View source for Draconius’ Gnoll of Ashenzari: Win Consistency through Tactical Maximalism


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{{flavour|[[File:Ashenzari_altar.png]]  Updates for .34 are included throughout. Main changes discussed are:
1. Summoner and Forgewright are now recommended picks over Ice Elementalist due in part to the addition of Doom/Banes.

2. Branch order is updated to remove Slime and add discussion of Vaults Vs. Abyss.''}}



This is a mixture of guide and theory-crafting overview for a character which I have now run on at least a 60-win streak. While this may very well help you get a 1st win; at the forefront of mind is consistency between runs, and how to optimally reduce random chance from the list of factors that can lead to our death.

The main reason I started running GnIE^Ash was to test a claim I had made on the r/dcss subreddit last year some time: that Gnoll Ice Elementalist is currently so strong in the early game that you could afford to wait to choose the optimal god (against current meta regarding god selection), and further, that the optimal god for Gnoll is Ash (with no other god coming close). It results in a character that keeps you above the difficulty curve at all points in the game. In other words, it skews your probabilities enough that you can survive a bad engagement, have answers to the surprise threats or avoid surprises altogether, smooth some of the RNG spikes, and simply be prepared for any threat the game can throw at you - and it does so better than most, if not all, other characters.

'''To put it yet another way: the strategy is to maximally expand your tactical space, giving you options and outs to handle every situation. This is what makes the Gnoll of Ash so special.'''

I’ll go a little broad to explain some of the decision-making when I was theory-crafting this, talk generally about what spells and items are worth watching for, and mention other things you might consider.


''If you want to see gameplay and commentary on how to play this character, you can watch [https://youtu.be/WJIE7U2CgZ0 this .34 game] using a Gnoll Alchemist as an example of how any caster start will achieve the same general goals.''

    [[File:Ashenzari_altar.png]] Note: assume the “goal” is to win with the highest possible consistency. Any references to “Best” can also be considered to mean “Best for at least [a particular type of player] where this category is one of several that Draconius personally fits.


=What Kills Characters In General, And This Character Specifically?=

Broadly speaking, there is one major thing that kills each kind of player:

'''1.''' For new players, failing to defensively use items and escape skills soon enough is the most important factor.

'''2.''' For experienced players playing at a high level, being out of options to deal with the situation should be the only thing expected to kill your character.


So, when does this happen? Almost always in the early Dungeon.

That’s why you will see streakers almost unanimously agree the early dungeon is the hardest part of the game – there’s a scarcity of options available to deal with whatever situation they’re presented with.

Newer players often blame for their deaths on RNG, and Malevolent Forces in particular. Getting shafted on D4 to D8 with very few options often feels unfair, and I think everyone understands why some people think it’s bad design. Despite the fact that successfully returning to D4 feels like a rewarding victory that gets your blood pumping, and makes you feel you really “earned” your win, there’s no denying that '''these situations spike the difficulty and likelihood of interacting with above-the-curve threats for your character.'''

   [[File:Ashenzari_altar.png]]  A not-so-quick definition: I’ll talk a decent amount about curves. I’m using this as shorthand to give you a visualization for how I see the game. Each area of the game has a particular range of difficulty that should be expected (this also includes possible out-of-depth monsters). Overall, there is a non-linear difficulty curve that arcs through the dungeon, curves through the Lair, back to the Dungeon, and so on through the branches. Likewise, each possible character combination has a power curve that ebbs and flows through different parts of the game. The Gnoll species, for a relevant example, has a U- or V-shaped curve.

''So, this character is designed to do a few key things:''

'''1.''' Remain “above the curve” of the floor I’m on, from D:1 to the end of the game.

'''2.''' Reduce RNG by the maximum amount possible.

'''3.''' Always have the maximum options available at any given time.


With that in mind, how does this specific combo achieve this?

=Why Gnoll?=

[http://crawl.chaosforge.org/Gnoll Gnoll] is, in some sense, the weakest part of this combo while also being the most run-defining. Some disagree with me on this, but I think it’s probably B tier for most background and god pairings. Gnoll is in a strange place and unlike any other species by a wide margin, and this is the reason I pick it: the high aptitudes and the divided experience gimmick. This is also a nice feature for new players who can learn the rest of the game while bypassing the somewhat challenging skill mini-game.

It takes a bit of a mindset shift to understand why this character feels so different. I think most other characters can be considered to be playing a role: “I’m playing the elf blaster caster” or “I’m the melee brute”, etc.

But I see Gnolls as playing the board, the dungeon itself, like a game of chess. You don’t know what pieces are on the board; but you will be able to select among them all, crafting whatever character you think can get across the finish line on the fly. The game becomes a puzzle more than anything.

The downside to Gnolls is that they fall off rather dramatically in the mid-game. This is due to both lack of focused experience points, and that the limited experience available in early dungeon is spread very thinly to all skills.

This is actually a massive advantage to the early game. Specifically, Gnolls start with “Bonus” levels in their selected starting specialty, thanks to the abnormally high aptitudes. This means you can cast your full starting book almost right away, and that you remain “Above the difficulty curve” for quite a while before falling off in Lair. This is where most regular Gnolls will die.

However, if we can get past this mid-game slump, Gnolls are the only species in a 3-rune game that can reasonably expect to cast any spell in any school, all at the same time.

The overwhelming power of this can’t be overstated, but more on that later.

For now, suffice it to say that Gnolls have an early game power that is nearly on par with Trolls or Minotaurs, with the ability to cast spells efficiently (which gives more versatility, i.e. more options).

     [[File:Ashenzari_altar.png]] Note on graphs: The Y-axis is my estimation of the power level relative to the average dungeon difficulty (represented as a flat 0-line). The X-axis notes different points during a 3-rune game.


[[File:Gn Graph.png|500px|thumb|center|alt text|Gnoll Power Curve for Early-, Mid-, and Late-Game. (0-line is the dungeon difficulty curve linearized).]]


=What Background?=

[[Ice Elementalist]] was my choice for the strongest starting book in .32 and .33. In the most recent versions of the game, .34, this starting book has fallen off somewhat, given its tendency to fight in melee quite often. This is still fine against most threats, but is a notably bad strategy against early doom mechanics, including drudes, ravens, and draugr. For this reason, I now recommend both [[Summoner]] and [[Forgewright]] instead. Both of these schools deal with the early doom enemies by blocking either line of fire or contact (by using an abundance of allies) while also dealing with undead better than Ice Elementalist ever did. I'm keeping the old IE power graph here for reference while we discussed Su vs. Fw.


[[File:IE Graph.png|500px|thumb|center|alt text|Ice Elementalist Power Curve for Early-, Mid-, and Late-Game. (0-line is the dungeon difficulty curve linearized).]]


If IE is strong early and falls off in midgame, then Fw would be the exact opposite. The level 1 spell Kinetic Grapnel is quite bad; think of a short-range, EV-checking magic dart that wants you to fight in melee at xl 1. Gnoll gets around this weakness by having an abundance of mana to spam the spell until you hit xl2 and get the far stronger Spike Launcher spell. This spell is like a harder-hitting, non-AOE, version of Frozen Ramparts. By xl 3, we get a true summon in the form of Launch Clockwork Bee and we're off to the races. Here's where Fw starts to shine, because unlike IE who is done getting new tricks at xl3, Fw is happy at xl and yet has 2 more very strong 'summons' to go. As Gnoll, we happily take both Blazeheart Golem and Lightning Spire (but I will take Golem first where necessary). Together, these two spells are the best midgame spells in any starting book and can carry the S-branches in a pinch.

As for Summoner, well, it's somewhere in between. It has a much better xl1, summon spam through xl3 will hard carry, but then runs into its xl4 spell Summon Seismosaurus Egg. This particular spell is as clunky as spells get in DCSS. I have a video discussing it [https://youtu.be/n7-jBT8yGc8 here]; and while it can carry up to and through S-branches in a pinch, suffice it to say I prefer taking other spells in its place where I can.
 
As always, this is the most flexible aspect of our character if you want to play around with different starts. Early dungeon monster EV is the biggest variable leading to bad RNG spikes. If you can’t damage the thing(s) killing you, death is inevitable over a long enough set of trials. Stick with starts that don't have this issue.

=Current God Meta=

Not since DDFi^Mak was the top build have I read a strong argument, or even a suggestion from a streaker, that forcing a particular god to create a specific build could be the optimal play. I’m going to suggest that here.

The current meta is to take the first viable god you find, with some even arguing to roll the dice on faded alters. The argument is essentially that building piety early and often gives you access to one of the strongest resources in the game.

No question, this is essentially correct on most characters. A god will often give you that edge to avoid an otherwise certain death.

However, we can have our cake and eat it too.

You don't have to actually wait until D10 for a guaranteed Ash alter; you can just pick TSO/Ely/Zin when you first see them and abuse their early abilities until you reach Ash to convert. This happens in better than half the games (and you can see why, you now have a 4/21 chance per alter to find an acceptable god by D10 where 3/4 of those chances are the ‘good’ gods).

Know their strengths, and use the 2-pips of piety you’re likely to have early as often as you see fit. TSO’s divine shield is my top pick in the early dungeon, and TSO also covers invisible enemies, but Zin’s Vitalization is a close second and has saved at least 1 game on my current streak. I’d rather not have Ely when I’m only likely to get 2-pips before abandoning, but you take what you get.

=So, Why Force Ashenzari?=

There are some gods that make the build. For the DDFi, it was Makhleb who unlocked the absurd potential for highly consistent wins.

For the Gnoll, it’s [[Ashenzari]].

Ash’s curve starts at 0 and rises exponentially through a 3-rune game. If you played long enough, it would be an inversion of the Ice Elementalist starting book. Together, you can view Gnoll as carrying the early-game (up to D8), Ice Elementalist locking in the late-early-game (through early Lair), and Ash picking up the mid- to late-game. A character that remains consistently above the difficulty curve of the dungeon from start to finish.

Ash’s contribution to this strength comes largely from their curse system.

As the Gnoll’s skill levels drop off dramatically, due to the distributed experience sharing, Ash takes that trickle of experience and amplifies it tremendously – pushing your effective aptitudes into the double digits. Moreover, thanks to the interaction between Ash and Gnoll, we are uniquely positioned to cast multi-school spells very early and continue casting all the best spells straight through Level 8 in a standard game, Level 9 if we decide to farm 1-2 extra zones or 10-ish floors of Zig.

This takes Gnoll from being ABLE to use any item/spell, to being GOOD with every item and spell – completely unlocking our tactical toolbox. The challenge then is selecting the right tool for the job.


[[File:Ash Graph.png|500px|thumb|center|alt text|Ash Power Curve for Early-, Mid-, and Late-Game. (0-line is the dungeon difficulty curve linearized).]]


Now, if those skill boosts were the only thing Ash gave us, then you could make an argument that both Cheibriados and Vehumet are equally valid options (and I’m not saying they’re invalid, just that you can do better).

Veh’s wizardry effect somewhat mimics Ash’s curse buffs (with no benefit to your defenses, notably), and Chei’s gift of attribute points will do something similar but to a lesser extent; but you would be missing out on the other critical benefits Ash offers to someone who wants to win consistently.

In addition to putting your power level above the curve starting at midgame and persisting through 3-runes, '''Ash will:'''

'''1.''' Negate the identification mini-game and give you access to all your resources at 1-pip, far before any other character would have them.

'''2.''' Let you see through invisibility early.

'''3.''' Essentially replace 3-pips of Willpower when combined with having summons to block banishers.

'''4.''' Help you predict and plan for enemies behind walls, eliminating surprise encounters.

'''5.''' Remove Malevolent Forces.


Just how important are these things? If this were all Ash offered, I would still pick it over several other gods (for streaking). This is a major area where the consistency aspect of our build comes in, or more accurately, ''I might call this RNG smoothing.''

It ensures you have all your options available and identified, earlier than any other god. Plus, Ash removes a whole range of difficulty spikes that come from the above challenges.

In summary, Ash is the god that best removes RNG from the game. Ash keeps Gnoll’s high early game advantage strong through its otherwise weak midgame, then makes for a wombo-combo in the end game, and it does so better than the other options.

=Summary Of The Build=

The end result of this strategy is a character that remains above the curve from D1 to Zot and back again. You will need to be tactical and cautious in the early game, develop your endgame plan, then snowball into the multi-school killing force that only Gnoll can pull off in a 3-rune game.

It’s beyond debate that Gn has the largest tactical space. I’m arguing that Ash maximizes that. We then pick Ice Elementalist as our start because it gives us the greatest ability to answer early game threats of any start, in my opinion. I’ve argued against some other contenders, but this is clearly the part of this build with the most flexibility to make it your own.


[[File:Combined Graph.png|500px|thumb|center|alt text|Combined Character Power Curve for Early-, Mid-, and Late-Game. (0-line is the dungeon difficulty curve linearized).]]


=How Do You Play This Character?=

If you find good gear on this character you just use it, no matter the skill it requires, and that makes both the strategic space (as it applies to items, spells, etc.) and tactical space larger than you have on other characters – you now have to choose the correct answer in the moment from every possible skill tree, item, and spell that generates in your game.

This makes the character tactically quite difficult perhaps, but easier if you already have a grasp of the game because you can select among all the best answers. If nothing else, it will help teach you the game faster by letting you survive edge encounters more often.

In general, I play this character either as a battle mage or a tanky blaster caster. You can do whatever suits your fancy, changing on the fly if you want to, and that’s what’s so fun about this start.


'''So let’s work on opening up that tactical decision space:'''

'''1.''' Play D1-D2 without using O. Gn is strong enough to survive the challenge, IE has a damage type which solves for the greatest challenge here: enemies with high EV.

'''2.''' Get to level 3 so you can get all your spells online, then travel around with your summon until you get more survivability. You can expect this on D2 at the latest. Take care with summing when the red 9-10% failure rate is showing, as this may result in Nameless Horrors (which you can easily defeat when it’s alone). I suggest summoning just before the fight as much as possible.

'''3.''' Start each fight with your summon out, positioning in hallways or at least near walls, and using both Ozo Armour + Frozen Ramparts. This is 9 mana total, don’t worry, you have enough to manage; but you should also look for a weapon with reach or range so you can attack without moving while your DOT/summons tick.

'''4.''' Your goal is to find Ash ASAP, but if you find one of the good goods first, take them (TSO works especially well on a GnIE since the shield pairs with our close-range spells).

'''5.''' Rush Ash’s curses from here until 4-pips of piety. What you get doesn’t matter, just take it so you can get your power spikes at 1- and 4-pips. Keep in mind that some of these curses will be broken later to be replaced with better gear/curses. This is part of the strategic challenge of Gn^Ash – it’s a balancing act of what you want to keep and what you consider sacrificial.

'''6.''' Do the standard identification minigame until you have Ash's first pip of piety online. 1-pip identifies all items from here on, then you can cruise quite a lot more. This is where our tactical options start to bloom and should be considered a massive power spike. Usually, I just get identification scrolls online, search for curing, then use that and whatever else my ID scrolls find while I wait for Ash piety.

'''7.''' By 4-pips of Ash piety, you can now relax as you’ve nullified malevolence traps, invisible enemies, most will-based attacks, and the main weakness of the Gnoll – its mid-game power slump by using a combination of your starting book and whatever your curses have boosted.

'''8.''' Your goal now is 2-fold:
* Optimize gear/curses while always keeping 4-pips of piety. I suggest selecting mostly curses of Elements, Companions, and Introspection while getting just 1 curse on all defenses, other spell schools, and Devices. Adjust based on the spells or items you find.
* Find your mid- and end-game spell books. More on that below. Then tackle branches depending on your selection of spells, items, and resists.

'''9.''' Once you have your full piety and end-game spells, it’s just a matter of execution. You’ll find that getting to Ash-4 pips is the scariest part of the game, but after that you don’t really need anything specific until lair is done (IE is good enough on its own). After that, you should have something usable from the floor for the next section.

'''10.''' Just know what you need for each branch, use the wiki. S-branches need poison resist and usually 1 or 2 others. Vaults need electrical resistance, so does Elf, and so on. Just check the boxes before going to the next branch. Ash and IE will cover you on everything you need for D1-15 (except for dragons), Lair (again, except for dragons), and Orc where you will hope to have at least one other AOE spell – more on that below.

 

=General Branch Order For This Character:=

'''D10 : L5 : D15/Orc2 : 2 S-Runes : V4 : Elf 3/Depths 4 : Abyssal or Vaults Rune : Dive Zot'''

Make choices based on resistances and spell set. If you’re not ready for one of the S branches, you can easily sub in Vaults 4, just watch for the damage you don’t resist and be ready to run. You can also add Crypt either instead of Elf (in the case that you have more rN than elemental resists), or do both if you still need more loot after the 3^(rd) rune.

Two major changes in .34 impact branch order decisions around the 3rd rune choice. I have a video discussing it [https://youtu.be/1f5zO9Ymdnk here].

In short, Slime is much harder now and is rightfully considered the 5th rune by most good players. The changes are great, don't get me wrong, and you will likely have fun if you're looking for a highly thematic challenge. That said, if you're looking for the safest and most consistent 3rd rune - this isn't it.

That leaves Vaults, the old standard, and Abyss. While Vaults remain unchanged, the Abyss entry gate now places you on a depth relative to your character's level. In addition, most permanent mutators have been removed from Abyss, and negative mutations overall are less extreme. Together, this means that Abyss is now faster than ever (given that you will be placed on Abyss 3 or 4 when you enter after 2 runes) and less threatening in a permanent mutations sort of way. My average time spent in .34 Abyss is around 130 turns - it's Turn Count runner's paradise. 

Compared to Vaults 5, Abyss will give you fewer HD on average (fewer high-level enemies), fewer enemies total, and be the new easiest 3rd rune if you play it well. 


'''What does this mean?''' 

1. You probably want some regen since there's little time to rest. 

2. The more stealth you have, the fewer enemies you'll see. 12 is a great number (Gnolls don't even need to think about this).

3. Use teleport scrolls early and often to reset the screen. If you see any meaningful threat, just tele and reset. Every time you reset, you get a chance to be placed near the rune vault. Usually, in .34, you will find the rune vault within 3-4 teles from Abyss level 3 or 4 (fewer as you get deeper).

4. The rune vaults are not made with equal difficulty in mind. The holy vaults will hit very hard in melee. There are Abyssal-themed vaults with tenticles and other monstrosities which are very hard, as well as vaults with elemental themes, which you may or may not resist. When you see a rune vault, ask yourself 1. Do I resist the damage here? 2. Can I steal the rune with an invis pot or the Apportation spell? 3. How many blink scrolls will this take? If you're not happy with the answers to these questions, just use a tele scroll and reset the vault.


If you don't have a stack of tele scrolls, don't have any regen, and/or don't have mana-efficient spells, then you want to consider V5 for the 3rd rune. V5 can be solved with a combination of Ignition/Animate dead, or similar, or Immolations scroll and 2-3 pips of rF+. Otherwise, you can take the gamble of reading a tele scroll before going down the stairs, then fighting to a corner.

Overall, I find myself doing Abyss for the 3rd rune about 60-70% of the games across all characters, and V5 for the remainder.
 

=Need Spells Or Loot? Here’s What I Suggest:=

'''1.''' You can always rush Orc 2 before finishing D15 if you feel better about your AOE than you do about your ability to handle the undead and dragons.

'''2.''' Always be looking for the next end vault. If I have good elemental resists after S-branches, then I’m thinking of taking Elf 3 for the next power boost. If not, then I go vaults and then even depths before Elf, Crypt or 3^(rd) rune. I just ask, what is my character good at right now, then go for the loot in that area, then ask the question again.

'''3.''' Note on Evocables: These are extremely strong on our character, and they’re always leveled to a higher degree than most other characters will have. This means wands remain strong throughout the game, and an early rechargeable can offer great value throughout. I will usually buy an early lightning rod over any other offensive item or spell given the usual price. Gell’s Gravitambourine is even better if you find if for a fair price.
* The only guaranteed evocable happens to be perfect for us: The Horn of Geryon.
* If you lack summons before Zot, dip into Hell and pick this up. It’s easier than Zot and gives you multiple summons, partially mimicking Summon Horrible Things (my favourite end-game spell).

 

=What Spells To Watch For?=

Gnoll of Ash can use any spell in the game, here are some of the best for winning constantly:

'''1.''' Standard good stuff for every game: [[Blink]] or [[Passage of Golubria]], [[Yara's Violent Unravelling]], [[Irradiate]], [[Mephitic Cloud]].
* These are useful all game. You may not use them a ton, but when you do it’s going to feel very impactful. Always be on the lookout for a Yara’s target, the malmutate on enemies is a direct buff to our summons.
'''2.''' Around Lair and Orc: [[Freezing cloud]] or [[Ozocubu's Refrigeration]], [[Olgreb's Toxic Radiance]], [[Hoarfrost cannon]].
* These are mid-game carries, useful until you have late-game spells and can then be forgotten to clear up spell slots. Can carry Lair, Orc, and S-branches.
'''3.''' ''Special Note:'' [[Hellfire Mortar]] is probably the best spell in the game right now largely because it has high utility, high damage, and high efficiency.
* At 2 piercing shots per turn, this spell is incredibly turn-efficient and will out-damage anything else you could be doing for quite a long time.
* You can use it to block entry ways up to and including the Zot lungs, where enemies will just stare at it while they burn. Even OOFs can be blocked and killed by this thing.
* Pair it with flying and you never have to worry about trapped Zot lungs, ground traps, or hidden loot again.
* Take this spell every game you find it, it’s surprisingly common and especially easy to get online with a Gnoll of Ash. If anything needs a nerf, this is it.
'''4.''' End-game Summons: [[Summon Horrible Things]], [[Spellforged Servitor]], [[Haunt]], [[Sphinx Sisters]] (the newest addition to this list, it can solo OOFs on our character!)
* These are my primary goals because they carry and defend our character straight through the orb run, everything else is basically icing on the cake.
'''5.''' End-game Elemental Spells: [[Bombard]]/[[Lehudib's Crystal Spear]], [[Ignition]], Refrigeration/[[Polar Vortex]], [[Maxwell's Capacitive Coupling]]
* As a summoner first and foremost, we still like to have direct damage for abjuration monsters, targeted damage onto especially dangerous baddies, and the general utility of using AOE first, then summons to clean up.
'''6.''' Get a good mix of summons and elemental damage so that you always have answers to problems. Body blockers, tanks, and direct damage should be top of mind, then utility, and movement spells should be on the radar from D1.


I also have a video explaining my Top 10 spells for 0.33, you can [https://youtu.be/x58048NRGDA watch it here!]
 

=Conclusions=

Part build guide, part post-hoc theory crafting explanation. Either way, I hope you enjoyed it and maybe want to give the Gnoll of Ash a try – especially if you’re looking to make your wins more consistent or even just get the first one!

If there’s a legit criticism of this character, it may be too much better than other characters. I have even been accused of playing the game on easy mode. But to this I say: YES, the goal was to find and playtest one of the best characters in the game for streaking, and I believe I’ve now proven its worth. This isn’t to say that it’s necessarily the “best” or “optimal” build. I don’t think we have the tools to determine that for a game as complex as DCSS just yet. I do know for certain that this character has made me a far more consistent player, and I think it will do the same for you.

When you get it right, the GnIE^Ash gives you that snowballing power fantasy sought by many in games like this – and DCSS really makes you feel like you’ve earned it by the time you’re blazing through Zot!

[[Category:Character guides]]