Appraising is worthless.

[Grond]

Exceptions don't prove a norm. The skill is vastly and largely useless, and it couldn't hurt to consider revising useless skills.

I don't think it's rare for appraising to be useful to at least some extent. Is picking up a bunch of weapons and then dropping the ones rated at "mediocre", really such a rare event? What about a situation where you have an armor swap that is normally an improvement, but would be annoying if the new armor is cursed? Either a "fair" or "mediocre" assessment is helpful. This is in fact the first example I found looking through VODs; current armor uncursed leather, new armor "good" studded leather, so I know it's a safe swap to make.

[Jeremiah]

Woodcraft and Law could also use revising.

[Jeremiah]

I don't think it's rare for appraising to be useful to at least some extent. Is picking up a bunch of weapons and then dropping the ones rated at "mediocre", really such a rare event? What about a situation where you have an armor swap that is normally an improvement, but would be annoying if the new armor is cursed? Either a "fair" or "mediocre" assessment is helpful. This is in fact the first example I found looking through VODs; current armor uncursed leather, new armor "good" studded leather, so I know it's a safe swap to make.

I don't gamble on armor in the early game. Do you ever skill it up?

[Jeremiah]

Early game I assess all my gear in bulk at a merchant or an altar. You don't need stellar gear to do the early game, so I stopped gambling with mid dungeon equips a long time ago.

[Grond]

But it's not gambling if you have appraising! So you get the benefits of gambling (good items sooner rather than later) without the risk of being stuck with cursed stuff. On a class with good dice I sometimes throw a few skill increases into it. Maybe you don't need stellar gear for the early game, but it's the only challenging part of ADOM, so you might as well take whatever edge you can get.

[Jeremiah]

If it ticked more often or if it checked on each item pick up then it would be more useful.

[Jeremiah]

But it's not gambling if you have appraising! So you get the benefits of gambling (good items sooner rather than later) without the risk of being stuck with cursed stuff. On a class with good dice I sometimes throw a few skill increases into it. Maybe you don't need stellar gear for the early game, but it's the only challenging part of ADOM, so you might as well take whatever edge you can get.

As it is now, it has very limited usefulness.

[Jeremiah]

I can't recall a single game where appraising made a significant difference in the outcome of my game. I am sure at some point it did, but those time are so far apart that it doesn't matter.

[Blank4u47]

Recently started playing again, and I started a gnome necro with the skilled talents chosen. Able to get appraisal to a decent level pretty early and it was super useful, especially with finding usable armor. The skill is really only useful before you get id scrolls and when it’s a high level which is a bit contradictory. However, there’s exceptions to this such as high starting skill dice.

[Jeremiah]

A skill which is only useful potential is a small time frame in the game which relies on both a lucky drop and then randomly appraising said item has very limited use. If I cared to, I bet if I crunched the numbers and calculated the probability of when it might be beneficial it would come out extremely low. We are talking about a conditional event here: a useful item has to drop, it has to be in the time frame when the skill is still applicable, and said item has to be appraised. So stories about how it helped this one time don't really give an accurate picture of how often it is useful.

The window in which appraising MIGHT be helpful is ridiculously small. It makes sense for it to have some impact on barter prices, since knowing the value of items is essential to effective bartering in the real world, and such a addition would allow the skill to be useful beyond that tiny window where a lucky drop might help. Also if you can't get past the early game without out some fluke luck, then perhaps you need to revise your starting strategy.