CiP : enchant mottled dragon hide vs +5 robe with +4 slaying

[banei]

I currently have a character with a good potential of doing extended. I just put my greedy hands on mottled hide and I'm seriously debating if I should use my 4 scrolls of enchant armour on it, or continue using my +5 robe of +4 slaying (also helps a bit with stabbing sleeping mobs) and wait for better. Or I should just use my scrolls on my boots and gloves and let the RNG decide if I should get anything better? Also, I haven't found any great weapon yet (best is probably +4 flail of holy wrath). I rarely get to this point without deciding on a weapon. I could go maces, try to acquire staff of earth, or go more as a stabber.
Suggestions?

Spoiler: show

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.16-a0-113-gc8d9654 (webtiles) character file.

Banei the Earth Mage (Gargoyle Earth Elementalist) Turns: 39705, Time: 02:43:08

HP 92/92 AC 27 Str 12 XL: 15 Next: 92%
MP 31/35 EV 16 Int 24 God: Ashenzari [******]
Gold 2257 SH 5 Dex 9 Spells: 7 memorised, 20 levels left

rFire . . . SeeInvis + a - +2 dagger (elec) (curse)
rCold + + . Clarity + x - +5 robe "Ollajenk" {Dex-1 Slay+4}
rNeg + . . rCorr . N - +0 buckler (curse)
rPois + rRot + c - +2 helmet (curse)
rElec + Spirit . r - +2 cloak of Vanity {rC++}
SustAb . Warding . k - +0 pair of gloves
rMut . Stasis . v - +0 pair of boots (curse)
Gourm + d - amulet of the gourmand
MR +.... E - ring of stealth
(no ring)

@: flying, somewhat resistant to hostile enchantments, very stealthy
A: able to fly continuously, big wings, clever 1, negative energy resistance 1,
electricity resistance, unbreathing, petrification resistance, rot immunity, AC
+11
a: Stop Flying, Scrying, Transfer Knowledge, Renounce Religion


You are on level 13 of the Dungeon.
You worship Ashenzari.
Ashenzari is exalted by your worship.
You are completely stuffed.

You have visited 4 branches of the dungeon, and seen 26 of its levels.

You have collected 3249 gold pieces.
You have spent 992 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
a - a cursed +2 dagger of electrocution (weapon)
Missiles
L - 5 stones (quivered)
Armour
c - a cursed +2 helmet (worn)
k - a +0 pair of gloves (worn)
r - the cursed +2 cloak of Vanity (worn) {rC++}
(You found it on level 10 of the Dungeon)

It greatly protects you from cold.
It has a curse placed upon it.
v - a cursed +0 pair of boots (worn)
x - the +5 robe "Ollajenk" (worn) {Dex-1 Slay+4}
(You bought it in a shop on level 2 of the Orcish Mines)

It affects your dexterity (-1).
It affects your accuracy and damage with ranged weapons and melee attacks
(+4).
K - a mottled dragon hide
N - a cursed +0 buckler (worn)
Magical devices
f - a wand of lightning {zapped: 1}
g - a wand of invisibility {zapped: 1}
i - a wand of fire {zapped: 4}
q - a wand of draining {zapped: 1}
w - a wand of enslavement {zapped: 1}
y - a wand of cold {zapped: 1}
J - a wand of confusion {zapped: 1}
Comestibles
e - 12 bread rations
s - 2 rotting chunks of kobold flesh
t - a meat ration
C - a rotting chunk of killer bee flesh
D - a rotting chunk of mottled dragon flesh
P - a chunk of killer bee flesh
X - 5 beef jerkies
Scrolls
b - 2 scrolls of fear
o - a scroll of identify
u - 4 scrolls labeled UNANUSAFAU
A - 8 scrolls of teleportation
B - a scroll of enchant weapon
G - 3 scrolls labeled ICSEZY GOSCH
O - a scroll of blinking
Q - a scroll labeled THUTZOMUTA
R - a scroll labeled INAEJOD FECH
S - a scroll labeled BEIMAY CHINIRCH
Jewellery
d - an amulet of the gourmand (around neck)
h - an uncursed ring of fire
p - a cursed ring of teleportation
E - a ring of stealth (right hand)
F - an uncursed amulet of stasis
M - an uncursed ring of invisibility
W - an uncursed amulet of resist corrosion
Potions
j - a potion of magic
l - 5 potions of heal wounds
m - 10 potions of curing
n - 3 potions of berserk rage
H - a potion of agility
I - 2 potions of haste
Magical staves
z - an uncursed staff of wizardry


Skills:
- Level 10.0 Fighting
- Level 6.0 Armour
+ Level 9.2(12.1) Dodging
- Level 9.1(12.0) Stealth
- Level 5.0(7.9) Shields
* Level 13.5 Spellcasting
- Level 5.0 Conjurations
- Level 2.0 Charms
- Level 2.1 Translocations
- Level 5.2 Transmutations
- Level 2.0 Air Magic
+ Level 16.1 Earth Magic


You have 20 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

Your Spells Type Power Failure Level Hunger
a - Stone Arrow Conj/Erth ###### 1% 3 None
c - Petrify Trmt/Erth ######.. 1% 4 None
e - Lee's Rapid Deconstr Erth #######... 1% 5 ##.....
f - Stoneskin Trmt/Erth ######.. 1% 2 None
g - Repel Missiles Chrm/Air ####.. 2% 2 None
i - Blink Tloc N/A 1% 2 None
P - Passwall Trmt/Erth ######.... 1% 3 None


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (13/15) Temple (1/1) D:5 Orc (4/4) D:10
Elf (0/3) Orc:3 Lair (8/8) D:9 Shoals (0/5) Lair:4
Spider (0/5) Lair:6 Slime (0/6) Lair:6
Vaults: D:13-14

Altars:
Ashenzari
Cheibriados
Dithmenos
Elyvilon
Fedhas
Gozag
Kikubaaqudgha
Makhleb
Nemelex Xobeh
Okawaru
Qazlal
Sif Muna
Trog
Vehumet
Xom
Yredelemnul
Zin
The Shining One
Beogh
Jiyva

Shops:
D:7 ( D:10 : D:12 [ D:13 % Orc:2 [} Orc:4 *(%*


Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You are resistant to torment.
You are immune to poison.
You can fly continuously.
Your stone body is very resilient (AC +11).
Your wings are large and strong.
You resist negative energy.
You are resistant to electric shocks.
You can survive without breathing.
You are immune to petrification.
You are immune to rotting.
Your mind is acute. (Int +2)

// Crap cut out //

Action | 1- 3 | 4- 6 | 7- 9 | 10-12 | 13-15 || total
-------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------++-------
Melee: Short sword | 89 | 167 | | | || 256
Dagger | | 90 | 391 | 712 | 1794 || 2987
Cast: Sandblast | 2 | 42 | 5 | 3 | || 52
Stoneskin | | 2 | 8 | 22 | 33 || 65
Stone Arrow | | | 28 | 168 | 383 || 579
Passwall | | | 4 | | 2 || 6
Lee's Rapid Decon | | | 5 | 21 | 138 || 164
Petrify | | | 2 | | 2 || 4
Repel Missiles | | | | | 4 || 4
Abil: Fly | | | | | 1 || 1
Evoke: Wand | | | 1 | 7 | 6 || 14
Use: Scroll | | 9 | 8 | 9 | 10 || 36
Potion | | | | 2 | 4 || 6
Stab: Sleeping | 1 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 40 || 56
Distracted | | | | 1 | 3 || 4
Eat: Chunk | | 10 | 18 | 39 | 85 || 152
Fruit | | | 1 | | 1 || 2
Bread ration | | | | | 1 || 1

[dck]

The robe is a hell of a lot better than a MDA, you should've enchanted your auxiliary armor already by this point, too.
A dagger of elec is a great weapon you can and likely should use forever. This doesn't necessarily mean you want to stab people.

[Greyr]

That robe is really quite fantastic.

ESPECIALLY when being compared to MDA.

[Lyrick]

7 ac, 4 slaying', no encumbrance rating and you're still questioning??
You don't even really need to worry about a GDR loss cause you're a damn gargoyle
Drop that space wasting dragon hide and go stab some poor sap in his sleep

[Lasty]

I'd go robe, especially if your auxiliary armour slots can use those ?EA. That dagger of elec is pretty solid, and its fast swing-speed goes well with your robe of slaying. I'd probably dump my ?EW into the dagger, particularly since you have good Earth Magic to deal with anything the dagger can't handle.

[Ajonos]

Yeah, I like that robe, screw the dragon hide. Mottled Dragon Armour doesn't even give a good resistance, its just for the 6 AC and at the same time you'd lose evasion, spellcasting would become harder, and you'd become less stealthy to boot. Not to mention fast weapons like daggers love slaying bonuses.

Unrelated comment, you have an empty ring slot, why not equip something there? Even if its something you don't want to curse because you're waiting for a replacement, it seems like a waste not to use the slot. At the very least, equip the ring of fire. Your first point of fire resistance is more than worth giving up your second point of cold resistance I'd say.

[XuaXua]

Mottled Dragon Armour doesn't even give a good resistance

Even less-so now that item destruction is gone.

[nago]

]Mottled Dragon Armour doesn't even give a good resistance, its just for the 6 AC and at the same time you'd lose evasion, spellcasting would become harder, and you'd become less stealthy to boot. Not to mention fast weapons like daggers love slaying bonuses.

Actually, there are very few ego that can compete to +6 AC (+12 for a full enchanted mda) and most of them are actually important in very specific situation. And the ev, spellcasting and stealth malus are pretty much neglegible (unless the char has like 3 str or silly things like that). No one sensibly ever chose mda over other armour for sticky flame resist.
In this particulary case mda is worse because the robe is +5 (!) with +4 slay (!!) and the char hasn't full enchantend aux slots, so he would reasonably get less AC/EV in the mda (and less slay).

[LJFCAT]

The robe is a hell of a lot better than a MDA, you should've enchanted your auxiliary armor already by this point, too.
A dagger of elec is a great weapon you can and likely should use forever. This doesn't necessarily mean you want to stab people.

That robe is amazing! I wish one of my VpEn would've found that! I didn't even know an artifact robe could get that high an enchantment level...

If I may ask, dck, do you really think a dagger of electrocution is an all-game long worthy weapon? And specifically, a 3 rune long game, semi-extended, or all 15 runes? Are you saying just in this instance because he has a good amount of slaying? I'm always trying to learn more when it comes to weapon selection for short blades, specifically for stabbers, yes, but not necessarily - I am definitely interested in general knowledge.

Sorry for threadjack, was just very curious. Perhaps the answer will be of some use to the OP?

[banei]

I found a ring of +4 slaying a few turns after posting and switched to +4 mace of holy wrath. I branded it into draining. I also picked up sticky flame, regen, and meph cloud. Spider mostly went very smoothly.
I ended up getting caught between some sentinals, silence, and Mara upstairs in Vaults and died.
Earth elementalist gargoyles certainly have lots of options: melee, assissin (insta-kill backstabs with mace), spellcaster. And I ended up being all of those. Real fun If I do that combo again soon, I'll probably stick with the dagger and pump shortblades to 10 and invest more in my other skills. Also, I noticed electric weapons aren't as strong as before.

[damiac]

A dagger of elec is an amazing weapon early on, especially given how little XP you need to spend on it. It's good enough to get you through a 3 runer, although you may need to use might/berserk potions against stuff that resists electricity, assuming you have to kill it.

The best part about the dagger of elec is that for the XP you would have spent getting a weapon trained up, you can instead get the dagger to min delay, plus spend all that extra XP on stuff that keeps you alive.

I think in extended it'll start to feel a bit weak, but still, it's a great backup weapon if you're mainly using conjurations to kill stuff.

[LJFCAT]

That sounds like a VICIOUS combination to run into, banei. Mara is one of my most personally feared uniques; those horribly high damage bolts of fire (won't fight her unless I have rF+++, for the most part), the vicious player illusion she summons, and, of course, the illusions of herself! And to deal with Silence on top of that?! Was Mennas in the area or something? Sorry to hear that things went that way. I hope your next character has more success!

I could never get into Gargoyles though, they just seem so... dull. I dunno, probably just my perception, though. Did you feel particularly powerful/effective predeath, all things considered?

damaniac, I definitely know a dagger of elec is super awesome early on - I've used it many times - but I've never felt like it was something I should keep using past, say, Lair, and I never put ?Enchant Weapon into it. I was very curious if I was wrong about that, because something about a dagger of Elec being your long term weapon is kind of cool. A +9 dagger of Elec all the way to the orb! Of course, I never go for just 3 runes - if I was in really bad shape and missing key resistances like rMut, maybe, or already had bad mutations.

Man, I just remembered my poor char that died last night had a manual of stealth he found in Lair - and he was a VpEn... trained from 15-23 with it, and still wasn't used up... random thought, sorry.