blackstonekeep.com

Cornflower wrote: ↑Sun Dec 02, 2018 8:29 am

driller wrote: ↑Sat Dec 01, 2018 6:49 am Smoothing everything over makes the server lose character. There needs to be rough edges and things you dislike or want to avoid.

I agree about that. After playing here since May and trying almost every class there is (except Shifter, I never got that to work well), I have a humble suggestion:

Bear with me, because this will be long-winded.... I think there should be several types of areas:
1. Areas where you can grind solo.
2. Areas you need to clear in order to finish a quest.
3. Areas where you can't grind solo, but need to be a party to succeed.

What I don't like is type 4, Areas you need to clear in order to finish a quest, but it's not possible to do it alone.

Quests can of course be more or less easy depending on class. For instance, some classes have serious problems with Snort. Now, that's not a very large problem, since you can go kill some other monsters for a while, then come back at a higher level, or with better gear or whatever. The point is it's doable sooner or later. You might get stuck, but it's doable at a higher level. The Salt Mine was somewhat the same, you had to wait three levels to get the boss. Now it's doable, but very hard.

I adhere to the principle that all quests should be possible to solo, since quests are what's keeping you busy if you can't find someone to party with. Also, not all of us play at the same time. Yesterday as I went to bed, there was 48 players online, but the other day when I needed someone to party with, we were 6 players online. None of the others were lvl 40.

My prime example is the Blood Cult. It's a quest you pick up fairly late. The problem is, it's more or less impossible to solo. I have tried using both offensive builds and defensive builds at lvl 40, decked out with Forged gear of high quality. AC at 65ish, up to 300ish damage per crit, max possible DR, lots of protective magic from wands, but no way. I don't even get to the second floor. You need 60+ AB to even hit those guys, which is hard to achieve even with Forged gear and an optimized build. Another problem is that they hit with Magical Damage, which is extremely hard to protect against. Even with access to Heal (no, no spoilers), you're basically powerless.

There are probably players (of which I know one) able to solo the Blood Cult, but that's not my point. My point is that since Blood Cult is one of the ordinary quests, not a Game-End-Boss area like Shalnath, it would be nice if it was possible to solo it with a reasonably powerful lvl 40 fighter-type character (high BAB).

Easiest way (I guess) to do that is to (one or all of these): remove/decrease the magic damage from them, remove the very annoying Dispel, decrease their AC, add some vulnerabilities or decrease their AB. So, that's my humble suggestion.

Cometchaser wrote: ↑Mon Dec 03, 2018 8:36 am The only time I've seen the blood cult boss die is with Time Stop spam, even in a group. On-hit harm with bonkers AB just makes it nearly impossible otherwise.

Cometchaser wrote: ↑Mon Dec 03, 2018 9:06 am Ahhh, I totally forgot about spells that give negative energy protection. The existence of such spells make it a lot less "cheap" than I thought.

driller wrote: ↑Mon Dec 03, 2018 8:43 am There are spells that negate this.

Cometchaser wrote: ↑Mon Dec 03, 2018 8:36 am The only time I've seen the blood cult boss die is with Time Stop spam, even in a group. On-hit harm with bonkers AB just makes it nearly impossible otherwise.