Questline leads to pvp area

Explore ruins of Midras. I'm on that quest. Samuel mentioned an alternative route I could take through the underground. Anyone have details what he's referring too? Rather not lose any of my gear by being killed. I'm a fairly new player and know there are players out there that could easily kill me.

 

http://sotawiki.net/sota/Midmaer_Passage

http://sotawiki.net/sota/Underworld

 

so spectral mines leads to where I need to go in a safer way I'm guessing? Safer in terms of avoiding pvp.

 

To be completely honest it’s actually faster and easier to just go home, take everything off your character, put it in a chest and go buy default armor and a few reagents and run through the PvP zone and run to the entrance. No one is (usually) in there. Also with nothing on you, you have nothing to lose.

I did this for a few (not all) of the Oracle quest areas, as it was just less hassle.

 

I've considered that, but didn't know if I'd have to fight anything tough. Was about to watch a long vid of a guy who did just that. Only watched couple min of it so far.

I don't use any skills/spells with reagents yet. Rather use them for crafting. The idea of needing reagents to prefer abilities I'll take a huge pass on. I figure once I been playing a long time I might change my mind though.

Spent about an hr in the hidden passage area of spectral mines thinking it might be where I need to go. Died 3 or 4 times. Too much agro and stealth sucks in this game. Guess you have to master it to be useful.

 

Oh wow. area is tiny it seems from video I'm watching more of. wasn't expecting that. hell, they shoulda just made it in an inn and have a bar room brawl.

 

Due note, all of the areas for the last parts of the Virtue quests are tier 5 areas. And all the Oracle quests are as well. So hopefully you are prepared for that....

 

Oh look lol another thread about pvp on the questline!

If you can't handle spectral (it may be a bit rough) you can also get to Midmaer Passage / Crypt of the Avatar via Kiln Cistern. You don't have to solve the whole puzzle in Kiln to get to the midmaer passage, and there's not really anything fighty in there at all. Spectral mines leads you to the same passage (midmaer) which is Tier 5, but relatively tame, just a couple elementals/slimes that you can mostly avoid.

 

http://sotawiki.net/sota/Kiln_Cistern

You will have to kill a Raging Water Elemental to get the key to Midmaer passage though.....

 

Ah didn't remember about that key. Well, no worries. If you see Shimizu on (friend meh!), I am happy to escort you through whichever route. There's lots of ore to get on the way if we go the Spectral route....and I can't actually walk past a node without mining it, that's the rule. So it may take a while. But it will be an adventure!

 

You can always buy your belongings back, the oracle will handle this. Artefacts are the costly things, so leave them at home. That's a ransom not a full loot system here.
Many PvP'er do not take ransom or give it up. If the ransom is given up, you can get it back from the Oracle for free.

The ransom system picks only two items, one equipable and one other item. This items then are send to the oracle. You can open the window 'Price of the Oracle' to see how much it costs to get the items back. There is also a timer, if the timer shows 30 days the ransom was given up and you get your items back for free, even when still the price is shown. You can also chose to give the items up, that's good if the ransom system selected 'trash'.

There is not much to fight on the way to the vaults. May use a speed potion, spell or capability to run out the mobs. However, as Jaesun has mentioned, the last steps are all tier 5 areas.

 

Accessing the final steps of the quest are either:

A) Thrilling because you have to run, duck, and weave to avoid evil avatars that want to prevent you from becoming the one true avatar of prophecy;

or

B) An epic dungeon crawl through the bloody guts of Novia.

Pick your poison.

 

I have 4 characters that all did the Shroud quest. Two went through all the PvP zones, the other two went through most of the PvP zones. I only ever saw someone else once. He attacked me with a flamefist then he promptly took off running. I didn't see him again until the end of that zone waiting by the door to the crypt where you get one of the pages. He didn't attack me.

 

If you're high level enough to be doing this stuff, you should be able to suffer the local monsters (much more annoying than any ganker could be, since they're always there) and make a mad dash for the door. I think it should probably show up as a blue quest marker on your compass, but not 100% sure. And there is at least one you will need later which is much easier to reach from undeground.

Water elemental is a pain in the ass since they implemented elemental resistance. You could go from Spectral Mines, it's a bit more trouble to get to the back area where the door is, but still less trouble than a water elemental that heals itself faster than you can damage it. There is a mini-boss skeleton which drops that key. At least it bypasses all the ore from the mine, though there is some to distract you in the passage.