Being a halfling with good maneuver defense you may not have to worry about the spike thorns as much as other people until you get heavy with boxes.

With siphons a high level one will get you with shear fear at some point which could be very good for you depending on how it goes.

Destroyers swing at around 460-470 with mauls and claids, both are hard hitting weapons on their own so there is nothing special about them that I know of. Other then forcing you into offensive stance with warcries they also have mightly blow which basically does the same thing when they swing at you, depending on your DS this can be bad for your health. I didn't notice them doing anything to boost their AS when I was hunting them last, so if they do its not very common.

Crawlers don't actually spawn in the scatter and are only native to plane four, anywhere else they are either rifted or have warped there themselves.

Yes, they tackle. At least, I think it's tackle. Prone, round time / stun, they get up and whoop on you.

Masters have a couple of vulnerabilities, and don't wander around with prepped spells that I've seen. If one steps in and casts on you, it's because some elf was up there, saw one prepping to cast and faded away because he couldn't get an action in, in time.

Doug

Yes, they tackle, I rarely see it happen though. I don't run from prepping masters either, I dodge their spikes with ease most of the time.

Thanks for the info, guys! That paints a pretty solid picture of what to expect! I think I'll do alright hunting here.

What about liches? No idea how hard they hit, what spells they cast, maneuvers, immunities, armor, stuns, etc. I gather not many people attempt to hunt these things, but I'm going to at least give it a shot at some point once I cap.

~Taverkin

Don't forget the major ewaves. They also mass dispel, cast evil eye, and not sure what else. I haven't spent too much time hunting them. And of course they tend to cast and keep 540 up as well.

Well, Doug, I did have someone in mind to bring with me when I decide to give these things a try. I was planning to cap first, but I imagine with a lichbane talisman to ward off the fear that 1 level won't make much of a difference anyway (although I expect the post-cap training certainly will!). In any event, I'm just gathering information so I don't go in there completely blind!

I hear you have to attack the phylactery several times to kill it once the lich itself is dead? I assume haste applies? Can this be done with a runestaff? Is an actual AS/DS check made on these attacks? Anything else I should know?

Do they pre-prepare spells?

Elemental/sorc spells only? Or do they use any spiritual warding spells?

I've heard that they have a spell immunity of some sort. I was told total immunity to spells below level 10, but I was wondering if they really just use that arcane spell that provides immunity up to a certain spell level based upon the proficiency of the caster? So what's the deal with that?

Any idea on their bolt DS?

Do any of our knockdown spells work against them? Tremors, call wind, ewave? I figure the level difference might make it difficult, but knocking them down would obviously make it a lot easier to hit them!

Whatever details you want to provide may be useful to me! I'm trying to cut down on trial and error here, since getting rescues in that area is asking a lot most times! But look on the bright side! If I can figure out a good strategy for hunting liches, then I'll be able to rescue you guys in there, too! LoL

~Taverkin

Thanks for the tips, guys! I bumped my guild difficulty up to take on soul siphon tasks. It's a bit of a pain since I'm a non-Voln wizard. But minor lichbane talismans seems to be enough to protect me from the fear so far. Hopefully they'll be enough for liches, too!

No deaths so far. Several bounties completed. The destroyers bother me, but there are extra precautions I can take beyond simply trying to avoid them that I think may allow me to more or less ignore them in the future and focus on the other stuff that I can kill (but can kill me back just as easily!). Time will tell! But with 1 more level to go until cap and plenty of room to improve after that, I feel pretty good about hunting the scatter.

Next up, the south side! Doug, you'll have to show me around some time! I'll probably cap within the next week if I find the time and am feeling motivated!

~Taverkin

Minor fear occurs at 10-14 level difference and major fear at 15 or more. The weakest talisman gives 3 levels of fear protection, as do most spells and society abilities that provide shear fear protection, the medium talisman 6 levels, and the highest total immunity. Normal critters spawn up to 5 levels above their base so you have to get within 4 levels of the base level of a critter to avoid all shear fear. The medium talisman is enough to protect a capped character from all shear fear due to normal spawns up to base 110 undead.

Agreed on the wish that the talismans lasted longer. 10 minutes flat regardless of training makes for an expensive hunt, especially if you've been tasked with a culling/heirloom/particularly dangerous lich task. I mostly pass on those tasks, simply because between the cost of 2-3 talisman rubs, and the strength of their dispell casting, I end up going through a ton us resources and it just isn't worth it.

Regarding the fetish masters, in very rare cases they'll cast a very strong tangle weed when their in offensive stance. It's actually more dangerous than their spikethorn in those circumstances.

The Soul Siphon maneuver is brutal: 3-4 strikes, each creating a wound, a stun and round time all in one shot. I had a particularly dangerous one do it to me 3x in a row the other day and it was curtains, even though I was using every trick I know.

As for the other discussion about making access to the rift easier etc, I've always liked the place because of its remoteness and difficulty. I would agree though that arcane spells should stick, and honestly, why do we even have a pool that strips spells at this point? If you can't wear them, the rift will strip them anyway.

I don't know if you ever got a chance to do any lich hunting on your last visit, Gondain, but if not I can now fill you in on these guys in detail.

So, a bunch of things you should know about liches...

- They use haste, but don't appear to keep it up continuously. When they have haste up, WATCH OUT! Their RT is next to nothing, and it seems to increase their casting speed as well (they're fast enough to prepare and cast in less than a 3s cast RT)!

- They spawn with temporal reversion up. It works against physical attacks, including bolts.

- Immune to spells below level 10.

- A medium lichbane talisman will protect you from sheer fear if you're level 100. It also provides additional TD against fear-based spells (they cast evil eye and at least one other spell that's considered fear-based).

- They cast invisibility, but they only seem to cast it while you're fighting them (no ambushes so far and I've been in there many times!).

- Elemental TD 518, bolt DS ranges from 450-550 (prone, offensive stance), which depends mainly upon whether or not the lich has wizard's shield up and the usual environmental effects of the Rift. You're lucky if you find a lich with less than 475 DS. They're pretty consistently in the high 400s without wizard's shield and well over 500 with it up.

- Elemental CS is 509, sorcerer CS is 477, and bolt AS is 431. So far I can confirm they cast 717, 718, 501, 519, 907, 908, 909, 435, and 530 offensively.

- They stun and like everything else in the Scatter with the exception of the Vvrael, they can't shake stuns. They seem to have no armor or padding.

- You must destroy the phylactery they wear once you kill them. Looting prior to this fails and induces 3s RT. Attacking the phylactery with a runestaff usually requires 3-4 hits at 3-7 seconds RT. Haste helps immensely with this! If you destroy the phylactery, you can loot the lich or it can decay normally. If you fail to destroy it, the lich comes back to life and you get to start all over again!

- They come in fire and ice flavors, depending on the temperature of the Scatter. I wasn't able to discern any practical difference between the two types except that one casts major fire and the other casts major cold, and their major ewaves are flavored appropriately as well: blueberry or strawberry, your choice!

- Liches don't appear to spawn with spells prepared, nor do they pre-prepare spells once spawned.

- I haven't confirmed this, but bounty tasks for liches specify a particular type, so I expect killing frostborne when you're asked to kill infernals won't get you credit. And of course there's nothing I know of that you can do to change the temperature of the scatter.

- Ewave works, but it doesn't force stance so I found liches had too much DS following an ewave most times.

- Mass dispels are a good way to lower their DS, but be aware that the level difference means you'll only get 2 spells off of them for 30 mana.


First impressions: Impossibly fast! Let me say that again, FAST! Lag or miss anything in the screen scroll and these things will be all over you. They aren't too bad without haste, but with it you'll need to either get away from them or somehow incapacitate them quickly. Offensively they were actually not half as bad as I expected. They seem to favor warding spells over 530 and 435, but they cast those frequently enough, believe me! I found 435 to be less dangerous than advertised (but that could be due to being a halfling with a 140 score and a 60 bonus in dexterity from enhancives!). And again due to halfling racial bonuses, they aren't able to ward me at all. 530, however, is horrifying. Due to the level difference it will reliably strip a whole bunch of spells off you. Now I know how the ghosts in Pacman feel after getting chomped! I never ran for the exit so fast in my life! LoL

The biggest problem I had with them was the amount of mana required to bring them down. But hunting with a partner seems to alleviate most of that and I imagine with increased training in harness power they'd be manageable, provided your bolt AS is high enough to hit them (mine's 530 and it's still pretty difficult without a dispel at times).

Anyway, that's all the info I came up with so far, I think. If anybody wants a lich hunt some time, feel free to hit Taverkin up in Icemule or on Lnet.

~Taverkin

>Liches are particularly weak against unarmed combat... just saying. Most things in the Scatter are.

Does this include their phylactery? Last time I was their I found them easy enough to kill with DC, but I had forgotten about the phylactery so I just ended up killing the same one about 5 times then deciding to leave and come back one I remembered/relearned the trick to keeping them dead. I haven't been back since, but am concidering another trip in the not so distant future.

--Jurp

A pretty good rundown on liches, but I have a correction or two.

>- Liches don't appear to spawn with spells prepared, nor do they pre-prepare spells once spawned.

They do spawn with spells prepped and will pre-prepare spells.

>- I haven't confirmed this, but bounty tasks for liches specify a particular type, so I expect killing frostborne when you're asked to kill infernals won't get you credit. And of course there's nothing I know of that you can do to change the temperature of the scatter.

Liches of either type will count for bounties.

Droit

---

Speaking to you, Ceyrin asks, "Do you spontaneously come back to life when you die?"
Speaking to you, Ceyrin says, "Because I do."
You say, "Yes. I have a condition called Annoraxia.""

Generally, creatures will only pre-prepare certain spells, even if they have a full repertoire at their disposal. For example, triton sentries always spawn with dark catalyst prepped, despite having access to implosion. Liches don't always spawn with anything prepped, but I just went up to check and had a lich cast major ewave right off the bat.

Droit

---

Speaking to you, Ceyrin asks, "Do you spontaneously come back to life when you die?"
Speaking to you, Ceyrin says, "Because I do."
You say, "Yes. I have a condition called Annoraxia.""

The item used to bash the phylactery does not need to be blessed. Also, I prefer using a smaller weapon to bash the phylactery because it's much more tactical to suffer several small RT chunks than large RT chunks. The total RT is pretty comparable between small and large weapons anyway. I use an arrow (4 bashes @ 4-6 seconds per) myself, and I rarely have trouble cracking it before the respawn.

Droit

---

Speaking to you, Ceyrin asks, "Do you spontaneously come back to life when you die?"
Speaking to you, Ceyrin says, "Because I do."
You say, "Yes. I have a condition called Annoraxia.""

>Thanks Droit, last (dumb) question; I'm getting the impression this is more a matter of the action than skill with the weapon, in other words do I need edged training to bash a phylactery with a dagger? If so I guess I can always drag my old tiger claw out of the locker.

Nope. Any weapon will do regardless of training.

Droit

---

Speaking to you, Ceyrin asks, "Do you spontaneously come back to life when you die?"
Speaking to you, Ceyrin says, "Because I do."
You say, "Yes. I have a condition called Annoraxia.""