give radagast boots rNex

[Sky]

another suggestion to file in the no bin, i propose boots of radagast receive rNexus.

whenever these rather uncommon boots drop, if they drop before speed, it's likely that the only source of rNexus is boots of stability. as such, Radagast see very little use. +1 wisdom, +3 stealth, +5 infra, is simply no comparison to a simple boots of resist Nexus, when dracolisks and even hounds can breath death, scramble, and tele level.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

another suggestion to file in the no bin, i propose boots of radagast receive rNexus.

whenever these rather uncommon boots drop, if they drop before speed, it's likely that the only source of rNexus is boots of stability. as such, Radagast see very little use. +1 wisdom, +3 stealth, +5 infra, is simply no comparison to a simple boots of resist Nexus, when dracolisks and even hounds can breath death, scramble, and tele level.

I usually prioritize stealth above stability, so, no, Radagast see a lot of use by me unless speed boots have dropped.

[luneya]

For that matter, what's happened with Boots of Wormtongue under the new curse system? Those used to completely dominate any other midgame boot option, with the only concern being how to get them off once real speed boots show up. With sticky curse gone, they should be even better, unless they've been stuck with one of the few truly dreadful curses.

Other than that, I agree with Ingwe that RNexus isn't important. Nexus was a concern back when it could inflict permanent scramble, but now it's an annoyance. The usual boot progression is ordinary/featherfall -> free action -> stealth/Radagast -> Wormtongue -> speed. Stability is an upgrade over feather falling, but it doesn't beat a good pair of stealth boots. It probably is worth replacing a redundant source of free action for, though, which mere feather falling wouldn't be.

[Sky]

you gotta be joking. i'm at DL66 and still have no other source of rNexus. one dracolisk breath could kill me.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Dracolisks should be avoided except by the most powerful @s, preferably while wearing Narya. If you are tangling with Dracolisk's, your @s deserve death. Making your boot selection based on such a monster, though, that's nearly as mad as tangling with them in the first place.

[Philip]

I'm not sure how you manage to die to Nexus, really. Sure, Dracolisks are nasty and will kill everyone at least once most likely, but that's just as much due to a high damage fire breath even through resistance as due to Nexus. Nexus has a rather low damage cap - if it kills you, you must be diving, and if you are diving without detection, you should expect to die. 3 stealth means you get twice the time before monsters wake up, which is infinitely more valuable. In fact, it's more likely to prevent death by Dracolisk than rNexus is.

Nexus is one of the few resistances that I am perfectly happy wandering around without, especially in the final fight. Even rNether, unreliable as it is, is better. Same goes for Disenchantment, which may not do much more damage, but is more common and has worse side effects.

[Sky]

Dying to nexus is super easy, almost like dying do disenchat in early angband. Hound n1 breathes, you get scrambled and have 10CON now, hound n2 and hound n3 breathe on you. The teleport effect is nasty as well.

[Derakon]

Dying to nexus is super easy, almost like dying do disenchat in early angband. Hound n1 breathes, you get scrambled and have 10CON now, hound n2 and hound n3 breathe on you. The teleport effect is nasty as well.

And why are you letting 3 Nexus Hounds get LOS on you in the first place? More than 3, statistically, since they don't breathe often.

Elemental resistances are only necessary if you allow yourself to be attacked by the element. Careful play should be able to eliminate the vast majority of such attacks by simply avoiding the monsters that use that element. In the case of nexus, that's Nexus Hounds, Nexus Vortices, Greater Basilisks, and Dracolisks. Not a very big list.

That said, I'm glad to hear that the new stat scramble effect has at least one player running scared.

[Philip]

Oh yeah, forgot Greater Basilisks. Those are bad, but at least they do show up on Detect Evil. Vortices don't really do damage, so that's less of a problem.

[Gwarl]

Nexus attacks are really annoying if you don't have the resistance. I'd take stability over ego stealth because now those nexus hounds aren't going to annoy you off this 6-8 LF. Radagast boots are rather underwhelming as it stands.

[Philip]

Eh, hounds are a lot less horrible than they used to be. If you really want the 6-8 level feeling, get away from them. You presumably have either Teleport, Portal, enough dps to kill them, or at the very least a staff of Teleport.

Better still to view it as an object lesson in when to hold them and when to run. Level feelings are treacherous and the 8 is rather unlikely to be useful to you.

If Radagast is underwhelming, maybe boost it to +2 WIS and give it +2 INT as well? They are the shoes of a wizard, after all. I oppose "stick two egos onto each other" artifact design, so I would rather it not be just shoes of stealth and stability. You could also give them an activation. Magic Mapping, perhaps?

[Gwarl]

activation: staff of slow monsters

[debo]

Create forest or summon animals, pls!

[Derakon]

Create forest or summon animals, pls!

Your boots glow a deep green. -more-
The Giant Yellow Scorpion stings you.

(Vanilla doesn't have coaligned monsters. )

[Philip]

Create Forest is sure an interesting idea though. Is it too powerful? It's sort of like Create Doors except that once a monster opens a door, every monster behind it can see you again, but with this, you could happily sit right next to a monster and it would be the only thing that could see you. That seems to be too powerful to me, since it trivializes the whole "find a good place to fight" thing when you can just sit in a corridor next to a tree.