Elona Reach Mission: the EASY way

I saw many people still have trouble with Elona Reach mission. This mission is actually very easy, even playing as a W/Mo with henchmen. And unlike what some people claim, the third crystal is very easy to get to and retrieve. I just want to add some tips for those who have problems with this mission...

1) On your way taking the first crystal to ghost hero, take out every minotaur that's there. You just cannot avoid them and it's better to eliminate three at a time than to have them all jump at you at once.

2) After skipping cinema, go through the left palisade gate and eliminate sage/arcanist group before the bridge. Inactivate splint mines whenever you encounter them as they are placed in strategic locations on purpose. Don't have to cross the bridge. If you want to cross bridge make sure you first eliminate 1 or 2 groups of sage/arcanist on the other side of bridge, because they often heal the boss that's guarding bridge, making bridge fight difficult. Always take out sage/arcanist group first as there's a healer boss randomly placed somewhere in this mission. Take out one group at a time and retrieve second crystal. Most ppl don't have problem with this part.

3) Now, for third crystal on the right. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT go through the right palisade gate. Continue through left gate as before, take the road behind the mountain (that road is there for a good reason ), so you don't have to fight patroling enchanted swords outside the right gate. If you have cleared enemies on your way to second crystal, you should not have to do any fighting. After going through that road behind mountain, you'll see a group patrolling near the exit of road, take them out (a must!). Then take out a group immediately on the left edge. After this, just turn left and then to the right through middle between two stationary mobs and avoid aggro either of them; the only group you have to take out now is the group guarding the vision crystal. After getting crystal, take the SAME road behind mountain on your way back. You should not have to fight at all on your way to give third crystal to ghost hero. So if you do this part right, you only have to fight three groups of enemies and none on your returning trip.

So if you follow those three steps above, you'll still have 10 minutes left for bonus. Now, most ppl and PUG's fail this mission because they insist on going through the right gate and refuse to take that road behind mountain on their way to third crystal. Don't ask me why. If you keep running into groups like that, then getting henchmen is your best bet. The key is: never try to rush or avoid those enemies patrolling strategic route, one enemy killed is one fewer to worry about. But take out only those blocking your path and never tackle with those patrols that are too close to each other.

Or you can do it the cheap way. Do not talk to ghost when you get there push everyone threw the gate slots and have the last guy stand by ghost with crystal. Now have another guy push everyone else through the gate. The group of 4 now fights to the easy one on the left side comes back drops off crystal to the guy left behind at the second gate. Now the group of 4 does suicide run to last crystal. Right when they pick it up guy by the ghost starts cut scene and it teleports everyone back to safety crystals and all. Don't worry about time it doesn't start untill you talk to the ghost and by then you have all the crystals.

Good advice.

I'd like to add that the number one strategy taken by groups who fail is trying to run or sneak for the 3rd crystal. If you do that, you are almost assuredly going to fail. what are the chances 6 people will successfully navigate through dozens of Forgotten without aggroing any of them? Almost zero.

The key is, like you said, take your time and kill the patrols in your path. If you take a few minutes to kill the patrols on your way TO the third crystal, thats time you will save on the way back FROM the third crystal.

I'd also like to add, its my opinion you should do the right crystal first, since its the harder one. Because, if you fail that, you saved yourself the time you would have wasted doing the left crystal before it. And if you suceed with the hard crytal first it becomes anti-climactic, which is good in this sense.

Great posts! I've had trouble here, even though I only tried it for a few hours one day and then gave up to go farming and exploring. It seems like every group I got into wasn't sure what to do and even those that were whining about n00bs and morons really didn't have a clue how to do it. I decided to wait until a few more peeps got experienced in it or a few more guildmates made it to Elona. I swear, one more healing monk who rushes everything complaining about my War aggroing mobs... this is the only mission yet I've run into these munchkins. Guess I'm lucky...

That's great tips Hell Marauder, thank you. I'm pretty close to that mission and have been dreading it all day (I HATE timed stuff, I have hated it in every single game that's forced it on to me...)

Hopefully your tips will make it less dreadful than it seems

Thanks for sharing.

Creston

If you are in a group then everyone should grab a mine from the first area and use them to kill that first group. Then grab a few mines and use them on the second group. It makes killing them so easy it is silly.

When I first ran this after retriving the second crystal I would run back behind the mountain and get priest #2 but after this last patch seems they added a group on that intersection which slowed down progress because you HAVE to take them out even if you do not do the priest. Not only that but you will have to deal with them to get the crystal on the right side.

The left side takes about 6 minutes with henchmen but the right is a royal pain.

One thing I forgot to mention is after you get the second crystal (the one on the left), two groups of sage/arcanist/enchanted sword would immediately spawn. One group you'll most likely run into on your return trip, the other would sit near the entrance of that mountain back road. They are just isolated groups should be easy to take care of.

I think the biggest threat in this mission comes from those patrolling mobs whose routes overlap somewhat. Many times you lure one group to fight, only to have another group join in later. But the road behind mountain takes care of that pretty much. Now, near the third crystal (the one on right) are 2-3 rather large mobs (7-8 baddies?). But they don't move much and are separated by some kind of mound/barrier; these guys can be safely avoided. The bottom line is, take out those blocking the path group by group, and avoid those you don't have to fight. It shouldn't be that hard; I was able to complete it a second time playing as a healing Mo/E with henchies. Hope these tips0 help.

Quote:

The idea of pushing through the gate is something I never thought of, so I have yet to test it. The original idea is not very good, in my opinion. It just seems a bit too complicated, with fights that are not needed.

My method, solo with henchies:

This is NOT necessarily the ideal way of doing it if you have acess to other players, and it obviously won't work with anything other than a War prime. It is however, very fast, with only the second crystal taking any time at all.

Sprint to priest as soon as you hit the ground.
Take crystal, run left around corner, sprint again as soon as available.
Wait on third sprint till you get past the last Minotaur and the splinter mine.
Make sure you break agro with all Bulls before you get to Hero, edge right if needed.

NOT MISSION RELATED: After switching to Ran second, I ran the above approx. 20 times until I got Marks. Wager in a capturable place (by the bridge or the first spot, the second is too hard to get to solo). I don't think it usualy takes this many tries, but I have that sort of luck.

Go through left gate, run approx. straight ahead, past bridge and a small hill.
Follow hill to the left, around back toward the bridge, and observe.
2 groups of 3 critters, 2 Mes, and 1 Sage each, run seperate patrols, 1 above on the hill.
Wait for the lower group to get as close to you as it is going to, at a time when the other one is off on patrol.
Kill group 1, with henchies I found group 2 usualy showed up before I finished, but was not hard.
DO NOT agro any other groups. This is sometimes hard with henchies, but it usualy means a restart if they do it and you don't immediatly take care of them. If the henchies agro the other groups they will usualy pull all 3, and that usualy means a restart.

Keep right, edging along the hill, past the splinter mine. At the top of the hill, there are 2 groups. A static boss with 2 helpers, and a standard mobile patrol.
Wait till the patrol is off to the left, and run up to the right as far as you can.
The patrol will come to you, wait for them and kill.
Kill the other group, and take crystal.

OPTIONAL: Kill the other 3 groups, from right to left.

Run back the way you came in.
Look for a nice sized group, and try to get all of your henchies killed off on the way back.

Mandatory: Kill off all of your henchies either before you talk to Hero second time, or shortly after.

Run right, keep tight to the wall.
When you get to the first opening (one of the bonus spots). Sometimes some of the guys in there will wander up toward your location, wait till it's clear, and sprint past.

Observe the second static group, and the patrol that ends at their location.
When the patrol is well away, sprint past.
Between group 2, and the Boss group, there is a small agro free area IF you waited on the patrol and did the sprint right.

Run in, grap crystal, and run out, NOT sprinting. Get back past group 2, and sprint.
Again, rest up between group 2 and group 1 (at the bonus location), but this time there is a new patroll that moves along your path.

Find the new patrol, and all of the other patrols wandering the desert.
Depending on where they are, and which direction they are moving in, either keep to the wall or move off into the desert to the right.

From there on out it's pretty easy, just avoid any group that doubles up, and sprint past the small ones.
None of them keep agro for long, and your only worry is getting crippled, which is often game over.

The above has been done with a W/Mo and a W/R (same toon).

The gate thing is an exploit and will probably be fixed by arena net sooner or later. Any self respecting gamer would want to complete it properly instead of cheating the mission through anyhow. It's just a matter of leraning the patrol routes and the proper path to take and which mobs to eliminate ant then you can do the entire thing in around 10-15 minutes.