Further down the rabbit hole we went, to find our fame and fortune in the temple so black, where fel orcs and demons keep us dire company. The Temple of Karabor was once a marvel to behold, a dream of pure light where the Draenei found shelter and ancestral guidance. It was our duty to help in their release, but fate now sets us on bone littered path. We went through the sewers and defeated Naj’Entus, then into the courtyard where Supremus guards the entrance and helped Akama fight his Shade. Outland shall be restored and Burning Legion cast out of The Black Temple, along with Illidan himself. There is hope, but also a price to pay. With this thought in mind we make our way deeper into the Temple, to Teron Gorefiend’s outer cloister and deep beyond light and hope, to the Reliquary of Souls and Gurtogg Bloodboil.

Doing the Ashtongue a favor …

<-250x250 Square - left->Straight ahead from the Sanctuary of Shadows, in the back of the room and to the left lie the stairs which lead to him. Know that Teron Gorefiend is the first of the real challenges of the Black Temple and when your guild reaches him you’ll discover the meaning of pain. Trash packs leading to his terrace are particularly hard due to the mixed AoE setups, with fel orcs dealing both magic and melee damage. Pulls require two to three mages sheeping and three melee offtanks. I can say from experience that paladin tanks are great since they can hold agro from three targets without ending up in a bloody mess. Felorc casters use bloodbolt, an area of effect ability which deals about 4k damage to each target in a cone and also heals him for the same amount. Curse of tongues or slow on should be on at all times when fighting them as they’re usually sheeped by mages and killed last. Trash pack positioning was never exceptional so watch out for double pulls, especially when going up the stairs. Marking can get tricky here. However, you can handle a regular pack and a patrol at the same time should you be unfortunate enough to pull agro. Once you dispatched the warmaster and his many minions, you need to go up the second staircase, into an open terrace adorned with tall statues in semblance of Felorc warriors.

There are some low hit point orcs which can seemingly be soloed (they have about 20k life) and I’ve seen videos about this part, where a healer and a damage dealer managed to sneak up here and slay them all for incredibly powerful and free random loot. It seems the recent Mount Hyjal itemization on the undead waves was a response to this clever use of game mechanics, thus the Black Temple random drop rates as a whole have been reduced. You can still take a look at how people used to do it before the nerf here.

Teron Gorefiend

Past the two statues like the secluded hall of Teron Gorefiend, an old “friend” you might recall from a while back, when you were questing in Netherstorm. There was a long quest chain that led up to you completing a time old armor initially tailored for the great warlock Gorefiend himself. You let your body be possessed by this armor and defeated its Eredar guardian in its stead, only to find out that a great evil has been let loose into the world once more. It was you who freed Teron Gorefiend from its captivity in Netherstorm and as a matter of honor you must now put his soul to rest for good.

Teron Gorefiend is literally deadly. As the fight starts, he needs to be tanked between the pillars, relatively close to the door. From now on, every thirty seconds he will cast Shadow of Death, debuff which lasts 55 seconds and will kill you once the duration has ended. If you can’t serve the raid in life, then maybe you’ll be useful in death. Once the debuff has 25 seconds left, you need to move to Gorefiend’s starting position, between the braziers, and patiently wait your demise. Upon death, four shadowy constructs will spawn at your location and head towards the raid. Do you see the flying ghosts above the room? Now you just became one of them and must immediately proceed to eliminating constructs as only ghosts like you can hurt them. In order to do so it’s mandatory to bind keys to the three paramount ghost abilities. One will damage all constructs in sight, the second chains them to the ground for a couple of seconds while the third should be spammed each second because it deals moderate damage to one construct and also slows his movement speed. This fight it’s not about dispelling, healing or tanking – it’s about managing your constructs correctly, before they get into the raid and kill everyone. So be sure to bind CTRL+5, 4, 3 to comfortable positions or even get macros for casting Spirit Volley, Spirit Chains, and Spirit Lance accordingly. Use the first two when not on cooldown and using Spirit Lance while continually switching construct targets.

The winged, cowled figure is one of the darkest in the game. He still hits like a truck and his spells hit random targets which need to be healed and dispelled, but it’s nothing that can’t be held under control. Chances of success rise when healers die to Shadow of death first, because DPS is needed. Locks must devise a soulstone rotation of on targeted players, so that the first two can come back to life after ghost duty. Shamans can get up on their own, which pretty much leaves Divine Intervention the only wipe recovery tool. Running back to Gorefiend’s room after a wipe never gets old but as long as constructs are under control, Teron’s wicked soul will soon be put to rest.

Gurtogg Bloodboil

Descending back into the temple main room it’s time to take a sharp right, into the Halls of Anguish where Felorcs are trained in to grow more powerful and ruthless, ready to pierce the enemy wherever the fight may lead them. The great hall hosts many skirmishing packs and you are presented with a choice in confrontation. Darkness takes many shapes should you go right and pass the ghost fields, into the Reliquary of Souls chamber. Unlike its spiritual counterpart, on the other side of the compound resides Gurtogg Bloodboil, a being anything but ethereal. First you will have to get past the huge Bonechewer Behemoths, which rain fire from the sky. While they don’t hit hard in melee, meteor after meteor will run your healers dry and the raid hurt.

Our path leads to Gurtogg Bloodboil’s lair to fight the greatest Felorc gladiator to ever walk the face of Outland. Just like every encounter henceforth, we were faced with a harsh reality check when we couldn’t keep Gurtogg’s fury in check. He just slashes away at cloth users like a knife through butter so group setup is of paramount importance. Get 10 healers, less mages and warlocks, with more melee DPS than usual since they are the prime damage dealers. It can be done with a two-tank rotation but three are advisable since Gurtogg leaves a debuff which lowers armor and does damage over time. Tanks must switch agro control from one to another on 10-13 debuffs and no-one is allowed to past their threat because Gurtogg also disorients tanks on occasion. The boss must be tanked at the right wall position while ranged DPS and healers stay further away, near the opposite wall. Bloodboil is his main damaging ability in phase one, a damage-over-time attack which hits the furthest five raid members. It gets cast every 10 seconds thus three healer and ranged DPS groups must take turns at taking Bloodboil. It can stack up, resetting the timer, deals 15k damage and must be healed through. So if you’re in a sponge group, every twenty seconds you’ll run away from the tanking position, roughly to the opposite wall and take the next Bloodboil, then come back and resume your role.

Every minute Gurtogg goes into a rage and throws a buff on a random party member. During phase two, fel rage grants you armor, hit points and a sizeable damage buff, because Gurtogg will only attack you. Everyone else in the raid becomes insignificant and will generate no threat so and they can DPS at their hearts content. The problem lies with Gurtogg getting fel rage himself, dealing incredible damage to his new found obsession. This is the phase where wipes occur, especially if a cloth user gets targeted. With a bit of practice your healers will be able to heal through the rage and phase one starts again. We usually undergo three fel rages until the boss is down but mana is hardly an issue and when the acid clouds lift from your gaze, Gurtogg Bloodboil will be laying in ruins, crushed.

The Reliquary of Souls

One being of immense power still calls the Halls of Anguish its home. They call it the Reliquary of Souls, the collective spark of every lost essence that found its end in the Black Temple. From the entrance and to the right lies a medium chamber patrolled by ghosts, some visible and some invisible. Every member of the raid must follow the tank and move as one because the main tank will “schedule” three stops, picking up three subsequent ghost packs which must be killed by AoE fast. There is little room for error, because the area has a very fast respawn timer of about 15 seconds, so if you’re slow, additional packs will agro, making your progress impossible. Once the third stop has been performed and the ghosts are dead, make haste down the stairs. It’s a common occurrence that casters don’t have time to drink at this point, but don’t worry, phase one is not mana intensive and everybody gets refreshed before entering phase two.

A huge monolithic box resembling a cube starts pulsating as you approach. It is in fact a prison and the first face of darkness you’re going to see is the Essence of Suffering. During this phase, all healing and regenerating effects (including mana) cease to work and basically you will body tank every little bit of damage thrown your way, with the notable exception of priest power word shield and mage shields. This boss fixates a target pretty much like Thaladred does in the Kael’Thas encounter and will swing a couple of times in melee before switching to its next target. As a rule of thumb, the Essence of Suffering always attacks the closest target in melee, thus hunters are the best choice in taking the first hits because they need to distance themselves afterwards in order to deal damage. The first hunter gets in melee range, fixated, then he needs to move one step further away but still within melee range. That’s when a second raid member moves in even closer to the boss and gets the next fixate. Once hunters have done this one time each, the bulk of the raid moves in and gets damaged. It’s important to remember that you can’t remain in the same place when fixated, but you can’t move away more than one step away either. The point is to keep the Essence still, while everyone soaks some damage. Once you get hit and lose more than half your hit points, it’s wise to move away for the rest of the fight and keep doing damage. The essence of Suffering also casts damage over time curses at random group members so dispellers must keep alert. Rogues and dedicated tanks should never get fixated because their massive damage avoidance capabilities need to be used on enrages. The Essence of Suffering enrages for ten seconds roughly every 45 seconds and attacks a single target for sustained damage. Rogues with evasion can do the trick, or tanks with high dodge and parry chance. If everything goes well and no-one dies, after the third enrage the suffering end and the essence runs back into the cage.

Harmless ghosts rush the raid and regenerate 2000 hit points and mana upon death, so everyone will get topped off by the time the Essence of Desire emerged from its prison. Imagine healers having twice the normal healing power and your offensive abilities doing twice the damage. It’s beautiful, but with a twist. Every raid member takes half the amount of damage they’re dealing. To make things worse, your mana cap will constantly lower to the point where in 90 seconds you have zero mana out of zero maximum mana. Needless to say it is a DPS race but you still have to keep the fight under control. The Spirit Shock casts need to be interrupted by a three squad rotation (consisting in a rogue kicking and another class as a backup); otherwise their casting speed increases and the tank gets disoriented. On the other hand, the deaden ability should never be kicked, but spell reflected back to the Essence of Desire by the warrior main tank. Thus damage is again doubled against the ethereal presence. There was a joke among mages, about an instant empowered pyroblast critical strike on the deadened essence, which basically one-shots the said mage due to partial damage reflection. Do not try this at home because it is possible and likely to happen. Mages can still have fun by spell stealing a rune shield the essence occasionally casts, for 10 seconds of damage immunity and 100% greater casting speed. Otherwise, the shield needs to be dispelled, or devoured by the felhunter warlock pet since spirit shock interrupts aren’t possible as long as rune shield holds. It’s gamble really, and your luck has better hold if you want to get past to the third face of despair.

Yet again, everyone gets refreshed to maximum hit points and mana before engaging the final and deadliest of them all: the Essence of Suffering. Where do I begin? This time you will not run out of mana in 90 seconds – you’ll flat out die in 60 unless the essence is destroyed, due to it’s aura of suffering. It starts off by dealing moderate damage, somewhere around 130, but then continually doubles until its next tick one-shots you. Everything goes in this phase, every little dirty trick, the most mana consuming spells, all potions and cooldowns are blown right off from the start. Soulstones should be placed on rogues because once they die, they can revive and even evasion tank the essence for a while. Damage ticks will just start from 130 again so a rogue can live without healing for 10 seconds more easily. Since there is no way to recover from a wipe here (due to the ghost halls) shamans will just self resurrect in this fight and keep the battle going. I found out the Reliquary of Souls to be a most brutal skill check for everyone in the raid, as well as a massive gear check. Although luck is a big factor, incompetent players will get stuck here for ages. This is hands on the most challenging fight in the game, in line with Illidan and Kael’Thas. 60 seconds and you know if fate chose you victor. There is always silence after the kill, with half the raid dying at the same time, but casualties can bask in the glory of a job well done once the Reliquary of Souls crumbles and its spirits get released.

The way to Illidan’s upper sanctum is now cleared as the gate opens downstairs. The last demise brought us one step closer to final victory and we can but wonder what the future has in store for us. Tomorrow is another day, and this time we are prepared.

An official statement on the game's website states that all beta accounts and login servers have been taken down for preparation and maintainance in order to be ready and fully functional for the day of the release of the game, along Haloween, on October 31st in USA and on the 2nd of November in Europe.

The downtime is necessary to ensure a smooth ride for the customers from the very first day of online play. In the meantime I am getting myself ready for the one of the biggest and most comprehensive review I ever wrote for a videogame, as this one will change concepts and will revolutionize the gaming industry. There are loads of new elements and key concepts like shooter action is combined with 3rd person hack-and-slash in order to bring a full gaming experinece to the table.

As soon as the required maintenance is performed, the website and forums will once again be operable, and the ones who were beta players, such as myself, will be able to keep their characters and to choose their favourite names for their characters. I've got a BladeMaster and a Lady Summoner wating for me, lots of monsters and demons to slay... More details will be added soon.

<-180x150 Small Rectangle - left->The multitude of games promoted under the banner of NCSoft never ceases to amaze me. At first I had troubles taking in the double account system, when you first need to setup one NCsoft mater account and then separate accounts for every game you play, but seeing how many they are, I am beginning to see some utility. We have Guild Wars with all its expansions, City of Heroes/Villains, the now defunct Auto Assault, Lineage, Lineage 2, and Tabula Rasa which will soon join them. Dungeon Runners is the one title I left out and today we’ll switch focus on this pretty much underrated action RPG which was released on May 24, 2007.

An inconvenient idea

Dungeon Runners is set in a medieval fantasy world, parody to every role playing game cliché known to man and the hack and slash game mechanics only add texture to the game concept. I still have to decide if this profane point of view to the world of role playing games is what I want, but the game has and overall casual feeling, enforced by the free to download and free to play policy. NCSoft has a premium package available for a monthly US 5$ which will nab you the right to wear the best armors in the game, along with epic swords, better healing potions and access to a larger character bank. So if you want to get in, bash some monsters, get the loot and log out, Dungeon Runners is the right choice, since you won’t be involved in intricate puzzle solving during your quests and the dialogues follow a strong satirical line.

Even NPCs are self explanatory, just like the Hermit you’ll meet in the starting area, always babbling and nagging you that he’s alone and doesn’t see many people. It’s definitely not an oversight that he’s the most talkative character in the whole game and incidentally, also a merchant. I wasn’t the least surprised when later on I entered the city of Townston and found a dark dungeon entrance to the Horrific Dungeon of Legend. I remember there being a whole wave of second rate computer RPGs in the ‘80s, filled with generic dungeon talk, lacking substance and continuity, but this time Dungeon Runners does it on purpose.

Character evolution revolves around getting better armor and improving stats. Strength gets more melee damage and armor, agility will increase range damage, just like endurance boosts your hit points and intellect changes spell damage. The interesting bit is that character surnames change according to your statistics disposition. A high intellect, low level mage using lightning spells mostly would hereby become Studious Noobie Obsidian Mage Five stat points can be distributed on each levelup. Should you get tired of the current playing style, you can always re-spec (re-specialize). In exchange for a paltry gold sum you can redistribute all your acquired stats points and turn into a massive warrior if the situation calls for it. I can see me now, playing a high profile mage, swore to fireballs, when the greatest bow in the game drops and I re-spec ranger at the blink of an eye.

Hack and Slash for your right to party

The initial choice boils down to either getting a mage, a ranger or a warrior. Dungeon Runners sports a classless system when your character evolves solely governed by the increase in attributes and the skills used. This starter pack rules the way your playing experience will be like in the lower levels. It’s a matter of preference if you want to hurl lightning bolts, swing axes or fly arrows at your opponents, because later on your character can learn each and every skill available to the game. Keep in mind that you can only use 10 skills at any given time, similar to the Guild Wars system. You just drag and drop skills to the quick cast bar and start spamming. I chose the caster type myself and found it to be a great power leveling choice. His area of effect damage spells coupled with good running speed made him a perfect killing tool by kiting two packs of creatures and then bursting them down in an instant.

As you enter the game world, three newbie NPCs wait in line to get the starting quest, as the quest giver himself tells you to get in line. Lusting for fame, fortune and ridiculously powerful loot, you get lured to this particular realm, where dungeons are ripe with monsters to kill. Be sure to get the two stating quests and head on to the dungeon represented by the reddish looking portal to the right. Remember when I praised the mage? Dungeon Runners monsters are usually grouped in packs of two to four, linked together even if they’re at a distance. I don’t really think there is a threat system thoroughly implemented, but you will get agro if you go straight in. It’s a “first seen – first attacked” system. With three assailants on your tail, the inability to kite can be a killer. Healing is handled by potions which stack up to 20 in one group and restore up to 40% of your maximum hit points over 5 seconds. Premium users get access to a more powerful version which heals 50%, and yes, this automatically implies there are only two types of healing potion in the game. The same goes for mana potions, but they are harder to come by and don’t stack up at all.

The regular inhabitants of these woods are wolves and rats, the kind that carry magic items in their pockets and vast sums of gold. The game uses item color coding, ranging from grey – for poor quality items, to green, blue, golden and finally purple. The best items in the game have some hilarious descriptions, randomized by the item creation tool; Nodnarb’s Battalion Splinter from the Unpopular Nether Region anyone? More-evil-than-evil item names are common place in the world of Dungeon Runners.

The scenario follows suit in the Diablo line. You first find the entrance to the dungeon, and then kill everything in sight before going down the stairs to the next level. Rinse and repeat from five to seven times, until reaching the final map where the big bad boss waits surrounded by large minion packs. Now it would be a good time to use a waypoint scroll (read town portal) and slide back to the last visited town. Get the quest to slay the beast, if you didn’t get it already and start the fight. You know a creature is tough when the bottom right mouse over tool tip no longer says it’s “Normal”. “Champion” is a good description, but there are many others. Champions are hard to solo and a whole pack of champions definitely require a group to tackle.

As the boss bites the dust, loot can be outlined by pressing Alt. Bosses usually have a chest or two stashed away from sight so be sure to check those too. Inventory space is an issue and you’ll thank the gods there is such a thing as waypoint scrolls all over the place. Just go back in and sell for a hefty profit since gold is needed to buy skills and many, many potions. I was about to talk about plot advancing quests but there aren’t any. Some important quests reward you with king’s coins, an alternative currency used at certain NPCs to attain class armor. Let’s presume you are a powerful marksman and require better armor specifically tailored for your needs. That would mean faster running speed, agility, some damage additions and endurance is required. In Townston and beyond, friendly men work for the King and would gladly commission you such items in exchange for king’s coins. It’s the NCSoft way of rewarding players for completing quests. I forgot to mention that completing quests gets you gold and the said coins, but never experience.

What you see and hear

The control scheme is somewhat troubling because mouse look is dependent on pressing the Shift key (we're not playing poker here). This implementation comes from the inane controls which bind left click to move and right click to attack (or spell attack) and the fact that your camera will not adjust to the terrain automatically. Since Dungeon Runners features a complete 3D-modeled environment, you’ll be spending one third of your actions just for camera repositioning, even in the heat of battle. In terms of gameplay it’s still possible to kite, but harder to perform. Graphics are not that flashy and tend to create a cartoon-like environment. While you can zoom out for a better overall view, the small corridors and tight forest spaces forces you to play at half distance, third person. From this point of view textures look half decent, with bright slightly unnatural color tones. For a 2007 release, I’d say graphics are too old, resembling a 3D mutation of Diablo 2, native to technology that’s already six years old. In the end, graphical quality reflects on the low system requirements. Sounds do the job in stereo without being exceptional and background music follows the same line. It’s somewhat the standard with hack&slash games, where you focus on your next target rather than ambiance.

The Multiplayer factor

Once logged in I was surprised to see only 180 players online across 6 servers. It wasn’t prime time though, but I find such numbers disappointing for a title which saw final release five months ago. Bearing this in mind, I join the most populated PvE server, hoping for better interaction with the 80-man player base (and prepared for long solo-play hours). There is also a PvP serve available, but having only three users online defeats the whole purpose or player killing.

All NCSoft games follow the pattern of instanced content, where cities are the only places to set up trade relations, chat and group for powerful bosses. While there won’t be anyone bothering you while slaying ten beasts at a time, I find this playing style lacking. We’re talking about fully fledged MMO games here, yet the “massive” factor is nowhere to be found. You can, however, group with other players and they will be able to join the same copy of game word you are currently using. One popular request is for Sissirat groups, since he’s the lowest level world boss, not counting the one in the Dew Glades. Since there are no dedicated healer classes, the warrior type must take the beating with his massive health pool and armor, while the others deal damage as fast as possible. Since we’re talking about a hack and slash game, don’t expect crowd control capabilities. Comparisons to Diablo 2 are unavoidable, thus you can expect the same single-player type gameplay with a multiplayer component, but if you are looking for 20-man raids, then Dungeon Runners is the wrong place to do it.

Gameplay

A stunning conclusion

Dungeon Runners suffered from a very long development cycle which started in 2001. After two intermediary names, and subsequent different development teams, a long silence ensued until NCSoft started developing the title in-house in 2005. Such perilous journey usually dooms a title to mediocrity doe to the rough development conditions and I dare say Dungeon Runners witnessed the same fate. Although it’s played exclusively online, the game is addictive enough if you aim at an experience on the single player side. Hack and slash never gets old and the advantage of having a low player base is that you can rise and be the best in not time. Casual players will appreciate Dungeon Runners and its lack of intricate designs, somewhat in the vein of old dungeon crawler games that went out of fashion lately. Since the game is free to download and free to play, be sure to take a look and try it on for yourselves.

NCSoft home - http://ncsoft.com
Official game site - http://www.dungeonrunners.com