Blue dragon caves?

[Starhawk]

I'm trying to decide whether to take the quest for the Blue Dragon Caves, or skip it. Any advice? How bad is the item destruction?

I can wipe out ancient karmic wyrms or a greater moloch without taking damage; how bad is the boss in the BDC in comparison? I'm a little concerned about whether my Ball spells can keep up with his insane healing.

[Nezur]

A long ago when I last did the quest my items did not get destroyed so many times that I would have regretted taking up the mission. You gain a huge amount of experience, loot and the artifact Needle (or Sting?) in exchange.

High dodge, alertness and probably high dexterity help a lot in evading the bolts. I'd read the guidebook for additional advice however.

[Macros]

Item destruction can be annoying - it's better to leave all fragile and important items(SoCR's, 7LB, GoGS, etc.) in room with Ancient Karmic Wyrm. If you can take on greater molochs and AKW's without taking any damage, you should be fine there. Also another hint - Ancient Blue Wyrm is vurneable to wand of paralyzation, and potions of confusion/blindness(as every monster).

[Grey]

I've never had problems with this quest, and you find lots of nice items and xp. Invisibility means you'll only be seen by ancient dragons and wyrms, which severaly reduces the amount you get spammed by bolt spells. I always leave practically all vulerable equipment on the stairs when going down. Barney falls very easily to spells - his regeneration isn't that good.

[gut]

> I'm trying to decide whether to take the quest for
> the Blue Dragon Caves,

You don't have to accept the quest, in order to enter
the caves. Just make sure that you take the quest
before killing the boss, otherwise you don't get needle.
I think if you are unsure, you should not take the
quest right away. That way you aren't locked in to
completing them. Explore them a bit first, to see how
you fare.

> it's better to left all fragile and important items(SoCR's,
> 7LB, GoGS, etc.) in room with Ancient Karmic Wyrm

I second that. In fact, I leave ALL of my items on the
stairs before I descend. Furthermore, I use the same
stashing tactic, upon finding the down staircase of each
new level. I clear the room of all dragons, and leave my
newly aquired items on THAT staircase. That way my
new items are safe too.

Careful though, this can hinder using the up staircase as
an escape route. If a dragon was to follow you up, one
bolt could destroy all the items on the ground with one
bolt. If you use this tactic, it is wise to make a run back
to the AKW level, to drop off your new stash, before doing
the last level.

> Ancient Blue Wyrm is vurneable to wand of paralyzation,
> and potions of confusion/blindness(as every monster).

Potions of blindness and confusion are 100% effective,
against monsters that are vulnerable to them. Meaning
they have no chance of failure. However, this does not
mean they are effective against 100% of all monsters.
There are some monsters like steel golems (furniture),
that are not vulnerable to them.

[Starhawk]

Yay! Thanks for the advice, the Blue Dragon Caves were a snap -- and I found an AoDS as well as a RoDS in there without even scumming!!!

Of course, after that I had all kinds of trouble with the Mana Temple. I have NEVER cleared that easily... but I finally got the Archmage down. And I'm on my way out with the orb when I see....

"The chaos warrior picks up the ring of djinni summoning."

AWWWWWWWWWW!

Now I have to clear the whole room with no mana!!!

[Grey]

Pray for mana? You can also use Alchemy explosions. Clearing the Mana Temple is always a bloody nuisance, but for a wish it's worth it (decent item drops there are so rare!)

[Starhawk]

Yeah, especially since the Archmage CLOBBERED my stats -- it took me forever to get to him and get him dead. So I need to wish for Willpower, to get my Ball spells back up to par.