Difference between revisions of "Doom"

Revision as of 09:32, 3 December 2007

Doom was added with the Age of Shadows expansion in February 2003. It was the largest and most dangerous dungeon to date.

Several creatures spawn here which are very rarely seen anyplace else (if ever), including Devourers of Souls and Bone Daemons. Certain other more conventional monsters spawn here as well.

Doom is a two-level dungeon. Level Two, detailed below, is known as the Doom Gauntlet. The primary purpose of Level One, aside from the uniqueness of the dungeon and its inhabitants, is to obtain the key to the Doom Gauntlet. At the Gauntlet, several artifacts can be obtained.

Every creature on Level One spawns with Daemon Bones as loot. These are used in the quest of Victoria the Sorceress, in order to obtain the key to the Doom Gauntlet.

Both levels of Doom also spawn certain artifacts that are obtainable using the stealing skill. These range in value from approximately 5,000 gold pieces to several million. The highest-end of the stealable artifacts are the Blade of the Righteous (which spawns in the Gauntlet, in the healer's room), the Inquisitors Resolution (which spawns in level one), and the Ruined Painting (which spawns in the Gauntlet, in the hidden mage shop). The Zyronic Claw has been highly prized on some occasions, but appears to be primarily seen as a "show piece" of late.

Gauntlet

Also known as Doom level 2, the Gauntlet was designed to be a grueling test of player strength. As a reward, adventurers could receive Rarity 11 artifacts for slaying its inhabitants.

Crossing

The Doom Gauntlet is the area of the Dungeon Doom (which is located in Malas) across Lake Mortis, the body of water at the southern end of that dungeon. You get across the Lake by summoning Chyloth the Ferryman. Locate the Bell of the Dead on the shore line and double-click it to summon Chyloth. Before you summon him however, you should put everyone crossing into a single party. Everyone in the same party may cross together.

He may or may not appear a few seconds later. If Chyloth appears, he will ask for a Golden Skull as payment to cross the lake. You must take the Golden Skull and place it on his avatar. You and your party will then recieve a confirmation menu asking if you wish to cross. Select OK to be teleported onto the ferry. Walk on the teleporter tile to cross.

If you fail to give Cythloth a Golden Skull, he will get very angry for wasting his time. After a few moments of waiting, he will cast Flamestrike and summon a Skeletal Dragon upon you. This can mean instant death some of the time. The dragon must be killed before he can be summoned again. If you ring the bell and he does not appear, find and kill the Skeletal Dragon.

Layout

The gauntlet area is divided into many smaller areas. After crossing the lake you arrive on the beach. Here you can also find the exit moongate. No other means is allowed to exit the area.

From the beach you enter a wide corridor. Along the east wall, if walk close enough, a secret door will present itself. After a harrowing walk in the abyss, you will end up in a curiously placed shop. This shop is a relatively safe place to log out and is a conveniently expensive way to replenish some supplies if you run low.

Continuing down the wide corridor lands you in a giant room, large enough to fit the city of Cove. In the center are 6 Pentagrams. They indicate what stage the gauntlet is at. However they are frequently broken and can not be relied upon. In this center area is where the Dark Fathers will spawn.

Besides the hall you entered through, there are 6 rooms that can be entered through the main area. Five of them contain the lesser boss monsters. One of them is a special healer area. The doors are locked and can only be entered as a ghost. The greedy resident healer will charge you 5,000 gold for his services.

Lesser Bosses

Before the Dark Fathers will appear, the lesser bosses of the five adjoining rooms must be defeated. Starting with the east room and working clockwise, players must rid each one. A room is currently infested when the door turns red and can not be opened. You must step on the teleporter to enter. Beward, for the only exit is through victory or death.

The number of bosses depends on the total number of players entering the room. As more step inside, a greater number of creatures will rise to the challenge. A small group of 8-12 players will face 2-4 bosses, while 25+ players could be dealing with 6 or more.

Each lessor boss kill has a chance to reward an artifact, however slightly lower than the chance of a Dark Father kill.

The Dark Father

The Dark Fathers are a demon slayer type, and have roughly even resists (mid-40s; so unless someone casts corpse skin on them, consecrate weapon does no good at all). Using slayer weapons is not really necessary. Often, a “standard” powerful weapon will do just as well as using a slayer. In fact, there are occasions (when the Dark Fathers cast Blood Oath) where using a slayer is a bad idea, because the “damage reflect” from the Blood Oath can easily kill you.

They spam necromancer spells. They are particularly fond of casting Blood Oath (which means that if you are carrying a slayer weapon and hit them you will take massive damage from your own hit) and summoning Revenants. Even without Blood Oath, they will reflect back upon you about 10% of all direct damage that you do. Mages should therefore stick to summons, such as energy vortexes and earth elementals, rather than doing direct damage. (Warriors of course have no such option.) Tamers can also be of great use here, as can bards (especially when dealing with the Dark Fathers' summoned undead minions.)

Sometimes they will throw “Unholy Bones” at their targets. Unless cut up three times with an edged weapon (like you were cutting off hides), these bones will grow into a powerful Undead creature (generally lich lords and rotting corpses).

Though the so-called “Gate Technique” is no longer as reliable as it once was, it is still the best way to kill the Dark Fathers.

This involves luring one Dark Father at a time to the beach. Warriors stand directly on the gate (simply refuse when you are asked if you wish to leave the Gauntlet, then you can just stand there on the gate without leaving), or to the West and East of the Gate. Archers stand to the north of the gate. Warriors and archers cross heal one another. Pets and summons generally close in from behind, attacking the Dark Father from the south, though sometimes it's beneficial to have a pet right on the gate. (Mages should be standing off to the side, summoning creatures, taking care of Undead spawn, and healing and resurrecting.)

Artifacts

With the introduction of Doom, a new concept of Artifacts and Rarity were brought to UO. For the first time an item was officially created as a Rare and not simply a development mistake. Unlike normal monster loot or crafted runic items, artifacts can break Item Property limitations or even put properties on items where they would not normally be. For example the Spirit of the Totem has 15% Hit Chance Increase.

Doom artifacts are available through two different means.

Stealable

Artifacts spawn on the ground throughout all parts of the dungeon with a rarity between 1 and 12. The higher the rarity, the longer between respawns. For example, the rarity 1 Skull Candle respawns roughly every 30 minutes. The Ruined Painting which has the highest known rarity of 12, spawns once every 4 months. Some artifacts such as the Lamp Post require some special tricks to reach.

When a rarity item is discovered you can acquire it with the Stealing skill. Stand next to the item and target it with stealing. You need a minimum of 100 skill to have any chance, but success could take hundreds of attempts. At 120 Stealing you rarely fail after 3 attempts.

Boss Artifacts

All bosses located in the Gauntlet area have the chance to drop artifacts as loot. These are known as the Doom Boss Artifacts. They all have rarity 11 and some are considered to be the best equipment in all of Britannia. For example, the Ornament of the Magician is unrivaled with its 2 Faster Casting property.

Publish 48 has the most recent changes for this drop system. Players now accumulate points the same way they did during the Treasures of Tokuno event. Each lesser boss and Dark Father that you kill and personally (not through a Party) receive looting rights on will award you points. As you gain more points, your chances of getting an artifact increase. The more damage you do relative to other players will earn you more points. Having Luck also increases the amount of points you get.

Eventually you will be awarded one of the possible artifacts. It will be placed in your backpack (or Bank Box if overweight) along with a system message to the effect of “For your valor in combating the fallen creature, a special artifact has been bestowed upon you.” will inform you of the event. It is advisable to Insure it immediately.

Previous Drop Systems

The drop system has gone through two previous iterations. When first introduced, the artifacts simply dropped on the boss corpse. This was long before Corpse Instancing was implemented. So just anyone who got looting rights could grab the artifact. Illegal script looting was a huge concern. Lesser Bosses had a .1% chance of spawning an artifact. The Dark Fathers had about a 1% chance to do so. If the individual or party doing the most damage to the creature is wearing high luck, chances can increase to 1% and 3% respectively.

During Publish [need to find number] the system was changed so if an artifact was awarded, it would be randomly dropped in the backpack of one of the 16 top damagers. This solved the scripting issues and helped more evenly distribute artifacts to all attackers.