am i forced to group? stuck with henchmen.

Hi, I'm stuck in the game trying to run from Bergen Hot Springs to Temple of Ages in Kryta. You have to go through three zones of fighting including the cursed lands to get to the temple. I can get through the first two zones but the last one is impossible. By then I've died at least once and have -15%. I'm using a full party of 6 (me and 5 henchmen). I'm level 16 warrior with 12 swords, 5 str. It just seems me and 5 level 12 henchmen can't take on groups of 3 or 4 level 17 horsemen.

Any tips on how to get through here? (Besides the obvious of making a party of other players).

If you absolutely cannot find a group, here's what you can do.

Use Sprint. Use it a lot. Use it like your life depends on it, because it does. Bring whatever form of healing you have for when you are out of aggro range of enemies. Heal often. Make sure you always have full health. Watch for enemies heading your direction. If you have the chance, run from them. If you don't, just run through them and then hit Sprint.

The enemies in the Cursed Lands tend to be very tenacious. They sometimes will chase you till Hell freezes over. If you see that you have a train behind you, hit Sprint and keep running. Do not stop.

When you are being chased, do not make sharp turns. Sharp turns allow enemies to hit you. When you see that you need to turn, make it very shallow. Sure, you may have to go farther, but it saves you health in the long run.

If you just Sprint through everything, you should be able to make it. I made it with my 15 Warrior friend with my level 15 Monk, so you should be fine.

Good luck!

cool i'll give it a shot. gonna need to pump some pts into tactics =)

I ran it last night with a group of 8, mostly level 20's.

Sprint will not be able to be maintained continuously unless you max tactics.

I was the only one who made it. Be careful. Team with as many sprinting warriors as you can.

I didn't stop to heal more than once. Stopping to heal is like digging your own grave in that godforsaken place.

The Black Curtain is just wrong. Good Luck and Godspeed

We got a team of 5 players and one npc healer, killed all mobs along the way in about 45 minutes.

I strongly doubt it is possible to fight your way through with henchmen, though. They're level 12, the opposition level 20, and far more numerous.
If the henches were lvl 15 then perhaps one could pull it off.

I'll try the "run, Forrest, run" strategy.

Sprint is linked to Strength. And you don't need to have it going continuously, you just need to use it to get out of aggro range and hit range.

Possible? Yes, I've done it with just my elementalist and 5 henchmen. (was lv 20 when I did it, though) Practical? Only if you're VERY patient, careful, and a bit of insanity is helpful. Toward the end I had to resort to the good-old "try to take one down with me on every wipe to thin 'em out" tactic and got to ToA with -60%, but it CAN be done. Oh, and I did sprint at the end of each zone as soon as the zone wall was within visual range.

Lol I went there at lvl 16 and killed everyone along the way. This was with henchmen its hard yes but you just gotta take it slow.

I don't remember what level I was when I went through there (probably 12-14) but I just stuck with it and eventually made my way to the temple with henchmen. Be very careful, take on small groups and you can do it.

Wow, not to toot my own horn cause lords knows I've had areas that just own my build at the time; but I don't recall it being that hard with henchies. I made it to the Temple the first time I tried with them (maybe died once, where I had to continually fall back to protect Alesia).
Not sure if it makes a difference but my Wa/El had a near equal amount of Sword/Str for the added damage and armour penetration + the AOE of firestorm helped as well.

If you use the north zone entrance instead of the south zone entrance into Black Curtain, it's considerably simpler.

It's not impossible to get through here at all. It just takes some preparation to make sure you never take on more than one group at a time. Once you understand the patrol routes of the undead, they can easily be killed off.

First time through, yes, it's hard, but that's because it's mostly a learning experience. Once you hit the temple, it's considerably easier because you get a party of 8 instead of 6.

Oh, and having a smiter is very useful in Black Curtain. Holy damage does double damage to undead. I go to black curtain completely solo no with my Ra/Mo20 a lot just for drops now. I load up my smiting prayers stuff (12 marks, 8 expertise, 8 healing prayers, 9 smiting prayers) and just destroy the undead in the zone.