My testing patterns - what next?

[The Avatar]

No, There's just a trick that allows all classes to win it. Currently, Namtar seems a bit hard, Matron is very hard, Naga City is a little to easy, and so is DL.

[Nandrew]

[The Avatar]

You don't put matron above Namtar?! DI has a cruel monster set, a weird wall setup that boxes you, two incredibly hard high hp bosses, AND a bunch of difficult guards. Namtar isn't hard if you prep Binlor for 30 Magic Resistance, and convert off to GG or Dracul at level 1. All the monsters will be a LOT easier, especially frozen trolls, you'll have resistance for Namtar's attack, and you'll have the secret subdungeon. Of course all of that would help v. The Matron, but there aren't enough walls.

[Lujo]

Naga City was never all that difficult to begin with, the only real question ther was "did you, or not, bring an agnostic collar along". If yes - cake, if not - do you know how to juggle gods? If yes - cake, if not - still doable. Putting 9 (or rather 12) total altars in one dungeon overloads it on the side of the player quite a bit.

Slime pits, however, was a level I never went into except for the Monk quest. It was sort of harder then the old neigh-impossible magma mines, but somehow more frustrating.

And DI - what avatar said.

[Nandrew]

Well, regardless of how Namtar rated against DI before, things are going to change up a little this Friday.

And Naga City will hopefully be less stupidly slanted. The religious playground was great, but it should be tempered now. Gone with the "gold for altars" idea, but have made a few allowances among those suggested (Church preps are effective, you get Pactmaker for free, other little things).

I *will* also try get to Slime Pit before the Friday update, but it's difficult to say right now.

[Lujo]

DI needs the most attention. IMO. I wrote extensively on that (and so did a few other guys, avatar for one thing). Most guys who sink enough time into the game have a realization at some point that Dragon Isles "all fat" monster lineup makes it very difficult to tackle outside of exploit-of-the-week shennanigans or using very specifically advantaged classes (and it usually turns out to be the same thing).

It looks benign because the "all fat" lineup consists of Zombies and Meatmen, who aren't scary because you've been staring at them from begging of the game. The fact of the matter is that they are above the curve resource hogs, which, coupled with MOAR FAT and low exploration turns into problems. Another deceptive thing is that they LOOK open spaced and sunny, while in reality having less available/exploitable exploration space and easily reached powerups/glyphs/shops than most levels which were designed to be cramped.

I'd bet my right eye more people would catch onto this if you just changed the tileset into something claustrophobic for one version

[The Avatar]

Hah! If they were all wals it would be easier and more obvious how hard it is! That's ironic.

[Sidestepper]

[Nandrew]

Got up to number 5 before I got distracted with other tests

[Nandrew]

And in other news, Paladin Gold is rather difficult and very meticulous ... but it *can* be defeated quite reliably. Of course, I have the benefit of a slightly buffed Earthmother now, but I totally promise that this level is a very steady win once you've got the right ideas.

I'll try post a playthrough if people really want to know what this one is about, though I don't think it's *really* appropriate for me to post advanced play guides.