Help With Thunderhead!

ok, I've tried a few times and died at pretty much the same point each time. (just after clearing the city?) any help on how to get a bit further would be greatly apresiated!

using real people btw, no henchies.

xXx

I'm proud to have a 100% record at THK, both with my n/me.
Note: I didn't do bonus.

First time I did it with only henchies and I was lucky, the mursaat boss wasn't the monk, it was the necro.
Second time I helped a guildie (e/mo), and did it with 6 henchies and I understood why people were bitching about this mission cos I encountered the monk boss.

I don't know why but I decided to bring a disrupting spell the second time, and that was what helped us win the mission.

Ok here's the tactic I used: camp the king.
I don't know if its the most efficient one, but I passed both times.
They'll come one side at a time and just take them out.
You shouldn't be fighting more than 4-5 enemies at one time max.
As for the monk boss, thats a bit dodgy, I managed to interrupt his spell by sheer luck.
After fighting him for about 15 minutes without any success in timing my interrupts, I decided to just spam it (I only brought one, can't remember which).
If you notice his skill bar, every spell he casts is ridiculously fast and timing it is near impossible (for me anyway since I've never interrupted before).

Or as Savio said in another thread, get someone to hold the torch for the bonus.
That way, everything will target the person holding the torch.

If you fail again in a PUG, I'd suggest using henchies if you wanna complete it badly.

Hope that helps.

yea i've done it 2 times with henchies as well.

first time was my monk, 2 healers and 1 prot makes things very easy, though, Cynn did manage to die.

then on my warrior, i succored both monks, and when we got to the fort, i grabed a tourch and held it so all the aggro came on me, making healing and protecting easy. i did encounter the monk boss, and the henches took out ~10 other monsters and killed them before getting around to killing the monk boss.

you should try it with henchies, much easier that way

In my experiences, camping the king usually doesn't work so well. If you don't have anyone on the ballistas, the mobs can get a little overwhelming. That's when most PUG's fall apart. They don't focus fire or follow target calls, so they don't kill things fast enough. The mobs stack up and and it's "good night king jalis".

Every time I've finished this mission successfully, I've had a coordinated team that used 4-man subgroups to cover each door. Just have a damage sponge stand in the doorway with a torch until he has all the aggro, then drop it and go to town. Use the ballista to cut down on mobs and always target bosses last. It's really easy IF you have some coordination.

The way I've done it before (I've been successful with camping the king before too, but huh already explained it well)

4 tanks (Unfortunately)
2 healers
2 casters (preferably one that doesn't need to have line-of-sight to cast)

Basically, you split up into 2 even groups (ie 2 tanks, 1 healer, 1 caster), one for each side. The tanks sit right in the doorway, the monks stay back a bit to heal (also they're closest to the king to run back and heal in emergencies) and the caster up above, using the catapult and casting.

You don't need 4 tanks if you use the torches. They force the enemy to aggro on the holder. Now you can be a little more open in your party groupings. I've found necros and rangers to be very valuable in Thunderhead. Necros can BiP monks and casters, or drop wells to buff the tanks. And rangers can drop traps around the tanking warrior to increase damage on the mobs.

If you or a party member has scourge healing it can be really helpful with the monk boss. If you are going solo with henchies only it can also be helpful to switch your secondary to monk and provide some healing, hex control, and protection for jalis and your party of henchies. Lina does pretty good on the protection, but the necro/mesmer hex thing can be annoying.

aww thank you all for being so helpful... but if i haven't managed it by tonight who wants to come and show me how?

I'd like too join you, Pr1.

I have tried this over half a dozen times on my Ranger, and i've failed too do it.
I've gotten too king, but after that, we all just " die" on the perfected/ polished /cloak /armour.

Add me ingame( Ash McMahon), and tell me when your doing it. I'll gladly join in.

Regards, Ashleigh.

If I'm still on tonight I volunteer to run around with the Enchanted Torch like a relay runner. I need to mix it up every now and then.

Have you done a search for threads regarding Thunderkeep? There are a few, and there is a large discussion regarding strategies, etc. in them.

I have done the mission successfully many times now (but without bonus) with and without human players. The mission is easier with only henchies, believe it or not, as long as you stay up near the king. This is because everyone then works together. Everyone targets who you target. And if you know how to play with henchies (how to lure with them, etc.) then you can do this with no problem.

Whenever I did this mission successfully, my party always stayed up near the king. I was in many parties that failed when they tried the strategy of meeting the enemy at the doors.

The turning point is when Perfect Armor shows up. (However, I don't think he came the last two times I did this mission). There are a lot of enemies all at once, and the trick here is to ignore completely the bosses until the little guys are dead. All should target the same, except maybe if you have a Mesmer or Ranger who wants to interrupt a spell caster.

Keep an eye on the king, as he tends to join the fight if he is attacked, and he could wander out onto the battlefield without you noticing it. If this happens, just stay reasonably near him. Henchy monks will heal him, but not if you are spread out.

My very first tme doing this mission, the perfect armor showed up every time. That was a few months ago. i've done this mission about 8 times in the last couple weeks and it did not show up for any of them. wo of the attempts were so glitchy the entire team went outside and camped the spawn point for the jades. If we didn't they jades would not move. We waited in the keep 15 minutes the first time. Took over 90 minutes to finish. We weren't sure Dorian would even show up. Waited 15 minutes for him too.

I've done this mission several dozens of times, there's 2 choke points that tend to cause problems.

First when you get inside the fort, you find Dagnar in the center and a set up of several groups behind him. The general pattern of groups surrounding him is the same, but the distance between them vary from one attempt to another.

What happens sometimes, the party will get a bad aggro and be fighting 3 groups at once and that has a very good chance of ending the mission. So be careful how you aggro around there.

The second and most common place to fail is when the second boss shows up. That's where the party needs teamwork. If you have players fighting all over the place, a couple on the boss, a few fighting lesser monsters, that enemy group will wear down the party and defeat it. You need some kind of focused fire, generally get rid of the white mantle first, mursaat casters, mursaat armors/bows and finally the boss.

That's the order I do the mission with henchies only, and don't camp the king but guard the gates. That order basically gets rid of enemy numbers the fastest way. Less enemies around, the less damage your party will receive.

I've won the mission every time I played it by "camping the king" rather than guarding the doors. This is not to say that the other way won't work, but staying up by the king works well also. It has the advantage that the entire group, including healers, is together. The healers can then also heal the king. Henchy healers need to be near the king to heal him; spreading out when using henchy monks by guarding the doors will complicate matters.

A problem with guarding the doors is if you become overwhelmed. There are less party members per location, meaning cutting the enemy down takes more time. And if a few enemy get past to the king, well, mission over.

Camping by the king does not mean waiting until the enemy comes up to the king before you attack. From a position near the king the party can easilly go halfway down the two stairways in front, and part way along the balcony to the right and left as the enemy comes. You can fight far enough away from the king to keep him safe but the party is still relatively close to each other. And the catapults when there is time to use them. Only danger with this strategy is to keep an eye out that the king does not decide to join the battle. He does, if hit, perhaps by a Jade archer. But if this happens, just stay near him.

Perhaps the biggest danger to not completing this mission, when playing with people, is disagreement within the party regarding which strategy to use. I have been in many teams where the consensus was to stay up near the king, but one to three of the party members suddenly decided anyway to fight down by the doors and in the courtyard. During one of my last times, one warrior went so far as to boldly go outside one of the doors to fight. He died, and we didn't have time to resurrect him until most of the fun parts were over. So it is best to have 100% agreement on the strategy before starting the mission. If people disagree on the two approaches, split up into two teams, one for each approach.

When i did this mission with my R/Me, i was incoraged to use my ranger as a trapper, that worked very well. when defending the king, set traps on the bridges over the entrances to the fort, they fall to the ground, and can allow you to kill the mursaat before they get anywhere near the king, or you for that matter

don't you just love how helpful people can be? **grins** searched threads, going for it now...

good luck meee....

why? Because finally, after fighting through all those mission carrying noobs through, they finally can't get through!!! I LOVE IT. after thunderhead keep = very few noobs.

lol. just remember you were new once... seems like more people want to slag off newbies instead of explaining and helping them.

to be honest ive sed to numerous party's that 2 monks is enough 1 heal 1 prot but what do they do 2 healers... also 1 tank is enough sometimes i see upto 4 -.-' bring a mesmer will make that monk boss a lot easier and camp the king have yust two people at catapults notifying you of incoming enemy's and weakening em

The main and only reason I guard the gates with henchies ....

It's a hell of a lot of FUN!!!!!

After doing this mission as much as I have, succeeding isn't the issue anymore, it's all about fun. And what I've found out, the "wait" factor between enemy groups some players don't like. It's practically non-existant doing it this way. There's also a better chance you'll mess up this way.

That is so not true.

I hear you! Actually I would also like to start experimenting more and more with missions like this. Might be fun to try it with some friends and see to what extreme we can take it, like staying near or maybe even outside the doors. For us, it is not a matter of getting through this mission, its a matter of having a darn good time (and as many good laughs as possible) while we attempt it.

i did it!!! me and the bf (both ele's) and henchies. gates til they started coming in fast then camped the king. that bloody boss that heals took forever! a good 6-8mins!

Good going!!! Yes, the monk boss is tough! A lot easier if you had for example some human Mesmers in the party which dedicated a bit of spell interrupting or diversion or backfire to the monk.

Now you can look forward to being a THK veteran, and redoing the mission countless times to help all your friends ;-)

No one who gets to Thunderhead is a "noob" and I wish the morons would stop denigrating other players.
Although I haven't beat Thunderhead yet, I find that coordination is key, and it is VERY difficult to get coordination from a random group. Henchies work surprisingly well here, the only issue being to keep the king alive, which a real monk could do with more dedication.
I have respect for anyone who has ascended, all they lack is the experience of teamwork, which is vital in this mission.

She is so useless she always dies.
As useless as Mhenlo, Alesia is much better than him.

that's exactly the problem though.

it's not that people are "noobs" in terms of playing their characters. they're "noobs" in terms of playing as a coordinated team. i'm sure that 80% of the people who get to thunderhead are good players who know how to play their characters. the problem comes with what you mentioned as key: coordination. half of the people don't know how to listen or be patient. they can't agree on which tactic to use or even simply refuse to listen. it's frustrating for those who are good players to have people like this on the team. and that is why they are "noobs."

It doesnt matter whether it is Thunderkeep or anyplace else in this game. It is real frustrating to play in a party where one or more on the team is impatient or does not listen to the group. It totally amazes me, the difference in going out with a patient, coordinated group verses a group with a few who just can't wait.