all the dangers associated with sprinting towards them - single, powerful enemies could have been lured behind a corner and taken out in melee, while fighting multiple ones at once and/or fighting in the open triggered berserk rather quickly anyway, and the dangers of such battles were mitigated strongly by Vampyre and the self-repairing armour.

I don't really recall fighting the MM on melee build, so I'll probably take your word on this one. Most of my playthroughs, I either die before reaching the city of Dis or go straight on the nuking it, and the TRUE EVIL is surprisingly easy to defeat in melee regardless of having IRO. :3

[LuckyDee]

Valid point. Carry on!

[Tormuse]

Woot!  Vampyre build!  My favourite!  :D  And as LuckyDee said, you have every reason to be proud; winning in an ArchAngel challenge is no easy feat!  :)

A Nuclear Plasma Rifle is a heck of a lucky find for this challenge! :o  Nice collection of mod packs too!  Personally, I would have preferred to use the Nano mod to make Anti-Gravity Boots and just put the Onyx mod on (preferably) red armour, but I guess you didn't really have that option here.  The speed boost from Anti-Gravity Boots makes a Vampyre build unstoppable, closing to point-blank range to cut up your enemies before they can even react; I would be worried about the slow-down effect of the Lava Boots, but I guess you made it work...  and Powered Armour is seriously nice for a melee build for the extra melee protection.  :)

...But did you consider that taking levels in IRO actually decreases your chances of going berzerk? I suffered a painfully stupid YASD at the hands of the Mastermind once, and have subsequently been very careful of taking this on melee builds. Although opinions will likely differ on this matter...

LuckyDee, we've talked about this...  (We actually have!)  :D  Let's not be spreading any more rumours that not taking Ironman helps against the Mastermind.  :)

[LuckyDee]

LuckyDee, we've talked about this...

You know, in the back of mind some alarm bell was indeed going off as I was typing. I should be paying more attention here, it seems.