This map (author unknown) shows almost all spawns, generally this dungeon is fun, not much gating summoners. The goo, golems, ghosts and the feasters run and should be snared, others are all skellies and dont run. The basement mobs are not shown on the map but it crawls of mobs there, it is the area where you fall in if you step on a trap.
The red squares with a cross through it are pitfalls, DONT step on those carpets ;) East wing is hardest and you have to go through the south wing to get there because the east stairs are trapped, Drusella Sathir (necklace of superiority) the wife of VS dwells there (she can be killed with a single group if everything goes well - is quite hard tho so best bring 2 groups) and west or north wing I think is easiest. South wing is very good for items (haste belt drops there, bloodpoint and other things like hand of the reaper and you can camp a spot near the beginning in a tunnel to get both spawns).
I think this dungeon is one of the best high level ones for xping. It can be hard but its real fun and most mobs dont run and gate like in Chardok. It is however not an easy dungeon, there is no zone out you can run to easily, also the zone in is not safe, you might take 2 harm touches and a severe beating even before you have control of your char. You must also be aware that people die QUICK due to multiple HT so always let a big tank pull and hope he or she gets singles. Scout a bit with a rogue and if you see 4+ mobs with HT send in a paladin or the cleric with DA and let the enchanter mez. A level 57+ puller brings mostly singles and can make this dungeon almost cake. Mobs pathing is strange also, so make sure you dont train yourself and watch out your pet wont run when charming. If you dont have a rogue you can only do the north wing, kill a few entrance mobs until you get a tallow-marked candle (from a bottomless feaster I think) this opens the north wing, most other keys drop off the bosses in the wings. However these are rare spawns. All the keys are norent so you have to duel someone and leave them on your corpse at the zonein so you dont need to camp them again next time. Rumors abound of a fabled master key quest but noone found it. Its best to just always bring a rogue, very nice for damage and scouting also.
Rogues are excellent with CR which could be very painful otherwise, most things dont see hide - and the odd ooze that does, can be sneaked past. If the corpses are past the paintings, let the rogue pull them to the bottom of the painting, then fall in the carpet trap for that level, take the porter to zonein and then walk in and drag them further. CR in the east wing can be very slow because you have to move through the south wing (not sure if you can drag over the east stairs).
My group recommendation for xping would be 57+ warr, 54+ (c2) enchanter, 200 lockpicking rogue, 49+ cleric, druid (snare, evac) or wiz, shaman (or extra slowing enc) or anyone else (last spot doesnt that matter too much). Note that HS recently got an upgrade which added an AE to the golems and a lifetap proc to the ghosts, this makes the dungeon considerably harder
Wulf9
Registered User
(10/29/00 3:44:37 am)
Reply Charasis
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I suddenly have the urge to go deeper than a usual one group camp. Anyone have any advice on what strength is needed to do East wing?
Petty Thiefsbane
Registered User
(10/31/00 9:35:30 am)
Reply Re: Charasis
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We did all of south with 2 groups (you need to do south to get to east, only way... the complete stair is bogus). We're gonna do an all-out guild raid on east wing on sunday, we heard 3 groups 55+ got wiped at first door so we're going in with possible overkill but what the hell... better than doing a CR
Registered User
11/1/00 5:14:38 pm)
Reply Re: Charasis
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Ok here is what we did, we completed the whole zone and was fun.
West and North Wings can be completed with just one good group. They are short and easy.
South and East Wings can be completed with two good groups,
here is what our groups contained, G1 (SK,Pal,Clr,Chanter,Chanter,Clr) and G2 (SK,Pal,Rogue,Chanter,Clr,Druid)
One Chanter was just buffs only, each other chanter took care of debuffing mobs and mezing, they took turns all 3 of them.
Well you can guess why a rogue is needed, and his BS is kick ass there,
Druid is great there with his DoTs and Str buffs and of course the dmg shield and Regens.
Well the rest is really easy to guess too, Howling Stones is a Cleric/Necro/Paladin/Shadowknight Playground...Lots of undead and golems.
Be carefull down there if you go, it might seem like an easy place but this dungeon is the Perfect Dungeon for a Dungeon Crawl. Yeah, there is spots to stop and camp for mobs, but with a rogue to open any door, just keep crawling, it is alot more fun then just sitting on your arse and having open person pulling all the time.
Oh one thing, Spawn times on normal mobs is about 18-22 minutes so really you do have to keep moving, or else the mobs behind you will get you too when they respawn.
Edited: oh one thing, only the two SKs was over 55, highest was 57...our lowest person we had there so far is 49
Raymhund
Registered User
(11/2/00 6:06:25 am)
Reply Re: Charasis
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Last time I did south/east wings we had 2 groups ranging from 50th-59th, with one enchanter and one cleric. Very few deaths (besides Arclight on a nasty pull involving the Howling Spectre et al) and we held the immediate area around Drusella's room for three hours or so.
The most important thing to have for this area is a puller who knows the spawns well. Our puller could tell us how many were coming before going off to pull, and what targets we were likely to see, allowing the enchanter to mez much more efficiently.
Also, we got a Rod of Faith on the way in, so even though Drusella didnt pop for us while we were there, it was a pretty sweet run all in all.
AlcuinVidar
Registered User
(11/2/00 7:23:14 pm)
Reply Re: Charasis
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The key is knowing how to pull the spawns and not overdo a pull, but to move at a steady pace as to not let respawn catch you. We have done DS room for 4+ hours with one group before and that was clearing thru south and east. We had a lvl 58 chanter, 56 shaman, 55 cleric, 54 paladin, 54 rogue and 52 monk. Belive it or not I as the paladin pulled all the way until we got to DS room and then I let the monk split the 4 golems.
Raymhund
Registered User
(11/2/00 6:06:25 am)
Reply Re: Charasis
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Last time I did south/east wings we had 2 groups ranging from 50th-59th, with one enchanter and one cleric. Very few deaths (besides Arclight on a nasty pull involving the Howling Spectre et al) and we held the immediate area around Drusella's room for three hours or so.
The most important thing to have for this area is a puller who knows the spawns well. Our puller could tell us how many were coming before going off to pull, and what targets we were likely to see, allowing the enchanter to mez much more efficiently.
Also, we got a Rod of Faith on the way in, so even though Drusella didnt pop for us while we were there, it was a pretty sweet run all in all.
AlcuinVidar
Registered User
(11/2/00 7:23:14 pm)
Reply Re: Charasis
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The key is knowing how to pull the spawns and not overdo a pull, but to move at a steady pace as to not let respawn catch you. We have done DS room for 4+ hours with one group before and that was clearing thru south and east. We had a lvl 58 chanter, 56 shaman, 55 cleric, 54 paladin, 54 rogue and 52 monk. Belive it or not I as the paladin pulled all the way until we got to DS room and then I let the monk split the 4 golems.
