I can't beat Apocrypha

I'm new to Guild Wars, and I can't tell if I just suck at the game, or if I'm trying to do something that is just too hard.

I've tried to complete the second mission several times, but I can't beat the last boss. I can roll through the part up to the boss without even really paying attention, but apocrypha usually takes me out without much of a fight.

I'm playing a Dervish/Monk. After a bad wipe at level 10, I decided to just level up to 12 and try again. I'm taking the three heroes I have with me: Koss, Meloni, and Dunkoro. I tried last night, with all four of us at level 12, and I got Apocrypha down to about 1/3 health before we all died. It might have worked out, but Melonni died in the first 10 seconds or so, so she didn't really contribute at all.

So anyway, I have some questions:

1. Is this something that i should be able to do at level 12 with just three heroes?

2. If I team up with another player, can we each bring three heroes/henchman for a total of 8 people? I think that would trivialize the encounter

3. Are there any skills I should try to bring along? I saw a couple of guides for this battle, but they always suggest using skills that are only available in other campaigns. I only have Nightfall, and obviously I don't have any skills that are only available after mission 2.

4. Should I try some different tactics? I'm using Koss to tank, and just basically trying to kill him quickly.

Thanks for any information.

Well, if you're new to Guild Wars like you said, you most likely don't got any good elites for builds to make your heros use.

So, that being the case, your best option would be to get a friend help you, a guildie to help (if you're in one), or just going with a full group.

Or, you could level up a few more levels, then try again

I hope I helped

Next time you're on, have a look and see if I'm online (just add me to your friends list) and I'll give you a hand

In Game Name: Jedi Mage Lousana

Have your heroes bring resurrection signet. If you get to the apocrypha with those charged should one of your heroes die it'll be up and fighting quickly again. May not seem like much but it helps a lot. Also visit the hero skill trainers in Kamadan and in the Sunspear Great Hall if you haven't done so already you'll be able to pick up a few useful skills.

Cool, thanks for the tips. I'm going to try it again tonight, and I'll see if I can find some help too.

I'd advise something other than Koss. Since you have to bring Melonni you already have 1 person standing next to the Apocrypha.

I made that mistake on my Dervish... 3 melee, the Apocrypha just wiped the floor with us.

if you get stuck pm me i can help you

IGN: Mrs Morbid

Euro server

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On evry day as from 18:00hrs

I tried again last night with just me and my heroes, and this time I didn't have any problems. I added the res signets, but I didn't even have to use them, which was nice.

I made one other change that I think really helped. Dunkoro has mesmer as his secondary, and I had a skill that cost 10 energy and caused health degeneration. His skill level is so low, though, that the hex only lasts for 2 seconds. I noticed he was spamming it at the beginning of every fight, so I disabled it before the boss. Suddenly, my healer had enough energy to heal, and the whole thing went a lot smoother.

Lesson learned: don't add skills to the AI bar unless you actually want them to be cast.

Glad to hear you beat Jokonur Diggings

A few other ideas for future missions:

1. Equip resurrect skills to all Heroes.

2. Don't have Dunkoro bringing a hex spell that causes 2 seconds of Degen, bring another spell that is typical for a Monk build - for instance, I use a monk build that one of our guildies who typically plays monk uses, it is also a Mo/Me and the mesmer oriented skills the build calls for are energy management/hex removal skills. Thus, staying with the heal/protection/condition-hex removal genre of skills to heal, buff, and remove conditions & hexs.

3. Don't bring too many of one style of party member - ie: all tanks, no casters, all casters, no tanks, etc. In PvP this is different, but in the PvE environment, the tank tries to hold all aggro while the casters (elementalists, necromancers, mesmers, etc) inflict the bulk of the damage. A few simple AoE spells such as Flame Burst, Inferno, Star Burst (elite), etc can wipe out a bunch of melee fighters that are attacking the mage (assuming uninterrupted) casting these spells.

4. Start capping elite skills - elites capped by any character on the account are usable by any Hero on the account. My Koss on my Paragon had Hundred Blades at LvL2 (or whatever he was when we walked into that first Mission town at the beginning of Nightfall). This may be the same for skills your other characters may have unlocked (via Quest - Prophecies campaign or purchasing at a skill trainer). I can't be 100% certain since my Warrior had bought the bulk of Prophecies skills back before titles came out since my goal had been capping all elites and buying all skills... then of course ArenaNet made the titles and I had wasted oodles of skillpoints and had to go farm more XP

5. GuildWiki.org has a Campaign rundown for each of the campaign storylines, explaining the Missions and Primary Quests in the order they come, check there for possible strategies on beating certain missions. Not all of the missions go greatly indepth with strategy, mainly based on the difficulty of the mission, while other missions strategies contain actual team builds with skill bar recommendations with explainations (ie: final mission of NF campaign) - Do not read ahead in Wiki if you want to avoid spoilers.

-MF

Another tip for survival: I have noticed that it is overall better to make your monk heroes COMPLETELY AVOID combat. This way they tend to stay outside the aggro area and not take damage themselves.
It helps to flag the monk hero behind as well.
Also if you see your monk hero being chased by monsters or attacked thereby, help it, because so long as they are running to stay alive they don't heal that well.

also anouther tip for later on in game the Apocrypha has some moves that do large amount of damge in one go because of powerful moves so try and have some unteruping skills so u can stop thiose moves before they are cast

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An interrupting skill will say something like "Interrupt target foe" in the description. Skills such as power spike, power leak for mesmers, savage shot, distracting shot for rangers and disrupting chop, savage slash, and distracting blow for warriors will all interrupt. Since the AI is MUCH better at interrupting skills than the average player is, just give them to your heroes and they will interrupt skills when necessary

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