Unknown Wand {tried by monster}

[Sandman25]

I got an unknown empty wand with {tried by monster} inscription. Can it be "Heal Wounds"? In other words, is it a good idea to spend Scroll of ID on it? I am really low on the scrolls having many unknown potions on D9.

[njvack]

I think(!) /HW will auto-id when a monster heals itself. It's probably something you resisted (slowing, paralysis, etc).

[Siegurt]

/HW will ID itself when used by a monster, on a monster who is injured and that you can see, at least it always has in the past for me.

[Tiber]

{tried by monster} is inscribed when a monster tries to do something to you that is resisted. A monster won't try to heal you, won't try to heal itself at full life, and will never resist being healed, so the answer is no. I personally consider wands a lower priority for ID, mostly because I like to try and see if I can identify permanent effect items like potions of experience or enchant scrolls.

[Sandman25]

Thank you, I will ignore the wand.

[Jabberwocky]

You can always zap the wand at a rat or the like to identify it, no need for ?identify.

[Sandman25]

You can always zap the wand at a rat or the like to identify it, no need for ?identify.

The wand is empty. I recently changed my wand id approach from rat-me to wall-me.

[Silk]

You can always zap the wand at a rat or the like to identify it, no need for ?identify.

The wand is empty. I recently changed my wand id approach from rat-me to wall-me.

But why? Hasted/invisible/polymorphed rats are still harmless and digging still gets identified if a wall is behind the rat. The wall-me approach wastes one additional charge for the three most important wands in the game.

[Sandman25]

You can always zap the wand at a rat or the like to identify it, no need for ?identify.

The wand is empty. I recently changed my wand id approach from rat-me to wall-me.

But why? Hasted/invisible/polymorphed rats are still harmless and digging still gets identified if a wall is behind the rat. The wall-me approach wastes one additional charge for the three most important wands in the game.

It could be very frustrating to die with one of those wands unidentified just because you are still looking for a "rat". I usually identify a wand as soon as I can (i.e. no monsters in LoS). Sometimes it leads to random teleports on uncleared floor though.

[Siegurt]

Yeah, if I want to identify an unknown wand, I just pop up to the previously-cleared level to test it (I do the same with scrolls too)

[Sandman25]

It could be very frustrating to die with one of those wands unidentified just because you are still looking for a "rat". I usually identify a wand as soon as I can (i.e. no monsters in LoS). Sometimes it leads to random teleports on uncleared floor though.

do you not see any rats the entire game? just leave one of them alive and come back to it when you get a wand