Thirsty River.

Make the monsters (enemies) receive a DP when dying, and become unrez'able at 60% DP, like in REAL matches.

im pretty sure they get dp,everytime they rez they get easier,but they do still rez with 60 dp.someone please correct me if im wrong.

You are wrong. I tested the health after rez with DoT's. Point is, they shouldn't rez after dieing 4 times.

Why shouldn't they? I never had a problem with any of the ascension missions and I do them all with henchmen...All you need to do is get your party organized(cuz I'm assuming you're using real players) and get them in to slaughter the priest. If you all unload at the same time, he falls quickly, and then you can spend all the time you want on the other monsters.

just take Meteor Shower + Fire Storm and u can kill a priest very quickly
then focus on the rest

Alright, if you let them get ressed FOUR TIMES, you deserve to lose.

I've done thirsty river a lot of times now with numerous groups, mainly to help out other people I know.
And it's never gone wrong, you just have to wait for the counter so you have the full 2 minutes that's more than enough.

I'd love to know how you got through the monk boss and priest with henchmen in Thirsty. I tried a few times and could never pack enough punch to overcome the healing spells.

Anything with a dp of 60% is still "rez able".

/disagree strongly.

That's the easiest mission down there besides the one where you have the ghost and the sand wurms.

And now the other one has runners paying for services...

Who needs damage... if you're part ranger, warrior, or mesmer you can interupt. Ele should have no problem. And if you're using a necro, i suggest using human players.

Yes you can interrupt, but while you are interrupting, who is killing the priest? The hench are too stupid and float back and forth, and they definitely don't pack enough punch to take down the priest while I'm interrupting the many monk healing spells. It basically got down to the point where my energy was zapped and I could no longer interrupt... by that time the enemies were rezzed....

It's very doable.

Either you get a way to interrupt/ disable the monk boss (henchman won't do it for you, so it's your job), then spike the priest, or, as an alternative, try to keep a few of the swords and bows alive and hurt them with AoE so that the monk boss split healings between the priest and all others while henchies are hurting the priest.

Regarding OP: no thanks. Then that mission would become a kind of DP grinding festival. And it's really not that tough.

Louis,

If you are having THAT much trouble killing the priest that you have to fight these guys 4 or more times you are doing something wrong...

Your tactics need a fix, not the mission.

*yawn*

+1 for short sightedness and narrow-mindedness

1) Real people in this game are crap, so yes, I am using Henchmen
2) I am Necromancer Primary
3) I have gone through 6 ascended characters, I know what's going on, relax
4) I wasn't having trouble with the mission, in fact I had not died once nor had any of my henchmen

The fact of the matter is that if one of the boasts is that you can do the entire game with henchmen, you should be able to do the entire game with henchmen. All the people who say "bring interrupts" really have not used henchmen all that much - they target what you target, end of story. And the bottom line is: does it really matter if they get DP (as Louis mentioned)? Why would you grind out the DP when you could finish the mission faster? The DP gain on monsters just makes it more manageable. And no, at 60% DP you don't get ressurrected by priests. Having DP applied just makes sense, saying otherwise just shows your arrogance.

"Oh noes someone is trying to ruin PvE by suggesting something substantial that most good player teams will never even see come into play, but, for those who play at odd times who can't get a group, it would help."

I have to react on such a post...

Not all the people found in the desert are crap player, some parties i've been while attempting the ascension were really good.
this is just abusive to make such a generalization... If you play better with hench then fine with it (especially on such missions) but don't come out with such an insult. Besides it's more interesting to play cooperative with real players, adds a bit of adrenaline when someone makes a mistake or die and you finally make it out of trouble.

Your post doesn't help someone trying to pass the mission, it is merely something to flatter your ego. If you do all missions with henches then just throw some comments about what strategies you use, what henches you pick, etc...

As for the river mission, here is what i recommend to pass it flawless (or near flawless) :

- Try to balance a team with people that can tank to block rushing ennemies, healers (lina and alesia can help on those) and other professions to bring diversity in the group.
- Take all the giants off before the mission starts to get a +10% bonus.
- Do not aggro 2 ennemy teams at once, this will lead to failure
- Carefully time your attacks against a new ennemy group. If you have a whole ennemy team left to deal whith and it's 2:55 on the clock, wait until 3:50 for the first attack... it means you'll have a whole 2 mins to get the priest whithout allowing them to raise the deads.
- Use 1 target caller, and follow his targets.

For each ennemy group you can do the following and will surely lead to flawless victory :
1) There is always a group of 3 that is closer to you than the rest of their team, pull them and kill them (3 alone should be no problem at all). If 3 more aggro then deal whith the bunch but as soon as 3 of the 6 are don skip to the next point
2) Rush the ennemy priest as soon as the first 3 are down, yes you will aggro everybody but if 4-5 of you reach the priest he's just dead meat
3) When the priest is dust, never target the boss (the only exception is the monk one that you should deal whith just after the priest), instead take the rest of the team out(casters first then rangers then warriors).
4) Finish off the boss, raise your deads and get back to full healeth and energy.
5) Then time your next attack (always multiple of 2 mins -10 seconds).

I've done this mission around a dozen times to help people in my guild (and other passing by players), and using this we were quite always getting the bonus on top of it.

Hope this helps

The only people insulted by my comment are the ones who DO suck. Everyone else realizes how many "n00bs" are there. I'm all about not letting people who use crap like healing breeze or a sword warrior into my group to ruin my mission. I'll stop here since you didn't bother reading my post.

I'm not trying to sound like an ass, but Mithie's right. For most missions, you can simply brute-force it with warriors/elementalists/monks (however, that's a completely different issue, so I'll say no more), but that's not how the game is supposed to be played. If you're using old PvE tactics, then yes, you deserve to lose. The Thirsty River mission is closer to how the game is actually supposed to be, and every single character except for a Necromancer with no secondary can easily beat the fight with the monk boss with a team of henchmen if played right.

This is true - Necromancers using Henchmen get the shaft. Imho, anything dealing with priests and ressurrections in PvE should follow PvP rules.

Actually I am a sword warrior using healing breeze lmao... Mending also, call me a noob i you want but these skills work great in PvE.

I did read your post and unless you edited it your point #1 is just plain and straight...

Don't get me wrong though, many new players hang around in the desert and would ruin the mission if no strategy is thrown before starting it... Also passing these with only henches is a real challenge and i do show my respect to that...

Believe, I tried out people my first time through the game - that was enough for me to never want to use them again. Even if you do throw down some strategies or general game plans, maybe one or two people will follow, the rest do what they want. It isn't my job in PvE to help people learn how to listen, I would rather they get stuck in the desert so the Ring of Fire missions are only people who actually work together...but even then I still use Henchmen. I just want this mission to work the way it does in PvP - if you set up a map to be 1v1v1v1, you might as well implement DP.

I have also done this mission also with henchmen only and never had a problem completing it with my Me/Ele and Wa/Ele. I used fire each time and the trick is to use quick spells (Inferno, Immolate, Phantom Pain, Conjure Phantasm) to take out the Priest due to the knock down/interrupt. I found Elona Reach to be much tougher however with henchmen.

Trick with Elona is to just use your henchmen as shields and run the whole thing (that's what I did with my Nec)...took like 7 or so minutes to complete. As a Necro, you really don't have much that hits hard and fast, that is also cheap. What do we get? Dark Pact and Vamp Gaze? OOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOo, shame I'm curses : /

For thirsty river all you need is a good leader and a team who litsens.. i did it 3 times so far.. the first time went flawlessly, no deaths at all.. the second two times we had a couple jackasses who didnt pay attention and we couldnt kill the priest with the monk boss.

And elona is all about the path you take.. if you take your time and take the right path.. you only have to fight like 7 groups the entire time (not at the same time of course).

ya if you have good team work its an easy mission I beat it in my second try

Okay, you guys are missing the point - I'm using henchmen instead of people; since henchmen listen all the time, I don't have to worry about what they are doing.

I regularly power people through this mission and you are right that the priest in the monk base is the hardest point with henchies because, for me at least, the henchies frequently would get stuck on the monk boss and not attack the priest, and instead just stand there and do nothing. I had to perfect the system because I am regularly carrying level 2 people through the mission, and here is how you do it with just you and a couple of henchmen:

You have to have everyone's firepower focused on the priest when you are using henchmen and also down a couple of people. Kill the 6 patroling guards in about 1 minute, so you have a full minute to worry about the priest with only the monk boss and a single enchanted bow to worry about. Tab to select the the priest before you get close to the base, as the henchmen are less likely to get stuck that way. Then charge. Orion is a useless hench because his timing is so bad, but with the two fighters, the ghost, and one other AI dealing damage in addition to your own damage, you can take the priest down in time regardless of your profession and without needing to interrupt anything. Then you turn to the monk boss., who takes a while, but drops, too, and finally the enchanted bow.

Obviously, with just you and a full team of henchmen (5 and the ghost) it is extremely easy, but carrying a couple people through at the same time does make it tough.