Offering of Blood solo by newb lvl 12 clonk

[Raoull]

This one took me a bit (See http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=289147 ).... most of my normal strategies failed due to the near constant rush of new mobs.

Perhaps this is no big deal (as indicated by Jakarr's "Easy pesy" remark)... but for me it was hard, and very informative. Took me about 6 tries to learn how to do this. The other two lvl 11 quests I've done in the area were totally childs play. This one beat me up and down the block for a while.

Things learned:
-failed USov (stunned mid animation) still counts as a use
-how to effectively use heal scrolls (used 48 total, and about 2 dozen during the successful run) Since hitting the level where I could use them, nothing else challenged me enough to need them.
-kiting in tight quarters (still need to learn how to handle the "floaty" problem better. wiggling and turning while swinging seems the best way to get to the ground)

That... and strateegery. without proper strateegery, I'm a red blotch.


-At all times avoid casting Heal. Use RS burst, USov and heal scrolls. Save mana for BBs (plus occasional DF for nameds, and buffs vs. end mage)
-From ledge, buff up some (enough to not waste mana while switching from mana weapons to attack weapons)
-go down, and kill peon scorpions
-grab blood, trigger named scorpion, kill him. Try to use only RS for healing
-zerg past many mobs opening doors (mabar invisguard cloak is huge)
-try to close bridge once over. If you can't, BB and kill off some of the pack there and then do so.
-zerg to wall of fire and orange-named scorrow.
-BB kite down all of the chump mobs _first_. May need to melee some of the casters. little scorpions respawn, but scorrows and elves do not.
-melee down orange scorrow
-when new orange scorrow and friends appear, BB kite them down before continuing (at least the named one)
-resume zerging through doors. If pack gets unwieldy, BB.
-jump from bridge, run down hidey hole, go heal up (during successful run actually had 180 mana left here... but since mobs around there respawn, no point in using it up killing them.
-run through lightning, get to ledge, continue zerging (and BBing if the pack gets unwieldy)
-vs. Red named Mage, BB kite all of the scorrow (or melee the casters who won't move enough) before worrying about the mage. Be sure to keep HPs relatively high to not die from disintegrate.
-After scorrow are killed, buff up with FoM and energy resists
-beat on mage... for ages. That stone skin definitely took more than 150 damage to go down.
-profit

[PCNONSENSE]

Gratz man!

[Raoull]

OK... who the heck determines the difficulty of these quests? I just finished Chamber of Raiyum. Another one of the 3 pre-quest to the demon queen, and 1 lvl higher than Offering of Blood (and both are "very long" and "challenging"). Offering of Blood was a huge challenge. Chamber of Raiyum was a cakewalk. I never used either of the shrines I ran into (not counting the ones behind int runes) and only even used like a third of my mana. It was waaaaay easier than Offering.

They need to switch the lvls. Offering should be the 12 and chamber the 11... at the very least. I'm curious which way Chains of Flame will go.... Maybe even remove the "challenging" from Chamber, although I guess navigating it alone is a challenge (I couldn't figure out a way to get to a big chunk of the map, but I wasn't even worried about it until after I had technically solved it).

Crazy.

[balancetraveller]

OK... who the heck determines the difficulty of these quests? I just finished Chamber of Raiyum. Another one of the 3 pre-quest to the demon queen, and 1 lvl higher than Offering of Blood (and both are "very long" and "challenging"). Offering of Blood was a huge challenge. Chamber of Raiyum was a cakewalk. I never used either of the shrines I ran into (not counting the ones behind int runes) and only even used like a third of my mana. It was waaaaay easier than Offering.

They need to switch the lvls. Offering should be the 12 and chamber the 11... at the very least. I'm curious which way Chains of Flame will go.... Maybe even remove the "challenging" from Chamber, although I guess navigating it alone is a challenge (I couldn't figure out a way to get to a big chunk of the map, but I wasn't even worried about it until after I had technically solved it).

Crazy.

Never tried to solo Chains of Flames, so no idea if it's a hard one for soloers; in addition Clerics tend to have a big advantage in soloing so what a cleric feels may not necessarily be how a barbarian would rate these quests

The main difficulty in Chains is those **** archers everywhere showering you with craps from high ledges, not counting in the totally illegible map. If you can range them then you might be fine. Oh, and the lack of shrines if you do it higher than normal.

[Hobgoblin]

first off let me preface this by saying grats man.

now since no one has done this yet,

ss or it didnt happen!!!!

hob

[Raoull]

I just did Chains of Flames last night. It was much harder than Raiyum... although for me, still substantially easier than Offering of Blood. It took me only one try, and I only need 3 or so heal scrolls.

I think Offering and Chains should be the lvl 12 quests, and Raiyum the 11. That one seemed really easy.

For others, I think Chains could be much harder. As a RS (although only RS 1, not 2... well, 2 now since Flames got me the exp to lvl 13) I healed a huge amount for free. I basically spent 80% of my mana buffing. Only in the last fight (I never shrined at all, I saw one show up on my map early, but didn't need it then) did I use any mana to heal.

But considering it took me a bit over an hour... I probably healed over 2K hps just from RS burst. Take that away, and I'd have been out of mana early on. Even shrining, I probably would have been using tons of consumables.

I didn't find the archers too bad most of the time (except a few areas where they were particularly thick). The spell casters were more of an issue.... particularly the one with full heal. Especially for the last fight, I didn't notice one until he kept healing the General and the Efreet. Thinking they shouldn't be doing that themselves, I move around the doorway I had used as a choke point, found him and offed him. After that, the 2 big ones didn't take too long.

Very similar issue I ran into in Offering. You need to kill all of the attendants before the big bosses. (Well, not really, but you need to kill all of the healers for sure, and probably should kill all other casters.)

And that blindness curse? Really annoying... I was wearing pro-blind so it was no big deal, but it would flash on my screen every 6 seconds.

[moomooprincess]

Good job.

The drow Scorpions casters are ridiculous, but that is part of the challenge.

[voodoogroves]

With dugeon alert, some quests are actually easier to solo than to handle with a group.

Typical group-play for OOB is very similar to what you did, only with an arcane - run to next door, stand in Wall of Fire, heal the arcane who has aggro while everything dies ... rinse ... repeat. Very quick. Folks also rarely run this without someone to handle locks either and tend to take a bit more time in those optional rooms to the right for a chance at the Spectral Gloves.

I took some friends through OOB and Chains last night on my FVS. Few things on normal last more than a pass or two through a maximized blade barrier. The archers are a real pain though, esp. when you're trying to open a door and they keep interrupting.

Raiyum, if you don't know it, can be troublesome. End fight can be harsh too since dude is immune to a million things. Arcanes tend to cake-walk the early bit, but can sometimes hit a wall on the prince himself. Divines may have a more difficult time up to the boss but he blade-barriers well enough. And yeah, there are a good 4 shrines in that one.

[Raoull]

Huh... I just sorta beat up Raiyum. No issues at all. I'd say it was anticlimactic except I ran into him pretty early in the quest. I just sort of realized "Oh look, I just solved the quest" without really worrying about anything. Heck, the funky Air based Djinn seemed harder as he kept throwing me about the room for a while making it hard to melee.

But... I did think of one reason I may have had so few issues with Raiyum. My normal wraps are +4 flaming/bleeding. In Chains, I used my +5 true law ones (or metaline for golems).... but for Raiyum I used my lvl 12 Mabar handwraps. Those things are really good... it may warp my view on any undead quest.

[Lorz]

OK... who the heck determines the difficulty of these quests? I just finished Chamber of Raiyum. Another one of the 3 pre-quest to the demon queen, and 1 lvl higher than Offering of Blood (and both are "very long" and "challenging"). Offering of Blood was a huge challenge. Chamber of Raiyum was a cakewalk. I never used either of the shrines I ran into (not counting the ones behind int runes) and only even used like a third of my mana. It was waaaaay easier than Offering.

They need to switch the lvls. Offering should be the 12 and chamber the 11... at the very least. I'm curious which way Chains of Flame will go.... Maybe even remove the "challenging" from Chamber, although I guess navigating it alone is a challenge (I couldn't figure out a way to get to a big chunk of the map, but I wasn't even worried about it until after I had technically solved it).

Crazy.

Its nice you completed but it appears you do not know all there is to know about Chamber....seeing as you admit you had large chunks you couldnt figure out.

Did you miss the three chests in that shrine behind the int runes? If so....you also missed a ton of XP.

Try Hard/Elite

[kinar]

nvm...misread

[Loromir]

OK... who the heck determines the difficulty of these quests? I just finished Chamber of Raiyum. Another one of the 3 pre-quest to the demon queen, and 1 lvl higher than Offering of Blood (and both are "very long" and "challenging"). Offering of Blood was a huge challenge. Chamber of Raiyum was a cakewalk. I never used either of the shrines I ran into (not counting the ones behind int runes) and only even used like a third of my mana. It was waaaaay easier than Offering.

They need to switch the lvls. Offering should be the 12 and chamber the 11... at the very least. I'm curious which way Chains of Flame will go.... Maybe even remove the "challenging" from Chamber, although I guess navigating it alone is a challenge (I couldn't figure out a way to get to a big chunk of the map, but I wasn't even worried about it until after I had technically solved it).

Crazy.

I don't technically solo, because I almost always take a pocket cleric with me on my fighter. I found OOB to be much easier than Wiz King and Chains of Flame. I found Chains quest tedious and boring. I love Wiz King for xp, but it is kind of long. OOB on the otherhand I can complete in about 15 - 20 mins. I frequently farm OOB over and over for Spectral Gloves. Now that I don't get XP for OOB anymore, I just recall before I get to 3rd aspect. I did this on my LVL 12 (Now LVL 16) Fighter.

My main qualm with OOB is the long run to get to the quest. Chains is an even longer run for a tedious and boring quest.

[Thelmallen]

Especially for the last fight, I didn't notice one until he kept healing the General and the Efreet.

Yeah that last divine caster is a pain if you don't know he's there as he stands inside the main room choke point hidden out of sight and heals everyone. Anymore I just run into the room and dodge around the pillars to beat 'em down on a DPS or kite them through persistent AoE spells on a caster. I'll usually go for the healer guhnolls first, though, and leave the two named guys for last.

Congrats on the OOB solo. Back in the day, that was one of the hardest quests in the game. Despite some 'easy peasy' remarks, that's not an easy quest for someone who hasn't done it before.

[Ciaran]

Congrats on the completion. That is a rough quest for a first timer.

Ignore the "easy peasy" comments; for somebody who hasn't done it before that's an accomplishment to be proud of! I admire your persistence!

Hope you got some nice loot for your troubles!