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Creature feature #28: The Vermin Horde Spawn

E

Elyssar

Guest
The easiest hero spawn...or is it? You be the judge!

Level One: Slimes and Giant rats



The horror...the HORROR! Okay, maybe its only horrifying if you forgot your total refresh poisons and suddenly find yourself alone in a spawn with all these critters swamping you. Overall, they're not difficult, but slimes do have a tendency to damage your weapons if you're a warrior aswell as poisoning you. As long as you're not the only one at this level of spawn so that all 385638563957495749 slimes and giant rats come running to you, this won't be a problem.

Level Two: Ratmen and dire wolves



the ratmen in this level are not a problem. The dire wolves can be. Imagine a half dozen rabid wolves lunging at you...with pack instinct. Can you say "An Lor Xen"? I knew you could! /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif Only if a small number of people is fighting the spawn will this level be a problem, and even in that event it shouldn't be a major problem.

Level Three: Ratman mages and Hellhounds




This is when the fun begins. Insta-casting ratmen mages in large numbers are not healthy. neither are hellhounds with pack instinct bonuses. This is when the casualties start to pile up, when people let the target-switching hellhounds chase them and eventually get boxed in, to be followed with ebolts and flamestrikes from the happy mages. Exercise extreme caution, and if you're with a group this is when you should start banding together.

Level Four: Ratman archers and silver serpents



Now the spawn begins to get mental. Ratmen archers have greatly benefited from the AI changes. No longer will they blithely walk up to you while you bang away at them or let a pet gnaw on them. oh, no! These guys will make sure they stay out of range so they can keep filling you full of arrows. Pets will chase them but their melee whiffs a lot more against a moving target. My remedy for this is to target peace the rat archer...they forget to move and fire their crossbow. The same can be done for the silver serpents, who pack some of the deadliest poison in the game. Silver serpents also move extremely quickly, akin to the pace many of the champions move.

Level Five: Barracoon and his minions



Barracoon, also known to me as Crashacoon for his current penchant of client-crashing, can be an easy champion, depending on the group fighting him. His special attack is to turn anyone who attacks him into a ratman. If you ebolt him, you're a ratman. if you set a pet to attack him, your pet will turn a ratman. (Note: you can still mount a polymorphed nightmare, and in fact its kind of funny. They will turn into a shortmane regular horse until you dismount.) If Barracoon polymorphs you, you can be noto-PKed in felucca. Be wary of field-effect spells while polymorphed. if you hit a fire field or poison field set down by a blue it will effect you.

Barracoon will also conjure up small groups of ratmen to attack anyone else attacking him. So this adds to the confusion...especially with players polymorphed into rats.

This spawn's main difficulty lies in the client crashes and the noto-PKs.
 
Z

zarathoestra

Guest
Excellent info
where can we find the spawn ? and is there any way of finding out where the spawn is? as i havnt actually managed to find a live spawn yet /php-bin/shared/images/icons/laugh.gif
 
T

the great bob

Guest
Third level of despise, ogre lord isle. I dno't know the shortcut to getting there though. /php-bin/shared/images/icons/frown.gif
 
R

Riven Aequitas

Guest
If you havent been to the rat spawn yet the easiest and most efficient way for most people is to cast energy vortexes. The only thing these will not affect are the rat mages since they will dispel them. Every thing else is game for an ev tho.
If you use a pet to attack it the pet will polymorph but the pet will still be blue. Oh and I dont have it handy at the moment but if anyone is interested in his or anyone elses stats, just let me know and Ill post them.
 
E

Elyssar

Guest
Oops knew I forgot something! Vermin horde is in Despise Level 3 in the ogre lord room as well as various spawns in the lost loands. I have thus far fought vermin horde at:

Oasis
East ice
West ice
Tera Sanctum
Khaldun
Damwin
City of the Dead
Hopper's Bog

It may or may not have the ability to spawn at all lost lands locations, I'm trying to keep track of where I have and have not seen spawns. For example, forest lord is usually the only one I have seen at the Wilderness spawn location.
 
K

kengy5

Guest
This is the worst spawn in my eyes. Everytime I've tried it, i freeze when barracon spawns, then I usually die, which blows even more.
 
S

ShadowLS

Guest
for all people who read this later on posted by Jean-Luc
hope it helps


As some of you may have learned, there is a growing number of UO players that will deliberately kill your pet at the Champion Spawns. Even if you attempt to suicide to save your pet from skill loss, or to save an unbonded pet, the reds will keep you alive.

Fear not. Your Ol' Uncle Jean-Luc has the perfect strategy to defeat these people.

Find a GM tinker, and make 2 small lockable crates. Have the tinker trap one with poison, and one with explosion.

Lock the crates (keep the keys out, and have the tinker make you a spare set), setting the traps. Then have a GM mage cast magic unlock on the crates.

Voila!! Your suicide/safe chests are ready for action.

If you get in a jam where it's obvious that your pet is going to die, and you shortly thereafter, double-click on the poison trap. That poison can't be cured. So no more healing for you. Then pop the explo trapped chest, and choose your city. Ressurect with all intact, including your pets.

Like the advertisement says..... "but wait! there's more!"

Your trapped crates make great little places to stash your power scrolls from prying eyes. Any thief that snoops those trapped crates will soon be on the way to the healer themselves.

So fear no more, you can save your pets, and irritate the PKs at the same time.
 
G

Guest

Guest
are you sure about ratmen archers and mages being different levels because i am sure that both mages and archers start spawning at the same level(i remember my first champ spawn at khaldun when all of sudden everyone was ganked because both the mages and the archers started spawning and it got real tuff real quick)
 
G

Guest

Guest
Stage 1 and 2 of this spawn are great for bards with a firehorn

Damage to the extreme for everything surrounding you.

As for Baracoon:

Dont try and polymorph to avoid the ratman spell, since when you turn away from ratman form, you will have a permanent appearance of the form you were polymorphed into previously.

Not a major problem if its only your hair style/colour changes, but if your skin colour changes, you are then stuck with that skin colour change until you can recreate the effect. Note that a GM will not be able to alter your skin colour once its been changed.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Some creature feature haiku's

Ratty polymorphs me
This program is not responding
Oh for ****s sake


Poly'ed without a crash
Vas Ort Flam Corp Por Corp Por
Of for ****s sake... again

Silver serpents, ratmen archers
ooO-oOo-Ooo-OoO, oOo-ooO-Ooo-OoO
Refrain
 
E

Elyssar

Guest
Perfect!!! *applauds* The most poetic representation of Crashacoon's spawn yet! Bravo!
 
G

Guest

Guest
short cut is fire dung... gop to emage building first portal on the left. takes u to 3rd level despise back end of the cave.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Just in case people dont know, the shortcut to get there is go to Fire Dungeon Enterance *Old Lands* and go to where Red Mages spawn *Just south of the enterance* and in there, there is 2 teles, one to despise *forgot where other one took you* and the despise one will take you to North-West of the Island *Be careful tho, it the spawn is high, many creatures might be there*
 
T

the great bob

Guest
OSI is also calling that an exploit... hey! Don't look at me like that, I don't make up OSI's policys.
 
U

USN

Guest
I actually like fighting this champion, but no doubt that poly crap is BAD! Not only does it crash ya when you get poly'd but it flags you grey!! So you just get that bad sensation when your relogging back in that you know you will see a GREY screen, know that feeling? Don't we all! But I got a +10 Vet off this guy today on Baja, thnx Barr! /php-bin/shared/images/icons/wink.gif Well I guess I like this spawn the best because my first champion spawn was against the Abyss spawn, and if you have fought this spawn from start to finish you know that its probably the HARDEST one. /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif
 
I

imported_Repo

Guest
So far barracoon has given me TWO +20 Vet scrolls

blah

but yeah - easy peasy

hardest spawn is the lord oaks cause no one likes it and so no one goes /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif
 
C

Chocolate Ice

Guest
I did the so called bug atleast 20+ times to escape the ratism. It always changes you back into your normal form and yes GMs do change you back. I Pmorphed then attacked and all of a sudden 2 serps killed me

So i was killed while pmorphed so i lost my white hair and skin tone for a bit...and couldnt cast pmorph...paged a gm he reset me I regrew my 500k hair and my skin morphed too!
 
G

Guest

Guest
Must have been a very kind GM then, since there have been numerous complaints with regards to the permanent effect of polymorph, and how most GMs wouldnt bat an eyelid to helping you (especially when you mentioned that the hair was regrown - did the GM replace that, or did you go and buy some more neon hair colouring? I was under the impression GMs would never return any items in game under any circumstances for worry they will create a precident which forces them to do the same thing to everyone else in game who is under the same predicament)

I just hope if the effect happens to anyone else, they can find some way of reversing it (if they wish it to be reversed I guess) without recourse to calling a GM.

Just on the offchance, did you polymorph into another monster before being attacked, or did you polymorph into a human?
 
I

imported_Aboo

Guest
If you polymorph into another form of monster, you turn grey anyway don't you? That's how it used to be anyway /php-bin/shared/images/icons/frown.gif
 
G

Guest

Guest
Yup thats still the case, however, you also turn grey if you are turned into a rat (mant a time people have found it fun to mass kill everyone after the spawn has finished by earthquake, since all the rats would be affected, and you cant get a murder count for it, and theres the off chance that at least someone there would have a scroll...)
 
T

Taxman

Guest
The first thing I want to say is, yes, the Vermin Horde is by far the easiest spawn a far as Champions go. The question is: Is it the easiest overall? IMO, no. The lag of EVERYONE on that little island with traps (worst being poison) and invis people with all the staglmites (horrible spelling...) makes it so hard to run away in a time of need. Basically what I'm trying to say is: once you're bit by a silver serpent you best get ready to pick a city. Also, when Barracoon spawns it's all hell, if you're one of the first to attack you're a rat, if you don't attack first, you're not getting a scroll. Being a warrior with low magery (I have yet to train that up... I should do it before complaining, but shh!) I can't polymorph, but I have heard a rumor that tribal paint also protects against this, so maybe that will be okay for now.
Also one last thing, is there any proof that untamed Dire Wolves/Hell Hounds have pack instinct? Once again, being a warrior has allowed me to check this out because they will gang up on me and actually hit me. I've noticed no damage difference from getting hit from fighting one, to fighting 3 at the same time. If there is proof... can I see it? I'm not trying to be hard headed, but I haven't seen it for myself.
 
F

flatscan

Guest
This is the spawn i have fought the most. I have noticed a big diffrence tho, between dungon and T2A. In dungons, the spawn is pretty light, and easily handled with a mare. The champ tho, is ganked and dead with in a min or 2 so if you get killed, you have to really hussel back to get a scroll.

In T2A, the spawn is crazy, and even with a dragon you have to watch out at times. It can get pretty thick very fast. The champ tho, seems to last for some time, and is more fun to play with. If you get killed by him you usually have plenty of time to make it back. Last one i did i was killed 4 times and made it back the final time to see him die. On a side note, i noticed that if i was killed by the rats he summons, i don't have to wait 20 min to return.
 
M

Mystical_Thief

Guest
One of the major peeves I have with this spawn is that treasure chests still spawn on the island..... when you get like 3 silver serpents on you and you're making for the bridge and hit a treasure chest.... no words to describe my anger
 
F

flatscan

Guest
With all the hidden people there, i don't know how anyone moves around. I sometimes have to tele around, or learn to carry refresh pots.
 
L

Lico

Guest
the way to avoid being poly'ed into a rat is to get yourself a tribal paint. u can't be poly'ed when u r a savage.

easiest way to get to despise spawn is by using the teleporter in fire dungeon south of the entrance. there are 2 teleporters....the one on the left takes u to despise, and the other one takes u to the old cranky ancient wyrm.
 
D

Deadly Priest

Guest
i like cheese... and i havent even been poly'd! wewt... where am i again?
 
S

suadeo

Guest
Ok. This is one of the easiest spawns if you know what you are doing. Lets start off:

Level 1: EV or BS. Dont bother with anything else
Level 2: EV or BS again.
Level 3: EQ! No field spells. All they create is lag and its annoying. Get someone to bring a whole bunch and everyone earthquake them.
Level 4: (worst one in my opinion) EV or BS. It goes pretty fast but becarefull cause the archers gank.
Level 5: Find your own method /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

Me and about 7 friends took this spawn alone. When he dies you have to learn to run. Thats the only thing.

Welp thats it /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

~Suadeo
 
Z

ZeroDK

Guest
this is the easiest champ spawn

me and 2 friends did it faily easy , with a few death but we did it hehe
 
E

embeddedthorns

Guest
Easiest spawn? by far! Any mage with decent evasive skills, and gm running, can solo the rat spawn, with ease...
 
E

embeddedthorns

Guest
hah, wow, didn't look at the dates, i just found it kinda near the top of the list :/ heh, feel almost foolish now
 
K

Kaeros

Guest
Iw as reading over some of the first and was like, geez they make it sound harder than it is, then looked at dates and was like, ooooh this was when it was probably newish.
 
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