Which weapon to use?

[Oddysee]

I just found these two weapons on D:4.

+2,+3 orcish mace of crushing
+5,+10 hand axe "Wigan" {slay orc, +Lev}

I'm at 7 Maces & Flails and 0 Axes. Which weapon would be best to use?

[cerebovssquire]

Which race? If I was a race good at both (Mi, HO, Hu, Ds, etc.) I would switch to the axe, especially if I was a non-casting character who has enough XP to go for a big two-hander while retaining good Fighting and Dodging skills (so if you are a KoBe if something stick with maces). Also consider crosstraining, so with the races named above your Axes aptitude would be temporarily 6/6/4/3!
Also, around this stage of the game, priests/wizards/warriors are actually some of the most dangerous opponents, so the brand is actually good.

[Oddysee]

Sorry forgot to mention race. It's a Mi so the axe it is then. Thanks.

[Atma]

Piggyback question - my MiMo Turtle Knight currently has a flaming demon trident, but could switch to a scared scourge of holy wrath or a staff of earth (i'm trying to get statue form usable). Do I make a switch or stick with trident?

[mageykun]

Insufficient information.

You can certainly win with a demon trident (flamings not the best brand for Zot, but it still works). ...and with a sacred non-demon whip, staff of earth, or statue form. They're all potentially winning choices, just not all really compatible ones at the same time.

[Atma]

Insufficient information.

You can certainly win with a demon trident (flamings not the best brand for Zot, but it still works). ...and with a sacred non-demon whip, staff of earth, or statue form. They're all potentially winning choices, just not all really compatible ones at the same time.

That's fair, I realize I can't have them all. I was more worried about picking one that would get me killed. I'd like to survive more than 20 steps after getting the orb (unlike my current best attempt). Thanks!

[mageykun]

Well, you might still pick one that gets you killed.

What I meant was (unless it's really early in the game) it's more than likely your current skill distribution favors one of these choices over the others. You're least likely to get killed if you pick that requires the smallest investment to make effective. It's pretty unlikely they're all equally good choices for you, right now, even if they're all workable choices in general. If you think they're all equally good choices, you're either looking at something wrong, or you've spread your xp around quite a lot.

For instance, if it's mid game or later, and you're already well invested in polearms- it's probably not worth starting over from scratch in maces and flails. The wasted xp isn't worth whatever awesome mace you've found.

If you want a good, specific answer though, give us a #dump.