I didn't read any spoilers, I just jumped in and started playing. (Avast spoilers!)
Kobold Chaos is an excercise in plate spinning. Do three things and be in five places all at the same time. Later on, someone taught me how to use a hireling to pick up some of the slack, but even in a large group there was always plenty to do.
As the Challenge began, I found myself alone on the deck of a small airship. It hovered above a maze of twisting hills and valleys. I never get tired of Airships.
My most successful run was a two stage strategy. 1) Protect 3 small extractors and gather 300 crystals. 2) Fire up the large extractor. 3) Realize that I'm totaly outgunned, so buy more magefire cannons. It was risky because I was playing solo and didn't have anyway to repair the large extractor, but it was fun because I got the most treasure and didn't have to run around all the time.
I also got to run Kobold Chaos in a group. I have no idea what the rest of my team was doing, but I think they were spending crystals or piking. I did better without their "help." I think it would be fun to have a good team, with someone to hunt the archon and supply drop for optional goodies.
Personaly I'm looking forward to playin g around with this quest some more.
Interesting post. Your preferred strategy is very similar to mine. I tend to build magefire cannon as I go. If you're soloing it just makes sense to do that because Sahuagin come along quite frequently and are very good at undoing all your hard-earned work.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame your group experience wasn't as good as the solo. I'd love to run KC with a good group because I think it'd be a laugh and relatively easy to get a lot of shards, but my experience of the challenge remains a resolutely solitary one.
As far as the archon and the supply drop go, the best advice I can give is to check the map when the narrator tells you they've arrived. If they're close by, then cool. If not, don't bother looking for them - you're much better sticking to which ever part of your strategy you're engaged in at the moment. (It took me a while to notice, btw, that the small extractors are numbered in relation to their clockwise position round the island - keeping to that circuit is a reasonably efficient strategy when it comes to activating them. The first couple of times I did the challenge I found the topography of the island a bit confusing - mind you, I confuse easily...)
A couple of minor annoyances about KC, though, are:
One of the kobold totems is unreachable unless you have a high jump skill and/or a Potion of Jump.
Air elementals.
No, really. Air elementals.
Thanks for sharing! All the best!
D1
I only run the level 20 versions... we never bother with archon nor the large extractor. That's because at that level, it would take a long time to beat the bosses by the large (usually 2-3 red names) and our extractors would be destroyed meanwhile. Disruptor sucks the most because they give you a long time (meaning you spend more time for fewer shards and more resources with no rest shrine defending stuff for 10+ minutes) and the ratio of mats is horrid. And undead archers are evil. So are hellhounds.
ReplyDeleteBut the not undead version is kind of cool, Lava Caves are still better return for time tbh.
Hmm, wrote a reply which seems to have disappeared. Anyhoo:
ReplyDeleteI also build cannons as I go - solo, they can protect the smalls nicely. I've even had one nearly take down the Disruptor by itself. One for each small extractor leaves you one to help defend the large (and if you buy it at one of the smalls, you can plant it and have it help clear out the large as well!) Just make sure to put it a bit away from the extractor, to allow it to shoot anything attacking it. And it'll shoot THROUGH the extractor, as well. Really, the only problem they have is with an archer that's over a ridge, or out of its targeting range.
Run around once, start up the smalls and plant cannons, then stick around the fourth to upgrade it and go around again to upgrade them, then hit a large - I've used that strategy at-level on my capped bard (with the help of a summoned devil) and capped monk (with the help of the Shard of Xoriat) for all three KI challenges, and my L12 barb and my L12 ranger/L1 rogue for Kobold Chaos and Disruptor (Short Cuts needing to be L15 to open) without any help (could probably do that with my monk & bard, but they have 'em, might as well use 'em). No hirelings or non-renewable resources (just SP and clickies), but I'll admit that the various speed boosts they all get (haste, monk speed, barb speed, longstrider) helps.
That strategy won't work in groups, because dungeon scaling hits the Challenges *hard*, but solo, it works every time - worst case, you don't start, or don't upgrade, a Large extractor. Speaking of which - they get fully repaired on upgrade. But I've not had a problem with that, since I simply don't leave it once started. The smalls can go hang for all I care at that point. If one's in trouble, and my large has most of its HP left (and they have a LOT of HP) and I'm planning on upgrading it when I get enough shards, I'll consider going to help out a nearby small, but I won't go haring across the map. Similarly, I may go clear out and restart a nearby small if I have the parts, but I won't bother upgrading it or purchasing another turret.
And Dea? You can summon a temporary shrine from large extractors - it might be worse considering clearing one out just for that, even if you don't plan on starting it up. Fifty crystals may be a small price to pay if you're halfway through and getting low on SP & clickies.
Dunsany? Try going around the OTHER end of that rock - it's low enough that even my gimpy bard with low jump is able to get up there. And I don't recall any air eles, although the one time I've had a djinn spawn was pretty bad.
Great posts. LrdSlvrhnd, they were elementals of some kind - air or water, I'm not sure. They cast Freezing Spray (or perhaps it's a special ability/attack) and they're nasty. I tend to play on level 6 or 7 with Curwin. Sahuagin Battle Priestesses are reasonably slayable as bosses but those elementals are very unpleasant. I went on KC last night and just ended up backing away from one in the end. It was too much.
ReplyDeleteI thought I'd tried that rock from all angles. I'll have another go at it next time I'm on. It's best to leave the kobold totems for the last couple of minutes in any event.
Last night was interesting. Supply drops really are quite useless in KC. The boosts are not as plentiful as in Rushmore's Mention. Case in point: last night, a supply crate dropped message comes up. I check the map. It's near enough from my position to have a look at it. I wander over. It's Invincibility! Cool. Time to check out a large extractor? No. I _would_ have done but the boost only lasts 30 seconds (which isn't a problem when your chances of getting another one soon from a smashed breakable are quite high in Rushmore but here...) and I'm not near enough to a large extractor to try it.
The devs'd be better using breakables for boosts on the island - or doing away with them altogether. Or making the supply crates drop loot.
Oh and you're quite right about the rest shrine - I've used it myself on occasion. It's a very SP intensive run is Koblod Chaos.
Nice to chat to you guys.
Regards,
D1
*Mansion. Rushmore's Mansion.
ReplyDeleteSorry.
:(
Yeah, KC has water eles, I tend to avoid those reactors in favor of the sahuagin-guarded ones unless I'm feeling supremely confident (my monk with banishing wraps, sure. My gimpy hagglebard crafterbot? Next!)
ReplyDeleteI generally ignore the supply crates unless I'm nearby and really just wasting time waiting to upgrade something, which generally only happens after upgrading the first or the fourth small (and even then, I usually have a couple of the out-of-the-way shrines to hit on KC, though I may well ignore them unless I think I need the parts on Disruptor or SC) but they can prove useful. I once got a Jump boost just as I needed to go hunting for the Disruptor, which made navigating the island a LOT easier lol And sometimes you get mechanical parts - if you get those early, you can save a LOT of time with kobolds. But yeah, generally useless.
The buffs are way more useful in Rushmore, I agree. I once got Hate, Quad Damage, and Regen at the same time. I went on a killing spree lol (Side note: Invulnerability will temporarily block a virtuoso bard's healing song, and won't prevent falling damage.)
They are indeed water elementals. I got killed by one on level 8 (Curwin's level) this afternoon - partly my own fault for forgetting to cast Protection from Cold (or letting it run out without noticing, if I'm being strictly honest). Mind you, 60+ points of damage in one hit? That is horrible.
ReplyDeleteI've only ever got boosts from supply crate drops - and they've never been hugely useful. If they dropped parts more frequently or had a chance of pots or ammo, I'd be a tad more interested.