August 20, 1999

To COMB, OR NOT TO COMB.. By Eladar

And now I imagine you can guess the topic of this article. This is intended for clerics either leading a formation in the catacombs, or (heaven forbid) soloing themselves.

To start off, we’re going to cut people. If you cant get at least 400 hp you cannot solo combs. If you cannot get 300 hp, you shouldn’t even attempt combing in a formation. Next, I’d like to point out that clerics (single class) are not suited to combing. They do not possess sneak, scan, farsight, or invis, so a large portion of this article will concern itself with making up for these handicapps.

Perhaps the most valuable ability to any comber is that of invis, or sneak. Catacomb mobs are primarly agressive mobs, and will attack a helpless cleric wandering around without invis. You can try to blaze through rooms and attempt not to be drawn into combat because of your roadrunner-like abilities, but I suggest doing one or more of the following:

1. Get a shadow cloak, or chameleon hide. Your clannies have spares, trust me. Both are useable as invis tools -but be warned- they will not remove from the about location, should you need to wear a container.
2. Buy cloudy potions. These were my favorite treat as a cleric. They give an invis spell, plus strength, and you’re able to quaff them at any time. The strength is a huge bonus of these, and they’re relatively inexpensive. You’ll thank me when you find you’re loaded up on eggs (hopefully) and simply can’t carry another egg until you get your next cloudy quaffed. You can get these at trellor.
3. Invisibility wands are handy. These are the next best option to the potions, because they don’t have the restrictions of a shadow/chameleon piece, and they can be used by other persons in the room.
4. There are other options, including glass wands, but numbers 1-3 should suffice for any normal cleric. (prissy eq not needed in other words)

Now that we have the invis problem solved, the next problem is SPEED. If you want to get any DECENT amount of eggs as a cleric in the combs, you’ll have to get in early, and from there its cake. Try to stay at a high level, because combing deep gets you wonderful mobs like flayers and chimeras, who will absolutely adore you before they rip you into bite-sized hors d` oeurves. The good thing about combing shallow as I call it, is that its EASY. However, if you’re like me, you hate spending time and mana to kill weeds and lichens, when those heros just glide through and charm them. Solution: charm em yourself. Grab some some staffs of ruling. These have a nice charm spell for the room, so try them before you do anything to lichen/weed. These are VERY handy with regards to mephits, because you can charm a lichen and reform it behind you. I haven’t been bsed by a mephit in some time! You can also have yourself an insta-tank, similar to a mage’s elemental if you use these wisely, so stock up those staffs!

Well, by now you’re reading the massive amount of potions, staffs, cloaks that one should have for combing and thinking how in the world to carry your eggs! This is rather elementary, but standard combing eq is: Gryph bp, or normal bp, bag of holding/clear jar, belt container (I like spell pouch) as well as a pair of Tor key-necklaces. Store all eq/staffs in one item, and wear it constantly for maximum speed, so you can simply fill the next container when you’re done with one.

There are a thousand things I’m sure that your clannies can teach you or clue you into about combing, but if you intend to solo, here are a few tidbits. Find ore rooms. The ore is your friend. Mana regen is a real problem on the upper rooms, and these help immensely. Look for winded mobs. Anything hit by wind will make it killable, even if you’re a small cleric. Use invis right after a centipede splits the first time. You can pick the eggs up and move along unless you WANT to kill the entire thing. Find a comfortable method for prioritizing mobs with eggs or lack thereof. I know mine was: eggs on the ground, lichens, weeds, bears, octopusi, serpents. I generally didn’t need to kill anything bigger than that unless I was in a form. Don’t forget the best policy is the greedy policy. Solitude while combing is great, because if there are a thousand people in your general area, kiss your eggs goodbye. Try to get somewhere that no one else has been. Most combers travel in a general sort of direction until they find a likely spot, then use a kind of grid-search through the prospective rooms for eggs. Be wary of the coral rooms, they are exceedingly painful, and since rooting is a rarity in solo clericing, make sure you have an alert to notify you of coral rooms, like setting Mudmaster to highlight it. Keep your sanctuary up at all times, even when you think you dont need it. Same thing with images if you can. Make SURE you have great AC. Self-healing by clerics is great, but combs mobs hit rather hard, so try to get hit as little as possible. If you screw up, blind a mob you accidently start fighting, and look for a different LEVEL. Mobs track rather well, and there have been too many times a banshee showed up while I was killing a blood weed.

Most of all, have respect for other combers. It is absolutely appaling how little respect even high-levels have for others. Whenever I see someone dead in a random room, I generally try to help them out, because if you remember all those times you were butchered and then swearing irl.... Well, suffice to say, don't infringe on other players, or pick up the eggs in their room with a trigger. If you follow these tips, and consult others in your clan about how you can better learn the combs, then I’m sure you’ll enjoy your eggin’ time quite a bit more!

Happy Mudding,

Eladar