Ring of slaying
A ring that increases the wearer's accuracy and damage with ranged weapons and melee attacks. |
A +4 ring of slaying affects the accuracy and damage of your melee (including unarmed), ranged, and auxiliary attacks. It's boost is equivalent to 4 levels of weapon enchantment.
A functionally identical effect occasionally appears on artefact jewellery and armour, denoted as "Slay ±X" (not limited to 4).
Desirability
Very high; more damage and accuracy means killing enemies faster, which means less exposure to their attacks. Characters with fast weapons and/or auxiliary attacks benefit the most from slaying, as the bonus is applied with each attack. Users of unarmed combat and throwing weapons will appreciate a ring of slaying, as neither method is subject to weapon enchantments.
Artefacts with lower amounts of slaying aren't quite as good; +1 slaying is virtually useless, while negative slaying is obviously negative. Unless slaying is particularly high (or low), the other qualities of an artefact are more important.
History
- Prior to 0.27, you could find rings of slaying with a -4 enchantment; such rings were always cursed.
- Prior to 0.25, enchantments were random values between 1 and 6 (positive and negative).
- Before the weapon enchantment merge in 0.15, rings of slaying had two distinct bonuses--one for accuracy, and one for damage.
- Prior to 0.10, slaying was more powerful, as it was included before the weapon skill multiplier.