Absolutely close?

[gut]

> pools (never understood why people think they're bad)

BECAUSE THEY WILL KILL YOU!
*goes to sob in a corner*

[JellySlayer]

-Deth- gotten through some pools (never understood why people think they're bad)

To elaborate on gut's description, here's my typical experience with pools:

You feel exhausted.
You feel jumpy.
You feel very bad off.
You suddenly hate the thought of jumping around.
You feel depressive.
You teleport.

I've had this before too though:

You age! You suddenly feel middle aged.
The water is suddenly writhing with snakes!
The water is suddenly writhing with snakes!
The water is suddenly writhing with snakes!
The water is suddenly writhing with snakes!
The water is suddenly writhing with snakes!
The water is suddenly writhing with snakes!
You age! You suddenly feel old.
The water is suddenly writhing with snakes!
The water is suddenly writhing with snakes!
The water is suddenly writhing with snakes!
The water is suddenly writhing with snakes!
The water is suddenly writhing with snakes!
The water is suddenly writhing with snakes!
You age! You suddenly feel very old.
You die.

[DumbleDoor]

The AMW is one of the best artifacts in the game? No... DV/PV is equal to decent metal armor, cold immunity= worthless, death ray resistance=great in certain situations, easy to find substitutes, useless in most situations, -8 ap=worthless

Is that worth a postcrown? No!

I like the Ankh more... +2dv pv=good amulet of defense and protection combined, lucky fate smiles= helpful to stop RNG's critical hits (you get 1hp), luck is always okay to have

Also, extremely off topic, but why does decent mean good? The stems de (down) and cent (100) mean it is below 100 or perfect...

[gut]

I'll never again sip with an orc or troll.

> AMW is one of the best artifacts in the game? No...

Yes. Oh yes.
1. Undamagable armor = priceless.
2. =cold is valuable against the Archmage, and avoids an =cold crowning.
3. see invis is valuable for CL, Arcmage, and other uses (AKW).
4. It's available relatively early.
5. precrowns are mainly melee weapons, and not-so-great ones at that.

The Ankh is great as well though.

[DumbleDoor]

Eh... I find that age has never been a problem for me. I drink with characters if some of these are met these are met:
A. The early game
B. I'm getting bored with them
C. They are horrible
D. They need an item extremely badly
E. They can deal with cursing, dooming, removing of instrincts
F. They can deal with snakes, vipers, and elementals

[Al-Khwarizmi]

Apart from the fact that the AMW is awesome, postcrowns are boooring.

[F50]

To elaborate on gut's description, here's my typical experience with pools:

You feel exhausted.
You feel jumpy.
You feel very bad off.
You suddenly hate the thought of jumping around.
You feel depressive.
You teleport.

Never, ever drink from pools while cursed or doomed (very bad off etc). Always have intrinsic fate smiles and lucky AND wear the ankh when drinking from pools and leave as soon as you get cursing, dooming, or removal of lucky/fate intrinsics. The reason why you don't have good experiences with pools is because you don't maximize your chances. All kinds of good stuff can be gotten from pools.

I've had this before too though:

You age! You suddenly feel middle aged.
The water is suddenly writhing with snakes! x6
You age! You suddenly feel old.
The water is suddenly writhing with snakes! x6
You age! You suddenly feel very old.
You die.

Drinking from pools is much, much more dangerous when you have a short lifespan. Also, getting snakes 12/14 drinks probably means that you didn't maximize your luck. Another reason to be shy of pool drinking is not having a means of teleport control, but that's at least manageable if you do get that message.

[Twinge]

Having Lucky or Fate Smiles (or Cursed for that matter) won't actually help/hurt you when pool sipping - but removing dooming as soon as you get it us important, because you can never get a pool wish while doomed.

Getting snakes a lot makes sense, because it's the second most common sipping result (second only to the pool vanishing).

I think sipping from pools with even say an Orc is fine - you just need to know when to stop. If one of the effects (aging when you've already aged) will kill you, it's probably not worth sipping any more at that time! (Very early I also like sipping from pools if I find them - as long as I can at least survive the snakes.)


Also, I've only heard about this supposed FateSmiles = can't die from crit (possibly just from lots of damage at once, even non crit?) thing recently. Has anyone actually tested this throughly? I am thinking it might only be 'not Doomed', rather than 'have FateSmiles', but I'm not sure. (Of course, having good luck should reduce the number of crits you take overall, but I'm not sure that the specific 'left at 1hp' phenomenon requires it.)

[Silfir]

From what I heard Fate Smiles adds a chance to be reduced to 1 HP instead of dying (possibly only from critical hits, possibly from other sources). I've never heard of a guarantee in this regard.

[Soirana]

Also, I've only heard about this supposed FateSmiles = can't die from crit (possibly just from lots of damage at once, even non crit?) thing recently. Has anyone actually tested this throughly? I am thinking it might only be 'not Doomed', rather than 'have FateSmiles', but I'm not sure. (Of course, having good luck should reduce the number of crits you take overall, but I'm not sure that the specific 'left at 1hp' phenomenon requires it.)

Happens in game all the time. have no idea about exact mechanism.