Prophecies campaign is painful

I started playing GW back in beta, and bought the game during launch and never completed the campaign, even tho I've logged 200 hours in the game >.<. With GW2 coming around the corner, I reinstalled the game and started playing again to get story, lore, and I would like to build up my HoM. These last few missions and quests are just frustrating playing through with henchmen. I hop on, try to do a quest, die four or five times and I just get frustrated and quit. I'm currently up to the Ring of Fire mission.

Am I doing something wrong? Will the skills or the heroes from the other campaigns make my life easier? Any and all tips are welcome...except those telling me to go play something else

short answer yes,
long answer...if you have unlocked the skills then yes....heroes have skills that you set for them (so they have an elite if you wish)....and you can flag them separately as well.

so yeah, get yourself nightfall and possible eye of the north (will need that if you want the HoM anyways)....

Read the wiki. All those missions were eminently doable back in 2005 with just henchmen and Prophecies skills with no consumables; they're only easier now.

Lemming said it, the game has powercreeped. What class do you play and what mission are you now?
And in the first times, prophecy end-game is mostly about pulling well and spicking to keep the titans under control.

Most people who can talk now are probably used to 2010 powercreep with full hero team, needless to say, the whole game (save for elite areas) are trivial with that kind of team. HM... that will depend, but most people can clear most of the game in HM.
An advice I could give you is to find just 1 other people to do the missions with, if they happen to have decent heroes and a modern build, you can blast throught the final missions.

EIDT: Btw it's good to see someone return and enjoy "vanilla" prophecy, I expected "QQ-proph-is-too-slow1!1!1!".
Welcome again to the game, I hope GW2 this will rekindle your interest

The hardest prophecies mission (Hard Mode) are those that you should protect someone/or do something that isn`t "seek and destroy".
1. The Ring of fire missions can be done easy if you know how to pull.
2. Another advice - monk bosses can be a pain in the ass even if you fight them 8 to 1. Make sure they are killed first/fast, cos at some point you`ll run short on energy and the monk group will start to kill you one by one.
3. Imps are bad - make sure they fall first.

You`ll find it harder to finish the first missions in hard mode where you`ll have to play in a 4/6-men-parties.
You`ll find escourt mission hard, cos the allied NPC die blazing fast.

1) What class are you playing?
2) What henchies are you using? (protip: melee henchies are almost always a bad idea, since you can't flag them individually and they tend to aggro way too much, particularly in the missions you're stuck on right now).
3) Do you have a guild or friends you can ask for help? The game is called Guild Wars for a reason.

Ah, how challenging the fire isles were, back in 2005.
When the only fire elite eles had was Mind Burn and the only earth one, Obsidian Flesh.
It's all about tactics like KPEATOP said, pulling is very important, analyzing situations before you rush in. Of course, some of the proph hench bars changed which has made it easier over the years.

I ran air+earth in 2005. I even dabbled with Deep Freeze and Maelstrom.

Glyph of energy/Glyph of renewal meteor shower is too slow for my tastes. Dug up screen:
http://i52.tinypic.com/nflny8.jpg

Before Monks had UA + Healer's Boon the only options for party heals was heal party. Divine healing/Heaven's delight were 60 cooldown and neabry range or something. No Light of Deliverance either. So in PvP you had Heal party on a Ether prodigy ele. There was no scatter.

For a short time there was ER smite, reminiscent of today's ER infuse.

First, I'd like to note that if you managed to complete Thunderhead Keep with just henchmen, you're already doing better than 90% of the 2005 Guild Wars players.

Secondly, The Ring of Fire mission isn't so bad if you do it right. Make sure you have both monk henchies obviously. Also, I would recommend that you have the necro, mesmer and ranger henchies you can take. Several parts of that (and future missions) are quite a bit more difficult with melee henchies running in and aggroing everything. Take as many ranged attackers/spellcasters as you can (with the possible exception of Cynn.... fire magic does squat in those missions).

Third, Regardless of what prof you're playing, make sure you take along a longbow/flatbow for pulling. Flag your henchies back a bit, run up and shoot a foe once or twice then let them chase you back to wear your team lies in wait. This is called PULLING, and is an essential skill for end game content.

Finally, if you haven't done so yet, join a guild. Those missions are all much faster and much easier if you have some knowledgeable people to help out (especially if they have access to heroes, PvE skills, consumables and powercreep. Good hunting!

To answer your easiest question: The heroes from the other campaigns make everything MUCH easier. A few powerful elites also make everything much easier. Certain skills (like Signet of Spirits and Panic) make a very noticeable difference.

I did the Ring of Fire missions with henchmen back when Prophecies was new. But those were the old henchmen, not the new buffed ones. It was tough, very. Painful, very.

Now, with heroes normal mode in Ring of Fire is a walk in the park. Heck, solo farmers can do a lot of some of the missions. Last time I did it normal mode about 3 months ago, last mission was all I had forgotten to do, hero and hench party health bars never got below 50%. Pulled carefully, staked party inside Ward against Elements, interrupt Mesmer with Tease or Panic forget which.

Honestly, the only reason I don't have Legendary Guardian is due to my extreme boredom about 14 missions into Prophecies.

It's not hard, it's just.....boring.

I'm a W/mo, although the only monk skills I'm using are smite hex, purge conditions, and bane signet. I've been bringing all the henchies except the ranger...the melee henchies seem to help me out a little better than the ranger. I am in a guild, I just haven't been on when they are active.

Wammo! There's your problem. (I keed!)

Kick the monk skills, change secondary prof to something more useful for a warrior or just use warrior skills. Bring monk henchies for heal/prot.

Are you doing the missions normal mode? Do you have access to heroes? Is your armor max level? Any elite skills? What's the rest of your build? Are you fully runed?

Also, if you like, this evening I can help you finish the ring of fire islands missions.

Did you hear about the guy who started in Prophecies, got to Beacon's Perch on his own, got a run to Droknar's Forge not knowing what he got into, complained that he couldn't kill the Mursaat and Jade Armors and that they killed him and his henchmen in under five seconds and ultimately, he quit Guild Wars for good because he thought it was very hard?

Guess what, about 18-20% of people who quit Guild Wars before 2006 did because of this reason.

I just completed Ring of Fire finally. What I had to do was keep pulling the mobs from the gate, and try to ignore the Ether Towers until I had the whole area cleared and I could attack them from behind. (I doubt that's what she said)

Currently my skill bar is: Irresistable Blow, Mighty Blow, Desparation Blow, "Fear Me", Bane Signet, Smite Hex, Purge Conditions, and Backbreaker. My attributes are split between strength, tactics, smiting, and hammer. I have one or two runes on my armor. The armor I currently have is from drok

Backbreaker is my only elite skill, and I just got it yesterday

Setting aside supposed powercreep, use of hench, heroes, pugs... not enough can be said about experience. Just knowing what to do where and when is often enough to make things drastically less difficult. By the time Factions came along a lot of us had done the Prophesies missions so many times that they became reflexive.

If you are building up HOM you have EoTN, you have to.

Get thee to the north and get Heroes.

On the other hand, fire magic has been insanely buffed since those days, particularly rodgort's invocation which those fire imps love. There's also a nasty spot where 4+ groups can converge on you if you don't run away. Plus as always henchies love to ball. So if that's giving you trouble after all this time, it's understandable. As mentioned heroes will pwn everything for you, but absurdly careful pulling, and a bit of tanking, will do wonders against those brats...

This ^

The last mission in Prophesies is going to be a PITA! The Spark of the Titans are nasty bastards that will party wipe you in 3 hits. Best thing to do with them is to flag your henchmen back (but still close enough to heal you), go in alone, let them blow their main skills then unflag and wipe them out.

There are some tricks to doing that mission like where to stand. how to trigger a huge group of sparks to run past you and more. If you need help, send me a PM and I can help you through that mission. I should have time later today to show you some of the tricks.