The Pain that is the Survivor Title...

Since people were able to get Legendary Survivor in a single Guild Scrimmage, I haven't cared enough to go for it. It's a pretty silly title, not worth the effort. BUT, I do have 2 stories. My Paragon died (at level 19) in Consulate because our 2 monks let me die, and my Ele died half way to Survivor 2 because I got owned and forgot that I hadn't died before.

gave up -.-
maybe gnna start over again xD

Some months before the release of Nightfall, I had been attempting to get survivor in Tyria, my aim, get to about level 12 in pre, success rate was absolutely none, about 12 or so rerolls,

Then came Nightfall,
I created a dervish, and got to level 1,
then I created a Paragon, and got to level 1,
next was a ranger, and once again got to level 1,

Unfortunatley my dervish died in the Ajok Ward goign to get Koss, being surrounded by a dervish boss, and lots of plants and didn't log out quick enough was about 400k,

The paragon died doing the venta cemetary mission by getting too closs to the base

After they died I created a ritualist and assassin, both achieved level 1, but the assassin died on the journey to Kaineg city, my Ritualist however managed to get there, went to pick up heores, went through to Kryta and traved up to the dragons Lair, then traveled back to cantha and competed the game up to the shiro mission, once there I traveld to elona and completed the missions up to getting into the RoT, with those done I achiece level 3, then went back to do shiro in cantha and died about 30 times until achieveing masters.

My Elonan Ranger has still not died and is about 300k at the moment, will get back to him soon, I have a level 11 monk in ruins of Surmia, hopefully they will get to legendary.

dying is the worst thing when you do survivor, no matter how far you get

I dont like people going for the Survivor title.. I end up in missions with them and they are total jerks.. allways leaving at the first hint of danger.. so annoying.

That is why anyone going for survivor title should rely on herso rather than pugs. " people with 3 heros each is plenty for almost all missions while going for survivor. People going for survivor titles should not pug unless they absolutely have to, period. Not to stop any ahssle to the pug if they have to map out but to prevent joining with a group of players that may have just 1 bad egg and result in lose of the titl track.

I speak from experience, my first 4 legendary survivior characters were made back in factions before we had heros and it was a slog working through some of those areas with the pug quality as it is. Working with guildies and/or heros is the best way by far. For those would be legendary survivor's out there without NF I feel for you and wish you luck, many of us have been where you are.

F12 + enter is your friend, none of this guild hall mapping or anything. Believe me F12 followed by enter is the FASTEST way to log of an instance when needed. The keys are very close to each other maiking for an effective log out in a second or less. I remeber one time having to do it while being punded on by the warrior boss at the end of Aborstone. I was at half health and got galed and other ranged damage. Warrior boss came up to me and was mid swing animation when I hit the combo. Got me out of there just in time, its the best way

Yeah...I hate those people too...they give survivors a bad name....

I avoid PUGs...the only time I actually play with other players is when I'm forced to...the 16 player cooperative missions in factions...and I try to play those at times when I'll likely be teamed with henchies...

The only time survivors should play with other people is when they are in a guild that knows this and understands it and are willing to help them get the title.

Agreed with Thunder79, and then an absolutely essential logout won't hurt, as we know the goal. I helped a guildie get the 3rd rank and it was almost no pain. It gave me the idea to make a survivor too as I didn't have any yet, most of my chars are before that age, or I didn't want to bother at that time.

Yeah, I will not PuG while working on my Survivor. I mostly use heroes and henchies. I've also gotten a couple mission runs because I'll think the mission may be too risky (See "I Love Peace's" running service in Ventari’s Corner). I'll let the runner know in advance that I'm working on my Survivor title.

I've had little success with survivordom, although alot of it was just stupidity and not really trying to get it. My first four characters didn't even make it past the beginning areas. My assassin was my first character. She died the first time I was running around in Sunqua Vale. I didn't even know about the survivor title then and I was learning the game. My second character made it to level 17 before joining a pug for The Captured Son. Since I was the only tank I tried to do my job, someone overaggroed the million Corsairs and I was overwhelmed. Ele died stupidly my first time in Pre Sear. Didn't know about the traps in the Catacombs (I was helping my friend who was a necro). My mesmer died when I had to take an important phone call while doing Minister Cho's Estate. I went off to take it away from the computer while the other two players continued on. Eventually they made it to the end fight, and the fatal cut scene. It teleported me to them and my mesmer was killed in the fight without me ever even being there.

My monk however did survive to level 20. All the way through Shing Jea. Through Vizunah Square when that was still a pain. Through Nahpui, Tahnnakai Temple, Sunjiang District, when a guildy needed some help back in Nahpui. Confident that I could survive, or at least log/map out I went. All went well, starting with the Phoenix, then the Dragon and the Turtle. As we were making our way to the Kirin we got into a decent fight. I was on that ramp in the North East corner when something went wrong. I tried to run but I couldn't. I was body blocked by friendly necro minions. I couldn't move, I was under attack. I froze. The other monk couldn't get to me. I died. It pissed me off for quite a while. I made it to ~230k xp. Even worth, a couple of weeks later they came out with an update that made it so we can pass through minions, they no longer body block. That really, really pissed me off.

I forget how far my other characters made it. My necro I think died in presear as well, to a bear. My ranger died in the quest A Decayed Monument at level 9 or 13, I can't recall. Thought I could handle it, but obviously I couldn't. My other played character, my paragon is still alive actually. Made it to 940k xp and is still going. I loaded up on survivor armour, went with /W for "Watch Yourself". I generally run around with 611 hp and a tone of armour. Only had one or two close calls. I really hope to take this character to Legendary Survivor.

All in all, I've met with alot more failure then success in the survivor department, but only one painful loss that really should have been avoided.

No definitely don't give up. I had a mesmer that died at level 13 on her way to survivor and I was so miffed that I recreated her but didn't bother getting survivor on her. Eventually I created a ranger and she became a legendary survivor after many close calls, panic attacks, and a lot of elite skill capping ;D In fact, when she got close to level 3, I kept my guild hall window open so I could quickly hit the guild hall button in case of emergency. (she was always with heroes/henches).

My problem is now that I still feel a bit precious about letting her die though of course she will eventually as I can now finally finish the campaigns with her as I always stopped when it got too dangerous (she's a Factions character). And of course, my paragon has gone and gotten herself lvl 1, so I've got all that pain to go through again...can my nerves take it I wonder...?

the furthest I've played through the campaigns with my survivors was Mirror of Lyss in Nightfall (died to an elementalist boss who spiked me) and Boreas Seabed in Factions (Aurora killed me)....I've never really tried to play through Prophecies as a survivor though. I played through it a couple times when I first started playing guild wars and have been run or ran myself (using a second account) ever since then (I usually try to play through the missions though).

A rule I live by when playing survivor is to not go afk when in an explorable area or mission. There's always that one mob that you missed that comes by when you're afk and wipes you. I had that happen with one of my survivors...I went afk while waiting for my runner to make it from Grendich Courthouse to Ascalon Foothills. Doesn't always happen but occasionally a mob of Hydras spawns and their path takes them right by the courthouse. I came back to them attacking me and there was nothing I could do...it was too late.

My Ele died just 35,000 (ish) short of Legendary Survivor. Death was due to a severe lag spike caused by the lag problem that ANet refuses to admit is present.

My dervish died at 730k xp. After breezing through grand court and the do not touch djinn... she died during a quest I usually find really easy. Apparently leeroying into a huge mob with lots of enchantment removal was a bad idea. But I never expected her to get that far so I was pretty content and more amused and relieved than upset about her death.

My paragon is at 1.7M xp and still not dead. No logging out required. However, I did have a close call when I lagged out trying to retreat from a djinn boss that was owning my party. I was careful with her, but didn't avoid anything that usually killed me, and in fact I am most proud of getting her through quests I often die on - though I admit I was kinda nervous about the domain of pain quests. But at least they made RoT a little easier.

I lost it a few times but the worst one was when I made it to lvl 18 on my ele. It was during the new year event and I decided to do the dragons arena and forgot all about the title...you know the rest .

Necromancer died at 400kish exp when I lagged while doing Venta Cemetary. GG

Monk died at 800kish exp when I lagged while farming trolls. GG

Necromancer died at 1250kish when I lagged while mapping in Elona. GG

Necromancer currently at 200kish exp. Expecting a death at 1336k exp. ^^*

My Dervish got Legendary Survivor on the first try with only one close call, and that was from the Kournan Siege in Venta Cementery. Apparently the Sunspears died before I did, and the mission automatically failed before I died. I only had ~200k XP then, though.

I do sort of set my party defensively, though. Aegis chains, Wards, anti-melee SS necro, and a hero Monk, with 10 minions to soak up damage.

PuGs are just suicide, they are stupid and unreliable.

At least you got the second tier. It is still pretty good.

My Rit died about 25K after reaching the first tier. Not sure if I should recreate it for Legendary..
I only asked for help once; to beat the Sunspears in Cantha mini mission, where a guildie helped me out, besides that just solo/hench farming/missions :P
But yeah, going for Survivor sure is a pain in the bum

Sorry about your loss. But don't give up -- it is worth it. Legendary Survivor is by far the most prestigious title in GW and the only skill-based title in the game.

I have tried to earn survivor 4 times. The first three times, I cruised through it easily (averaging earning it in about ~75 hours on my war, ranger, and monk). Each time I earned the exp from getting masters on all missions in all chapters, completing all quests, and capping elites. It was easy -- all you have to do is just not be an idiot and die. On the ranger and monk, I never even had a close call (the war I had two close calls, which was the first time I tried). Always play with heros and think, and its doable.

My mesmer died at 1.2 million exp. She died to kuunavang. I got arrogant, thinking I could easily outfight him. I wanted to get past there so I could cap my last memser elite, which was in the explorable area there. I swear I had a PS on me, but then he two shotted me. I got so upset I rage deleted her.

Easy 1st attempt, just stay back and run away soon as something big hits you