MM vs Spectral Agony

So I just got done wiping on Thunderhead Keep for the third time... did much better than the first two attempts, probably because I ran a MM build. If you healer monks think you have a boring role, you should try playing a minion master: healing breeze, blood of the master, blood of the master, animate bone horror, blood of the master... Ugh. Anyway, we were doing pretty well clear until I was left to defend one entry way of the fort with only a ranger to back me up. Enslaved Giants? No problem. Dolyak Rider boss? No problem. Jade Bows? Wiped. Even though my armor is all nice and infused, my minions are completely vulnerable to Spectral Agony. Despite my best sacrificing, I found myself without an army after 2-3 of these buggers. And the best part? They don't drop corpses, so I've got no fresh blood to replenish my ranks. Soon it's just myself and the ranger, and we're running like mad back into the keep, and before you know it everyone's dead. I honestly can't imagine doing this mission without a legion of undead minions (and neither could the next party I got an invite to, who booted me when I said I was going blood spiker/battery), but they just get wiped so fast when the Jade Bows/Armors show up that's it not possible to keep one going.

Another problem I had was keeping 10 minions up. I often got down to around 6 because they just died so fast, even though I virtually never stopped using blood of the master (and verata's sacrifice when it was up). It wasn't so bad because I always had a fresh supply of corpses, but I couldn't imagine trying to split them with a second MM. Am I doing something wrong or are they really supposed to be dying so fast?

Level difference beetween Jade and Minions might change a bit, also minions are
NOT infused so they suffer every second that -100 dmg when Spectral hits, so MM is good choice to get in fort and clean it, after that your all alone. Minions have about 400-450 health? so they die in like 4-5 seconds if Spectral Agony last that longer. When you arrive on Fire Island you should chance your MM stuff for blood spike/support. MM is all good in places where is not heavy damage dealer, just DO NOT use MM on fire island, if you do, your so dead.

-dollztempta.

Splitting the party to defend the two entryways is a ticket for disaster no matter what builds y'all are running. it works a LOT better in theory than in practice.

Best, if you're not using the catapults, is to have some party members camping the king and some who claim to also be camping the king but in fact hang out in the center of the courtyard to intercept the next wave of attackers.

When I bring my MM to THK I plan to be running up and down the steps a lot, helping heal the king but also going down into the courtyard whenever necessary.

You should be letting the tanks go in first. Minions are frag bait for Spectral Agony, so let the tanks go in first and it usually draws attention for a while. The fact they don't leave corpses you just have to work round.

It turns out my wife has done THK as an MM one or more times, I think multiple.

She hung out down in the courtyard, so as to be in range to raise minions.

She did say that while MMing was phenomenal for getting to and clearing the fort, Spectral Agony made it somewhat less useful in the last part, and that you need some way other than minions to hurt the enemies.

But Muursat of course leave corpses, even though Jade don't, as do giants and so on. So there's plenty of opportunity to make more minions after earlier ones die.

I did THK with my MM pre-nerf. However, I don't remember ever having more than 5-6 minions up at a time while I was in the fort so the nerf shouldn't really be an issue. The trick is to camp the king. Also, remember to use the henchman corpses as the occur. Just be sure to rez the monks after using their corpses.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ecro_power.jpg