Thunderhead is easy (tips for you)

Alright, I'm sure many of us have gotten frustrated with Thunderhead several times. Well... here are some tips for you. I've completed this three times on the same character (wanted to help people out) and I've been able to figure out almost every trick to that.

so this list might be kinda short or kinda long
Party suggestions
-2 Rangers (when you get to the fort, have the rangers man the catapults and they also need to pull mobs)
-2 Tanks (any type of tanks)
-2 Healers (can be E/Mo or Mo/E)
-2 Nukers

Now you could switch it up a little and have 3 tanks and 1 ranger or 3 nukers and 1 ranger but that's about it (this is my opinion btw).

Your party MUST be organized at doing everything, here are a few tips while you do your mission
-Make sure a healer talks to the King
-Do NOT move to the next group until both healers have full energy
-Have the ranger(s) pull mobs so that you don't have to fight too many at once and thus lowering your chance of death
-Every party member must cooperate, if one person screws up, your whole team does
-Before you fight the mob right in the middle of the city (the one with the boss) where it says "Destroy 8 groups" or however many it is, go on the top from the right side and kill the giants and rangers there
-When you reach the fort and kill the things on the side, hug the wall to the side and pull the boss in the middle so that its alone and you don't lure the other groups.
-Make sure that the Rangers or whoever mans the catapults know that they hit the dark spots, so that they won't waste their time hitting everything
-When the rangers are using the pults, everyone else stays in the middle of the fort
-When the second boss comes at the fort (after the cutscene), EVERY party member should go back to where the king is at all costs, if you try to fight it from the middle, you're screwed. The boss is either a jade boss or a mursatt boss
-After that you are pretty much done with the mission, stay where the king is and make sure that he doesn't die.

Add any suggestions if you want. I think I covered most of it. (there's a glitch that you could use but I didn't put that in, too hard to explain)

Good luck. Sometimes I'll go to thunderhead and help some people out on this mission. For me, its a challenging mission and its actually quite fun. Met quite a few friends on this mission.

Beating the entire game is easy, So is stabbing your self in the foot.

Agreed, I never had a problem with thunderhead and I've beat it 5-7 times.

How are necromancers and mesmers supposed to beat this mission?

they dont, lol

The easier way is to start your own group and tell people you're the leader and they must listen to you.

I failed 3 times with henchies then I made my own group and bossed em all around, we won first try.

I was helping a guildie the other night with this one. There were 3 overzealous wamos in the group. The leader, a wamo, decided he'd like to boss everyone around, but also go outside the gates to fight. He died a lot because no one was helping him. He was too far out of healing range. We all stayed inside on the ground.

When we got to about 20 monsters left, basically morale was low and we were all spread out. I told everyone to rush back to the king and stay there. There was 3 different groups. I watched as the king breathed his last breath.

I've done this mission about 20 times and finished it every time because everyone stayed with the king.

I hate overzealous wamos.

It is not always necessary to belittle the posts that others make. A LOT of people have trouble with Thunderhead Keep. That some of you obviously god-like creatures did not, is a testament to....nothing.

I am sure that Sleepy's post will help others. If you're well beyond this point and don't have anything to add, you really don't have to say anything.

As Thumper said in Bambi, "If you can't say nothin' nice, don't say nothin' at all."

you get one person on each side, manning the catapults, running back and forth to set them off throughout the whole thing. Everyone else pretty much stays in the middle and take out any of the mobs that make it through the catapults fire. The mobs don't even get close to the king.

I usually have the group running back and forth from the gates.

Last night I tried TK with my monk that I've beaten the game with just to see if it really is that hard. My first time through, awhile back, we did it in one try. It just seems harder for some reason now. Towards the end, I could not keep people healed. Even the well didn't keep the energy up. It could be because we had to take Mehnlo due to a monk shortage, and Mehnlo just don't rez anyone.

Exact same way I beat it. The mobs that do make it through are very small and easily killed.

In other words "Get a competant party"


... Thunderhead keep is impossible, for this reason. Somehow, I scraped by it a few times to unlock elites at the Ring of Fire. But my parties certainly weren't competant.

Blah, all this thing about you need these characters or those characters is foolish. You can beat it with almost any setup as long as the party works together.

Did it yesterday with guildmates, 1 Monk (me), 1 Necro, 1 Mesmer, 1 Ranger, 1 Fighter, 1 Elementalist + Lina & Devona (with 6 guildies I don't like to bring along other players, it destroys the chemistry and makes things much more complicated). So you see, all professions were present and there is a reason for Mesmers (ever fought that annoying Dolyak Monk Boss? He dies within seconds once interrupted by a Mesmer), Necros (a lot of things die, a lot of minions keep the baddies off you and the king) and everyone else. Each class has abilities that are useful for this and every other mission. So if anybody refuses you (you being a Mesmer, Necro, whatever is not appreciated) because of your class, they are just a bad group and you're better off not playing with them (unless they have one spot to fill and no monk onboard- in that case there is a reason why they won't take anybody but a monk ). A good group can make use of every class in the game.

Our approach was simple and it worked as always (guess it was my 10th time there, all of my characters plus guildies etc.) - light the beacons immediately after the cutscene (2 players needed for that), run back to the king and camp up there. Let the baddies come to you (a trapper can slow them down or injure them with clever use of his traps on the stairs) and kill them. Once a boss arrives, take down the other enemies first, the bosses have lots of HP and you'll have a much easier time taking them down once you're alone with them.

Lina (or a real player protector) comes in very handy, no need for two full healing monks. But if you don't have the luxury of a free place to fill with her (or no protection monk available), two monks are a good thing to have.

The one thing I found the most difficult yesterday was the enormous lags every few seconds. We were on TS and they always told me who was going down (some of them didn't have the lags, others had them too) and I just pressed the buttons to keep on healing (your toon actually does react, you just don't see it) and the others kept pressing T when something was going down.

So don't freak out when coming to this mission or failing because of bad PUG's. The mission is not too hard, only pretty long. Don't insist on taking 3 W, 2 R, 5 E or whatever, just take players along who actually listen before the start when you talk about your tactics. Players who are willing to spend 1 minute beforehand are more likely to succeed and thus saving much more than that 1 minute in the long run. Those are the players you want for missions like Thunderhead Keep.

Easy team:
2 warriors, 2 monks, 2 ele, 1 ranger or another monk.
But all classes can do this mission.
1 ele can be a mesmer or necro.
2nd part of the mission is kinda a PVP mission, and we all know that PVP is only "nice" with a special team.
Rangers with pets, take them, and res them, they can in the keep battle distract enemys.

Some more ideas:
In the start, let a caster talk to the king, and let her stand way back with the king, he will not attack (also kinda fun to see how long the 3 dwarven guards survive with this tactic...I have no idea if it is possible to get them all the way into the keep)
The Bridge: let one lure the group into the middle of the bridge, and nuke/fight them there, you will not get in trouble with the patrol, and boss.
Behind the city gate, kill the giants fast, before the patrol comes.
Watch and eliminate moving units, do not get in the middle of two units.
Use Ele and Mesmers to take out the giants on the towers.
When the king opens the gate, stay away from him, and then let the same person talk to him again, so that he won’t follow a warrior or so, most groups do that wrong, and rush in, puff king dead...
Wait for the first group outside the gate, lure the king away. After that you can take the last group very easy.
Kill dwarves who animate bones first, and then the bones.
Keep:
You have to wait before you kill the main boss in the middle of the keep.
Use the catapult first to kill all Giants outside the keep.
Then leave the keep without luring the boss. You can go out of the gates (they just look closed). Outside you will find 6 Jades near the gate(that will bring you to the fire islands in the endmovie of this mission), kill those, go back and take out the main boss to start the movie.

Have Eles take the catapults.
Some teams need 1 person on each catapult.( so 2 on each gate ).
It is very important to use the catapults right, you can take out more then 50% off all incoming monsters.
If Eles/Mesmers use the catapults, they can nuke attackers before they enter the keep, and after they are already damaged from the catapults.
Rangers can trap the gate.
Monks can heal the undeads you get.
Place all groupmembers that are not using catapults in the middle of the keep (where the boss was), and never ever leave the keep, whatever happens.

The only hard attack is when the 2nd boss comes in, with lots of jades and spellcasters. Let one target, and attack the boss only after you finished all other monsters. That’s the only point when the attackers can come near the king, so heal him. Res in battle when people die against this boss(all should have a res signet) and continue fighting.

After that the rest is easy, watch out for Dorian, if he comes, many groups take him out with Eles, before he even enters the keep. So he and his group are kinda easy.

The most important thing, and most groups forget that, is to make Team Play.
If you argue, fight and be rude to each other, you will loose.
Most groups don’t get that stressed and annoyed players make mistakes.
So, one should be the leader, the only person who paints on the mini map, one should call targets, the rest just needs to follow, and press t.

I need (from time to time) help some guildmembers with this mission, so just give me a call, and join when we do the mission.


Hope this and Balthazars blessing will help you.
You can contact me in game for more info or help.

Cecilia Blanka

When I did it with my R/Mo I just sat by the king the whole time and waited for any damage to come to him, then I healed. I was just a healer minion, but it got the job done.

Of course its easy. I did 10th time.

But lets talk about that Bonus

The bonus is just to light the beacons, right?

I generally have enough time to light them before any mobs even come through the gates.

I've lit the beacons every time. Maybe lighting them does something to the mobs, I just don't know.

I was doing it with my level 14 and 15 guild mate tonight. Some W/mo in our party directs us to "NUKE OVER THE WALL IDIOTS" before we even clear out the area to right. After we are done nuking the monsters that don't even aggro at all over the wall, he then set off running into Borlis the healing Dolyak Rider boss, died from stones pelting him on the area of the wall he didn't seem to care about and then left.

I was a W/mo for while. After being a W/R and a W/E you realise how terrible and stupid the build is. Of course, most people pick W/mo becuase they are stupid >.>

Hm.. just helped another group tonight, had a friend who didn't complete it

Lighting the beacons will simply draw the attention of the Mursaat from the areas surrounding the keep, thus making them focus on attacking you instead of the poor dwarves in the neighborhood.

More troops will come see you this way, but it seems no big deal to take these extra Mursaat on. A focused team with one leader playing together will make the bonus.

/Gwon

I found all this mission needs is a single leader, people are willing to follow orders and lately you need to kill mobs in the right order.

Are you serious with this question? By playing intelligently, that's how!

My first character is a Mesmer, and my first time beating Thunderkeep Mission was with this Mesmer, and that was with a group consisting only of henchíes. I tried the mission a few times before that with PUG groups with my Mesmer, but failed due to the usual problem of people not working together and not agreeing on a strategy.

So by the time I did it with an all henchy group, I at least knew where the pitfalls were.

Play patiently, play tactfully, play intelligently and you will do ok.

Necros do this mission with henchmen just fine. No special strategies.

1. BONUS - there is a way to work your way around before entering the keep and killing the mursaat/jade before lighting the torches, hence you get the bonus for killing the same amount of enemies

2. The END - another way to defeat the enemies is to have a stance warrior 'HOLD' A TORCH (NOT LIGHT) because almost all the enemies target the torch carrier so it is easy to have the monks mostly only healing one person. Once the enemies target the warrior, keep defense/stance skills up and he can join the attack. Pick up the torch for the next group, etc...

Good Luck

Bilbo

Thunderhead is not that hard. Spend some time before the mission and talk to the other players of the group. If your group stays together the mission will be easy. I've done it reliably by camping the king and ignoring the catapaults. The mission can be completed even when you have a leaver :/ or somebody uninfused(lol)

I've failed a bunch of times because people just won't listen. They run all over the damn place, die in all corners of the damn fort, and scream "Heal me!" and then "res me!" I blame myself for joining those groups.

THK is hard not because of the mobs in the mission - its because PUGs suck.

You have 8 people that think they know whats best and you end up getting nothing done, because everyone is off doing their own thing.

Truth any..basically ANY group can beat it (you dont need 2 warriors, 2 monks, 2 nukers, etc etc..the default group) and you dont even need to use the catapults.

1 human monk is even enough..Mhelno FTW.

As long as you got the people doing what they were planned on doing - its all good.

I ended up beating it no problem when a got 2 friends to help, and the rest were random "LFG"ers. One was not even lvl20.

I was Practiced/choking ranger, a blood/curses necro friend (blood ritual, well of blood, and Spiteful Spirit are his main things), and a boon protection monk. The rest were like..a few normal warriors, a ranger we had convert to a trapper, a lower lvl ele, and the first random LFGing monk we say (mhelno would have worked).

my friend necro was a surprising treat. Some of those bosses drop good when under spite.

Thunderhead isn't hard, but it takes some teamwork.

This is why so many people have so many problems....

I've done this mission more times than I can count. Attempts (and failures) getting my own characters through and helping others.

There is no secret or best way to do it. All you need is a team that has and follows a plan. All my failures were from groups that wouldn't follow a set plan. All my successes were groups that were organized and followed the plan. Different plans, but they work if everyone is on the same page.

Do NOT forget the value of a good mesmer in here!

I'm sure there are a few good threads in Tyrian Explorers League about THK that are more current then this one, so this didn't need to be resurrected. Closed.