Discussion Thread - The Spinner of Shadows

[KookieKobold]

Arriving too late, the Spinner has been freed from her Prison! Assist the Silver Flame Guardian in defeating and recapturing the Spinner of Shadows!


This quest would be best run with a level 16 or higher character. Feel free to leave your feedback and to discuss this quest in this thread.



As of 2/24/2012, this quest is temporarly out of operation! Further posting will be made when it is available again.

[grodon9999]

Cool, if only we' could find someway to copy over our toons to test . . .

[sirgog]

Entered blindly on Epic. Did not get far.

It appears that you must first push the Spinner boss down to ~60% HP, at which point very weak trash spiders spawn that, HoX like, drop an item you need for the quest. You appear to need 36 of these items (I only survived long enough to get 10ish before all gear was broken and there seemed not to be anywhere safe to put up a Djinni of the Forge).

The boss hits hardish (~115 at a slow attack speed), and has a significantly toned down version of Suulo/LOB's Binding Chains to deal with kiting, but does not seem to do much. I assume there's more surprises later in the quest, but did not see them.

Look forward to another attempt sometime, but it might not be tonight.

[Ovrad]

Having soloed the quest on normal with a lv 20 toon, this one would definitely be easy with a party. I can easily see other having trouble soloing this one, but with a few extra players to distract the spinner while grabbing crystals, it would make a huge difference.

Few comments:

• DM text timing is off, they keep cutting themselves off in the last scene.
• Please please please make these mandatory throwing potions a Ki weapon. It's extremely annoying for a monk to get uncentered every time you need to throw one. (We had the same problem in Tomb of the Blighted).
• On throwing potions again, it's really impossible to land a hit if the Spinner is moving even slightly and you end up wasting most of your potions. Not sure if I missed something, but I only got 1 refill for those so it can be problematic, had to run away at the end cause I could no longer drop her shield to fight back.
• I've gotta say the Spinner looks so good, especially when she retreats. Wonderful job there!

[Vengeance777]

Beautiful quest. Loved every minute of it. Fantastic job on this one.

The Spinner looks perfect. Can't wait to see more driders in the game.

The ending cinematic was epic!

[RandomKeypress]

Normal, hard, lev 20 repeater rogue.

Interesting quest, quite fun, but the mechanics are a little opaque.

Getting rid of the boss' shield with the potions is annoying - if you have auto-attack on you can loose lots of potions very quickly. Hitting the boss with potions is just as hard as hitting anything with any in-game grenade i.e. too much hit and miss. The potions all have the bind-on-pickup warning every time you try and pick one up - this can get a bit much. Why not let people pass them around? Either way, please get rid of the dialogue box.

The poison is a good mechanic, but I feel it should be clearer that you need to run to the flame to clear it. In fact, the first time in there I was pretty unclear on everything - not entirely sure what I needed to do. It all made sense in the end though.

My weapons did not work properly against the boss - my lit 2 only did base damage (plus the occasional backstab). I checked the combat log and despite the numbers clearly showing that she had decent DR, I have no idea what DR she had.

On my second run there was a Khyber Reaver that was immune to all damage. Didn't have any pots left at that stage, so no idea if that would have worked against it. No great deal, but was that WAI?

A bug: after lighting all the flames, you get 'You are hit by error! name_property missing's eternal prison'. At the same time you get a ding as your hireling dies. I realise you don't need them past that point, but it is a little callous to kill them and dump them after they managed to survive that long.

Combat log also showed 'You are hit by levermaster's wind.' - no idea what that's about.

You remain paralysed for longer than necessary after being freed from the chamber.

The DM and the spinner seem intent on talking over each other.

Lolth looked impressive - should be fun to beat her down.

[sirgog]

I seem to have bugged this quest out by completing the main objective (purify 9 altars) at exactly the same time the Silver Flame optional guy died.

[baletraeger]

Wow, just wow.

That was a heck of a lot of fun!

Notes
- occasionally enemies, including the Spinner, renders, and flame eaters, would become virtually immune to attacks from my minII, but that was ok because I just changed my strategy to round them all up around the flame and spam deadly traps (only took 2-3 on normal to clear a full DA2-3 wave worth)
- the eternal prison effect held for a full minute after the silver flame pulled me out of the spinners prison
- LLOTH! When that wall broke down and I gazed into the bozo- er I mean face of that tron-ditigized monarch of chaos, I was shaken. It might simply be from my knowledge of her from FR literature, but seeing a god, not a fabio or warforged demi-god, but a full powered plane ruling god, was impressive to say the least.
- overall in this chain, the move to dialogue holds is great; I know it creates an exploit where a party can 'prep' the combat area before the battle begins, but holding true to plot progession is a key factor to maintaining what little RPG feel this game has

Excelsior, and thank you for keeping a commitment to driving fun storylines for this game for those of us who like a break from the endless item or xp grind.

[joaofalcao]

The Spinner looks perfect. Can't wait to see more driders in the game.

WOW! A drider? Awesome to hear it!!! Getting new monsters! Driders are so cool.

Any possibility to get a Screenshot?

[Vengeance777]

WOW! A drider? Awesome to hear it!!! Getting new monsters! Driders are so cool.

Any possibility to get a Screenshot?

Would say spoilers but if your in a quest topic expect to see them lol.

Drider, Planes being ripped a new one, and Lolth. (My graphics are set pretty low in these shots)

[Cetus]

Wow, all I can say is-

I can't wait to fight lolth after seeing that.

Very entertaining quests, thanks devs

[Grosbeak07]

Ran this twice on a Level 20 Drow Cleric.

The 1st time on Normal, I completed the objectives then the quest majorly bugged out. I was placed into the Eternal Prison mode (couldn't move), but the game didn't advance. So I just stood there while the Spinner killed me, the Silver Flame brought me back to life and I stood there paraylized while I was killed again. Trying to Log out or recall (when dead) caused the game to crash repeatedly. One of my recalls must have finally worked, because I ended up in House C.

I then re-entered the quest on Casual (just to complete) and it worked fine the 2nd time through.

To me this quest is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it looks great. On the other hand, it was a bit of a pain to solo, but could be very easy for a group to complete. Once you get the mechanics down, I could very easily see groups farming this quest for xp (which is pretty good). I would be very interested to see if full groups have a different experience. You may want to consider having optional named monsters spawn that would attack the rest of the party, I'm afraid the Spinner will be too easy to kite and that there will be little resistance to the rest of the party.

I agree with others that it is a little unclear what exactly it is your supposed to be doing. While the Silver Flame has text pop above its head, if your not paying attention you could miss it and not talk to it. Perhpas a voice over or some sort of DM text to be a little more blunt might help.

Also, like others have mentioned, your voice overs are cutting each other off.

Overall, it was a great action quest, especially after the length of the 2nd quest, it was refreshing to just be able to basically jump right into things.

And yes the boss looks freaking awesome.

[ThomasMink]

Ran this on normal with my Cannith crafting event geared Earth Savant.

I was immediately blown away by the darkness in the first section of the cave. All I could think was really.. "I hope the Underdark is at least this dark."

When I came up to the drow and spiders blasting the guardian, I really had no idea I was supposed to be saving him. I mean.. I did anyway, of course. I dunno, maybe I wasn't fully paying attention.

The final room was strange and confusing. Not the layout, but as to what I should be doing. Maybe the dialogue constantly cutting itself off is to blame for that, I dunno. After it ended, though, I was somewhat lost. I heard something to the effect of, "kill spiders".. so I started killing spiders. Was pretty much just melf's-ing them as I saw them, so took me a bit to notice they dropped the items I needed for lighting the torches.

When the Spinner of Shadows attacked after a bit, I was lost as to what to do. My spells were doing nothing, so I was just running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Luck would have it that I crossed the middle and somehow noticed the guardian saying he could weaken her.. so I just tanked it up in the middle and unloaded spells. Afterwards, I noticed the guardian saying he could arm me against her.. but eh, I never used the pots. I just kited the spinner back to the middle every time. Saving the guardian from an ambush was completed with one cast of acid rain.. was expecting something more than that, but eh.

After a while, the spinner kinda got locked into the middle area when I got her health low enough.. not sure if that is by design or not. The spiders that get summoned when she retreats made it slightly easier to grind out the shards needed to light the last 3 torches because of that.

The ending cinematic was awesome, but the paralyzing effect lasts a little too long.

All in all, was a good quest. Probably more fun in a group situation, or at least duo/trio.

[Khurse]

Like Sirgog, I believe I had this quest bug

Solo,Elite, the fight was going normally until I only needed 4 Ward Crystals to light the last torch
Then had this dialogue

(Dungeon Master): The Spinner of Shadows decides to change tactics. "Arise, my spiders! Destroy the Guardian! Without it the mortals are lost!"

Say): Silver Flame Guardian says, 'Protect me! The red spiders are attuned to oppose my power and can consume it! I am vulnerable! Help!'

On my way back to the center to help the Guardian, I lit the last torch and had this pop up

(Dungeon Master): The last ward ignites and brilliant light fills the cavern. The Spinner of Shadows shouts - but it is a shout of triumph, not defeat.
Once again you are held in an irresitable web of force.

(Dungeon Master): The swarm of spiders subsides, and the Guardian is once again safe. Time for you to finish relighting the wards.

(Advancement): Objective Completed! 938 XP.
Dungeon Master): The Silver Flame Guardian vanishes beneath an onslaught of enemies, yet its voice still flickers faintly in your mind. "Quickly! You must re-light the wards!"
Dungeon Master): The Demon chuckles in the shadows. "An amusing game, mortals. But you are out of time. I grow stronger and your allies dwindle. We end it now!"
(Dungeon Master): "Soon! She will be here soon! And I will be free of this place forever."

The Sf Guardian disappeared , and I ran around trying to kill the Spinner, every time I damaged her below 50%, she froze,summoned spiders (who immediately died leaving more ward crystals) and she healed back up to 100%.
She did this as soon as a tick took her below 50%, at times (with stacked DOTS) she basically would heal herself,have her shield go down,take a tick of damage,heal herself,take a tick of damage,heal herself etc.
I was never able to get her HP's low enough to kill her.

[TheDearLeader]

My new desktop background.

[Torc]

We have much to do in the spinner quest still, but we're happy your enjoying it so far.

On the quest breaking - with some attempt at being vague to avoid spoilers:

It was the original intention that it should be "not possible" for the player to achieve enough crystals until shortly after the optional resolves and the spinner once more takes the field. It appears you guys are somehow finding a way to get enough crystals a little ahead of schedule and the quest structure isn't dealing with it. We are working on this now along with numerous polish issues in the quest.

Thanks again for giving this stuff a spin on the test server.

-Torc

[Alexandryte]

Few comments:

• DM text timing is off, they keep cutting themselves off in the last scene.
• Please please please make these mandatory throwing potions a Ki weapon. It's extremely annoying for a monk to get uncentered every time you need to throw one. (We had the same problem in Tomb of the Blighted).

These 2 points annoyed me, but thankfully did not prevent completion. [EDIT: Let me rephrase that, it wasnt just the end voice over/DM text that was affected for me in this quest, it was all of it]

• On throwing potions again, it's really impossible to land a hit if the Spinner is moving even slightly and you end up wasting most of your potions. Not sure if I missed something, but I only got 1 refill for those so it can be problematic, had to run away at the end cause I could no longer drop her shield to fight back.
  

If you have her targeted and can see her buffs you can see that despite the potion arcing horribly it seems to still add to the dot/debuff counter to force her away in fear, provided you have her hard [tab] targeted. Or at least it seemed so to me.


As to other people mentioning her huge DR....am I the only one who hits Z to inspect monsters? She has a buff that mentions that she has this resistance, and when the dot/debuff from the Silver Flame/potions is active it mentions it weakens her so normal effects will harm her. Perhaps there needs to be a more concise way of getting this to players.


All in all, I rather enjoyed this quest. It was nice to be able to figure it out on my own, in spite the voiceovers cutting each other off.

[arkonas]

i went to do it on normal and lit all of the wards then i get held no saves nothing while she beat on me and killed me whats even worse is this





was there suppose to be 2 of her? and i had no objectives so there was absolutely nothing i could do to her.

ok that eternal prison really sucks. it gives you no saves at all or timers. so she just comes up and kills you over and over. i hope this is just because of the unpolished version

[TheDearLeader]

Lol, that's hot.

No, I don't think there was supposed to be two of her, being that she's an all powerful evil or some such.

[RandomKeypress]

Nah - the eternal prison spell should only activate after you've won so that you can watch the pretty cutscene without trying to attack Lolth. Looks like it hits too early for some people, and then they get mangled.