Demon hunter walkthrough and maps (part V)

Nov 172011

Demon hunter walkthrough and maps

To reach “Distia” you have to speak with Perna in Garden of suffering. Check the previous parts of this walkthrough if you don’t have Distia quest yet.

Part 1 – About Kamael and Dubaq

Part 2 – About Inferno

Part 3 – About Stigia and Cave of Darkness and/or

Part 4 – About Gehena

How to reach Distia? Go to Kamael: Garden of suffering on 3rd platform there is a marble column blocking your way. Equip the rock cutting sword I’VE TOLD YOU NOT TO SELL and cut the column. There. Go in and meet Perna. 4000 xp and “Quest” is completed.

(Have a look at maps wisth suspicious walls and columns from now on. Especially ones that say “miss” when you hit them. They can be destroyed with the rock cutting sword and lead often to hidden rooms.)

Map of Distia

You are now given the defeat “Two guardians” quest. (next map – OOC2 – is perfect for grinding BTW, 6 BerserkVarians in a straight line).

Offtopic: Regarding the maximum of 70 items you may carry (and probably sick by dropping stuff by now), get to any camp and talk to the person with the Globe beside him/her (Marie in Dubaq). Get online and go to your personal stash. Point an item and choose “Upload”. You have a network stash with 70 free slots you may share with your other 2 saved games. Create 2 more saved games/characters and use them as mules. Later you may actually play them. The game has awesome replayability.

Anyway, keep east, until the road forks to Ice and Fire. Fire seems to have lower level easier monsters, so I suggest you are supposed to go there first. The fire pocket dropped by the local suicide bombers is used to create 3k HP portions. You may grind them for a while. The drop rate is ~ 1 pocket per 3 kills. The blow makes 1000-1500 damage, so be careful.

At Flame of Fire 2 you will meet a huge bull and Perna will pop from nowhere again. Then you will need to hit the bull few times to understand, you can’t do any damage. 2500 xp and “Two guardians” (almost) complete. Back to Dubaq to speak with Dayl. Getting to him (use t-stone) gives another 1000 xp and ancient medicine recipe. Now you can

“Defeat guardian” and get Gina’s quest “New water portion” (5 blood from Menkuro). If you have the ingredients of the ancient potion – mix and Go back to Distia. If not, get 5 Kuro blood from Distia’s fire zone, go back to Cave below Stigia and kill some CaveWacooms for their drops and then execute the hunter quest for count Peltos few times, until he drops his fire hair. Evan in Dubaq gives the quest.

Menkuros for “New water potion” are abundant in eastern fire part and 5 drops are easy to get. The quest gives 2600 xp and 980 gold.

Leus and Richard in Naru will also have side quests for you, Leus wants Phaladume mineral and gives 4000 xp and 3700 gold. Richard wants 3 bacuarium minerals that are much more hard to collect. So either leave those hard to collect quests alone or do them if you have another character that has Bacuarium through the network stash. Phaladume and Bacuarium can be collected from the secret cave in Cave of Darkness. You already have the Rock Cutting sword. You did not sold it, yes? I know It sucks but you need to carry this cheap sword all the time.

If you want Bacuarium, SAVE before entering the Secret Cave in Cave of Darkness. Collect the 3 ores. If no Bacuarium drops – reload and check again. I’ve noticed, that the left 2 ores are with the better chance of dropping Bacuarium and Phaladume, while the right ore near the chest drops only Iron and Green minerals.

For the 3 Bacuariums Richard will give 5400 xp and 3000 gold. I don’t recommend doing this quest at all.

Bacuarium sells for more than 200k gold in the market. And this is the price of one very good set sword.

Also offtopic 😉 Around this time, You will manage to collect 30% of all recipes. The gift is 3 cubics. You may collect them in any shop by choosing “Gift items”.

Laba, the fire guardian has one absurdly easy tactic to kill, if you are fire user. Cast firewall on the ground where he will be standing and quickly go in his direction to provoke him to charge. Jump above him to avoid 1400 damage and wait. Laba will stay in the fire and get damage until fire is over. Then set fire on the previous place he was standing and provoke him again. Jump again when Laba charges and take his place on the other side. Repeat until Laba is down. Any other DoT skill will also work.

For Glashire you need another Ancient medicine potion. Go slay Peltos again (need to retake hunter quest from Evan in Dubaq camp if you have not figured this out already). It may take few times until Peltos drops fire hair, so you better also get hunter quest for Lukanar – Guardian of hell (20th level rocktasha in the room just before Peltos). 470 easy hunter points at your level. If he drops hair, the hard part is over. Kuros in Distia drop blood and Wacooms in Cave of darkness drop dwarven idol. Grab the 3 hunter quests for the Cave of darkness if you feel like getting some more extra points for later. If not, just drop in the same pit Buru kicked you with Perna and go one map east. 6 wacooms in a straight line. Good place for grinding also.

Before going to Glashire, get the hunter quest for Mowook. He is on the way down to Glashire. The map after Mowook (Cave of ice 3) has a small ice column on the southwest room that can be sliced with the Rock cutting sword. The hidden cave has a chest with another relic of the treasure king. Collect. They are 12 total.

Glashire is killed easy with the same tactics as Laba. He falls faster, because he is vulnerable to fire. Gives 3200 xp for quest completion and opens

“Middle of chaos” quest. Once you are done with both guardians, the door in Hearth of chaos 1 will open and you can go there. Restock. Repotion. Heal. Entering and a talking with Perna will start the next main quest, when you press “Y”. 500 xp and very long blah-blah with Lideal and the two elite hunters Kiba and Kira. Traitors. Cannot save during this next quest. (And I really suggest you DON’T rush It. Grind. Collect stuff. Make money. Grind again. Level 45 char is barely able to do some decent damage on Bormenta.)

“Over the holy gate” – need to kill guardian and get the key. Bormenta hits 3-4 times in a row with his swords, dealing 1300+ damage with each hit. Get the best potions you can afford.

There are 3 pillars with colored crystals above them. Fire, Ice and Lightning. Bormenta is invulnerable, while the pillars stand tall. Start jumping and hitting them while avoiding Bormenta hitting you. Hit the pillar with opposite element spell or a sword. DO NOT destroy the pillars completely.

If you destroy the Lightning pillar (worst case) Bormenta gets Jump-stun attack with 2k damage (green circles in hand). Jump in the opposite direction when he jumps to avoid stun. If you are caught and stunned and he charges you with sword slashes, drink potion and hope for the best. You are toast if all hits land on you. You are probably around level 40-45 and have some 6-7000 HP. You can’t take all the hits.

Destroying the Ice pillar gives him an Ice icicle attack (blue circles in hand). Easiest one. He will erupt an icicle from the ground toward you. Every second in the sharp cold ice hits you with ~750 damage. Double dash or jump away. If you are not in the Ice, you don’t take damage. While there is Ice on the ground, Bormenta will be unable to start another special attack, so take advantage and hit him hard. I suggest using as much DoT skills as you have in possession.

Destroying fire pillar gives him fire dragon slash attack with 2500 damage (red circles in hand). The attack is slow and can be avoided by jumping. He will be immobile for few seconds after the attack and you can charge or use range skill.

Leave all 3 pillars on “one hair” of life and then destroy them at once with few quick jumps and slashes or with a spell like Dragon Breath.

When all 3 pillars are down Bormenta will be killable. Be prepared with at least 50 x 3k health portions or better if you can afford them. The fight takes time and needs patience. Jump alot and take advantage of the gaps between his hits. He will try to walk in your direction slowly and when in range will charge with any of his 4 skills. Just observe what colors are circling around his fist and you will know how to react. You receive “The Wing” and 4500 xp for completion of “Over the holy gate” quest.

“The wing” Will be your safe haven once you acquire it. Every time your Health falls below 30%, a small wing icon will appear top-right on your game screen.Pressing the Icon will freeze everything for 5 seconds. You can gulp a Health potion and move away from the heavy fire or that monster , that is bludgeoning you.After 5 seconds, time will start slowly restoring to normal, until game speed restores completely. You can also take advantage in heavy fights, to cast all your hard-damage spells and retreat to safe platform, away from danger.

“Key of truth” quest is next. Return to Dubaq to tell Evan. 500 xp and he tells you not to disclose you are a “People of the wing” (another bad translation from Korean?) From here, things fork with subquests again. Chu, Baron, Evan and Mirachu will all want your help. Yay. No more grinding. The subquests are quite easy:

“Full of coldness” Baron wants 5 ice teeth from Gias. 2680 xp and 600 gold.

“It’s all about style” Chu wants 10 storm wings from Distia’s drakes (Fatalmuton). 2500 xp, 500 gold and a lecture in confidence 😉 Opens “Troublesome favor” quest to kill Horosdumpas and Bersekhellons. 10 each. 2800 xp 600 gold.

For “Element” Mirachu needs 2 ice rocks and 2 flame rocks from Soulless and Terrorocktasha. 2350 xp and 2100 gold.

All subquests are in the Eastern Distia maps. Only Berserkhellons are inside the Halls of Chaos (2-4). They hit hard, but respond well to swords.

The main quest is given again by Evan, you need to bring a “Letter” to Hotsan. So go to Naru camp. 500 xp and some beard pulling with Jabra again. Hotsan asks you to kill Liam. Again 😀

Davichi in Naru will also give you a sub quest “Give me research data“. It is a rare drop from Soulless in Distia (the floating ice crystals that hit Icely hard and mob you). 2710 xp 2000 gold.

“Beginning of a nightmare” is the main quest to kill Liam again (grab also the hunter quest for points). As you reach Liam’s map, Elen will come and call you Creator of the demons, then he will abduct Perna. Kill Liam. He should not be a problem now. You are 10-15 levels better. Go east, where you will be greeted by Greed. He will confirm Elen’s claim, that you were once King of demons and will tell you interesting story. 3000 xp 4000 gold. Opens

“Marlborose” quest. Go back to Hotsan in Naru camp for 600 xp. He tells you to “get this and go to Gehena deepest blah-blah“. He actually refers to Canyon of Destruction 4 and gives you

“To Talagaron” quest. The 3-rd camp you are supposed to go is already visible on the world map. RepoRtion if needed and go there. 600 xp to reach camp. This concludes everything about Distia (and turned quite long), So I am gonna break It here and continue in part VI.

The hunter quests that can be done in Distia are mostly not worth the item collection and the damage taken by the mini bosses. Easy to kill are Lukia and King Slime. Glashire and Laba, even if they are very easy to kill with DoT skill – need to have Ancient medicine. And for the medicine, you need some count Peltos hair drops. It also takes A LOT of time and potions to kill Bormenta the Guardian again. Not cool for the lousy drop rate, little gold and hunter points.

Target	Description/place	Hunter points	Gold
Bad sticky	lvl43 king Slime @ Cold of Death 2	480	550
Hard Mowook	Mowook @ Cave of Ice 2	480	550
Death of Lukia	Lukia	480	550
Charge Glashire	Need ancient medicine	480	550
Charge Laba	Need ancient medicine	480	550
Death race	Race is invisible. NW part of Cave of Fire, behind a column	480	550
Bat King	Blane is lvl 45 Menkuro inHalls of Chaos 4	480	550
Guardian of chaos	Kill Bormenta again. Fight sucks. Again.	690	970
Totals		4050	4820

Ethernet Protection Switching (EPS)

Netw0rking 1 Response »

Nov 152011

Ethernet Protection Switching

a.k.a. G.8031 is OAM monitored Ethernet redundancy and protection method. It is similar to Resilient Links and Link Aggregations by the fact It also uses backup ports for redundancy. There are however, some Differences, Pros and Cons.

Pros

It can be a lot faster than LAGs or Resilient Links.
It is more redundant in live setup (see below).
It does allow more complex setups, not just back-to-back.
It generates more logs and provides more control (OAM monitored).
Can be operated manually to switch to backup and revert to primary.
Can be set to react faster or slower in cases of network connectivity flapping and jitter.
Generates events and sends them toward the protected user network.
Being based on OAM CFM, It allows Linktrace and Loopback tests.

Cons

A little bit more complex to setup from scratch (compared to Link Aggregations or Resilient links).
Requires understanding of Transparent LAN services.
Redundancy is dependent on the CCMs hello interval (Faster CCMs, more redundancy).
Generates additional management traffic if faster CCMs are used. (~600 pps).
Reaction timers are not dynamic.
In case of irregular connectivity flapping, the system does not learn better route.
Does not have third or fourth link as in Link aggregation to switch over to, in case both primary and backup links are cold-dead.

How to set up G.8031?

You need 2 switches, set with pair of ports back to back. The backup pair should be disabled (port shutdown) until the setup is complete, so you don’t create a loop with management traffic.

G.8031 EPS over TLS

Create a TLS service on both units with primary Service Distribution Point (SDP) with Service VLAN 200 and backup SDP with Service VLAN 250.
Add Service Access Points (SAPs) with Customer VLAN 300 on the ports connecting the User networks A and B.
Enable OAM CFM protocol and create Maintenance domain on level of your choice (0-2 is good in this case)
Create Maintenance association to monitor the TLS. Set hello-interval to the fastest supported by both units.
Create UP MEPs (IN MEPs) on the SAP ports and make sure the connectivity is established. Make sure SDP ports are MIPs for the OAM monitored service.
Set the Ethernet Protection Switching to use local MEPs on the local unit and remote MEPs on the remote unit.
Set the EPS timers to your liking. I suggest Wait-to-restore timer to be 5 minutes so you are protected by primary line flapping. Hold-off timer to be 0 so the switchover to backup happens immediately on connection failure. And Guard timer to 50ms, so small timeouts do not create switchover events.
Enable the EPS service.
Rewire the backup link and check the protection is established.
Break the active Primary link and make sure the traffic is switched over the Backup link.
Rewire the primary link and make sure the traffic is reverted to Primary after the wait-to-restore timer expires.

That’s basically all you need for a basic G.8031 EPS protection of 2 networks, connected with 2 units between them. There are more complex setups, that make this protocol far better than Link aggregations and Resilient links. There may be random number of units in between and the EPS will still be possible:

Another EPS setup

In case you try this setup with Link aggregations or Resilient links, It will simply break. Imagine the link between the middle unit and the second Unit breaks. Both LAG and RL will simply keep sending the traffic from the first unit over the primary link, because the unit does not know the Line is already broken, while the second unit will start sending the traffic over the backup link, because It sees that the primary port is down. In the above case, Network A will have traffic loss to Network B, while Network B will still “see” Network A normally.

With EPS service this setup is working, because the OAM CFM sends Continuity Check Messages (a.k.a. CCMs) between the units and do not care for port-Up and port-Down events to determine if the line between the End Points (MEPs) is broken. If a CCM is late for 3.5 times x Hello-Interval, then the Line between units is down. (like sending pings and reacting on timeout). When this happens, and after the holdoff timer expires, the EPS will revert to backup until the Units starts receiving each others’ CCMs again. After this happens and wait-to-restore timer expires – the EPS will restore the traffic over the Primary link and block the backup link for everything, except management traffic.

Troubleshooting G.8031 EPS

If protection is not established, make sure the following is right:

Backup Link, even not normally used for traffic should be enabled and wired. EPS control traffic goes through there.
OAM CFM connectivity should be established either on primary or backup route and hello-interval should be equal.
Both units are set to use local MEPs as local and remote MEPs are remote.
TLS service name and Index ID is set equal on both units.
SAP ports should have customer equipment or their status signalling should not affect the TLS service (LAB tests are often done without user networks connected to SAP ports).
If there is latency, jitter or connectivity flapping – Timers are adequate to cover It, so No excessive switchover events are created.
If there is a Unit(s) in the middle, make sure their ports are members of the same TLS service and S-VLANs are the same as the ones used for your Primary or backup link.
If the service is set right, make sure the SDP ports in the middle unit(s) are a MIPs in the same OAM CFM domain and Maintenance association and the Unit does not filter CCM’s from the 2 other units.

Understanding binary clock.

General Comments Off

Nov 142011

How to read binary clock?

It is actually very simple.

First a look at the digits in a digital clock, you see:

1,2,4 and 8.

Those are used for the Hour.

And below them, you see the digits:

1,2,4,8,16 and 32.

Those are used for the minutes.

It looks like this:

Binary clock

It is a bit confusing to people that do not understand the basics of binary mathematics. Now we press the light button and see, what the time is:

Binary clock

If you are still confused, keep reading.

We have 2 for hours. This definitely means 2 o’clock. Okay, but …What about the minutes?

It is very simple. Just use addition. 32+16+8+1 = 57.

So this binary clock says 02:57.

Here are some more binary clock understanding examples:

[07:20] will be 4+2+1 for hour and 16+4 for minutes.
[08:30] will be 8 for hour and 16+8+4+2 for minutes.
[12:25] will be 8+4 for hour and 16+8+1 for minutes.

Got it already?

Binary clocks are one very nerdy accessory I suggest you get for yourself. Lots of people will pay attention to your clock and then ask you “What time Is it?” just to ask you to explain later the basic concepts of binary and why the hell it should be on your clock 😀

And if you are IT or mathematician, you will spot 2 interesting trivial things.

You can never see lit all LEDs (32+16+8+4+2+1) for minutes, because it equals 64
This clock is not designed for 24 h, because it can at most show 8+4+2+1 = 15 hours.

I hope this short article helped you a bit 😉