GW:EN Sneak Peak: Live Thread 11, The Failure

Back after a little trip into the real world to check on things. You'll forgive me for getting political with it , I hope, but when something's important to you, it needs saying.

Dinner was an unremarkable noodle bowl from a Japanese place. Desert, on the other hand, was the last of my mother's white peach cobble which I had forgotten I still had. Delicious, of course.

Anyhow, back to the game. There are only a few more hours left in the weekend and, well, I could spend it watching PvP stuff or grinding out some more plat to get all the skills. But, at the moment, I want to play for myself.

My options at the moment include running some more quests. I've collected quite a few, especially around Olaf's place that, if follow, I believe would reward me with permanent versions of the Bear/Wolf/Raven forms I was exposed to. On the other hand, I could head back to the Dwarves and that defense master quest and see if there's anything more there. But, really, I have a hankering for another dungeon crawl or three. I know there's one nearby Sif's thanks to that boss hunting quest, so I'm going for that one.

I picked up the first rank of the Dwarf title track, Delver, while hunting down that Wurm, by the way. It gives me the global blessing/enchantment Stout-Hearted. Whenever I use a skill against a Destroyer, you steal 6 health or something. That's pretty nice actually. Not so much for me, but it also applies to all my Heroes. Still, I'm not expecting to run into any destroyers so I'm flying the Slayer flag.

Checking the boss quest's green arrow, it's pointing me into the one corner of Drakkar Lake I've yet to explore. How much you want to bet there's a portal to the dungeon there?

And, yep, it's a sucker's bet because there it is. With some helpful NPCs outside to give me a quest. Talking to them also reveals some info about the dungeon. Looks like there's going to be a door/key quest of some kind.

Inside. Well, it's a cave. And there are Dryders trying to kill me.

Yep, it's a gate puzzle. I hate those. But I just found a map which should make it pretty easy to solve.

Ah, more of those Stalagmites that look like crystal devourers with their heads in the ground. Stupid Frozen Soil. Also, they have those towers that throw snowballs and spout ice jets. Annoying.

Still hunting for the right switches to open the right doors. Found the last boss in my quest, though.

There's a giant floating spectral face in the wall. It's freaking me out.

Okay, for the record, here's how I went. First, open the red doors of Strength. Head right into the eastern door and grab the area map. Then backtrack and head north through the other door. At the top of the map, just past a rezshrine you can open the green doors of Fellowship. Head west, and open up the blue doors, then backtrack, go through the rightmost red door again, and hit the other blue switch - the blue doors will be open but there'll be an enchantment or something stopping you until you get all the switches. The last green switch is to the north, just past the blue doors of Duty and the ramp to the next level.

Down, down, down, into the next level of this dungeon lair. I hope this place doesn't have too many because, yeesch, crisscrossing that map took a while.

This level has a big red Skull. I guess I know where I'm headed. Now to figure out how to get there. Labled Remnant of Antiquities.

Just a little dogleg it is. The Remnant is a big nasty elemental. Lv29. He has a special ability Called Diamondshard Mist, creates an environmental affect that's a snare. There's also some nasty effect that just causes bleeding and 140 damage in a ward sized area, Diamondshard Grave (Pretty rough when you have some DP). Makes crossing the bridge murder. But the recharge on Diamonshard? 5 seconds. synced with with the Power Return my AI is packing. Now if I could just survive all the Ice Spikes and Deep Freezes. They hit hard enough to one shot my DPed henchies.

Man, I just can't put a dent in him. Even if I wasn't DPed to high heaven by now, I'm not doing enough damage to be anywhere close to finishing him off before I'm wiped. He's perma regening, too. I don't think I've gotten more than 5% off his health. This is ridiculous.

Yeah, I give up. There's no way I can beat this guy with what I have. I'd need to bring some kind of shutdown, caster-hate, that sort of thing. But, as for right now? I'm fucking pissed and I need a break.