Oh what fun Thunderhead Keep is! After a thousand losses I have noticed an amusing pattern. Provided the people are intelligent enough to even make it to the fort:
1 player always ends up inexplicably running outside of the fort to challenge the monsters solo.
1 player runs around with the torch trying to light people on fire because he doesn’t know what to do with it.
1 player is busy trying to man both catapults because no one else wants to help.
1 player is too busy drawing pictures on the map to pay attention to the enemy.
2 players are both telling everyone to go to opposite places at once.
The only monk on the team is told to wait by the king while there is no monster within fifty miles of him. After the player outside the fort dies followed by another player dieing while running outside to help the player outside the fort, the monk leaves the king and runs outside trying to revive the dead players. Meanwhile the Mursaat enter whichever side of the fort no player felt like watching and rush over to the king and kill him all the while I am frantically pinging the king’s location to which all the players ignore. We lose.
Henchmen here I come!
Thunderhead Calamity
Lost
Drakron
People panic and there are the players that are unable to stand in one place and defend it.
There are two ways, one is having 4 players using the siege weapons until their position is being overrun, they fall back to the king that is being guarded by the rest of the group, destroy the enemy and go back to the siege weapons.
The other is harder, having everyone standing near the king and dont move at all, from the paterns I seen the worst cases will be fighting 4 enemies at one time.
Henchmen are not good for this mission for one reason, the monks simply do not heal allies and unless you playing a monk there are many situations were the king will simply rush ahead and get himself killed if you dont heal him
There are two ways, one is having 4 players using the siege weapons until their position is being overrun, they fall back to the king that is being guarded by the rest of the group, destroy the enemy and go back to the siege weapons.
The other is harder, having everyone standing near the king and dont move at all, from the paterns I seen the worst cases will be fighting 4 enemies at one time.
Henchmen are not good for this mission for one reason, the monks simply do not heal allies and unless you playing a monk there are many situations were the king will simply rush ahead and get himself killed if you dont heal him
Deathlord
First of all, the bright side is there are often others like you that feel the same way. If they really are fed up with the mission, then they'll be willing to ignore their selfishness and just try to find the common good of advancing within the game. Of course, this does sound too good to be true, that's why there's henchmen to fill the gaps. If you find 4 players that are as determined and desperate as you are, then you won't need to find another 3 real player, simply mhleno/lina/orion/whatever else your party needs can fill it up.
On a side-note, if you're a monk or have a real player monk in your team, it is possible to attempt it as long as you have 2 hench monks and the real player has jalis on.
On a side-note, if you're a monk or have a real player monk in your team, it is possible to attempt it as long as you have 2 hench monks and the real player has jalis on.
knives
I just did this one in my first try today.
For the fort, just tell monks to stay in the middle, and let warriors be on each side, while a few eles, or rangers, or w/e spellcasters stand in the middle or a few on each side and fight the mobs. Ignore siege weapons until confessor dorian comes, and when theose jade armors start coming in the upper areas and in larger mobs, tell everyone to stay up there, everyone. Stay in the middle so you can run either left or right, or if they come up the middle. The hardest part about this mission was beating the warrior jade armor boss. IT TOOK FOREVER to kill it. And a bunch of other jade armors came as well. But we took care of it fine because we concentrated on it, and we killed the extra baddies around it while we had a warrior distract it for a bit. (I distracted. :P). Then have monks that now heal party, and spam that. Then the mission is practicaly over. The only thing I hate about this mission is how LONG it is. It takes like 45 mins +. Excessive?
For the fort, just tell monks to stay in the middle, and let warriors be on each side, while a few eles, or rangers, or w/e spellcasters stand in the middle or a few on each side and fight the mobs. Ignore siege weapons until confessor dorian comes, and when theose jade armors start coming in the upper areas and in larger mobs, tell everyone to stay up there, everyone. Stay in the middle so you can run either left or right, or if they come up the middle. The hardest part about this mission was beating the warrior jade armor boss. IT TOOK FOREVER to kill it. And a bunch of other jade armors came as well. But we took care of it fine because we concentrated on it, and we killed the extra baddies around it while we had a warrior distract it for a bit. (I distracted. :P). Then have monks that now heal party, and spam that. Then the mission is practicaly over. The only thing I hate about this mission is how LONG it is. It takes like 45 mins +. Excessive?
Lost
Sigh, several more losses. The groups I am finding are getting even worse. Two times in a row now we never even finished the fort.
I was so annoyed I switched from E/N to E/Mo in hopes to help keep my group alive. Unfortunately this only gave me a headache. Not only did people want me to spam AOE spells everywhere, but I was also forced to heal and revive people constantly. I was always out of energy, I had to pay attention to who I wanted to Meteor Shower/Fire Storm and also everyone that needed healing. I was about to pull my hair out! I can't do everything at once! Worse was that no one ever gave the monks time to recharge energy so that put further strain on me to help them out.
Unfortunately people can post a million strategies for me here and it won't help one bit. Absolutely nobody ever listens to anyone during the mission. Everyone just runs off to do their own thing and wonders why we end up losing. There is no communication, no teamwork, and no clue. More problems:
1. The warriors and rangers never give the monks time to recharge. They are constantly aggroing the next group.
2. The people with the least clue about what to do are always telling everyone to go all sorts of insane places.
3. Every single time we get to the dwarf boss someone ends up aggroing every mob around the boss.
4. There are never enough of the right players around at any given time. I wish I could find even a couple good ones so that I could fill the rest with henchmen and beat it. (This last time we actually had two monks for once and we did even worse somehow).
5. 50% of the time at least one player leaves before the fort is even cleared.
I think I just need a break from the game for awhile. Being stuck on one mission and getting aggrivated every twenty minutes isn't helping me.
I was so annoyed I switched from E/N to E/Mo in hopes to help keep my group alive. Unfortunately this only gave me a headache. Not only did people want me to spam AOE spells everywhere, but I was also forced to heal and revive people constantly. I was always out of energy, I had to pay attention to who I wanted to Meteor Shower/Fire Storm and also everyone that needed healing. I was about to pull my hair out! I can't do everything at once! Worse was that no one ever gave the monks time to recharge energy so that put further strain on me to help them out.
Unfortunately people can post a million strategies for me here and it won't help one bit. Absolutely nobody ever listens to anyone during the mission. Everyone just runs off to do their own thing and wonders why we end up losing. There is no communication, no teamwork, and no clue. More problems:
1. The warriors and rangers never give the monks time to recharge. They are constantly aggroing the next group.
2. The people with the least clue about what to do are always telling everyone to go all sorts of insane places.
3. Every single time we get to the dwarf boss someone ends up aggroing every mob around the boss.
4. There are never enough of the right players around at any given time. I wish I could find even a couple good ones so that I could fill the rest with henchmen and beat it. (This last time we actually had two monks for once and we did even worse somehow).
5. 50% of the time at least one player leaves before the fort is even cleared.
I think I just need a break from the game for awhile. Being stuck on one mission and getting aggrivated every twenty minutes isn't helping me.
Minwanabi
I'm 3/3 on this mission, and I've found it's best if you just take control. As soon as someone doesn't listen, stop the party, talk to them, and make them heel. If you do it in the beginning, they'll listen when in the fort. If they don't, just leave. It's not like finding PUGs is hard, I'll just join one, and slowly take control, unless the current leader seems to know enough of what he's doing.
Lost
I just tried it with henchmen and I have gotten as far as I ever have. I actually saw the Mursaat boss this time. I kept getting him down to 1/4 life but I could never finish him off. I just stood there next to the king the whole time to fight off the waves and I was having a lot of success (compared to with actual people). However, there is something very interesting that I noticed during this mission. Perhaps you all already know this.
After I killed the dwarf boss and cleared the upper levels of the fort, the seige began without even showing the cut scene. I found this odd as I hadn't even finished clearing the fort yet. There was still one mob down below. So I just stood there by the king waiting for them to come when I noticed the stone summit mob was fighting the incoming monsters for me! They actually killed three groups for me before succumbing to the Mursaat!
I wonder if I could keep more mobs alive below and have them kill even more enemies for me!
And while I am thinking about it, is there anything special I can do to kill the Mursaat boss quickly enough so that reinforcements don't keep arriving to help him? All of my henchmen were focusing on him but he just wouldn't go down.
After I killed the dwarf boss and cleared the upper levels of the fort, the seige began without even showing the cut scene. I found this odd as I hadn't even finished clearing the fort yet. There was still one mob down below. So I just stood there by the king waiting for them to come when I noticed the stone summit mob was fighting the incoming monsters for me! They actually killed three groups for me before succumbing to the Mursaat!
I wonder if I could keep more mobs alive below and have them kill even more enemies for me!
And while I am thinking about it, is there anything special I can do to kill the Mursaat boss quickly enough so that reinforcements don't keep arriving to help him? All of my henchmen were focusing on him but he just wouldn't go down.
Zexion
Actually, the best way to kill off the first waves of Giants, is to use the catapults before clearing the fort
_Zexion
_Zexion
Lost
Quote:
Dreamsmith
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drakron
Henchmen are not good for this mission for one reason, the monks simply do not heal allies and unless you playing a monk there are many situations were the king will simply rush ahead and get himself killed if you dont heal him
This isn't true, BTW. How or why this persistent rumor got going, I'm not sure, but if you don't already know it's false, you can verify it for yourself easily enough. Grab Mhenlo and Lina and enter the mission, engage the first group, then stand back and watch the king solo the enemies. Stand back far enough so that the healers actually have to run forward to cast their healing spells, and it quickly becomes quite obvious that both Mhenlo and Lina can and do heal the king. It also becomes obvious that Mhenlo doesn't know how to use healing prayers very well (why is he casting Word of Healing on a target with 80%+ health when Orison would do just as well with a smaller recharge time?) but that's another topic...
psycore
This mission is another of those ones where a bit of thinking and cooperation goes along way.
On the way 2 patrols converge at the end of the bridge, this is a common mistake for new teams to make as they run straight across instead of pulling a single mob. Make sure Jalis is attached to a monk or ranged as it complicates things if he commits himself to a fight.
In the first phase I recomend taking a minionmancer along just to summon hoards of fiends that will shred all the stone summit in the city areas, it's cake walk when you are escorted by 20 fiends or so. Learn the spawn and patrol routes, take out the 2 watchtowers before engaging the outer bailey boss, then do not rush the side door in the inner area as 2 patrols converge on that spot. Just a matter of taking the patrols out one at a time then.
In the throne area go around the outside picking off the outer mobs first, then dagnar, then the last 2 arcanist mobs. After the cinematic take the torch and light the beacons the mursaat are drawn to these. Have 2 mages/ranged man the catapults constantly firing them and calling "EAST" or "WEST" for incoming enemies, the last 6 form a fly team in the center to clean up stragglers. Make sure you decide beforehand who will split off in case you get a multiple incursion (usually 2 or 1 people just to keep the enemy mob busy till help arrives). If anyone dies let a x/mo raise them the monk(s) should concentrate on healing/protecting not raising in the middle of battle.
Rangers can trap the doorways between mob groups.
Elem can drop aoe from the catapult areas.
Probably better to use ressurect instead of rebirth for raising the catapult users if they die up there.
Interrupter is very handy when you come against certain bosses, one is the monk mursaat boss who is a right royal pain if you cannot stop the healing.
And for the bonus, dont talk to the king till the bonus shield pops up if you managed to maintain the beacons for the entire fight.
Hope that helps a bit
On the way 2 patrols converge at the end of the bridge, this is a common mistake for new teams to make as they run straight across instead of pulling a single mob. Make sure Jalis is attached to a monk or ranged as it complicates things if he commits himself to a fight.
In the first phase I recomend taking a minionmancer along just to summon hoards of fiends that will shred all the stone summit in the city areas, it's cake walk when you are escorted by 20 fiends or so. Learn the spawn and patrol routes, take out the 2 watchtowers before engaging the outer bailey boss, then do not rush the side door in the inner area as 2 patrols converge on that spot. Just a matter of taking the patrols out one at a time then.
In the throne area go around the outside picking off the outer mobs first, then dagnar, then the last 2 arcanist mobs. After the cinematic take the torch and light the beacons the mursaat are drawn to these. Have 2 mages/ranged man the catapults constantly firing them and calling "EAST" or "WEST" for incoming enemies, the last 6 form a fly team in the center to clean up stragglers. Make sure you decide beforehand who will split off in case you get a multiple incursion (usually 2 or 1 people just to keep the enemy mob busy till help arrives). If anyone dies let a x/mo raise them the monk(s) should concentrate on healing/protecting not raising in the middle of battle.
Rangers can trap the doorways between mob groups.
Elem can drop aoe from the catapult areas.
Probably better to use ressurect instead of rebirth for raising the catapult users if they die up there.
Interrupter is very handy when you come against certain bosses, one is the monk mursaat boss who is a right royal pain if you cannot stop the healing.
And for the bonus, dont talk to the king till the bonus shield pops up if you managed to maintain the beacons for the entire fight.
Hope that helps a bit
warren_kn
I have done it once. Iwas the only monk (we had Lina as well). I nearly had a coronary healing everyone. Best tactic was to use brutal force on one target the move on. Truly not calling targets is BAD in this mission. Oh and as someone else said dont wander outside the fort.
Lost
I'm about to give up. I don't know what else I can do. I have nearly perfected bringing my henchmen through the point where the Mursaat boss comes. Not a single one dies along the way now (the same certainly could not be said for the human players who die like crazy on the easiest battles). But every single time I have to fight the boss he is always accompanied by several other Mursaat and I always lose at that point.
If I fight the Mursaat minions first I am too weak by the time I have to fight the boss. If I fight the boss first I cannot even kill him before my party is wiped out. Either way I don't have enough firepower to kill the boss.
I'm stumped. In another game I could gain some levels and/or get some more skills to help me out and find better armor to protect me. But here, no more levels for me, I think I have all the skills up to this point, and I have the overly priced (but better looking!) armor. Do I just have to get lucky?
If I fight the Mursaat minions first I am too weak by the time I have to fight the boss. If I fight the boss first I cannot even kill him before my party is wiped out. Either way I don't have enough firepower to kill the boss.
I'm stumped. In another game I could gain some levels and/or get some more skills to help me out and find better armor to protect me. But here, no more levels for me, I think I have all the skills up to this point, and I have the overly priced (but better looking!) armor. Do I just have to get lucky?
Sagius Truthbarron
One time I entered this mission and we somehow got a level 14 warrior in our party! XD
After getting in the game he started aggroing everything in sight. My computer crashed after we crossed the bridge, so I donnu how bad it got later on. ^^;;;
After getting in the game he started aggroing everything in sight. My computer crashed after we crossed the bridge, so I donnu how bad it got later on. ^^;;;
duward
m so sick and tired of this mission too ... looking for decent groupto run this >.<
Sovetskeey
Quote:
Originally Posted by duward
m so sick and tired of this mission too ... looking for decent groupto run this >.<
It gets worse later.
viper008
Quote:
Originally Posted by duward
m so sick and tired of this mission too ... looking for decent groupto run this >.<
Same here with me
I can get to the Mursaat Boss & Monk with the henchmen like some have said above just can't kill them.
I can get to the Mursaat Boss & Monk with the henchmen like some have said above just can't kill them.
Drakron
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreamsmith
This isn't true, BTW. How or why this persistent rumor got going, I'm not sure, but if you don't already know it's false, you can verify it for yourself easily enough.
... Thats what I heard from the players in game ... very well NPCs can heal the king but with NPCs absent mind and the King suicide tendencies it usually end badly in depending on the NPCs for healing the King.
... Thats what I heard from the players in game ... very well NPCs can heal the king but with NPCs absent mind and the King suicide tendencies it usually end badly in depending on the NPCs for healing the King.
cannonfodder
Quote:
Originally Posted by susanlin
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What is this dude on, piece work
86 posts before he was banned...
Regarding Thunderhead, I was pulling my hair out with this mission, I tried umpteen times with really poor parties, I tried using henchmen only and i'm a w/n(dont mock please), I did it first time...
What I did was protect the king and stay with him, then let let all and sundry come to us for a good kicking, it took a long time, but was surprisingly easy
What is this dude on, piece work
86 posts before he was banned...Regarding Thunderhead, I was pulling my hair out with this mission, I tried umpteen times with really poor parties, I tried using henchmen only and i'm a w/n(dont mock please), I did it first time...
What I did was protect the king and stay with him, then let let all and sundry come to us for a good kicking, it took a long time, but was surprisingly easy
Neo-LD
This mission was hard for me, but I beat it on the first try cus my guildmates knew what they were doing.
To get to the fort, Aegis at the start of every battle + no aggro of 2 groups at once= assured victory. The toughpart is holding the fort:
First, to defeat the summit, everyone hangs around the king and just battles like normal. The enemies come piecemeal, so this part isnt a problem. When the mursaat start arriving:
1 man (prefereably a ranger) mans catapults on each side of fort. This guy calls "east" or "west" (depending on which side of the fort he guards)if bad guys make it through their pult's fire.
1 monk stays on each side of the fort, on the bottom, within healing range of the guy manning the pults. We had 2 monks.
The rest stay in the middle bottom and travel as a pack to defeat the bad guys as they are called out by the people manning the pults.
What ends up happening is that all the ranged mersaat will get stuck and try to attack the guy manning the pults. The ranger types will have their sight blocked, the elementalist, mesmer, and mecro mersaat will NOT advance into the fort, they will sit and only deal damage to the ranger on the walls. The monk and ranger can work together to easily make him stay alive. The group in the middle travels together from one side or the other, defeating enemies handily. They are always within healing range of at least one monk. If both sides are assualted at once, one side stalls by getting the enemies stuck attacking the ranger until the main group is done on their side, at which poin they can come to the rescue of the other side. In our game, King Jalis never took damage after we took the fort. This tooksome coordination, though, so I dont know if its possible to pull this off with a group of suicidal noobs.
To get to the fort, Aegis at the start of every battle + no aggro of 2 groups at once= assured victory. The toughpart is holding the fort:
First, to defeat the summit, everyone hangs around the king and just battles like normal. The enemies come piecemeal, so this part isnt a problem. When the mursaat start arriving:
1 man (prefereably a ranger) mans catapults on each side of fort. This guy calls "east" or "west" (depending on which side of the fort he guards)if bad guys make it through their pult's fire.
1 monk stays on each side of the fort, on the bottom, within healing range of the guy manning the pults. We had 2 monks.
The rest stay in the middle bottom and travel as a pack to defeat the bad guys as they are called out by the people manning the pults.
What ends up happening is that all the ranged mersaat will get stuck and try to attack the guy manning the pults. The ranger types will have their sight blocked, the elementalist, mesmer, and mecro mersaat will NOT advance into the fort, they will sit and only deal damage to the ranger on the walls. The monk and ranger can work together to easily make him stay alive. The group in the middle travels together from one side or the other, defeating enemies handily. They are always within healing range of at least one monk. If both sides are assualted at once, one side stalls by getting the enemies stuck attacking the ranger until the main group is done on their side, at which poin they can come to the rescue of the other side. In our game, King Jalis never took damage after we took the fort. This tooksome coordination, though, so I dont know if its possible to pull this off with a group of suicidal noobs.
Shadowdaemon
just give yourself a break and then come back and keep trying, eventually you will get a group that is tired of it also and can concentrate enough to pass it, and it is true that the missions only get harder afterwards, so the next will only be worse
also, cannonfodder why would you post that quote on here, all you did was advertise for that person one more time
also, cannonfodder why would you post that quote on here, all you did was advertise for that person one more time
BrokenSymmetry
I have now spoken to a lot of players (in the Euro zone), that are stuck at Thunderhead after 10+ tries. Many of these are ready to give up on GW.
The bad thing about this mission is that you have to go though a lot of fighting before you get to the last part, which is very easily failed if you make a single mistake, or your team is not 100% coordinated.
All the strategies mentioned on this and other threads to beat the mission, are not really useful in the Euro zone, as you will be glad if you can find 8 people for the mission, and you don't really have much choice in professions and builds.
Another issue is that you can not continue without beating this mission, as you can not reach the fire region on foot. So, for players there's no other option then keep trying to beat the mission, or to give up on GW completely....
The bad thing about this mission is that you have to go though a lot of fighting before you get to the last part, which is very easily failed if you make a single mistake, or your team is not 100% coordinated.
All the strategies mentioned on this and other threads to beat the mission, are not really useful in the Euro zone, as you will be glad if you can find 8 people for the mission, and you don't really have much choice in professions and builds.
Another issue is that you can not continue without beating this mission, as you can not reach the fire region on foot. So, for players there's no other option then keep trying to beat the mission, or to give up on GW completely....
Tziouv
I er...did this on my 3rd try, I'm a monk and I always play with henchmen unless "thinking" people are required. Especially, ascended henchmen tend to be better than real people since 70% of people (in Euro zone at least) haven't got the extra 30 attribute points or elite skills at all.
I used the catapults as much as I could, probably killed 2-3, and battled at the gates, either one. If another enemy party was coming from the other gate I'd aggro them in the ongoing battle with the enemies from the other. Also, the jade armors that come in the first wave will kill frost giants/stone summit and all 3 times they never attempted to kill the king so if you can't handle them, let them be and dont aggro them. And yes the mursaat boss is a problem, though it was the reason I failed my first 2 attempts (1st Jade Armor Boss, 2nd Mursaat Monk Boss) on my 3rd try it was a Jade Bow Boss so I just let him be until the rest was clear.
I believe this area, just like the desert missions, is a great "filter" for incompetent people, I find it hard to believe that people who don't PUG right have made it past Elona Reach or Thirsty River o_O;
Anyway if someone European really needs help with this, add to friend list and message me, I'm tired of looking at ring of fire districts with only 5-6 people -_-.
I used the catapults as much as I could, probably killed 2-3, and battled at the gates, either one. If another enemy party was coming from the other gate I'd aggro them in the ongoing battle with the enemies from the other. Also, the jade armors that come in the first wave will kill frost giants/stone summit and all 3 times they never attempted to kill the king so if you can't handle them, let them be and dont aggro them. And yes the mursaat boss is a problem, though it was the reason I failed my first 2 attempts (1st Jade Armor Boss, 2nd Mursaat Monk Boss) on my 3rd try it was a Jade Bow Boss so I just let him be until the rest was clear.
I believe this area, just like the desert missions, is a great "filter" for incompetent people, I find it hard to believe that people who don't PUG right have made it past Elona Reach or Thirsty River o_O;
Anyway if someone European really needs help with this, add to friend list and message me, I'm tired of looking at ring of fire districts with only 5-6 people -_-.
Neo-LD
I didnt think henchies are possible with this mission because they are too stupid to heal the king, and frequently aggro 4 groups at once.
Tourist
I actually decided to unlurk and start posting around here specifically so I could relate my own experience with this mission. Howdy folks, don't hate me too much; I got through this, with the bonus, on my first try.
Ok, so I'd read on these forums and others that this was kinda a rough mission, mostly because of bad(or no) coordination and having to keep a semi-suicidal king alive for quite awhile. So naturally I was kinda worried when I got asked to join into a group within seconds of my showing up at the starting point- I was just about the last person on the team too, so I didn't really have any time to find out if I had just joined a bunch of kiddies or some people who actually knew what the hell to do. The only reason I decided to ignore the alarm bells and just go with it was A. This was only my first try, so what the hell why not, and B. The group leader was making sure that everyone understood and appeciated that this would be a long, slow going mission, and no one was going to abruptly leave or had anything better to do for awhile. Basically, we weren't going to rush it.
So, our group consisted of something like this(and my memory is hazy now, so I may be a little off):
Mo/(mesmer?): Our group's founder but not really leader as it happened. Pretty much a pure healer with some hex removal and resurrecting on the side.
E/Mo: Skilled up as a fire-nuker, but also had healing breeze for support healing.
W/N: This guy was our real leader, one smart mofo that was more responsible for us winning than any other single thing. More on him later.
R/?: Traps and long range archery, this guy was our chief puller, later ran one of the catapults.
N/?: Blood magic I think, maybe some other stuff but I can't recall- no minions though, I do know that. Also ran a catapult in the endgame.
2 others- I honestly can't remember what they were, maybe another necro and another elementalist? Hell, maybe even a mesmer. I don't recall but their work was fine and they were there when we needed them.
And lastly myself, a W/Mo with Sprint, a mess o' sword skills, mend ailments(I HATE bleeding and poison, and no one else seems to bring that skill along), and a sig of capture(opportunist, yes I am). I'm our only other warrior, so I get to tank a lot, and that suites me fine. Sprint also kinda made me serve as fire brigade whenever there was trouble somewhere else, because I could get there fastest.
So, we had 2 tanks, a healer(and a semi-support healer), a nuker(or two maybe, I don't remember), a ranger, and a necro for wells of blood and other handy things. Overall it was a solid group.
We get into the mission though, and almost immediately our other Warrior -Windy Breeze I think was his name, damn me for not adding him to my friends list- sets us down and takes charge. I don't know, but I think he had done the mission before, probably a bunch of times, and I think this time he was going back for the bonus. Or maybe just to help others get through, dunno. Anyways, guy knew EXACTLY where to go and what to do. He never got angry, he never yelled at anyone, he never got obviously excited, and whenever he talked he'd use some flawless spelling and punctuation and grammer. I know that last bit seems silly, but when what you type and how you type it is the only way to convey yourself, and when virtually no one else pays much regard to such things, it really sets you apart as someone who knows what the hell they're doing when you do something as simple as end every sentance with a period. Anyhow, our Warrior made it clear that he knew what we had to do, and perhaps most amazingly of all, everyone listened to him. Those two things made ALL the difference.
Clearing the city was just a matter of classic Guild Wars PvE tactics: ranger sets traps and pulls, aggro only one group at a time, rest and recharge between battles, protect the healers and in this case, the King. Also, we kept close track on who the king was following, and that person kept back behind everyone else to avoid having the king go suicidal on us so much. And hey, it worked. There was one brief exciting moment when our monk died and no one was sure if anyone had brought a res sig or any other res skill, but turned out we had 3 or 4 sigs running around. Cleared out the city, and then moved on to the fort.
As you might guess, our leader got us to take the fort smart, clearing out all the groups around the walls before gearing up for Dagnar. Before dropping him, he also sat us down again and spent a good solid 5-10 minutes explaining what was about to happen, and determining what roles we would play. Me and him would light the beacons for the bonus, our Ranger and Necro would man the 2 sets of catapults, and then the rest of us would take to the center, roughly where Dagnar stood, and move against whichever gate they got through, trying to intercept them right between the inner and outer doors. As the situation evolved I also became our fire brigade, sprinting off after anything that got through the gate we weren't fighting at. But in general, the whole team except the catapultists would fight the biggest threat to reach the gate. But under NO circumstances would we leave the fort and fight outside the walls, nor did we really fall back to the king(or need to, for that matter). For the most part, the strategy worked; I couldn't tell how much damage our catapults did but they seemed to be at least crippling some of the guys that got through, and probably killed a few per group. I got myself killed rushing a group of Jade Armors that broke through on the far side from where we were fighting at the time, but everyone else got over fast enough to finish them off and get me res'd. And there was one more moment when we lost 3 or 4 guys fighting against the Jade Armor boss and his buddies, but we held out and got everyone resurrected before the next wave showed up. I don't even remember a mursaat monk boss, so it's possible he got killed outside the walls, or weakened out there and then brought down really quickly at the gate.
Anyways, suffice to say we held out, and I don't think the King ever came under attack the entire time. But it took a lot of time, patience, good leadership and planning, and a team that was willing to listen and then stick to those plans. Easily one of my most favorite mission experiences ever, and one of the best teams I've been lucky enough to play with, right up there with the time I did Aurora Glade and had my team almost entirely wiped out fighting for the gate to Denravi, only to have our last monk save us and we rallied to win the mission and bonus. But that's another story...
And if anyone wants a competant, won't-aggro-every-damn-thing-in-sight W/Mo to help with Thunderhead, give Tsen Oneblade a ring. If I have time and I'm available, I'll be happy to help.
Ok, so I'd read on these forums and others that this was kinda a rough mission, mostly because of bad(or no) coordination and having to keep a semi-suicidal king alive for quite awhile. So naturally I was kinda worried when I got asked to join into a group within seconds of my showing up at the starting point- I was just about the last person on the team too, so I didn't really have any time to find out if I had just joined a bunch of kiddies or some people who actually knew what the hell to do. The only reason I decided to ignore the alarm bells and just go with it was A. This was only my first try, so what the hell why not, and B. The group leader was making sure that everyone understood and appeciated that this would be a long, slow going mission, and no one was going to abruptly leave or had anything better to do for awhile. Basically, we weren't going to rush it.
So, our group consisted of something like this(and my memory is hazy now, so I may be a little off):
Mo/(mesmer?): Our group's founder but not really leader as it happened. Pretty much a pure healer with some hex removal and resurrecting on the side.
E/Mo: Skilled up as a fire-nuker, but also had healing breeze for support healing.
W/N: This guy was our real leader, one smart mofo that was more responsible for us winning than any other single thing. More on him later.
R/?: Traps and long range archery, this guy was our chief puller, later ran one of the catapults.
N/?: Blood magic I think, maybe some other stuff but I can't recall- no minions though, I do know that. Also ran a catapult in the endgame.
2 others- I honestly can't remember what they were, maybe another necro and another elementalist? Hell, maybe even a mesmer. I don't recall but their work was fine and they were there when we needed them.
And lastly myself, a W/Mo with Sprint, a mess o' sword skills, mend ailments(I HATE bleeding and poison, and no one else seems to bring that skill along), and a sig of capture(opportunist, yes I am). I'm our only other warrior, so I get to tank a lot, and that suites me fine. Sprint also kinda made me serve as fire brigade whenever there was trouble somewhere else, because I could get there fastest.
So, we had 2 tanks, a healer(and a semi-support healer), a nuker(or two maybe, I don't remember), a ranger, and a necro for wells of blood and other handy things. Overall it was a solid group.
We get into the mission though, and almost immediately our other Warrior -Windy Breeze I think was his name, damn me for not adding him to my friends list- sets us down and takes charge. I don't know, but I think he had done the mission before, probably a bunch of times, and I think this time he was going back for the bonus. Or maybe just to help others get through, dunno. Anyways, guy knew EXACTLY where to go and what to do. He never got angry, he never yelled at anyone, he never got obviously excited, and whenever he talked he'd use some flawless spelling and punctuation and grammer. I know that last bit seems silly, but when what you type and how you type it is the only way to convey yourself, and when virtually no one else pays much regard to such things, it really sets you apart as someone who knows what the hell they're doing when you do something as simple as end every sentance with a period. Anyhow, our Warrior made it clear that he knew what we had to do, and perhaps most amazingly of all, everyone listened to him. Those two things made ALL the difference.
Clearing the city was just a matter of classic Guild Wars PvE tactics: ranger sets traps and pulls, aggro only one group at a time, rest and recharge between battles, protect the healers and in this case, the King. Also, we kept close track on who the king was following, and that person kept back behind everyone else to avoid having the king go suicidal on us so much. And hey, it worked. There was one brief exciting moment when our monk died and no one was sure if anyone had brought a res sig or any other res skill, but turned out we had 3 or 4 sigs running around. Cleared out the city, and then moved on to the fort.
As you might guess, our leader got us to take the fort smart, clearing out all the groups around the walls before gearing up for Dagnar. Before dropping him, he also sat us down again and spent a good solid 5-10 minutes explaining what was about to happen, and determining what roles we would play. Me and him would light the beacons for the bonus, our Ranger and Necro would man the 2 sets of catapults, and then the rest of us would take to the center, roughly where Dagnar stood, and move against whichever gate they got through, trying to intercept them right between the inner and outer doors. As the situation evolved I also became our fire brigade, sprinting off after anything that got through the gate we weren't fighting at. But in general, the whole team except the catapultists would fight the biggest threat to reach the gate. But under NO circumstances would we leave the fort and fight outside the walls, nor did we really fall back to the king(or need to, for that matter). For the most part, the strategy worked; I couldn't tell how much damage our catapults did but they seemed to be at least crippling some of the guys that got through, and probably killed a few per group. I got myself killed rushing a group of Jade Armors that broke through on the far side from where we were fighting at the time, but everyone else got over fast enough to finish them off and get me res'd. And there was one more moment when we lost 3 or 4 guys fighting against the Jade Armor boss and his buddies, but we held out and got everyone resurrected before the next wave showed up. I don't even remember a mursaat monk boss, so it's possible he got killed outside the walls, or weakened out there and then brought down really quickly at the gate.
Anyways, suffice to say we held out, and I don't think the King ever came under attack the entire time. But it took a lot of time, patience, good leadership and planning, and a team that was willing to listen and then stick to those plans. Easily one of my most favorite mission experiences ever, and one of the best teams I've been lucky enough to play with, right up there with the time I did Aurora Glade and had my team almost entirely wiped out fighting for the gate to Denravi, only to have our last monk save us and we rallied to win the mission and bonus. But that's another story...
And if anyone wants a competant, won't-aggro-every-damn-thing-in-sight W/Mo to help with Thunderhead, give Tsen Oneblade a ring. If I have time and I'm available, I'll be happy to help.
Tziouv
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neo-LD
I didnt think henchies are possible with this mission because they are too stupid to heal the king, and frequently aggro 4 groups at once.
Have you EVER tried to play with henchmen? o_O;
They don't do that.
Only the warriors may attack without a command and this doesn't happen often.
Not to mention that aggroing more than 2 groups at once is like impossible in this mission unless you run around the ENTIRE city or fort during battle.
The suicidal king needs little healing, and if he does, a single monk can easily handle him, he has a crazy armor rating and tons of health.
I believe it's just that people still haven't heard of "calling", "luring" or "kill enemy casters first", and just scream gogogogogogogogo in the beginning calling you a "noob" (in capitals) while they are the ones with a -60% death penalty attacking everything but an enemy monk.
Euro warriors are the masters of this. Don't know about other regions.
They don't do that.
Only the warriors may attack without a command and this doesn't happen often.
Not to mention that aggroing more than 2 groups at once is like impossible in this mission unless you run around the ENTIRE city or fort during battle.
The suicidal king needs little healing, and if he does, a single monk can easily handle him, he has a crazy armor rating and tons of health.
I believe it's just that people still haven't heard of "calling", "luring" or "kill enemy casters first", and just scream gogogogogogogogo in the beginning calling you a "noob" (in capitals) while they are the ones with a -60% death penalty attacking everything but an enemy monk.
Euro warriors are the masters of this. Don't know about other regions.
Neo-LD
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tziouv
Have you EVER tried to play with henchmen? o_O;
They don't do that.
Only the warriors may attack without a command and this doesn't happen often.
Not to mention that aggroing more than 2 groups at once is like impossible in this mission unless you run around the ENTIRE city or fort during battle.
The suicidal king needs little healing, and if he does, a single monk can easily handle him, he has a crazy armor rating and tons of health.
I believe it's just that people still haven't heard of "calling", "luring" or "kill enemy casters first", and just scream gogogogogogogogo in the beginning calling you a "noob" (in capitals) while they are the ones with a -60% death penalty attacking everything but an enemy monk.
Euro warriors are the masters of this. Don't know about other regions. I DID try that mission with hechies with my ranger. Know what happened? We kicked butt until we got to the end of the city, when you have to climb around to the towers with giants on them and try to kill them without aggroing the enemies either in front or behind. As soon as you try to kill them, the fighters go and aggro everything, and the king will die because the henchmen are too stupid to heal him. I dont doubt that since you were a monk, you were able to accomplish this since you can make up for the henchies lack of foresight, but the rest of us are stuck.
They don't do that.
Only the warriors may attack without a command and this doesn't happen often.
Not to mention that aggroing more than 2 groups at once is like impossible in this mission unless you run around the ENTIRE city or fort during battle.
The suicidal king needs little healing, and if he does, a single monk can easily handle him, he has a crazy armor rating and tons of health.
I believe it's just that people still haven't heard of "calling", "luring" or "kill enemy casters first", and just scream gogogogogogogogo in the beginning calling you a "noob" (in capitals) while they are the ones with a -60% death penalty attacking everything but an enemy monk.
Euro warriors are the masters of this. Don't know about other regions. I DID try that mission with hechies with my ranger. Know what happened? We kicked butt until we got to the end of the city, when you have to climb around to the towers with giants on them and try to kill them without aggroing the enemies either in front or behind. As soon as you try to kill them, the fighters go and aggro everything, and the king will die because the henchmen are too stupid to heal him. I dont doubt that since you were a monk, you were able to accomplish this since you can make up for the henchies lack of foresight, but the rest of us are stuck.
Lost
Quote:
KaPe
Did it with henchmen on first try. Was bit surprised how easy it was - just stood near king and waited for enemies to come. Didn't bother with ballista, too much running for single person. Only annoying thing was Mursat Monk boss, took a while to kill him - because I didn't take mesmer skills with me. Still, as long as you leave bosses for last, there shouldn't be any problem. Also, make sure you attack everything that comes close, so they fight you, not the king.
Ristaron
I have tried this mission a good 30 times. I sh!t you not 30 @#$%ing times. Every single time it's been an idiot who goes and agros 6 groups racing to where he thinks would be a video, or our healers get snipered from the hacking enemies out of nowhere (literally, the arrows fly halfway across the map), and the most common: Jalis reveals himself to be Rurik's dwarven counterpart and runs off on a suicide mission while my NPC healer is sitting there twiddling her thumbs, or my real player healer is off picking his nose or other obscene things.
The first time I tried the mission, I had held the fort for a good 5 minutes before we had too many Mursaat come and sneak behind us while we were defending the other gate. Rurik the Second (King Ironhammer) sat there (no doubt drunk on dwarven ale) while the Mursaat pelted the living hell out of him. Failure.
Every single time since then has increased my frustration with the mission and given me more gray hairs. I can't wait to do this with my monk. The mere thought of the n00bs lying dead for the fifth time in five minutes screaming "res me res me" while I'm trying to keep the King alive is enough to make me want to put my head through the screen of this monitor.
Three of my guildees (and one former one I had to ask to leave because he was being an overall disturbance) have completed it, and this simply adds to my frustration.
Before this friking mission, I was the furthest ahead, the richest, and the most knowledgable of the game in the entire guild. Now I have people ahead of me and knowing things I don't know. I never lorded it, barely even thought about it... but it irks me now!
Thankfully, though, I'm still the richest in the guild... so that counts for something at least.
The first time I tried the mission, I had held the fort for a good 5 minutes before we had too many Mursaat come and sneak behind us while we were defending the other gate. Rurik the Second (King Ironhammer) sat there (no doubt drunk on dwarven ale) while the Mursaat pelted the living hell out of him. Failure.
Every single time since then has increased my frustration with the mission and given me more gray hairs. I can't wait to do this with my monk. The mere thought of the n00bs lying dead for the fifth time in five minutes screaming "res me res me" while I'm trying to keep the King alive is enough to make me want to put my head through the screen of this monitor.
Three of my guildees (and one former one I had to ask to leave because he was being an overall disturbance) have completed it, and this simply adds to my frustration.
Before this friking mission, I was the furthest ahead, the richest, and the most knowledgable of the game in the entire guild. Now I have people ahead of me and knowing things I don't know.
I never lorded it, barely even thought about it... but it irks me now!Thankfully, though, I'm still the richest in the guild... so that counts for something at least.