Why does everyone say Thunderhead Keep is so hard?

Sure it took me like 5 tries but I consider myself a noob at this game. Not trying to be funny but I thought it was gonna be hell on wheels. I did it with henchies (all but the ranger). Maybe it is my set up as I am water elementalist. Blinds, deep freeze, swirling aura, ward without harm, etc. I read a lot and people say it is tough. I have a much tougher time in places like dreadnaughts drift for instance and the frozen forest I guess it is. Are the missions later much tougher I hope?

It isn't hard, its that players have trouble cooperating most of the time and this mission is BIG on that. If a group cannot communicate effectively, there is no way they will get past Thunderhead Keep.

im on like my 6th try right now ... X\

I never really found it hard at all in fact I never found anything in PVE hard. Just have sme decent monks and work together.

The reason people hate this mission is because just about any idiot PUG can waste 45 minutes of their time quite easily before falling apart to the mursaat and/or mantle invaders. Or the monk can go AFK for 5 seconds and Jalis dies. The big problem isn't that things can go wrong, its that they usually happen after you've already put a great deal of time into it.

^LOL^

The real reason it is perceived as being so difficult is because people who get into your group are big, fat, hairy liars! I went into it just last night to help a friend (thank god I didn't NEED to do it)...I took lead and drew together a random group with Mehnlo the henchie and we absolutely kicked Summit ass all the way to the keep...BUT (and it's a huge freakin' mutated "but") Even though everyone agreed at the beginning of the mission to stay INSIDE the keep and PROTECT THE KING at or near the stairs....the whole retarded party (except my friend and I) went running about all impatient ....dying outside the walls of the fort, getting the people dumb enough to follow killed if they tried to res them. The "whole" group became a disjointed, split-up mess...even the other ranger who PROMISED to stay on the stairs and trap them with me....honestly, how freaking effective was he running around the fort randomly...he's a TRAPper-duh...strategy dictates that a trapper has a plan or is ineffective...Thunderhead Keep (or Dumbass Junction as I like to call it) turns 90% of the groups who enter it into dipshits who agree to any strategy just to get into a group and then run around willy-nilly doing whatever they "think" (term used lightly) is the right way to approach it. If you want to finish it henchies may be your best bet....they will stay with you...won't run outside the fort for worthless loot...and their stupidity is, at the very least, predictable...as for my characters, I've been lucky enough to get through in no more than 3 tries at the most...I spend an inordinant amount of time forming group and strategy...if I have a group that starts agreeing too quick with my plan, or argues too much...I leave and make a new one until I have what seems a mature and reasonable group of folks to travel with...last night, though...need I say it? I went with the first group I formed because my friend was in a hurry...big mistake! /end rant

u guys r lucky.... 6 tries..... i get lags so i lag out and never can complete it and im on...hard to say... 53 tries lol

I got it on my first try with my monk lvl 12 and another warrior lvl 16... rest were henchies.
Though that was my 3th or 4th character... but who cares.

i just tore through it today, get SS necros, monks, nuker, 3 tanks.... it worked for me!

If you can get eles to man the lookouts and occasionally help out other side (while running back to post quickly when done), you're set.

Also, remember to kill the Mursaat/Jade first. . . forget the Mantle.

Its not hard, you just need people to all stay on task and do their job...and theres a large % of the GW population which are wankers and think they can be a one man army and a hero.

I do the quest with ppl I know I get it done 1st go, even with a few ppl being lvl 18.
You do it with grab ass pug's and its alot harder because someone's off attacking and they've left there post empty and a mursaat has wandered in and insta-killed the king.

The mission itself is not hard, th eonly thing you need to be able to do is communicate, even if you have some knuckleheads on our team you can beat it with EASE! I don't know why people freak out about it, i have beaten it with Hench 4 times now on the first attempt, never failed.

Well I tried this couple of times. Don't know exact numbers but took some time (less than 10). Finally we did both, mission and bonus without a single casualty.
Wether it was luck or not, but I bet you need at least one monk that you know he will do his job right.

just do it with henchies its not hard.

the reason i think why so many people find it har is cause u acauly have to work together on it and a lot of first time pvers are not used to that, i done it three times all with my own team.

Yeah, people think it's hard because you actually have to come up with a strategy and stick to it. You also need to communicate and not run around like headless chickens, giving the monks a headache because you keep running out of range. The first part of the mission is easy, but when the Mursaat and Jades arrive, that's where small errors can screw up everything. Thunderhead, like the Crystal Desert, is an idiot trap .

I have also never passed the mission with the "fight at the gates" approach, by the way. Every time I passed it, it was because the eight of us set up camp around the king, allowing us to focus fire effectively and keeping everyone in range of the healer(s).

One thing is needed for this mission, team co-operation.

The mission itself is easy, but the team for it is hard to find.

Ash.

I was helping a friend do the mission right now, we got a great PUG. They did everything I wanted them to. Unfortuantely, SIX of them (yes, all but me and my friend) turned out to be uninfused. Spectral Agony ftw.

I did it with henchies as ranger.. why are you people still saying you cant get passed it? Ever considered henchies? I used henchies first time after 5 pugs and cleared it twice as fast, they even healed the Npc.

I don't know why but i find that mission much easyer to do with hench. when i am in the fort i just stay at the bottomm of the stairs. It's not particularly hard i guess.

After failing 10+ times when everything crapped out in the keep...:

"Let's run out"

"Stay by Jalis"

"I got the west wall"

"I got the west wall"

"WTF? No one on the west wall?"

...I went at it with my N/Me casting Orders and Backfiring casters. They key is calling your targets for the henchies and order of enemies to attack...jade bows, then casters, then jade warrs, then mantle warrs....bosses LAST...those mofos can tank.

I kept trying it and got fed up with people. I used only henchmen, and on my first try I was doing so well I decided we could do bonus. It was extremely easy with all henchmen and on my first try with them I did mission and bonus. I've never looked at henchmen the sameway since I found out that most people are noobs.

Interestingly, the last time I did it (with a guild member who needed it), it wasn't the group which caused a near-fatal problem...it was King Shorty himself.

We were nearly done. Even the jade boss and come and been defeated. It was while we were congratulating ourselves on handling him that we noticed the king racing down the stairs just as fast as his short little legs would carry him. It caused some consternation:

"Where's that little bastard going?"

"He's heading straight for the east gate! There's still Mursaat there!"

"SOMEBODY GET HIM!!!"

We managed to get our infused selves between him and the remaining Yellow Meanies, and finally our party leader (his comment: "If he dies, I'm going to kill him.") clicked on him and he ran back to his post. But it was a very tense few minutes.

This is the first time I've seen His Shortness behave thusly. Have any of you ever seen this?

Tanith