Tough Item choices

[robbiodobbio]

I thought I'd start a new thread for those moments when you just can't work out which item to choose.

So here goes:

I'm a level 28 Dunadan Ranger diving to DL31

I just found a a scimitar (holy avenger) +3 wisdom, provides fear resistance (which I don't have), sustains intelligence, slays evil creatures, undead and demons, grants ability to see invisible (which I already have)
Damage is pretty good.

But......

The black market has a main gauche of extra attacks which doesn't give me any resistances but gives me an extra attack per round and basically doubles my damage per round.

decisions decisions

[scud]

I'm not entirely dissimilar – a CL24 Dunny Paladin at DL23 – and I'm very grateful for my recently found 'vanilla' Defender: the four basic resistances, a stealth boost, a useful DEX sustain, regen, free action, and see invisible all in one handy package.

The INT sustain is perfect for you and pFear isn't easy to come by. Using the Defender as your primary weapon looks like a no-brainer unless you've got everything else pretty much covered.

A 200 points of damage a round weapon isn't much use if you're too afraid to hit your opponent.

The main gauche weighs very little so won't slow you down; if the damage benefit is significant then there's no harm in having it as a swap weapon for situations where you're absolutely certain that the Defender's 'side benefits' aren't required. Personally I wouldn't actually *buy* it, though. Especially at that price...

[Patashu]

Is slay evil still 2x? If so, the scimitar will be better (well, at least as good) in most cases.

[scud]

I'm not entirely dissimilar...

...except I have a Defender rather than a Holy Avenger, making me totally dissimilar. Oops.

That said, the point still stands about the INT sustain, the pFear, and the See Invisible (if it's taking up a ring slot).

The Extra Attacks would only be worth risking as a swap weapon if it was *substantially* deadlier than the Holy Avenger's 'others' damage, but even then it's still a risk. Who knows what invisible nasties might pop out the brickwork?

[Mondkalb]

If it covers resistances or abilities that would free up ring or amulet slots I would consider it.
Fear resistance only isn't that much useful. I use to carry around a couple of heroism potions for those cases. (Fear isn't much of an issue for rangers anyway.)
You can still carry it as a swap weapon.

[robbiodobbio]

RIP George the Dunadan Ranger killed on Dlevel 36 by a pack of gravity hounds

[Thraalbee]

Pity. But you'll probably do better next time. Several hound packs are directly lethal. Time hounds are a horrible, I fear those the most, but many hounds are lethal if you meet them as a pack .

I never approach a pack of the more dangerous hounds except in zig-zag or bent corridors and if I get into a room with a pack, e.g. after a downstair, as my *first* move, I use a safe escape like ?Destruct or ?Teleport level. I would not use a _Teleport since you seldom if ever have 100% chance to activate one.

[Mondkalb]

I don't know how many chars I have lost to hounds. Nasty little buggers. ^^

[Timo Pietilä]

Pity. But you'll probably do better next time. Several hound packs are directly lethal. Time hounds are a horrible, I fear those the most, but many hounds are lethal if you meet them as a pack .

Plasma hounds without stun resist are extremely lethal. I recently lost very promising char to combo of phase spiders and large pack of plasma hounds. I think it takes only three breaths to get from perfectly OK to KO.

"Come hither" - KO without time to react. RIP soon after.

[Mondkalb]

I remember in older versions of the game the hounds followed the @ through long corridors. That way they were much easier to handle and could be taken out one by one.
Nowadays they stay mostly in rooms and only a few follow the player after some time. It can be rather difficult and dangerous to take them out if you don't have mass kill spells or items.

Gravity hounds are particulary dangerous because they can move the char around and put him in the middle of the room, exposed to all hounds if unlucky.

Also, I noticed that there are often more dangerous creatures in the vicinity, which makes encounters with gravity or inertia hounds risky, because they can slow the character.

Once you are very fast and bolstered and can manage those, deeper in the dungeon even more perilous hounds show up. ^^ (I hate Aether hounds! )

[Derakon]

Aether hounds are practically harmless, because they're far more likely to breathe something benign at you. The reason gravity, plasma, and time hounds are so deadly is because you're taking focused attacks of a type that's very hard (or impossible) to defend against except by not being in the area. Whereas you could probably stand in LOS of an entire group of aether hounds and be more or less fine.