Elona's Reach and the preponderance of 3rd graders that join your group there.

Myself and a couple of my guildies keep trying to run Elona's Reach. This shouldn't be so hard. We've almost made it through before. There's just one problem : Every group we join up with is chalk full of idiots!

Taking henchmen on this mission seems kind of dumb (esp. with Alysia to put up with).

So, here are some pointers for those that run this mission, and the venting of a little frustration on my part.

#1.) Don't grab the first vision crystal and run straight to the hero (to start the intro cinematic) Here's what will happen. You will either die from the mino's and dune borrowers during your mad sprint, or you will simply aggro all of them so that when you do get there and run the cinematic, we will all be sucked in to die moments later (or even worse, the annoyance of having just the Hero die and the mission fail)

Result : restart

Assuming you and your group are smart enough to make it past the first minor hurdle, you essentially have two options of ways to go. Left or Right. They are both equally valid, and both lead to another Vision Crystal.
Which leads me to :

#2.) Let's say you go LEFT.
I have a simply piece of advice for you : DON'T USE THE BRIDGE.

I have yet to be in a group which decides TO USE the bridge and succesfully crosses it. It's a trap. Please, realize it's a trap. It's got splinter mines at both ends and a lot of mobs on the other side. They "mob" you. They block the bridge so you can't cross, and then everyone starts attacking the enchanted swords. So, the sage heals them all and no one kills the sage. If you have a bunch of warriors, they can't touch the sage. They can't REACH the sage. My advice here is simple. Don't use the bridge.

Which brings me to :

#3.) ALWAYS TARGET THE SAGE FIRST. The Sage is the healer. If you don't kill the sage, he (I'm assuming a "he" here) just heals everyone else. If only one person is on the sage, he'll everyone else AND himself. Please, kill the sage first. If the sage is down, the arcanist or a mob boss should probably be next as the bosses are often mesmers and I believe the arcanist to be a mesmer. (I hate fighting mesmers)

#4. ) TARGETING. I know, this should be known as a basic and essential concept by people who have made it this far in the game. However, why don't people ever listen? If there is only one target being called then everyone should be targeting it. If multiple people are calling targets, then everyone in the group should agree on who needs to call them in the future. In the meantime, pick the one it seems the most people are fighting. (And you should prioritize those targets based on which one is the most dangerous to the party as a whole. i.e. See above about Sage. I always target healers first and mesmers second. Elementalists are usually third. Why? lower armor since they are castors, and they are more dangerous if you leave them alone.)

#5. ) TIME. As most of you probably know, Elona's Reach is timed. Once your hit that first cinematic, you have 30 minutes. You can't split up your group, so you should definatly have a plan of action to solve the map quickly. I remember one group I was with where we almost made it. We were so close, and we had the final crystal. However, there was one mob group between us and the hero. What happens? Everyone stops down to fight it. We kill the mobs with ten seconds left. If we had ignored them and RAN to the end, we would of been FINE. (That group tried several more times, but we got overconfident and kept screwing up on minor things)

#6. ) TAKING ON MOBS. The advice here is simple. Don't take on too many mobs at once. I know you can't always control this, but when you facing three groups, pick just ONE of those groups to pull. I suggest pulling them into a trap if possible. But only take on 3, maybe max of 5 enemies at a time if you can control it at all. The less you take on, the faster they'll die.

#7. ) DON'T PANIC. The words from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy tell us this, and IT'S TRUE. If you're in a situation where your health is going down and you're about to die because all the mobs are on you, don't try to run. Take it like a man. (or maybe a woman if that be the case) Just don't pussy out. Those who run from battle to avoid death in this game are simply cowards. I could understand if you're the only monk and you're worried about rez. However, if you're the only monk, YOU SHOULDN'T BE DIRECTLY INVOLVED WITH THE BATTLE ANYWAYS. Just don't pussy out. Remember, the longer you take damage before you die, the more likely your elementalist's AOE's (assuming you have an elementalist with AOEs) will do massive amounts of damage to the enemy that's killing you. So, STAND STILL AND TAKE IT. I can't tell you how many times I've seen meteor shower go to complete waste because some complete idiot decided he was at half health and therefore backing out of the battle. (when he was surrounded by the mobs.)

#8. ) ABOUT MONKS. Monks, you are HEALERS. You are IMPORTANT. Without you, the rest of us would just die a whole lot. However, you guys need to learn your post in battle. Stand back. Try not to draw ANY aggro, and don't fight. Not even if you can. Just Heal. Only fight if the enemies numbers are small and you can single handidly turn the tide. Learn reservation and the art of patience. Without you, the rest of us can't survive. It's all about teamwork. You heal, I fight. If I'm playing a monk and you're fighting, THEN we can swap roles. You obviously rolled the character, use it properly PLEASE.

I've gone through 8 here, so I guess I'll just try for 10.

#9. ) CALLING TARGETS. I've already talked about the importance of targeting priority and having a dedicated target caller. Let me give some pointers on WHO should be calling targets. There are two classes I believe are in the best position to call targets. Rangers and Warriors. I actually believe Warriors are the best for it. Warriors are in the fray. Warriors are taking damage and dealing damage while other keep them alive. The only problem with Warriors being the target callers is that they are usually not in a position to determine or call the most important targets. Here's where a ranger is suggested. In the instance of Elona's Reach, Rangers make the best target callers. Why? Because we are long ranged, not in the middle of the fray, and usually have the most time to discern where the evil bastard sage that we need to kill is. The warrior may already be fighting and fighting a losing battle because the sage is healing his target. Now, some may wonder, who not make any of the other classes the caller? It's simple : Monk - should be healing and focusing solely on the life of his/her own party; Mesmer - Should be casting enchantments all around. i.e. Backfire and Empathy on multiple targets. Spread around the dmg.; Elementalist - Should be looking for the tightest concentration of enemies and launching his/her meanest bag of tricks/AOE spell at them. (otherwise an elementalist would make a great targeter); Necro - I don't know much about this clas, honestly. So, I'm afraid I'm just going to slight all you necros out there and say "probably not good target caller" lol

So, finally :
#10. ) DEATH PENALTY (DP) DP sucks. I realize this. But, while it may be a good idea to restard a mission early on when your entire group has DP, it's generally a bad idea to quit out because just you have DP, or because you have a lot more than anyone else. That usually just means you've either got all the aggro (so don't carry the crystal*), or your character pretty much sucks and maybe you should try something else.


All that being said :
I don't know what the bonus is on here, guys. I'm "guessing" it has something to do with getting the ghostly priests to their "obelisks" But the point here is simple : FOCUS ON THE MISSION. Don't get side-tracked with stupid crap. If you want to do the bonus and the rest of the group doesn't, forget the bonus. You can run it again LATER. Some people just want to get through the mission itself first. If you have one crystal and a clear path to bring it back, send the least important (or fastest) character in your group to take it back and take the rest of the group to the next crystal. Don't waste time here, folks. Just get it done so people like me don't feel like coming on here to bitch anymore.


And, there you have it. My 10 pointers for Elona's Reach ( and a couple side tips as well ) May you have better luck at it than I have been. And may all your groups be reasonable instead of idiotic. (like the ones I find myself in have been)


*A note here : CARRYING THE VISION CRYSTAL MAKES ALL THE MOBS HATE YOU. I don't know if I can make it any more clear than that. Carry the crystal if you want to die a lot. If you get into battle, drop it. They won't pick it up and run off with it or something (thank god).

This is a good post, and I feel for you, I really do, but it saddens me, because this is like 3 pages of what SHOULD be common sense by the time you reach the desert. It's really a shame that someone could read this post, and say to themselves, "Oh, that explains it..."

Excellent note about Healers. In general, if you don't attack, the mobs will not go for you. I tried this approach with my Healer all through the desert and found that even the Jade Scarabs would not attack me if I didn't attack them. I concentrated on keeping my team well and we got through.

I am one of the aforementioned "guildies" that Slasc refers to above. I would like to add that I have conducted a study on Guild Wars groups.

I have found -- and I have extensive emperical evidence to support my claim -- that the likelihood of success in difficult missions is indirectly proportional to the number of vulgar drawings made in the minimap window.

In other words, the people who are most likely to quit out the instant they get 15%dp, and the people who constantly leave the group and then wonder where everybody went, and the people who ignore called targets and wonder why the mob that is killing them keeps getting healed are *the same people* who draw penises in the minimap window. It's really amazing.

ha ha ! i doubt i could have said it better myself . . i entered a group for that mission yesterday, was about to go on my preamble about who does what/calls what and working as a cohesive unit . . .then i thought "this is a major mission, the PvE should have weeded out all the scrubs, and fools by sanctum cay, therfore ill not say anything" *sigh* i feel your pain as we were wiped out almost instantly upon the first cinematic. this thread should be stickied also WARRIORS YOU ALONE DIDNT WIPE THAT LAST MOB OUT, YOUR NOT INVINCIBLE, DONT AGGRO THE WHOLE MAP!! please wait for casters to say there energy is back up, and casters be free with the ctrl + energy click so every one knows whats up energy wise

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