Ascension Missions

Dunes is fine the way it is, one of the missions has to be the 'easy' mission. Elona isnt too bad I got it on about the 8th try with a PUG. Ill admit that river is, well, my neighbors must think someone is being murdered over here every time that mission ends. Im currently on day 5 of trying to do it. Always some level 20 noob that does something extremely stupid like pulling aggro with 45 seconds until next rez, taking the ghost into the chamber with them, or dragging massive aggro back to the party instead of just dropping dead like they should. I think the real problem is that poor players cant get past this point, so there is a huge buildup of them causing a greater than normal level of idiocy in PUG's. Another problem is that group on the left with its instantly healing priest. Ive had it down to 1 hitpoint only to have it pop back to full health in 2 seconds. Hell, I can hench the other 5 teams.

I was bitter after my ascension too. I initially didn't think I should be required to play my character in any way other than I had for the last 20 levels. Then I sort of accepted the intended purpose, to get me to think more broadly and objectively about my own skills and how to use them. It's all good and well that I enjoy being a cleric in every game I play and I cling to the job...but the real lesson for players here is that no matter your build, no matter your strategy, it can be countered with what you have available. It's up to PLAYERS to figure out how to do this with reason and deduction. It's a disservice to the playerbase that the end-game players majoratively no longer have to come up with a strategy for facing their mirror selves. They just goodle or check their favorite GW site for their build.

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I'll say this about River. In hindsight, the ways we tried it the first two times made it real easy to beat the third time. First off, my group was awesome and noone left after the first two tries. That group on the left we saved for last and they killed us twice. The third time in, everyone was pissed so we just charged in there and took them first. Cakewalk after that.

In retrospect, I find the desert missions to be kind of overkill...not undoable, just too much.

Consider: Large groups of crittur x, dangerous enough already. But as you approach a group cautiously you suddenly hear the churning sand and now you've got six scorpions to deal with as well. Any way to detect their presence beforehand? Of course not, you're just screwed, count on (minimum) half the party dying.

Then there are the dragons, of course--when all three turn at once and alpha strike whichever character they choose dead, dead, dead. Not much defense against this one, really--if you can interrupt a meteor you might live through the first volley, but here come the fireballs. If a group changes direction and hits detection range...you're just screwed.

It just smacks too much of death by randomness. Good practice for the latter missions, but man Glint's mission(s) were an absolute walk in the park by comparrison. Some missions with L24s are easier than this desert.