Curse

Savio · Nov 09, 2006, 12:51 PM // 12:51

(last updated 12 November 2007)

1. INTRODUCTION

Well, hello there well-to-do hero types. -Palawa Joko

The Scourge of Vabbi may have shown you how to tame the wurms, but he didn't give you an instruction manual on how to control the beasts. I doubt you can get one from him without becoming his slave somehow. But you don't need one, considering that a group of junundu is near impossible to kill and can take down any mob in the Desolation in seconds.

So why would anyone read a wurm guide? Maybe you are having difficulty crossing the Desolation with wurms. Or you're having a hell of a time trying to get a score above 20 in the Remains of Sahlahja. Or it could be you just love riding around in a wurm. In any case, this guide will tell you all you could ever want to know about wurms.

Thanks to Avarre for sorting out wurm armor levels with me, and to Mr Fenring for pointing out a minor error. Pet information still needs to be confirmed.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. WURM BASICS
2-1. What a wurm does for you
2-2. Gaining the ability to ride wurms
2-3. Entering and exiting a wurm
2-4. Wurm statistics
2-5. Attacking
2-6. General strategy
3. REMAINS OF SAHLAHJA
3-1. Introduction
3-2. Challenge mission basics
3-3. Hero armors
3-4. Battle preparations
3-5. Ancient Armor Remnants hunting
3-6. Exploration and Lost Soul hunting
3-7. Enemies
3-8. Miscellaneous
4. SKILLS
4-1. Junundu Strike
4-2. Junundu Smash
4-3. Junundu Bite
4-4. Junundu Siege skills
4-5. Junundu Tunnel
4-6. Junundu Breath skills
4-7. Junundu Wail
4-8. Leave Junundu
4-9. Signet of Capture

Savio · Nov 09, 2006, 12:51 PM // 12:51

2. WURM BASICS

2-1. What a wurm does for you

Before you can master the Desolation, you must first master the beast. -Palawa Joko

Junundu wurms are the means by which you'll travel and fight through most of the Desolation. You gain the ability to ride inside the junundu in the 16th mission, Gates of Desolation. After that you can use a wurm spoor to call a wurm anytime, allowing you to take control of the wurm and use its skills.

Junundu have a massive amount of health and powerful skills that make Desolation easy for the most part. The only things stopping them are low armor, Sandstorm Crags, and rocky terrain.

2-2. Gaining the ability to ride wurms - a mini Gates of Desolation walkthrough

You have to show them that you are their master. Otherwise you're wurm food. -Palawa Joko

The Gates of Desolation is a fairly simple, straightfoward mission. It helps if you do this with at least one other human player to avoid unncessary restarts as explained later. If you do want to bring along Signets of Capture, put them in the 4th and 8th slots in your skillbar. They won't be replaced by wurm skills, and the skills in the 4th and 8th slots on a wurm bar are useless to you at the moment.

Go down to the wurm spoor as Joko instructs you, then back up to the top of the slope. The undead should come up towards you, lessening the chances that you'll be killed by the sulfur trying to get at a ranged undead. You'll fight off numerous waves of undead for this part of the mission. After you defeat the first boss, you'll fight Queen Aijundu. Focus on her and she'll retreat after losing half her health. Next you'll fight off mobs from behind as well as in front, along with two more bosses before the queen joins the fray again. She'll be followed by another pair of bosses.

Eliminating the queen wurm and the bosses will enable you to use the wurm spoors to call wurms. After that you mow down Margonites and corrupted lands with your wurms and head for the exit with Palawa. The master's reward is to rescue 3 junundu young, just kill the Margonites by them to do so. The young can be killed off, but they don't have to be alive to achieve Master's so long as you have "saved" them. You won't be able to use the wurm spoor outside this mission until you complete the mission, so if you exit the mission halfway for any reason you'll have to start the mission over again.

The game does not count Junundu Wail as a resurrect skill on your AI teammates' skillbars, so if all of the human players die you fail the mission. If you're the only human player, this can become very frustrating when fighting corrupted lands. The simple solution is to send your teammates in and stay back, although that isn't always fun.

2-3. Entering and exiting a wurm

Your bodies and minds will merge, and traversing these sulfurous lands will be instinctual. -Palawa Joko

You call a wurm by using a wurm spoor, easily seen by the pillar of light emanating from it into the sky. Just click on the wurm spoor while no there are no nearby enemies to activate it. When entering a wurm, any enchantments, stances, forms, and hexes on you will end. Your wurm will be at full health and energy minus any health or energy that you have lost.

Any nearby heroes or henchmen under your control will also enter wurms when you do. If they don't, just leave the wurm and wait for any heroes or henchies in wurms to exit, then click on the wurm spoor again. Make sure that all of your heroes and henchmen are in wurms before venturing onto the sulfur; sometimes if you use a wurm spoor that's close to rocky terrain, your AI teammates will enter the wurms, then back off onto the rock, causing the wurms to spit them back out.

Even the junundu have their limitations. -Palawa Joko

Wurms cannot cross onto rocky terrain, so at some points you'll have to leave them. Exiting a wurm is done via two ways: the skill Leave Junundu and attempting to travel onto rocky terrain. The skill takes four seconds to spit you out, while traveling onto rocky terrain takes three seconds. Why bother using the skill?

Leaving a wurm will spit you out with full health and energy, and any enchantments, forms, and hexes on you will end. However, stances won't end, so you can run around with Junundu Tunnel for a few seconds.

Whenever you exit a wurm, any nearby henchmen and heroes under your control will exit also. If you flag your AI teammates far enough away from you, they will stay in their wurms. However, the second you get within earshot range, they'll leave their wurms.

2-4. Wurm statistics

Health keeps you alive. -Guild Wars Nightfall Manuscripts

A wurm has 3,000 max Health and 60 max Energy. This is not affected by morale boosts, death penalty, or level. Any morale boosts or death penalty you gain while in a wurm will affect you when you get out, so don't use wurms as an excuse to die repeatedly. While in a wurm, your primary attribute is set to 0. Your armor level is set to 40; more testing still needs to be done on this. The Energy regeneration of a wurm is the same as its rider. Wurms cannot be knocked down.

You can pick up items, open chests, and talk to NPCs normally while in a wurm. Also, you get special animations for /roar, /dance, /sit, and /stand. Other emotes do not have an animation, although /kneel in front of an activated resurrection shrine works normally.

Health bonuses on equipment do not initially affect a wurm, but should you switch to an armor piece or weapon that changes your health, your wurm's health will change too. If you have a superior rune on when you enter a wurm and then switch to a minor rune, your wurm will now have a maximum of 3,075 health. This tends to matter little as you already have a lot of health.

Energy bonuses on equipment are a different matter. Any base energy modifiers, such as +energy on armor or the usual +10 on staves and +12 on offhands, will not add to your energy pool. Additional energy modifiers such as Insightful mods and +15/-1 modifiers will increase your energy pool.

2-5. Attacking

What, you mean it isn't just ranged and melee? -Ensign

All wurm attacks have a rate of 1.5 seconds per attack. You may have noticed that some wurms have ranged attacks and some wurms have melee attacks. Your wurm's attack is affected by what weapon the rider has equipped.

Sword, Axe, Hammer - 55 damage, melee
Daggers - 40 damage, melee, chance to double strike
Scythe - 35 damage, melee, can hit one adjacent foe
Wand, Staff - 40 damage, ranged
Bow - 40 damage, ranged, range dependent on range of bow equipped
Spear - 55 damage, ranged

These damages are armor ignoring; your weapon mastery attribute, your level, and the actual damage range of your weapon don't matter, only the weapon type. A Starter Hammer from Churrhir Fields will do the same fixed damage as a max Barrel Hammer. Your wurm attacks are affected by the modifiers on your weapon, aside from the damage modifiers which don't do anything. If you have a weapon equipped that deals earth damage, your wurm attacks will deal earth damage. If your weapon has a vampiric modifier on it, your wurm attack will steal health.

If you want your wurm to deal the most straight-up damage, you'll want to bring either a sword, hammer, or axe for melee, or a spear for ranged attacks. If you like using the first 3 skills on the wurm bar, you should go with a warrior weapon; if you prefer using Siege, you should use a spear.

2-6. General strategy

2-6a. Fighting

I am like a wild beast unchained! -Koss

Rampage around, kill everything: it's as simple as that. The primary strengths of wurms are their high-damage skills and their AoE knockdowns. Use Siege when you can on immobile targets. Use Bite as your general attack, and use Strike or Smash while Bite is recharging. In large groups of enemies, use Tunnel and another skill, or Smash to knock them down. If you can get Blinding Breath from Junundu Feast, use that to annihilate groups of enemies; if you get one of the other Breaths, don't bother using it.

2-6b. Defense

Watch your backside, or you'll get spanked! -Khim

Against most enemies you can use Tunnel/Smash then Bite to heal yourself for 500 health while also causing AoE knockdown. Strike also heals for a small amount. Use Wail if a teammate goes down to bring them back up, or after you've fought a group of enemies to get your health back quickly. If you're desperately in need of health, you can pull out of earshot range of the enemies you're fighting and use Wail.

2-6c. Enemies

Your worst enemy in the Desolation is the Sandstorm Crag, whose Sandstorm can kill you in seconds if you're not careful. You can't use Bite to heal against corrupted lands since they can't be knocked down, so you're going to have minimal healing while in battle. Just try to take down the Sandstorm Crags quickly and get out of the fray when your health starts to drop below the halfway point. Seven other junundu can handle themselves while you heal up.

A highly annoying enemy is the Desert Wurm, which can pop out from nowhere, inflict a bit of damage, then burrow again. It likes to follow you around and is more of a nuisance than a real threat. It too cannot be knocked down, and also has the habit of popping up as you're trying to get a Wail off. You can either stand around and take the time to kill it, or run away and hope it stops chasing you after a while.

Most other enemies aren't a threat at all, so charge them and tear them apart.

Savio · Nov 09, 2006, 12:52 PM // 12:52

3. REMAINS OF SAHLAHJA

3-1. Introduction

The unlucky king was gutted and his remains animated as Joko's court jester. Sahlahjar remains bitter about this. -Fahrankelon

You arrive at the Remains of Sahlahja after completing the Gates of Desolation mission. As a challenge mission, this place only exists for high scores, hero armors, and Cartographer titles. If you're not interested in any of that crap, talk to Sahlahjar the Dread to get the primary quest "A Deal's a Deal" and move on.

If all you care about is Ancient Armor Remnants, read section 3-4. If you're after a high score or Cartography points, read section 3-5.

3-2. Challenge mission basics

Oh thank the gods! A living creature, here at last! -Lost Soul

This challenge mission is essentially a glorified version of Pac-Man. You are dropped into the Dynastic Tombs and given a wurm to ride around "munching" on Infestations and Lost Souls while avoiding Maddened Spirits. Destroying Greater Infestations gives you the temporary power to hurt Maddened Spirits. While in the mission, you have -1 Health regeneration, so your health is constantly dropping. Initially you start in a small central area, and as you earn points you unlock the gates to other areas of the map. As you unlock areas of the map, more Maddened Spirits appear, making it more difficult to stop and kill.

Map overview:

You earn points from killing enemies and earn Ancient Armor Remnants by killing Maddened Spirits. Armors appear automatically in your inventory when you receive one; you do not have to pick them up. A higher score does not increase your chances of getting an armor. The drop rate seems to drop sharply after obtaining about 4 Remnants, although you still have a small change of getting them by continuing to kill Maddened Spirits. The drop rate increases if you don't enter the challenge mission for a while.

3-3. Hero armors

Never wear those shoes... with that shirt! -Odurra

The hero armors available at the Remains are:

Tahlkora
Zhed Shadowhoof
Margrid the Sly
Master of Whispers
Razah

Each new hero armor set requires one Ancient Armor Remnants. You trade the Remnants to Johe [Hero Armor] in the Remains of Sahlahja outpost. After obtaining the new armor for a hero, you can switch back and forth between armor styles as you like. Runes will stay in their places on hero armors.

3-4. Battle preparations

The outcome of a battle is determined before the first soldier leaves the barracks. -Dunkoro

You'll need to do a minimal amount of preparation before entering the mission if you want things to go smoothly. First, you'll need a warrior weapon - a hammer, axe, or sword. The weapon's stats don't matter unless you plan to use it as your primary method of killing Lost Souls as described below. You'll equip it to deal the most amount of melee damage while in your wurm.

If you're exploring or killing Lost Souls, you'll want a running stance or two on your skillbar, as in a couple of places you'll have to get out of your wurm and go onto rocky terrain. If you can, also bring along the Assassin skill Death's Charge as it makes getting back to a wurm spoor much easier in one of the places.

You must have some way to kill a level 5 enemy - the Lost Soul - quickly (in under 3 seconds) while you're on foot. When you have 4 or 5 Maddened Spirits chasing you who can kill you in one hit, every second counts.

Getting Junundu Siege makes killing things initially with your wurm a bit faster, though it's entirely possible to do this challenge mission without it. In the later parts of the game you won't usually have time to stop and use it.

Knowing the junundu skills and what they do helps a bit; read part 4 of this guide. The combination of Tunnel and Bite becomes very crucial in keeping yourself alive later on.

3-5. Ancient Armor Remnants hunting

3-5a. Condensed step-by-step guide
Get in a wurm. Go to a Greater Infestation and attack it until its health is low. Keep its health low but don't kill it.

When a Maddened Spirit spawns, kill the Greater Infestation.

Kill the Maddened Spirit using Siege (4), then Tunnel (5) and Bite (3), then a regular attack.

Repeat until all four Greater Infestations in the starting area are dead.

Move to an unlocked area, find more Greater Infestations and repeat as necessary.

3-5b. What to do

Your prescence defiles this holy place! -Maddened Spirit

When you enter the mission, you start in the center with only a Wurm Spoor nearby and a timer counting down. Use the Wurm Spoor to enter a wurm. When the timer hits 0, Infestations will appear. Your goal is to just kill Greater Infestations to allow you to kill Maddened Spirits. You just wait by a Greater Infestation, kill it when a Maddened Spirit appears, and then kill the Maddened Spirit.

The easiest way to do this is to attack a Greater Infestation until its health is low, then keep its health low with occasional attacks until a Maddened Spirit appears. When a Maddened appears, kill the Greater. Then target the Maddened and use Siege, Tunnel and Bite, then a regular attack to kill the Maddened. If you time the skills right, you should come away without a scratch. Move on to the next Greater Infestation and repeat until you get your armors.

After getting about 4 armors, drops start to get scarce, so you can just leave. However, if you choose to go after more Greater Infestations, be aware that more Maddened Spirits will appear simultaneously and will spawn more often as you get a higher score. Eventually you'll have to deal with 2 or 3 at once, which can be done but will take most of your health to do so. You won't be able to hold out against 4 or 5 at the same time, even with max health and Spirit Form.

3-6. Exploration and Lost Soul hunting

3-6a. Condensed step-by-step guide
Get in a wurm. Wait near a Greater Infestation. Kill a few smaller Infestations while waiting.

When a Maddened Spirit spawns, kill the Greater Infestation with Siege (4) -> Bite (3), or attack -> Strike (1) -> Bite (3) if Siege is recharging.

Kill the Maddened Spirit, use Strike (1), Smash (2), and Bite (3) whenever you can to speed things up.

Repeat until all four Greater Infestations in the starting area are dead.

Move to an unlocked area, find more Greater Infestations and repeat until you have at least 60 points.

Exploration:
Explore everywhere, use Tunnel to stay ahead of Maddened Spirits.

Lost Soul hunting:
Loop around as directed by the map in section 3-7, searching Lost Soul spawn locations. Use Tunnel to stay ahead of Maddened Spirits.

Use a Strike or Bite on a Lost Soul. Repeat as necessary.

3-6b. The beginning

Intruders! How dare you trespass here! -Maddened Spirit

When you enter the mission, you start in the center with only a Wurm Spoor nearby and a timer counting down. Use the Wurm Spoor and call a wurm up. When the timer hits 0, Infestations will appear. Your current goal right now is to earn 60 points to unlock all of the areas, as that makes exploring and hunting Lost Souls much easier.

Target the nearest Infestation (not Greater Infestation) and use Bite. That should kill it in one hit. Target the next nearest Infestation and use Strike, then attack him once. With a warrior weapon, you'll only need one additional hit after the Strike to kill it. Move quickly from Infestation to Infestation, alternating between Bite and Strike to kill them. If there is an Infestation in a corner of the map that is out of the way, use Siege on it instead to kill it faster. Try not to use Tunnel, or at least use it early so it's recharged for the next part. Leave the Greater Infestations alone for now, and ignore the message saying "A Lost Soul has appeared!"

When you earn about 8 or 9 points (once you have a pattern down, you can wait until 10) take down a Greater Infestation. You can either use a Siege and a Bite, or you can use a Bite, a Strike, and a regular attack. A Maddened Spirit should appear during or after your attack; if it appears during your attack, just ignore it and focus on killing the Greater. A ping on the minimap will indicate the arrival (and later on, the demise) of a Maddened Spirit.

After killing the Greater, kill the Maddened. After he dies, you shouldn't be too badly hurt, but if you are, use Tunnel-Bite on an Infestation, and if you can manage it, use Wail in an area clear of Infestations.

Continue around munching more Infestations in this area; don't move on to the area that you have just unlocked. Some of the Infestations will have come back by now; they respawn after a set amount of time. Greater Infestations, however, do not respawn. Earn about another 8 or 9 points (again, if you're confident wait until you get another 10 or 11), including the points from the Greater and the Maddened, and then start killing another Greater. Kill the next Maddened that comes along.

Repeat this until you have used up all 4 Greater Infestations in this middle area. You should have at least 40 points by now, 50 if you're used to it. 3 out of 4 areas should be unlocked; go into the nearest one, munching the Infestations along the way, and find a Greater Infestation in the new area. Wait until you see a Maddened Spirit heading towards you, then start killing it and take down the Maddened. If you're not at 60 points yet, find more Greater Infestations and repeat until you are.

3-6c. The middle

The maddened spirits may be powerful, but they are, after all, only dead shells of pain and anguish. The are not nearly as fast or clever as a living being. -Lost Soul

Now that you have unlocked all of the areas, you want to find Lost Souls and keep your health up. You can continue to kill a few more Greater Infestations and Maddened Spirits now if you'd like, but attempting to take on 3 or more Maddeneds simultaneously will kill you, and you'll eventually have a maximum of 5 chasing you at once.

Here's a map of all the spawn locations of everything and a general path to take:

Going clockwise is the better path, as you have a chance to miss seeing the lower-right Lost Soul in the northwestern area when you're going counterclockwise. Still, either way works.

3-6c-i. Maddened Spirit dodging

Go ahead and try. Maybe you'll hit me. Do you want me to stand still? -Herta

Maddened Spirits aren't the brightest of the bunch; they'll home in for your location no matter where they are, but their pathfinding leaves a little to be desired. Looping around the numerous walls should buy you a bit of distance between you and your pursuers. Even putting wurm spoors and infestations between you and the Maddeneds can save you from getting hit.

If there isn't anything you can put between you and an incoming Maddened, wait until it's about half an aggro circle away, then strafe forward-left or forward-right (walk diagonally forward, for you non-FPS types). The Maddened Spirit should just go right past you.

3-6c-ii. Healing

Fame is fleeting, but a good meal will keep you going for days. You want that roll? -Norgu

To sustain your health, wait until you see a suitable target (an Infestation or Lost Soul) about this far away on your minimap:

Use Tunnel, then use Bite on the target. Tunnel should be wearing off just as you reach the target, and it will be knocked down before Bite hits. This will maximize the distance you gain from using Tunnel, and you'll still be able to get health back. Using this method, it's not hard to keep your health near full indefinitely, barring any Maddened Spirit mishaps.

If you're desperate, leaving then re-entering a wurm will bring its health up to near full, but you can only do that safely if you have a good lead on the Maddeneds.

3-6c-iii. Lost Soul killing and rocky terrain

The gods have told me your time will come. Today. -Gehraz

There are 9 Lost Soul spawn locations. When a Lost Soul appears, it will stay in its area until you kill it. One Strike or Bite is all you need to finish off one.

You can either use the Tunnel-Bite method described above, or you can choose to Bite the Lost Soul, then Tunnel to get away if you're close to a Lost Soul and don't need the health. If the Maddened Spirits are rather close to you (inside your aggro circle) then circle around a few obstacles for a bit and come back to the Lost Soul. Once a Lost Soul spawns, it stays in its location until it's killed, so you have all the time you want to kill one.

Out of the 9 spawn locations, 2 occur in rocky terrain. When you need to leave your wurm to travel onto rocky terrain, don't freak out. Gain a fair amount of distance (about two aggro circle radii away) from the Maddened Spirits currently chasing you. Attempt to go onto the rocky terrain, and while the wurm is spitting you out use Tunnel if you have it. You'll still have Tunnel when you leave the wurm, so you can now zoom away from the much-closer Maddeneds. If you don't have Tunnel available when you are leaving the wurm, just use a normal running stance instead.

Northwestern area: After killing the Lost Soul or exploring, continue down the path to the opposite side. There are two wurm spoors at either side of the path you're on, so you can choose to either head directly for a wurm spoor now or loop around to gain a bit more of a lead on the Maddened Spirits before using a spoor.

Southeastern area: Kill the Lost Soul or explore, then head towards the bridge to the southwest. Run across the bridge. If you have Death's Charge, you can use that on the Infestation to your left and instantly get to the wurm spoor, giving you a considerable lead on the Maddened Spirits; otherwise keep running and loop back to the wurm spoor. Note that occasionally the Lost Soul here will appear close enough to the sandy terrain that you can Bite or Siege it.

3-6d. The different areas

Ugh. All you can smell here is sulfur. It smells of torment. -Laph Longmane

Northwestern: This is the easiest area in my opinion, and the best one to practice in and heal up if you're in bad shape. The long passageways help you lose Maddened Spirits and allow you to do Tunnel-Bite for maximum effect, and the Maddened Spirit spawn location makes it hard for them to get to you. There are 3 Lost Soul spawn locations here, with one on top of rocky terrain.

Northeastern: Not a particularly difficult area, although you'll have to pass close to the Maddened spawn location at one point or another. Just save Tunnel for that part and you'll be fine. There are 3 Lost Soul spawn locations here, one being particularly close to the Maddened spawn location.

Southwestern: This is the most difficult area, as the placement of the Maddened Spirit spawn location makes it easy for them to get at you wherever you are. If you can't avoid a head-on with a Maddened, just take the hit and move on. There are 2 Lost Soul spawn locations here.

Southeastern: This area is more annoying than hard. Just follow the steps in the Lost Soul section to get at this one. There is only 1 Lost Soul spawn location here, and it's on rocky terrain.

Central: There's no important reason for you to come back here, as no Lost Souls will ever appear here and you probably have this area fully mapped out. Sometimes you'll run here in an emergency to get away from Maddeneds or to get to the Northwestern area.

3-6e. The end

Please, put an end to this misery! -Lost Soul

Well, if you follow what I've said above, you should be happily circling around, munching Lost Souls and/or mapping, and keeping the Maddened Spirits away from you. So, how does it end? It ends whenever you feel like it. You can keep going as long as you can sustain it. You could try for a high score, but achieving 1000+ scores is a pain the normal way, and I don't care for the non-wurm way.

3-7. Enemies

3-7a. Infestation
Level 8, 240 health, 46 armor
1 Point

Strike: 191 damage
Smash: 319 damage
Bite: 478 damage
Siege: 510 damage

These resemble beetles and make the same damn noises. They don't move and don't attack you. When killed, they will respawn after a minute.
3-7b. Greater Infestation
Level 18, 440 health, 74 armor
3 Points

Strike: 118 damage
Smash: 196 damage
Bite: 294 damage
Siege: 314 damage

These are large versions of regular Infestations. Kill them to receive the enchantment Spirit Form. They don't respawn at all. There are 4 in each area, for a total of 20.

Spirit Form
Your wurm's body is consumed by powerful spiritual energy that enables you to do battle with the maddened Spirits and reduces the effectiveness of the maddened Spirits' attacks by 75%.
This is an enchantment that you receive when you kill a Greater Infestation with a wurm. You cannot receive this outside of a wurm. It will last for 30 seconds and will allow you to attack Maddened Spirits during that time.

3-7c. Maddened Spirit
Level 20, 480 health, 80 armor (+20 vs elemental)
4 Points

Strike: 75 damage
Smash: 177 damage
Bite: 188 damage
Siege: 283 damage

These are colored pink and wield Chaos Axes. They chase after you and will either use their melee attacks or Maddened Strike. If you are enchanted by Spirit Form, their attacks and Strikes deal only 25% of their usual damage. A minute after the game starts, the first one is spawned. A higher score increases the number of Maddened Spirits on the field, up to a maximum of 5. When 5 of them are chasing you, every 15 seconds one of them will die and another one will spawn.

Maddened Strike
2 second recharge
Skill. The maddened Spirit touches you and drains away 700 health.
This skill has no cast time and will also strip all enchantments away except for Spirit Form. It deals 700 armor-ignoring damage which can be reduced by skills.

3-7d. Lost Soul
Level 5, 180 health, 17 armor
8 Points

Strike: 316 damage
Smash: 527 damage
Bite: 790 damage
Siege: ? damage

These are colored blue. When spawned, they walk around the location they're spawned at until killed. If they spawn in a location you haven't unlocked, they die and spawn in another location (though I'm not entirely sure about how this works.) When a Lost Soul dies, another appears after 45 seconds.

3-8. Miscellaneous

Dunkoro said what about me? -Nerashi

There are alternate spawn locations for Lost Souls if you haven't unlocked all of the areas, but generally you want all areas unlocked anyway.

Previously Lost Souls used to be the source of Ancient Armor Remnants. Also, Maddened Strike did not cause you to lose Enchantments, so you could easily farm Maddened Spirits for points. These were changed sometime in December.

The total number of Ancient Armor Remnants I've gotten on a single character is 10 within a span of time; I've gotten 4 later after waiting some time before going back. The last few took forever to get though, so don't think you can farm it easily. On a character's first run in there I've gotten 5 armor pieces.

Margrid's armor is the best hero armor available here. The others are kinda boring.

Savio · Nov 09, 2006, 12:52 PM // 12:52

4. SKILLS

Actions, not words. -Acolyte Jin

All wurms come with the same skillbar, aside from your wurm's elite skill which you must "cap" from a primary quest. None of these skills are armor-ignoring. Most skills have a hidden aftercast time which limits the usefulness of some of them.

4-1. Junundu Strike
1 second cast, 4 second recharge
Skill. target touched foe is struck for 150 piercing damage. You gain 75 health.

Aftercast of about 0.75 seconds. Use while Bite is recharging. Health gain is negligible. Make sure that you are autoattacking, then use the Strike skill, as your wurm will not autoattack after using just Strike - it's similar to how you can cast a spell on an enemy and not immediately wand him afterward.

4-2. Junundu Smash
4 adrenaline, 2 second cast
Skill. All adjacent foes are struck for 250 damage and knocked down for 4 seconds.

Aftercast of about 2.5 seconds. If Tunnel isn't recharged, this is your backup knockdown ability. It also inflicts a fair amount of PBAoE damage. The cast time, the adrenaline cost (you don't gain adrenaline from Strike or Bite), and the aftercast make it unwieldy, especially against interrupt-happy Awakened mobs.

4-3. Junundu Bite
1 second cast, 8 second recharge
Skill. Target touched foe is struck for 375 piercing damage. If you strike a knocked down foe, you gain 500 Health.

Aftercast of about 0.75 seconds. Your primary melee attack. Combine with Tunnel to gain 500 health easily. As with Strike, make sure you're set to attack, as simply using this skill on an enemy won't cause you to autoattack afterward.

4-4. Junundu Siege skills

4-4a. Unknown Junundu Ability
5 energy, 2 second cast, 8 second recharge
Elite Skill. You have not taught your junundu to perform this skill.

Absolutely useless if you have not completed the first objective of the primary quest "Horde of Darkness", the second primary quest after Gates of Desolation. Replace it with a Signet of Capture if you want.
4-4b. Junundu Siege
5 energy, 2 second cast, 8 second recharge
Elite Skill. Spit a projectile at target foe. It strikes for 400 earth damage and knocks down target foe if it hits. This Skill cannot be used on nearby foes.

Aftercast of about 1.75 seconds. If you have gained this skill, then all of your henchmen and heroes will also have it available. This is a staple Wurm skill; this and Bite are all you need to win battles. It's actually not hard to kite Siege, but since when does the AI kite incoming attacks?

4-5. Junundu Tunnel
5 energy, 30 second recharge
Stance. For 10 seconds, you move 66% faster. This skill ends if you use a Skill. When this Skill ends, all adjacent foes are knocked down for 3 seconds.

The knockdown occurs before the other skill, so if you use Junundu Bite to end it, you'll gain 500 Health. Also, this skill will still be in effect if you leave the junundu, making it the fastest speed buff available to humans.

4-6. Junundu Breath skills

4-6a. Junundu Feast
5 energy, 2 second cast
Skill. Exploit one adjacent corpse. Junundu Feast is replaced with Choking Breath, Blinding Breath or Burning Breath for 30 seconds.

The skill is actually replaced for 120 seconds, which is good if you have Blinding Breath and bad if you don't. Fun to screw around with, but not very useful.
4-6b. Choking Breath
5 energy, 1 second cast, 1 second recharge
Skill. Target foe and all adjacent foes are interrupted. Any interrupted foe who was casting a Spell is knocked down for 4 seconds.

I've never liked the skill, it's useless in Remains. Outside of Remains you don't care - you Bite, Siege, and mow down everything in your path already, a ranged AoE hard interrupt isn't useful.
4-6c. Blinding Breath
10 energy, 1 second cast, 2 second recharge
Skill. All adjacent foes are struck for 400 damage and are Blinded for 15 seconds.

Aftercast of about 0.75 seconds. It's my favorite of the Bracelet... er, Breath skills. Highly spammable, a high amount of damage, faster than Bite in taking down enemies - and it's AoE too. Unfortunately you have a 2 out of 3 chance to get a crap skill instead.
4-6d. Burning Breath
5 energy, 2 second cast, 2 second recharge
Skill. Spit a burning projectile at target foe that strikes for 250 fire damage and set that foe on fire for 5 seconds if it hits. This Skill cannot be used on nearby foes.

Essentially a weaker Siege. If you feel like it, you can chain this and Siege back to back. However, it's definitely no Blinding.

4-7. Junundu Wail
15 energy, 3 second cast, 10 second recharge
Skill. Resurrect all dead junundu within earshot. If there are no enemies within earshot, gain 500 Health for each junundu in range.

Aftercast of about 3.75 seconds(!). Good for resurrecting as one person can bring up the whole team, not so great for healing during battles, though it does speed up time inbetween battles. Unfortunately the game does not count it as a resurrection skill on AI teammates, so if you're the only human player and you die in Gates of Desolation, you fail.

4-8. Leave Junundu
1/4 second cast
Skill. The junundu releases you from its jaws.

Aftercast of about 3.75 seconds. Exiting a wurm when you attempt to move onto rocky terrain takes about 3 seconds. You don't ever need to use this skill.

4-9. Signet of Capture
2 second cast, 2 second recharge
Signet. Choose one skill from a nearby dead Boss of your profession. Signet of Capture is permanently replaced by that skill. If that skill was elite, gain 250 XP for every level you have earned.

While this is not an actual wurm skill, any Signets of Capture on your skillbar will not be replaced when entering a wurm. When you use the Signet to successfully capture a skill, it will then be replaced by its proper wurm skill. If a Signet of Capture happens to be in Bite's spot, you will be one sorry wurm. Generally, you won't ever need Leave Junundu, and if you want more Signets you could replace 6, 4 (before getting Siege), or 1 without much hassle either.

Arkantos · Nov 09, 2006, 01:18 PM // 13:18

Gg on this wonderful guide, Savio

Trakata · Nov 09, 2006, 01:56 PM // 13:56

Good advice, too bad I had to 'figger it out by myself in Remains.

I think it's important to note you still can't Leeroy with the wurms in Gates, at least I couldn't. My first time through Gates my group went up to about 3 groups of Margonites, I got targeted by all ~15, and had to start over.

Of course, only if you use all AI teammates.

RTSFirebat · Nov 09, 2006, 02:02 PM // 14:02

I've sticky this guide, very well done and informative.

Guildmaster Cain · Nov 09, 2006, 02:32 PM // 14:32

congratz and wd, ill be reading this on my way home...

Love the oneliners

Solarii · Nov 09, 2006, 03:42 PM // 15:42

Great guide, didn't know about the cap sigs!

Clord · Nov 09, 2006, 04:18 PM // 16:18

I have one tip about Wurm party when all other party members are heroes and henchmen and you are doing mission. Stay back and flag those other party members to go fight. They can't lose fight and you can't lose mission when using this trick.

nuee · Nov 09, 2006, 05:45 PM // 17:45

A trick I used to kill Hordes fast was to disable all skills except Siege and Wail on my Heros. By flagging and reflagging them to stay back (and not melee) the 4 of us could quickly take down a Horde in simultaneously called Siege casts.

Kyosuke · Nov 09, 2006, 06:24 PM // 18:24

Nicely Done. I hadn't tried the Sigof Cap thing, so was unaware of that.

Very informative, but I'd honestly hope no one would need this, if you know what I mean

Kityn · Nov 09, 2006, 09:47 PM // 21:47

When I did this mission last week my heroes pets also got their own wurms. I have no idea if this has been changed since pets do not get a wurm in explorable areas.

Avarre · Nov 10, 2006, 01:49 AM // 01:49

Since I didn't see it there, it might be useful to mention that while wurms have 3000 life, they also have an armor rating of 0 (hence explaining why Sandstorm Crag elementalists are such a risk).

At least, it's either that or mobs in the desolation have a secret 150% buff.

=HT=Ingram · Nov 10, 2006, 02:10 AM // 02:10

Tips for killing the Queen:

3 things can reach the Queen in the sulfurous wastes from the safe zone...

Minions, Pets, and Longbows...

A good Beast Master can best the queen at the beginning of the Gates of Desolation mission using a vampiric longbow and pet attacks. If you have a MM Have them use a longbow and send their minions into the sulfurous wastes to attack the queen. At one point at about 1/2 health she will zone further out into the wastes, But the minions and pets will stay locked on her as long as you are.

Make good use of your compass party position locks to keep your heroes back and healing you when the wurm siege happens. However a well timed interrupt is a better solution to this problem, either with disrupting lung, or distracting shot.

In a matter of mins she is down and then all you got to do is fight the half dozen waves of boss mobs that come in after that...

Once you can change into a Wurm, Ignore most other battles until the mission is complete. (you can always go back though when its not a mission critical situation to survive) You will notice that in the Mission itself your pet will become a Wurm with your party, However once the mission is complete, Your pet will die when going into a wurm and not get its own wurm. However when you exit it will resurrect at your position with you.

Minions will not get a wurm, but will travel with you until they degen to death.

Also note: Any Degen effect you have prior to going into a wurm stays with you while inside the wurm. Thus any vamp weapons will degen your health. so make sure you have them changed while inside the wurm, cause the effect is not active in wurm mode but the cost is.

Lastly: If you are with Henchies and heroes only. Make sure all the party is in the spoor staging area before becoming a wurm. If you notice one of your henchies not a wurm you have to exit and do it again, Otherwise they will die upon entering the sulfurous wastes.

Mr Fenring · Nov 10, 2006, 03:27 AM // 03:27

Nice guide, thought I'd point out that in 2-2, you suggest replacing skills 5 or 8 with a signet of capture in the mission, when you probably meant skills 4 or 8.

Savio · Nov 10, 2006, 06:57 AM // 06:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avarre

Since I didn't see it there, it might be useful to mention that while wurms have 3000 life, they also have an armor rating of 0 (hence explaining why Sandstorm Crag elementalists are such a risk).

EDIT: It's not an AL of 0, but they don't have the same armor as you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by =HT=Ingram

Tips for killing the Queen:

While it's possible to attack the Queen beforehand, it's not terribly critical. If you don't attack her from afar she'll just rush you with one of her bosses. Her melee attacks are Queen Smash and Queen Bite, modified versions of the Junundu skills. She can't actually heal herself (her Bite heals for 0), so if your team focuses on her she goes down quickly.

I'm not entirely sure what is up with the pets thing as I don't have any pets on my heroes yet. I'm not sure if I want my heroes to have pets yet either, seeing as how hero pet choices and evolutions are currently permanent.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Fenring

Nice guide, thought I'd point out that in 2-2, you suggest replacing skills 5 or 8 with a signet of capture in the mission, when you probably meant skills 4 or 8.

Corrected; thanks.

LagunaCid · Nov 10, 2006, 07:36 AM // 07:36

Quote:

It's my favorite of the Bracelet... er, Breath skills.

Haha. Is it a FFT reference?

Guildmaster Cain · Nov 10, 2006, 10:33 AM // 10:33

Great guide, I wonder since the wurms are affected by your weapon, if they are effected by armor stats or shield stats as well.
Changing armor to higher elemental armor when inside wurm for instance. Or I wonder if a -2 stance shield would have effect. (would be pointless, since 700-2 = still big chunk of life)
As you keep stances while changing back and forth, would the mesmer stances vs elemental damage remain active? They have a pretty nice lasting time, so this could be used for solofarming with a wurm.

Savio · Nov 11, 2006, 12:12 PM // 12:12

Updated with Sahlahja guide; Lordhelmos made one just before I posted mine, damn Imageshack for being slow and not logging me in.