The Dungeon Master: The Seal of Shan-To-Kor

The Dungeon Master returns with a look at a second starting instances. This time venturing into The Seal of Shan-To-Kor, a level 3-5 pack inside Turbine’s ever-growing Dungeons and Dragons Online.

The Seal of Shan-To-Kor consists of just four adventures, which is a bit less than normal in the Turbine’s product. Three of the four are follow up dungeons, so the player completes one dungeon and can go through the rest of the adventures in order. The final instance is a disappointment relative to the rest. It plays like a throwaway side quest. One that can be skipped and still earn the final rewards.

Speaking of, those end rewards consist of a nice rune arm for the Artificer, a nice bracer for tanking characters, a sweet docent for the Warforged or the pet of the Artificer and several other items.

I am going to change things up a bit. Normally, the column starts with the good and progresses to the bad. My biggest issue with this dungeon pack: It takes ages to do this adventure line, even with a party of around 3 to 4 people you’ll be busy for the better part of an evening. This might not be as much as an issue to some players. Keep in mind that most of the time is spent walking/climbing, not actual gameplay. My second issue is the steep recommended level curve, starting at level 3 in the first, going to level 4 at the second, and level 5 with the last one. Difficulty scales the same way.

Enough with the typical Internet whining. Let’s head to the highlights, why this pack might be worth doing. The experience the player gains in these dungeons is bar none at this range. The base experience is quite high for this level, and there are a lot of optional quests giving the player even more. The end rewards especially the rune arm, are superb for this level. As an Artificer, this is basically a required adventure pack for the aforementioned rune arm. It’s truly one of the best the class can find at the beginning levels.

The Seal of Shan-To-Kor is priced at a reasonable 250 Turbine points. If the player doesn’t have that much Turbine points to spread around, I would suggest picking up The Catacombs over The Seal. Catacombs doesn’t take ages to do and also has some nice rewards. If you’re looking for the fastest leveling route, The Seals offers lots of experience over the equally priced The Catacombs.