User:XT-8147/Guide to Getting the Hang of Dungeons

Dungeons are already explained in great detail on this wiki, but to me one piece of critical information is missing: Ranking according to overall difficulty. Some dungeons are much longer than others, some have many more hazards than others, etc. Getting started can feel daunting when you are at the point where you walk into a dungeon and die a horrible death shortly thereafter. That's where this guide comes in.

10 Rules to live by in dungeons

 * 1) Do your research
 * 2) *Read the dungeon's article here. Look at its walkthrough for anything important.
 * 3) *Then scroll down to the list of enemies and go through each one's skills. Knowing what you're up against is very important.
 * 4) *Take note of whether or not enemies are fleshy, or if they have monster skills that need to be interrupted, or if they have regular skills to be wary of.
 * 5) Light of Deldrimor is neat but in no way required
 * 6) *The Dwarven Warrior allies can be very useful, especially if backed up with decent hero/henchman healers or competent player healers.
 * 7) *The Hidden Treasures generally aren't worth the time it takes to find them.
 * 8) *Secret Levers are also revealed, but I haven't done a dungeon with one yet.
 * 9) Don't forget the dungeon's quest
 * 10) *Sometimes it's given by an NPC standing right outside the dungeon, but others you'll have to look up where to get the quest. Fortunately, this is a wiki, and there is a search box...
 * 11) *If you don't have the quest you won't be able to progress past the first room of the dungeon.
 * 12) Plan the safest route to the dungeon entrance
 * 13) *The area around some dungeon entrances is way more treacherous than others.
 * 14) *Go and try to clear your way to the entrance a few times, approaching it from different angles and see which one works best for you.
 * 15) *If all else fails, get some party-wide death penalty-removing consumables and clean your party of death penalty once inside the dungeon.
 * 16) Plan a route through the dungeon
 * 17) *Dungeons often have multiple paths, some may be much harder than others.
 * 18) *If your goal is simply to get through the dungeon, you'll want to take a route that lets you sail on through.
 * 19) *Likewise, if you're up for a challenge, you'll want to be able to plan accordingly.
 * 20) *Your route should include a stop at the Area Map if there is one in the level.
 * 21) Take the bounty from the Beacon of Droknar
 * 22) *Every 25 kills you get a random bonus, and a hefty 7% morale boost.
 * 23) *This morale boost will help greatly in getting rid of death penalty should you acquire any.
 * 24) *Also, talking to each Beacon of Droknar you come across in the dungeon after the first in the level will get you points for your Dwarven reputation title, assuming you've killed enough enemies.
 * 25) Pull enemies
 * 26) *Enemies that are close to one another may not aggro together.
 * 27) *If you can fight enemies on your terms rather than theirs, you increase your odds of survival.
 * 28) *Carry a flatbow for pulling. You don't have to meet its requirement and it doesn't need to deal any real amount of damage.
 * 29) *Make extensive use of flagging if you have heroes and/or henchmen.
 * 30) *For best results pulling with heroes and henchmen, flag them out of your aggro circle.
 * 31) *Pulling is difficult with summoning stone allies or the dwarven warrior allies present.
 * 32) Eliminate the biggest threat in each group first
 * 33) *This will make the rest of the fight easier.
 * 34) *Depending on the dungeon, the biggest threat in a group may not be a boss.
 * 35) Pace yourself
 * 36) *Rushing will get you killed. Take your time.
 * 37) *Let energy and health replenish between fights.
 * 38) *Where applicable, let skills recharge as well.
 * 39) *When in doubt, err on the side of caution.
 * 40) Don't get frustrated
 * 41) *Try to figure out why you died if you die.
 * 42) *Over-aggro is a very common cause of death.
 * 43) *Dungeons can also have pops, just like regular explorable zones, so stay alert even when your radar shows no enemies in the vicinity.
 * 44) *Everyone gets run over by a rock at some point. Learn where the rocks are and where the safe spots are.
 * 45) *Try to avoid or disarm traps whenever possible. Use flagging to safely maneuver heroes and henchmen around them.

Fronis Irontoe's Lair
Before you can take the quest and do the dungeon, you'll have to complete Kilroy Stonekin's first quest, Punch the Clown.

Possibly the easiest dungeon in the game, since you basically can't die and you have a specialized skill set. Some people use this dungeon as a way to get experience for the Survivor title track.

This dungeon, while counting in the Master Dungeon Guide, in my eyes at least doesn't actually count as a dungeon.

Heart of the Shiverpeaks
This one is required in order to complete the story of Eye of the North. I'll provide a more detailed writeup when I get back to this one again. I want to concentrate on the dungeons with fewer levels to start off with.

This dungeon is also unique in that since its quest isn't repeatable, it can be completed without having the quest in your quest log once you've done the dungeon with the quest active. This is why you see two boxes for this dungeon.

Ooze Pit
This is one of the easiest dungeons to get to. Just a little way east of Longeye's Ledge is a Siege Devourer. The Siege Devourer will aggro at approximately spirit range, so it's possible to pull it alone. Weaken it, kill the Charr that pops out, and take it for your own. Congratulations, the rest of the route to the dungeon entrance is now a breeze.

Once in the dungeon and all set up with your blessing from the Beacon of Droknar, you'll want to obey the simple rule of killing the Earthbound Ooze(s) in each group first, even before that Ancient Ooze warrior boss. Earthbound Oozes have powerful area of effect skills that can quickly drain your party's health. Interrupt Ooze Division if you see it being used.

You generally won't have to worry about getting an Unstable Gelatinous Mass to blow up a wall. They drop fairly commonly, so just keep killing Oozes and you'll be able to blow up that wall in no time. There aren't very many walls to blow up, and the number of unstable masses will easily outnumber them, so if you're a melee class you might consider picking one up, gaining aggro, and then dropping it.

The rocks here are generally easily avoidable. There is one point towards the end where they can approach from behind you, so watch out for that.

There are traps after the first pressure plate door, but they don't seem to be active.

Technically if you take a longer route the second pressure plate door doesn't have to be opened. You can get the boss key and reach the boss lock without it.

Kill the Prismatic Oozes at the end one by one. Treat them like Titans since they follow the same "more enemies spawn on death" pattern. Try to interrupt Gelatinous Absorption. If you can't it's not the end of the world, it will end eventually. Plan a wise retreat when a Prismatic Ooze is close to death (having degen helps with this). Let the Hulking Volatile Oozes self-detonate when you're out of range, and then pull the lesser Oozes separately and kill them off at your leisure. Then repeat the process with the next Prismatic Ooze.

Overall, this dungeon is a good place to get started doing dungeons. It's not too difficult, but death will still follow if you make too big a mistake. You may want to repeat this dungeon once or twice after initially completing it, just to do better at that one part you messed up on last time or whatever. When you can do it reliably with no deaths (not even rock deaths), it's time to move on.

Secret Lair of the Snowmen
Before you can take the quest and do the dungeon, you'll have to complete Koris Deeprunner's first quest, Deeprunner's Map. Save those random map pieces and make sure you have one of each when you get to him. Take the quest, turn them in, get the reward, and you're ready to go.

When you're all set to go in (remember, for some reason Snowmen are fleshy), talk to Koris, take the quest, then talk to him again to enter the dungeon.

Your enemies will be snowmen. Yes, the ones from the Wintersday quests. Their skill sets are very small but due to Snowball dealing armor-ignoring fire damage, they can still take you out if you leave your guard down.

To me, the most annoying part of the dungeon is the traps. The snowmen are fairly inconsequential as they die pretty quickly. Thus I'd have to say the hardest part of the dungeon is the part leading up to the Angry Snowman which is riddled with traps. However, once you defeat the Angry Snowman, the traps deactivate.

You will get rushed by snowmen several times while doing this dungeon, but the key thing to remember is "Don't Panic!" They only have 200 health. I found it hard to get a shot in on them, they were dying faster than I could target the next one.

Some parts are the exact opposite. There are multiple places where a ranger can sit back with a flatbow and work their way through an entire group of snowmen almost without any challenge whatsoever. Just have some healers nearby to keep you alive and you're good to go.

Having mentioned the lack of challenge makes this dungeon seem easy, but there can and will be deaths if you're not careful. Generally speaking they're only in the trapped areas, but one of the rushes might actually coordinate itself well enough to take out a member of your party. Just resurrect and move on.

Sepulchre of Dragrimmar
This dungeon isn't too far from Sifhalla. There are a few Jotun in the cave on the way, and rangers should keep in mind that you'll be fighting an uphill battle. For the most part, you should only have to take on a maximum of about two groups, and the rest should conveniently patrol out of the way. The entire area around the entrance to the dungeon is a safe zone from patrols.

Your enemies here are a mixture of fleshy (Dryders and Ice Imps) and non-fleshy (Wisps, Ice Elementals, and Avalanches). There are also plenty of traps, of the Ice Dart and Ice Jet varieties. For the most part the Ice Darts can be ignored, and you just have to time walking past the Ice Jets properly.

The starting room presents a bit of a problem. The Beacon of Droknar is in the middle of it, and there are dryders wandering around the edges. Watch your aggro circle carefully when approaching the beacon to get your blessing.

The Area Map is in the second room, to the east of your starting location. Hidden in this room is a wurm, you will want to interrupt its Wurm Bile hex.

Working through isn't too hard if you pull properly. Use the narrow passages to group enemies up so that area of effect spells can hit all of them.

The main thing you have to do in this dungeon is unlock doors by finding their respective proofs. Before you can go to level 2, you'll need to find all three proofs. Luckily, the Proof of Strength is in the first room (if you've taken the quest). The easiest Proof of Kinship to get to is all the way north, and the easiest Proof of Duty to get to is south and to the east from there.

On the second level, there's really only one way to go. Note that the Remnant of Antiquities' Diamondshard Mist has radar range. Try to pull the Shattered Elementals away from the Remnant of Antiquities so you can fight undistracted. The Remnant of Antiquities constantly spams its spells, including the aforementioned Diamondshard Mist. Having an interrupter such as a ranger with Broad Head Arrow in the party is highly recommended. Your party will be bleeding during the fight, but that's not too difficult to deal with. It will take a while to wear it down. Having degeneration will help.

Once the countdown finishes, you will be placed back in Drakkar Lake just outside the dungeon. Talk to Outrunner Remlok to get your reward.

Arachni's Haunt
I'll do this one when the Zaishen Quest for Arachni comes up in a couple of days.