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[Trapezohedron]

A wand of fire is better though, as it's permanent.

[kcwong]

Don't worry though, you'll get raped by giant ants next, then killer bees, then soldier ants.

Here's a tip though:

Game Spoilers

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Write 'Elbereth' on the floor, preferrably with a sharp object.

No, that's a bad idea. Writing in dusting is better.

1. Using hard objects to engrave takes time. Time where you will be stuck engraving, without any chance to react. Existing engravings will also be disabled for the duration, so monsters nearby will get free hits on you until you're done. So you should engrave a single character each turn.

2. Blunt weapons cannot be used to engrave, while sharp weapons get dull (in the form of negative enchantments). Once it hits -3 it will be too dull to engrave with. Hard gems can be used instead.

3. Engraving is still not permanent after spending all those effort. Standing on it and passing turn will eventually mess it up. Unless you can levitate on it.

4. Engraving is only 100% reliable when you have an uncursed athame (a special class of dagger only rarely dropped by liches), or the artifact Magicbane (guaranteed first gift for wizards, neutral when you wish for it). Both items have no chance to fail (when you're not confused, etc.) and can write the whole E-word in a single turn.

5. Writing in dust can be done in a single turn for the E-word. You have 1/25 chance of messing up for each character (high dex helps), and dusting disappears faster than engravings. However you can just keep dusting over and over, adding to the existing ones. As long as one is intact it will work.

6. Wand of fire or lightning will make it permanent, but lightning comes with the bad side effect of blinding you as well. Not a very big deal if you have a blessed unicorn horn.

7. Something must be on top of the E-word for it to be effective. In a corridor you can drop an item and then run away.

8. Not all monsters respect E-word. e.g. elves, humans and minotaurs.

[RedWarrior0]

Basically, anything represented by the @ sign in a non graphical standard set.

[The Mechanical Man]

Don't worry though, you'll get raped by giant ants next, then killer bees, then soldier ants.

Here's a tip though:

Game Spoilers

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Write 'Elbereth' on the floor, preferrably with a sharp object.

No, that's a bad idea. Writing in dusting is better.

...

8. Not all monsters respect E-word. e.g. elves, humans and minotaurs.

Not necessarily, for that very reason. In some cases, you're going to want to make the engravings permanent. If you happen to put it on a level where those guys appear, they'll end up walking over it and ruining the engraving if it's in the dust.

[Trapezohedron]

Don't worry though, you'll get raped by giant ants next, then killer bees, then soldier ants.

Here's a tip though:

Game Spoilers

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Write 'Elbereth' on the floor, preferrably with a sharp object.

No, that's a bad idea. Writing in dusting is better.

<snip>

1. True, but when you're not being assaulted and there are a ton of darts/swords in the vicinity, you might as well start writing.

2. Like above, there might be a ton of swords in the vicinity.

3. The 'E' word works when you drop an item on it. Useful for making invisible labyrinths for creatures who don't respect 'E'

4. True, but in the mid to late game, you probably have wands to take care of that now.

5. Writing in dust generally works only in the early game. Unless you have nothing that can write a permanent 'E' word, writing in the dust is your fallback.

6. True, no arguments.

7. With that being said, you can write a couple E-words and drop the weapon. There's a way to write the 'E' word using a single no enchantment weapon. You start with the first three letters and write the rest in the next. Of course, the weapon will be unusable, but you can drop it on top the word.

8. True, but the 'E' word is still useful for filtering out melee or cursing attacks against enemies who respect the 'E' word (liches come to mind).

[kcwong]

Not necessarily, for that very reason. In some cases, you're going to want to make the engravings permanent. If you happen to put it on a level where those guys appear, they'll end up walking over it and ruining the engraving if it's in the dust.

It's only permanent if you use a wand of fire or lightning. All other methods of engraving can erode 1 turn after you wrote it, if you're unlucky.

Erode happens via passage of time, and is accelerated by:
1. You standing still on it.
2. You shooting/casting/melee attacking on it.

It's permanent if and only if you levitate on it before it erodes.

Dusting is used when you can't defeat them. Write 10 in a row, drop something on it and run if you can. Otherwise, just keep adding one E-word every turn. Erode happens slowly, if you keep writing, you will have some of E-words ready.

If you dust enough you can even melee on it. Write 10 (always check if it's successful or not and how many are still intact), melee once/shoot twice, write another 10. The buffer for engraving on a single tile is huge.

The point is you can use dusting right now, and it will work immediately. Engraving takes time, and if it erodes before you're done, you have to start over. Engraving may work if you have a lot of time to prepare ahead, e.g. in front of Sokoban's zoo. Not in most places. Engraving more than one characters at a time, as I've stated, will disable any E-word already existing on that tile, and you will be stuck there for a few turns, even when monsters are hitting you. You can't cancel and the game won't interrupt you.

8. True, but the 'E' word is still useful for filtering out melee or cursing attacks against enemies who respect the 'E' word (liches come to mind).

Magic resistance is the only thing to save you from liches. E-word only prevents a melee attack, which a lich seldom uses. After a very short time they will no longer be scared and will cast spells/shoot as usual.

[Trapezohedron]

8. True, but the 'E' word is still useful for filtering out melee or cursing attacks against enemies who respect the 'E' word (liches come to mind).

Magic resistance is the only thing to save you from liches. E-word only prevents a melee attack, which a lich seldom uses. After a very short time they will no longer be scared and will cast spells/shoot as usual.

True, but they can curse items, a spell which they cast at melee range. It can be a pain if your BoH was cursed, doubling the weight of it's contents or negating the reduced weight if it was blessed.