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I'll eventually move this to UO Player's Corner, but there are a few people here that this can help.
Part 1. "Into the Pit!!!!"
You party and click the jade skull on the pyramid to go in. You'll need at least two people to click switches on opposite sides simultaneously. Once all the switches are flipped, the blobs and Zipactriotl are released, and you have to destroy the columns in the devices with the switches, to stop the blobs from respawning. Melee dexxers are best for this, especially users of Chivalry (Enemy of One and Consecrate weapon help), armed with weapons that do Crushing Blow and/or Armor Ignore. Those special moves are also REALLY good against Zippy.
The perils of taking pets has been VASTLY overstated. The really big issue is that you don't want to take a pet that has lots of mana (takes mana based damage about 20% of the current mana total - NOT max mana and hits several times a second), nor a pet that you get worried about losing skill points that you have to retrain. So, if you have a tamer with a pet that you couldn't care less about stat loss on (like your second or third string Greater Dragon), go for it. They (and summons) are especially good for keeping the blob numbers down (and finishing them off once they can't respawn). After that, they will have a hard time keeping up with the fast-moving boss anyway, and you'll need to pull them back when you think he's gonna do his mana burn attack. Just be prepared to res it a lot. Of course, if you have disco on the tamer, you'll have that going for you, and can use direct damage spells on him as the melee types tank him.
Melee types need to have about 60-75 mana at most and a lot of LMC for the special moves. IF you just go toe-to-toe with him, cranking off an AI or crushing blow every time you have the mana for it, you will do fine, and have minimal threat from the onset of the mana burn power - though you still want to pull back once he starts it. Having the mages and mystics ready to heal you from a distance is also good. You get to be the stand-in for the normal tanking pets and summons. with 70 resists and 110+ HP, you can take 3 hits from him (does 35 points), and if you have more than one person fighting him, he'll be switching targets constantly, so getting hit 3+ times in a row will be rare - but start moving away with the second consecutive hit, in case his other special abilities start. Do NOT use poison or bleed attacks, as he will suck you back in. DO use the healing skill, an a macro for several bandages applied one right after the other finishes - and keep a constant eye on it because my UOAssist macro keeps stopping after some of his special moves, for no apparent reason (I think I must have missed something the last few years about macros getting disrupted). Most of my deaths, in fact, come from the 8-bandage cycle mysteriously coming to an end after 2-5 bandages, as if it never was (I can restart it without getting a macro stopped message like you get when you interrupt one UOA macro with another).
When he falls, there's gold and typical champ-spawn-boss level loot in him, but the big rewards come from the quest, and you have to return to the Barrab Tinker to get the quest reward. Most desirable are the Moonstone Crystals that act as teleport short cuts to various places in Eodon. Not so much, are the recipes.
Part 1. "Into the Pit!!!!"
- The masses of bugs (except those clustered around a banner), will ONLY move towards combat if you hang on the same screen with them, and walk slowly with them towards the fight.
- Don't let the two factions do all the work. There are 3 stages in the fight, and each stage has 3 levels. To advance a level, 20 of the other side that spawned in the region of that part of the fight, have to die. after defeating level 3, the old target banner becomes the new defense banner.
BUT.... For a creature to COUNT toward the 20, a PLAYER CHARACTER has to do a small amount of damage to it (about 20-50, at least). You can sit there ALL DAY and watch the two sides fight each other and watch hundreds of NPC bugs and soldiers die, but neither faction will score any kills. Barding and taming don't seem to be reliable in terms of getting kill credit (sometimes you do, sometimes you don't) - but weapons and spells do, even if it's an AoE spell that damages both your foes and allies. Of course, AoE spells (Especially those centered on the caster) are a good way to attract too much attention to yourself and a quick shift to grayscale. - Once you complete the pit, until you complete the Zipactriotl fight, you can go back in and help others with the fight, AND (if you're having to wait for party members to finish the rest of the quests), advance the pit back to being almost done. And, if you're lucky, no one will have altered the pit while you were gone, and when you come back, you only have to finish what you started. I've been taking to getting the pit advanced to half way, or 2/3 the way, before I go with friends to fight Zip, so we can quickly go back in and reset for the next trip after claiming our rewards. And, typically, there's usually someone that has to finish up the SOS or T-map section (if not the actual fishing to get the SOS). Plus, the pit is also a good place for training parry (especially when fighting the ones that disarm - most of the parry gains come while you only have your shield and can't rearm your weapon.
- There's 4 pieces. Two are relatively easy to get (buy one at the Lycaeum in Moonglow, Got to the Brit tinker, buy ingots & gears (or make your own), then go fight Exodus/LBR stuff to get the power crystals and clockwork assemblies.
- The Third is easy, but tedious. You go to the Inn in Jhelom, and get a quest to kill sea monsters in the waters in the "South Jhelom Sea". The sea in question is defined as the waters between and east of the Jhelom city's islands, north to the Jungle coast (and you CAN kill stuff from shore), south to the server line, and east to the server line beyond Valor (before you get to Serpent's Hold). You can fish all the way up through Bald and Temple islands, but not much further north on that side of the peninsula. The hard and slow part is tracking down the 35 creatures (5 kraken, and 10 each of water eles, sea serpents and deep sea serpents); all while dodging pirate ships that can blow you out of the water or otherwise slow you down.
There IS a shortcut, though. If you have special fishing nets, or have done the underwater quest from Trinsic (with the special salvage hooks that look like anchors), you can toss those _IN THE DESIGNATED WATERS_ and the creatures that result will count. In fact, the hooks are the best option, as they only cost 1900 GP each, and it takes about 20-40 of them to complete the hunt (the bad part is that about 10-20% of the hooks are duds, and they weigh 25 stone each).
The reward is a MIB that can be opened and fished up by anyone. The SOS can be of any of the 4 levels (in fact, my first was an ancient SOS!), that has the part in it. - The last's part's first step is easy enough if you have imbuing supplies, or the miner, lumberjack & fisher to get the gems. For that matter, all three of the gems can be gotten randomly from loot bags from Ter Mur Royal City quests, or even from looting the Volcano Elementals from the tribal quest of the Volcano worshippers. The resulting Treasure Map is the hardest part, and requires you have access to a treasure hunter capable of doing level 3 maps. You kill the spawn, and loot the part from the chest (emptying the chest the rest of the way is up to you).
- You take the 4 parts back to the Barrab village tinker, set them as quest items, and complete that quest, at which point you are given the quest for the actual Zipactriotl hunt.
You party and click the jade skull on the pyramid to go in. You'll need at least two people to click switches on opposite sides simultaneously. Once all the switches are flipped, the blobs and Zipactriotl are released, and you have to destroy the columns in the devices with the switches, to stop the blobs from respawning. Melee dexxers are best for this, especially users of Chivalry (Enemy of One and Consecrate weapon help), armed with weapons that do Crushing Blow and/or Armor Ignore. Those special moves are also REALLY good against Zippy.
The perils of taking pets has been VASTLY overstated. The really big issue is that you don't want to take a pet that has lots of mana (takes mana based damage about 20% of the current mana total - NOT max mana and hits several times a second), nor a pet that you get worried about losing skill points that you have to retrain. So, if you have a tamer with a pet that you couldn't care less about stat loss on (like your second or third string Greater Dragon), go for it. They (and summons) are especially good for keeping the blob numbers down (and finishing them off once they can't respawn). After that, they will have a hard time keeping up with the fast-moving boss anyway, and you'll need to pull them back when you think he's gonna do his mana burn attack. Just be prepared to res it a lot. Of course, if you have disco on the tamer, you'll have that going for you, and can use direct damage spells on him as the melee types tank him.
Melee types need to have about 60-75 mana at most and a lot of LMC for the special moves. IF you just go toe-to-toe with him, cranking off an AI or crushing blow every time you have the mana for it, you will do fine, and have minimal threat from the onset of the mana burn power - though you still want to pull back once he starts it. Having the mages and mystics ready to heal you from a distance is also good. You get to be the stand-in for the normal tanking pets and summons. with 70 resists and 110+ HP, you can take 3 hits from him (does 35 points), and if you have more than one person fighting him, he'll be switching targets constantly, so getting hit 3+ times in a row will be rare - but start moving away with the second consecutive hit, in case his other special abilities start. Do NOT use poison or bleed attacks, as he will suck you back in. DO use the healing skill, an a macro for several bandages applied one right after the other finishes - and keep a constant eye on it because my UOAssist macro keeps stopping after some of his special moves, for no apparent reason (I think I must have missed something the last few years about macros getting disrupted). Most of my deaths, in fact, come from the 8-bandage cycle mysteriously coming to an end after 2-5 bandages, as if it never was (I can restart it without getting a macro stopped message like you get when you interrupt one UOA macro with another).
When he falls, there's gold and typical champ-spawn-boss level loot in him, but the big rewards come from the quest, and you have to return to the Barrab Tinker to get the quest reward. Most desirable are the Moonstone Crystals that act as teleport short cuts to various places in Eodon. Not so much, are the recipes.
