Favourite Artifacts

[Daijiro]

I'm interested to find out what artifacts you guys find most useful. My personal favorite is Executor. Nothing can withstand the awesome slaying powers of the jet-black battle axe!

[Dougy]

Rune-covered trident, polearms are so cool!

[adomer]

Bracers of War hands down.-----Only artifact bracers, +8 to dv & +4 pv (i think), increases chance of critical hit, regenerate hp extremely fast....need i say more?

[Baranor]

The Bracers of War is the best one that I have found in a game, but I would say that the coolest that I have never, ever seen in the game is the Shirt of the Saints. I WANT AN ARTIFACT SHIRT!!!!

As to artifacts, does anyone know if the Platinum Girdle still exists. I would like to try for it, but I have always seen that there is doubt as to its existence in the current version.

[Shardphoenix]

0) The si. ;)
1) Bracers Of War.
2) Ankh.
3) Cat Lord`s ring.

[Grey]

Platinum Girdle does indeed exist. It's just incredibly hard to get. Someone actually managed a UCG ending with it (required a wish engine and some crazy tactics).

It's hard to choose a favourite artifact - there's so many good ones. Executor, Preserver, Protector, BoW and RotMC would probably be my top 5. I guess I'd choose Executor as number 1 because the cursing adds a little bit of danger and excitement.

[Dorten]

Scorched spear and bracers of war. And RoCL of course, but it's so hard to get...

[Andur]

Bracers of War, cause its a bracer that doesn't get instantly destroyed 2 turns after you find it...

[Macros]

- Bracers of War
- Iron Crown of Hlavnor(awesome DV and PV bonus)
- Vanquisher(I'm suprised that so far no one mentioned it)
- Ancient Mummy Wrapping(good resists and instricts, and it's easy to obtain)
- Elemental Gauntlets(very useful hidden property)
- Preserver

[Ryuuku]

-Sun's messenger(very rare)
-Bracers of war
-Preserver
-Ironfist
-Orb of fire :D
-Weird tome :D

[Laukku]

-Ring of Immunity
-TotRR
-water orb (nice +Wi, can be used as an emergency way of healing, always carry it with you!)
-AMW

[ZeroTheBird]

Golden gladius
O_O ITS SHINY!

nah actually its twin daggers.

[Smite]

Bracers of War

I've never had them before, but I got them the other day after exterminating a tonne of ogre lords, hill giants, fire giants, and ettins in a greater vault.

[gut]

Cat's eye ring. You've got to earn that one : )
The dexterity boost is wonderful for the late game.

[Starhawk]

I love Protector... no more fiendishly ID'ing every tower shield I see, hoping for just One More Point of DV....

[Silfir]

Protector
bracers of war
Preserver

Give me these three artifacts randomly generated and I'm the happiest person on earth. And then I'll die because I think I'm good enough to melee a tension room full of berserker emperors.

[warheart]

Protector
bracers of war
Preserver

Pretty much agree with this three, and I'll add sun's messenger just because I love bows and never find it.

[Jonas]

how about this for a set

Crown of leadership
preserver
natures companion
Justifier or Vanquisher or either trident or needle and sting
protector
RotMC
ironfist
bracers of war
hammerhead

I remember when I used to scum for most of this set (with the weapons most often being justifier and protector), but now I dont savescum anymore, so it is a lot harder to find what I want, but dont really need.

[Macros]

Unless you're playing paladin, I'd pick Skullcrusher in place of Justifier. Also unless you need fire and lighting immunity badly, I'd pick Robes of Resistance in place of Nature's Companion. But besides that, yes, it's quite much perfect artifact set for a PC.

[Silfir]

What? You'd ditch the 15 speed of Nature's Companion?

[Pustka]

for a meele character id take Aylas Holy Scarf instead of preserver.

and i had many great times with Executor :)

favourite armor Nature's Companion :)


and many others

[riktikticheck]

well i'd have to disagree on alyas scarf vs preserver, i'd take preserver any day for any char, imo the paralysation res + regen and other stats clearly outweights the [+6, +6] you loose compared to the scarf

[kapsi]

Vanquisher, especially when playing a barbarian. I always imagine how the character slays everything on his road in a berserker rage :p
Also bracers of war, the +Wi necklace (forgot name) and kitty ring.

[deepshock]

Preserver, Wyrmlance, Scorched Spear, Shirt of the Saints, Boots of the Divine Messenger

Edit: BoW! :D

[Silfir]

Perion's mithril plate mail? One question: WHY?

[PeanutGod]

My top 5 are (not in any real order)

Robes of Resistance
Vanquisher
Ring of the Master Cat
Bracers of War

Obviously they are all rather self explanatory

My final choice goes to:

Axe of the Minotaur Emperor

Why?

From a storyline perspective, if I am a barbarian, I love to get this and just imagine my rock hard, solid, all out nuts barbarian dude wielding an axe that is probably about the same size of him and screaming like an absolutel nutcase. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

[FantomFang]

Considering the one's that Ihave had the luck to have, my following 5 are as follows:

Ring of Immunity (so much fun as a precrowning!)
Bracers of War (self-explanatory)
Elemental Orb of Fire (I love heaps of strength)
Robes of Resistance (resistances + solid PV)
Sword of Nonnak (So useful in so many occasions)

I know there are greatly superior artifacts, but i stuck to the ones that i have used before

[Maul]

BoW, Pres, RotmC, Sun's messenger, Vanq. are the five I really like.

[deepshock]

Perion's mithril plate mail? One question: WHY?

My error, it was the Shirt of the Saints that was what I liked instead of Perion. Goofed on the armor properties.

I do look forward to the revival of Andy Williams' guide.

[Timpak]

I must say the Trident of the Red Rooster, cause by then you know what's comming and what you've accomplished. Good artifacts are bracers of war and ring of the master cat, I also like hammerhead because it never breaks. Would probably say executor and preserver also but I have never ever found them.

[LFk]

BoW is the best overall artifact, imo.
RoTMC is almost as good, and is "guarunteed" to boot, but annoying to get and puts a restriction on you for the entire game.
Preserver for necklace is up there too.

Basically, the artifacts I regard as exceptional are powerful items that have no comparable non-artifact counterparts. The three above have no equals in their respective item class.
Humanoid/Demon/UD slaying weapons are always powerful. Skullcrush/Purifier/Justifier/Exec/Vanquish/ToTRR.



Anyway, my favorite artifact would actually be the ankh. It just feels so nice when i put it on, i don't know why. It's guarunteed, and it's usually better than whatever necklace you're wearing unless you need the intrinsic badly. Orb of fire is a close second - i'm a packrat type of player. Third? The si. :)

[Nezur]

Remember to bless the Ring of the Master Cat every time you manage to get it. That way new cats will be generated neutral.

[Grey]

What?! I've never heard that one before... I imagine it won't affect summoned cats though, which are always the biggest nuisance for me. Regular cats are easy enough to avoid by various means, but 8 summoned at once whilst you're in the thick of a greater undead vault can be a very big problem.

[Nezur]

I have not tested it myself though. The information was acquired by code-diving.

[Molach]

I'll put in a good word for ancient mummy wrappings, since noone else has, so far.

They are easy to get.
They give immunity to cold - which is situationally useful, and probably useful to have a greater chance of fire immunity in crowning.
And most importantly - resistance to death attacks. Which is why I sometimes use it throughout the game. Late-game in particular, when about the only thing that can kill is something extraordinary - like a death ray.

Cicero wore these for the final fight with the ElDeR chaos God, even though having robes of resistance in inventory.

Preserver and BoW will almost always be used, first might get switched out with AoLS or Death ray and Ankh, second with bracers of toughness (well, hypothetically).

Vanquisher I have never had, sadly, but any of the one-handed humanoid slayers is a game-ending weapon.

Sun's messenger never seen, but I think it is more a thing of conveniance than something you really need. Conveniance being that it never burns or blows up. Undead slaying would probably only matter when clearing out greater undead vaults - but I usually have a good stock of undead slaying ammo when THEY start to show up.

[LFk]

AMW is definitely a good item.

I think it's funny that the only function of cold immunity is so you don't get crowned with cold immunity.

Li Hon Kay's frost bolts might kill you, and between that and ogre cave are the only points in the game that cold immunity is life-saving. But from that point in the game on, Ogre Magi do less and less and cold immunity is functionally worthless.

But only several items in the whole game give death ray resistance, and that is a life-saving intrinsic to have. If you find bracers of resistance, though, you can bail on the AMW for a dragon scale mail. SeeI is only situationally useful and The DV/PV on AMW is less than desirable.



I find it hard to justify using 2H weapons that are not named ToTRR (and maybe Vanquisher). The DV difference of having a shield can be in the neighborhood of 30-40 points, and a few points of PV to boot. I really believe its too much to pass up, and the DV is far more useful than the damage improvement you can get. I just know that i never intentionally go 2H with any character, and only do so when something incredible is generated.

[DeSt]

I find it hard to justify using 2H weapons that are not named ToTRR (and maybe Vanquisher). The DV difference of having a shield can be in the neighborhood of 30-40 points, and a few points of PV to boot. I really believe its too much to pass up, and the DV is far more useful than the damage improvement you can get. I just know that i never intentionally go 2H with any character, and only do so when something incredible is generated.
My recent win - monk with two-handed sword of parrying(ordinary, but smithed one). Which is resulted in almost 50 points of DV.

[Silfir]

The damage boost of Sun's Messenger is enormous even for regular enemies. Especially considering that this damage is what's multiplied by slaying ammo. Same for the Far Slayer.

I love these things. Whirlwind, on the other hand, is probably THE random artifact I find most, along with Soaker. Bleh.