The Loyalist Shield of Honor

[Eriatha Egan]

Stats - 50ac 15str 15wis 75hp SECONDARY/BACK

I did a search here, but I only found a couple people either saying they were in the process of doing this quest or telling another person to get it. The reason I write this post is because I'm wondering if anyone has done it before. What am I to expect? I read over the quest log and it didn't seem too difficult. I expect 2 more minor engagements, a door that needs picklocking, some high skill made items, and at the end a battle that could possibly not even drop the piece.

-Do I have to have ally faction with Katta Kastellum?
-The quest would be done by a 65 shaman, 63 mage, 51 warrior, and 45 rogue. Now, I'm the warrior and my secondary character is the mage. My friend is playing both the shaman and the rogue. Both the warrior and rogue will be a much higher level as we progress through the quest. Think we would be able to finish this quest? Or would we have to bring in reinforcements?

Another question is, is it worth it? The AC on this shield seems awesome enough. I could only wish the 15wis would be replaced with 15sta, but we can dream, can't we? :) Or should I just say fuggit and move onto something else?

Any commentary would be appreciated.

[Superchum]

"What am I to expect?"

Long, boring, silly, STUPID Luclin-era camps.

If you thought camping shards in Maiden's Eye was bad ... you're not prepared for this quest.

"Do I have to have ally faction with Katta Kastellum?"

Don't think you need ally. Just non-KoS. But the people I've helped with this quest have mostly been paladins. In any event, kill enough vampires, and believe me, you will, and you'll have no faction issues.

"Think we would be able to finish this quest?"

Get bane weapons on everyone, and you should be able to finish the quest. But from everything I've seen, the vampire is much easier to just kite, so you avoide the annoyingly LARGE lifetap.

Then again, level 65s should be able to deal with the tap rather well.

"Or would we have to bring in reinforcements?"

Either bring a bunch of druid friends and have them kill the guy ... or make sure everyone has vamp bane weapons and go to town. Either way works.

"Another question is, is it worth it?"

Depends solely on one thing: How much do you VALUE your own time? It's a timesink. It's a LUCLIN timesink. If you value your time even just the tinsiest bit, it's not worth it at all.

Good luck. Have fun.

[Gear]

Bring a bunch of nukers lev up and over to the indentation on the wall that looks down the stairs. Pull vampire to stairs and nuke away.

[Brolie Paragus]

lol its not as bad as the above poster makes it out to be...
bring a group of people with pets (pets need no bane) or a mini raid with bain weps and farm the castle for the night... you will see him eventually .... it took me about 3-5 hr camp of clearing the castle to get the trigger to spawn also the ashes are droppable (or were when i got them) so you can buy them..

For the rest of the kills I used a group + or minnus 1 or 2 of pre 60 people... the biggest pain was naythan wasent up when i went to hand the 1st handin in because somone killed him.. (long wait), imo the shield was worth the wait.

[Gear]

no no, you go to the back of the castle lev to the balcony and hes down the stiars... you dont need to go in through the front door and waste all that time.

[Brolie Paragus]

i have a theroy though hes triggerd by killing off the named spawns due to the fact herotus is a trator to the vamps and is kos to them...

[Rugal Bloodwind]

Er, pets DO need bane weapons for Zevfeer. I went by "no need" and the pet owners told me I was wrong. Pet procs land, but their melee will not.

Also, Heratius is not kos as far as I know. I watched him stand at his spawnpoint (he doesn't move), close to one of the normal vamps without being molested. He does however despawn, sucker did so in front of me, as I was going to pull him.

I don't believe in any of the linked spawn theories..he was a no show for 6 hours the day before, then after the despawn he was back within about 2 hours, both times we destroyed the castle.
Only odd thing I found is that if Heratius is up, the named vamp on the top floor (Trix-something) is not up. Take it for what you will.

To the original question..apart from Zevfeer, its a pretty simple quest. You can do the whole thing except maybe Zevfeer with your group probably. Is it worth it? To me, it was. Although I did get lucky. No 12 hour nonstop horror camp or the likes. I think all in all I spent roughly 10 hours, spread over several days.

There's no locked door, thats for different katta quest stuff and the ashes do drop every time as far as I know. Be careful if you think to buy them. Heratius drops ashes of the same name, but they ID differently, as Ashes of Heratius and Zevfeer respectively. You must have Zevfeer ash. Verify before blowing cash!
The summon thingie is pottery made, 100ish skill should be plenty. I did with less, but ate several failures (quest items are returned, only minimal money loss).

Good luck.

[Kalaz]

I have one of these and absoutely love it. That much AC in a back item opens up a lot of other slots for higher HP items.

My experience was that Heratius spawns, when you kill him Valdanov spawns. The lifetap is incredibly annoying. As has been said, either get a bunch of folks with bane weapons, or a few casters to kite him around.

Any non-KOS faction is good, but after camping the castle for a while you'll be more than high enough. GO ahead and kill the other vamps there, they can drop some decent cash items on occasion and you won't feel quite so frustrated after 4 hours of monotony. :)

Is it worth it? I think so. I swapped my Cloak of Flames for a Seahorse belt for the massive AC boost from this thing and have since upped my hitpoints considerably without losing AC from its previous level.

Plus its nice to be sitting at better than 1300 AC while many others struggle to break 1250.

[Eriatha Egan]

I really appreciate the feedback guys. You guys pointed out a few things that I overlooked.

As far as long quests go, yes they're annoying, kinda like factioning. In the end, however, they're usually worth it.

Thanks again guys. ")

[rexiant]

I did this entire quest except for the final kill in 3 hours. It's VERY easy and fast.

The hardest encounter is killing the 5 (4?) shades that spawn via script in Katta. They can be single-pulled with arrows. For some reason when I did this quest they spawned doubles...one on top of the other. So we ended up killing 10 (8?).

Get heals, dps, slows (why not), and someone to gate you back and forth from GF to nexus a couple times and you're solid up until the Zefeer (sp?) kill.

I got a Siblisian Berzerkers Cape from a friend the other day so now I'm banking the quest items to finish another day when / if I end up with my haste in another slot.

I suggest looking up the "stake quest" in TM. The result is a 1HP I think 16/22 vs bane. They're lore, but if you want to get a bunch, just mule them until you're ready to sit, for hours, killing vamps, and waiting. I think there and some nice piercers in Katta that are vendor-sold as well, and you can do the first half of the ashbringer quest for the pally's if they need a bane 2hs.

That's a LOT of prep work, but I think there will be a time when 50ac on the back would be nice to have...and 75hp is no joke either. Damn that's a lot of ac for the back slot.

rex


EDIT: I was dubious in SH and indiff in Katta with NO problems.