Has anyone got masters on Eternal Grove in Hardmode, only using henches and heroes, and can give any pointers?
It's the one mission I can't seem to do with henches & heroes, some damn treesinger always manages to get himself killed.
The tactic I've been using is this: two minionmasters, one flagged at each gate. Third hero the necro/rit sabway healer flagged midway between the minionmasters and healing both.
Henches: healer monk, protector monk, ritualist (dr Gai), and Cynn.
At the start of the mission I defend until the minionmasters have got some minions, then I run out, followed by the henches, and kill each turtle and its supporting rangers as they show up.
After the cutscene I flag the henches + one minionmaster to the south side, sabway healer + myself + one minionmaster to the north side.
I ignore the juggernauts; they're too slow, take too long to deploy, die too easily, and don't seem to do any good anyway.
Doing this I can complete the mission, but I always lose at least one treesinger!
Any hints what I could do to complete the mission with the treesingers alive?
Or is it just a question of doing the mission over and over and over until I get lucky?
Eternal Grove HM Masters with H/H?
Numa Pompilius
Kyrein
the juggernauts are good, use them
i believe you can put a spirit spammer in the middle and he will affect both gates
very useful
if that doesn't work, just get a friend or two to help
i believe you can put a spirit spammer in the middle and he will affect both gates
very useful
if that doesn't work, just get a friend or two to help
Cebe
It is far, far easier to just grab a guildie or friend, load up with 3 heroes each, and stand in the doorways. Only go out to kill turtles, let any other luxons come to your door.
Incidentally, if you save any luxon rangers they come to help you when you ally with them from the cutscene onwards. I mean, when the Turtle +4 ranger groups come in...if any rangers are alive once you've killed the turtle, leave them, and they will run into your base and help you once the cutscene is over.
It is possible to do it with full H/H, but it's hard. Apparently, when the afflicted come, standing in the middle of the base, and aggroing anything that runs in either doorway is key to managing it, but it's very tough, and I gave up on that approach. 2 humans makes it way easier.
The Afflicted Maaka's group is the biggest problem...if he get's lucky, it's game-over.
I found the following to work well on both sides:
2 Triple Heat Eles. One with Deep Freeze and Ebon Battle Standard of Wisdom and the other with Mark of Rodgort and a Res.
1 Hybrid monk.
1 Minion Bomber, with [[Rotting Flesh] and Putrid Explosion. (Disable Rotting Flesh until the Afflicted arrive)
The heavy AoE Fire nukes, and body-blocking from minions and Juggernauts worked well for me.
Incidentally, if you save any luxon rangers they come to help you when you ally with them from the cutscene onwards. I mean, when the Turtle +4 ranger groups come in...if any rangers are alive once you've killed the turtle, leave them, and they will run into your base and help you once the cutscene is over.
It is possible to do it with full H/H, but it's hard. Apparently, when the afflicted come, standing in the middle of the base, and aggroing anything that runs in either doorway is key to managing it, but it's very tough, and I gave up on that approach. 2 humans makes it way easier.
The Afflicted Maaka's group is the biggest problem...if he get's lucky, it's game-over.
I found the following to work well on both sides:
2 Triple Heat Eles. One with Deep Freeze and Ebon Battle Standard of Wisdom and the other with Mark of Rodgort and a Res.
1 Hybrid monk.
1 Minion Bomber, with [[Rotting Flesh] and Putrid Explosion. (Disable Rotting Flesh until the Afflicted arrive)
The heavy AoE Fire nukes, and body-blocking from minions and Juggernauts worked well for me.
bifter
Yeah, I did this H/H with no consumables and no EOTN PvE skills. It was pretty hard, and took several attempts to get down. Assuming you can get through the luxon waves without losing treesingers, I think looking at your set up I would suggest the following:
1. Overkill at the north gate - an MM and a healer is plenty, one MM only is probably fine as long as you keep an eye on him, and run back to help him out periodically
2. Be prepared to spend your time marshalling, rather than taking an active part in the fighting. I stayed in the base most of the time - even during the luxon waves - and flagged out the team to gank turtle groups while I stayed in the base babysitting
3. Positioning is pretty important at the afflicted waves, and in this sense the juggernauts are pretty helpful - even if they die easily. There is an optimum way to position them where they will move forward slightly to aggro and block the gates fairly effectively. They need to be situated slightly behind the gate to start with. Ditto the MMs, you definitely want a clog of dead flesh in the gates when Maaka arrives, and it is pretty possible to achieve this, needs practice and experimentation though
4. While blinding seems like a perfect solution for the afflicted melee, I wouldn't trust a hero with it. Take it on yourself if possible, or work around it. Eruption might be an okay skill to take on a hero if you micro it, and find the right position for juggs / minions to block the gate effectively
5. Lots of people (including me) have reported coming back from near total wipes during the Maaka wave to win the mission with masters. Not sure how or why, but it's worth stocking up on res sigs and not quitting out in frustration until the whole team is on the floor, if you don't do that already
FWIW I'm primary ele, and stood between the two gates spamming blind / weakness and ressing whenever necessary.
1. Overkill at the north gate - an MM and a healer is plenty, one MM only is probably fine as long as you keep an eye on him, and run back to help him out periodically
2. Be prepared to spend your time marshalling, rather than taking an active part in the fighting. I stayed in the base most of the time - even during the luxon waves - and flagged out the team to gank turtle groups while I stayed in the base babysitting
3. Positioning is pretty important at the afflicted waves, and in this sense the juggernauts are pretty helpful - even if they die easily. There is an optimum way to position them where they will move forward slightly to aggro and block the gates fairly effectively. They need to be situated slightly behind the gate to start with. Ditto the MMs, you definitely want a clog of dead flesh in the gates when Maaka arrives, and it is pretty possible to achieve this, needs practice and experimentation though
4. While blinding seems like a perfect solution for the afflicted melee, I wouldn't trust a hero with it. Take it on yourself if possible, or work around it. Eruption might be an okay skill to take on a hero if you micro it, and find the right position for juggs / minions to block the gate effectively
5. Lots of people (including me) have reported coming back from near total wipes during the Maaka wave to win the mission with masters. Not sure how or why, but it's worth stocking up on res sigs and not quitting out in frustration until the whole team is on the floor, if you don't do that already
FWIW I'm primary ele, and stood between the two gates spamming blind / weakness and ressing whenever necessary.
bbh4r4l
To get master's reward if grouped with only henchmen here is unusually difficult. You can try flagging henchmen off to one area while you guard another, and using juggernauts to accompany you, providing a more even group split. It is possible to do either portion of the mission without losing any tree singers even with only henchmen, but you'll most likely need either heroes or other players in order to effectively split your group and get master's reward. Getting master's reward with heroes and henchmen is much more doable, so the remainder of this section will assume the presence of heroes or players who can move independently of the rest of the group.
For the group setup, it helps to have a ritualist with Recuperation, Life, and some other healing spells. It also helps to have a minion master who can keep some minions up even with corpses only intermittently available. Spells such as Animate Flesh Golem, Animate Bone Minions, Animate Shambling Horror, and Jagged Bones can effectively provide multiple minions off of one corpse making them more effective than other minion spells. The minions are going to have to take some hits and die, so it is better to bring Death Nova for a minion bomber build than to try to heal them. The other six party members should comprise a reasonably well-balanced group of six.
The entire party should initially head west of the grove to kill the first siege turtle and the various Luxons near it. After that, come back to the grove and leave two party members (one of which is a healer) standing in the north gate to kill any Luxons that attack from that side. The rest of the party can guard the south gate, then head out to kill the south siege turtle when it comes. After that, switch the two party members at the north gate to the south gate while the rest of the party heads to the north gate. Kill the north siege turtle when it comes. Repeat this shuffling to kill the next two siege turtles, and then the six party members at the north gate can head over to kill the siege turtle party coming from the west, triggering the cut scene.
After the cut scene, send all three juggernauts and the minion master to the north gate, the ritualist to the center of the grove, and the rest of the party to the south gate. If a juggernaut dies, then move it back to the north gate between waves. The ritualist should cast recuperation and life as often as possible to heal, and various other healing spells to heal party members or allies on either side as appropriate.
The ritualist should not set up any attacking spirits in the center of the grove. Mobs prefer to attack things that are attacking them, so this can make them run to the center of the grove to kill a spirit. Mobs also prefer nearby targets over distant ones, so after killing an attacking spirit, they sometimes move on to attack tree singers. A hero ritualist should not bring any attacking spirits for this reason. A player ritualist can set up attacking spirits by the gates, but not in the center. A player ritualist can even set up the same attacking spirit by each gate and have two copies of it up and fighting at the same time.
Depending on the course of the fighting, a character from the south gate may need to go help at the north gate once the south gate is reasonably secure. Once the mobs to the south are cleared in the second and third waves, all characters defending the south gate should help clear the north gate. This setup should get you through the first three waves. When you get a message saying that 3 groups remain, it's time to change tactics.
After that, send two or three characters (including a healer) to the south gate while the rest of the party defends the north gate. The characters at the south gate should clear the couple of afflicted that come, and then head over to help at the north gate. Once the fourth wave is clear, the two or three characters can return to the south gate to kill the couple of afflicted that come there in the fifth wave, before again returning to the north gate to fight.
This is from Guild Wiki
For the group setup, it helps to have a ritualist with Recuperation, Life, and some other healing spells. It also helps to have a minion master who can keep some minions up even with corpses only intermittently available. Spells such as Animate Flesh Golem, Animate Bone Minions, Animate Shambling Horror, and Jagged Bones can effectively provide multiple minions off of one corpse making them more effective than other minion spells. The minions are going to have to take some hits and die, so it is better to bring Death Nova for a minion bomber build than to try to heal them. The other six party members should comprise a reasonably well-balanced group of six.
The entire party should initially head west of the grove to kill the first siege turtle and the various Luxons near it. After that, come back to the grove and leave two party members (one of which is a healer) standing in the north gate to kill any Luxons that attack from that side. The rest of the party can guard the south gate, then head out to kill the south siege turtle when it comes. After that, switch the two party members at the north gate to the south gate while the rest of the party heads to the north gate. Kill the north siege turtle when it comes. Repeat this shuffling to kill the next two siege turtles, and then the six party members at the north gate can head over to kill the siege turtle party coming from the west, triggering the cut scene.
After the cut scene, send all three juggernauts and the minion master to the north gate, the ritualist to the center of the grove, and the rest of the party to the south gate. If a juggernaut dies, then move it back to the north gate between waves. The ritualist should cast recuperation and life as often as possible to heal, and various other healing spells to heal party members or allies on either side as appropriate.
The ritualist should not set up any attacking spirits in the center of the grove. Mobs prefer to attack things that are attacking them, so this can make them run to the center of the grove to kill a spirit. Mobs also prefer nearby targets over distant ones, so after killing an attacking spirit, they sometimes move on to attack tree singers. A hero ritualist should not bring any attacking spirits for this reason. A player ritualist can set up attacking spirits by the gates, but not in the center. A player ritualist can even set up the same attacking spirit by each gate and have two copies of it up and fighting at the same time.
Depending on the course of the fighting, a character from the south gate may need to go help at the north gate once the south gate is reasonably secure. Once the mobs to the south are cleared in the second and third waves, all characters defending the south gate should help clear the north gate. This setup should get you through the first three waves. When you get a message saying that 3 groups remain, it's time to change tactics.
After that, send two or three characters (including a healer) to the south gate while the rest of the party defends the north gate. The characters at the south gate should clear the couple of afflicted that come, and then head over to help at the north gate. Once the fourth wave is clear, the two or three characters can return to the south gate to kill the couple of afflicted that come there in the fifth wave, before again returning to the north gate to fight.
This is from Guild Wiki