Dungeon Balancing

[Farmboy2003]

I was just in the Pioneers road crypt with a lvl 6 sneaker/melee char. It was not really a challenge, but I wanted to try it out.

Main point is, the wizards and zombies do not spawn, at least not for me. Loot is great, even though must stuff is scrolls and potions.

[Dragor]

Went into the first floor of the Whurest ruin, nothing much to complain about difficulty wise however I was getting the same xp for the Thralls (white name) and the Overlords (green name), Lvl 19 char soloing.

I could see making the purple worm a bit tougher it was a bit too easy to hit (red name)

No loot at all

[Snowmane]

I ran Mirakus again a couple of times last night in a group. Although we have seen a change in the general loot, the Elder Golems (Red Mobs which are the closest things to a boss in that dungeon) have yet to drop anything special. I am not sure, since it's a level 12 dungeon, if they should be dropping green items or anything, but I just figured I'd mention what I've seen.

Oh and I noticed that the gold being given on killing the mobs seems to have been increased. Maybe this is meant to be a gold generating dungeon rather than an item one? Anyway, the amount of gold coming out there definitely makes the 5k cost for city papers seem less of a problem once players can handle this dungeon.

[Intrepid42]

Dungeon:
Whurest Ruins

Party Composition (Number of people/Levels/Etc):
Party of 3
L18 Cleric (My first time through to the end, with sub-optimal spell selection and timing. There would be greater effectiveness on future rescue attempts)
L20 DD
Mid-level Wizard

Feedback:
Party members got down to 50% hp a few times. No serious difficulties but if we weren't paying attention we would have got into trouble.
Successful
Fun

[Rhifox]

Dungeon:
Whurest Ruins

Party Composition (Number of people/Levels/Etc):
Party of 3
L18 Cleric (My first time through to the end, with sub-optimal spell selection and timing. There would be greater effectiveness on future rescue attempts)
L20 DD
Mid-level Wizard

Feedback:
Party members got down to 50% hp a few times. No serious difficulties but if we weren't paying attention we would have got into trouble.
Successful
Fun

"Mid-level" wizard was 18 with caster level 21. Gave both DD and Cleric my full selection of buffs.

To elaborate a bit... this run actually went quite a bit smoother than my last Whurest run (which included a 21 warlock, 20-ish blackguard, and a high-teen wizard (or sorc) and ranger). I imagine it was largely because of having a DD as our tank... they're pretty beefy when fully wizard and cleric buffed.

Boss didn't spawn... I assume another group went in shortly before we did, though we spent about an hour or so RPing in Bristlebeard's before heading in and during that time I didn't see anyone in there on player search. Not sure how long his respawn timer is supposed to be.

Also, a few of the doors on the top level have LOS issues. They require you to stand right up against them before they open. The 'default' open range won't work.

[Doubtful]

"Mid-level" wizard was 18 with caster level 21.

That reminds me, we need to stamp out the practiced spellcaster exploit.

[Rhifox]

That reminds me, we need to stamp out the practiced spellcaster exploit.

Please do. Along with Spellcasting Prodigy, it feels like you have to take it just to be even with other casters of your level since everyone takes them.

[Intrepid42]

"Mid-level" wizard was 18 with caster level 21. Gave both DD and Cleric my full selection of buffs.

Oops. My mistake.

And it need not be said that without Sevra the wizard on full buff-mode I doubt we would have survived.

[Seheren]

What is wrong with prodigy? As far as I can tell it works as intended..

[Rhifox]

What is wrong with prodigy? As far as I can tell it works as intended..

It works as intended, it's just OP compared to the rest of the background feats, IMO. Pretty much every spellcaster takes it because of that.

[Lollercide]

It works as intended, it's just OP compared to the rest of the background feats, IMO. Pretty much every spellcaster takes it because of that.

Everyone likes a feat and takes it, so let's take it away. I like this person. They could someday be as troll as me.

[Doubtful]

Back during the terrible times of The Great Nerfing, I was always slightly suprised this feat made it through intact. I mean Luck Of Heroes lost it's +1 AC because it was, ahem 'Overpowered'.

Thankfully we're not returning to those days. No plans to do anything with Spellcasting Progidy.

Edit: Anyway, go back to dungeon balancing.

[thaelis]

Party: 17th level EK

Area: Cold Climb

Feedback: Wow! Its awesome...much more dangerous than before. Obviously my feedback is a lot less useful than a party of 10-12th's (which it seems to be aimed at) but I thought I would note a couple of things.

Firstly, there are a LOT of them. Like every single square meter of the map is infested with elementals and white elk (is this related to the invasion of Aquor? if so then thats understandable)

Secondly, they spawn on top of your head, and sometimes in weird places, like the wolves that spawn directly in front of the transition to Whurest, blocking your path. It was all very well before when they would use stealth to legitimately creep up on you, but this is just *poof* appearing and any archer or wizardly character will likely be headed to the Fugue shortly after.

Also, the Blue coloured White Elk casters cast a lot of fire spells (isn't that against their religion?!).

Lastly, at 17th level running just half the cold climb brought me to half HP, exhausted all my spells and gave no xp or gold. For the barbarians thats understandable, but the Blue Mephits and Elder Frost Elementals are still a challenge at my level and after hacking at them for hours feel kinda cheated at getting no xp ><

EDIT: As for loot, only mephit bodies and other small paraphernalia so far

[Cornuto]

One of the complaints I heard before the encounter re-do was that there weren't enough spawns in the area to make it a viable place to level. Do you think its tipped too far in the other direction?

[thaelis]

In my opinion, definitely *shrugs* Others might disagree though.

I think those really high density spawns should perhaps be restricted to a few areas that can be avoided if you want to, such as Glacier and Cold ruins.

Whurest itself being overrun by an army of elementals seems especially odd. Why would the dwarves allow this?

On another note, I'm guessing those Elder Frost Elementals have super vulnerability to fire spells, like the giants. Thats something else I dislike. If a creature has 150% or 200% vulnerability to an element, its insanely easy for some players to kill (two delayed blast fireballs = 10 dead giants), and super tough with no xp for everyone else.