priest weapons and nexus scramble

[quarague]

So I've been playing a dwarf priest, I found a mace of slay evil relativly early which seems like the archetypical priest weapon but zero dex + mediocre strength + blunt weapon weight means I still get only 1 hit per turn with massive gaps for improvement (+9 str or +12 dex to go to 1.1 hit per turn or something like that) so I still do only about 30 damage per round, 40 to evils at level 28. With an artifact bow and orb of draining I still get along.
Then I found the artifact short sword 'Dagmor' which gives +2 hits per turn, boosting my melee to 90, or 115 for non poison res. So I switched and took the penalty to spell casting (the reduced spell sucess rate is the only negative for a non priesty weapon, is it?
So question one: do you play priests with blunt weapons? do they ever get good at melee with a priesty weapon?
Completely unrelated question two: a nexus vortex scrambled me in its first attack and switched my strength and intel, so now I have a modded strength of 15, is there any way to fix that, apart from lots of stat potions, I would need about 20 to it back to where it was before.
Thanks

[Raajaton]

Priests can get reasonably strong with melee, although not as strong as the non-casters. I believe mages and priests cap out at 4 swings per round, unless you're using a weapon that has +attack speed. Using sharp weapons will result in a penalty towards to-hit, and more importantly a penalty to spell casting. However there are "Blessed" weapons you'll find that gives you no penalty at all.

As far as nexus stat swap goes - unfortunately there's nothing else you can do. The swap is permanent, so you either need to boost your stats back up with stat potions or get nexus swapped again and hope for better luck

[LostTemplar]

If you got hit by nexus, you better reroll, and try to avoid nexus next time, or play fizzix's new version without nexus swaps.

[BlueFish]

If you got hit by nexus, you better reroll, and try to avoid nexus next time, or play fizzix's new version without nexus swaps.

The introduction of gain one / lose one stat potions have made nexus swap even more deadly than it already was. Now most non-maxed characters will be even more heavily imbalanced in their stat allocation towards important stats and away from unimportant ones. It's an overpowered "debuff" - may as well be an insta-kill, as you imply.

[Timo Pietilä]

If you got hit by nexus, you better reroll, and try to avoid nexus next time, or play fizzix's new version without nexus swaps.

Why remove nexus swaps? That's the only thing that makes nexus really scary, and it is relatively easy to prevent: stability boots are common and for priests perfect saving throw which you should get rather fast.

It could be challenging to play char with low STR, but 15 isn't that bad, it is still playable.

[LostTemplar]

Why remove nexus swaps?

Fizzix done that in his version, BTW I like it, IMHO in roguelike there is no place for gamebreaking effects with very low probability, they simply not fit. High probability is ok e.g. if an attack kills with 20% chance, it is simply a deadly attack, but an attack, that kills (or scrambles stats) with 0.5% chance is stupid for roguelike IMHO.

[Timo Pietilä]

Fizzix done that in his version, BTW I like it, IMHO in roguelike there is no place for gamebreaking effects with very low probability, they simply not fit. High probability is ok e.g. if an attack kills with 20% chance, it is simply a deadly attack, but an attack, that kills (or scrambles stats) with 0.5% chance is stupid for roguelike IMHO.

Stat scramble attacks were not any issue before gain-one lose-one potions. Stat scrambles actually were sometimes very useful (1000' CHR potions-boosted CHR swapped with one of your not yet increased stat). At worst you swapped your highest point-based stat to non-boosted secondary one losing at max 8 points (18 internal to 10), usually less though, 18 means you have used 12 points for single stat.

I suggest removing those potions instead, and maybe compensate by improving early stat rings/amulets a bit and/or maybe allow sustain block swapping stat that is sustained.

[Mondkalb]

Why remove the potions? Nobody is forced to use them ...

Stat scramble can be nasty, but so can be other monsters. I don't see that it is such an issue. If you really were unlucky you had to spend a bit more time hunting for the necessary potions. Which you must do in normal game anyway if you are unlucky and don't find many of your desired potions.

[Nick]

I think stat scramble is an awesome effect. It makes nexus attacks genuinely scary for a while, and if you get scrambled in a bad way, it adds on interesting challenge. Sure, it may delay your attempt to grind out your 1000th win, but this game is not a picnic. Don't like it? Toughen up, princess. Or go give up cravenly and roll a new character.

You know it makes sense.

[Antoine]

I think stat scramble is an awesome effect. It makes nexus attacks genuinely scary for a while, and if you get scrambled in a bad way, it adds on interesting challenge. Sure, it may delay your attempt to grind out your 1000th win, but this game is not a picnic. Don't like it? Toughen up, princess. Or go give up cravenly and roll a new character.

You know it makes sense.

By the way, has anyone ever succeeded in finding a second nexus breather and getting themselves 'unscrambled'?

A.

[Quendus]

I've played a lot of Angband and had my stats scrambled more than once, but never in a way that forced me to abandon a character. A loss of power isn't a forfeit game.
I think once upon a time I managed to recover from nexus scrambling using a nexus attack. Not a strict "unscrambling" because it didn't reverse the original scramble, but the weakened primary stat was switched with a less-important (but high) secondary stat. This was before I started diving, though - nowadays I probably wouldn't spend so much time at nexus hound depth.
It's not an easy strategy to use deliberately, because you're more likely to get teleported away (and have to waste time finding the pack of hounds again).

[fizzix]

I've played a lot of Angband and had my stats scrambled more than once, but never in a way that forced me to abandon a character. A loss of power isn't a forfeit game.
I think once upon a time I managed to recover from nexus scrambling using a nexus attack. Not a strict "unscrambling" because it didn't reverse the original scramble, but the weakened primary stat was switched with a less-important (but high) secondary stat. This was before I started diving, though - nowadays I probably wouldn't spend so much time at nexus hound depth.
It's not an easy strategy to use deliberately, because you're more likely to get teleported away (and have to waste time finding the pack of hounds again).

It's certainly possible to survive a bad stat scramble. But it's not fun. At least that's my view on the matter.

[PowerWyrm]

It's certainly possible to survive a bad stat scramble. But it's not fun. At least that's my view on the matter.

I've had a HT rogue with STR and CHR swapped. Playing a melee character with 3 STR is pointless... I suggested to limit the scramble to 1 point. It would be more manageable.

[Oramin]

I like the add one/lose one potions - they have a good resale value.

Translation: I don't use them and if people want to use them thereby increasing the chance that a nexus swap will ruin their character, I consider that to be a valid play-style choice.

Oh, and one advantage of diving slowly is that by the time you encounter nexus swapping, you typically have high stats across the board.

[Derakon]

I've had a HT rogue with STR and CHR swapped. Playing a melee character with 3 STR is pointless... I suggested to limit the scramble to 1 point. It would be more manageable.

Making nexus scramble into a random +1/-1 effect would probably be too much of a nerf, but I agree you're on the right track; personally I think even a +5/-5 effect would be reasonable without being debilitating.