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Ah, such a shudder goes through the land at the mere mention of the crystal fisted chorzite ore scarecrows. But truly, a minion can be your pal. He just needs a little care and understanding and proper preparation so you can bash him into a crumpled heap of squealing hollow goo. They have swell loot (if you are a lockpicker). They make cool noises. They hang out with Virindi. They are the most feared critters in Dereth. And they are everywhere. So, pull up a chair and we’ll see what we know.
First, there are three types – Tumideon, Sotiris, and Terebrous. We will look at each in detail a bit later on as well as where they can be found. A few basics about all, though. They are hollow, so robes are a bad idea. Hollow basically means “ignores all those carefully laid on banes that you spent hours learning in the mana pool”.
Basic hollow info is in the following table:
| Type | Level | Hit Points | Stamina |
| Sotiris | 55 | 230 | 410 |
| Tumideon | 65 | 250 | 450 |
| Tenebrous | 98 | 300 | 500 |
You want armor and lots of it – the higher the AL the better. Love your GSWhatever? Wear it, but stone it and be careful which stone you pick – remember Minions love Virindi and Drudges (not the cute little guys near starter towns, either). Now, truth be told, I would leave the GSWhatever at home and load on the highest AL plate or celdon I could find if you have the strength to handle it. I’ve had good success with my GSA, but great success with a set of AL 180+ plate (hauberk and leggings, less buffing for the other stuff around minions).
Ditto with shields. Got a really great AL 20 buckler that is really light and casts 8 different level VI banes plus Impregnability and Invulnerability? Nifty. Leave it at home. Get a big honking shield with lots of base SL. (I use the Shendolain for the other cool spells and a nice SL 180 base – not the best, but it seems to work for me.) If you are an archer, this is a great time to bond with your racial weapon. If you are a mage, this is an even better time to bond with some shield wielding melee loons behind which you can hide and heal. Melees – you are in your element.
Your best skills against minions are high melee d and a good healing skill.
Learn about healing at http://www.turbinegames.com/qa/view_question.html?id=248 and, if you can help it, don’t go completely out of combat mode to heal. I use the “press the S key” (stand) then heal method. You go right back into combat mode as soon as you finish the heal animation. Also, hotkey your healing kit and main pack next to each other. That way you can hit 1,2 or 8,9 (the most common combinations) and heal yourself danged fast. Now, if a pack of minions are wailing on you and you are with other folks, DO come out of combat mode and just stand, heal and eat your hearty healing food of choice while your buddies finish them off.
Hmmm… why hunt them then? For the experience? Nah, 2.5-4K each at best and they don’t come in huge spawns (thank heavens). Only three reasons to hunt minions – they are in a dungeon you want the loot from, you are trying to pull a reinforced steel chest or grab a Virindi mask or…you are a lockpicker. Lockpickers LOVE minions. They drop Singularity Keys. At a 2% or so rate. But, singularity trove loot is Overlord quality, so the payoff is high. A couple of notes – my experience is that with a LP buffed over 310 your success rate is good. Below that, you are gonna destroy a lot of keys. If you don’t have lockpick, leave them on the ground or the corpse. Keys are no drop, no give until they are carved with the Intricate Carving Tool (found in Samsur and other starter towns).
Minions have high melee d. I know from plinking billions of quarrels at them that they aren’t exactly missile cupcakes either. And as to magic…Tumideons (the middle ones) are at 293 magic resistance and Terebrous are 325. (figures courtesy of Da Z and Og the One Eye as referenced in many posts and on multiple websites). There is a reason mages hate these guys. They are just tough all around.
Key info - minions will continue to pummel you while you stand defenseless and other folks do them damage. For the most part, minions “stick” to the first attacker. I have occasionally (very rarely) seen them switch off. They will normally just continue to bash the first guy to take a swing at them (or the Virindi they are guarding). This can actually be used to your advantage in group hunting. Designate a “first whacker” – high melee d, high hp, high healing skill and the ability to not panic. Give them a huge stock of kits and pizzas and let them go at it (experience share is polite here).
Go at them with what? Well, in order, the top vulns are frost then slash then pierce. Only problem with frost is that some reports show that Virindi are above average on frost, so you may be swinging the wrong thing at the masked sickle guys. Bandits are great for hollows. Go with high speed and low power and aim low or mid (I have better luck on low). Minions are tall but they forgot to wear pants. Just booties and short shorts.
According to the Monster Attack Project at http://www.odyssey-sw.com/staff/dave/map/index.asp you are most likely to get smacked on the lower arm, upper leg and lower leg. Unlikely to get hit on the head, foot and upper arm. Do NOT, however, think this means never and go whipping into a hollow spawn wearing AL 10 quickness sandals or purty linen slippers. A lucky blow and you are on your way to vitae as the minion crushes your toe for 109 pts of bludgeoning damage.
Be sure and keep your posterior covered. Get a minion behind you and you are almost certainly dead. Never count on just “finishing the one you have” either. Back up and get your rear to a wall. Once a minion starts squealing in pain, his buddies come from a LONG way off to help.
Expect to swing a lot. Can you hit them? If your skill buffs over 300, you can hit all the types enough to solo one, but it will still be kinda time consuming and you will see quite a few evades. Minions movements are very disjointed and erratic. Expect to get dragged around a lot if there are more than one of them and they are attacking someone else – they are aways angling for a good shot. It is a good policy to clear out any casters first (drudges and Virindi) and anything you can take down quickly (tuskers) so you can concentrate the long fight on just the minions.
So, no buffs at all, right? Wrong. Buff for whatever is going to be hanging around with your selected nest of hollows. BUT – don’t overbuff. Armor, bludgeon, key prots and banes only. If you are carrying a shield, experiment. I often only buff my gaunts and leggings, occasionally only gaunts and I never buff heume or boots. I rarely go for more than armor and bludgeon prots. Sure, you may get whirly blade of death to the LS occasionally, but you will have a lot longer to hunt and your comp load will be a lot lower. Also, being caught with your wand in hand is almost a guarantee of death should a nice minion spawn and see you in combat mode.
I also suggest a big stack of Hearty Healing Famous Pizzas, Carrot Soup or Green Tea Ice Cream (all heal for 50+). You can’t afford to get smacked and try sucking down a pack of 25 point heal potions while under attack. Find a good cook and become their friend.
Ditto the healing kits – get treated. Carry lots. Take out a fresh one when the little green bar gets to ¼. Gems of Stillness aren’t a bad idea either – if a Virindi hits you with Bludgeon Vuln XII, the nice minions and tuskers are going to be feasting on your liver as you dribble off the lifestone in a daze.
Extra comps for Blood Drinker, Heart Seeker, Swift Killer and Defender. You can hunt minions for a long time between restocks. Virindi and minions tend to have light loot with a good cost to burden ratio and those are going to be your “need them every time” buffs.
To stalk the wily minion, you can wander pretty much anywhere in the Dires or Obsidian Plains and find yourself a patch of Tumideons with their friends the tuskers, drudges and Virindi. Dungeons for Sotiris and Tumideons in decent numbers are Sotiris, Tumideon Fortress and Panopticon. If you are looking for the new guys, Tenebrous can be found in the Singularity Bore. Good luck and happy hunting!
Copyright 2000, 2001, Gamejag
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