Ascension-Challenged Necro/Elem Needs Help

I am going through the Prophecies campaign. I've gotten to the three missions one needs to complete before having access to Augury Rock.

I am a Level 20 Necromancer/Elementalist with all armor of class 60. I gear up with 5 Level 17 henchmen, go to any of these challenges, but seem to get whomped no matter what mix of spell levels I have. One thing I've noticed is that it takes a good 2-3 minutes for my group to kill a single Siege Wurm. Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?

The prophecies henchmen are pretty outdated tbh. If you have either NF or EotN this would probably be a good time to pick up some heroes before you continue.

Would help if we had a bit more info though... ie. what are you using, and what henchmen are you taking along? Sounds like a pretty classic case of Not Enough Offense

Those missions aren't hard , but you won't be able to do it with 5 level 17 henchmen...

As was suggested get some heroes with usable builds.

Find some players to team up with... for example when I did the mish with the siege wurms I had a rit in the party who knew exactly what to do for the whole thing. The missions in most of prophecies can be a bit on the quiet side, so if you play at peak hours you're more likely to be able to find a team.

Post your build and we can do something about it.

Heroes are better, but the hench can get the job done. Key is to take the hench that work well with what you are using. As a Necro, I'd suggest taking Lina and Alesia to keep you alive, then Little Thom, Claude (he helps the Monks keep energy), and Orion.

The Wurms will be the hardest to kill as they have a large amount of health and armor, but it can be done. Not much can be said to help you though. Unless we know your build and armo+rune setup, and your tactics (aggro control, etc.) we can't offer much to help.

Quote: Originally Posted by Lux Aeterna

Thanks to all for the advice. I'll admit I'm a novice with some of the lingo...I think I got GuildWars before anything but Prophecies was even available.

Regarding the constants in my build, my armor is constantly at 60 across the board. I use either a Grim Cesta (energy +15, energy regen -1, health +30) with a customized Deadly Cesta (10-19 dmg + 20%, energy +3 with 50%+ health) or sometimes a customized Insightful Bone Staff (11-22 dmg + 20%, energy +13, half-time death spells 20%, half-time spell recharge 20%).

Regarding variables in my build, death magic and blood magic ranks are in the 11-13 range. Soul Reaping is ranked 5. I often have Vampire Gaze, Deathly Swarm, and either Animate Bone Horror or Animate Bone Fiend. My rank in the Elem skills is lower, 9 at max when I put all attribute points in one type like fire (Inferno, Phoenix, Fire Storm, Meteor, Meteor Storm), or air (Lightning Javelin, Enervating Charge, etc.). I've also tried splitting points up so I have a 4-5 across all four elements.

I'm focusing right now on Dunes of Despair since that seems to be the one at which I have held out the longest so far. Regarding henchmen, I've tried many combos...1 of each profession (minus necro), 1 extra necro, 1 monk, 2 monks, 1 warrior, 2 warriors. All get wiped out around the 4:00 mark when the 2nd and 3rd siege wurms pop up and the enchanted bows/swords/hammers come in for melee with their boss.

Hopefully all this info helps. Any other advice, please let me know. It seems to me like I should be able to get through these challenges the same way I did all the others, but if the game has been updated where these henchmen are obsolete, I understand.

If you can't get another human to help you (highly recommended) then I would take the 2 monks, ele, mes, and necro henchmen. Never really cared much for the warrior henchmen and if your running a MM build then you shouldn't really need them. The monk henchmen are a given, the mesmer henchmen is actually decent against warriors due to [empathy] and [Imagined Burden], the necro henchmen will greatly help your monks with [blood ritual].

If you continue with a MM build then try putting [mark of pain][barbs][Enfeebling Blood] and maybe [Weaken Armor]. If you can manage a minion bomber build with [death nova] then go that route.

I would still recommend getting a friend with heroes to help you. The two of you could probably blow thru these 3 missions without any problems.

If I have time pm me in game and I can help.
<---IGN

If you're still stuck on this, I would suggest changing your attributes slightly. Put points into 3 attributes at most, one of which should be Soul Reaping, since it is one of the best ways of managing your energy in the game. Putting small amounts of points into every attribute means that even though you can use more skills, they will be too weak to have a significant effect in battle. (Doing this is called 'gimping' your build)

Speaking of attributes, your build's skills should synergize, or work well together. For example, [Spiteful Spirit] works very well with [Reckless Haste] and [Enfeebling Blood]. [Spiteful Spirit] does damage every time the enemy attacks, and [Reckless Haste] makes them kill themselves faster. [Enfeebling Blood] minimizes the damage that they do with these sped up attacks. Note that these are all from the curses line, as to avoid spreading your attributes too thinly. Another good example would be [Animate Bone Minions] and [Death Nova]... The minions are low leveled, mass produced death bombs, and both skills are from Death Magic, meaning you don't have to gimp your build.

If you still need help, feel free to message me in game. Although the character I'm currently playing only has access to Thirsty River, I would be happy to give build comments and make corrections if you want them.

IGN: Faye Nimbus

Thanks for the specific skill group advice in the previous post. So far got through Dunes of Despair. ALMOST got through Thirsty River with the henchmen others suggested (two monks, no fighters), but that pesky Priest/Monk Boss combo thwarted me. I tried retreating and attacking about 6 times before I finally went kamikaze.

those monk boss/priest can be hard if you don't have enough damage output (which is probably the case). since you dont have proper interrupts, I would suggest switching to the earth line and use knockdowns. if done properly they would have hard time healing each other while your warriors hit them (do take warriors for thais mission).
I hope it helps.

Wow... you can definitely do this with 5 henchmen easily... especially on a necro.

Since you don't have a hero to go MM, just be one yourself. Bring [animate bone horror] and [animate bone fiend] and [blood of the master]... and then fill the rest of your bar with random death magic stuff....

Put 16 in death magic. If you have 10 minions up, you should NEVER die. Bring 2 monks and as much damage hench as you can. Your minions should tank most of the damage for you so you can't really die. These missions are easy.