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How/where do I collect Runes in Undermountain

prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User
I'm done with the campaign, but I now have a quest to gather runes in Undermountain. That seems a bit aimless. Any clues here? I've done a couple Master Expeditions but I'm not finding them there, and I need something for that end treasure chest.

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    greywyndgreywynd Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 7,095 Arc User
    Pick one of the zones aside from the Catacombs. Find a rune on the map. Go there. Kill stuff. Gather resonance.

    When you have 10+ of any given resonance, go do an ME. In the first chamber, go to the left altar and interact with it. Pick option 2. Pick a resonance that you have enough of and fashion a rune. Place it. Run the ME.
    I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
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    prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User
    Greywnd, that was a great explanation of what those darn rune symbols meant on the maps that I kept seeing. That was one tough battle. Well, I got enough of each type (3 of each color) to upgrade to Rank 2. I guess that's not enough to do anything since I went into an ME and it didn't allow me to do anything with it. Do I have to go through 9 more of those rune battles and 9 more upgrades/refinements? Thanks for the help!
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    greywyndgreywynd Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 7,095 Arc User
    We're you gathering the resonance for Sinje in the Portal?

    To gather for a rune in an ME you need 10 and you make them in the instance of the ME before you enter the first gate.
    I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
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    prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User
    Hmmmm....I'm not entirely sure. I know I'm doing a questline (and I'm currently away from my gaming computer for now) that needs to complete the last step which would appear to deal with the first room in the portal. When I get in there and click on the one new little place that lights up for me to place something, all my options are disabled....which I'm guessing is because I need something else or more of what I have. Sorry to be so abstract. I'm sure it's probably something obvious I'm overlooking.
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    rickcase276rickcase276 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,404 Arc User
    Did you get the resonator from the Rune HEs? You need it and the different unstable resonances to upgrade then Runemaster Sinye will give you your first 10 stable resonances. After you run you first rune master expedition stable resonance will start dropping from the rune HEs.
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    prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User
    Okay...I think I need to find Sinye. I've already refined my resonator with the ones received with that first Rune battle. I'll fiddle with this later when I can game again! I really appreciate the guidance.
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    prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User
    I'm clearly missing something. I feel like an idiot.

    I didn't see this before, but Sinye lit up with a quest completion icon and I now have a runic resonator. If I go into an ME, first room, I still can't select any of the options because I need 10 (resonance) to choose which rune I will go for. I've done multiple rune battles in a couple different districts, but I don't notice anything that I've obtained or can obtain from such a battle (other than Runic Corruption which I saw I had during one battle).

    I'm sure it'll click soon, but I still need a budge in the right direction. I keep reading the quest to collect enough resonance to choose the reward at the end of the quest.

    I guess the real question, is how the heck to I collect resonance? Do I need to do something? I had someone in-game try to help and all he could tell me is to keep killing things in the Rune battles. I find no resonance drops. My current quest is Risk Versus Reward and I just need to Collect Runic Etching.

    Like I said, I'm missing something dumb and I'll probably kick myself once I figure out what the heck I'm not doing.
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    greywyndgreywynd Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 7,095 Arc User
    When you're at the altar, choose option 2 to make a rune if you have the resonance for it.
    I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
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    prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User
    That's the problem...I don't have any resonance I guess. For some reason, I have a resonance collector but not collecting any resonance. I'm a bit baffled.
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    greywyndgreywynd Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 7,095 Arc User
    edited May 2019
    Then go back to the HEs in the zones and gather.
    I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
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    hannibalsmith#0854 hannibalsmith Member Posts: 149 Arc User
    Rune Etchings from ME quest chests show up in regular inventory. The Resonance you collect in HE's shows up at the bottom of your inventory Wealth tab.
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    fenrir4lifefenrir4life Member Posts: 295 Arc User
    prethen said:

    That's the problem...I don't have any resonance I guess. For some reason, I have a resonance collector but not collecting any resonance. I'm a bit baffled.

    I haven't been able to rack up any, either; my understanding is "punch runic mobs, resonance falls out... unless you're in one of the many bugged encounters where resonance does not fall out of punched mobs"
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    prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User
    I've been in about a half dozen runic mobs and not finding anything. I'll double check my wealth tab and I guess I'll try some different areas for Rune Encounters.
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    prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User
    YAY! Finally, got a rune etching. Man, was that ME friggin' hard when I converted resonance to supposedly get better gear. I spent like 7 gold in just health potions to get through that one. I don't think it was quite worth it, but at least I know what's going on now.
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    darksoul01a#5953 darksoul01a Member Posts: 2 Arc User
    I am new to the game what is a ME?
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    greywyndgreywynd Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 7,095 Arc User

    I am new to the game what is a ME?

    Master Expedition in Undermountain.
    I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
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    rockster#6227 rockster Member Posts: 1,860 Arc User
    edited December 2023
    After you have completed all questlines and are just doing normal collecting to make runes for Master Expeditions, do this:

    Go to any of the maps which have the runic encounters, slippery slope gate (Twisted Caverns map) is the easiest because the encounters are closest together and the encounters are also slightly easier to get through so this map is usually the busiest, but these encounters are in other Undermountain maps too, such as Wyllowwood and Vanrakdoom. But those ones seem more difficult to get through than the ones in the Twisted Caverns.

    The way they work is counterintuitive... normally you hit enemies and do as much damage as you can and kill them as fast as you can, but in these Runic Encounters you do the opposite. You do the least amount of damage possible and keep them alive as long as you can. Think of it like milking a cow. You don't want to kill the cow or you will have to find a new cow to milk. These enemies renew hitpoints continually so if you do it right you can just find one target and keep it alive and milk it for the drops. Do not use dailies or encounters on them, just use at-wills. Make a loadout which has the best defense you will need, and maybe use a healer comp as well or something like that. They hit like trucks so the only thing you really want to be doing is to keep yourself alive as long as possible, keep dashing out of their way, and keep hitting them with at-wills to keep them dropping essence until the timer goes down.

    It used to be that it showed on the screen when it was dropping, but like so many other things they changed it to make it worse no idea why, so now they go into your inventory but you have no visual clue it's happening and just have to trust the process. I wish they would revert it to how it was before.

    These runic encounters work best and go the most smoothly in one of two ways. Either you have a few people there and people are just hitting things all over the place and you don't get too much aggro yourself and can hit without being targeted, or you are all on your own on a map, aggro only one enemy and draw it away from everything else (still keeping both of you within the boundaries of the encounter inside that coloured wall) and just hit that enemy over and over with your at-wills and keep moving out of it's red zones and try not to let it hit you or disable you. It only usually gets messy when you aggro more of them by accident and you have several of them on you at once, so the trick is (if you are there on your own) to aggro only one and draw it away from everything else in some corner somewhere and just try not to aggro anything else. It's easier in the Twisted Cavern map in the place where the sea is, you can go out into the water and hit it out there, it will follow you there, but in the other one in the cavern it is more tight in space and it's easier to aggro more of them than you want to. If at any stage you feel overwhelmed by too many enemies at once, leave the area to disengage, then go back in and start with just one again. The worst way it goes is often when you are there alone and you have one enemy exactly where you want them and are milking them for drops and some other person comes along and starts hitting your target with dailies and encounters and kills it and you have to go find another one, which they then kill all over again. So yea, it works best when you're all on your own or there's a few people, not in the middle with only one or two. I usually go to a map where there are no people, like Vanrakdoom, because even though it's harder there, I at least can do it my way and get left alone and pull one to the side and milk it while jumping around out of the way without being bothered by other players.

    When you have done a few of them, go and do your 3 X ME's a day, go to the first altar and you need to convert first, there is no timer on this process so just convert everything you have in all of the sections when you are there so you know how many runes you have and how long it will be until you need to go and do more Runic Encounters to get more essence.

    For ME's, the weapon drops come from the NPC you hand in your quest to outside of the expedition, that requires finding all 9 relics during a run of 3 maps (3 relics each map) for the best chance of a drop, and the stuff for the Zok Box (vanity pets) and the stuff you use for the watcher set mini bosses comes from the chest inside the ME at the end.

    PS the colour of the encounter denotes which type of essence drops the most from that encounter.
    Apparently pointing-out the bleeding obvious is a 'personal attack'.
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    plasticbatplasticbat Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 12,223 Arc User

    After you have completed all questlines and are just doing normal collecting to make runes for Master Expeditions, do this:
    ....

    I have not read your whole post but I think you are trying to answer questions that was from 2019. The only new recent question from a new player was: What is ME?
    *** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
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    rockster#6227 rockster Member Posts: 1,860 Arc User
    I know. I realized after I wrote it it was an old post, but I left it there because I figured it might help someone else in the future.
    Apparently pointing-out the bleeding obvious is a 'personal attack'.
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