Final dungeon/quest balance tweaks

[gjaustin]

[Darvin]

[q 3]

I've now completed all the current class challenges except for Fighter and Bloodmage gold. They all seem reasonably well balanced with the caveats I've mentioned here and elsewhere (Thief Gold dungeon generation, etc.). Berserker Gold, though, is by far the easiest of the gold scenarios, and IMO could stand to have its difficulty increased a bit. Once you figure out the blatantly obvious gimmick, the boss becomes a pushover. (I beat it on my first serious attempt and got Hoarder - would have gotten Feeling Parched, too, except I used my health potions early on to level up since they'd be useless against the boss.)

Namtar's Lair and the Library could probably both use a quest - even if the reward is just gold, they are (or can be) huge gold sinks with almost no gold reward, so giving something back would be nice for those players who have just spent a small fortune on preps. Or maybe the item trophy dungeons could just have normal trophies, too? Or, perhaps, secret gold vaults that you can enter after you beat the boss? (That would make quite a bit of sense with the Matron, given the message you get about her subdungeon before it's unlocked.)

[Lujo]

Being able to unlock subdungeons after you beat VICIOUS stuff would be interesting.

[The Avatar]

Wait, permanent subdungeons or just an extra floor the boss was sitting on filled with gold? If you meant the latter, I totally agree. Either way, how about just making quests for all of them?

[q 3]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around Bloodmage Gold - if anyone's completed it in its current form, care to offer any hints? I tried using a Dwarf and managed to stack enough HP to take a hit from the boss, but only got him down to around 60% HP before I ran out of healing. I was playing a pretty efficient game, I think, and I doubt that I could pull it off with that strategy even with optimal play. (Granted, that doesn't mean it's impossible, but still, I'd like to think that if I can't do it, it's too hard...) PISORF keeps spawning, mocking me, but comparing the number of times you'd need to hit him with it versus the number of readily available walls and the inability to rely on bloodpools makes me skeptical of that approach. Those randomly spawning corrosion pools every time you take his HP down to the next level have me confused, because I honestly don't see any point to them - it's not like they're impeding exploration or travel by that point.

[Lujo]

What's the blatantly obvious gimmick in Berserker Gold, i can't seem to figure it out?

[The Avatar]

Mystic Balance then fireballs.

[The Avatar]

Bumping.

Monk gold and Bloodmage gold are beyond me. Has anyone else beaten either of them?

[q 3]

I beat Monk Gold a couple weeks ago, relying primarily on JJ and APHEELSIK. Chaos Avatar's resist reduction was very useful against the boss, and poison is, of course, always handy for a Monk. It was definitely one of the harder gold challenges, but unlike Paladin/Priest/etc., it's just a fairly straightforward bash fest.

Bloodmage Gold, I still have no idea. If it's beatable, my best guess is it involves an Orc using PISORF who starts smacking the boss around at as low a level as possible, using melee attacks and bloodpools to level up. But I haven't come close to pulling it off...