What should I throw away?

[Timo Pietilä]

Right, but he is vulnerable to brands, right?

No. Resists everything.

[Timo Pietilä]

I took full stacks of RoPoison, Bers, Holy Chant, Stoneskin, ProtEvil,?Speed before the fight.

Doesn't stoneskin slow you down? It used to do that, which in my book made those useless crap. I haven't tested those since introduced because of that.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Doesn't stoneskin slow you down? It used to do that, which in my book made those useless crap. I haven't tested those since introduced because of that.

Yes, I believe Stoneskin does slow @. Technically, they could be useful to make AC quite strong if @ has lot's of excess speed to burn, which is sometimes the case. I never have tried it since I "ignore" stoneskin as soon as I find it. Not worth storing it for the off chance that I'm in the narrow situation that it would be useful.

[fph]

Yes, I believe Stoneskin does slow @. Technically, they could be useful to make AC quite strong if @ has lot's of excess speed to burn, which is sometimes the case. I never have tried it since I "ignore" stoneskin as soon as I find it. Not worth storing it for the off chance that I'm in the narrow situation that it would be useful.

Maybe it would be a good idea to tweak the values to try and make them more useful. Having an item everyone ignores is just a wasted opportunity for the gameplay.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Maybe it would be a good idea to tweak the values to try and make them more useful. Having an item everyone ignores is just a wasted opportunity for the gameplay.

There's lots of items I ignore, so without major changes, changing stoneskin would be irrelevant to me as it is just one of many fairly useless items.

[Carnivean]

Maybe it would be a good idea to tweak the values to try and make them more useful. Having an item everyone ignores is just a wasted opportunity for the gameplay.

The only way to make -10 speed worth it is for @ to be basically invincible for the duration. +10000 AC ought to be enough to reduce all melee damage to 0, right?

[fph]

The only way to make -10 speed worth it is for @ to be basically invincible for the duration. +10000 AC ought to be enough to reduce all melee damage to 0, right?

What about -2 speed and +150 AC? Sounds like an item I could use to kill the early orc uniques.

[StMicah]

With my trident of wrath, the mage I'm playing feels more like a rogue with a lot of super efficient utility spells. Of course, I have yet to find Kelek's book which would be helpful especially since I'm not far from manastorming everything.

So, I'm looking for advice. I'd like to descend to about dlvl 85 and start accumulating endgame stuff and killing earlier uniques. I'm playing more conservative than usual because I'm trying to learn how to play a mage and am hesitant about my current spell-damage output.

Is there anything I ought to throw out? I'm carrying two extra weapons for immunity since I don't have any high (or high enough) constitution boosting equipment. But, really, this is me being ultra conservative because currently I'm not taking on any strong unique.

Anything I should swap from home into my kit? Any other thoughts?

Oh, and how useful is the magebook of resistances at this stage? Does shield really add much of a boost?

[MattB]

Oh, and how useful is the magebook of resistances at this stage? Does shield really add much of a boost?

Well, it gives you double base resistances (i.e. permanent and temporary) which reduces your damage taken to 1/9th, which means you can chuck out your immunity swaps. I think it's the most useful book!
But Shield? Not great, but you might as well cast it if you've got the mana.

[Bogatyr]

With my trident of wrath, the mage I'm playing feels more like a rogue with a lot of super efficient utility spells. Of course, I have yet to find Kelek's book which would be helpful especially since I'm not far from manastorming everything.

So, I'm looking for advice. I'd like to descend to about dlvl 85 and start accumulating endgame stuff and killing earlier uniques. I'm playing more conservative than usual because I'm trying to learn how to play a mage and am hesitant about my current spell-damage output.

Is there anything I ought to throw out? I'm carrying two extra weapons for immunity since I don't have any high (or high enough) constitution boosting equipment. But, really, this is me being ultra conservative because currently I'm not taking on any strong unique.

Anything I should swap from home into my kit? Any other thoughts?

Oh, and how useful is the magebook of resistances at this stage? Does shield really add much of a boost?

I now suscribe to the divers approach, which is once you descend below about 40 you might as well dive right for 98 and pick up the best equipment the game has to offer while you're taking out uniques and gaining levels. For a mage (especially if you're familiar with monster attacks) with perfect detection and once you achieve 0% fail teleport other, it's probably the best approach. The monsters are not all that much harder on 98 vs. 85, and the treasure is better.

[StMicah]

Bogatyr, I'm a diver too and have done so with the last bunch of mages I've played and died horrible deaths because I didn't play cautious enough. With your encouragement, I'm headed to 98 soon, especially if I find Kelek's soonish.

MattB, is that a promise? With my lowish health, I don't want to get fried by Phoenix or one of the fire-dragons.

[MattB]

MattB, is that a promise? With my lowish health, I don't want to get fried by Phoenix or one of the fire-dragons.

Double-resisted your max damage is something like 200hp so if you're careful you should be fine (unless there's 3 massive breathers of course...)

[StMicah]

Thanks, good to know.

If I have two pieces of armor (say body and a shield) of resistance, am I double covered or does double-covered mean equipment covered plus spell-covered?

[MattB]

does double-covered mean equipment covered plus spell-covered?

Yep, double-resist only counts if you've got one permanent source (i.e. equipment) and one temporary (i.e. spells/activations/potions).

[StMicah]

OH! {head slap}.

Ok, I like the resistance book a hellva lot more now.