Zeka Counterclockwise Capping Rotator  

 

Since the quest department in Fortress Mechanotus seemed so lacking, figured I would fill in a bit.

The quest "Switching Gears" can be obtained from Clockwork Warmarshal at loc:
pos 163.69, -1402.57, 398.13, near the tents when you first zone in. He is also on the maps if you have downloaded those from mapfiend.net.

You say 'Hail, Clockwork Warmarshal'

Clockwork Warmarshal says 'Hello there solider. It's good to see so many Norrathians rally to help stop this menace! Since our crash and my [promotion] to the leader of the Albatross' ground forces I've been overwhelmed with necessary military action and underprovided with forces to complete those actions. I know it's unusual, especially since you are not officially enlisted for this action, but perhaps you could [accept orders] from an old clockwork and help out all of Norrath in the process? Or if you and your allies are truly brave, someone needs to make forays into those dratted [gryospires] if we're to have much of a chance getting reinforcements up here.'

Saying 'Promotion?' -

Clockwork Warmarshal says 'Ah, yes, my promotion. Well, you see, Commander Hugert Tallbottom didn't survive the initial assault. In fact, he was killed when the Albatross crashed. I know it's not my place to speak poorly of gnomish engineering, especially considering that I AM gnomish engineering, but this ship was too hastily put together. Many good gnomes lost their lives before we ever had a chance to engage the enemy. We hold the lines here the best we can, but we no longer have the troops to mount an effective assault.'

Saying 'Accept orders?' -

Clockwork Warmarshal says 'Ah, fantastic! I have a few things that need to be taken care of before we will be able to advance from this position and begin our assault on the fortress itself.'

A Task Select screen pops up with the quests:
Breaking Things Down
Endless Enemies
Hunt a Spy
Switching Gears

Selecting Switching Gears Quest:
You have been assigned the task 'Switching Gears'.
You will receive an item: Mechano-Tool Kit

Objectives:

Loot 5 Micro-Cogs
Loot 5 Class "A" Cogs
Swap out the cogs of ten steamworks
Return to the Warmarshal

Quest Lore: The Clockwork Warmarshal has a plan. One of the engineers has come up with the proper tools to open one of the minor panels on a model of steamwork. Inside that panel are some of the gears that control the motor skills of the steamwork. The Warmarshal has asked you to gather some gears that are just a bit off-size for this particular model, and using the tool kit, replace some gears inside some steamworks. He thinks this change will slow the speed of the steamwork, either reducing its ability to attack, or its ability to move. However, you will have to distract the steamwork while the switch is made. This will probably require hitting it with a weapon of some sort for a while. He doesn't want you to destroy them until you know how this switch affects them.

Once you have collected the cogs:

To use the device, you must be at point blank range of a mob, and then mob must be in melee combat, with you or another player, and have it's health below 45%.
If you manage to switch out the cogs it will either slow the upper limbs of the mob, slowing it (sorry don't know percentage), or slowing the lower limbs, effectively snaring the mob, other snaring effects will still stack, and the snare is as effective as a single cast snare. (sorry I am not a spell freak, dunno percentages.)

Every time you click the device, it will use either a Minor-Cog or Class "A" Cog as ammunition, obviously. This will vary depending on the type of the mob that you are attempting it on. When I did the quest, all the cogs that were used were Class A cogs, due to the area I was in, which was in the NE scrap pit area. (Probably based on the mobs level AND type, cannot confirm though.) Either that, or the quest is bugged, but as you know fighting in Mecha, you will have hundreds of these NO DROP type items drop in just a short time, so there was plenty of Class A Cogs for me.)
(Again, a big thank you to Balance, Sinc, Singletear, Syrmm, GoldenRod, Sirrec and Thrawl of Cazic-Thule for killing and distracting these mobs for me.)

*NOTE!! This does not work for all robotic-type mobs, generally the flying bug looking steamworks, and non robotic type mobs. But instead of using a cog, you will get the combat message: "Target is not appropriate for this ability" or something to that effect, basically that the device is not usable on that mob.*

Successfully using the device will display the message saying either the upper or lower limbs are affected, in yellow or whatever your system message color is.

You do NOT have to turn in any cogs to the Warmarshal, so once you have used the device on 10 mobs correctly, you may go and hail the Warmarshal for your reward, which is a

Zeka Counterclockwise Capping Rotator

I have no idea what it does, but as there is a zone named Zeka, I would imagine it has to do with that zone, however I have yet to confirm it being a key of sorts.

Rewards:
Faction with Strike Brigade V.

Experience:
At level 80, with 100% xp towards AA's, you will earn about a third of an AA point. Which is not bad at all considering you could do this as a side quest to beating the hell out of the mobs, gaining 5-8% AA xp each.

The nifty thing about this quest is, you can still use the device and cogs after you complete the quest. So it is almost like having snare and slow on you all at the same time. The downfall is you only get 1 of those effects per mob, and can only do it when the mob is below 45%.

Hopefully I didn't miss anything, and please feel free to add.

Tanacious of Watchers, 80 Rogue, Cazic-Thule Server.

(Alla's please update appropriate items listed within. More to come.)


Edited, Nov 30th 2007 1:30am by Tanacious