My HT Ranger (clvl 28, dlvl 30) was wearing long bow of power (+16, +15), doing decent damage with 2 shots / round. Then Mim dropped this game changer:

I think that is best shield I have seen for ranger...

Am I the only one to think that extra shots on anything other than a shooter feels really WRONG???

I think extra shots and extra blows should come only from rings or from gloves

Well, that's random artifacts for you. They're random. Off-weapon blows, and off-launcher shots, are both really powerful, though, which means that the artifact ought not to have many other abilities even if it's based on a powerful standard artifact. Frankly I'm kind of surprised we're still seeing +2 shots on randarts.

I play angband-v3.5-dev-443-gc244371, if that has anything to do with this issue.

I understand the feeling, however things like that make for a boring itemisation mini-game.
Currently, even with randarts the optimal setups look very much alike:
1 speed ring, 1 damage ring, speed boots, whatever damage mods you can get in other slots while maintaining vitals such as ESP or poison resistance.

ESP can come from many sources (ego items, not artifacts; ESP in otherwise useful artifacts is rare) so that makes for somewhat of a variation. Id prefer much, much more of it though rather than less.

...That's a lotta damage dice to have on a weapon dropped at 500'.

Too bad it's Lance. It takes some time to get stats high enough for that to beat lighter weapons.

Not stupid at all. If he's carrying it, nobody can use it against him!

the Pair of Mithril Shod Boots 'Archal' [8,+21] <+12>
-----------------------------------------------------
+12 stealth, speed.
Provides resistance to light, chaos.
Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
Prevents paralysis. Aggravates creatures nearby.


Min Level 53, Max Level 127, Generation chance 2, Power 338, 4.0 lbs
Based on Doomcaller.


From the set of my latest character (who didnt find the boots...thankfully). I would call them cursed.