Failed to sorc solo a quest 1 level below me

[Shadow7375]

Invis and run past everything, kill only the enemies you have to kill.

that what i do in almost every quest where this is possible .. only kill what needs to be killed.

[Ancient]

well, I am getting torc on this life. So, I guess I'll find some one to help me.

You can do it, focus on getting your HP up, good DR and some spell power gear for your divine punishment dot. Make sure you have the best guild augment you can for mana, grab the crystal cove cunning trinket when you can and craft tier 1/2 green steel mana as soon as you can. All of these are easy ways to boost your sp pool.

My cleric was part monk (so I know she was lawful) was a first life 17/2/1 so I didn't have good gear or mana... but she managed to do it. You can too. Go try a shield block run and come back and post what went wrong. Video if you can

[Isolani]

This quest can be a little bit taxing on the SP pool even if you run with invis and only try to fight when necessary.

A Torc helps a lot in this quest... there are quite a few archers so you can replenish your SP quickly. Bramble-casters, a shield and Life Sheild on a docent helps when torcing. With a con-op item it goes even faster to get back your SP.

... and as others already said... use scrolls when you can, don't kill when you don't really have to, cast effeciently and use your SLAs. Insta-kill enemy casters and air elementals to reduce the need for emergency reconstructs.

Pretty much this. Torc makes a big difference in this quest because you are getting pelted with lots of small damage hits. Other than that, like others have said, invis past everything you can.

[Jeromio]

Ok I have a crafter alt and he's vrey competent so I'll grab some DR items. I have a +5 spiritcraft wooden large shield of greater fire resistance. It has more protection that fanion and skyvault. Fanion has 10 DR marked on it, this shield has 11. Skyvault is 9. So I don't bother getting those. My mana is fine, I just need to focus on not dying. Maybe putting on quicken spell would help....I'll give it another attempt. I am doing this to get torc, and later I'll run shroud and try to complete my concop goggles. They're at tier 2 right now, so it won't be too hard.

What's your ASF% on the crafted shield? Skyvault and Fanion has 0%. You don't want a single one of your reconstructs to fail. Even 5% ASF will probably mean you'll die due to a bad roll.

Quicken probably helps too... but if you've got a high concentration score, as a sorceror, you shouldn't need it for this particular fight.

If you still cannot solo, just throw up an LFM for DQ1+2 (casual + elite). With a couple of high level casters, even if short manning, she'll usually go down in a couple of seconds as you can just nuke her.

[whittey]

If you're 18, you're still going to deal with having somewhat less hp and sp than you would at cap, so that's one limitation.

The DR suggestions previously mentioned really are key. If you'll notice, she doesn't hit for a ton per shot, but makes a lot of swings at once. So any DR you have really does become huge. If she hits for 20 base damage with her 6 swings, that's 120 damage overall. A simple 5 DR (either slashing or /anything-but-chaotic or evil) would drop that 120 total down to 90 total. A 25% reduction in overall damage is nothing to sneeze at. The archers plinking away do about 15 damage each, so 5 DR is 1/3 of their total damage. Once you successfully complete DQ2, you'll probably end up with bramble casters (I usually got them before a torc, but it took me 120 runs over 3 toons before I saw my torc on my 60th list). Bramble casters are dr10/slash+bludgeon in game speak (dr10/piercing in forum speak, it blocks piercing damage). That pretty much removes all danger from archers.

As MrMechMan said, blocking DR is tied to your BAB. An 18 sorc is going to have 9 or 10 BAB. Using a divine power clickie will raise that to 18, making your shield blocking much more reliable. The suggestions of Fanion or the barn door from Tor will help a lot. If you can't seem to pick those up and you can craft, I'd suggest a +5 light mith shield of axeblock. There may be some of the newer shields that offer better DR (I think a spiritcraft buckler as 0% ASF) as well.

A +5 light mith shield will have 6 blocking DR. Without a divine power clickie, you would have 5DR from axeblock, 6 from the shield, 2 more from base shield blocking and 4 or 5 from bab-based active blocking. That's 17 blocking DR. If you use the divine power clickie, that 4 or 5 raises to 9, giving you 23 blocking DR. On normal, that will be just about all of her base damage. Ranged DR with a shield is half what melee active DR is, so you would have 8 from active blocking at first, plus the 10 from bramble casters once you get them.

Life shield procs 10% of the time and gives you 15 temporary hit points. That equates to another stacking 1.5DR.

Make sure you are properly resisted when going in there. She can cast burning blood (fire and acid damage) as well as throw chain lightning (electric) and her weapons do sonic damage, so make sure you have all resists except cold.

One thing to get used to is to not overheal yourself. If she does the single swing animation, you probably won't be down enough HP to require a reconstruct. If that's the case, don't throw it. If she does a triple animation, you'll probably need that reconstruct right now. Reconstruct hits the same every time, so try to steel yourself and not reconstruct too early. If your reconstructs hit for 350 and you've got 450hp, try to let yourself get down to 100hp before repairing. Maybe a little higher, as there isn't a lot of wiggle room if she double or triple strikes at you, but don't try to repair after every swing if possible. That will save you a ton of SP and will ensure that your largest repair (reconstruct) is off cooldown when you need it most.

Definitely start with just a normal run of DQ2. A lot of people can and do solo Elite, but it takes some practice. I know the first couple times I went in there even on normal I got my ass handed to me. Now elite is no problem, simply because I'm less intimidated by soloing a raid and I've much more experience. Do everything in your power to get your HP up so you can absorb more hits before you need to repair yourself.

Also, as mentioned before, really focus on what she's doing when you cast. A mis-timed reconstruct can end up as a net 0 healing if you cast while she's swinging. While you're blocking, you've got that 17 or 23 DR protecting you. If you cast, you're not actively blocking and each of those 6-18 swings will hit you for full damage. You can't afford to give up 102-414 damage, so adjust yourself to her attacks.

The hardest time I find is when the efreeti's are on me. An acid rain (my sorc is an earth savant) and continued shield blocking is the key. An ice storm does just as well if not better. You don't want the efreeti and the queen beating you up at the same time, though it's inevitable.

An uber toon is nothing without the player behind it knowing how to make it all work. DQ is a great learning experience and you get some amazing loot out of the process. Good luck and keep trying, you'll get there.

[Ancient]

If you still cannot solo, just throw up an LFM for DQ1+2 (casual + elite). With a couple of high level casters, even if short manning, she'll usually go down in a couple of seconds as you can just nuke her.

Whittey post is full of fantastic advice, as is the one from Jeromio. I wanted to add...

If you will complete most ADQ1 and post an LFM that it is mostly done... many casters will jump on that because it is a chance for them to skip over some of the very repetitive reflagging quest.

If you have trouble with bad groups, then you can do what I did... start using the following style for your LFM:

Octopus, Bat, Scorpion, Snake, Monkey, Wolf

And shorten it as you do each one. Those that recognize it... generally are capable of doing it.

[MRMechMan]

When one guildie failed an elite dq2 on a capped fvs while somewhat inebriated, another refered to DQ2 as the "shift sobriety test"

ie:

"Excuse me ma'am, we're gonna need you to step outside the vehicle and hold down the shift key in this raid for a few seconds, and occasionally click divine punishment."

Ah, you registered a .03, sorry for the inconvenience, you can be on your way.

Pump your DR as much as you can (she hits for ~20-28 on normal maybe, so going from 15 to 20 DR literally halves the damage incoming from her, either a DP clickie or an axeblock item will be VERY noticable), and learn to chase her when she ports out to maintain the DOT. Also, time your recons to when she is not swinging. Don't run away from her. She will still often hit your unless you have haste AND some other speed boost (sprint or monk lvls). She used to be kitable but they changed her hit range; it is doable but if you lag at all you will take a big hit or 10.

Her having a 100% chance to hit you for a very managable 6-15x5-10 damage is much preferable to a 50-75% chance of 6-15x20-25 damage. That is what kills people. Don't panic. She ALWAYS appears in the center, so if she ports off the ledge you were DOTing her on, turn to the center. If she isn;t there, check the other 3 possible ledges. Avoid going to the center. Often her change of location is accompanied by a DM voice; but sometimes it is not.

Even epic (old epic, not this n/h/e ****) was soloable with enough DR gear and sp/hp procs. The main issue was not even the queen (with 27 leviks and 20 DOD proc and 20% old shieldmastery she could barely pass DR) but the efreets or getting crippled; or even more often getting telekinesised into the lava. With 41+ reflex the cometfalls didn't really matter either; but luckily you don't have to worry about most of that stuff on normal/hard/elite .

[CircleK]

The shield I have is not crafted. the +5 spiritcraft one? I looted that. I crafted myself a dagger of axeblock to go with my shield for when I'm blocking. I still died. It has 15% arcane spell failure. I will also change my alignment to chaotic neutral.

[CircleK]

Once again, can anyone recommend good gloves, and rings and docent for a level 18 earth savant?

[Ancient]

The shield I have is not crafted. the +5 spiritcraft one? I looted that. I crafted myself a dagger of axeblock to go with my shield for when I'm blocking. I still died. It has 15% arcane spell failure. I will also change my alignment to chaotic neutral.

Ok, more detail....

• Did you make it to fight the queen?
• Did you land a dot on the queen?
• Did you land a tripple stack on the queen?
• Did you die in a sudden burst, or did you lose a slow war of attrition?
• How many hp do you have? Can we get a yourddo link?
• Were you trying to clear trash or just focus on the queen?
• When you died, did you check the combat log to see if you were taking full damage? One detail that no one mentioned is that sometimes when you cast an offensive spell you come out of shield block and need to quickly let up/start again...

[CircleK]

Ok, more detail....

• Did you make it to fight the queen?
• Did you land a dot on the queen?
• Did you land a tripple stack on the queen?
• Did you die in a sudden burst, or did you lose a slow war of attrition?
• How many hp do you have? Can we get a yourddo link?
• Were you trying to clear trash or just focus on the queen?
• When you died, did you check the combat log to see if you were taking full damage? One detail that no one mentioned is that sometimes when you cast an offensive spell you come out of shield block and need to quickly let up/start again...

I made it to the queen fight, I landed a DoT on the queen, I did not land a triple stack, I died in about 2-3 bursts. I am lawful good, so i was taking full damage from pure evil, true chaos, anarchic, unholy, and of course her full slashing dmg because she killed me while I was casting a spell. Also, gnolls attacked me.

[Ancient]

Good start. In your combat log, how much (approximation) was she hitting you for each swing and how much damage were you reducing it by?

[CircleK]

I think she was hitting me, including the unholy, anarchic etc, for about 20 pts of dmg per hit. That was when I was shield blocking. I heard someone say that even though the shield says DR 11, it would block like 18 pts of dmg. Is that true?

[Ancient]

I think she was hitting me, including the unholy, anarchic etc, for about 20 pts of dmg per hit. That was when I was shield blocking. I heard someone say that even though the shield says DR 11, it would block like 18 pts of dmg. Is that true?

20 points of damage per hit will take a level 18 down pretty fast when she has six arms to hit you with.

Your combat log will tell you what amount of damage reduction happened. I took a stroll outside eveningstar and a drow archer was kind enough to demonstrate (briefly).

(Combat): Drow Archer hit you but did no damage; 13 points of damage were blocked by Silver damage reduction.
(Combat): Drow Archer hit you but did no damage; 17 points of damage were blocked by Silver damage reduction.

On this next line, I stopped blocking (but I still have FVS capstone DR) so you could see what it looks like when some amount of damage gets through:

(Combat): Drow Archer hit you for a total of 2 points of pierce damage after 10 were blocked by Silver damage
reduction.

If your combat lines don't look like that then you aren't shield blocking for some reason. It might be that you need to quickly let up and repress the shift key... or who know.

Inside your inventory, if you drop down the details on your weapons... it displays the number for your DR and blocking DR.

[CircleK]

yeah I know I was blocking, but she hits me when I'm casting.

And for the third time, what are good rings, gloves, and a docent for a level 18 earth savant?

[Ancient]

yeah I know I was blocking, but she hits me when I'm casting.

And for the third time, what are good rings, gloves, and a docent for a level 18 earth savant?

It depends on your other gear, if you can get me a server name/character name then I can look at yourddo and make recommendations based on your other gear.

[FestusHood]

I think she was hitting me, including the unholy, anarchic etc, for about 20 pts of dmg per hit. That was when I was shield blocking. I heard someone say that even though the shield says DR 11, it would block like 18 pts of dmg. Is that true?

I did in fact try doing this last night with my 18 cleric. His shield i believe has a stated dr rating of 9? In the combat log it said i was blocking 19 points of damage.

After 8-10 failed attempts at this i did finally get it done, on normal, but just barely. I can't even imagine doing it on an arcane. My cleric doesn't have the offensive fire power that your caster does, but he's got a lot of defensive advantages. He wears Cavalry full plate, and uses a tower shield, with no disadvantages from it. The archers were missing me 50% or more of the time, and i'm guessing that isn't the case with you.

I'm neutral good, so i take some of the extra alighment damage, but not all.

I don't mean to scare you, but if you haven't gotten her down to near death yet, she actually goes into some kind of psycho mode at about 10% health, and things get a lot worse. The last 5 failures i had occurred during this part, even though i didn't have that much trouble getting to this point. It's pretty scary when you have the queen, 3 or 4 efreets, 5 archers, and the blades all hitting you at the same time. My Tharak bracers broke every time i tried this, and sometimes other equipment too.

Still offering to run this with you sometime, it seems like we could make a decent team for it. Either we could take turns nuking, blocking the queen, depending on who has aggro, or you could just be on trash duty, and i could concentrate on the queen.

I pretty much gave up on killing any of the archers, as when the stuff hit the fan, i wouldn't have time to kill the respawns anyway, so why even mess with it. I've heard that cloudkill on the archers works well, and since you are an earth savant, you may want to try that.

For the record on the successful run i finally had, i used 5 major mnemonic potions. Assuming a round is defined by how many times she leaves the center, and comes back, I believe this happened about 7 times.

[CircleK]

GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT! I was able to actually fight the queen and reduce her to half health!! I would've finished but some lag incapped me and then the blade barriers finished me off. Other than that it was a huge accopmlishment. And turns out that the queen only does 20 pts of dmg total after each attack. Not per sword. I guess its just about timing! And I'm still lawful good lol.

[Ancient]

The good news is that as you get practice, it gets easier and you get to the point where you won't use any potions. Good job to the both of you and gratz!

BTW, if you don't want to post your character name in the forum, you can PM it to me.

[Jeromio]

Once again, can anyone recommend good gloves, and rings and docent for a level 18 earth savant?

I'll just give you an example of what I wear:
My main (currently sorceror lvl 18) uses Bramble-Casters as gloves (10 DR against piercing damage), one ring is a crafted Greater Necromancy with large guild slot (160 extra SP), other ring is +6 charisma (I use a Napkin plus Minos so no other place available for charisma) and my docent is crafted with superior stability (requires True Neutral alignment), life shield and have a medium guild slot that I use for extra HP.

It's a multi-TR character in process that will end up as a FVS evoker, so the above is just some of my current TR gear while levelling.

I'm not sure, but I think it might be useful for you to have an item with greater conjuration focus, as you're an earth savant... I usually go with water myself at lvl 18, and take fire before that... so I'm mostly dealing with evocation.

A good docent for use against Lailat, and has been briefly mentioned before in the thread, is DOD (Docent of Defiance: http://itemwiki.cubicleninja.com/Ite...spx?itemID=785). Sometimes when you get hit, it will activate an additional 20 DR. Because you get hit so often in this fight, it will trigger a lot. However, it can be a little bit of a pain to get hold of this docent, because you might have to farm Cursed Crypt (Necro 3) a lot to get it. I've done about 50 runs and not seen it yet.