Dealing with Gargoyles

[Misery]

Just wondering if anyone has any tips on these.

It's not a matter of them being hard.... they arent really much harder than any other foe. If anything, they're easier to deal with since the floors they are on seem to be.... simpler. Less of the traps and funky layouts and difficult enemy combos, more of the, well, gargoyles. I think I've actually taken less damage on the couple of gargoyle floors I've done than on most every other floor.

No, the problem is how freakishly LONG it takes to get rid of them. ONE gargoyle floor, so far, takes as long as 3 normal ones. Mostly, it's just really tedious. Nothing seems to really work on them. Melee weapons most of the time are an exercise in irritation; attacking one that's actually spotted you is a total waste of time (either they block with the shield, or you run into the big freaking blade that they're just holding in front of them), and the only real way to do damage is to hit them when they are looking at something else; considering how little damage pretty much everything does, this takes forever to kill even one. Ranged stuff can be sorta okay... but it runs out quickly, so it's also a bit pointless. Well, certain staves can work.... but then you get to wait for them to recharge. And there's SO MANY of these accursed things.

Then there's the Horn of Blasting. I swear the game seems to have restructured itself around this one item past a certain point (does it always do that?). Green doors everywhere. And this horn is the ONE thing that makes the gargoyles at least a bit tolerable. But it takes forever even WITH that... I dont even wanna know how long it'd take without it (and honestly, I doubt I'd bother finding out, my patience would just snap).

So I'm wondering... is there something I'm missing here? Some crucial thing that might make these less bloody time consuming? It wouldnt surprise me if there's some big solution staring me right in the face and I'm not seeing it.

[Blackenblood]

Why are you killing everything on a floor?

[Misery]

Originally posted by Blackenblood:

Why are you killing everything on a floor?

In this case, I'm not. There are THAT MANY that I need to freaking dig through the bloody things to even pass by. There's just no end to the things.

On MOST floors I just explore the levels as much as I can (to get items). Standard roguelike tactics for me. I just clobber whatever decides to get in the way.

On THESE floors though... it'd be nice to just get past them. Not even interested in item grabbing on a gargoyle floor. But the blasted things are like ants... they're everywhere. And it's not like I know where the exit is without a mapping scroll.

And in a game like this, if I'm just dashing past everything, not actually DOING stuff (be it combat or whatever) it gives me the feeling that something's wrong. ....it's also boring.

So far, this is the only floor type where any of this happens.

[jd]

this sounds like a game balance issue. I will have a look at the numbers. Previously we had a similar issue with wardens. The thralls were intriduced to deal with this.

The problem might be made worse because enemies respawn over time. So if you are going slower, more enemies respawn etc. Anyway, I will look into this, although it might not be until I get around to game balance again.

[elias.heyndrickx]

I have reported this issue before, gargs are indeed a pain in the ass to kill. But I do think they have a weakness to piercing or something. (Stone armor does not protect against piercing)

To be fair when I first read that there where gargoyls in the game I thought they would remain immobile if you looked at them. (like weeping angels)

Another myth sais the following: "A Gargoyle is a creature that comes to life during the night and turns to stone during the day." I do think this one would be very fun if gargs turned back into stone if you lit a torch and stood next to them. They could be vurnable to crushing attacks while petrified. (All the rest would have no effect)

Myths also clamed that gargoyls originally where made to ward off evil. I think the player can rightfully be called evil if he killed 100'sof dungeon inhabitants.

[Misery]

Originally posted by elias.heyndrickx:

I have reported this issue before, gargs are indeed a pain in the ass to kill. But I do think they have a weakness to piercing or something. (Stone armor does not protect against piercing)

To be fair when I first read that there where gargoyls in the game I thought they would remain immobile if you looked at them. (like weeping angels)

Another myth sais the following: "A Gargoyle is a creature that comes to life during the night and turns to stone during the day." I do think this one would be very fun if gargs turned back into stone if you lit a torch and stood next to them. They could be vurnable to crushing attacks while petrified. (All the rest would have no effect)

Myths also clamed that gargoyls originally where made to ward off evil. I think the player can rightfully be called evil if he killed 100'sof dungeon inhabitants.

Nah, piercing has next to no effect from what I can tell. The only thing that does anything resembling real damage to them, from what I've seen, is some sort of really heavy magical effect; in my case this means either magic missiles from a staff, or the shrapnel bow. But it takes almost the entire charge to kill one.

Actual WEAPONS though... nothing works. Piercing/stabbing weapons (various swords, spear) actually seem to be the worst. The weapon that I got almost more damage out of kinda was actually a shovel. But the difference was miniscule. Which is why if I want to take one out with a weapon, I *have* to use the Horn of Blasting. Otherwise it takes 10x as long to even HIT the stupid things.

For the time being I'm probably just going to end the run and restart, and hopefully NOT get gargoyle floors on the next run. Just beyond my patience for now. It wouldnt be so bad if they werent literally the ONLY enemy on the floor. I never encountered even one type of... anything else at all, while on the two gargoyle floors I've been on. Just gargoyles, extremely numerous.