Ears and "Let sleeping dust lie"

[FranOhmsford]

You're leaving out the quests where it isn't the main objective but still results in a quest failure to save an NPC.

weapon shipment and
ritual sacrifice
prey on the hunter
small problem
there is another threnal quest where you protect an NPC who is not coyle

are some additional ones I can think of where the death of the NPC results in quest failure.

Derward - Kamikaze Dwarf.

[MRMechMan]

I mistake I made was leaving guard items on. I failed a solo run at level 20 (trying to farm chipmunk funk) thinking the epic Mabar cloak wouldn't do anything significant to the spiders. Then I took that off and left Levik's Shield on (1d6 sonic guard).

Yeah, I know, I'm a noob.

The d6 sonic guard killed all 5 spiders before you noticed something was going wrong?

[Talon_Moonshadow]

These spiders are the test; when you can walk their path and leave no trace, you will have learned.

[Ralmeth]

Yes, it stinks to fail the quest like that I've had similar experiences before. I guess I've learned how to run the quest to get beyond this...
1) Before the end fight, take a lot of care not to kill any spiders. There are 4 spiders at the end fight, so if you haven't killed any up to that point, then you don't have to worry about killing these guys.
2) For melee, when you are clearing the quest, once you read the 1st journal and you can't kill spiders, go S&B, use holy or good weapons so the extra damage only affects ogres and not spiders, and then when you fight an ogre press up against them and take one swing at a time, being careful to only swing at an ogre. It is slow and painful, but you won't kill a spider by accident.
3) Lastly, I either only solo this quest or go in with trusted other party members. This is one quest because of the fail mechanic that I won't do a random PUG.

It takes longer to complete this way, but I can't remember the last time I failed.

[MrkGrismer]

This quest could go from one of my 'most hated' quests to one of my 'most loved' quests with one simple change:

Take half the completion experience from the quest and put it with the "don't kill spiders" objective, and make it optional.

That way those people that "enjoy this type of quest" can still enjoy it and get lots of bonus xp for saving all the fuzzy spiders that have some mysterious never-realized purpose while the rest of us can save a ton of money not having to buy new monitors when we put a hand thru it after the last spider jumps on our blade.

Just my opinion, of course.

[nolaureltree000]

Whenever I run this quest on a caster I move BB or wail to a spot I don't have hotkeyed. I also learned that lesson the hard way.

[MrChipinator]

Just a friendly piece of advice, if you are ever in a "Don't Kill ________" type of raid or quest, always tell the puggers or noobs (not newbs) to kill them. That way, reverse psychology will take effect and they won't kill them. Seeing as how everytime you tell them TO do something, they do the opposite it must work the other way right? RIGHT?

As a matter of fact, no I'm not bitter, why do you ask?

[ainmosni]

build a lightning guard hitpoint item they said. IT WOULD BE GOOD FOR TRING THEY SAID.

[zeonardo]

I'm not a huge fan of it, but we can't have all quests be the same. There are going to be some quests that are frustrating. Compared to some other mechanics, though, I don't think that the not-killing-spiders mechanic is that bad. It's the kind of thing that you generally don't fail due to more than once. After the first time, you'll be prepared for it. Mistakes will happen, though, just like they can in any other quest.

I'd rather not kill an enemy than have to protect an NPC, though, that's for sure.

I'd rather kill myself than have to protect Coyle.

[lugoman]

I do agree with the 'you dont have to like every quest in the game' mentality, but this is a must run flagging quest for the most popular raid in the game.

[CanuckWisdom]

I am not rage quitting or nothing. I just felt stupid. Not even lobbying for a change. Looking for a, " I have done it too" response and want a little ear pain for a deserving fellow.

I solo'd the whole quest on elite, for the favor and the stone, made it to the end fight, had 3 spider deaths left, got the last boss down to about 10% (he has a lot of hp, and as a melee I pretty much only have one way of killing him/no way to keep the spiders off me), and in the last little bit all three spiders killed themselves (stupid things..) on my gaurds.

I even managed to finish the boss off and hear the door to the chest room open up before I was auto ported out of the quest for 'failing'.

GRRR!!!! I didnt fail, the spiders did, their self-preservation checks.

[Miow]

My wife and I did"let sleeping dust lie" for the first time this weekend. We duo'd the dungeon w/hirelings and used no guides, like everything we do. We enjoyed the dungeon. It was long but we figureed out the targeting thing and made it all the way to the last fight and were doing quite well. We still had 3 spiders before we would fail and I had kited them way out, all the way down the hall and I hit the wrong key and popped a blade barrier and wham, complete failure.

It is my fault, no mistaking it and I feel like a complete fool. I wasted all of our time and made what was a good experience into a poor one. I am not sure this is a great quest mechanic that can the fail the quest completely for everyone after so much time has been invested when one person makes a mistake. I would have been happy if I had ruined it for myself only. I am sure I am not the first person that has ruined that quest at the end for a group.

I am curious what others think of this quest design. The next time I will not fail. I will remove AOEs completely from my bars. I just wish someone from Turbine could sneak up behind the person who designed this quest and flick their ears really hard and not tell them why. It would make me feel better.

It could be worse it could have been 5 coyles.

[Xeraphim]

What about having to do both at the same time? (faithfully departed)

You mentioned the unmentionable! NOOO!!!

That quest sucks.

[Azhanti]

My melees tend to carry one handed slashing giant banes in this quest (Giant Stalkers are ideal), plenty of damage to the ogres and minimal collateral to spiders as they don't break DR.

[Bogenbroom]

I don't know why, but Dust has never really bothered me... might be because I am very Arcane-centric.

I do get the annoyance of these sorts of quests, especially in flagging quests. My "gripe" with these sorts of things is the the combination of the fail factor and the length. Using Dust as an example, I would be much happier if the "fail" component completed after the fight at the locked shrine room. In my opinion a quest with a fail component that allows one person to fail everyone should not carry that fail factor all of the way through.

JMHO

[Xeraphim]

I don't know why, but Dust has never really bothered me... might be because I am very Arcane-centric.

I do get the annoyance of these sorts of quests, especially in flagging quests. My "gripe" with these sorts of things is the the combination of the fail factor and the length. Using Dust as an example, I would be much happier if the "fail" component completed after the fight at the locked shrine room. In my opinion a quest with a fail component that allows one person to fail everyone should not carry that fail factor all of the way through.

JMHO

I believe the Developer's standpoint for over 6 years on this subject has been "Heh, NO. If one person screws up after 2 hours of quest time and a perfect run, you all fail."

The player's viewpoint was expressed in the quote above. The players in this case have been largely ignored.

[Mithis]

I have not run it that many times but I have not been through without someone killing a few spiders because of a wrong button push or the like.

In fact, I just ran it a few days ago and killed several spiders b/c I forgot to turn off improved precise shot and forgot to take off my Cloak of night and PK'd one.

[Paleus]

This quest taught me the importance of turning off auto-targeting. Poor little spider got hit by a drive by finger, now his kids will never see their papa again. So, I like quests like this where you learn to adapt as you play.

[MeliCat]

You're leaving out the quests where it isn't the main objective but still results in a quest failure to save an NPC.

weapon shipment and
ritual sacrifice
prey on the hunter
small problem
there is another threnal quest where you protect an NPC who is not coyle

are some additional ones I can think of where the death of the NPC results in quest failure.

Is it Cursed Crypt necro 3? Don't kill more than whatever silver flame dudes.



I listen carefully for the proc of lots of little bat wings in Dust... OH AND THERE IT GOES! ONE SPIDER DOWN TO PK.

OP - I feel for you. I often accidently do BB. It's only a wonder I haven't done it (and failed it) in Dust - yet. Give me time. I have done equally frustrating things and caused wipes elsewhere. I am sure you will never ever do this again and eventually may enjoy that your single target insta-kills can work so well in there. And as Socky says if you have 5 spiders not killed by the time you go in that last room you can kill the 4 in there no problems.

We did have a wipe the other day in Dust where we didn't kill all the ogres on the top ramp where you defend the queen - we think she was ranged to death as we found ourselves outside just as we almost finished the quest. At least your fail was accidental - we failed cos we were slack :P

[matttherat88]

I agree this quest is frustrating. I've failed it before for similar reasons. Most games are like this though, its not just ddo. I'm not sure what the motivation is behind making your customers angry. Go watch TV, read a book, go for a walk. You'll never fail at those.