Desolation of Salt


Ask fellow adventurers how to stay alive in the deep, dark, dangerous dungeon below, or share your own accumulated wisdom.

Swamp Slogger

Posts: 131

Joined: Thursday, 11th August 2011, 14:40

Post Monday, 5th September 2016, 21:41

Desolation of Salt

What's do people think of this portal vault in trunk? It feels really dangerous for where it appears, has anyone found a safe way to clear it?

Mines Malingerer

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Joined: Monday, 5th September 2016, 23:59

Post Tuesday, 6th September 2016, 00:00

Re: Desolation of Salt

they don't call it the desolation of salt for no reason
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Tartarus Sorceror

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Post Tuesday, 6th September 2016, 00:06

Re: Desolation of Salt

I've beaten it on one character, but they were fairly stacked. Some of the enemies there can deal large damage if you're at all in a bad position. LRD probably works fairly well there, I think saltlings and crystal golems can both be LRD'd.

Tomb Titivator

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Joined: Tuesday, 25th November 2014, 02:47

Post Tuesday, 6th September 2016, 02:39

Re: Desolation of Salt

I had silence castable, and used throwing on the saltlings. The hexxer with the -MR on melee made me tele away and reset, and I was overrun once and had to tele-reset again. I never felt like I was in real danger, but I was playing extra cautiously because of new threats/content.

Character was very strange, OgWn^Dith, GSC, Throwing, air magics for Utility. I ran into DoS in Elf 1 after clearing V1-4. Questionably representative of other experiences.

I had Wild Magic 2, and was going for Tornadogre. YASD Jugg simiricalcum =(

Shoals Surfer

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Joined: Monday, 17th December 2012, 16:04

Post Tuesday, 6th September 2016, 08:48

Re: Desolation of Salt

Have not run into it yet, is the loot worth it?
aka: Innameasone and electricaloddity

Snake Sneak

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Post Tuesday, 6th September 2016, 09:09

Re: Desolation of Salt

No loot is ever worth any risk :lol: , but I'd say it's not.
Managed to do fine the first time I was there, but 3 healing potions had to be quaffed.
Second time I was overconfident, and I think one of the hierophants cast a spell which reflected some of the damage I dealt back on me, which caused my health to quickly drop.

Gotta say I love the idea and execution of this branch a lot and I'd like to see more innovations like it.

Swamp Slogger

Posts: 131

Joined: Thursday, 11th August 2011, 14:40

Post Tuesday, 6th September 2016, 09:35

Re: Desolation of Salt

Shard1697 wrote:I've beaten it on one character, but they were fairly stacked. Some of the enemies there can deal large damage if you're at all in a bad position. LRD probably works fairly well there, I think saltlings and crystal golems can both be LRD'd.


That's a good point about LRD. I've gone three times, first time on a character who was all set for extended, who cleared it easily as expected. The other two died, since then I've avoided the place. :)

Biggest problem I had with the chars who died was the guardian serpents, they can really screw you over in an open area like that. Love the theme though.
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Blades Runner

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Post Tuesday, 6th September 2016, 09:58

Re: Desolation of Salt

I did it once and I've spec'd some others doing it. My feel was that you could suddenly take a lot of damage easily, but this was mostly because I didn't know what most of the monsters did at the time. The torment guy obviously can get a lot of damage and then there's the lightning bolt and earth blast guys. While there aren't a lot of walls around, there are some and it's well worth staying near them and exploring carefully until you figure out where the structures with loot are. If you explore carefully and you have reasonable ranged attacks or allies, I don't think the portal is very hard.

The loot is okay, from what I've seen. Lots of armor and books.
The Original Discourse Respecter

Tomb Titivator

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Post Tuesday, 6th September 2016, 11:26

Re: Desolation of Salt

Loot is insane. Stumbling upon it in E:1, I got in the main chamber armour of dragon king+glaive of guard, two randart rings, a randart amulet, multiple misc items, and good potions (haste/heal).
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Shoals Surfer

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Post Tuesday, 6th September 2016, 11:38

Re: Desolation of Salt

One thing I must say: this seems like a lot of effort and a lot of unique mechanics for just another optional timed portal with more loot and no other impact on the game. Is this supposed to be an experimental status for the Desolation that would eventually become a rune branch, perhaps replacing another rune?
If I play online, I do so under the screenname Marenglen.

Sar

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Ziggurat Zagger

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Joined: Friday, 6th July 2012, 12:48

Post Tuesday, 6th September 2016, 11:40

Re: Desolation of Salt

salty rune of Zot

For this message the author Sar has received thanks: 3
and into, cerebovssquire, dracos369

Cocytus Succeeder

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Joined: Saturday, 14th April 2012, 21:35

Post Tuesday, 6th September 2016, 11:47

Re: Desolation of Salt

Malevolent wrote:Is this supposed to be an experimental status for the Desolation that would eventually become a rune branch

New content is easier to start out as a portal vault before being turned into a branch. Spider used to be a portal vault.
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Barkeep

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Joined: Tuesday, 11th January 2011, 12:28

Post Tuesday, 6th September 2016, 15:40

Re: Desolation of Salt

IIRC the thought was this might randomly replace Elf?
I am not a very good player. My mouth is a foul pit of LIES. KNOW THIS.
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Dis Charger

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Joined: Wednesday, 7th August 2013, 08:25

Post Tuesday, 6th September 2016, 17:16

Re: Desolation of Salt

I haven't seen the portal, myself. As a primarily felid player these days...I'd give it an attempt if I had two lives currently; risky is pretty low in that state (risk of literally anything is pretty low in that state). I think with Fe restrictions, only Conjurations and Dragon Form would work against those kinds of enemies. I'd be preferential to using quieter Conjurations and Luring over trying to destroy everything. Open floor like that, even if you had Fire Storm and killed a whole pack at once you'd attract too much attention after. Stealth is a good skill to have in these extreme circumstances too...nowhere to hide have to make things not see you in the first place.
I'm beginning to feel like a Cat God! Felid streaks: {FeVM^Sif Muna, FeWn^Dithmenos, FeAr^Pakellas}, {FeEE^Ashenzari, FeEn^Gozag, FeNe^Sif Muna, FeAE^Vehumet...(ongoing)}

Vaults Vanquisher

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Joined: Friday, 24th June 2016, 14:09

Post Wednesday, 7th September 2016, 06:00

Re: Desolation of Salt

Don't go if you want to win, I died first time, a lot of other players have died on their first or second time
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Dungeon Master

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Joined: Thursday, 5th December 2013, 05:01

Post Wednesday, 7th September 2016, 15:58

Re: Desolation of Salt

Malevolent wrote:... for just another optional timed portal with more loot and no other impact on the game.


XP, items, a risk of death. In what other ways do you think it could impact the game?

Abyss Ambulator

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Joined: Wednesday, 23rd April 2014, 21:57

Post Friday, 9th September 2016, 19:13

Re: Desolation of Salt

Hit it with a stealth vampire and pretty much murdered everything. It's hard to judge the danger level because there wasn't really any fighting. The loot was OK.

Ziggurat Zagger

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Joined: Sunday, 2nd January 2011, 02:06

Post Wednesday, 14th September 2016, 23:05

Re: Desolation of Salt

Noise is very bad for this one. If this was a branch that allowed stair-dancing it would be completely trivial, but if my way of killing things is noisy there's not much to do but shrug and leave. Nothing felt particularly dangerous, but I could see losing a character to this portal vault if I insisted on smashing into it face-first because I couldn't bear to back down and lose the xp/loot forever.

Not sure how this is supposed to rotate in with Elf in its current state.

Vaults Vanquisher

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Joined: Wednesday, 25th May 2016, 23:37

Post Wednesday, 14th September 2016, 23:13

Re: Desolation of Salt

I tried it once with a HOWr of Qazlal, and the noise attracted everything right to the middle, and I lost a large chunk of my health, and ran away.

Crypt Cleanser

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Joined: Saturday, 5th December 2015, 06:56

Post Friday, 16th September 2016, 10:42

Re: Desolation of Salt

arandomperson12 wrote:I lost a large chunk of my health, and ran away.


Good man.

Vaults Vanquisher

Posts: 451

Joined: Friday, 24th June 2016, 14:09

Post Friday, 16th September 2016, 14:06

Re: Desolation of Salt

It's funny because they want players to test it so they made it so the portal always appears, but quite a lot of players don't go there in fear of dying

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 5382

Joined: Friday, 25th November 2011, 07:36

Post Monday, 8th January 2018, 22:46

Re: Desolation of Salt

Went in on a statue form octopode of chei. Had plenty of stealth and just walked over to a side before getting swarmed, and then cleaned up the rest of it easily. I've had some good luck with protection rings (+8 ac on top of statue form) and chei dexterity, so my defenses made it pretty easy.

Wasn't too much good loot, but a lot of the armors aren't applicable to an octopode so I didn't check them much. Found a few spellbooks and a shield of protection which is a nice upgrade from my regular shield, so it was worth it.

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 8786

Joined: Sunday, 5th May 2013, 08:25

Post Tuesday, 9th January 2018, 01:33

Re: Desolation of Salt

thank you for bumping this 16 month old thread to talk about chei
Last edited by duvessa on Tuesday, 9th January 2018, 02:28, edited 1 time in total.

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 5382

Joined: Friday, 25th November 2011, 07:36

Post Tuesday, 9th January 2018, 02:25

Re: Desolation of Salt

You're most welcome! Sometimes I don't play much between tournaments, but I needed to update you on my octopode! I know you're a huge fan of Chei, so I understand you're excited to see it referenced, but I do feel I'd be amiss to not correct you that my above post was mainly about rings of protection!

Rings of protection! So, so good. Everyone should wear them! And like, at least 3 or 4, which is why Octopodes were made!

Hope you continue having a lovely day!

I probably meant to post this in the other, recent salt thread and somehow ended up in this one by mistake.

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