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[Leafsnail]

In trunk versions, it's more obvious what it does: It only reduces the cost of the more expensive spells, I think level 5 and up.

I'm not in trunk.

...Although if that's true, that really sucks.

[G-Flex]

It's true in the release version too; the language is just clearer in trunk.

It would be a little overpowered otherwise. When you think about it, that would cut the cost of level 2 spells by half, and level 3 spells by a third.

Vehumet is still pretty damn good. Range extension is great, and you get VERY nice cast chance bonuses to summoning and conjuration, which is ironically best (in my opinion) for classes that don't specialize in those. Also, book gifts are always nice.

[ShadeJS]

Just in case you're not playing trunk, here's a blog post about what's new for .8 so far:

http://crawl.develz.org/wordpress/play-testing-0-8-development

In completely unrelated news, for the first time since I started playing this game about a year ago, I have a High Elf Air Elementalist, who's more of a Fire Based Conjurer / Enchanter in Zot:5 (in version .7). I'm sooo close, though I've probably jinxed it by mentioning it. The thing is that I don't have much time per day to play and I'm taking this very slow... If my guy doesn't die he should be out of the dungeon for Christmas. (Well, maybe tonight if I get the time.)

In some ways this Character had all of the hallmarks of a real loser. First, uugh Air. Good on paper, especially for HEs, but hard to keep alive. I found a reasonably early book of flame so that helped with that. Also, despite clearing Elf:7, the bottom of the Vaults, and going through hell (not literally) to get 20 healing potions to get into a treasure trove, I've gotten a pretty unkind spread of artifacts especially with respect to mutation and corrosion resistance. But here I am... (And with one potion of cure mutation left, at lv. 27, with maxed conjurations in Zot:5, slowly murdering my way though the guys coming out of the vault.)

[beorn080]

Looks like Chei is getting a major nerf, assuming I'm reading what it says about ponderous armor correctly. Also, vamp weapons got a nerf too. Wow.

[Niveras]

I think it is a mixed buff and nerf. On the one hand, spider form won't be as effective in letting you get away. On the other, you'll maintain the stats and resists you get from wearing multiple pieces of ponderous when shifting into things that meld those items away. For example, your gloves will still count toward ponderous when using blade hands.

At least that's my interpretation. It is no doubt up for debate because I am not sure if "keeping ponderous while melded" is the same as "counting toward number of ponderous pieces equipped." It could easily mean that the speed reduction applies when melded even as you lose the bonuses for number of ponderous pieces equipped. I admit it seems questionable because it makes Chei an even stronger choice for transmuters. Is Chei viable for anyone else right now, even considering shifts temporarily causing the loss of some ponderous bonuses?

I suppose someone playing the dev version could answer for sure.

[Mr.Person]

Something I recently learned: Alistair's Intoxication + Elven Halls = hilarity.

Once your axe skill hits double digits, any other kind of axe will do far more damage than the piddle hand axe.

Yeah, but the speed brand effectively doubles your rate of attack, which is pretty valuable.

There's a limit to how fast you are allowed to attack. Since the primary reason you deal more damage with an attack is increasing attack speed or increasing base damage of the weapon, there's no benefit to extra skill after a certain point until you upgrade to a slower weapon that does more damage.

[ghosteh]

A curse upon whoever wrote the article in the crawlipedia that said Norbert wasn't dangerous.

[G-Flex]

Something I recently learned: Alistair's Intoxication + Elven Halls = hilarity.

Once your axe skill hits double digits, any other kind of axe will do far more damage than the piddle hand axe.

Yeah, but the speed brand effectively doubles your rate of attack, which is pretty valuable.

There's a limit to how fast you are allowed to attack. Since the primary reason you deal more damage with an attack is increasing attack speed or increasing base damage of the weapon, there's no benefit to extra skill after a certain point until you upgrade to a slower weapon that does more damage.

The Speed brand still matters, because it's applied after the skill/weapon-based cap, as far as I could tell.

[Mr.Person]

That's completely true, but even with the brand, there's still a hard limit to how fast you can make an attack. I think it's 4 speed units, which is the exact speed that a quick blade will attack at. The hand axe will probably attack at that exact speed no matter what your skill is. A war axe or broad axe attacks at ~14 speed units or so, but can be decreased down to 7. Since a broad axe or war axe is going to do over double base damage unless the hand axe has some crazy-ass enchantments on it, you're going to want to use a broad axe or war axe after hitting about double digit axe skill so your attacks will be pretty fast and accurate. Yes, even if the axe isn't branded or even enchanted I still think it would do more damage. I think I'll run some damage calculation real quick, just to be sure.

(For reference, moving takes 10 speed units for a regular-speed character)

[Leafsnail]

A curse upon whoever wrote the article in the crawlipedia that said Norbert wasn't dangerous.

If it makes you feel better, he's being removed in 0.8.

[Niveras]

Chain Lightning is so OP. Cleared Saint Roka's army in 4 casts, then after a retreat up the stairs to restore mana, killed Saint Roka in 3. Cleared the Snake Pit rune with hardly any issue. Elf hall rune was a little bit more difficult but only because I ran out of mana and had a zombie and an elf blocking my exit, but I still managed to survive to retreat and mana back up (heart flight+swiftness). Level 24, but I think I spread my experience out a little too much: only ~14-18 in Spellcasting, Conj, Ice, and Air mana. 40 int.

This might be the first character I manage to win with. At the least it'll be the first to see Hell and Zot. I have Icestorm and IMB to fall back on for lightning-immunes, is there anything I should be particularly worried about meeting?

[G-Flex]

IMB probably doesn't do enough damage to save you from some of the REALLY tough monsters/uniques, plus watch out for things that can mutate you if you don't have a source of rMut.

[Frumple]

Mystic blast does alright if you're faster than what you're plinking at and your target doesn't have notable ranged options/you're fully resistant to what it does. Th'winning sprig I got through was using it right up through Zot:5 and the orb chamber. Its damage IS kinda' low, compared to end-game stuff, but it also ignores armor, which can be a noticeable damage boost.

If any of those conditions aren't true, though, you're going to want bigger guns. Ice storm and CL will probably do you fine. Wouldn't hurt to pick up icicle, iron shot, or th'crystal spear, though. Maybe one of the upper tier fire spells.

[Mr.Person]

I cleared Crypt using nothing but Throw Icicle and almost cleared Tomb using Throw Icicle and Sticky Flame.

Chillers gonna chill.

[Niveras]

I used to have Throw Icicle before I reached the point that I could get Ice Storm, having used it to train up Ice. I dropped it figuring  Icicle and IMB are pretty much identical. Assuming the wiki could be trusted, IMB does max 2d28 (better minimum but very slightly lower max damage) and Icicle is 3d20. I'm not familiar with issues of resistance or how Icicle's largely-physical damage component gets mitigated, but I figured if something appeared that was both cold and elec resistant, I'd benefit by going with something that's not at all resistance based.

As for getting a fire/earth spell, wouldn't it be a little late to train one of those up? The skills say that being skilled in X makes it harder to learn Y (e.g. the ice magic makes it harder to learn fire magic), or is that just a flavour text that has no bearing on game mechanics, like "Kiku appreciates the use of this spell"? I suppose I could use Orb of Destruction, though it seems hard to use effectively.