Seriously. . .

[Zillee]

Dust is easy on a THF melee although a bit time consuming. You just put the axe away (gasp), take off your guards, equip a scimitar or whatever and target what you're hitting. Sure, you aren't doing the usual damage but you do enough to get through it. Did this a couple weeks ago doing the first part solo, killed no spiders, and was joined by a guildie for the end fight. Got the three chests at the end. A THF toon who doesn't swap the axe out probably didn't know the quest requirements, or doesn't carry an alternative set of weapons. That used to be me but you live and learn (and read these forums for advice).

[Eladiun]

A Lightning II Greataxe in Dust?

I've never failed that quest before.

I could use a LitII Greataxe and complete just fine all you need is a little swing discipline. Although, I did forget to take my LitII guard off once and that was a shock...but at least it only procced once.

[TheDjinnFor]

A Lightning II Greataxe in Dust?

I've never failed that quest before.

Supreme cleave ftw :O

[LordPiglet]

I hate this quest, all my melee can do is pike for most of it. It's embarrassing for my 2 handed fighting barb to have to run around with a tiny short sword, hoping not to hit anything.

spiders are immune to acid damage, try using something that does acid.

[danotmano1998]

My first thoughts on this quest were "Major suck!"

Then I gave it some time and adjusted to the fact you can't simply kill everything you see, and there are some random elements to it.

Now, I think it's a pretty good quest. One that takes a little bit of thinking to overcome. What's wrong with that? Nothing, IMO.

[Bobthesponge]

Not sure how I will handle it when my sorcerer is old enough to handle Sleeping Dust. Either FoD every ogre, or respec enhancements into Earth Savant and rain acid on everything -- which spiders won't even notice.

When I ran dust on my sorc on norm (lvl16-17) I did just that - FoD on the ogres and make sure your auto targeting is off.

When I just ran it elite (lvl 19) I ran around throwing Mass Hold - that worked very well on the spiders. Generally they were all held along with ogres but if one manages to save that is much easier to avoid than 5 or 6. Then you can either FoD or - if you wanna save mana - frost lance the held ogres (or equvalent - I am a water savant). It worked great and was much easier on mana.

[killerzee25]

Hate to say it in a PUG, facinate is more useless than anything else crowd control related.

One word Grease

[DoctorWhofan]

I hope your not lumping fasinate with being useless?

nope, I have a virtuoso bard. In PuGs, however, itis very useless.

[jcTharin]

If you are using a two handed weapon just keep moving and you won't accidentally hit any spiders with glancing blows. problem solved and the only place where a nerf is actually helpful. and i like my cloud burst in there, the spiders are very resistant to electric damage.

[jydog100]

Hate to say it in a PUG, facinate is more useless than anything else crowd control related.

Typical PUG:
1) Bard runs up and facinates all the mobs.
2) Casters (including divines) drop AoE spells and TWF and THF run in at various targets.
3) Everything is back free.
4) Bard is now feeling USELESS!

Tight guild run:
1) Bard runs up and facinates all the mobs.
2) Party surgically chops the mobs to peices.
3) Everything is dead with little need for party heals
4) Bard feels UBER!

Solo bard:
1) bard fascinates 1 group at a time
2) displace/haste/rage as needed...mobs dead
3) heal up if necessary
4) move to next group
5) finish quest/collect loots

[Iwinbyrollup]

I have been running this solo on my WF FvS. I use a greatsword, but don't have THF line and turn off Power Attack so I still don't do much damage to the spiders. It works fairly well.

The thing that annoys me the most are when the spiders suicide on explosive barrels. I always forget to keep an eye out for those.

Of course, I've never failed because of that, but I have lost out on chests because the last group I had to clear had a suiciding spider.

[Schmoe]

It's better than swinging vorpals at the start of Hound. It just takes one stray swing, as I found out.

[Milfeulle]

Kill the boss and everything that gets in your way, then pick the book, problem solved.

[GotSomeQuestions]

Kill the boss and everything that gets in your way, then pick the book, problem solved.

You need to pick up the journals to trigger the named Ogre Magi, and you need to kill the named Ogre Magi to get the keys you need to advance the quest. But you can at least clear all the necessary parts of the lower floor before taking the journal, and carefully use whatever your "select object" key is (Q for me) to find the 2nd journal above you. That means you only need to clear 1/2 of 1 upper passageway, or maybe 2 parts if you also want to get to the shrine.

[cdemeritt]

I actually like this quest, i prefer it to coal chamber, I hate super mario. .

lol ive had casters accidently hit the wail button and fail the quest or a 2handed weapon user who thought his vorpal great axe was a good idea.

If on a caster:
I remove all AoE spells from my hotbar (Firewall, Wail, Blade Barrier, cometfall, Implosion, etc. etc.)

If on a melee: I remove Vorpal, any Glancing blow type weapon, all guards, and try to find a paralyzer. This way should I accidently hit a spider, it's not so bad.

Dust is significantly more difficult on a melee, but on a divine/arcane, a piece of cake, so long as you don't use your auras/AoE's. take your time and make sure you have the ogres targeted. The spiders are annoying, but usually don't do too much damage.

[Calebro]

Still, I like Sleeping Dust too. Mostly. The only part I do not like is running around trying to find two books which could be ANYWHERE.

There's a trick to that.
First of all, the books cannot be *anywhere* as you claim. There are a few possible locations for each one.
First, clear the bottom floor completely. You'll find the first Journal along the way, and get ready for the trip to the second journal. After the bottom floor is completely cleared, go back to where the first journal was and pick it up. Now is when you have to start worrying about killing spiders, but by now the majority of the work is done.
Pick up the journal and go look for Kasi. He's wandering around somewhere, but if you cleared the first floor, the group can safely split up to find him and not even the 0 fort 128 hp noob wiz is in danger. Kill Kasi and head back to the central room.

There are only three possible locations for the second journal, and two of them can be found by running around this chamber spamming your Target Item button. I think it might be Backspace by default, but I remapped it long ago, so use whatever works if it isn't backspace.

If the second journal is by the shrines, head NW.
If the second journal is in the NE by the moss collectable, head NE.
If the second journal is in the SE by the fungus patch, head SE.
If you can't find the second journal this way, keep looking. It's there somewhere and you just haven't had a good angle on it yet.

Now you only have to clear one hallway upstairs before you find and kill Yre downstairs (in the cleared hallways, so split up again to look for him) and move on to the locked door.

[SynnMG]

I like that it has these features, while specifically * not* being a "protect this person and if this person dies, you fail" type of quest,

1 Word

Coyle
(or whatever his name is you have to spend 15 blamming minutes defending)

[Blank_Zero]

There's a trick to that.
First of all, the books cannot be *anywhere* as you claim. There are a few possible locations for each one.
First, clear the bottom floor completely. You'll find the first Journal along the way, and get ready for the trip to the second journal. After the bottom floor is completely cleared, go back to where the first journal was and pick it up. Now is when you have to start worrying about killing spiders, but by now the majority of the work is done.
Pick up the journal and go look for Kasi. He's wandering around somewhere, but if you cleared the first floor, the group can safely split up to find him and not even the 0 fort 128 hp noob wiz is in danger. Kill Kasi and head back to the central room.

There are only three possible locations for the second journal, and two of them can be found by running around this chamber spamming your Target Item button. I think it might be Backspace by default, but I remapped it long ago, so use whatever works if it isn't backspace.

If the second journal is by the shrines, head NW.
If the second journal is in the NE by the moss collectable, head NE.
If the second journal is in the SE by the fungus patch, head SE.
If you can't find the second journal this way, keep looking. It's there somewhere and you just haven't had a good angle on it yet.

Now you only have to clear one hallway upstairs before you find and kill Yre downstairs (in the cleared hallways, so split up again to look for him) and move on to the locked door.

If the journal is by the shrine, there's a nice trick to getting it with a monk, fvs, or anything with Sprint boost

[Faent]

With a little luck and two or three good casters (wizzies, sorcies, divines) who know the quest, Dust is a sub 7 minute quest. It rocks. It's sub ten minutes, easily, even if you don't get lucky. For the lucky speed boost you need someone with wings or abundant step (or, I guess, an incredibly skilled rock climber). Dust is by far the best Vale quest to farm for XP, unless you're a melee. =)

[Morosy]

Did this earlier today on my Favored Soul with a Lit II greatsword, worked pretty well. Didn't use it at end boss though.

Frankly I'm surprised it's taken you this long to fail one