Going in for the Skill

Since Skilled to the Core, I haven't paid much attention to the veracity of my claims there.

On the Essentials:
It's interesting to see how now, the opinion on "Eye of the Stoat" has so completely come around, when people actually took the trouble of ascending twice and picking it and LTS up. The list of essentials is still pretty spot-on. Pastamastery, Saucecrafting, Amphibian Sympathy are the top 3 (to be gotten in that order), without a doubt. Madrigal and Mad Looting Skillz aren't far behind. Then suddenly, a bunch of Seal Clubbbing skills have become popular. I had some arguments about Eye of the Stoat, because it needed the combination with Lunging Thrust-Smack, but as a combination, it has gotten so fatal, it's a heated debating issue on the forums, considered "too powerful" by a bunch of top players.

On the cool skills:
Armorcraftiness isn't considered as cool by many people as by me, but I'm a special case. In retrospect Advanced Meatsmithing doesn't belong with the cool skills. It's application is way too limited and I would replace it with any other Seal Clubbing Skill when judging for usefullness, except for Oxygenarian runs. I stand by the skills for the magical classes, except that Sauciness is pretty darn cool, but harder to get and less directly applicable as "Expert Panhandling". Now, for the Disco Bandit, I have changed my opinion on Crossbow Fever. With the changes in the Muscle class and the advent of LTS, moxie/crossbow-based strategy is limited to the actual moxie class (mysticality class can use spells). Now, when they are able to hit something, they need it unable to hit themselves, or it's game over. Ergo, increased "to hit" is useless. I would actually replace it with Cocktailcrafting. Drinks are one of the area's that's improved, but the gains remain so limited, Cocktailcrafting can give a nice boost to that, although it really has to contend with Nimble Fingers. My "cool" AT picks were just crap and based on a lack of experience. I still have that lack, so my new picks will probably still be crap, but I'd go for Powerballad (helps LTS/Stoat) and Canticle of Celerity (for initiative). The Gnome skills remain unchanged.

This all leads to my changed plans for going Hardcore Oxygenarian. I was supposed to go for the Grand Slam of Oxycores after this run. But then the idea had formed in my head to insert at least one extra HC Seal Clubber run, to get "Tongue of the Otter". I would go Teetotal/Oppossum and drop the path. That way I would get a feel for being low-level with few adventures, be able to test out being a mysticality sign, and be able to relatively speedily get out of it, with the big stomach. Also, this would give me a shot at eating another three-tiered wedding cake, but that was a bonus. Now, I think that Elemental Saucesphere would also *really* be a timesaver, and since Ascension is moving so relatively fast, I could fit both of them in.

So, that's Torso Awaregness this run, Elemental Saucesphere the next, and then Tongue of the Otter. From the first HCO run, I can then keep, finally, Advanced Meat-smithing.

Now, another thought, but this is far into the future, is to insert a "break" into the Oxycore Grand Slam. This would especially work well, since I would already have Elemental Saucesphere, one of the few skills that I think would really shorten my runs significantly, rather than be a convenience. The break would be after the third leg of the Grand Slam. I'd go Discobandit Oxycore -> Discobandit Pathless Hardcore -> Accordian Thief Hardcore. I could use that break to actually get the Gourdcore trophy. I would, at that point, have almost all itemdropping skills, and plexiglass pants, which, hopefully would shorten that run in that respect.
Anyway, this is all futuristic talk, first I'll have to manage that crucial, first, Seal Clubber Oxycore. I might be postponing it, but I'm sure as hell not going to ditch it.