1700 HP golems are guarding 2nd Elysium silver room

This is from the 2nd silver room in Elysium. I ran into 3 Ancient Obsidian golems guarding the silver room.
Good thing I can kill them with lots of Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire.
Evil Chris really does hate miners after all.

 

oh man, I know some people who are gonna be really unhappy lol!

 

Love it

 

I went down here to investigate this new phenomenon of the Earth Elementals rising up and calling upon their ancient bretheren to protect the silver nodes.

Firstly, as soon as I smashed the wall, one of these ancient protectors charged up the ramp and engaged me in combat. Must have heard me knocking. Ill-prepared for this enthusiastic greeting, I whittled it down and then sorted out a deck that wasn't full of earth magic and things that don't hurt them.

Proceeded into room. It looks like the spawn was mixed, so it wasn't FIVE ancient golems, it was 3, with two of the normal-size earthed elementals - and easy enough to get them 1 at a time as long as you notice the pile of rocks and dont step on them. I think stepping on them would probably have not made them very happy.

While I think 3 at once might have caused me focus issues, I was able to safely engage and dispatch two of them without putting myself in grave danger.

2nd floor silver area of Elysium was, at lesat on my pass, unchanged (regular sized earth elementals and usual kobold/satry welcoming commitee) - silver will still be obtainable from this area if folks can't kill the Big Brother golems, but it should slow down silver acqusition rates in Ely significantly as some people will no longer be able to simply park in the basement for hours. I list this as a good thing because if Elysium is shifted into a more acceptable "risk vs reward" scenario by adding harder monsters blocking access to half of the silver, we've got a better chance of it not going the way of verdantis/serpent spine and all the ore disappearing. The Big Brother golems are worth 2500 xp each compared to the 1000 of the regular elemental, drop obsidian chips, and presumably due to higher tier will have artifact/potion drop chance higher as well. If I'm going to have to fight stuff while I mine, I'm pleased that I can fight something worthwhile. The increased kill time required on these gives the silver down there more time to respawn, so if you did want to park on the third floor, there'd be less "twiddling" time.

PROs:

• Better xp for killing things on third floor
• Better loot potential for killing things on third floor
• Increased difficulty brings the zone more in line with the established "risk vs. reward" mentality
• 1st/2nd floor still mine-able by lower lvl player - silver still acquirable.

CONs:

• Golems may eat fledgling adventurers who wander into their lair, making this area of the mine now inaccessible for some % of players.
• Ore acqusition rate will suffer due to longer fighting time on 3rd floor should you include this in your rounds. (However, as mentioned, this may serve to bring the zone more in line with established expectations and save it from future changes).

Overall for me, I am happy with this change, will make mining a bit more interesting down here, but I expect that folks who already struggled to kill the monsters here will not be pleased. The fact that the 2nd floor has been left alone though does not completely remove access to silver, so I think this is something we can all deal with.

 

More and more the gap between those that power game and any normal player gets bigger and bigger.

Way to go, sad that they could not have started the game with a more intelligent forethought and made things that should be rare and difficult actually rare and difficult.

As it is now, it starts to mirror the same gap that UO had as it slide further and further into oblivion

An area like this should have started like this and players should just now be getting around to mining in there alone, ah well damage is long done and entrenched

 

They look pretty scrawny for such tough golems

 

I agree, to a point - but the stockpiled silver will eventually get used up and everyone will be brought in line to the new "acquisition rate" - and the market will likely reflect this.
Should it have been that way from the start? Absolutely agree, but, we're in pre-release and these sorts of thing are much clearer in hindsight and these sorts of changes are part of the process.
As with every release, there will be content that you could do yesterday and then on patch day, WHAM, you can't - while it is frustrating at times, I have to grit my teeth and remind myself that I am playing in Alpha. Highly polished, fairly-far-along alpha, but the game is still at a state where such things are fluid. We are all testers.
Personally, I'd much rather they make the mobs a little bit harder in part of the zone, than ruin the zone altogether leaving no viable silver mining anywhere.

 

I hope they give good experience.

 

you seem to be forgetting the increased frop chance of artifacts that these Golems offer

 

@kaeshiva +1000

Agree with everything you ve said.

 

I remember getting hit with a lightning bolt or two from the Kobold mages, so they may have expanded their powers.

 

Ah, that's possible. No change in terms of monster type or HP, to clarify. I kill them pretty fast so didn't notice them doing anything different.

 

I *never* get artifacts from anything so not something I'd use as a deciding factor.
Shimz needs artifacts too....

 

if shims keeps doing my Works, she may find herself getting some

 

One Ancient with a few Earth Ele's isn't so bad. You start getting 2 or 3 that respawn close together though and it's not so fun. I used to be one of those miners who spent some time down in the bottom mining silver... and had no issues with fighting off the elementals whenever they popped to continue mining. But now with 2 or 3 Ancients on me at once, I get chased out of the bottom area more than I get to spend mining down there.

I understand the need to have to work for the opportunity to mine, but there needs to be a balance of say 1 or 2 ancients at most.

And why are the fauns healing the Ancients after I've killed their masters and set them free? Guess I'll have to kill the fauns too in order to protect myself.

Perri? I thought we had a deal?

Oh, and does Earthquake lower focus now (again) or something? Seems like my focus drops awfully fast when I'm fighting the Ancients. And I'm using 2 food sources too.

 

I usually get the Honor blessing in Jade Valley before going to the mine.

I have to see if 4 hour or 2 hour food makes a big difference or not, I believe I used 4 hour food for that fight.

Hardest enemy mob that I have beaten so far.

 

I wonder if this means we get more silver nodes in lvl 3 considering the risk has increased dramatically

 

Sounds like a bug. Fauns should really attempt to extract themselves once they are free and run away.

I still wouldn't mind a Faun "pet" that acts like a water elemental...