Howling Stones - Question
 

Hello, I have never been into HS in project1999 and so I am asking myself (L54 Iksar Monk) if I can give it a try to zone into howling stones without beeing harmtouched to death from the entrance mobs?

I have a decent gear at risk for my standards (fungi and 36% haste item) I would rather avoid having a bad corpse recovery - that's why I am asking here.

So would you (maybe as an hs proven vet) give me a go for that? Or should I better stay out till I hit 55/56?

Looking forward to your replies.
Fat

You won't die off two harm touches. Just be ready to FD.

if you have epic (or clicky robe), should be a decent spot for you

No epic or clicky haste here but still worth a try as I get it from your comments so far. Thanks!

You can do ok in there but it’s not ideal for a monk. If I were you looking to venture off I’d try out the Hole. Wedar wrote a legit guide there soloing to 60 on his monk

You're going to start every skeleton fight with a harm touch which is an unavoidable 400 dmg+. I would recommend a different zone for melee solo. Now if you're grouping, it's fine. Just don't eat all the harm touches at once when you split rooms.

You won't do well anywhere solo without epic or clicky haste. I recommend you 100% focus on that, is a game changer for a solo monk. Fungi and item haste will only get you so far.

Buy a bag or two of stalking probes if you want to solo in HS as a monk. Summon eye, FD, send at skeleton. The skeleton will burn his harm touch on the eye. You can recharge the probes for like 2 pp each when you need to.

Worst case scenario is 2 HTs like others have mentioned at about 450 dmg a piece so you should be able to survive assuming you don’t fail a FD. Even if you do you can pop Voidance and live (assuming you don’t fail multiple after that). If you die zoning into HS getting your corpse back really won’t be much of an issue. Enterance is a popular spot for enchanters and a /who all Charasis you can usually find out if someone is keeping enterance down. Also, if you can get someone to drag your body to the safe ledge it is very common to find Necros down there. Bank a few EEs at Outpost and try to find a necro Rez assuming there are no clerics.

Corpse recovery isn’t too bad in HS at enterance, basement, or North (boss room can be annoying). Those are reasonably well trafficked and someone can usually help you drag it to the point you can drag through a wall. I always found for the time and frustration it’s better just to get a corpse summon if you die too deep in a wing and don’t want to mess with it.

Overall, I just don’t think it’s the best spot for a Monk at that level unless you have a static group. HS is almost all enchanters and necros soloing and while you can use Stalking Probes to eat the harm touches they take up a ton of bag space and you have to recharge them.

Been loving the Hole on my Monk and Wedars guide is great. Been there 53 to 55 with similar gear and the exp is awesome but like Wedar said need to have epic to solo there.

As a monk that has soloed HS and the hole. Go to the hole. I have beads, which makes HS more manageable with the HT's as was pointed out. But beyond that, mobs in the hole have less hp, give the same exp, multiple camps for you all the way to 60, vs one in HS you could do right now. And at 54, even with fungi and epic, HS would not be easy.