Invance
Starting Invances
Invances have to be triggered by a moderator. Generally a team is gathering in one of the invance team channels and a request is made. The invance team channel numbers are descriptive of the range they represent - they are as follows:
4060 6080 80100 100120 120145 145200
If you are not on your invance team channel, you will not get any prior warning before the invance gets started. Once the invance is triggered a blue message appears:
Two warnings are given, one when the invance becomes available and one ten minutes later. You have a total of 20 minutes to get to the MM battle hall and join the invance. Once you have joined, don't forget your amber, you can return to the normal maps to restock. If you take any exit in the invance map, including boats and doors to houses, you end up on the regular maps. Players have died because they clicked on a house accidentally then walked out and was killed by a Yeti on regular Iscalrith map. Bring a Ring of Naralik or Ring of Morcraven Marsh for a speedy restock. You do not need to pay amber after the first time you enter the invance. It is best to announce on channel that you are restocking so invasion is not undermanned.
You can harvest on map and sometimes you will find players harvesting Ogre Toes in fort before invaders but it is considering impolite to not finish before invasion starts. No food on this map unfortunately.
Invance Rules
Before going to invance, make sure to read the invance rules here: [1]
Note: In the 40-60 invance, the rules on armours/weapons/ranging are more lax, with augmented leather armour and chain armours being used for these, and low level ranging equipment and no AP being permissible and having multiple people on the wall through the entire invance, though having higher level equipment is advised. However not helping and entering the invance for the reward exp and all other rules are still illegal.
Broadcast Messages
Special invasion, Save Iscalrith. People between 145-200 a/d that want to participate please report to Ilie in the MM Battle Hall no later than 20 minutes from now.
Special invasion, Save Iscalrith. People between 145-200 a/d that want to participate please report to Ilie in the MM Battle Hall no later than 10 minutes from now. Monsters will be spawning in 11 minutes!
Joining the Invance
You need to have two amber on you to enter the Invance. Within 20 minutes after the first message, go to MM Battle hall and talk to Ilie. Select the option "I want to join the Invasion". You will be sent to a special version of Iscalrith map. Tele-in point is somewhere in the fort. Remember that Iscalrith is a cold map so dress warmly or bring extra healing. Do not enter BEFORE the invance is started, then you will end up in the normal Iscalrith map. And if you exit you could end up meeting a yeti!
Cooldown Time
14 in-game hours need to pass before you can enter the invance again with your character.
Organization and Structure of the Invances
Caps and levels
As far as I know there are possible Invances for 40-60, 60-80, 80-100, 100-120, 120-145 and 145+. At this moment you can undercap, go to the invance for a higher level, but not overcap. If you undercap you will not get bonus experience.
Invisible Rat (added 16-sep-2011)
Ten minutes after the invance has started an invisible rat spawns. This is announced by a pop up message (in the middle of the screen, watch out). If the rat is killed within 10 minutes after it spawns it will give more experience when the invance is successful. For the 120+ invance this was 250 extra xp per level (2250 instead of 2000).
Monsters in the Invance
This Section needs work.
40-60
Monsters are: Tall Gargoyle, Armed Skeleton, Feran, Black Panther, Black Bear, Hobgoblin, Female Orc, Male Orc, Troll
Boss Monsters: White Tiger, Fluffy Rabbit and Feros
Experience: 1.0k xp per level
Number of monsters at the start: 580-600
Time Limit: 90 minutes
60-80
Monsters are: Hawk, Polar Bear, Leopard, Lion, Male Orc, Armed Female Orc, Male Ogre and Cyclops
Boss Monsters: White Tiger, Fluffy Rabbit and Feros
Experience: 1.0k xp per level
Number of monsters at the start: 960
Time Limit: 110 minutes
80-100
- Note: This is not run very often
Monsters are: White Tiger, Fluffy Rabbit, Feros, Phantom Warrior, Cyclops, Lion, Desert Chimeran, Forest Chimeran, Mountain Chimeran and Hawk
Experience: 1.5k xp per level.
Number of monsters at the start: 710
Time Limit: 110 minutes
100-120
- Note: This is rarely ran - last invance more than a year ago.
Monsters are Yeti, Sslessar, White Tiger, Hawk, Fluffy Rabbit, Phantom Warrior, Forest Chimeran, and Mountain Chimeran.
Boss monsters are Cockatrice, Nasparliu and Giant.
Experience: 1.8k xp per attack/defense level.
Number of monsters at the start: at least 750
Time Limit: 130 minutes
120-145
- Note: This is not run very often
Regular monsters are White Tiger, Yeti, Nasparliu, Legionnaire Orc, Cockatrice, Phantom Warrior, Mountain Chimeran, Giant, Hawk, Forest Chimeran and Frost Troll
Boss monsters are Mare Bulangiu and Ice Dragon
Experience: 1850 experience per level.
Number of monsters at the start: 865-866
Time Limit: 130 minutes to clear all monsters.
145-200
- Note: This run very often, sometimes twice in a day
Regular monsters are Hawk, White Tiger, Forest Chimeran, Mountain Chimeran, Arctic Chimeran, Yeti, Legionnaire Orc, Cockatrice, Legionnaire Troll, Nasty Giant, Nasparliu, Little Dragon Blue and Little Dragon Pink
Boss monsters are Mare Bulangiu, Ice Dragon and Blue Dragon
Experience: 2.1k experience per level.
Number of monsters at the start: 995
Time Limit: 130 minutes to clear all monsters.
Tactics
The aim of the game is to keep the monsters out of the fort and kill them all before the time-limit expires. The entrance to the fort can be blocked by one person, but if this person gets into a fight, wins and moves onto a bag, the door will get unblocked.
The wall of the fort provide excellent ranging opportunities, but watch out, you can be attacked when ranging from directly over the gate and a few places on the wall elsewhere.
Generally players get organized before the invance is triggered by joining the invance-channel. Unlike Instances it is not necessary to have/join a channel, but it helps coordinate the battle.
There does not seem to be a limit to the number of players that join the Invance, anyone under the cap can join (but this will put you on cooldown even if your not at the minimum cap). Be aware that joining the Invance for the sole purpose of getting xp (without actually helping significantly) is not acceptable and can result in a ban from the game (per radu). A team of at least 15 players seems to be needed to complete the invance successfully on higher level Invances, but can be done with 8-10 people on lower level Invances, with augmented or chain armors, or 4-5 in high level gear.
Having gate guard be able to to become invisible, with potion or spells, is very useful. Archers standing above gate can be attacked and lure monsters to gate. Now if gate guard is attacked you can use teleport to range to top of gate and help defend.
Invaded monsters left
You can always check the remaining time and whether there are any invasion monsters left by typing the #ii command.
End of Invance
The Invance will end when all monsters are dead (Success), time runs out (Failure) or a monster is inside the fort when the minute changes (Failure). If you kill all monsters, but in the last minute of the invance, you still fail. When the Invance ends, all participants that are on the Invance map get experience if you succeed and the whole team is transported to IP (poor newbie that gets 20+ fully armed fighters land on him).
Images
A screenshot from a 100-120 Invance
Fighting the 120+ Invance Boss