How difficult is 80+ hunting?

[Winter]

I keep reading all these nightmare stories about how stressful it is. The highest I've ever reached on a character was lvl 79 back in 2006 hunting maghara tower, I found in there easy peasy all I did was ewave and lightning bolt or cone of lightning, after that I stopped playing and sold my Wiz. Well I'm approaching being in the same position again but the game was much more fun this time around, I don't want to stop playing but I'm probably going to cancel again if it's not going to be fun. On a scale of 1-10 how stressful is hunting with a wizard 80+?

[Tgo01]

The main problem is the learning curve for 80+ hunting grounds is usually much steeper than previous hunting areas, but once you get the hang of it (which really doesn't take too long) then it's not so bad.

Personally I find the Rift to be an easy place to hunt until you start hunting crawlers on Plane 4, and even then the main problem is the crawler burrowing, but as long as you get some warrior slash protection on your armor this is almost completely negated.

The main things to watch out for on planes 1-3 on the Rift are the wandering voids that can kill you even if they are in an adjacent room, but as long as you get in the habit of moving at least two rooms away whenever you spot the void then you can avoid these for the most part too.

[Tgo01]

Also if you're a wizard and you don't already use 415 you should look into it. I honestly think my wizard is somehow better off now with the buffed up 415 than he was before with immolate before they nerfed it to hell and back. And my wizard hunts plane 4 of the rift.

Oh yeah, speaking of which if you do hunt the Rift keep in mind crawlers can sometimes be found on planes 1-3. If this happens you should always leave the room immediately and possibly even head back to the sands for a couple of minutes because they will sheer fear you and tear you up pretty good if you're level 80.

And even though it's mana intensive you might want to start getting into the habit of keeping 919 up. That extra 50 DS for 19 mana/minute is actually quite nice. You might not need it until you start getting closer to cap though.

[Roblar]

Good advice but its not really sheer fear (which can just happen just by being in same room when it silently fires), since they are not undead.

They can however use a somewhat similarly acting warrior warcry as one of their round actions that will bind you if seriously warded (likely with that level disparity), or make you run from the room (with rt) if a lesser warding failure.

Tldr: run

[Soulance]

For me, 92-94 has been the most stressful. It was a massive learning curve and a lot of deaths. Came around the same time as the nerf as well so even more pain. 80's were pretty easy if I recall. I want to say I beat up the Tower in Illy for a few trains into my 80s and then moved into the aquaducts. The only issue I had there was gremlocks garrotting me from time to time.

Other than that, don't think I ever used RF there and pretty much just hit them with 505. With some adjustment, I can now do OTf @ 96 pretty confidently.

[Winter]

How crazy are the bowels? Is it just a higher level version of Stronghold?

[Middian]

Don't be encumbered.

[Furryrat]

Butterbean says, "Superfluous and trite, remove it." And thus, it was done.

[Soulance]

No flare bolt spells in the bowels either if I recall, unless you know what to look for. Otherwise, you gonna esplode!

[Whirlin]

Pretty much from 60 onwards, there are a few things that will be unavoidable in hunting grounds:
Some sort of physical critter with a decent AS
A caster critter
A critter with some CMANs of varying degrees of instant-death

Beyond that, you're also going to be going through the standard gemstone waves of 'omg, new hunting ground is rough' -gain a few levels- 'Hunting ground is easy' -gain a few more levels- "omg, new hunting ground is rough".

The problem with 80+ is that the environment also starts to suck.
Want to hunt in Illistim? You gotta pass through OTF to get to the aqueducts, where if a seer has a web down, you're dead.
Want to hunt in the bowels? Fairly certain that's the place with the gas and shit... plus, most of those critters are ideal for a square much more than a pure.
Want to hunt Nelemar? Too bad, you're too weak.
Want to hunt the Rift? Yeah, there's a whole bunch of stuff you need to learn first. And random voids.
Want to hunt the confluence? Really?

Those final few jumps to the last hunting grounds are just fairly substantial jumps in level, difficulty, and mechanics to tackle. Plus, they're also the longest levels in terms of XP... so that doesn't help!

[Donquix]

just the amount of unavoidable shit starts to stack up.

OTF? griffin enters the room, 10+ RT, queue shitstorm of disarm open rolls, scout maneuver + ambushes, etc. Or just the same griffin taking you for a ride.
plane 4 rift? lol unstunnable n'ceare with their like 3 second action timers hitting a 900 open roll tackle as a vaespillion enters the room...at least it's the fast way back to town.
confluence....yeah same answer as whirlin. just no.

[subzero]

How crazy are the bowels? Is it just a higher level version of Stronghold?

You're definitely going to wrack up more deaths in the Bowels than the Stronghold. Bowels tend to contain gas pockets (nope, not an anatomy lesson) that explode when ignited, so fire (and maybe plasma/lightning) bad. The Illoke in there have a ridiculous stone fist ability (which is obviously nothing like the player version, since ours sucks). Greater e-wave from elementals, I believe, can also come in the form of fire which they will use to suicide-bomber you. Then the typical Illoke, "I'm big as fuck, so kill me or knock me over and I may just land on you which will result in your death as well" stuff. The krynch are fairly harmless until the other shit stacks up on you. Oh, speaking of which... you can find yourself swarmed quickly, too (I think the greater elementals can summon little elementals which gets annoying).

It's been a long time, but I think that covers the dangerous stuff.

[Donquix]

yeah seriously, fuck the stronghold and the bowels. The falling on you is the second most infuriating mechanic in the game, next to banshee/ithzir fade. Had a dangerous fading creature fade out on me in 5 out of 6 attacks. i mean like...seriously. Go fuck yourself.

[Soulance]

You're definitely going to wrack up more deaths in the Bowels than the Stronghold. Bowels tend to contain gas pockets (nope, not an anatomy lesson) that explode when ignited, so fire (and maybe plasma/lightning) bad. The Illoke in there have a ridiculous stone fist ability (which is obviously nothing like the player version, since ours sucks). Greater e-wave from elementals, I believe, can also come in the form of fire which they will use to suicide-bomber you. Then the typical Illoke, "I'm big as fuck, so kill me or knock me over and I may just land on you which will result in your death as well" stuff. The krynch are fairly harmless until the other shit stacks up on you. Oh, speaking of which... you can find yourself swarmed quickly, too (I think the greater elementals can summon little elementals which gets annoying).

It's been a long time, but I think that covers the dangerous stuff.
Yep, plasma also for sure. Blew myself up a few times using Smite.

[Askip]

You can ring to the OTF Aquaducts from the portal, have someone set a few for you.

:D

[Donquix]

You can ring to the OTF Aquaducts from the portal, have someone set a few for you.

:D

you can familiar gate back out to the portal as well if you can spare the 30 mana at the end of a hunt and want to limit the ring uses, just remember to park the little fucker there before you ring to the ducts, and reset the ring before you leave. I mean technically you could gate in but you'd have to manually walk them from the portal to the ducts and that, while certainly safer, is pretty annoying.

[Cereal Killer]

Did you guys know you can change places with your familiar? Cast familiar gate, tell familiar to go portal, then go portal. The order is important because the portal disappears after you walk through it.

Boom! No need for gold rings!

[Stavman]

Did you guys know you can change places with your familiar? Cast familiar gate, tell familiar to go portal, then go portal. The order is important because the portal disappears after you walk through it.

Boom! No need for gold rings!

MIND BLOWN!!!!!

[Donquix]

Yup, very useful trick other places but since OTF is its own region, once you cross the barrier to leave your familiar will leave to follow you. So you can't leave it in the ducts, then swap once you cross the barrier. You could do this, but need a target to send it to in the ducts, or manually walk it there then 930 swaperoo.

I wish they would git rid of that and just let familiars exist whereever the fuck you leave them :\