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Befallen and Guk share a spot as some of my fondest (and most frustrating) moments in Everquest 1. For many MMO players, Befallen is the first dungeon they ever did in any MMO. This alone makes it pretty memorable. Add in the creepy atmosphere and the very real threat of dying where you can’t get your corpse back and the zone takes up permanent residence in our minds and hearts as gamers. EQ2’s version manages to maintain and even add to the Befallen theme.

Everquest 2: Cavern of the Afflicted

Befallen: Caverns of the Afflicted is another great Shadow Odyssey instance. The funny thing about this zone is that it is not the boss fights that is difficult, just getting to them is! The zones is designed with a couple of stretches where you have large pulls. The large pulls are not much of a problem by themselves but add in fast respawn times and you suddenly are under pressure to move very quickly.

When you zone in you will be in a hall that bends to the left.  You will see a single “no up” mob laying on the ground and maybe a “triple up” wanderer.  Don’t take the bait!  That single mob has friends…and a lot of them.  As I mentioned above, the large groups of mobs respawn quickly so you have to move fast.  This is where having AE classes in your group really helps.  We were not so lucky when we did it; so if you don’t have AE damage dealers it is possible just a little tougher.

TIP: Don’t cast encounter spells until you are sure the entire encounter is at the group.  If there are stragglers they will agro more mobs than you intended.

The trick to these areas are to move quickly.  To do this our group intentionally pulled 2 groups at a time and kept moving.

Cavern of the Afflicted Zone In

If you take a look at the pic above this is the first “drive” you have to make into the zone.  The room to the left has an NPC fighting some undead.  He will give you a quest if you help him out.  To the right are two named.  The first named is in the back of the first room, I forgot the name of the mob but he is the only “triple up” in the room.  Also, his name is not the typical “proper name” and kind of looks like a normal heroic mob.

Cavern of the Afflicted: First named spot

If you pull two groups at a time and move quickly, you should be able to get it clear to the point where you will have the named and one group of mobs to fight.  Once you have it down to the name and one group of mobs, rush the named and fight him in the back right corner of the room.  Once you kill the named the groups will quit respawning in the hall but they still respawn around the named location for some reason.

TIP: Don’t stop moving.  Grab the next group of mobs when you have one or two left in the group you are killing.  The goal is to clear fast enough that you have one group of mobs and the named left to kill.

Looking at the picture above, Fallen Scholar Edgars is in a side room to the left.  It kind of looks like a run-down library.  Nothing special about him, we just rushed in and beat him up right and proper.

Once you have the two named killed it is time to head to the well.  Be careful, the hall likely respawned before you killed the named mob that prevents them from doing so.  The good news is they will stay dead this time!

When you jump down, have the tank jump first and everyone aim for him after he is on the ground.  This will minimize the amount of “double up” mobs you agro.  The bottom of the well was really easy compared to what you just did so clear out all the mobs there and you will get to fight The Undead Jester.

Cavern of the Afflicted: The Undead Jester

Once again, The Undead Jester is nothing special.  We just burned him down.  He spawns some mini-me versions of himself but they were pretty insignificant.  We killed him first then his spawns.  Once he is down you will head into the next area which is called The Befallen Grotto.

In this area there is a ramp leading down, two named in sides rooms, and some non-agro frightful darkenings mobs flying around.  You want to kill the two named before going down and the frightful darkenings just stun or mezz you for a bit while moving around this room.  There are a few “triple up” wanderers to kill as well.  You can do the two named here in any order but we killed the worm first.  Just look for the tunnels that lead to the side rooms and kill whatever named you find there.  Remember you are looking for two named before moving down.

Cavern of the Afflicted: Plague Ridden Crawler Queen

Plague Ridden Crawler Queen can be a difficult fight if you are not careful.  We blasted through it because our the shaman in the group had done it before and gave us a heads up (Thanks Graady!).  The only thing that can be a problem with this mob is her noxious AE.  When the mob goes underground she will be unattackable and will fly around knocking the group around the room.  No significant damage really so no worries.  Once Plague Ridden Crawler Queen pops back up she will be targetable and some time after will cast a noxious AE that drains you power quickly.  We hugged the queen the entire fight and the shaman cast group cure noxious quickly.  This made her very easy.

Cavern of the Afflicted: Ever-burning Soul

The other room has Ever-burning Soul and some “triple up” skeletons.  They will die and respawn if they wander into the light shining in the room.  You have to grab them while they are agro and clear them so you can kill the named.  We just burned this guy down as well, so other than grabbing the skellies while they are agro, nothing special to note.

Once you have the two named in The Befallen Grotto dead, you can head down the ramp.  You will find a pool with three skeletons and a valve that you can click on.  Clear the skeletons and click the valve to get rid of the flying mobs that mez you in this area.

At this point you you are another big pull/move fast part of the zone.  This one spawns faster and has bigger pulls than the are you did at the beginning of the zone!  There are a couple of tricks you can do to make it much easier though.  Unless you have really good AE and/or some really good DPS it is going to be a little challenge just fighting you way down.   The good news is these mobs move REALLY slow, so you can train past them.  Have your tank go first and boogy down the hall and go left.  You will have another hall that ends with a room that has a named in it but no other mobs.   You can run in the room and to the left with out agroing the named.  At this point, if you have someon that can feign death the group that is ideal.  FD and wait for the mobs chasing you to reset.  If they don’t have the group FD they can feign and then rez the healer to get the group back up.  Unfortunately we didn’t have either of these options, so we ran and camped!  The mobs move so slowly you have plenty of time to camp if you get enough distance between you and them.

Cavern of the Afflicted - Camp spot

Once you have your group all together and the mass of mobs have forgotten about you, you can kill The Bonegrinder.  He seemed to be the hardest boss in the zone but no tricks that I know of.  He hit me pretty hard and I think he had a fear as well.  The shaman and warden in the group had no trouble keeping us all alive even though there were a few scary spots.

Once The Bonegrinder is down you have to push your way across the the hall you just trained past.  You will start at one end of the hall and want to get all the way to the other end.  The good news is that you have 2 or three groups less to kill because you only have this one hall to go down.  Pull at least 2 groups at a time and keep moving.  Get the ENTIRE group to stand ALL the way on the well behind the statue.  This will stop you from agroing respawned groups.  As always kill fast and dont stop moving.  As soon as you kill the last mob rush the room nearest to you and kill the named and the group of mobs in there.  This named is like the first one in this post (sorry forgot the actual mob named).  Once he is dead look around the room for a clicky that shoudl get you your shard key.  It may have been a mob we killed with AE as well but I am not sure because someone else found it.

Once you have the key train back to The Bonegrinder’s room grab your shard and evac out.  If you dont have evac you will have to clear, camp, or even just train back to the zone in.  The mobs move slow so they are easy to avoid.

TIP: There is a clicky rope to that you can use to go back up the well.