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Alice's Restaurant #4

The world renowned Alice's Restaurant, most famous for its wide selection of exquisite wild games from hell, celebrated the grand opening of its latest eatery Alice's Restaurant #4 on the 4th of July. Alice Brock, the owner, has worked hard for years to strike down a deal, and finally secured the next best location for her most ambitious project to date.

The 24000 sq ft establishment offers ample space to cater to all functions large and small. Situated on a hilltop at the North East corner of Hell (just a minute’s walk from the Hellgate), AR #4 offers an unspoiled breathtaking panoramic view of Hell. The natural landscape was incorporated as parts of the architecture where here and there in the interior are jagged rock pillars and lava flows. “It’s most impressive feature”, said Alice “is the spiralling outdoor dinning area, which wind around a 120ft tall natural pillar (rumoured to be the late Bedlam’s favourite perch)”. You can almost touch heaven! Seating on the perch is limited, so book early.

What please Alice most, and undoubtedly its patrons will appreciate, is the guaranteed freshness of “Fresh Meat” - You can even pick a live “somewhat free range” specimen from the world’s first Lavaquarium. Alice’s Restaurant is a proud charter member of the 100-Mile Diet Association.

Whether you order off Alice’s daily menu, or have one of our highly trained chef prepare trophy dishes from your own hunt, AR #4 is the place for your ultimate dinning experience.

Alice’s Restaurant has proudly served:

Over 1000 Ravagers

990 Stalkers
890 Orbiles
10000 Beast
10000 Demons
10000 Undeads
3400 Imps
6000 Spectrals
8600 Zombies
38 Shulgoth

Since 1965

Be sure to stop by Alice’s Restaurant #4 when in Hell – It could be your last meal!

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Doh, I couldn't remember what Mlvl Sydonai and co were so I searched the web and got the misinformation they were Mlvl 35. I would have attempted the run a few lvls younger than 36.

Tips: Excessive Force – if you have it, use it, as much as possible. Unlike Santa, monsters won’t check if you have been good or bad before they one shot you.

It is relatively easy going for an engineer through out the entire journey, especially after Molotov Assault and Repair Drone got going. Once there is enough Power to cast without waiting (too long) for recharge all the bots and drone are up constantly, doing damage and tanking keeping the toon safe. The only real threat left is stair traps.

Stair traps are dangerous with or without the electronic toys up. (read Stair Traps to Watch Out For) Having no room to run means you can’t avoid being hit, never mind what you are being hit with in the state of panic. I have now made a habit of hovering my thumb over the ALT key whenever I enter a zone.

Tips: I play HGL in windowed mode and drag the window just a hair pass the top right corner of desktop. I find that to be the fastest way to quit the game in a panic – Press Alt and run the pointer to the top right, and click. Faster than having to enter chat and type /leave or /quit.

The other habit I use is to activate Medpak before each battle. Medpak at 1 doesn’t do a whole lot but it’s and extra safety feature, why not?

It was my intention to at least get a HCE toon to finish Normal difficulty instead of seeking the most challenging path. AliceBrock has always kept up with the mlvl vs Clvl curve, and sometimes 3-4 lvls higher than the monsters. There are 3 main areas where she played to gain exp (and established Alice’s Restaurant #1, 2 and 3).

Shulgoth was farmed for items, gold and exp till lvl9. It was a helpful step, as the first toon in HCE, to establish a foundation for the toon and other HCE toons to come, to be able to afford packs of health injectors, and power injectors to cube for restorative.

Tips: Cube restoratives ASAP. They work on a different timer so Restoratives can be used while health injector is recharging, vice versa.

Alice’s Restaurant #2 was established at the Tower of London, where Alice earned many runes, a few pieces of unique items and a few levels.

Ploughyard gave Alice 5 levels and a mule full of items with gold lettering. I over levelled here since I thought Sydonai was lvl35. However, this is the place where I started to formulate a plan for the big showdown, broke down enough items for crafting material and a small fortune to shop for runes at the merchants and crafters. It also gave me chances for practice Bedlam runs – there were Brain pack now and then at close to the Bedlam’s level. Although much weaker than Bedlam, they are just as hazardous to get close to and kill. Bedlam, was the one I worry about the most, it is one monster most builds have trouble with.

Alice entered Hell with her armor pieces ranging from clvl14 to clvl27. They all have decent bonuses but hardly worth the materials (if I can afford them) to upgrade them all to lvl30, not just for a handful more of armor rating. Her prefer rifle is a lvl28 XM63 25mm mod’d for Phase attack, and her other one is a lvl23 Arclight Exothermic rifle mod’d for Ignite attack. I would have upgraded both rifles if I had mods to put in them after the upgrade. After balancing some pros and cons, Alice decided to throw a Phase attack rifle on the drone, and ended up using the Ignite attack Exothermic rifle as her main weapon. The Exothermic rifle also has +2 Molotov Assault on it.

Tips: when you see a Molotov Assault blow up beside you instead of where you aim it. 3 things -
Bad pathing bug
Some monsters (is about to) zoomed/teleported to you, you just don’t know yet
You are lagged big time. Do you feel lucky?

I didn’t even have a chance to get my Inhibitor Bots up before Rash greeted me at the entrance. At the same time, the Transmission popped up while I was in the middle of casting Construct Drone. I was in a panic, ready to quit the game. But I decided to tough it out after seeing Rash is only lvl30, not 35. A few MA later, Rash was down with rashes in the arse.

“For criminal acts and violence on the stage
For being a brat
Refusing to act your age
For all the decent citizens you've enraged
You can go to Hell”

I spotted Bedlam to the left so I went right. Bedlam would be last of the Lies I face, if I have a choice. Flaw came into view a few step to the SW, but Discord jumped me just when I was ready to move in. Discord gave me the runs, um, I meant got me running, him and his spawnontopofyou hordes. It caught me in a bad position in between pillars and the edge of the map. The retreat was embarrassing at best. The tank drone went down just when I got my back stuck on rock again. As a last resort I pulled off a combo I don’t like to be forced into doing, and one I thought I wouldn’t be able to do in a panic – Concussion Crash, Molotov Assault and Escape. That did the trick!

“For gambling and drinking alcohol constantly
For making us doubt our parents authority
For choosing to be a living obscenity
You can go to Hell”

My electronic toys dispatched Flaw’s minions as fast as he can summon them. Flaw went down without a fuss after a few flawless executions of Concussion Crash and Molotov Assaults.

“You're something that never should have happened
You even make your Grandma sick”

[Image: AliceBrockFlaw.jpg]
(Caption - Oops! Did I blow your leg off, or Sydonai got hungry?)

It happened that Bedlam was only slightly behind Flaw. He sent in a couple of flyers while I was running to hide. A liitle fast food was much appreciated after dispatching 3 big uglies. I met up with Despair more or less the same way I did Discord – Bad positioning and it took the tank drone down. But this time I didn’t run. I know I have room to run when it becomes necessary. Confidence counts, or kills. Despair met the same faith Discord did.

“You'd poison a blind man's dog and steal his cane
You'd gift-wrap a leper
And mail him to your Aunt Jane
You'd even force-feed a diabetic a candy cane
You can go to Hell”

Ah Bedlam! All my levelling, shopping and planning is focused on this hot air balloon. But really, it’s no grand scheme. I am not going anywhere near it. That’s it!

I have bought a gift for Bedlam. What’s up with Sniper rifles, why are they always dropping at such low ilvl? Merchants don’t help either. I shopped till I dropped then finally settled on a Tinted XM17 Stingray. 35 meter range just won’t do the job but luckily it came with +1 to Tactical Stance (+25% range), extending the range to 43.75 (however it rounds up/down). Originally, I planned to stuff the 4 mod slots with 100% Shield Penetration because the biggest problem with Bedlam is, it is hard to get a target lock on it with it fading in and out of range and being hidden behind new spawns. Shield Penetration is the way to go, to ignore its speedy shield regeneration. Alas, 3 lvlup and millions of shopping trips later only got me one mod with 32% SP. In the end, the Stingray was Mod’d to a total of 485 Poison attack strength, 103 Shield Overload and +24% damage to Spectrals.

The bots and drone had activated Bedlam when I was around 50 meters away. I decided to make a Stance at 40 meter, giving Bedlam some room to hover back and forth and still keep it in range. Bedlam cooperated and rarely flew out of range but still got covered by new spawns now and then. Now and then only because it wasn’t spawning crazy as it normally would. I don’t think the bots and drone (and with me at 40 meter range) count as a threat to it. That would also be why it didn’t make any sudden wild movements, flying out of range. But that’s only my speculation. Anyway, the toy was able to deal with all the spawns leaving me to totally concentrate on Bedlam. I was not under any attack in the relatively short time it took to shoot Bedlam down.

“You're something that never should have happened
You even make your Grandma sick”

[Image: AliceBrockBedlam.jpg]
(Caption: Most scenic backdrop for a family photo, My EToys and I)

Sydonai’s spell can do a fair amount of damage and hard to avoid with its AoE coverage. I did manage to only got hit a couple of times and that was enough warning to stay as far from it as possible. Beside, I don’t want it to jump on me and start sucking. The poor drone was not so lucky. It couldn’t withstand Sydonai’s barrage of assaults. I can barely keep the drone healed having to move around constantly myself. It was a good choice to pump Repair Drone to 3 to shorten wait time between heals, still, Sydonai managed to take down the drone twice before Squid Face got cut into pieces and served as calamari at a newly opened restaurant.

“I thought you’d be taller”

[Image: AliceBrockSydonai.jpg]
(Caption: self-censored)

===================================================


AliceBrock's build at 36 – I wish I know the ins and outs of the skills, the math, and even have a clue on some of the game mechanics, but I don’t. This is by no mean a best build, it is just what I have done and it worked, so far.

- Phase Grenade, 1 wasted point – I wasn’t thinking at the time. It’s useless unless one plans to pump the lvl to keep up the Phase Attack Strength.

- Beacon, 1 - would like to use it more often but my bar is full.

- Escape, 1 - Useful skill that might see more points if there are points left over. Escape was hardly used to escape. Escape was used to concentrate Molotov damage. Cast Molotov Assault and then Escape right away will make monsters gather around the drone, and cook. Especially useful when the drone is down, you can't hurt the monsters enough with Molotov if you are running. Escape will make you disappear as a target, monsters will scratch thier heads till they burn to death.


- Inhibitor Bots, 3 – prereq for Haste Bot

- Concussion Crash, 3 – prereq for Hast Bot

- Haste Bot, 1 - I consider I have wasted 6 points in this tree, at least where I am at (at the end of HCE Normal Hell). Haste Bot was rarely used, but I thought I would get it in case I am in a party. I prefer to use Inhibitors when soloing, which is 99.9% of the time. One point in Inhibitor would have been enough because its usefulness in not in the lack lustre ability to slow foe movement. Inhibitor bots ability to work as an early warning radar system and painting of targets, I consider a must have for HCE.

Concussion Crash saw some use once I got used to my bar and made a space for it, though I am not impressed with the results at lvl 3. Your mileage may vary. Someone better at keyboarding would find it more useful in combination with Molotov. Casting CC, MA, recast inhibitor and Rocket Bot back to back is a bit much for these butter fingers. Go KoP, who killed AliceBrock version 1 by slip-casting a PRD in the heat of a battle. Recall Portal is now outlawed on my skill bar.

- Rocket Bot, 3 – I have no idea how much damage each rocket does, or how much each extra rocket actually hit, or if it has any synergy benefit to Molotov Assault. This skill may see a down grade when Patch V2, which does away with prereqs, is live; if I am staying with the Drone build.

- Molotov Assault, 4 with +2 on the switch – Decent lvl, can use more points later.

- Construct Drone 4 – Was working alright at 3. Last point was put in due to a change of armours. A couple of +Minion Health and Armour items was switched out in favour of + player hp taking down the Drone’s health from 1950 to 1560, and 4% less damage absorbed. The difference was noticeable.

The Drone makes a good tank, and is a priority target for monsters. It works great together with Molotov Assault because the drone is a monster magnet holding them in the fire.

- Medpak Retrofit, 1 – This seemingly useless skill in non-hardcore is invaluable for HCE; a one point wonder at least. If you are a cheapo on injectors like I am, you are well aware that every time you use a health injector it cost 100 (adv) or 125 (nano). They often cost more than the items you sell to the merchant. In HCE, however, I always try to top up my HP bar even if I had only taken less than 100 of 1700 damage. I have had some close calls; one never knows when even 10 HP could mean the life and death of a toon – Especially when what you see does not agree with what the server sees. Medpak can also be used as an emergency heal whether you use it waiting for Health Injector to recharge, or in combination with Health Injector when you are hurting bad.

- Repair Drone, 3 - For more frequent drone repair when it’s needed. The Drone makes a good tank but not invincible.

- Gun Retrofit, 2 – Probably needed some extra stat points for the drone.

- Amour Retrofit, 2 – Probably needed some extra stat points for the drone.

- Sword Retrofit 1, - Will see some more points here soon since I have acquired NM Wart’s Leg (33 Will). That is 175 armour plus boost from Master Engineer bonus.

- Master Engineer, 6 – Better way to increase Drone’s armor if you are fighting between player’s armour/hp or drone’s armour/hp. As important as the drone is (in this build) the player, me, still come first.

- Shield Generator Retrofit, 0 – Should see at least one point when I have points (one more point into Medpak as prereq) to spare. Using Medpak and Shield Generator back to back should give an extra level of safety.


Stats
Clvl36
1704 health

Damage Absorbed 52%
40 stat points to spare
Shield 391
Armor 223
Elemental defences was not so hot with ignite being the highest at 1549 and the rest around 400-700

Health from items
+Health 7
+Stam 29
+Health% +38%
+All 40

Where the 3 pieces of armors has no +all, I chose +HP% instead

Oh right, Hell is only the next best location for a restaurant!? But of course, the best location is at the end of ................. [Image: wink.gif]


KoP




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CONGRATS!!!thumbsup dance :hat: guitar :2dance:
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lol

Alice Waters would be proud smile
May I see the wine list, please?

I'll take some restoratives, tyvm. I have to admit that I didn't know restoratives existed. You have just changed my HCE life forever!

Thanks for the write up, King. Now I'm inspired to start a HCE engy......

Zak
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Nicely done, KoP.

The cooking is good and the presentation excellent. Four stars from this reviewer.

I have to say that when Crone encountered you in Covent Garden Station last night I felt a slight frisson of apprehension - but that quickly passed when she reported you at lvl36. I knew then that your trip to Hell had been a successful one.
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MMmmm.....

Spectral Delight with Au Gratin Orbiles! Alice's zombie fries are the best in hell.

Congrats on your accomplishments, KoP toast
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Woot, Alice Waters. That's another name we can use for our HCE toon smile There's another famous Alice, from Resident Evil, but the popular versions of the names are taken frown

PS tips: One thing to watch out for if you hotkey the injectors on your bar, make sure they are still in your skill bar after moving them around in your inventory - to cube, for example.

KoP
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@ clvl 39 doing one of the Temple Station quests [Image: cry.gif]

Although she was just a tad under lvl'd (by 2), the driver would have to take the fall for this death -
Bloodlust - Was feeling strong and despite that I knew the danger of a pack of Furys, and had thoughts about retreating...
Panic - When I went to quit, pressed the Window key instead of the Alt key and wasted that split second. AB's health was at 317 when I saw the screen closed. That was not enough...

Her max hp was 1800, down 10% before she changed her pants to 6% more Damage Absorb (that's 12% more hp (2% more hp than before the change), in theory) and slightly better minion stats. It was a good trade for most situations where damage is direct instead of DoT. That 160 more hp would have saved her life... but who knows, I might still not have quitted until her hp is down to the 3-400 mark, A.K.A too late.

Item most missed - NM Wart's Leg

It was great fun while it lasted. [Image: thumbsup.gif]
AliceBrock v3 coming up...

KoP
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Awww, I'm sorry. frown A moment of silence in her honor.
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Sorry to hear about Alice. When the 'Shootist encountered in Charing Cross she looked ready to rock on.

AliceBrockv3 for the win.
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