"The Pit" Revisited

Somewhere in my archived posts, there are a couple of "The Pit" posts.  I love "The Pit"; it is one of my favorites quests in DDO.  It is a level 7 quest and can be quite difficult run at level.  A lot of people don't like to run it, period.  Some insist on only running with a full party.  Me?  It doesn't matter if I have a full party, a partial party, or even no party.  That's right - I'll even run it solo.  Well, in this case "solo" means with a hire.  But only one hire.


You see, there is one part of the quest that, while I hear can be done truly solo if you have a high enough jump skill* or if you are fast enough, pretty much needs someone to turn a valve for you while you stand on an air pipe.  So I bring a hire.  Now, since I'm bringing a hire anyway, I might as well take advantage of their abilities; so I use a cleric or a favored soul to provide healing.  I do not usually use any of their "other" hot-barred spells, though.  Usually.

Anyway, at one point Evennote and I were talking and somehow the topic made its way to discussing "The Pit" and actually running it under level.  Now, at the time of our discussion, I thought that the lowest level you could enter a quest - any quest - was 2 levels under; this proved to be incorrect (but we'll get to that).  So I mused about running "The Pit" on a level 5 toon**.  To which Evennote said (and I quote...OK, OK - I paraphrase), "There is NO WAY you'll be able to [successfully] run 'The Pit' at level 5 [solo, with hire]."  She even "bet" me that I couldn't do it (though she failed to specify any stakes...).

"Challenge accepted!", I said, using my best Barney Stinson impersonation (not really...but I should have).

So off I went to a new server (I figured I might as well earn a few free Turbine Points while I was at it - can't have too many free TPs), created a new toon, ran him up to level 5, then waited.  And waited.  For what, you might ask?  Well, I'll tell you - I NEVER go into "The Pit" without a Feather Falling item.  NEVER.  {Because your Mario Bros. skills are put to the test and I fall...a lot.}  And I didn't have one.  It seemed to take forever to finally buy one from the Auction House (at what I would consider a reasonable price, even if I did have enough plat for some of the truly outrageous prices people ask for in there - which I did not [you know, being only level 5, and all...]).  While I was at it, I also crafted up an Everbright maul ('cuz I was running a barbarian), and some Blueshine armor, 'cuz, well - SLIMES!

Anyway long story short - Ferowulf won the bet.  Being "inspired" by my victory (or at least figuring since I did it, she could do it), Evennote followed suit and also successfully ran "The Pit" [solo, with hire] - but I did it first (well, between the two of us...I have no idea if anyone else ever did it before I did; if I had to guess, I'd say 'probably').  I then proceeded to take it one-step further and Ferowulf ran it successfully on HARD, too.

Time passed.  I wondered - is level 5 truly the lowest level one can run "The Pit"?  It was assumed (by me, at least - but I know by others, too), as stated perviously, that one could only be 2 levels under a quest to enter it ("heroic" quests, anyway - I *think* all epic quests can be entered as long as you are level 20+, but I could be wrong on that, too).  Part of this thought process is because the highest quests that will populate your compendium are ones that are 2 levels above your current level.  But, it turns out that some quests can be entered at lower levels; for "The Pit", this threshold is level 4.  So I started a "super secret" project - one that I would not tell anyone, until after I was successful:  run "The Pit" (successfully - originally, this meant no recalling out of the dungeon, but later was changed to "no toon deaths" - in my rules, I allow hireling deaths because, well, they are stupid [at times]) solo (with a hire) at level 4.

Another long story short - Xenowulf did it.  Not only did he do it, he did ALL of the optionals - including Jubilex' avatar - before completing the quest.  I tried running on hard, but it was just too much...or so it seemed, at the time.

Time passed.  Recently, someone made a post about "The Pit".  This got me wondering...should I try running it on HARD, with (my still level 4 because I refuse to level him toon) Xenowulf?  I mean - what's the worse that can happen?  I fail.  Big deal - been there, done that.  So I did.

And here we (finally) get to the actual point of this post:  I was able to successfully run "The Pit", solo (with ONE hire and NO pets or other summons), on HARD, at level 4.  Woot!

Now, I will admit that in this case, "successfully" means no recalling - there were 3 toon deaths.  One was because I refused to use the "short cut" in the breaker room and carelessly got toasted by electricity; one was because my favored soul hireling was running around in circles chasing me, instead of actually throwing me a heal, even though I was right there in range (stupid hirelings...); and one was because...well, I forget.  Probably a legitimate death, that one.  Also, I will freely admit that I skipped over the Furnace Room 3 optional (it is, after all, optional) and though I did do Jubilex' avatar, it was done after the completion.

BUT - I completed it on HARD at level 4.  Obviously, I now need to have a successful completion without toon deaths, 'cuz there are some out there (*cough* LrdSlvrhnd *cough*) who say it's not a "real" completion if you have a death (even a hireling death - but I am completely OK with a hireling death).

They are, of course, wrong (hehehe).  But if it's the only way to silence critics, so be it...

"Challenge accepted!"

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* I don't know of any toon that would have a high enough jump skill at level 5 - not even a multi-TR toon.  But maybe...I know none of my toons did/do.

**I should clarify - "first life".  Oh sure, a multi-TR toon may be able to "easily" do it, but first of all, I don't have any toons that have TR'd...at least, not yet (maybe someday...).  Secondly, depending on who you ask, that could be considered "cheating", what with all the extra bonuses a (multi-)TR toon gets.  And I think for this discussion at least, I would agree.

***Wait...I didn't have a 3-asterisked word in this post.  Ignore this 'note'.