Stuck in prophecies

HI,

I recently bought Guildwars and am experimenting with my first character.
I am level 10 and have only one quest left: getting Altheas ashes from the Diessa Lowlands.
I tried that quest about 6 times now (it is a long way of) and I tried to get to the Grendich Courthouse at least 5 times as well.


And I am not making it! After dying once or twice I am too weak to take on the large groups of Charr.

I tried discovering other towns and outposts as well, can't find anything.
(I have Ascalon, Piken, Fort R, Northern Wall and the Sanitarium.

I must be doing something wrong! Any hints pls?!

That is one of the harder quests when you first play through the game. Try looking at the wiki for tips to your specific problems.

Also see if you can get some help from others who may be doing the quest as well or a guild member if you are in a guild.

Are you still wearing beginner armor?

I just finished that quest myself and after that I have been flying. I got lucky. I had help getting to the courthouse. But i was able to get to the actual temple before that. But the last time i got lucky as there is a portal right at it. I just had not gotten close enough to it the first couple of times. If you do die you can respawn right there with the same people you killed already. But again i had lvl 6 or 8 helpers from the courthouse I think that makes a big difference. And what are you using for henchman? I suggesting using another Elementialist as they give an extra boost of firepower.

I upgraded my armor, I have robes and so on with armor 30 now

I use level 6 henchmen from Pike Square

My class is E/Mo and I mainly use a fire/smiting related skill set


Can I get to other towns by just going there or do I need to do this quest?

The problem is your too low a level for that quest. You should be about level 14 to have an easy time with it. After you finish this quest you will find a new city with a mission that will take you further into the game.

For Prophicies I always recomend staying in Pre-searing until at least level 10. That makes the going much easier and less frustrating later on. Your still about 4 missions away from being able to aquire any hero's. Once you do things get much simpler as they are far better then the Hench.

Yes, you can reach other cities by just exploring. Though it will be very tough at your current level.

Id be glad to help you with the quest if you really think you need it done right now. IGN: Sway J

I left pre searing tool quickly i think, didn't really understand what they were talking about

Perhaps level up a little and come back to the quest at a later time. Have you done any of the missions yet? You have Great Northern Wall as a town, it is the site of the first mission. While there, press the Enter Mission button under the party window to start the first mission. The next mission is in Fort Ranik, and after it, the following outpost also unlocks more quests in parts east of Fort Ranik, including more skill quests. More skills help too.

-Rose

Sometimes in the game you get ahead of schedule and end up doing missions a little early in your character lvl.
Do some exploring kill bad guys collect and or sell things you find till you gain a couple of levels.

The main problem with that mission is the assault on the final area to get the ashes.
Clear everything else around then try to draw the enemies down from the top a few at a time.
Use a bow to do this flatbow or longbow so you do it at maximum range, skill with the bow isn't important your not trying to do a lot of damage just annoy them.
So fire one shot and run while the arrow is still in the air, pulling enemies is an important skill used frequently in the game.

Its not easy because they have increased range due to height advantage.
Its possible but difficult if its still too hard then go gain a few levels and try again.
So just explore everywhere else you might find some other side missions to do to gain the levels.

You are all very kind!

Thx for the feedback

I will try to figure something out!

Give me your IGN and I will help you.

Give me a shout in game (IGN: Aria Silverfyre) and I'll be happy to give you a hand with whatever you need ^^

hmmm.. peeps arent selling her ashes anymore? i know i farmed those ashes for weeks and just sat in piken till i sold them all off. its been a while, but i used to sell them for 750g

Im me (Kojima Miharu) and if i ma online i will come help you too. level 10 is a little difficult to do that part.

Nobody's picked up on this...

Althea's Ashes is a totally optional quest that has no impact on your progression within the game. It is a "secondary" quest, whereas important quests that take you to the next mission are called "primary" quests, and are listed at the top of your quest log.

Assuming you've already done The Great Northern Wall, you would have ended up at Frontier Gate, from where the primary quest is Ruins of Surmia - which leads to the mission of the same name.

You missed Fort Ranik .

The Great Northern Wall is first, then Fort Ranik, then Ruins of Surmia.

I did the Diessa Lowlands quests when I was about the same level as you (on an E/Me). They were extremely challenging, I won't deny that. It didn't help that I was new at the game and didn't know my way around anything. But the thing is... I enjoyed it immensely. I thought, now here is a real challenge. Gotta really earn those massive XP rewards.

So I kept at it and eventually finished them. I was at 60% Death Penalty by the end of Althea's Ashes and painstakingly dissassembling the Charr teams one by one reminded me a lot of Commandos. (It was easier than Commandos actually. In Commandos you couldn't afford to leave bodies lying around, or to approach the groups in any order.) It's outstandingly good practice that you will treasure later. It teaches pulling, flagging henchies, strategic thinking, all sorts of things.


On another (possibly unrelated) note, I think it was the Diessa quests that really opened my appetite for the game. I started exploring a lot, even ran myself all the way to Lion's Arch, skipping the missions. I'm very glad I did it. IMHO the missions take you over the mountains way too fast. There are entire areas and outposts that you'll never get to experience or even see.

They're sad desolate areas (Ascalon after the Searing or cold mountain passes) but there's a wild, harsh beauty to them as well. The feeling is incredible (the artwork, the detailed landscapes, the sounds, the music). Little things, like seeing the first signs of snow and the first juniper bushes after the Ascalon desert that made me realise how much I missed Pre. It's probably the memories of that trip I'll treasure most of Prophecies, the excitement before I got jaded.

Not to mention you may need to do it someday anyway, and it pays to have previous experience. You may want to run a buddy from Ascalon to Lion's Arch, or you may want to bring a Factions or NightFall character to Ascalon.

Taking on higher odds as a low level character teaches you a lot. Some things are simply impossible (for example, I couldn't get out of Beacon's Perch on the Droknar side at that time, I always got pulverized) but you learn WHY they're impossible. And I did get to Lion's Arch, and to Elona, and Cantha, and Eye of the North, and did a lot of secondary quests around them. So what I'm trying to say is that you'd be surprised what you CAN do if you persevere. But you gotta use your head too, read build advice, read the wiki hints for all the quests and areas you're in, think about what henchies to use, how to approach mob groups.

I have gotten some help ingame

I had not properly finished the Fort Ranik quest.
It didnt say that anywhere (bug?), so the only quest I had left was the ashes one.
That made it so frustrating.

I have finished the ranik quest now and have some things to do, am level 11 now.
Will try on the ashes quest again in a while.

As for pulling enemies: I can do that.
My strategic thinking is OK I feel, am new to GW but not to RPG.

Flagging henchies however I do not know what that means: is it positioning them in a smart spot using the green flag? I do that as well

SO, thx for all the good advice!

I recently started a couple characters in Prophecies, for a change from end game content and HoM grinding, a level 10 Warrior and a level 10 Monk. Both have finished the Great Northern Wall Mission in Fort Ranik.

If you would like some company during your adventures through Prophecies, feel free to add me or whisper me in game Amd Speed.

Oh bugger - I swear that senile dementia is setting in

Yeah I've been bitten by that myself. I couldn't even find the first mission (Great Northern Wall) because of this. You have a clean quest log and nothing in the game suggests what you should do next. You get hints from NPCs that you should go talk to a person and that person is nowhere to be found (he was inside the mission). I had to be told eventually that the trick is to push the little "enter mission" button on the party window, that only appears in certain outposts. :/

It's probably worse if you have one hard quest left because you have all the reason to suspect you HAVE to finish it to move on. Or you're thinking "hey, I must've missed the NPC that gives a primary quest". Because that's what Pre teaches, that everything is done via quests. They should have added a "real" mission to Pre or some popup hints in the early mission outposts.

Anyway, the thing is to use the map. Outposts that offer a mission will have a shield not a simple disc. Completed missions will have a sword through it (or two if you also completed the bonus part). The shield for the next mission in line will glow.