Difficulty Problem

I’ve really been enjoying Guild Wars Factions since I got it but I’m concerned about the difficulty. I have now completed all the quests on the beginning island and have risen to level 18 (warrior/monk). Now I’m on the mainland and all the enemies are level 20, despite a full party of henchmen a small group of enemies can totally slaughter the group, my health rockets down faster than the healer can heal. The weaker members of the party die in seconds. The problem is I can’t see a flaw in my tactics, the skills I’m using are the only skills I have available. What am I doing wrong?

What is your armor at? If you still have the beginning armor you have 5, get a run to kainig and buy the armor that has 80,(i recomend glads) if you cant afford all of it get collecters 80, or just make sure u have a good chest piece.

Getting to level 20 probably won't fix your problems completely, but it can't hurt. There are plenty of easy quests available on the Mainland, just try them and see which ones you can manage to do. Also, the quests you didn't complete on Shing Jea (if any) are worthy of your time aswell, as they have similar rewards but are for the mostpart, easier.

EDIT: Yeah, I should have thought of armour too..

As the other posters have said, make sure your armour is the best you can get.There are collectors around who give various armour parts if you can't afford to buy it. The locations for both starter island and mainland collectors are on here http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Collectors

Have you completed both 15 point attribute quests? Further have you applied all your attribute points?

Have you bought and applied any runes to your armour?

Once you have completed your primary and secondary profession training, you have to buy any further skills you want. A list of skills by campaign can be found here http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Skills_by_Campaign

This could be the backlash from being able to level up without having
to spend much time learning to play. While it's great for experianced
players that just want to get their new toon up and running, it's not so
great for people that haven't learned how to pull, focus fire, bring
appropriate counters for the skills they'll be facing, etc.
If you're having trouble with the henches, you might want to join groups
with real peeps for a while.
If you get good groups you'll be able to see what skills they use, what
targets they prioritize, etc.
If you get you get bad groups you'll have a whole new appreciation for
the henches.

I have the same problem tbh, I have a monk (full armor, runes, 200 att pts...) and sometimes the difficulty drives me crazy. Especially the spike ability of some monsters is sick and I'm not able to heal it with 2 other monk henchies in my party.
This incredibly steep difficulty curve is the thing I hate the most about Factions, Prophecies campaign is much better in this aspect.

Thanks, you’ve given me some stuff to think about. My armor is currently all 50 stuff from the starting island, I can’t afford to buy the 80 stuff so I guess collectors is the way to go, although those collectors require items like “5 putrid Cysts” which I have never seen drop, if those things only drop from the enemies that are giving me problems then I’m in trouble.

Also, I have done both 15 attribute quests and have something like Healing Prayers + 10, Strength +9, Swordsmanship +10. I’m using Sever Artery and Gash with 2 other strength governed skills. I’ve also got resurrect and healing breeze on the bar.

pay for a no contact run i can do with a level 1 naked?

- Can I have any control over my henchmen, telling them to attack a target etc?
- How does the game handle aggro, it seems the enemies always go for me as I’m the first thing they encounter, but I can’t imagine a monk or mage would be able to survive if enemies always attack the first target they encounter.

Henchmen usually attack your target. For extra focus try holding down CTRL as you select to attack them. This 'calls' that target.

Also, if you're a little out of range, and you want to send your henchies in, hold control and shift, then hit tab while you have an enemy selected. This will send the henchies in, allowing the aggro to center on them, instead of you. Basically, the enemies spend the first few seconds scanning their aggro bubble for the squishy target. So if you send your henchies in as mentioned, and just stay back for a few seconds, they should target you less often.

Also, the boss in the Bazaar (Lian, Dragon Petal) is just evil. Avoid her, get experienced players, or expect to take a good beating.

I had a similar problem with my Assassin. In my case, having Prophecies, I went over there to finish leveling out to 20, came back, and did all the quests in the city, I think except two still pending. Die Jade Brotherhood, die!

Just my opinion, but I think the stepup in difficulty between the island and the city is a bit too high. The Jade Brotherhood is actually tougher than the Dredge, the Mantids, Wardens and others that I have met higher up in the game.

One other thing to consider is your weapon. What are it's stats, and are your attributes setup properly to make use of the weapon?

As for putrid cysts, the afflicted drop those, wich means if you can handle the zen daijin mission, you should be able to get a few. You might want to consider getting the collectable armor from the island rather than from the mainland first. It's a slightly lower level (65 as opposed to 80) but it should be easier to attain.

The default action for tab is to cycle through targets, not to call them. Use the Spacebar instead while holding Ctrl + Shift. In addition, until you get better armor, I would just stay back and let the henchies do whatever fighting is necessary.

Also, get the quest "The search for a cure" from Imperial Agent Hanjo in Kaineng City. Leave from Kaineng, kill the first three Jade Brotherhood warriors that attack you. Pick up the capes that they drop and return to Bujo in Kaineng. Then, take the quest "Seek out Brother Tosai" from Bujo. Just keep this quest active, but don't complete it yet. Having this quest makes all the Am Fah in the area friendly to you and makes questing in this area much easier.

Also, choosing the right paths to take on the primary quests makes them very easy as there is usually a way to avoid nearly all confrontations.