List of content with instakill mechanics or notable ways to easily die

[Wini]

• Tar in Problem with Tar Pits
• Mud in Whiteplume Mountain

No matter if you run in normal, you fall into this, you surely will die in most builds :(

 

[Lokidottir]

Acute delirium - insta kill if you fall of the bedship. Rip guildie in s5 when we found out about that one! Atleast we had all cashed in 5k by then.
Also, this wiki page was started around that time: https://ddowiki.com/page/Quests_with_instakill_pits

 

[frodowasaparanoidgnome]

Level 13 - Blockade Buster - If you don't get off a ship before it explodes, you are instakilled

Died in S5 standing on the rear deck of the middle ship when the NEXT SHIP OVER exploded. Now I back way off in the water as a habit.

 

[PaleFox]

• Tar in Problem with Tar Pits
• Mud in Whiteplume Mountain

No matter if you run in normal, you fall into this, you surely will die in most builds :(

The problem with the tar pit from "Problem with Tar Pits" is that if you jump into the tar and as you land a tile appears, then you're stuck from the waist up in the tile and can't jump out anymore. Forced to wait until the tile disappears once more.
Tho I guess only an insta kill for squishy builds.

That said, Mud Geysers in White Plume Mountain can cause serious harm.
Same can be said for when falling of the slippery slide and into the purple spikes.

 

[Aaabbbcccddd]

More generalised:
- Flesh render enemies have vorpal claws.
- Beholders will hit you with multiple negative levels in short order as well as using disintegrate which you'll be more likely to fail your save against thanks to the negative levels. Death ward spells will be dispelled so it won't protect you.
- High ability damage will make you helpless, which doesn't instakill you but you can't do anything except run. Except if your STR is reduced to 0 & you're carrying a lot of gear, then you can't run away either. And CON damage makes you more vulnerable to instakills as well as reducing your HP. Kopru & spectral beholders are particularly notorious for stat drain, shadow enemies can drain STR, vampire enemies will drain CON.
- Mind flayers will instakill you if they use their brain slurp after stunning you. If you're warforged, they'll throw it up again, which might give some small consolation.
- If you're warforged, every single attack from a rust monster has a chance to stun you. DC fairly low, but it can be nasty at low levels.

And keep in mind the mind flayers instakill goes through deathward.

 

[Wildtype]

I didn't see one yet on the new forums, so thought I'd make a list of areas in DDO with instakill mechanics or otherwise unusual and notable ways to easily die in Hardcore. Please comment ones I have missed, goal is to make a comprehensive list.

Few ones you've missed:
Level 17: Acute Delirium instakills if you fall off airship
Terminal Delirium also instakills if you lose dance fight
Level 18: Schemes of the Enemy has a bottomless pit instakill zone when crossing the bridge
Level 18: Blown to bits has massive damage charges similar to Undermine that are essentially instakills at level

Wilderness Areas:
Falling off a bridge or island in restless isles
There's an instakill wall with zombie rare in Eerie Forest

Raids:
Level 12: Twilight Forge: Getting hit by pillar or laser in instakills
Level 30: Mark of Death - Vol has an aoe which instakills anyone on the central platform if they don't have a deathblock item equipped that hasn't been disjuncted by Abbot.
Level 30: Defiler of the Just- If you're in area where an archon will fall, it instakills you. The Purple wyrm also has an instakill aoe that it telegraphs. If the boss fight takes too long, massive aoe damage occurs.
Level 32: Too hot to handle - Going too far forward off ledge will instakill you.
Level 32: Project nemesis- unlikely to be run elite on HC, but if you do there's a recurring curse that will instakill if not removed.

 

[axel15810]

OP updated, thanks all for the input and please keep them coming. I haven't yet gone through the spreadsheet Strimtom posted. I'll do that and update OP as needed when I can. Anything that people have commented which is deathblock-able I am assuming as covered in the general deathblock comment. Also, as said before I don't have time right now to test all of the ones I haven't previously experienced myself so please let me know of any errors. Taking everyone's word as of now unless someone else chimes in and deconfirms something someone else has posted - in which case I'll look into it further/test myself if needed. I have been doublechecking some of these I'm not familiar with and will do more as I get the time.

 

[Br4d]

For new players: Kobold Shamans on Elite difficulty spam the spell Lightning Bolt and it will kill you reliably if you fail a reflex save. This can happen in Harbor quests.

 

[calouscaine]

Honestly, a lot of things will instant kill you if you don't have feather fall, death block, water breathing. The biggest thing is not to charge in like rambo or jump off things like an idiot and typically you will be fine.
Get your elemental resistances up to around 60 ish by level 28, absorptions over 25%, have 150 prr and around 125 mrr and you should be able to deal with 90% of what the game throws at you for the most part.
On a side note, there are very few dungeons which have an actual kill you mechanic as part of the dungeon itself - i.e. required to die to do the dungeon. There are plenty of danger zones, i.e. lava, acid, voids/pits, and so forth - but these can be circumvented or avoided with a little thinking and planning.

 

[eshadowbringer]

On a side note, there are very few dungeons which have an actual kill you mechanic as part of the dungeon itself - i.e. required to die to do the dungeon. There are plenty of danger zones, i.e. lava, acid, voids/pits, and so forth - but these can be circumvented or avoided with a little thinking and planning.

Listing these for newer and returning players and just refreshing memories for some of us is the entire premise of this thread!

should be able to deal with 90% of what the game throws at you for the most part.

It is that remaining 10% that gets ya every time!

 

[saekee]

I would suggest Temple of Elemental evil, the first one of the chain—in particular, sometimes there spawns nasty magic traps in the corridor that paralyze AND do massive amounts of DoT damage. They are not common but if you stumble into them, its over

 

[saekee]

I have another—Claw of Vulkoor—the fire traps in the beginning two directions one can take. Both have a giant guarding them. The drop down one, the more common for non-stealth parties, can hit you with a whallop from every angle and there is no way to get out. Folks know of the later one which is avoidable by jumping up on the lever

 

[Buddha5440]

I may have missed it in some earlier post but...the best one is...

/Death

 

[eshadowbringer]

I may have missed it but in some earlier post but...the best one is...

/Death

Disabled in hardcore. But works quite well otherwise!

 

[eshadowbringer]

My 400+ HP blightcaster just got 1-shotted on the stairs in amber temple on Heroic Elite.

- RIP -

 

[Wini]

My 400+ HP blightcaster just got 1-shotted on the stairs in amber temple on Heroic Elite.

- RIP -

Yes, that's right, what's up with that crazy bolt trap? It feels brutal and I usually forgot from season to season, lol

 

[liosliante]

I see one person run this quest in hardcore and died:
Level 20 - Storm the Beaches - The ballistas in the epic version of this quest will likely oneshot you, even on lower epic difficulties

In heroic will be ok, I was thinking to try in normal first and then on hard, but on elite???

 

[Aelonwy]

I just wanted to share this where Hardcore players might see it:

This is meant to be funny. I myself died recently... to complacency so... yeah.

 

[Buddha5440]

I see one person run this quest in hardcore and died:
Level 20 - Storm the Beaches - The ballistas in the epic version of this quest will likely oneshot you, even on lower epic difficulties

In heroic will be ok, I was thinking to try in normal first and then on hard, but on elite???

It's a 6-10 ft long tree trunk with an explosive head...It SHOULD kill you. They are also very easy to range (jump, shoot/throw/cast, repeat), since they lowered their HP a while back.

 

[axel15810]

I see one person run this quest in hardcore and died:
Level 20 - Storm the Beaches - The ballistas in the epic version of this quest will likely oneshot you, even on lower epic difficulties

In heroic will be ok, I was thinking to try in normal first and then on hard, but on elite???

The ballistas in that quest don't fire on heroic, on any heroic difficulty as far as I'm aware. So epic version is the only one to worry about. I'll update the original post to clarify.