Subterrane: The Forgotten Wilderness

It's not for the faint of heart.  It is a 'wilderness' area unlike (presently) any other:  it is a raid area.  Which means a few things.

First, and foremost, no hirelings allowed.  Unless you have a "combat" pet*, if you venture in by yourself, you are truly alone.

Second, you can group with up to (11) other people - a full raid party.

Third, the mobs in there can be quite challenging, especially if you go in, solo, at level.  Here is a tip:  "living spells" are considered "oozes" (though as far as I know, they won't 'split' on you if you hit them with sharp, pointy objects).  But then, only the first, central area really has any "living spells" - once you get past the last "living meteor storm" in the side passage, you'll have other mobs to worry about.

The Sub-T (for short) is a level 16 area.  I know that level 14s can enter, but I'm not positive that is the minimum level (though I think it is).

Deep within, there are (2) raids (quests) - "Vision of Destruction" (VoD) and "Hound of Xoriat" (HoX).  VoD is probably the simplest raid, game mechanic-wise:  it is a one room area and all you have to do is kill Suulomades.  I've not run HoX, so I can't tell you about it from a first-hand perspective.  But before you can actually enter either raid, you must make your way through the Sub-T.  Further, to gain entry into VoD, you must also solve a (simple) puzzle.  Here's another hint:  don't kill all the archers (but if you do, they will respawn...eventually).

As with most wilderness areas, there are rares.  And one "rare", who is always there, guards a chest that can drop some rare named items.  One of my favorite named weapons can be found there:  the "Sun Blade".  As can the "Dwarven Thrower", the "Mace of Smiting", and the "Luck Blade".  These were some highly sought-after loot that could fetch quite a price in the auction house (AH).

Alas, such no longer seems to be the case.  Oh, sure, you'll still see outrageous prices in the AH and astral shard exchange (ASX) for these items (because people are greedy), but truth be told, with the new random-generated loot system we currently have, many named items are severely out-dated.  The last time they made a major change to the random loot system, they added colored slots to some of the named items to update them.  Which helped, but they are no longer enough.  But that, I think, is a topic for another day.

The Sub-T can be fun and challenging and I've been running around there lately with my 'newly' LR'd, epic level ranger and I've finally cleared the map for both the Sub-T Central and Sub-T East.  I like killing ol' Gargamel, or Gorgonzola, or whatever his name is, and I've even managed to pull the Sun Blade.  But on top of that, it's a good place to farm planar shards - collect 150 of them, and you can trade them in for a large, red bag (or other items).  Which is really nice.

But I've got a few more planar shards to farm before I can get one.


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* The Black Onyx Panther and the two Owlbears are considered "hirelings".  But arties can call their dog, druids their wolf, etc.