Blessed ranger

[Estie]

It started with:

a Long Bow of Power (x3) (+8,+16)
Found lying on the floor at 600 feet (level 12)

Quickly followed by:

a Book of Nature Magics [Nature Craft] {@m3!d!k!v}
Cannot be harmed by Fire.
(Angamaite, lvl 26)

And now:

the Long Bow of Erevante (x4) (+8,+32) <+3, +2, +1>
Dropped by Brodda, the Easterling, at 1700 feet (level 34)

+3 strength.
+2 intelligence.
+1 shooting speed.
+1 shooting power.
Provides resistance to Nether.
Cannot be harmed by Acid, Fire.
Speeds regeneration.

When activated, it casts a bolt or beam of acid dealing 12d8
damage for an average of 54.0 damage.
Takes 57 to 63 turns to recharge.
Your chance of success is 34.5%

[malcontent]

Nice F&%*ing bow! :P

[sffp]

Wow x4 +32 damage.

That's some serious firepower

[Estie]

So of course, the blessed ranger died soon after finding that bow. Everything around him fell dead from a few shots, he became cocky, yada yada.

So I played again, with the same artifact set. But this time, no early longbow of power, instead only a sling of same till well into midgame and I mostly used melee. Eventually I found a longbow of Lorien in a greater vault, x5 and with ESP, but only +11 damage and resigned to use it as my final weapon. But then this turned up:

the Heavy Crossbow of Orthlon (x7) (+11,+27) <+3, +1>
Found lying on the floor in a vault at 4850 feet (level 97)

+3 shooting power.
+1 light.
Branded with cold, fire.
Cannot be harmed by Acid, Fire.
Sustains dexterity.
Slows your metabolism.

Of course I hadnt stored any good bolts, nor could I create them, so I kept using the bow for a while longer; eventually, bolts were found and the damage they dealt was...errr... obscene.
See a unique somewhere ? Get into hockey stick position, dig a tunnel to the target with the spell, hold down the fire button. Everything not resistant to both fire and cold croaked before getting into LOS, and I am talking about Carcharoth tier of uniques.

Of course I wanted some holy bolts, unfortunately it took me forever to find a stack.
Finally some showed up in a GV and I went to shoot the final bosses and post the dump.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=25357

[malcontent]

I glanced at your character dump and my jaw almost hit the table when I saw the crossbow. Then I looked at your 4.3 blows per round, scratched my head, realized you were a ranger, and then I think my jaw actually did hit the table. Wow!