Stealer of Souls, Hard (or elite)

[Duke-H-]

BTW.. if you just want favour, skip Sorjek... he can be a big pain.

It's worth giving it a shot, you need to reflag anyway. Just decide beforehand if you want to use resources or not if you're in on elite.

[MysteryNotes]

This is the lowest level quest I have not done on Elite.
The only quest under level 19, that I have not done on Elite.
One of six, that I have not done on Elite.
One of four that I have not done on Hard.

So, I want to get it done.

And I can't do it alone. I need brave souls..... To help me pull it off.

My LFM will say "taking first five of any class." cause that's how I prefer to do things.

As I am an impatient person, and hate to have LFMs sitting unfilled all day, I would very much like to find intersted people ahead of tiem, andmaybe coordinate the best time to do this.



But...I only have about four completions on SoS. And I definately do not know this quest well.
So I need some advice on the best way to approach this.

Number one: should we kill everything?
I am very much in favor of killing everything...a few at a time. I think at our level that should not be a problem and will make things easier. Yep. Kill them all on the way, else they'll pile up and get to be a problem.

But does anything respawn? Or is there another valid reason to not kill things as we go? (can't remember...is there a timer?) There is a timer. But they don't respawn.



Can the Fire Ellies and Efreeti "See Invisibility?"
And would it be easier to try to avoid them or just take them on as few at a time as possible?
I believe the efreeti have see invisibility. The elementals don't though.

Are there traps that we should(can) disable?
I just remember the air jets and levers.... No.

What CC works good in there?
I think for the giants we are limited to non-enchantment types...mostly debuffs. But Flesh to Stone, Stinking Cloud, and some stunning effects like Greater Shout should work I think.
Can we use Trap the Soul on hard/elite? From spell?
I use glitterdust, incendiary cloud(Makes em run around randomly inside it), Flesh to Stone and Cloudkill.

Anything else I should know?
Sor'jek casts Flesh to Stone and Meteor Swarm on elite. If running around, stay well away from the group healer(He loves destroying scrolls and manapots.) His Flesh to Stone spell also has a dc of 30+


This is mostly for favor, but I'm too proud not to try to take down our favorite undead giant boss.
Everyone one says "bludgeoning"....but isn't it "good and bludgeoning"?
Bludgeoning works.




I've already got one masochistic cleric in mind that I will try to recruit if he's on at the time.

I would prefer people who hae at least done it once on normal...
And who have some idea what they are in for, and feel they are up to the task.

There is a reason why I have not done this on elite yet. It's tough.

If you haven't done a bunch of the highest content on something above normal, this is probably not the group for you.

If you are going to be asking for various buffs (especially fire resist) all the time, this is probably not the group for you.

I want friendly people with a "can do" attitude.

We will help each other the best we can, but a difficult quest leaves little room for hand holding.

I'm not a heavy handed leader, nor do I know the quest well.
I like groups that work together and are closer to a democracy than a dictatorship.


Let me know if anyone is intersted, and when would be the best times for you.

Thx.

I've done SoS quite a few times, and completed it on elite as well; if you need another caster, send Xanarian a tell.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

Got a late start today. Plan to put up my LFM soon.

Maybe 1:00 pm EST.

I might stack the deck a little....send invites to people who replied here, and maybe mention it on Angel's chat.


Hope to see you all soon.

[sirgog]

That's illogical: asking people to sacrifice an entire body slot to save 10 spellpoints from the Ranger.

Illogical is sacrificing having Fire Resist automatically reapplied after a death (in a part of a quest where fire spells are spammed and deaths are almost certain to happen) to get some unimportant effect like a few more hit points.

[hydra_ex]

Illogical is sacrificing having Fire Resist automatically reapplied after a death (in a part of a quest where fire spells are spammed and deaths are almost certain to happen) to get some unimportant effect like a few more hit points.

What if its the same slot as your resistance item? Your Con +6/ToD set bonus item?

10 sp from a ranger (such as talon) probably doesn't amount to the bonuses gained from keeping it on. Especially in a group where there might not be a designated healer, so hp is all the more important.

[sirgog]

As for strategy - while in Normal Fire is the hardest room, on Elite Ice is the hardest by far. The traps will one or two shot players, and have DCs in the 40s.

This makes it particularly tough to pull the lever that turns off all the traps on the top. Do not attempt SoS elite without at least one evasion toon.

As for what to expect:

Earth: Like Normal. Giants have more HP and higher saves. Traps (the falling roof ones) can one-shot players. Have an evasion player (preferably with Improved Evasion) lead the way whenever walking into a new corridor.
Ice: Levers are harder to pull, as you are taking damage that isn't covered by resists. No other major differences (Giants and Flensers are of course tougher)
Fire: No real change from Normal. Higher HP on mobs, higher save DC on spells.
Air: Energy Drain followed by Trap the Soul is less reliable against trash than on normal.
Sor'jek: Three main changes. The mephits still spawn at set times (not HP increments) so higher DPS means less mephits total - this is one of the few encounters in the game where lower DPS means you may not win at all rather than the encounter just taking longer.
1) Sor'jek casts Flesh to Stone. Have scrolls of Stone to Flesh ready on two separate players.
2) Sor'jek has more HP, thus the fight is longer, thus you see more mephits.
3) The Risia mephit (attackers suffer cold damage) is no longer a nuisance. It is deadly, and all melee DPS must halt attacks until it is slain.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

Got a late start today. Plan to put up my LFM soon.

Maybe 1:00 pm EST.

I might stack the deck a little....send invites to people who replied here, and maybe mention it on Angel's chat.


Hope to see you all soon.

Sadly, the greatest obsticle to overcome is actually getting a group filled.




I'll try again later.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

Well things did not go well.

We wiped at fire. Probably more due to my in-experiance as a leader for this quest, than any real weakness in the players.


Then I had too many people leave group and I coudn't get the group filled up again.


So some other time I guess.



Real hard to find enough people flagged to fill up a SoS group.

Even harder to find any that want to do it on hard.
Got a lot of...questions from my own group even about why I wanted to do hard.



I still want to do this one.....eventually on elite. But hard first... baby steps.
I know I need more experiance in this quest to feel comfortible. At least leading it.


Might try once more tonight. I had a couple people interested in trying again.

Might try tomorrow sometime....like around noon EST.

Anyone interested let me know.

[sirgog]

Real hard to find enough people flagged to fill up a SoS group.

Even harder to find any that want to do it on hard.
Got a lot of...questions from my own group even about why I wanted to do hard.

Make your LFM clear 'Hard for favor and fun' or something like that. Immediately groupkick anyone that asks 'why hard'.

They've joined an LFM for a Hard run, then demonstrated that they didn't read the LFM. Someone that can't be bothered reading an LFM isn't going to be a person that will listen to directions in hard parts of the quest.

I operate on exactly the same approach for Elite Shroud runs. Clear LFM saying Elite, anyone that joins and asks 'why elite' gets the boot - I'd rather roll with 11 than with someone like that, particularly as they are almost certain to mess up my part 4 strategy and cause a lot of additional Fireball/Meteor damage than necessary.

[khaldan]

What if its the same slot as your resistance item? Your Con +6/ToD set bonus item?

10 sp from a ranger (such as talon) probably doesn't amount to the bonuses gained from keeping it on. Especially in a group where there might not be a designated healer, so hp is all the more important.

You could always buy a few resist energy(11th) wands and give em to talon and someone else who can cast resist. 0 sp and no body slot needed.

But seriously, 60 sp every 11 minutes isn't all that much. Get a bauble, never worry about buffing again.

[Xyfiel]

Noon is a bit early for most powergamers I know. Still church/family time for a lot of people. I could bring my Ninja Spy, doubtful I will be online at noon though.

Also, no need to go for Sorjek unless you just want the challenge. It will probably end up being a heavy resource run, and I would be happy just to help out but running very low on swappable mana pots.

[sirgog]

You could always buy a few resist energy(11th) wands and give em to talon and someone else who can cast resist. 0 sp and no body slot needed.

But seriously, 60 sp every 11 minutes isn't all that much. Get a bauble, never worry about buffing again.

Except for the fact that when you raise someone, you need to waste either one second casting Resist from SP, or three seconds equipping a wand, using it, then reverting to your original weapon(s). There is a one second global cooldown on combat actions.

Out of combat that is irrelevant, in a hectic combat in a quest that is full of medium and large sized packets of energy damage it can and will lead to additional deaths.


As for Sor'jek - he's not too bad on Hard - if you have an arcane with a good Firewall. Elite is nasty, however.

[Avenir]

Have a 20 AA who is flagged. I would like to help on this but unfortunately I don't have much exp. in this quest. I'll be on around 12:30 est. if ya get desperate.

[bree22]

I would love to run with you but i am on wrong server. I always love a challenge even if it means i have to die a few times lol. If you play on orien look me up under breelleena or breeeee.