Ring of Acid

[CivBesch]

I just found a Ring of Acid.

I am also wearing 2 rings: Accuracy (+19,+0) and Flames [+13]

I am also carrying around a Ring of protection [+10]

Finally I am wielding a Lead filled Mace of Slay Orc (4d3) (+4,+6)

I am at DL 15 and Character level 21, greatly enjoying turn 718388, cleaning up all levels.

Is the Ring of Acid a throw away, or should I replace one of my other rings with it?

[PowerWyrm]

You can pretty much throw away the ring of protection and squelch them, since you already found two elemental rings. At your level, the ball effect from the activations is way more useful than extra accuracy, so use ring of flames + ring of acid.

[Pete Mack]

It depends on your weapons, but yeah: elemental rings are certainly dominant up to CL 25-30 (or whenever you start doing 100+ melee damage per turn.)

[CivBesch]

Thanks for this advice.

After reading it and re-studying those rings, I come to realise that it is possible to actually shoot with them. Very interesting, my panoply is getting very diverse indeed.

They have now indeed become very useful.

[Monkey Face]

Also, the + value on the elemental rings is extra protection. So =Acid(+19) is like having =Protection(+19) that can also shoot acid and give you temporary acid resistance. Of course, if you are activating it for the temporary resistance, the acid bolt (or ball or whichever it casts) will often be aimed at a monster that resists acid and therefore won't do much damage.

[CivBesch]

O, I did not realise that either. I was convinced that the figure behind was the damage caused to the monster by the attack.

It would be nice to have some kind of wiki, where those things could be found.

[Pete Mack]

I'm pretty sure this is in the help files. Numbers in brackets are AC. Numbers in parentheses are Damage. Numbers in LT/GT are stat/speed/stealth bonuses.

[mrfy]

Also, when you use the 'i' command to inspect the ring it says how much damage it does. For example, the ring of Flames I'm currently carrying says:

"When aimed, it fires a ball of fire with radius 2, dealing 80 damage at the center, which your device skill increases by 7 per cent"

[CivBesch]

We seem to have the same ring of flames, but your skill is better, mine is only 4%.

I keep being amazed about how wrongly I sometimes interpret the value of artifacts. I found a 'rod of curing' and a 'ring of open wounds', which seem to do similar things, but when selling them in the same shop (magic shop) the price offered is greatly different: for the ring I am offered 4 and for the rod I'm offered 666.

I am also astonished that a ring of Escaping is offered 2944, although it seemed almost worthless to me, only speeding me up +4, which is not even double speed and at the same time making me afraid of melee and worse at shooting and casting spell.

I am still trying to understand much of the logic behind quite a few mechanisms!

[kandrc]

I am also astonished that a ring of Escaping is offered 2944, although it seemed almost worthless to me, only speeding me up +4, which is not even double speed and at the same time making me afraid of melee and worse at shooting and casting spell.

Escaping is great for mages with good stealth (HE mage, hobbit mage, gnome mage), and sometimes for some priest races, too, if they're stealthy enough. A pair of them is +8, which gives you almost double speed, and is enough to get you down to speed ring depth without much effort. Less stealthy mages (and priests) favor mouse.

[mrfy]

We seem to have the same ring of flames, but your skill is better, mine is only 4%.

I keep being amazed about how wrongly I sometimes interpret the value of artifacts. I found a 'rod of curing' and a 'ring of open wounds', which seem to do similar things, but when selling them in the same shop (magic shop) the price offered is greatly different: for the ring I am offered 4 and for the rod I'm offered 666.

I am also astonished that a ring of Escaping is offered 2944, although it seemed almost worthless to me, only speeding me up +4, which is not even double speed and at the same time making me afraid of melee and worse at shooting and casting spell.

The base damage for the elemental rings (Ice, Flames, Acid, Lightning) doesn't change. If you find a different ring of Flames, the base damage at the center of the ball will still be 80. But they may have a different protection amount (the + number in the [] which adds to armor class). IIRC, your device skill is based on your Magic Devices rating which can increase with additional dexterity.

I would never use a Ring of Open Wounds, having hitpoint recovery being impaired could be very bad. A Rod of Curing though can be useful. I usually just carry plenty of Cure Critical Wounds potions.

Ring of Escaping I would only use if I was playing certain characters, hobbit rogue perhaps. But avoiding monsters and sneaking around doesn't fit my playstyle!

[Monkey Face]

Open wounds has the negative effect of slowing down hitpoint recovery. Hence it's not as valuable. Curing only has positive effects and is thus worth more.