Elemental Rings (slight spoiler)

[Slick]

I remember reading a post where the Ring of Acid was recommended over the others due to less monsters having acid resistance. Can anyone confirm this or let me know which I should be using? I'd rather not carry a swap for this.

[Pete Mack]

Acid and Electricity are most useful. Electricity has the fewest resistant monsters. Acid is a close second, but has the added benefit of being useful against Sauron (and Saruman)

Electricity has the added benefit of being the most commonly uncovered by very high-level armor and shields.

[Slick]

Thanks. I was thinking that my ring of lighning *seemed* to hit more than my ring of acid.

[Magnate]

Acid and Electricity are most useful. Electricity has the fewest resistant monsters. Acid is a close second, but has the added benefit of being useful against Sauron (and Saruman)

Not quite:

chrisc@junior:~/workspace$ grep IM_ACID angband/lib/edit/monster.txt | wc -l
86
chrisc@junior:~/workspace$ grep IM_ELEC angband/lib/edit/monster.txt | wc -l
98

... but although this is about a 15% difference in numbers, the difference between average multiplier is only about 3% (2.19 Acid vs 2.13 Elec). So I guess the acid-resistant monsters are more significant.

[ClaytonAguiar]

Combination?

An old question I have about this: What happens if I wear two rings of different elemental brands? How they "add" themselves, and how they are added to branded weapons like Ringil or "Katana of Flame"?

[Pete Mack]

Brands are not additive. Adding brands just increases the set of monsters affected by the brands. (Brands and slays are just a MAX aggregation--no addition involved.)

[ClaytonAguiar]

Now I got it

Thanks. I'll swap one of my elemetal rings for something more useful.

[Magnate]

Thanks. I'll swap one of my elemetal rings for something more useful.

Good call. The marginal value of any second brand is quite low - quite a significant number of monsters are immune to all four base elements. If you have a brand on your weapon, you probably shouldn't be wearing any elemental rings at all.

[ClaytonAguiar]

Brand x Slay/*Slay*

Hi,

my current player is using Crisdurian, which has some slays (eg. Orc), and wears a ring of acid. When I hit an orc, I see "You smite ...", but for monsters not covered by the weapon "slay list" I see "You corrode".

Does it mean the slay is not adding up to the slay? Slay and brand are also calculated by MAX valuing, like two different elemental brands?

[Magnate]

Hi,

my current player is using Crisdurian, which has some slays (eg. Orc), and wears a ring of acid. When I hit an orc, I see "You smite ...", but for monsters not covered by the weapon "slay list" I see "You corrode".

Does it mean the slay is not adding up to the slay? Slay and brand are also calculated by MAX valuing, like two different elemental brands?

Correct. No matter how many brands and slays you have on your weapon / launcher / ammo (and any other items that grant them, such as rings), only the highest multiplier will be used. This is x5 for *slay* ("you fiercely smite"), x3 for any brand ("you corrode/zap/burn/freeze/poison") or almost any other slay, but x2 for slay evil or slay animal.

So elemental rings are at their most valuable when your weapon has no brands or slays at all, and their value drops for every brand or slay your weapon has. If your weapon has only slay orc or troll, a ring brand is still a good idea, but once you get some serious slays on an artifact weapon, it's much more debatable.

Except that acid brand is the only way to get x3 damage against Sauron (but slay evil will get x2).

[will_asher]

I think slays should still have an effect even when you also have a brand so I'm changing this for DaJAngband 1.0.99. The first normal slay/brand will be x3, then each additional slay/brand that applies will add +25% (of original damage).
The x5 slays and x2 slays won't stack with anything though.

[Zikke]

I think slays should still have an effect even when you also have a brand so I'm changing this for DaJAngband 1.0.99. The first normal slay/brand will be x3, then each additional slay/brand that applies will add +25% (of original damage).
The x5 slays and x2 slays won't stack with anything though.

I really like this idea. I agree that slays should somehow stack with brands, even if it's in a reduced form.