Thunderhead Impossible Keep

Mister Overhill

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Aug 2005

Tampa, Florida

Sticks and Stones

R/Rt

Thought this one was in the bag a little while ago with a party of henchmen, when the *#&! server disconnected me almost at the end. And to think some people don't believe in gremlins!

xxreaper008

Banned

Join Date: Jun 2005

Heh, Me and 2 guildies do te mission for 25k each, we allways have a full group. Well whynot, heres what i do.
3 man needed!
1 MM
1 Rezmer
1 Saccer.

it probally akes around 2 hors each run but ITS A GREAT INCOME OF MONEY.
25x5=125/3=41.6k each.
I used to charge 50k but it got a little out of hand.

Kira Sassan

Academy Page

Join Date: Oct 2005

Corruption Inc [CiX]

Also did it with hench when I got bored with the amount of leavers and idiots there were in the average group.

Here

Former Ruling

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Oct 2005

Cedartown, Georgia

R/

Like my other topic thats on like page2-3 now said: THK has been severely Nerfed at the fort defending part...

hardly any groups come, they are always little groups, and theres plenty of time inbetween groups.

I've convinced an Uninfused group could beat it now lol.

Dwiggit

Dwiggit

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2005

Heroes Unlimited (HaCK)

R/Mo

I went in with some guildies last week, and took the bonus. (Lit the two fires.)

The extra aggro came in, and we killed them all, but when we finally defeated Dorian and won the mission, the bonus didn't trigger.

Has the bonus mission been changed?
Anyone else experience this?

Dwig

Cherno

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

Stars of Destiny

E/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dwiggit
I went in with some guildies last week, and took the bonus. (Lit the two fires.)

The extra aggro came in, and we killed them all, but when we finally defeated Dorian and won the mission, the bonus didn't trigger.

Has the bonus mission been changed?
Anyone else experience this?

Dwig How quickly did you get them lit? I have had a few times when I've lit the beacons right away and no perfecteds ever came and we still go the bonus.

This last time, we only got one beacon lit and one armor showed up, no bonus.

Never had it not give the bonus unless we waited too long to light the beacons. Although I don't know how long you actually have to do it.

Shyft the Pyro

Shyft the Pyro

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Sep 2005

NYC, USA

E/Mo

The bonus, like the whole mission, is incredibly glitchy. What's supposed to happen is this: two extra groups of Mursaat and Jades outside each gate move towards and kill two groups of 5 dwarven guards. If you light both beacons before the Mursaat and the Jades reach the guards, you should be able to draw them to the keep and away from the guards. Unfortunately, there is no firm timeframe for this (that I could notice), which is why most bonus groups try to skip the cutscene and rush to the beacons.

Then again, last weekend I was walking a guildie through THK and he refused my offer to grab bonus. So we killed everything down to Confessor Dorian and then I walked outside to check a Shiverpeak Chest. When I scanned a little with CTRL and ALT, I found that the Jade/Mursaat group never actually aggroed the dwarves on the east side. Curious as to whether we could still get the bonus by lighting the fires post-factum, I walked all the way over to the west side only to find the dwarves there missing, as they must have been killed much earlier and their corpses disappeared.

So keep in mind that sometimes you might luck out, but don't count on it. Like the "stuck at gate" glitch, this little "game error" could have been used to the party's advantage. Then again, I once had the king stuck inside woodwork during the cutscene and unable to reach his proper post in order to trigger the mission. Me and a guildie lured the bonus groups into the keep after seeing they weren't moving, then went out and killed the Jades at the very northern end of the zone, and still the mission never triggered and nothing came. Not even after I AFK'd for two hours.

Dwiggit

Dwiggit

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2005

Heroes Unlimited (HaCK)

R/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cherno
How quickly did you get them lit? I have had a few times when I've lit the beacons right away and no perfecteds ever came and we still go the bonus.

This last time, we only got one beacon lit and one armor showed up, no bonus.

Never had it not give the bonus unless we waited too long to light the beacons. Although I don't know how long you actually have to do it. I lit the beacons approximately 1 min after the cutscene. I thought that would have been plenty of time. Maybe you're right, there are bugs in the mission. I'll watch the aggro near the dwarves next time... maybe send out a sortie to cut them down before they reach the dwarves.

Thanks for the help, Shyft and Cherno!
Dwig

Mavrik

Mavrik

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2005

Alaska

what happens if you light the beacons after killing the Confessor?

MasterThrawn

MasterThrawn

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2006

Gryffindor

Hmmm - I thought this mission seemed extremely easy - BUT I did not complete it. I was going as an MM with Hechies and had no troubles at all until we got in the keep - noticed my energy was low, so was going to wait till it was up again in a safe area. Didn't even notice that little a@@ king went running up and was surrounded by those olephant things, and was killed. I guess - it gets harder, so can't say if the rest would be as easy as I thought it was.... wish you could keep that King on a leash.

The Extortionist

Academy Page

Join Date: Oct 2005

W/

hmm... i guess i am just lucky, i've beat the mission about 5 times, and never failed once, even when 4 people were disconnected near the end.... however, i've only beat the bonus twice out of those 5 times....
that may be it...

Ashur4421

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Nocturnes Dream

W/

I've done this mission with a lot of different teams and I haven't failed once either. I've probably done this mission a total of 5-6 times. Ironically I have never gotten the bonus finished.... never seems to work. But I have had teams that refuse to comunicate, I had a team that only had 1 person alive that beat it (they rezed of course), and (my favorite) when I did it with my healing monk, it was me 3 warriors, 1 necro, 2 ele's, and another healing monk.... The ele's quit about half way through, and at the end everyone got disconnected except for me and the other healer .... and we still beat it. Just for the record, the king is a BEAST! I guess if anyone needs some help getting through it PM me or something, I'm on a lot ....

Shai-hulud

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Oct 2005

Magnificent Dutch

W/

hm, to be honest I don't think it's a hard mission. Usually I do some camping, that is staying at the king and trap the stairs. Bring 2-4 trapper rangers, 2-3 monks and fun can begin ^^

well, it could be just me that we often do it with a guild team, but even with the bonus we do this without any deaths...
I have to say as well that with the people that u can pick up there it might be hard, therefor I would bring 7 henchmen to do the mission alone if I had to...

Ixliam

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Dec 2005

Georgia

Governor's of Destruction [GOD]

W/R

My wife and I beat it this evening finally. I had done it several months ago with a PUG, but she went through several PUG's and some henchie runs before we got it down pat. I was W/Mo 20 and her N/Me 20. I took mostly all attack items Galrath Slash, Final Thrust, Savage Slash (for interupts), Hundred Blades, Riposte, Balanced Stance (for those stupid stomps), IWAY (never even used it), and Restore Life (just in case). Wife took Conjure Phantasm, Chaos Storm, Backfire, Phantom Pain, Epidemic, Spiteful Spirit, Bone Horror, and Res Sig. The rest we took henchies, taking all but the archer and the elementalist.

MM's are a waste on this thing as we found out, since there are not enough bodies at the end to make them useful. We both manned the balistas and fired them as needed, least till the doors got broke down. We had one group of trolls make it in, and we took care of them up near the king. Once the Muskaart started coming in, I grabbed the torch and let them filter in, and we carefully pounded them. Eventually, we pulled the Boss Monk Muskaart, which actually was easy. We kept having to leave him to go fight jades or other mantles, then come back and beat on him some more. Once he went down, we just camped back at the king, holding the torch till they came in range,dropping it, then beating them down. Eventually Dorian showed up and he was easy, and the mission was done.

Henchies, camping the king, holding the bug light (torch), and using the balistas are the way to go.

ender6

ender6

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2006

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ixliam
My wife and I beat it this evening finally. I had done it several months ago with a PUG, but she went through several PUG's and some henchie runs before we got it down pat. I was W/Mo 20 and her N/Me 20. I took mostly all attack items Galrath Slash, Final Thrust, Savage Slash (for interupts), Hundred Blades, Riposte, Balanced Stance (for those stupid stomps), IWAY (never even used it), and Restore Life (just in case). Wife took Conjure Phantasm, Chaos Storm, Backfire, Phantom Pain, Epidemic, Spiteful Spirit, Bone Horror, and Res Sig. The rest we took henchies, taking all but the archer and the elementalist.

MM's are a waste on this thing as we found out, since there are not enough bodies at the end to make them useful. We both manned the balistas and fired them as needed, least till the doors got broke down. We had one group of trolls make it in, and we took care of them up near the king. Once the Muskaart started coming in, I grabbed the torch and let them filter in, and we carefully pounded them. Eventually, we pulled the Boss Monk Muskaart, which actually was easy. We kept having to leave him to go fight jades or other mantles, then come back and beat on him some more. Once he went down, we just camped back at the king, holding the torch till they came in range,dropping it, then beating them down. Eventually Dorian showed up and he was easy, and the mission was done.

Henchies, camping the king, holding the bug light (torch), and using the balistas are the way to go.
I could make far too many comments regarding this post, so I will settle for just one question instead: Trolls? when did they add trolls to this mission?

zelira

Elite Guru

Join Date: Jan 2006

Me/

Quote:
Originally Posted by ender6
I could make far too many comments regarding this post, so I will settle for just one question instead: Trolls? when did they add trolls to this mission?
I think he might be talking about the Tundra Giants.

To Ixliam:

Congrats

DeanBB

DeanBB

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2005

Arizona

Wizardry Players Guild, http://4guildwars.7.forumer.com

I've always thought we had only 30 seconds to light the beacons to trigger the bonus. If you are too late you still go thru all the motions, just no XP at the end.

rohar

Academy Page

Join Date: Apr 2006

Rohars Roughnecks

W/Mo

You absolutely have to light both beacons within 30 seconds of the end of the cut scene to get the bonus. This can be done easily without a running skill, but send 2 different people, one for each beacon.

We beat this mission early this morning with 3 people and no henchies. We had a stance tank with orison, hands, def stance, discipline stance, flurry, healing breeze, life vicariously, and rebirth. I carried a physical and ice sword. Our necro had AtB, Arcane Echo, SS, Mark of Pain (triggered by my physical sword), Putrid Explosion (quick corpse exploit), Spinal Shivers (triggered by a Flurried IDS), BR, and Res. Our monk carried orison, word of healing, mending, healing breeze, BR, rebirth, and heal other.

You can see an 8 1/2 minute video of the highlights at here.

Evilsod

Evilsod

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2006

England

Lievs Death Squad [LDS]

Quote:
Originally Posted by xxreaper008
Heh, Me and 2 guildies do te mission for 25k each, we allways have a full group. Well whynot, heres what i do.
3 man needed!
1 MM
1 Rezmer
1 Saccer.

it probally akes around 2 hors each run but ITS A GREAT INCOME OF MONEY.
25x5=125/3=41.6k each.
I used to charge 50k but it got a little out of hand. You actually find people THAT desperate to pay 25k for such an easy mission? Jesus christ if you can find a pug without leavers in it this mission is a breeze.

OneArmedScissor

OneArmedScissor

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2005

currently Texas =[

Court Of The Fallen [CotF]

Maybe I'm lucky...
But out of the 4 characters I've made... I've only had to redo this mission once.

widowdaballa

widowdaballa

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Sep 2005

TeXaS

Xen of Onslaught [XoO] Xen Of Heroes Division

Rohar!! I was just gonna direct the people to the website, so they could see the video of the 3 man THK pwnage! I'll let you post it.

ender6

ender6

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2006

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by rohar
You absolutely have to light both beacons within 30 seconds of the end of the cut scene to get the bonus. This can be done easily without a running skill, but send 2 different people, one for each beacon.

We beat this mission early this morning with 3 people and no henchies. We had a stance tank with orison, hands, def stance, discipline stance, flurry, healing breeze, life vicariously, and rebirth. I carried a physical and ice sword. Our necro had AtB, Arcane Echo, SS, Mark of Pain (triggered by my physical sword), Putrid Explosion (quick corpse exploit), Spinal Shivers (triggered by a Flurried IDS), BR, and Res. Our monk carried orison, word of healing, mending, healing breeze, BR, rebirth, and heal other.

You can see an 8 1/2 minute video of the highlights at here. Firstly, congrats.

A couple of points worth mentioning:

-I use a boon bonder build for my monk that makes entire process cake -- especially if you are going to 3 man it. I would recommend you bond up the 4 dwarves and make them your tanks for the entire run. Easier to bond them and keep them alive than to heal them as you go. And of course as a boon bonder RoF and Mend Condtion act as wicked heals. LifeBarrier and Life Bond will make the incoming dmg considerably less. Bring along a hex remover like holy veil and you can stop almost any type of degen that circumvents your enchants (Barrier/Bond).

-I noticed you discovered that you can kill the boss without triggering the cutscene, I am always shocked at how many ppl don't know this. Always kill the boss first here, he is a ranged attacker, but you can still pull him slightly, and then kill him. Once he is dead pull 1 of the two groups in the courtyard and kill them, then repeat on the other. You have to make sure whomever the king is following hangs back or he will charge in and cause a dbl agro. Once those groups are done, work your way around the walls killing the remaining groups. This method is far smoother than killing the enemies on the walls first, only because 50% of the time the king will be aggro'd and pulled down into the courtyard causing you to fight more than your fair share of enemies at once. Esp. if you are in a pug group.

With that said , good job, and nice use of the torch trick.

thundarr

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Apr 2006

Mystic Krewe of ye Old Dungeon

W/Mo

After 4 failed attemts in thunderhead with crappy pugs (are there any other kind), i was fed up and decided to give it a go with a full henchie group.

so my lvl 20 w/mo and 7 henchies.

I actually cast meding on 2 of the dwarf helpers and kept them alive until the last part somehow, but that isn't critical for the plan.

I was surprised how easy it actually was as i finished teh mission AND bonus on that first try with henchies and never lost a singel person.

here is what I did....

I camped teh king the whole time. that it is. nothing more. I never touched the catapults. I lit the stupid torches right away and camped teh stupid king... bam, mission AND bonus complete. When he left his platform, i followed. other then that i just stayed right with him, sometimes sitting for minutes without any action.

I then grabbed one of my guildies and ran it again for him. so 2 humans and 6 henchies.... bam... finished it again.

then just did it a few days ago with my new ranger toon and 7 henchies, bam finished it again.

so final score pugs 0 for 4 and henchies 3 for 3.

I also just did the mission without the bonus with my wammo just to see how much harder teh torches made things.... it really seems like it adds a group or two, but didn't make it much harder really.

PUGS are just to damn stupid. i always seemed to find the 10 year old kids that just mash teh keyboard with no rhyme or reason.

If you want my help just send me a PM in game and I can help. only takes about 20-25 minutes my way. if not, just stay with teh king on his platform. keep the group together and focus on one target at a time. I couldn't believe how easy it was with henchies compared to PUGS.... seems like the opposite should be true, but like i said....... PUGS are full of dummies.

Alodarn

Alodarn

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2005

E/Me

Did thunderhead keep last thursday.

EL/ME
EL/MO
WA/?
R/?

And 4 henchies, and we ownzored ..

Oh, and the ranger had forgotten to infuse his armour so was just there for the comedy element :O

I played my EL/ME Air/Interrupt build and I could solo most of the mursat casters.

Oh, and we had nasty nasty lag for most of the mission, no idea, but I suspect it was my ISP. (Ranger and other elly was round my place)

Evilsod

Evilsod

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2006

England

Lievs Death Squad [LDS]

Having never actually attempted the bonus for Thunderkeep, do the Mursaat around the outside charge at you when you light the beacons before the Stone Summit boss appears?

Because if not once when Borlis Hillshaker turned up i just stood there with my monk and healed against him while the rest of the team went and killed random Mursaat around the outside. Dunno if that would work when the bonus is activated though.

Guardian of the Light

Guardian of the Light

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2005

Radicals Against Tyrants

W/

My guildies have discovered the secret to beating THK.

Don't go into PuGs in THK.

Goats17

Goats17

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2006

House Zu Heltzer, laughing at them.

The [GEAR] Trick

N/Me

Not true. PuGs work. I've done it about 3 times with PuGs. You just have to get lucky.

felinette

felinette

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Mar 2006

Girl Power [GP]

Me/

I've *always* done THK with PUGs. The good thing about it is that if a PUG sucks, you usually all die well before getting to the defend the king part, so not much time is wasted. I've never had to try this mission more than a few times with any of my characters.

Dralspire

Retired

Join Date: Apr 2005

Time for a shameless plug for our IRC room ... I'm not sure right now if we have a 100% completion rate for Thunderhead Keep, but we are clearly up there. People meeting in our IRC room usually do the bonus as well, and I don't recall a group ever failing.

pyrohex

pyrohex

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

If you want a good PuG group, TAKE THE DAMN INITIATIVE. Start a group, weed out the stupid people, take intelligent players, communicate, give orders, have fun.

You can't expect to just consistently JOIN a good group out of nowhere.

rohar

Academy Page

Join Date: Apr 2006

Rohars Roughnecks

W/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by ender6
-I noticed you discovered that you can kill the boss without triggering the cutscene, I am always shocked at how many ppl don't know this. Its not so shocking if you consider that this mission can go bad in a hurry, and who wants to risk having 2 groups of heretics, two groups of gnashers and a healer killing you during the cut scene. We had just never tried it before

Also, thank you for your kind words. I'm sure other groups have done it with 3 but I'm willing to bet there are not very many!!

rohar

Academy Page

Join Date: Apr 2006

Rohars Roughnecks

W/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Evilsod
Having never actually attempted the bonus for Thunderkeep, do the Mursaat around the outside charge at you when you light the beacons before the Stone Summit boss appears?

Because if not once when Borlis Hillshaker turned up i just stood there with my monk and healed against him while the rest of the team went and killed random Mursaat around the outside. Dunno if that would work when the bonus is activated though. Essentially, you'll draw two additional groups of mursaat that attack prior to the Stone Summit boss. If you get lucky, they aggro the Giants prior to getting to you so you do not get the giants and 1 or 2 less mursaat.

sorcees

sorcees

Academy Page

Join Date: Aug 2005

Netherlands

LowLandLions [LLL]

P/W

At last i completed the mission, after about 10 times, with PUG's, i decided to read about the mission, came to this thread, and tried it myself.
First i was to rushy, but the 3th time is was a succes.
Me, R/Mo, and 7 henchies (all except for 1 warrior).
Easy going, groups 1 by 1.
Hard part is defending the keep / king.
I went upstairs, and stayed with the group, killing monks first, mesmers, elementalists and necro's a.s.a.p. and leave the bosses till the rest is death.
No deathts, not 1 henchie, and now i am at the ring of fire.
The whole mission cost me about 1 hour, that is pretty long for a gamemission.
But it is fun, i now know how to do it, so i will do it more often.
Now it is really a lot of fun, especially when i go with PUG's again.
But they tend to die before the first bridge, then i tell then they have no chance if theyt dont listen and obey orders.
Mostly i give them an other chance and then i quit (mostly in about 1 minute), start helping the next PUG.

d3kst3r

d3kst3r

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jan 2006

Brisbane, Australia

I beat it first go with my ranger spike group. Heck I pretty much beat most of the game using ranger spike... Even in PvE mode I tend to lean towards PvP tactics.

Sab

Sab

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Dec 2005

A trick to getting a good THK PUG is to look for "GLF Bonus" messages - they're the ones who know what they're doing. Since the bonus is tied into the main mission, you hit two birds with one stone when you complete it.

frickett

frickett

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jan 2006

Shinigami Keys [SHIN]

R/Mo

I am currently at THK with my third character, a mesmer elementalist. Up until this point I had primarily been using domination magic, with a couple of Inspiration skills, (energy drain, and ether feast). But had trouble getting invited to a group, so i switched to nuker, and have tried this mission with about 5 pugs so far. I think i will try LuxA's Idea. Wish me luck.

Across The Battle

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Feb 2006

Jersey

W/

I really wish they would make this mission harder. and quicker

Francis Demeules

Francis Demeules

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

Canada, Qc

[Holy]

Me/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by LuxA
A trick to getting a good THK PUG is to look for "GLF Bonus" messages - they're the ones who know what they're doing. Since the bonus is tied into the main mission, you hit two birds with one stone when you complete it. Or try a team mesmer .

Seriously, ppl try to create the only 3 profession "invincible" team: Warriors, Monks and Elemantalist(Nuker) or Necro. Less for Rangers and Mesmers. Otherwise, you can get Henchies to do the mission too. They're not Rage quitters

Evilsod

Evilsod

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2006

England

Lievs Death Squad [LDS]

Can't go wrong with a team of 8 mesmers

Unless 1 of em is Dunham...

I always have lots of fun when a Warrior or Ranger heads out to go 'pick off' this 1 Jade or Mursaat that usually comes in solo and ends up almost dieing. When my mesmer can go do it taking damage only from Spectral Agony in most cases. I usually just wander around after hte Mursaat Boss and kill things outside the keep.

Should be a good trip though, 8 mesmers doing THK and Bonus.

BrotherGilburt

BrotherGilburt

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2006

USA

Mo/

I did this with my ranger a few nights ago... I have no idea how he were able to finish it...

-Our group only healer was mhenlo
-we had 4 rangers 1 nuker, 2 warriors, and mhenlo
-Some guy started bonus...
-No one listened to me so rather grouping infront of the king my group used no stratagy and ran back and forth at the two gates.

I was so surprised(and relieved) when we completed it somehow.

Brother Gilburt