Hi All,
This is my experience with the GoC Questline as a newbie payer barely a few weeks old. At the same time it might work as a guide for fellow newplayers.
Note: I do not claim that this is the most efficient way. It is simply the way I am doing it right now and maybe fellow newbie player can get some ideas from it.
Links:
- GoC: http://www.uoex.net/wiki/The_Mage%27s_I ... C%29_Quest
http://www.uoex.net/wiki/The_Mage%27s_I ... s_Dungeons
http://www.uoex.net/wiki/Collector_Items
http://www.uoex.net/wiki/Peerless_Monsters
Awesome Interactive Map of Sosaria: http://wiki.game-master.net/map/
Imps: http://www.uoex.net/wiki/Imprisoned_Pets
220 Dex Guide: http://www.uoex.net/wiki/220_Dex_Guide
Relayers: http://www.uoex.net/wiki/Relayer
Mistvale: http://www.uoex.net/wiki/Mistvale
Kevans efficient guide: http://www.uoex.net/forum/viewtopic.php ... lit=riches
Devlins guide on what´s important on Excelsior: http://www.uoex.net/forum/viewtopic.php ... ilit=guide
Manage as much as possible from the GoC quest, solo with pets and newbie gear worth around only 1000 000 gold.
Note: 1 mil gold can be easily obtained by doing champs, looting gold, etc..
My equipment strategy
Use newbie gear set out for maximum healing and some magery to keep pets alive at all times and avoid stat loss by death. Pets are meant to take all the damage and inflict all the damage.
My tools of war
Armor of fortune 100k
Hat of the Magi 20-50k
Gloves of the sun 10k
Ornament of the Magician 100k
Midnight Bracers 30-50k
Ring of elements 30-50k
Tome of Lost Knowledge 50k
Arcane Shield 50k
Legs with good resistances and some mana regeneration (MR) 20-40k
Necklace with faster cast recovery 3 (FCR), Lower Reagent Cost (LRC) and some resitances (resis)
Woodland Belt with LRC, MR and resis 10-20k
Earings with Faster Casting 1 (FC) and Lower Mana Cost (LMC)
Two maxed stats mules 100-200k each
One maxed stats Cu Sidhe 200k
Note: Pets have maxed stats around 1000 Strength (STR), 1000 manapoints
(MP), 75 resis, 500 Stamina (STA), 1000 Hit points (HP)
This equip will give resitances in the 60´s, 35-40 LMC, 100 LRC, 4/6 FC/FCR, around 8 MR and the pets will do more damage and tank more than any new player could ever hope to do himself.
Links:
- Where to search through vendors: http://vendors.uoex.net/exlist
The following skills are necessary at 100 skill level or more.
Animal Taming 105ish - Cu Sidhe Requires 105ish, Mule only around 90, I had to buy a PS for 60k
Animal Lore 110 - This PS is cheap but helps so your pets listen to your commands
Veterinary - to ressurect your pet
Magery - For damage and utility, not for healing
Meditation - for more mana reg
Necromancy - for Lich Form, Animate Dead, and Wither at low level champ spawns
Spirit Speak - used for the Cleric Spells
Ninjitsu -87,5 for Shadowjump for scouting dungeons
Hiding and Stealth - for dungeon scouting
Stats
My stats are 125 STR, 60 INT, and 90DEX. I locked STR and INT and am raising DEX so later I can switch to a DEX build.
The following skills are good to support this strategy.
Healing - I have an EasyUO healing script running in the background, although at my DEX level it doesn´t do much
Peacemaking - Good for when the pets are fighting and I get aggro I can neturalize a mob
Provocation - At high enough level can neutralize two mobs at the same time
Discordance - Good to support your pets by debuffing the enemy
Musicianship - Needed for the above
Archery - Good for long fight that only require little healing of your pets. For Example Netopir, Newbie Champion Spawn Master of Arts.
Links: Hotkeys
I set hotkeys for the most important healing spells, skills and pet commands. This is absolutely necessary since I need to be fast at healing my pets through tough and long fights.
Assisting programs
I use UOSteam for my hotkeys and convenient looting. Before I used only Razor which worked just as well for hotkeys. The important hotkeys can also be set in the game itself. I also use a EasyUO script for automatically healing me, although my DEX is so bad that I am usually faster healing with cleric spells manually.
Links:
- Info on UOSteam: http://uorevealed.com/Wiki/index.php?ti ... m#Autoloot
I let the pets do all the work! I mean it. They are meant to do all the damage and also meant to tank all the damage. Only in special occasions do I use magery to help out my pets.
Before a big fight:
Morph into Lich form (Necromancy) for extra mana regeneration. Subsequently I drag out the health bars of my main enemies and my pets and organize them around my screen so I allways have good information on their HPs.
Proceed to attack the enemy with my pets one after another. I try to allways have all pets attack one enemy so he dies fast, usually weakest first, and strongest last. There are exceptions to this if the weakest enemy is too weak to do any significant damage to the pet. In case I get aggro from another mob I spam "all guard me" and run away in circles untill my pets have aggro and proceed to kill weakest to strongest. Sometimes I need to spam "all kill" in order to have all pets attack the right enemy.
Once the pets have the aggro I proceed to heal. For this I use the cleric spells Sacred Boon (SB) and Touch of life (ToL), seldomly I use Purge since ToL heals through poison and mortal strike. Most of the time I spam ToL and try to keep SB up on all pets that receive damage. It took a while before I got the hang of it, but now I am fast and furious at healing.
When clearing a dungeon/champ spawns or other small quest mobs:
Use the "All Guard Me" command and either ride one of the mules or walk on the side.
Links:
- Cleric Spells: http://www.uoex.net/wiki/Cleric_Spells
Pet Commands: http://www.uoex.net/wiki/Commands
Below I want to share my success and failures with each Dungeon. I will basically revolve my tale around my experience with this strategy. For more information relating spawn locations and other information on the GoC please see the wiki. The links are posted at the beginning of this thread and are a good read.
Blighted Grove
This is not the hardest peerles dungeon, yet it is not easy either. The mobs on their own are rather easy though, if you get them single. Blighted Grove is only available in Felucca (Fel), you need to walk there from the Fel entrance and there is no quest involved to enter. Blighted Grove is somewhat to the NW of the Felucca Entrance via the World Teleporter. There is a quest, however, to fight Lady Melisande. There are five quest items involved that drop from various monsters or can be found on the floor, outside at the entrance or inside the Blighted Grove. Once all quest items are collected you need to go through the green gate at the NW of the Blighted Grove and follow the instructions of the stones. After you complete the quest you will be teleported to a small instance where Melisande spawns. Inside the small instance is a pet summoning stone which only costs 100gp.
The Grove entrance has a few strong enemies including the Moss Maidens which have an area of effect (AOE) attack. On the W side of the small creek treeants spawn with the first Lady Mel quest item, on the NE side of the creek Moss Maidens spawn with another Lady Mel quest item. You can cross the creek over a small log, be carefull here that you don´t stand on the other side of the creek and your pets cannot help you. If you aggro one by one and are carefull it should be no problem.
The entrance to the Blighted Grove is on the NE through the large tree. Now it gets dangerous. Once you go through the tree into the Blighted Grove three Abcesses spawn directly in front of it as well as a few Thrashers. If you are unlucky you will have to fight them all at once. It is possible, but you will need some practice. Clearing the entrance to the grove, leaving your pets outside and stealthing through the entrance of the grove is probably best at first. Then when you see only one or two Abcesses close to the entrace get your pets and attack them. Heal fast and go Lich form if necessary. Alterntively you can mount a pet and run though to the SW side of the dungeon, clear it and then come back afterwards to take on the Abcesses one by one. Either way it is a good idea to stealth through the dungeon first to get an idea of the sorroundings. After killing the abcesses and the Trashes a few times two of the GoC quest items from the Blighted Groove should be yours.
After clearing the entrance of the Blight Grove you can move either directions. Move slowly, kill everything with your pets out and collect the quest items for the Fight Lady Mel Quest aswell as the GoC quest items from Tangle, Devos, Saliva, and the Insane Dryads. None of them are particularly difficult, you can even take on multiple if unavoidable. Also in the Blighted Grove you will find the changelings and reapers which drop a Fight Lady Mel quest item, aswell as deadly toadstools which grow on the floow in the South end of the dungeon.
Once you have all the quest items and completed the quest (through the green moongate at the NW end of the grove) you will receive the Lady Melisande Master Ticket. Stand on the teleporter before the last stone and say "single" then "ready to move". You will then be teleported to the Lady Melisande Instance.
Once inside the small instance morph into Lich form and have all pets ready (there is a pet summoning stone (100g) in Lady Mels instance in case a pet got left behind). When you walk to the W side of the branch Lady Mel will spawn. She does single target damage which can be easily healed against. The complication arrises when she starts spawning satyrs which can use peacemaking on your pets. They are not a big problem if you have your pets take them down every time they spawn. Here every now and then you can use energy bolt to take down satyrs faster or they are running away. Moreover do I use Animate Dead (Necromancy) on the fallen satyrs to increase my damage on Lady Mel. Allways try to stay out of Melisandes reach because her Flamestrike will one shot players in lich form due to the reduced fire resistance. She will not switch aggro during the fight, but during the moment that your pets are idle after you send them to kill a satyr, and before you command them to attack Lady Mel again, be carefull to stay out of her reach and tell your pets to attack as fast as possible. Beware also that every few spawns Melisande can hit a lot stronger or spawn many more satyrs. These fights are a little tougher but possible all the same.
Once she is defeated one can leave the instance by the small rope ladder to the south, or recall out of the Dungeon. If you climb down the ladder you will be back in Blighted Grove.
Note: Lady Mels GoC quest item is tradeable and people usually give it for free. It drops often and people farm her for the imp drops. Send me a pm and ill get you one for free.
Sanctuary
The second dungeon I tried. Very confusing and glitchy with instances within instance. Basically move slowly with you pets guarding you and you can clear the dungeon no problem. There are teleporters all over the place, please consult the wiki on a description on how to get to each GoC quest mob. All the quest mobs are rather easy, except for Netopir and the Fire Ruby Dragon.
Link:
- Navigate through Sanctuary: http://www.uoex.net/wiki/The_Mage%27s_I ... C%29_Quest
The Fire Ruby Dragon will be challenging but wont have strong adds and present a relatively straight forward fight. It has a breath attack that does 700ish HP damage to your pet. I send out my strongest pet to attack first, so it would tank the Dragon and the other pets straight afterwards. All there is to say: Go Lich Form before you attack and heal very fast. You need to heal the pet to full hp before the dragon does another breath attack. As the Dragon looses HP its breath attack will be weaker. If you heal fast enought the dragon is actually "easy".
Bedlam
Bedlam is a rather easy dungeon. The entrance is through the iron maiden at the bloodletter in Umbra. At the entrance of the dungeon two liches stand guard. They are disguised balrons and hit hard. You can go in with your pets guarding you and kill them.
Afterwards you can move to the North where a lot Red Death spawn. Take them on one by one and they are no problem.
Stick to the East wall and kill the Red Death, be carefull when moving to the West since there the flesh eating dragon dwells. He one hits and according to the wiki does not drop anything good.
Next you could check if the Monstrous Interred Grizzle has spawned. From the entrance, move Notrth, along the East wall, and after the Red Deaths comes a building with stairs. Walk up the stairs and in front of the gate say: ''Odkleni Vrata''. The gate opens letting you inside. On the bottom floor is an interred grizzle and some scroll keepers. The interred grizzle does an aoe, but all in all you can clear the bottom floor easily with your pets. Upstairs is the boss, the Monstrous Interred Grizzle. It does a strong area of effect attack that reaches very far. Never the less it is possible to stand outside it and still be within reach to heal your pets. Lich form is necessary. Sometimes you cannot avoid to be hit by the AOE damage because the Grizzle is standing in the middle of the room. In that case quickly heal yourselg up with cleric spells, and then foccus your pets again. You can also have Boon of Life active on yourself to be more safe.
All in all not too hard and can easily be healed against. Sometimes the adds in the bottom room will respawn and come upstairs. In that case kill them first before focusing on the boss again.
For the other quest items you will need to go to the basement of Bedlam. To do so you need to get the key from Ancient Mage Mikael. He spawns in the graveyard to the West of the Bedlam entrance. Stick to the South wall and to your side of the metal fence in order to not be seen by the flesh eating dragon who spawns next to the graveyard, to the North west of the bedlam entrance. Once Mikael aggroes you, move a little away towards the SE and he will teleport to you. Draw him to the entrance of Bedlam and fight and kill him there. He will start to flee on low HP, be carefull that he doesn´t flee towards the flesh eating dragon, if necessary block his path with energy fields.
Kill him a few times and he will drop the key to the basement of Bedlam. To go to the basement, mount your Cu Sidhe and teleport into the graveyard, close to the South wall in order to avoid the flesh eating dragon. Go to the cypt and enter.
Labyrinth
Pretty hard instance with a lot of micro management necessary if to be successfully done with pets. Tere are traps, and strange line of sight and the "All Guard Me" command is pretty useless in many situation. Dangerous minotaurs or other mobs can be easily pulled when not desired. On the plus side, a few questmobs are rather easy to kill, if caught alone.
Best thing to do is stealth inside and get an overview of the sorroundings. Don´t go inside any buildings, they have hidden teleporters that might teleport you right onto a minotaur. Don´t fight the minotaur scouts, they are very strong. Best not fight any minotaur at all, altough at times it can be hard to avoid collision with a minotaur chieftain. The captain is not so hard and can be killed by the pets.
Once you have an idea of the labyrinth instance, mount your Cu outside the entrance and run though all the way to the point shown on the screenshot below. There hide and check the sorroundings. Maybe run in with invisibility precast to be even more secure. If no minotaurs are around, you can pull the healthbar of the snakes in the vicinity and have your Cu Sidhe kill them. Allways be carfull to stay close to this spot and not aggro anything else. If you do happen to pull a minotaur captain, kill him with all you pets.
Once the safe spot is secure, try and carefull pull the Golden Lyscar. It is somewhere near the path to the Eeast. To do this, carefully move to the East, and have it come to you by going war mode and doubble cliking it, or its healthbar. Wait till its all the way at your safe spot and kill it. It has no HP and is very easy. Don´t be afraid of the Rends, they are passive and will not attack.
Next up is the hardest part. The Skorp Warrior. He spawns to the West of the safe spot and has a lot of adds, is hard to kill, and there are minotaur captains nearby. You can stealth inside, pull all the healtbars and stealht to the safe spot again. Now get all you pets out and slowly pull one or two young skorps at a time to your safe spot. Once all the young scorps are dead you can move into the area near the ankh and kill the scorp warrior. Adds may spawn, kill them first while maintaing aggro on the skorp warrior. Be carefull not to pull the nearby minotaur captain. If you do, kill him first with your pets, if he starts running don´t have your pets follow him anywhere, pull them back onto the skorp warrior. It is also possible to pull the skorp warrior to the safespot and kill him there, altough it is harder since he will start to run away at low Hp. You can try and block him with Energy Fields.
Next up along the Laby is the Egiptski Dragon. You can run through full speed on your pet all the way to the safe spot to the left of the small building. Once there hide, and make sure no minotaurs are at the direct vicinity. Clear small mobs like snakes. Now pull the Dragon to the safe spot and kill him there. If you kill him by the water the sea serpents can kill you fast.
Next in line are the Pyres. Run through to the next safe spot and hide. Make sure the sorroundings are safe. The Pyres are easy to kill with one pet, yet in their direct vicinity are deadly minotaurs. To the South are two Scouts, and another one to the NW. You need to stay very close to the safe spot not to aggro them.
To kill the Pyres unmount your pet and have the pet aggro them one by one, fight them right at the safe spot. You can do so by basically telling your pet to kill the pyre, then tell it to follow you to the safespot imdediately afterwards and once the pyre is close, command to kill once more. If you aggro a minotaur, mount the pet, ride away and hide, untill the minotaurs have walked back to their spawn point.
Last but not least comes Slaarion. Run through to him and run straight upstairs. You can not stealth or hide or cast invisibility inside the building. He hits hard and is best fought on the top storey. I actually stealthed to the entrance, run to the top storey and unshrunk my pets there. Afterwards I could slowly move down and aggro him with my pets to lure him upstairs. He will hit hard on one pet, so be ready to heal very fast. Lich Form is a must here. Otherwise very straightforward. Seldomly he will move downstairs whilst fleeing with low HP, hence the the energy barrier in the screen shot.
