A question about the Catacombs Pack

[Dancingrage]

I was considering buying a pass for the Catacombs for a few of the quest rewards, and I'm curious as to how long it'd take to run through the Catas on lowest difficulty (assuming I'm only going for rewards, not the xp/favor), which would help me make the appropriate decision on if I get a pass or for how long do I get one.

I'm not fast enough to qualify for Master of Blitzing through a quest, but I also enjoy good puzzles, and it's likely I'm going to be doing this pack during times when I'm not going to have too long to play, aka casual.

Anyone have a clue on run times for the pack?

[KoboldKiller]

20-30 min as i recall if you know the quests.

[der_kluge]

Need more information.

If you are a 4th level rogue - good luck.

If you are a 20th level cleric, 30-40 minutes.

20 minutes (as the above poster says) is a pipe dream. That's impossible, IMHO. Take you that long to just literally *run* through every quest, not to mention flagging for the next part from Dryden between each quest.

If you've never done the quests, plan on at least an hour. If you are lower level, some of the quests might actually give you some challenge, if you aren't DPS or able to deal with lots of undead effectively.

[AZgreentea]

About an hour if you have never done the quest. Its a little easier now that they fixed the issue with having to talk to the quest giver twice.

Make sure you have slashing and bludgeoning weps and you will want some way to open locks. There are a few chests behind locked doors, including the one that holds Drydens Mace. One chest is behind a hidden door in the library, but I would leave that alone if you cant disable the trap.

A side note, I thought you could only buy the guest passes if you owned the quest? If you got someone with it to give you a guest pass, they could walk you through it faster, since they probably have run it.

[Dancingrage]

Ah yeah, whoops, forgot about that.

I'm a 3rd level wizard soon to be 4th by the end of today, so I have a few different options but Burning Hands is almost always on my spell list, and I can waffle on what I use a bit, tried out the Nerd Rage! option for damage and it's not bad, I've also tried a blitz with Expeditious Retreat and Invisibility.

I probably could roll in there with a loadout of Invis/Command Undead and /Exp Retreat/Hypnotize/M's Touch or Shield or Nightshield or Charm Person/Burning Hands and try to just slip through without fighting a whole lot, and what few do decide to fight charm and or mesmerize, but I assume I'll have a few boss fights on my hands regardless?

[gurslak]

The boss fights aren't too bad, though the end one can be painful, but if you concentrate on the wraith the quest is completed as soon as it dies and if you go down after that it doesn't really matter, chugging a pot of fire resist beforehand helps and a couple of flaming hands (empowered if poss) takes care of the wraith.

As for your origional question the whole pack will take about an hour to complete solo, possibly a bit longer first time through.

[UnderwearModel]

One hour to complete the entire chain? Nuts. I can see one hour to do it, if
a) You know the quest
b) You are over level
c) You are twinked out


1st part run down to quest, go in find somebody run back outside then run up the stairs to Dryden

2nd part complete quest run back to dryden possibly sell and repair

Rinse and repeat for all parts of the chain. Then, if you are incapable of getting past the one part of the wraith chasing you and the fire and getting back to the altar, you are doomed.

too much running up and down the stairs to Dryden and going and repairing and selling.

All the loot is atrocious. The only good thing out of this quest is the favor. Once you run it on elite, you will never run it again.

[ZeroTakenaka]

One hour to complete the entire chain? Nuts. I can see one hour to do it, if
a) You know the quest
b) You are over level
c) You are twinked out


1st part run down to quest, go in find somebody run back outside then run up the stairs to Dryden

2nd part complete quest run back to dryden possibly sell and repair

Rinse and repeat for all parts of the chain. Then, if you are incapable of getting past the one part of the wraith chasing you and the fire and getting back to the altar, you are doomed.

too much running up and down the stairs to Dryden and going and repairing and selling.

All the loot is atrocious. The only good thing out of this quest is the favor. Once you run it on elite, you will never run it again.

Some of the fights in there are completely skippable.

[gurslak]

I've run that quest chain on my Cleric, Sorcerer and Rogue all solo on normal and non-twinked as a new player, at level 4-5. The longest part of the chain is the family tomb, all the other quests are very simple quick runs, even if you haven't done it before.

Either way if you look to spend 1-2 hours on the chain first time and then quicker on later runs, should you wish to repeat it.

[learst]

If you are the presumbaly near-extinct type like me who likes to explore the story, Catacombs is pretty cool. The storyline is really quite interesting and it's worth some time to read through and try to understand it. It took me almost 1 1/2 hours on my level 5 ranger duoing with a wiz on normal, where the other player graciously let me talk to the NPCs and read the dialogues.

Compared to the other undead packs, I think this was on the one I had most fun with, based on the story and a bit of interesting quests objectives. :)

[PNellesen]

All the loot is atrocious. The only good thing out of this quest is the favor. Once you run it on elite, you will never run it again.

I wouldn't say "atrocious", at least not if you're playing it at-level - I looted the "Blade of Inquisition" with my Ranger (who has Undead as favored enemy) and that thing just tore through zombies/wights/ghasts/wraiths/shades and even vampires. It made my runs through Necro I as close to a "cakewalk" as any chain I've done so far.

[MrkGrismer]

I always run my characters thru the catacombs to pick up a ghost touch weapon, you can usually find the blade of inquisition and/or another ghost touch weapon in there. Now they are even better since they added undead bane to them. I might run some of my still-low-levels back thru to get the new versions. Until recently my 15th level was still using the ghost touch greatsword from there for incorporals.

[Ashurr]

1 1/2 - 2 hours if at level, never done the chain before and not twinked.

[GreenGurgler]

As others have pointed out, this quest takes longer than average simply due to the fact that you have to run back to Dryden EVERY SINGLE TIME to advance the quest. It adds up after each and every quest not to mention that each quest in this chain is a little deeper in the crypt so each time you run back its a little longer. Its not crazy long but it adds up and gets old quick.

Also, you mentioned you could charm undead and scoot past a lot but there are lots of parts in this quest where you NEED to kill the undead to advance the story line. This means you will be sitting around waiting for the charm to wear off and still have to take care of them.

Lastly, the one part where you have to run past the ghost/wraith will most likely be very very difficult as a solo, caster, new player. If you cant do this part, you will be unable to finish the chain and will have wasted your time/money.

My opinion is that this is a very bad quest purchase choice if:
-you are a new player
and
-you are a low level caster (level appropriate 3-5)
and
-you solo
and
-you hope to be able to scoot through this quest chain quickly.

Just my 2 cents.
;)

[QuantumFX]

20-30 min as i recall if you know the quests.

Assuming that Mr. Cow (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=237895) slows down in public areas…
1:15 - The Friar’s Niece
1:58 - Return to the Sanctuary
1:57 - The Old Archives
4:48 - The Crypt of Gerard Dryden
2:53 - Setting the Wards: The Lower Cathedral
2:03 - Setting the Wards: The Patriarchs’ Crypt
3:36 - Endgame: Marguerite
0:17 - Endgame: The Archbishop's Fate
18:47
+7:30 to run from quest to questgiver and back. (7 minutes for each full quest, 30 seconds to get from Endgame pt 1 to pt 2.)
----------------------------------------------
26:17

Also, for those that missed it, the devs cleaned up the quest dialogue making sure that you got the next part of the quest after taking your Heroic Deeds reward. This speeds up the chain immensely.

[Dancingrage]

Is this wraith somehow boss type and immune to a Command Undead, by chance? If so I can find another way around it. (Magic Missile spam)

There's a few items there I could put to use, and now that I see ghost touch I may have to go ahead and just buy the pack soon for a few useful items for reward. Eternal Wands plus a ghost touch weapon or two could be quite useful.

[Oathbound]

Catacombs is not long, nor particularly hard as far as the adventure packs go. I've never done this solo - always with a group (its not hard to find a group through LFM). Even on hard/elite - we can get this series done in about an hour. Maybe less.

I have no idea about solo - as I like to group. :)

[AZgreentea]

Is this wraith somehow boss type and immune to a Command Undead, by chance? If so I can find another way around it. (Magic Missile spam)

There's a few items there I could put to use, and now that I see ghost touch I may have to go ahead and just buy the pack soon for a few useful items for reward. Eternal Wands plus a ghost touch weapon or two could be quite useful.
Its a red named Wraith, so yes, it is immune to control spells. It spawns two Iron defenders, about 6-8 Skellie archers, I think 2-4 Skellie swordsmen, and a Arcane Skellie to help him in the fight.

[MrkGrismer]

Is this wraith somehow boss type and immune to a Command Undead, by chance? If so I can find another way around it. (Magic Missile spam)

There's a few items there I could put to use, and now that I see ghost touch I may have to go ahead and just buy the pack soon for a few useful items for reward. Eternal Wands plus a ghost touch weapon or two could be quite useful.

Magic missile works fine on incorporal (force is on both planes). Chance are also fairly good you will have found a ghost touch weapon within the Catacombs prior to running the end quest also (certainly not guranteed, but good).

Also, regarding the quest where you must run from the wraith, it will probably be difficult the first time since you don't know the layout really well but it is not really that difficult overall. There is a good chance you will get thru it on your first try, and after that it is just a matter of running the route back up. It is made slightly more difficult by the fact that the route back up is not the route you took getting down there, but if you scout the place out before releasing the wraith it should be apparent what you need to do.

[segreto]

I'm a pretty new player, and I ran though the entire quest chain in 3 hours. I looked at every nook and cranny for xp, too. I was level 4. I plan on doing it at level 5, too, and hopefully get it done in an hour, if possible.

[byzantinebob]

Just buy it. It's cheap and is one the highest favor to point cost ratios in the game. Then you can enjoy the really neat story line there. Also, the long crypt one will just take forever.

[Blind_Otto]

It's certainly good value for money. I can see that playing it as a level 20 character, you might find it boring. But, as a low-level one, especially someone doing it for the first (few) times, it can be a lot of fun.

Yes, you get fed up with Dryden pretty quick - it has that "called to the headmaster's office" feel, and you'll be muttering about the failure to install an elevator before long - but that's a minor quibble.

As to the wraith-chase bit....
[SPOILER] (sort of)







[SPOILER]







[SPOILER]

hope that's enough space, probably isn't...


If you have a hireling or a summoned monster with you, hide as soon as the dialog box from the final sarcophogus pops up. Hireling clerics are particularly effective - they're instant targets for most things. So, the wraith will latch onto the hireling / monster, giving you that extra little bit of time to run like crazy. Have decent fire protection up (some of the levers you'll need to pull are trapped), and you're home free. At least, that's worked for me the last half-dozen times I've done the quest.

But, get it. It's a lot of fun, solo or in a group.

[AyumiAmakusa]

If you have a hireling or a summoned monster with you, hide as soon as the dialog box from the final sarcophogus pops up. Hireling clerics are particularly effective - they're instant targets for most things. So, the wraith will latch onto the hireling / monster, giving you that extra little bit of time to run like crazy. Have decent fire protection up (some of the levers you'll need to pull are trapped), and you're home free. At least, that's worked for me the last half-dozen times I've done the quest.

But, get it. It's a lot of fun, solo or in a group.

Or just get 5 other people to help you whack his brains (or whatever he has in his head) out.

[Angelus_dead]

Or just get 5 other people to help you whack his brains (or whatever he has in his head) out.
Is that supposed to be a joke?

Telling people to stand and fight that wraith is quite misleading. (As is addressing it as "he")

[DrNuegebauer]

You can probably get through it all in an hour without much trouble IF you're rushing (you'll figure out what to do along the way)

You'll have to kill a stack of undead in the family crypt quest and in the second last one. You can't really avoid killing in those ones.
Most of the rest you can just zoom around.

[danzig138]

Or just get 5 other people to help you whack his brains (or whatever he has in his head) out.

You do know that the part he's talking about, the goal is to escape the wraith, right? Not beat on it. And yes, hirelings or greased allies are good distractions.

[AyumiAmakusa]

You do know that the part he's talking about, the goal is to escape the wraith, right? Not beat on it. And yes, hirelings or greased allies are good distractions.

Oh haha. I misread. I thought they were talking about the wraith in the last part of the chain. In that case the only advice I can give is to run for your life. The wraith is slow enough to avoid it.

[Tinrae]

As a new non-twink wizard, the Robe of Duality end reward may be pretty nice for you OP.
It has +10 HPs and adds a boost to your level 1 spells, along with looking nice (dark red). :)

[Frotz]

When the DM tells you to run, you run. :)

Funny thing, though, is that the first time I ever did that I successfully ran and never even saw the wraith, so I thought, "that was the big running for your life bit?" I've since both been intentionally and accidentally caught, but usually an expeditious retreat is all you need and not fumbling at switches/levers. Is a bit annoying to be interrupted whilst trying to open doors, but you can hit the switches from outside of the range of the fire traps. Now the traps in one of the warding quests that you can't avoid are also annoying. For the Dryden Family tomb, if you don't run in front of unbroken sarcaphagouses the archers won't break them, and that can cut down on the minimum required bashing time; at the very end you can just read the final inscription without bothering to kill anything (and much like Stealthy Repossession die after finishing if one is so inclined).

Overall, the only quest I dislike is the Dryden Family Tomb, as I haven't found any tactics other than standing such that the archers don't break anything to make it go more efficiently. The undead bane, silver, and ghost touch loot/rewards are nice if you don't have the cash to buy them, though (wish the mace weren't bound to account and me without a shared bank). I compulsively open all the chests in the Sanctuary now that I once found a Bottle of Air in there. :)

[Dancingrage]

When the DM tells you to run, you run. :)

Funny thing, though, is that the first time I ever did that I successfully ran and never even saw the wraith, so I thought, "that was the big running for your life bit?" I've since both been intentionally and accidentally caught, but usually an expeditious retreat is all you need and not fumbling at switches/levers. Is a bit annoying to be interrupted whilst trying to open doors, but you can hit the switches from outside of the range of the fire traps. Now the traps in one of the warding quests that you can't avoid are also annoying. For the Dryden Family tomb, if you don't run in front of unbroken sarcaphagouses the archers won't break them, and that can cut down on the minimum required bashing time; at the very end you can just read the final inscription without bothering to kill anything (and much like Stealthy Repossession die after finishing if one is so inclined).

Overall, the only quest I dislike is the Dryden Family Tomb, as I haven't found any tactics other than standing such that the archers don't break anything to make it go more efficiently. The undead bane, silver, and ghost touch loot/rewards are nice if you don't have the cash to buy them, though (wish the mace weren't bound to account and me without a shared bank). I compulsively open all the chests in the Sanctuary now that I once found a Bottle of Air in there. :)

"When the DM tells you to run, you run." Hehe, nice one.

I've been plugging away at WW on Casual because I"m trying to farm up a pair of Black Widow Bracers so I can swap to having Shield handy, etc etc, and actually got my hands on a Ghost Touch Greataxe (and I passed up a Dwarven Axe of Viciousness for the Meltwood Staff, might kick myself for a bit over that.), so when the time comes to fight said wraith and not run like the wind, I should be good to go.

[Adarro]

When the DM tells you to run, you run. :)

Funny thing, though, is that the first time I ever did that I successfully ran and never even saw the wraith, so I thought, "that was the big running for your life bit?" I've since both been intentionally and accidentally caught, but usually an expeditious retreat is all you need and not fumbling at switches/levers. Is a bit annoying to be interrupted whilst trying to open doors, but you can hit the switches from outside of the range of the fire traps. Now the traps in one of the warding quests that you can't avoid are also annoying. For the Dryden Family tomb, if you don't run in front of unbroken sarcaphagouses the archers won't break them, and that can cut down on the minimum required bashing time; at the very end you can just read the final inscription without bothering to kill anything (and much like Stealthy Repossession die after finishing if one is so inclined).

Overall, the only quest I dislike is the Dryden Family Tomb, as I haven't found any tactics other than standing such that the archers don't break anything to make it go more efficiently. The undead bane, silver, and ghost touch loot/rewards are nice if you don't have the cash to buy them, though (wish the mace weren't bound to account and me without a shared bank). I compulsively open all the chests in the Sanctuary now that I once found a Bottle of Air in there. :)
Dryden's mace is now full undead bane and bound on equip, not acquire.
I ransacked it while failed to drop the eternal handiwraps on my monk. (evil splash hosed my preferred drop option, popped first try when I disabled the class specific option)

Mr Cows time table is extremely efficient...
I'd say 30-40, and agree a full hour + the first time if you can't find a guide. (Especially if you need to exit to repair etc)
Mind you, if you find a guide, you're basically going to be wondering what's going on until you here 'FO' in the distance.

[Frotz]

"When the DM tells you to run, you run." Hehe, nice one.

I've been plugging away at WW on Casual because I"m trying to farm up a pair of Black Widow Bracers so I can swap to having Shield handy, etc etc, and actually got my hands on a Ghost Touch Greataxe (and I passed up a Dwarven Axe of Viciousness for the Meltwood Staff, might kick myself for a bit over that.), so when the time comes to fight said wraith and not run like the wind, I should be good to go.

Just to be clear, there are three wraith encounters in the Catacombs. In the first you can't defeat it (DR and regeneration, I believe, like Whisperdoom in Splinterskull), and if you're soloing you're probably going to need a run speed boost [teamwork is important; it gives the enemy someone else to shoot at]. In the second you can either fight or not, your choice through the dialog. In the third you have to fight and win to finish the quest, but you can take advantage of the Artificial Stupid to cut down on the number of opponents you fight at once and just quit once you've defeated the wraith and "won".

[MisterVo]

A really interesting way is as soon as the first Wraith appears (the unkillable one). Cast Expeditious Retreat on yourself, and run to the rectangular room (it has a low wall in the middle) and just run around a few times. For some reason, the wraith will get stuck, giving you time to get to where you need to go. Throwing out a summoned monster might distract the wraith too :D