First of all let me say hello. This is my first post on here though I have been a long time fan of this game. To make sure our relationship starts off on a good foot I will admit despite my avatar I don't know how to use a sword...but I assume the picture is enough to scare a diggle or two away in any case. On to business. Right now, for the first time in my life. I am using a build with out Archaeology specifically with out "It belongs in a museum." How do you guys feel about this skill? Do you use it all the time? Never use it? How much experience are you losing out on with out this ability and do you feel it hampers you in the later stages of the game?
I don't want to sound like a dick but I walked into this thread expecting to have to point it out to Daynab as a polish spam machine. Instead, I come to someone asking about archaeology. Can we get the spam machine back? . Anyway, this is the most controversial skill ever - take it or don't, you still get enough XP anyway, generally speaking, but it gives you some really fast XP.
I typically don't use it, but the only time I beat the game (on GR/PD) was when I was using it. I had maxed out every skill around floor 13. I then went on to get some ridiculously powerful gear after using all of the anvils twice on my best items. Yeah archaeology is kinda good.
I used to use it in every build I made, because MOAR XP and all that. Then I started not taking it. And I didn't notice that much of a difference. Yeah, you get a lot of XP but it costs you profits from Brax, which can mean less high-end booze or having to wait a lot longer for that fancy out-of-depth item that you aren't equipped to steal just yet. Does not taking it make me feel hindered? Not at all. It, like everything else in this game, is a tool. This tool has a very specific use for me. Namely, I take it when I have a points-heavy setup that I want to fill out as fast as possible, or if I want one specific capstone with a lot of mostly dead levels in front of it. Examples: 1) Pure caster with necronomiconomics. I don't care about all the gish stuff, I want Tenebrous Rift for zoos ASAP. 2) Clockwork knight/rogue scientist/(smithing/alchemy gish setup) that needs a lot of skills to synergize well. Archaeology doesn't help you kill stuff; any rogue skill offers the same stats per level, with probably more generic utility to boot (burglary!) I should also note I couldn't care less about krong anvils. I don't want to take the chance on ruining my best gear, it's a waste of time using it on sub-par stuff, I rarely have exact duplicates of my best stuff, and trailing back through the whole game or walking in circles at every single anvil so I can DOUBLE CURSE my gear makes me weep.
Archaeology has several tangible benefits. It's the only skill that offers trap sight at level 0, this makes it invaluable as a splash skill for a non-rogue build that wants to at least see the traps that they're about to step on. It belongs in a museum is useful because the experience benefits cannot be understated. leveling up your character faster means that you'll be better prepared for the dangers that you'll face which means that you're less likely to get killed. This advantage is not tangible but its benefits follow you all the way to the end of the game. This translation is all wrong lets you reroll magic gear for a certain stat until you get it, this makes it invaluable for characters that rely on mana regeneration, like pure mages. I don't really use the skill for anything more than that. the krong ability stuff is pretty much window dressing. Probably THE BEST splash rogue skill for mage characters.
I apologize for the disappointment. I will try better in the future. But thanks everyone for responding. I suppose a lot of the builds I have been using up until now required a lot of skills to get the most functionality. Though I imagine that the rerolling Krong Curses might have made your bad luck better Darkmere but when it comes to bad luck I am not the best person to ask for advice. As of right now I am using a health regen build. Which is keeping me quite happy with health ever turn or as I like to say. "With every step comes less Death!"
It's a play preference I suppose. Kronging and rerolls are basically hoping the RNG doesn't screw you over (hint: it will), so I'd rather go with what I already have that's guaranteed to work. Plenty of folks like it, but I personally don't. I also recall (and it's been a long time since I bothered trying to use it) that re-rolling items would remove a positive effect for every use, so you're making the item worse whether you get the stat you want or not. I could be wrong about that, though.
I believe it removes one of the effects period. So if you had 5 positive and 5 negative effects that is 10 total. It will remove 1 and you will have 9 random effects added on. But I would need to double check that myself.
But here's the thing... if you are strong enough on those upper floors (which is easily possible thanks to MOAR XP) you can just kill every Brax. Hell, in my winning run I was wading through Dread Collectors to kill the 3-5 Braxes on every floor. Cause I had. To. Steal. Everything.
That's why I don't steal often in the first place. That just sounds tedious to me, when floors 10-14 are already an endurance slog. Why add to it?
Cause if you play on No Time to Grind you only ever need to kill one Brax, with possibly 2 Collectors
I'm not a big fan of Archaeology. It only has two stand out skills as opposed to Burglary which has at least 150% more awesome at every level and the two stand out skills give you xp (you're going to get it anyway) and extra Krong'ings. (that guy hates my guts.) So I tend to avoid it. The accelerated xp gain can be nice if you lack patience but otherwise it's always seemed a lackluster skill set to me.
Krongian Ritual isn't the star of the show when it comes to anvils, "This Translation Is All Wrong" is. There's a chance you will lose some stats from the item, but when it comes to badly enchanted items you're likely always going to end up with a net gain. More anvils just means more rolls.
I suppose there's that.... I've just gotten so used to Krong hate that I tend to only use anvils on expendable items.
I like to use Krong on crafting items. When I have a few groups of materials to make that Nuclear WarHammer (I forget it's name) I love to just make a spare and start kronging it up. If I get a few good stats I will switch to using another hammer and compare the stats of both. Of course if you do have Translation is all Wrong than it is much easier to just keep kronging one hammer for a while until you do a re-roll.
