FFS! (Elona Reach)

God damn idiot trap the desert is, I'm practically forced to take henchies because I hate getting half way and then some dumbass screws everything up wasting my time.

So there I am, doing the mission with henchies. Taking my time, pulling the right mobs, trying to take the mobs down and get the aggro off the weaker players. One crystal to go, have a bit of a rough time killing the mob guarding it but eventually get there.

Pick up the crystal and all of the sudden mobs start to filter in from the right, so I run left (which I was going anyway) keep running, keeping a close eye on the minimap to avoid red dots and then I hear a clanging of swords behind me. Stop in a safe place, turn around, hey look the henchies are getting attacked by a random mob that just seemed to spawn in the middle of us. Dammit. Turn around again, run.

The mob now decides that I am doing the most damage to them and closer, there for they chase. I keep running, boom! Slow down spell. Wait for Alesia to catch up and keep me alive until the spell wears off, nope. They're too busy fighting still. So I'm pretty much a few steps away from the gate that leads to the Ghostly hero and they are nicely fighting mobs, which I know damn well they have no chance against without me being alive to call targets for focus fire.

So this pisses me off. This wasn't the first time, no. This wasn't the second or third time either. In fact, I've lost count on how many times I've tried this mission and died at that exact same point. The problem is, by that stage, I don't have time to drop the crystal and help the henchies out to fight off the mob. I need a team that are just as good if not better then the henchies and at the last stretch, grab the crystal off whoever's dead body and run the final part.

I have also tried it with other teams. But the result is always the same (I get a lot further with henchies). The team gets past the first mob of forgotten, come around the bridge where there's a group of enchanted weapons at the foot of the bridge and two groups of forgotten patrolling back and forth. One going across the chasm the bridge covers and the other coming up and down the cliff. EVERYONE has an awful habit of aggroing all three mobs at once. And we all know a good team can barely get through 2 of those mobs.

As I said before, the desert is an idiot trap. It bloody sucks that they haven't all quit so I can find the decent players. So where are they?

That's why I always try to get guildies to help me get through Elona for my lowbies

On the "return trip" after grabbing a crystal, we always aggro a mob if we see them standing somewhere on its own.

As for bridges....we never go across any bridges accept the very first one you encounter at the start of the mission. (ie before you even redevous with the Ghostly Hero)

Except all the guildies I have seem to have disappeared from the game for some reason O_o

And that's what'll get me killed...


Same here, I go around them, that bridge is likely to get you killed.

Wait, I don't see the problem here. If you can take the last crystal to the Ghostly Hero, you get the mission, correct? Why not do it yourself while your party acts as bait for the mobs? You only need 1 person to make it to the finish and the cinematic starts.

The one time I did this one, the last cyrstal(the farthest one from the gate) was unguarded and there was only one mob to kill to get to it, once we picked it up all of us were able to run back to the Ghostly Hero, seems like you don't know anyone that knows how to do this mission. (Forget the bridge, don't even go there and that should be your first cyrstal to pick up inside the gates, I'm waiting to do this one right now on one of my characters actually, just haven't felt like tackling it at 1 am PDT)

It's probably your monk :\
I've had to do this mission for 2 different characters. My first, a mesmer, had to go through this bloody mission a hundred times cause we always kept getting killed while the monk was seemingly doing his best in the back.
Then I did it with my competent (if I do say so myself) monk, and it was done on the first try. I don't remember how many people died, but there were very few casualties. Bottom line is, the game is full of incompetent people, it's less noticeable if it's the ranger or warrior, but when it's the monk who's keeping everyone alive, it hurts.

Elona's Reach is easy with henchmen, I've done it with 5 min to spare with both a me/el and a m/ra. The key: don't pick tanks and don't bring any pets or raise minions. Don't underestimate the power of 5 caster-range dealing henchmen; pull and be patient, bring the ressurect signet. Don't be afraid to use your res signet when you are fighting a boss -- after the boss dies, it is recharged; keep the henchy healer alive - signet her right after she dies.

The only successful Elona's PUG I was in (I was doing a SoC) also didn't have any warrior tanks. In general, I might accept a PuG if and only if they have one warrior and he seems to know about pulling and how to be a "tank", that is, suck damage and cluster the enemy foes. I never accept PuGs with 2 or more warriors -- the success rate of 2+ warriors is very very low.

o_0

I didn't know that a rez signet gets recharged.

Look me up on Asp Lode or Peasant Hero, I'll help you w/ Elona.

res signet gets recharged after every boss kill, I believe, and definitely with the completion of a quest within the game instance.

It took me whaile too (about 8 tries), but in the end, I found a non-idiot group, and we did it quite easily. A few good healers, and some good damage dealers.

Also, everyone keps saying Elonas was the easiest - well it took me 8 goes. Thristy one, and we got bonus, and Dunes one also.

I dunno, it seems everyones bitching about bad PUGs and freaking impossible missions. Am I playing on easy or something? I just am not seeing it. I did Elonas in 3 trys.

'Course I do play at like 3am so maybe Australians are a little more mature then Americans.


Edit:Actually iirc I did dunes with a French guy(not sure why he was on the american servers, but meh) who didn't speak a word of english(and none of the other guys spoke any french). It was harder getting to the Dunes then the actually mission(freaking hate Sand Elementals).

Elona's is an easy mission, in theory. There aren't any difficult mobs at all. The ONLY things you have to worry about are a bad pull or a patrol. It always seems so hard to do it, whereas the last 3 missions, UW, and FoW all have the exact same problems. I think the only reason why people hate it so much is because it's hard to get a good PUG.

The problem I have is the time. I can pull properly, take down the mob without any casualties and get it perfect every time. But every time I get the last crystal I have 3-5 minutes left on the clock. That really is not enough time to take out 1-3 mobs and get to the ghostly hero.

The part about using the team as bait? Well that doesn't work when every mob seems to initially aggro you personally for a reason I have yet to discover. When I'm with a PuG, I can't even get past the part with the cliff on one side and the chasm with the bridge over it on the other, two forgotton patrols and one enchanted weapon mob standing guard. They all have the worst habit of aggroing all at once.

I have also noticed that the casters are very powerful and tried taking a hench group of them, they didn't survive long either. We all pretty much got slaughtered at that chasm part by the single mob I pulled perfectly. Killing the sage wasn't enough, the Archanists just kept dishing it out. Plus I need those tanks there to try and get the aggro off me. God knows why I'm targeted all the time.

The person with the crystal gets targeted all the time. There are tons of Monk, Warrior, and Ranger skills that will help you run through enemies without being hurt.

Okay cool. I'd take not of that, but this build is a N/Me :\

Edit: I did however try raising a bone minion to perhaps distract them and casted dark bond to get the damage off me, didn't work though

Drop the Cyrstal. It wont break, and the tanks can aggro properly after that.

After you kill the last mob guarding the last crystal (1 boss snake, 1 archer armor and 1 sword armor i think) just get back the way you came there. I have 10+ minutes left at the end of the mission each time. I really do not understand the part where you have to fight mobs when you get the last crystals. As I said, go back to hero the way you came. No mobs there, you already killed them.

No I haven't. I avoided most of them. And getting there fighting through mobs took me almost 15 minutes of which I had 3-5 minutes left. If I did fight through them all, I would have gotten to the crystal and promptly timed out.

@original poster: i share your pain. henchmen suck. and most real players suck

only thing you can do is get a Guild to help you. or scrounge around and pre-screen and handpick each party member

I disagree, henchmen are damn good. Most of the time better then real people. The problem lies with the fact that they don't have it programmed in them to pick up the crystal and run.

If you have a minion, you can use the skill that transfers damage from you to your minions and the one that steals life from a minion. Cast a summon spell (preferably, Bone Minions) or three, and run back with the crystal.

Is it just me, or are the players of the game just getting stupid? I am having a hell of a time finding a good party anymore. This is ridiculous. And unfortunatly this isnt anything Anet can fix. I don't know I am just getting tired of redoing the same mission after mission like Sekkira.

ps. Henchmen are extremely good compared to most of the new players out there. The henchmen have come a long way from the betas.

It's because most of the good players have already ascended or have guildies to help, while the bad ones are stuck on ascending.

What's really fun is having to do elona on four different characters, I'm speculating it will be the most funnest when I beat it on my fifth character.

Not necessarily true, even people in a guild can have difficulties because if time zones and playing schedules. I would also say that a lot of more experienced players look down on the inexperienced ones and don't offer to help them, when they usually have already completed the missions and are just trying to get exp.

elona is quite straigt forward i think, i just take the 2nd crystal back to the hero then wipe a clear path u can run. then while the hech get killed u run back with the final pice.

i had more trouble with thirsty river, random pugs is not reccomended.

Anyone who has trouble in the desert. Especially Elona Reach which is simple with henchmen, is horrible at this game. You need to pick your emblem. Would you like a rainbow, a heart, or a star. And would you like your special carebear fur to be pink? bright green? baby blue? So many choices.


Just avoid most of the aggro, except for in the beginning where you can hook and kill everything there. When you're at the left base, kill everything in your way, cause there's not much sneaking you can do. And when you're going to the right base, go out the left door, go towards the left, and then go through the crevas that goes past great ritual priests whatever's bones. Then run across the open plain and dodge aggro if you can until there is a safe spot to sneak in and kill only 1 or 2 groups before the guys guarding the crystal. Go back the same way you came unless a patrol makes that difficult.

Part mesmer you say?
Use illusion of haste and illusion of weakness. The Groups dont chase for very long at all you can easily run past them.


The last crystal with henches - the one on the right side

Ok here is the thing about Elona's Reach: IT CAN BE EASY OR HARD

The first thing you need to do is get a good team together, preferablly 2 monks, 2 eles, a ranger to pull, and last a tank, to ... well suck up dmg and to aggro. If you do this through your guild it should take only a little bit of time to get ready, if you do it by PuG then you need to hand pick, and you need to at least spend 20-30 mins doing this. DO NOT use the henchies unless you are a skilled player with lots of time.

Ok as you go into the map don't aggro anything until you grt to thr first bridge. Here have the ranger set traps then pull the minatours through the traps and have the tank take the dmg while monks heal/protect and eles do AoE dmg.

ALWAYS TRY TO KILL SAGES FIRST THEY ARE TIRESOME.

Take out the wurms next and then you take the bomb ummmmmm i can and can nt work I have seen it do a lot of dmg to the forgotten and I have seen it slow ppl down and aggro a mob it your decsion. After talking to the GH go up the stairs and to the left through the wall. DO NOT AGGRO the groups just go straight across and to the right, after you get there to the upper right of the other side there should be 2 groups of guys 3 apiece the first group will have all forgotten in it if you have the tank with good sword skill in sever artery, gash, galrath slash, and final thrust they will go down quickly plus some AoE dmg from the Eles. Next group Will be boss Enchanted arrow and either 2 arrows or swords. ALWAYS take out the 2 guys first and not the boss you will almost always lose a guy this way or maybe even 2. Now take the crystal GIVE IT to your warrior as it is who ever has the crystal is usally targeted first and tanks can take the dmg. On your return trip back there will be another group of forgotten you can dispel them the same way as above. Now just run back across.

After you get back to the wall and give the GH the crystal. Now go throught the other wall. Make sure you stay to right the whole way down cause it will help you to have a much clearer path back. Here is a big hint for taking down the 2 or 3 groups walking around out here. AGGRO ONE group and bring them back into the wall so you can fight them better plus your GH can help here. The forgotten will only go so far into this area so you can have a better time taking out the arrows swords and hammers guys, then you can take out forgotten. After this is done IT SHOULD be clear all the way down, just stay near the wall and when you get to the place for the bonus that is kinda like a semi-circle don't aggro ok. Next keep going until you get to the boss and 2 guys guarding crystal, just take out 2 guys as before then boss. Get crystal then go back REMINDER there will be 2-3 more groups spawned thats walking around out there if you go the same way as before you can get past 2 of them groups and then you will have to fight one of them. REMEMBER the semi-circle there will be one guy out there walking around PULL HIM don't run up and attack or aggro him cause all of his friends will follow. Then get the crystal back to the GH. Sometimes its good to give it to tank with sprint on while rest try to fight if so make sure that the warrior has mending or "I will survive" to counter effects cast on him, and to have Endure Pain for an extra boost in health.

HOPE THIS HELPS,
Bigmancheatle.

Well yeah, That's exactly how I do things with henchies (I do the left side last though) and it takes almost the full half hour to do that. I don't know where the time flies to @_@ If I had about 5 extra minutes, I could take out the mobs in the way and make it through easy. It's just that one part at the end that pisses me off and always gets me killed because I don't have time to stop turn around and take out the mobs attacking before I continue.

Illusion of weakness, I've read into that and didn't like it too much. I really don't see what purpose it serves. Illusion of haste, isn't that the thing that causes cripple at the end? If I'm still being aggrod by the time it ends, they get to catch up to me. Or maybe I'm not seeing something I should. Damn illusion magic hiding things that are damn good >:

Well it made my mesmer finish with henches and 10 minutes to spare...

Illusion of Weakness - Enchantment Spell 10E 2s 30s
You lose 50-202 health. Illusion of Weakness ends if damage drops your health below 25% of your maximum. When Illusion of Weakness ends, you gain 50-202 health.

This is a free heal for 50-202 Health when you need it the most, and it keeps going with no upkeep untill you need it. (unless you are dienchanted)
Cast it at before an encounter while you are safe and can recharge the health end energy.

llusion of Haste - Enchantment Spell 10E 1s 5s
For 5-10 seconds, you move 33% faster than normal and the effects of the Crippled condition are removed. When Illusion of Haste ends, you become Crippled.

With illu over 6-7(?) the recharge is shorter than the duration. And with 330% you run faster than sprint. Spam it untill you are out of aggro. It doesnt matter if you get crippled after you hand over the crystal - or while standing in a safe spot waiting for health and energy to regen. And as soon as you need to get ridd of it you just hit that skill key again. (if you have a /monk you can remove the condition and with necro you can transfer it if any enemy is close at hand...)


I fight the left side first, and fight my way back then I either go to the right crystal with henches or let then die and go alone.
And then i run home with the last crystal, if the henches have survived they become bait...

The right side is doable alone for any char with some running skill and some kind of self heal.