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. Each dungeon on this page has a box with the relevant information.
 * 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 or a Dwarven hunter rank up, 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
You'll need to fight all the way across Magus Stones to reach this dungeon. Take the safest route you can to minimize deaths.

In the very first room, there are several stationary groups of spiders and a ton of oozes moving about. Pull the oozes and follow the general tactics for Ooze Pit in the process of killing them. Once the oozes are gone, pave your way to the southern corner of the room to get the Area Map.

Throughout this dungeon you will notice corpses of Asura with an Asura Flame Staff nearby. You'll need this staff to burn webs to open up passages and to set spider eggs on fire. However, you don't need to carry each one around too far, so don't bother taking one with you and dropping it for each fight.

Watch out for the poison clouds in the ground and the poison jets. They are both active for the same amount of time.

Also in a few places in this dungeon are pops of aloe seeds. They use Clamor of Souls, so make sure to spread out to avoid as much area effect damage as you can. Also, they use Destruction, so either interrupt it or kill the spirit as soon as it spawns to minimize the damage it deals.

There are spider pops as well, so be ready for those.

The room containing Lok the Mischievous has large fireballs that will pick one of the four corridors to move down. Fortunately there are large safe areas between the pillars. Move through killing the Forge Masters. Carefully pull everything away from Lok the Mischievous. If you have a ranger in your party with a longbow or flatbow, Lok himself can be killed rather easily as he won't do anything other than renewing Fire Attunement if shot from outside aggro range. I would suggest that the ranger in question carry Sloth Hunter's Shot, but it's not a requirement.

In the rooms with the spider eggs, you'll want to clear everything out first before setting the eggs on fire. Note that a group of level 14 spiders will spawn when you set the eggs on fire, so set them on fire one at a time. When you set the last egg on fire, the Spider Matriarch will spawn. Take out the accompanying Lifeweaver(s) first before attacking the Matriarch, and she'll go down pretty quickly.

Behind the second Matriarch is the Dungeon Key, which will spawn when she dies. Take it and work your way through the next room to the lock, then it's on to the second level.

You may immediately recognize the starting area of the second level, it's used in both Ooze Pit and in Finding The Bloodstone. The Area Map is to the east of your starting location. If you head south from there, you'll find a Flame Guardian, defeat it and the flame traps will deactivate.

Now, just work your way to the third matriarch. There are a few groups of spiders that will pop up as you move through, so be on the lookout.

Both sets of eggs for the third matriarch and Arachni are in the final room, so clear the room of spiders (there are groups of Painweavers that will pop up close to each set of eggs) and spawn the third matriarch first. Use your mission map (default hotkey U) to see which set of eggs is which.

Once you've spawned Arachni, keep in mind that she'll spawn with other spiders, so go through and take out the Lifeweaver(s) first. Anyone with interrupts that work on attack skills should target Arachni and try to interrupt everything they can. If you can get Barrage disabled, you've taken out her most potent source of party-wide damage. Once you take out this group, it's all over. Talk to Commander Hixx to get your reward and take the chest for a random shiny.

After the countdown timer finishes, you'll spawn at the resurrection shrine just outside of the dungeon.

Bogroot Growths (Giriff's War)
Getting to this one can be a pain. Try to avoid the dinosaurs and go through the Agari Lands instead.

Everything in this dungeon is fleshy. A minion master can be useful here, but it's possible without one.

Once in the dungeon, the Beacon of Droknar is on the far side of the room. There will be a fight between a Gokir and an Ophil. In my case the Gokir won without any intervention, but you'll want to make sure it wins since that's the side you're fighting for.

Throughout the dungeon you will gain uncontrollable Gokir allies. It's advisable to let them take the lead. They will run forwards and engage the Ophil, then you follow and help them clean up.

In the first level there is a large bowl-like room with a lot of plants. Judicious use of pulling will let you get through here safely. The Blooming Nettle are stationary but have healing spells, so save them for once you've pulled most of the enemies away and kill them by themselves.

The first level's area map is about halfway through the level. Just after you engage a large group of Ophil with the help of some Gokir allies, walk to the north wall and hold Alt, you should see it in the cavern that branches off.

There are poison traps to worry about. Just time walking past them correctly and they shouldn't be an issue.

Thankfully the Beacon of Droknar on level 2 is right where you spawn instead of all the way across the room. To progress you'll need to kill a fair amount of the plants in here and the double spawns of Blooming Nettle can make it difficult.

After the second room, you'll start fighting beetles. The Ghosteater Beetles are spirit spammers, and the Thorn Beetle Queens have Vengeance. Try to pull them and pick off the Ghosteaters/Queens first. Vengeance is easy to interrupt, so it may be advantageous to bait the Queens into using it. Bringing enchantment removal is advised.

In the area with the beetles you will also find the Area Map. For whatever reason there are two Area Maps in this level.

There are some Ophil in a defensive formation on the other side of the next room, but there's a passage that lets you flank them. Use it. After this you'll get a bunch of Gokir allies who will rush in and attack the Ophil Patriarch in the next room. During this fight, more Ophil will enter the room, but don't panic. Take out the patriarch and the other ritualists first, then worry about everything else. The patriarch drops the boss key in addition to anything else it might drop, so make sure to grab it.

On the way down to the boss after opening the boss door, there are poison traps. I don't think there's much that can be done to avoid these, so as long as you have semi-decent condition removal in your party, trigger them and press on.

Khabuus has a fair number of Ophil around him, you'll want to pull and kill them separately. Pulling them is tough because they will return to their spots more quickly than the other groups you've fought, but eventually you'll get it right. If you aggro Khabuus before you're ready, just leave the room (and flag heroes and henchmen out of the room as well).

Khabuus has two Ophil Amini that will aggro with him, kill them off first and then focus on Khabuus.

When the countdown timer finishes, you'll be back in Sparkfly Swamp standing next to Giriff and Tekks.

Bogroot Growths (Tekks' War)
Basically the same as in Giriff's War, except you're fighting for the Ophil instead of the Gokir. Standard pulling suggestion applies for the plant bowl. The Gokir seem to outnumber the Ophil, which makes most rooms a bit more difficult than when you're fighting for the Gokir. If you get swarmed at any point, retreat immediately and reassess the situation.

In the room east of the Area Map, where the Ophil will fight a large group of Gokir, it's very advantageous to sit back and wait for the battle to end. If you engage too soon, your party will be swarmed. Let the battle resolve and pick off the remaining groups after they spread out. A lot of them will head south through the poison jets and the Nettle, and I believe the Nettle are hostile to them.

Not much is different on the second level either. Just fight your way to Z'him Monns, kill everything around him, and then take him on when he's the only one left.

Just like with Giriff's War, once you complete the dungeon and take the chest, you will spawn back in Sparkfly Swamp just outside the dungeon.

To-do list

 * Emphasize in a more standard way which enemies are fleshy and which aren't. This will probably be a dungeon info template edit.
 * Test which enemies are and aren't fleshy, even when I think it should be obvious.
 * Re-word things where necessary to not be from a ranger's point of view. This should include skill suggestions for other classes.
 * Rewrite Arachni's Haunt to be less of a walkthrough. That's not my goal here.  In addition, there is one Asura Flame Staff that needs to be carried from where you get it through a gauntlet of poison jets into the next room to light the eggs, and I should make note of this since backtracking through the traps can be treacherous.
 * Actually try to rank dungeons on their difficulty. It'll be tough as N/10 rankings are essentially arbitrary.  There should be some breakdown of the difficulty, which is what each dungeon's writeup is supposed to do.  Also, since I haven't done any of the dungeons before completing them to write about them, the order I do them in may not necessarily be from easiest to hardest.

What this guide should accomplish

 * Rank the dungeons in order of difficulty, since this is the stated goal of the guide.
 * Secondary to this is my experience doing them, thus the order I did the dungeons in is still relevant.
 * Provide skill suggestions while at the same time refraining from recommending any one build for the individual or party.
 * Make note of any dungeon mechanics that the player will need to use to progress through the dungeon, such as the area map, pressure plates, dungeon keys, etc.
 * Similarly, make note of dungeon hazards and advise the player how best to avoid them.
 * Describe any tricks, whether class-specific or not, that can be used to make certain parts of the dungeon easier.