Midgame knight looking for advice
I've got a few questions about my current Knight run in NetHack 5.0.0.
For some context, I've never ascended before. My best run was with a classic Valkyrie in 3.6.6, where I died near the bottom of Gehennom.
After playing Valkyrie, Knight felt like the next logical choice in 5.0.0, mainly because of Excalibur and better access to magic. I don't have much experience with magic yet, but it seems incredibly powerful in the late game.
My run has been pretty smooth so far:
- XL 12
- DL 16
- AC -16
- St 18/13
- Co 17
- +5 Excalibur
- No horse anymore
- No levitation, MR and reflection
At this point, should I start identifying spellbooks with scrolls of identify in the hope of finding Magic Missile? So far I've only price-identified one potential book. I've read that Magic Missile becomes extremely strong in the late game when combined with the quest artifact.
Since I don't have reflection or magic resistance yet, I'm hesitant to push any deeper. I haven't found either from shops or monsters so far.
I also encountered my first mind flayer on DL16. How do you usually deal with them? My Intelligence is only 8, so getting hit is pretty scary. I do have a bugle, but with their 90% MR I'm not sure that's a reliable strategy.