Which rings would you use ?

[Estie]

Dwarf rogue who gets to pick from 3 rings; what would you choose ?

1. RoS +15
2. con+6
3. randart with +4 to int and str, fire immunity and a couple high resists

Hit points at 490 (600 with con ring), speed at 12 (27 with speed ring).

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=22633

[Derakon]

Speed and CON, in my opinion. The extra HP does more to protect you from elements than the resists on the randart do. That said, I'd carry the randart as a swap for dealing with big fire-element enemies.

[Philip]

I mostly agree with Derakon here, with the caveat that if I had a bit more stealth, on a rogue I might actually be more interested in the resists simply on the grounds that if you're capable enough of picking your fights, at some point you're better off expanding the pool of monsters you can fight trivially (which is what immunity, and to a lesser extent, high resists do) than you are in instakill prevention or in expanding the pool of monsters you can fight safely (which is what extra hp does).

Of course, with swaps you can get almost all the advantages of the immunity ring while keeping the most important advantages of the CON ring, so I would agree with Derakon that that's the best play. Personally, I have had the patience, presence of mind, and loose pack space to carry swaps maybe once or twice, and they were always weapons, and I still forgot to use them most of the time anyway.

[Pete Mack]

Carry the other as a swap, perhaps, but more for fire immunity than high resist.

[Estie]

Very interesting. I went with the speedring and randart; no space for swap, I was already lugging a weapon for undead damage.

Heres my reasoning:

First off, neither pick is terrible; all combinations make for a workable @, the differences are small.

Secondly, note that the 4 int from the randart do not enable book 4 spells; even with it the fail rates are prohibitive, which rules out reliable haste self and thus locks in the speed ring.

So the choice is between randart and con. Now 600 hps dont really enable me to engage the top tier uniques like Vecna or Ungoliant, and the secondary tier ones like Gorlim or Kavlax I can do fine with 490 hps. So what 600 hps does is provide a safety net in case of some mishap. However, the greatest chance for a mishap comes from failing a spell or device; and there, 4 int go a long way in preventing that from happening. Dwarves are terrible spellcasters...

So yes, if I teleport into a room full of gravity hounds, I wish I had the con ring, but with the int ring, I might get off the detect monster spell or teleport other wand and hopefully not have to teleport in the first place.