Difference between revisions of "Cursed Oasis"
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{{{tpl|DungeonInfobox}}} | {{{tpl|DungeonInfobox}}} | ||
|DungeonName=Cursed Oasis | |DungeonName=Cursed Oasis | ||
| − | |ShortHand= | + | |ShortHand=DesertDragonDungeon |
|Region=North | |Region=North | ||
|Rumor=''Said to be the site of an ancient magical battle, though some scholars claim it was just an arcane experiment that went horribly wrong. Perhaps it's both. Few survive a trip to this damned region of fraying reality.'' | |Rumor=''Said to be the site of an ancient magical battle, though some scholars claim it was just an arcane experiment that went horribly wrong. Perhaps it's both. Few survive a trip to this damned region of fraying reality.'' | ||
Revision as of 09:22, 31 October 2016
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| Cursed Oasis | |
|---|---|
| Region | North |
| Difficulty | Hard |
| Monster Stats | 115% |
| Population |  Bandit,  Dragon Spawn,  Animated Armour,  Thrall,  Shade
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| Bosses |  Cursed Dragon,  Curse Shade
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| Suggested Classes |  Crusader,  Berserker,  Orc Wizard,  Orc Bloodmage
|
| Quests |  Bonus Bravery: Oasis
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| Unlock | Complete Hard Rock
|
Said to be the site of an ancient magical battle, though some scholars claim it was just an arcane experiment that went horribly wrong. Perhaps it's both. Few survive a trip to this damned region of fraying reality.
Contents
Special Rules
You gain one stack of 
Cursed whenever you gain a level in this dungeon. This even affects Crusader, who is otherwise immune to curses. When you have any stacks of Cursed, you will find yourself in the Cursed Realm.
Quests
Bonus Bravery: Oasis
Defeat 
Cursed Oasis with 
Dwarf Tinker, 
Dwarf Transmuter, and 
Dwarf Crusader
Reward: 500 
, 
Dragon Soul
Bosses
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86 | 120 |
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546 | 954 |
Cursed OasisThe primary boss of the Cursed Oasis is the Cursed Dragon, the only monster that appears only in the normal realm. Before the Curse Shade is defeated, he also has Curse Bearer, so you won’t be able to easily fight him before you’ve taken care of the second boss.
The secondary boss of the Cursed Oasis is the Curse Shade, who appears only in the Cursed realm. The Cursed Shade drops the Dragon Soul item when slain, which provides a 15% chance to cast spells for free, and forces you into the normal realm even if you have any remaining Curse stacks; as well as removes the Curse trait from all monsters. (Note that bringing a lockered copy of the item into the dungeon will not have these effects). You are not obliged to kill the Curse Shade to win the dungeon.
Normal Realm
The Cursed Oasis is an unusual dungeon, composed of two overlapping realms. You will be forced to handle exploration and popcorn monsters in unusual ways. Curses play a large part in this dungeon, so characters that rely on resistances, particularly monks, will struggle. The Normal Realm is a very large and open dungeon containing relatively few walls, with an oasis in the center that can only be explored via 
LEMMISI or 
BLUDTUPOWA. While exploring, you will sometimes encounter lifedrain by an invisible monster. These are actually the Shades in the Cursed Realm, which you can walk through in the Normal Realm.
Cursed Realm
If you gain any stacks of Cursed on the main map, you will immediately enter the Cursed Realm. In the Cursed Realm, most dungeon features on the ground are not available: glyphs, potions, boosters, shops, unused altars, gold piles, subdungeon stairs. Even the dungeon exit vanishes. Active altars, which remain available, are the only exception. Thus, before fighting a Bandit or gaining a level, you should have a plan for killing enough popcorn to clear your curses if you still need to exploit these resources. If you gain curse stacks in a subdungeon, you do not immediately enter the curse realm if you emerge. Be careful not to gain so many stacks of curse that you can't clear them all (mostly by fighting higher-level bandits); you might be cut off from all the dungeon's resources until you kill the Curse Shade, which will be no easy task.
The Shades become tangible in the Cursed Realm and provide a valuable source of XP and Curse-clearing. However, because they can blink into blackspace and then lifesteal again, it is risky to fight higher-level Shades before the dungeon is mostly explored. If you lose your last curse stack (by killing a non-cursed monster for example), you will immediately return to the Normal Realm.
The Cursed Realm also features a large number of 
Erosive Eelroots in the locations of shops, boosters, potions, and gold piles. The dungeon is open enough that they don’t usually interfere with getting around; they are useful to build up extra stacks of Cursed so you can avoid getting kicked out of the Cursed Realm before you want to.
Be careful when using 
IMAWAL, as it behaves in a quirky way in this dungeon. The most important consideration is that if you petrify a monster that exists only in the Curse Realm (like a Shade or Eelroot), the resulting stone wall will also exist in the Normal Realm. This is especially important since the Eelroots are growing specifically on top of noteworthy tiles. So unless you have a way to destroy walls, avoid petrifying those Eelroots that are on top of things you still need to access like stairs, shops or items you still need to pick up. Another interesting thing is that stone statues created in one realm will appear to meld into the wall in the other, making it hard to tell where to break if you want to access what was under the monster.
Strategy
There are two main approaches to winning the Cursed Oasis, depending on whether you want to kill - or avoid - the Curse Shade.
Killing Curse Shade
You will need to either bypass its 60% resistances, or simply be able to dish out enough damage to grind through them. Preparing the Really Big Sword helps to avoid most of the Physical Resistance, and it's useful also against the regular Curse Realm shades. However, none of the other monsters have Physical Resistance, and being slowed can be a nuisance; on the one hand, it makes killing low-level Thralls non-trivial due to their status afflictions; on the other, being slowed means you get an extra layer of Curse in melee from Eelroots (and lower-level Bandits), which can also pile up to undesirable levels. Using 
Binlor Ironshield and reducing the Curse Shade's resistances via the 
Stone Heart can help; consider though that there is only a limited amount of walls available on this level. It's also possible to just keep hitting the Curse Shade until it dies, as its stats are not too high. In any case, be mindful of the Blink.
Avoid the Curse Shade
You will want to have a reliable way to clear - or avoid - Curse Stacks. The obvious way is to play a Crusader, who is immune to monster-inflicted Curse stacks. If you would rather play another class, you may still do this by clearing the curse stacks inflicted by the Curse Dragon in-between strikes. While you can always just leave a couple of low-level monsters and kill one each in-between strikes, a potentially even better way is to use 
Greenblood to this effect.
PISORF works exceptionally well against both the Curse Shade and the Cursed Dragon. If you keep knocking a suitable monster into the Curse Shade, he will lose health without blinking away (and secondary knockback damage bypasses resistances). This also works against regular Shades. The Cursed Dragon does not retaliate against using PISORF against him (either directly or indirectly), which again makes it a great way to deplete his health without having to take an attack or retaliation from him.
Classes recommended for this level will partially depend on the strategy, but on top of the above mentioned Crusader, the Berserker is also a good pick, as his Magic Resistance gives a natural edge against the Animated Armour and the Dragon Spawn, as well as the Cursed Dragon boss itself. Just make sure you fight these creatures while you are not Cursed. An Orc Wizard (or Bloodmage) of Binlor Ironshield will be able to make quick work of either boss.
