The hardest area in Guild Wars

Whatever it is, I want to try it in this holiday.
I'm fairly sure it has to be in Nightfall or GW:EN. You can define "hardest" however you think is most appropriate: hardest to kill final-boss, most balanced and synergistic enemy groups, highest level etc. Just don't take length into account; this is about the hardest, not longest to finish area in GW. If you want, you can think of it as the length of time that it took to kill that enemy group, but don't think of it as the length of time to finish the respective area... there is a significant difference.

I would really like to see what everybody says because I've completed a lot of HM and I want to move on. I don't care about the drops, I just want something challenging.

One last thing, give a solid reason for your opinion. If you're going to make a post with something like less than 5 words... please, just don't bother to write it at all.

Edit: I got Legendary Guardian (so I did all mission in HM). I'm expecting for something harder than that, so please don't give missions here. And try to limit your answer to as few areas as possible.

Gate realm torment area... the pugs just wont suffice!

I've had more trouble with the Forgewight portion of Slaver's Exile than I have with any other portion of any other chapter of the game. It's taken about 6 runs at it to find a party configuration that's reasonably effective, and I'm still fine-tuning. I get the sense I'm considerably less experienced than you, though, so YMMV.

Prophecies: Icedome, Frozen Forest, Ice Floe (all three have massive mobs)
Factions: Anywhere with Jade Brotherhood (hard-hitting balanced AoE), Silent Surf (way too easy to double/triple-aggro)
Nightfall: Realm of Torment (Overleveled, overpowered monsters that doubleaggro), Poisoned Outcrops (large mobs)
GW:EN: Everywhere HM. Not a single vanqushing or dungeon run in GW:EN I've been on yet that wasn't ridiculously harder than the NM equivalent. Prepare to have your feelings about how you can PvE ripped and torn into thousands of tiny pieces. Oh yeah, Shards of Orr NM is worse than Slaver's IMO.

I Vanquished Joko's Domain in HM the largest area to vanquish or so guild wiki says, it wasn't really really hard, but it required me and another guildie to spend 4 Wintergreen CC's and 7 Pumpkin Cookies which is a first because I haven't actually had to use them in awhile.

Couldn't agree more on these. Shards of Orr is incredibly annoying.

I found a solution to NM Shards in, IIRC, 3 tries. I had no trouble at all with the first two Slaver's subdungeons, but it's taken 6 tries at different builds/party configurations to get something that even sort of works for Forgewight's dungeon. Like I said, though, it may just be me.

As to HM vanquishing in GWEN, I thought Magus Stones was pretty easy, but it's one of the few I've done.

Gate of MAdness PUG NM or HM
Getting a group without any idiots there is almost next to impossible

Arbor Bay has more mobs than Joko's Domain, but I think it takes less time to do.

Sunqua Vale.

HM Joko's Domain or similar desolation area...Cavaliers tend to be bit annoying without good shutdown skills.

get the captured son quest and do it in HM, otherwise - D-drift HM

HM vanquishing Tahnakai explorable by actually killing everything.

Interesting thread. In fact, it's really useful to the designers.

Could you include some notes about what makes the area/quest/mission difficult, and whether you think it's too difficult, or just nicely challenging?

Trying to fight from Beacons to droks with the henchmen they provide. Low level and not a max party (Not heroes or humans only you and Hench)

Total craziness

i tried destruction's depths in HM and got my ass wrapped, signed, stamped, and mailed to me by the disk of chaos. otherwise, not terribly hard in HM, but the final boss is BEASTLY. especially for me, playing a ranger -.-

Awakened in HM, when you're out of a Junundu. I need to go back there now that I've set up my team with paragons and physicals, because casters just didn't cut it.

Ice Dome and with its infamous "You die, you respawn and die as soon as you respawn" res shrine. (did this get fixed?)

And the fact that they managed to squeeze SOOOOO many bad guys in a tiny area.

Prophecies

Ice Dome
Ice Floe
Ascalon Foothills / Dragon Gullet HM (one shot ->cya)

Factions

Boring Kurzick forest keepers (gonna need Vanquish.. sounds like fun)
Jade Brotherhood spots in HM, can be a pain

NF

Torment is kinda annoying (domain of fear especially)
Kourna maps with packs of scribes in HM, especially Kodonor Bonus (monk heal boss + elite scribes + priest, cant figure something out)
Awakened in HM: pain in the a** as well

GW:en

HM, way too boring
sacnoth valley, burning spirits, totally unplayable imo, dark, spikalot fellas, crappy view when using devourer and all that in the middle of annoying trees.

Mursaat and Imps in Ice Floe, now that is a classic challenge.
Mind you I have not done it a long time and have not been there since heros were introduced.
But I remember painful times there trying to map it and running my level 10 Necro to Marhan's Grotto to get his yet not updated at the time Tormentor armor (ahh the good old days)

vanquishing Tyria-in shiverpeaks there are large mobs. Without tank/mm/ss+nuker+monks system you get party wipe.
Factions-Jade-too more dmg and tahnakai temple
Nightfall-Vanquish those avatars mobs-without blind, or hard antimelle necro he can own your party in some secs (acolite of batlhazar mostly)
Also vanquish monk's boss and ele's boss, like in makuum. SF pwns all the party without hard ele ward against harm support

Ravenheart Gloom for the annoyance factor of not being able to see more than a few feet in any direction.

Also, Old Ascalon because of the 4-man party size

Prophecies: Not many very difficult areas really. I think ring of fire was the only one i couldnt do with heros & hench. Of course in hm things go lot more difficult but just nicely challenging with proper party.

Cantha: Urgoz and Deep are of course the most difficult areas, but they can be done quite easily even in hm with proper party. Non-elite areas are actually pretty much easy.

Elona: Realm of torment is just good. Missions are hard to do with heros & hench, other areas can be done. In hm its of course hard but not too hard however. But doa... its just ridicilous hard, at least foundry is. Other areas can be done but foundry is hard, even in nm and full human party with proper build. I dont wanna even think doing it in hm, except duo the first room lol.

EotN: Normal areas are nicely challenging in nm with heros & hench. In hm with h&h team its hard but i think some areas can be done... For dungeons, some of them can be done in nm with h&h team, some of them cant.

Btw whats the problem with shards of orr? Or are you doing it in hm? I easily made it to soul of fendi nin with heros and hench, however i couldnt kill it. But as it dont have health regeneration, with enough consumables it can be done lol. Mainly all dungeons can be done with h&h team to the boss, some bosses however are really too difficult to kill. I would like to was able to kill bosses aswell in nm...

Dreadnought Drift HM. The mob with the 2-3 Dolyak Masters is really, really tough. Especially when they kill you and your party is ressurected right next to them :S

Vanquishing Joko's Domain. Got nearly through to the end, but our heroes had way too much DP, as we were out of party-wide DP eaters. It's the only HM area that I've quit on. Going back soon >_>

EOTN: Have done all the Asuran areas, and a few of the Norn ones. Verdant Cascades with the dinos and frogs was a bit of a PITFA, but we did it. Jaga Moraine got annoying, with all the Spectral Vaettir.

Shards of [strike]No More[/strike] Orr, is something I'd care to never do again. Can't really say what about it bothered me so much, mostly because I think I've blocked it all out, heh.

Realm of Torment/Domain of Anguish.Never want to go there again.EVAR.

Sparkfly Swamp on HM.

Nothing is as annoying as trying to kill a group of Angorodons, a hassle already, and suddenly a group of raptors rushes towards you and decimates you totally, without a chance to react. It has happened to me so often.

If we are talking heroes and henchmen available in the nearest outpost, then the hardest area to vanquish would have to be Eastern Frontier.

Hardest overall is a toss up between Sparkfly Swamp and Sacnoth Valley. The latter would have been much easier with even one other human in the party. The former is just unrelentingly brutal near the Agari mesmer boss.

Shards of Orr and Joko's Domain are both made 10x easier with a few signet smiters.

I disagree.. me and my friend we're doing Shards of Orr with each of us carrying 2 heros.. we cleared the whole thing with a single wipe because we overaggroed. I found Slavers more difficult.

Now to answer the question.. DoA in HM is the hardest imo.. well come to think of it the asura lands (where the dinos are) in HM is ridiculous.. tons of raptor patrol mobs and other dinos that love to spike you dead in 1-2 hits...

Sparkfly Swamp definitely. Makes Slaver's Exile look easy,

I find the Awakened groups in the Desolation on Hard Mode to be quite difficult. They can get at you with energy denial, choking gas, knockdowns, hexes and such. Plus, their resing can be annoying if you do not have Frozen Soil. They are really nasty in Joko's Domain.

NM Tyria: None

NM Cantha: None

NM Elona: Foundry was quite difficult because we are denied the ability to keep the agro off the heros.

NM Gwen: I found the general mobs in Slavers Exile to be the most difficult, mostly because I'd find that agro chains from one group to another when monks run in to heal another groups minions, and before I knew it I'd be facing 3 mobs instead of one. The multiple res's in all the groups don't help. I actually found these easier in hard mode because I could get the casters to kite into me and get bodyblocked next to the melees (and then get shut down by sv/av).

HM Tryia: I had quite a few issues here:
Bog Skales - Alesia has no hex removal and the other henchies in the area are not particularly useful. The hex overload overwelmed the hex removal I had on the heroes, leaving me with spiteful spirit stacked accross all the AI who won't stop wanding.
Wind Riders - Some of these groups are nasty. 5-6 copies of shatter enchantment on a double speed recharge removes many the standard protection options that are the mainstay of HM. Combine this with Migraine and henchies with no hex removal and you have an evil, evil mob. I was in an incredibly bad mood by the time I finished Mamnoon Lagoon

HM Cantha: None, though I haven't tried the Elite missions.

HM Cantha: Joko's domain was the only one that sticks in my mind, and then only because of the area around Shekoss. Roaring Ethers are the most troubling single creature because of their ability to shut down and damage the balled h/h very quickly with energy surge.

HM GWEN:
Asura Areas: Twisting Jaws would spike down a bodyblocker before the monks could react. I ended up taking CTT just to deal with those. I had similar issues with andragons and unprottable vampiric skills.

PvP arenas.

That would be the Guild Lord of #1 ranked team in GvG.

PvP arenas.

Again PvP arenas by far.

In Gate of Madness, unless you are well-prepared with some trust worthy players, or are equipped with proper heroes, Shiro does an amazing output of damage. It's tedious to go through the entire mission pace by pace, being careful to have the whole team wipe out because of Shiro. Now, if it was fixed so that you can't lure the Lich away from Shiro, I'm willing to bet the mission would be close to impossible with only few people actually being able to do it.

Shards of Orr is an incredible pain in my...ahem. After we got to about 60% DP for the entire party (which was very early on), we got to the point where we had to die and run back to areas as fast as we could to kill things. We had to reform our group about six times before we could get past the first few groups without deaths. It forces players to bring Holy damage and leaves little options left. You just find yourself surrounded by AoE mass damage and you're basically dead. I can understand it being a dungeon and all, but this was in Normal mode and some guildies refuse to ever do that dungeon again due to the fact that it was beyond Hard. We're scared to see what Hard Mode is like...just make them a tad weaker. Considering the drops all of the players recieved were hardly justified as "worthy" of the effort spent to get them...probably could have recieved something better from a chest run.

I have to say, it's only in GWEN that I've found any challenges to speak of in NM. Shards of Orr and Forgewight have both been fascinating little puzzles to try and solve. Please, don't make these any easier. For those of us that enjoy a challenge, they're some of the best things in the game. It's going to be a blast sorting them out all over again in HM.

It's worth noting that the OP started this thread because he was looking for a challenge. The last thing he'd want is for it to be used as a guide to making areas of the game easier.

Couldn't agree more, the usual ~3 90% movement slowdowns followed by malestorm : kills any spells; make it REALLY HARD for melee character to get even close to the enemies without losing like ....30% of their health at least.
If you guys wanna nerf the run, just do more random wurm pop ups or smaller groups that include less ice imps, cause they are like.....the MAJOR threat for the first part, and in Dreadnought's drift: the mobs are too close resulting it been way too easy to over aggro. So you get like a mob party piled up right on the entrance after the first aggro attempt. (NM was barely fine, with all henches and heros) Not to mention the smite monks+the melee damages.

i think im gonna add a few

NM TYRIA - nothing really, though since it was my first game in GW, fighting glint was kinda irritating. but going back and killing her when i knew the game better was much easier.

NM CANTHA - i found that a few missions were kinda irritating, but nothing too severe. strangely, i couldnt H/H nahpui going kirin first, but i could going phoenix first -.- Arborstone isnt nice to an unprepared team, and raisu palaca wasn't very kind to me either. again, none of these challenges took long to overcome.

NM ELONA - Im afraid i dont have NF yet, but i am planning on getting it soon, probably for christmas. ive heard from many sources *coughmostpeopleonthisthreadcough* that the last few areas were a pain. and im no stranger to the alliance-mate spamming OMG GATE OF PAIN IS SOO HARD!!1!11!!!11!ONEONE

HM TYRIA - Flame temple corridor, dragon's gullet, and a few other random areas were incredibly hard for me. 1.3 hit spikes from 15 hydras at a time? no thank you, i choose life.

HM CANTHA - a few missions and explorable areas were tough, but strangely i found HM cantha much easier than HM tyria. oh btw, ETERNAL GROVE ON HM IS A BEAST TO GET MASTERS.

HM ELONA - ^^see above^^

NM EoTN - wow, where do i begin. definately the hardest NM chapter IMHO, i still need a full group of experienced friends to kill some of the dino bosses in the tarnished coast -.- and sacnoth valley was not a pleasant experience whatsoever. heres a tip for all you siege devourer sacnoth farmers: dont even TRY going into the burning forest, those spiking/patrolling burning spirits will hand you your ass. only go if you have an experienced group, or are on TS or vent.

HM EoTN - i havn't tried much of HM GWEN, ive vanquished a few areas here and there. WONDERFUL for getting a cash flow going if you arent into farming, as i usually get several golds per run, occasinal lockpicks, and sometimes a green. HORRIBLE place to take henchmen. the get demolished. i say get a group of friends together and go try vanquishing grothmar wardowns if youre unsure of tactics for EOTN vanquishing. (probably the easiest in my opinion)

Well, thats all i have to say. bye all [/rant]

lol A FeW..............

...:P well, i kinda started typing and didnt stop. thats what i do

heroes ascent and guild vs guild are pretty hard areas. try those.