After running this mission four times, I must say soloing is much easier than going in a group. Not only do those Oilers die in two hits (or 4 with Poison) while in a group they survive long enough to deal a massive amount of damage. The only time I ever had trouble was on the final arena and that was because I got trapped in a corner with my shield broken. Even Gran Faust on the Oiler-Barons take about 10 hits versus 50-ish hits.
So, yeah. Stuff. GET SOLOING YOU PEOPLE.
It's hell. Complete hell for me. :(
I went solo at first.
I barely got past the first level. Died on second. Couldn't invite. fml
I don't know about soloing, but it's anywhere from brutal to nigh-impossible with a group of four. The sheer amount of fire on screen provided so much visual noise, I couldn't even see what I was attacking half the time, and those new satanic Oilers move ridiculously fast when they launch their attack...which usually winds up with you bogged down in the poisoned oil gunk. Oh, and that last hallway before what I assume is the mini-boss room...yeah, let's spawn two turrets and several Oilers in a postage-stamp-sized space between multiple status vents. Yeah, that seems fair. That's as far as my crew made it before we threw up our hands.
Hell, at least Legion of Almire is fair in its challenge, but this is ridiculous.
That's not the Oiler Baron. Oiler Baron has much more swag.
You can make it easier on yourself with the right set:
http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/59434
If you wear a dragon scale helm and dragon scale mail + a pure white laurel + soaking whetstone, the oil dropped by monsters will do absolutely nothing to you. No fire. No poison.
If you covet your trinket slots, then you can also get a fire low uv + poison low uv on your armor/helms and still be fully immune.
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But yes, as soon as you have 4 people, everything is likely to go on fire. I think pairs work just fine though. Minimal HP gain on the monsters, and someone else to pick you up if you die.
Heh...now I can't help but wonder if OOO made this specific mission just to encourage use of a set which almost no one wears. :P
I didn't think it was hard at all. I'm not sure if I just played a vastly different game than everyone else or what.
For gear I had full normal, half elemental/piercing, max fire, no poison defense, Dark Thorn Shield and Silent Nightblade. Poison lasted 8 seconds but I just ran around until it wore off if I ever needed to use a health capsule.
Died twice, both were stupid and to environment damage (facepalm). I don't think I was ever in a situation where more than a third of a given room was on fire. I was honestly expecting much more fire after reading some of the testing feedback.
Played through it for the first time, solo. I used Vog and a couple Umbras. Thought it was easier than LoA.
No deaths and full pills at the end, which is more than I can say for when I first did LoA.
a Dragon suit and a Salamander helm. I did it in a party of four. We were dieing and dieing and dieing. It was the most fun I've had in ages, really. I love it, and it's F2P! :D
Haven't got the chance to try this yet... but are you saying not even liberal use of shivermist buster / glacius will work?
AHAHHAHAHAHAHHA! Aplauses your a riot! HAHAHAHAHAHHAH! *has no clue why he's laughing*
Did it in Chaos set... So yeah...
Dragged a dead friend along almost the entire mission, it was so much easier than LoA. No death, no health cap used.
Used vog cub set + grey owlite shield, voltedge + silent nightblade.
For everyone who found it manageable in any gear, are you doing it as a vanguard rank?
In the test server, the T2 one was laughable compared to the T3.
Just wondering.
Also, they did scale back the fire. It used to all burn at once, and there was about twice as much.
I'm Vanguard and thought it was relatively tame. And yeah, I read a few horror stories from the test forums so was expecting it to be bad but it really wasn't. I'm wondering if people are too shield reliant.
Edit: Punctuation hard.
Fair enough.
I've done a few runs so far, and i'm finding it easier to manage.
But i find LoA to be a cakewalk, so to each their own.
I guess that means OOO is aware of different play styles and what challenges each type.
i hav DS set with low poison uv and a 10(or 5?) forge spark fire trinket, this bring me completly immunity to those oilers, their melee swting attack still hurts, especially when covered with lost of flame you can't see'em, solution: shield x3
finally my DS set has use, forged it cuz it looks nice, now there's actual use to it :3
Hmm.. so if I get fire low on the helm and poison low on the armor I'll be immune? Fair enough. >rollrollrollroll
I guess you start solo when you finish the level. That's why it easy.