Hat of Pondering question

[crate]

so is the hat any good or what?

almost always no

[dwantics]

so is the hat any good or what?

This is the post that tipped the scale for me to register for the forum. Such a serious thread, with much passion in the posts, and a beautifully funny way of getting back on topic.

[MainiacJoe]

I've concluded from this thread that I belong in the group that doesn't know yet how to properly evaluate the effect of Ponderous, so I should avoid the hat. Does this same caution apply to the new Ozocubu's Armour? I gather that the movement penalty is the same as the hat's--but unlike OP I am not at a zig, I'm before S-branches and could really use some AC.

[nago]

The biggest difference with ozo armor is that you now don't autoexplore with that always on, but you ideally cast it when you need after getting in a good position, so its malus very very rarely matters.
So if you spot a speed 10 monster you want to fight, you lure it in a safe cleared area as you should always do and then fight with free AC while the movement malus doesn't matter. If you don't want to fight a speed 10 monster you don't cast ozo armor and you move away.
Against faster monsters (like Centaurs or Black Mambas) you may end to cast ozo armor in a not 100% safe area but that very rarely matters and you should cast it anyways because is much more likely that the AC is gonna help against an hard monster than the speed movement penalty killing you later.

Oh, to be 100% fail proof you could learn flame tongue to cancel ozo armor in the very rare case it does matter. Yes, it is stupid.

[MainiacJoe]

Thanks nago, that was clear, to the point, and very helpful.

[ololoev]

Hat of pondering is awesome for casters. You don't need to move a lot, and +0.1 move delay is not a noticeable malus while benefits really worth it.

[Sar]

A character whose offense suffers greatly when they runs out of MP and typically makes lots of noise in combat doesn't need to move a lot?

[goodcoolguy]

I played a DE a while back that found this thing somewhere in the midgame. I used it just for the hell of it. It was bad, but not so bad I didn't win.

[njvack]

you could learn flame tongue to cancel ozo armor in the very rare case it does matter. Yes, it is stupid.

oh my wow

[genericpseudonym]

You don't need flame tongue you can just carry one of those useless fire wands. Or are they flame wands?

Thank god the other ice/fire wands were removed, that naming scheme was awful.

[ololoev]

A character whose offense suffers greatly when they runs out of MP and typically makes lots of noise in combat doesn't need to move a lot?

You may build various theories, but I played with this hat a lot (and used fireball!) and I can say pondering doesn't harm that much.

[4Hooves2Appendages]

I wouldn't wear the hat if I couldn't get really good use out of it. I'd consider it for spell power dependent casters if I don't already have a +Int hat/helmet and less than MR+++.

Sadly I would then not feel good about auto-exploring. I'd become more paranoid about only revealing tiles at the edge of LOS if possible. Even with pondering it takes a speed 10 enemy rather a long time to catch up to the player if they start seven steps away. On most floors that's enough time to get to decent territory. That means on some floor layouts I'd probably take it off. Auto-exploring round a corner to stand next to an [insert speed 10 heavy hitter] would be very bad.

[mopl]

"Grave digger" award spoted...

[tasonir]

Overall I think the hat is probably more likely to be useful to someone who's running a ziggurat, as the original poster was. You don't really have to move very much in a zig, you're probably hasted, and the mana/int/MR are quite good. Ah well, the thread is 3 years old, what am I even doing here?

[Reptisaurus]

I won with Hat of Pondering on a naga skald. It didn't seem to matter that much.

[jwoodward48ss]

No. It's a rare case in which the trade off is worth it.

Examples are people fast enough to not be slower than a human, people who are already so slow it doesn't matter, zigs, etc. But for a non-fast, non-naga character outside of extended, it's not worth it.

[ZipZipskins]

make new threads

and raise the old

one is silly

and the other fool's gold

the tavern is a circle

it has no end

that's the thing

I cannot comprehend