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by Barngrille I've noticed a few comments / discussions of what to do after dying (a.k.a. "takin' it in the shorts). So, here are two posts from a few weeks ago that may warrant re-hashing, from Graymane and Lorax. Perhaps, Varaya, you might add these to your page? Also, since we're talkin' about dying, which of the three characters has the worst cringe-causing-gimme-the-willies death scream? Personally, for me it is the Rogue. Then again, when I'm playing my Warrior and I hear the Mage cry out, that is usually not the sound I was wanting to hear... Here are the reposts, please address your comments to the authors (reprinted without permission). =8-) On Wed Oct 29 6:57 AM, Graymane wrote: While having a lot of fun reading strategy posts about how to play the various classes most effectively or how to play co-op most effectively or how to duel effectively, I have been thinking a lot about dying effectively and don't remember many posts addressing this issue :) I remember at lower levels (and sometimes at higher levels) being VERY concerned with this problem :) Some of these thoughts are obvious and hopefully some are not so obvious, so feel free to put in your $0.02 worth! Some general stuff: I am assuming that death is imminent and unavoidable for whatever reason including lag, stupidity, or just bad luck. Obviously you want to apply strategies that keep you out of these situations in the first place, but that is not always possible :) The very obvious pre-death preparations: 0. DONT FORGET YOUR MANA SHIELD if your character generally uses one! (This is my leading cause of death :) 1. Put up a portal as soon as you can, preferably away from the stairs. 2. Never run toward your portal or the stairs in case of trouble unless you can make it and you don't care about coming back down. 3. Before entering a large room lay down a potion trail. This can quickly give you the equivalent of two or three belts. Where to die: 1. Generally SOUTH of where you will come back from because you can see more in that direction and equipment recovery with telekinesis will be easier. 2. Near a wall if you can. This will allow you to hide on the other side or around a corner and use telekinesis without activating anymore monsters. 3. DON'T die near any crossroads! This can definitely cause you a lot of problems. It is better, in my humble opinion, to do a blind teleport into an adjacent room and die near the wall. You will have the chance in that case of using telekinesis to get your stuff back. 4. If you are not quite swarmed and in stun-lock, but the possibility is imminent, try to prepare for death efficiently. This can include teleporting to a more appropriate location, setting up some firewalls or guardians (great way to kill monsters after you are dead), or attempting to disarm one or two of your items so they don't drop when you die. For spell-casters and rogues, be careful of area effect spells like fball and chain lightning. A lot of us on the point of death love to go out with a bang, the problem is that you will rarely kill all the monsters and stand the chance of activating even more. I have returned: Some of this will be very class-specific. Depending on the circumstances, it may be best to go down naked. Now, you will have some advantages. First, you are trying to recover your equipment, NOT kill all the monsters! Therefore, being a coward is the better part of valor. How you will recover your equipment depends on where you died and the location of the monsters. Moreover, use death effectively. In some cases you can stage your own death during a recovery to draw monsters away from critical locations. This is the case especially in co-op when you have the stairs and a portal, for example. Die as far away from both as possible to ensure that both are clear when you go back down. 1. If you died near a wall or other covered location. Use and get your stuff back. Don't worry about killing nearby monsters unless they attack you. 2. For open room deaths or other locations where you can't use telekinesis, be prepared to die a bunch. The general strategy is run to where you died and try to pick up as many items as you can before you die again. Be careful with swords and staves though as you will automatically arm them. Better is to buy a cheap sword at griz and lose that. Also, don't get greedy, it is better to pick up one item, run or teleport as far as possible and simply die and then repeat the procedure. If you die during recovery in the same location as your equipment, you will just have a harder time. 3. The running portal. Hotkey the portal spell and cast it a few spaces in front of you as you are moving. You can then either run through the portal or die near the portal, in either case the monsters will swarm there. Keep doing this until the monsters are a good bit of distance from your death location. Use this strategy when you die right by the stairs. Then go back down the stairs and run to where you originally died to pick up stuff, this will give you a few extra seconds of time. The goal is to keep moving the portal further away from the stairs. I used this strategy in hell/hell lvl 15 with soul burners and hell spawn. The stairs were in the pentagram room and as soon as I came down, I activated about 15 of each. After I died, I ran up a corridor and kept casting portal and dying. I would then go down the portal and cast again. I could usually get in one cast before I would die. Eventually, most of the soul burners and hell spawn went down the corridor and I walked down the stairs to get my stuff untouched. You would be surprised how long you can live in a room full of soul burners if you concentrate on running! 4. Co-op recovery. If you and your buddies all died, an effective strategy is for one member to go down, preferably your best spell- caster, and use one of the above strategies to lure the monsters away from the equipment. Recover the mage's equipment first, as the mage will be the most able of the members to recover everyone's equipment. If there are MANY monsters, send some of the members down as decoys after the caster has drawn off some of the monsters from the stairs or portal. The decoys run as fast as possible to other locations in order to draw the monsters. 5. "Yes, but I died AT the stairs with no portal!". Well, this is the most difficult recovery. I have been in this situation with azure drakes. I was stun-locked as soon as I would come down. Make sure you use phase and NOT teleport in this case. Moreover, for mages, don't even bother trying to get a shield up. Hotkey phase, portal, teleport, and mana shield. The last 2 in case you get a second of breathing room. In this case you are trying to setup up for a recovery, not fight monsters or even recover your equipment yet. What you are trying to do here is get a portal up in a useful location such as a corridor or near a choke point. Depending on the circumstances, you may want to use your last breath in this phase for a teleport away from both the stairs and the portal and simply die. Disclaimer: I have recovered equipment with each class using most of these techniques and have yet to fail getting all my equipment back. I'm sure most of this stuff is obvious to the vets on this forum, however, I needed this info when I first started, and had a devil of a time getting equipment back. Your mileage may vary. Graymane On Wed Oct 29 8:43 AM, Lorax wrote: Nice post, Graymane. While we're on the topic of dying (or almost dying), I thought I'd throw out another tip for mages. I've used it forever, and I've seen other vets here mention it before, but it's worth mentioning again. As a sorcerer, a good belt setup can save your butt. I always have a full rejuvenation potion in slot 1, and a mana shield scroll in slot 2. When you're caught in a sticky situation or just get careless and you suddenly notice that your mana shield is down (you know, that moment when your heart skips a beat), a quick 1-2 can get you back in business. The full rejuv not only gets your mana back up, but the extra kick to your hit points gives you another second or so. Of course, there are times when I'm in a stun lock, sucking down blues, that I don't even bother, because I know it'll be a waste of the scroll, but it's been the difference between life and death for me on more than one occasion. With this "insurance", you don't really need to hotkey mana shield either, so you've got an extra hotkey slot to fill as you please. Lorax Barngrille |