Stuck at Elona Reach

My first time through Elona with henchies took me 20+ tries. Finally took it by leaving the aggro grabbing tanks back at the outpost. I've done it many times since with henchies, usually in one try. I'll have to admit though, that first time through, I was damn near ready to give it up.

Admittedly i got a run several weeks ago because i couldn't find a decent group. I just wanted to get past it in the end and i paid far too much attention to the first line on the wiki page for this mission. The one which says something like "this is one of the hardest missions in the game".

Yesterday i was tying up a few loose ends to aim for my protector of tyria title and wanted to do the bonus. It was late and there were very few people about so i decided to try and hench it, following the advice on the wiki page. It was one of the EASIEST missions i have done to date. I only did the bonus but i would have had no trouble at all doing the mission aswell.

My advice would be to look at the mission map on wiki, and follow where it leads you. Avoid all bosses (except the ones guarding the crystals) and only take on one group at a time (you can take two but it's harder). Target the sages first, and drop the crystal when you need to fight, you can pick it up after you've killed the group. Make sure you have your on screen mission map open as it makes navigating a whole lot easier. Also, taking a splinter mine can help some in the fights. Just pick it up, wait for the bleeding to wear off, aggro a group, drop it on em.

I did it with and air ele btw.

Yeesh. What class are you? I ask that because depending on what class you are can change how difficult that mission is with henchies.

Honestly, I've never had problems with that mission. In fact, I actually like that one over the other two ascension mishes. With a warrior, it's pie. With an Ele, Necro, or Ranger, it's not too bad, a little tougher. With a Monk or Mesmer, it can be pretty tough. This is with henchies, mind you.

Really, it gives you plenty of time to finish it, just don't watch the timer or else you might get nervous. I've done this mission so many times just to get skill caps with different characters, and each time I lolly-gag around, trying out different techniques with the Splinter Mines, and just really taking my time. Even still, after all that, I can finish the mission with about 10 minutes on the clock.

I'm still having problems henching Thirsty River (though I can do it, just damn hard), Abaddon's Mouth, Sunjiang District, and Raisu Palace. All the rest of the missions can be -easily- henched. Of course, others will tell you different, and this is only my opinion.

If you're stuck at Elona Reach you will never beat Thirsty River I fear.

And if you're leaving 'cause you cannot win a mission, sorry to say, no big deal, you're not gonna win next ones too anyway.

Elona Reach is the first Prophecies mission where you need to put your brain to good use, you need to understand when to fight, when to run and when to retreat.

The only way to make this mission hard is PUGs who overaggro to rush the clock, but henches and half-competent players are not going to do it, so keep trying and take it easy, Elona Reach is one of the funniest missions in the game!

Out of the 3 city missions in the Desert, I rank the easiest to the hardest as:
Dunes Of Dispair, Elona's Reach and then Thirsty River.

First Crystal, drop it and kill the minotaurs before the bridge and under the bridge (pull them away from the bridge). Then kill the monsters guarding the bridge. Take Crystal across the bridge and kill the minotaurs and the guardian creature before talking to he ghost. There you've given the 1st crystal with no deaths.

Now any class with henchies can do this. All you need to do is get some running skills (and maybe some defense skills too).

Fight your way to the 2nd crystal (the one on your left). If you can't win in the fighting (because the henchies over aggroed), run to the crystal. Pick it up and continue to run until you are at the farthest point where there are no monsters (along the wall). When the monsters are no where near the bridge, run through the two bosses and run on the bridge. Keep running until you get back to the ghost. Now its time to go for the last crystal.

Assuming you have no henchies left, run straight through to your right, pick up the crystal and run all the way back. Forget about fighting, just run.

Pick your opportunities on your runs, that is key.

Run around monsters if possible.

And you are done.

The only way you could be screwed is if you were a Mo/N, maybe N/Mo (as this is the only combination that has 0 running abilities.

I did that mission and bonus on my necro fairly easily. Didn't run it at all and I wasn't set up as an MM either. I actually only went in to cap Order of the Vampire but of course it ended up being the last spawn point.

Like others are saying, don't worry about the timer. Just watch their movements and only fight when you have to. If you have to do it just a couple more times to figure them out, it's alright. If it is any consolation everyone always has a hard time with the desert missions on their first character.

After taking about 20 tries to complete Thirsty River with henchies (**phew** so glad that's done!) I finished Elona Reach on my second try thanks to all the good advice I read on this forum!

I carefully selected, pulled, and fought to both crystals, and deposited Crystal #2 at the "fork in the road" where I could retrive it later. Once I had my hands on that Crystal #3 - I just ran my butt back to the GH. The only Forgotten that give chase are the Swords - the rest won't follow far. Your henchies will take the whacks from the Swords while you run both crystals back to the Hero.

I'm going to regret this, but my IGN is my forum name, I used to run this mission/bonus for money, I'll do it free now if I ain't doing anything I'm sure I can still manage it with my ranger.