Underworld=Hard....no VERY HARD!

I think you got into a bad group. I went into the underworld for the first time yesterdsay with 6 guildmates and 2 random players. 3 of my guildmates were there the first time too so we were pretty much a newbie group. With 2 monks 3 tanks 2 ele and 1 ranger, we did a couple of quests and stayed in there for almost 4 hours. We almost got wiped a couple times but were able to recover.

Heavy Offense. Protective Spirit will more than cover for keeping the damage at a managable level. You need good monks that can do their job, but you also need good warriors that can do the killing.

Experience from playing both a W/Mo and an E/Me in UW, I can honestly say that with some of the creatures you can't always rely on your elementalists to do the heavy damage while the warriors just need to take the hits. You need to get mobs down fast and hit them hard.

I do occasionally bring Protective Spirit, Mark of Protection and other buffs for myself or team, but I rarely bring in anything self-only now. Other players who have played heavy defense warriors may have great builds and be just as good/better as I am, but from playing both extremes of a warrior in UW(heavy defense to heavy offense), I found a constant, higher DPS build will keep the group safer.

The biggest threats come from the casters, especially mesmers, not the warriors of UW.

Warrior defensive skills can excel in there, so long as your warriors aren't dumbasses. Gladiator's Defense(elite) will give you 75% blocking chance for 9 seconds, and deals back nice damage (up to 29 per block), Shield Stance gives 75% blocking chance for 17 seconds, Bonetti's Defense gives 75% block chance for 9 seconds.

If a warrior brings any or all of these they can take care of themselves better than having Guardian, Aegis or Ward against Melee (protective spirit is still really useful though). Dolyak Signet is also very nice against any knockdowns, and gives +20 armor. (The -speed is workable if the warrior knows what their doing and casters stay away from the front so as not to pull the monsters off of the warriors)

I've found that using a protection monk to cover the warriors from time to time is much safer than just relying completely on the monks. Elementalists are pretty much the best for damage, and Mindblades? one word: Maelstrom. (and 3 more words for free: lots of it)

Overall I'd say using Ward Against melee is not the best way to go, protection monks protect better, and don't risk pulling off monsters from the warriors (many monsters are more than willing to break off from warriors if an easier target gets close to them, but will stay put if casters and such stay back). And again, Ele's can really dish out the damage (preferably from a range).

A load out that I take many times is 2 wars, 2 monks, 3 eles, and one other support class (ranger, necro or mesmer) I play alot with a very competant warrior, so with him holding them down and me healing or protecting (depending on what the other monk does) we've had alot of success.

Although, if anyone has managed to complete the quest that the Reaper of the Chaos Plains gives you, let me know

Any suggestions as to what an Elementalist/Monk shoud take into the UW? I'm usually either fire or smite, but I am not opposed to reskilling for another element. I figure Anet gives me refund points for a reason, lol!

No way, that is so not cool.

That was my first memorable Quest in GW! Me and two others got ditched by this really really annoying lady, and we musta been up til like 5am taking down one mob at a time with our -60% DPs....LOL...oh man, that was a freaking blast!!

Annoying? Sure....but fun as hell!

Inac

I did it too that way. We were so thrilled when one of us touched the altar and got the "Quest Updated" message!

lmao... me too... lasted about 45 seconds

Don't know if Althea's Ashes was altered, as I usually save high exp quests for when I need refund points, but I know the one in Yak's Bend with the lvl 28 beastmaster was changed

You couldn't just try to kill that thing with pure damage, you needed interrupts, which meant learning respect for the powers of Mesmers and Rangers weilding Distracting Shot or Diversion.

underwolrd is too easy i do it solo sometimes

ya i went in there solo, once, afer i paid the one plat that was the only tiem i went solo again learn from mistakes

-Mhenlo

This is more of a post game place... where stradegy is needed... the begining is pretty hard if you're not use to it, but a simple protective spirit, or ward vs melee takes them out... and well... as of yet i havent had a problem with anything else down there, past about 4-5 quests, and ventured about 3 hours down there... meh... just depends on your team, the stradegy you're using, and the skills you're using...

do you keep getting refund points after level 20? I wish there was a way to buy them...

Yes, for every "x" exp you get, you receive "y" refund points. I, personally, am grateful for refund points. I think my El/Mo is the most flexible character in the game, largely due to the ability given to me by refund points to transform from fire AoE to earth defensive to monk healing with just a few clicks. And because I've been willing to experiment around, I am familiar now with almost all aspects of my character instead of pigeonholing myself into a frozen orb-spamming bot.

whats with the UW Armor

do you have to pay money to get to underworld? i never have been down there, but i read some posts.

Previously AA had these enormous groups of Charr which were within 'listening distance' of eachother so you couldn't pull just one group of 4, but would instead end up fighting 8-16. Now the distances between groups have been increased, so it's just a question of walking through and killing each group of 4 singly. Also previously the groups were mixed with both casters and melee, now they're either or, which is much easier to deal with. The remaining challenge is the bossfight by the ashes, which is as hard/easy as it's always been.

On one hand I can agree it's a bit sad that the quest has been made much easier, but on the other hand it's in the "noob area" of the game, and the original version of AA was too hard for the lvl 8-12's there.

Good err..player! heh

I do the same with my Monk, I love being able to switch form Smiting God to Healing Wonder, both self pro-claimed titles, of course. Though after last nights mission I had a few followers!

As for AA..I can't believe they did that, really. I don't care if it is in the n00b area or not....people still need to have to TRY to do things. I mean, I wa slike level 14 when I did that Quest, maybe even 15. Am Level 20 now and I JUST reached Denravi or whatever it is called last night.

Inac

I love the Underworld. It's one of the few areas of the game where you have to consider more than just damage and healing.

Yes it's hard, but I think it's good that there is an area of the game that is challenging however far you have progressed.

I went today with a PUG. We had a good group. I wish they hadn't nerfed down the drops in there though. It's hard enough without making it abysmally disappointing in the drop results. I did however get 2 gobs of ecto which promptly got sold.

Don't bother going to the UW if your anything but a W/Mo As geting killed in ONE hit from full health in the UW is not what i call fun in fact i would call that stupid.