Taloc's Hollow Part 1 of 3

This is Part 1 of 3 of a walkthrough for the Taloc's Hollow instance,  available to players lvl 51 and higher.  The entry quest for the instance for the Elyos is a campaign quest called "Friends for Life" and only becomes enabled after completing "Proving Yourself to Oustremus".  The "Friends for Life" quest has you speak with Lothas,  an Elim NPC who asks you to kill 32 Woodland Brohum or Brohie in Taloc's Forest after visiting every tree (Elim) NPC you've ever met throughout your game. At this time I don't have the info for the Asmodian entry quest,  however the instance itself is the same for both races. The following pics show my cleric completing the entry quest and running the instance.

Killing Brohums for the entry quest

When you're finished killing the mobs,  speak with Lothas and gain entry to Taloc's Hollow.  When you enter,  be sure to check your inventory before walking very far.
You'll see that an item has been deposited:  Taloc's Fruit. Its looks like a pear.  It transforms you into a powerful tree with about 10x your normal amount of HP.  You must use this and transform before fighting any mobs in the instance because all the mobs are elite and can easily one shot you if you don't.  You'll also notice a another
item in your inv:  a red ball called Taloc's Tears.  Its your first weapon for fighting mobs in the instance.  Its a strong AOE that's good for when you have several mobs
aggroed on you at once.  It takes about a quarter of their health.

A pic of my inventory showing Taloc's Fruit and Taloc's Tears in the bottom row.
 

Once you get the hang of being a powerful tree creature with a great skill,  you'll clear a room or two and start making your way thru the instance,  which is supposed to be
the roots of Taloc himself.  As such,  your map looks something like an underground
dungeon. 
Heading along the path,  you'll be confronted with a huge spider which stands in front
of 2 things marked "Writhing Cocoon".  A message saying "The cocoons are wriggling - somethings inside!" appears .


Arriving at the spider who guards the cocoons

The spider's name is Shishir,  and hes a parasite who lives in Taloc's Roots.  Hes in the way of you and the 2 cocoons.

A look at the named mob Shishir,  the parasite of Taloc's Roots
 

 

After you finish fighting him,  loot him for the corrosive fluid and the second weapon that he drops.

Looting Shishir after fighting him

 

He drops an item called "Shishir's Powerstone" which is your second weapon for helping you get thru the instance.  Its a powerful one shot wep, great for fighting one
enemy at a time.  It take more health off the enemy that Taloc's Tears,  but it isn't an AOE.  Next,  walk over to the cocoons.  They talk!  They ask for help but you only have one bottle of corrosive fluid for dissolving a cocoon,  so its up to you to decide
which of these two NPCs to free.

Facing the writhing Cocoons

 

Now,  you don't have to break the cocoons if you don't want to.  As you can see in the pic above,  the game gives you the option not to.  I always do tho, and for this run of
Taloc's I chose the cocoon on the left.


Meeting Engeius after using the corrosive fluid

Accepting him as a companion NPC

The game gives you an interactive window in case you don't want to have a companion or need time to decide if you want one. I always accept because it helps to have a fighter NPC.  The NPC I chose is a Templar,  which is good,   and since I'm a cleric I can buff and heal him.  As a side note,  hes also a Reian,  a separate race of people who are also inhabitants of Atreia.   Now we can adventure together through the rest of the instance :)
That concludes Part One of my article on Taloc's.  Part 2 coming soon !

Satra Treasure Hoard

With 4.0 approaching in the distant horizon,  many players (myself included)  are saving up AP like never before,  and are in need of ways to obtain it quickly and easily.   Satra Treasure Hoard answers
both these needs.  Its a PVE instance that gives 2 chests of relics to each group member and doesn't take very long to run  (about 20 min. depending on your group,  of course).   There are 2 levels of difficulty - normal and hard.  I've only run normal,  because every group I've joined runs that mode.
There's a couple of reasons for this :  1.  Normal mode is probably alot easier,  and  2).  The entrance
to the instance on normal mode is easier to access.  The hard mode entrance is in Tia's Eye,  and often a group wants to avoid being attacked by the enemy faction while heading to an instance. 

The NM entrance to Satra is in the Tiamaranta forts.  There's a portal inside that takes you to the instance.   Once inside,  this is what you first see:

The first room before beginning the fight

In the above room there's 2 Reian NPCs.  They give quests for the instance,  such as killing a certain number of mobs,  or a specific mob.   The NPC on the right gives the quest called "According to his
Ability",  which asks you to kill 10 Special Forces Treasury Guards in the instance.   Proceed down the hall to begin the fight,  which starts with those 2 COs straight ahead in the pic. 

Taking the left path after the first hallway

As you can see,  there's a door further down,  and it needs to be opened.  There's also another unpictured door on the opposite side of the room.  After killing the 2 mobs marked along the left side,  Gatekeeper Gourlaz appears and requires your full DPS services in order to dispatch him and get a door key!  His key drop determines which door will open,  and therefore which path your group will have to take (right or left).  In the lower right inset map in the above pic
you'll notice that the room has 2 paths.  If your group opens the left door then your group will go
through the Plunder Guard's Room;  if you open the right door,   then your group will go through the
Hoard Watchroom to reach the end of the instance.  On this run our group got the left door key,  so
the rest of the pics in this article will show that path only. 




Gatekeeper Gourlaz - a must kill to get a door key

 Once the door is open,  exit the Loot Loading Bay and head to an unnamed area of hallway just called Satra Treasure Hoard :

Exiting the Loot Loading Bay

 

 

Satra Treasure Hoard

 

Enter the Plunder Guard's Room and kill the 2 mobs that block the path to the stairs, 

Plunder Guard's Room

Again taking the left path,  kill the 2 mobs along the side:

Clearing the path before the 2nd to last boss

The second to last boss,  Borgalmar,  can be seen in this next pic:

Borgalmar in the distance

There's a quest to kill him that can be picked up a the beginning of the instance.  Its a one time quest,
which I completed already,  so couldn't show you a screenshot.


To help you get your bearings on where we are at this point,  I took a map ss:



A map screenie to show our loc at this part of the instance

Borgalmar has to be carefully pulled over and fought away from the other instance pats,  as seen here:




Borgalmar heading our way!

After the Borgalmar fight,  head into the next room,  called the Discard Pile,  where you and your group receive the first treasure chest of the instance.  It contains a few relics and often a plat medal.

The Discard Pile,  an ante-room before the final room

Heading out to the hall,  your group will be faced with several mobs who stand in your way towards
reaching the final room of the instance:

The final hallway to the last room

 

 

After dealing with those guys,  port into the final room and fight the boss of the instance,  the Muzzled Punisher!

Fighting the Muzzled Punisher
 

He has a timer on him,  and its best to kill him in 5 min or less,  which the groups I've been in always
do.  Thats why I can't say what happens if you take longer.  I think that another mob appears and
makes things more difficult.  When you've killed the MP,  loot him for a heavy chest key,  which gives you more relics:

He's ready to be looted!

That's it,  and after exiting the instance,  which ports you back to Rancora Fort,  turn in your quest
to NPC Karuti:

Talking to Karuti

 

I hope you found this guide helpful :) ,  and when I learn more I'll update it.

Mith Medal Dailies Part 2

Quests at Gurriki Swamp and Lapidus Mineral Lake

These are the quests known in the lfg as "frog and lake" quests. There's a daily and weekly at both
locations. The daily is repeatable 30 times. For those of you new to Tiamaranta these quests are in areas beyond Kahrun's will, meaning you can be attacked by the opposite faction while questing.
The quests can be picked up in Rancora Fort from NPC Erephe and Karuti inside Rancora Fort. The daily quest in Gurriki Swamp must be done with a group because the mobs are elites, while the weekly can be soloed if you wish. It's the same with the quests at the Mineral Lake. 

Picking up the frog/lake dailies in Rancora Fort
 

I only needed the weekly for the frog quest here
 

Working on the Lake daily,  killing Crystal Mamuts
 

Killing Icemane Lindis to complete the Lake weekly - these can be soloed

Turning in the Lake quests at Rancora Fort

That concludes my 2nd article on obtaining Mithril Medals.   I hope you find it helpful :)