LoY - Blood of Nadox Walkthrough

[Scalia]

Part 1 - FAQ and the Basics

What do I get from this quest?: Blood of Nadox, a level 52 Shaman spell.

What does it do?: It's a group cure that cures 9 x Disease, 9 x Disease (18 Total) and 9 x Poison, 9 x Poison (18 Total) ( http://samanna.net/sham.info/curing.shtml)

Who needs this spell?: Any raiding Shaman

Is the spell MGB'able?: No.

How long does it take to get?: Anywhere between a few hours and a few days depending on your luck with drops and how many people you can bring with you.

When can I get it in a group?: The toughest mobs you will be fighting are level 51-52 Shamans with about 10K HP who hit for around 150, gate at low health, then heal to 30% and come back with at least 1 more Shaman add. If you can kill them, then you can do the rest of the quest easily.

When can I get it solo?: It's a pretty easy camp at 65, probably doable from the late 50s on if you can handle the gating problem discussed later.

How many components do you need and do they have to be collected in any particular order?: You will need to get 4 components: Gunthak Gulf Water, A blackened vial, Broken Skull clan blood, Pure Blood. You can get these components in any order. You don't need to talk to the quest giver until you have them all.

Can the spell be MQ'd?: No, the 4 components are all NO DROP and need to be combined in a Brew Barrel. Twice.

Can you fail the Brewing combines that are needed for this spell?: The original version of the Brewing combine apparently could be failed (it trivialed around 75), but it has since been changed so that both combines are NO FAIL. So no, you can't fail.

Caveat: This guide is written for Shamans of all levels, but it's based on the experiences of a level 65 Shaman with CanniV/VP/PoP spells. Although an attempt was made to cover lower levels as well, there may be unexpected problems that lower level shamans may encounter, including, but not limited to, larger agro ranges, more social mobs, lower DPS, higher damage taken, etc. Oh yes, and get zone maps.

Part 2 - Getting Gunthak Gulf Water

Gunthak Gulf Water is the easiest component of the 4 that are needed for this spell. It is NO DROP and can be either foraged (if you are an Iksar Shaman) in the Gulf of Gunthak or looted as a random rare drop from the pirates at the pirate village in the Gulf of Gunthak. Due to the fact that this is a rare drop and the mobs are considerably lower in level (around 40) than the mobs that you will need to kill for the other 3 components of this spell, it is recommended that you do this portion of the quest prior to level 50 while you are still getting XP, otherwise you may find yourself killing green mobs for hours.

The pirate village that you need to camp can be reached by zoning in the Gulf of Gunthak from PoK, levitating, invising, then running south across the Gulf to the beach. When you see the beach, head right so that you land close to the right wall. The mobs at the beach are mid-30s and none see through invisibility as long as you hug the right wall. Follow the wall to the tunnel on your right and enter the tunnel, which will be full of mobs (flowers, mushrooms, drogmors, etc), but they don't see through invisibility either. Turn left at the first fork and you will see the pirate village. As you approach the village, the corner immediately to your left should be safe, but, as always, your agro range will depend on your level. There will be patrolling pirates coming from the tunnel and turning to the right, so don't set up camp too close to the tunnel entrance.

Once you have set up your camp, kill everything. Pirates are mostly static non-casters, although a few are SKs and there are occasional wandering Shamsn who will SOW and buff all mobs in their path. They hit for under 100 and are not very strong. Most pirates live in the huts that cover the area outside the wooden fort, either by themsleves or with a partner, which can result in a double pull. At level 49, when the pirates are half light blue and half dark blue, pulling with the BST slow from maximum distance usually brought only one out. Pirates do run at low health and, since they are often SOWed, snare/root are recommended. Once you know their pathing, you can stagger spawns so that they run to empty huts, but it takes practice. The drop rate was quite poor as recently as 2004, but as of late 2005 it appears to be more reasonable, about once an hour in a level-appropriate group.

One word of caution. Once you kill enough mobs, "an injured wolf" will spawn in one of the huts. He is a non-agro level 60 mob for a BST spell quest, so don't pull him by mistake.

Part 3 - Crypt of Nadox -- General Information

The other 3 components that you need for this quest all drop in the Crypt of Nadox. The following information applies zone-wide as long as you stay within the areas described in this guide:

1. All levitation spells (including Flight of Eagles etc) are automatically stripped upon zoning into Crypt of Nadox. This is done to prevent you from bypassing the lava river which will be discussed below.
2. None of the mobs in the areas described in this guide see through invisibility. Some undead mobs in adjacent areas do see through invisibility, but you don't need to go there. There is a small chance that a wandering undead see-invis mob may be passing through the Luggald area when you are running to the Pure Blood camp spot (see below), so con all Trolls there first.
3. None of the mobs that you will be fighting run at low health (except the Treasure Sorter), but you will have to fight some gating casters -- see below for details.
4. The mobs that you will be fighting are level 47-52 and hit for under 200. The casters that you will be fighting are Shamans and use standard level 49 and lower Shaman spells.
5. The agro radius in the zone is fairly average, perhaps on the short side, at least at 65.
6. None of the mobs Enrage, Summon or do anything else unusual as long as you stay within the areas described below. There are Enraging mobs elsewhere in the zone.
7. Crypt of Nadox is an indoors zone, so mounts can't be summoned and SOW can't be cast.

Part 4 - Getting to the Broken Skull clan blood and A blackened vial camp in the Crypt of Nadox

There are multiple ways to get to the Crypt of Nadox. To get to the areas that you need, follow the path to the Gunthak tunnels described above. Once in the tunnels, do not take the first left turn to the pirate village, stay to the right. Take the next left turn and then the first right hand turn. Note: The right hand turn is a little hard to see if you don't know what to expect. You will see 3 Trolls in a wide triangle and then red lava beyond them. Run straight to the lava area and you will hit the zone line. Once you zone in (and have your levitation stripped off), there is a safe spot before you hit the lava. There are three level 40ish elementals there, but they are far enough from the zone line that they don't agro when you zone in. They don't see through invisibility either. Make sure to keep regeneration going on yourself to negate (or, at lower levels, mitigate) the effects of the lava -- 15 HP per bite -- as you will have to swim through it for a few seconds. This is the time and the place to make sure all your buffs are up and you are FOM.

Once you and your pet are buffed and ready, invis and go into the lava. Stay on the surface and swim straight ahead until you see a bridge over the lava river. You will want to emerge from the lava on the right hand side immediately before the bridge. The river bank looks like an unclimbable cliff, but it's actually easy to climb as long as you don't get stuck in the rock up top. When you are done climbing, you will be standing next to the just mentioned rock, which half-hides a "Soot Covered Miner", light blue at 65. If you lost invisibility while in the lava, you will have to fight him right there. There is also a wandering guard in the area, who goes back and forth across the bridge. If you are low level, he may add when you are fighting the Miner, but otherwise it's a one-on-one fight. Re-invis after the fight.

Once you are at the rock and are invisible, look around. On the left, you will see the bridge mentioned above. Straight ahead, you will see a campfire with a few mobs around it. All mobs in the area are light blue at 65. There are two tunnels beyond the campfire, but you don't want to go there. Instead you will want to hug the right wall and take the rightmost tunnel, which leads you to the "courtyard" with furious Blackhands, vehement Blackhands, Lieutenants and other melee mobs, mostly light blue at 65. Pass this area quickly since losing invisibility in the middle of 10 mobs would be a bad idea. Luckily, there is only one tunnel on the other side, so you can't get lost. Once you are past the mobs and in the next tunnel, stop and examine your surroundings. This is your first camp spot.

Part 5 - Getting Broken Skull clan blood and A blackened vial
You will find yourself in a midsize tunnel with the "courtyard" described above behind you and the Broken Skull Adherent/Initiate area ahead of you. The latter are dark blue at 65 (probably around level 52) and have a larger agro radius, so don't set up too close to them. In the middle of the tunnel, there is a passage opening to the left, which leads to other areas of the zone. There is a green-to-65 static Soothsayer (i.e. Shaman) mob at the end of the visible part of the passage, but he won't bother you. However, there is a wandering melee Troll who will occasionally emerge from the passage, stop in the middle of your tunnel, look around and eventually go back into the passage. It is best to keep him dead so that he doesn't add when you are pulling or fighting mobs at your camp spot. Note that at 65 you can set up camp between the "courtyard" and the passage without agroing either the two courtyard guards closest to you or the wanderer, but it may not be possible at lower levels.

Once you have set up your camp in the tunnel, you will want to pull Furious Blackhands and Vehement Blackhands from the courtyard for their Broken Skull clan blood and Broken Skull Adherents and Initiates for their A blackened vial. The Blackhands are pure melee mobs, light blue at 65, hit for 150ish, have around 10K HP, nothing special. They are single pullable at 65 (not that you can't take 2 at that level without breaking a sweat), but you may need to use green pet pulling techniques (Note: See Appendix A at the bottom on the "green pet pulling technique") if you are alone and/or lower level, especially on the two guards at the mouth of the tunnel that you set your camp in. Lieutenants apparently do not drop the quest component, but they drop the Ceremonial Hate Candle (LORE), a nice low level caster item. Other than that, there is nothing special about the courtyard, all mobs are static and pure melee, you can kill them until they cry uncle and drop the quest item.

Broken Skull Adherents and Initiates in the next area over are a tougher nut to crack and you may need a group or at least a partner at lower levels. Adherents are Shamans while Initiates are melee mobs. The entrance to their cave is guarded by two Adherents who will assist each other. They don't have pets, but they will cast standard level 49 Shaman spells, including Malosini, Plague and other DOTs. At 65 with 100-150 resists, I resisted pretty much all of their spells, but it may be a different story at lower levels, so use your Posion/Disease/Magic/Cold protection spells. They don't seem to dispell often and they don't heal themselves much during the fight, but when they get below 20%, they gate back to the spawn point and immediately (seemingly instantly) heal to around 30%. If you don't stop them from gating, they will be forever gating back, healing to 30%, running back to you, gating back, etc.

The other problem with the Adherents is that green pet pulling can be tricky since they are casters and may not follow your pet back to the camp but rather unload their spells on the pet. Thankfully, they are Shamans and not Wizards, so they tend to cast a spell or two (which won't kill a buffed pet) and then run over to your camp. Just make sure to spam the pet agro wipe/"Follow me" macro if you don't have the Pet Hold AA. Worst case scenario, you can park the pet around the passage corner described above, but that's unlikely to be necessary.

Once you have single pulled an Adherent to your camp, your biggest problem will be preventing him from gating back and agroing the other Adherent at the entrance or, if you are lower level, the whole cave with 10+ mobs in it. The best way seems to be to root the mob at 20% and keep it rooted, which seems to prevent them from gating. You can nuke them at the end if you are reasonably sure that the nuke will finish them off. If the mob does gate and comes back with only one friend, you should be able to kill them both at 65, but at lower level you will want to slow the add, then kill the first mob (if possible), loot it and, if low on mana/HP, gate. It's a short run from PoK once you know the way and it sure beats dying. Note: Having another mob fighting next to an Adherent doesn't make any difference as far as gating goes, they will still try to gate out.

Once you have killed (and preferably staggered) the two Adherent guards at the entrance to the cave, you can green pet pull Initiates from the room (who share the room with Adherents) one by one. Initiates are melee mobs, so they won't give you the trouble that Adherents will. Depending on your kill rate, you can alternate the "Courtyard" and the Adherent cave for best results and stagger-ability.

Part 6 - Getting to the Pure Blood camp in the Crypt of Nadox

To get to the Luggalds who drop the Pure Blood component of the quest, you will start in the campfire area at the rock where you may have been forced to kill that Soot Covered Miner (see above). With the campfire straight ahead and the bridge on your left, make sure that you are invisible, then turn left and cross the bridge. There will be three tunnels on the other side of the bridge and you will want to go into the middle one. Very soon you will see blue colored Luggalds, who look like Hollywood aliens and are vaguely amphibian. They occupy a large hall, which is occasionally traversed by wandering Trolls from nearby Troll areas. It is possible that one of the Trolls will be undead and see through your invisibility, so con any Troll mobs in your path. Go straight ahead and enter the next tunnel, which will soon lead you to a cave full of higher level (52-55+) pirate Trolls. Stop before you get to the Troll pirate cave and set up camp there. The tunnel is completely safe.

Part 7 - Getting Pure Blood

Once you have set up your camp, you can start pulling the Luggalds from the large hall that you have just crossed. The Luggalds are dark blue at 65, probably low 50s, pure melee mobs, hit for over 150, not particularly resistant to magic. The two guards at the tunnel entrance that you will be pulling from can be single pulled at 65 using the following method: facing the Luggald area, hug the right wall and climb it a little, inching ahead very slowly until you can target the left guard. If you pull with slow, the guard will come alone. At lower levels you will have to green pet pull. Once you stagger the tunnel guards, it's just a question of how fast you can pull the room. Some Luggalds are obviously single, but anything that looks like a duo or a trio (around columns, tables, etc) will come as a group even if you pull with a low agro spell like Malo. Again, use green pet pulling if you can't handle more than one Luggald at a time. Eventually, some lucky Luggald will drop your Pure Blood. Note that one group of Luggalds around the column on your left (when viewed from the tunnel where you have your camp) includes a Troll pirate Treasure Sorter. Unlike the Luggalds and the Trolls elsewhere in the zone, he will run at low health, although slowly.

Part 8 - Combine and Turn-in

Once you have all 4 components for the spell, find Grennik Neltrin in a hut outside the Lighthouse in the Gulf of Gunthak. There is a Brew Barrel next to the hut. Use the barrel (don't forget to change to the Experiment mode) to combine Gunthak Gulf Water, A blackened vial and Broken Skull clan blood. You will receive a NO DROP A black potion. Use the barrel again to combine this A black potion with Pure Blood, which yields A glowing black potion. Give this potion to Grennik Neltrin and receive the NO DROP spell Blood of Nadox and about a yellow of AAXP if you are 65.

Appendix A - The Green Pet Pulling Technique

The "Green Pet Pulling Technique" consists of splitting mob camps by sending in a pet that is green to the mobs in the camp and, once it agros your mob of choice, immediately telling it to back off. Since the pet is green to the mob that you are pulling, the mob's friends will not assist the pulled mob. The pet must survive until the mob is out of the assist range of the other mobs in the camp or else the whole camp will come after you. Do NOT heal the pet until the pulled mob is out of the assist range. The technique works best with pre-OoW SK pets since they are naturally lower level and SKs can FD if the pet gets killed. However, any pet class with a controllable pet can use this method as long as the pet is green to the mobs being pulled. For Shamans, it means that you may have to sacrifice the extra DPS and tankability of your regular pet and use a lower level pet in exchange for the ability to single pull. Make sure to buff your pet's HP as much as possible (Focus/Skin/Virtue) since the pet will be mostly hit for full damage due to the level difference. Throw a heal-over-time on the pet before sending it in to improve its survivability. The method works best on melee mobs who immediately run after your retreating pet. Caster mobs may stay back and nuke your pet a few of times before coming after it, so make sure to park your pet out of their line of sight as soon as possible. The Pet Hold AA helps a great deal, but spamming a basic "/pet back off"+"/pet follow me" macro works too.

[Gloriana]

[Scalia]

[Gloriana]

[Scalia]

[Tangurena]

I believe I posted a link to this map on the last board.

The little red X inside each blue square marks where I'd set up camp (or show folks to set up camps at).
The red x in the blue box labeled "Camp C" is approximately where the soot covered miner lurks.
Commonly, there will be a necro soloing the room of undead to the west of "Camp A" (labeled part 6 in the walk-through above).

I vaguely remember doing my camp there around levels 62-64, solo.