HOM - Any Rare Pet Monument

Hi,

I'm trying to get 15/50 before Guild Wars 2 releases. I'm wondering what's easier to achieve for the Any Rare Pet monument... going for a Black Moa or a Black Widow Spider.

I've completed Prophecies, about 2/3 through Nightfall, maybe 1/4 through EotN. I finally got heroes/henchmen working for me, but I'm still kinda green.

I've never done the Underworld.

I don't have any missions complete in Factions, and as I've already tried, it seems I can't just run through it to where the Black Moas are.

So, I don't which would be easier to achieve, a Moa or Spider. Any advice? Would I only have to run a few missions to gain access in Factions, or tons?

Thanks!
-SC

Since you can't take henchmen into the Underworld, and since you have no experience there whatsoever, I have to recommend getting a nice shiny Black Moa. You'll have to get to the Echovald forest in Factions, which means doing about 7 missions and the primary quests in between. However, most of these don't take a long time. Alternatively, you could get either of these pets by unlocking them with z-coins in the zaischen menagerie if that suits you better.

Edit: I forgot to mention that if you do missions in Factions to get there, make sure you choose the Kurzick faction rather than the Luxons, as the Moa quest is only in the Kurzick side of the game.

Thanks for the advice!

I did try Underworld the other day, and basically wasted 2 plat doing so. But I brought 4 heroes with me (should have had 8). Anyway, is it perhaps the area with the Black Widows that can't be accessed with heroes?

Thanks again!

To get a black widow in the underworld, you have to complete certain quests in the underworld (which have nothing to do with the spider itself) before they'll spawn. To the uninitiated (and sometimes even to the initiated) underworld quests can be quite difficult. While henchmen are not allowed in the underworld, heroes are. So, once you have seven or more heroes, you can take a full party there by yourself. Still, the quests down there were designed long before heroes even existed, so some of them tend to be very difficult to do with NPCs (one of them is next to impossible in fact).

Like Captain said, yes you can do UW with support of heroes (but not henchman) and you only need to do 2 quests (and start a 3th) to get the black widow. Still those quests like the entire area is an elite area designed to be challenging for a group of experienced players. For one with no experience at all it would be a lot easier and cheaper (cause entering UW as you experienced isn't free) to either hire help for 15k or go further into factions to get the black moa. My suggestion would be the latter. Factions is reasonable easy compared with other campaigns.

Easier way to get the Black Moa is to just join the party of somebody who has already done it's quest chain, bring Charm Animal and cap it. Did this for my g/f yesterday actually.

However you go about it, Black Moa is certainly a more accessible pet than the Black Widow is.

I got the Black Widow by myself not long ago. It was my first time in the Underworld as well. I never did the Underworld before and was very scared that Underworld in NM is very hard. Surprisingly, it only took 15-20 minutes. The monsters are very easy in NM and you should have no problem in NM with your favorite 7 hero build. (I used 3 discord necros, 2 Ineptitude/Panic mesmer, and 2 SoGM/SoS Rt)

Use this guide. http://www.guildwiki.org/Spider_run When you take "Restore the Monuments of Grenth," remember not to take any of the other 2 quests the Reaper offers otherwise more monsters are going to spawn and you'll have to fight your way out. One of the quests spawns invincible Aataxe and it'll destroy you. I learned that the hard way.

Both the Black Widow and Black Moa are very quick and easy to get. You should just do both. Getting 5 points in Fellowship will give you 2 points to your overall HoM.

Don't try to get black widow alone, you'll just waste your gold.
You can actually play this wonderful game and earn that black moa while exploring amazing world of guild wars and enjoying it.
Or, you can pay someone to play the game for you.

Depends if you're here to play the game or not