Anyone have strategy, tips, and/or tricks for Frost Gate Bonus???

Hi everyone,

NOTE: This is not Hard Mode (but sure feels like it is)

I've been trying to go through the Frost Gate mission for the first time in a year or so. I remember it was always difficult to do the bonus because of the three healers, but I don't remember it being as hard as it seems to be now (maybe I was higher level before, but I don't think so). I've tried every disruption skill I have and nuked the @#$()* out of them with spells too and I can never get even one of the healers down to half health or less even when stacking Firestorm, Fireball, and Phoenix against them at point-blank range... so killing them at this point seems an impossible task. My henchmen drop like flies under a super-sized swatter, and even when I get some good disrupts with Choking Gas and Distracting Shot I still can't drop the healers. I've tried to "pull" just two or three of the dwarves at a time but they don't seem to be three groups (even though that is the rough number of them), but rather are one single large group, and if you aggro even one at the edge, they all come rushing at you... run away to draw them apart and they all give up pursuit. And what's with the NPC guy that you're supposed to be leading up there to the ballistae anyway? He never seems to attack... is he carrying the bow just for looks? I've taken to not even talking to him... I want to kill the dwarves in the way first, and then bring him up there after they're gone.

I've looked for mission guides and walkthroughs but never found any that say anything more than "go here, go there, kill all the guys, wait for the gate to be blasted, go get the plans and return them to the guy who wants them". Now, I appreciate that sort of information when I have no idea where I'm supposed to be going, but in this case it's totally worthless to me... I need to know how to kill the giant group of dwarves that are guarding the broken ballistae, and I need to do it without my entire party being wiped out (even if I'm the last one standing... as long as I have my rez signet still).

Anyway, I could finish the mission and skip the bonus... and I could go level up some more and come back, but I don't think that would help a whole lot since I'd have the same skills... more HP would be useful, but won't help my henchies at all. And of course I could always join an actual group, but I was really wanting to try and do as many of the missions and bonuses as possible with nothing but henchmen (for the challenge). So basically, any and all suggestions, hints, tips, tricks, strategies, etc. that are offered will be appreciated. Otherwise, I'll just have to hope for one of the occasions that I try it to give me an unusually easy spawn setup *shrugs*

Drake

I know from experience that the large group consist of 2 or 3 smaller groups.

You can flag your hench at the top where you start and try to pull a few dwarves out with a long bow.
The main problem most of the time is a warrior hench running into the group and aggroing all three at once.
The mob tends to walk apart sometimes, this is the moment you shoule be able to pull
When you pull the whole mob, run back to your hench and wait for the mob to split up a little. Very often, a couple will lagg behind.

Bringing the bonus guy after you finished them is good, otherwhise there is large risk he dies.

Not playing the bonus now is also an option.
When you are further in the game, you get access to more skills/spells.
You also have more attribute points (is your main damage attribute at 12+ yet?) and better armor (assuming you did not get a droks run).
This makes the bonus easier.

I see you are ranger necro. The necro hex Defile Flesh reduces the dolyaks ability to heal. Might help. Do you have concussion shot? If you cant out damage the healer shutting them down with daze works nicely.

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although your attempts and playing through the game are noble, your logic is flawed. you are not suppose to do mission and bonus as you progress through the game. missions like ice cave of sorrows, bonus takes you through a few mobs of mursaat, which in this mission you are not infused untill later. the bonuses are mainly for replay value. dont kill your self trying to make them what they arnt. play through the missions and quests, and come back to it later.

Wait a minute... The bonus missions that typically are a very small part of a mission and often have little or nothing to do with the main plot of the mission itself are supposed to be the replay value of the game?!? I'm sorry, but if that is really what the developers were thinking, then they should be shot for stupidity. Replay value is not gained by redoing a mission that you've done before so that you can go through a tiny little side plot. While I appreciate the fact that you backed up your argument with information that you used to infer from, I always saw the bonus missions as, well, a bonus, and a little bit of an added challenge sometimes. And as I recall from when I went through this stuff the first couple of times, the vast majority of the bonuses are easy to do if you can do the mission itself. Frost Gate just happens to be one of the few hard ones (and I suppose that Ice Cave of Sorrows would have to be one also).

But enough of that, and on to a quick update... SUCCESS!!! It took a little while, but I finally got a spawn set that allowed me to pull one group at a time. And for the record, there are two groups, not three, and each group has TWO Dolyak Riders, so I was up against 4 healers before, not three... bloody pain. But I made it this time, and I didn't even have to use my rez signet on the healer henchman... despite her usual stupidity, she didn't die! (That's more than I can say for her on the Borlis Pass mission, where she allowed herself to die of health degen from Frostfire Dryders AFTER combat was finished because she was too busy healing everyone else who had more health than her to be bothered with a little thing like saving her own life).

So if anyone else comes along with similar troubles and is looking for some advice and finds their way to this thread, my advice to you is this: Keep trying until you finally get a good spawn set where you can separate the groups and it should be pretty easy.

Oh, and Shizno... While I appreciate the compliment about my noble efforts to do the game the way we're supposed to, nobility has nothing to do with it. The game is just a little too easy with all of the max equipment and great skills, and games that are easy are simply not fun. I'm just trying to have fun (which unfortunately also includes the occasional frustration or two).

Drake

When I brought my warrior through the game I made it a point of doing Mission and bonus at the same time. Yes even Sanctum Cay made for a rather interesting show as well. THe Ice caves was the only bonus I actualy had to come back for.

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I tried and failed at it at low levels. came [email protected] with heroes and pwned them

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