Make Skotizo Easier to Access like Bryophyta and Obor

[torpid garnet]

(This first part is the Introduction to Dark Totems, so you can skip this if you already know what they do.)

Ahh, the beloved Greater Demon and Black Demon boss that everyone loves to fight; right? Well... that is if you have the Dark Totems for it. For those unaware, Dark Totems are items that are formed by Dark Totem pieces dropped by most monsters throughout the Catacombs of Kourend (excluding Ghosts). Each Dark Totem piece, the top, middle and bottom have to be used on each other to acquire a Totem (no shit). These Totems then have to be used in the center where the Dark Altar is to send you into Skotizo's Lair where you'll finally fight him.

The issue is; these Totems are just too rare to reliably farm the boss and get the collection log items. What I'm proposing are possibilities of what could maybe make this boss a lot easier to access, but keep the value and rarity of the unique items he drops.

Solution #1: Allow players to freely fight Skotizo without the need for a Dark Totem, but these Dark Totems can be sacrificed at a Dark Altar in his lair to receive any of the loot (including uniques). Skotizo must be defeated before you can sacrifice a Totem at the Altar.

Solution #2: Let people fight Skotizo whenever they want. Keep Skotizo's unique items on him, but make it so the regular loot is locked behind the Dark Altar and make the uniques rarer.

Solution #3: Skotizo no longer requires a Dark Totem to fight. Keep Skotizo's regular loot on him, but lock the uniques behind the Dark Altar. Leave the drop rates of the unique items alone.

If you guys can think of any other solution to this, or you like / dislike the suggestion; feel free to give me your feedback.

[small jackal]

skotizo normal loot would have to be 1% of his current loot

there's no way you can justify 200k per kill on effectively a 450 hp greater demon

[torpid garnet]

I mean yeah, that's a good point. Every opportunity you get to fight him is consistent profit, even without the Uncut Onyx and Jar of Darkness on the drop table. There'd have to be some way for it to be balanced so that way people aren't getting their Arclight just to battle some terrible moneymaker of a boss, but also keep players from getting insanely rich off him as well.

[marble owl]

Eh you get so many totems passively just doing slayer that I don't think it's like bryo/obor where you'd have to specifically farm keys

[vernal gull]

Or leave it alone?

[torpid garnet]

Yes, but people often do Konar tasks to boost their points; and how often does she assign Catacombs tasks? I know people usually stop Turael boosting after a while once they have everything they want, and I realize that the next Slayer Update might put somewhat of a stop to this; but why should it take forever just to get 10 Totems even just doing Slayer normally in order to actually access this relatively easy boss? How is that meant to be fair? What if someone wants to get the pet or recolor their Slayer Helmet to purple? It doesn't make sense to gatekeep content like this with such a time-consuming task. The entire game is time-consuming enough as it is, I think this is one thing that doesn't have to be since the grind for any of the items would already be enough to make people go insane.

[torpid garnet]

Would say that if things were perfectly fine with this boss, but it almost seems as if the boss is more difficult to reach than it should be. Whether for Combat Achievements, Skotos, Dark Claws, or just the Collection Log in general; Skotizo is practically unable to be fought because of the strict limitation of requiring a Dark Totem that can take you several hours to get on or off-task.

[vernal gull]

Sorry I disagree. I had been hunting heart for years and got plenty of catacombs tasks, from konar and stnieve. If u want to turael boost, perhaps adopt the better strategy

[shut dawn]

If you have Bigger and Badder unlocked, and do Duradel/Nieve, you can do a ton of tasks in the catacombs, and the superiors drop a guaranteed totem piece, so it really doesnt take that long tbh, especially doing burst tasks

Also theres no reason that Skotizo needs to be easier to access tbh, the guaranteed clues is a bit op, with a very accessible pet as well

[torpid garnet]

Ok, but the clue scroll drop rate can be nerfed as well. There's absolutely no reason that he should be more difficult to access because of how easy he is to fight and because of the very minimal requirements to get there. Bigger and Badder does help, but even then that's a 1/200 spawn chance and some people don't focus on Combat Achievements until way later on (which, it'd otherwise be 1/150). Also as players progress through quests, they unlock more Slayer Monsters (most of which can't be fought in the Catacombs). So it's either pray and hope you get lucky with a Catacombs Slayer Task, or grind until 80 Slayer where it's actually worth a damn to Burst / Barrage there even off-task. Nobody should be expected to do this no matter what they're after; this isn't an end-game boss that has difficult mechanics and is meant to be hard to access, it's a late game boss with low requirements that really shouldn't be hard to access at all and has very simple mechanics.

[torpid garnet]

There isn't a better strategy than Turael x 9 and switch to Konar every 10th, and that's depressing because even THAT is too slow. You're either better off NOT Turael boosting and using Nieve every chance you get in hopes of getting assigned a monster that can be found in the Catacombs, or just grind to 80 Slayer because Dust Devils aren't nearly as worth it as Nechryaels are for grinding Dark Totems (which by the way; this is still not efficient despite it being the fastest method).

[shut dawn]

I dont understand why Skotizo needs to be accessible in the first place though. Can't it just be a limited boss?

[torpid garnet]

Limited why? That's like saying to take a boss like Giant Mole and further limit the accessibility by requiring a 1/900 drop chance item for every entrance; how much sense does that make for a boss that was originally meant to be defeated by a bunch of noobs? (Obviously this is a way different comparison, but still; Skotizo is too easy and doesn't exactly reward anything to be deserving of a lock and key on him.)

Unless the boss drops some overpowered piece of late or end-game gear, I see no reason why it should be hard to access.

[shut dawn]

Idk, it just seems like you are begging for the boss accessibility because you dont want to get totems for CAs or pet or something

Skotizo is connected to the catacombs, and I think its fine for it to be required for Totems to access him, especially since he drops so many shards for arclight/good loot commonly/etc.

Like even if he was made accessible, what does anyone gain? They would need to nerf everything connected to him to shit unless you have a totem, and they should require the CAs (at least the 5KC) to still require totems for a KC to count

[torpid garnet]

I'm not begging for accessibility; I just don't see why we're putting chains and locks on a piece of content that is undeserving of such treatment. And yes, they absolutely would have to nerf the drop rates of shards, clue scrolls, etc., but I don't see how that's a problem. Also to counter your argument; people don't gain shit to begin with due to him constantly being imprisoned, so that wouldn't change. It doesn't necessarily have to require Totems for KC to count, though I guess it wouldn't matter since these Totems are so "common." All I really am trying to say is that a boss that doesn't reward some big ticket item worth millions of gp, something powerful like the Infernal Cape or an item both expensive and strong like the Scythe of Vitur doesn't need to be gatekept.