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Hunting the Spirit Talker's Headdress
Contents |
Why the Spirit Talker's Headdress?
The
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
Slot: HEAD
AC: 16
WIS: +12 HP: +20 MANA: +75
SV MAGIC: +10 SV POISON: +10
WT: 2.0 Size: SMALL
Class: SHM
Race: BAR TRL OGR IKS
What makes this item special beyond just "pretty good stats", is the fact that it has a "fashion" of Leather ... which is to say that when a Barbarian Shaman wears the headdress, it appears as a polar bear head. The headdress is one of, if not the, best item (stat-wise) with this fashion.
Who Can Get the Headdress
TheMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
Slot: HEAD
AC: 16
WIS: +12 HP: +20 MANA: +75
SV MAGIC: +10 SV POISON: +10
WT: 2.0 Size: SMALL
Class: SHM
Race: BAR TRL OGR IKS
The Camp
The ideal room to set up in, as detailed in the former thread, appears to be the room with the big An Amorphous Mass (ie. "Blob", marked 9 on the wiki map). It seems entirely safe since the Blob itself is non-aggressive and also non-social with both factions of resident ratmen in that zone.
Getting to the room requires some effort (or some luck) since beyond the spiders on the upper level, some of which see invisible, there are many, many traps in the way. While it's not marked on the map, the entire area "8" is a lake full of water, and most of the tunnel leading to area "9" is mostly underwater. There are also traps in both the lake and the tunnel, as well as entropy serpents in the lake roamer paevala rats in the tunnel.
While the traps themselves aren't immediately fatal they do break invisibility. One strategy around this is to have a class with an instant-cast Invisibility item (ie.
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: HEAD
AC: 5
MANA: +10
SV DISEASE: +10 SV POISON: +10
Effect: Gather Shadows (Any Slot/Can Equip, Casting Time: 5.0) at Level 20
WT: 1.0 Size: SMALL
Class: SHD NEC
Race: HUM ERU DEF TRL OGR GNM IKS
The Mobs
You will have four basic types of rats. Escaped workers (rogue), Warriors, Rebels (rogue) and Spirit Talkers (shaman), in increasing level of danger/power. All of them appear to spawn at similar rates, meaning the Shaman rats, while not rare, won't be a majority of what you kill in any given session either. Workers are quite weak and are on chetari faction and WILL be killed by the other paebala rats. Warriors usually spawn with a pair of velium weapons so they almost always dual-wield. Rebels hit hard and will double-backstab for upwards of 900 total if given half a chance. All melee types tend to be hasted by nearby Shaman rats. Spirit Talkers are nasty brutes which love casting high-level shaman damage spells sometimes up to Bane of Nife (both direct and over time) and will gate; all of them are resistant and the higher level variants are too high to stun with most stun spells or slam. The wife and I used malo, replaced it with malosini, and tash-proc stick (
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY SECONDARY
Skill: 1H Blunt Atk Delay: 24
DMG: 9
STR: +4 WIS: +4 INT: +4
Effect: Tashani (Combat, Casting Time: Instant) at Level 35
WT: 1.6 Size: MEDIUM
Class: WAR CLR PAL RNG SHD DRU
MNK BRD ROG SHM
Race: ALL
Once in camp (the blob room), the two roamer ratmen in the underwater tunnel are relatively easy to split. They follow an overlapping but distinct pathing route, and one takes quite a lot longer than the other to make a full circuit, meaning a little patience is all that's required to get a split. Pulling is not necessarily safe because melee-type rats will usually be hasted and deal considerable damage. Allowing even these roamers (if a spirit talker) to gate is not desirable because they spawn farther in within aggro range of additional ratmen. A solo shaman might possibly be able to camp these two spawns although it wouldn't be easy.
Beyond the two initial roamers, the first hallway has several static spawns plus several additional roamers. Splitting these is difficult without either a very good lull or a feign puller and in both cases a back-up rez is wise to have access to. On my Shadow knight the pull tactic was standard (snare-feign/try to get a chance between casts), but difficult due to the usual trouble of feigning around multiple casters. I used wort potions several times.
Dealing With Gating Mobs
The method we used of dealing with gate proved simple enough: Mana drain them. This entails letting them cast or heal the majority of their mana out, then once they stop healing use
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY
Skill: 2H Blunt Atk Delay: 44
DMG: 16
WIS: +7 MANA: +45
Effect: Mana Sink (Combat, Casting Time: Instant) at Level 30
WT: 6.5 Size: LARGE
Class: SHM
Race: BAR TRL OGR IKS
Drop Rate
The drop rate on the headdress seems rather low, probably on the order of a few per cent. We saw two of the 2-hand pierce shaman lances and one paebala warbone (off a warrior rat) before the hat dropped. As was stated in the other thread, it shows as a old world leather (bear hat on a Barbarian) graphic on the wearer, but NO visible graphic to other players. This doesn't bother the wife but might annoy other users, so be advised.
A group with an Enchanter (we don't have any active Enchanter friends) would make this much easier for obvious reasons. Good luck and hopefully this is useful to you if you're still trying to get one a hat for your own Shaman.
