Vanquishing Barbarous Shore

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS! JUST CLOSE IT! OR PRETEND IT'S CLOSED!

<This nub got pwnd

Corsairs are more balanced than you'd expect. I'm not even sure what's killing me besides sheer number of enemies and the fact I can't pull them and keep aggro [I'm the tank] and live.

My average party:

My heroes: SF, Virulence MM, Life Sheath Tahl, Henchies: Healer, motivation, fire, earth

The rit boss' group wiped my party three times before I spawned in the middle of two patrols. If anyone has advice, it would help. Should I take out someone for a Norgu? Cheap bonding trick? Extra monk? Special pulling?

Sidenote: Sorry about the below thread... should I ask someone to close it or just let it die?

Well i vanq that area with H&H before...
i used Jin as BHA ranger, Olias as MM, and Norgu as interrupt + epidemic mesmer. and took a fighter hench, 2 monk (IIRC), and earth hench. (i was an offensive spirit spammer) pm me in game if u see me on n i can give u the builds if u want.
that area around the corsairs is hard but doable. just make sure u know where to stand properly as to not overaggro, and take out key enemies such as monks and those who can put out a lot of dmg 1st. try to learn their patrol patterns n fight only 1 grp at a time if possible.
Good luck!

Yeah i remember this place..all too well . If i remember correctly my team was Warrior (with interrupts), BHA Ranger (winter), third was Prot Monk (hex. removing) or SS necro - i'm not 100% sure about that.

I'd go first against the Paragon and then the mesmer boss (inside the cave), then the ritualist or warrior - leave the dervish for last. Tanking here is really difficult and so is body blocking, the terrain doesn't favour it other than the rocks near rit boss.

I ended up burning money on the statues for morale & other buffs but still wiped hard against the dervish and once on mesmer & warrior (420 Counter-Attack owned my face) before it .. so yeah, i wiped a lot but still somehow managed to beat it. I left the other mobs alive, i went straight to corsairs instead. I needed that for DP removal. Going against the rit boss, as you probably have noticed is very risky thanks to that shrine. Our group got spawn camped by the dervish boss until he was down.. now that was total chaos. As our DP was rising, he started to one-shot us - i promptly escaped and buffed up again then we regrouped and beat him down.

I wish i had something else but it's been a long time i was here and my old post is lost too. I can still remember my frustration though .

edit: Hunted down a typo.

Heh, yeah, I got wiped there, too, due to overaggro.

My usual setup, with which I vanqu'ed ~25 of the 34 areas is SF nuker, Minionmaster and BHA ranger heores, both monk henchies, Sogolon and Devona, with me playing Warrior myself.

In my experience, the key for succes is aggro control. Fight one group at a time. Two at once can work, depending on what and how many they are, but usually it means you're screwed. More than two is suicide.

Use the flag to position your H&H about one and a half aggro circles away from the closest enemy. Plink that enemy with an arrow from a long or flat bow and run back. Once you're half an aggro circle from your H&H, turn around and engage the closest enemy (most likely W or D). Do not go for their healers or spellcasters yourself, that's the BHA ranger's job! You keep aggro on their physicals so that they don't beat up your casters and use target locking on your ranger to have her go after the priority target (make sure to do so before she shoots BHA).

In some places you may have to resort to hit&run tactics. Rush forward, hit one target hard and fast, usually a monk or high damage caster, then retreat (use flags to force your H&H to break aggro). You may need speed buffs to get away (That's the main reason why I bring Devona: The ever useful "Charge!") or minions to hold back the mobs. (This works very well with wurms in the desolation - I call it "Jujundu spike" . I haven't met anything yet that survived eight hits from Wurm Siege.)

I play earth ele with sandstorm, eruption, churning earth, maelstrom and obs flame. My heroes were Master MM, Olias SS, Magrid BHA/epidemic. Henchies were two monks, paragon and earth ele.

Surprisingly I had no problem here, though I was prepared for the worst (on the contrary I thought the Jahai Bluffs were easy, but ow, thats a pain in th hiny...)

Basically, dont over aggro and have patience to learn how mobs patrol. Also use every corner/wall to your advantage if possible. They tend to get stuck on your wall of minions and do not try to circumvent to get to you.

Perhaps try to swap the SF ele for an earth/air ele with blinding skills. It buys me all the time I need to kill their casters without having to worry too much about the dervish/warrior ripping my squishies apart.

I cleared the area playing as SF fire ele, with MoW as SS, Olias as MM, Norgu as dom mes, Mhenlo, Khim, Devona, and Gheraz. I had no problems with any of the boss groups. The biggest problem I had was the H/H standing around in Sandstorm when taking on the Crags. I recall fighting the bosses in a counterclockwise direction - the warrior boss first, then going through the narrow passage through the rocks by the shore to pull the rit boss group there (to avoid aggroing the derv boss group at the same time), then the mesmer boss, then the dervish boss (who IMHO has the toughest group in the area). If the groups that patrol near the shrines are giving you a problem, clear them first before taking on the boss groups.

If I were doing it again, I'd probably go as a B-Surge air ele for the blinding and weakness. But Spiteful Spirit, Empathy, and Backfire should get you through the area with room to spare, even if being used by your heroes.

I also understand your troubles being a tank myself. While vanquishing areas with masty caster bosses, i like to run a dev hammer KD war. bring dev, crushing, fierce, and heavy blow. if you use this with an attack speed buff and maybe "for great justice" for extra adrenaline, u can keep the boss KDed for most of the time. I also bring an LoD heal monk, a jagged bones MM with death nova, and an SS necro. For henchmen i take both monks, the earth ele who has ward against melee, and either the paragon for extra support or the mesmer who has good interupts. this worked pretty well for me a few days ago while vanquishing this area. good luck to u

Thanks for the tips. ^^ I didn't think of working off my DP on the hekets, and the Blinding Surge worked really well. I put it on Norgu, who had diversion which saved me from the Crags, and backfire killed the rit boss for me. And, 84-175, I'm going to use your Junundu Spike strategy. <3

must admit not an easy zone. Anti melee is key (imo) I ran a curse necro with slowdowns(faintheatedness...)/degen. And also an ele running wards. Just watch the pulling and avoid huge mobs. An LoD monk does wounders as well

GL to any who attempt this zone...I personally never care to see it again.

I did think about farming Wahli's Blade, considering him a softer target than Victo or Shiro.

Get spanked in NM when I'm not careful too. So keep this thread up for nice ideas.