Help on Tyrian Survivor?

I have my mind set on reaching the third tier of the survivor line. I've read the how-to thread here, the article on guildwiki, and a few others. They're beneficial with regard to basic information, but I'm hoping for a little more.

For instance, is there an advantage in skipping certain parts of the game, either through hiring a runner or just ignoring side quests? I'm currently on my sixth serious attempt at this title, and each time I take a very deliberate and meticulous approach, completing every last quest and mission bonus. I've probably spent between 100 and 120 hours on this pursuit, yet the farthest I have reached successfully is the Maguuma jungle.

I realize that farming the desert or mountains presents a host of dangers in itself, but so far I can't even get that far without screwing up. Is there an obvious shortcut I somehow missed?

edit: I'm trying to do this as a Mo/Me. Also, I thought about the hero thing...I'm sure it would be a great help, but I don't know how to reach Elona without leeching in a pug. I really doubt the LA henchmen can survive that quest. Concerning trouble spots: two of my deaths were due to poor pug aggro; the others were my own fault. Each time, there was a party wipe I couldn't quite escape/recover from.

Get run to LA, then get max armor. I earned my survivor before heros, but I am sure they help a lot, so don't be cheap on leveling them up and buying quality gear for them. Other than that just play carefully and cap a crapload of elites

What class are you and what specifically are you having trouble with?

I was able to get my Paragon to level 3 survivor by being careful. I did every possible quest on Istan, capped every possible skill there, then went to LA and Cantha and did the easier quests, skill caps and missions in those areas before going through with Consolate Docks. Capping Olias is a great help going forward with Kourna and other areas, so do his quest as early as possible. Then I did all the quests and skill caps in Kourna, and the early parts of Vabbi. I made survivor 3 on a skill cap in Vehjin Mines, at about 110 hours played. 95% of the time I did this with just hench and heroes, but if you have guildies or pugs to help, it might go easier. And I went up to but did not do Vizunah Square, which can cause you to lose survivor in the end cut scene.

As others said, get to LA, get heroes and armor. Then go back to Tyria, fight your way to Sanctum Kay and get to the desert. Make sure you ascend in Tyria because of the 50k xp. After that get to Cantha to do all the quests, they give the most xp.

One last tip: get as much health as possible. Not because this will save you from that one blow but beacuse they will target you less often. I have 590 health on my survivor Mesmer and foes just walk past me to get to Olias or Tahlkora.

If you're starting out in Tyria, there's not much reason to skip most of the game. You would want to be close to lvl 20 before you kill your doppleganger since its regular attacks HURT if you don't have the armor or the lvl. Also, having a lvl 20 friend help you along would also considerably boost your chance of survival.

Getting runs for missions in Tyria is generally a good idea, although running between towns is a waste of money in this case. You'd get to the doppleganger faster, but you'd also be ~lvl 10 and killing it at that lvl takes a bit of experimentation (and a few deaths) so I wouldn't suggest trying it.

Heroes would also help you a lot. If you're having trouble getting to Elona, I'd suggest trying the mini-mission in KCenter rather than Lion's Arch. Yes, there are a lot more enemies to fight, but you get a party of 8 lvl 20s as opposed to 6 lvl 10s. You can just flag the henches and stay out of the way. Or, if you can actually manage to catch me when I'm playing, send me a pm and I'll be happy to help.

I'm still working on this title for my Dervish and I found that the best place to get exp after lvl 20 is in Cantha. In Cantha there are so many quests that only involve you walking for about 3min to get an item/talk to somebody and the reward is ~4k exp. Just be careful not to die in the required missions/quests along the way.

Also, if you manage to get past Gyala Hatchery in Cantha, there's a nice bug that allows you to get free exp with extremely little effort. Just exit Leviathan Pits into Gyala Hatchery explorable (only yourself, don't bring a party) and sit outside where the mission ended. There are some allied Luxons that fight a couple mobs of outcasts and every time the Luxons kill something, you'll get ~136 exp before exp scroll bonuses. You don't even need to be that close to them, just sit behind their healers. However, make sure not to leave the gate, the allied group outside usually looses their fight I think. (Just a note, I haven't actually tried this trick on my survivor character, I just noticed it when I was going running in Gyala for some quest completion on another char.)

Hmm I'm busy with my monk shes currently level 2... no help of heros, just the 'old' fashion way with going with a lot of guild/friend trips. Everybody around me knows about my monkie and willing to to anywhere/anytime as long as I have the time to bring my beloved scrolls.

I've been there almost once, till Anet gave me an huge lagspike and when I got to a normal screen again I was dead at level 2 nearly fixed had like 300k to go. Sucks, but I started over hopefully I will make it now.

Tips on how to get there... well: max armor, try farming the easy things. Mostly I go do stuff with just heros if I'm not busy helping people. Also the 5k a cap signet is a big help and you will get skill hunter title easy Just don't forget to bring scrolls if you go outside a lvl 20+ area.

If you are very very very very bored... you could ask a guildie to scrimish with you and you just wand him to death... inc. his party... but this is sorta cheating and would take ages... ^-^

My Tyrian monk (she was a Mo/Me like you ^_^) is currently working on Survivor level 2, I hope these tips will help you :

~ Level up as much as you can in presearing.
~ Once you leave, get a run to LA.
~ Go to Kaineng or Kamadan (get a ferry to docks) for max armour. Get heroes from Kamadan.
~ Work on Kaineng quests (get a guildie to help you), then go back to Prophecies, do some missions and such.
~ Once you get to Sanctum Cay, beat desert. Get ascended there rather than Nahpui or Hunted, the XP bonus is much greater.
~ Find guildies/friends to be your "escorts". I have a few guildies that will come help me if they can whenever I'm working on Roar Roar.

That's how I did it, I hope that was helpful to you. Good luck!

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Thanks to everyone who offered help; the current attempt is proving more successful than any of the previous ones. I was escorted over to Elona by some guildmates, and afterwards my heroes and I leveled up to 20 doing the quests around Kaineng Center. I'm presently at about 250k xp in Bloodstone Fen.