Dunes of Despair Map Explore

I completed exploration of Dunes of Despair map last night; I'm up to 99.5% of having the Tyria map explored.

I found the writing to be unclear from guildwiki and decided to do my own write-up for others trying to explore the Dune of Despair and post a map of it.

One of the biggest problem is the timer on this mission that prevents you from exploring the Dunes of Despair in one session. The key is to prevent the start of the timer. Another issue I had was the entrance to access the lower right region of the map (point D). On many previous attempts I thought the access to this lower right region is found somewhere in the tower at point C.

First off, I did this map with henchmen (bring casters who can deal range damages). My warrior/necro had the Necrotic Traversal skill so I can teleport to the corpse. I had the two running skills (Sprint and Charge) for continuous running.

At this point open the attached map and follow the instructions below.

1) Use long bow to target the skeleton warrior or boss at point A. Use Necrotic Traversal once you killed the skeleton warrior or boss at point A.

2) Run through the drawbridge at point B. The drawbridge appears to be up but it's a mirage.

3) Run along point F to expose this region.

4) Explore point G and point E. I had these areas explored on a previous trip.

5) At point C is another mirage with the drawbridge up: run through it to explore the tower.

6) Point D entrance is mark by large rib bones. You can run to your heart's content once you get into this area.

Should you have any questions feel free to make a post.

Just like to point out two things:

1. This is totally dependent on the spawns on the outside of the south of the fort. The Skeleton group is not a guaranteed spawn...I tried this many times, and only ever saw his group once. 9 times out of 10, you won't get the spawn you need to use Necrotic Transversal. I tried it this way and just gave up and went with #2.

2. Opt to fight the mission with hench. They always follow your target calls. If you do it right, and bring a correct skill set (if you're a warrior, for God's sake bring Wild Blow), you can finish the fight when the hero is clamiming the throne with around 6 minutes left...6 minutes of Charge/Sprint should be MORE than enough to finish mapping.

I believe this very topic has been covered extensively in our mapping thread. Nice work on the guide though.

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Very nice I'm gonna try this right away. I hope my henchies can kill that boss before he runs back to the drawbridge.
The hardest part here is to actually get the boss to come closer so you can reach him with attacks.
Can you tell me your entire skill settings / attribs and your selection of henchies please? (sprint/charge/necrotic/...) and some tips on how to survive the enemy mobs (don't they have crippling shot?)

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What I did was get a team of explorers and tell them we'll do this mission twice. I was bonding the hero the first time around and my ele friend was helping me out. On the second go the others protected while me and my friend explored. The best thing about it was no one left after the first try.

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You really need to cap Charge! I've managed to run about 30% of the map with Charge and Sprint. Those are timesavers.

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I'm confused - So I let the ghost cap the alter and then go explore? Or do I somehow prevent him from capping at all?

If the later, how do you prevent him from capping?

if you talk to the ghost, he toggles between following or parking, just like in HA. Just park him on the bridge which enters the fort.
For my mapping of the bonus area (R/N) I loaded the mission about 12teen hundred times and never once saw this skeleton boss... I used a popped up scarab just outside the south gate, ranged *fast* damage - I brought vamp gaze and dark pact, and traversal. Full henchy party with no warriors and only the heal monk. The scarab ALSO doesn't spawn every time, but roughly 1/3.... which based on my numbers is infinitely more likely than the skeleton boss.
I then proceeded to touch kill every single opponent within the bonus area and mapped as I went. easy. took about an hour and a half... during which I got 4 golds and a key which yielded a gold as well.

I uncovered it during the NF preview event. You could put a flag by the king and the henchmen will guard that area instead of following you. If they get attacked, they will defend themselves and attack the monsters. So I left those 7 defending the ghost while I uncovered everything I needed to with a running build.

You can't do this any more, but maybe when Nightfall comes out you can again.

To the OP: Nice Guide! Although I wish I had thought of that flag trick with the hench also - twas an inspired idea Carth!

I just explored that area, as well as getting the bonus on it. We got a human team together who were all up for the bonus only and, as it turns out, exploration also. I managed to persuade my brother to come along with his Mo/N to do the usual trick for us...which luckily worked second time for us! As an ele though, I cannot run much, thus I had to use dual attunements and Aura of Restoration and spam air skills to pound the crap out of all the scarabs which popped up at various points...they are such a nuisance.

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Will they survive the entire time?

Well, when I did it Little Thom died, but he got resed. Apart from that they all survived, and more importantly, Ghosty survived.

I'm trying to map the backside of the Dunes mission area to get my GMC. Has anyone been successful w/ the NT/rebirth approach to this area using just henchies and heroes? I've tried too many times to admit, and I can't get a good spawn.

When I did it some time ago w/ a human driven necro for the bonus, he wasn't able to traverse into the enchanted Custodian so we restarted. We got the monk the next spawn (not an enchanted), and he was able to traverse into him.

Olias wouldn't traverse either into the one enchanted custodian who moved close enough to kill on one of my many tries. But from the posts I've read above, it sounds like others here have been able to traverse into them? Yes? No? I'm so confused.

EDIT: Just answered my own question. I went in and picked up another mapper and kicked one of the henchies. Having another live one on the team made all the difference in the world. The spawns were good and lively and included several scarabs.