Dungeon Diving: Vloxen Excavations

Working my way out of the Asuran lands. Skipping over the Shards of Orr. Which means the only dungeon on my map that I've yet to conquer is Vloxen Excavations which I briefly ran through to get to the Polymocking.

Finally switched my build from prot to healing. In retrospect, I'm really glad since it meant I got to use LoD a bit while it was still in its golden age before the nerf (Again, we're running behind current events with this series here.). A moment of silence for dear old LoD, please, before we continue. But I didn't switch up because I knew what was coming, instead, I wanted to try out the appealing newness of things like Cure Hex and Spotless Soul. And also so I can drop Mhen-do like a stone into a very deep ocean. Good old Lina Inverse is a decent enough prot Monk. I really need to get a Healing hat, though.

For the Hero squad, I'm going back to a full compliment of Eles. Two Searing Flame nukers to power through the baddies. One is an E/Me to pack an interrupt and an enchantment strip. The other is E/Mo to pack in some hex removal with Remove and Convert Hexes - I'll hate out conditions with my roomier healing bar but I'm concerned about the hex stacking. And I've set up Blech as an Earth ele warder with Unsteady Ground to make up a bit for the loss of Aegis. He'll still be rocking slash Necro for Enfeebling Blood and splashed into Air to get him a halfway decent Shell Shock for that all important Cracked Armor. It really makes things easier although not quite as much as the Weakness.

For my henchie squad I've grabbed Cynn, Talon, the aforementioned Lina, and I have to give the final nod to the standout henchie, Zho. I'm used to the Ranger henchie being forgettable. Carrying useless crap like Kindle and Dual Shot instead of the important things like Distracting Shot. Having an effective Ranger henchman changes everything. Now, I don't have to devote a Hero spot to one of my Ranger Heroes and can spend it elsewhere.

Word is this is a pretty minion heavy place, especially the last boss. So my plan is to have a lot of brush clearing AoE damage. I've used my secondaries to take care of some weaknesses while my E/N is responsible for a lot of my mitigation.

Alright, enough fiddling with bars, time to get rolling. I've mapped not to Umbral Grotto like the green arrow says but, instead, to Vlox's Falls. I've run this before, you see, to get to the Asuran lands and I know that this entrance is closer to the next level. Sure, I could start at Umbral if I was interested in farming more Dwarven points but I'm not. I'm really, really not.

Right, so, in the dungeon, fighting Skelks that ambushes me off the zone. It sucks to kill things when you're not under a bounty. But it's rather nice to be playing with someone who actually knows how to use LoD. That's me, by the way. That's right, Mhenlo! I hates you! I'm talking smack about you behind your back! On my blog which is read by, literally, dozens of people! I...am really sad now.

In the next room it's a bunch of Stone Summit. Fortunately, their Monk build isn't the same annoying rez machine they pack in Sorrow's Furnace. There's also a boss battle in here with a Warrior boss who coughs up a key with his dying breath.

In the corridor to the next room are some minions sitting around degening. First chance to see if my burninators can brush them away. They're lv12 or so and fall to the SF spam quickly. Midlevel PvE is no match for me, no sir.

On to level two. Let's remember to grab the bounty here. Always paranoid that I'm going to forget it one day and wind up cleaning out a whole dungeon level with nothing to show for it. Except, you know, XP. And loot. And access to the next level. And that Dungeon Master page if it's the last one. You get some bonus points just for finishing, too. Oh, and the quest rewards. Good lord there are suddenly a lot of carrots in this game. Why, I remember the good old days when you'd run five hours uphill in the snow just to get to Droknars for a measly perfect weapon as a quest reward - not even a fort mod on it! And, why, when-- Yeah, I'm sorry, I'll stop now. It's just weird seeing Guild Wars turn into a pinball game with counters and lights constantly flashing when it started out by making progress deliberately, frustratingly slow.

Where was I? Ah, yes, actually playing, not just thinking about playing. Moving on. Looks like more Stone Summit Dwarves down here and some green Dredge Slaves.

Sigh, the game isn't awesome enough to let me recruit an army of rebellious slaves. I so wanted to play Spartacus of the Deeps. Instead of sticking around to help, the green Dredge make a beeline for the door when you kill the hostile Stone Summit in the area.

And, oh boy, gearboxes. I had just about enough of those in Sorrow's Furnace, thank you very much. I was afraid this was going to turn into a mini-version of that slog. Don't get me wrong, I liked the Furnace. I've enjoyed the Furnace. But this place shouldn't be the Furnace. I've just played it to exhaustion by now. This time around you have to kill off Summit Gatekeepers to get the gears to open the locks which is a sight better than having to run around the map with the one you picked up at the entrance, I guess.

Okay, for the Dwarves the priority targets are the Gnashers. Otherwise they're going to be raising a minion army to overwhelm you just as you're starting to feel the attrition of a prolonged fight - these Summit packs are large and well organized. Not exactly tough but the battles will last and you'll suck dry or hit recharge hell if you're not careful.

Here's an interesting encounter. I round the corner and con some Panicked Stone Summits. They're running pell mell towards me shouting about something coming after them which turns out to be a spider boss just a short way ahead. Of course, you know, this means it's killing time. There doesn't seem to be a point to killing the thing - it's a Poison Arrow Ranger surrounded by a mob of spiders - beyond proving yourself to be a well oiled killing machine.

This place is supposed to be a riff on the Raiders of the Lost Ark and I'm not seeing it. Oh, wait...Taskmaster Bellok. Heh. "There is nothing you may not loot which I may not ninja away from you, Dr McJonesy."

PvP slot going to be filled with a placeholder so I can hang on to that name, thank you very much.

After killing Bellok, who's a Necro boss if that matters to you, I'm told by the grateful slaves - whom I used as a moving meatshield during the fray - that liberating the untermensch is not my ultimate goal here. Apparently I have to go down one more level and kill off an end boss named Zoldark - I mean, uh, yeah suspension of disbelief, uh, the Summit dug too deep and woke up an ancient evil which I, valiant hero that am - and totally not opportunistic asshole of a mercenary that I am not - need to go and slay. There, all those tabletop sessions weren't wasted after all. Can I give my tragic backstory for some bonus XP now?

Gee, with a name like Zoldark the Unholy, which class do you suppose he is? I'm awash with anticipation here.

I am liking the look of this place, though. Very ancient and mysterious temple of doom.

Of course, now I'm paranoid that there's going to be one of those rolling balls of instant death that's going to pop out of nowhere as I try to run back to the entrance.

Too easy? Yeah, I'll stop with the Indiana Jones references now.

There seem to be two routes through this level. You can either go left towards the spider boss or right through the cavern with Bellok which requires you to use some powder kegs to open up a wall. Both lead to the same place. I've, of course, managed to do both since I'm a completionist. Oh well, more Dwarven points for me.

The next area features some undead. The type you'd find in the Desolation. They're tough, though, at level 28. And they seem to respawn every so often which I learned much to my regret when I was standing around checking on my inventory. Note they don't give XP or up your kill count again when they return from the land of the dead. Lots of poison turrets around, too.

I think I've reached my final verdict on Cure Hex and Spotless Soul here. Cure Hex is a keeper. I'd like a shorter recharge but it's powerful enough to warrant the longer one. It's everything you want out of a single removal since it'll wipe off a hex and take care of any degen along the way. It's like a mini B-Light, really.

Spotless Soul on the other hand, I'm going to toss on the junk pile. It's nice enough for what it does which is remove a lot of conditions but it's slow to work and hard to get it to when you need it. Worst of all you can't target yourself with it.

Screw this, I'm making a run for the portal.

Really wish I could tell Lina to put up Prot Spirit on me but what are you going to do? Spec prot myself so I can carry PS instead of investing in Holy Haste like a scrub? Why, that's...I.... Shut up, that's why.

Made it easily and we're headed down to the third level. Which is hopefully the basement floor since I can't take much more of this without going slightly more crazy.

Guess what kind of enemies are on this level? If you said hordes of respawning undead, give yourself a gold star!

Jebus, this is like playing WoW. And not in a good way. Makes it hard to find a good rest spot. I'm used to monsters not reappearing every few minutes.

The boss key is guarded by a Paragon boss named Thanatos Backwards who's surrounded by a bunch of Crypt Keepers. Someone in the PvE department had way too much fun with that.

Sotanaht isn't the problem here, it's the Crypt Keepers - they're Vow of Silence Dervs who are running rampant through my backlines. If these guys respawn, I swaer I'm going to ragequit.

I've nearly wiped. Just down to me and Talon by the time I finish them off but Talon is tanking Sotanaht. Actually, he's pwning up on the guy, giving me enough time to rez up everyone while he chips away at his pile of health.

Boss key in hand, it's time to backtrack to the door.

DP check. The fight with Sotanaht was costly but, really, I'm not doing so bad. Took some chip deaths on the last level while I was trying to gauge just how well the undead could spike (The answer turns out to be really, really well, by the way.) I'm personally at 2%. My Heroes are at -1%, -4%, and dead even. I'm more concerned about my not-so-heroes. Lina seems to have inherited Mhenlo's tendency to crumple when the enemy breathes on her and she's died a lot. Her health is falling down way to fast now and I suspect she's DPed out. The rest are in better shape but they've taken the most deaths of anyone here.

Now to face off with old Zoldark. He's in a huge circular room, surrounded by a bunch of Zoldark's Minions. And taunting me. Oh, he'll pay for that.

The Minions have been sprinkled through this level, they're lv20 Warrior guys that aren't very threatening but I have the feeling there's a twist coming up.

Yeah, there's a trick. Zoldark is packed with special skills and he seems to have the armor rating of a late war Panzer tank. He's got a bunch of orders that send his minions into crazy town.

If Lina wasn't DPed before, she is now. I'm getting rocked. Time to pull out, rez up and think this through.

The saving grace here is that Zoldark doesn't have any healing and he isn't regenerating at all. That and there's a rezshrine right outside his door. This is doable, even if have to zerg it from the shrine a few dozen times before he's dead.

Ah, I see what you're supposed to do here now. When his minions die, Zoldark rezes them with a life saccing skill. Keep mowing down the minions and he'll kill himself to death - or close enough for a finishing blow.

Easier said than done, though, with all my DP. We're definitely in rush from the rezpad territory here.

I really wish Lina would use something like Prot Spirit instead of trying to combat rez. Or Aegis - oh wait, she's a prot Monk and she doesn't use Aegis. Why? Because she's a bleeding idiot, apparently. I'm really regretting switching from my prot build now because this would have been a much easier fight with some blocking and mitigation around.

....I just saw Lina use Zealous Benediction. I need to reboot my brain now.

I thought Mhenlo was stupid but apparently he only nibbles at the paint chip stew that Lina feasts upon.

Just on a completely unrelated note totally disconnected from that previous thought but does anyone know the address of the person responsible for the henchie bars? And, while you're at it, the name of a reputable arms dealer?

Sigh, I finally managed to bum rush my way to victory. Once his health was near the danger zone, Zoldark stopped rezzing them up. He also seemed to lose a lot of his staying power, falling incredibly easy once we focused on him.

Final DP toll? I'm at 51% because I actually know how to kite. Everyone else is 60ed.

My rewards? A diamond from the chest. 1.5k Dwarven points. 7.5k XP from the quest. And 1.5 plat.

Cool dungeon. The final boss fight was pretty neat, too. I wouldn't like all my bosses to be like that but every now and then an interesting quirk makes for an interesting battle. But awful rewards. I do these dungeons because I want to see what they're like not because I'm tempted by the chest at the end. And that's a problem. I know these dungeons are repeatable and would lead to farming problems with people were to run them over and over if you were to give away big money and prizes but, still, it just doesn't feel like it's worth the bother. Has to be a better way.