Tulkas!

[Pete Mack]

Current character (kobold warrior) just found Tulkas, "sustenance, and Amrod in a diagonal vault at DL 65. I was dual wielding STR +6 and DEX +6 rings forever*, to get max blows with Hurin. It takes a minimum of 18/180 DEX to get even 5 blows.
Giving up only SI, I am going from 600 to 850 HP, and 6 to 13 speed. With two rods of detection, ESP, and 50' infravision, SI is mostly optional.

Transformation
"DEX + STR -> Speed(+7) + Tulkas
"ESP -> Sustenance
Hat of Seeing -> Thranduil
x4 xbow of power (+22) -> Amrod x4 (+15)

The Tulkas activation will also be useful, since I have had very limited store of temp haste all game.

* I've been using DEX+STR since around DL 30, upgrading up to +6 at the surprisingly early levels of 35 for STR and 41 for DEX.

[Sky]

I imagine you must be playing some crazy game like Ironman / Descent because i find tulkas to be bad. Cannot recall a single time ive worn it.
By DL65 and with the ability to scum, you would already have RoP / RoS by the time tulkas shows up.

The A:haste is useful though, more so for a warrior.

[Pete Mack]

No special options at all. Just ordinary play, with a big power up from an unusual source. And yes, I have sometimes used Tulkas for a while as a warrior in particular--and with Colluin, the immunities from Rings of Power are much less useful.

[Pete Mack]

Update: reviewibg this character, Tulkas is not remotely the worst piece of equipment it is using. That dubious honor goes to a shield of Resist Acid, followed by Galadriel and Cesti of Free Action, which are my only available source so far.

[Sky]

How the heck did you make it to DL65 without finding a single shoeld of elvenkind ??

[Pete Mack]

1. Bad luck and fast play
2. Play an older version (on android) where there is no maximum lev for weaker ego items. (This is the big one.)

[fph]

Even before finding Tulkas, was dex+6 really a better choice than speed+7, in terms of damage output?

[Pete Mack]

Yes. The ring was my only external source of DEX, and I had less than 180/100 internal, so the ring was giving 50% increase in damage. And since I also had Boots +6, the speed ring would have done roughly the same unhasted, but significantly less hasted. And I just couldn't resist the opportunity to use such an unusual equipment mix.