Rune-Covered Spear or Silence of the Dead?

[brenuttie]

So I'm running a crazy good run right now and it's at the point where I can't decide which good weapon to use. ATM I'm a lvl16 ratling tief trying to choose between either the rune-covered spear or Silence of the Dead. I've been doing pretty well w the spear and I've got polearms trained up to 10 already, but I read the wiki page for sotd and it seems insanely good. In the lesser vault where I found the latter weapon I also found both a bloody dagger and a phase dagger to use with sotd, along w 61 two-weapon combat.

So far I'm sold on SotD but I'm not sure if it's worth switching over from polearms. Any suggestions helps. Thank you!

[grobblewobble]

Do you mean the rune-covered trident?

The Silence of the Dead *is* insanely good, not to mention stylish, for a thief. I'd say it is best to switch. Weapon skills train very fast when you're fighting high-level monsters.

P.s.: you mentioned two-weapon combat. As stylish as that may be, SotD + shield is your best option. You get a much better DV and attack faster. If you fight at Agressive (F3) your shield skill will train very fast.

[brenuttie]

Oh yep, tune-covered trident.

And thanks for the tips, i was wondering why SotD+scalpel of devastation was so weak/missed hella. I also heard of using SotD as a thrown weapon and rune covered trident as my main. Is that viable? I’ve been training w a short bow for a while but not for too long, and I don’t think a switch to throw not daggers would hurt too bad.

[anp]

I’d say that SotD and shield is your best bet. You can use trident as powerful thrown, it does return aswell. You will miss it’s bonuses, but still be at better defense. Situationally you could switch to trident, when doing Blup quest for example.
As for the shield, there’s a guaranteed artifact one till the mid game so this combo would be superior to RCT for sure.

[Grond]

I also heard of using SotD as a thrown weapon and rune covered trident as my main. Is that viable?

It will work, but using RCT as a melee weapon is less than ideal on any class other than Monk. Shields just provide much better defense; plus, RCT will do a lot more damage as a missile vs demons and undead, due to the higher multipliers on missile crits.


Edited to add:

Situationally you could switch to trident, when doing Blup quest for example.

That's a funny way of saying "when killing Blup's mother and stealing her stuff" (trident is the reward for Blup quest ). Also, SotD gives water breathing, because why wouldn't it?

[grobblewobble]

Yeah, sotd returns as well so that's an option, but if you wield it in melee it grants even better bonuses than the trident. I also think the bloodsucking thing only improves further melee attacks with the dagger, so the bloodsucking is another reason to wield it. Disclaimer, I'm basing this on the wiki description and have never found the weapon myself. So please let us know how it works out.

P.S.: situational switching sounds like a good idea against very dangerous humanoids such as the Cat Lord, where you absolutely want to maintain a distance.

[brenuttie]

Update:

I went with standard sword and board with trident ranged, and you guys were right-- this weapon's amazingly good. I spend tons of time prepping for a big fight only to have it die in a single backstab. Vamp effects go crazy high too, and I don't have to worry about having enough good ammo anymore. Thanks yall, can't wait for this char to die and make me smash my comp.