Demi-Plane of Blood

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1 General Information
2 Gaining Access
3 Zone Content

[edit] General Information

Simply put, the Demi-Plane of Blood is, in effect, nothing but an instanced version of Dreadspire Keep. Whereas Dreadspire Keep is made for single groups, Demi-Plane of Blood is a raiding zone. There are a total of nine main events, along with five mini-named mobs that drop augments; in contrast, its predecessor, Citadel of Anguish, had only six main events and five augment mobs.

[edit] Gaining Access

In order to gain entry to the Demi-Plane of Blood, players must meet one of two requirements. Either the player must meet or exceed the minimum level requirement or he or she must complete several other requirements. Suchplayers must have a Monocle of Blood and five levels in Curse of Blood. Without the Monocle, entry is impossible. If players have the Monocle, but are missing one or more levels in Curse of Blood, they can be pushed in, but are unable to loot anything except a Drop of Accursed Blood, which acts as a backflag for the Curse of Blood. These are explained in greater detail below.

[edit] Dreadspire Keep

Main article: Access to Dreadspire Keep

This section describes the process for a player that does not meet the level requirement.

First and foremost, such players must have access to Dreadspire Keep, meaning they must possess Treddlehoop's Wonderful Monoculor Seeing Device to enter Dreadspire from The Hive. Although not required, a More than one exact match found for "Formal Dinner Invitation"; please use the item search and identify the item by ID, looted within Dreadspire, will allow players to zone into Dreadspire from Stoneroot Falls; this is considerably easier and safer than running to the living bridges portion of The Hive to zone in.

[edit] Monocle of Blood

The second requirement to zone into Demi-Plane of Blood is a Monocle of Blood. The process to get a Monocle of Blood is a rather complicated series of single-group missions. First, players must complete a series of four missions; Frustrated Functionary, Check Out a Library Book, Eyes Wide Open, and Misty for You. The final mission, Misty for You, will yield, to each member of the group, a Lens of Bound Eyes.

After Misty for You, there is a sixth mission to complete; Eye Bound. This mission simply requires that one player turn in the Lens of Bound Eyes from Misty for You and Vule's Eye, dropped by Master Vule the Silent Tear in Dreadspire Keep. Vule is a raid mob; he drops two eyes per kill. Upon completion of Eye Bound, all six players in the mission will receive a Lens of Eye-Glass. Players must then take the Lens of Eye-Glass and their Treddlehoop's Wonderful Monoculor Seeing Device (key to Dreadspire), and turn them both into Treddlehoop. Upon turning them in, the following dialog is displayed:

“	Treddlehoop takes the Lens of Eye-Glass and looks at it closely through half a dozen monocles. Steam jets from his ears for a moment. 'Wow! This is the most amazingly clear glass that I have ever seen! It amplifies and clarifies. This will make a spectacular lens.' Treddlehoop eagerly pops the lens from your Seeing Device and sets the Eye-Glass into the rim. As he tightens down some tiny screws you see the lens suddenly change color as red the color of heart blood flows across its surface. 'Oh my! The lens appears to be, well, alive! I seem to have harmed it when I secured it to the frame! It's become all red with blood! Oh how horrible! I'm sorry, but I won't try this thing on my own eye, that's up to you.' He hands you the monocle. 'I hope it will serve you in some capacity, you've worked very hard to obtain it.'	”

The player will then receive a Monocle of Blood, which acts as both a key to Dreadspire Keep, and a key to the Demi-Plane of Blood. With the Monocle of Blood out of the way, the only remaining requirement for entry is to get five levels in Curse of Blood, outlined below. Note that in order to pass through the door to Vule's chamber, the Memories Lost mission must be completed. Magicians can use Call of the Hero to summon players who do not meet this requirement.

[edit] Curse of Blood, Level 5/5

The most time-consuming part of gaining access to the Demi-Plane of Blood for players that lack the required level is getting five levels in Curse of Blood, the invisible AA that tracks a player's progress through Depths of Darkhollow. There are five raid mobs throughout the Depths of Darkhollow that each give one level in Curse of Blood. Each mob has a zonewide AoE that hits players who have one or more levels in Curse of Blood; the effects are amplified with higher ranks. In order of difficulty, the mobs are as follows:

Matriarch Shyra - a great, gray werewolf found in a cavern known as The Lodge of the Fang, a 54-player instance found in Stoneroot Falls. The AoE within this zone is Blood of the Shadowmane, which reduces players' Strength caps by 25 per rank in Curse of Blood, and snares them by 10% per rank; it also blocks any of the Shaman Focus line of spells above Focus of Soul/Focus of the Seventh, because of the reduction in Strength cap.
Bloodeye - a massive red werewolf found in the Snarlstone Dens, a 54-player instance found in the Undershore. The AoE within this zone is Theft of Rage, which reduces players' Attack by 20 per rank in Curse of Blood, and reduces their spell damage by 2% per rank; it also blocks the Ranger Predator line of spells, because of the Attack reduction.
Council of the Nine - the nine members of the Shiliskin High Council and their collective Avatar, this raid takes place in a 42-player instance of Temple of the Korlach, within the Ruins of Illsalin. The zonewide AoE here is Curse of the Nine, which reduces players' melee mitigation by 2% per rank of Curse of Blood, and decreases their effective casting level by 3 per rank.
Emperor Draygun - the late emperor of the great Shiliskin Empire, claimed by the curse of Shadowspine, this mob can be found in a 54-player instance of The Nargilor Pits, within the Ruins of Illsalin. The AoE within this zone is Draygun's Touch, which decreases Mana by 5 per tick, per rank of Curse of Blood, and HP by 10 per tick per rank.
Sendaii, the Hive Queen - hated by many guilds serverwide, this great queen of the Drachnids can be found in Queen Sendaii's Lair, a 54-player instance found within The Hive. The AoE within this zone is Curse of the Hivequeen, which reduces all stat caps and resist caps by 20 per rank of Curse of Blood.

Upon completion of each of these raids, players will gain a rank in Curse of Blood. Once players receive their fifth rank, they are flagged for the Demi-Plane of Blood and, provided they possess a Monocle of Blood (outlined above), can zone in freely.

[edit] Drop of Accursed Blood

All tier 2 mobs within the Demi-Plane of Blood, along with Mayong Mistmoore, drop one Drop of Accursed Blood. This item is the bagflag for Demi-Plane of Blood. Upon looting it, players will receive their five ranks in Curse of Blood. Since early 2008, the zone was opened on the basis of player level, and the backflag is no longer of use except to those players that lack the required level. The Monocle of Blood, which used to be required for entry to DSK, is no longer required to zone in if the player meets the level requirement; players that do not meet the level requirement cannot even be pushed in to loot a Drop of Accursed Blood without the Monocle.

With the patch on July 5, 2007, Hatchet the Torturer and Sanguimanus the Redfang now drop bagflags as well.

[edit] Zone Content

Within the Demi-Plane of Blood are nine main raid events, and five mini events that drop augments. The main events are broken down into tiers; and each tier has its own specific attractions, loot-wise. An entire tier must be cleared before the next tier spawns. Events are listed in the order that a raid will most likely encounter them, not in order of difficulty.

[edit] Tier 1

Tier 1 of Demi-Plane of Blood spans the entire length of the zone, with Zi-Thuuli generally being fought at the zone-in, and Hatchet in the caves beyond the laboratory. The attractive items from this tier are the AoE blockers. Each event has a blocker unique to it, which must be given to a specific NPC in the non-instanced Dreadspire. For each blocker a player turn in, the zonewide AoEs in Demi-Plane are weakened. The third blocker (numerically - the individual blockers are all equal to one another) a player turns in will remove the snare component entirely; the fourth will eliminate the effects entirely.

Zi-Thuuli of the Granite Claw - generally raids need to stay in one spot until this one is completed. He can spawn on the death of any mob, including raid mobs like Redfang. He must be spawned a total of four times before he can be killed; the first three times, he despawns somewhere between 40% and 60% of his health. The fourth time, he goes until death. His treasure chest spawns at the zone-in, and must be cleared of traps and unlocked before it can be opened.
Sanguimanus the Redfang - considered by many players the hardest event in the Demi-Plane of Blood, with the exception of Mayong Mistmoore himself, Redfang is generally the last tier 1 event that a guild completes. He spawns four times during the event, for a limited amount of time, and must be killed in those four spawns; if he is not killed in those four spawns, the event ends and must be restarted. He can spawn anywhere in the bat tower; from the bottom door to the top door and several locations in between. He spawns bat adds that must be taken care of, and every time he despawns, small bats swarm the raid, and must be rooted in order to be killed.
The Wailing Sisters - this event is criticized by guilds serverwide due to the heavy effects that the random number generator has on it. In this event, there are three sisters (Althea, Brenda, and Christine); they all hate one another. The event requires that players tell each sister what the others are doing to plot against them. Each round (time per round needed), one sister will (or will not) ask what one other sister is doing; players must retrieve and relay this information to the first sister. If players manage to tattle on two sisters 8 or more times each during the allotted time, they win, and a chest spawns in the southern crypt area.
Hatchet the Torturer - this event is a heavily finesse-oriented script. Hatchet hits like a truck, including flurry and AoE rampage. Randomly throughout the event, players will receive messages, telling them how Hatchet is planning to kill them; they must react to these messages accordingly, otherwise they will be hit with a death touch from Hatchet. Additionally, once every (roughly) three minutes, Hatchet will pick a player out of the raid and charge towards them; if he reaches that player, he fires an AoE death touch; players are often told to simply go die away from the raid if they cannot successfully kite him until he gives up. And finally, throughout Hatchet's chamber, objects that resemble bear traps will randomly spawn. In order to unlock Hatchet's health (I.E., have to trap him once to get him below 80%, again to get below 60%, etc), he must be placed on top of one of these traps, and a player must click the trap. If a trap is clicked without Hatchet on top, a heavy AoE DoT fires.

[edit] Tier 2

Tier 2 of Demi-Plane of Blood, like tier 1, spans a large amount of the zone. There are several attractive items in this tier. Each mob has a chance to drop a DMG augment for a specific weapon type; pages drop that are used for epic 2.5s; and each mob drops a bagflag. The spirits that spawn after each mob dies also hand out bane weapons, useful against Mayong and his minions.

Devlin Rochester - this fight is mostly a simple spank-and-tank; there are a couple kickers, however. Devlin has different special abilities, dependent upon what weapons he has equipped. There are a couple that require the entire raid to pay attention, and can cause a wipe otherwise; however, they are simple to follow, and this event is often regarded as one of the easiest in the zone. Devlin's spirit hands out the bane weapons for Rogues, Enchanters, Wizards, and Magicians.
Tris Wallow III - this fight is also extremely simple. Tris switches between three forms; werewolf, sitting human, and standing human. While in werewolf form, the raid should attack; while in sitting human form, she is non-aggressive and should not be attacked for any reason; while in standing human form, only tanks should be attacking her. She gives emotes when changing forms, and to signify a couple other elements of the event. Once Tris reaches 8% health in werewolf form, the raid should stop attacking; once she changes back to human, healers should heal her to 100%, then cast Remove Greater Curse on her. Tris's spirit hands out the bane weapons for Clerics, Paladins, Warriors, and Rangers.
Roley DeFarge - this is where tier 2 of Demi-Plane of Blood starts to get tougher. In this event, the raid encounters both Roley DeFarge and his wife, Adrianna. Roley must be offtanked while the raid attacks Adrianna, until she stops fighting and gives the raid a clue on how to defeat Roley. At this point, players must use her information to retrieve wooden stakes and clubs that, if properly used, are the key to defeating Roley. Roley's spirit hands out bane weapons for Necromancers and Monks; Adrianna's hands out weapons for Berserkers and Shadow Knights.
The Performer - this unique ring event requires that the raid protect a skeleton, named The Performer, from an army of guards while he and his band put on a musical performance to arouse Mayong. Periodically, players will have to sing along, or get hit with a 3-tick mez. The Performer's spirit hands out bane weapons for Bards, Beastlords, Druids, and Shamans.

[edit] Tier 3

The only event in tier 3 of Demi-Plane of Blood is Mayong Mistmoore himself. Mayong drops bagflags, along with pages for epic 2.5s. Little is known about the event at this time.

[edit] Zone Minis

Throughout a Demi-Plane of Blood expedition, five mobs will randomly spawn and, once killed, drop one of thirteen random augments; this is similar to the zone's predecessor, Citadel of Anguish. The five mobs, listed in the order by which they spawn, are Maggotmiser, Swirling Bloodspirit, Ur-Gorloch, Legionnaire Silkbinder, and Madrillah the Ancient. Each aug mob spawns after a random number of other mobs have been killed. Similar to how the Citadel of Anguish augments were 90HP/Mana/Endurance as a baseline, then each specific augment housed other, these are 110HP/Mana/Endurance with other added bonuses. The augments and their bonuses are as follows: