Some of the characters start with weak weapons: ranger with a dagger, priest with a mace, healer with a scalpel. I want to get some of their more powerful weapons,

ranger --> spear
priest --> Mjollnir
healer --> crysknife/short sword/dagger

Because these upgraded weapons are at Unskilled, it can be tedious to make progress in the dungeon at the same time as enhancing them.

I've only upgraded weapons a handful of times out of all the games I've played. What am I doing wrong? Maybe I am doing it too early and should wait until I can enchant weapon?

Ranger's dagger isn't too bad at Expert, but getting there is a chore.

On 24.08.2023 18:40, Julian wrote:
> Some of the characters start with weak weapons: ranger with a dagger,
> priest with a mace, healer with a scalpel. I want to get some of
> their more powerful weapons,
>
> ranger --> spear priest --> Mjollnir healer --> crysknife/short
> sword/dagger
>
> Because these upgraded weapons are at Unskilled, it can be tedious to
> make progress in the dungeon at the same time as enhancing them.
>
> I've only upgraded weapons a handful of times out of all the games
> I've played. What am I doing wrong? Maybe I am doing it too early
> and should wait until I can enchant weapon?
>
> Ranger's dagger isn't too bad at Expert, but getting there is a
> chore.

Advice for Rangers is straightforward, IMO; I advance missile weapons.
Getting stacks of daggers from the mines' gnomes, wielding a single
good dagger for melee. You enhance the same slot for melee and ranged
combat. Later any of the good artifact may replace the melee dagger.
You still have the option to use ranged daggers. Scrolls of enchant
weapon get used for the (sufficient large!) stack of daggers. More
scrolls will be spent for the artifact weapon. (That's how I do it.)

Mjollnir for Priests is fine.

Healer is quite different; usually I try to keep the alive with all
I have; spells, potions, wands (if your variant supports them) of
healing, support of pets. A sac'fest at the first altar for Mjollnir,
Magicbane, or Werebane.

As a rule of thumb I #enhance and enchant mostly weapons that have a
longer lasting perspective (or that fit a current demand in a stingy
game). Any artifact from the good ones get enchanted quickly. Both,
enchantment and skill enhancement contribute to the to-hit probability
and to the damage done.[*]

Janis

[*] For Vanilla Nethack http://nh.gridbug.de/artifacts.html helps a
bit to see what fits, to calculate damage, and inspect differences.

On Thursday, August 24, 2023 at 3:29:16 PM UTC-5, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
> On 24.08.2023 18:40, Julian wrote:
> > Some of the characters start with weak weapons: ranger with a dagger,
> > priest with a mace, healer with a scalpel. I want to get some of
> > their more powerful weapons,
> >
> > ranger --> spear priest --> Mjollnir healer --> crysknife/short
> > sword/dagger
> >
> > Because these upgraded weapons are at Unskilled, it can be tedious to
> > make progress in the dungeon at the same time as enhancing them.
> >
> > I've only upgraded weapons a handful of times out of all the games
> > I've played. What am I doing wrong? Maybe I am doing it too early
> > and should wait until I can enchant weapon?
> >
> > Ranger's dagger isn't too bad at Expert, but getting there is a
> > chore.
> Advice for Rangers is straightforward, IMO; I advance missile weapons.
> Getting stacks of daggers from the mines' gnomes, wielding a single
> good dagger for melee. You enhance the same slot for melee and ranged
> combat. Later any of the good artifact may replace the melee dagger.
> You still have the option to use ranged daggers. Scrolls of enchant
> weapon get used for the (sufficient large!) stack of daggers. More
> scrolls will be spent for the artifact weapon. (That's how I do it.)

Yes this is what I was doing wrong. I'd collect 25 daggers, put 10 in my quiver and stash the rest. I know I can get way more than that.