Dungeon Master Forum

A new person asked me this question, and I've been curious as to what other people think...

I, myself, use Magic far more than Melee.

Thanks God that Joseph Stalin didn't use any magic... melee was enough...


By the way, there is a nice joke about Stalin. It says:

Radio Yerevan, broadcasting live from Moscow, 1950.

"It's 7am. Our admired and loved leader, J. V. Stalin, has just urinated. His urine is clean, and thus our admired and loved leader, J. V. Stalin, is healthy and in good condition."

"It's 7:30am. Our admired and loved leader, J. V. Stalin, has just defecated. His stool is clean, and thus our admired and loved leader, J. V. Stalin, is healthy and in good condition."

"It's 8am. Our admired and loved leader, J. V. Stalin, has just woken up."


(actually, I'm not quite sure about the appropriate and formal English terminology... so sorry for any mistakes)

Both, so there's no vote for me.
When I played for the very first time I used much more magic than melee.

I start off with more fighting and ninja stuff early in the game, but by the time me party can all cast high power fireballs, that's pretty much all I use (except for hire magic resistant creatures such as Golems and Knights). So I guess it's "Magic" for me.

I've gone for "Magic" too, for pretty much the same reasons as Gambit. I do use a bit of swordplay on things like the Dragon, who take a while to bring down, but generally once I can cast higher-level spells, that's what I use .

Usually fighting all the way, it doens't run out and doesn't run your food/water sleeping all the time to restore mana, plus quick way to boost your health and stamina

Depends on the game, fireballs all the way in surgical strike, at least in the early game

In general it depends on the dungeon.. but you could often say that mana is not enough. Therefore you have to resort to(=use) melee more than you would like to.

in a death death situation (someplace with many creatures, no place to take a nap, wizard illness (stamina runs out when you really just cannot afford it), hungry/thirsty and wounded in the darkness) you will want to use weapons or fists. --> Mana can be used for vi potions to heal wounds and health.

so I guess all in all it is mana for me.
I use mana continuously when expendable (for its versatileness) and weapons because it is still fun and to save on mana!!
(sometimes you can be highly effective with melee on some creatures, but then again also with spells)
oh well.
the situation in dm where I use melee(vorpal blades is melee, right?) preferrably over magic is the materializers.

beowuuf wrote:Fireballs all the way in surgical strike, at least in the early game

Ain't that the truth!

This is almost a "dead heat"... I honestly didn't expect many people to say melee. But, that's obviously just me.

Anyways, I still need to see more votes. Can everyone who reads this vote (unless, you're like Lunever and don't favour either)?

That's odd, I had two post this twice...

I went melee. Although when I first started playing I used solely magic, so much so that I couldn't kill Deth Knights and Golems in CSB. Now I use melee a lot more, probably because I now play with one character almost all the time and I don't sleep as much as I used to but I don't let my mana bar reach maximum as it seems like a waste of mana. Melee does often take longer though I think, so sometimes when I get bored I do the old 'fireball fireball fireball run sleep and repeat' trick.

I started using melee a lot more after watching Paul Steven's and Sphenx's first CSB records I think, it's good to watch other people playing and see what they do differently.

that's "Melee" for me. I used magic at lot in my DM early years but now i restrict using of mana for vi and ful bro ku potions only.

I put Magic because I think Fireball is the most powerfull thing in the game.
But you should have put a third option in your poll cause then i would have picked "I ues both"

Cause i really use both. I usually don't bother spending mana if I can kill the mobs fast enough with my warriors.

Also I really love the way Magic works in DM so I like to use it too !

I prefer melee - it's more fun.

From magic, I just use light (obviously), healing and stamina potions, and sometimes fireballs against the irritating gigglers or wasps.

When I first played DM back in the day, I used magic almost exclusively. That's why I always took the characters with the most mana - I didn't know yet about the power of wisdom (and I still don't in terms of real life issues). But meanwhile, I just use melee all the time, it's faster and less tedious ("Oh no, ran out of mana AGAIN!"). Plus, I always need my mana for Stamina potions because I use heavy weapons all the time.

I think almost everyone who voted "melee" really should've voted "magic," because the reason you like melee so much is mainly the huge strength buffs you can get from potions-- which are magic.

Ha, not me! I never use the strength potions - because I'm too lazy to click so much so often (which I already do for healing potions).
Furthermore, it's pretty unbalanced, which is the reason there will be no strength potion in my dungeon - but that is another story...

Cold steel.

Like many others the first time i played DM i used to rely almost solely on magic, once '644' was possible that was all i would use.. strike, run/regenerate and re-strike as needed along with the "dropping the door on them" or "open the trap door" tactic.... When i returned to this game i almost always opt for a melee approach, and cast magic for stamina/health potions and light. Re. Antmans post, it's great to look at other peoples efforts and the strategy they use, being such a open game people use so many different strategies!

When playing with four characters I like to use the classic "subtle" attack method - the front two bashing away with melee weapons whilst the back two let 'em have it with fireballs!

Throwing stuff is for low levels or when you run out of mana

I have used throwing to good effect with some monsters! Screamers hate stuff been thrown at them, and most Skeletons get their dead comrades chucked at them! The Diamond Edge with high ninja level is an excellent stabbing weapon.

War cry, chase, and hack to death is my favoured technique.

Melee any day. I will never forget how i got past the worm level for the first time - by circling and circling and some tactical "oops, the second pair spotted me" retreats. I used all 4 chars as melee fighters for shorter cooldowns.
But i also never have full mana, would be a waste of precious regeneration you could have, so finishing off a mob with 444 is always an option.

I used all 4 chars as melee fighters for shorter cooldowns.

there should be a button on the keyboard to exchange lines... would increase the usability of 4 chars

Magic! In fact I've always found that any game with a mage or magic in it, I Play first. Rightly so, weak to start but so much (over)power later. Normally by the worm level IN DM all 4 characters have higher wizard and priest levels. in DM2 all characters are casting Mon Guard spells without fail in the bat\rhino area!
(edit)
of course to fully experience the game I do later master all fighting and ninja levels but I do magic as much and as early as possible.

And magic takes the lead...

@ParuNexus: You almost described the way that I play. I don't mind sitting around building up wizard levels, until I'm satisfied that they can cast at least a level 4 or 5 fireball (depends on the stats of the character) without failing.

To level up priest levels, all I do is: without a flask in hand, cast a stamina potion, and bash the button until it fails. You gain priest level pretty damn quickly.

Probably I'm doing something wrong but I never found melee to be especially useful in the game.
Many monsters have a certain immunity to physical attacks. Also I was never able to actually tank monsters, I had to hit and run and wait for the next "berzerk" or "melee" to regenerate (spamming "stab" would mean tanking again).

Magic on the other hand is spammable. 4 Fireballs in a row do a good job.
Except for the dragon and some one-hit-wonders I never used much melee on monsters. That's why I chose a magic caster (Boris) for my solo run.

But I'm kind of curious how a pure fighter such as Stamm would do on his own.

Banky wrote:But I'm kind of curious how a pure fighter such as Stamm would do on his own.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho5E05Bi3bU

I prefer playing with a pure fighter like stamm or halk for a solo run

What's really amazing to me is how many of the magic-users here use melee against dragons. They are one of the few monsters where I actually sleep to build up mana in order to blast them into oblivion.

Banky, tanking in general is a bad idea in DM, it just doesn't work. Dancing around the monsters and waiting until the attack options become available again is the preferred method of fighting.

Actually, if you have the healing potions and a full party, tanking is a good way of gain extra experience from taking damage, and ensuring you don't dance over some generators. Not as much of an issue in DM (though there are some places) but can be an issue in CSB and custom dungeons

It's also a good way of knowing your current abilities -can you stand up to a mummy, then a troilin, then a rock, then a worm, etc

I definitely swing my weapons more than I throw fireballs or poison clouds, but I chose magic because I know I actually use it more. That and the fact that after your back two have thrown two Level 6 fireballs there's not much left to hit