It's good to be the Shadow King

[Oatmealsavage]

Greetings,

I have read several posts on the subject of the suckiness of the "Tomb of the Shadow ****" quests. I was running Tomb of the Shadow King last night with some experienced players on normal. We were all at least 2 levels above the quest setting. We were doing fine until the respawns got out of control. Even with 2 shrines in the center of the quest, the mobs kept draining my spell points to nothing long before we could get all the flames extinguished. I'm hoping some of you learned DDO scholars can give me some strategic advice on this. Here are some questions...

1) The flames. Should we not be putting them out one at a time? Is the preferred stragedy to leave them all lit, then put them all out at once? What about the mobs? Would we have to fight them all over again if we went back to to put them out?

2) Repawns. Any way to keep them to a minimum?

3) What's your favorite beer?

4) Does anyone know if the invinciblility bug on Nsu has been fixed in the last mod?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

[MrCow]

When I run the Shadow King, I tend to prefer to dim each torch as I go. If, at the moment, the group is too overwhelmed to light a torch within 6 seconds then let the AoE spells fly and clear them out. Otherwise, if the torch is easily dimmed, move on with your herd of undead. (This strategy is not recommended for those without offensive casters)

In regards to the respawns, just attempt to run through the outer and inner rings as little as possible.

[Ghoste]

Carry a tower shield (with as high a + on it as you can find) in your backpack, ready to equip it quickly. You will live a lot longer, and take less damage when you decide to throw up that firewall to clear some of the undead. You of course want to equip it AFTER casting, then go into turtle mode.

[McBadger]

Make sure the entire party has blur and deathward. Dispacement for the caster gives a good bang for the buck. Drag the mobs to the lights and firewall on top of them with the entire party on top of each other swinging away. Extinguish as you go because of the respawns. The curse effect from the lights will help out with those wielding disruptors. Shadows are actually quite low HP foes but a lot of players can't be bothered to use a ghost touch weapon. If you see flames on every greataxe it's time to give your kids "The Talk".

These quests are like Taming The Flames. First impression is misserable but can go quite smoothly if everyone is properly buffed, follows the same game plan, brings the right tools for the job, and speaks up when their buffs run out.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

I used to think that SK on elite was the hardest quest in the game.

But now I do not think it is so bad.
But it is very difficult for lvl appropriate group.


Run to each torch and make a stand there. after everthing that chased you is dead, extinguish torch.
Run to next one, repeat.
It helps to know ehre they all are.....especially the hidden ones. I think there are three north and three south, in both cases two are in hidden rooms. Do the hidden ones before the un hidden ones, north and south.

Leave shrine and one in the entrance till last.

Follow those steps and avoid going where there are respawns and this quest is not so hard.
Last fight is still very difficult though.

Firewall is your friend, and everyone defending/healing the mage should be a priority.
I'll never understand why people won't just stand right on top of each other and fight.....back in a corner.....turtled up....etc.

Saw a WF Wiz who whipped out a tower shield and blocked in a corner and let his firewalls take everything out....he made the quest look easy.

[theANTItommy]

nobody answered the most important question-

i tend to enjoy Magic Hat brand beer, i believe their brewery is based in vermont. if you ever have the chance i would recommend it (especially the Fat Angel variety)

[McBadger]

Most Important Answer:

1st = Free

2nd = Cold

[Rashma]

Most Important Answer:

1st = Free

2nd = Cold

I think this guy has the best answer :D

[Depravity]

Most important question:

Cider & stout, but I'll settle for a good doppelbock if none is available.

[Lithic]

The way i did this on elite with a group of lvl 9-12s was to find a doorway and leave the party there. I then ran around the inner ring lighting as I went and dragged everything back when the ring was done. Repeated for outer ring. Then we did the north and south rooms.

The trick is if you have someone with decent twitch skills, 45+ac, haste and a good jump/featherfall (and displacement if you can get it) you can jump and light as you float down, cutting the "standing around" time in half. This lets you light and run, then bring the mob back to the firewalls. Since the king was bugged in that quest, we did the whole thing in less than 20mins.

[Arianrhod]

I wasn't aware of any "invincibility bug" - is this something recent? I know the mummy has to be dragged to the room with the special light (need 2 people up above to pull levers when the mummy is in just the right spot), but that's the way the quest is designed. Is there a bug on top of this that keeps him invincible after everything has been done to make him killable?

[Talon_Moonshadow]

I wasn't aware of any "invincibility bug" - is this something recent? I know the mummy has to be dragged to the room with the special light (need 2 people up above to pull levers when the mummy is in just the right spot), but that's the way the quest is designed. Is there a bug on top of this that keeps him invincible after everything has been done to make him killable?


He is supposed to be invincible until you drag him to the room and light it up.

There was a bug where he was still invincible.
It seems to fix it they did the opposite and made him always hurtable.

I thought they had fixed it finally, but I just did it this weekend and he can be hurt and killed before getting to end room.
Might be an intermittant thing, and it took me a while to realise he was taking damage.

Also, he currently had some pathing problems too.
He would get agro, move about 10 feet toward you.....then stop. Over and over again.
it made kiting him very, very difficult.
And then there is the constant respawns.

It's a good thing actually that yuo can kill him outside the room IMO.
His pathing probs make this quest almost uncompletable without it.

I don't mind a hard quest, but I want things to work as intended.....not have to fight bugs and pray!

[Oatmealsavage]

Thank you all for your prospectives. Take care.