Dis
From HGWiki
Dis is the second layer of the Hells and requires The Workshop tag to enter.
A burning city of iron, the red glow of infernal heat burns within the scorched walls of Dis, and a pall of smoke rises up to form a dark haze over the entire layer. Palatial mansions of particularly important devils and officers of the Blood War break the cityscape here and there. Captives of the Blood War and mortals kidnapped from the Material Plane fill the subterranean prisons beneath the streets, and the sounds of their agonized lament is usually audible from small vents in the city walls. Some sections of the city host markets where creatures from a variety of planes meet to exchange questionable wares or hire a bloodthirsty band of mercenaries. The Iron Tower is visible from every part of Dis, piercing the haze of the layer. This is where Dispater resides, who is nearly indestructible within the walls of the Iron Tower, rarely venturing outside.
~ from Volo's Guide to Baator, Abridged, 3rd Edition.
Contents |
Introduction
Dis is a very short and easy run, usually taking between 0.5 - 1 hour to complete. The boss, Archduke Dispater drops Dis Weapons which can be useful alternatives to Dustbone weapons for tanks to use, it is worth noting that the +16 add on thee weapons translates to less than a buffed 2d12 although the innate +11 and keen can help ameliorate this. Other loot drops such as BURs are usually fairly meagre.
Party Needs
Dis is often run with less than 10 characters, although experienced parties can do it with significantly less. The party must have a reliable way of destroying Infernal Machines, whether it be an Imploder Cleric, Turner (see turning mechanics for more detailed information), crumbling Druid, Mage with Disintegrate or Shifter with Undead Wraith form to drain them, worst case scenario tanks with Anbaric Lances can beat them to death. Most people prefer to take a mage as well to disable Rakshasa, Machines and for the epic wall during boss fight but it can be done without. Similarly druids are not strictly necessary but they make the run much smoother, notably so in inexperienced parties.
Your party should have at least one of either a Druid, Cleric or item that has CL41+ Heal spells to cure festering wounds.
General Guide
| Layer | AB | AC | E:Imm | P:Imm | Sk | Sv | DC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 3% | 5% | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | 3 | 6% | 10% | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | 9% | 15% | 6 | 2 | 1 |
| 4 | 4 | 6 | 12% | 20% | 8 | 2 | 2 |
| 5 | 4 | 7 | 15% | 25% | 10 | 3 | 2 |
| 6 | 5 | 9 | 18% | 30% | 12 | 3 | 2 |
| 7 | 6 | 10 | 21% | 35% | 14 | 4 | 3 |
| 8 | 6 | 12 | 24% | 40% | 16 | 4 | 3 |
| 9 | 7 | 13 | 27% | 45% | 18 | 5 | 3 |
| 10 | 8 | 15 | 30% | 50% | 20 | 5 | 4 |
| 11 | 8 | 16 | 33% | 55% | 22 | 6 | 4 |
| 12 | 9 | 18 | 36% | 60% | 24 | 6 | 4 |
| 13 | 10 | 19 | 39% | 65% | 26 | 7 | 5 |
On this layer Fire and Magical are the most essential immunities to cover, as well as Positive, Cold and Acid to a lesser degree. It's a good idea to keep Negative Protection up to protect against Soul Shells. Mord is very common on this layer. Some Rakshasa use targeted mords can be prevented with a mord ring but their AOE mords will still strip buffs regardless of whether you are wearing a mord ring or not. All forms of breach are easily stopped with a breach ring although there are no set breach mobs until the boss room. Ensure you have fear immunity for the boss fight as well.
First Map Burning City of Iron
The first map of Dis contains a lot of easy spawns similar to Avernus, except for some new enemies such as Rakshasa, Kocrachon, Erinyes, Hamatula and Spinagon.
Rakshasa's can decimate parties if left unattended and should be disabled quickly by Clerics with Implode or Mages with Crushing hands. Raks will constantly Mord away your buffs so buff reliant characters must be careful and recast their buffs often. Kocrachon heal all their allies nearby so they must be disabled or killed quickly at the start of spawns. If they are not removed first they will heal the harder enemies and make spawn killing much slower. Hamatulas, although not a threat, should be approached cautiously by Tanks and BFMs as they create huge amounts of personal magical Kickback that can kill unprepared players in a matter of seconds. Hamatulas also inflict festering wounds upon the failure of a DC 55 Reflex check, these can slowly kill you and should be healed by the Heal spell of a Druid or Cleric with 41 Caster levels. Erinyes force a DC 32 Dexterity Check vs Domination that disables your character for a period time, but otherwise they are very easy to kill.
At the end of map, two levers must be pulled simultaneously to open the gate to the next map.
Second Map Iron Tower
Dis' second map is much like the first, with the addition of Infernal Machines. Infernal Machines cause AoE Positive kickback to the entire party when hit by anything that does damage to them. They should be grabbed, stoned, imploded, disintegrated or crumbled as quickly as possible. Being able to deal with Machines in the most efficient manner possible is the key to a quick and easy Dis run. In the meantime tanks and BFMs must give them a wide berth and avoid hitting them. If stoned machines no longer vent which causes increasing fire vulnerability to characters near them.
Towards the end of this map is a single named Pit Fiend accompanied by multiple Kocrachons. Destroy the Kocrachons first to stop them healing the Pitfiend. If this is your first Pit Fiend be careful, they do personal Acid and Magical kickback as well as a DC 40-44 Strength check vs KD, so dexterity based toons should stay within the bard's UUU circle.
Third Map Hall of Dispater
The final map is a small boss room. How the boss spawn is handled is up to the party. An arcane Epic Wall can be used to keep spawns away from the party although if you get a random including a Bueroza dropping in on top of you this can be problematic. If someone knows how, the epic wall can be forgone and the room can be spawned few enemies at a time. Either way, you should ideally stay in the entrance corridor to avoid triggering every spawn at once. Bringing a set of Monk's Mantra's can be handy for this purpose since it allows you to attack without having to run away from the stairs. Do not rush the spawns or wall unless you are told to.
Along with Archduke Dispater there will be a Malebranche, Pitfiend, and two Infernal Machines that must be dealt with. Malebranches do DC 40-44 Dex Check vs KD and a DC 42 Dex Check vs instant death. Non-dexterity toons can protect against the death ability by wearing a lev ring but must seek the UUU circle to stop being knocked down. You should destroy these minions before focusing on Dispater, who is most vulnerable to Cold and Divine damage types. There is also a spinagon that spawns near the transition mirror it is advisable for a ranged character (CS Ranger, Cleric Heartbane, Arcane Disintegrate) to take this out (especially if a pargon version of this creature spawns!).
There is also a set random spawn in the middle of the room. Be careful not to accidentally trigger this while fighting/escaping the Archduke. The random is much easier to deal with if you wait until the Archduke and his minions are dead before triggering it as you can then move freely around the room without being pinned in the entrance corridor.
Class Specific Guides
Tanks
The most important thing for tanks to remember about Dis is to not hit Infernal Machines unless you have an Anbaric Lance to hand. The best way to stop hitting a machine having just killed another enemy is to drink a healpot, simply walking backwards isn't as good since it often won't break combat until you are well away from them. What the priority targets are depends on your party but stick enemies such as Narzugon, Kocrachon, Spinagons and Erinyes. If there's a caster in the party that is obliterating an enemy type very consistently (ie: Druid drowning Kocrachons) focus on other enemies that aren't killed so quickly.
Druid
There are plenty of things for druids to do on Dis. Apart from NBing, priorities should be to disable Kocrachons and Infernal Machines. Kocrachons can be drowned or stoned to stop their healing ability. Machines should be stoned and Crumbled to stop them being a threat(Hellfire Engines are immune to petrification), although this duty can sometimes be ignored if the grabby mage or cleric are fast. After these are dealt with crowd control becomes your new duty. Crowd control methods are numerous but Cast in Stone to disable parts of a spawn, Drown to remove barbazu/erinyes fodder or even Elemental Swarm to deal with bigger spawns are good places to start.
Arcane Caster
Using Bigby's Crushing Hand on Rakshasa should be of the highest priority for mages. Bigby's Grasping Hand is also important for separating Infernal Machines from the rest of the spawn so they can be dealt with individually. Following this there are endless ways for an Arcane caster to contribute. Wailing Narzugon is a very effective way to kill them but make sure they are NB'd first, since they have very high SR. Wailing/Weirding spawns to remove the riff-raff and using Bigby's Clenched Fist on tougher enemies are the most common way of contributing.
Cleric
Timely machine Implosion is the key to a quick Dis run. Make sure you use Prayer/Battletide/Greater Restoration and take machines out as quickly as possibly. Afterwards you can turn your attention to imploding lesser spawns such as Erinyes, Hamatula, Spinagon, Lemure and Soul Shells. The multitude of non-large creatures in this area makes clerics top rank killers here as you can get multiple kills with a single Implosion.
Bard
Apart from set Pit Fiends and Malebranches at the end of the second and third maps, Narzugon and Advespa are the only sources of KD at Dis, so have UUU and pt2 ready when they are around. Aside from normal bard duties, you can help out in spawns by restoring players getting beat upon by Infernal machines and using Mass cure wounds on them.
Shifter
Use Medusa form to stone the Rakshasa as this effect does not require their spell mantles being removed then stone everything else you can (it's a lot of stuff!), you can then poison anything vulnerable to this effect with the Iron Golem form greatly speeding up the run. If you want to use Beholder dispel to remove the Rakshasa mantles you will need to do this before stoning them but careful with this ability as it does not recognise friendly buffs and can rapidly strip protection from party members as well. Basilsk Death Gaze can be useful for removing non-death immune mobs such as Narzugon/Bezikira/Imps. If you have Undead forms you can even use Wraith form to drain machines to death.
