Den of Rancor

[Bov]

Reserved for information on Den of Rancor.

[Bov]

(This post is going to be too long to post in a single post, so I'll break it up into bitesized chunks.)


The following has been reproduced with the author's (StoneSkin of allakhazam) permission. Please head over to that site and PM him if you have questions regarding working this xp spot.



Den of Rancor is one of the better exp camp for the 66-68 range if you know how to work it. Otherwise it's a bit of a death sentence. You can hover around 3k/hour and if you get lucky with pops push 4k/hour. In addition,once you master the camp the chances of dying are fairly low. You can exp here as early as 65-66 (and it would be awesome) if you know what’s up, and 68-69 is possible too (though I imagine it would be a bit of a grind at that point). I refuse to believe this is workable at 64 until someone actually does it. Tough slime conversations {no thanks}.

Read (or at least skim) the whole thread before you head out there. I have some gear recommendations that will make your life easier on your first trip.

My whole field trip here was basically born out of a vague and boarderline useless blip in the hunting grounds.

Anyway...



Den of Rancor 66-68: Surviving the Sacrificial Chambers

Why Den of Rancor?
-Its fun, an interesting puzzle that most shy away from.
-The zone itself appeals to the rpg fan in me. Tiny tonberry knifes stuck in the alter of rancor beget visions of ancient processions and frantic victims.
-No one goes there. You will have complete solitude for the duration of your stay in den of rancor. No one will mess with you because to do so is to die. You will get aggro all the way up to 75 and the denizens of the den are tough, difficult to kill, spawn close together, and link. Den of Rancor does not like to forgive mistakes.
-The exp is good, you can chain past 2 regularly if you know what’s up <.<
For example, I’ve hit a 504 chain 4 (ring of course) and been able to keep around 3k/hour without ring, even at 67. That takes a bit of familiarly with the camp-and luck- to do though at 67.

Note: It's kind of a pain to get to this camp, so be ready to stay in Den of Rancor for a long time. Plan for one or two levels worth of exp without leaving the place.

How do I get to this oh Mighty of Camps?

It really isn't as difficult as you would think. Den of Rancor is an underground extension of the temple of Uggalepih and Yhoator Jungle. You don't need to worry about the Yhoator Jungle zone in, since that leads to a much higher level section which you can exp at in the 70s. You will be focusing on the Uggalepih specific zone into Den of Rancor or, as it is more commonly known, the paintbrush of souls entry point.

You, do not need a paintbrush of souls to enter, nor do you need a map of the temple to find your way to the paintbrush of souls rooms. All you need is a bit of patience, some luck, and a higher level should come along eventually to do all the dirty work for you. A bit like banishing gate #2 but easier.

I'll still describe the methods behind opening the door solo if you are daring enough to try.

Here are the general directions:

Note: Most tonberrys, wespe, and toramas will aggro you at 66 and are all sight aggro. Some of the little bastards will aggro all the way up to 71. The rumble crawlers shouldn't aggro, though I did have the placeholder for Hebetrot go for me.

Here are the maps. Note the description to the right as to how to obtain the paintbrush of souls-kill cutters, get key, open the library marked on the map, and then read the books in the library. There are no tonberrys directly in front of the library door or inside of it.

You enter from the jungle at point 1. Point 2 on that first map is the next zoneline you want to hit. This will take you out into a ruin overlooking the Yhoater jungle tree line. From their just wander around (without falling off and with invis) until you find a zone that leads back into the temple. Shouldn't take you very long, they are very close together.

This will take you too the second map, which will lead you to the door to rancor. Head past the wooden gate and just keep heading down. The granite door (1) on the map is guarded by the Temple Guardian.

Note: You can open the wooden gate pretty safely by waiting for the two tonberrys on each side to turn their backs. It really isn't as hard as it looks.

The Temple Guardian cons DC at 66 and is a doll type monster, which will aggro you if you attempt to open the granite door that he stands in front of. The granite door cannot be opened unless you kill the Temple Guardian. Once killed, it will stay open until he respawns (5 minutes?). I do not know if he will aggro magic as I figured it would be silly to find out.

In his hallway a few tonberrys wander around, so fighting him right here is not very bright. It is entirely optional to kill him, since it makes more sense to just wait till someone comes along to open the door, which usually results in same said person opening the door to rancor anyways.

If you are bound and determined to kill him though, I found the best way was to call beast upon entering the temple, walking up to the guardian, waiting for the tonberrys in the hallway to turn their back, order fight, cast invis, and hightail it to zone. If it does melt down you can stroll on in, if it doesn’t you can just repeat until it uses melt down. I found the temple way too narrow (and the pets way too weak) to pet swap him to death efficiently. I pulled hate by casting invis <.<

So...one way or another you got past him. Now you are in a big room with stairways, lots of tonberries and a big nm doll called Manipulator walking a patrol. Remember about that doll, it's level 69 and if it aggros you (magic), him and his little tonberry friends will return you to jeuno in a hurry.

From the door you want to hang a left-ignore the stairs- and enter a long hallway that will lead you to another granite door. A torama patrols the hallway before the door.

This is the part where it’s smart to have just waited for a high level to do all this for you. If you did, you can just follow him into the paintbrush room, let him paint the picture, and enter the Den of Rancor when the secret door opens.

If you refuse too wait (there is a chance you will die here or have to warp out), wait for the torama to march down to the far end of the hallway, call beast, and watch your radar/wide scan for when the tonberries in the paintbrush room have moved away from the door. Now you open it, walk in, quickly recast invis, and assess the situation.

Note: tonberrys can aggro through doors, have your warp crudgel equipped since its almost entirely random if you get aggro here, and if you get a link you’re basically done for. The best indicator you can use is which direction they are moving on radar to get an idea where they are looking.

Now you have yourself a real treat. You can see where the picture frame is located on the wall from the map as well as where the granite door just north of it is located. This is the door that will lead you to Den of Rancor once you've opened it.

Now, the problem is that there are four (maybe 5?) tonberrys in the room walking a patrol that will, at some point, draw their vision towards the picture frame. That, and it takes bloody forever to paint the picture (a few minutes about).

So you have option #1: take your jug pet and link every tonberry in the room onto it then stand in front of the picture frame and activate the paintbrush of souls painting event. Remember, you have to not move at all during the painting event. All you do is get to the point where it gives you the messege stating that you are starting to paint, and you don't click to the next messege and sit there for an undetermined amount of time. After a while you hit enter and progress to the next messege. At that point you either spent long enough in the painting sequence and the door opens or it dosen't and you have to start over.

Note: you have to stand exactly in front of the frame to start the event, and if you get hit during it, it will cancel, so you cannot just have your jug pet standing next to you. You have to be out of -ga range from the tonberry elementals.

Will you live? Will you die? Its entirely random, based on how long the jug can hold, how quickly you can get the event started, and if or if not you get hit. If one of them opts to use throat stab early on you're basically done for. Just clear your tonberry hate before hand so you at least don't have to worry about everyone's grudge.

or..

option #2: Try to pull the tonberrys toward the door and kill them one by one. Clear your tonberry hate for this and hope they don't start spamming moves like throat stab.

Friar jerji's note on Throat Stab:

Throat Stab usually brings its target down to 5% HP. I too have seen the odd resistance to it, though. I haven't seen it on charmed pets but only on Carrie. The *good* thing about Throat Stab is that it can be avoided, but if your connection is lagged you will probably be screwed.

As a player, it's really easy to avoid. You just move back. But for your pet, you end up having to Heel it which takes a little more time. So what I was doing was just watching the fight closely with ALT already being held down to minimze macro execution delay. Position yourself in a spot so that when you Heel, your pet runs away from the tonberry (I think running straight through it towards its back is also fine). Then your pet will avoid it.

This works but it's completely annoying and you can't really type to your friends or anything or you will risk messing it up. So, killing tonberries still sucks but can suck a little less if you pay close attention to the fight (which also sucks!) lol

or option #3: A combinaton of #1 and #2

I'm a big fan of waiting for someone to kill the guardian and open the door for you, or get a ls mate to tag along, or ask/bribe someone in zone.

Getting to the Actual Camp in Den of Rancor

Ok, new maps

The first and second maps are what we are interested in. Point #2 is where you come in from the temple; point A is where you want to head. From point A of map #2 you want to head all the way south until you hit the Crimson Alter of Rancor. This is camp.

Things to Know about Den of Rancor

Disclaimer: Seriously, figuring out how to make this hell hole work was one of my more rewarding challenges as a beastmaster. I'm almost cheating you by telling you how I did this, if you want a real challenge just stop reading now.

Ok...that aside...everything I tell you about now involves the second map, the one with the crimson flame of rancor.

Dire Bats: Con DC at 66, ep at 67, aggro to sound and link. Single bats, they do not spawn below Grid 9 of the map.

Cave Worms: About the same con at the dire bats, with the same spawn range on the map, and they DO NOT AGGRO TO SOUND.

Various tonberries: Sight aggro, link, do not spawn or wander very far past the 11th grid on the map. There is one that will wander into sight aggro range though...

They were all tough I think.

I didn't like fighting these, though I suppose a whole new chapter could be written about this zone if you did. Only the smns are good targets I think. Tonberries have naturally strong tp moves, which almost entirely precludes them as exp targets. The other problem is that they are all thieves, ninjas, or summoners. The thieves and ninjas are a walking hate problem due too pet accuracy (stupid evasion) and the ninja's elemental spells are naturally devastating against the strongest local pet (which I will get into in a moment). There are easier things to hunt here then tonberries in short.

Cutlass Scorpion Ah, the perfect emergency pet/exp target. Two of these beauties spawn south of F grid and will spawn tough up to 68 (when you get some ems). At 66 you'll get an occasional vt. These things kill the local tonberries like its nothing. Watch out for wild rage, it can deal almost 400 points of dmg to you.

Succubus Bats: These will spawn DC-T 66-68. 66 they mostly come up t, at 67 you get mostly em. They aggro sound, link, and do not aggro resting.

Biffrons: lovely bombs that pop the same levels as the scorps. Some Vts at 66, all t at 67. Two of them pop right by the Alter of Rancor.

Mousse: The best for last. These are nasty, nasty jellies that are level 64-67 and will be your principle pets while in Den of Rancor and a whole bunch of them pop south of grid 12. They aggro sound, will not aggro resting. I had a 2houred em slime fight and kill two tough biffrons at the same time. They laugh off death scissors like its nothing, transforming it into a 300 point pin prick upon their seemingly limitless hp, and a single mousse can kill 2-3 succubus bats in a row without regaining hp.

The only problem with them is that tonberry ninja's cast those stupid ni elemental spells that actually do decent dmg to them (yet another reason not to fight tonberries)...

...that and they hate being charmed...that’s a big problem...

[Bov]

(Continued from above)

Some Suggested Gear for Den of Rancor!

For anyone journeying into the depths of the inferno for the first time, there are a few items I think any bst would benefit from, and a few which I think increase one's percent chance of survival until they can get into the swings of things.

Reraise Gorgets: It’s a pain to get here, you're most likely going to die at least once, just spare yourself the suffering. I’d suggest two, fully charged, just to be on the safe side.

Whm sub: You're going to be casting a lot of sneak here. Not "I just need sneak to get to the camp" kind of casting, I mean "unless I’m actually in melee combat I will have sneak on me 24/7 or possibly get aggro and die" kind of casting a lot.

Sneak Oils: Bring two stacks, I’m serious, even as /whm. Sometimes you'll get stuck between sound aggro and magic aggro, while sneak is wearing. This is your trump card for when that happens.

+mp pies: Again, I’m serious, until you get a hang of things having a really high base mp gives you a lot of room to mess up. After you get a feel for how to work things, you can stop using them (if you want), but up to that point they can be pretty handy. I did this camp with only about 124 mp without pies, so you don't need much total mp to survive and prosper, its just getting to that point that they can be helpful.

Apollo/Light staff: DO NOT COME HERE IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AT LEAST A LIGHT STAFF OR YOU WILL DIE MANY HORRIBLE DEATHS COVERED IN SLIME. The Apollo’s is a huge help since it’s basically a 5% improvement in your survival rating.

Tamers Ring: I thought this really rather handy when I was first figuring out the zone, since its not infrequent for jellies to beat you into a horrible slime covered mess. Once you get things figured out, maybe limit this to macro equipment if you still want to use it.

Beast Trousers: Wear these 24/7. Again, they represent a pretty substantial increase in your % chance of survival that vastly supercedes anything that R.K pants or any other piece of leg gear could provide.

Full AF: I thought the pants significant enough to warrant their own section. The rest of the AF is really handy to have down here. I spent more time in it then I did any other type of armor-the charm bonus and Hp+ is just really hard to beat. The body in particular is nice since it lets you get rid of paralyze from numbing breath.

Juices: EVEN IF YOU HAVE GAUDY HARNESS. Bring 2 or 3 juices, if you end up in a spot where you need mp, you will need mp as fast as possible or you will probably die. This can easily save your life when you start pushing the exp chain limits of the camp and the possibility to find yourself with very little mp and a need for a lot now becomes real. Do not depend exclusively on your gaudy harness. You will be casting a lot more then you normally do in other camps, and dependence on a 49 mp capped piece of body armor that nets you 1 mp/tick can get you killed.

Again, once you get used to things, it’s less of a big deal, but having 2-3 juices on hand can really increase your margin of error when you first arrive.

Pet Food: Usually I like to have some zeta no matter where I am, but in Den of Rancor even just a few stacks of alpha are handy to use in conjunction with the jackcoat to get rid of scorp paralyze.

Signet Staff: Since you're going to be down here a while, this is rather nice to have.

How you actually work the Camp (Finally)

If you are in the game, approaching the Alter of Rancor as you read this, you might be seriously wondering where this camp is, since all that’s on the horizon is aggroing death.

Bear with me; you’ve been great so far, just a little bit further.

Approaching the tunnel, you will see a cutlass scorpion, two or three slimes, and two succubus bats that hover around the area in question, patrolling every possible place you could fight. North of it is a small army of tonberries that like to walk down within aggro range of the delightful patrol network before you.

In the tunnel leading to the alter of rancor there is one slime, and two succubus bats that patrol the entire length of the tunnel (though it may not look like it at first). Upon reaching the actual alter, you will see two bombs happily floating around it, just waiting to aggro your magic or catch a glimpse of you. In addition they have a slime buddy there to keep them company.

You may have seen the tunnels at f-10 and g-9, which appear to be natural camps, but they lack good pets in the immediate vicinity and little prey to quickly pull (besides tonberry)-simple distance prevents good chains.

There is, in short, seemingly nowhere near the Alter of Rancor to camp: yet this is going to be your camp.

The trick is to kill in a way so that you can ride the local pops to create two temporary camps: one in front of the Alter, one in the tunnel leading up to the Alter. Your first task is going to be to break in the camp.

Breaking the Alter of Rancor:

1. Before, I mentioned a safe spot at F-10. Head there, and hit your reraise, protect II, exp ring, stoneskin/blink, food, and whatever else you need. Now rest to full mp and cast sneak and invis

2. Head down to the mouth of the Alter of Rancor tunnel and start looking for a prospective slime that you can charm without getting a ton of aggro in the process. It’s just sound aggro down here, so usually if you hug the wall you'll be ok. You aren’t starting with bats because you might want to chain those later, and the slime will kill the first bomb no question (as they will do to all bombs). If you fail charm, its ok, just tame it, if you fail tame you have stoneskin and blink so just take the beating until charm cools down. Once you land charm get sneak back up.

3. Head into the tunnel towards the Alter of Rancor, send the jelly after one of the bombs. If sneak starts to wear move along the tunnel (usually the mouth in front of the alter is pretty good actually) until you can safely remove sneak and either recast (if out of magic aggro range) or use a sneak oil if within magic aggro range. Let the jelly kill the bomb if there is no self-destruct. This is a good time to recast stoneskin and blink. Casting spells will not remove sneak and you can rest up your mp in the tunnel. The jelly and bats will not aggro resting so this is safe, and you can stay close enough to the bomb to leave when it starts to self destruct.

4. Ok, with the first bomb dead, its time for our first chain 1 by killing the other bomb. Leave the jelly and it will despawn. Now you have two pet options: the jelly in the alter room, or the jelly in the tunnel. You still have one live bomb and two sneak aggro bats not too far away. Usually I liked to keep the bats alive since it meant I wouldn't have to pet swap and they are great for chains if you work them right.

This now entails landing charm on a DC-em jelly in a tight spot. You have a few things going for you though. If you push right up against the posts leading into the alter room, you usually can avoid getting aggro from bats, jelly, or bomb until you land charm. Af pants, tamers ring (if hp is low-more a concern for later charms really), and stoneskin/blink should give you the time needed to land charm without losing much hp or dying. Typically I could land charm on these within the first or second attempt, so this wasn't nearly as hard as you would think. If this is before you are 67, you are basically mandated to charm the jelly in the hallway since you do not want these respawning as toughs if you can help it.

After landing charm, engage the other bomb and it’s the same deal as before-accept this time you can cast spells.

5. With the bomb dead you have secured temporary camp #1. Move in with sneak up and charm the jelly floating around the Alter of Rancor.

There is a neat trick to this if you fail charm. You can actually kite the jelly around the Alter while waiting for charm to cool. Once you get good at it you can go multiple mischarms without getting touched. I had one moment where I was actually kiting a tough bomb and a jelly (don't ask) for 5 mischarms in a row without getting hit.

Sometimes though, the jellies try to outsmart you and begin going the opposite direction, or they lose scent and wait for you to come around to re-aggro.

This is, in short, a great way to keep tame timer cool for when you actually do need it.

6. Now that you have your Alter of Rancor jelly charmed, you can either pull one of the bats in to chain off of, or sneak up and move out to pull a scorp. I recommend the bats as much as possible since they don't have a thing for 350+ AOEs and die a lot faster. Even em bats are great because you can kill them quickly. If you fight scorps remember to bring a lot of pet food along to cure paralyze from numbing breath and your af body and feet. Numbing breath paralyzes the jellies a lot, which can potentially create hate problems. In a 1 on 1 fight though, a tough cutlass is no match for a DC slime. Fluid spread takes off gobs of scorp hp.

Make sure you pull your prey into the Alter of Rancor room if you are below 67, so as to prevent slime depop.

7. After making your kill, you can leave your Alter slime and recharm it immediately to pull and kill the other succubus bats. Its good to reuse this slime since you can, again, kite it to avoid having to use tame. Just remember that fluid spread is evidently a ranged attack <.<

Other then that, you can head out into the hall and charm the hallway slime to kill and chain the 2nd succubus bats. Here you use tame if you have it up. If you fail charm on a jelly and tame it, you will almost always land the second charm. Now you have your second temp camp secured.

8. Grab one of the two jellies (if you mischarm the hallway one you can kite it up and down the hallways now) and pull something from the area in front of the tunnel-usually I preferred one of the succubus bats but you can grab the cutlass if you like. By the time that’s dead it should be time to go bomb killing. Rinse and repeat. Just adapt to different repop times and you’re set.

Notes:
(1)Try not to have your slimes depop, it’s hard I know, I had to convert 4 slimes from tough at 66. Somehow I landed charm the first time, each time, but I’m not naive enough to think that’s going to be the norm. The slime cons are why I don't think this camp would work at 64 and why you would have to know what you're doing to make this work at 65.

At 65 you would need to be able to survive converting whatever local slimes are tough off the start, and then be good enough to not have a slime die/despawn. If you could though, it would be awesome, since all the bats would be t and all the bombs vt.

(2)DC bats can ruin your chains. I'd suggest just slaughtering them anyways since they still give exp (86 a kill without ring) and I hated fighting the scorps.

Once you ding 67 though, the stupid things act as the chief chain limiter and I had to revert to some charm/despawn to set them up how I liked them. Usually this meant a change in the kill order: from bomb-bomb-bat-bat-scorp/bat to bomb-bomb-bat-scorp/bat-bat or whatever worked.

Its still really good exp at 67, it just can fluctuate a lot because it hinges on what the local bats spawn as.

(3) Write down the mob death time so you know when the next respawn will be. The variable of how fast the bombs can die can create opportunities for squeezing in another kill. If you want the big exp here you'll try to set yourself up a chain leading prior to the bomb pops.

[Thoronas]

I stopped reading when it mentioned maps that weren't included. Without those I have no clue where to go. Do you have a copy of the maps anywhere?

[Bov]

Map links are now included.

[RunningDemon]

Also at 75, mebbe earlier, Pucks Vs. Tormentors at the West entrance is an okay place.

[Dravin]

edit: nm, didn't read -.-