Overview of Ascension + More

Notice that this is meant to be much more of a general guide, specifics won't be given since by the time of Ascension, dealing with smaller groups should become second nature, and for further specifics on traveling to these areas, which I will cover, refer to MOOMANiBE's great map : http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=4684

Amnoon Oasis -

At the end of the Sanctum Cay mission, you'll be transported to the Amnoon Oasis, a desert town which rarely enough people remain in because of the lack of storage, so to begin your necessary journey to Augury Rock, grab henchmen more than likely, they'll work fine anway.

Into Prophet's Path, you'll begin by moving in the obvious only direction of south around the first large rock formation, fighting the scarabs that spawn (focus attacks on scarabs, since they all use life drain attacks, you'll face longer battles if you divide up damage), until you are able to turn east for a few seconds, where you should be able to note once again to your south, teleport switches and what is obviously the teleporter (notice that holding alt will give you a target of the switches).

First introduction to the world of these teleports, these are not very difficult, click on one so they all light up (if one does not, click another until some light shows on them) and then wait as the sequence begins. There are four switches, each in an order which can be noted by them lighting up in that order, at the end, activate them in the same sequence and then simply walk into the teleporter and it will move you automatically to the next one. If you fail, all of them will flash on then off and you need to start over, this can get annoying with multiple people trying to activate switches, especially a reason to suggest henchmen for the first portion. Teleports remain active for the map on that side only, meaning you will need to activate the opposite side to go back.

Anyway, continue moving south east where you'll no doubt fight some roaming bands of minotaurs, and maybe some devourers which can and will place down barb and flame traps, passing by some columns out of the sand and you'll note another teleporter along the way. Use this one as you did the first, and you'll need to simply move east to find augury rock.

Augury Rock -

Once here there are two basic missions for you to get, Ghostly Vengeance, where you must kill ten minotaurs which you'll easily do on your exploration and earns you I believe 1,000 experience and some skills, as well as one which should tell you to basically get a good sight of the mesa. If you feel so inclined to be told how to get to the missions, talk to the priest on the teleporter and agree to whatever, where you'll talk with three ghosts, this area is useless for now since I'll be telling you anyway. Alright, so find that viewing mission (forgot name, it took like half a second), and head out the northern portal to Skyward Reach.

No groups or anything is necessary for this quest at all, granted there are Hydra's about, alot of them, who are quite powerful with Meteor and Fireball, the fact is you can run there while avoiding almost all aggro, and Devona and the others should get those few that may attack. Head out towards the ranger who is overlooking a cliff and the obvious massive mesa, run near him, the quest updates, map back to Augury Rock.

You get no actual quests for heading to any of the missions, so let us begin with what everyone considers the simplest mission, the Dunes of Despair.

Dunes of Despair -

Running through the desert can be quite hazardous to your health, so I'd suggest a group, or at least bring along henchmen, as many of the groups are very difficult. Won't instruct you to fight or not to, but, if you aren't level 18 yet, that is really the minimum of what people will want for their groups, and there is no reason you shouldn't be there by now. Anyway, we'll leave from Augury Rock once again, back into Prophet's Path.

Head back towards the teleporter but turn south before reaching it, and you should come to a rather large area of dunes, complete with desert griffons, roamining minotaurs, devourers springing up from the ground, and masses of sand golems. Head south until you can note the southern edge of the map, it is a big impassable hill of sand so it shouldn't be hard to miss, you'll probably come upon a griffon boss next to it heading dead south, and with it in decent sight head west following it.

After a time (this place is quite large so don't rush it) you'll find a turn off into that map edge, which will lead you into the Vulture Drifts past a bunch of sand golems, but, we'll wait just yet on going there, as another 30 seconds west of that is the area called Heroes' Audience, with quests that can turn you into an Elementalist or Necromancer secondary, at least after ascension, just felt like unlocking that for you if you wanted.

Anyway, into the Vulture Drifts like I said, and of course begin trying to head south, there is little room to move through the first part so when you finally get to an open area where you can actually move in most directions, turn east and follow the southern wall of sand back around to the south until it turns west, then continue heading south around the rocks, until you come across some enchanter armors and such nearby a teleporter, use it, and you merely need to run down the ramp and pull a u-turn to be into the Dunes of Despair.

Dunes of Despair Mission -

There is little to this one except for continue along the path, though try your hardest to avoid the Siege Wurms which are shown quite obviously on some high rises, with a massive range, a huge amount of health, AoE damage, and really no reason to fight em. Continue along the path all the way to the west wall where you'll turn south, probably after meeting your third wurm or so and a few of the centaur patrols. Head down here and there is sort of a choice of areas to go, east or west, east is the mission, west leads to a temple with a slowing totem you can pick up, I never took note of exactly what it does, though I'd imagine slow syour opponents, so fight the group there and bring it with you back over to the east.

Here is a keep with a draw bridge before you, kill the boss nearby, the groups of archers, and then let the ghostly hero open the bridge, dropping the totem right near the middle and backing your group up to stay on your side. All of the Enchanteds will run out to meet you in small waves, shouldn't be hard to crush em as long as you remain in your position, and after about 6 of these small groups of 3 or 4, head in to fight the lone ghost now on its altar, kill him because he isn't hard, remembering to bring the totem in with you, and place it just infront of the altar.

Now you must defend the ghostly hero for 10 minutes while he does his stupid little spell, and as a bonus you need to defeat the three captains of the Forgotten, in their respective areas East, South, and West. However, I wouldn't suggest it, as right now the extra 1,000 experience won't make much of a dent, and unfortunately all of those areas are lined with two Siege Wurms who are able to assault you on the altar if you aggro them, so everyone remain in one position. The bulk of what is coming are Forgotten Arcanists and their type, so warriors may have to sit this one out a bit, if you run up about halfway to em, you'll get the wurms which can kill groups if they have more than two.

If you choose to kill the bosses, make the first sweep of an area and then at about 7:30 charge headlong into one altogether, and quickly eliminate the boss, shouldn't be too hard, I'd start with East just for the purposes of this discussion. Though, now you'll need to race to sweep back the groups, move out and head south, this will aggro the wurms but you can kill the group attempting to move up, and then turn to the west to kill the next group and run into that boss' area, this should deaggro the other sets of wurms and eliminate all opposition to the ghostly hero. Obviously when this is done, turn south.

Basic premise of this battle is to stick together and try to avoid getting hit by the Wurms, I've heard talk of them aggroing at certain times, some who didn't get any, though from what I've seen of doing it a second time with a friend, they have the similar radial aggro to any other monster. Staying your ground in this maps and winning is incredibly easy, really if you fail, don't return to outpost with that same group, there should be no reason anyone should die.

Elona's Reach -

This is perhaps the simplest path anywhere, though for a bit of time saving later on, I'll take you to Destiny's Gorge for Thirsty River. Start at Augury Rock and head out to Skyward Reach, where the Hydras were. Follow the path, trying to fight no more than two Hydra's at a time, and you'll soon have the massive mesa to your south, and here there should be a teleporter to the north. Activate it, cross it, and look there is a the portal into Diviner's Ascend, halfway there, notice though this will take you towards Elona's Reach and not give you Destiny's Gorge, I'll explain that later this is just a frame of reference.

From here, simply head north, if you hit the map edge just turn a bit east and you should be able to follow it back north for a minute until you reach another portal. Jump across it, continue following the mountain range north then around to the west, and you're inside Elona's Reach.

To get to Destiny's Gorge however, before you enter Diviner's Ascend continue on past and head south, you should begin to see grass and alot of roaming centaur bands. There are two ways to do these encounters, slowly and try to get only four at a time taking out the lifebands, or quickly and rushing right on through. If you want to fight, do the above like I said, be sure to clear the northern ledge since you don't want to try pulling too many groups, then head just beneath it and clear along the small river flowing north east. If you run it, take note that the portion closest to the mountain is a ledge, you need to go into a small ravine, but this will lead you direct to Destiny's Gorge.

Elona's Reach Mission

A few seemed to have trouble with this map as the later portion, the only real portion of it, the first portion just do not get overwhelmed by pulling to many, and learn the use of the splinter mines, you'll notice these as spined, tentacled plants with orbs floating, nearing them will cripple and bleed you, though if a person grabs them quickly enough it will only hurt them and now it can be a weapon used against your enemies. Obviously get a caster or some sort as rangers and warriors won't be able to use most skills holding an item, and setting it down will trigger it.

You need to get three pieces of a crystal and bring em to the ghostly hero, the first is quite obvious, use it over the bones of a priest to revive him, and notice this is part of a bonus, using the other two pieces to revive two other priests, this can be done at your own discretion, once again it is a bonus, and will take you out of your way, if you see a struggle for time at hand, then do not bother.

Anyway, the first portion is rather simple until you reach a wooden fence, and a cutscene. Everyone says to skip it, skip it I'd say, though people are overly caring about this one and we had 15 minutes left with a massive death to clean up from after someone autoran and gathered up three more groups for us to fight as one, and it is out of a 30 minute timer.

The Ghostly Hero will remain at this altar and you have two choices to move out, I suggest south east and moving out to defeat about two patrols max that move here. Cross the bridge, grabbing the splinter mine here, and head up (not north, but higher) where you'll see the crystal. A boss is on your left a bit as you cross the bridge, feel free to take it for the 2% bonus but it isn't necessary. Fight, grab the crystal, if you want to do the bonus run along the map edge west to find his bones, revive him, return to the ghostly hero, and run back to that position across the bridge and behind the rocks. Continue moving along, and get someone with a longbow or something to pull a few groups away from this palisaded area, there is generally a boss there and a splinter mine on the ground, fighting too much there will kill you.

Now, move up to the palisaded area and try to draw them south hard along the wall, a few steps away but, patrols roaming constantly down below can tag you if you remain near the wall. Kill them, and head directly west, where you'll need to fight four enemies around the last crystal you need. For the last priest, head north for this position, fighting a group or two in your way, and revive him. Otherwise, I honestly suggest just a straight run back through all of the unslain groups in the middle since you'll win the mission right off, or if you fear it, back the way you came around the mountain and to the bridge.

Really, it is simple, don't let the time get to you, and don't fight what you don't need to.

Thirsty River -

Some people seem to think this mission is difficult, you'll probably have the hardest time with it, but let us get you there first, and we'll start at Destiny's Gorge which you hopefully opened for you, if not go back up to read how you get there.

Starting out from Destiny's Gorge move south a bit and find a teleport slightly east, use it, and then there should be a narrow passage across the grass south. Travel across the small patch of sand to more grass and a large mesa in your way. Should be a ramp just a bit further on the north side, get up, kill the griffons, and go to the opposite end where another teleport awaits you.

Head east and south and make your way around the crescent shaped mountain of sand, and find yourself a southern path between rock, note between two sets of rock, if you are too far west this will take you away. Right in here is Thirsty River.

Thirsty River Mission -

Ok, as I said, everyone has the hardest time with this, what you will need is a completely dedicated healer, a secondary healer, two elementalists with meteor and other high damage spells, and I'd say a few warrior types that can keep themselves and others alive a bit longer.

From the start, get the Sand Giant immediately at your west, he should be alone, bring him back and kill him, they use necromancy spells and giant stomp, but aren't much of a burden solo. This will give you a 2% morale boost, there are 5 out here, however, you really only need to kill 4 for the full bonus, since one of them is out of its way through a bunch of devourers. Instead, you can gain that total of 10 through the first boss you'll need to defeat, which won't be very hard.

Continue on the obvious path forward, which would be mostly south towards a passage over a wrecked ship or something, a few devourers should be in your way to the next giant. Continue along the path over the ship and you'll fight another set of devourers, and soon make your way into an oasis of sorts. Pull the devourers out and then engage the Sand Giant on the ledge, and the fourth which should be just further along the pathway, and you'll be to your first encounter of the mission, or as I call it, Morale Boost Full.

Ghostly hero will activate it, and the timer will begin counting up, don't feel pressured, that is the first thing I must say, but do move fast basically, there is no reason to dawdle around. The first group of two or three, mostly enchanteds, should go down before 45 seconds has passed, and move quickly on to the illusions or arcanists outside of the bosses quarters. Try not to fight with the Boss at the same time, but, it won't matter much if you do. You need to be at the Boss and Priest alone at least by 1:30, at which time everyone hit the priest as hard as possible, meteors away, knockdowns and such are good. He isn't strong, but can keep himself healed if not properly dealt with, and at 2:00 minutes will resurrect all of the downed enemies in his group, that last portion is more a note for the next few groups as he won't be resurrecting other enemies don't worry. The boss is random, but tends to have alot of hp but not much damage to him, kill at your leisure and move on to the next fight.

Before moving too far along this path, talk to the hero to see who he is following. This is an exploit so don't think it is the best way to approach the situation, but, hold the ghostly hero back. From here, you can lay into the enemy groups without setting the timer, the second the hero goes near, this timer starts, so you could potentially have all your enemies down. I suggest the right side (aka northern) as you get a heightened range and should be able to down both infact before starting. Time the ghostly hero to be at the door as the first southern group is moving away, since it will take a few seconds for the doors to actually open, and you can run right to the priest, kill him and the boss. Teams wanting a bit more challenge can kill that other patrol at the door and try to kill the priest of the cleared team,then the group and priest of the other before the first 2:00 has passed.

After the first boss and priest is dead, you'll probably easily be at 45 seconds, don't press your luck and go running off to try and kill people in 1:15, this is how groups die here. Get a fresh 2 minutes to go on, at least 1:50 as I've seen groups draw this awfully close to respawn, which can mean disaster for your group with two groups and a boss after a quick moving fight to just get in there. You can also from the northern group stick to the wall and avoid the closer group, then rush the priest and go on your way to the last challenge.

You guessed it, 3 groups at once. Hold back once again, and try to kill the right, or nothern, groups first before heading in, others will be useless to get. Move in, go to that area quickly, you should be able to avoid the patrol and get the priest before having to fight others, but you will want to eliminate them.

The bonus here is I think defeating all three teams in like 5:00, but, unless you are with a group whos purpose is to do that rather than ascend (as in you already have), don't try, even moving very quick can still take you over this. From here, you already have the tactics for beating the next two teams, just defeat one then the next, making sure to get a fresh start of 2:00 on each fight.

A little side note which some teams fail to realize, if you are fearful of a respawn and have say only 20 or 15 seconds, back up, the patrols will move out and you can start again. Running in there to try to throw everythign at the priest only to be caught in that respawn is a sure way to fail, which means restarting the entire mission, as opposed to just that boss.

Ascension -

Now, you should be ready to ascend, so go back to Augury Rock for your last trial. Before moving actually on to this next part, read it, then read the advisement next for classes and strategies. Talk to the priest on the altar, and go talk to the ghosts to confirm that it has counter all of your missions done. A few have said they weren't cleansed or some problems with elona's, you can note if you have or not easy by their speech, it should of worked though. So now, after talking with them, step in the rune circle to gain divine fire or something.

As for strategies, these cover a very broad area as the Mirror Image is essentially you, your skills, with higher attributes, health, and damage, so now, how do you defeat him is the problem?

For anyone who is a Necromancer, outright I can say, get a few sacrifices besides whatever might allow him to heal up, the weaker your magic in these (which doesn't reduce the amount sacrificed) the better really. It will drain itself to 1 health where you can simply tap it and win in a few seconds.

Others, the good news is, you can buff yourself before battle and regain all of the energy necessary to start with a definitive advantage. That is really what you need to focus on, as the Mirror Image will attempt to cast all buffs it thinks are useful with the amount of energy available. This starts it on the uneven foot of having a few seconds more and a bit energy less for combat. Ineffective spells for situations such as life attunement for monks (ally deals less damage but is healed for % more) without healing spells will work if he decides to cast this on, or Flurry where he only attacks 33% faster but will take double damage (useful only if you aren't the target or quick adrenaline gain). The other portion is merely preparing for the battle, before you plan to battle, cast a short term buff and step on the last, skip the cinematic (or watch it, die, do again) and go, like ranger preparations are good. He'll still need to cast em, and if you include say trap spells, he may take the time trying to use it, hit him for interrupt, or just don't go near him (especially effective for warrior/rangers since you can make him come to your trap).

That is really the best footing you can get, there is not a sure fire way to defeat him unless you use exactly what someone else does, but, just get some preparation going for yourself, and use those seconds of openings to deal whatever the hell you can. There is a 10:00 bonus timer on it, but, if you do defeat him it will generally be done in near 30 seconds, he isn't hard as long as you know the way to beat him, the problem is getting it that way.

Ascension -

Afterwards, you've ascended, which gives you access to Dragon's Lair mission and the post-ascension points missions. I'll fill in the blanks better in a bit, people that want to add better exacts feel free to post em and I'll update with Dragon's Lair, the Points Missions, and of course whatever people can help me out with. Was alot more that was hazy than I had hoped, but this should offer plenty of advice for people still stuck on anything.

aww don't say this is going to waste...don't want to see it thrown to the bottom

Excellent Writeup, and although folks would be able to find it with a search I've found most folks choose not to use the search function. I wouldn't mind it being stickied

Yes, very informative write up.

edit: nm,I found it.

god bless you sir

started using this guide today since im almost lvl 19 and ready to ascend pretty much and just reached Amnoon or whatever it's called

and yes search is your friend

-Highly informative! Way to support the community!

Any extra tips for the Elona's mission?

I'm stuck on this one and despite telling the random parties I join/make what you've said we always end up failing. I've attempted this at least 10+ times. Got close one time but other than that we almost never get the second crystal let alone the third

Thirsty River- If you have a necro with Necrotic Traversal in your party, on the second and third boss areas he can teleport past the gate and pull mobs towards the party.

Quote: a desert town which rarely enough people remain in because of the lack of storage, It took me a while to find, but there is storage you just go up a hill to the right of the exit...

Great writeup, thanks!

Quote: Originally Posted by Vangor

Ascending sounds fun. I wish I wasn't in the middle of finals )=

This post has alot of info on ascension which some players have been wondering about like me.. id say make this a sticky if he plans to keep adding and updateing it... or if he wants ill create a webpage just for it and update it as he give me more info. up to him.

What a great guide! I've taken the liberty to rip it in its entirety and put it on the Zerolives GuildWiki, so it doesn't fade into messageboard obscurity and can be updated easily. Thanks Vangor!

Great guide, should be stickied or added to the site somewhere.

I just have to add something to this.

Basically all that these missions come down to is teamwork and following orders. It took me alot of tries on a few and it always was because there was some smart guy who decided to rush into some mobs while we were already killing some other.

For Dunes of Despair it is really straight forward and simple, the guide here is easy to understand, but I'll just add that the seige worms at the very end of the mission are not something you really have to kill, they have a long range but as long as no one decides to agro them they wont attack.

For Elona's Reach it's also very simple even if you've never done it before. The trick in this one is to not rush. You have a time limit and when alot of people see it they go OMFG!!!11!! and try to rush, this is what kills you off. I went through with a group on my 8th try and we all agreed to follow orders and take it slow. In the end we finished with about 12 minutes left and we killed off every enemy group that was in the way. Take it slow and kill everything, and if anyone tries to rush anywhere kick them out of the group when you try again. Do single groups at a time and your fine.

For Thirsty River... This was actually a hard mission or so I thought. As a Ranger I brought a long bow along with me and before opening the gates I was usually able to pick off two groups and save some time. And something that also helps is to go counter clockwise whenever you run in. The only thing I can really add is that I managed to complete this one with henchmen, and with groups the best I could get is to the third set of groups and we'd wipe. The only thing is that I finished off all of them but the healing boss, and before me and the healer went down there was an enchanted bow and the healing boss left. I had Little Thom, Stefan, and the archer along with the ghost left. Needless to say it took them a long time to finish them off, I'm not sure how long because I went to the store and left them at it, so this one is doable with the henchmen, it's messy but doable.

Sorry if I'm repeating any info, but it's all about teamwork. Up to that point in the game there is very little of it involved and the missions right afterward are the same. Ascension seems to be the point that they try to teach people to work together and alot of people have a hard time of it. My only problem was getting people to listen and not rush, it's an easy concept but not for alot of people it seems.

I've completed Elona Reach and Dunes of Despair. Did Elona Reach with 1 human and 4 henchmen. Although it was close (ie, the mobs were beating on us in the cutscreen) it was doable and we had about 6 minutes to spare. I've heard others have done it much faster, but I just wanted to complete it.

Dunes of Despair I did only with henchmen. First try was more of a test run than anything. After getting killed on the altar with the hero, I took note of the spawn patterns and figured out how they worked. 2nd time through was a breeze. I didn't want to risk going for the bonus, so I basically sat in front of the altar for a good 4 minutes while the counter ticked down.

Thirsty River, on the other hand, is challenging me. I generally do everything with henchmen, so I decided to give it a run with henchmen. Cleared the first base. Then while clearing the 2nd and 3rd bases, I got wiped because I didn't quite understand the respawn pattern on resurrection. After getting that info into my brain, I then tried for the 2nd time. This time I killed the 4th base (to the right) and then didn't know which other base to attack, so attacked the one furthest from the gate, which apparently happens to be the one with the boss priest. I wiped with henchmen because they are apparently not smart enough to run around the boss to get to my target. Rather than do that, they just stand there and get hit while being stuck in the entrance on the boss.

The 3rd time I tried it, I cleared the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th bases and then wiped AGAIN on the final boss because my fighter henchmen would not go around the boss to get to the priest. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a way to tell my fighter henchmen to focus on one mob while I and the rest of my henchmen focus on another mob. If I shot the boss, they'd attack him. If I shot the priest, they'd stand there and do nothing. This is one of those cases where object collisions really made a difference.

I tried a few more times, and each time something weird happened that caused me to wipe. For example, one time, on the first base, the roaming patrol took a completely different route than they'd taken every other time and I ended up wasting too much time chasing them around. Rather than back off (which is the recommended action - if you're under 0:45 on the clock and haven't engaged the priest, it might be worthwhile to back off and start over on that priest) I tried to engage. He had about 5% health left when it ticked 2:00 and everything resurrected.

There is also a bug related to the resurrection process. I believe it goes like this:

- 0:15 left in timer: engage a group
- 0:00 left: boss resurrects
- 0:02 into next timer: kill first mob in group I engaged
- 0:12 into next timer: kill second mob in group I engaged
- 0:16 into next timer: kill third mob in group I engaged
- 0:24 into next timer: pull out group guarding priest
- 1:10 into next timer: group killed
- 1:15 into next timer: engage priest and boss (priest first)
- 1:35 into next timer: priest dies
- 2:08 into next timer: boss dies

At this point I get no quest update, no mobs are visibly left standing, but there's a red dot on the minimap right at my dot. If I hit C, it targets the first mob I killed right after the resurrection process completed, but that mob is invisible and does not fight back. It can be attacked, nuked, etc. and it dies, at which point I got the quest update message.

I'm determined to finish this with henchmen. I've thought about it on and off during the day today and I think I have a plan for the final (2 monk) base. Here's my plan:

- Start of timer: Engage roaming group outside hut
- Timer +40: Roaming group should be dead
- Timer +1:45: Pull all non boss mobs outside to the furthest away base
- Timer +1:55: Engage 2nd group at the pull to point
- Timer +2:00: Resurrection of the first group (patrol) occurs
- Timer +2:30: 2nd group killed at the location I pulled them to
- Timer +2:40: Engage the patrol party
- Timer +3:10: Party dead
- Timer +3:15: Engage priest and boss priest alone in the hut and kill off priest
- Timer +4:10: Boss dead and quest complete

I'm going to try to execute this tonight. Understand this is doing the quest ONLY with henchmen, so I have to play games with the pulls.

Of note:

- I've tried combinations of killing the arcanists first or the enchanted {bow/sword/hammer} first and I've found that if I try and kill the melee mobs first, the arcanists just shred my parties. Since they have very few hitpoints in general, they are considerably easier to kill than the meleers.

- The champions have a ton of hitpoints.

- The bosses have a ton of hitpoints

- The bonus appears to be that you have to kill off the last 3 bases in less than 7 minutes. At the 7 minute mark into the 3 base area, I got the message that the king had departed.

- Make sure you don't accidentally leave the hero behind when you're fighting. I accidentally did that once. He's very useful in the fights.

- With henchmen, in the 3 base area while attacking the first (rightmost) base after going through the gate, make sure you move all the way to the back right of the hut before engaging the priest. This pulls all the henchmen into the hut so they don't get agroed by the patrol party that likes to roam near the front of that hut.

- As the original writeup said, take your time. If something doesn't feel right in your pull or your assault on a base, back off and regroup. This is even possible with henchmen, but you need to get far enough away from the fighter henchmen for them to disengage. If you're not sure how far that is, I suggest you fight some stuff in the desert and test it out to see how far away you need to be for them to disengage and follow you.

- Sniping is good. Even if you don't have line of sight with a weapon, it still calls a shot. That allows your caster henchmen to cast spells on the target that don't require line of sight.

- On the middle portion (2 bases) you can sometimes get the bases to fight each other if you just wait for a few minutes up by the gate. Without the hero, of course.

- When you get to a priest, unload with all you have to kill it off quickly. It's not the healing that's the bad part, but if you let the fight linger on and you're pressed for time, a resurrection is a complete disaster.

Things I haven't tested:

- I've wondered what would happen if I train all of the mobs from each base to other bases intentionally. In some areas, when you do this, the mobs that were chasing you will forget about you and try to kill the other mobs. In the 3 base area, this could be a nifty way to elimate 2 priests rapidly. Train all the teams together, then while they're duking it out, swoop in with your group and kill each priest in the respective bases. After I win this mission, I may attempt this just to see what happens.

- Pulling the final healer boss out of the hut. I noticed they'll run out a bit, but not far. Since I'm a primary ranger, I have the range on him, so I could possibly get him pulled out far enough from the base to allow the henchmen access to the priest.

Before you open the last door, try shooting the random mobs that wander around from above with bows (archer henchman should be able to hit). This way, you can wipe out a group or two before the timer starts.

Update:

I had a perfect run with henchmen last night all the way up to the final base with the healer boss. The only mobs left standing at the 9:00 mark were the boss, the priest, and 1 enchanted bow. Even with interrupts (which I tried) it was too overwhelming with 2 healers there. I had a full minute with all henchmen to kill the priest and he survived.

As someone elsewhere mentioned, I did notice that the resurrected mobs appeared to die much quicker than before their resurrection, and each subsequent time they died they seemed to be easier to kill than the previous time. So I suppose one interesting strategy would be to completely weaken all of the non-boss mobs by repeatedly killing them and then letting them respawn on the resurrection. After 4 resurrections, they'd be at -60% penalty, which would be simple to cut through.

In any case, I did a run with 5 other players and we cleared it last night. Pick up groups are a very odd thing. This group wasn't very coordinated, but we had a few heroic folks and it ended up working out ok.

These missions prove GuildWars hates me.

Well, not me specifically, but rather those like me who like to jump online at our own convenience and play with either a group of henchies or a casual pickup group, and who don't have a team of RL friends or a good guild to play with.
Why do I say this? The Elona mission has me convinced of it. The mission appears to be easily completed by a competent, organized team. By the same token, the chance of a group of random strangers getting through it is rather less than that of a snowball running a maze in a blast furnace.
After watching in dismay just about every permutation of group ineptitude, I decided henchies had to be easier. And indeed, I repeatedly made it almost all the way through - but the timer got me every time. Henchman groups need to be coddled during missions, taking it slowly (At least my ranger finds that to be true.). So I can only conclude that the time restrictions are a deliberate thumb-of-the-nose at anyone who tries it w/o a good group.

Definitely enough to break my initial addiction to the game...

First off, I'm a 20 War/Mo, with my points put into swords, though I did try it with Axes on two tries. I won it using Swords.

I did the Ehlona Mission 6 times before I won it. 5 of the 6 tries were with henchman. The 6th was with a group of people and not worth mentioning, as they had a rather unorthodox method of winning, which ironically failed in the end. I won it with henchman, with 3 minutes to spare.

I got the pre-Hero area cleared out pretty much everytime, though one of the 5 failures didn't even get me to the hero because I tried to cut across one fight and wound up fighting 3 fights at the same time which killed me.

My problems in the second part involving henchman was the fact that they wanted to follow me everywhere, so if I grabbed a mine, they got nuked even if I didn't. I probably wasted a good 3-5 minutes thru the mission waiting for the bleed to end on everyone so I could bleed the opponents and kill them faster. In all the enemy groups, it was paramount, Sage dies first, then Cursebearer, then Enchanted Swords.

For the most part it worked. I have Rebirth on my skillbar so the times Orion or Alesia died, I had them up and operational before the fight was over. For the splinter mines, I had to back my group far enough away, then Sprint to the mine, grab it and hope the group was far enough behind me to not get bleeded as I ran out the other side. I did the second shard, the one on the right, first. I usually had 15 minutes left to complete the other one, and it went pretty fast. I still think I can do better with henchman, it just will take practice. I thought I had failed on the third piece on the final try when my group accidentally aggroed the boss by the bridge going around the route where the priest bones are. After running away and letting the two idiot hencman die that never wanna run and continue to stop and try to heal themselves, I ressed them and this time took out the boss team, then waited for the next group to path away and then killed the group before the boss and then the boss group. At this point I had 4 minutes left, and was sure I would fail. Sure enough, the henchmen aggroed the group I'd easily avoided getting to the boss so i sprinted up to the corner near the entrance to the priest bones area, and waited for sprint to come back up while my henchmen tried to decide whether they wanted to fight the mobs they aggroed or follow me.

Once Sprint was ready I ran and activated it right before the snake group that spawned after the boss was killed, ran past them and they chased me all the way back to the Hero, but I still finished the mission, with henchman, no less.

At this point I think I could very easily lead a group to finishing this Mission, including the bonus, within the alotted time.