Kurrat's Lava Duct Crawler Guide for Magicians

Hail and well met adventurers!

This is a guide intended to explain how to break into, and solo as the Magician class, in the Lava Duct Crawler caves in the Nagafen's Lair zone. Magician leveling 55 plus can be difficult and frustrating, as there are not many locations to solo (espiecially pre-Velious.) The Lava Duct Crawler's (LDC or LDC's) stay dark blue through 59 at which point some of them drop off to light blue (green but give experience.) This is a great location to gain solo experience in your late 50's. The experience per hour rate is about the same as anywhere else you will solo, sometimes better since there is rarely someone camping the LDC's

I will make several assumptions about your character and your knowledge of the game for this guide to work.

• You are level 57.
• You are up to date on your spells.
• You can acheive 150 MR with buffs / potion.
• You can achieve 150 FR with buffs.
• You understand Magician leveling mechanics.
• You are somewhat familiar with the Nagafen's Lair (SolB) zone.

Background Information

Approach

The best way to approach is through the bat caves (Map location 9), once you arrive at the bat caves the only bats you need to worry about are two pathers (one of them is the Guano harvester) and one static bat in the cubby in the Noxious spider(Nox)room, Map location 12. There are two LDC's that path outside of the LDC caves, the Nox spider PH as well as Pather A who spawns in the Stone spider (SS) room.

Lava Duct Crawlers

To understand this camp you must first understand how the spawns work, thanks to this picture (credit to Baler), we can get a clear picture of the LDC spawns.

• There is a room of three static LDC's.
• There is one static on the Lava Ledge that leads to the Fire Giant area (across the lava).
• There is a room of two static spawns, this is the Stone Spider room (map location 13). Pather's A, B, and C all spawn here as well. Pather A (PatA) will path all the way to the three way hallway between SS, Guano and Nox. It's possible to aggro both PatA and the Nox PH at the same time in the hallways in between.
• Pather B (PatB) spawns in the tunnel that connects the two static LDC's rooms and paths in between. It's possible to wall look to see his location on either side of that tunnel.
• Pather C (PatC) spawns at the bottom of the ramp that leads up to the Fire giant area and paths up the ramp to the two Fire Giant guards at the end of that tunnel.
• There is always a point in time where all three pathers (A,B, and C) are all out of the SS room at the same time, allowing one to pull the two statics (one being the SS PH) out of the room to the lava ledge where the single static LDC spawns.
• To clarify A,B, and C they are the orange spawns from left to right.

The Mobs

Lava duct crawler

These are warrior mobs with with approximently 4900 HP according to the wiki. Very straightforward except for the fact that can cast Boil Blood on you. This is where you need Fire resist, at least 150. Idealy you want 180, because at that point you will resist most of the Boil Bloods that come your way. It's best to wear your Fire resist suit at all times.

Noxious spider

This is a warrior mob with more hit points than a regular LDC. The wiki says 5266, but I believe that to be lower than it actually is. This guy can cast Deadly Poison on you, and it's initial damage is 100 each time so watch out. A low level pet may die from Nox, so you may have to nuke. Don't let it touch you, but the easy counter is 10 Dose Ethira's Poison Antidote. One click removes the poison.

Stone spider

This guy is the ballbuster, the reason this camp stays open, the one thing that can and will definitely murder you if you are not prepared. He is a warrior with approximately 6000 hit points according the wiki, this does seem about right. He is completely MR and FR immune, so you can't nuke, root or cast any mage spells on him. He casts a 20 Stone Spider Stun and can easily kill you during this stun period if he catches you. This is why you need/want 150 MR, at that point you will resist almost every stun.

The Break

Clear in from the first bat cave, if you find the Nox PH pathing, kill it and move on. Watch out for PatA also coming from the SS room. Move up to the hallway to the Lava ledge and wait for PatA to come out. It's important to kill that mob first before the Lava ledge (LL) static so you don't get jumped. After you kill PatA, kill the LL static and med up. You'll want to be close to full mana for when you do the two pull inside the SS room.

At around 90-95% mana, buff your Earth pet (Cadeau and Burnout) and go halfway through the tunnel to SS room, you can wall look and peak around corners to find out where PatB and PatC are currently. If the SS is up, hang up your hat you will need help to break that room. If the two statics are both LDC's, you are in business. Wait for PatB and PatC to leave the room, then pull the two statics out to LL.

It's important to remember which one is NOT the PH, the one farthest away is the PH and you will want to kill that one second. There are two ways to do this part; you can pull them both out and have your pet tank them both while you nuke one down. This works fine, but is harder after the pet damage nerf, I recommend using a instant-click item to rest your global cooldown on your nuke. The best nuke for this is Scars of Sigil, speed is crucial here you need to drop that first LDC immediately.

The other way is use to one of the two root nets Crystalline Silk Net,Wooly Spider Silk Net to root the PH spider and easily solo kill the non PH spider down. This is easier, and barring any early breaks will trivialize this fight for you. Once you have killed both spiders, set a timer for 5 minutes and start medding. This is to ensure that you have time to kill the SS before the next spawn. Please note that rooting the PH in the SS room will aggro PatB and C on you. Pull them both out to LL before rooting.

After 5 minutes are up, peak through the wall or corner and pull PatB or PatC. This order doesn't matter, pull it to the LL and kill it. Then pull and kill the other. Congratulations! You have cleared the SS room. You can kill all three pathers, the two LDC's in SS room and the LL LDC every round. On the second clear, make sure you leave time in between the first SS room LDC and the SS PH. You definitely don't want to be fighting the SS with another mob. Make sure you reclaim pet and nuke for full experience on each kill.

The Stone Spider

So you've broken the camp, life is good, until the Stone Spider shows up and wrecks your day. Hope your pet is higher level, this will help, if not prepare to summon at least two more pets. Have your pet ready to kill the SS as soon as it spawns, and after your pet engages run up the ramp and down the hallway. Not too far or you will aggro the giants. Now spam your pet health hotkey and when your pet is at 8-15% health start casting a new one. It will take a moment for the SS to path up to you so you should be done casting by the time he arrives. Make sure you aren't touching the walls or looking through them when you cast. As soon as the SS makes it up to you, run by him and jump off the ramp and go sit at LL.

Most of the time the pet will have gained aggro at this point, cast Cadeau as soon as it does. If your pet has not gained aggro repeat the process in reverse and run back up your spot where you summoned a new pet. The pet will definitely have aggro by then. Often two pets are enough to kill him, but not always, if you need to summon a third pet, pick the most distant spot you won't aggro anything and resummon, then run past SS (you will resist the stun if you have good MR) and run back up/down the ramp. This will disrupt your spawn timers on the rest of the cycle, so make sure you wait 30 seconds or so before killing each following mob for the next two or three cycles to reset times and keep yourself from having two LDC's at once.

Breaking the Three Spawn Room

If the stone SS is up or the room is already camped, you can also break the 3 spawn (3S) room and solo it. This one is much trickier and I haven't tried it since the pet damage nerf so I recomend using root nets to break it open.

Clear into the bat caves and wait the Nox PH to path down to it's spawn point. Kill it then move up and kill all the beetles above the 3S room, then clear all of the mobs up the ramp to Guano so you can run out of the zone without being stunned. if you get a max or close to max level pet, baby it and keep it alive. I usually chain summon here to get a max level pet. Once you cleared the zoneout, head down to 3S and sit above where the beetles spawn, you can wall look and watch PatB as it roams back and forth between SS and 3S. Get full mana and when PatB goes back to SS, go down and pull the 3 LDC's up. Root one and back up, root another and back up.

Chain nuke this mob down with Scars of Sigil and an instant click, then head for the zone out to clear aggro. Once you zone back in, resummon, rebuff. Check for PatB and pull the remaining two, you can chain nuke one down and zone out, or just kill them together with another charge of root. You can then kill PatB when he returns. Congratulations! You have broken 3S and can kill the 3 that spawn there, PatA, PatB, and Nox PH fairly safely each round. Be aware that because PatB spawns and waits 30 seconds before pathing that your timers will have to shift every round. This camp is inferior in many ways but still doable.

Tips and Equipment

• Greater Null Potion
• 10 Dose Ethira's Poison Antidote
• 10 Dose Potion of Stinging Wort
• Wurm Scale Coat
• White Satin Gloves
• Crystalline Silk Net
• Wooly Spider Silk Net
• Shiny Robe of the Underfoot
• Platinum Diamond Wedding Ring
• Golden Diamond Mask
• Keep Elemental and Phantom Armor up at all times
• Be ready to gate or Leatherfoot Raider Skullcap out if things go south. It's a lot easier to rebreak this than it is to corpse recover.