Difference between revisions of "Rat Monarch"

Revision as of 12:33, 25 April 2015

Class Features

REGAL HYGIENE: Rat bites corrode enemies. Gains one stack of Corrosive Strike per level.

REGAL PERKS: Sensitive whiskers detect deals. All shops are scouted. Buying an item regenerates 50% health and mana (may overheal).

REGAL SIZE: Rats are the CORRECT size: Small. Lower maximum health and mana, all items are large.

CONVERSION: The Rat Monarch gains +1 Corrosive Strike for every 80 Conversion Points.

Unlocking

The Rat Monarch requires the Enhanced Edition of Desktop Dungeons, and can be unlocked via the Moving of the Cheese quest in the Demonic Library. Once unlocked they move to the Audit Zepplin.

Strategy

Not mentioned in the Class Features is that rats gain precisely 1 base damage per level as opposed to 5. Whether this is a bug or intentional, this means their individual hits deal little damage, even Popcorn usually takes multiple hits to kill for them. However, stacks of Corrosion don't go away, and while only physical attacks stack more Corrosion the damage applies to both further physical attacks and to Burndayraz.

This lends itself to regen fighting and mage builds, even with the rat's decreased health pool and lack of resistance. Because their base damage is so low, items that increase base damage tend to do very little for their damage output. They are best served by items that increase their durability, allowing them to stack several hits worth of Corrosion then finish enemies off with fireballs that deal increased damage. Burndayraz will deal full damage, although their low mana pool can be a limiting factor.

Elven Boots is a good prep item, increasing both damage resistance and mana. The Breastplate is possibly better, negating significant amounts of damage from lower level monsters, thus making popcorn monsters easier to use. The Dragon Shield can be stronger against high level monsters and some bosses, but is weaker against low level enemies. Of special note is that potions take up a full slot and the Compression Scroll does not work for them. This severely limits potion use, and items that normally take up small slots become full slot items. Luckily they will still stack. Another option is the Midas Gloves item, due to their healing when buying items.

Regal Perks provides some map scouting early game, revealing 3 by 3 portions of the map, turning the blackspace transparent without removing it. This frequently reveals other features, such as the occasional altar, glyphs, and so on without revealing details about them, although the altars can often be identified by closely examining the piety sparkles around them. More importantly, buying items heals both health and mana. Since there are obviously limited shops and gold is limited, this turns shops into another healing resource to save for a late game spike, requiring an empty item slot as well. The Apothecary preparation at the Bazaar can be helpful as it increases the number of shops.

The biggest drawbacks are the limited potion inventory and need to hit a monster many times to stack Corrosive Strike. This combined with popcorn not popping as easily makes it more difficult to preserve blackspace, when the Corrosive Strike lends itself to regen fighting and Burndayraz. Because of this, Extra Mana Boosters or Extra Health Boosters are recommended as a preparation. The Translocation Seal or Transmutation Seal are good choices as well, due to their trait of healing from buying items. The Witch is less useful than for other classes thanks to their limited potion inventory, although a Reflex Potion can be helpful in spiking the boss, allowing them to immediately stack Corrosion on the boss twice. Waiting till late in the run is recommended for maximum corrosion stacks.

Glyph wise, Burndayraz is nearly required. Meanwhile, glyphs that normally are very useful for physical fighters such as Getindare and Byseps do little to help them. Cydstep and Halpmeh are still useful, but cut into mana for Burndayraz. The same goes for Apheelsik, although it has good interplay with Burndayraz thanks to burning lowering regeneration. Bludtupowah is as useful as it is in any other mage build.

Deity wise, deities that improve survivability or glyph use are recommended. Tikki Tooki is nearly useless... rats tend to take a few hits before taking anything down, so take a lot of punishments from this deity. This is a pity, since more Reflex potions would work well with stacking Corrosive Strike quickly. Taurog punishes glyph use and so can be challenging to use, but the armor is good. Skullpicker is nearly useless like other base damage increases however, and the hit to mana is a bad deal generally. Mystera Annur is a great deity... the Rat's base damage is terrible anyway so her Flames boon is all carrot and no stick for a Rat. Another good deity is The Earthmother, as her Vine Form helps the Rat's small health pool and provides some damage reduction, in addition to Clearance providing mana for more fireballs. Dracul helps with survivability, his boons granting Lifesteal and increasing resistances, although with an already decreased health pool Sanguine can be more troubling than for most other classes to use. Because of their limited potion space in inventory, Jehora Jeheyu may actually be a better deal for them than most other classes, giving them more mileage out of their potions as well as buffing their low health and mana per level. Binlor Ironshield is a good choice for resistances, but his boons mostly increase physical damage, making him less useful than one might initially think.