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Irongrip

60-80 (noob) Instance Guide

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Guide to the 60-80 (noob) Instance

 

Beating the noob instance can be a difficult venture for players inexperienced with the process. This guide is meant to be a help on basic strategies, expected pitfalls, and general useful information.

This guide was written by Irongrip, with contributions from a diverse group of swamp veterans. The entire team has well over 100 swamp runs between them, with many different team sizes and configurations.

Special thanks to Gunnarf, Theodor, Tank_Rabbit, Steinbeisser and Riphath for helping me with specifics about the swamp and its mobs as well as encouraging my fleeting idea to undertake writing a guide. Without them I’d have never been in a position to attempt this.

 

Are you ready for the swamp?

Before going to the swamp, a few things need to be considered:

Are you in range?

Supplies

Armor/Weapons/Equipment

Magic spells

Miscellaneous items

Game Mechanics

 

60-80 Range

A/D level is the average of attack and defense levels. So if your attack plus defense is between 120 and 161 (60 <=(a+d)/2<81) you qualify for the swamp. A player close to the range may use attack and/or defense potions to reach the range, but may not use attack reduction or defense reduction once their normal levels are higher.

Human Nexus of 5 is required for plate armors and better (highly recommended), and Human 6 gives access to a greater selection of weapons i.e. Great Swords. Human 7 allows players to wear Dragon Armors or wield a scythe.

 

Supplies

Once you enter the swamp, you can not go back to storage and return. All supplies and equipment MUST be brought in with you. This requires striking a balance and bringing only the most useful equipment and items. Consider if it is worth bringing food and a Fast Regeneration Cape, or if you will just use magic to maintain your health. Some players can easily spare a couple slots, and sometimes, especially when using accuracy or evasion potions (see Potions below) inventory slots must be saved for more important items.

 

Armor

Armor is very important in the swamp, and not just for protection. Mobs will attack the weakest player, using a combination of armor and defense level. (exact formula is unknown) Generally armor is the determining factor, but occasionally a weaker armored player with a higher defense level will be ignored. If you are not comfortable being the focus of attention for some truly nasty creatures, you should have armor better than the designated tanker. Medallions do affect armor, so a broken medallion may cause the mobs to attack you. Be aware that EVERY time a player engages an already occupied mob, the mob will re-evaluate and can attack any player that is engaged.

Everyone on the team should equip all armor and do the #arm command. Then report the first numbers to the tank. Armor: 29/34 means the minimum damage absorbed by armor on non critical-to-damage hits is 29, and the maximum is 34. Your minimum armor needs to be higher than the tank's minimum.

A set of steel or titanium armor (plate, cuisses, and greaves) is highly recommended.

 

CoL/RDHoLaM

A Crown of Life is a great way to increase your life total, but offers no mana or armor bonus. A Red Dragon Helm of Life and Mana offers increased life, mana, and armor, but can break easily, and will break, not degrade. If you use a RDHoLaM, bring an extra or a CoL as a spare.

 

Weapons

Weapons deal damage to mobs, but paying attention to how often they hit and how much they hit for is important. Higher accuracy/critical-to-hit/critical-to-damage is often better than high damage that lands infrequently. Accuracy pots/Body piercing capes can also make a considerable difference to total damage dealt.

A back-up weapon is also necessary for each player. Try to strike a balance between high damage and good accuracy with the two weapons. For instance, Halberd as a high damage weapon and Cutlass as a high accuracy weapon. When we discuss mobs the reasons will become apparent.

 

Magic Spells

Magic is the key to survival in the swamp, and restore is the most important spell for the would-be swamp marauder. At magic level 49 restores are no-fail. Obviously this is a goal of every player.

I personally don't believe that no-fail restore is an absolute requirement. If you don't have no-fail restores, restore often and early, and be ready to dis if you fail more than you usual.

The only two other spells I've ever seen used in the swamp are remote heal, used mainly by mage builds, and shield, generally only used by the tanker, if at all.

Teleport-to-Range may be a useful spell for getting away from trouble, but never take more than four ings. Otherwise you may accidentally Teleport-to-Portals-Room, and once you leave the instance, by any means, you can not return. (Exception: If you log or grue out while in the swamp, and log in while the instance is still in progress, you will still be in the instance.)

 

Miscellaneous Items

Capes

A No More Tears Cape can be used to protect equipped items, a Body Piercing Cloak is a good choice for bypassing opponents armor and causing more damage, and a Fast Regeneration Cape for the inevitable waiting that will occur. A Mirror Cloak is NOT a good choice unless you are the designated tanker.

 

Medallions

A Medallion of Life is a good choice, while a Moon Medallion gives slightly better armor and accuracy and a Stars Medallion gives a bit of armor and increases damage. If breaking a MoL is not a concern, by all means wear it. Otherwise, unless you have extremely high dexterity or attack level, wear a Moon Med for the armor and accuracy bonus.

An Enhanced Sun Medallion uses Action Points and increase damage significantly. Typically used only on the final wave.

 

Magic Rings

If you have not taken the Scotty Died Perk, do NOT take any teleport rings. Once you leave the instance, by any means, you can not return. (see above exception) If you have not killed Scotty, take a single C1 ring in case you team runs into serious trouble and have to abort the swamp. (There is an exit, a cave at (25, 208) but it may be made difficult to reach by wave 4 mobs (yeti). Otherwise it is a viable exit anytime after wave one.)

Bring 10-12 Disengagement Rings. I seldom use more than a few, but until you get the hang of the swamp you should take no chances.

 

Rostogol Stones

These are a must have item for any swamp runner. If you die with a Rosto in your inventory, you will respawn, with all your equipment, near the original entrance. If you die without a Rosto you will be sent to the underworld, minus some stuff. If you can't afford to lose a Rosto, and go without one, there is a very good chance you will leave early and your team will be left short-handed. You may even lose your equipment if you team can not recover it. The best way to protect against Rosto loss is by working as a team.

 

Potions

Some potions are very useful in the instance. Potions of Evasion, Extra Mana Potions, and potions of defense/wildness/coordination/vitality/physique are typically used by the designated tanker. Accuracy Potions and potions of attack/coordination/reasoning will help players hit more frequently. Note that Accuracy and Evasion potions do NOT stack. Each individual potion will take one slot in your inventory.

 

Range Equipment

At least one bow, other than crossbow, should be included to utilize MA drops!

Ranging is very useful during the fourth wave. Yetis hit very hard and are hard to melee kill. Any rangers should bring at least a bow, and a few arrows if emu allows. Note that Elven and Recurve bows do considerably more damage than short or crossbows.

Additionally, Fire Arrows can be used in combination with a sword to maximize damage. Be warned, the arrows can break quickly and cause a -25 accuracy penalty, as well as increase the damage from mirrors that players will take. Recommended only for those experienced in the swamp.

 

Health Essence/ Spirit Restoration

There are several online calculators you can use to decide how many of each to bring. My rule of thumb is free emu divided by ten times four equals HE(emu/10*4=HE) So if I had 300 emu left after equiping everything else I would divide by ten and get 30 and multilply by four to get 120 HE. I would then fill the rest of my emu with SR pots.

Note: this formula is not exact, but it comes fairly close. Each restore on average uses 10.25 emu

 

Hyperbags/Mules

Creating a hyperbag in the swamp can be very useful. You can enter the swamp as a mule, drop items into a bag, and have a designated player manage the inventory. If you decide to create a hyperbag, bring at least 2-3 sets of skull/skeleton keys.

 

Summoning

Summoning can be useful in an instance, especially for yeti. However it can disrupt tanking, and therefore is not recommended unless you have practiced it in tanking situations and your team is prepared for its effects. Note that Melteans (Wave 2), despite having no mana, cast smite summons during every round and will decimate any summoned creatures very quickly.

 

Game Mechanics

These play an important role for the swamp.

First is Multi-defense Penalty. This means that the more things attacking a mob (or a player) the easier it is to hit. Use this to your advantage by multi-ing every mob you can. Get in there and swing a sword and watch as your teammates hit more often.

Tank builds

Tank builds would require far too much information to explain fully in this guide, but for the purposes of the guide, a tank is the designated target for the mobs. Tanks take the hits while the rest of the team kills the mobs. Tanks often use a Staff of Protection and may have higher defense than attack and/or high toughness. Their armor is typically a bit less than any other player's to encourage the mobs to attack the Tank.

You should not expect to tank during your first several instances. Tanking requires an excellent grasp of mob behavior, good decision-making, and a willingness to be pummeled for the good of the team.

EVERY time a player engages an already occupied mob, the mob will re-evaluate and can attack any player that is engaged. This means if the tank disses, you could be fair game. And tanks may take off plate armor just until all players are engaged and then re-equip, which means if you flee and re-engage when the tank is not ready, anyone could get attacked.

Instance only mobs (Melteans, Scarba, Dilmacs) have the Mirror Skin Perk, and that should be the main way you take damage if you are not the tank. Keep one eye on your own health bar at all times.

Be ready to flee or disengage if the tank does. Many Rostos have been lost because players tried to finish off a nearly dead mob after the tank dissed.

Disengagement rings have a cooldown of 30 seconds. If you use a Dis Ring to escape one mob, only to be caught by another, you may die. It is better to wait until all the closest mobs have targeted you or someone else before you use a Dis Ring. Remember you only have ~5 seconds to distance yourself from the mob after you dis.

DO NOT engage mobs near walls. Every mob (or player) has a maximum number of 8 attackers at a time. This number will be reduced to 5 or less if it is engaged near a wall. If you are engaged near a wall, flee or dis, let the mob walk away from the wall, and then reengage when everyone can attack.

Try to always keep your mana as near to full as possible without wasting SR’s. Check after every fight and remember to drink an SR after every restore.

You can type #ii at any time to tell you how many mobs are left in the current wave and also how long it has been since you last entered an instance. This is useful to find out how many and which types of mobs have spawned.

Shift + compass click will broadcast your location on your active channel. Very useful as a call for help and to regroup after fleeing from mobs.

 

Choosing a team and a time to go.

An noob instance requires 5-9 players on a common channel. Players join a unique channel (>1000) and wait near Ilie in the Morcraven Marsh Battle Hall. Typically, all players sit on the grey carpet while the team leader speaks to Ilie, who then teleports the group into the swamp.

Finding a good, trustworthy, and organized team is the most important step in winning the instance. Try recruiting from your guilds, your friends, and people who train the same spawns as you. Make sure that each player knows his/her role, and is willing to accept direction in the swamp.

You should choose a team leader. Often this is the tank, but sometimes another experienced player may fill the role. The leader will decide when to advance and retreat, which mobs should be targeted first, and may offer helpful advice while in the swamp. Following the team leader’s advice will make the foray into the swamp proceed much smoother and safer.

The swamp can be entered every 180 hours. This means that once you go to an instance, you must wait 180 hours to enter again. This time can be reduced by bribing Ilie with certain items, such as dragon scales and invasion tokens.

 

Inside the swamp

You will spawn under a tree in a large bowl-shaped area in the SW corner of the map. (45, 50) Move your supplies out of the bowl between the river ford and the bowl entrance. This is typically a fairly safe area to place a hyper-bag, but occasionally mobs do wander over.

You now have 180 minutes to finish the instance. Keep an eye on time with the #ii command.

The instance consists of 5 waves, and each successive wave will not spawn until the last wave is completely gone. The five waves are comprised of Feros or DCW, Melteans, Scarba, Yeti, Dilimac.

Unmule, requip, take a deep breath and get ready for the first wave.

 

 

Wave One

Either Feros (40) or Desert Chimeran Wolves (30) They spawn inside a small bowl in the SE part of the map (330, 55).These mobs have higher a defense level and are therefore harder to hit, than any other mob in the swamp (except Yeti, see wave 4). Either way, the key to these mobs is a high accuracy weapon, and multi-defense penalty.

Get your best sword out and kill some mobs. Work in groups, preferably at least three players on any creature. These tend to come at a rush and catch players off guard, but otherwise they are fairly easy to deal with. Watch for straying mobs, they can wander quite far, especially if your team is slow getting to the bowl.

 

Wave 2

Melteans Big, Ugly, Unfriendly Trolls There will be either 25 or 30 mobs. This is the hardest wave in the swamp, but do not despair.

Melteans spawn inside a large bowl in the center of the map (280,195) The only way in or out is a canyon that angles into their home. That canyon is your ally, use it to separate the Melteans one at a time. Once a Meltean is cut off and alone, let the tank take the hits while you swarm it and kill it quickly. Their attack level is ~95 and defense ~85. With multi-defense penalty, players should not have trouble hitting often with high damage weapons. With smaller teams (5 or less) a higher accuracy weapon may be needed.

The idea is to kill each mob before the tank runs out of mana. The problem is that Melteans are very hard to see, especially at night. Typically a second or third (or fourth) Meltean will sneak up while you're killing the first.

This is the place where teamwork becomes especially important. If a second Meltean attacks you personally, immediately dis and move towards the canyon entrance. (unless you are very sure you can takes the hits until the team can kill the first) Stay there until your dis cooldown is over. Melteans can kill a player in just a few hits, so it is very important to be able to dis if you get engaged.

If a second Meltean attacks a player near you, and that player disses, be aware that the mob may turn to you. If the tank tells you to dis, do so IMMEDIATELY and move back towards the entrance. Do NOT wait for other players, just run.

Patience becomes very important during this wave. Wait for them to come to you, and be ready for other mobs to join in at any time.

Don't be a hero! You have to trust that your teammates will be able to flee or dis if they're in trouble. If you rush in to help a teammate, only to have them disengage, you will be the only target of some very nasty hits.

Some teams may choose to enter the bowl and hunt the remaining Melteans when there are ~5 left. If you do, be prepared to flee or dis if your team is multied, and try to regroup at a specified location.

Melteans drop some gc, (0-1193) with random drops of HE (15), SR (SR), or Magic arrows (30).

Check your supplies here after the last Meltean is dead.//o/. Some teams will return to the bag and restock before taking the next two waves.

 

Wave 3

The next wave consists of 2 Scarba They look like big female orcs and have 12000 hp. They spawn in a small village near the NW corner of the map (55,340) Their defense is very low, so bring out your highest damage weapon.

The key to this wave is to separate the Scarba and take one at a time. They spawn inside a small village in the NW corner of the map. Ideally, one will wander out of the village and into your clutches.

Scarba drop gc (0-12k probable, 119-11909 verified) and occasionally Fire Arrows (40), HE (15), and SR (3).

 

Wave 4

The next wave consists of three or four Yeti. They spawn in a very small area west of the river near the center of the map (200,260) Yeti can wander north across (or under) the small wooden bridge, so be careful, especially if it takes more than 2-3 minutes to restore mana and re-equip after killing the Scarba.

Yeti are very hard to melee kill. If you have good rangers, the best way is too let the tank engage and then have the rangers get very close and shoot with Magic Arrows until each is dead.

The two biggest dangers are tank getting multied and Yetis disengaging to attack the rangers. The easiest way to avoid the latter is by shooting from as close as possible. Use alt+R to engage range-lock, which will prevent you from accidentally moving. Shooting from a short distance also improves ranging accuracy. The only way to avoid being multied by the Yeti is to pick carefully where the tank engages and being ready to flee or dis if necessary.

Non-rangers should stay well away from the yeti. Critical moments can be wasted by a careless player walking in front of and thereby blocking a ranger’s line to the target.

Sometimes, but rarely, no Melteans will drop MA, or the team will be short on arrows. If this happens it is imperative that everyone engage the yeti with their highest accuracy weapon. The Yetis will eventually die, but this becomes a very dangerous situation. Be prepared to flee/dis as a team in order to recover mana and health.

 

Wave 5

Dilimacs They look like like large giants with 20,000 hp each. They spawn near the entrance at the SW corner of the map (45,50) The walk from Yeti to Dilimac takes about three and a half minutes and is the best time to take a short break. Just be careful not to walk too close to the spawn area afk or you could have a big surprise.

This is also where the bag is usually opened and emptied.

Evasion potions are of good use here. Dilimacs hit very hard, so dodging blows is key to the tank's survival. EMP may be used by the tank when mana is getting low.

Just like the Scarba, separating the Dilmacs is another key to survival. If both Dilis engage, dis and regroup.

With multi-defense penalty, using the highest damage weapon is usually best. Sometimes a great sword with a FA is used if the player can hit consistently. Accuracy potions will help with this considerably.

When the first Dili is dead, regroup, replenish mana, and then go find the second. Engage and kill it, just like the first.

Be aware that you will be teleported to IP when you finish. Sometimes this happens very quickly after the last Dilimac has been dispatched, so be ready to grab the drop bag immediately. Otherwise you may lose the best drops in the instance.

 

Dilimacs drop gc (0-30k probable, 265-29826 verified) with rare drops of RDHoLaM (1), orange (1), Rings of Power (40), Cheap Cutlasses (4) Harvester Medallions (6) and Bronze Sword (2)

 

Dividing the spoils

Choose a team member to collect and divide drops. Usually this is done in the IP tavern. Trade with the designated collector instead of dropping bags. (Ants, as well as unscrupulous players, frequent the IP tavern and may take the dropped bags) Once everything is collected, some items may be sold immediately, to players or bots. Ideally all drops will be converted to gc, which can then be divided easily among the team.

Congratulations! If you've gotten this far you have successfully completed the noob instance.

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This is a very good guide; unless I am mistaken, the best guide for the 60-80 so far.

 

 

I'd just like to focus on a few ambiguous points that caught my attention: -

 

 

1. If a prospective newbie instance team needs to deliberate on the armour of members, a handy formula for tank selection is: (Combat Level)+(constant*max armour rating). This constant varies, in my experience, from 3.6 to 3.2 between the 'newb' to the 'almost pr0' instances, reducing as your levels go up.

 

 

2. The guide recommends titanium armour, but I would recommend against it by all means. Tit set is best used by the tank, due to its great durability and its low armour rating. If you're a fighter and wish to avoid getting hit, the cheapest means is wearing a steel set. Despite its attack negs, its armour rating is considerably superior and makes tank setup much easier for everyone.

 

 

3. Usage of the shield spell: Not only does the designated tank use this, it may also be used by a fighter who is becoming tank when designated tank is on boost pots, or simply because they're the weakest member in the team. An armour rating increase of 3 points almost always effectively eliminates this problem. IF the tank is using the shield spell AND there is a weak fighter in the team, the tank does so AFTER the entire team has engaged, to avoid tanking disruption.

 

 

4. The utility of the moon medallion in terms of both accuracy and armor rating boost puts it ahead of the MoL in this instance. The MoL starts to shine when players' restores grow (typically beyond 200hp) and/or when there is a tank-sharing setup in an instance. In the 60-80, a typical fighter will have a restore in the range of 110-160, hence the health augment is not strictly necessary. Plus the moon med's added armour helps the tank setup, and its accuracy helps land hits in low-man teams, or when using FAs.

 

 

5. Remember while using FAs with swords that there is BOTH an accuracy penalty AND a defense penalty to consider. Also, I will vouch for the fact that the defense penalty IS taken into account while selecting tank, so in borderline cases an engaging fighter with the FA already equipped will become the mob's melee target. EQUIP FA AFTER THE ENTIRE TEAM HAS ENGAGED TO AVOID DISRUPTION TO THE TANK SETUP. And always keep an eye on the first 15 rounds of attack. If you're not getting XP in at least 2 out of every 3 rounds, unequip the FA, the accu penalty is not worth it for you.

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Health Essence/ Spirit Restoration

There are several online calculators you can use to decide how many of each to bring. My rule of thumb is free emu divided by ten times four equals HE(emu/10*4=HE) So if I had 300 emu left after equiping everything else I would divide by ten and get 30 and multilply by four to get 120 HE. I would then fill the rest of my emu with SR pots.

Note: this formula is not exact, but it comes fairly close. Each restore on average uses 10.25 emu

 

i think best and easiest is 1 srs: 3.2 HE

 

EDIT: and with FA u probably only with criticals, so use jagged sabber/or cutlass better (not sure, i think so)

Edited by Alchemic

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Excellent guide Irongrip

 

I have a few minor remarks:

Potions:

1. As a fighter, bringing phys potions into the instance is also a good idea. Because it increases your might, you will do more damage per hit.

 

2. When I did swamp instances, the maximum amount of hp I would restore was about 120 (with good astro). If that is the case, I would suggest that you'd bring BR potions aswell. The math: 1 resto = 10,25 emu for 120 hp. 120 hp = 6 br = 6 emu. Don't entirely replace your sr/he for br, but taking 50 BR with you will save you emu and is a great way to keep your health up when you are a fighter.

 

3. Allthough Alchimic is right about the formula he/sr, I would advise to go with the formula suggested by Irongrip: 4he per 1 sr. This because you will also regen mana as long as your food is up. Bringing an FR cape to regen more inbetween waves will therefor save you emu.

 

Adding the remark from TDF in your guide about the first 15 rounds (watching if you get att exp) is an excellent idea. This is how I still do it.

Edited by DonC

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The potions of body restores are an interesting addition. I always look at them as "the noob resource until the restore spell" or the potion-er money maker at Mira and I kind of disregarded them in favor of the strong restores. However for small mirrors or no fail-safe restores can be helpful.

 

A warning: BRs CAN'T REPLACE RESTORES! I really doubt that such thing is ever possible in the swamp.

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First of all great Guide :). I have a little comment (just cosmetic).

Normally you have enough time to get all drops but for the very last monster the strongest fighter can use a gatherer med so drop is picked up immediately.

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Be aware that you will be teleported to IP when you finish. Sometimes this happens very quickly after the last Dilimac has been dispatched, so be ready to grab the drop bag immediately. Otherwise you may lose the best drops in the instance.

Wont happen, you wont teleport away till there's bag on the ground, at 120-140 instance if we have to many resources we make bag, kill last monster and only then going to take the resources that left.

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