Mount Doom

[Repton]

My feelings on Mount Doom:

1. If you have a ring of invisibility, it's trivial. Bring a few healing potions, and just ignore the vast majority of the level.

2. If you don't, it's bordering on impossible. My most recent attempt, with a mage: I hugged the walls and used probability travel to move very quickly. Unfortunately, I still got summoned on eventually. A wyrm summons a few drakes, the drakes summon hordes of drakelings... I managed to get past them (probability travel again), after much difficulty, and made it to the end battle. Killed the boss, eventually (playing a pyromancer, so I can't hurt it all that effectively), dash for the portal as the vanguard of the enormous army behind me catches up and ... "You cannot use the Orb with foes in sight." ARGH.

Anyway, I liked Mount Doom, but I think it's broken now. My suggestions:

1. Disallow invisibility.
1 (alternative). Make the hitpoint cost of invisibility increase exponentially as you draw near to the source. "As you approach Sammath Naur, your ring draws more quickly on your life blood!" Potions could have their duration cut significantly, and the mana requirement of the spell could increase.

2. Stop wyrms/drakes summoning (only within Mount Doom).

3. Make the lava walls impervious to probability travel.

But I'm interested in other people's thoughts

[darkgod]

Good ideas, I'll probably make all stuff in there see invis, cahnge the walls and remove summoning

[Final Master]

I wouldn't let them just 'see all invisible things', because that would totally negate a legitimate strategy. I would limit it to power 10 or something, so that you can still sneak by a bit, if you've prepared yourself to have to do so.

[overtrix]

Emmanuelle the Noldor Archer ...

Bundle along more or less in realtime like Luke Skywalker on his way to blow up the Death Star, ducking in and out of nooks mostly for effect - going diagonally won't cost. Keep an eye on the little map and every now and again, or definitely at the first sign of a red dot, duck into the side and cast Track then scroll ahead to see what's coming.

With realtime abandon for dddd or a little more care for D, first scattershot then while that's still airborne send a volley after it - series of satisfying splashes, mop up stragglers on the way past. Be careful after each pack of younglings because mum will be along soon. Do .. not .. let .. them .. breed !

If that does happen then don't panic, stop and go into chess mode, might cope with one breedfest or a couple of minor bonkings without arriving late.

The brown guys are just a nuisance, dodge a couple of little bomb things, introduce them to the delights of elven wood - Emmanuelle turned her nose up at dragonbone (says it smells funny) until just recently, she's now at Level 12 of the big mountain, wish her luck please !

Anyway - she rolled up at the Crack of Doom with 160 to spare, lifted her string fingers and blew away imaginary gunsmoke - what a tart ... then almost came a cropper when the surprise package appeared, it was a bit like when you've been from A to B along the motorway for a few hours then notice that 65 really isn't a recommended speed for that small roundabout at the end of the sliproad.

I'm afraid that for ye burly types with the plate mail and big Humungus Maces of Relentless Massacre, it may go a little differently

edit: p.s. I assume it's game time (not character's actions) which is being measured, in which case having the right boots on must help ?

[Burb Lulls]

Arbiter the Dwarf Fighter...

Through clever application of rush and disengage, tear through the molten passage as though the Middle-Earth equivalent of a jetpack was tied to your back. Crush light red Ds - forget about dark red Ds - with one mighty assault. Laugh a little too much.

Perform your blender impression on dddds with your ripostes, advancing through them as though they aren't there. As for Ds? Let them breed! Breed as much as you want! Each drake you summon only earns you a single turn before you are reached and pulped. The hatchlings offer even less than that.

Barely acknowledge the faeros' existence (although most classes can do this )

And finally, cross the span of the final bridge in one mighty rush, not just knocking Fyrk into the crater with your assault, but actually causing him to ricochet off the volcano's cavernous walls a few times.

I'm afraid that for ye wyrmic types with the icy skin and big sand breath of sometimes-blinding, it may go a little differently

... Come on! Someone else's turn!

[overtrix]

Yay - go Emmanuelle !

They both seemed to go for Aeryn first, must've been a "run along and hide, we'll deal with you later" thing - bad piece of judgement wizards, just made her more determined. First the bad and then the ugly soon discovered the painfully perilous problem of persistent penetration with slime-covered dragonbone

[Burb Lulls]

Nice!

[paboperfecto]

Is there any time limit or number of dungeons that will cause mount doom to fail if I don't do it right away? Or is it just necessary to complete it before reaching the final level of high peak?

[overtrix]

Okay I take it back, Whizz the Archmage reached the wizards with 418 to spare, skipping along the walls with probability travel and leaving the Wyrms to contemplate "life in small rooms" for 20-odd turns until he was long gone. Whizz was created for one purpose - to pay back the geomancers of Vor and the disgusting swirly creatures of Rak'shor for doing unspeakable things to the girlie archers, mostly concerning green slime and tropical diseases. He has a love of Fireflash, and never tires of exclaiming "Tsar Bomba, suckers !!" when it goes off. Cannot get over these graphics.

Couple of typos in case someone subtle and quick to anger passes this way ... uruk-hai figther ... Eowen Nazgul-Bane ... and a bigtime search-and-replace of minautor -> minotaur.