Sometimes It's Just Not Your Day......

[Truckmaster]

Saturday I was just hanging out in the Harbor kind of looking for something to do. I got an unsolicited invitation to run The Shroud (Thanks BTW whoever did that - maybe in the future) but I had to decline the invitation because I wasn't flagged. Specifically, I don't have the spider quest. You know, the one where you have to protect everything with 8 legs rather than Whisperdoom where if it has more legs than you, you get to kill it :)

But, after thinking about it overnight, I decided maybe I needed to flag. The largest reason I hadn't flagged before was because I run mostly solo and the hirelings that I hired to help me out did so by killing the spiders rather than simply healing me ;) With a higher level, better equipment and the new love that melees got, I figured I had a chance. So I re-geared to remove any guard gear and bought a new long sword - I'm normally a THF guy and great axes and dwarven axes dominate my inventory. Five tries later, I gave up. I don't know if it was lag, poor timing, or what, but at some point, I ended up whacking a spider even explicitly targeting only the ogres. By the time I was near the end of the quests, I managed to whack my fifth - and we are through..... I tried higher difficulties, lower difficulties, nada. Spiders still died with a 1-handed weapon, no shield, and specifically targeting ogres.... Oh well, maybe in the future.......

So then, I turned my attention to Spinner of Shadows as I try to find the seal and shard for some equipment. First try on Spinner, the Spinner bugs out. Nowhere to be found. In the Southeast corner of the entry hall, something was casting a web on me, but I guess it was in the wall - or maybe outside. I think my "uberness" scared the Spinner away :) After running around for a while, I drop the DMs a line. And wait. And wait. After about 15 minutes, I exit, reset, and re-enter. Then the DM asks if I still need assistance..... Nope, not any more. In this instance, I'm hacking up spiders and running back to the Flame to heal up as the Spinner is whacking on me when I guess maybe the Crystal Cove opened. My toon freezes for about 2 minutes, and when I get it back, I'm a soul stone......... Exit out, head over to Deneith to farm a shard for another alt. Run the quest through and get almost completely blanked. I get some fragments, but no scrolls, seals, or shards.

I guess it just wasn't my day. :)

[bsquishwizzy]

Honestly? It was your Uberness...

[Spoonwelder]

Well I am sorry you had such a bad day....hopefully today is better and tomorrow tops that as well.

That said....I have never had a problem with Let Sleeping Dust Lie.....I have done it on melee's, casters, ranged etc....they all worked fine.

Here are my hints:
1. Clear the whole bottom level before picking up the book. That means everything - spiders too if you can so they don't get killed when you find and fight the mini-bosses.
2. On a melee - sword and board - if you can or TWF - don't make the mistake of using a single D-axe or bastard sword if you have THF since you will proc glancing blows.
3. Use hard targetting (default is the Tab key) this will stop your target from switching to a spider
4. Don't move around much - get an ogre hard targetted - hump his leg and kill - when you get close to dropping the mobl be ready to stop swinging. (Active/twitch fighting will just get you random spider kills)
5. Use the fact that Ogre's rage up to kite spiders away then run back to the ogre and beat on him - spiders will take a few seconds to get back to you.
6. Don't use hirelings - they are idiots in this quest. I shouldn't have to say don't use summons but........don't use summons either.
7. To minimize the amount of fighting in the upper level....once you have the first book and have killed the first miniboss - go back to the main room - use your Q key to look around and find the second book on the upper level. Once you find it stand in the middle of the room then Q target it again - then take the hall to the right of the book - that will lead you to the book without having to traverse the entire upper level.
8. Once you have the second book - the second mini-boss always spawns just outside the Queen Spider cage (to the left side when facing it (SW IIRC).
9. Defend the spider queen - remember to kill all the ogres up on the platform before you leave as you will fail if they kill her after you leave to go to the end fight.
10. There are only 4 spiders in the end fight room so if you have been good up to here you can kill with impunity. If not, kite the spiders out into the hall (but not into the traps) then run back to kill the boss - rinse and repeat as needed.
11. On a caster the spiders are immune to acid - so use acid spells to kill the ogres etc... the spiders will be totally unharmed.
12. Also for a caster - hard target your insta-kills - if there are others in the group - coordinate so you don't finger the guy the other party member is going to insta-kill causing them to retarget to a spider by accident.
13.....jump method we miss ye.....

I hope that helps.

[Kawai]

Here are my hints: ...........

Two Woots out of Two for helpful info. +1

will add:
when its serious time, Rangers turn off IPS.
all toons remove Guards

win

[Truckmaster]

Well I am sorry you had such a bad day....hopefully today is better and tomorrow tops that as well.
.

For a Monday, it wasn't too bad. Thanks for the tips. I went into the UI and turned ALL auto targeting off. I still killed one spider when the **** ogre ran away. :)

However, I was able to minimize the fighting on the upper levels - which really helps avoid killing spiders. Since the queen is friendly, I was able to pull out my great axe and make short work of the ogres and rakshasas. The last fight was back to the long sword but the rakshasa went down without too much work. And now I'm flagged. Thanks!

[Truckmaster]

Honestly? It was your Uberness...

I thought so too, but it turns out I'm not that uber..... :)

[Weemadarthur]

I thought so too, but it turns out I'm not that uber..... :)

Hi and I feel your pain. I often struggle to complete this on my melee toons and have been known to skip flagging if I cant find someone to help me run it.
If your on G-land feel free to look me up and I'll wis you through on my sorc if you just need flagging (I am playing mostly on my dorf fighter Ickal atm). I play most evenings and early mornings GMT.

[Saekee]

Hmmm common thread to your issues was spiders--killing them when you were not supposed to and vice-versa.
I bet earlier that day you crushed one in your bathroom without a thought and so it cursed you!

When I kill spiders in RL, I pretend I play Star Wars games where the spider-curse will have no effect. The bluff has worked, but then maybe I will run into some weird trouble should I play KotOR.

[Saekee]

On a more serious note, you can use stealth to draw the spiders (they have tremor sense) and then run past them to kill ogres.

[Rubix]

7. To minimize the amount of fighting in the upper level....once you have the first book and have killed the first miniboss - go back to the main room - use your Q key to look around and find the second book on the upper level. Once you find it stand in the middle of the room then Q target it again - then take the hall to the right of the book - that will lead you to the book without having to traverse the entire upper level.


I believe that targeting or Q'ing the second book has been nerfed - or perhaps it's now WAI. Either way, ever since the "short cut" was fixed, it seems that the devs snuck in the same mechanic as is used on so many of the scrolls /shields discoverables in explorer areas; ie. you can not Q the item until you are practically on top of it.

~Deut

[schelsullivan]

I believe that targeting or Q'ing the second book has been nerfed - or perhaps it's now WAI. Either way, ever since the "short cut" was fixed, it seems that the devs snuck in the same mechanic as is used on so many of the scrolls /shields discoverables in explorer areas; ie. you can not Q the item until you are practically on top of it.

~Deut

I ran it 2 days ago with my Swashbuckler and was able to target 2nd book from main room. They did nerf the jump part though.

[Erdrique]

Unfortunately, I have had a few such days, where no matter what you did, it just wasn't going to come out right :(. I have never heard of the Spinner being stuck in a wall before, that is interesting. I'll have to keep an eye out for that.

[janave]

Specificall that quest "Sleeping Dust" is easier on elite than normal or hard, due to spider hitpoints... other than that the trick is to NOT read the 1st journal until you cleared every tunnel. At least that used to be the trick, i ahvent done it for a long time.

Used to solo too. It helps tremendously if you have good dps to 1shot ogres to pacify the nearby spiders.

[Chauncey1]

I thought so too, but it turns out I'm not that uber..... :)

I hear some have too much Uber to handle, and it just oozes onto everything.

[Spoonwelder]

I believe that targeting or Q'ing the second book has been nerfed - or perhaps it's now WAI. Either way, ever since the "short cut" was fixed, it seems that the devs snuck in the same mechanic as is used on so many of the scrolls /shields discoverables in explorer areas; ie. you can not Q the item until you are practically on top of it.

~Deut
Last time I tried it works - you just can't Q it anymore until you have picked up the first book. That doesn't matter since you can't use the jump method anyway.

[GreataxeUser]

Forgive me if I did not notice, but where in this thread did you reveal why types of hires you used and the names of the hires and how many?

[Truckmaster]

Forgive me if I did not notice, but where in this thread did you reveal why types of hires you used and the names of the hires and how many?

I generally ran it with a single cleric hire from the level 16-18 area. I think Heystack is level 18 and he's a menace :) But sooner or later, they all end up whacking spiders either in self defense or end up getting killed for being "passive". Maybe the new AI is better......

[Powskier]

oh lord ..another "cc stopped my dungeon from runnin '' B S story. surely the game froze your computer need memory upgrades..Cove is fine

[redoubt]

Well I am sorry you had such a bad day....hopefully today is better and tomorrow tops that as well.

That said....I have never had a problem with Let Sleeping Dust Lie.....I have done it on melee's, casters, ranged etc....they all worked fine.

Here are my hints:
/snip
I hope that helps.

SPOON! Well said.

Mav, you have the number of that truck driving school we saw on TV? Truck Masters, I think it was? I think I'm gonna need that..

[redoubt]

oh lord ..another "cc stopped my dungeon from runnin '' B S story. surely the game froze your computer need memory upgrades..Cove is fine

So... 16 gig plus 2gig on the card and my memory needs upgrading? And so does the memory of all 11 other people in Mask. You know, Pow, I'm sure your are right, its all our computers, certainly nothing could be going on server side, my bad...

[bartharok]

So... 16 gig plus 2gig on the card and my memory needs upgrading? And so does the memory of all 11 other people in Mask. You know, Pow, I'm sure your are right, its all our computers, certainly nothing could be going on server side, my bad...

I doubt its the computer, but i doubt its the cove either, since i get no lag no matter if an event is on or not. And my computer is a 2 year old laptop.

[Dragavon]

As other people here say, clear all tunnels before you pick up the first book.

I have a +1 paralysing of enfeebling scimitar that I use on all my characters when doing this quest. The spiders have DR/pierce, so it does very little damage to a spider if I hit one by accident. It will paralyse and reduce strenght of ogres when I beat on them, so even if it does very little damage fights are easy, if slow.

I always hard target the ogres before I run in and activate new groups of monsters after reading the first book to minimize the chance of hitting a spider by accident.

[dunklezhan]

Well I am sorry you had such a bad day....hopefully today is better and tomorrow tops that as well.

That said....I have never had a problem with Let Sleeping Dust Lie.....I have done it on melee's, casters, ranged etc....they all worked fine.

Here are my hints:
1. Clear the whole bottom level before picking up the book. That means everything - spiders too if you can so they don't get killed when you find and fight the mini-bosses.
2. On a melee - sword and board - if you can or TWF - don't make the mistake of using a single D-axe or bastard sword if you have THF since you will proc glancing blows.
3. Use hard targetting (default is the Tab key) this will stop your target from switching to a spider
4. Don't move around much - get an ogre hard targetted - hump his leg and kill - when you get close to dropping the mobl be ready to stop swinging. (Active/twitch fighting will just get you random spider kills)
5. Use the fact that Ogre's rage up to kite spiders away then run back to the ogre and beat on him - spiders will take a few seconds to get back to you.
6. Don't use hirelings - they are idiots in this quest. I shouldn't have to say don't use summons but........don't use summons either.
7. To minimize the amount of fighting in the upper level....once you have the first book and have killed the first miniboss - go back to the main room - use your Q key to look around and find the second book on the upper level. Once you find it stand in the middle of the room then Q target it again - then take the hall to the right of the book - that will lead you to the book without having to traverse the entire upper level.
8. Once you have the second book - the second mini-boss always spawns just outside the Queen Spider cage (to the left side when facing it (SW IIRC).
9. Defend the spider queen - remember to kill all the ogres up on the platform before you leave as you will fail if they kill her after you leave to go to the end fight.
10. There are only 4 spiders in the end fight room so if you have been good up to here you can kill with impunity. If not, kite the spiders out into the hall (but not into the traps) then run back to kill the boss - rinse and repeat as needed.
11. On a caster the spiders are immune to acid - so use acid spells to kill the ogres etc... the spiders will be totally unharmed.
12. Also for a caster - hard target your insta-kills - if there are others in the group - coordinate so you don't finger the guy the other party member is going to insta-kill causing them to retarget to a spider by accident.
13.....jump method we miss ye.....

I hope that helps.

Great tips. Addendum for #11: this is also a useful tip for melees. a: you can wear all the acid guards you like, and b: get an acid of humanoid bane weapon. Even when you do hit a spider, half the damage won't be applied.