Solo Rogue defeats the Kobold Hordes

[Carlobrand]

I can't honestly say that this one's worth crowing about. Sure feels like it to me, but I'm sure it pales against your efforts against dragons and such. Still, a low-level solo rogue surviving a fight that was clearly intended for a fully-equipped team feels like a noteworthy achievement - and, frankly, if the more experienced tacticians would care to make a few suggestions on such things as effective tumbling and dealing with magic users, I will not complain.

I'm a low-level Rogue/Fighter, old-timey D&D player but playing DDO only for about a month. (Solo player Rogue-2/Fighter-1/Ranger-1, and please don't comment on the build. I'm relatively new to DDO and I know I've already made mistakes on the build, but I figure I'll try again after I learn what other mistakes lie in wait for me. For now, it works for solo.) I've got small kids, which means pretty unpredictable family demands, which means I can't guarantee a party that I can be with them to the end. I don't think that's fair to others so I only play solo, where I can call a halt and hide in some corner - or even abandon a quest - if my kiddies need my attention. Trying to do all the quests in solo mode is sometimes quite a challenge. Take for example, "Kobold Assault."

I don't know if I should issue a spoiler warning for this. "Kobold Assault" is pretty straightforward - a defense against a lot of kobolds. Nothing fancy, and exactly what the Guard said it would be. Still, those who like to puzzle out their own strategies might not want to read further.

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Fair warning has been issued
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Despite being told by the guard, I was not prepared for what I encountered. Defense of an outpost against a kobold assault - I'd expected wave attacks with a bit of a breather between attacks. My one level of fighter gave me access to heavy armor and a good array of weapons, and as a low level character I'd not advanced so far that the HP and to-hit bonus differences between Fighters and Rogues were extreme.

Well, the breather didn't happen. I opened the gate, wondered how this first wave would present itself - and got zerg-rushed. Dozens of the things rushed through the gate, more through a little sally port to my right (that had unfortunately been blocked when I first checked it, or I'd have gone through that and gone a rogue-ing instead.) Reminded me of that scene out of Aliens-II. Started laying about myself with my two-hander, retreated to put my back in a corner, but the warriors about me weren't the problem - they were dying quite nicely, thank you very much. The flippin' shaman were! Throwers weren't pleasant either, but I was taking most of my damage from the shamans' spells. Watched my health bar gradually shrink, switched to bow to try to get at my persecutors (since the wall of kobold-flesh around me wasn't going to let me), but for every one I dropped, another showed up to take his place. I'd killed 34 Kobolds, the wave showed not the slightest sign of abating, I was dying, and there was no way even my ample supply of heal potions was going to last for another 160-some Kobolds - this obviously wasn't an effective strategy. I might have jumped out and escaped at that point, but I had no idea what lay outside the gates, no hope of being left alone long enough to use the healing shrine just outside the gate and no reasonable hope of escaping a horde of pursuers in unexplored terrain. So, I let myself die. A lot of fun that was, but certainly not the end I'd wanted.

Being rather stupidly stubborn and one who MUST solve puzzles when confronted by them, I determined to try again. The quest objective was to kill Kobolds, not hold territory, so this time I decided to let them have the useless outpost and see what I could accomplish through hit-and-run tactics. Let THEM be the defender this time.

That of course involved knowing the terrain well enough to know where to run. I returned to the quest, this time prepped for stealth-fighting, opened the gate - and ran for my very life! A handful gave chase immediately. Evading them was no mean trick - if I stopped to fight off my pursuers, more found me and came to join the fight. However, the shaman and throwers liked to stay out at range, while the fighters pursued me closely. By running and then turning to fight briefly at intervals, I was able to kill a few close pursuers before the long-range force caught up with me, and by weaving back and forth during flight I was able to keep the ranged weapons and most spells from hitting me while I opened up the range for the next brief fight. Some odd slowing spell made for a few hair-raising moments, but I found that the farther I was from the outpost, the less eager they were to pursue. Eventually I was able to kill off the close pursuers, break contact with the ranged force and go into hiding.

From that point, as a rogue with decent Hide and Move Silent skills, I was fighting the Kobolds on my terms instead of theirs. I was able to scout the valley in relative safety, establishing their patterns of movement and defense. I triggered a few more fleeing skirmishes, which led me to discover that my safest point was a large tree at the opposite end of the valley from the outpost: fighting there did not draw the attention of additional attackers, and the tree sheltered me from the throwers and shaman while I dealt with the warriors and kobold rogues. Dealing then with the long-range force was still tricky. I could isolate them and kill them singly, but I had no strategy that didn't result in a few wounds to myself: the things flee from close combat, trading shots via bow was effective but invariably resulted in a few hits to myself, and tumbling involves just too many keys and too much change in position - for close combat I'd lose track of the opponent (who was dodging and weaving himself) and end up vulnerable while I relocated him, and for missile combat I couldn't manage all the buttons involved and shoot my bow with any accuracy. (They really need to fix that.) I prevailed in each fight, but my health bar was not happy.

My curse on the game-programmer who decided placing the healing shrine right next to the main Kobold patrol route would be a clever trick. It was useless to me for most of the quest, although it did let me execute my hit-and-run strategy rather effectively: I'd try to sneak in for a stealthy heal, invariably draw the attention of firepot-throwers before I could so much as click on the shrine (***!?), find myself fleeing pursuit, then kill the pursuers at my distant tree base. Did that - staying alive with the help of my potions - until I'd finally killed off about 150 kobolds. (Found along the way that the kobold rogues sneaking down the thin trail from the sally port were vulnerable; I could ambush them and kill them singly without attracting attention. Only time I was able to draw out single opponents until close to the end. Killed about 20 before they stopped appearing.)

At last, after the enemy was severely depleted (and seemed to be running out of warriors and rogues, since I was only drawing 1 close-fighter with the pursuing range-types), I was able to sneak to the Healing Shrine and stay long enough for a well-deserved rest. After that, it was just a matter of mopping up, and after killing another 20 Kobolds by ambush, I conducted a full-fledged assault to retake the outpost and defeat the remaining Kobolds in a nicely exciting but likely unnecessary end-battle.

Reward was a bit disappointing. Nice experience, but I'd have liked a chest to loot given the number of potions I expended accomplishing this. Still, 200 assorted shaman, fire-pot-throwers, warriors, and kobold-rogues - not bad for a low-level solo rogue.

[Carlobrand]

Add: That's the first time I've encountered that green-skull/yellow-skull/orange-skull bit with the warning that the local monsters were alert to me. Is that just for this game, or is that a common feature that I've just been too sneaky to trigger until now?

[ddaedelus]

Grats.

The green/yellow/orange skull thingy is Dungeon Alert. It's meant to dissuade you from zerging. So you go, you kobold assault zerger you!

[Inkblack]

Nice job, that's a real accomplishment. It sounds like you had a a lot of fun, too.

Ink

[Zenako]

Well done and its cool you were able to figure out a major key to beating quests. Actually reading and understanding the quest objectives and not falling into an easy trap of trying to defend the fortress. (Be aware, there is a higher level quest with much the same layout where you actually do need to prevent any of the mobs (Hobgoblins) from entering the quest. VERY very hard to do with a melee based character.)

I know personally when I end up beating something like this it feels a lot better than any number of easy uneventful loot runs...

[Failedlegend]

One of my favorite tactics for Kobold Assault is after the little door gets smashed jump out of the group your fighting and head out the small door and quickly turn right and theres a little alcove there and only a few kobold will follow you clear them out and it makes for some easy healing through spells or pots than head back to the fray.

Also always remember the melee mobs are there to stop you from getting to those annoying casters so jump over them (Dunno if this works very well in heavy armor...all my chars are robe/outfit/light armor wearers) and slay the caster(s) than slaughter the useless melee with no caster to protect them...although kobolds tend to have the ability to climb walls and other unreacvhabkle spots (though a bug not gameplay) so always carry some from of ranged weapon or spell to finish em off.

Oh and as far as the annoyingly placed rest shrine I like it being there it really teach newish players how to use teamwork (ie.One rests rest defend and rotate until everyone's good) and this quest and the higher level version of it (ESPECIALLY the higher level one) also teach alot of teamwork because its pretty much work together or die (On the higher diffs)

If get to the higher level version a little hint (and something I learned through trial by fire) never have a fearsome item equipped (causes fear to enemies who attack you) its one of my favorite effects to help with aggro management especially for soloing BUT in this specific quest its bad because for some reason the feared mobs have a tendency to run INTO the fortress causing you to fail.