Hieromancer's Armor

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Fletching

Magic

Quests

Armor Lore
To start this multi-item quest you'll need a little bit (ok, a lot) of luck and several miscellaneous items. First buy a Puzzle Box from the wandering Archmage in the desert near Tufa. Next buy an "unreadable text" from the randomly spawning Spertat the Ursuin Hunter He's rumored to appear after an Ursuin has been killed everywhere from the road outside of Cragstone to the Crater (non-confirmed). Use the Puzzle Box to decode the text then have Bertself translate it in Cragstone. The resulting text is On the Proper Use and Care of Thaumaturgic Plate.

The Key
Next you'll need to find yet another randomly spawning vendor in the South Direlands, Zairente Ra-Yao, and purchase a Peculiar Old Dagger. (Buy a bunch. They may be dropped or given away). But it's not actually a dagger! It's a key in disguise, but so crusted with gunk and filth that you'll need some powerful acid to clean it.

Acid that you can get off Grievvers! (Mages love this part!) Grab a melee buddy and go hunting in the mountains outside the Hieromancer's Hall 4.4S by 82.8W. It's reported that the Grievvers seem easier to fight than the ones on the plains. Acid is dropped by Bane (3% drop rate), Harrower (3% drop rate), and Virulent (1% drop rate) Grievvers.

The Vial of Organic Acid is very rare and it's no-drop, no-give. In addition, it's on a one week quest timer. You'll get the message that you've completed the quest too recently at the time of looting if you've already picked up a vial.

When you use the Acid on the Dagger, you'll get a Glittering Crystalline Key which can be used on the randomly spawning Humming Crystal for a Lyceum Recall Gem. The key cannot be dropped or given away.

The Stones
Before getting your Recall Gem, travel to the Hieromancer's Hall (4.4S by 82.8W). Beware! A Diamond Golem guards the entrance! (Just kidding. It's a Zirconium Golem :) 

Buff fully before entering. The Halls are deadly, full of Umbris, Astyyrians, high level Banderlings, Magma Golems and more. There are many switches and levers to activate as you work your way through to the room with the Kindling Stones. Use the link at the top right for more details. Each of the three stones rests on a pedestal. Grab an armload of each to use on your armor later. The Kindling Stones cannot be dropped or given away.

Before leaving, you'll want to do some exploring for a Blue Orb. Take one of the doors behind the kindling stones, and make your way past the 2 Iron Golems. Pass through a door, then another until you enter a large square room with stone couches. Examine the right wall carefully and you'll discover a secret passageway. Follow it down to the Vapor Golem who guards the Orb and a Sturdy Iron Key chest. 

You'll also encounter the Guardian Spirit, a level 100 creature which will cast every inept in the book. When you kill it, you'll get a message that some of its power has been transferred to you and you'll be buffed with Magic Resistance VI. 

After you have your Orb and your Kindling Stone, you are ready for your training! You'll need to find a Humming Crystal portal. They're rumored to spawn everywhere in the Direlands but in the plains. Hop through and use your Glittering Crystal Key on the Humming Crystal for your Lyceum Recall Gem.

Note: One high level mage friend, Danier, suggests not doing the quest in this order for a few reasons: 1) The unkindled armor is no-drop on death, important in more difficult, no recovery areas; 2) Mages are often short on pack space -- even with a 320 War Magic skill he broke 5 of 9 stones. Better to kindle near the 25 second stone spawn then try to carry a ton of no-drop no-give pack hogging stones; 3) you'll lose the chance to grab the Blue Orb first, but since it's droppable and givable, a friend can grab one for you. Or you can just go back in a week after the Grievver timer expires.

The Lyceum
The Lyceum, a training ground for War Mages, is located at 87.8S, 49.0E. Before asking Eaushi the Trainer to transport you to the training dungeons, you might do some exploring. In the powerstation and building up the hill from the Lyceum you can find a Lightweight Tome (no-drop, no-give) and a Titan Mana Charge behind an altar.

Guarding the entrance to the Lyceum is a Diamond Golem. He will not attack unless you attack first. When you kill it, it will drop a key (no-drop, no-give, 1 week timer) which opens a trunk (in the building on the square) containing Sasalia's Dress. The Trainer has a use for that Blue Orb you found as well. Hand it to him and in exchange you'll receive the Globe of Auberean. Iseri Shasar of Wintersebb has this tip for killing the Guardian Golem: just bolt them and run behind wall and repeat until dead.

To begin your training, retrieve the slip of paper (25 second spawn) from the second floor of the Lyceum. Hand it to Eaushi the Trainer  and you'll be ported into the training dungeon. You'll have three doors to choose from. The easiest is the left route which will give you the Girth. Buff with Fire, Lightning and Bludgeoning protects, kill the golems within, and get a Small Pale Crystal off the final Tenuous Nephol Golem (level 40). The golems are resistant to everything but War Magic. It's reported that it's possible for a melee to kill them, but it's a lengthy, difficult task. Contrary to rumors, both Life and Creature Magic work fine on the Golems. When you're ready, head back to the Training Master, hand him your crystal, and in exchange, you'll receive your girth.

Retrieve a slip of paper again for entrance back to the training dungeon for your second training session. This dungeon, a harder version of the first, will yield a Pale Crystal (from Diaphanous Nephol Golem -- Level 65) which can be exchanged for your Leggings. In addition, this dungeon also has a locked chest (difficulty ~350) which contain the Boots of the Vault. They come as two separate feet which must be combined in order to use them.

Before leaving either the first or the second dungeon, you might want to hang around, killing golems. Eventually, on a random spawn, one will drop a Sunstone Geode which can be turned into the cool looking Hieromancer's Orb!

For your coat, bring a third slip of paper to the Training Master for your final Crystal to make your Coat. These Golems are the most challenging (Turbid Nephol Golem -- Level 125) ) and will be throwing Level V debuffs at you. All attack with Bludgeoning Melee attacks and Lightning and Fire Magic Attacks. These highest level golems cast Imperil V, Level VI attacks and Level V Vulns. The Golems are vulnerable to frost, so a good plan is to use Frost Vulnerability and Magic Yield. You might also consider bringing a few Gems of Stillness with you to handle debuffs.

Kindling The Armor
To kindle the armor, you'll use the stones you got from the Hieromancer's Hall. CAUTION! If you do not have War Magic specialized, only use ONE stone per piece. Mages with war specialized can use two stones per piece.

The unkindled armor is no-drop, no-give. You will only be able to redeem one suit per month. When the armor is kindled, it is both droppable and may be given; it can be enchanted, and can be lost on death. Only the mage who created the armor can activate its spells.

To make Thaumaturgic Plate, use one of the kindling stones on the armor -- whichever color you'd like. Make sure your War Skill is buffed as high as possible. It's very easy to break a stone (even with a War Skill near 300) and it's even possible to break the armor piece. To unkindle the armor, use the same type stone on the armor and it will revert back to its unkindled from. 

Specialized War Mages may use two stones for Exarch plate. One stone creates Thaumaturgic Plate, two stones creates Exarch, and a third stone unkindles the armor. Now go forth and dazzle!

Hieromancer's Hall
Lyceum Training Ground

For a walk-through of  Hieromancer's Hall including dungeon map, click here. (Thanks to Aguair of FF.)

For Doogen's map of the Lyceum Training Grounds click here!

To see a fabulous screenshots of this quest, click here!

Read what Stormwaltz has to say about the armor here. (If anyone has a copy of his 2nd post, please send me an email).