How to get to Solteris

I thought I'd start today off with an easy to follow walkthough on how to get to Solteris. This is my first try on giving our strats, so go easy on me, I'm sure I'll make mistakes and have to update things here. I will list all the missions you need for Solteris, and give the best help that I can. You can do the group missions in ANY order. But you need Mission 5 to do missions 6-8, and you need mission 6 to use the portals in missions 7 and 8.

First of all, go download the newest expansion maps.. I suggest Obscura's Maps .

The first step is to get to Katta Castrum. Katta is very easy to get to, you can use your guild hall to make a direct portal. You can also get to katta by entering the giant whirlpool that is located smack dab in the middle of the buried sea zone. (if you haven't seen the whirl pool yet, its worth seeing!). The first 3 solo missions and group missions are all from NPC mission givers inside of the Pyramid (Elnot, Plik, and Maladoks)

Once you are in Katta you need to find the giant pyramid in the center of the city. There is an entrance located on the north side of the center pyramid. Once you enter the pyramid (which actually some funny combine name...) turn to your right (west) and find:

"Prime Researcher Elnot Waymun" (Elnot, missions). Hail him, follow diaglog till he gives you a "Combine Signet Ring" and your first solo task "A city in Peril - Speak with Researcher Plik. "

Go to:

"Researcher Plik" - Talk to Plik until he gives you the first group mission "Knowledge is Power"

Group mission 1 is a fun game of hide and go seek. It is not very diffacult, and can be solo'd by a rogue and some clever sneaking. If you want to do it with a group... you'll have to find and enter the zone: Jewel of Atiiki. After enter Atiiki you have to invis up and find the pyramid that has a circle "teleporter" pad. The right pad will cause you to zone into an instanced zone... the wrong pad will keep you in Atiiki. Once you zone for a second time into the instance zone, you must clear all the trash in your way as you work to the top of the pyramid... you are look to find the "Hand of ****" I can't remember how it is spelled exactly, because sphinx's have weird spelling for their names. Anyways... after you clear all the trash, and find the Hand of XXXX (don't worry about the other named npc, they won't aggro on you), you have to start the game of hide and go seek. What happens is you and your group all run down into the pyramid and find a spot that you think the seekers won't find you. Make sure your particle effects are set on high so that you can see the big aura that the Seekers use to detect people. After you evade the seekers for 3 waves... you win, go talk to the sphinx and then finish the mission by talking to Plik.

After finishing mission with Plik, go back to Elnot and get the solo mission: "A city in Peril - Speak with Researcher Maladoks"

You can find Maladoks on the south of Elnot. Talk to Maladoks and get the second group mission.

2. Locating the Statue - Very easy mission, find the prexus statue (marked on the maps I think) wait for the named to show up at the statue... and kill the named! *SwampNote*I have just found out of an alteration to this mission, apparently the named is now guarded by a few other mobs... I'll have to run through this mission again to find out for sure.

After you finish that, go back to Elnot, get solo mission "A city in peril - Deliver the rubbing to Head Mage" You can find the Head Mage on the South East side of the the room where Elnot is.

After you finish that solo mission, head back to Elnot and get another solo mission "A city in peril - Speak with Tactian Sodut" To find sodut, you can either use a succor type spell (which ports you right next to Sodut), or you need to head out of the giant pyramid and circle around the pyramid to the south side. You will see a grassy area with tents and lots of mission givers... on the west side of this area is Tactian Sodut.

Talk with Sodut until he gives you group mission 3 "The Snakes are Hiding Something".

Say Ready to Sodut when you are ready to zone in for this mission... be warned if you are not invis you will probably be jumped as you zone in... so be very careful. You'll need to work your way up to the north side of the zone where you will find another Pyramid thing, but this time its full of snakes. I use invis and run past as many mobs that I can find. Keep at eye out for DeathXXX snakes and Pain Golems... they tend to see invis. When you get into the temple start clearing up to the second floor... then clear all the Enforcers (?? I think thats what they are) might be Patrollers... until you get the 3 temple schematic parchments. Done!

Head back to Sodut and speak with him to get group mission 4 "Counter Attack"

Mission 4. My notes are not soo great on this mission, but as I recall, you have to work your way up to the Golem Quarry, which is about half way between the zone in and the snake temple in the north, you'll know you are there when you see a bunch of construction equipment and a bunch of golems. You need to kill 3 named golems, and this is tricky because the golems will spawn waves of adds on a timer... (I think it is 4 adds every 30 seconds). To kill these named, I just had the tank use ae aggro everytime adds came, and had the group go FULL BURN DPS on the named. Afterwards we cleaned up the adds, they have very very low hp... you could probably have a Mage or Wizard AE the waves as they spawn. The adds are mezzable and stunnable as well. **need to do this mission again, it has been altered since I last did it.

After you are finished with the 3 named, you are done! So head back to Sodut in Katta.

Speak with Sodut to get group mission 5. " Confront Emperor Zaarisz"

Mission 5: When you start this mission you can invis up and do the see-invis dodge game all the way back to the north shissar temple. Once you are back in the temple clear your way up to the top where you will find the Emperor... now here is where I used a trick... set your group up outside of the Emperors room (need to be far enough away that the Emperor will not aggro on your for being too close)... have a monk or necro or bard walk into the room and trigger the fight, but DO NOT AGGRO THE EMPEROR (do not debuff or hit him)... you can pull the adds he spawns out of the room to your group, kill them fast because another wave of adds will spawn soon, and then another, and then another... I think there are only 4 waves of adds... so if you survived that... all you have to do is med up, and then go kill the Emperor in his room. Sounds easy ehh? lolz... I suggest leaving a campfire or a rezzer near your setup spot... you'll probably wipe to the waves of adds on your first try. The Emperor hits pretty hard 3.5k ish range, so you need a real tank.

After completing mission 5, Gratz you are now flagged for Silyssar!!

Head back to Sodut and get a solo mission "A city in peril - Make Contact with the Shissar Loyalist"

Finding Vizier Zio can be tricky at first. He is on the South-East side of Katta, in a tower, in the inner ring area... He is also marked on the maps that I had you download (you did download them right?) Or you can ask for someone to show you his location.... it wasn't easy for me to find my first time, so do get discouraged.

Speak with Vizer Zio and get group mission 6. "Where there's a will" this mission is easy, you enter Silyssar (on the outter edge of katta, North West side, look for a teleporter pad pyramid thing). As soon as you zone in head straight north until you get a task update for entering the cavern... you must stay in the cavern until the task updates again. Do NOT aggro the Sorcers, or you will end the mission. You can defeat the waves of adds they summon, OR just wait for the task to finish itself... pretty easy, I just used a monk FD and waited for the mission to finish itself! Just don't die!

Gratz you can now use the teleporter pads in Silyssar.

After you've finish mission 6, head back to Vizer Zio and get group mission 7 "Slay the Serpent"


Mission 7 is made much easier with a Rogue, infact, I'm not sure how to get all the temple updates without a rogue... I'll make sure to find out better information here about that... but it seemed pretty easy for a rogue to handle. When you enter Silyssar you need to turn 20 degrees to your left and then head straight out from there... you will see a set of teleporter rings... enter them, and don't worry if you have aggro... anytime you enter a teleporter pad you will drop ALL aggro. (be careful pet classes, you guys need to watch for pet aggro, cause mobs will follow your pet up). You have to work your way up from pyramid 1, to pyramid 2, to pyramid 3, then fight and clear all the way to the bottom of Pyramid 3... not diffacult, mobs hit hard, so be careful with your CC and pulling. Kill the named at the bottom of the pyramid, and you are done! easy right? lolz...

Head back to Vizier Zio and get your final group mission 8 (woot!) "Stop the Ritual"

Group Mission 8: This is the hardest mission by far, the final boss is super hard. Ok, do you remember how you got to Silyssar, used the portal pad to get to the third Pyramid for mission 7? Well you need to do that all again! You'll have to clear your way down to the Emperor's room, where you will find the Emporer and 4 named minions. At first you might think the minions all have the same name, but it isn't true... they each have a slightly different name. Its VERY important that you watch the emotes of the minions, you need to figure out which minion is doing which chant. There are 4 chants, High, First Middle, Second Middle, and Low... Failing to kill the minions in that order (High->First Middle->Second Middle->Low) will spawn 2-3 more mobs on top of the other troubles. So, DON'T KILL THEM OUT OF ORDER!!!....Now comes the hard part, there is NO way to split the 4 minions from the named... so when you pull you will get the named and 4 of his minions... you can't mez the adds, and they all hit hard... What I did was have a necromancer sit out of the fight and just FD in a corner near by... When we pulled the mobs the first time, we focus'd all dps on the first minion (high chant) and kill him... then we wiped.... we rezzed up (using that necromacer), and then pulled them all again, and killed the second mob (First middle)... rinse repeat until all the minions were dead and we were left with the named... As long as you don't kill the mobs in the wrong order, you don't have to worry about them respawning... its hard, and took like 3 hours to do, but it works. You could also use a campfire to return to your spot if you have 3 fellows with you. After you kill the Empress, MAKE SURE TO LOOT THE QUEST DROP!!!!!! If you don't you'll have to do it all over again and that sucks!

After finishing mission 8, head back to Vizier Zio, hail him and recieve the last solo mission "A city in peril - Give the items he requested to Elnot"

Head back to elnot, give him your combine signet ring (single), and then give him the artifact you looted from the Empress (remember from mission 8? I told you to loot it!).

Congradulations, if you put the Combine Signet Ring on now, it should have 300 hp on it, if it does, you are flagged for Solteris, Home of Soluesk Ro!!

If you don't have 300 hp on your signet ring, then you missed a mission along the way...

Mission 8 is REALLY hard, so don't feel bad if it takes you a while to beat it. I really didn't like mission 4, simple due to the fact that the named were spawning adds soo fast it was sick. It's important to download all the maps, they really make it easier to find the various spots I'm talking about here.

Use Invisability wisely, use rogues and monks wisely, do these two things and you will make these missions much easier and less time consuming.

Ok, enjoy, and check back later for another article,

-Swampfunk the Wise