Appraising is worthless.

[Jeremiah]

Hopefully everyone is done beating their chest.

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Now let me give an example of what I mean.

Say we rank common weapon features (not artifacts) on a scale of -5 to 5.

So we look at few features (just a few examples).

Blessed gives a +1 to the rank

Cursed gives a -3 to the rank

ashen gives a -2 to the rank (no damage vs. undead is bad, but it is easy to spot such items so there is a low chance of equipping it by mistake)

green gives a +1 to rank (resistance to acid damage)

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It would need more thought, this would just be the general idea.

[Jeremiah]

Tier 1 skills are what I would consider true game-changers. Limitless fireballs, the ability to read scrolls, and not having to worry about positioning in a few critical moments make a difference.

Tier 2 skills still offer significant bonuses to make the game easier, such as being a bit faster, having the potential for spellcasting, being able to do some easy shoplifting, killing stuff in melee faster (crits, invis backstabs) etc.

Tier 3 skills are more modest boosts but still clearly make the game easier; bonuses to more minor stats, saving some on healing, not having traps be a hassle, etc.

Tier 4 skills are just minor utility: avoiding some pitfalls with gear, some occasional tricky situations like viper traps or the door game.

Tier 5 skills are the true useless ones, with very little point in advancing them. Haggling will occasionally save some money, but you don't really need money and most classes can't even advance it to a level where it works. Listening trains up just fine on its own. Two Weapon Combat is improving an ill-advised method of fighting.

And you put cooking on the bottom?

[Jeremiah]

The treasure hunter talent would increase the usefulness of appraising.

[Grond]

And you put cooking on the bottom?

Yup (well, still better than some other stuff - each tier is arranged in order of decreasing usefulness). Preserving the rare important corpse is quicker and easier with fire, and I don't really see a big advantage to hurthling crownings with cooked corpses (over live sacs).

The treasure hunter talent would increase the usefulness of appraising.

This comment made my day. Do we need to accurately assess the viability of TH first?

[Blank4u47]

The treasure hunter talent would increase the usefulness of appraising.

it could be said that treasure hunter talent was made somewhat irrelevant when IQD came about. At least in my opinion. FGJC’s directly propel my characters from lvl 16 to lvl 32 in some (very) extreme cases.

[Grond]

it could be said that treasure hunter talent was made somewhat irrelevant when IQD came about. At least in my opinion. FGJC’s directly propel my characters from lvl 16 to lvl 32 in some (very) extreme cases.

It's taken quite a few bigger hits since then. Goblin camp's got a bunch of useful stuff. Early guaranteed potion shop cut out one of the common justifications (getting enough holy water). And there's even a guaranteed scroll shop, though it comes a bit later. Arguably, being able to guarantee the Rolf set hurts TH as well.

[Jeremiah]

This comment made my day. Do we need to accurately assess the viability of TH first?

Not really. All I would need to know is the impact on relative frequency of item drops.

Now that I think about it, TH could actually decrease the effectiveness of appraising by giving the skill a lower chance of being applied to a useful item. It all depends on how things play out.

[Jeremiah]

I don't know, I am in the middle of a game at the moment, but this could be an interesting project.

[Blank4u47]

It's taken quite a few bigger hits since then. Goblin camp's got a bunch of useful stuff. Early guaranteed potion shop cut out one of the common justifications (getting enough holy water). And there's even a guaranteed scroll shop, though it comes a bit later. Arguably, being able to guarantee the Rolf set hurts TH as well.

Yeah, plus the advantages of the newly enhanced talents seems to diminish TH’s value even further. Melee weapon master is now worth pursuing, the stat bonuses are +2 now, and they increase potential by 2 now too! That’s big. It can make some interesting choices when combined with point buy. I’m also now curious about how a true berserking lvl 50 barbarian dual wielding with MWM, ambidextrous, and grandmastery will work.

[Grond]

I’m also now curious about how a true berserking lvl 50 barbarian dual wielding with MWM, ambidextrous, and grandmastery will work.

This is actually bugged quite interestingly at the moment. The level 50 power locks the dual-wield energy cost at 800, regardless of most stuff that would normally matter, like weapon skill and dual-wielding whips. Ambidextrous won't help, but Melee Weapon Master will, bringing the energy cost down to 735.