Please help me work out what to do with my artifacts

[Quirk]

I'm quite new to the game. Never had a character below 850.

I've got a character that feels like a survivor. He's got a bunch of artifacts that I'm switching around between. I'm not really sure what the best way to proceed is, though.


http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=18912

Main thoughts:
He has a lot of shields and armour. I've found myself switching between a Mail Corslet of Resilience and The Hauberk of Maedhros, which gives me protection from fire and poison. Sometimes if I'm just facing fire I use the Corslet and the Shield of Angrod. The Kite Shield of the Swan and the Mithril Corslet aren't seeing much use.

I seem to be switching between The Shortsword of Galadriel with shield backup and Glend, which tears things apart astonishingly fast. I'm considering investing in Charge to make Glend even more devastating. However, I end up giving up about 6 evasion to use Glend and I don't know if that's worth it.

Any tips on what I should be spending my experience on next, what gear I should be focusing on using, and what my plan should be as I descend would be greatly appreciated.

[phaethon]

Looks like you have lots of good options. I would go for momentum soon, since you have 4 strength. That will let you deal more damage with your short sword and with Orcrist. Rauko-bane in the perception tree is also a really strong choice pretty much all melee characters, but especially for you since you have a troll-bane weapon but no Nargothrond weapon. In later levels, you can just avoid dragons if you need to, but you can't avoid Rauko.

If you've never played with the Dodging + Flanking combo, that's a lot of fun. It shifts the game from hiding in corridors to kiting mobs around rooms. It's a bit more tactical, but it can give you a lot of free hits on enemies that try to surround you, like Trolls. I'd say that's up to your preference. I haven't done it, but I know some people really like charge + knockback.

[taptap]

You have very good defence but probably don't do as much damage as you want.

Option 1 - go "light" with shield and sword, eyeing for subtlety (or two-weaponing) to improve damage output.

1) keep a source of fire resist (or both) at hand
2) substitute the corroded strength gauntlets with something else. (-1) [-1,...] almost equals -1 DEX for +1 STR, and you don't even use that strength with Galadriel or Orcrist
3) similar choice between Mithril corslet and resilience corslet ("DEX" vs CON)
4) get a new cloak
5) ditch the deflection shield (once you get subtlety and found a new cloak)

With Orcrist (no gauntlets and still wielding the shield) you would have (+22, 2d8) [+27,6-25], with Galadriel (+20, 1d10) [+29,6-25]: still great defence, but improved offensive capability. With Galadriel trading a few points of armour for evasion does not hurt your defence, but helps your offence as well. (More riposte.)

6) Keep the Shield of the Swan around. +4 + Channeling (from Melian) means you get +9 to will checks e.g. for your horn of terror or majesty staves. They are a force that can put a lot of nasties to flight at +22 effective will. With correct positioning they will run directly to the close-by stairs and you won't see them again.
7) Keep a two-hander as a swap for critical resistant / armoured opponents.

Option 2 - go heavy, shield + sword, eyeing for transition to two-hander.

1) Here I would keep Maedhros as main armour without hesitation, as you can't rely on fire resist on a shield if you do damage mainly with a two-hander. (Doubt this is the best option since you already have finesse.)
2) Make lamps (more than 1!) out of the Mithril corslet.
3) Get a new cloak! (And in general don't hang around acid damage - both your cloak and gauntlets are damaged.)
4) I would still keep the Shield of the Swan as an emergency measure (effective +22 on horn of terror).

Both option can combine well with flanking and other bonus attack abilities (Zone of Control, Follow-through, Opportunist). Rauko-bane and with your perception Master Hunter can be worth it as well.

[Quirk]

since you have a troll-bane weapon but no Nargothrond weapon.

There is actually a Glaive of Nargothrond lying about nearby - (-1, 2d9) [+1]. It's another two-hander which effectively gives (+16, 3d13) against Rauko instead of Glend's (+17, 3d11), but Glend does that damage against everything whereas the glaive is more specialised. Since I wasn't sure I was going two-handed, I hadn't picked it up but it is an option.

There's also a Longsword of Hador's House (+1, 2d6) but I think it's just worse than Orcrist and Galadriel.

Edit: also, how much weight should I be putting on getting different resistances? Maedhros is my only poison resistance at present. Should I be picking Poison Resist off the Will tree if I ditch it?