Tomb of the Nine Gods

[Ziek88]

Sunday afternoon I made my first venture into Tomb of the Nine Gods. I very much enjoyed that it was a puzzle from start to finish. Like FBI and mSP this dungeon brings new and unique mechanics but this time around they are more interesting parts of the dungeon rather than overwhelming challenges that are just tedious. Most of the dungeon is puzzles. Rather than just running from boss to boss there are puzzles to solve on the way which is a cool twist. I unfortunately cannot speak much to this puzzles without another run or two.

Boss 1: Avatar of Orcus
Basically just like Castle Never. He does have a few ads now though and while he does not move much, he does move a little. He also has a new cone attack that is a knockback. This is important because there are pits around the arena but pretty easily avoided. There are also 3 curses that must be picked up at the start of the fight. I didn't catch the locations but can say what they do.

• Can't be healed but can get temporary HP stuff. Needs to be mobile as green orbs will move towards someone and this person needs to run into those orbs to detonate them before they reach their target.
• Bonus damage to ads, reduced damage to Orcus. Ideally give to a buffer, healer or someonw not there to do damage.
• Bonus damage to Orcus. Obviously top damage dealer should pick this up and swing at Orcus with all they've got.

Boss 2: Didn't catch the name
Boss standing on a pillar in the middle. Huddle up and be right on top of the boss. Hammer on the pillar hard. When pushed back move back to the pillar. Room perimeter fills with flames and occasionally a minor ad will spawn. Kill the ad, stay close to boss and each other. Hammer it down. Not much else to say there. Was a weird fight. I think there may have been a shared damage AoE sorta like one with Drufi in FBI? Not sure.

Boss 3: Ras Nsi
Pretty much same behavior as in House of Croc weekly with more HP and more damage. The big changes are when ads spawn, everyone should kill them. When ads die they drop green souls. It is important to remove those souls. I think this is done by simply walking through the souls but not certain. The other big one is when the big blue head shows up on the end of the platform MOVE IMMEDIATELY to the opposite end of the platform. There will be a large pull and it will pull you towards the head. If you are not on the far end, you will fall in a hole and die.

I think some things to note is that absolute demand to be at peak performance. Minimum IL for this should probably be 13,500 and the builds must be top notch. Otherwise, getting past the first boss is unlikely. The damage needed and the damage done in this dungeon makes mSP look like a joke. If the party is not a good composition and using buff combinations and such, this dungeon will not end well. That said, using a good composition made this dungeon easily one of the most enjoyable in this game since the old days. The mechanics were fun and exciting.

Perfect comp is GF, ACDC, DODC, Tankadin and DPS.

Would work with GF, ACDC, Tankadin/DODC/Healdin and 2 DPS.

Rewards are 50 seals at completion. Maybe more if you can open the second chest. I also received a 480 chest piece from a boss that had great stats and a 480 dual slot ring ring from the chest. Interesting note on the ring. It listed all the versions of that ring and I was able to choose the best suited for me. Would be a great companion ring.

[Tundrra]

I'm reading the campaign book for this dungeon and it is also full of traps and puzzles:) the whole module has been pretty cool!

Good luck in the dungeon:)

[Ziek88]

An update to the loot from this dungeon.

The 480 2 slot ring I got from the chest at the end of the dungeon was account bound. It behaved like all the CN rings. I equipped it on one toon and it remains account bound and can be moved around characters at anytime. These make for excellent bonding rings.

[Phelaia]

Date: January 26, 2019
Team: Tyrandil (sturdy GF), Phelaia (heal-n-buff OP), Ziek (red eyed Temptlock), Rain (selfless ACDC), Aratech (Spellstorm Wizard/Nuke).
Total run time: 57 minutes according to those overload enchantments

Ziek had been planning with Phel about getting a group together for TONG through this last week, and the group actually came together by Friday night when Aratech, AKA our orbital ion cannon, was available. The overall team composition is to dump all buffs into Aratech, and let him do all the hurting with gigantic Ice Knives.

7:30p Saturday night. We all got on Discord. Ziek had been through this place 50 times, but the most of us have only been in there once or twice. Phel and Tyr have never been past Orcus. The first few random encounters wasn't so bad. Just before getting to the first boss, a pile of rocks glitched out, and we had to start over. The first puzzle of matching the pictures on the floor to the pictures on the wall weren't so bad either.

First boss is Orcus. This Orcus is a lot tougher and hits a lot harder than the Orcus in Castle Never. Ziek took the HP curse and the duty of intercepting the green orbs. Rain took the zombies curse. Aratech took the Orcus curse. This fight is of a DPS race, as the person who took the HP curse cannot be healed, and Orcus needs to go down before he runs out of HP. We all fought in a pretty tight huddle. Rain called out his Annointed Army. Talana made sure the Orcus was not looking at Aratech. Phel made sure to cast Bless on Aratech. Ziek was super on the ball about intercepting the green exploding balls. When Ziek said, "We're doing pretty good damage," it was confirmation that we were doing something right. Orcus went down without too much trouble. We move on.

Now comes more traps. We're talking about old school D&D traps. They were fun to solve.

Second boss is Withers. He sits in an enclosed machine with a dome on top, and the room fires off four kinds of element hazards--fire, poison, water, electricity. These hazards actually stack, and it's no fun standing knee deep in electrified water or breathing flaming poison gas. There is mechanics in this room, but based on our gear level, we were doing the straight burn. During the first attempt, Aratech and Ziek mysteriously got tossed outside of the range of Phel's auras, and they both got crispy quick. We had to wipe for lack of DPS. Second attempt went much better. We move on.

Now comes a few mobs and more traps. There are actually more traps than mobs. These traps are obviously inspired by the legendary "Tomb of Horrors" of first edition D&D. These were fun to solve, and by the time we got to the final boss, we actually solved all the puzzles--you get extra campaign currencies for solving all the puzzles. Also, the murals on the walls as we go down each floor of the tomb artfully chronicles the story of Mod 13. Phel was quite impressed by the art in this dungeon, but quite creeped out by the legion of undead dwarfs staring at her with glowing eyes when the party walked through the last room.

Now comes Ras Nsi...the Yuan-Ti who gave people lots of trouble when they first did the story mode of "House of Crocodiles" in the Mod 13 campaign. This fight is remarkably similar to the weekly lair in Mod 13, but Ras Nsi has a few more tricks up his sleeves/scales. The whole boss fight takes place on a floating rectangular platform. Besides whacking everyone with a giant sword, Ras Nsi will summon more than a few skeletons on about a 5-second timer. Also, Acererak, the demilich behind all of this, will appear at one of the short sides of the platform, pounds angrily on the platform, attempt to pull all of us off into the abyss. Ziek was calling out the special attacks, and Rain was calling out his Annointed Army. The rest of us followed our buff-n-nuke routine during the buff window. The best part was that since Aratech was a CW, the adds were not a problem. Had our main DPS been a GWF, those adds can add up to a real headache real fast. Thankfully none of our bonded companions fell off the platform, or the fight could have turn into quite a slog. After about 5-7 minutes, Ras Nsi went down as a slithering heap because he has failed Acererak for the last time.

Congrats to NOR for a successful adventure, and thanks for Ziek for being the brain behind this. Next stop: a chat with old Stradht.

[Phelaia]

And for other who want to attempt it, here's a great strategy guide:

https://blog.nwo-uncensored.com/tomb-ni ... egy-guide/

[Ziek88]

orbital ion cannon

I particularly like this bit.

[Phelaia]

Before my entry into MMOs, I played that game...just not that faction.

[tornnomar]

Hail *NOR/!

Great writeup Phel!

Admittedly this was the first time I ever ran as an Anointed Champion. I've had the build for awhile but never saw the need. My prior Tong Runs I've stayed DO Virt, and one time ran full on DO Righteous. Had no CW that run and main DPS was a GWF, so super chains cleaned up the adds in Boss fight. I did manage enough heals to keep the party alive, but barely. Righteous DC are not healers:) Luckily it was an experienced group that knew what to do on that platform.

Expanding on the 'selfless' ACDC a bit. This build is about pure support. Yes, you have to attack to build divinity and more importantly Action Points, but the sole role here is buffing. I need to work on my Daily timing a bit as I am learning the AC way still.
At first I balked, I refused to build an AC because I refuse to believe that its the only way to run a dungeon, and still do. It makes it faster, it does, but I still am of the mind that a party that is in communications and know how can beat any run. Rome wasn't built in a day so they say.

We're more than capable of any run, I firmly believe that.