I ran several attempts with various builds and hero combinations which I didn't get very far with. My biggest problem was the lack of a meat/ spirit shield due to the afflicted necros stealing them (or doing whatever it is they do) and struggling for protection (ST and ER ele didn't run on the heroes properly and micro managing for me isn't ideal).
Eventually I decided the best way was to try and take down the groups as quickly as possible to theoretically reduce the amount of damage they can deal. I ended up running 4 heroes with bars like this (I was necro SoS):
Me: OAhjYkHpITXTlTVT2BVV4iylwlA
Xandra (SoGM): OACiAyk84sPbfzNX0mcmcdmA
Master of Whispers (SLW healer): OAhjYgHaIPpzo5FrqKNncDzxJA
Razah (E-surge): OQhkAoC8AGKzJY6Z6yBDhMwy/iB
(Sorry I don't know how to make the skills show up and stuff).
I ran SoS as it was the only viable way (IMO) to provide a shield as well as damage output at once. As I mentioned I tried several other builds before resorting to this but the damage output/ protection was insufficient. Any profession can run this (swapping out necro skills of course).
Xandra provided the main damage output, just make sure to micro SoGM as she sucks at using it.
Master was just to push red bars up. Experience from previous runs showed me that even running dedicated protection was pointless because if they got through, your party was wiped anyway, this allowed my party though a bunch of ele, mesmer and rit encounters.
Razah was there because I honestly couldn't think of what else to run and I thought some interrupt would be pretty good (PI or Panic would have probably done a better job). This can probably be swapped for whatever you fancy as he wasn't doing a particularly good job of interrupting.
Idea is simple: set up spirits about an aggro bubble away from the group flag them just behind, aggro, activate SoGM, return, drop ward and begin casting. PI eles, mesmers, rits (I did it in that order as I found these caused the most damage), enfeebling blood on melee and later on casters/ rangers. Scavengers are pretty easy.
~~~~~~~DO NOT AGGRO MORE THAN ONE GROUP AT ONCE!~~~~~~~~~
The run took around 45 mins as I went afk and wiped twice. I believe the time can be significantly reduced and I think it would also be possible to run it without wiping. I ran a combination of the 2 routes on wiki. Also, I took the island path for the last peasant as it said I could aggro the afflicted before the retard AI could find me, but I got screwed over on that due to the fact the afflicted were literally directly on top of the AI and I wouldn't be able to get close enough to pull without triggering. So I just Rambo'd the last group like a boss and the peasant was fine.
Again, this is what I found to be the safest and most successful with minimal deaths and effort micro'ing. There are probably more effective builds but I don't know as I haven't played the game for a long time until recently.
Thanks for reading and I appreciate thoughts and opinions.
d


IV adds some damage after you get your 1st kill so the whole group will go down quite fast. After you're done with all groups in the area just camp your heroes in another spot and repeat. I had some difficulties pulling the group next to the 2nd peasant because at least 1 patrol always charges in even if they're nowhere near at the time of the pull. If you flag your heroes just outside of the door you'll probably be fine though - minions will bodyblock the door or you can block it with your spirits, whatever works.