Shops are... usually (
usually) more of a security net than primary kit source in T4. They're there for when the first four dungeons drop no healing, regen, or shield runes. For when you don't stumble upon a water breathing source before you reach the underwater caverns in the east. For when your melee dude hits level twenty three without finding a pair of rush boots. To get a weapon capable of doing more than spitting ineffectually at things on that level five rogue. For when you can't find a quiver or pouch with more than like eight shots before you clear out old forest. Things along those multitudinous lines, all of which I've encountered before
They're a lot more useful, also, when you know
exactly what you're looking for in kit and want to get it as soon as possible. The dungeon givith, but it often givith what that focus slayer would rather be using instead of what the sword and board slayer you're actually playing needs. Stuff like that. It gives you a fallback for when the dungeon isn't cooperating, or a jumping off point to get you to better stuff. I've not had many characters solve a make-or-break thing with shopping, but I've had a
lot made considerably easier than they otherwise could have been.
And then occasionally you find that invig/speed dragon leather boots in lost hope, or that verdant/eyal plate, or that psychoport torque, or... well, you get the idea.
Any tips on where to go after you finish the starter dungeon? I tend to breeze through that, then wander the overland map until i find something interesting, whereupon I'm usually horribly overmatched and die in a heartbeat.
There's at least five other dungeons in around the same level bracket as the starter. I recommend Norgos lair as a second dungeon (follow the treeline east from derth, there'll be a little opening that leads to a town and two dungeons; you want the one on the left. You can roll a thalore if you want to just start there.), or trollmire (probably your starting zone, for most races). Then withered heart (to the right in that little culdesac), kor'pul (just west of troll mire), scintillating caves (start a shalore; alternately, go south from derth a ways (past the mountain range on the left) and you'll find another little zig-zag opening in the trees) and then the rhaloren camp, just west of said caves. That's all the first tier dungeons that everyone has access to -- dwarves and yeeks get two more, undead and the celestial classes all get one extra (the extra doesn't stack
).
Then you've got the tier two dungeons (you can reasonably start taking these around level eight, level ten, though clearing out all the tier one dungeons will usually put you in the 12-15 range). Old forest is just south of derth, and the maze is just west of it; the maze is probably the safer of the two. Then you've got the sandworm lair on the beach to the west, past the mountain range the maze is beside, and daikara a bit past the norgos lair area, a bit north-east of Zigur (town in the middlish of the map, more or less on a lake. If you've got mana (and a few other resources), you won't be able to see it); daikara's the hardest of the tier two lot, kind of a tier 2.5, before dreadfell and the rest of the game.
After all that, and possibly somewhere in between, is a bunch of randomly placed extra zones you can roll for loot and XP, followed by dreadfell, one of the only two actually required dungeons in the west. Dreadfell is followed by fairly easily followed plot stuff that takes you where you need to go
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Topic: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal (Read 492847 times)