Fortress of Shadows - The 100-110 KQ

Finally!  After over 18 months of waiting, a new Kingdom Quest for those of us that reached prestige has been released!  There was so much anticipation and hope surrounding the release of this KQ, but did it live up to expectations?  Was it everything we were hoping for?  Was the experience gain enticing enough to alleviate the grind?  Let's find out!

Bijou's First FOS KQ Team:  Faytal, Itachi509, Fiara, laceface, Ami_, Eldirecto, minipkr18, Akariiii, _TempuS_, kauaigirl005, iTankYou, SarrowStar, xXxTempestxXx, SenzaMisura, Rembr4nt, Hamat, InT3rNeT, Likaru, StormyRain, dan112

Typically, the KQ fills up insanely quick as prestiged players look for something to do to break up the monotony of grinding.

If there's one thing this KQ doesn't lack it's mobs.  Hordes of skeletons of all shapes, sizes, and types swarm down upon the Henneath Adventurers as we try to clear them out and release the boss.  There are several monstrous statues as well as gates that also must be reduced to rubble before you can move on.

The first mobs you encounter are very large Skeleton Archers, it goes without saying from here, ALL the mobs are large.  One by one, the Skeleton Archers are not that difficult, but they come in large waves.  And with all of them having ranged attacks, it proves difficult once the tanks get killed off.  The clerics, archers, and mages fall quickly once this happens.  Surviving the first 5 minutes is critical to the success of this KQ.  The Skeleton Archers attack from both the floor level as well as from atop the walls raining arrows upon your group.

Skeleton Archers rain death from above as well as from ground level.

Patience is definitely key in the early going.  Having the group just charge in and rush into that small courtyard area is a recipe for disaster.  Attacking the gate too early is also dangerous.

Some of the Skellies you'll face inside.

One of the five statues (Dark  Kamaris) that you have to topple.

Once inside, you'll see several different types of Skellies charge the group from the four corners of the map.  There are 5 statues that need to be destroyed BEFORE the next gate is toppled.  We erred on our first run when we missed one of the statues before we took the 2nd gate down.  This resulted in a Fail and had us all stuck there for the remainder of the time as there were no mobs that we could suicide from.

Be sure that all statues are defeated before taking on the 2nd gate.

Cross the bridge once the 2nd gate collapses.

Take down the two statues and the gate to gain entry to the next courtyard.

Once the 2nd gate is defeated, you run across a bridge to get to the next large courtyard area of the map.  As you cross the bridge, you will be attacked by two more statues and face another gate.  I am not 100% sure if you need to defeat the statues before attacking the gate, but to be safe, I would just focus on taking down the statues beforehand.

Skeletons in formation!

As the gate comes crashing down, you can catch a glimpse of a formation of skellies just inside the courtyard.  Pretty neat to see an actual formation of mobs.

The dual-wielding Skellie and his weaker minions.

In this larger courtyard, you'll once again be faced with several varying types of Skellies with some carrying level 90 axes in both hands!  When all of the skellies and the next 5 Kamaris are defeated, the boss will be summoned, and boy does he make an entrance!

While not ridiculously hard, this boss does have some interesting attacks and debuffs.  He has an AOE stun that incapacitates mostly everyone for about 12 seconds.  He has an AOE fear that sends most of the Gladiator and Knights away from him.  He also has two DOT attacks, one that takes 1000HP per tick that has a short duration, and another extended DOT that takes off 400HP and lasts several minutes.  With focused attack from the group, the main boss, Kalban Obeb, goes down fairly quickly.

1000HP DOT... look I resisted!

The rewards are fairly decent ranging from T3 and T4 enhancement stones of various grades, T4 scrolls, and T3 green pots.  The most desirable of the rewards, however, are the enhanced level 108 weapons that can be acquired.  You can get a statless weapon that matches your prestige already pre-enhanced from +2 to +5.  If keeping the weapon isn't desirable to you, you can always break them down into Karis stones.  A +2 weapon will yield you 1 Karis, +3 will net you 2 Karis stones.  I did receive a +5 bow, I will check the Karis conversion on that and edit this at a later time.

So does it live up to the hype and anticipation?  I think so.  I enjoy myself there, it's a short KQ, typically only lasting about 15-20 minutes which is great for a quick 5.8m experience reward.  The mobs themselves don't net much experience, only about 500-1500 or so once it's divided between all of the players.  All in all, it's fun albeit short.  A lot of players were disappointed in the fact that it was too short and the boss mob was too easily defeated.  The success of the KQ is determined in the first 5-8 minutes based on whether or not the group can survive that first onslaught of Skeleton Archers.  If you manage to survive, it's pretty smooth sailing from there with a worthwhile 5.8m experience waiting for you  in the end.

Overall Rating:  7/10