Quests I DESPISE!!!

[mobrien316]

Just tried to do elite Small Problem at level seven with a hireling. Had an LFM posted for a while, but I guess everyone else hates that quest, too.

The quest is easy until the "don't let Butthead die" part at the end. I hate the up-and-down and the poor visibility, and I HATE, HATE, HATE the quests where you have to escort someone or protect someone.

Needless to say, I got almost to the caravan and wiped. Very annoying. At that point even spending a cake would be pointless because Butthead was dead. Even if I try to park him somewhere and clear the area ahead of him, I have gotten the "Brawnpits is dead" message, because apparently if I park him new mobs will spawn.

Did I mention I hate this quest? Before I TR'd I avoided it like the plague on epic.

I have cakes. Why can't I let Brawnpits (or Coyle, or anyone else I'm supposed to protect/escort) just die and then I will rez them later? Huh? Why can't I do that? My hireling can die a hundred times in one quest, but Brawnpits can't die once?

Bah!

[Sleepsalot]

Have to agree 100% escort quests just a a PITA.. Also Ones that involve a lot of Jumping all over cause me grief. I have jump skill just not good hand movement do to Arthritis and bad joint pain. So I do feel for ya Next time you want to try the quest look if I'm on will jump on one of my Lower levels see if I can give you a hand.. But I will say have not done some of those quests.

Sleeps :D :) :D

[Spoonwelder]

Join the club - we all hate protection quests. Coyle is a 4 letter word to most for a reason.

Of all of them though Small Problem has been the easiest for me. In a balanced group it isn't really a problem - get a blur/displace/invis (as appropriate for level) package on him and he is pretty sturdy on his own. Soloing it on elite is nigh impossilble for a non-blue bar.

Not disagreeing with you but noting that a decent group shouldn't have a problem. Solo is a different ballgame.

[Saravis]

I used to absolutely hate Small Problem, but after having done it quite a few times, I don't find it that bad. As long as the healer isn't completely ignoring the giant, he isn't really a problem. Also, as far as I know mobs don't respawn in that quest, so I think you just missed some.

[NortheOfThelanis]

I agree on small problem in particular. As a fire based caster at this level range it is even more difficult as the carnies have fire resist + the fire eles are quite powerful. It falls into the category of 'proof is in the poison' and 'taming the flames' as far as 'why the hell is this quest so hard, but all the other ones up to this point are easy peasy'.

In a group though it is much easier of course, but then you gotta play the waiting game =)

[Sarisa]

The only big problem with the end fight of Elite Small Problem is the Messenger of Pits. It has a level-drain-on-hit proc, so if you aren't able to get that dog off of Brawn fast (or Deathward Brawn with the spell or a Visors of the Flesh Render Guards), he can be level drained to death in a under 10 seconds.

[mobrien316]

I was solo on my dwarven fighter and a cleric hireling.

It would have been much easier with a group of actual people, just for the reasons already stated above. If I have someone who can cast blur, displacement, stoneskin, fire resist, etc... on Brawnpits, it is a whole lot easier.

My LFM was up for at least twenty minutes with no hits. I just assume everyone hates that quest as much as I do.

[sirgog]

The only big problem with the end fight of Elite Small Problem is the Messenger of Pits. It has a level-drain-on-hit proc, so if you aren't able to get that dog off of Brawn fast (or Deathward Brawn with the spell or a Visors of the Flesh Render Guards), he can be level drained to death in a under 10 seconds.

This.

On Epic, Brawnpits takes at least 20 hits for the Messenger to kill. On Elite, it's a lot less.

Also on Elite he has only 1000-ish hitpoints, whereas on Epic he seems to have 15000 or so. Fire Elementals throwing 70 damage DBFs can rip through 1000 on Elite but their 200 damage DBFs barely tickle Epic Brawnpits.

IMO the giant could do with Epic Ward on Elite (the 'I regen 1 neg level per 2 seconds' component of it at least), and maybe another 1000hp.

I've soloed this quest on Epic a lot, and find full group 5-7 elite harder than solo Epic.

[Arnhelm]

Escort quests are not fun.

Protect the flag/caravan/NPC quests are not fun.

Don't kill xxx of yyyy "quests" are not fun.

I avoid most all such quests if at all possible, even when it means repeating a quest multiple times, which is more fun than escorting Coyle, or Brawnpits, or not killing 10 monkey-miners, or not killing the spiders, or...

[FengXian]

I had heard a lot of "bad" rumors about the quest on elite at level. But I actually soloed it as 4 ranger/3 monk without any issue. I was a little worried about brawnpits dying but it looked like he was able to self heal and wasn't that squishy after all...the only buffs I tried to give him every time I could were dance of clouds and walk of the sun. Also, no hire.

I guess as long as you can grab the agro of the mobs fast enough, it's not -that- bad. Soloing partycrasher was way more annoying. The worst one, though, was the bookbinders rescue. Took several attempts...

[sirgog]

I had heard a lot of "bad" rumors about the quest on elite at level. But I actually soloed it as 4 ranger/3 monk without any issue. I was a little worried about brawnpits dying but it looked like he was able to self heal and wasn't that squishy after all...the only buffs I tried to give him every time I could were dance of clouds and walk of the sun. Also, no hire.

I guess as long as you can grab the agro of the mobs fast enough, it's not -that- bad. Soloing partycrasher was way more annoying. The worst one, though, was the bookbinders rescue. Took several attempts...

Bookbinders is IMO one of the hardest quests in the game to do on elite at level.

[Arnhelm]

...and I just remembered the last on the list. The timed quests. I don't want a bloody timer ticking off while I'm questing. That's not fun.

[My2Cents]

I despise escort quests, even more than timed quests.

But at least Bawnpits (have only done it on normal) has some decent HP and the escort distance is relatively short. I think Coyle is made of onion paper.

Can't think of the name of the higher level quest, long quest, and when you get near the end you have to protect an NPC who starts attacking the next mob without even giving you a chance to breath..(and of course some of them are air elementals just to add insult to injury, if I recall correctly.

So after your protectee dives into the next few encounters and commits DDO hari kari you are left starting at the chest while the FAIL message pops up. Gotta love it.

[sirgog]

I despise escort quests, even more than timed quests.

But at least Bawnpits (have only done it on normal) has some decent HP and the escort distance is relatively short. I think Coyle is made of onion paper.

Can't think of the name of the higher level quest, long quest, and when you get near the end you have to protect an NPC who starts attacking the next mob without even giving you a chance to breath..(and of course some of them are air elementals just to add insult to injury, if I recall correctly.

So after your protectee dives into the next few encounters and commits DDO hari kari you are left starting at the chest while the FAIL message pops up. Gotta love it.

That's Ritual Sacrifice. Paetus is very durable in that - 2000ish HP on Normal and 5000ish on Elite, IIRC, and rednamed immunities. I've only ever seen him die once.

[FranOhmsford]

I despise escort quests, even more than timed quests.

But at least Bawnpits (have only done it on normal) has some decent HP and the escort distance is relatively short. I think Coyle is made of onion paper.

Can't think of the name of the higher level quest, long quest, and when you get near the end you have to protect an NPC who starts attacking the next mob without even giving you a chance to breath..(and of course some of them are air elementals just to add insult to injury, if I recall correctly.

So after your protectee dives into the next few encounters and commits DDO hari kari you are left starting at the chest while the FAIL message pops up. Gotta love it.

I'm guessing this is Ritual Sacrifice in Vale right?

Small Problem is in my opinion one of the hardest quests in game {as is Bookbinder} on elite - The scaling goes through the roof making it ridiculously hard even when I've taken a -99% penalty to xp - In fact I've failed this quest on two different lvl 12 {at the time} characters who'd both had no problems on normal or hard at much lower levels.
The animals and Earth Eles are nothing to worry about. The Fire Eles can be annoying BUT it's when you get to the jumping up to the air altar AND on elite Tiefling casters suddenly appear that weren't there on normal or hard.
Tiefling casters who constantly respawn giving you no time to get your health back between fights.

If you get past them you've then got to fight through more tieflings {casters are the big problem} dragging Brawnpits along with you to the start of the quest WHERE {again out of the blue as this doesn't happen on normal or hard in my experience} the 4 dogs will attack you.

Quite frankly some of these things are great ideas to make elite more difficult without just adding MOAR HP to everything - something like this would make epics far better in fact - BUT in my opinion the devs went that bit too far with Small Problem elite and made it far harder than it has any right to be.

The one thing I'd really like to see changed is the silly superfast respawn rate of the Tiefling Casters on the rocks - Give me chance to get my breath back before attempting to jump to the next rock {where I know there's more of em to fight} please.
Oh and the 2 Fire Eles can wipe whole parties in the fight at the camp too.

[Ganolyn]

Bookbinders is IMO one of the hardest quests in the game to do on elite at level.

I've never found it hard to do as long as you have someone who can deal with the traps and tell all the hostages to stay put until you clear the place out. Also, entering from the second floor balcony seems to be a better strategy.

[goodspeed]

For elite I hated crucible. It's doable but the swim sucks. The maze really sucks when you have 1or 2 people running around hitting every **** lever and lost locking others in. Then the memphits gather and it's just dreary.

That one quest in the harbor where you can't kill to many of those kobold things sucks. I usually do that after ive long out scaled them all.

[Deathdefy]

My new trick for crucible is to duo or solo it (with a dog or hireling... I can't get through the first door without getting the horn anymore, but it may just be that I've gotten worse), since scaling makes even the elite spikes only hit for about 100, so if you pot between them it's not too bad at all even if you're terrible at it.

My most hated are easily:
-Scavenger's Warehouse... exactly 15 smuggler's rubies placed into exactly 15 of the dozens of breakables in the area? Tedious is a fair description.

-The Crypt of Gerard Dryden... 8 identical square rooms of identical mobs. In an even larger square containing identical mobs. No, I'm being unfair - in addition to the hundreds of skeletons there are 5 iron defenders for variety.

I have decided I will dedicate every single one of my blade barrier cookies to completing this quest faster.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

Also Ones that involve a lot of Jumping all over cause me grief.

This can be fixed easily : Use the FEstivult Season to train it.

I must say that I'm a bit biased, though : I excessively played jump & run games in the 90s, so I guess that I'm far better than any "normal" role player in that respect. Simple traing helps quite a lot.


My "Festivult Training Course" would go like this :

- First level : Go to House Kundarak. Very easy.
- Second level : Go to House Deneith
- Third level : Go to House Jorasco or to House Phiarlan
- Last level : Go to the Harbour. This is the masterpiece. If you manage to do it several times, you will have much fewer problems in the future.

You could also use the Risia Ice Games for additional training.

And I should have posted this when it was still time. But being a newbie, I have begun posting only two weeks ago or so.

Edit : I admit, though, that there are people who just have problems with jumping. Someone I know of from a different forum once said that she'd let her son doing all of the jump sessions in games because he's just much better at it.

[Zogdor]

Escort/protect ones suck, but for me the worst have to be the ones where you aren't allowed to kill stuff. I mean, I play DDO specifically to kill stuff, why tell me I can't? :(

Sleeping dust is a pain, but at least casters can finger/destruct them, the worst of all has to be that one in the restless isles!

[SkyEyes_Sorceress]

That one quest in the harbor where you can't kill to many of those kobold things sucks. I usually do that after ive long out scaled them all.

Stealthy Repossession is one of the easiest quests in the harbor. You just hit expeditious retreat and run to the levers without fighting. There will be orange alert by the time you drop down and kill sleeping shamans. Also you don't need open last gate - just run onto it, kobolds will open it for you in a second.
Quick 2k experience in 2 minutes (a bit longer if you can't find place to recall at the end or died)

[Arnhelm]

the worst of all has to be that one in the restless isles!
The Shrieking Mines, where the monkey-miners mob if one gets too close. I found ranging the ogres out works pretty well on this, although hirelings seem to deliberately target the monkeys instead of the mobs I want to kill.

[Ganolyn]

Stealthy Repossession is one of the easiest quests in the harbor. You just hit expeditious retreat and run to the levers without fighting. There will be orange alert by the time you drop down and kill sleeping shamans. Also you don't need open last gate - just run onto it, kobolds will open it for you in a second.
Quick 2k experience in 2 minutes (a bit longer if you can't find place to recall at the end or died)

I'm interested to know how you keep yourself from being Harried to death?

[Jay203]

A Small Problem is nothing compared to the super annoying Waiting for Reinforcement from the Threnal quest.

at lvl, i believe Proof is in the Poison and Freshen the Air are probably the more problematic for a lot of players on elite

[FranOhmsford]

I'm interested to know how you keep yourself from being Harried to death?

Stealthy Repo's big problem is that there's nothing stealthy about it - Go to The Marketplace and House K Pot Vendors.

Buy Haste x 5, Prot Elec x 5, Rage x 5, Barkskin +3 {as many as you like}, Heroism {as many as you like}.

Also if you don't have fire res make sure to get this.

Then go into quest - Call Cleric/FS Hire - Take them to right corner behind bars and put them on passive and stay.
Then pot up and RUN!

DO NOT kill ANY Kobolds - This nets you a nice bonus to xp.

Upon reaching Gem - grab it and call hireling {make sure hireling is set to active now}.

Go crazy - Kill everything {quest is completed} get chests and collectables.

Profit.

[FranOhmsford]

A Small Problem is nothing compared to the super annoying Waiting for Reinforcement from the Threnal quest.

at lvl, i believe Proof is in the Poison and Freshen the Air are probably the more problematic for a lot of players on elite

Proof and Freshen are lvl 4 quests {Like Hell they are!}. Also neither is that hard once you know to have Acid Res and Shield/Nightshield handy. Small Problem Elite requires DEATHBLOCK for crying out loud - In a supposed lvl 7 {elite lvl} quest.
Hold for Reinforcements is THE SINGLE MOST ANNOYING QUEST IN THE GAME but is lvl 10 I believe {on normal}.

Can you name another lvl 5 quest that comes close to the difficulty of Small Problem when on Elite - I can't.

BTW Partycrashers doesn't count - Difficulty in there is traps based.

[Ganolyn]

Stealthy Repo's big problem is that there's nothing stealthy about it - Go to The Marketplace and House K Pot Vendors.

Buy Haste x 5, Prot Elec x 5, Rage x 5, Barkskin +3 {as many as you like}, Heroism {as many as you like}.

Also if you don't have fire res make sure to get this.

Then go into quest - Call Cleric/FS Hire - Take them to right corner behind bars and put them on passive and stay.
Then pot up and RUN!

DO NOT kill ANY Kobolds - This nets you a nice bonus to xp.

Upon reaching Gem - grab it and call hireling {make sure hireling is set to active now}.

Go crazy - Kill everything {quest is completed} get chests and collectables.

Profit.


And how does this stop the Harried effect from DA happening? I've done the quest and I know how to survive it, but I still get Harried and occasionally Held in there.

[FranOhmsford]

And how does this stop the Harried effect from DA happening? I've done the quest and I know how to survive it, but I still get Harried and occasionally Held in there.

I've not been harried in Stealthy Repo since using this method - With Haste up {expeditious is actually much much better if you have it} the Kobolds won't get near you {they have to hit you to cause Harried}.

Jump can be handy too.

The Prot Elec is pretty obvious and Barkskin will help buff your ac so they have less chance of a lucky hit stopping you in your tracks.

If you do get harried by that lucky hit - Just keep running and jumping and pot another haste.

Of course you do need to know the quest and be able to hit the levers running on elite - do normal a coupla times to get the hang of it.

Also FORGET Invis - It's useless as it drops every time you open a door or lever.

When you get to the drop - Jump {with FF} down and run straight to the first lever opposite the ladder, pull that then go up the ladder and repot safely there before pulling that lever too.
Jump off the ledge over any kobolds that chased you to the ladder in the first place and keep leapfrogging Kobbies thru that room and down the ramp.
As SkyEyes Sorceress said - The lever at the bottom of the ramp does not need to be pulled - The Kobold by the gate runs and pulls it as soon as he sees you so just run to the gate.

P.S. If you don't have Spell Res or extremely high saves {heroism will help here} then you will occasionally get held - If this happens chalk it up to a bad run - take the death and restart.
I like the Phiarlan Mirror Cloak for Spell Res - Not sure atm if this is min lvl 4 {bravery acceptable} or min lvl 5 {not bravery acceptable}.
Also the Infested Armour from Chronoscope gives even higher spell res.

[Ganolyn]

I've not been harried in Stealthy Repo since using this method - With Haste up {expeditious is actually much much better if you have it} the Kobolds won't get near you {they have to hit you to cause Harried}.

Jump can be handy too.

The Prot Elec is pretty obvious and Barkskin will help buff your ac so they have less chance of a lucky hit stopping you in your tracks.

If you do get harried by that lucky hit - Just keep running and jumping and pot another haste.

Of course you do need to know the quest and be able to hit the levers running on elite - do normal a coupla times to get the hang of it.

Also FORGET Invis - It's useless as it drops every time you open a door or lever.

When you get to the drop - Jump {with FF} down and run straight to the first lever opposite the ladder, pull that then go up the ladder and repot safely there before pulling that lever too.
Jump off the ledge over any kobolds that chased you to the ladder in the first place and keep leapfrogging Kobbies thru that room and down the ramp.
As SkyEyes Sorceress said - The lever at the bottom of the ramp does not need to be pulled - The Kobold by the gate runs and pulls it as soon as he sees you so just run to the gate.

P.S. If you don't have Spell Res or extremely high saves {heroism will help here} then you will occasionally get held - If this happens chalk it up to a bad run - take the death and restart.
I like the Phiarlan Mirror Cloak for Spell Res - Not sure atm if this is min lvl 4 {bravery acceptable} or min lvl 5 {not bravery acceptable}.
Also the Infested Armour from Chronoscope gives even higher spell res.


OK, just for fun I just went in on a level 20 toon on Normal. I Barkskinned (spell: +5 AC) which brings him up into the 40's for AC and used Ranger Sprint boost. Everytime I hit a lever and there were mobs around they swarmed me. They hit me frequently (in a level 2 quest), enough to have me Harried down to almost no movement twice. I completed no problem as they weren't really able to do much damage, but the Throwers were able to hit me enough that I had to try to recall three times while hiding at the top of a stack of crates with three sides of protective objects in the way. Maybe I was just unlucky and they were crit lucky, but it seemed a little excessive for that setting on capped toon.

[FranOhmsford]

OK, just for fun I just went in on a level 20 toon on Normal. I Barkskinned (spell: +5 AC) which brings him up into the 40's for AC and used Ranger Sprint boost. Everytime I hit a lever and there were mobs around they swarmed me. They hit me frequently (in a level 2 quest), enough to have me Harried down to almost no movement twice. I completed no problem as they weren't really able to do much damage, but the Throwers were able to hit me enough that I had to try to recall three times while hiding at the top of a stack of crates with three sides of protective objects in the way. Maybe I was just unlucky and they were crit lucky, but it seemed a little excessive for that setting on capped toon.

OK - Pretty certain Harried twice = hit twice but could be wrong.

For some reason when recalling if something is firing at you it will hit you and interrupt - Just Murphy's Law I'd guess.

I just don't understand how you can possibly get swarmed if you know the quest that well?

First lever - one Kobold runs to Gong on opposite side of room.
Second Lever - If unlucky with Kobold guard just jump over him and any Shamans/other kobolds who wake up
run down ramp.
3rd lever - behind a door on the right wall - Open door as prophet is ringing gong, go straight to right wall and pull lever - JUMP {I usually grab the collectable from the bookcase here} and JUMP again over any Kobolds chasing you.
Once thru door hare down to the drop - I grab collectable on floor here before jumping {with FF} down to the next level.
4th lever - On wall opposite ladder
5th lever - On ledge above ladder - I've already given instructions on these in a previous post.
6th lever - Again in a previous post BUT I'll repeat - This lever does not need to be pulled - Kobold will pull it - Go straight to gate.

Yes once you've grabbed the gem - with all the aggro you've pulled - You will get harried. This is why I leave hire at the start - Simply call him/her to you and go kill crazy.

DO NOT KILL ANY KOBBIES TILL YOU HAVE GEM - apart from gaining you extra xp this avoids losing time and allowing kobolds to catch up with ya.

[Vormaerin]

Stealthy Repo's big problem is that there's nothing stealthy about it - Go to The Marketplace and House K Pot Vendors.

Buy Haste x 5, Prot Elec x 5, Rage x 5, Barkskin +3 {as many as you like}, Heroism {as many as you like}.

Also if you don't have fire res make sure to get this.

Then go into quest - Call Cleric/FS Hire - Take them to right corner behind bars and put them on passive and stay.
Then pot up and RUN!

DO NOT kill ANY Kobolds - This nets you a nice bonus to xp.

Upon reaching Gem - grab it and call hireling {make sure hireling is set to active now}.

Go crazy - Kill everything {quest is completed} get chests and collectables.

Profit.

You do realize that most of that stuff didn't exist when the quest was made?

Certainly, there were no hirelings. And the shops for those pots you are talking about were beyond a locked gate you couldn't pass without doing waterworks first. In which case, you were almost certainly overlevel for Stealthy Repossesion.

[Ganolyn]

First lever - one Kobold runs to Gong on opposite side of room.
Second Lever - If unlucky with Kobold guard just jump over him and any Shamans/other kobolds who wake up
run down ramp.
3rd lever - behind a door on the right wall - Open door as prophet is ringing gong, go straight to right wall and pull lever - JUMP {I usually grab the collectable from the bookcase here} and JUMP again over any Kobolds chasing you.


Hmm, I thought the third lever was down the hall from the second (to the left at the end of the hall, on the right side behind some crates) that opens the gate near the entry way. You wake up the whole hallway and when you go for the lever they swarm you. If you can skip that one it does make it a lot easier. I never have because the quest isn't conducive to lollygagging around to experiment. The second place they Harried me was after I grabbed the gem and was looking for a place to hide to recall out. If you slaughter everything after getting the gem this isn't much of an issue. My point was though: If a 40+ AC doesn't stop them from hitting you on normal I'm not sure a +3 BS potion will help much on Elite with a toon that has a likely >25 AC. I guess your point of keeping moving, only stopping to throw the levers (and hoping they don't catch up to you) is the key here.

[FranOhmsford]

You do realize that most of that stuff didn't exist when the quest was made?

Certainly, there were no hirelings. And the shops for those pots you are talking about were beyond a locked gate you couldn't pass without doing waterworks first. In which case, you were almost certainly overlevel for Stealthy Repossesion.

I joined the game long after the marketplace became generally available and hirelings were well established - Korthos was around too - So I did not realize this.

The fact is though that the game was very different back then - It's changed massively since I've been around {after Sharn, Phairlan Carnival and Before Red Fens.}.

Stealthy Repo was one of the quests I truly despised early on as was Proof.

Freshen I still find ridiculously hard on elite BUT Small Problem I maintain is even harder.

Stealthy Repo elite is lvl 4 same as Waterworks Pt 3 and 4 normal so Unless you're talking about bravery {which has only existed for a coupla months anyway} then no not in my opinion anything like overlevel.


Anyway to be exact I have no problems taking a lvl 12 character into Stealthy Repo, Proof is in the Poison or Freshen the Air elite {and of course I shouldn't}.
2 characters of about this level though {my monk and my wiz/rogue} both wiped in Small Problem Elite - This SHOULD NOT happen either.
Wiped because I had no way to pass the tieflings on the rocks - My wiz ran out of sps and my monk couldn't get past them without taking too much damage.

I've done the quest on elite on other characters but the mere fact that this happened not once {possible fluke} but twice to 2 different characters makes me certain that this quest is overscaled on elite.

[Sarisa]

The problem with Stealthy Repossession is that while it's intended to be a stealth oriented quest, it's just not viable to do it in such a manner for several reasons.

The Stealth method is much slower than loading up on consumables/SR/AC and zerging to the end. For many, exp/minute matters, and a zerged Stealthy Respossession is one of the best exp/minute quests in the harbour.

The Kobolds have incredibly high listen skills, which makes it incredibly difficult even on normal for an untwinked player to successfully stealth through.

In addition to the Kobolds listen skill, the structure of the quest is not conducive to learning stealth. Claw of Vulkoor is much better done in that regard (and also leaves open more options than sneak-stealth).

--

For the level range of the quest compared to what is available to players at that level...

Bookbinder's Rescue is definitely on the difficult side. The traps are brutal, and the family members often have a death wish. You can also be screwed by the random number gods regarding which rooms the family members are in.

A "bravery bonus level" Elite Small Problem is quite difficult for the reasons mentioned. The main problem is the need for Deathward at the end fight, when only Clerics have access to the spell at class level 7. FvS's and Paladins both get it at class level 8. The only source of low level Deathward otherwise is a clickie from Tangleroot, another P2P pack.

Proof is in the Poison has a bad reputation, but a bit of preparation and effective resource conservation will let you succeed. It's a large chunk of bravery bonus experience, and worth doing if you can run it quickly.

Freshen the Air is similar to proof, but the casters throw a bit more at you. The threat is the sheer amount of spells flung around, rather than the length or "attrition" that Proof has. With enough preparation (resists, ship buffs, heroism potions, enough shield clickies), it's not too bad. It will still wipe less experienced or newer players due to the difficulty.

Taming the Flames is another that's much easier with ship buffs. Moving it from level 6 to level 7 also made a big difference.

Faithful Departed is very annoying because while you can hurt the Venerated very easily (AoE spells, Glancing Blows, Mass Cures), you cannot heal them with Mass Inflicts. It's an easy quest to fail, and add on top of that the traps, nasty trash mobs, and single shrine for a painful run.

Hold for Reinforcements, and the other Threnal "protect-the-gimp" quests, are less challenging than pure and simply annoying. You're just hoping that a Rust Monster doesn't come up and hit a sleeping+invisible Coyle with its long range AoE antenna attack, and roll a crit that 1-shots him with 25 seconds left on the click.

Chronoscope is quite difficult at bravery streak level. Since it's a raid, it's probably intended that only the top players can complete it at level. Doing so is quite fun, but not really worth the experience you get. On normal or hard, however, it's still a bit too difficult for the average group of level 6-8's. The difficulty on normal, along with the timer and the P2P nature, makes it not a really effective learning-raid for newer players.

[Jay203]

Proof and Freshen are lvl 4 quests {Like Hell they are!}. Also neither is that hard once you know to have Acid Res and Shield/Nightshield handy. Small Problem Elite requires DEATHBLOCK for crying out loud - In a supposed lvl 7 {elite lvl} quest.
Hold for Reinforcements is THE SINGLE MOST ANNOYING QUEST IN THE GAME but is lvl 10 I believe {on normal}.

Can you name another lvl 5 quest that comes close to the difficulty of Small Problem when on Elite - I can't.

BTW Partycrashers doesn't count - Difficulty in there is traps based.

deathward is easily acquired from Tangleroot clickie, it's not like you need deathward throughout the quest for small problem, not to mention there are 3 shrines in there

both proof and freshen are way longer than small problem not to mention shrine is scarce in there....

[FranOhmsford]

deathward is easily acquired from Tangleroot clickie, it's not like you need deathward throughout the quest for small problem, not to mention there are 3 shrines in there

both proof and freshen are way longer than small problem not to mention shrine is scarce in there....

I'm sorry but what are you talking about?

Freshen the Air is a 10 minute quest - It has a 30 minute timer but I've never been in a group that didn't either complete in 10 minutes thereabouts or wipe.
Yes it has a super high chance of that wipe happening if unprepared BUT With Shield and Nightshield it's not too bad - don't forget your acid, lightning and cold res, prots either.

Proof is a really, really long quest BUT it is very samey all the way through - Again Acid res is huuuge here and shield clickied though they won't go anywhere near as far as in the much shorter Freshen are also super useful.
There is nothing exceptional in Proof.

Small Problem is also a Very long quest - can take just as long as Proof in fact.
Tiefling Casters like to cast PK as well as a bunch of other High DPS or annoying CC spells.
I'm not talking about the dogs at the end - I'm talking about the Tiefling casters on the rocks.

BTW Visor of the Flesh Render Guards is a one shot deathward clickie that unlike Voice of the Master say DOES NOT appear on the end list for Tangleroot every time.
Tangleroot is a long chain as well making farming the end reward extremely unrewarding - Chances are many people will do Small Problem elite before completing 2 runs of Tangleroot as the last 6 of Splinterskull's quests are also lvl 5 or above {2 are lvl 6 and the final 2 parts are lvl 7 - On normal}.
Actually strangely enough all of these quests are far far easier than Small Problem - Partycrashers and Big Top are also in my opinion harder than anything Tangleroot has to offer but newbies won't know this.

I'm not saying that Proof, Freshen, Stealthy Repo aren't all extremely hard quests compared to what's available at those levels - In fact I've argued in the past and will continue to argue that all 3 are at the wrong level currently.

I am saying that Small Problem is in another league {on elite only - it's not too bad on normal or hard but overscales on elite} entirely.

I agree about the scarcity of shrines in Proof - It needs at least one more.

[SkyEyes_Sorceress]

You do realize that most of that stuff didn't exist when the quest was made?

Sure. As well as Dungeon Alert and Bravery Bonus, along with ship buff resists and invisible clickies.

[donfilibuster]

Nothing wrong with if the NPCs could be rezzed during an escort mission, it's something that is done in Eberron.
Granted, many NPCs and monsters are likely not bound by the silver flame members, but those associated with Stormreach should
e.g. the Kobold Union has access to it. Coyle should, at Threnal's Tavern, but probably Brawnpits wouldn't, living in the hills and all.

[Uma-Quixote]

The pit has to be one of the dullest quests...unless you are a big super-mario fan

[Razcar]

Also FORGET Invis - It's useless as it drops every time you open a door or lever.
It is not useless. You just have to know where to use it. The long straight stretch from the second lever, down the drop and to the third and fourth levers (where one is up a small ladder) is a great place to pop an invis scroll or clicky (or pot). Then after you have done the third and fourth levers, another one for running to the last room. Helps keep the DA down.

[sephiroth1084]

Stealthy Repo is a fun quest, and can teach a lot of stealth, but it has some significant problems along those lines:


The skill levels required to stealth through are a bit too high--you can't really do it without either investing heavily in Dex or picking up some Hide and Move Silently items, and on elite, you need more buffs even than that, making it very new player unfriendly.
There is almost zero opportunity for multiple characters in the quest (this is actually a problem with most of the stealth quests we have), so it is almost always a solitary sneaking experience or a grouped zerg rush.
A single mistake likely either ruins the entire run or risks failing the quest for you; aggro one kobold, and you likely wake a few others, one goes to ring a gong and opens a door to others...serious domino effect in there, and since the only different between a Prophet and any other kobold is the name (appearance doesn't vary), it's too easy to kill the Prophets.

I'd like to see the stealth mechanics changed so that instead of breaking stealth when opening a door or hitting a switch, you simply make a noise (the same as throwing a weapon against a wall to draw a monster's attention) that has a larger than standard radius, and you take a penalty on Hide/Move Silently for a few seconds. Anything nearby that hears will be in search mode, and you'll have a penalty to avoid them, but it won't be as automatic as it can be now.



Also, as much as I loath the idea of the devs spending time on old content instead of new stuff, I'd really like for the art team to slowly start updating quest appearance. That is, we have all these quests with big open rooms with kobolds sleeping on the floor, or on boxes. There is no furniture to speak of, no atmosphere. Compare any of the old Harbor or Marketplace quests to any of the Bookbinder chain, which all feel lived-in, like real spaces.



We also have some decent lighting tech in this game that never gets used. FvS now have "torches" and we have Rainbow. I'm not suggesting necessarily going to that length, but I'd definitely like more interesting definition to light sources and places without any.

[Sarisa]

Requiring people to have Visors of the Flesh Render Guards, or a pure Cleric in party with the SP to burn on casting Deathward, is not really a good design of a level 7 elite.

The Visors are available in a single place, at the end of a 10 quest chain, and it only appears 50% of the time. It's certainly possible, and I had it happen to me, to run the chain 8 times before you finally get one. The Carnival is a more commonly owned pack by a lot of people because it has the best "starter" epics. Tangleroot is a good pack, but less useful overall outside of that one item.

Removing that dog's level-drain-proc-on-hit would help, along with reducing the number of Phantasmal Killers cast. Save PK for level 8 or 9 quests at the earliest, when Deathward is more likely to be available.

[alexp80]

Just tried to do elite Small Problem at level seven with a hireling. Had an LFM posted for a while, but I guess everyone else hates that quest, too.


You simply need to pump up your skills.
Done that yesterday on elite (cannith server) with my lvl 6 arty without hireling and without trowing the giant a single heal or buff.

Same in epic, 2 (good) wizzies complete that in about 20 min (the long part is taking down the annoying red named earth elementals).

[hecate355]

anything resembling 'kill 200 kobolds' kind of quests.

[mobrien316]

You simply need to pump up your skills.
Done that yesterday on elite (cannith server) with my lvl 6 arty without hireling and without trowing the giant a single heal or buff.

Same in epic, 2 (good) wizzies complete that in about 20 min (the long part is taking down the annoying red named earth elementals).

There's always one.

[alexp80]

There's always one.

That says how the things are?

Elite quest at level (or underlevel) are not (or should not be) designed for everyone.
Skill should be needed, equip too.

I remember the first time i run an eSmall Problem... was a nightmare. Now it's a cakewalk.
Same is for elite quests.
Some could be tough but there is none is not beatable elite at level with the right degree of knowledge, equip and skill.

A few ago I completed at level elite solo enter the kobold without evasion. It wasn't easy but doable. I should try a shot to solo sos elite too :)

Back to the op, take a look on Jhaina - cannith server, she's the arty I used to complete elite small problem. You will see no impressive equip on her (and I'm lvl 8 now, I improved a bit in the meanwhile)

[brian14]

I despise escort quests, even more than timed quests.

But at least Bawnpits (have only done it on normal) has some decent HP and the escort distance is relatively short. I think Coyle is made of onion paper.

Can't think of the name of the higher level quest, long quest, and when you get near the end you have to protect an NPC who starts attacking the next mob without even giving you a chance to breath..(and of course some of them are air elementals just to add insult to injury, if I recall correctly.

So after your protectee dives into the next few encounters and commits DDO hari kari you are left starting at the chest while the FAIL message pops up. Gotta love it.
You are thinking of Ritual Sacrifice, and like most people here I disagree. First, Paetus the Zerger is quite capable. Put enough buffs on him to start with, and he can take care of himself. And second, if you defeat end boss but Paetus dies you do not get quest completion and xp, but you CAN open the chest. And in Vale quests ens chest treasure is usually more important than xp.

[Razcar]

There is no furniture to speak ofKobolds don't have furniture. They just have hate, for you (still).

[Deathdefy]

You simply need to pump up your skills.
Done that yesterday on elite (cannith server) with my lvl 6 arty without hireling and without trowing the giant a single heal or buff.

Same in epic, 2 (good) wizzies complete that in about 20 min (the long part is taking down the annoying red named earth elementals).

Artificers running solo even on Elite aren't a very good indicator of actual quest difficulty.