Will i be able to further the game?

Hello everyone,

I have a questions as a complete new guy. I am currently in proph. part of the game. I am in the Yaks bend? Part of the game and i can not even get past the first quest. Up to now, i have done the entire game with henchman. I have a hard time finding a group because i suck so bad. I am guessing by reading these forums that grouping is a must?

I was told by a friend that this game was fun and easy because there was almost no penalty for dieing, and i could make my own group if i couldnt find one. So far he has been right, but since i have reached this place the enjoyment of the game has diminished greatly, should i just quit while i am ahead?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Do you have all the quests you can pick up in Yak's currently active in your log? If so, there's your problem. I had trouble with this too, until I realised that all of them add substantially more enemies into your path. Just abandon them and do them one by one, should make things easier.

That area of the game is do-able with henchmen. Yes, the game does get more difficult as you progress. Try different henchies, to deal with the enemies you are facing. Learn to pull one group at a time and watch the patrols before wading in to attack. Don't quit. consider it a challenge and figure out how to beat it.

Join a guild and get your guild mates to help.

Added: Talarian also gives a good suggestion.

The quest that leads from Yak's Bend to the Borlis Pass mission is rather difficult, especially if all you're using to fill out your party is henchmen (it took me a coupla weeks to manage it the first time I did it).

Grouping with other players is not a "must" in this game. The whole game can be completed with only henchmen, although there are some points in the game that are considerably easier if you party up with real people.

Help is at hand though - if you find yourself getting stuck, feel free to PM me in-game (my IGN is listed under my avatar on the left). I'm always happy to lend a helping hand to newcomers

Yes, if you are an obsessive quest taker like me, you will have a few problems the first time you get to the area (and a few others in different places of the game). If I recall, there are the normal enemies along the path of the primary quest, and another quest will add some more big groups right in with them. At the level you are currently at and with henchmen you will have significant problems beating the mass of enemies.

Recommend for that area only you drop all non-primary northern shiverpeaks quests, do the primary, then do the skill quests in pairs. I wouldn't bother with the quests that don't give skills, the exp isn't worth it compared to just going further in the storyline where you will get more.

This is the only place in prophecies where I can remember a quest making an area significantly harder, you shouldn't have to worry about taking quests after this.

It's hard to give a good answer without knowing more about you. Almost all of the game (in Normal Mode) can be done with just henchmen, if you are properly equipped, although it can get difficult at times.

It's the "properly equipped" part we don't know about. Yak's Bend is the first place, after Ascalon City, where you can upgrade your armor. Have you upgraded your armor? If you haven't, your priority now would be to get together enough money and materials to do that.

You also didn't say whether you have any runes and insignias on your armor.

If you are playing Warrior or Ranger, do you have a good, max damage weapon? And a max armor shield (if applicable)?

If you're playing a caster class, do you have a good weapon with the proper sort of stats?

How about skills? What's your current skill bar? Have you done all the quests that give skills as a reward? Have you bought skills from the skill trainers?

You're not the first to get hung up at Yak's Bend, and you won't be the last. Follow the advice given and you'll get it. One of the biggest mistakes I've seen people make in that area is to keep on attacking when a stone summit sage has hexed them with Empathy. That will ruin a low-level character's day faster than anything.

Also happy to help!

IGN = Slave Called Shiver

The enjoyment of this game is vastly improved by a decent guild!

I got stuck first time I did this area so I abandoned all the missions and explored for a while, found the next town along.

This let me choose the direction I was approaching the mission groups from, I found that helped at the time.

Or maybe I just got lucky

We've all hit the proverbial 'road block' when questing, just hang in there and follow the above advice and you'll get it in no time.

The advice here is excellent. If you follow it, I'm sure you will get past this area. Feel free to add Thili Astapoor to your friends list too. If I'm online and not involved in something other, I'll give you a hand. I have a lot of patience with "noobs".

Also what level are you? If you are only level 5 this area will be hard to do.

lol

I can just see it now, young hero taking his first steps into the world, defeats the Charr in Old Ascalon, feeling all invicible...then WHAM! Stone Summit hand him his butt on a plate

Be careful, there's two quests given by Captain Greywind with very similar-sounding goals.

Both lead to Borlis Pass - one, the primary quest that continues the story, simply involves killing this Mesmer boss who's spawned and heading to Borlis Pass.

The other spawns a ridiculous amount of Stone Summit and is NOT necessary to continue with the game.

Also if you are taking henches, keep in mind that the henches need to recharge energy also. You cant see their energy and when they get low on energy, they might as well be useless, so you may just have to wait a short bit before you charge into the next mob.

Also learn the art of the "pull". You might be doing this already, but ill just expalin anyway. "Pulling" is when you "flag" (set you henches to stay a little bit back while you walk ahead) your henches, take a long or flat bow, and shoot the closest enemy to get their attention. Preferably shoot the enemy from high ground as your arrow will travel farther, and make sure your "aggro bubble" (white circle area on the radar) doesnt touch the enemies. Then you turn and run back to your waiting henches, in essence setting a trap for the guys chasing you. When you are running back, make sure to switch back to your normal weapon, and kill off the chasing group. This will ensure you only fight one group at a time and not get overwhelmed by additional groups joining the fight and exhausting your casters. Also dont worry about the damage of the bow or requirement of the bow, you just use it to get their attention.

If it doesnt work, make sure you are in a good guild, that helps trememdously.

1. Your level should be much higher than your henchmen if it's your first time around.

2. Play with good builds. Ask your friends or these forums on how to make a good build from the skills you have.

3. Ask friends (or guildies) to help you out.

Yeah Stone Summits kicked my butt when I first played there. There are so many enemies there. It's normal for it to be hard for a new player. Don't quit though.

Wow that is a fantastic idea, i never would think to abandon all the quest except the one i am doing, i will try that asap as i am sure it added a lot of enemies, i remember this one curve that had about 30 enemies there. I am currently lvl 11, and the henchman are lvl 8, How might i "tell" them to stay back while i attempt the "pull"? untill now i have been just running up to stuff with the henchman in tow.

Thanks agian in advance, i cant believe how helpful this forum has been

If you look under your compass/minimap thing at the top right of your game screen, you'll see some flag buttons. You can use these buttons to pin the henchies in position with a flag (click on the flag button, and then click the location on the ground where you want the flag to be placed), and then you can cancel the flag when you want them to move forward to you again.

Running up with the henchmen in tow was the old way, way back when I started, haha. Now theres a "flag" feature to tell the henches to STAY! Below the radar, theres a row of little symbols/buttons with symbol with 3 dots, 1, 2, and 3. The 1,2,3 will be unusable since they are for heros (customizable henchmen from Nightfall or Eye of the North) so you can "flag" individual heros. However since you only have Prophecies, there are no heros. If you click the symbol with 3 dots, that is a button to "flag" the whole team (other than yourself). If you click on the 3dot button, then click on a location on the screen or on the radar, there will be a flag set there. The henches will run to that spot and wait there until you either move to another flag or cancel the flag (slash-through circle).

The flagging can work the other way too. If you just want to get past a mob to a different zone, flag the henches forward, aggroing the mob, then flag them away from where you want to go. The mob will follow your henches and you can have an easy stroll past. So basically using them as decoys. Only do this if you are running to a particular area as this will often get the henches killed, and accumulate death penalty.