Is it possible to Solo the Crucible on a melee?

[cdemeritt]

Ok, So it's not true solo, it's Duel box solo with a hireling... But... I can only run one toon at a time...

So I've been leveling 2 toons, solo, and have gotten them to gianthold (one a kensi fighter, the other a wiz-rogue)... So far I've pretty much breezed through all one the quests except the Crucible. This has me a little nervous, not because of the fights, or the swim, but my twitch skills are a bit slow, and the horn of agility seems like it's going to take more than a little time to acquire... But more importantly, I'm not really sure if it is going to be possible to get the rune wheels on top of the maze.... what do other solo'rs do, just keep pulling the lever until the combo is luckily hit? Or is this one of those quests, I'm just going to have to break down and join a group?

[timetorun177]

Yes. Done it many times.

[cdemeritt]

Yes. Done it many times.

just making sure it was on a melee in FP and not a monk or FvS with wings or such...

[timetorun177]

just making sure it was on a melee in FP and not a monk or FvS with wings or such...

Use a hireling to pull maze levers or skip maze. Just run quick for the wheels on top.

[Razcar]

You have one minute to do the wheels. That is plenty with Haste (unless you fall down of course...). Just write up the combo, or turns, quickly on a paper and run/jump around.

[Lorz]

Use a hireling to pull maze levers or skip maze. Just run quick for the wheels on top.

i know years ago we could skip the maze but they changed the cookies.

How do you skip the maze these days?

[Mangloid]

i know years ago we could skip the maze but they changed the cookies.

How do you skip the maze these days?

Refer to rules one and two. Questions like these should not be asked, nor answered on the open forum. Why? because it breaks turbines TOS. Anything that involves using terrain exploits to skip an intended part of a quest can be considered a violation of their TOS. Thus discussing how to do it on the DDO forum=potential thread lock and infraction points.

http://rlv.zcache.com/1st_rule_you_do_not_talk_about_fight_club_2nd_post er-p228234852268242529t5ta_400.jpg

[Lorz]

Refer to rules one and two. Questions like these should not be asked, nor answered on the open forum. Why? because it breaks turbines TOS. Anything that involves using terrain exploits to skip an intended part of a quest can be considered a violation of their TOS. Thus discussing how to do it on the DDO forum=potential thread lock and infraction points.


First it is not against the rules to ask :). only to asnwer.

Second let me rephrase the question.

Is it possible to bypass the maze is cruicible?

Better?

[Mangloid]

First it is not against the rules to ask :). only to asnwer.

Second let me rephrase the question.

Is it possible to bypass the maze is cruicible?

Better?

That's already been answered by someone else:


Yes. Done it many times.

[Srozbun]

A guildie told me that an invisible wall was added so that the maze is no longer by-passable. Also, I haven't tried soloing crucible with a hireling, but I was in maze of madness with a hireling recently. I'm not sure if my hireling solo skills have deteriorated or what, but it seems like they added in a change where you can no longer keep a lever selected while pulling another lever (or maybe it's a setting that got reset?). If they did indeed make changes to targeting, you may not be able to even use a hireling in crucible any more, as it requires that you keep a lever selected while fighting/picking up objects.

[donfilibuster]

I'm not sure if my hireling solo skills have deteriorated or what, but it seems like they added in a change where you can no longer keep a lever selected while pulling another lever (or maybe it's a setting that got reset?). If they did indeed make changes to targeting, you may not be able to even use a hireling in crucible any more, as it requires that you keep a lever selected while fighting/picking up objects.

How about keeping the hireling lever selected so that it is the first lever pulled?
The hireling can pull his lever first then you do your own lever and then you run to the third.
You only run one time so the time should be enough.

Edit: meant wheels not levers here, yeah.

[tihocan]

You can bypass the maze if you are fast enough to get through the doors at the end of maze before they close. It's not easy if your only striding bonus is haste (I managed to do it only once). Is it an exploit? My guess is no (otherwise I wouldn't post it here), but it's always difficult to say. To me it's no more an exploit than bypassing the jumps in the Twilight Forge with a Monk or FvS.

Otherwise, you can solve the maze solo + hireling, but it's not easy either: you need to be careful about the hireling's timing, and a couple times I had issues with my hireling (e.g. failing to actually use the valve I assigned him to) which made it unsolvable without a ddoor or re-entering the quest.

Edit: I didn't know about the invisible wall... that would explain why I never managed to do it again ;)

[Alavatar]

Yes, Crucible is definitely soloable by a melee character plus a hireling.

I have done it on:
Barbarian
Fighter
Favored Soul (at level you don't have wings)(WF so more melee than casting)

It is pretty easy. The maze doesn't take much effort if you know a good pattern; just set the hireling a few steps away from the levers before telling them to pull so you have time to grab the crests and run back through a door before it closes.

The trap room is not really lethal on Normal (which is what I am assuming you are running) so your fighter should have no problem in there.

What I do for the wheels is I position the hireling next to the lever, have him pull the lever, then count from there how many turns each wheel needs based on the position of the lit up crystal. The position on the far left indicates the wheel stays stationary, then increment by one turn for each position to the right.

The test of instinct is easiest with a character with WIS as a dump stat. The first clue is the door you want to open. Otherwise, you need high WIS and work through the three hints.

The swim isn't lethal at normal either and if you have some healing pots you should be fine. The swim can be done without ever touching the spikes (I have done so many times on my Wizard) so the healing pots are just there in case of accidents.

[Mercureal]

I've done the maze with a hireling, but a few times I had to recall and immediately re-enter. I simply couldn't find an order that let me do it otherwise, since grabbing a crest untargeted the valve that you needed the hireling to pull - it may be against the spirit, but it's doable.

The rune wheels took a few attempts, but was also doable solo. I used a few haste potions, and that gave me enough time. It's not that hard once you develop a sense for the run/jump timing.

[Srozbun]

How about keeping the hireling lever selected so that it is the first lever pulled?
The hireling can pull his lever first then you do your own lever and then you run to the third.
You only run one time so the time should be enough.

I'm curious to whether you can still pick up crests and have the lever selected. That is my main concern now.


You can bypass the maze if you are fast enough to get through the doors at the end of maze before they close. It's not easy if your only striding bonus is haste (I managed to do it only once). Is it an exploit? My guess is no (otherwise I wouldn't post it here), but it's always difficult to say. To me it's no more an exploit than bypassing the jumps in the Twilight Forge with a Monk or FvS.

Otherwise, you can solve the maze solo + hireling, but it's not easy either: you need to be careful about the hireling's timing, and a couple times I had issues with my hireling (e.g. failing to actually use the valve I assigned him to) which made it unsolvable without a ddoor or re-entering the quest.

Edit: I didn't know about the invisible wall... that would explain why I never managed to do it again ;)

About a week ago (after the latest update), my guildie reported to me that there is an invisible wall at that door now and that you can no longer haste/sprint boost/abundant step through it before it closes.


Yes, Crucible is definitely soloable by a melee character plus a hireling.



Have you soloed it since update 7? I've heard there were changes made to not make this possible any more. Have not tried myself however.

[aax]

hirelins can teleport to the section of the maze you are in.

hirelins can pull a lever if they are not targeted. if the hirelin is near the lever and you hit interact it will eventually pull the lever. i almost got stuck in the maze cause i had to place the crest in the socket, i got out by clicking interact over and over with nothing targeted. eventually the door opened.

this was about 2 or 3 days ago. my buddy went link-dead at the start and when he came back i was done with the maze

[Alavatar]

I'm curious to whether you can still pick up crests and have the lever selected. That is my main concern now.

You can't. That's why you need to have the hireling a few steps away from the lever. Activate the hireling to activate the lever and since it needs to take a few steps for it to reach the lever it gives you time to pick up the crest and run back through the door. This is important for the crests behind the I and K doors.


Have you soloed it since update 7? I've heard there were changes made to not make this possible any more. Have not tried myself however.

Yes. Had to do it on my Favored Soul just this past month.

[cdemeritt]

Thanks for the responses... I guess the best thing for me to do tonight is go in and give it a shot... (too bad my diplo, bluff, and such suck, oh well not needed, just makes things easier guess I can't have everything)...




Refer to rules one and two. Questions like these should not be asked, nor answered on the open forum. Why? because it breaks turbines TOS. Anything that involves using terrain exploits to skip an intended part of a quest can be considered a violation of their TOS. Thus discussing how to do it on the DDO forum=potential thread lock and infraction points.


Wasn't asking about terrain exploits, just if it was doable... much like how to solo Xorian Cipher... Can be done with a caster, possible with a melee if you can kill the badguys fast enough that the first one doesn't vanish before you get the last one killed... but much easier with a caster.... Same here... had visions of a FvS or monk winging or abundant stepping to each wheel...



You have one minute to do the wheels. That is plenty with Haste (unless you fall down of course...). Just write up the combo, or turns, quickly on a paper and run/jump around.


Ok, While having done Crucible many times, I didn't realize you get one minute... Thought it was much faster...


You can bypass the maze if you are fast enough to get through the doors at the end of maze before they close. It's not easy if your only striding bonus is haste (I managed to do it only once). Is it an exploit? My guess is no (otherwise I wouldn't post it here), but it's always difficult to say. To me it's no more an exploit than bypassing the jumps in the Twilight Forge with a Monk or FvS.

Otherwise, you can solve the maze solo + hireling, but it's not easy either: you need to be careful about the hireling's timing, and a couple times I had issues with my hireling (e.g. failing to actually use the valve I assigned him to) which made it unsolvable without a ddoor or re-entering the quest.

Edit: I didn't know about the invisible wall... that would explain why I never managed to do it again ;)

I remember hearing about that some time ago... Too many monks skipping the maze...

As said before (I think), I have no concerns about the maze itself... it will take me some time to figure out I'm sure, but that's what this project has been about... learning the how's that often get missed because of speed, and outright dispelling a bunch of myths that have been passed down for years from early zergers who wished to make people run faster, and no one challenged.. (many being the "Don't bother to kill X, they just respawn" often just a myth, because it is much faster to run by than to kill.) Funny how many have been outright lies...

The only 2 places I have concerns were the agility room (bah... Not hard, just going to take time to make it happen) and the rune wheels up top... (main fear, falling... Do it often enough just crossing...)

Don't mind spending hrs in there to make it happen, just didn't want to spend hrs to find out it wasn't possible...

Thanks for confirming that it is...

[Dozen_Black_Roses]

First, I will say I am biased as Crucible is one of my favorite quests in the game.

The quest is soloable, although definitely easier with a duo, or as u are duo boxing or with a hireling, you can addresss the issues of going through the maze and having them pull the I, K, H, levers while you get the crests. If you do not know the maze well, then I recommend you look at Mr. Cow's video her (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWpLSH5SeII)e, for ideas on how to do this, as it is a bit hard to explain without actually being in quest to show you, and below is a map to study.
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/9713/thecruciblemazerp3.jpg

As for the agility room, just make sure you have potions to cure, haste, and jump yourself to make it easier You can do a few practice runs to get the layout and timing down. What I always do is once I get to the horn, I will put it in my focus orb, then turn away from it as if I were to run out of the hallway, press U to pick it up and run out as fast as I can.

For the test of cunning, make sure you take off any wisdom item you may be wearing. Read the book with your chat tab turned to general. Ignore what the book actually says, and after a minute you should see a message in general chat to the effect of death hides before door X. This is random each time. Assuming your wisdom is low enough, 6 or 8 is ideal, last night it worked for me on normal with a 12 wisdom. Open the door for what it told you death hid behind. It is lying to you, and the horn should be there. If your wisdom is higher then try to pick opposite of what it tells you but you may have a few trial and errors as seen in the video (Mr.Cow is on a monk, so obviously high wis score).

As for the top of the maze, it is not clear to me from your OP you understand how to read the symbols. You are faced with a lever below 5 symbols , the 5 possible ones are show in the map above. I do not solve this by the symbols, rather when viewing the 5 unlit symbols I assign them a value of 0 to 4 from left to right. When you pull the lever, 3 will light up, 1 green , 1 red and 1 blue. It is random which lights up. If the first one lights up let's say green, then you know to turn the wheel 0 times, or rather do not turn it at all. If the second one lights up let's say blue, then you know to turn the blue wheel one time, if the last one lights up red, then you know to turn the red one 4 times. Before you pull that lever however, I would position your hireling at one of the wheels so they can quickly target the wheel, and you can sprint to hopefully just one other, possibly two before it resets. If you do not get them in time, then it will reset. However, since you have already turned the wheels, you have them out of order. To avoid this, you can write down what position they are in before you turn the lever. (Yes this takes a few extra minutes, but will save you headache later until you know the quest better). That way, if it resets, you can go back to each wheel, and turn it back to its start symbol. If any of this is confusing, watch Mr.Cow's video to see it in action as it were.

For the swim, take off your armour and shield, have plenty of cure potions on a hot bar to drink and remember to push backwards to slow your swim as needed. I would recommend you watch the video to get to know the layout and order of turns. I would also recommend you have some potions of invisibility to be able to sneak up and grab the last horn before the mobs guarding it aggro.

Below is a map of the quest from Dorim's map guides, to put things in perspetive.

http://housetharashk.net/picture_library/TheCrucible.jpg

[Porkchop]

I was able to have my hireling "use" the lever without having the lever targeted. It was like he knew what I wanted him to do...

[NXPlasmid]

Im curious, in the second crucible map (the entire quest) from Dozen's post there are heavier colored lines for the doors in the maze which imply what position they are in when one first enters the maze, is this correct. I use that map, or one that looks a lot like it and irrc the doors do not start in those positions, am I on bad crack? T

[timetorun177]

i know years ago we could skip the maze but they changed the cookies.

How do you skip the maze these days?


jump through the doors at the end before they close

[Dozen_Black_Roses]

Im curious, in the second crucible map (the entire quest) from Dozen's post there are heavier colored lines for the doors in the maze which imply what position they are in when one first enters the maze, is this correct. I use that map, or one that looks a lot like it and irrc the doors do not start in those positions, am I on bad crack? T
From my memory, the heavier colored lines are the positions the doors are in from the start before you turn any levers, and the slightly lighter color lines is the position they open to when you turn it to H, K, and/or I.

[cdemeritt]

Well, Ok, I just finished it... It went better than many pug runs I've done in there... took me 145 minutes, but I took my time, and killed everything...

The maze was a pain, but I knew it would be... I'm pretty sure that took most of the time I spent in there...

The Horn of Agility was the one I dreaded, as in the past I've tried it, and never made it... Took 3 attempts... Would have made it on the second attempt, but due to the jump I had, I was hanging from the top of the door. This slowed me down enough to just miss the door... but my first haste hadn't worn off yet.

Rune Wheels took 2 tries, as I thought I was on blue but was instead on red.

The only real snafu in the quest was on the swim... not the swim itself, but the underwater area... Thought to myself "F-this sneaking in to grab the horn and run, I'll just go in swinging"... Guess what, the gnolls weren't impressed... Luckily I had parked my hireling on a ledge by the entrance and was able to get rez'd Took a couple more attempts to clear out the room... (so much for flawless)

Rest pretty standard... Now to do it true solo.... (ok, not anytime soon)

But thanks for the help guys...

[tihocan]

Well, Ok, I just finished it... It went better than many pug runs I've done in there... took me 145 minutes
Must have been some really scary pugs! :eek:

[cdemeritt]

Must have been some really scary pugs! :eek:

Yep, had some real winners in Crucible pugs...

1: one person asks if anyone knows the maze well, and says he'll do it if no one else wants too.... So we all start following his lead... when player 2 starts calling for random levers to be pulled... When player 1 asks player 2 if he knows what he is doing, no response.. so people start ignoring player 2... who starts pulling levers on his own... Then runs of and screams "help me!" just before *ding*... but this run was rough... player 2 again enters the horn of agility run and wouldn't leave the room to let the doors reset... was playing a bard and wouldn't sing when the swimmer asked for a song (wasn't needed, but was asked for) but sang said song after the swimmer had left.... That one was not a pretty run....

2: had an Elitist **** in a run, one of those knows everything, yet knows little (knew the player, should just say was a d***) Well, he gets the horn of agility... A bug with the doors happens and before the rest of us can figure out a plan, he pulls some sort of trick... (don't remember exactly what, but he did it on his own) Well he's out of the room, but we hear from him "Oh SH**" and nothing... So we start asking him "what?" No response.. A few more minutes, and probably a few tells latter "I know more about this quest that you, Blah, Blah, Blah... Don't be questioning me, yadda, yadda..." Several nasty tells and comments latter, he's at a random point in the quest, drops the horn, recalls, drops group... We never did find the horn... (personally if someone goes "oh sh**" a perfectly good question is "What?")

3: A 5 year old on dads rogue...

[Vordax]

Yep, had some real winners in Crucible pugs...

1: one person asks if anyone knows the maze well, and says he'll do it if no one else wants too.... So we all start following his lead... when player 2 starts calling for random levers to be pulled... When player 1 asks player 2 if he knows what he is doing, no response.. so people start ignoring player 2... who starts pulling levers on his own... Then runs of and screams "help me!" just before *ding*... but this run was rough... player 2 again enters the horn of agility run and wouldn't leave the room to let the doors reset... was playing a bard and wouldn't sing when the swimmer asked for a song (wasn't needed, but was asked for) but sang said song after the swimmer had left.... That one was not a pretty run....


Are you sure player 2 wasn't a hireling? :D

Vordax

[Yajerman01]

you dont need a hireling to solo it either.

[SardaofChaos]

Refer to rules one and two. Questions like these should not be asked, nor answered on the open forum. Why? because it breaks turbines TOS. Anything that involves using terrain exploits to skip an intended part of a quest can be considered a violation of their TOS. Thus discussing how to do it on the DDO forum=potential thread lock and infraction points.

http://rlv.zcache.com/1st_rule_you_do_not_talk_about_fight_club_2nd_post er-p228234852268242529t5ta_400.jpg

Now hold on. It could have very well been that there was some built in way to skip the quest that's just hard to pull off. It was a perfectly legitimate question and the only reason to bring in breaking the TOS is if someone actually responded with something like "You have to jump on the crate near the doors and then wiggle across and invisible ledge until a point 5 feet below the gargoyle" or some obviously non-intended convoluted path like that.

[cdemeritt]

Oh and Tihocan, if 145 minutes was shocking to you, I won't tell you about the 260 minute wiz-king...


Not always about minute/XP ratio. at least not to me...

[DragonRage40X]

As far as I'm concerned, it's possible to solo this with a hireling. It's also possible to win the lottery on the night of a blue moon, which just so happens to be your birthday, and to top it all off your car was crushed by a tree struck down by a bolt of lightning that night. In the middle of the desert.

Got my hireling all the way to the H Valve. What did he do? The following, in order:
1. Turned the H Valve until I got to the northeast crest.
2. Stopped turning the H Valve when I needed to get back to him, locking me in just past the second H Door.
3. Proceeded to infinitely path between the H Valve and the southwest socket without interacting with either.

Thankfully, a warforged fighter came in to help me, and we finished the quest without much difficulty.

[Razcar]

Some additions and comments in blue to hopefully complement your good post:




As for the agility room, just make sure you have potions to cure, haste, and jump yourself to make it easier You can do a few practice runs to get the layout and timing down. What I always do is once I get to the horn, I will put it in my focus orb, then turn away from it as if I were to run out of the hallway, press U to pick it up and run out as fast as I can.

One danger with the agility room is that if you get too good at it :), you might be so fast that you can run into the horn-room and pick up the horn before the timed door closes behind you (20 seconds after the lever outside is turned). This is possible with a good run and something like Sprint boost active.

Anyway, if you pick up the horn with the door still open, you might bug the door and it won't open again behind you and you're stuck. Happened to me several times before I understood what was wrong. So after you have entered the horn room, wait a second inside so the door will close behind you. Then pick up the horn (which triggers traps and opens the door again) and get the hell out of Dodge.

If you go for XP, there's a lot of boxes in these rooms you can bash (but you might need some for jumping up when you run for the horn, so do it after the horn is retrieved).

For the test of cunning, make sure you take off any wisdom item you may be wearing. Read the book with your chat tab turned to general. Ignore what the book actually says, and after a minute you should see a message in general chat to the effect of death hides before door X. This is random each time. Assuming your wisdom is low enough, 6 or 8 is ideal, last night it worked for me on normal with a 12 wisdom. Open the door for what it told you death hid behind. It is lying to you, and the horn should be there. If your wisdom is higher then try to pick opposite of what it tells you but you may have a few trial and errors as seen in the video (Mr.Cow is on a monk, so obviously high wis score).

If you don't have dumped Wisdom and have Evasion and decent reflex you can of course open door number one (or any) until the horn is in there, letting it reset after each failed attempt. Just jump back each time you open to not stand in the traps needlessly. There's a 1 in 6 chance each time, and sometimes (1 in 6 :)) it will be there first try.

As for the top of the maze, it is not clear to me from your OP you understand how to read the symbols. You are faced with a lever below 5 symbols , the 5 possible ones are show in the map above. I do not solve this by the symbols, rather when viewing the 5 unlit symbols I assign them a value of 0 to 4 from left to right. When you pull the lever, 3 will light up, 1 green , 1 red and 1 blue. It is random which lights up. If the first one lights up let's say green, then you know to turn the wheel 0 times, or rather do not turn it at all. If the second one lights up let's say blue, then you know to turn the blue wheel one time, if the last one lights up red, then you know to turn the red one 4 times. Before you pull that lever however, I would position your hireling at one of the wheels so they can quickly target the wheel, and you can sprint to hopefully just one other, possibly two before it resets. If you do not get them in time, then it will reset. However, since you have already turned the wheels, you have them out of order. To avoid this, you can write down what position they are in before you turn the lever. (Yes this takes a few extra minutes, but will save you headache later until you know the quest better). That way, if it resets, you can go back to each wheel, and turn it back to its start symbol. If any of this is confusing, watch Mr.Cow's video to see it in action as it were.

As said, I clocked it to one minute before it resets, so anyone should have time to run around themselves - unless you suck at jumping/steering, or play on a laptop steering with a trackpad :) An important thing to highlight (and that you said) that some miss when counting turns is just that the first position means 0 turns - not 1 turn - and you count from 0 at he far left, not from 1 as I have seen people do in pugs before corrected.

Someone told me that when this puzzle resets after failure, it's resets from the current position of the wheels - so next time you count it should be ok. However I have never tested that so that might very well be humbug.

For the swim, take off your armour and shield, have plenty of cure potions on a hot bar to drink and remember to push backwards to slow your swim as needed. I would recommend you watch the video to get to know the layout and order of turns. I would also recommend you have some potions of invisibility to be able to sneak up and grab the last horn before the mobs guarding it aggro.

If you do this quest often, it can be good to get and equip a swim item. It helps you overcome the current and swim against it, instead of just standing still. Remember that at some of the big turbines, there's a hole at the top left/right where you can go without going through the blades.
One nice buff to get for the gnolls guarding the horn is Freedom of Movement. If the casters see you, they might cast Sleetstorm, and then you will be skidding around and cannot get out. You can of course kill them all, they are just gnolls, and there's a lot of boxes in here if you are going for max XP.

[Calebro]

Im curious, in the second crucible map (the entire quest) from Dozen's post there are heavier colored lines for the doors in the maze which imply what position they are in when one first enters the maze, is this correct. I use that map, or one that looks a lot like it and irrc the doors do not start in those positions, am I on bad crack? T

Yeah T, find a new dealer.
Look at the entrance to the maze. The right side is closed, as it should be. Also look at the doors where you place the horns. They are a reference for you to see which way the maze doors start and which way they swing.

[Cardtrick]

Well, Ok, I just finished it... It went better than many pug runs I've done in there... took me 145 minutes, but I took my time, and killed everything...

Heh, I'm glad I found this thread . . . makes me feel better about my time. I just did Crucible for the first time, and I did it solo with a hireling (my main man, Herod Dorfang -- haste, cure serious, greater heroism, ironskin chant, and +7 damage inspire courage!). It took 116 minutes, so you're not alone. It was fun trying to figure it out. What a crazy quest; I can't imagine running it for the first time with a PUG.

[articwarrior]

That's already been answered by someone else:

this

[QuantumFX]

Since you’re dual boxing/clienting it can be easier than with a hireling. Just make sure you don’t park yourself where your character is getting pelted by arrows. Mr. Cow did it with a hireling (LINK (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRN94iD-I7g)) during his wizard TR.