Ninjaing golden rune?

[hayenne]

Anyone succeeded to ninja the Tomb rune? Run through, controlled blinking to the rune, death's door anyone? Share your experience!

[slowcar]

i usually go there last, and am reluctant to risk 14 runes.
maybe as an experiment with save scumming...

[absolutego]

projected noise probably helps a lot there, but i've never tried it.

[KoboldLord]

I always turtle my way through Tomb. The loot is far too much of a temptation, so at the very least I have to check it out. It's often my fourth or fifth Rune, too, since even though it's a pretty rough area there's a relatively short list of required resources I need in order to handle it. There's almost always something highly useful for the Hell Runes in Tomb 3.

That said, it really shouldn't be all that hard to ninja if you've been conscientiously building up stealth the entire game. Mummies don't shout, and their spells don't make much noise, so you won't have a cascade stealth fail until they start summoning demons. The mummy lines are always in exactly the same place every time, so you can Haste up, Controlled Blink right from the edge of their LOS, Apport the Rune, pick it up, and Controlled Blink back before they have time to do much of anything. Good luck getting in a second time, though, if you decide you need the loot.

[Rapigel]

It's often my fourth or fifth Rune, too, since even though it's a pretty rough area there's a relatively short list of required resources I need in order to handle it.

Now this is interesting. I often get stuck between Zot and the hells, so an early side trip to Tomb would be useful to me. KL: would you mind elaborating on your requirements for a turtle of Tomb?

[KoboldLord]

Up to .9, you want a way to Abjure summoned crap, a ranged attack that kills the high-level mummies quietly, and a bottomless source of Haste. You'll also want high stealth, and large stacks of healing, heal wounds, and restore ability potions. A non-caster will have a much harder time, but any caster that can assemble Haste, Abjuration, and Dispel Undead all at decent spell power will be able to get through Tomb without any real surprises, at least after clearing it a few times with various characters. If Dispel Undead is forbidden or unavailable, Iron Shot or Mystic Blast will do, but stay away from noisy conjurations. Getting swarmed is bad. If you didn't find Abjuration, Controlled Blink will work but not very well.

If you're playing a non-caster, you're going to have a harder time. Abjuration comes from a rod, but you'll have to reserve Haste for emergencies rather than casting it for every combat. Slings, crossbows, and javelins are as good or better than Dispel Undead, though, if you have enough of them. Ammunition of penetration means that you don't even have to Abjure the summoned crap. You might consider switching to lighter armor for Tomb, and picking up some moderate charms skill. It isn't like mummies' important attacks respect AC anyway, and if you can cast Haste in lighter armor you may be close to Swiftness and Repel Missiles when you switch back for Hell or Pan. Anyway, you can probably kill mummies okay, but you don't have as many options when some little thing goes wrong.

I haven't tried Tomb with the new Abjuration and Mass Abjuration system yet. Supposedly the mummies will summon less, which might mean you don't need them at all. Really, the main trouble from them is that the summons block your line of fire to the summoner and lets the summoner Torment you without you being able to retaliate.

Really, Tomb does suffer a bit from its static layout. You have three serious ambush locations in the sphinxes, the first entry onto level 2, and the main chamber of level 3. Occasionally you also get Mennas or Khufu spawning somewhere, but other than these unusual occurrences a spoiled player will be able to advance with near-perfect knowledge about what's ahead. If Tomb was a lengthier section of the game, like Hell or Pan, there's probably be some major pressure for Tomb reform, but as it is now it's a bit of a quaint throwback to an older style of game. Going through is nostalgic for old-school dungeoneering, and it's brief enough that it usually ends before it wears out its welcome.

[Rapigel]

Thanks KL. I've been playing a series of DGAE and killing in the extended endgame. I've found myself overly reliant on good loot woth this build, and Tomb is a good source if I can survive. All this advice helps heaps, so thanks again.