Which Weapon Should I Use?

[XuaXua]

For those of you who don't want to screw around with this awesome excel sheet that danr made and don't quite know what to do in the long run, ask your weapon comparison questions here.

I'll start:

My DDNe with Mace/Flail 11 and Fighting 6 (Axes: 0) has been using a

+5/+5 Mace of Brilliance (Holy, rN+, AC+5, Int+5, SInv, Stlth-).

I just found a +4, +1 Demon Whip of Reaching. It's no artifact, but... should I hold onto it?
Should I pour some enchant scrolls into it?

What's the go-forward with melee here?

[XuaXua]

Deep Dwarf Necromancer with some good spell skills (LRD!)

Bows: 0 (-3 aptitude)
Slings: 9

Have a vorpalized Sling +5 / +5 with over 100 +4 stone bullets
Found: artefact vorpalized Bow +6 / +10 *TELE, rN+, SInv, Stlth++

Reskill or forget it?

[mageykun]

We used to have a sticky for people to ask this question as many times as needed. I think it died sometime after the spreadsheet came about, when people started doing their own number crunching.

Me though, I just remember my handy table of weapons and trust my gut. Too lazy to actually crunch the numbers (now... if the spreadsheet read input from character dumps, and crunched for you- without needing to enter all the info first...).

First choice:

Demon whips are faster, hit harder, and have a cheaper minimum delay skill than maces. The +5 alone does not make the mace better. If you're a primary caster though (ie, mele ain't the deciding factor), the +5 int and +5 AC over your robe might well be worth it. The demon whip is your better option for damage, but feel free to hold on to the mace to toggle to if you need the int boost, or Sinvs. Reaching isn't the best brand in the world, but it is versatile- especially as a necromancer with things to hide behind! Enchant it if you like, although you might want to wait and see if any hell knights drop a better branded demon whip.

Second choice:

That *Tele, and -3 are not worth the +10. I'd stick with the sling.

[Jeremiah]

Ok - my HEAE has 10 fighting, 17 long blades, 5 shields and a buckler.

Available weapons are:
+2,+0 scimitar of flaming
+2,+1 elven long sword of electrocution
+1 elven vampiric scimitar
+2 elven long sword of holy wrath
Demon blade - currently +0 but I have some scrolls I could use, including vorpalise weapon.

Also in a shop is an artifact double sword - +6,+5 slicing rC+ +2 dex but I can't afford it yet.

I was thinking the vampiric sword was the best at the moment because of the healing, but it makes it much harder to swap to a better weapon (eg holy wrath) against certain monsters.

I guess the double sword will be best when I can afford it, but I'm not really sure how the whole hand-and-a-half with shields vs wielding them 2-handed works.