Meraktus the Tormented
Meraktus the Tormented Minotaur is the so called Champion of the Labyrinth. Her existence was shrouded in mystery - At first there was no idea she existed until her named appeared on some Talismans as a slayer property. At some point a group of adventuring players were killing Minotaurs at the end of the Labyrinth and discovered the spawn.
After killing several Minotaurs there is a yelling "I see invaders! Must warn the others!" After some more killing you start seeing shouting from Minotaur Captains, "Aid the others! Kill the invaders!" After a lot more killing (much more than the first two levels), Meraktus spawns with four Tormented Minotaurs in the large building on the top floor.
Both Meraktus and her escorts have a "ground stomp" attack which deals area effect damage dependent on how close you are. The amount of damage seems dependent on the number of objects attacking Meraktus. The more players the greater the area damage of the "ground stomp".Even while wearing a suit offering the maximum possible resistances, you should still expect 20-90+ damage.
Note that most Mondain's Legacy areas (with the exception of Painted Caves, as well as the elven populated Heartwood and Sanctuary) have peerless bosses which drop special crafting ingredients and artifacts. They also have extreme amounts of Hit Points. However, Meraktus is far weaker then a peerless and simply drops the same loot as your average monster.
In fact the battle is officially classed as a Champion Spawn, however there is no altar and no gold drops at the end. Furthermore, the progressive "levels" of the spawn are all exactly the same - there is no variation in the type, strength or numbers of creatures that appear throughout.
Statistics
| Meraktus the Tormented Statistics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Spawn Locations | Labyrinth | ||
| Fame | Level 5 | Slayer Vulnerability | |
| Karma | Level 5 | Alignment | Evil |
| First Seen | Mondain's Legacy | Pack Instinct | None |
| Loot | |||
| Gold | Magic Items | ||
| Special | Champion Spawn Artifacts | Cut Up | |
| Attributes | |||
| Strength | 1,419 - 1,438 | Hit Points | 4,115 - 4,183 |
| Dexterity | 309 - 413 | Stamina | 309 - 413 |
| Intelligence | 129 - 131 | Mana | 129 - 131 |
| Barding Difficulty | 160.0 | Taming Difficulty | N/A |
| Base Damage | 16 - 30 | Preferred Foods | Meat |
| Skills | |||
| Wrestling | 101.2 - 104.1 | Poisoning | --- |
| Tactics | 107.5 - 117.3 | Magery | --- |
| Resisting Spells | 107 - 111.3 | Evaluating Intelligence | --- |
| Anatomy | 0 | Meditation | --- |
| Detecting Hidden | Hiding | ||
| Parrying | Healing | ||
| Necromancy | Spirit Speak | ||
| Mysticism | Focus | ||
| Spellweaving | Discordance | ||
| Bushido | Ninjitsu | ||
| Chivalry | Special Abilities | Area Ground Slap (Damage + Dismount) | |
| Resists and Damage | |||
| Types | Physical | Fire | Cold | Poison | Energy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resistances | 67 - 90 | 65 - 70 | 54 - 57 | 41 - 58 | 50 - 52 |
| Damage | 100% |
Firsthand Account
One of the first players to face Meraktus recounts what happened.
- Yes it was true. It first started out on Saturday when I received a message from a friend with a link to a Japanese website which showed detailed yet poorly translated information of the Minotaur Labrynith champion spawn.
- So the following day around 4 PM PST myself; Lord Braska and another friend Kerridwen went to the dungeon and started making our way to the heart of the dungeon killing off the spawn as we go. Slowly but surely we made it to the center building and explored around and unlike other spawns this one doesn't have an altar. At this time we were joined with our other friend B Krohon and another person who managed to get past all the spawns.
- We then decided to start killing of the spawn to see if anything happened. Eventually we got a message on our screen saying something along the line of 'A minotaur captain barks an order to his fellow scouts, "Aid the others! Kill the invaders!"' (There was another message before this, but I can't remember what it was.) With every minotaur felled the message repeated. Few more people managed to get in then. After quiet awhile more we finally got the last message saying, 'A minotaur captain bellows, "Meraktus has arrived!"' and on the top floor of the central building Meraktus the Minotaur (The boss of the dungeon) and four Tormented Minotaur spawned.
- At this time many others managed to get to the center and joined the battle. The Tormented Minotaurs can move pretty fast as I watched someone on foot being chased by one, I would have to say, half way through the dungeon. Alot of us got a nasty suprise though as it seems that both the Tormented and Meraktus have an area effect attack similar to Rikktor, like an earthquake, but I don't recall hearing the sound. It was much more powerful too the closer you are to the creatures for I noticed a few people that were close to one of them we're dropped to near death or even killed out right, myself abit farther away was dropped to about half health. Earlier on about 4 of us were killed standing next to one, luckily B Krohon went inside the building to rez Kerridwen when it happened, or else we would have to wait for the next living person to come and rez us. After awhile we dropped all the Tormented Minotaurs and got Meraktus back into the garden area of the central building which a combined attack brought him down close to death, before he unleashed an area attack after area attack nearly wiping us all out. We all retreated briefly into the building to get rezzed and as soon as I was up and running I ran outside with Shadowfang my Cu Sidhe and had him sink his sharp teeth onto the bloodied fur of Meraktus healing him like mad as they fought each other. Soon I was joined by two other Cu Sidhe's of my friends and several EV's from the other people with greater heals, e-bolts and such being chanted in the background, and not too soon after Meraktus fell at our feet.
- I guess the one thing that throws most people off is the belief that it would be like all the other champion spawns in which there is a central altar that would normally show you the progress of the spawn. Which is not so here, and unlike the other champs, there is no new creatures popping up with each new level. You basically keep killing all the minotaurs until you get each of the 3 messages I mentioned before.
- This is definitely not part of the Inu the Crone quest, and I think its something that was just overlooked by most people until it was done by us. It was right in the open this whole time, but seeing no real profit gained from just killing minotaurs when you have Miasma spawning near the entrance no one bothered with it til now.
- My thanks goes out to Lady Kerridwen of MLD and B Krohon of EK. two of the greatest and skilled hunting partners I know of along side my in-game wife Lady Elysian Bothwell. And another thanks to B Krohon who gave us the info about the monsters! You guys are awesome!
- - Lord Braska, Bane of the Peerless (C&E)
See Also
- Champion Spawns
- Movie of spawn being done: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3