Ascending with Chei

[Silk]

This one purely hypothetical... yet:

Let's say I have play a SomethingSomething worhsipping Cheibriados, cleared Zot 5, got all the runes I want and feel ready to win. What is my incentive not to leave Chei before I grab the orb? I am aware that he slows monster spawn rate, but intuitively I'd still consider it much safer to wait out his wrath and only then go on the Orb run.

Anybody tried either option and can assess?

[dck]

Well chei doesn't really give characters any benefits over the disproportionate penalties he imposes so I guess if you've gotten that far as a slow-goer it's because you like it for some reason and probably want to ascend with him regardless of how harmful worshiping him is.

[Mankeli]

Yeah, it's somewhat absurd to ask if you should ditch the worst (at least excluding Xom) deity just before you are going to win .

[Volteccer_Jack]

What is my incentive not to leave Chei

good question

[Klown]

If Chei is so bad, why isn't he buffed? :p

Keep him and ascendddddddddd

[ackack]

I'm not going to claim that Chei is an awesome god, but after finally getting around to playing a Chei game, I think Chei is quite a bit better than I gave him credit for. The stat boosts lead to vastly better defenses (high Dex means good EV with relatively little Dodging investment; high Str means less penalty to the Dodging bonus encouraging heavier armour) and noticeably improved melee damage (my trunk Ce wielding a drain lajatang felt like it was killing faster than a .12 gsc troll). Having ass movement is obviously a humongous disadvantage, but there really are some very strong returns. To my mind it's at least an interesting tradeoff and there are some ways to mitigate the crappy movement, thus I'm fine with Chei being around in its present form. More generally, Chei represents one of the few semi-permanent decisions I can think of in the game with effects this large. I wish there were more of them (for example).

I have no experience with Chei wrath, but it sounds like there's a pretty good probability of getting interfered with on the orb run to a level comparable to what you'd feel under Chei, only without the stats. Defenses on the orb run are obviously way less important, so maybe taking the chance is worth it?

[Mankeli]

(my trunk Ce wielding a drain lajatang felt like it was killing faster than a .12 gsc troll).

Well, try the comparison while the latter is hasted, which under Chei you can't do, and will talk again. I'm pretty sure that even with the increased effect of strength in melee damage, being with the extra strength is worse than being without it + hasted.

I don't like to bash Chei too much because the characters ^Chei that I've won with have actually been pretty fun. I had a fun run with a nightstalker Ds who wore CPA and casted tornado and darkness for out-of-los kills. However, fun does not equal strong.

[tasonir]

I haven't tried abandoning chei for the orb run, but I really don't see any need to. You'll have to fight some demons on the way up, but if you could handle zot, you can handle the demons. Having controlled blink will certainly help you dive for a set of stairs if need be. Honestly most floors you'll probably only have to go 10-30 steps to go between stairs, and won't see too many demons. Much better to have chei's god powers than to go up without them.

Chei isn't as weak as most people think, but I've certainly never suggested not buffing chei, I fully support making chei more awesome I think the buff to strength has helped a lot recently, at least for melee chei worshippers, and temporal distortion also makes them much more practical (or slightly less retarded, if you prefer).

[dck]

If need be you best have a better plan to get to the stairs than cblinking while holding the orb.

[Klown]

Speed is cowardly. Real men stand and fight.
<3 the huge stat boosts & Slouch & Step From Time.