Are All Primary Missions Mandatory to Finish Prophecies?

Specifically, I would like to skip the timed action sequence of Aurora Glade's crystal-setting race? Can I do this and somehow still go on to Riverside Province? If I HAVE to do the race to go on in Prophicies do the hints in the GuildWiki walkthrough work well enough once I replay this damn mission enough times to get through or are there better suggestions? And can I do it with just henchies?

I remember the Pre-Searing quest where I had to join with at least one other live person to get a gate opened up. I was running after the guy the whole time and didn't really have to do anything. Are there people or groups willing to do that in this case too and what is the "price" if any?

I'm very disappointed in this turn of events. Will timed action sequences only get worse and more frequent in the rest of Proph, and in Factions, and in Nightfall or is this--unbelievably--the only one? I doubt I will play much further if there isn't any way around this type of action for me. Sorry, but this is where I draw the line with all adventures, action, and rpg genres--I hate timed action sequences and I'd rather spend hours getting around them then the frustration of playing hours and hours over and over and over and over again trying to get through them.

Much thanks for the advice/help.

i'll bet if you shop around and get some experienced ppl to do the mission with you, you'd enjoy doing it. I too spent several attempts doing it with henchies to no avail...it's just meant to be cooperative. i've done all missions with henchies until this one..i hope it's not a continual thing because i hate other players..most of the time. they dont listen, they have zero coordination or teamwork, they freeload, go afk, kill things that shouldn't be killed...ok, i'm over it.

Actually, to beat prophecies, you only need to do 4 missions. You can be run to Thunderhead Keep (Mission #21), then do the primary quest, then Ring of Fire(Mission #22), then Abbadon's Mouth(Mission #23), then Hell's Precipice(Mission #24). Keep in mind you will probably be ~lvl 6-8 when you leave pre-searing and you have no hope in these missions.

Btw, most people who play through Prophecies multiple times skip the jungle altogether. They just get run down to Riverside Province after completing Divinity Coast.

IMO, everything before the last 3 missions are easily henched, but this mission is a bit tricky. Just remember to kill the runner then let the rest run away. Hold the shrine closest to the druid and one on the sides, until all the runners are dead and you can get the other with no fuss.

Good news for you Ratsneve;
In proph you are only required to do a few missions to gain access to the other areas and this isn't one of them

If you are really hating this mission you can simply go explore the jungle and find Henge of Denravi to pick up the story line again.(you can also PM me in game and I'd be happy to help you with the mission)
Either way don't give up on the game yet this is one of the few missions that are like this.

Explore the jungle! I forgot all about exploring the jungle! But knowing that I will try a few more times with some of the other help getting through this particular timed-action-sequence of events.

Thank you all so much for renewing my interest in GW.

Knowing that I can continue the game by exploring out the jungle from Aurora Glade means I will try this mission a few more times before I give up on it. I once planned to map everything out even before I understood there was a Title for doing that. I don't have a long enough lifetime for that and there are other games to play. Last night I tried over six times to finish a very long Bonus but kept doing something stupid and loosing a battle. Sooo...now I don't care about finishing missions to include their Bonus. I did a lot of searching and reading through GuildWiki and never found any mention that missions could be skipped all together and up to now I haven't skipped but one Bonus. At level 19 all ready with henchies only I thought I was really doing well but had hit a show-stopper.

Thanks.

There are some areas with "prerequisites" besides those mentioned:

To get to the desert you must complete Sanctum Cay mission.

To Ascend you have to complete the 3 desert missions.

To get to Dragon's Lair and thus Tombs you have to Ascend.

To access the realms of the gods (underworld and fissure of woe) you must be "ascended" in any of the chapters.

While GW is good as a single player game it is much better when you play with others. PUGs can be frustrating but guild groups can be a blast. I really suggest finding a good guild home.

ANet appears to have a tendency to throw wrenches in some trends like solo play. Here's what I mean:

Heroes introduced in Nightfall...but you can only have 3 Heroes in your party...this appears to be a somewhat arbitrary limitation but it's simply ANet's way of putting a cap on a solo player trend.

Mission Roadblocks that require human players are placed in the game as kind of speed bumps for the soloist.

The 2 things listed above are enough to throw a wet blanket on what could otherwise become a solo game. It's the classic "walking of a fine line"...

Solo trends hurt the game because it begs the question (silly as it seems), why play online at all? So, as an afterthought, ANet throws in some half measures to frustrate the soloist trend...but only up to a point.

Personally, I rarely group with other players, I often grouped when I played WoW and DAoC but for some reason in Guild Wars, it seems harder for that social connection to happen. Maybe it's just me, I don't know. But, I suspect that the solo trend makes it even more likely that people will not seek out other players to play the game with.

The game had already been criticized for seeming "empty of life" in some of its design aspects <linear story lines, travel limitations, instanced maps, etc.> and the solo trend makes it more so.

I think it's an example of fence riding within game design, ANet on one hand encourages the soloist and on the other hand frustrates the soloist.

It doesn't make for a pleasant game experience for either the soloist or the non-soloist.

I'd much rather see the developers bring back more a multi-player focus into the game. Unfortunately, at the moment I achieve more in the game solo than I ever have in a group of human players. That's not good.

If ANet had made GW multi-player _only_ I would never have considered it. I am playing and enjoying it for because I can play solo with henchmen. When that ends--I stop playing.

So far so good. Since I have reached L20 and just finished Bloodstone Fen, both prime and bonus; The Wilds, prime only--the bonus after 4 attempts or so and coming very close just gives me a headache; I'm ready to retry or abandon Aurora Glade for the last time--forget it! I just read through the walkthrough and my hench need way more AI then the've got.

I'm going for the jungle. I've done a pretty good job up to this point. I agree with your thoughts on developers like ANet. It's to bad one can't "designate" their PC solo only so you can't join any PvP activities period--if you want to you have to start another character from scratch. But your solo-only can just solo only through everything with henchies of course. So far develpers don't have enough AI to make that broad a game. And for that matter if you are solo single player only why not allow downloading everything to your machine so you can play offline and allow save and restore anywhere too? I'm not holding my breath on any of this.

At least I can proceed to the next stumbling block--wherever it may rear its ugly head. Thank you.

No, that will never happen. Guild Wars is designed from the ground up as an online game. Things such as Merchants rely on real time updating for current prices.

When I first purchased GW, I had never played a multiplayer game and was somewhat nervous of the whole idea. I was fortunate enough to be invited to a very friendly guild - I would heartily recommend you doing the same.

I did the vast majority of Prophecies with henchmen - if your skill level is high enough, there's no reason why you can't do the same. There are some tricky missions doing it this way - most missions from the desert onwards are a lot easier with human parties.

If you can justify the expense, consider buying Nightfall - the game itself is wonderful and you have the opportunity to aquire heros that you can use in all chapters. You would just need to take your existing character to Lion's Arch and do a couple of quick quests.

Oh, and off-topic - I see your character name is even more "role-play-y" when spelled backwards

A conspiracy of rats!

The crux of the issue I see:

By your very admission you ended up NOT playing with other human players and "did the vast majority of Prophecies with Henchmen".

In Guild Wars even with a close knit and friendly guild most people still end up playing with NPC's. When you compare this to other games (WoW/DAoC/Horizons/AO, etc.) there is much more player interaction.

The sole difference is the NPC Henchmen/Hero factor.

The question is:

Does this hurt the game? I feel that it does...because it eliminates/reduces a large part of why people play games: connecting with others/belonging.

It is true that people have a choice to play with NPC's over other players, but that plays into the other motivation of maximizing achievement and puts it at odds with the human interaction element.

connecting with others/belonging versus maximizing achievement

GW is a solo game since heroes were introduced.

I can't think of any storyline missions that would warrant human players (PUGs). All of Prophecies will be done faster and more reliably with heroes.

In Aurora Glade, I bring a MM + SF hero, then I put them at the choke points near right portal. They hold off and kill the mantle groups, while I run one single crystal to keep status quo. After all the mantle are killed, I go take care of the Demagogue, then finish the mission. Last time I tried, the PUG got wiped badly by just a single mantle group there. It contained, of course, a HH/mending warrior in full knights (droks of course) with FDS. Which was funny, until he ran into mantle necros. I wish this were a sad and overused joke, but it was harsh reality.

No PUG I have ever been in has been capable of doing what heroes do. With exception of one group, no PUG has ever been able to complete the bonus. And this is from the day GW launched. That says all.

Those that want to socialize are free to do so. But if you want to complete the mission, heroes are the fastest way possible (including guild groups). Counting from the time you say: "I'm going to do this mission" to the point where you get the bonus + mission completion, no other group of humans will be able to set up fast enough to beat that.

Sad reality of why GW is now truly merely a CRPG, with any hint of M or O being completely gone.

Ah, I didn't make that very clear: I did the vast majority of Prophecies with henchmen, THEN got invited into my current guild!

Guild membership for, as they say, the win

I've reached Riverside Province without much difficulty. Just read that you can only add up to 3 heroes in your party. Does this mean to get a party of six or eight you can still add 2 or 4 henchies? It is interesting what you can do with these heroes. Rather then introduce them now I will revisit the missions and baddies I am stumped by after I finish the chapters--on second thought no I won't.

BTW, although it says L20 and the green bar is filling out is it actually only 19.3--not 20.3?

Maybe ANet will do Chapter 4 as true MMO--no soloing, no henchies? I can go play something else until Chapter 5 comes out...

Yes you can use heros+henchmen together.

And yes, you are still leveling up after level 20. You gain a skill point for each "level up" after 20. But you never actually go any higher in level, skills, stats or anything. It's a virtual level up of sorts. It's all about the skill points.

Aurora glade is simple to hench if you know one thing - the order to do the crystals in. There is no need to use speed buff skills or anything else.

Once you hit the timed part - center left right left and done. Most of the time when you hit the right crystal mission ends, but sometimes the White Mantle have redone the left most crystal. Use your alt key, hit the shrines in that order (effectively closest to furthest crystal at the beginning, if they have re-capped one than that one afterwards). A very few times it has taken one more crystal. I have never needed more, but just keep at it if needed.

Bonus is quite a bit harder. With the new system, camp one crystal with the hench and you cap the others. Make sure the one your hench camps is always yours, the others just give you leeway.

I've never failed to complete mission doing what I said above with a party of hench. If you *really* can not do it, msg "Isis the red" in game and I will help if I can. I'm on at nights mostly, but you may find me. I do not do bonus, I'm not familiar enough with it to bother.

Riverside is do-able with henchies but you'll need some very careful aggroing... If you need a hand with it, pm me

Aurora Glade isn't one I find too tough to do...
It does help that I've got some fairly tough heroes now (especially Olias) and quite a few speed-boost skills. I bet shadow-stepping might even help there if the range isn't too long.

If you want any assistance with that mission... or the bonus.... just add me to your friends list in game and whisper me any time you see me online.
My IGN = Hyun Chae Soon

I'll typically be willing to help out with anything else I've already done too.... I like to actually be of use. Pre-planned mission-tackling is far more acceptable to me than dealing with PuGs (plus I feel more relaxed on familiar ground)...

No, he's just a loner in my guild, and he is lieing through his teeth, he does most stuff with the guild, FFS, he arranges all the PvE outings we do in the guild... he's lieing, ignore him!

Ok, the basic fact is that although its better to play with others, as a casual game, sometimes you just want tog et stuck in, do one or two missions then log off again and thats what Tony (Snograt) means as thats what he used to do

I understand what you are saying, I do the same thing...but all the time: log on and play with Henchies/Heroes. (Guild of one of my own making :/ )

Getting things done with Heroes/Henchies is easier than hooking up with active, amiable and decent players to accomplish things.

My feeling is that ANet has the made game a tad bit skewed toward soloing more than it should be...and I solo!

Now, what could be done to improve the "fun factor" of playing with other players?

I think the the major impediment in all 3 chapters is the fractured social scene of the game.

It splits people up and makes it difficult to "make friends". Good guilds can mitigate this but even close knit guilds face a certain dissolution in regards to a member base split between 3 chapters/missions/levels/instanced zones.

Thus:

connecting with others/belonging versus maximizing personal achievement

Social interaction loses out nearly every time...by default.