Zorbgot's Hive
From HGWiki
Zorbgot's Hive, more commonly known as 'Beholders', is a legendary area intended for small parties of levels 50 to 55 (see note below for characters over level 54).
Contents |
Introduction
This is the home of the Intelligence Artifact The Eye of Vecna.
The boss here is a beholder Zorgbot who has succumbed to the will of the Eye of Vecna, ripped out its own main eye and replaced it with the Eye of Vecna. As you can imagine this has led to some very strange occurrences in Zorbgot's Hive.
For a more in depth detail of what has been happening with the Beholders I recommend an in-depth conversation with your friendly neighbourhood beholder Bob.
- The entire run is a no rest zone, Immortal characters will not fugue or limbo in Zorbgot's Hive which is probably a good job as if you've not stacked up on correct immunity gear you'll be getting pwn'ed a lot! If you do need to rest you should use your Ring of the Planar Traveler.
- Teleportation by gem or to party leader cannot be used inside these areas.
Requirements
The only pre-requisite for this run is Immortality. However the run difficulty is aimed at players 55+ and not recommended for lower level characters.
Note however that the run has some loot that will only drop if no one has ever entered any of the areas at any level higher than 54, you will also not receive the tag.
Immunities are Sonic, Acid, Fire, Electrical, Negative and Magical
It's highly reccomended to wear a Shroud of Evernight as its 100% negative protection can't be removed by the beholders anti-magic ray. Alternatively drink Neg Pots purchased from Rips. Beware these can be dispelled.
This run consists of three maps and is fairly short if done properly. However if you go in unprepared then expect to spend several hours slogging through the run.
I would recommend as much Magical immunity as possible due to Missile Barrages (however since the change to Force damage for this spell it will no longer 100% protect you), 75% Sonic and as much Fire and Acid as possible and plenty of resists.
General Notes
The entire area of Beholders is covered in traps. These traps will do Electrical damage which can be avoided with enough reflex although they can also inflict a Magical vulnerability. As Magical damage is abundant on this run, Restoration should be used very frequently.
On a positive note disabling these traps yields 1200xp per shot and there are a lot of them!
You should be aware of backspawns at numerous points in the run and of the special effects caused by one of the creatures you will face.
Beholder Devotees are Mages who will cast the Epic Spell Missile Barrage at you, so IGMS Immunity will not protect you from this. However they have quite a few casts and will use them all up before moving in to Melee. These Barrages will rapidly destroy your party without enough Magical immunity. As each missile does 8d6 Force damage, Magical immunity (not resistance) will partially protect you from this damage giving 50% of the listed value against Force. Devotees are immune to death magic and mind spells, have rather low saves but 85 SR. Greater Ruin works very well as does Flesh to Stone if you can beat the SR.
Beholder Acolytes can produce various effects. These include a scripted Spell Failure attack that will also wipe your buffs, including your Negative immune, your first action after this should be to immediately drink another neg pot. The spell failure effect almost completely incapacitates spell casters while Acolytes are present. Stoning and various other effects. They can be insta-killed with death magic and mind spells, having 56(?) Fortitude, 57(?) Will and no SR. They can easily be grabbed with Bigby 7 or 9 which also stuns them. Thanks to 0 SR and low HP, Power Word: Kill is a reliable way to remove these, given enough caster levels.
Deaths Kiss are miniature Beholders, more of a cousin to the beholder than an actual beholder themselves and will deal large amounts of Negative damage to you if you have no neg pot up. They will use the health they take from you to bolster their own health. I've seen numerous occasions with Death Kisses with over 10K HP. These can be dommed via an Eye of Vecna or Cleric Conversion Epic. These, too, can easily be insta-killed, having 55(?) Fortitude, 53 Will and no SR.
Grubs are animals and can be dominated with Animal Empathy to use as hardy pets. Feed them a neg pot and watch them go. For the ones you don't want to keep, death magic and mind spells work in principle but for the rather high 63 Fort and 55 Will save, although no SR. They are ideal targets for Harm. After curse and Eyebite/Aid, Weird works reasonably well. Firebrand works, although only physical part does damage. They do personal Kickback, 100 points Fire and AoE kickback Sonic each per hit. Best damage types against them are Cold and Negative.
Putrescent Orbs are green Beholders that will move in to melee you as soon as they see you. On death they let loose an area attack that does Magical damage, this can be reduced/avoided with successful evasion. They have 80 SR, 69(?) Fort, 46(?) Will. Immune to death magic?
Spawn Structure
Spawns are not dynamic in that the numbers and types of creatures do not scale with player group size, paragon type creatures do not spawn in this area. Spawns also do not change and will always contain the exact same creatures.
Transit
Transit with mobs alive No.
Areas
The Beholder areas can be reached via the Drow Tunnels to the Great Cavern, then through the Deepbat Tunnels. All three maps of the Beholder run are no-rest, no-port and no-fugue. The creatures encountered across the three maps do not differ and the doors are opened using the eyestalks dropped by certain beholders. You will find you have to go back several times during the run as there are backspawns and you can not move on to the next map until all the creatures have been eliminated.
Magma Tunnels
- Acolyte Of The Eye
- Death's Kiss
- Devotee Of The Eye
- Firegrub
- Putrescent Orb
Festering Tunnels
- Acolyte Of The Eye
- Death's Kiss
- Devotee Of The Eye
- Firegrub
- Putrescent Orb
Zorbgot's Hive
- Acolyte Of The Eye
- Death's Kiss
- Devotee Of The Eye
- Firegrub
- Putrescent Orb
Beholders Boss fight: On the last map is a teleporter that teleports you into a large round room with an inner ring, a "donut form". Zorbgot is supported by many guards. If you are clever, you can kill all guards while Zorbgot is on the other side of the room and can not see you. Zorbgot attacks with damage inflicting gaze attacks of Magical, Acid and Cold (others?) of high damage (about 1000 points each), high resistance is recommended. When defeated, Zorbgot has a 25% chance of dropping the Eye of Vecna (Intelligence artifact), if not the artifact explodes for 2000 points Magical damage in a huge radius.
Strategy and Tactics
This can be a hard run for buff dependant classes as there is no defence against the Beholder anti-magic ray. Soloing this run is relatively easy if you have access to the right gear and it has been the home of many an Arcane Archer as this class performs excelently here. The best gear set up will include a total of 100 resist/immunity to Sonic, similar for Fire and as much Magical immunity as you can muster, due to Missile Barrages now consisting of Force damage magic resistance is of limited benefit. Restore often if you get hit by the traps here as they inflict vulnerability to Magical damage. If you have access to the Shroud of Evernight with un-nerfed 100% Negative immunity this can significantly help as it will mean even if you get hit with an anti-magic blast you won't have to worry about the Death's Kisses overwhelming you with their on-hit Negative attack. Immunity to petrification is also beneficial to prevent the occasional stoning. If you have a cleric or druid in your party harming the fire grubs can significantly speed up the run as they have an impressive amount of hit points and take a good while to kill. The grubs can also be dominated if you have enough animal empathy and then used as cannon fodder to soak the initial attacks. It is generally best to open doors pop in the room then let them follow you out as trying to take down too many at once can overwhelm you no matter how well you are geared up.
