Hard Mode: Tips and Tricks

Is there any way to actually beat D'alessio Seaboard?

No matter what I run with a team of other humans we always fail.We take a Earth Ele with Wards of Elements/Stability/melee to deal with the Eruptions at Dorian and yet,its still not enough.Two monks with the Ele,not enough.It just seems that no matter what build is brought there,it ends in failure at Dorian.

is it from a team whipe or from dorian dying? (even though you hafta kill the worthless bastard eventually yourself)if its from dorian have one of the monks go bonder. and stay somewhere out of aggro range of anything....even though in hard mode they tend to find you anyways. it should make him live substantially longer unless theres enchant rippers now. in which case have said bonder bring spellbreaker o_o

Hordes of Undead... brought a smiter?

Solution: Take humans. My group passed the shiverpeaks missions with ease thanks to hefty doses of blinding and interrupts. Don't expect to clear the whole mob in a few seconds while they pointlessly hammer on your warrior.

Best Tip: Do it with humans.

well only problem with doing it with humans is other than the usual human incompetence which all of us posses (whether its our own fault or not) and obligations in the real world. myself like quite a few others have work and whatnot that usually keep us out all day and so typical play time is at night when everyone is either in bed or heading towards it. so generally speaking its a matter of finding a hero/henchie combo that works for the area. obviously an ss or SV necro would single handedly rape half the baddies in all the areas in anyways...along with an unsteady ground warder and good monks you should "in theory" have very little to no problems. in the 4 man areas take 1 heal monk and equip as many of your allies as possible with self heal (and no this does not mean triple echo mend frenzy infuse tanks). once you hit 6 man leave everyone with self heal but bring in another monk and one more dps or support (like rits, paragons, etc). once you hit 8 man take 3 monks 1 ss necro 1 unsteady warder 2 tanks and 1 other (probably a damn good interrupter since everything casts 33-50% faster or a minion master to help tank). but this is all in theory....hard mode has only been out a few days and ive only done a few missions and vanquished an area or two (thanks work >_<)

For the 4-person party areas, I found the following hero sets worked well.

Warrior character:
-- Dunkoro - set for healing with proper staff or wand/focus set
-- Talkhora - set for protection with proper staff or wand/focus set
-- Olias - set as SS without Arcane Echo; he doesn't use it sensibly

Mesmer character:
-- Dunkoro - set for healing with proper staff or wand/focus set
-- Talkhora - set for protection with proper staff or wand/focus set
-- Koss - buffed with appropriate runes and insignia; top-line weapon set

I found that an MM is too much trouble as monks spend too much energy healing his minions. When I changed Olias' skillbar, I kept it open and watched his skill usage. He does very well as an SS, but if given an echo skill, does require manual use of the skill to be echoed.

My mesmer's Koss, I discovered, was still using his starter weapon/shield as after getting him to level 20, I never used him. I spent the time/money needed to buff his armor and attributes, and found him a good weapon and shield in my storage. So remember to check seldom-used heroes for needed upgrades.

Also, as after all party members are carrying 60DP, you will be sent back to outpost instead of rez shrine at the next party death, bring a couple of DP removal items to use if you are almost done with area. No one likes to be just a few kills away from success and have to start over.

I don't disagree with you. I got a guild that hardly ever does hard mode...lol. But still if you can build a guild or alliance team for hard mode, heroes can't match it.

Nice guide, I posted something similar on my alliance's forums. I agree with the melee minions point, they do a wonderful job at keeping aggro away from the caster block, especially if you're teaming with over-eager nukers (or in my case mesmers :P).

My tip for running lower level areas with only 4 in the party is "Animal Wall".

Whatever toon I'm running, I take a pet. I've given my other heroes pets too, and have only one hero (a ranger) carry Revive Animal, so that 3 of us can have a slot free from Comfort Animal.

I'm still learning the aggro and maintaining a wall, but being able to guide the hero pets is quite a help too. I try to pull no more than three monsters at a time, watching party movement patterns.

Don't be afraid to tweak your build for each area you're going into. Someone mentioned it before, but think carefully about what monsters you're about to face. Aggroing Paragons and melee? "Shields Up!" Heading in towards some Ibogas? Have a monk hero carry "Spellbreaker" (that "click click click" when tanking in is lovely!)

Use passive defense. Heroes are too stupid to use active defense.
If you are too choose between activated defense and passive, always choose passive.

I use wards(earth hench) and shouts (p/w) that is usually enough.

my 4 party sized places party build:

RAnger with BA + RtW + Needling Shot + Savage + two blocking stances
Ranger with BHA + RtW + Needling Shot + Savage + Blocking stances + FW
MM with bone fiend + shambling horror + Flesh Golem + Signet of Lost Souls+ Blood of the Master + Rez Signet(yes... only 6 skills...)
Tahlkora with Healing Burst or Light (one of these) and some more healing and condition remover and hex remover...

with this i vanquished two istan places and did Great Northern Wall(first mission of Ascalon)...

i haven't had the opportunity to try more difficult places due to my work...

i don't know how some people are having that kind of trouble fighting in hard mode... currently hard mode is the same as Desolation and Ring of Fire with faster casting foes... nothing more... they are not boosted in terms of power... just in terms of speed and of course the levels...

My tip:
Bane mods.
Where most people probably treated them as vendor trash before Hard Mode, you should now be hoarding each and every one.
+20% damage makes one HELL of a difference.

Example: Mesmer Boss and a Monk: Boss keeps stealing energy. If I try to kill him the monk will be healing him, if I try to kill the monk, the Boss will take our energy away.

Another: Party at 30dp and a Elem Boss with Invoking Lightning wipes half my party on the first skill and the other half 1 sec later with the same skill.

This is madness, and please don't tell me to bring this or that because I'm not taking skills just for one boss.

The biggest change I've made to my style of playing is: I simply started thinking.

I played through 3 campaigns with 9 characters pretty much pressing "c" and the "spacebar" (this is in Normal mode). I've actually started planning attacks better.. luring and kiting like crazy (when playing as a caster). Rushing is a big no-no imo. Obviously you need to actually think about your and your team members builds, and know what you're up against. Otherwise it'll just end in tears.

So you refuse to adapt and you blame Anet for your stubbornness and stupidity? lol, classic. Ever thought to try bringing an anti-caster mesmer, locking him onto one boss, shutting it down... then killing the other? Or how about dazing the bosses, they're all casters that're wiping you. Hey, stay with your build, you're obviously fine with continuing to fail from not being willing to change anything, it gives you something to complain about. <_<

Also, for the guy who suggested bane mods... My war with 16 axe does around 5-15 damage without skills to Charr warriors in Hard Mode. +20% damage would be less than vampiric would add, and vamp works on all types of monster. I don't want to have to run off and buy a new damage mod that'll be outperformed by vamp every time I enter a new area with new types of creature. u.u

Funny, becase my problem was...I thought too hard. For example: I thought bringing an MM would totally gimp me...Quite the opposite.

This is haaaaaaardd mooooddeee!!

Had to be done, sorry.
*cough*

/seriousmode

Ok:
You should've had a prot monk pre-casting prot spirit on your party to negate the spike dmg that you knew you were up against. I mean cmon...ele boss = spike! Basics!

I tried Consulate Docks on Hard Mode with my monk as a bonder, using two hero healers and the rest hench/hero. Mission was easy up to the ele boss in the middle, who with one Meteor destroyed six of eight members of the party despite all of them being bonded; essentially meaning it did enough damage to kill them twice over. Only Dunkoro and I survived, because I had additional protections on me and wasn't in range and Dunkoro because he had 630 health. It certainly showed the power of ele bosses in HM.

Some nice tips listed guys. One I would say is to use flags effectively, just like in normal mode, if you're using heroes and henchmen. Use flags to make heroes kite or run if they don't automatically, use them for tactical positioning to spread out to avoid AoE damage. My most recent use of them was to dump to Meteor Showers on a group of 14 or so Kournans in Gandara (11 were casters or archers) by flagging Zhed and Sousuke just out of range and protting them. They'd wiped us three times before that without us getting a kill (embarrassing...) but all 11 died then. The guards were then easy.

I haven't used particularly special builds so far, just been cautious and took things slow and carefully. Haven't managed to fail any so far, though two areas have been close.

Prot Spirit for 8 people? Oy!