Temple of the ages - best route?

Hi,
What is the best route to take to the temple of the ages? I'm trying to open up everything on the map, but the henchemen from nearby towns are just too weak to make it through, and as a mo/me running to the next zone doesn't work too well with my skills. I'm going to end up getting real people most likely to help me make the trip, but am wondering what path I should take, or if there's a path that is doable with henchemen only so that I don't have to waste anyone else's time. Thanks!

I did it from Bergen Hot Springs with henchmen - just be careful to avoid mobs as best you can. You can get lvl 15 henchman at the Temple which you can then use to do the horrible Villany of Gareth (sp?) quest south of there.

I've gotten there from Burgen twice now. It's not terribly difficult, but yea...stay the hell away from as much as possible once you get into the swamp areas.

I think from Bergen's is your best bet ArturoB.

I'm like you in both respects of being a Mo/Me and not much liking the hench's but I figured some tricks that might help. I made it through after I switched up the henchmen that I take.

The Hench I take are both warriors Alesia the healer and the mage. If you can't find a real person for the 6th spot take the archer.

Here's the trick for Alesia and Orion, they follow movement. There's an order to who they follow. It's you and if you're stationary they follow the war's charging in. When you come to an area with Enemy use Target, I use C, then Ctrl-spacebar but whatever you prefer to target. All of your hench will start charging but if you move backward or even in a circle, Alesia, Orion and the archer will stay close to you.

When the warriors get hit Alesia will charge in and that's just what you want and where you want her positioned, at the min healing distance. As a healer you want to heal but in this you should hang back. You're the only smart one on your team so let Alesia heal, heal her once or twice but no more and stay well out of aggro range. This has worked very well for me in getting through to the Temple.

Spell selection is the other thing. The only time I bring pacify is for hench runs. When your group attacks there's always one or two that come through for the casters. Pacify one of them. Take Balthazar's aura and mend and put Aura on Thom and Bal on both war's. Just be ready to dump them all if you have to cast.

One thing that's very important, even critical is to always have a target called. If you let them decide they fight the mob closest to them. You're better off taking out one single target of any class than half taking out the whole group. C then ctrl-spacebar is the way I go then the whole group automatically backs up toward you so you can control the adds.

Start from Bergen Hot Springs, the red path is pretty much the way you need to go (this is a quick throw-together, the line should only be taken as a guide). Beetletun LOOKS good on the map, but that short path (green line) is actually a dead end. From beetletun, you'd actually have to take something more like the yellow path which takes you right by Bergen Hot Springs anyway.

Another POSSIBILTY is if you've already missioned past the area, you COULD start from Druid's Overlook or the wilds and head east. This route is MUCH longer, but MIGHT be easier, though I can't say for sure as I've only run that path from ToA (where you can form a group of 8 with lv 15 henchmen) west. Going the other direction you'd be limited to a group of 6 with lv 12 henchmen (same as from Bergen or Beetletun).

Sounds good guys! Thanks a lot! I had tried bergen, but this was also before I found the joys of balthazar's aura and a high smite (I need shield of judgement too perhaps), and my l12 henchemen just got slaughtered by the undead in the swamp. Perhaps with aura it might be a lot easier. Even as a l20 the quantities of 18-20 undead in the swamps quickly overwhelmed me previously.

Temple of Ages is awesome!!! good luck getting there (not hard if you take it easy, I did it level 17)

Bergen, and Run, Run, Run...especially once you hit the Black Curtain. Loads of fun.

I actually recommend going north once you get into the zone that the Temple of Ages resides in. Aside from a few early encounters, you can avoid just about everything through that route, aside from a few sections of poison water and some smaller critters that jump up. There is a couple bone dragons on that route, but you can easily get around them.

There's also some batches of skeletons, but they patrol so you can just wait for them to move if they're in your way.

Ah. I didn't realize from within the curtain you could get there north. I'll try that too. I was heading SW from the east entrance thinking from maps it was the only way, and the choke points there are pretty rough.

i did it twice running from fishermen, one is a warrior, the other is ranger. it's actually pretty easy.

Yeah, easy if you have speed boosting skills.
The only I have is Imaginary Haste, which cripples you after a while

_Zexion

I did it from the Hot Spring with a group of human player ^_^

I also did it from Hot Springs with 2 henchmen and the rest human. We died a lot and had to make a run for it in the end. But it was fun (mainly because of the great group).

I did it from springs at lv17 with hunchies, reach it at a 60% penality.

I did go north, those roads are KILLERS, they really sould nerf those smoke phanthoms.