Quicksilver Dragon Armour

[scott9027]

I found this hide for the first time last night firing up a new MiBe -- on D:2 I believe as well!

I was lucky enough to have about 4 enchant armour scrolls at this point (definitely a personal record for early ?EA)

Once I enchanted it, I was shocked to learn the properties of this new and very unique dragon armour -- so now I'd love to know where you rank it in the hierarchy. My defenses are 20 AC 22 EV after finishing up D:15 and it has been an absolute breeze for the most part. That said, I have about 6 enchant scrolls now and a fire dragon hide in a shop in O:4.

When would you abandon QDA? Can it be viable through a 3 rune game?

[Sandman25]

I would abandon QDA when I didn't need MR boots and had a better armour. You probably already reached this point as MiBe with +5 FDA.

[Lasty]

I would probably never abandon QDA.

Edit: barring some really sick alternatives, or very good heavy armour on a very high Str character, etc. You know, the obvious stuff.

[Nobuharu]

My last two ascensions have been using QDA, including my only 15 runer who had staggering defenses and hp. Plate-level AC plus MR for 8 ER? Level 6-7 spells are a breeze to cast in it. Granted just make sure you've got your other resistances sorted in the meantime.

[Sandman25]

It is MiBe

[advil]

I used it on a recent win, it was a KoEE. I probably didn't need the MR+ at the very end but overall it was a great armour; allowed a good balance of casting / defenses. I had to swap an FDA for zot in order to not get crisped and if I remember right, (a) it wasn't actually that much better at my str/training, and (b) it would've needed a fair bit more armour skill to get my casting to the same place on that character. Obviously these concerns don't really apply to a MiBe.

[Sandman25]

MiBe in QDA

  Code:

Health: 107/248    AC: 17    Str: 24    XL:     27
Magic:  22/22      EV: 29    Int:  4    God:    Trog 35 (0)
Gold:   0          SH:  0    Dex: 21    Spells: 0 memorised, 26 levels left

rFire  . . .     SeeInvis .       - Unarmed
rCold  . . .     Clarity  .     d - quicksilver dragon armour
rNeg   . . .     SustAt   .     (no shield)
rPois  .         Gourm    .     (helmet restricted)
rElec  .         Spirit   .     (no cloak)
rCorr  .         Warding  .     (no gloves)
rMut   .         Stasis   .     (no boots)
MR     +++..                    (no amulet)
Stlth  +.........               (no ring)
                                (no ring)

@: extremely resistant to hostile enchantments, very unstealthy
A: retaliatory headbutt, horns 2
a: Burn Spellbooks, Berserk, Renounce Religion


You are on level 1 of the Dungeon.
You worship Trog.
Trog is aware of your devotion.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 1 branch of the dungeon, and seen 1 of its levels.


Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You reflexively headbutt those who attack you in melee.
You have a pair of horns on your head.


   Skills:
 + Level 20.6 Fighting
 + Level 20.5 Armour
 + Level 19.1 Dodging
 - Level 6.7 Unarmed Combat


MiBe in +8 FDA

  Code:

Health: 112/248    AC: 23    Str: 24    XL:     27
Magic:  22/22      EV: 27    Int:  4    God:    Trog 35 (0)
Gold:   0          SH:  0    Dex: 21    Spells: 0 memorised, 26 levels left

rFire  + + .     SeeInvis .       - Unarmed
rCold  x . .     Clarity  .     e - +8 fire dragon armour {rF++, rC-}
rNeg   . . .     SustAt   .     (no shield)
rPois  .         Gourm    .     (helmet restricted)
rElec  .         Spirit   .     (no cloak)
rCorr  .         Warding  .     (no gloves)
rMut   .         Stasis   .     (no boots)
MR     ++...                    (no amulet)
Stlth  ..........               (no ring)
                                (no ring)

@: very resistant to hostile enchantments, extremely unstealthy
A: retaliatory headbutt, horns 2
a: Burn Spellbooks, Berserk, Renounce Religion


You are on level 1 of the Dungeon.
You worship Trog.
Trog is aware of your devotion.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 1 branch of the dungeon, and seen 1 of its levels.


Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You reflexively headbutt those who attack you in melee.
You have a pair of horns on your head.


   Skills:
 + Level 20.6 Fighting
 + Level 20.5 Armour
 + Level 19.1 Dodging
 - Level 6.7 Unarmed Combat


[Sandman25]

  Code:

Health: 118/248    AC: 17    Str: 24    XL:     27
Magic:  22/22      EV: 30    Int:  4    God:    Trog 35 (0)
Gold:   0          SH:  0    Dex: 21    Spells: 0 memorised, 26 levels left

rFire  . . .     SeeInvis .       - Unarmed
rCold  . . .     Clarity  .     g - +6 mottled dragon armour {rSticky}
rNeg   . . .     SustAt   .     (no shield)
rPois  .         Gourm    .     (helmet restricted)
rElec  .         Spirit   .     (no cloak)
rCorr  .         Warding  .     (no gloves)
rMut   .         Stasis   .     (no boots)
MR     ++...                    (no amulet)
Stlth  +.........               (no ring)
                                (no ring)

@: very resistant to hostile enchantments, very unstealthy
A: retaliatory headbutt, horns 2
a: Burn Spellbooks, Berserk, Renounce Religion


You are on level 1 of the Dungeon.
You worship Trog.
Trog is aware of your devotion.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 1 branch of the dungeon, and seen 1 of its levels.


Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You reflexively headbutt those who attack you in melee.
You have a pair of horns on your head.


   Skills:
 + Level 20.6 Fighting
 + Level 20.5 Armour
 + Level 19.1 Dodging
 - Level 6.7 Unarmed Combat


  Code:

Health: 123/248    AC: 29    Str: 24    XL:     27
Magic:  22/22      EV: 27    Int:  4    God:    Trog 35 (0)
Gold:   0          SH:  0    Dex: 21    Spells: 0 memorised, 26 levels left

rFire  . . .     SeeInvis .       - Unarmed
rCold  . . .     Clarity  .     f - +10 pearl dragon armour {rN+}
rNeg   + . .     SustAt   .     (no shield)
rPois  .         Gourm    .     (helmet restricted)
rElec  .         Spirit   .     (no cloak)
rCorr  .         Warding  .     (no gloves)
rMut   .         Stasis   .     (no boots)
MR     ++...                    (no amulet)
Stlth  ..........               (no ring)
                                (no ring)

@: very resistant to hostile enchantments, extremely unstealthy
A: retaliatory headbutt, horns 2
a: Burn Spellbooks, Berserk, Renounce Religion


You are on level 1 of the Dungeon.
You worship Trog.
Trog is aware of your devotion.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 1 branch of the dungeon, and seen 1 of its levels.


Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You reflexively headbutt those who attack you in melee.
You have a pair of horns on your head.


   Skills:
 + Level 20.6 Fighting
 + Level 20.5 Armour
 + Level 19.1 Dodging
 - Level 6.7 Unarmed Combat


[dowan]

It does depend on how many EA scrolls you have. It takes 9 to make a +8 FDA, not to mention a fire dragon hide, and preferably a source of RC or two. The +5 FDA seems a lot worse (Slightly worse ev+ac, you lose the MR, and you have to compensate for RC-). Also, he's probably got auxes that need enchanting too, which I would do before committing to upgrading an FDA.

QDA really shines on characters who want to cast spells (especially if they have a decent armor skill apt). It's good, but obviously lacking in AC vs something you can enchant like FDA, IDA, or plate. Since the MiBe has such good str, some of the EV benefit of the lightness of the QDA is lost.

I'd probably stick with the QDA until I had all my auxes enchanted, and then enough EA to make a better body armor, like a gda, cpa, ego plate, or fda/ida depending on available resistances.

[duvessa]

Plate-level AC

this is a pretty unfair assessment, since plate armour can have enchantment

other resistances sorted in the meantime.

other resistances don't matter except for like, rF in zot

that said if i have QDA then yeah i'm gonna be wearing it all game, there are often barely enough enchant armour scrolls for other slots as it is (if you found enough enchant armour scrolls to make other armour better then you either got really lucky, or played stupidly by not enchanting your non-body armour)

[Nobuharu]

Plate-level AC

this is a pretty unfair assessment, since plate armour can have enchantment

other resistances sorted in the meantime.

other resistances don't matter except for like, rF in zot

that said if i have QDA then yeah i'm gonna be wearing it all game, there are often barely enough enchant armour scrolls for other slots as it is (if you found enough enchant armour scrolls to make other armour better then you either got really lucky, or played stupidly by not enchanting your non-body armour)

Not sure if you're agreeing with me or disagreeing. I only feel the need to make the comparison because that base AC is very important when assessing those gains from armour skill.

[Sphara]

Combination of low encumbrance rating, MR and moderately high AC make it one of the best armours in the game. Period.

[dowan]

It's really good, but remember this is a BE with high str we're talking about here. It's certainly viable, even pretty good, but a highly enchanted rf plate, or fda/ida would be better.

Luckily, you dont' have to pick one or the other. Wear the qda until you can make something better, assuming you get enough EA to do so.

And uh... resistances do matter outside zot. It's better to take 50% damage than 100% damage...

[jejorda2]

Yeah, one of the best things about QDA is that you never feel bad about wasting scrolls on it if you decide to switch to something heavier later. I've taken hybrids to Zot wearing it (I think..) and I've also worn it while I train armour and raise strength and hunt down another dragon armour.

[tabstorm]

It is good for now, later you can just enchant GDA. The MR ego is useless for you since you have Trog's hand. The AC on it is a bit low for my tastes unless I have a race with awful strength or is Te/Ha/Ko and gets a percent bonus to EV. Don't bother with FDA, it is garbage. A ring of rF and resistance potions will be good enough for Z:5. My favorite body armors are PDA, GDA, storm DA, and plate fwiw.

[nago]

Why storm? That's just a - 1 plate with not useful resist.

[tabstorm]

I think rElec is good. I like to prevent damage spikes from things like bolt bounce, since random spike damage is the main way that you can die once you don't make a lot of positioning mistakes. It also has a lower ER than plate so you have more EV and a better success rate with charms and translocations.

[Lasty]

Why storm? That's just a - 1 plate with not useful resist.

storm dragon armour[1/1]: 10AC, 15ER, rElec. Can be created by enchanting a storm dragon hide.
plate armour[1/1]: 10AC, 18ER.

If you have infinite ?EA it's better than plate aside from the resistance it grants; if you don't have infinite ?EA it's probably more like -3 AC, since there's a fair chance that you can find +2 ego plate, but little chance you'll find an already-enchanted SDA.

[WingedEspeon]

QDA is definatly viable for a 3 rune game. You will want to not put any points int str and train dodging a lot. You will probably end up with lower AC than a mibe would normally have, but that's ok because you EV will be great and you will still probably end up with ~40 AC

[dowan]

QDA is definatly viable for a 3 rune game. You will want to not put any points int str and train dodging a lot. You will probably end up with lower AC than a mibe would normally have, but that's ok because you EV will be great and you will still probably end up with ~40 AC

Actually, going by sandman's sims, I see he'd end up with 31 ac with 22 armor skill, which is a reasonable assumption for a 3 rune game. 31AC/31EV is certainly viable for Zot though.

With the FDA, he'd end up with about 38 AC, 29EV, which is better, especially since the rF++ is very useful in zot. Of course, this requires 9 more EA scrolls(8 if we ignore the fact that the QDA has already had an EA spent on it).

On most characters, STR wouldn't be so high, and spell failure would be a concern, making the QDA much more valuable. In fact, the fact that the QDA is so competitive on what is basically the worst possible candidate for it shows just how good it is.

[WingedEspeon]

QDA is definatly viable for a 3 rune game. You will want to not put any points int str and train dodging a lot. You will probably end up with lower AC than a mibe would normally have, but that's ok because you EV will be great and you will still probably end up with ~40 AC

Actually, going by sandman's sims, I see he'd end up with 31 ac with 22 armor skill, which is a reasonable assumption for a 3 rune game. 31AC/31EV is certainly viable for Zot though.

With the FDA, he'd end up with about 38 AC, 29EV, which is better, especially since the rF++ is very useful in zot. Of course, this requires 9 more EA scrolls(8 if we ignore the fact that the QDA has already had an EA spent on it).

On most characters, STR wouldn't be so high, and spell failure would be a concern, making the QDA much more valuable. In fact, the fact that the QDA is so competitive on what is basically the worst possible candidate for it shows just how good it is.

The 40 AC was a rough estimate, and there is a chance that you could find some overenchanted aux slots/ use ring of protection/ artefact ring with AC. Also 22 armour skill is a bit low IMO for MiBe. Assuming 27 armour skill he would end up with 36 AC, which is 40 +-5. EV would probably be in the 35-36 area with 27 dodging.