mpkinton wrote:Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere already, but I'm signing up and making this post mostly out of frustration..
I was just wondering what people do to deal with mutations in the endgame now? I find the lack of options for curing/resisting mutations to be very frustrating these days. I would assume that they would become less frequent without the ability to get rid of them as easily, but it seems as if I just have to run into one shining eye, or OOF and I am horribly mutated. Is there something that I am completely overlooking? Or am I just fearing the mutations too much? Would love to hear some peoples thoughts on this. I am having a hard time adapting to this.
Once you're in the endgame, Depths/Zot, or extended game, Pan/Hells, most mutations are essentially harmless.
Slot mutations can be annoying if you lose access to a good item, but that shouldn't break any character.
Wild magic can be annoying, but in the lategame important spells are rarely just above the fail limit. Either way, XP fixes the problem and characters who are all-in on a single difficult to cast spell are rarely a good idea.
Berserkitis can be dangerous if it triggers in a bad situations, but it is entirely avoidable, by either being near starving (a really painful way to manage the situation) or not attacking in melee. That's quite easy. Throw something point blank if you have to.
MP-powered wands used to be pretty terrible, because you could sometimes not use important wands. But now with haste, tele and heal wounds gone (really?!) that seems less impactful. Clouds is nice and bolt-damage wands can be good, but if the life of a character comes down to a wand-shot then something has gone wrong before.
People seem to consider teleportitis dangerous in Zot. As a counter-measure I would suggest a strong god with a serious panic button (Zin, Sanctuary for example), alternatively, cure with gods or potion if possible.
I think blurry vision is bad, and I would try to cure it if possible. Strong panic buttons can mitigate this also.
Frail can also be quite bad, especially on squishier characters. I might not try to cure Frail:1 every time, depending on the circumstances.
Slow healing 3, probably needs curing, unless you want to join Makhleb.
Everything else seems harmless to me. Are there any specific mutations you have trouble with?