Multiple Party Wipes in the Shiverpeaks

I just got to Droknar's Forge and am trying to do the quest The Hero's Challenge. Droknar's Forge is the only town/outpost that I've been to, so I have to from there to get to Sanyi. I was playing with a party of 3 heros and 4 henchmen. On the way to Sanyi, I had a total of 4 party wipes in 2 tries. In the first try I got destroyed, so I thought maybe I aggroed too many foes. So on my second try I tried pulling groups with a flatbow and got a lot further. But nearing my destination, even pulling groups didn't work, enemies were just everywhere, millions of them! I killed tons of them, but they just kept coming. So I got 2 more party wipes. My internet disconnected after the last party wipe and I failed to get there again. Can anyone tell me if I'm doing anything wrong? I'm playing in normal mode and I feel that I'm not that bad of a player. I'm just so frustrated and don't know what to do. I've had similar experiences of getting utterly destroyed in the Northern Shiverpeaks and some parts of Kryta as well, but eventually I was able to outlevel the monsters there. But obviously that's not going to happen in the Southern Shiverpeaks as I'm already level 20. Can anyone give me some advice on why this is happening? Thanks in advance.

The quest was not meant to be done starting from Droks. It is meant to start from the Iron Mines.

The easiest way of course is to get a run to Copperhammer Mines and start from there as Sanyi is right outside.

The normal way is to do the Ice Caves mission which should bring you to the Iron Mines. You then traverse the Frozen Forest to where Sanyi is standing outside Copperhammer Mines.

Ok, but it's not just the quest I'm concerned about, it's the party wipes. I don't understand why I'm getting utterly destroyed by hordes of monsters. I mean, that's not supposed to happen, is it?

If Droknar's Forge is the only town or outpost you have open, then you may be trying to get there the hard way. Put that quest on hold for a bit and do the Ice Caves of Sorrow mission. That will take you to the Iron Mines mission.

From Iron Mines, go west through Frozen Forest, and just run past Sanyi to Coppperhammer Mines. You can then leave from Copperhammer and stroll over to Sanyi to quickly complete the quest.

If you were trying to walk from Droknar's Forge, you may have entered Ice Dome, and if that is the case, your experience mirrors that of many players new to that area.

If you are encountering difficulty in all of the Southern Shiverpeaks, then some more information on your team would be helpful.

Hero/hench is possible for the Shiverpeaks but difficult for less-experienced players. I also had a rough time my first few times through. This spring when I decided to go for the elite skills title with my warrior, it seemed very easy.

All I can say is to practice, bring an mm, and dp removal. Best of luck.

Yes, I went from Talus Chute to Icedome to Frozen Forest. The first time time I got destroyed in Icedome. The second time I did some careful pulling and made it past Icedome into Frozen Forest where I got destroyed again.

I've also had similar party wipe experiences in Traveler's Vale in the Northern Shiverpeaks and in The Black Curtain in Kryta. Are those normal too?

I'll come intogame and bring a Necro Hero team if you can supply the healing. We can do it the hard way, from Drocks too. Always up for a challange. Message me IG and we'll kick some booty!

Not entirely sure where you were when the wipes occurred, but as the other said, you didn't pick the simplest path geographically. My ranger made it through there with heroes/henchies, but very,very slowly...there's a lot of places where you fight a mob with multiple healers, or multiple MM Necros and they make your life miserable... I think the Necro Hero (the ever popular 3 Necromancer party) would be good to try. Then, just go very, very deliberately and carefully. Check your armor for you and your heroes and your "defenses" too - it gets intense through there.

Also, did you fight Jade Armor/Mursaat in Frozen forest? That would be an easy way to wipe if you aren't yet infused.

Some places are just more dangerous than others. Careful pulling or not. Group make-up makes a lot of difference as well.

The short answer is yes the mobs there are suppose to be party annihilating since it was some of the end game content for prophecies. It is even more so devastating if you turn on hard mode. I would just proceed slowly through areas as there are pop ups and rethink your team build. I also think your choice of geographical navigation is not quite on par as someone already pointed out your best bet is to do ice caves of sorrow so that you are closer to the copper hammer mines location for a much easier experience of that quest.

it's been done thanks to the epic powers of I Monk Of Fury I, Mr. Tidus and myself. Thanks for the replies guys!

*Somebody obviously kept running into mobs without pulling! ^_^*

Good to hear that you were successful. The two P's are important: Patience and Pulling.

Are you talking about me?

And thanks to everyone for the replies.

You said you had 3 heroes and 4 henchmen. Which 3 heroes and are they fully equipped? Which 4 henchmen?

By fully equipped, I mean a full set of appropriate Runes and Insignias, good max weapons, and proper skill bars.

Yes, I had all that. I went back with 2 other players and 5 heroes to do it, and we still had 3 party wipes.

It can be done, although with difficulty, using just henchmen. Heroes make it much easier though. It takes proper builds, proper aggro management, proper pulling, and proper targeting.

If a team with 3 humans and 5 heroes can't do it without party wipes, I'd suggest looking into a good set of Monk builds and a team with synergy.

Sorry to say this Tidus, but it simply sounds like you are just bad at the game. I know you are looking for advice, and want to improve. That is amazing, as most people just say the game is bad or hard. However, your team setups and aggro are what causes the party wipes, not the monsters.

The shiverpeaks are not an area to be taken lightly even if its "mere" prophecies.
The hardest part about it is that the mobs are LARGE and PLENTY. Careful pulling, good flagging and MM is pretty much all you need. Also before pulling make sure you wait long enough to learn the mobs patrol pattern, you might go slow but party whipes will be rarer that way ^^.
Also learn to run when you notice the battle is slipping out of your hands, if you lure more then you wanted or you can handle just flag far away and run.
Maybe a useless tip, but if you're trying to sneak past with an MM and your H/H aggro the mob, just keep running the mob will attack the minions, you're out of minions but you might got past a strong mob.
I hope this helped.

You're in the beginning-of-the-end area of Prophecies. It was once brutal, and is still a reasonably tough neighborhood, despite the power creep, and getting careless with Ice Imps or Mursaat will cost you.

Those are common areas where some people experience difficulty, yes. Traveler's Vale can be challenging when you first arrive at Yak's Bend, and if you take all the quests available. Most of the quests there spawn additional monsters in the zone, so taking all of them makes that zone a bit crowded.

Black Curtain has the overlapping patrols with a constant speed increase. The Necrid Horsemen can raise minions, so a party can be overwhelmed if it takes too long to defeat the group, or allows too many minions to appear.

Aggro control, identifying patrol patterns, pulling, and proper targetting solve all of those problems.

Well, at certain places there were like 2 to 3 groups (around 10 monsters each) clustered together. We waited for them to separate and attacked one of the groups. But sometimes the other groups won't go far and we had trouble holding aggro or couldn't finish one group fast enough, resulting in the other group(s) joining the fight (outnumbering us up to 4 to 1), at which point it was game over. Other times a group would have multiple Dolyak Masters (healers) and/or MMs, and it would take us forever to kill them (that is if we managed to kill them at all). I dunno, I mean I understand what I have to do with pulling and attacking one target at a time and all that, and my builds aren't all that bad, this is normal mode after all, but sometimes it just feels like the game hates me and puts me up again overwhelming odds time and time again. I dunno, maybe I just need more experience. Or could it also be due in part to the fact that I only have Prophecies and EotN skills?

Thanks, that made me feel a little better about myself.

Oh is something wrong with doing that?

Thought it was NM...

In Traveler's Vale, taking all quests, there's just an insane mob, hardly beatable with those level henchies.

I also wiped at Dome sometime ago without henchies. Recently went back to map it and found it incredibly easy, same with Frozen Forest. There's only annoying stuff like snares, everywhere.