A Hunting Ground Review: Mistrock

Are you fed up of using the same hunting grounds all of the time, and want a change but you are unsure of what may lie in other areas? Well, the aim of this series of articles is to help those that want to learn more about a hunting ground before trying it out. We at Tibiacity, are going to try out various hunting grounds and write up a review of what we seen and what we think of it, and hopefully, this will help you choose a new spot, and be prepared to face what could be lurking there!

Mistrock

Tools Required: None
Monsters: Cyclops, Cyclops Drone, Cyclops Smith, Blood Crab.

Mistrock is an isolated island to the South-West of Yalahar. You can get there via the NPC Maris, who is located in the Foreign Quarter of Yalahar, on the Docks. The boat fair costs 100 gold, and it costs 100 gold to return. The island is split up via ramps and in each area, you can expect different amounts of certain enemies. As well as the main part of the mountain, using parcels or the spell, Levitate, you can hunt ontop of the mountain itself.

First Impressions

The first thing I noticed when I arrived on Mistrock, was that the area I arrived in was blocked off from the rest of the island by a ramp, and the small boat area was a protection zone. So, if I was not yet ready to begin my hunt, or I had to go away from my computer for any reason, I was able to do so in safety. As I explored the island, I found another area like this that was inhabited by a single Blood Crab. So, if I wanted to wait for my health, or mana to regenerate all I had to do was go down onto the beach and wait there!
Unfortunatly, as any other Cyclops spawn, I rarely ever get the whole thing to myself, but due to its size, there are plenty of other areas you could try if someone else is bothering you. However, on some of my visits, the whole island was covered with knights of various levels, however on some servers this is not always the case.
Due to the buildup of the area, this island is definatly most suitable to knights, as the monsters are spread out enough for a knight to avoid getting surrounded, and the terrain can help avoid that aswell. Paladins will not have to much trouble here either, assuming their distance skills is high enough to kill the monsters fast enough so they do not get caught, using spears with a good shield and set of armor is most advised here. If you are a mage, this island may not be the most profitable hunting area, however there are several spots where you could cast Invisibility and then attempt to kill large amounts of enemies at the same time, either with runes or wave spells.

Geography

As the name of this island states, this is a very rocky place. The entire hunting ground is based either ontop, or inside of the moutain. There are unpassable rocks all around the moutain, especially on the inside. These should be used to your advantage, to prevent monsters from getting to you if there are a large amount of them. The ground floor has several areas, most of which can only be accessed from going through the upper level of the mountain. There is a fairly long corridor on the ground floor that you can enter right away. This is populated entirely by regular Cyclops, and if the most suitable place for lower levels, however, on its own it is not a great hunting area. There are two ramps, one either side of this corridor. The first one leads to the main upper area, and the one on the far side of the corridor leads to a secluded part of the upper area. Both contain Cyclops of all kinds, Drones being the most comman. There are plenty of rocky areas to use to stop large amounts of monsters from surrounding you.
From the main passageway of the upper area, there are several ramps. Right from the start there is a ramp that leads down to yet, another long passageway that contains more cyclops of all kinds, but more of them. At the end of this passageway, is once again, another ramp which leads to areas populated mainly by Cyclops Drones and Smiths. Due to the cramped nature of these parts of the cave, I advise only higher levels with decent skills or people with the ability to turn Invisible try to hunt here, otherwise you risk either using alot of supplies, or death.
Going back to the main corridor on the upper level, if you go north, you will encounter several regular Cyclops, Cyclops Drones and even some Cyclops Smiths. At the end of cave, there is a ramp that goes down to a small beach. On this beach there is a single bloodcrab. There is a gap in the wall that you can stand in to avoid being pushed, so if you need a break, this is a nice place to take one as it is perfectly safe.
The top of Mistrock is a little tricky to get to, as you need to go up 3 ledges. Fortunatly, when your up there, like the inside of the mountain, it is connected by a series of ramps, apart from one area which you need to levitate up to. Most of this area is covered by regular cyclops, but further into it, you will encounter Drones and even a few Smiths. The area is fairly open, withthout to many obstacles, apart from the occasional rock or tree.

The south side of the main passage, once again contains several Cyclops and Cyclops Drones, and some more Cyclops Smiths. At the end of this part of the cave, there is a ramp that leads down to a small Cyclops Smith spawn. It is a small room with hardly any running space, lots of various scenery and 4 Cyclops Smiths. There is are a few parts of this cave you can hide to avoid having all 4 Smiths from hitting you, two of which are close to the ramp. I advise only Knights, Paladins with a good shielding skill or people that can cast invisible go down here, as 4 Cyclops Smiths can lower your health very quickly.

Reviewers Opinion

Personally, I love this place. This is one of my favourite places to hunt, as the spawn is fairly fast and everything is just the right distance from each other. My typical hunt here is an hour long (with the bonus experience) in the two main passageways, on the ground floor and upper area. In this hour, I normally get between 70 to 80 thousand experience and between 5 and 10 thousand gold (in gold pieces and loot). However, if you go deeper into the cave you can get alot more experience very quickly, and I have managed to maintan 70k/h without the bonus stamina in the areas with more Smiths. I typically take Great Health Potions with me and heal when I get to red health, along with casting Light Healing, but using Mana Potions or even Softboots can come out incredibly profitable. I take most loot, but I always leave shortswords and plate shields due to their low selling price to high weight. After each hunt, I normally have around 3 to 4 thousand in gold and then another 2 to 6 thousand in loot, not including club rings, dark helments, cyclops trophies and cyclops toes (which I prefer to collect and sell in large numbers). Fortunatly, almost all of the loot they drop is sellable in Yalahar, so the only things worth holding onto before selling are the before mentioned. If you do not have alot of cap, then there is a mailbox close to the entrance for those that have done the Postman Quest, so for long hunts it is worth bringing a couple of parcels, as you can fill up your cap very quickly.
The top of mistrock has lot of regular Cyclops all over it, so if you can kill those with ease, but you struggle with the stronger types, then it is perfect as there are plenty of them. This area also has plenty of space to run for those that prefer to keep their distance.
I advise Mistrock to any Knight higher than level 30. At lower levels you can keep to the groundfloor which, in peak times, should always have a Cyclops to kill, so can in fact provide a decent experience rate, and can be fairly profitable for those able to kill them without the use of too many supplies. It would be useful to have skills at least 70/70 so you can kill everything quickly, and avoid too much harm. The only type of damage you will take here is physical, so if you have anything that gives resistances to physical, it will be of use here.

Summary

Plenty of monsters, suitable for people of various levels.
Decent experience and loot
Small variety of monsters
Can oftenly be crowded

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