Worst luck in artifacts

[jfmancilla]

I think I just got the worst possible combination of crowning + 2 post crowning + surge of power ever.
I am an orc barbarian, I found a neutral altar in the village dungeon so I decided to go for precrowning, at some point my alignment changed to N= and I got crowned with Death's Blade and cold immunity.
Seeing my bad luck, I decided to stay in the level and go for a post-crowning. What do I receive? Soaker...
I couldn't believe it!
I decided to clean the puppy cave and farmed the big room until I reach lvl 14 and went for another post-crowning.... I received Aylas Holy Scarf... that is not that bad, but still no useful resistance at all.
I figured there was no point on continuing without the game becoming boring, so I started my dive just to find a surge of power before dwarftown... I got Perion's plate mail!
This is probably the most unlucky successful character I have ever played, the DV and PV are really great, but no really useful artifact.
Have you gotten any worst than this?

[JellySlayer]

Aylas Holy Scarf is pretty good. [+10,+10] on a slot where [+2,+2] is generally about as good as you can get is pretty stellar. Yeah, it doesn't carry any resistances or immunities, but it's still probably better than any other amulet except Preserver.

Perion plate gives a bunch of resistances and decent PV. Situationally dragon scale can be better, but at low level it's a great find. Getting 24 PV from two artifacts is not terrible.

Death's blade and soaker I agree are pretty bad.

[Sami]

Death's blade and soaker I agree are pretty bad.

And even death's blade isn't that bad unless you already have a good weapon or weapon + shield.
Death's blade's (+6, 6d8+6) [+4, +0] averages to 33 damage while eternium 2h (+18, 6d5+18) [-1, +0] averages to 36. And big punch (+1, 8d5+3) [-6, +0] which many players consider good weapon averages to 27 and has worse stats than death's blade (double the weight, -10 DV, -5 to-hit).

[jfmancilla]

You are definitely right with Aylas Holy Scarf and the armor. I am still sad I did not get Vanquiser or Skullcrusher...
My main problem was that I did not get any good immunity through crowning nor the artifacts, but the PV is really good. I now have 58/48 which is not bad at all (I can get my DV to 81 fighiting very defensively). I just easily meleed the Snake from Beyond (got hit twice, though).
I am not sure if I am ready for the ACW. I have a two handed sword of parrying, blessed ring of ice, fire resistance from a fire lizard, and a blessed ring of fire resistance. I also have a tower cristal shield and a dagger of penetration but I guess I need to kill the ACW fast, so I will probably go with the two handed sword for the damage. I also have about 10 dragon slaying quarrels but my Dex is low due to corruption and my skill in crossbow is only at lvl 4. I only have a cursed potion of invisibility and a wand of stunning for disabling it, no PoCC.
This is my first time trying to melee ACW (got it two times before, once with a wizard and once with an elementalist), so we will see how it goes.
Any recommendation?

[JellySlayer]

Elemental gauntlets should give one more first resist.

Two-handed sword of parrying probably isn't high enough damage. Better off using Death's Blade or an eternium 2H sword if you have one. Or Big Punch even. With 50 PV, your main concern is energy attacks, not melee.

Don't be afraid to use the Water Orb for healing.

[jfmancilla]

Thanks for your reply!
I have the elemental gauntlets (which will protect me a little bit from the water orb corruption) and you are right about the energy rays.
I do not have a 2H eternium sword. I went looking at the Darkforge and found an eternium halberd and a red dragon scale mail! So the immunity is ready but I still can't decide between the halberd (I have polearms at 7), Death's Blade (that has death ray resistance and I have lvl 10 at 2H weapons), or train with Big Punch (lvl 1 with maces ) and use a shield. I am leaning toward Death's Blade just because its resistance and my skill level.

[grobblewobble]

Throw a potion of cure corruption at him to weaken him, then finish him with death's blade. The resistance is irrelevant against ACW, his ray is of a different type.

edit: sorry, I overlooked this info..

I also have about 10 dragon slaying quarrels but my Dex is low due to corruption and my skill in crossbow is only at lvl 4. I only have a cursed potion of invisibility and a wand of stunning for disabling it, no PoCC.

In that case, just go with the slaying ammo. Crossbow skill doesn't really matter, without any skill you deal enough damage. Do bless the quarrels before shooting, it increases the damage against demons (all orb guardians count as demons, so the ACW is a dragon demon).

[jfmancilla]

Thanks for the tip grobblewobble!
I'll try hitting him with the slaying ammo then and finish him up (if needed) death's blade.
Is ACW vulnerable to far slaying wand?

[JellySlayer]

Far slaying wand is useful for luring him out of the room from a distance. It would be... difficult... to engineer a situation where a far slaying wand could do enough damage to seriously injure/kill the ACW without an AoLS.

[Heikki]

(all orb guardians count as demons, so the ACW is a dragon demon).

Bit off topic, but Yulgash is not a demon, all others are.