What do I do with arcane markman spells?

[agentgt]

So I played a little AM. HuAM for sure is not easy (regardless of what path you go) but the recommended species are not hard. I picked KoAM and whatever first god I saw (besides chei and xom). Picked the new god Uskayaw. That god apparently kicks serious ass if you have Slow and an Sblade (I also happend to have faith as well)

So the list of gods is now: Dith, Hepliak, Fedhas, Zin, Ru, Uskayaw, and sort of Ash, Pakellas, Jiyva.... and yet people's recommendations are to go for a god that will not allow you to use any of your starting magic or any magic. Trog is seriously overrated. I would even argue the above gods are probably in general better choices than Trog for the recommended species. Even Oka is a better choice. I'm just tired of people asking for help and people then other people giving a response "just go Trog". That really isn't right nor helpful.

[Reptisaurus]

If I remember right Arcane Marksman has the highest % of wins of any starting background online.

I believe this is because (A) newbie players don't play AM because they are a poorly designed class that nobody talks about as being fun or interesting*, and (B) starting with a launcher is insanely good. Stabbing is okay if you eventually find the right tools, but starting with a launcher is great.

* A trait shared with warpers. Merge AM and Warper, pls.

[jwoodward48ss]

But how? How would AM and Wp be merged?

[Reptisaurus]

Give warpers a bow to go along with blink and portal projectile. Dump all the arcane marksman spells into hypothetical challenge wizard class (or just get rid of them altogether.)

[jwoodward48ss]

ohh

geez

now i feel like an idiot

[Doesnt]

Heplialettersalad is actually a very good AM god, it turns out.

  Code:

_A scorpion comes into view.
_Found a chain mail.
_You swap places.
_Dan McNinja is filled with an inner flame.
_Attack!
 The scorpion stings Dan McNinja.
_Dan McNinja closely misses the scorpion.
_The scorpion barely misses Dan McNinja. Dan McNinja misses the scorpion.
_The scorpion stings Dan McNinja! Dan McNinja hits the scorpion.
 The scorpion stings Dan McNinja!
 Dan McNinja the ancestor explodes!
 The fiery explosion engulfs the scorpion.
 You kill the scorpion!
_Your Dodging skill increases to level 4!

[Utis]

Give warpers a bow to go along with blink and portal projectile. Dump all the arcane marksman spells into hypothetical challenge wizard class (or just get rid of them altogether.)

And once that has happened, let's give that new mage class a starting bow, so they don't have quite such a hard time ...

Wr on the other hand is one of the stronger* backgrounds for any species that is not total crap at melee, maybe actually the strongest* non-Be background. They don't need a buff anymore than Be. And their openness as to what path they eventually chose is IMO part of their appeal: I take Wr whenever I want a strong* start, but when I'm at the same time not decided on whether I want to develop melee, ranged, magic or stealth and intend to be especially reactive to dungeon finds.

Footnotes:
(* 'Strength' here measured as capability to reliably get into the midgame.)

[jwoodward48ss]

you kidding bro

srsly you joshing

you startscum or what? awful, awful [s]stats[/s] starts w/ wn are very common

[Utis]

[haiku]
i swear, no kidding
just good knowing threats
escape all i can't defeat
[/haiku]

[jwoodward48ss]

Ah, the one biggest tip, the most powerful tactic of all: your feet. Use them.

Hmm.

[Utis]

That being said, in terms of giving advice, I wouldn't generally recommend Wr to newer players. You seriously have to be good at assessing threats in early D.

[Rast]

Wr is strong in the sense that starting with blinking ID'ed and a free scroll of blinking and the 5 dispersal tomahawks, plus castable Blink at xl2, is a ton of escape options that a strong player will use to survive until midgame.

Won't do much for the average player, since it doesn't help with winning fights.

[Reptisaurus]

Wr is strong in the sense that starting with blinking ID'ed and a free scroll of blinking and the 5 dispersal tomahawks, plus castable Blink at xl2, is a ton of escape options that a strong player will use to survive until midgame.

Won't do much for the average player, since it doesn't help with winning fights.

Agreed, although I don't think that warper is one of the top twenty best starting backgrounds for the hypothetical strong player.

[Timbermaw]

Heplialettersalad is actually a very good AM god, it turns out.

  Code:

_A scorpion comes into view.
_Found a chain mail.
_You swap places.
_Dan McNinja is filled with an inner flame.
_Attack!
 The scorpion stings Dan McNinja.
_Dan McNinja closely misses the scorpion.
_The scorpion barely misses Dan McNinja. Dan McNinja misses the scorpion.
_The scorpion stings Dan McNinja! Dan McNinja hits the scorpion.
 The scorpion stings Dan McNinja!
 Dan McNinja the ancestor explodes!
 The fiery explosion engulfs the scorpion.
 You kill the scorpion!
_Your Dodging skill increases to level 4!

Just tried that and it works, but the UI says "not susceptible" for some reason...?

[jwoodward48ss]

DO NOT LOOK AT THE FLAME BEHIND THE CURTAIN

Also, damnit, I thought you were talking about Wanderers when you were really talking about Warpers. Huh. I must look like an idiot. Wanderers can be literal Hitler, while Warpers are pretty good.

[Malevolent]

Just tried that and it works, but the UI says "not susceptible" for some reason...?

Yes, this seems to be a bug - your allies are always "not susceptible" to Inner Flame even when they are. I discovered this when I was playing a puny felid whose only method of killing reasonably strong monsters was Sticks to Snakes+Inner Flame.