Difference between revisions of "Zone order"

Revision as of 17:02, 19 March 2015

It's quite difficult to recommend a safe zone order since version 1.0.3 introduced alternative zone layouts.

Early game

In the early game you don't have many tactical options. In many cases you are quite literally restricted to "move toward the monster and hit it with my weapon". In some cases, you may have a single choice, such as "move toward the monster, and then either hit it with my weapon, or use my extra-strength attack talent if it's strong". Characters with ranged attack talents have more flexibility, but are also typically more fragile, and will wish to keep away from monsters.

Defensively, you will typically have either a physical Wild infusion plus a Regeneration infusion, or a Shielding rune plus a Phase Door rune, depending on your race. This means you can either absorb 100 points of damage, or heal faster and remove one physical effect such as poison or stun.

So, what you're looking for in the early game are relatively safe zones. You don't want too many monsters that have ranged attacks (especially powerful ranged attacks), or more than one disabling ability. If you're a ranged character, you'd also like to avoid monsters that can rush toward you.

This leaves us with very few choices:

• Trollmire, up through Prox the Mighty, is pretty safe. It's fully lit, and has very few ranged attackers. The trolls are somewhat strong in melee, but have no special moves. The trees can be annoying for ranged characters, because they may allow monsters to "ambush" you at close range.
  • Don't go into Bill's lair yet. Save that until you're higher level.
• Norgos' Lair, in the standard layout, is even better. The monsters are mostly animals with no ranged attacks. It has lots of long straight corridors for shooting things (or facing things one at a time in melee). It's fully lit, and the clearings are roughly circular, so it's virtually impossible for anything to sneak up on you.
  • The alternative layout for Norgos' Lair, unfortunately, is much more dangerous. There are cold elementals (Shivgoroths) that have ranged capabilities, and so does the frozen version of Norgos. Nevertheless, it's still one of the safest zones (definitely the safest alternative layout).
• The agent of the arena quest, in Derth, should be OK for any level 5 character, although certainly not a trivial fight. The first opponent can shoot you; the second can rush you; and the third can burn you. A little bit of caution should be enough.

I would not recommend moving on to any other zone until you've completed these three (plus any racial starter zone(s) you have to escape from).

Once you've survived these things, you should be level 5 or 6, or higher for Yeeks. You'll have a couple of your second tier talents, and hopefully some useful equipment. You probably don't have enough gold to buy anything useful yet, so whatever dropped is all you've got. (If you somehow got lucky with gold, you may want to consider buying the strongest Regeneration infusion you can find.)

Now it's time to look at the remaining tier 1 zones, and try to decide which one is least likely to kill you.

• Heart of the Gloom is typically not too bad. You'll take a constant barrage of mind damage from pretty much everything, but it's mostly small amounts. A good Regeneration infusion or two should get most characters through it.
• The Scintillating Caves have crystals that shoot you with magic projectiles, and then blink away when you try to walk over to them. Very annoying, and dangerous if there are more than 1-2 of them in sight. Ranged characters will find this zone much easier than melee characters, as you can typically outshoot the crystals. Melee characters will find great benefit in talents like Rush, although it's also possible to get through it with standard walk-up-to-it-and-hit-it tactics if you're persistent enough.
  • The alternative layout isn't much different from the standard layout.
• The ruins of Kor'Pul are generally easy until you get to the boss. But there are skeleton mages to watch out for (especially if you're being hit by one you can't see due to the long dark hallways). For the boss (standard layout), dig through the wall to the south instead of approaching from the east or west.
  • Not sure about the alternative layout yet....
• The Rhaloren Camp is the worst of the tier 1 zones, by a long shot. It's full of mages that hit you with lots of spells, and sometimes appear in groups. It also has Circle vaults which can contain level 25 blood mages. (Simple strategy: don't open the Circle vaults.)
• Taking Bill should be easy enough once you're level 10 or so. Usually. Unless you're particularly fragile against strong rushing melee opponents. He's certainly not to be taken lightly.

Old stuff

Ignore this table.