TOPIC: True Grind Post-Mortem (2015 Who's Yer Con)

Time for my annual data analysis!

This past weekend at Who's Yer Con, we ran 8 slots of True Grind. Each was filled with 10 players, so we had 100% attendance and all 80 tickets were used! (Though there were several players who played twice, and at least one who played "thrice.")

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BTW: I did not get full details on all of the uses of PoDD (Potion of Death's Doors or other equivalents). I should probably start tracking that. So if you recall any instances of PoDD's being used, please let me know which run and which character it was used on.

For Friday 3 PM, I know either 3 or 4 PoDD's (or Mystic Mushrooms) were used. At least one of which was on the Rogue.

Friday 4:30 PM, used at least one PoDD (on Bard Valetutto).

Saturday 9 AM used 2 or 3 PoDD's.

I know that Saturday 10:30 AM used 4 PoDD's, though I do not recall which characters used them.

And Sunday 12 PM had 2 PoDD uses (Mystic Mushroom on the Barbarian and Fallen Star Mushroom on the Paladin).

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Of the 8 runs, 1 was the new Hardcore (slightly easier than the old Hardcore), and the other 7 were the new Nightmare (slightly harder than the old Hardcore but easier than the old Nightmare). There were no Normal and no Epic (the old Nightmare) runs.

The one Hardcore run had a Team Victory, with a 90% player survival rate.

For Nightmare, there were 5 Team Victories and 2 TPK's, with an overall 50% player survival rate (not factoring in PoDD uses).

More specifically:

Friday 12 PM: Hardcore. 9 survivors. 1 death (Rogue Matt Wheat)

Friday 1:30 PM: Nightmare. TPK (including Kithren Bloodwood and balthasar)

Friday 3 PM: Nightmare. 8 survivors. 2 dead (Barbarian djm999 and Wizardress Adeya). 3 or 4 PoDD's used (at least one on Rogue Shady Veldrin).

Friday 4 PM: Nightmare. 2 survivors. 8 dead (including my minion Brad, Valetutto & wife, jedibcg and his +1).

Saturday 9 AM: Nightmare. 7 survivors. 3 dead (Barbarian djm999 again, Fighter Joshua Baessler, and the Bard). 2 or 3 PoDD's used.

Saturday 10:30 AM: Nightmare. 10 survivors. 4 PoDD's used (don't recall on which classes).

Sunday 10:30 AM: Nightmare. TPK (including the Gertz backpack group and Dis Bee Leaf).

Sunday 12 PM: Nightmare. 8 survivors. 2 dead (Ranger kurtreznor & Druid). 2 PoDD equivalents used.

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Looking at classes selected:

8 Barbarians
8 Clerics
8 Dwarf Fighters
8 Rangers
7 Bards
7 Druids
7 Fighters
7 Paladins
6 Rogues
6 Wizards
5 Monks
3 Elf Wizards

Poor Elf Wizards! No one seems to like them!

Looking at survival rates at the end of the Grind (not factoring in PoDD resurrections), we have:

75.00% Dwarf Fighter
71.43% Paladin
66.67% Elf Wizard
62.50% Cleric
60.00% Monk
57.14% Bard
57.14% Fighter
50.00% Ranger
50.00% Rogue
42.86% Druid
37.50% Barbarian
33.33% Wizard

There were lots of memorable moments from this weekend's WYC Grind. Off the top of my head:

- I managed to kill each Artifact owner. Lazlo failed a save against a triple blast fireball (dying but then getting brought back to life). Gertz's entire party was wiped out. And kurtreznor got sliced and diced by the final boss.

* For reference: Those individuals (or any other players) were not targeted specifically. Everyone in Lazlo's half of the room had to make that same save and anyone who failed would have died without Evasion or Fire Resistance. Gertz's time slot had a TPK (and that also included Dis Bee Leaf) so everyone died. And kurtreznor was a Ranger with enormous damage potential (+16 hit, +11 damage with his +2 Keen Slayer Bow) but was a squishy target with AC 23, which made him the most logical target. I think the Paladin was also using a +2 Keen Slayer Bow, but with just +6 hit, +2 damage and AC 32, he was much a less lower priority than the Ranger!

- George gets the MVP Druid award for being the only Druid who remembered to cast Protection from Energy in this fire heavy adventure. Although that immunity was eventually countered with a Dispel Magic, he also got a lot of mileage from a common Potion of Fire Resistance, which was the only one I saw used during the weekend.

- Adeya using Lesser Maze on the Giant Fire Snake to get 3 players (including herself) out of its stomach.

- During a crucial part of the final room, Henwy ditched his party for several rounds so that he could get a drink of water. (I guess he forgot to bring waterskins!).

- Valetutto's Clerical wife decided to let him die because she was too busy attacking. Valetutto's bardsong was rendered ineffective by his constant coughing (from smoke inhalation), and he eventually coughed his lungs out!

- As the Medusa, Raven had lots of fun shattering Widseth's Lutes, and petrified players.

- One Druid polymorphed as a snake kept getting flown back and forth across the rooms.

- Best food service delivery: Giant Fire Snake swallows the Cleric. Both the Paladin and the Barbarian need healing so the Ranger suggests that they jump instead with the Cleric so they can get healed. They do that even though the Barbarian only has 7 HP. They promptly take a bunch of fire damage from the snake's digestive system, killing the Barbarian before he can get healed.

- A dead Barbarian with the Shirt of Spiritward played a critical role when he managed to bump someone else's combat slider into the 20.

- Several Dwarves (and a Polymorphed Druid Bear) forgot about their height disadvantage when trying to attack flying monsters with melee weapons.

- Several players died killing (or almost killing) the main boss.

I was in the 1:30pm Friday. I think we used at least 1 PoDD on you side, either on the Paladin or Druid. I had more Mystic Mushrooms, but people didn't seem interested.

Lode

I used a PoDD in the 130 run and I believe it was on Kithren.

In the 3pm Friday run I used a mystic mushroom to come back to life (and got 18 points of healing) only to have you immediately kill me again with a triple attack blade barrier. Grrr!

But one of my favorite moments was during the Hardcore run when the fire snake had the Rogue, Cleric, and Wizard (me) swallowed. I was able to use the Lesser Maze spell to remove the monster from play for a round which let the three of us pop out of its stomach.

Another favorite moment happened while the party was split by a river of lava with one side still working to kill a monster and high winds or something preventing range attacks from the other side. Then all of a sudden here comes a lone Arrow of True Flight: slid right on the creature's eyeball for a critical hit!

My first grind (Sunday at Noon), I was the Barbarian who used the shirt of Spirtward. Had a blast...and that may be a valid choice in future, as opposed to Shirt of Shielding.

You didn't relate the story on the Shirt/Mushroom use...Fireball had gone off, Barbarian was down to...7, I think. Our available healer got swallowed, and Barbarian was told if he needed healed, his best bet was to jump in after her...whereupon he was instantly hit by fire damage. That was when I could either use the Mushroom, while still in the mouth, and die again...or try to take advantage of being a ghost. I was glad to hear several in my party do a "ooooh", as I nudged them into this or that spot...and when nudging the Rogue into the 20, I do remember the spirit of the Barbarian calling upon and thanking the spirit of Raven. After that was when I used the Mushroom to revive myself (as, due to the shriek from the other room, all potion bottles had shattered)

Had a lot of fun with that, and fortunately only had to use one of my revives.

It was my group (and Val's) that was using a bow to shoot the polymorphed Druid back to the other side only to have it bounce of another player attempting to be thrown over (the ranger?). I think she was shot over 2 or 3 times.

My favorite grind moments are tied between the 3pm Friday run with the lone arrow of True Flight to slay the snake from across the room and the 9am Saturday run where the right side of the room annihilated the naga so quickly she never got a chance to change into the medusa. *lol*

I am curious on the answer to this question..and Incognito will likely have it somewhere.

How did most groups solve the Blink Dog appearing at the end?

Our group? After searching for Turkey Legs and other such to keep it not interested in us...the Barbarian ended up pointing to the bodies strewn about the room...well, without being able to speak Blink Dog...the dog then went over and ate the corpses of our Ranger and Druid.

oops.

We didn't deal with a blink dog on the 4:30 run.

Our Rogue threw it a squeaky toy (duck)... It seemed happy with that.

Chris Von Wahlde wrote: Our Rogue threw it a squeaky toy (duck)... It seemed happy with that.

Yes, that is an effective way to deal with Blink Dogs.