VON 3 on Epic Hard…Take 2!!

As I continue to battle my way through the epic levels, I’m learning more and more about the nuisances between the epic and heroic versions of quests, and even between the epic normal and epic hard versions of quests.  A little while ago I mentioned my struggles in the Tharashk Arena, VON 1, on epic hard with my ranger/shiradi champion, Kolll (Level 22).  Well, another character I have been working with on epic hard difficulty settings has been Garrrin (Level 23 Barbarian/Fury of the Wild).  I struggled with him as well on epic hard with VON 1 but I eventually dogged my way through it with the help of a guildie.  However, I was quite surprised with the ease in which I took Garrrin through The Prisoner, VON 2, on epic hard.  I never ran into a problem while making it through that quest.

So I wondered how Garrrin would do when I attempted to work on The Jungle of Khyber, VON 3, on epic hard.  Well, I must say the result was rather interesting.  I had with me my level 25 owlbear, my onyx panther, and the level 23 favored soul/exalted angle hireling.  The quest started out nicely.  I had no issues with dealing the opening drow forces, scorpions, and trolls.  I also had little issues with the traps, being able to slide past them easy enough.  The only real problem I ran into was a play style issue.  I like to make sure everything is destroyed or taken out before I carry on.  However, when I reached the spot of the first shrine, with the drow enemies camped overhead on that cliff, I realized that I didn’t have enough range damage to defeat them efficiently and actually was killed a few time at this spot.  After dying a couple more times trying to range them down, I realized that I should have just left them there and continued on.  At this point my equipment had sufferred quite badly but I carried on and made it further into the quest where I eventually got held and subsequently killed, as well as the other members of hireling party.

Garrrin and his panther dealing with an explosion in VON 3.

So I decided to recall and give it another shot hence the “take two” in the title.  So after I repaired all of my equipment, refreshed my buffs, and then I reentered the quest and made my way back to the first shrine and this time I simply ignored the enemies on the overhang.  I then breezed my way through the quest up to the beholder area.  While in the beholder forest, I did take a few negative levels and a nice nasty disintegrate that killed me but that was the only hiccup.  I even breezed through the names without difficulty, being lucky enough to only pull one at a time.  The end fight with the Marut was I little worried about but that went good too.

The thing that really saved me during that second run through was not wasting so much energy and time on those initial ranged/casting forces on that overhang and Garrrin healing ability while raged.  The powerful healing ability help me more than anything.  In any case, VON 3 on epic hard was much easier for me than VON 1.  Now we’ll see what VON 4 has in store for Garrrin!!  Thanks for reading everybody and happy hunting!!