Common Name:	Paradox Queen
Author:	Aelryinth
Contributors:	Roberto
Difficulty:	Extreme
Minimum Level:	120
Quest Timer (days):	13
Required Trophy:	1
Introduced During:	Corrupted Sovereigns
Fellowship Required

Step 1: Run to Ethan Wintermaine (see above) at the tents above the Paradox Olthoi Holes. (the Far Claw Portal in Arwic drops you almost due north of him...head south and a little west, you can see the stain of the valley from a long way off) who will start you on the quest, and inform you if the Ward Guardian is dead or not.

Before you actually begin the quest, every member of the Party must have a scent gland. You can find them by repeatedly butchering the 161 and higher level olthoi in the valley below. The Paradox Eviscerators drop them. Everyone must have their own scent gland to go after the queen!!!

Step 2: If the Ward guardian is not dead (he returns every six hours), you have to go down after him into the hole at the back of the valley. You'll recognize it by the Paradox Sentinel Camping the entrance. Have fun with the Sentinel.

The Hole has been revamped and is now full of 161+ Olthoi. Hack your way thru to the bottom, kill the Ward guardian. Grats, you've now got six hours to reach the Queen.



Step 3: Head to the BDC (Black Death Catacombs for all you newcomers). The Olthoi Lands portal device leads right to this place, but I highly suggest that someone just tie to the bloody thing and bring everyone else in, because otherwise you waste a lot of time trying to get everyone else there.

This portal is tieable, and recallable. If you die in the lower dungeons, you last recall here. If you lag out in any of the dungeons, you do come back and are not kicked out.



Step 4: hack your way into the Paradox Lower Catacombs portal, south of the long ramp down from the surface. It's the dungeon from the Olthoi Egg quest from last month.

butcher your way thru nymphs and grubs all the way to the bottom, remembering to bear left from the second olthoi grub acid pit.

At the bottom, use your scent gland on the door, you get portalled. You can use this portal for the next two hours, in case you die.



Step 5: Battle your way thru Paradox Evis, Lancers, Warriors, and Nobles; then graduate to Slicers, Slashers and Rippers (EO olthoi)...all Paradox, of course. Spellcasters can imp/vuln the first set, they must war down the second.

Bear right from the start, and generally whenever you have to pick a direction. At the second smokey room, go left into the room to the tunnel with one olthoi on radar, or you go in a loop.

At the end of this dungeon, you come to a pit. Jumping in gets you portalled to face the Queen. It's a good time to redo your item magic.



Step 6: Jump into the pit...you materialize on a narrow shelf looking over an acid pit, with several olthoi and the Paradox Queen visible at the far end.

Everyone needs to crowd into the RIGHT HAND corner of the platform. Staying in the center or the left allows the queen and other olthoi to come up the ramp and reach you.

have a devoted re-debuffer because the Queen dispels her debuffs frequently. If she cannot reach you, then archers and mages should bombard her to death from safety. If she can reach you, prepare to lose people...she can two hit ANYONE. You do not want her in melee if at all possible.

At 50% life, the Queen calls for her bodyguards, and a bunch of Paradox Swarm Evis pop in around her, including on the platform. Wipe them out...they do not respawn.

If she TPK's you, fear not...you have time to get back down, and she won't even heal in the meantime! (this happened to us). We were ignorant of the ramp the first run, and she got into melee...we got her to 49%, then she two hit our debuffer, followed up by wiping our archer, then took out the other mage as he debuffed her again, then one melee, then the other, both times by dispelling weapon buffs so we lost Defender and she could hit us consistently.

The second run we played it smart and she died much faster.

When she is dead, let the slayer go first to loot the head, and everyone else grab a carapace shard.

The Olthoi Cistern at the far end of the room seems unusable...perhaps you have to use a waterskin on it.

Do not dally! The queen does respawn in less then five minutes. Kill the floor spawn, loot, and go.



Step 7: Head back to Ethan Wintermaine.
Give him the Head to get 99 mil xp and a plaque.
Give him the Carpace Shard for the New Title, and 247 mil xp (level-based?). He gives you a token.



Step 8: Take the token down the olthoi hole in the valley below closest to the tents. Stick to the right hand wall and go into a half-collapsed hallway, at the end of which are the crafters who will give you the new olthoi slaying weapons or shield.

The Quest is now complete. Timer is 13 days.




Comments:
Paradox Olthoi Dispel your cast buffs. You need Fire, Acid, P/S/Blunt Prots worn if at all possible. Any creature buffs you like to cast, especially key ones like life and war mastery, you should be wearing.

Banes: Fire, Acid, Slash, blunt, Pierce, Impen. Paradox Olthoi may either ignore shields entirely, or ignore item magic. If you take a shield, then make it a hollow shield.

Weapons: The perfect party will be AR blud, the mages will blud vuln, and then war or imperil.
The true party will hopefully have AR pierce (for the sword guys), the mages will pierce vuln, and then use their blud render wands, while someone imperils.

The average party will have either blud or pierce renders, someone will imperil, and the mages will war.

Mages with a Max Melee Wand and melee def will have a much easier time tanking here then anyone else.

Archers will ideally have a Pierce or blud render bow, And a Composite Bow for the Queen.

Melee will ideally have the same in renders and AR. Note to the mages...if the archers/melee have AR, it's MUCH more useful to Vuln then Imperil in here, and doing both results in a kill fest.



The Queen: The Queen casts level 7 war, but she does not vuln. She just strips prots.
The Queen dispels your buffs like all Paradox.
The Queen dispels item buffs on your weapons. Hence, if at all possible have a self-buffing weapon. This ability is what wiped our party when she stripped Defender from our weapons.

The Queen does tremendous damage if she can hit you in melee. Don't let her in melee if at all possible. She two-hit a mage in buffed Ancient Armor from 400 Hp to dead.
Standard debuffs on her should be Imperil, vulns, Fester, and UA if you are feeling sly.



The Olthoi Slayer weapons:
These are finally Slayer weapons done right. They are Dmg = to Silvaran Weapons, +15/+15, Draw and Go (all 4 spells+ Major Skill).
They have Pierce Cleaving + Biting Strike. This combo of Dmg, Render, and BS means that mathematically they are now the best Pierce Melee weapons in the game.
On top of this, they have Olthoi Slayer and do double dmg against Olthoi.

The Shield has Major Acid Ward, Minor Pierce Ward and Minor Armor on it...its only saving graces. It's a fine no-buff olthoi shield, and it saves wearing wards if you are trying to save room.

Thanks to Yo Pan II, Dragon Fury, Jak of All, and D'nia, of Leafcull, for making this run possible.

===Aelryinth