New player and Hell's Precipice

I just picked up the game not too long ago and I made it through most of Prophecies, but hell, is this one last mission difficult. The Titans are easy enough to kill, but the goddamned Sparks, if I'm not EXCEPTIONALLY careful, they wipe out my entire party in just a few hits.

I assume if I kept trying, I'd eventually clear it, as I managed to get up to Rurik, but I really don't wanna fail over and over again and tear my hair out over this mission. I'm playing games to relieve stress, not to add to it, lol.

As a new player I don't have access to any cool heroes and stuff (I only have M.O.X, Vekk, Gwen and Stonehealer, but I'm pretty sure their skills are crap). Is there a way to make my experience as painless as possible? I can't seem to find a party, as there are few people left playing Prophecies...

Oh, and also - my char is an Ele and I own all three campaigns + EotN

Ill be glad to help you out.. the problem is with your hero setup. whats your in game name?

The Sparks are pretty nasty if you aren't prepared.
A few things you can do:

1 - Positioning. Use the flags under the compass to spread your heroes and hechmen out. This will reduce the total damage recieved from the Spark's strong area-of-effect attacks.

2 - Party Healing. Bring spells which area-of-effect heal, Monk spells like Healing Burst, Divine Healing/Heaven's Delight or Extinguish are good here, Ritualist spells like Protective Was Kaolai and Feast of Souls, or Ritualist's Spirits like Life or Rejuvenation also work, aswell as Paragon shouts like Never Surrender! and chants like Aria of Restoration, Ballad of Restoration and Song of Restoration.

3 - Damage Reduction. Make sure your team has damage reduction; It's infinetly more effective than just redbar healing damage up as you take it. As this is only NM and you are almost there anyway, single-target Protective Spells from the Monk Protection line and the odd Ritualist Weapon Spell might be enough to tip the balance in your favour; But ideally you'd want party-wide protection, offered via Ritualist Communing Spirits (Shelter and Union most notable here; Displacement can help with the Hands/Fists of the Titans) or Paragons ("Stand your Ground!" or even "Watch Yourself!" from a Warrior secondary).

As most of the damage here is Elemental, Ward Against Elements will be a good alternative, and if you can capture it, especially Ward Against Harm; These are Elementalist skills so you can bring them yourself.

For another round about option; There's a few Ranger skills that could be useful here. Giving everybody Runes, Skills and/or Equipment that protect against Cold damage and having somebody carry Greater Conflagration (which can be capped in the very same mission) and Winter will both greater aid your defense as well as increase your offense (seems Titans are weak to Cold Damage which everything will become with these two Ranger Spirits in play).

4 - Disruption. This may be a bit harder to get your head around; But another option is to shut down the Sparks so they can't use any skills on you. Mesmers are ideal at this, with skills like Panic, Psychic Instability, Cry of Frustration and Mistrust; But more generic interrupts or energy-gaining interrupts like those in the Inspiration line will also work. You could probably get away with a Choking Gas + Practiced Stance combo on a Ranger for multiple shutdown here too. Paragons and Rangers could help out here with Dazing skills, and the Ranger's plethora of interrupts too, though you'll need more of them than if you were bringing a Mesmer. Still, the odd one or two here and there will help regardless.

You can also try with a party full of henchman instead of heroes. Henchmens are better than heroes with starting skill set.

Quote: Originally Posted by Godspeedno1

You can also try with a party full of henchman instead of heroes. Henchmens are better than heroes with starting skill set. In most situations I totally agree, but not in this case cause henchman aren't flagable to spread out. So they are an easy target for the sparks aoe.

If you have Eye of the north I would recommend bringing and using the skill pain inverter on the sparks. Besides that is the skill extinguish on one or two hero's a great help in this mission.

Dealt with thanks to Elvis Doppleganger vel Scorpian Monk (not sure if he posted in this thread), as well as a warrior by the name of Alexandritte Pyro, heh. But thanks for the suggestions, I'm sure they will come in handy eventually anyway.

But if the remaining campaigns are supposed to be even harder, I can imagine I'm going to have some trouble wish me luck.

Hell's Precipice is infinitely harder than any of the other final missions. The other 3 are incredibly easy to do, amongst the least challenging missions of the whole game.

Quote: Originally Posted by akelarumi

In most situations I totally agree, but not in this case cause henchman aren't flagable to spread out. So they are an easy target for the sparks aoe.

If you have Eye of the north I would recommend bringing and using the skill pain inverter on the sparks. Besides that is the skill extinguish on one or two hero's a great help in this mission. This can easily be overcome by bringing the prot henchmen along (or Ogden with a few protection skills like prot spirit) and flagging the whole team back out of aggro range (but in range to cast on you) and taking the initial volley yourself. The worst of the spells the sparks will throw at you generally have long recharge times. Note: this trick also works in hard mode for a whole lot of locations.

Well if going for a tank 'n' spank like approach as an Elementalist you wouldn't even need a Monk to do it for you. You could just throw up Armor of Earth and Stoneflesh Aura and you'd be good to go to absorb the intial spell volley. Shield of Absorption from a Monk somewhere (or maybe even just on a secondary) would make things even easier though.

Quote: Originally Posted by Routine

Dealt with thanks to Elvis Doppleganger vel Scorpian Monk (not sure if he posted in this thread), as well as a warrior by the name of Alexandritte Pyro, heh. But thanks for the suggestions, I'm sure they will come in handy eventually anyway.

But if the remaining campaigns are supposed to be even harder, I can imagine I'm going to have some trouble wish me luck. The other campaigns are pretty easy. Though Nightfall when you get into the torment realms can be quite difficult to. It should still be easy because then you'll get even wider access to more heroes.

Quote: Originally Posted by akelarumi

In most situations I totally agree, but not in this case cause henchman aren't flagable to spread out. So they are an easy target for the sparks aoe. That doesn't really matter. This mission was and is possible with henchmen without flags, but most people don't ever need to play that way anymore once they have access to heroes.

Basically, you just pull with a longbow and move yourself to force the henchies to follow you out of AoE, and force them to concentrate on one foe at a time by calling every target. It's even easier with flags, since you just watch the enemy for casting animation, and then move the whole hench ball around with the party flag.

Captain Bulldozer's comment is also correct.

IMO Hell's Precipe actually is the easiest of all the final missions of the 4 campaigns if you have any half way decent 7 hero build. The "hardest" part may be triggering the bonus since you have to keep the Seer alive (he can die before you get to him).

As mentioned, flagging your party apart, having some form of disruption, pulling and knowing which foes to target first are keys. Panic along with skills like Mistrust probably works best as they're usually at least a few that will bunch together (especially if you know how to pull and use angles). Minions and/or properly places spirits (can also be used as bait for their spells).

Sparks are clear and by far the most dangerous so follow this standard sequence: a) flag 7 hero party to 4 groups (you are the 5th), b) pull (use the rock bridges and narrow paths to bunch them as much as possible), c) disrupt, d) kill.