The Halfling Commandos are on an Epic roll!

Take a bow Reneux, Teodra, Colwyn, Pugtastic, Sparksy and Barel the token Tallperson alt.

p.s. Thanks Craig for such an awesome screenie. Here’s the original

I am working through some family issues and have been away from the game for the last couple of weeks.

I’ll be back. Soon, I think.

Fourth attempt is the charm, as Halfling Commandos conquer Epic VON1.

The cost was heavy and the loot was lacking - no Epic drops at all - but still, we win!

Sure, other guilds are showing their epic VON6 victory, but for us this is a big deal

Colwyn (rogue), Teodra (cleric), Reneux (cleric), Pugtastic (barb), Sparksy (wizard) and Barel the token alt Human (ranger)

The Tangleroot Gorge wilderness zone has a great mix of challenges; it is the perfect DDO tutor. Plus it has the famous Flowering Plant, a collectible drop that exists nowhere else. The Flowering Plant collectibles can be turned in for health potions that are normally 750 gold each – too expensive for most new adventurers.

Clearing the zone earns between 95 and 110 kills, eleven collectible drops, and takes about ten minutes (some practice may be needed to achieve a ten minute completion). An experienced team can split up and finish faster; it is reasonable to expect the maximum 1500 kills in three hours or less.

Flowering Plant Collectibles

Within the One-Eared Bugbear tavern, the collector Demodris Meele will exchange Flowering Plant drops:

• Three Lily Petals = one cure serious wounds
• Two Woodblossom Nectar = one remove disease
• One Crimson Nightshade = one remove curse

Maps

There are several published maps for the area including this excellent one:

Available along with many other fine maps in the thread Dorim’s Map Shop.

Rare Encounters

• XP per discovery: 350
• Bonus XP for solving all encounters: 1575
• Level 4
• You must be in level range 2-7 to get full experience for this quest

Encounter	Type	Where
Slay Silkweave	Black Widow	inside Webbed Caves
Slay Jarak	Bugbear	inside Overgrown Fortress
Slay Xassak	Troglodyte	inside Submerged Grotto
Rescue Jana	Human	@Overgrown Fortress (bear right from entrance)
Slay Kroksh	Hill Giant	@Temple Ruins (or just SW of them)
Kill Clamor	Worg	@Wolf Hunter
Slay Vilesting	Scorpion	@Bone-strewn Lair
Slay Kornak	Ogre Magi	inside Lair of Burning Skulls
Slay Gharjat	Hobgoblin	@Hobgoblin Battle Ram

Walkthrough

This walkthrough clears the entire zone, hitting every explorer point and rare encounter. It is NOT the most direct route to Splinterskull. If you are looking for the shortest run to the TR quest chain, follow the path shown here.

Be sure to talk with Eremic Quall before leaving the inn. He gives a quest that will allow your character to teleport directly to Ungarz the Splinterskull quest-giver in the future.

The giant Kroksh is a tough fight if he activates along with all his worgs, but is more manageable when drawn off and fought by himself. The hobgoblin Gharjat is inside a walled area and cannot be single-pulled. He, along with his accompanying cleric, worgs, and hobgoblin troops, is the most dangerous encounter in the Gorge.

Clamor
Head out of the inn and go southeast. The path will split. Take the right-hand path and continue south until you slay a pack of wolves (5-7 wolves which may include the rare worg Clamor). Inside a walled area is the explorer point Wolf Hunters Fate.

Silkweave
Return to the north and continue past the fork. You will pass through a walled gate (one hobgoblin one wolf) and find a small fortification. This is the explorer point Hobgoblin Scout Post (two hobgoblins).

From the Scout Post, turn left heading due west and go through another walled gate to reach an overlook (one hobgoblin, one wolf).

Return to the Scout Post and turn left or north through another walled gate (one hobgoblin, one wolf) continuing until you reach another fork. Take the right-hand fork and continue north (three brown spiders) to the exploration point Webbed Caves.

Inside is a small two-area dungeon (six brown spiders, 3-4 black widows with may include the rare black widow Silkweave).

Jana the Bar Maid
Leaving the caves, return to the fork and continue south until you reach the first rope bridge stretching west. Cross the bridge (two bugbears) to find another rope bridge stretching north. Cross the second bridge (three bugbears). The path ends in a fork. Take the right-hand fork, heading east on a path that winds around back to the north (two bugbears).

The path will bend around again, now heading east (two bugbears). Your first Flowering Plant is on the left side of the path, which now ends at the exploration point Overgrown Fortress.

From the Fortress entrance, bear around to the right (southeast) without falling down to the river. Behind some vegetation you may find a cowering rare human Jana the lost Bar Maid.

Jarek
Return to the Fortress and enter the small two-room dungeon. Clear the room to the left (four bugbears) which will open the door to the second room (3-4 more bugbears which may include the rare bugbear assassin Jarek).

Xassak
Leaving the Fortress, to your left is a drop-off falling away to the river. Jump down and you will land at explorer point Submerged Grotto. Enter the Grotto to find a small dungeon. Right away you will notice the second Flowering Plant (3-4 troglodytes).

Swimming down through a pool of water, it is possible to surface in a second room containing the third Flowering Plant (3-4 Troglodytes which may contain the rare troglodyte caster Xassak).

Vilesting
Exit the Grotto and begin slogging through the river to the east. In some cases you can find a dry bank and run but in others you cannot and will be in the river. The water will bend around to the south (3-4 troglodytes) and then to the west, eventually reaching a fork in the river (three troglodytes) where you can find the fourth Flowering Plant.

Continue straight west. The river will peter out into an overgrown dry path that is difficult to see because of all the vegetation – and looks like a river on the map - but carry on until it opens up into a clearing (four-five scorpions) that contains the fifth Flowering Plant, and also the exploration point Bone-strewn Lair.

Enter the Lair to find a one-room dungeon (one Rust Monster and four-six scorpions which may include the rare scorpion Vilesting).

Kroksh
Exiting the Lair, head due south – or right – until the dry path becomes a river again. Take the left bank, and follow it until it opens up into the exploration point Sacrificial Site (three troglodytes) where you will find the sixth Flowering Plant.

Continuing along the river and just southeast of the Sacrifical Site, the river gorge opens up into a small valley. The floor of the valley contains several interesting locations include a shrine in the NW corner (4-6 worgs and possibly the rare giant Kroksh), the exploration point Temple Ruins (2-3 wolves, 1-2 worgs, two brown spiders, one black widow) and the seventh Flowering Plant (along the western edge).

Gharjat
From the Temple Ruins, head north east. The ground slopes upward and eventually a path appears. Follow the path to the north until it reaches familiar territory: the first rope bridge.

Take the bridge east, and then the second rope bridge north, but this time turn left – or west – and continue to a fortified ramp. The ramp leads up to a walled gate (three hobgoblins) and back down on the other side. Just to your right as you jump back down is the eighth Flowering Plant.

The path winds around to the southwest eventually reaching a walled fort with a lookout tower (hobgoblin cleric). Inside the fort (two worgs and three hobgoblins which may include the rare hobgoblin warrior Gharjat) is the explorer point Hobgoblin Battering Ram.

Outside the fort to the south, behind a large rock, is the ninth Flowering Plant.

Splinterskull Fortress
Continuing south along the path, it will rise and eventually fork into a choice: down/east or up/to the right. Take the right fork where you will find several friendly hobgoblins including the quest-giver Chief Ungurz and also the tenth Flowering Plant.

Speaking with Ungurz completes the quest given to you in the inn by Eremic Quall: in the future, you can talk to Quall and be directly teleported back to this spot.

Continuing south from Chief Ungurz, the path continues through a walled gate and eventually (four hobgoblins, one hobgoblin cleric) ends at exploration point Mouth of Splinterskull.

Kornak
Return to the most recent fork in the path, just east and downhill from Chief Ungurz. Take the eastern fork which quickly leads to a campfire and also the eleventh and final Flowering Plant.

The path winds southeast and then south, and then ends at two trees, widening into a clearing (6-8 worgs) containing the exploration point Lair of Burning Skulls.

Inside, the Lair is a small dungeon appearing to branch to the right (two worgs, one ogre) or left (two ogres) but is in reality a circuit and both paths lead to the only door (2-3 worgs and an ogre that may be the rare ogre magi Kornak).

The big finish
Exiting the Lair, directly east across the clearing is the final exploration point Far Side of the Broken Bridge, from whence you can see the inn where you started. Drop straight down off the bridge (2-3 troglodytes) and head south to the mouth of the river (3-4 troglodytes and one troglodyte shaman).

Just to the northwest of the fallen troglodytes rises a path that will take you back to the One Eared Bugbear Inn where you started.

p.s. This information has all been added to the DDO Compendium article.

High atop the tower in House D, where once stood four collectible vendors, is this:

Visbane’s Folly.

It is a new type of crafting interface. I wonder what it does/will do?

It was discovered on Lamania too apparently but my forum searching has failed to uncover any additional information about it.

There are a lot of forum threads declaiming zerging as bad (horrible and will ruin the game!), or good (the only way real players run!), but right now there is an interesting and unusual forum thread that is attempting to define zerging and why we call it that.

Some guildies have told me that since I reincarnated my main, I’ve turned into a zerger too. I’m not sure I completely agree, but this was my take on the forum thread:

 

• Zerg means you don’t stop to break boxes
• Zerg means you don’t complete optionals (unless they are on the way)
• Zerg means heal and buff yourself, or better yet, don’t need any healing or buffing
• Sometimes when you are zerging you also avoid fights and zoom past them but sometimes it just means you get to the fights in a hurry and at full run

And to the OP all I can say is yes the term seems to have evolved from the Starcraft tactic. I have no idea who used it first.

• You can solo zerg
• You can group zerg
• You can fall behind a group that is zerging and they will complete the quest for you
• If you fall behind on purpose you are “piking” and will draw player agro

It is hard to group zerg if you don’t know the quest. Someone has to, then everyone else can follow. If it is everyone’s first time then you probably are not zerging, you are probably playing stupid and dying.

• Running ahead of the cleric on a quest where you will need heals is not zerging, it is stupid
• Running ahead of buffers when you need a buff is not zerging, it is stupid
• Running ahead and drawing more agro than you can handle or outrun is not zerging, it is stupid
• Running through traps by accident is not zerging, it is stupid

Someone described Zerging as mindlessly running ahead, dying, recalling, and repeating till everything was dead. I suppose this would fit the Starcraft term better, but is not the DDO version of “zerging”. As addressed by GunboatDiplomat in his response:

If you die its not zerging, its wasting your time and being an idiot for biting off more than you can chew and not waiting for the group. I’ve done that more than once too

p.s. Yes, before you ask, I have done that more than once too

p.p.s. I am a zerger when I am on my XP-mongering Completionist.

Snow Day + Road Trip = LOTS of coffee.

Fortunately I like snow driving. For one day, my beat up old P.O.S. is the fastest car on the road

See you in a few days

Yes I did. On Normal. And I am quite proud of myself.

Now before you post all the /yawns I did it at level (4th), with a (mostly) rogue.

Okay, not a big deal, and what little glory may remain is largely spoiled by the fact that Turbine has eased up the difficulty on the fire traps and the end fight.

Yet still, this is something I would not even have attempted with most of my characters at 4th level. The new Mawry is working out really well, much more effective than in her last life. She’s not even twinked up; she’s just good.

It’s a nice feeling I’ll have to post the build details.

Having conquered Favored Soul, Mawry stops to ponder lessons learned from her last 20 levels of Completionist XP-mongering

Gimpiness hurts us all

• When you have the leader sending you tells in ToD begging you to please not die, that is a clue. Listen to it

Character Planner is your friend

• It ought to be possible to be a meleeing, ranging, nuking FvS. But apparently it is not easy nor something you can figure out “on the fly”

Avoid builds that mature late

• Its frustrating to finally unlock that one key special ability at level 19 when you are reincarnating again in two or three days

Wounding of Puncturing still has its purpose

• Nerf or no nerf, it is still very helpful in many situations. Especially soloing

Wings are awesome

• I will miss the wings. Really I will

Friends are even more awesome than wings

• A big shout out to my guild partner Pug who doggedly and persistently drug me through the last couple of levels even though he capped his own completionist a week ago