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 named 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. This has led to some very strange occurrences in Zorbgot's Hive.
- The entire run is a no rest zone, Immortal characters will not fugue or limbo in Zorbgot's Hive. 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. The zone line in the Decrepit Cave just before the entrance is not clearly visible, so be sure to have your party teleport to you as you enter to avoid unncessary backtracking and loot despawning.
Requirements
The only prerequisite 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 which allows you to use this loot.
Immunities are Sonic, Acid, Fire, Electrical, Negative and Magical
It's highly recommended to wear a Shroud of Evernight as its 100% negative protection can't be removed by the beholders anti-magic ray. Alternatively, drink Negative Energy Protection potions purchased from Rip's Wretched Brewery. Be warned that this 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.
Bring as much Magical immunity as possible to reduce damage from Missile Barrages, at least 75% Sonic, and as much Fire and Acid as possible. Additional damage resist are also very helpful.
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 to the triggerer. As Magical damage is abundant on this run, Restoration should be used very frequently. Fortunately, disabling these traps will yield 1200 experience per trap to the entire party, and there are plenty to go around. A Shifter in Modron form can disable these traps just by passing over them with no other actions required.
Beware of several backspawns along 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. They have quite a few casts, and will use them all up before moving in to Melee. These Barrages will rapidly mow down 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, including 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 Negative Energy Protection potion. 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.
Death's Kisses are miniature Beholders, more of a cousin to the beholder than an actual beholder themselves and will drain large amounts of Negative health from you if you have no negative energy protection, sometimes able to overheal themselves with thousands of HP. These can be dominated via an Eye of Vecna or Cleric Conversion Epic. They are also susceptible to death magic, with about 55(?) Fortitude, 53 Will saves, and no SR.
Grubs are animals and can be dominated with Animal Empathy to use as hardy pets. Feed them a Negative Energy Protection potion and watch them go. For the ones you don't want to keep, death magic and mind spells work in principle, though they have high saves (63 Fortitude and 55 Will save, with no SR). They are very susceptible to the Harm spell. After using Bestow Curse and Eyebite, Weird works reasonably well. Firebrand can be effective, albeit only for its physical damage. They inflict 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, though this can be reduced/avoided with successful evasion. They have 80 SR, 69(?) Fort, 46(?) Will. They are 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
You will not be able to rest in this area. Be sure to bring a Ring of the Planar Traveler.
Acid damage works particularly well in this area, as most enemies lack any significant immunities to it.
This can be a difficult run for buff dependent classes as there is no defence against the Beholder anti-magic cone.
There are many twisting narrow tunnels in this area. Use line of sight to your advantage by pulling large spawns and scattering them to avoid facing them all at once. The damage output from multiple Missile Barrages can overwhelm any party, no matter how well they are equipped.
Soloing this run is relatively easy if you have access to the right gear. Arcane Archers perform very well in this area.
If you have a Cleric or Druid in your party, casting Harm on 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.
Divine Slingers can offer an array of crowd control support. Devotees of the Eye are very susceptible to Knockdown, which can help to cut down on missile storm spam. They can use the Interposing Hand ability to mitigate beholder ray attacks used by Acolytes of the Eye (considered a ranged touch attack), as well as mollify Death's Kisses to an extent. Slingers can also use Harm on Fire Grubs with ease. Be sure to stay as far away from the acolytes' anti-magic ray cones as possible, as its range is deceptively long.
The best gear setup 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.
Use Restoration often, as the the traps here as inflict vulnerability to Magical damage. Note that this will only affect the one who triggers the trap, and not all those caught in the electrical arcs.
A Shroud of Evernight with un-nerfed 100% Negative immunity can help significantly if you have access to it, as this effect will not be dispelled by anti-magic rays, rendering the Death's Kiss on-hit Negative mostly harmless.
Immunity to petrification is also beneficial to prevent the occasional stoning. Otherwise, it can be helpful to bring a few Stoneeater's Rings from the Merchants' Emporium.
The grubs can be dominated with sufficient Animal Empathy, and then used as cannon fodder to soak the initial attacks.
