The Temple of Three Winds, suffice to say, has been a major part of my AO life. Thus, I wish to share a bit of my knowledge with those first time players who wish to explore the dungeon within. Introducting...
+-{ Saetos's Guide to the Temple of Three Winds }-+
Please feel free to post any add-ons you wish to include.
[ Your First Steps ]
The Temple itself is an indoor dungeon, located in Greater Tir County, within the coordinates 1800 x 2700. The dungeon is open to all level 60 and lower, but it's best advised to wait until around 25, as the first mobs you meet will be red
For Omnis, there is a portal in Rome Green, in one of the alleyways. An NPC named Windcaller Cerrak stands next to a pile of red crates. Give him 1000 credits, and he will give you a slip of paper - your key. Pick it up, right click on the swirling blue vortex, and you'll zone just in front of the entrance.
For Clans, it's just a simple run out of Tir, into Greater Tir County.
Neutrals may choose either path.
Once you actually get there, if you want a team, do say so, because the place is usually too crowded for others to handpick the right players to team up with. A simple "/s level <level> <profession> lft" works. If you're a doctor or enforcer, expect to be picked up rather quickly Once inside the temple, buff up, and follow your team through the hallways.
Some precautions one must take while outside the temple. There are some rotten souls out there, and believe it's a big laugh to train Sandworms, Cyborgs, and - get this - city guards to the temple. You heard me right; city guards. All three have levels in the triple digits, and the guards have almost a 100% percent chance of bowling over Omnis in about one shot.
Omni precautions have been mentioned above. Clans might want to watch for a war zone, if you decide to save at the outpost south of the temple and run north. It has become a tactic amongst some Omnis to stand in the war zone, wait for an unsuspecting Clanner to waltz in their path, and ... well, you can probably assess the rest.
For Neutrals, a storyline element describes the city guards (from Tir, BTW) as hateful towards Neutrals as well as Omnis. If you start seeing numbers in the quadruple digits, run. Don't even think about being the hero of the battle. Just. Run. Basic rule of thumb for neutrals - don't grid to Tir. Under any circumstances. Save yourself the trouble and take the Omni's route.
Now, a dungeon wouldn't truly BE a dungeon without its fair share of MOBs, eager to tear you into little bitty pieces faster than you can say "OMG train!" Here's a pretty darn good list of them -
[ The Basic MOB ]
A normal romp through TOTW will garner you a sight of many blue-shirted guys, named Cultists. About as hard as a human MOB in your standard mission, they come in many forms...
The Martial Artist.
Arguably the easiest to defeat, solo and team. They don't have any true "abilities," and they wield pitchforks - again, it's not the greatest weapon out there. Opifex males.
The Doctor.
Opifex female, these brandish shotguns. They do heal with a program named Blessing of the Immortal, which regains 120-162 points of health. They have been known to heal other Cultists in combat; however, they don't heal very often. Pretty easy.
The Nano-Technician.
Here's where they start getting nasty. Being nanomage males, they're a little low HP wise, but their nukes, suffice to say, hurt. It's called "Anger of the Immortal" and deals 88-172 damage, checking against Fire AC. 88 to 172... that's easily one-sixth of a player's health. Of course, come later levels, these fall to their faces in about three seconds. They use pistols, which also deal fire damage.
The Keeper.
Not "keepers" in their own right, they wield scythes. Nasty ones as well. They don't hit once a month like with Energy Scythes and Frost Scythes, rather once every few seconds, for about 30-50 energy damage. They range from Opifex female to Solitus male and female. Having slightly higher HP than the Doctor, don't expect to solo them well at the early levels.
The Enforcer.
Yes, they're Atrox. Yes, they wield hammers. And yes, they're nasty They actually do use their Mongo and Challenger lines, creating quite a change in their stats. Do not ever expect to solo Enforcer Cultists before 30, because they will often outheal your damage. Plus, their hammer hurts; 'nuff said.
These will all attack on sight, so watch your step
There's a certain... "boss" breed of Cultist as well. These guys come in flowing robes of various color, and have the Faithful, Acolyte, Windcaller, Reverand, or Exarch affixed in their names. Not very hard if you're in a team. They all drop special robes, some more often than others. A special case of this is Exarch Ecclesse, who drops the Exarch Robe every time you kill him, while other Exarches (namely Exarch Li-Po) rarely drop them, if at all.
Many of these Boss Cultists drop a special armor, named Shadowfade Armor. An agent-only armor, it's quite nice looking. A guide to specific dropping areas can be found right here. Exarch Li-Po and Exarch Geverain drop a special ring called "Notum Ring of the Three," the best ring out of many "of the Three" rings out there. It adds to NCU and a little bit of AC's.
Along with the notum rings come four special offensive rings - namely Ring of Tattered Flame, Ring of Weeping Flesh, Bloodleech Ring, and Ring of Eternal Night,
which drop randomly off of the "boss cultists" and on some of the main bosses. Check out AUNO.org for descriptions of such rings.
[ Money Making Items ]
By the way - excellent as the Exarch Robe is, you get the opportunity to trade spare Exarch Robes to the Blind Cultist outside the temple. You'll recieve an "Inner Sanctum Pass," which may either be kept for the Inner Sanctum dungeon (125+) or may be sold for around 40.000 to 100.000 credits. Not a bad cash opportunity!
"Purifying Rods" that drop off of many bosses can be sold in bulk to all players for around 1 million for a pack of 10-20. They're used primarily in PVP and tower wars, where rooting and snaring players are very common; the Purifying Rods can remove such hostile nanos. Don't sell them individually, however.
If you are able to twink into a warbot as an engineer, or you can solo almost all the bosses, you can start camping items for others - make sure you say you're accepting tips
[ The Special MA Books ]
Killing various cultists and boss cultists may net you some strange books. WTF are those, you ask? Well, there's a pair of little Martial Artist special attacks that can be made from those books.
Tree of Enlightenment comes in six parts. When combined and shown to an NPC a ways off the temple (800x2300 in Greater Tir County, btw), you gain a Martial-Artist only attack that, when activated, damages a mob and heals your team for 290 points of damage. Very nice!
Ape Fist of Khalum comes in five parts. Combine them, hand them to the NPC, and you net a special attack that does damage and a chance of stunning. This book series does not drop off of the boss "Khalum".
Combining books together needs no skills: you put Book 2 on Book 1, Book 3 on the combination, Book 4 on the combination, and so on.
[ Boss MOBs ]
Speaking of bosses - this is a dungeon, ain't it? So, wouldn't there be a really tough MOB to kill, loot, and dance over their remains? Erm... forget the "a" part, because there's more than one boss in the dungeon...
< Defender of the Three >
The first boss you meet in this wonderful place. If you've played Soul Calibur II and witnessed Voldo's movements as he's standing still, you have an idea of what Defender of the Three looks and moves like. Except he floats, he's huge, and he's awesome.
His special ability is to cast area nukes that hit for fire damage; "Abomination of the Immortal", along with "Virulence of the Immortal", a single nuke. At low levels, this is not the MOB to fight, as the AOE's hurt pretty badly unless you have decent team-healing support from a friendly doctor. If you successfully kill him, you have a chance of getting these lovely items:
% Notum Splice 100%
-- Notum Splice is an item that confuses many. On the description, it says you must be a Nano-Technician to use it. Keep in mind, that's for USING it - right-clicking it will give the Nano-Tech a 50-point nano-heal every second for 20 seconds (1000 total nanopool). To WEAR it you can be any profession.
% Howling Skull Common (sometimes drops a pair)
% Phase Blade Rare
< The Reanimator >
This is the next boss you meet if you take the left door leading from Defender of the Three's resting spot. Stand next to her, and she'll attack on sight, spawning two pathetically low HP skeleton mobs. Now, what she does, is she can upload a nano into your NCU that turns your body into a skeleton form, producing a DOT that ticks for 23 points of damage every few seconds. This DOT lasts quite a while, so get some decent healing. She has quite the HP too, and hits pretty hard, but no nukes like Defender can do. Once she falls, right click on her and you might find these goodies:
% Purifying Rod Very Rare
% Skull of Lamentation Common
% Withered Flesh Common
< Windcaller Yatila >
This Windcaller is down the left corridor (along with Lien the Memorystalker and The Reanimator). Unlike her brethren Windcallers, she's massively super-powered when compared to someone like Windcaller Yen. I suspect she's been loading up on steroids... but hey, that's just me. She's quite the nuker as well, and will use her Skull of Lamentation weapon to good use. However, expect a challenge about as hard as Defender of the Three. Once she falls, expect to find:
% Barrow Strength Common
% Skull of Lamentation Common
% Skull of Woe Common
% Crumbling Funeral Urn 100% (Lien the Memorystalker drops this as well)
% Purifying Rod Somewhat Rare