Master Thunderhead Keep's Mission

The biggest reason why this mission is so hard has nothing to do with the mission. It's the group. In most cases, the group doesn't play well together, or they only have one monk, or more than one person wants to be the leader, or everyone just goes on their own and does their own thing. If any of these apply then you will surely fail each and every time. This is one of the more strategic missions in the game. You have to think. You have to choose your spells carefully, work as a team, pick a leader, and follow directions. There is a level of strategy that you should think about when playing. Here are a few things to do in this mission that will help streamline the whole process.

1.) Be nice!! Be kind!! Treat others as you would want to be treated!! Do not curse! Do not stop doing your job in the mission because you are mad. Do not leave the mission for any reason!!

One of the other big problems with the mission is that people do not know how to be kind to the other players on the team. They swear and curse and eventually someone leaves. Then you are stuck. Because you have to have everyone to participate. Everyone has to be working together. If one person decides to stop healing because they are mad or if another leaves because of something a person said to them then that impacts the entire group and you can kiss the mission goodbye. I've seen it happen way too many times.

Also, leaving the team in the middle of the mission for any reason at all, other than your computer crashed or a technical glitch, is one of the most rude and inconsiderate things a player can do. It impacts everyone on the team. You cost everyone to suffer for something that one person says or does that you do not approve of. So, do not go down to their level. Stay, fight, and do your part. Every time a person leaves the mission, I just want to find them, go into PVP mode, and give them a good hit or two. It's so rude to leave in the middle of any quest or mission. When you agree to join a group then you are giving your word and honor as a gamer.

2.) Protect the King! Protect the King! Protect the King! If the King dies then the mission is over. End of story.

3.) Call Out What You Are Killing. Make sure everyone focuses on their killing strategy. Up until the fight with the boss, you may want to consider killing one beast at a time while protecting the King. If you do then they will go down faster; allowing you to move faster in the game and be more productive. However, once you get to the end of the mission where you have to defend the fort and the King, then it is important that you have a really understood strategy. If the entire group focuses on one beast at a time at the end of the mission then you are all dead. Split up into two groups. One group mans the East side. One group mans the West side. There should be one caster on the East catapults and one caster on the West catapults. It is the job of the casters at the catapults to do two things. First, they must tell the others who are on "front line" when incoming attacks are approaching. Second, they must keep those catapults moving!!

Whatever you do, do NOT run outside of the fort area. Let the bad guys come to you. Do not run outside. When you run outside you are really exposing the fort and the King and the casters. Stay together. Fight together. Work as a team and there is no doubt that you will be successful.

Oh, I almost forgot. If your team needs a second monk and are wondering about whether or not to take one of the henches, here is my recommendation and I'm providing this information from my own personal success and experience. Take Menlo with you if you need another monk. He is the better of the group and can serve you well. But make sure you don't completely rely on him. He is a hench after all.

4.) Pick a Leader!! Ask your team if anyone has completed the mission before. If they have, and are just there to help out a friend, then let them lead. They know how to beat the mission so listen to them and follow directions. If a person says that they have "done" the mission then that does not mean they actually "beat" the mission. In otherwords, they died and are back to try it again. So, they really do not know how to "complete" the mission because they have not finished it yet. But, if you have no other options and if nobody in the mission has completed the mission, then listen to the one or two who has actually "done" the mission and pick one of these two to lead. Do not have both lead. Pick ONE!! Then, follow directions. You need to make sure that everyone is clear about who is leading the group.

5.) Turn Right at the Y in the Road. When you first enter the mission you will face three big elephant beasts. Kill them and then you will come to a Y in the road. Turn right!! Do not turn left. Then go up the hill and turn left to kill the three ice beasts on top. The ones that you avoided by going right will still be there and will not be attacking yet because they don't see you. This allows you to take one group at a time and reduce the amount of damage you take as a team.

6.) Pull to the Bridge. Once you get to the bridge, pull the beasts from the other side onto the bridge. Then stay on the bridge and take the beasts down. If you do not pull the beasts then the patrol that will come up behind them will also attack you and probably outnumber you. You want to take the least damage that you can and reduce the risk of damage to the King. If even one person dies in the mission before the end then that person will have a Death Penalty. You can't afford a death penalty at the end of the mission.

7.) Skip the Bonus. Do It Later. Unless you are a top notch experienced team who plays together extremely well (perhaps you are in the same guild) then I would HIGHLY recommend skipping the bonus. Otherwise, 9 times out of 10, the group will die and the mission will be over.

8.) Place Casters at Catapults. Okay, when you get to the end, there will be beacons and catapults. Make sure you do NOT light the beacons otherwise you will be summoning more bad guys to come your way. Also, lighting the beacons is the bonus quest. Like I said before, I would suggest skipping the bonus and doing it later once you have completed the mission. So, leave the beacons alone!! Now, that brings us to the catapults. You need two casters manning the catapults. To man the catapults that means staying with them and making sure they are firing. To fire a catapult, simply run from one catapult to the other and pull the levers. But here is the key. Someone, and I mean only ONE person, must be at the catapults at all times. If those catapults aren't moving then someone isn't doing their job. You will need all the help you can get.

Now, why do I say have "casters" at each catapult?? It's really simple. You need casters because they can still do damage to incoming attacks by casting downward from the top area where the catapults are located. While they are casting down they can also SHOUT OUT what is coming from each side. This way you will know, in advance, what to expect and can form your defense accordingly. If you have anything else other than casters at the top then you will not be doing damage to the incoming attacks. You have to do both damage and SHOUT OUTs to be successful up there.

9.) Cover The Area. Next, you will be faced with a boss at the end. The hardest part of this entire mission is the fight with the PERFECT AMOUR. This is a lvl 28 beast that hits hard. His objective is to take down the King. So watch yourself. You will have them trying to get to the King. Most of the time, they are successful and the mission is over and you are defeated. The reason why they are successful is because of poor teamwork, failure to man each doorway (east and west), someone left the catapult area when they were supposed to be up there, etc. Remember, casters can cast downward so keep them up high so they don't take damage. You want to minimize the amount of damage that your team takes while doing the most amount of damage you can.

10.) Do Not Rush Mission. Also, do not rush this mission. Take your time. Think about it - What would you rather be doing? Would you rather take your time, form a strategy, get the team together, and beat the mission? Or, would you rather rush it and kill each mob one after the other without letting your team heal up and get their energy back and then eventually start dying and taking Death Penalty? Sounds stupid when you think about it but way too many teams rush the mission. I can't tell you how many times a group will yell out - What is your problem! Come back! Oh Crap!! Take the bottom!! Take the bottom!! Do not rush!! You have to play as a team. You MUST!!!

11.) Pick Up Drops After Fighting. Okay, now lets talk about drops. A drop is an item that appears with your name on it after a bad guy goes down. Too many players will stop fighting when a drop with their name on it appears. They figure - Might as well get the drop now in case we die! When you stop to pick up a dropped item, you cause yourself to take damage and to inflict zero damage to the bad guy who is hitting you and trying to kill you. Also, you risk your team as well. So, wait and clear the area first. Then go and pick up your drops. They will still be there.

12.) Fight Strategically. Okay there is one part of the mission that I forgot to talk about. This part is when you enter the city area and there are two levels of bad guys. There is a bottom level with a group of bad guys. There is a top level with bad guys. The top level is blocked by a door that the King will open when you walk him up there. Here is my advice. If you want to do less damage to the team, protect the King from harms way, and ensure that you get past this part without having to rez a team member then here is what you do. Everyone, and I MEAN EVERYONE (not almost everyone while two others go up and unlock the door), stays down below. From below, there are two groups of bad guys up top. One on the right and one on the left. Take out the group on the right first. You will see them. Have all of your casters cast upwards from down below. Protect them with healing and spells. Warriors do nothing! Nobody goes up top. Everyone stays down. Cast up and kill the group on the right. Then repeat the same thing for the group on the left. Once you are done you can sit back and rest happy that you didn't risk or expose your King to any damage and you didn't have to rez anyone either. Then, once both sides are taken out, go up top and pick up the dropped items. Then heal, max out your energy, and take on the last group right before you get to the area where the final part is located.

Well, I hope this helps everyone. I know it's a lot of information to take in but I hope it's useful. Just remember that this mission is not like the others. It is strategic. It tests your ability to think, work, and act as a team. So, pick your leader before the mission begins. Get two monks and two casters if you can. You definitely need two casters. One monk will suffice but they must be willing to do nothing but heal, heal, heal, heal. They can fight when they have to but they must be healing too, especially the King!! Okay, two monks, two casters, you definitely need a strong tank or two, and you need one person who can pull (for the bridge fight). Then, for the remaining slots in your team, just fill them with warriors. Also, you may need the Rebirth spell and lots of smithing!! If you can return damage back to the original source when you are hit then that is awesome. Also, if you can rez a lot of minions to help out then that is also great.

Oh, one more thing before I end this. The question is - Is it worth finishing this mission? The answer is YES! After this mission, you get to the Fire Island where you can take down the mantle and enter the RING OF FIRE. So yes, definitely, you want to finish this mission. And, just in case you are wondering, I DID COMPLETE THE THUNDERHEAD MISSION.

Hope this helps everyone. Take care and good luck in the mission. See you on the other side!!

umm the bonus takes no time at all though. and its possibly one of the easiest bonuses

That's relative to the group that enters the mission. The bonus is certainly do-able. However, if you waited for two hours for a good group then you may not want to take the chance. Besides, you can always go back and redo it to complete the bonus later. Whether or not you do the bonus and whether or not the bonus is easy is completely and directly related to the group that you are in when you attempt it. So, use caution.

The only thing i can suggest is to bring a mesmer ( which is rare ) or a necron with Enfeeble for the Perfect Armor boss. Personaly I found that the Monk / Mesmer boss is way harder than the Warrior boss.

I did both mission + bonus in 1 run with all henchies (after several tries with PUG) and I think henchies are way better than normal players cause they obey my commands to stay or attack the same targets perfectly (plus they dont run for drops). Although I am not suggesting people to do this mission with henchies.

I played the mission twice, everytime we did bonus too.

What happens if you don't light the beacons? The bonus description says, if you light the beacons you will distract the mursaat, which to me means: less enemies...

And I really think there are only a few enemies, it is very boring to defend at the end of the mission. With the catapults you kill or weaken many enemies and the one that reach the doors are only 2 or max 3 at the same time.

So I thought without lighting the beacons it must be tougher... Am I wrong?

I cant believe how people are freaking out about this mission. I did it twice, once with my mesmer and once with my monk, I made it first try both times. When I did this with my monk we had 3 monks, me, the protector hench and a smiter monk, the rest were all warriors.. We were cutting trough those mobs with no effort at all.

Once we got to holding the fort, we were just screwing around chatting and making jokes. One of the warriors decided to be a hero and gaurded one side on his own lol he didnt even die once. I went to get something to drink while we waited and there was another afk standing in the middle... This mission is easy, did they change it in the last 2 patches?

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I've not noticed anything diffrent lighting/not lightning the beacons ...

Did it last night with my necro leading a group of randomish players, and just one monk.
Some of the group didn't think we could do it with only one, I laughed.

I'm max blood/max curse and I use:
1) Life Siphon
2) Faintheartedness
3) Enfeeble
4) Dark Pact
5) Strip Enchantment
6) Awaken the Blood
7) Well of Blood
8) Offering of Blood

We did it easy

Apart from the warriors who had a tendancy to rush forwards, everything went according to plan, had ranger one side and elementalist the other, on the 'pults.
I was running back and forth trying to make sure everything was hexed, and laying down wells as corpses appeared.

I actually tweaked my skill selection slightly for the second attempt.
(we only lost because the king got aggroed and steamed into the pack while the monk was on fumes).
Dropped awaken, and took inspired hex, so I could remove hexes off the king.

On my first try (which did not succeed, but it was just me and henchies) the king was not staying back, so he drew aggro and died a couple of minutes into the siege.

But on every other try the king NEVER drew aggro. He's staying so far back, you just have to approach the opponents outside of his aggro range which means on the steps. They come in in groups of two and three at a time, never on both sides. So just move from left to right and vice versa killing those 3 jades or mursaat's easily. We (me and another player) never manned the catapults and still beat it. The hardest part was the monk boss - we decided it would be better to kill of all minions first (which went pretty fast despite him healing them) and then killing him. We dropped him before another group came in (barely but it worked) and that was it - the groups afterwards and the boss in the end are no fight at all.

It is more difficult nowadays because the infusion doesn't work as well as it did before but still I never thought this to be a difficult mission.

Well i dont know why mamy had probs. there. I did it 5 times in a row, and always succef.And btw.,dotn rem . if this miss., a danm good place for Items.....

When u reach the "Fort", go upside and kill all. Then go down and kill the rest.

After that just go from one door to the other, for the first min. Then splitt 2 Groups, and Monks stay in the middle. if some1 pass thru, hunt them and kill fast. And back to middle.

One should stay with the King, and tell u where they come.

I did this misson twice - totally different strats and succeded both times - has something changed?

The second time was a method I have yet to read about here, noone else has done it?

After the intitial couple waves, everyone runs out of the hold, leave the King by himself and goes North I believe to where the mobs are spawning - you just sit there and kill them as they spawn...is that not possible anymore?

hmm me and some freinds just got there so thanks for the info.

Tried it like 8 times today. Last 3 with very organized PUG and Perfect Armour always seems to get us. I don't recall it being so tough when I did it a couple weeks back. Maybe its tweaked?

Oh my god i hate this mission. I got a team together and we spent about 10 minutes planning. I am an Ele, and i got the east catapults spam firing them going from one to the other. I told the other ele on the team to spam fire the west catapults. So there was just me and her on them and we called targets out when they were approaching. With the remaining 6 we had 3 warriors, 2 monks and a ranger. We had 1 monk and 1 warrior on the east door and 1 warrior and 1 monk on the west door, the ranger set traps at the doors and the extra warrior just helped whereever the most enemies came to flood. We were doing so fine till the "PERFECT ARMOUR" came. I told my team to kill everything around him first then kill him but the thing is we just couldnt get the Perfect Armour down, so I was wondering am I better off staying on the catapults when the Perfect Armour comes or should i come off them to help out to get him down quicker? I am really p'ed off with this mission, The strat we used i thought would hit the nail right on the head but eventually we all died, then they closed in on the king etc. The king was fine throughout all this, it's just when we get to the Perfect Armour our troubles start. If ANYONE expierenced at this mission would be willing to give me a hand with it, I wouldn't be able to use any words suitable to thank you as it would be GREATLY appriciated. Sorry for long post but i felt i had to let it out lol.

By the way we tried it twice, so by the second run all my team were familiar with the layout of the area etc. I really thought we would do it, we communicated so well.

I was with you there Viva and I agree - trying to figure it out now!

I think it's bugged, because we worked together so well, I can't see where we went wrong :\?

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kinda agree this mission is a killer for unorganized teams casters on catapults have to remember to dump aoes on incoming foes at the gate thats all i have to say most of the time they are just hitting the pults while the warriors take down perfect armor too slow when that happens hell breaks lose i guess

This mission wouldn't be so hard if the king didn't seem to be infused and dies in under three hits by Jade Armor or a Jade Bow.. Or two hits by 'Perfect Armor'. Most groups I get in can clear all but the last part where the final spawns appear and rush for the king at light speed (darn things move ~way~ too fast).

I guess what I'm saying, he mission in itself isn't hard, its just keeping the king alive thats the hard part, maybe if he was made a bit tougher so he doesn't die so easily?

just camp at the king.
the healers can protect him that way, and you will have the enemies slowly coming at ya in little groups. catapults a plus but not necessary.

cheers,
makk.

The second time we attempted it, our team decided to kill all the stuff around the boss then focus on him, but he just cleared us out. I think I'm going to give up on this mission, it's just not nice to get to the fort which is easy but time consuming, then spend 15 mins destroying waves of monsters then this boss comes and just screws the team over, he is too powerful, Glint was 3 levels higher and wasn't this much of a problem. Reading some posts in here, some people are like... "I don't remember this mission being hard..." etc. So I'm sure this mission must of been made harder or something, can anyone tell me if they have completed this mission in the past week? And how you did it? Thanks.

Oh yeh, is it still possible to head out of the fort and camp at the mursaat respawn? Can anyone confirm this please.

You can head out of the fort but they spawn all over the place - not just one spot we found out today.

Anyway we also tried to camp in the middle without catapults and got overwhelmed anyway. We focused on stuff and had no DP. So I would really like to hear from someone who has done it within the last day or so just to make sure its not a big change from last time I did it - cause before it really was easy.

That Perfect Armor boss is a serious pain, I agree- when I passed the mission (first time through, don't hate me too much) we came closest to failing when he arrived. Basically we did just what everyone else is talking about -kill his buddies, then go after him- but we lost some cohesion and focus in the battle, especially when a second (2 man, I think) wave showed up just as we were still trying to finish the Perfect Armor's friends off. Had at least 2, maybe even 3 or 4 guys go down during all that excitement, but what kept us going was I was able to draw aggro from that damn Perfect Armor, get him to beat away on me for awhile instead of our team. A little healer support, I think maybe a blood well on our location, and I was able to tie him up long enough for the rest of the team to rally, destroy his friends, and then finish him off.

After that we got a nice, well earned breather, and after all the chaos of deal with Mr Perfect and his mob, the rest was absurdly easy. I do agree though, for all the talent and coordination our team had, we came damn close to losing it right there. That boss is a real dirty rat bastard, no way around it. Although, with a solid anti-melee mesmer, I could see him going down pretty easy.

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