Thirsty River: The Crying Game

SisterMercy

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2005

Sisters of Mercy

16 May 2005 at 20:39 - 1

Is it just me, or is this mission nearly impossible to do with PuGs (never mind henchies)? Not to mention that healer monks are extremely rare (some are even offering gold to any monks who get them through). I've spent nearly all Sunday and part of today at it, and it seems like every time the group I'm in gets into the right headspace to do the mission (i.e. you don't rush in and hit everything in sight), someone has to leave and we end up picking up someone new who won't listen to reason. Either that, or we have healers that don't heal (yes, I understand the appeal of the smiting monk, but for this mission, I think monks need to make a concession... you simply can't do this without two healers).

Fair enough, I suppose. I botched the very first attempt I was in, too, but owned up to it and learned from it. For some, it's like 5 or 6 tries before they figure it out or stop and listen. By then, there's another reckless newbie on the team.

The most success I've had with my W/Mo is by converting all my attribute points and skills over to monk ones, equipping a wand and focus that give me + energy (26/26) and performing as secondary healer. I usually get to about the end with that setup unless someone's really boneheaded (although I've had a couple of complaints along the lines of "what the hell is our Warrior doing? She's not aggroing").

Sorry for the vent, but it's really frustrating. I got to Amnoon at Level 16 and had some really good help with the first team from there (thanks Dm Elem!) but crashed in the last mission. And just to show how many attempts I've made at this, I've already leveled up to 19, and am 1/3 of the way to 20. Finally hand-picked a group today (1 Monk plus me as support heal, 2 Warriors, one Necro and one Elem), and got all the way through, killed all the priests, killed all the bosses and 3 of us were pummeling the very last mob when I had my third crash of the weekend (and yes, I'm investigating why that happens).

So I've done this upwards of 50 times... up to the last 5 seconds, where we win. It's enough to make you cry.

*Please* Any suggestions from folks who've done this mission?

Kopus Tol

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

16 May 2005 at 20:47 - 2

Hi Sister Mercy! The group still wasn't able to do it after you left. I'll be on tonight probably, so look for me on your buddy list if you still haven't completed it by then.

Shadow_Avenger

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

Stolen Dreams

R/Me

16 May 2005 at 21:17 - 3

Found the Elona mission harder, did the river with the second group I joined, took 10 groups before finally go a group that worked together to do Elona. The Dunes one is the easiest, did that with Henchies.

Adaria

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2005

Florida

Wayward Wanderers

E/Mo

16 May 2005 at 21:24 - 4

We finally beat Thirsty River last night with one or two people, even a Healer Monk but he didn't do his job! He refused to heal a few of us at times and... well to put it as a friend did, you could almost smell the weed through the mic, at least we got through it by sheer luck... That last priest is a pain...

Spooky

Bokusatsu Tenshi

Join Date: Dec 2004

Bellevue, WA

KEA

E/Mo

16 May 2005 at 21:24 - 5

I finished Thirsty River with only henchmen on the first go about two or three hours ago while I was getting some site work done, so it is possible to do it with only NPCs. I'm fairly certain that the map has been fixed so that each time the enemies respawn, they incur the Death Penalty (as a real player would in Tombs, which this is meant to be a 'precursor' for.) So if you find a group in particular is giving you trouble, just hang back, let them come to you, and kill them a few times before going in after the Priest. This way, even if they do rez again, they'll go down quickly.

If it makes any difference, I was doing this with a Death Nova based Minion Necro, so the burst AoE made Priest camping quite a bit easier. For whatever reason, the Forgotten Armors have exploitable corpses on this map (they don't on any other map) so I could pretty much just hang out and overwhelm them until they finally broke. I wouldn't suggest doing it with henches if you're trying for the Secondary objective though, since you need to finish the mission post-haste to get it.

Mephala

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Apr 2005

16 May 2005 at 21:25 - 6

I found this mission terribly difficult to. Took 17 tries before I was successful. It was all in the makeup of the team, 2 warriors, 2 monks, 1 elem, 1 necro and very careful teamwork. I felt lucky this pick up team listened to the leader and worked well together.
Bring your signet of capture, I had two teammates capture elites. No, I don't know which ones . . .

Phaedrus

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Apr 2005

16 May 2005 at 21:31 - 7

Quote:

Originally Posted by SisterMercy

*Please* Any suggestions from folks who've done this mission? For your core I suggest:
1 or 2 warriors, damage dealers preferred over tanks.
1 decent interrupt mesmer.
1 ranger proficient with dots.
1 pure healing monk.

You can suppliment with another monk and whatever else you want. The key is really teamwork and cooperation. Someone needs to know what's going on at all times; that person should be directing the rest of the group. Healers shouldn't attack if at all possible (a shameful lesson many healers haven't learned by this part of the game).

When attacking, position is key. The entrance to the priest's chamber should always be body-blocked in case of a team res. If you keep two people there, you can limit the healing strain on your monk(s) while guarding the tender fluffy nougat-filled casters. *Always* keep your monks inside the chamber, off to the side where they can't be seen by enemies! Many monks get to this mission without having current (45-51) armor, and it tends to show.

Every two minutes the enemy priest will res. As I understand it, the mobs come back with dps. This may be false, it's something I can't readily verify. That said, your goal should be to take down the priest before a 2:00 mark.

Before you get mad, I'm not trying to be patronizing, just laying down basics. :P

Depending on the make-up of your team, you'll have varied success with defeating the enemy priest. If you try to rush while his team is alive, you'll probably overtax your healers (unless you've got some real talent with you). If you *can* pull this off, do it. Otherwise take out at least one set of three before you rush the priest. This is where intererupt mesmers are handy...healers are easy to destroy if they can't cast. A couple of interrupts will deplete him of his energy and you'll be able to eat him whole.

A priest should take about 60 seconds to kill if you're focusing and have four people attacking. If you actually have coordinated attacks and skill chains he could be dead in anywhere from 10-15 seconds.

The only hard part should be your very last battle. Why is it hard? You're going to have to kill a priest (who heals himself) who is guarded by a blue boss. This is where your ranger can come in serious handy. While you focus on the priest, have the ranger occasionally poison/bleed the boss. If possible, have someone toss hexes (no matter how strong or useful) on the boss at regular intervals. Distracting them both in this manner will give you a win. Whether eventually or quickly is up to your team. Remember, all enemy priests are bleedable/poisonable (their troops are not always) and they only use spells.

Good luck!

[ ]

skodko

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

16 May 2005 at 21:33 - 8

I handpicked a group too... 2 W/Mo, 2 Mo/.., me (Me/Mo) and a N. I had tried it three times before, where the group screwed up, but its just all about patience and enough heal... never engage in combat before the res. When i finally found a group that accepted that they had to follow tacs, it was actually quite easy.

Pevil Lihatuh

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Apr 2005

Yorkshire, UK

R/Me

16 May 2005 at 22:10 - 9

Yep i had huge trouble with this too, mainly coz of the groups. And of course i know i screwed up myself a few times. Just a few tips:

1. If you have ranged attacks, use them for the 2nd and 3rd areas. If you don't open the door you can take out a nice few of the groups before the timer even starts, making it easy to at least rush in and slaughter the first priest.
2. Always concentrate your fire. If you do this then you can easily slaughter the priest even with the boss healing him.
3. Whoever has a proper res spell, keep them at the back so if things look perilous, they can back out. quickly.
4. Tell the Ghostly Hero to wait just inside the door. Stops him being killed (nothing more frustrating than losing only because he died)
5. If you have to wait for the next 2 min mark, try to drag one of the groups to you at the 1.45 mark; this way you should nearly have them dead by 2 mins and they'll go down within a few seconds of the 'respawn'.
6. Lastly, don't be afraid to draw back, heal and rest up. If they respawn, so what? It's better than heading in after a boss and priest with only half health on everyone.

Lord Malikai

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

Colorado

Imperial Fist Guild Leader

W/E

16 May 2005 at 22:53 - 10

Just wait until you get to Hell's Precipise!

Jab

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

17 May 2005 at 00:00 - 11

i agree it's no so much that this mission is tough, it's that people don't understand the concept of working together and focusing on a single target. My first group we beat the first team in 1.25 that was everyone. It was great until someone needed to leave. my second group, they didn't seem to understand working together, and wasn't even able to beat the first team. I think tonight I'm just going to say screw it and run it with all henchmen.

Terek

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

17 May 2005 at 02:40 - 12

I tried this one 3 times or so before starting my own group and being a right bastard about ordering people around. That 4th time was cake though

You don't need a really specialized group - 2 warriors, 2 monks, and any 4 others could probably do it as long as they have decent DPS. I'd recommend one Backfire mesmer though, even if just a mesmer secondary, as it makes killing the priests much easier. The most important thing is to always watch the clock and never attack if you are not sure you can kill the entire team before the 2:00 warning. After the first team of a multi-team match, just be sure to not start attacking until 10 seconds or so before the next 2:00 mark - even if it means sitting still doing nothing for close to 2 minutes and ADD kids getting bored.

Other than that, the teams all set up basically the same way. Pick the roving groups off outside the base 1 at a time, and just be sure to kill them by the 1:30 mark. Then rush the base, kill the priest, and ignore the boss. You can happily kill the boss and anyone else left after the 2:00 mark with the priest dead.

SisterMercy

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2005

Sisters of Mercy

17 May 2005 at 04:46 - 13

Thanks to everyone that commented and helped out. We finally did it!

(Kopus, after you left, we did 2 more tries, and made it on the 2nd. Took our time -- didn't worry about the bonus -- stuck to, uh, strategy and made it. But I'll try to catch up with you tomorrow, and if I'm not in a mission and if you need it, I'll lend you a heal. Just got to watch my attrib refunds).

Had a good team. Everyone listened and worked together. Of course, some of the other teams were quite good too, but if just one person flinched... well, you don't want that in this mission.

Kershent

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Apr 2005

17 May 2005 at 04:55 - 14

First of all, two monks is NOT necessary. I did it flawlessly with one monk healer (AMAZING healer, thanks Rawring Kitty! <3!) on the group's first try (not everyone's first, though). The one thing people seem to miss here is the importance of a good Memser, and I'm SO glad that others in this thread have pointed it out. A Mesmer can load up on interrupts, and can bring Diversion, and can prevent any difficulties with priests, and allow for an easy win at the last fight.

Mwahahaha...I still get all tingly when I think about screwing over that monk boss. Diversion after Diversion until finally all he could do was attack us, then I worked over the priest. So satisfying...

Most importantly, though, is to be persistent. Stay with the same group, even if you have to replace some people now and then. You'll get it eventually!

Eclair

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2005

17 May 2005 at 07:40 - 15

Mina

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Apr 2005

17 May 2005 at 09:20 - 16

My groupd did well with 2 monks, one henchmen monk and real player monk, and 2 necros. Rest were caster/fighters. Necros would port inside and lure mobs within bow and spell range and we'd kill em off before the timer even started. Kept the Hero way back. once the adds were dead we rushed the left side priest. Killed in then left that boss there. We rushed the middle priest killed it and the middle boss. Then killed the left boss. Waited, for the right side to rez and then we cleared the first group on right side. Rushed the priest, then mopped up. Win!

Zorlag

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

17 May 2005 at 15:32 - 17

Just finished this with good group (they actually exist o_O). I just stuck with same 4 people for multiple attempts (for some reason our warriors kept dropping out). I'm a mesmer too and I agree that anyone who finishes this with henchmen is either extremely lucky or great player. Those two priests are pain to take out without AoE interrupts (meteor storm is great to drop on the last priest and Maelstorm should be good too) and mesmer hexes. I kept slapping Blackout on the boss and rest of the party killed priest. Party wipe was very close but we prevailed. As a bonus our groups Monk grabbed Words of Healing.

Davey

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2005

R/Mo

17 May 2005 at 17:00 - 18

It was pretty easy with my group (We did dunes of despair beforehand so we already knew eachother a bit):

2 W/Mo (One being yours sincerely)
1 Ne/..
Alesia (Healer HenchWOman)
1 Mo/..
1 Ra/..

It was really easy as even though we all got knocked out once at the same time, one was still left and since we all had at least the iq of a dog, she understood that she had to run and revive us later. She managed to do so and we got a bit pissed on the enemies so we whiped out their pixels for revenge. =)

Hell Marauder

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

21 May 2005 at 16:09 - 19

This mission begs for a balanced group with at least one messmer or ranger. And it's nearly impossible to solo this mission with henchmen either. With soloing several times I was able to reach the last priest guarded by that healer boss, only to realize the pathfinding AI of henchies is so bad that they can't reach priest, let alone attacking him at the same time. So this is one mission that requires true team efforts from human players, not npc's.

hellraisin

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

22 May 2005 at 08:40 - 20

took me 4 tries, one of them is with hench just to check things out. the problem is the last group where the boss and priest both heal. the key for our group was to distract/beat up boththe boss and priest at the same time. once the priest is down, the game is won. if you have a monk that can remove blindness, warriors will be much more effective in killing the priest.

Spike

Jungle Guide

Join Date: May 2005

In front of my PC

Kai

E/Mo

22 May 2005 at 14:01 - 21

So ME being a E/me is pretty much screwed then by the looks of things

Oh well might as well go play my W/MO then

MasterDinadan

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

The Zaishen Force

Me/E

22 May 2005 at 14:36 - 22

I just did this mission yesterday, and I will agree it was difficult, but here's the strategy used by my team...
Two of the people on my team were necros. They both set the skill Necrotic Traversal because it allows them to teleport. We cleared out the first group of enemies in less than 2 minutes, so no troubles there. Then on the next groups, we just sniped a few enemies before openning the doors, the necroes traversed to the corpses and then lured MORE enemies over to where we could reach them, then they went and killed all the enemy priests (they couldn't manage the bosses so they just nuked the priests and ran) so we could open the door without worrying about anything rezzing. The enemies don't rez if the door isn't openned so they had all the time they needed to kill the priests.
It was cheap, sure... but it got the job done.

Bloody Knight

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2005

22 May 2005 at 14:47 - 23

Also note with Necrotic Traversal u can lure the enemy teams near each other and the fight (I even got a hero to kill another hero) and if u are lucky enough u get a W/N and a M/N they can pretty much kill all the prests so when u open door all u have to do is take out the Hero

ajeh

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

22 May 2005 at 15:08 - 24

I'm not sure why you guys find it so difficult and say that it's impossible with henchmen. I found groups to be absolutely terrible and ended up using henchmen and winning. The only thing is though I was dead and the only ones left were Stefan, Thom, The Archer and the Ghost Hero. They took a couple minutes but they finished the boss off.

It may have helped that I was a R/Me and I think my Backfire does 90ish damage everytime they cast a spell and I brought along my interupts as well. The priests all went down fast except the last one, he got a respawn in while I was killing him. But he still went down, the only real trick is switching targets and having the henchmen switch as well and the boss healing up. But with distracting shot you can stop them from healing for a good 20 seconds and I think that was essential.

After I finished it I just had to laugh at the idiots that were making perfect groups of two Monks, two Warriors, two Elementalists etc and not doing it while I, a simple little not wanted Ranger managed to do it with henchmen.

Iffy Shot

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

25 May 2005 at 10:24 - 25

I did this mission with no monk 2 w/m 1w/m and 2 r/e and a n/e

the warriors could res if any one died and one had limited healing ability the trick was too attack the mobs that you could from outside the arenas then when we got in we attacked 1 group at a time then waited for the next one to res then killied them and so on

we always killed the minions outside the shrine then moved on to the priest before moping up the remaining minions and boss

I tried this a fair few times and found this was the best way to do it although you really need a group that will listen and not just go around attcking everything in sight

But now that we are so late in the game Monks are either hard to find, follow there own agenda or just dont do the mission with you. There are good monks out there

also use the ghost he can be pretty helpfull in tight spots

Eos

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

E/Mo

25 May 2005 at 16:39 - 26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eclair

Get an Earth elementalist, it'll make things a lot easier. For once thing, they can tank almost as well as a warrior, and they can solo the priest in around 10 seconds. So if you have like 15 seconds left on the clock, just send the Earth elementalist in to finish the job while the rest of the team keeps the sentries occupied =) I did all 3 ascension missions with PUGs. I'm E/Mo earth and healing, I'd lay down wards and then draw away the fire with earth armor up and just sit and soak up damage while the team killed the priests. The first 2 times the stupid hero died, because we didnt have enough DPS, then we got a nuker and it was good. In the last section we took out the 3 priests going counter clockwise, right, center , and then left, it seems the easiest way to do it, but your experience might vary.

Banigan

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: May 2005

25 May 2005 at 21:23 - 27

I find this one quite easy with just henchmen. Please right click and choose save-as. Thirsty River W/Henchmen Video

Long download, but if you're having issues, this is a simple way to do it. The only key is some form of disruption for the final boss while you beat on the priest.\

edit: I suck at linkage..

Thirsty River W/Henchmen Video

duverga

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2005

25 May 2005 at 21:52 - 28

Another tip: When you get to the boss healer you can pull him out into the open and engage him. Then a warrior or two can run in and gank the priest with no problems. This is much easier than trying to kill a healer boss and priest simultaneously.

Lewick

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

R/Mo

25 May 2005 at 22:30 - 29

Quote: