I got my survivor doing HM/NM fow. 1st half of title was in HM and then switched to NM cuz it was faster and I didn't have to worry... Since I used my ranger, I know any class can do it. I ran several different builds... SOS or Assassin Promise or Splinter Barrage or pet build and even ran ursan for fun.
Heros
Team/Heros consisted of mostly roj monks and sabs nec rit healer with a variation of several heros. Sometimes I'd mix MM skills(AoTL) w nec healer or a nec monk, SOS and SOGM rits or PI Mesmer/Panic Mes/Keystone mesmer or Para Bipper etc. I like skills that KD/slow for roj. For prots I used ST rit, Prot/smite monk or just had Aegis, prot spirit on the 3 monks. There were lots of variations that worked well enough in Fow. All basic builds are on wiki, but tweak to your liking.
Gear
All my heros have sup vigs with sup or major runes for headpieces. 40 40 set on healer and some smite monks. Staffs on others. Spears and shields could be the way to go especially if you want to mop etc. My ranger or minions were the only physicals I'd use at times. PVE skills helps a lot. EVAS, YMLAD and Finish Him...
Flags
Hero 1 Healer
Hero 2 SOS
Hero 3 SOGM
Team
If you take the time to make a triangle with the rits in front, healer in back and rest in middle or a diamond/square/rectangle/circle/smiley face etc., it will help negate a lot of AOE damage. BUT you don't need to do even that most of the time.
NM is easy.
HM just takes a little more patience/tactics. People who say semi hard areas are too hard generally don't have the right team builds or use the builds correctly. Lots of damage quickly then prots and healing.
FOW
Spacing and pulling combined with flagging heros to avoid AOE damage and protect squishies is key in most areas. Barrage and fire damage etc can decimate a team pretty quickly. Abyssals kd so you want them to be busy with minions or spirits not your heros. BUT with the right set up, you can roll most mobs before it matters. Generally I target shadow healers 1st and AP it or call and use EVAS, YMLAD or anything to trip the healer up long enough for ROJ to kill it.
The rest are easily dealt with after that. Moving from mob to mob, I just pull or time so they will be dead before any patrols show up. This could be tricky if you havent done fow much, but if you've done a few fow runs, you should kinda know what to expect. YOUTUBE is your friend if not. And bring a couple of rez scrolls jic.
Ghostly hero
The 1st area is easy enuff with small mobs and tiny patrols of shadow army. Looking out from the wall/ghost, go left. Call Monk and nuke. Then go up ridge and kill all the close groups but don't go to close to the structure cuz that could trigger the ghost ally to start. Go back toward ghost and kill that bigger group in the bottom area. There is a patrol of 2 elems that can cause some problems so time it right, but its not hard either way. If you do it quick enough and run up middle, you can kill the next mob with 2 monks. They are bunched up so concentrate on them. Some ignore the small group on right and sneak by, but soemtimes its easier to just kill that group too. Patrols(s) will be coming up the middle valley and there will lots of abyssals and barraging rangers near stucture. Kill patrols/pop ups and move to structure. Kill any groups around structure and work your way around the far back. As you get thru this, the ghost will start making his way towards structure. Clear area, wait for him to open up door and clear the structure, take the quest.. From the structure follow the wall downhill and kill all groups along way. Keep following til you hit the undead infested area which is basically the middle of fow.
Ghostly heros/Undead
Kill breakers 1st then healers. Try to keep their physical attackers locked up with spirits or minions. Since no bodies there I prefer to have spirits. RoJ cuts them down like butter. Just try to pull with bow etc, have spirits out in front and team in back. I'd run out toward them and make a triangle out of 1) me 2) spirits 3) heros. They run to me then change their minds cuz rangers suck and run towards spirits and we'd nuke breakers/healers and then clear their wars. Clear area heading to 3 ghosts in middle and watch out for patrols. If set up properly you should be able to handle a group and random patrol, but you can always run if it gets too crazy. Spirits will slow them up for you and some of your team to get away.
Tower/Forge
Get quests from ghosts and move toward tower. You'll do the book quest later. Along the way there will be group of mesmer and monk shadows. I generally kill monks 1st. EVAS to target or AP etc then an interupt is usually enough to kill the 1st monk or more depending on grouping. Same goes for the rest of the monk mesmer groups surrounding the base of the temple. Time it to avoid combining the Abyssal patrols and go around clearing them out. After all done go up top and do the same. MMs come in handy here but spirits will do some tanking/damage and rojers will mow most stuff down. Just be sure to call targets and keep squishies flagged back. Clear top and take quest. Now I like to flag heros at middle of stairs and pull the whole mob on the side that attacks 1st. EVAS works really well to stop them in range of ROJ and they go down pretty quickly. Same for 2nd side. Take all quests from top and the ghost at bottom and move on to back side.
Wolf quest
More monk mesmer shadows.. easy as pie. Then theres a decent sized physical team. Try to pull them up the hill midway and nuke. Then theres those shadow monkeys same thing and if you camp on bodies they will go down quickly. Then there's to big mixed groups of shadows with some monkeys floating around. Don't worry about the one to your left as your looking down the hill. EVAS/ kill monks etc and move forward. Theres a really big group with several monks patroling further along. You have a choice to try to kill this group that can be a pita. Focus on the monks who could be grouped together or sneak and grab the quest. I usually sneak but will sometimes have to fight. If you sneak be sure to flag your team in between bottom of hill and cave depending on patrol... 1st wolf is easy but watch out for patrol. Might want to pull it to be safe.
Cave/Spiders
Caves are easy with any decent team. I generally flag heros and run ahead to spring more pop ups and speed things up. Kill everything and complete quest then towards the end of tunnel you can run yourself and kill the wolf on the beach or kill all the spiders. BUT you really dont want to run the whole team out to kill the wolf cuz sometimes those ever spawning spiders can overwhelm your team or follow them out. If you cant solo the wolf just sit back and kill all the spiders. Get wolf by pulling him back or kill all the stuff on beach. Head out where you entered cave. Go towards left and follow road up.
Khobay
Kill that mob of shadows and shadow beasts that will pop up. Move further up there will be more pop ups and 2 patrols I think. 1 smaller one and one larger roaming one. Pull and kill rinse repeat. Kill kill kill. Then go left to deal with Khobay. Kill those healing eyes then the drakes. Kill the wurm. Follow path and take 2nd right. There may be a lower patrol to watch out for. Here is another place that some people can run in and kill khobay. If not just kill em all and leave. Go back out to the path that led you to Khobay past all the fire drakes and turn right to kill some more shadows and shadow beasts.
Tower Mage
Heres where is gets kinda interesting. Wurms, Shadow Army, A wolf, a quest or 2. For the Abyssals make sure your tanks are up and that your squishies are back. Try to pull shadow patrol so they mix with shadow monks and ranger group. If that next group is stationary its easy to EVAS and nuke hte whole group. Pull rinse repeat... Kill wurm Pull.... Clear... Pull wolf... Flag heros to stay there or run with them. Get mage from tower/forge, kill boss follow path down right side avoiding wurms...
Burning forest/Shadow Army/HYDRAS
Heres where it gets more interesting and finally a little dangerous. Its all about pulling and spacing. Hydras meteor storm is very bad in HM. Kill the eyes/healers, hydras, etc. Sometimes its better to kill hydras 1st if you can. So there's a patrol of Shadows, a wurm and a group of hydra. Sometimes they will fight each other and you can jump in to finish both groups. Depends on playing style. Safe way is to wait and kill 1 group a time. As usual flag back and be willing to run. Clear the small trail to the ghost and take quest or dont. I generally take it so I dont have to run back but there will be the Shadow army active if you do. Here you must pay attention to patrols and know that they will follow you a loong ways. So pull whenever possible. Its a gimicky area and most people die right after passing the ghost or along the right wall where that the rocks/wall stick out by a small hill. Thats cuz there are several patrols that roam or right after you pass the ghost cuz of the patrols that you will aggro if you stick too far out. You also have to pull the wolf from the middle of this area. Lots that can go bad, but if you space yourselves, pull, and take your time, its not that hard. Get the hydras asap and if they aren't dying go after healers. There is 2-3 patrols right after you pass the ghost. Watch the mini map for reds and pull a group into funnel and nuke hydras. Rinse repeat. Keep follow and killing the right side of map. Pay attention to patrols. Pull wolf and kill any mobs that follow. Pull to wall with spirits up in front. Follow wall and soon you will get to the trap. There are tons of patrols and shadow army here. Technically you only need to kill those Shadow army Abyssals, but not easy to do with heros so you will most likely need to clear the area. Notice the top of the hill looks like a great place to set spirits and pull mobs but it isnt. ITS A FREAKIN TRAP! So keep hero much further back of hill and start pullin mobs until you can get past that hill and into the next trap by follow the right wall into that little bowl that goes further in. Continue trying to pull mobs. With the right builds you can handle 2 or 3 mobs in hm, but dont do that yet. Try to get 1 or 2 at the most and be ready to run and flag them running back towards the ghost along the wall. Kill shadow army abyssals. Clear area leave and talk to ghost for reward if you want. If you are careful/lucky you can do this area quickly. If not you may have kill most of the mobs here and that can take a while. Watch the dots and kite. Spirits really make this area/game easy.
More than halfway done!
Book
Leave Burning Forest and head towards bone dragons/Book. Kill hydras etc. Kill skeles etc. Watch out for patrols. Kill bone dragon. Go up hill and pull mobs towards you. Clear out. Kill boss and get book. Kill 2nd bone or run back the way you entered. Hunt wolf. See ghosts for rewards.
Forest/Banshee
Spiders, undead, tree thingies... 2 entrances to forest. Enter forest from the right side to get wolf and clear bad guys. Remember to turn off mm skills as you get close to banshee at rear of forest. As usual flag all heros back and pull things towards the spirit tanks. Use a bow to pull undead/spirits over bridge and set spirits to the right of bridge with heros behind them. Do this til banshee becomes friendly then go in and clear popups.
Griffins
Griffin quest should have all heros flagged towards front of forest under the lil cliff where the wolf was and then you take the quest and hope the grifs dont follow you. If they do stay back and set heros to fight except healer/avoid and flag them forward to clear groups. Then you follow group just enough to see the red dots you need to kill with heros but not close enough for grifs to go to heros. Skeles are easy. Beware of shadows SS. It's slow but doable even in hm. Keep healer back and you run back if they have to run back to keep griffins from joining them.
Turn in griffs and get last wolf which is below the 1st structure you cleared in fow.
Back to tower/forge and rewards/chest
Collect reward go to tower and get chest. Grab rewards from ghosts if you want them.
I know this isnt much of a guide. But this worked for me for a dozen+ runs without dying. Probably forgot some things... Oh well.
