The Church and the Cult: The hardest red-named

[Spookydodger]

So I took a stroll through memory lane and took on the Vampire in the church and the cult. This mission, on Elite, is difficult as it is without the Vampire. The Vampire, without some serious arcane firepower or many divine casters, is impossible.

Bear in mind that this, on elite, is a level 11 mission.

• The vampire's AC is somewhere in the 50-60 range.

• The vampire regenerates roughly 50 hitpoints a tick

• The vampire is red-named, making him immune to many effects such as flesh-to-stone, vorpal, disruption, etc.

• He casts 200 damage cometfalls, 100 point flame strikes, and now, thanks to the recent spell addition, DESTRUCTION. I don't mind NPCs having access to the spells we do, but in conjunction with everything else? He can strip you of enchantments and destruct you in the blink of an eye.

• Teleports all over the place like mouse hopped up on sugar

This makes for a guy that can't really be hit, when he is hit he regenerates, strips you of your buffs, and then utterly annihilates you with spells you can't possibly do as well even if you are level 14.

This is a level 11 quest?

Some serious looking needs to be done here.

[Gimpster]

[list]He casts 200 damage cometfalls, 100 point flame strikes, and now, thanks to the recent spell addition, DESTRUCTION.

That's an addition- he had Destruction from his first release in Module 1. That was the first time the Destruction spell was encountered in DDO; long before players could use it.

[boldarblood]

Doesn't really need to be looked at. 1 good arcane is all that is needed, scorching Ray / Firewall and he does down pretty fast. When cap was 12, used to 2 man it on elite with Paladin and Sorceror for end loot (quick quest). Don't run it as much anymore because of GH (2 man Cabal/Maze/Trial by Fire now instead). As long as you have a competent caster they can solo the Vampire.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

My main did it on elite many months ago......started with no casters, but had a very compentant group of melee types.
Could not kill him.
He even bugged out and we got him trapped. Whacked on him forever, but he would not die.
Many paoeple left group, and I finally got a sorceror or two to join us.....he died pretty fast then, but like I said he was bugged out at the time, and not really fighting back or doing the bat regen thing anymore.

[tihocan]

The vampire can be difficult/close to impossible with the wrong party mîx up, but the rest of the quest should be easy. If you have trouble to get to the vampire, I doubt you will be able to kill him.

[Mad_Bombardier]

Destruction (-AC weapon effect) + Sunder (yes, they stack) + Greater Heroism/Bardsong on your tanks = sliced and diced Vol vampire.

[Ziggy]

Bring a WF. they are immune to his dominate.

God that was a fun day, back when it first came out. I held the instance open because everyone else died. throwing a dagger at him to try to keep him from getting back to full health.

[Shamguard]

Without a caster this quest is impossible. With a caster, especially a Sorcerer, this quest is cake. Yes this quest needs to be looked at and has needed to be looked at since it was introduced. Sadly it is not the only unbalanced quest for it's level in DDO. Just most of the unbalanced quest are in this same level range (7-11) so most of the long time player base just avoids them or only does them on elite for the favor.

Oh, BTW my Sorcerer Scortchem as done this quest so many times that he gets Zero xp on all levels. Once He even took down the Vamp while blinded, just kept firing EMP/MAX MM at him till he droped. Now they've slowed my fire rate so I may have to mix some force missles if Scortch ever does this again.

[Spookydodger]

That's an addition- he had Destruction from his first release in Module 1. That was the first time the Destruction spell was encountered in DDO; long before players could use it.

Wow, I must have been lucky. I never saw it until now. Although, in fairness, maybe he cast it and the graphic was different and I never noticed it, since it didn't hit me.

[Spookydodger]

Doesn't really need to be looked at. 1 good arcane is all that is needed, scorching Ray / Firewall and he does down pretty fast. When cap was 12, used to 2 man it on elite with Paladin and Sorceror for end loot (quick quest). Don't run it as much anymore because of GH (2 man Cabal/Maze/Trial by Fire now instead). As long as you have a competent caster they can solo the Vampire.

I can see making a quest easier with a particular type. But impossible without it is a flaw, in my opinion. Especially when a group of 14s go in with maxed out abilities. I love my caster. I like being necessary for this. However, I don't believe that this particular boss requires every strength in the book.

[Spookydodger]

The vampire can be difficult/close to impossible with the wrong party mîx up, but the rest of the quest should be easy. If you have trouble to get to the vampire, I doubt you will be able to kill him.

I'm sorry, did I say or imply that we had trouble to get to the vampire?

I said it was difficult. That is to say, that you can't just zerg in there or else the tons of caster NPCs will nuke the daylights out of an improperly prepared party. Part of making "difficult" into "easy" is being prepared.

But even if you are utterly prepared, you simply can't do it. The only thing that will take this down is really good casting power. I don't like there only being one solution to a puzzle.

[Ghoste]

Solo'd that one on elite up to the vamp himself. Wore a deathblock docent, so no destruction. He kept trying to cast hold and dominate person on me - pointless against a warforged. I had jump on and just kept running in circles around him jumping constantly. The flamestrikes, etc. kept landing well behind me. Never actually did any damage to me. Got him to turn into bats - killed them. Into wolves, dragged them back through the two spike traps. Then he was regening too fast. Couldn't kill him, he couldnt hurt me. I ran in the rest shrine, he followed me. I ran out and shut the door and put up an lfm for more casters.

[Spookydodger]

Destruction (-AC weapon effect) + Sunder (yes, they stack) + Greater Heroism/Bardsong on your tanks = sliced and diced Vol vampire.

Most people don't carry sunder because it wasn't useful before. Destruction does help.

It just seems odd that this one guy would be so utterly bad-arse.

He could take on Velah and the Titan at the same time.

[Spookydodger]

Solo'd that one on elite up to the vamp himself. Wore a deathblock docent, so no destruction. He kept trying to cast hold and dominate person on me - pointless against a warforged. I had jump on and just kept running in circles around him jumping constantly. The flamestrikes, etc. kept landing well behind me. Never actually did any damage to me. Got him to turn into bats - killed them. Into wolves, dragged them back through the two spike traps. Then he was regening too fast. Couldn't kill him, he couldnt hurt me. I ran in the rest shrine, he followed me. I ran out and shut the door and put up an lfm for more casters.

Using the fire room can help to keep a cap on his regeneration. It doesn't completely counter it, but can help a lot.

[Ghoste]

Using the fire room can help to keep a cap on his regeneration. It doesn't completely counter it, but can help a lot.

Ooooh...would've had to do the fire room differently then. I never actually killed any mephits. I put up a d door outside the room, ran in and pulled the switch, then back to the d door.

[MysticTheurge]

Ooooh...would've had to do the fire room differently then. I never actually killed any mephits. I put up a d door outside the room, ran in and pulled the switch, then back to the d door.

You can also sometimes get him to hang out in the force traps. That works to much the same effect.

[Mad_Bombardier]

Most people don't carry Sunder because it wasn't useful before. Destruction does help.

Every Fighter/Barb/Paly/Ranger gets Sunder as a free feat/ability at creation. It's not a matter of carrying it, it's a matter of clicking the button. (although I'm not entirely sure it works on him anymore with red-named immunities).

[Yoseph]

Funny story. I was in a high level PUG consisting of 4 fighters, a cleric and my Bard (most or all were 14) doing favor runs. We had decided to do Faithful Departed when right after I picked up the quest I got disconnected. It took me a good 15 minutes to get back in the game and I figured I'd have been booted, but was still in the group.

Turns out they decided to do this quest on Elite instead. I expressed my concern that without a caster we wouldn't be able to beat the vampire. They wanted to try anway (they were actually part way through the quest when I reconnected).

We finally get to the vampire and after getting him down to a quarter of his HP multiple times had to run away and regroup for SP and such. Unfortunately he decided to follow us to the shrine and we had numerous deaths. Finally we were able to regroup and surround him and beat him down in a under a minute. Really didn't do anything different than the first few times, but it worked. So it can be done without a caster, but obviously they make it a lot easier.

[Glenalth]

Solo'd that one on elite up to the vamp himself. Wore a deathblock docent, so no destruction. He kept trying to cast hold and dominate person on me - pointless against a warforged. I had jump on and just kept running in circles around him jumping constantly. The flamestrikes, etc. kept landing well behind me. Never actually did any damage to me. Got him to turn into bats - killed them. Into wolves, dragged them back through the two spike traps. Then he was regening too fast. Couldn't kill him, he couldnt hurt me. I ran in the rest shrine, he followed me. I ran out and shut the door and put up an lfm for more casters.

Why do I get the feeling that this would have been enhanced if "Yakkity Sax" was playing in the background...

[Gimpster]

I said it was difficult. That is to say, that you can't just zerg in there or else the tons of caster NPCs will nuke the daylights out of an improperly prepared party.

Yeah, you said it was difficult. Which is wrong- it's easy. An uprepared level 9 party should be able to zerg to the boss with minimal risk.

But even if you are utterly prepared, you simply can't do it. The only thing that will take this down is really good casting power.

Once again, wrong. A well-prepared (aka high DPS) melee team can beat the vampire lord too.