Are you seeing masses of the strongest dragons, titans, and devils? If not, then yes, it can definitely get worse. You're probably already aware that you can buff before starting a round of arena combat; make sure invisibility is one of those spells, it can save you from being immediately swarmed on all sides.

Honestly, I'd make a point of going ahead and getting those arena victories. Town Portal to Harmondale and put in the time to get them (like I mentioned, a Horseman to reduce the travel time can save you some game days and sleeping).

Light magic expert/master can be quite useful, yes. I seem to recall the buff spells do better and last longer at similar skill/mastery levels, compared to the "normal" Self magic versions. And yes, Protection From Magic is awesome.

Surprisingly, the Arena isn't that bad. Knight difficulty involves efreet, golems, and young behemoths for my level 34 party. I use a paralyze wand on the lich and 1-2 behemoths, and take out the nearest efreet until I can get close to the dangerous opponents with melee combat.

I used invisibility to sneak up to a behemoth (I didn't spot the lich at the time - a much better target for this tactic). Efreet are annoying and very tough, but not deadly. I'll probably go after 4 more arena victories and return to the Pit later. The buffs really help, but I think my best spell is actually GM regeneration. Between resistances and regeneration, small ranged damage doesn't amount to much. I'm sure I'll sing a different tune when the arena fills with Queen of the Dead, and my mage dies in one shot. Or maybe it's two - they're hard to count at those speeds.

The Arena above 35 to 40 levels is uneven in the challenges. I've had some really easy ones and others where I'm dead before the first round.

And you are right, the big boys are usually not bad if you have paralyze. But enemies that clear all your magic protections from a distance can leave you feeling exposed and alone.

Edited for speilling

If you cast Summon Elemental and leave the area, the Elemental stays in first area and no longer counts against you cap. Can this be abused? Not easily, because the freed Elementals don't cooperate on attacks. (Yes. Yes I tried to abuse the system. Please forgive me.) But for story purposes I try to leave a couple of them in the Pit. Dog marking his territory type of thing.

Bob

Sharks in arena? It made me giggle, did they fly? :)
Oh, the Pit and sound of Shrapmetal. My first impression was - "hey, who is shooting in here? Why my wizard is suddenly dead?" That place was feeling on par with Castle Darkmoor in MM 6. Those casters were definitely too strong for their level :)

I need to replay MM 7 eventually :)

I left some greater light elementals to fight the goblins in Harmondale. Unfortunately it became an odd situation where the last goblin couldn't do much damage, and the light elemental kept firing at an odd angle and missing. So I killed the goblin and the light elemental lingers there. Kinda fun - I like the "mark your territory" comment, especially in the pit.

As to the arena, with sharks, they actually died by "floating" slightly upwards, as if the arena had 10 feet of water in it.

I just tried the arena on highest difficulty, and it's scary but do-able for my 40-49th level party. Something was definitely bringing my health down, but it could be the droids or could be the archangels. After them always being in my way in Celeste, there was a certain amount of catharsis killing some of them. I mean, do the guards with the power of flight really have to hover a few feet off the ground to get in everyone's way?

Has anyone found the boots peasants wear in the Pit? My party gets burned bad in the lava, but peasants walk around with 9 health like lava is no problem. Must be the boots!

When I was working out how to clean out the Titan Stronghold and found out that Elementals could be "Freed"-- the front of the Stronghold was really funny with the light show. However, even I, the abuser, felt it was too much so I started over. But it was quite a light show. (When the Dragons toward the front started firing, the Elementals went to work. They didn't kill the dragon but they did distract him. But like I said it was too much.)

Interestingly, you can reach almost every single area without spending days "traveling" (whether on foot, by stable, or by boat), with Avlee being one of the main exceptions.

Town Portal gets you to the main towns, and you can get to the Barrow Downs by back tracking from Mount Nighon through all the tunnels until you reach Dwarf City.

And I have some bad news for you: the Breeding Zone regenerates all the monsters when you leave. Loot doesn't auto-regen like that, but all of the behemoths and stuff are back.

And +1 for several of the most recent comments; I got several smiles out of them.

I think Tatalia and Evenmorn Island are other isolated areas that require setting Lloyd's Beacon to return. But I now see how you can town portal to the Pit, and return to Deyja Moors that way (similar to Mount Nighon and Stone City). For me, it's worth 5 food & 5 days to reach those areas and setup Beacons for them.

A Fly spell + Invisibility = how you do the Golem parts quests. No need to kill a single Water Elemental.

Stig79 - Sounds like you +1 macAilpin's idea (post from May 10th).

I've finished MM7! All told, the Pit was the hardest part of the game for me. I went from level 16 earlier in this thread, to now level 71-72 completing it. I was really surprised how fast the later levels arrive - I typically gained 3-5 levels every visit to training. Hope this thread helps others who get stuck.

I've always found the Pit to be pretty brutal to clear (mostly because of masses of Shrapnel and Pain Reflection), but I've probably not been using my spells to full effect. I found Celeste to be MUCH easier to slaughter my way through when I'm dark side.

Congratulations!

I can't find the quest vase, I entered the 2 side rooms, fought the guards, but can't see a vase any where. I found the secret room easy enough. I went back to the arbiters place in Harmondale in case I had already taken it, but it keeps saying "you never had it".

Some other problems I have encountered are finding the quest to make spy? My thief needs this for grandmaster leather an grandmaster dagger
The realm of Eomolo[or however it is spelt] I have accessed it in tunnel only, is there a realm outside of this part of the tunnels somewhere?

One of the most useful spells my cleric has is Regeneration, makes giving big things a pounding a hell of a lot easier.

Oh I got eradicated, well 3 of me did, trying to get that control cube, I healed at the pit temple and these 3 are now zombies, healing at other temples doesn't work as it doesn't recognise you have a problem

Also I can never get my thief to steal, I have the master level, no option is ever offered, if I right click I just get the ID monster screen with health and spells etc?

Get the vase quest from Bill Lasker in the Erathian Sewers; this is the promotion quest from Thief to Rogue. The vase is on the mantle above the fireplace in Markham's Manor in Tatalia. Remember to deliver Parson's Letter and get the Quill from Markham before opening the side doors in the first room of Markham's Manor.

If you go Dark Side, you can't get the Spy quest. Once you commit to the Light Side, talk to Bill Lasker again after you've become a Rogue and he'll give you the quest to become a Spy.

The Tunnel to Eofol leads to the Land of the Giants. Once you access LotG, there is a small shrine that serves as a portal to Harmondale; once you access this shrine from the LotG side, the Harmondale shrine becomes active and will teleport you back.

The temples in the Pit and in Deyja will bring dead characters back as Zombies. I don't remember how to fix this condition short of killing them again (or something similar) and using a different temple. I'm surprised temples in other regions won't cure the Zombie status. If you need to kill a particular character, you can have everyone you want to survive drink a water breathing potion and then go stand in a lake until the victims finish drowning.

To steal, first make sure your character with the highest Stealing skill is active (don't forget to account for the expert/master/GM bonus). Then hold down the Control key and left click on who you want to steal from or what you want to steal (in a shop). Anything you steal can't be sold, so don't bother stealing things you won't use. Honestly, this skill is a waste of skill points; the two times it could be used to help complete a quest, there are more expedient ways to get the item you need (like just killing the item holder).