Run Guide: Manatakloss
From HGWiki
Mantakaloss, the Drow city, is an area with several level 40 accomplishments. Two of them can only be obtained by pre-immortal characters
Contents |
Requirements
All of the tags/accomplishments can only be obtained if no player above level 40 has entered the area during the current server reset, you will receive a message in red informing you if a 41+ character has previously been in any of the tag areas.
General Notes
It's advisable to have over 100 ac and/or good conceal to avoid most physical attacks during the run.
Several mobs in the Xul/Lloth dispel, breach or mord so if you require buffs to survive immunity to these effects are a good idea.
These runs are required for the Immortal run which grants immortality and lets you progress past the NWN cap of level 40.
Xulrae, Llolth and the Immortal should be done with no immortals in the party in order to get both the tags and the Accomplishments, all the other accomplishments can be done with a level 40 immortal in party. Immortals higher than level 40 will block all of the accomplishments in these areas and will in some cases cause the tags to be locked out until the server has reset, you will see a message when you are in the relevant areas if this has happened.
Characters above level 40 can "shackle" (talk to the Rowan's Guardian) to temporarily become level 40 and non-immortal. This allows them to participate in this run without preventing others from getting the pre-LL accomplishments/tags.
Manatakloss areas have a very high rest spawn chance with the exception of the Temple of Lloth and the Drow Arcane Academy which have a zero chance so if you can get to either of these zones you can rest without having to port back to town.
Lolth's Sanctum and the immortal run areas feature low-grade area penalties. This permits Planar Perinarch spell to work in these areas.
Areas
- Mantakloss - Docks
- Drow Slave Pen - You will end up here if you attempt to enter the House District without first obtaining the Xulrae accomplishment, to escape you will need to break the soor at the exit.
- Drow Slum x3
- Mantakloss - House District Note: The Drow Wardstone (not consumed) in Xulrae's loot chest opens the gate to the house district and in fact the gate in the Great Cavern although this won't be much help to you if you're coming from the other direction
- Drow - Arcane Academy - Note: The orb that ports you into (and the one inside that ports you out) the academy will only activate when there are no enemies left on the map, if the Headmaster does not show up make sure you have killed all the enemies inside and try beating on the gong near his room, he is behind locked doors which given time he will open to get to you, the switch to activate the doors is in the centre of the room.
- Temple of Lolth - Collect the 7 spider body parts and put them on the altar to create a spider key that opens the final room where the Handmaiden lives.
- House De'Nat -Lots of traps on the floor in this house
- House Khur'aan - The Khur'aan Weaponmaster has Devastating Critical although not a high DC
- House Gur'atsz
- House Fen'Liss - Annoying vampiric spiders spawn here make sure you have negative protection unless you want then to drain and store massive amounts of hit points from you
- House Mat'Lis'sk - Foyer - The golems here are immune to most direct spells (Evard's Black Tentacles works very well on them though), the laser trap does high levels of magic damage if you are hit by the beams, high magic immunity/resistance is advisable or you can attempt to navigate whilst the beams are down.
- House Mat'Lis'sk - Throne Room
- The Crown Sanctum - Lots of Droghers, AoE spells (Bombardment, meteor Swarm, Evard's Black Tentacles, etc.)are advisable to speed this up
Strategy and Tactics
Tanks need buffed level 35 weapons to do respectable damage
Pick pocketing heal potions (or using a well timed Death of Magic Epic spell) from the matrons can make these fights significantly faster as they all possess at least three heals.
Xulrae
This is the first of three parts of the immo run. You should probably be about level 34 or above, at which point you can party with players from level 34-40. Remember venturing down through the Drow Tunnels or the Tunnels of the Underdark. Xulrae is at the Manatakloss - Docks, the underground Drow city. You'll have to collect two keys (consumed on use) during the run to open the doors to where she resides, these are located in containers in the two slums adjacent to each other on the East side of the map. This run is pretty short with three small houses to go through. No keys are required beforehand. The Xulrae tag allows you to continue on to a Lloth run, in fact if you attempt to enter the Manatakloss house district without the Xulrae tag you will find yourself unceremoniously dumped in the slave pen in the docks and will then have to fight the Kyorls and break the door to escape. There's not too much loot here but there are a lot of backspawns that attack you from behind as you move from one area to the next. There is one way you can achieve the Lloth and Immortal tags without previously having completed Xulrae ;-)
Lolth
Lloth is where most new players get quite a shock (if they didn't while fighting Xulrae). The toughness of this run is a huge difference from the lowbie runs before. The drow have very high resistance to damage, whether physical or elemental. Spells aren't as effective on them because of their high saves. Anyways, you need to collect four keys on this run in order to unlock the door to house Matlisk and then collect two more keys as you make your way to the actual boss fight. Just remember, don't feed kids garbage, and they might help you out :P. The very last area of this run (The Crown Sanctum) is a no-rest zone, so you'll have to use your brand new shiny Ring of the Planar Traveler (which you should have picked up during the course of this run) to port to the Pocket Planar Dimension where you can safely rest. Note that the Planar Ring Recharge Pedestal on this run can only be used by toons of level 45 and below. The last area is a no-port zone too, which means you cannot use the PC Scry's "port to party leader" ability, nor can you use port stones to port to town. The Lloth tag allows you to continue to the immo run and use the loot she drops. You'll need a Soul Stone of Lloth in your inventory (not consumed) to open the door after you defeat her, one drops in the loot from all of th third forms that spawn. Don't forget the collect the goody from the trapped (not locked) loot at the end (a pixie should work if you have enough caster levels, or bring a Rogue).
Immortal
The immortal run is accessed through your favorite NPC, the Sage (see Sage's House). This is it, you've been waiting 34 to 40 levels for this! You want to be immortal!! You need six non-consumable keys (to start the run and one consumable key (the immortal crown from Lolth) to complete the run. The six keys are a little difficult to collect, but because they're non-consumable, once you collect your first set, you're set for life (pun intended)! It's okay to ask for the six keys, but the consumable you should provide yourself. The keys are also nice to page through when you're bored *ahem*. See books.
| Secret Area: Spoiler Warning! |
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Near the end of map 1 is a secret chamber. A search check must be made to find the entrance. Inside are four locked containers (DC.122) |
Apart from the old man himself almost everything in these areas are Outsiders and can be dispatched with relative ease if your party contains seasoned killers of these creatures, however most of them are immune to instakill spells including death magic, Weird and Implosion so casters should focus on damage.
On the first map, The Abyss, watch out for Babau as they cause significant Acid on hit.
Bizarrely the Balors on the second map do not appear to be outsiders and will have to be beaten to death though physical/magical means, Cold is very effective against them if you can take the Fire kickback from hitting them, using multi-hit spells such as IGMS is extremely unwise unless you have complete immunity to the KB.
Mariliths seem to seek out casters and focus on them so using Bigby 7 or 9 to hold them in place is a good tactic if you don't want to be hunted down and chopped into your constituent pieces.
At the end of map 2, Hall of the Hell Forge, waits the Immortal. Its a rough fight as he takes very little damage from weapons unless you have some with significant exotic damage types on them, if you don't have casters stocked up with Destructions, Finger of Deaths, Isaac's Greater Missile Storm, etc. make sure you have food close to hand as you'll probably take a long time to kill him! He also casts various spells including Mord, a big sack of Greater Ruins (at least 20!) and uses the NWN standard disarm effect causing your weapons to be dropped to the floor (if you fail the discipline check and sooner or later you'll likely roll a 1) losing any buffs they may have had. He has a tendency to pick on casters and people who are attempting to retrieve their weapons brutally beating them to death in a couple of blows. After the fight to become immortal, the crown must be broken at the forge (clicking on the forge without the crown in your possession will kill you!). Breaking the crown kills all non-immortal people who are not in town (-HC- characters are immune to this effect) Friendly players check first with !who if there are other players below level 40 on the server; and give a warning via Shout.
At the end of the run, now you're immortal! Congratulations!!!
The immortal tag lets you use many items (such as from the boss himself and some Desert loot), allows you to gain Legendary Levels through the altar in the docks area or by using the !level command and lets you enter several areas of the module previously inaccessible through lack of immortality.
