I experienced “the Pit” dungeon for the first time yesterday, well the first time I can remember playing it anyway. Foolishly we started the dungeon quite late and the run took two hours despite rushing somewhat. This dungeon is a real puzzler.
The dungeon is pretty massive, spanning several levels and built around great circular halls with winding ramps up and down. Equally impressive chambers are accessible from various side corridors of these halls.
The number of steps to complete the dungeon surprised me; looking at the custom map for the dungeon with symbols to represent each of the rooms of the complex, I should have guessed at just how many sub-tasks there would be. The dungeon includes several jumping puzzles (thankfully my husband and friend are better at these than I) and some really clever logic puzzles.
It highlighted the joys of playing small team content like DDO dungeons with friends – we could easily communicate via voice chat, and could play to our individual strengths to solve the logic puzzles, conquer the very high heights of the jumping puzzles and defeat the many opponents successfully. Random and casual grouping in other more modern games doesn’t give me the same sense of close cooperation.
I can see why this quest might be less popular however. The complex layout of similar looking halls, especially the winding ramps, is likely to confuse the less experienced adventurer. It’s also just so very long, as veteran MMORPG players two hours for a dungeon run isn’t unheard of, but late at night it was a tad too long. Of course, DDO’s rather “all or nothing” experience reward system plays a role here – dungeons are somewhat all or nothing affairs as you get nothing for defeating individual foes. The experience reward for the quest and any optional side objectives usually comes at the end when you complete the task. So for a really long quest, giving up because it is too late means giving up on all the XP earned so far. In this case that would have been a lot – my character received ~17,000 for this one quest on normal; enough to bring him half a bar from level 8.
Sweet, sweet XP
Although the quest was fun to complete, we agreed we’d come back eventually to try it again, when we had the time to do it without any pressure of rushing. The complexities of the Pit didn’t leave us despondent as the post title might suggest, but the very poor item reward choices from the House Deneith agent were certainly a reason for despair after all that effort!
GamingSF 
I’ve struggled getting back into DDO. I left a decade ago and only recently came back. I have quests I can no longer access (since they moved to F2P) and there is such a jumbled mess of systems, paywalls, etc. that is so overwhelming for someone trying to return. I have a level 7 or 8 Paladin that I like but I may be forced to start from scratch just so I can understand how everything works together.
Taking it slowly with friends has made it much easier for me, I have bad memories of rush groups back when I played the game on the old EU servers. It’s a complex and very rewarding game to play but finding your pace, especially on unfamiliar content is key for me at least.
“The Pit” is one of those quests that most people either love or hate; rarely is there an in-between. Personally, I love it – it is one of my favorite quests. When I first ran it (solo, with a hire, I might add), it took me a couple of hours, too. However, once you get used to the layout, you can usually do a (non-zerg) run in about 30-minutes, give or take. So you guys just need a bit more practice. It is also the location of the very rare “Muck’s Doom” named item drop (one of the most sought after ooze-bane weapons, in days past). But you do have to turn the (3) valves (one in each furnace room) to unlock the “Avatar of Juiblix” area, located at the very bottom.
😉
I don’t doubt we could speed up, although farming content doesn’t really interest me at the moment (it doesn’t in any MMO to be honest). If we can reach level 10 without repeating much I’ll be happy, as then we can dive into Ravenloft and do the latest content.
We did accidentally discover the Avatar actually, our Pally tank fell down onto it (featherfall ftw), but after he heroically soloed the boss no Muck’s Doom resulted 😦
Reblogged this on DDOCentral.
This quest is quite easy. Once you learn this quest, you will see that there is a pattern.
Always drop one level from entrance then move up, then to the furnace one level above ladder. From there its an interchange between the two circular pathways where they intersect. The first time you go up from furnace, you move to the other side(may be straight, I don’t remember), then the second time, u move directly up without switching and the third time again you switch, and so on and so forth.