"From the outer darkness we came, to stick our sword into your heart!"

Tuesday, 5 April 2011

Refuge of the Apostate - The new upcoming solo instance

Finally back!
I've managed to test that new instance just yesterday and it was not that bad.

Our journey towards the Refuge of the Apostate begins in Kara Korum when we decide to move up to Ghost Hills (most probably when we will be chasing a Brittle Blade officer [Rank 2 quest]), while fighting our way through the village we will meet a girl near a resspad, she is willing to exchange words with us, warning us about the great peril toward which we are moving our footsteps. Obviously we decide to go in despite her advices so she will charge us with a task, because she has no desire to get back in the nightmare.
We will then climb the slope heading toward the first house on the right, and entering it we will bravely go throug the trapdoor that leads inside the refuge.
The instance is splitted into levels:
The first level consists in a mine, where we will find several mobs busy in attending to their jobs, but they won't hesitate to attack us on sight, the level of the instance is what i would define a simple "Run through" you'll go across the map from point A to point B finding a gate during your trip, gate that will be opened after you'll kill the HoX looking boss but with Necro skills. Note for the HoX: At least in the TL versione the mobs of the virst zone are very likely to resist the spells, so watch out.
The Second Level is called the "Staging Area" it looks like a mix of a Chessboard and it has clear references to the "Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor - Qin Shi Huang" [if you want to learn more http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/441] and his army of stone. You'll have to go through this area in which there's an interesting puzzle runnig throug the canyons while slowed preiodically by a specific spell and fighting the "Stone Warriors" that are impressively similar to the ones in this picture, you'll have to pay attention because sometimes walking on the wrong pad will activate some "Tomb Raider looking" (thanks slith for reminding me where I saw that traps first) traps based on arrows. Your first aim is to reach the exit of the room passing through the Canyons, to do so you'll have to reach the highest level of the room where a nice puzzle awaits (i won't spoil it).
The Third Level is a Library, there's a good number of mob in it, but as for the first level it's "Run Through" zone without anything really particular to be done in it.
Then comes the end of the instance when you'll reach a room with an hall in which you'll be able to see 5 bosses in front of you, they are just reflection of the real boss, but you won't be able to fight them immediately, just because they will underestimate you and send you within a nightmare (or soul trip) you will be chained like if you were fatalized by a necro.
While in this mode you will have to reach the platform where the "chained soul" is in order to free yourself, what has to be noticed is that there's a countdown in this mode, at the end of it you will be fatalized, while trying to reach the platform, reflection of the boss will appear and they will knock you back (repulse animation) also applying an hinder movement, that reflection can appear up to 3 times as far as I had the chance to see, and the Hinder movement stacks till reaching 100% condemning you to death.
If you'll manage tor each the platform to free the soul you'll fight the last boss, personally I haven't found anything special about that boss, it's a common fight only special feature is that he will periodically call his reflection starting a nasty attack which could one shot you, so you'll have to seriously nuke him down.



Conclusion:
The instance looks nice, it's not so hard and easy enough if you pay attention to what you are doing, I do believe that it should be a bit better enriched for what regards the story behind it and also inserted in a "chain" of quests that will lead you there, without getting there because others told you that it's there.
I found pretty interesting the 2nd level and its references to the "Stone Army" it would be awesome to have some more details on why that statues are there, and on who the hell is that apostate, that cultural reminder was really appreciated by me honestly.
As for the reward, they should adjust the loot table, it's a one-man instance, the loot should not be random imo, but it should be something usefull for the class keeping in mind that for a regular raider all the items will be useless but for a fresh 80 a blue item dropped there would be a great loot and great step forward on the long road called "Equipping my toon".
Screenshots will come asap!

Take care!

Arcalimon

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