Dungeon Rundown

I jsut typed this up on the SOE boards and it took so long I figure I may as well blog it here, as well.

Green Text = These dungeons are popular and easy to find groups for; they are good places to level and offer a smooth overall group experience.

Blue Text = These zones pose an average difficulty.

Yellow Text = These zones are rare to find groups for / hard to reach / above average in difficulty.

Orange Text = a good challenge for that level! These dungeons prove more daunting than the average dungeons!

Red Text = These are the hardest of the hard!

Loot denotations = the level of loots that will drop. Some zones can be run at levels higher than what the rewards will merit, and these are the ones I’ve denoted.

T1 = 1-9
T2 = 10-19
T3 = 20-29
T4 = 30-39
T5 = 40-49
T6 = 50-59
T7 = 60-69
T8 = 70-80

For your reference.

The contested dungeons are:

• Wailing Caves (Commonlands level 11-19)
• Blackburrow (Antonica level 13-20)
• Fallen Gate (Commonlands level 17-28 )
  
• Stormhold (Antonica level 13-30)
• Crushbone Keep (Greater Faydark level 19-35)
• The Ruins of Varsoon (Thundering Steppes level 28-33)
• Runnyeye (Enchanted Lands level 33-43)
• Tower of the Drafling (Rivervale level 40-47)
  
• The Obelisk of Lost Souls (Feerott level 43-50)
• Permafrost (Everfrost level 47-55) T5
  
• Solusek’s Eye (Lavastorm 47-55) T5
  
• Klak’Anon (Steamfont 50-60)
• Sanctum of the Scaleborn (Tenebrous Tangle level 63-70)
• Palace of Awakening (Barren Sky level 66-70)
• Mistmoore Catacombs (Loping Plains level 63-70)
• Castle Mistmoore (Loping Plains level 67-80) T7
  
• Karnor’s Castle (Kylong Plains level 72-80)
• Sebilis (Kunzar Jungle 74-80)
• Chardok (Kylong Plains 76-80)

The later areas of the game rely more heavily on instanced dungeons. These include:

• The Nest of the Great Egg (Barren Sky level 63-70)
• The Vaults of El Arad (Barren Sky level 66-70)
  
• The Den of the Devourer (Bonemire level 63-70)
• The Acadechism (Greater Faydark 63-70)
• Blackscale Sepulcher (Bonemire 67-70)
• The Halls of Fate (Bonemire 67-75) T7
  
• The Obelisk of Blight (Lesser Faydark 66-70)
  
• Crypt of Valdoon (Loping Plains 67-70)
• The Court of Korocust (Chardok, 70-80)
• The Crypt of Agony (Kunzar Jungle 72-80)
• Vault of Eternal Sleep (Jarsath Wastes 74-80)
• Maiden’s Chamber (Jarsath Wastes 77-80)
  
• Chelsith (Jarsath Wastes 77-80)

Desert of Flames has 5 small heroic instances also, all levels 50-60:

• Scornfeather Roost
• Hidden Cache
• Vault of Dust
• Cazel’s Mesa
• Ancient’s Table

Then there are the “above-ground dungeon” zones:

• The Ruins (Freeport 11-17)
• Rivervale (Enchanted Lands 37-45)
• The Temple of Cazic Thule (Feerott 44-50)
  
• Clefts of Rujark (Sinking Sands 52-60)
  
• City of Mist (Kunzar Jungle 76-80)

Scripted Dungeons:

• The Tombs of Night / Crypt of Thaen (Nektulos 30-40)
• Nektropos Castle (Nektulos 33-38)
• Deathfyst Citadel (Zek 35-40)
  
• The Estate of Unrest (Butcherblock 67-70)
• The Shard of Fear (Feerott 67-80) T7

Hybrid areas:

• Shimmering Citadel (Public) > Poet’s Palace (Scripted Instance) (Pillars of Flame 57-60)
  
• Living Tombs (Public) > Silent City (x2 / x4 Raid Zone) (Sinking Sands 55-60)
• Forgotten City (Public) > Nizara (Heroic x2 Instance) (Mystic Lake 67-80) T7

Shadow Odyssey Dungeons:

Miragul’s Phylactery: (located in Everfrost) Scales from Levels 50 – 80

• Scion of Ice
• The Anathema
• The Crucible

Najena’s Tower: (located in Lavastorm)  Scales from Levels 50 – 80

• The Hollow
• The Deep Forge

Befallen: (located in the Commonlands)  Scales from Levels 50 – 80

• Cavern of the Afflicted
• Halls of the Forsaken
• Necrotic Asylum

Mistmoore: (located in the Loping Plains)  Scales from Level 70

• Evernight Abbey
• Mistmyr Manor
• Ravenscale Repository

Sebilisian Dungeons: (Fens of Nathsar) T8

• Veksar
• Nu’Roga
• Atrebe’s Laboratory: The Fabled City of Korsha

- Not to be confused with the RoK raid zone The Temple of Korsha

Guk: (Moors of Ykesha) T8

• Halls of the Fallen / Upper Guk
• Lower Corridors / Lower Guk
• Ykesha’s Outer Stronghold

The Void: T8

• Obelisk of Akzhul
• Anchor of Bazzul
• Palace of Ferzhul
  

TSO Raid Zones (so far):

• Tomb of the Mad Crusader
• Palace of the Ancient One
• Zarrakon’s Abyssal Lair
• Ykesha’s Inner Stronghold
  

Difficulty of Zones in TSO:

Easy:

• Najena’s Tower: The Deep Forge
• Mistmoore: Evernight Abbey
• Befallen: Cavern of the Afflicted
• Phylactery: Scion of Ice
• Void: Obelisk of Akzhul

Moderate:

• Fens: Nu’Roga
• Mistmoore: Mistmyr Manor
• Fens: Veksar
• Phylactery: The Anathema
• Najena’s Tower: The Hollow

Tough:

• Guk: Halls of the Fallen
• Befallen:  Halls of the Forsaken
• Phylactery: The Crucible
• Void: Anchor of Bazzul

Hard:

• Befallen: Necrotic Asylum
• Mistmoore: Ravenscale Repository
• Cabilis: Kor-sha
• Guk: Lower Corridors

Very Hard:

• Void: Palace of Ferzhul
• Guk: Ykesha’s Outer Stronghold

*if RE2 as baseline = Moderate*

This list is an ongoing effort! Check back occassionally!

The Magic and Mystery of Evil Races

Ask any RP’er which races they find most interesting to RP, and a majority will answer that evil races are there preference.

Why might this be?

Why did we all secretly hope Darth Vader would win? Why do we prefer Drizzt Do’Urden’s dark heritage vs. someone like Cadderly? Why is having tattoos and chains and scary looking pieces of metal way more cool than dying your hair blond and putting on a gold headband? Who ever wished He-Man would save the day when Skeletor always had the badasses in his posse? And come on. Cobra had WAY cooler toys than GI Joe!

Harkening back to P&P (that’s pen and paper, not plug-n-play) there has always been an allure to the dark side.

Maybe it’s because most of us, in real life, are rather boring and “good” — for the most part, we aren’t plotting to take over the world, destroy small countries, or steal away our rivals’ girlfriends. For the most part. We dress in pretty normal looking clothing. We don’t wear make-up — at least not the kind required to give us facial scars, green eyes, blue lips, and black hair. For the most part. We have average, normal jobs. We aren’t saving people from burning buildings and we certainly aren’t burning those buildings down! Again — for the most part.

So is our average existence the reason so many of us choose to play super evil badasses in our virtual worlds? Just think about that for a moment. Most of us play a game where other people will never see or hear us. We choose to represent ourselves through a limited means of choosing race, class, and to some degree, clothing. Maybe that awesome Iksar who tanked your group through Lower Sebilis last night is actually a 40-year old married English professor with 2 children in college, whose wife is quietly snoozing on the bed beside him in their upper middle class suburban neighborhood home. Maybe that quiet Ogre mage who never talks is a clerk at the deli down the street.

For whatever reason, in the words of the immortal Lord Helmet “Evil will always win. Because good is DUMB.”

Of Rangers and Developers

There is a huge fuming, stinky pile of dung sitting in the official SOE Ranger forum right now, and it all stems from a supposed post made by the developer Aeralik on the unofficial EQ2flames board, in response to extremely negative criticism from Rangers of the perceived imbalances between themselves and the Assassin class.

First of all, the issue of balance is never an easy one. There are too many factors that play into it. And more importantly, many of the factors are based upon subjective analysis, like “I am an extremely strong solo player but I don’t do well in groups” or “My class can dominate in a raid but can’t solo for shit” or “I am the best at everything!”

Second, hearsay is always hearsay. But when it becomes potentially damaging, game-wide hearsay that involves an alleged developer comment, IT NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED AFFIRMATIVELY AND QUICKLY AND IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS! If I have learned anything in my years in retail management, dealing with hundreds of grumpy, nasty customers and knowing how “word of mouth” can totally destroy reputation in a matter of weeks, it’s that there is a time for “smooth talking” and sidestepping and making remarks like “I hope you can understand why we can’t discuss specifics”, and there is a certain point when you pass that time, and it becomes crucial to simply get the issue RESOLVED and make a statement about it.

Third. Of course no one will know what comments were or were not truly made by Aeralik. But I’ll tell you what. If I were Smedley or the new senior producer (Froech? Ferguson? Bruce?) I’d be seriously considering forbidding developers from publically posting anything on a board like “eq2flames” — just go visit the place. It’s rife with drama mongering, name calling – dirty laundry. While I don’t dispute the entertainment value of such a thing — where else can you see an entire cyber-session, graphic details and all, posted from start to finish with all juvenile bi-polarity intact — I do strongly question the wisdom of allowing PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPERS to involve themselves in such silly and petty discussions.

Fourth. Rangers need to grow a fucking thicker skin. Get over yourselves guys. You aren’t going to top Assassins, no one will, because for whatever reason, Assassins get away with being totally overpowered. When I look at the EQ2 parse ladders, the only real dsicrepancy I ever see is that Assassins, always, always, parse significantly higher than anyone else. Oh the gap is slowly narrowing. I parse pretty damn well, myself. Wizards and Conjurors do the same. And yes, I’ve seen some great rangers do a shit-ton of DPS. But by and large, the fact is, the Assassin class, for better or worse, has somehow managed to bet he darling of the game. That’s just – how it is. So stop crying, rangers, toughen up – and just deal with the numbers.

Fifth. The WHOLE DPS debate can be almost directly attributed to this STILL-ONGOING misconception of the infamous “DPS Tiers” post that Moorgard, when Moorgard was still the CRM, made — YEARS ago. THAT POST IS SO OUTDATED AND DONE WITH THAT IT OUT TO BE HUNG OUT AND SHOT AND THEN BURIED IN SAND UNDERWATER WITH CEMENT SHOES. There are NO DPS “tiers” and there haven’t been since DoF came out. I’ve seen Guardians post as high as Wizards. I’ve seen Bruisers post higher than Brigands. I’ve seen Conjurors beat Warlocks. I’ve seen fucking Necromancers top the parse entirely! All this goes to show that unless you play a healer class, you have a pretty darn good chance of making the parse at any given time, gear, spells, and skill accounted for. My point is, if the game were released today, and the class descriptions went so far as to give an indication of damage potential, they would read something like “The Assassin does the most close-range damage of any scout” or “The ranger does more damage from afar than any other scout” or “The wizard does the highest elemental damage of any mage” or “The warlock does more area damage than any other mage” — and so on, and so forth. These are superlative statements but they are kept WITHIN CONTEXT. That way no one gets the idea that just because, yes, they do the most ranged or melee damage — that does NOT MEAN they will also do the most damage, ever. Everyone happy. No misconceptions. Moorgard’s poor post has hopefully long-since been erased but that damage lingers on, yet.

And finally. Forum posters who make statements like “I bad mouth SOE every damn chance I get” are quite possibly the most ignorant and stupid people on this planet. God forbid they ever breed more of themselves.

Your developers work hard. They are human. They get angry. They try to work within constraints and appease as many people as they can. We should all remember that.