First off, I made 30th circle tonight! Woohoo! Up ahead, the quest: To Raise the Dead! It's obvious I will need CJs for climbing and swimming. Climbing is at 70, swimming at 54. Question is: do I have enough MD (87 ranks) to use CJs effectively to complete the quest? Also, are there any other preparations I need/should make? Tools? Any help would be nice on the quest.

Also, I am set to get a new spell. Any suggestions? My primary goal is to support the people of Ratha, with the ability to raise the dead. Any other spells that might come in handy? If not, my secondary goal is that of an Undead Hunter.

Kor'yvyn continues, "As you are a member of our guild, I may teach you of the magic of our order as you become worthy of it. Currently, I feel you are worthy of information concerning the Minor Physical Protection, Confound Enemies, and Halo spells from the Holy Defense book, the Eylhaar's Feast spell from the Spirit Manipulation book, the Harm Evil, Curse of Zachriedek, and Malediction spells from the Holy Enchantments book, and the Aesrela Everild, Revelation, Huldah's Pall, Phelim's Sanction, and Abeyant Orison spells from the Divine Intervention book. If you are interested in more information about any of these books, you have but to ask me about it by the above stated name."

It's my intention to make the islands my home, namely Aesry but Ratha just the same since it seems mages can teleport people between the two islands.

I'd go with two of each personally, but I'm an excessively cautious person. There's probably no need for extras, but it would suck to get caught down there and be unable to get out.

I'd also invest in an invisibility ring -just- in case, but that's also me.

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Rev. Reene

Idon: i am a heron. i ahev a long neck and i pick fish out of the water w/ my beak. if you dont repost this in 10 other signatures i will fly into your kitchen tonight and make a mess of your pots and pans
Me: ...what.

Inviso rings are effectively one-shot "oh crap" buttons. You rub it, you're invisible for 10 minutes. Long cooldown, though. You don't need it by any means. It's just one of those nice things to have in unsafe situations. All of my characters own and wear at least one at all times.

I would want it for either entering or leaving the watery first area, because you get RTs for moving around in there and things start at pole range when they advance on you. The area after the rope you climb is critter-free, and you don't have to deal with anything again until after the first circle.

IIRC, the most difficult part for me when I was exploring that area was the ritual circle right before the altar, where heirophants and whatnot spawn. The circles actually take you out of invisibility, and you have to stand there and (if I remember right) can't retreat or you have to start over again. It's quick enough, but you can get very unlucky. I did. :\

This matters less if you're going in with people that can kill the critters for you of course, and/or protect you from them.

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Rev. Reene

Idon: i am a heron. i ahev a long neck and i pick fish out of the water w/ my beak. if you dont repost this in 10 other signatures i will fly into your kitchen tonight and make a mess of your pots and pans
Me: ...what.

I (Smegul) am usually hunting under the swamp. Especially hunting there on weekends, of which one is coming up (can't come too soon :()! Look me up if you need help.

I can kill anything which might be a problem, but I'm not going to solve the puzzles for you :)

Rangers, Paladins, and Clerics seem to be the best and most willing guides. If you ask around Haven, I'm sure you could find a couple regulars who will walk kids through the quest.


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"Close your eyes -
For your eyes will only tell the truth..
And the truth isn't what you want to see.
In the dark, it is easy to pretend
That the truth is what it ought to be." - Erik Claudin

>>For spells, AE or HE are both very solid, especially HE if you live on Ratha. You'll punch through dobeks with much lower skill than you would otherwise need.

This is funny, a 30th circle cleric even with decent combats wouldn't last long in Dobeks. That said HE is still a great spell but I would pick up PS

>>Actually, the only company I would want is someone that can follow and protect my lil arse. I doubt hunting sand sprites on a regular basis qualifies for being ready for the beasties ahead.

This actually wouldn't be that helpful. You can run from Basilisks and Shadow Beasts pretty easy and heirophants cast Limb Disruption, which you can't really protect from anyway

"When he says this, he means they'll drag you from area to area and tell you exactly what to type to finish the quest and become a good little rezzer."

Actually, just as Smegul offered to escort you but not solve the puzzles, you can probably get any range of assistance that you want, from what Reene said to just going along to drag you through the rough spots. A big group can be a fun party as long as there are some folks who can kill the gen fast.

However you choose to do it is just fine. I normally caution folks to not rush into getting resurrection, but you seem to be having fun, so obviously you are doing things correctly.




"militantly enforcing the overly rigid standards of you and your small collection of friends"

"As you are a member of our guild, I may teach you of the magic of our order as you become worthy of it. Currently, I feel you are worthy of information concerning the Minor Physical Protection, Confound Enemies, and Halo spells from the Holy Defense book, the Eylhaar's Feast spell from the Spirit Manipulation book, the Harm Evil, Curse of Zachriedek, and Malediction spells from the Holy Enchantments book, and the Aesrela Everild, Revelation, Huldah's Pall, Phelim's Sanction, and Abeyant Orison spells from the Divine Intervention book. If you are interested in more information about any of these books, you have but to ask me about it by the above stated name."

Of these spells, I would say that MPP, Harm Evil and Phelim's Sanction are all must haves for undead combat. MPP will reduce damage and is just a staple. Phelim's Sanction for stunning is a basic spell that is very helpful in hitting those things that you have a hard time hitting. And Harm Evil is the single best spell we have for killing undead.

AE is a powerful spell, but I doubt you have the magics to maximimize the benefit from it yet, and Harm Evil works better against most undead, including Dobeks. Of the remaining spells:

Halo is one you will want to get eventually, works great in the orb if you get stunned or need to push things back. Curse of Zach is worth getting if you deal with armed opponents enough, and have the mana to cast high- probably no point in using it on Sand Sprites but if they hurt you it might work. Might be helpful in Swains but the mana there is rather low to maximize usage.

Malediction I find to be a tough spell to cast- meaning it backfires easily unless fully prepared, takes a lot of mana to get a higher level curse and the results aren't spectacular. I use it, but not often, not regularly. I find unbalancing with DR to be more helpful in most cases.

As a cleric I don't see a big need for HULP until you face something that casts spells that can hurt you. Until I got to A'danf I didn't use it very often. So you can hold off on that for quite awhile. Revelation is very nichey- most useful for CvC, has a small perception boost which will help with juggling, which will help with Perception which of course is most important for CvC. I wouldn't rush into getting Rev unless you have a specific reason.

EF and AO I don't have anything positive to say about, so I will leave those to others who may wish to comment on them.

"militantly enforcing the overly rigid standards of you and your small collection of friends"

In the what.. 8 years? that I've been in the realms I can't count the number of times I've been to Haven. ;) but, my home is the islands.

I like AO personally. Like EF, it's pretty niche-tastic, but it's useful for what it's useful for. My general use is the following:

1) I'm teaching, I want to hunt soon. I buff now, when I get to the hunting place, I get all my buffs instantly and go.

2) My hunting area has no 'safe spot' and/or bad mana in the safe spot. I buff now in a good mana room, invoke the orb, get all my buffs when I get there.

EF -- this one is growing on me. I've found it useful in a couple situations, mostly around trying to train PM. I've found it's health and fatigue restoration pretty mediocre, but the mana restoration feature can be nice. If I'm hunting in a pretty bad mana room and happen to drain my mana by a lot, I can bring it back up pretty fast by a single EF. It's not like I'm going to die by draining 30-40% of my spirit health, but that extra mana is invaluable. I don't see a point in BF, though.

My offer certainly wasn't to tell you how to do the puzzles, like I said. I'd just kill the critters :P. Gives me an excuse to visit the heirophants again!

BF - I did study a scroll to hold onto this temporarily just to try it out. Seemed to work same as EF, without the chance of dying. But normally, you're so rarely going to need to use EF that having to use it multiple times faster than the cool down is insanely rare, making BF pretty much pointless. And then I lost the BF spell when I used too much mana and had to use EF to fix my attunement.. which just made me laugh.

And really, for a cleric, going down to 10% spirit isn't that big of a deal. I can get back to 100% in no time with 4 vigils and a self cast vigil - which is why I do EF at 80, 40 doesn't give enough attunement for the time it took to cast I feel.

With that many links, I can't even cast AE fast enough to drop below 80% spirit.



Fun times!
collect ceb root
>
You manage to collect a pile of cebi roots.
Roundtime: 102 sec.

>> This is funny, a 30th circle cleric even with decent combats wouldn't last long in Dobeks. That said HE is still a great spell but I would pick up PS

I guess I think of spells in terms of long-term investments in these situations. I missed MPP in the first list though, that would probably be better.

Kaeko if you need CJs I can make you some mid-level ones that should pull you through just fine with your ranks. With your ranks it should bring you to enough to pull it off assuming you go in with no burden and have no armor on. The hardest part IIRC is the swimming portion; I have about as much swimming as you do and only a little more strength and with one of my own CJs I can make it across the river. I can also make you an inviso ring if you decide you need one.

I'm in the Lang/Haven area, so gweth around for me (Caelumia) and we'll figure it out. :)

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Rev. Reene

Idon: Why are we taunting the happy fun Y'shai, again?
Me: Idon know.
Idon: You disgust me.
Me: At least I'm not trying to Phelim up.
Idon: Makes me wonder what she's doing to the World Dragon.

What you can fight doesn't matter. You won't be fighting any thing on this quest. Don't try. They are many, many ranks and circles ahead of you. Hell, they're many ranks and circles ahead of most Clerics twice your circle.

That said, I think completing it on your own is entirely possible if you keep a cool head and keep moving, and keep in mind where the safe/no spawn rooms are. That would be:

Next to the stalagmite in the water area
By the rope in the shadow beast area
The entire area after the rope and before the river
The altar itself

The puzzles aren't really that hard, but doing them incorrectly or not moving fast enough can kill you.

If you die in the water area, your body will be automatically moved to the altar above the swamp, where you can be gated out pretty easily. This is good because falling off the rope lands you prone and stunned in the water area with basilisks and whatnot. Beyond that, your body remains in the fortress.

Honestly, just give it a shot at least once on your own. Let some people know where you're going and what you're going to do. You will not be stranded if you die.

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Rev. Reene

Idon: Why are we taunting the happy fun Y'shai, again?
Me: Idon know.
Idon: You disgust me.
Me: At least I'm not trying to Phelim up.
Idon: Makes me wonder what she's doing to the World Dragon.

>> By the rope in the shadow beast area - rope is in cinder beast area (just so you don't go looking for a rope in shadow beasts..)

Blech, my bad.

It's been awhile since I've been down there, can you tell?

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Rev. Reene

Idon: Why are we taunting the happy fun Y'shai, again?
Me: Idon know.
Idon: You disgust me.
Me: At least I'm not trying to Phelim up.
Idon: Makes me wonder what she's doing to the World Dragon.

If you're worried about incorrectly solving the puzzle you might want to bring an empath with good FA

If you do decide to do it on your own, or even if you don't, I suggest vaulting all your vaulables

Worst case if you're doing it on your own, you die and someone comes and helps you :)

To expand on the safe rooms, I BELIEVE the waterfall swimming rooms are safe, but the banks on either side are not. Could be wrong, been a long time since I was that deep in the area.

The only thing I'm ever in fear of is dying with "no way out." In other words, I can die alone and I'm fine as long as I know someone's trying to get to me to get me out of the pickle. So trying the quest alone isn't really due to the fact or not that I'm in a rush. The rush is the adventure, and a good kick in the head. 'ell, most the rush comes from completing it by myself.