Curse

Shayne Hawke · Oct 28, 2009, 04:09 AM // 04:09

Yup. Fourth character, fifth run total. This time, I didn't use Mad King, and I also did most of the run wearing zero armor and equipped with only a Peppermint Spear and Shield. I later thought that the Aatxe weren't doing enough damage when one of them smacked me for ~156, so I took off the shield (8 armor, lol) and they started smacking me for ~256. I was hit by them three times after that, long enough in between to heal.

Total time was 24 minutes. Further clarification, my run times are being calculated with /age after the quest updates to tell me to return to the Steward.

My hardest spots were around the Aatxe, making sure to have them all knocked/snared away from me so that they wouldn't kill me. I actually rubberbanded in front of two of them on the stairs up to Vale, and I would have been a goner had I not knocked them, hit /stuck, ran around, and snared them fast enough.

Also, the Plains had a lot of degen that I couldn't really escape from, and with the large mobs, it's seemingly impossible to knock everything and keep track of it all, so I only did it against the melee ones. Everything else only hit ~50s or ~60s of damage, so it was bearable. At one point, I had to cower in a corner to recover some health, and I was lucky that one of the mobs was pathed to walk just outside of my position. I had a similar case in Pits, but Pits seemed remarkably easier with there only being groups of one to three to keep down.

Pools and Mountains were both easier than I expected, the Behemoths not hitting for much (~50s and 60s again) and the Dryder's always casting Meteor Shower or getting knocked before they could cast. Wastes would have been tough if the Coldfires actually came in large enough groups and walked close enough to my route that I had to deal with them, but I think I only knocked two Coldfires the whole run, and they weren't even the ones in front of the Elemental.

Conclusion: This second quest is about as stupid easy as the first if you know how to best use your snare and KD, and adding the friendship spell just turns it into a cakewalk. It's just longer and more frustrating since you have to go pretty much everywhere in the Underworld and face almost every kind of monster. The difficulty is not increased by much.

dr love · Oct 28, 2009, 04:12 AM // 04:12

damn 13min i think is possible but super hard. i want to see proof!

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/4962/gw055.jpg

edit: ok on next run i triggered wastes reaper at 13min, and even made it to the ice henchmen at 13min. but it turned 14min before i could make it to the king. of course you can type age after wastes reaper finishes his dialogue and then take the screenshot at the king. 13min there.

Maker of the fallen · Oct 28, 2009, 04:17 AM // 04:17

I think a lot of us are forgetting this is a HOLIDAY QUEST, something that I always thought A-Net wanted everyone to be able to enjoy, and considering farming isn't really a fun task (more like work), the quests were most likely put in place to get a new refreshing way to enjoy it. Costume brawl is fun, but lets face it, it may not be fun if you aren't into PvP. The first quest seemed very babyish to me, but I personally had a lot more fun with it than I have with this one. I understand both sides of the argument, one side is happy for the challenge, and the other is bummed, because they lack the enjoyment. I for one think that it should be about enjoying the quests and then getting a decent reward. Not going out and running around for 30 minutes to get rubber-banded into a damned aataxe and have to restart. Easy way to have solved this is to just save the reapers you have spoken to instead of having to recruit them 15 times just to complete it. The quest maybe a little to long and difficult for players that can't play for hours on end and get it through. I also enjoy the challenge but I don't think people are being "babies" due to it's difficulty. Challenges should be found in DoA, not a holiday quest lol.

Malchior Devenholm · Oct 28, 2009, 04:39 AM // 04:39

Died once in bone pits when I tried to push past one group who got a couple good degens on me.

Getting into the pits is easy, getting out is hard.

Overall a fun quest. Lengthy yes, but it's still so awesome to convert enemies and run through the UW unscathed.

chowmein69 · Oct 28, 2009, 04:53 AM // 04:53

took me 30 mins to do quest because i was doing it slowly and carefully

Ravi · Oct 28, 2009, 04:56 AM // 04:56

32 mins here, 2 tries, very nice quest, cant wait to see how the story unfolds, all i can say to anet is, MOAR NAO.

Yawgmoth · Oct 28, 2009, 05:40 AM // 05:40

Which way do people run their <15mins runs? I do /age 20 minutes AFTER the kings dialog has finished (18min at last reaper) using 1 blue candy, running mnts->pits->plains->pools->lab->vale->wastes. Any better way it can be ran?
BTW, the candy shortens the run by less than 1.5 minutes, barely worth it.

A11Eur0 · Oct 28, 2009, 05:42 AM // 05:42

I really don't feel like doing these quests but I feel like if I don't, I'll miss out on something really cool. Ugh.

Hooded Doom · Oct 28, 2009, 05:54 AM // 05:54

Failed once because i had MoP on me and forgot about it, so FoC slapped me.

Did it a second time, 21 mins, just ran thru again at 16..jolly good fun

Ms Epilady · Oct 28, 2009, 06:15 AM // 06:15

Well, messed up the first time in the bone pits, so decided to try it again...this time I got to the reaper...i was so happy...until I found out I had to make my way out of the pit and back to the King. Of course, I died. This just isn't worth doing imo

Why couldn't they have made it so you could zone areas using the reapers like you do in normal UW??? Sigh

AngelWJedi · Oct 28, 2009, 06:16 AM // 06:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by sixdartbart

^^^this^^^

Long boring runs aren't fun to me and the bonepits are just stupid imo.
Would it be too much to have a heal in one of those empty skill slots rather than getting to watch your hp drain out because the 2 necros just outside of your aggro bubble didn't turn green like everything else on the radar did?

This would be better if they would just let us keep normal skill bars and clear the damn place.

End of halloween quests for me as I'm not playing this to get stressed out but rather to have fun.
THIS ISN'T!

in the end this person sums it up the best for me. as i wasnt the only one unable to this quest. 5 or more people in my allaince couldnt do it even with cons/maps. when i first heard about the quest i got excited thinking it would either be like the easy chain quests/or the 4 repeatable quest from wintersday. these quest are turning more and more into a solo doa feel.

like someone in my allaince said if it a "full" bar of halloween skills and we could use groups it would have been way fun. gw and this event is supposed to be relaxing and fun not stress worth and shouting at the computer. If the end prize is some kind of rare thing i can only hope they their will be enough people getting it the us people that are looked down at for not finising/doing quests can buy it.

In the end i can say thank you for the thought for giving us quests. but for shame to making it so stressful that some cant do it.

Hyperventilate · Oct 28, 2009, 06:23 AM // 06:23

I just managed to do it with two essences of celerity. The best part was that as soon as the Mad King's Influence recharges, the effect wears off and you can insta-charm them again. The extra speed definitely helps.

I cannot say I enjoyed this quest. In fact, I had given up on it. But after reading some guru threads I figured I'd give it one more chance. I bought two celerities just to be safe, and I needed them both. (I had to wait out my father's brilliant plan of lagging the hell out of me by downloading a windows update. Gogo failtubes.)

The celerities definitely help. I didn't use any candies, but I think this quest is far too difficult for most, and FAR too stressful. I'm glad it's over, but I'm not doing it again and I hope that a-net either changes this quest (Self heal would be nice. Give me mending, please! That's all I ask.), change the spawns or do something similar.

God, I hope there is no more of THIS. I want to fight something, not run around and flee like a pansy.

Coney · Oct 28, 2009, 06:35 AM // 06:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dzjudz

Okay, using an essence, a red rock and a blue rock candy, I got the time down to 13 minutes. Any challengers?

LOL, ~6k worth of consumables to cut 7 minutes off the time?

I guess this nets 125 ToTs/35 tonics per hour, *ALMOST* as much as you'd get farming.

(Doesn't include the ~20 gold unid, ~20k vendor trash/tomes/scrolls/ink/matls, chest/[un]lucky titles - OR the -30k consumable cost!!!)

Wheel of time · Oct 28, 2009, 06:38 AM // 06:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dzjudz

Okay, using an essence, a red rock and a blue rock candy, I got the time down to 13 minutes. Any challengers?

had 16 with just bday cake

and actually i dont know how anyone finds pits hard. I admit that it may be the only place where you have to activate 4, but then if you did that (under bridge) it's just kd everyone.

Gli · Oct 28, 2009, 06:50 AM // 06:50

Horribly boring quest. Died in the pits once, tried again and managed the pits alright but rubberbanded on the way to the 6th reaper and got shredded by 2 aatxes I thought I'd ran past. Can't stomach the idea of having another go at it right now. This quest has no entertainment value whatsoever and takes far too long.

DragonRogue · Oct 28, 2009, 06:51 AM // 06:51

I also agree that this quest of the Reapers was a bit much for the casual player. Seemed more geared to those who do UWSC than to the majority of the GW Community. After one lag death after finishing Pits, Plains and Pools, I needed a break from the rage I was feeling, tried twice more, died to Pits degen deaths, but after much screaming and profanity at the screen, finally the 4th time I succeded. I know the UW pretty well, even tho I dont UWSC, and even I found this to be a challenge. I feel sorry for those who dont go there often or have never been. I can imagine most of them have thrown their comps right out the window. I know a few in my Alliance raged and some who didnt even bother to try because they knew they would fail and didnt want to waste the time. But, even tho i have wanted a challenge from this game for some time and now got it, I think many wont be able to finish this quest line now, and for a holiday quest chain, you went over the top Anet. Next time, add a self heal at least or hex remover if you want more to have fun with this. You had an opportunity to show many new UW players what is down there and I think you might have put many off from ever going again.

Kudos for coming up with an interesting quest line, and kudos for making me work at it. Just next time, dont make it a holiday chain so casual players can have fun too.

FengShuiDove · Oct 28, 2009, 06:51 AM // 06:51

Didn't mind the difficulty... failed once in Pits 'cause I didn't remember where the Reaper was. 24 minutes was the time. Not terrible, not great.

I'm not too upset by the difficulty of the quest once you get it figured out, but I do hope that the next quests are less "run around" based and more "go here, get lots of lore" based.

Kook~NBK~ · Oct 28, 2009, 07:14 AM // 07:14

I didn't care for today's quest. I don't mind challenging quests, but to my way of thinking, these holiday quests should be more about fun than frustration. It took me several tries to get through on my 1st character, partly because I'm not too familiar with the UW, and partly because the pits area was a pain.

Ahh well, I got through it on 2 characters, may do a couple more tomorrow.

Kinda cooll how those doors are cracking open little by little. And some of the dialog is pretty good.

P.S. For those saying "I want to kill stuff" because the quests are boring: The story behind the quests is how to deal with the problem that too much killing going on in the UW is causing. Why would these quests have elements that add to the problem you're trying to help resolve?

Operative 14 · Oct 28, 2009, 07:15 AM // 07:15

I just hope from now one we stay out of Bone Pits. >_>

I've tried four times to get past there already, I've died each time because I can't target fast enough to knockdown the second golem thing in a pair before I get that hex that last forever and a day that gives you -8 regeneration.

I'll try again tomorrow when I'm less frustrated with it. :/

s73ve_o · Oct 28, 2009, 07:21 AM // 07:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Operative 14

I just hope from now one we stay out of Bone Pits. >_>

I've tried four times to get past there already, I've died each time because I can't target fast enough to knockdown the second golem thing in a pair before I get that hex that last forever and a day that gives you -8 regeneration.

I'll try again tomorrow when I'm less frustrated with it. :/

tab is your friend when switching to the second golem in a group