Quote Originally Posted by dunklezhan View Post
It is obscure. You have no way to know the item even exists unless you look in the definitive loot thread or happen to be researching the necro pack.

And it is not an item that everyone has. I don't,

You are correct though - DDO does tend to spring these nasty surprises on you. You learn by wiping here, then research gearing up and redoing. This is fine provided you aren't permadeathing for the first time...
Thanks very much, Dunkle. You have reassured me that I am not crazy =)

I did happen to be aware of the mantle, I just haven't done that quest series yet. Been meaning to do it, but I hear that it involves a brutal protection quest, and we all love protecting suicidal npc's =)

In general, it would be nice if DDO was just a bit more solo-friendly. It seems that sometimes the devs go out of their way to stick a screw to somebody who is soloing, by putting gratuitous double-levers, or whatever else in the way.

Also, I'd feel like I HAVE to play a char with evasion, every time. In general, it tends to be a bit more fun to not have things like that that are such a must. This monk was my first char, but my two friends make a priest and sorc, and they ended up just recreating as 2mnk/X versions for evasion, and they say that the difference is totally night and day. Before they had evasion, it happened more than once that they literally could not progress in a quest, and I'd have to solo the last part of the quest myself, after a long hallway or bridge full of traps, such as in the Crimson Moon quest, or the sonic trap bridge in Sorrowdusk.

DDO is such a great game and you'd think that the quest designers would use a bit more common sense. There is a difference between a challenge vs. an annoyance. A challenge can be overcome multiple ways, with resources that a reasonable prepared person is likely to have. An annoyance requires a very specific item or ability (e.g. evasion, disarm traps, talisman of silver flame), and otherwise it just stops or kills you.