The Captain's Ring  

First, this mission scales to your level, which means that fighting multiple opponents is a death sentence for any character who isn't designed for maximum damage and maximum damage mitigation.

To my knowledge, all the Exile quests are meant to be solo quests, which makes this location even more insane. If you aggro one pirate, you automatically aggro the entire room -- possibly more, depending on where you're standing when you draw aggro.

Even if you have Stealth active, certain hostile NPCs /always/ see through this (the Bartender, the main patrolling pirate) if you get within an certain distance. The patrolling pirate makes it /very/ difficult to find safe spots where you might stand undetected.

Worse, you /must/ become visible to acquire the on-site objects necessary for the quest. Depending on how the surrounding pirates are facing at random, you will be interrupted and attacked by the entire area.

Worse still, the final quest area is filled with pirates, and frequented by the patroller. There is literally no way to acquire the ring without fighting the entire room full of pirates /and/ and the patroller. Last time I attempted this, there were at /least/ 5 pirates in the room, who were soon joined by the patroller.

6 on 1, all scaled to the player's level? Really?

Worst of all: if you escape to the exit, or respawn outside the site upon dying (you are always respawned /outside/ the instance) ALL your progress is wiped, and you have to start again. Acquire shovel; dig up key; seek ring. AGAIN.

I like EQ2 -- but it has too many of these types of quests for my taste -- quests where I honestly wonder if anyone at SOE actually playtested the quest before it was put on the live servers.


A tough challenge is one thing; this quest is nothing but an exercise in frustration. Give it the pass; it's not worth it.

Edited, May 28th 2011 12:10am by listlurker