Monday 4 May 2015

Neverwinter Online: Fiery Pit Vigilance Guide

[Part of my Neverwinter Online: Vigilance Quest Guide.]

This is the part where I remind you to spend those perk and power points you have accumulated, because the Fiery Pit is one dangerous place. Not only do enemies spawn pretty close to each other, which is annoying when going after mini bosses, but sometimes they spawn as SILVER enemies. Be sure to look before you leap! Also, the way the map is structured is that there is only one camp right at the start. This means there is a lot of travel time added on as your quests lead you deeper in.

The map is connected by central bridges patrolled by fire giants. You can avoid them by timing your crossing. Wait at the 90 degree angle of the bridge and just as the giant is about to step out, rush past and hop on the railing closest to you. The idea is to break his line of sight so he loses aggro. Alternatively just kill the giant.

Each area also has a "Making the Rounds" quest which you should take for extra XP. In the second and third areas, try ensure this task is completed before returning to base. Be especially careful about large groups of melee guys. If 5 skirmishers hit you it's most likely lights out. Use crowd control early to gain the initiative.

Lastly, you get a short quiz right at the beginning for some extra XP. While it's worth reading the lore, here's a quick recap that should get you by:

The Fire Cult is the enemy here, trying to awaken Maegera. The good guys, helping descendants of Delzoun who curiously called for outside help, have almost won and control half of city [fun fact: the other half of the city looks exactly the same] but due to low supplies need adventurers to finish off this war. Duergar are present too but are attacking everyone.

As usual, the color coding remains the same:

Green - Easy and/or fast.
Pink - If there's nothing else to do.
Red - Better to take a break than do these solo.

FIRST PATROL

Your first patrol mainly deals with the North East and South East parts of the map. Keeping this in mind, collect quests for the one spot to complete them faster and stop by the camp to resupply / sell / juggle quests every time you switch from one to the other. The Excavated Tomb is the instanced dungeon here but I recommend skipping it entirely as you'll almost always have something else to do topside.

*Grogbi Ironbeard
  • Burning Sensations - collect bloodburn scorpion venom 5 kills NOT pickup (North)
  • Connecting the Dots - investigate suspicious bodies (North)
  • Geyser Samples - collect geyser samples (North. Do not attempt if Emberclaw is awake.)
  • Mushroom Medic - collect 16 shrooms (North, mostly guarded by duergar)
  • The Missing Spy - collect duergar runes (South pickup - points marked)
  • Hostile Neighbors - defeat duergar 40 (North)
  • Orders for Destruction - kill demolitionists and get orders (North AND South)
  • Target: Olgi Fren'rah - Duergar Theurge miniboss (North) - expect nearby demolisionist team(s) to attack.

*Horath Pegra
  • Crystal Coercion - Collect 18 pickup Bloodiron Crystals (South)
  • Quell Hounds - kill 25 hellhounds (South)
  • Traitorous Scum - Kill Duergar traitors (south)
  • Target: Irestund - Fire Giant miniboss (South) - expect nearby Hellhounds to attack.
  • Rescuing the Spy - rescue people from Excavated Tomb instance (South)
  • Water Brigade - steal water barrels from Excavated Tomb (South)

SECOND PATROL

Your next tasks will be found on the Center and South areas of the map. The Burning Heart instance is the dungeon here, but again I recommend skipping. Enough to do top side. Or, use the time to take a break from all the intense fighting! Go have some cookies or milk or something! If the player is tired, you won't be as effective! :P

There's also a scavanger hunt quest here called "Services Rendered" to collect 25 mithril ingots. It can be annoying at first if you don't know where they are, but goes rather fast when you do. You can also switch channels to get ingots from places you've already visited. Look for them under wagons, in corners, on staircase bannisters, on the roof, ledges, anywhere and everywhere in the center you can jump to is fair game. To get you started here are nine of them, starting from the great hall directly across the camp.

1) Next to Center Throne
2) from Throne turn left, behind pillar
3) from Throne turn right, behind some curtains
4) from Throne turn around, under bench (probably first one you will pick up)
5) on long rod thing above the fire pit
6) South side staircase from great hall: nook in the wall
7) South side staircase from great hall: two along the left side (easy to spot)
8) North side staircase from great hall: On the south railing of a giant's bridge
9) North side staircase from great hall: On a pillar near #8. Just look down stairs and to the left.

*Farah Dahl
  • Hot to Handle - collect 4 fire archon armor and dump them into wells. (South, lots of Archons near the wells)
  • Snuff Out the Flames - kill 45 fire archons (Any, but I suggest South.)
  • Tactical Ventilation - close 6 vents at the forge. (South)
  • Target: Singe  - Fire Archon Ash disciple miniboss. (South) - expect nearby archons to attack.
  • Torch Bearer - collect 12 iron torches from cultists (South and Center). Middling drop rate.
  • Contained Explosion - Silver HE: Rocks fall. (Center)
  • The Burning Heart - Burning Heart Instance
  • What the Blazes? - extinguish elemental blazes in Burning Heart instance

*Thannis Beke
  • The Searing Sentinels - defeat 5 fire giant guards. Evade well. (Center)
  • Spiker Striker - kill 10 flame spikers. (Any)
  • Target: Flamberge - flame spiker mini boss (Center) - expect cultist group to attack
  • Controlled Burn - collect scrolls / element cores + burn 5 (Center, lowish drop rate).
  • Services Rendered  - collect 25 mithril ingots. Pickup. See above. (Center)
  • Trial By Fire - Take damage from fire archons (40 atks w/o death) - Requires patience. Ideally use the first archon you see just outside camp so you can hand this back in when done.

THIRD PATROL

Your final patrol deals with the North West and South West zones, as well as the West center. Unlike before, it doesn't really matter which zones the quests lead to as you will be visiting all those areas if you are going for the extra XP from "Making the Rounds". An easy highway to the North West exists where you just have to cross one bridge north, then follow the path West all the way, avoiding the patrolling bridge giants.

The instanced dungeon here is the Cistern, and in it you will encounter Vanifer, the flame prophet. Unlike the last two fools she is quite capable of killing you on her own, behaving much like an Ash Disciple. Her area attacks are extremely dangerous and failure to evade or block will probably result in death. She also starts with a bodyguard (take him out fast, but cleanly) and summons more adds as she takes damage. Due to this I highly advise luring her out of her chamber and using the whole rest of the dungeon space to fight her. I also recommend using single big hits for this fight, instead of swinging blades continuously so that you can concentrate more on evading.

Eventually, she will run away. :P

*Lucas Shaneway III
  • Barrier to Entry - seal doors with magic barriers 6 (South West)
  • Slaves to Business - rescue 8 dwarf slaves (South West)
  • Cache on Delivery - dig up 8 caches. Marked. (South West)
  • Financial Tracking - plant 10 magic coins. Marked (West Center)
  • Pillage First - kill 30 cultists (Any)
  • Target: Nuria Pyrellis - cultist flamewrath miniboss (South West) - if using ranged, can be fought without aggroing nearby cultists.

*Captain Montrose
  • The Plumbing Job - fix 12 pipes at water pumps (all guarded, North West)
  • Sabotage - defeat cultist saboteurs (North West, goes well with above)
  • Brute Squad - defeat magma brutes (North West)
  • Saddle Down - collect 10 fire strider saddles. Drops 100% from Strider Riders. (North West)
  • Target: Captain Felcrest - miniboss fire strider. Many mobs nearby and he runs around a lot. (North West)
  • The Cistern - fight Vanifer in Cistern instance
  • Ring of Fire - Vanifer's ally in Cistern instance (then Vanifer herself)

Once that is all done the last thing to do is to pick up the Seed of Fire, guarded by a few measly archons at the wells. You shouldn't need help beating them up to reach your objective, and if you are lucky someone might already be there just hunting fire archons anyway.

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