The Wilds in Hard Mode

I did mission and bonus with
Me as an LoD monk,
Talkora running a barrier interrupt monk (all signets and power drain),
an SS warder
and (dun dun dun) an MM! Don't worry so much about the scarabs; just bring gaze too

an MM is really helpful in the other parts of the mission where there are no scarabs and he keeps them busy casting Verata Gaze instead of other stuff (like damage your team types of stuff). Besides, with Talkora interrupting all over the place, gaze from the scarabs only actually works half the time.

Little Tom and Orion are okay, but I tend to use Durham because I like mesmers and degen hexes to round out a build...and Stefan is ugly so I never pick him

Talkora had power Drain, Leech Sig, Mantra of Inscriptions, Life Barrier, Blessed Sig, Rebirth and two other skills (usually more interrupts, sometimes Dismiss or a hex remover). Set to guard, she is as good an interrupter as Norgu, and all those shut down skills make for a lot of protection because if it doesn't cast, it never hurts you

I really like putting Dissmiss Condi on her bar when she runs a life barrier though. the AI hero tends to spam prot spells as if they were healing spells. With barrier enchanted all over your team, dismiss actually IS a healing spell as much as a condi removal. She can go crazy with it and it won't be a waste.

If you bring Dwayna's Sorrow you can avoid a lot of the pesky enchant strips that plague HM and strip your life barrier, or Aegis on a Prot build (they strip the top enchant first so if you preprot over barrier, they only get the first one ...usually...

It also boosts Dwayna's Kiss with Life Barrier and makes a really strong heal. I think the SS warder was running Ward mele and Stability; not sure though. MM was a jagged bones minion bomb build (if scarabs do steal one, its only a level 13 or 17 so big whoop!). Animate bone minions is best for that build because they can come up quick and cheap and die quick and fast. Then they boom and stuff dies.

I don't really recommend SFs for HM, tbh. My experience with them is that they are very powerful with three or more, but very weak alone or only 2. My ele runs SFs and breezes through, but that is 3 SFs in one team, and another fire ele hench too for burning stuff and the monks wanding for fire damage and a paragon built as a fire protector and...well, if you run an ele there you go But just one is not very powerful, imo. SS is much better in Tyria because it can be made anti-mele and then you can make an anti-caster or a interrupter like Talkora was to shut down casters.

But for soloing and monking through Hard Mode Tyria, I really really have liked using life barrier on a sort of "monk and a half" build. Its all the benefits of a two or three monk backline but it also gives you a mesmer part of the time too. The SS warder has been in almost all the missions i have done and an MM has been in most. Norgu comes in some of the time if there are hard monk bosses because backfire+SS is just nasty and SS+empathy is like 100 damage every time they attack you.

The best thing I can recommend for you Takeko Nakano is to take your time with whatever build you most feel comfortable with. If you rush hardmode, if you rush into another group just after you beat one, then you likely wipe no matter what build you bring, if you play with heroes and hench or RL people.

Oh, and a Longbow with +5 energy and +enchant mods are nice for pulling. Get one if you can. Not a flatbow though; stuff tends to move too fast.

I hope this helps

GGs

Also, Don't underestimate SV/AV when put on a tank. Scarabs have smite like attack patterns and soon drain away to uselessness. Since everything attacks and AN did'nt really up the mobs adrenaline,energy pools or regen from normal mode this is one of the few areas where energy drain and denial can shine.

Proper Aggro control is essential as like smites, scarabs love to run to the mid/back line.

get a new guild if they wont help you.

its a mean thing to come to agree with but hey, this is a game, if your not having fun and its a hassle to get things done, move on to a better guild

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Hate The [Cape]

I been in the guild for over a month and yes, they will drop everything/anything to help a guildie.

Takes a while to become a guildie though, you must show your commitment to be fair to everyone else. Anyone can ask for help, you want some guys for a mission, blip your LFG in guild chat, youll have 5-6 guys reply "be right there" in a minute.

I actually had great success bringing a minion master in this mission. The trick is to bring Verata's Gaze on your MM too and if it's a hero just micro using it against the scarabs in the beginning a whole bunch. The scarabs will get so distracted in a Gaze war with you that they are too busy to use their damage skills. At least it worked for me

A W/P "can't touch this" tank goes a long way in this mission.

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I did this mission Yesterday didnt really have any kind of problem of it.

I had:
me as a Broad Head ranger to take care of the Centaur casters in the bonus area,
my guildie as an SS Necro,
another guildie as a ranger (who didnt have many skills and so generally just spammed Hunters shot and throw dirt (which i suggested they add since it works great in Hard mode)
Hero Dunkoro with few skills (no elite),
my Glyph of Energy Fire Nuker Souske
and my Razah (set up with Preservation, Recuperation, Bloodsong, Pain and the rest Restoration)

Got mission and bonus. We generally took things nice and steady at the pulling 1 group of scarabs at a time, making sure the heros didnt get any dp, picked up speed doing the bonus and rode the momentium for the rest of the mission.

Maybe I should have updated this to say I completed ages ago with LM's help.

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