ascension...maybe spoilers in post answers

Ok so here goes, this is probably going to sound like a really dumb question, but what is the whole ascension business all about? i am a lvl 18 W/Ne and i have (as far as i know) got miles to go before i am anywhere near completing the major missions, let alone the minor ones. Where do you get asked about ascension? I heard you get like 50,000 exp for it but at lvl 18 do i need 50k worth of exp? Is this when you fight your doppleganger? or are the two seperate things?

I appreciate these are mucho newbie questions but they have been bugging me for a while so any explanations would be great. I dont mind little spoilers as i have read that many posts on forums that dont say "caution spoilers" that i know a couple of the major plot twists anyway.

I've just reached the Wilds as far as major missions go if any of you are wondering.

Thanks in advance dudes and dudets

Obs

Seeing how you're now in Wilds, if you keep doing the quests/missions, you won't need to worry about ascension before you're level 20.

You will start hearing talks about ascension once you get to a certain city in the desert ... I don't think you should worry about that now - just enjoy the awesome jungle (some of my favourite areas in the game - don't skip those wondering about ascension )

Ascension consists of completing 3 moderately difficult missions in the south east desert region:

Elonas Reach, Dunes of Despair and Thirsty River.

Then you fight your mirror self to complete the ascension.

Ascension is not the end by the way; you still have a handful of slightly more difficult missions to complete to end the story line... until the next expansion.

Sweet thanks guys. I am loving the game so far. A few guild members and myself made it to Droknors forge...Hmmm i can see why its so hard. I am still exploring around and i think thats why i have got such a reasonable level having done so (seemingly) few quests. I'm looking forward to finding this mythical 15k armour sets. So still loads of the game to enjoy before i create another char and do it all again...

I did the dunes of despair mission with henchmen pretty easily, but Elona's Reach is well... not working for me. I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong, but my party gets wiped over and over. I can't kill fast enough that the roving patrols don't add. Someone suggested running it, with sprint and balanced stance, but I can't really see that working.

I did Elona's Reach a long time ago, but I noticed that's probably one of the hardest missions when it comes to good teamwork. You need to all stick together, and play through the mission regularly. Don't rush, and don't feel pressured by the time limit. As always, kill the healer monsters first, before killing the others.. focus on the same targets to kill faster, and try to pull groups away from others (even if it means waiting a few extra seconds for groups to separate) so you won't aggro a huge mob of 20 monsters.