Tomb of the Tormented story...

[Cedrica-the-Bard]

First off, I will say: I DESPISE THIS QUEST! But that isn't the point of my story.... The point is I solo'd this quest twice, once on Battledrums (dwarven axe weilding warchanter - see sig) and once on Sedd the Smiter (mid 50's AC uber Pally build ). Here are the results:

- Battledrums did it in half the time it took Sedd.

Some key points to make:

1. Battledrums AC is around 41 most of the time, Sedd is 53.
2. Battledrums has 276 HP, Sedd has 307.
3. Battledrums strength is 26, Sedd's is 26.

So why was this quest so much easier with Battledrums? Well I could fucus on getting the rats through the maze and ignore the annoying respawning undead you need to kill to get rat food using Song of the Dead. When he did need to kill one to get more rat food, it only took a few seconds with Power Attack on. Sedd on the other hand had to try to focus on the puzzle while letting these dudes wail on him until he needed more food. Granted he didn't take much damage but it felt like FOREVER to kill them...

When I finally got the puzzle completed, I used my remaining 3 songs (held in reserve for the end battle due to no shrines) and my remaining SP for Displacement and Haste and the Mummy boss went down in no time. I pulled out a Holy Greataxe for that guy and dropped him in no time. Poor Sedd, on the other hand, took FOREVER to kill him. Again, Sedd took very little damage due to his high AC, but had to keep drinking haste pots every 30 seconds just to be able to wail on him!

Now don't get me wrong, my Pally is built just the way I intended him to be built: high AC, decent HP, Intimidate, great LOH, uber saves, the works. If he had the uber Raid gear, he'd be just about as perfect a Pally as you could build. But he pales in comparison to Battledrums. Sure Battledrums is now pretty kitted out with snazzy weapons and nice gear (not uber by any means, the only Raid I do is the Reaver), but so is Sedd. What it boils down to is that Battledrums is a far better tank, in terms of survivability and damage than Sedd is. And if there were other party members in there, they'd get the benefit too. Sedd can't transfer HIS super high AC to the other fighters in the party the way Battledrums can make everyone else more powerful.

So here's the moral of this story: Bards FTW!

[Mad_Bombardier]

Flesh to Stone should work on Zombies, too.

[MrCow]

One of the easiest ways to save your sanity of having zombies bother you on the rat maze is when you are on the second or third rat maze, drag the zombies back to the first rat maze (by the gate to the mummy).