Soooo...Gaan-Telet purist...

[The Avatar]

My vote's on kitchen droor.

I agree that we need a quest for Namtar and Avatar. There's not enough incentive to do them.

[Wargasm]

DI was actually almost disappointingly easy after the hair-tearing runs I had in VHoS. Finally gave Crusader a chance to shine, too. "Pffft. Poison? Mana Burn? Cursed? Drop dead." He's fun with Patches, too. Berserker and Assassin breezed right through too. I wish I'd done DI before VHoS though. The shield would have come in handy for the latter.

[Darvin]

Dragon Shield is pretty much the last relevant item in the game you'll unlock. Very much the capstone locker item that gives you the edge to unlock the monster classes. So you have Vamp and Half-Dragon now... time to head south and collect the Gorgon.

[Lujo]

[Darvin]

I'm speaking more from the perspective of a player's first account. By the time you hit Dragon Isles, you've probably already finished all the silver challenges (or at very least have had ample opportunity). Of course veterans can always bee-line to the thing.

[Wargasm]

It's also mildly relevant because you rescue a banker early in the game. I thought it would be amusing to have it as a hidden class later.

That aside...I was sort of aware of the shield being on DI, but 1) I was originally unlocking Vampire first to take on Vicious Horatio in Hard Tower, and 2) I uh...kind of expected DI to be harder, truth be told. Those spawns have nothing on Steel Golem/AA/Illusion combos.

[Darvin]

Dragon Isle has had its difficult pulled out from under it. The Matron used to have around 1100 HP and about 130 damage.

[Wargasm]

Yeah, damage that's likely to be one-shot territory gets to be pretty obnoxious. After that point you have to be relying on external sources of HP after 119 or so (or resists and not getting Cursed) and if you're not playing a race/class with one of those, it can get hairy. I could see where having two Cursed mobs right before a 130 damage boss would have been...frustrating for non-Assassins, who would probably get multiple stacks of Cursed from each one.

[Darvin]

Oh, the dragon mobs didn't have curse back then... they had poison and mana burn. Berserker laughed his way home to an easy win on this dungeon, and everyone else was in for the fight of their life.

Curse is actually a relatively recent addition to the game.

[Wargasm]

If Poison and Mana Burn were the main threats, wouldn't Crusader and Vampire have giggled too? (Vampire's my only successful NC run so far. Heh.)