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Guide to the Solo Crucible Challenge
The Solo Crucible has been released with patch 2.6 and gives those daevas who like to quest alone a chance at Crucible Medals. These medals can be used at vendors in either the Marchutan Priory (Asmodians) or Kaisinel Academy (Elyos) for a variety of gear, including costume gear. It's also possible to obtain several new godstones in the instance as shown below through drops from a mob that can be fought every 5th time you do the instance. You can do this instance once every 22 hours.
A final score and quest reward from the first time quest.
You obtain the first quest for the instance from either Marchutan Priory (Asmodians) or Kaisinel Academy (Elyos). There is a follow up quest to finish stage 6 five times. Additionally, you probably won't want or need DP food for the instance as you gain DP very fast. I got around 4k DP from the instance.
Elyos and Asmodian Quest Givers
Upon your entrance to the instance, a proper shugo will be waiting to escort you through the stages. For each stage you must talk to the shugo to go onto the next stage. Make sure to rest up before you start each stage. Oh, and the text from the shugo is sometimes a bit funny, so you may want to read it the first time through.
The Crucible 2 instance has 6 stages, with several of the stages having 2 rounds. Each stage is described below. My personal favorite is the round 4 bonus, because it's the only one where I got to fight a monkey. As the shugo suggests, the stages go from easy to hard, with a couple of exceptions due to mob skills. I did the instance on a couple of test server characters (both clerics) and it appears that stage 6 may be the most difficult for non-healers while stages 2 and 5 can be the most difficult for healers. My gear on the test server is horrible (greens with a couple of blues primarily), so if I can do the full instance, it means a wide variety of characters should be able to do well in it. Regarding your starting location for all of the stages - running towards the arbiter (usually away from the shugo that starts the event) to the outer part of the ring is the safest location to start at.
Round 1 Stage 1 - Attack of the Plants
Several plants spawn and attack you in this round. You can start the round at the edge of the arena without aggro'ing any of them. Be careful though, because while the mobs themselves are easy to kill, there are a couple of respawns after the second plant dies and with multiple plants attacking you at the same time it can become annoying. Note that the only difference between the Elyos and Asmodian version of this, is that the plants are purple in the Asmodian version.
Round 1 Stage 2 - I'm a Tree, I'm a Very Mad Tree
Stage 2 is the same for both factions and features a melee tree. If you kill him slowly enough, he will spawn miniature trees at low health (at 25%). He is fairly easy to kill though, so hopefully this won't be a problem unless you attend the instance naked.
Round 1 Reward - the Chest Gives and the Instance Taketh Away
At the end of round 1 you obtain a ticket for a free rez in the instance. If you don't use it, then it will disappear at the end of the instance.
Round 2 Stage 1 - Squabbling Birds
They don't like it when you interrupt them and come over to stun you. Over and over and over again.
There is a trick to all of the potential alternates of this phase. The creatures will fight with each other until one of them drops to 50% health. So you can range attack them to try and get them all around that before they all come to attack you.
It's only one of the birds that stuns (the Mira), so please CC it or take it down first if you don't particularly want to be chain stunned. The airon bird (the one that looks like a crane) is the one that seems to do the least in terms of attacks.
Stage 1 does have an alternate form and it's much easier than the birds. There are two spriggs. You can range them both to 50% before they attack you.
Round 2 Bonus - Save the Elyos Piggy!
This will be the only time that Asmodians get to save Poppy from the mean and evil cooks chasing him around. Both sides get this bonus too. Poppy tends to yell a lot and you may want him to die (after all, you just lose points as this is a bonus round and it won't stop the instance), but the goal is to save him. You can either try to kill (aoe) the masses of critters chasing him or just heal his arse. Either works and after a set time if he's still alive you win. You obtain Poppy's favorite food from this stage (there are at least 2 versions of this food given). Personally, I think that I deserve pork for saving his whining butt.
He does drop piggy treats that you can feed to the new Poppy pet. The pet may drop items like medals with some percent chance.
Round 3 Stage 1 - You Saved Poppy for This?
One version of this stage has you kill barrels in order to attract Karnifs to the meat. While the Karnifs are eating, they can be safely solo pulled. After you pull and kill a certain number (there were two left when they despawned for me), a "boss" Karnif will appear. He's fairly easy to kill. The alternate version of this has wind creatures instead of Karnifs, but basically it's the same.
Round 3 Stage 2 - the Gentle Mosbear that Eats You
This round starts with a gentle bear that quickly decides that you are just too tasty to pass up. It's primarily a melee bear and will summon two little cubs that are very hungry when it gets to 50% of its life. Normally, when the summon occurs the mosbear will shield himself, so that you have a chance to kill cubs. This somehow got out of sequence for me and so everything hit me all at once right when the cubs were summoned. These cubs will eventually disappear if left alone (at 25% of the mosbear's life), but you should probably take them down when the mosbear has the shield on.
Round 4 Stage 1 - When Servants Just Stand There
You'd think servants would try to help their master en masse when there's an attack, but these servants appear to want to go it alone and they will stand and ranged auto-attack you. They are all ranged attackers without much oomph and they can be pulled separately. They are all characters from Kromede's Trial. One of the masters that you'll have to kill in this stage is a sorceress (Lady Angerr) that will summon bats when low on health. The alternate versions of the stage have a melee character (Justicetaker Wyr and Hamam the Torturer). All were fairly easy to take down.
Round 4 Stage 2 - All That Screaming Must Have Woken Him Up
It appears that you will fight the master of the house, Kaliga after the previous stage. Kaliga has a couple of abilities. He can stun and IJ you to him. He also sometimes summons bats. Both of these occur when he is low on life.
Round 4 Bonus - You Defeated the Master and the Next Step Up is... His Pet?
The guy who starts this bonus promises you rewards when picking one chest from a set of 3. Except that if the chest doesn't have anything in it, it spawns a pet. The pets are very easy to kill and it appears that the longer you manage to choose the "wrong" chest, the greater the reward in the end. Though for 3 chests it was only 3 Crucible Medals. But it's ok as I got to fight a monkey.
If you manage to select a chest with 3 times, without getting an end reward, then you'll get a larger chest as a reward called Armino's Noble Treasure. The choices do appear to be somewhat random however, so roll the dice and wish for luck!
Round 5 Stage 1 - Mugging Attempt in Broad Daylight
Round 5 can either seem very similar to the previous round or it can step up the difficulty. There are several versions of this particular stage with different preceptors. The easiest was probably the cleric (so far she hasn't healed) with the most difficult being the ranger. The mage was inbetween the two. The fights are now against 1 star elites and they tend to hit harder.
The ranger is difficult because he starts the fight out by stealthing and sneaking up on you. He then runs from you and fires. And he continues to run away... like a ranger should. He hits fairly hard (I healed a lot for this fight) and can interrupt your casting. I can imagine this mob taking the place of the most painful one in the instance potentially. Thank goodness for blind.
Round 5 Stage 2 - Shugo Threatens Because the Karnifs Ate Poppy
If you like being chased around by a mad shugo shouting about food, then this will be your favorite stage. He is another tank and spank sort of mob. The alternates all appear to be melee mobs with similar abilities. They do look different from each other though.
Round 6 - Boss of the Boss
This is the end round and final boss. He stuns and does special attacks such as pulling you to him and slowing you. At around 50% he will spawn 3 spirit orbs that come to attack you. Take them down as they have little health.
Round 6 - Bonus Stage
Every 5 times you do this instance, you'll be able to enter a rift and an extra set of mobs (the quest for this does appear repeatable). So far I've done this stage once and the fight was ultra easy (it had the sprigg from stage two plus a new mob). The new mob did drop a godstone.
This post has been edited by Nobody: 08 August 2011 - 09:05 AM
Reason for edit: added extra details
MultiQuote
). The group crucible seemed a lot more challenging in terms of scripted fights.
