The Chains of Flame-Fun or Frustration?

This past weekend I took Erdrique (Level 16 Druid) through the quest Chains of Flame.  Chains of Flame is one of the flagging quests for the Demon Queen Raid where you obtain one of the necessary items to give to Zawabi so that he can empower you to take on the Demon Queen (you actually trade the orb you get from the Chains of Flame to the quest giver who give you a different orb).  The quest giver is Jaefan Druz, who is located in Zawabi’s Refuge and is supposedly a strong wizard or spellcaster of some sort (although we don’t really learn of what).  The quest is a level 12 quest on normal and it is located in the far reaches of the Sands of Menechtarun.  The quest is primarily full of the vicious firebrand gnolls with a numerous archers laid out in strategic places just waiting to rain down arrows upon us adventurers.  The gnoll archers can actually lie in wait for us because the quest is located in a mountain and you have to travel up inside the mountain to get to the final fight, thus providing plenty of overhangs for the archers to puck away at you.

Erdrique, as a winter wolf, taking on the denizens of a number of fire monsters…water over fire :).

The other enemies in the quest are primarily mephits, some orge magi, some fire elementals, a few air elementals, a few hyenas, and a named efreeti at the end (as well as a vicious red named gnoll).  The quest is laid out with a number of bridges, tunnels, and outcroppings and contains a number of dangerous traps as well as a large number of optionals (including rescuing a number of slaves, freeing a minotaur, removing a curse, etc..).  The quest is pretty long, so if you plan on running this quest make sure you plan appropriately. 

Now, although this particular quest is quite fun and is quite challenging, it can also be quite frustrating.  First off, it is perhaps the hardest quest to get to in the Desert.  It is located deep inside the Firebrand mountains and nowhere near the entrance to the Desert.  It does take some time to learn the route for newer players and this can lead to some frustration right from the get go.  Another source of frustration, is that you have to double back the entire time you are in the quest.  What I mean by doubling back, is that you have to go down one set of hallways to obtain a key to unlock a door in the opposite side of hallways.  In doing this, the paths get more and more complicated and one can easily get lost and/or turned around.  Couple this with rather long length of the quest, it can actually grate on some people’s nerves.  However, once you learn these paths and the general layout of the map for the quest, it does become much, much easier.

Erdrique entering the quest, Chains of Flame.   

I really enjoyed this last run through the Chains of Flame with Erdrique.  I had little problems with the quest and actually made a good amount of time through it.  I did have a rogue hireling with me that I had purchased for a different quest so I brought him along and that helped out quite a bit with the traps.  The traps are avoidable but one of them can be really tricky, a room filled with spinning blade traps that generally don’t even show up visible on my screen when they get activated.  So having a rogue is quite useful.

The Chains of Flame also gives out a good amount of experience, as I earned well over 20k experience and I was level 16 in the quest, therefore I wasn’t getting the bravery bonus.  But even without that, it was still a great chunk of experience.

If you get a chance and can make your way out to the Burning City, then I would recommend hitting up the Chains of Flame!!  It is a fun, although long and potentially frustrating quest, but one that will certainly give you some interesting memories and some fun experiences.  Thanks for reading everybody and now get back to slaying some gnolls!!