Valley of Tears, Discussion/Destruction Guide

[gogoblender 3,070]

Hey guys!

 

I've been finding that with my ebolts daemon the Underworlds areas are looking like more and more fun. Great experience, nice drops and some nice lookin nasties

So, to all the experts here who do a lot of killing in the VOT, I'd like to know if you could list what a great toon would/should have to make hamburger out of everything there.

Any kind of character class is cool.

What kind of resists?

What kind of damages?

What are the highest experience bearing monsters in that area strong against. What should we bring in to mass kill them and jump up in our experience levels.

As well, for specific character types, is there weapons you would suggest? Armor you would suggest?

The Valley of Tears is the one run that everyone in HC spends innumerable hours in. Care to share your hints and ideas for making good, effecient runs?

Are you using split?

Icons?

Experience gear?

 

Thanks!

 

gogo

[Csaszar 2]

Hey

 

VoT is a nice place to level and find the thrills we need to continue playing...

 

If you see it XP wise then Sakkara demons are your best choice. A single Sakkara demon worths more xp than most of the champion monsters in the whole game. They arent that though and at the Sakkara field they are plenty in number. So their pros are the high xp/high population/relative lower danger ratio. Their cons are that massacring them at their field gets quickly boring and the way to them is full with Golems and Pods. Most of the time their drops is not that awesome too.

 

In Vot you will encounter mostly the 2 type of Golems (green and brown), pods, Sakkaras and thoose demons who tie you like goblin shamans. Best xp comes from pods (but xp wise they are relatively rare) and the green war golems. Sadly thoose green golems are bugged . Pre patch they were harmless - they couldnt hurt you after gold difficulty - now they are deadly. They have a magic attack you cant really resist - no matter your resistances. So even a though nut char with high resist/hp/defense could find himself/herself caught by them with hose down. Nearing their max level in niob they hurt you about 15k per hit abd if they gang you that could become quite deadly. But high rewards come from high dangers - they are mostly high in number with very good xp per golem so they are really worth to kill. The infamous "Bear Cave" or "Golem Cave" is infested with thoose nasty Golems. Finally Golems have prety good resist against magic damage so magic based damages are not the best choice against them. (CL is awesome for splitting them though)

 

There are some undeads too in VOT in a small area but they arent really worth mentioning - small in number with small XP reward.

[gogoblender 3,070]

Thanks Csaszar!

With your input here and what my copy of this thead on the sif has collected I think we have the makings of a good guide.

Cheers!

 

gogo

[gial 2]

I'm pretty new to the VoT, and discovered something that very nearly cost me my toon last night. This seems to be about the best place to post it . . .

 

If you take the "Kill 6 bears quest" and do so in the bear cave, you get absolutely mobbed when you exit the cave. Was not expecting so many baddies right there when I came out. I ran out of reds bfore I knew it and had to duck back into the cave -- where there were 3 greenies waiting on the stairs. Quick Options/Quit -- I refuse to use Alt-F4 -- and when I restarted I had only 5 of 5000+ hp left.

 

Just a caveat to unsuspecting bear hunters. Take enough reds or have a real instantaneous mob killer ready when you come out.

[Schot 407]

A couple things that I notice many people do is that they "play down" when venturing into the VoT. What I mean is that if they have a Gold level toon then they will play on a Silver server for VoT runs. Point in case here is that UW enemy spawn lvls are much higher than Ancaria. As an example I just went into the Bronze VoT and saw that the enemies there were level 47. The char I went in with was level 22. So a very important point here is:

 

Know the min spawn lvls for VoT enemies in each dificulty.

 

Personally I find using ranged dmg is much more comfortable and easier on my heart, hehe. For close quarters builds I'd suggest around 20% LL and a very strong dmg inflicting buff where possible.

 

Just a couple things off the top of my head

[bdiggity 0]

I nearly always stick to the one level below your ability for runs through the VoT. There are a few exceptions to this rule however. Some of my best VoT slayers are:

 

Dark Elf trapper - Uses Poison Mist and occasionally Bottomless Pit. He's currently level 135 and with testosterone buff going the Poison Mist is doing something along the lines of 34000 damage per second per trap. Bottomless Pit is just under 100,000 damage. This character sees little playing time anymore because it's so obscenely over powered that there are no challenges. Anywhere. Running around in the VoT is child's play as long as you don't get hosed by a pod before you get off a Poison Mist trap or two.

 

Battle Mage - Using Gust of Wind as his primary attack he owns the Vally. Nothing ever hits him with the exception of the guys that can hold you in palce... sorry I forget the name. They are immune to the push back of GoW so they are dangerous in large numbers if you a.) don't have high life leech or b.) have slow regen on Gow. Currently he's sitting at level 120-ish.

 

Seraphim - Longhandled weapon hybrid build that uses Orla's set, RBOL, and the occasional CL bomb. As long as the server doesn't lag too heavily from the Orla's generating insane amounts of lightning damage you are a god in the VoT - oh also assuming you have at least 25% life leech... very important to keep yourself alive during those huge attacks from golems. She's currently at level 90 and doing famously. When she gets some better armor and higher total life she may become my most unstoppable toon in the VoT... she's beginning to sort out that way anyways.

 

By far the most dangerous thing you will encounter in the VoT is the green golems. They hit hard. Real hard. Everything else is much less brutal so if you can hang with fighting 4 or 5 golems at once you should do fine running around in the VoT. If a mob of golems causes you to make a quick and hasty exit perhaps you should try another level down or hang out elsewhere.

 

As another side note I've got several toons that do famously in all other areas of the game but get owned in the VoT. There are definitely certain builds that lend themselves to running around in there. Case in point: my bow Wood Elf is around level 130 right now I believe. She has no problem running around most places in the game in Plat difficulty. Even in Gold difficulty the VoT is a very scary place for her - especially when there are more than 1 or 2 people in the game.

[gogoblender 3,070]

Wow

Big that's nicely organized...excellent work here. I have a question. Have you ever been able to run any other seraphim than one wielding orla's through the VOT?

seraphim's have this huge predilliction for magic which seems to have them on the short end of the stick with dealing with this area's particular denizens.

I can see why the incredible poiston damage boost that Orla's gives would be helpful for a seraphim.

Who knows....maybe this set was made for her because of her natural elemental CA handicap?

 

 

gogo

[Nihilith 0]

HI

I think, as Therion X proved in one of these movies, that a full poison Daemon could handle VOT with few problems. Assisted by tentacles, that's the big deal. Once my Poison daemon hit the 40s I'll give it a try in bronze. NOt the best test, but just to have a first overview of the zone. Anyway I tried it with my cota Wood elf, no need to say you must use a spell you can control in this area. The spirit were attacking small foes far from me, while 2 pods and big thingies were kicking my butt !

So as a general rule. No COTA style main attack !

Blazing disc is much more able to do the thing, as you can cast it multiple time.

 

My 2 cents.

Hope it helps

 

Cya

[EvilMale 7]

My ms mage had no prob in vot unless it was my mistake like ie the one that got him killed

with a battle mage like bdiggity said either GoW mages or any mage that can 1 cast kill. I how every personally would not use a GoW mage in VoT becasue of some of the baddies have huge poison resists and some like he said can not be affected by the push back factor of GoW. In my experiance with VoT a Bm using the spell combo of RoI and MS ( Ring of Ice and Meteor Storm ) is the best bet at level 111 before I lost my mage to human stupidity and error my Ro! casted from my RoI slot was level 75 which is best to keep it to 1/2 or 3/4 of the baddies level for the max slow down effect ( thanx to Schot for teaching me that one ) And My main attack spell was sitting around level 93 to 95 from its casting slot with a totak dmg of just around 8 to 9k if not more with critical hit. not to mentuon I was running around 28% life leach which as we know in hardcore is very very necessary. oh and did I mention that the human error on me loosing my Battle Mage was I was running in VoT in plat. OOPS FOR ME

[Silearth 6]

I've owned VOT with shard mages--as long as they are wearing the full Amarri set with it's secret damage. Everything drops before it has a chance to get close.

For the pods, I would just cast a uber level Ring of Ice as soon as I notice them and that would keep me going until my spells returned.