Curse

Vampyrija · Jul 16, 2007, 07:05 PM // 19:05

Hi everyone,

I've started going for the vanquisher title and I cleared most of Ascalon areas without much difficulty with 3 heroes. Eastern Frontier though is nigh impossible to beat with a 4-man party : the damn hammer wielding grawls hurt like hell and the Ulodytes heal quite a lot.

I've tried many different set-ups, me as SF ele, as warder, as air (blinding surge) ele, with 1 heal monk, with 2 monks (1 heal + bonder), with MM, with Spoil Victor necro, SS necro... Nothing seems to work.

So I suppose the only solution left is to leave from Yak's Bend with a 6-strong party but I'd like to know if entering an outpost for parties of 4 like Grendich or Piken will remove 2 party members or if the old trick still works.

Alternatively, has anyone been able to beat Eastern Frontier with a 4 man party comprising an ele? Thanks in advance.

Dougal Kronik · Jul 16, 2007, 07:55 PM // 19:55

Entering an outpost will remove 2 party members.

Fionn Falaich · Jul 16, 2007, 09:25 PM // 21:25

I was in the same situation - playing as an ele, I couldn't find a build or a team build (with heroes/hench) that could beat those grawl with a four-man team. I tried air, fire, tried many combinations of heroes, still no luck. Just this past weekend I brought a six-man team from Yak's Bend because I also needed Regent Valley and Pockmark Flats, as well. That worked. As stated above, entering an outpost will reduce the party to four. It took me about 30 minutes or so to reach Regent Valley.

There was a thread here two or three months ago that had suggestions for beating Eastern Frontier with a four-man team, but I can't seem to find it now. In theory (if I remember), it involved having a mesmer power block/divert/blackout one ulodyte while the rest of the team pounds on the other. That was my basic strategy, but I also needed a timely interrupt on the other ulodyte every now and then because of how fast they can spam heal area and how much it heals for.

If anyone has a four-man build that can beat Eastern Frontier, especially one that works with heroes, I'd be interested to hear about it, and my hat is off to you!

Yol · Jul 16, 2007, 09:48 PM // 21:48

Eastern Frontier is easy if you bring enough muscle and are prepared to put in the time....

[edit] pic removed because it contained in-game names. it showed completion of vanquishing eastern frontier with a party of 8, from ToA, h/h. In response to post below, it took more than 2 hours.....18 hours with regular breaks because I vanquished every region between ToA and EF, apart from temple corridor and dragons gullet.

Vampyrija · Jul 16, 2007, 11:12 PM // 23:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yol

Eastern Frontier is easy if you bring enough muscle and are prepared to put in the time....

Hmm well, but you came from Southern Shiverpeaks ><
I'm not planning to spend like 12 hours so I'll be trekking from Yak's all the way round to EF

Evilsod · Jul 16, 2007, 11:43 PM // 23:43

I think you mean from ToA... but the time taken is pretty similar so its really out of the question for 99% of people.

And of course you can't do it... you have no shutdown. They spam Heal Other for hours without running out of energy.

karunpav · Jul 17, 2007, 01:26 AM // 01:26

I haven't tried it yet, but maybe Norgu with Frustration and a bunch of interrupts? Could potentially keep a monk out of the fight until you can focus fire on him.

Cherno · Jul 17, 2007, 04:14 AM // 04:14

It can be done without interrupts, as you can wear them down and spike them, but the healing hands is a pain. I would recommend Lingering Curse, or Corrupt Enchantment even better for a necro elite or rip enchantment for a non-elite as it has quicker recharge.

It took me a long time to do it but we got it done, it was my buddy on his warrior with a dragon slash build with rip enchant, me as a beast master ranger and two monks.

explodemyheart · Jul 17, 2007, 05:03 AM // 05:03

I almost had it vanquished but then the warrior lost power and didn't get it back in time to reconnect.

1 real warrior, bleeding, deep wound, interrupts
Norgu with clumsiness, ineptitude, inspired hex, epidemic, power drain, leech sig, dismiss condition, res
Olias with price of failure, spiteful spirit, reckless haste, enfeebling blood, inspired hex, signet of lost souls, blood rit, res sig
Then me with life bond, balth's spirit, glyph of lesser energy, prot spirit, spirit bond, shield of absorption, zealous benediction, gift of health

Bonds were okay without blessed sig, I had plenty of energy between balth's, gole and blood rit. Damage is very good, this is the build I used to vanquish all of the 4 man areas I've done. A lot of the success for this area, especially with the grawl, was due in part to the warrior and good pulling. If he could get the grawl body blocked just right, they were like kittens.

If you have a good puller, I'd say Olias and an ele would probably work. If you don't have a good puller/bodyblocker, I'd say taking Norgu and replacing Olias with an ele would be better, because the blind + epidemic really helps.

the_jos · Jul 17, 2007, 10:43 AM // 10:43

Quote:

Alternatively, has anyone been able to beat Eastern Frontier with a 4 man party comprising an ele? Thanks in advance.

Yes, but that was with a very experienced human Ele tank and 3 other human players. No monks, just tank and damage dealers.
We killed the last mobs with 3 of us, since our warrior had to afk when there were about 30 enemies left.

elsalamandra · Jul 17, 2007, 11:37 AM // 11:37

I want to add my 2 cents to this thread if I may.

I too find this area a bit too much to vanquish. the same applies to Diessa Lowlands, Flame temple corridor and the area immediately after (dont remember the name).

Don't get me wrong here please, but due to the party size of four and the size of the mobs (char and Grawls) the setting is defenitely not right if you compare these areas of a party of four to that of a party of either 6 or 8.

I too have tried several combinations to attempt these vanquishes and so far have been unsuccessful.

I play necro, so any suggestions are welcome.

Vampyrija · Jul 17, 2007, 11:59 AM // 11:59

I did it!!! My sincere gratitude goes to explodemyheart whose build was a great source of inspiration. I used the general idea with a few variations.

Here's my setup:

-me as earth tank (mantra of earth, stonebreaker, stoneflesh aura, kinetic armor, stone daggers, double attunement, rez)
-Norgu: ineptitude, clumsiness, epidemic, leech sig, power drain, conjure phantasm, spirit of failure, chant of rez
-Olias: spiteful spirit, reckless haste, insidious parasite, price of failure, enfeebling blood, suffering, power drain, rez
-Tahlkora: life bond, balthazar's spirit, zb, gift of blood, power drain, leech sig, blessed signet (or whatever its name in English, my game is in French), chant of rez.

It took me a bit less than 3 hours and a few candy canes to kill ~195 mobs (half of the total time for the 50 or so frigging grawls). I tanked at corners to bodyblock and flagged my henchies at a safer spot behind where they could cast their spells. Groups consisting of 2 Ulodytes + 2 hammer Grawls are the longest to kill, just switch targets when you see one of them has healing hands on him, keep the pressure with stone daggers and hexes and the monks will run out of energy after some time and then they all go down quickly. Necro charrs are a bit of a pain since they strip enchants but they're no big deal, just reapply stripped bonds.

I realized after 2 or 3 groups of Grawls that my build could be optimized to speed things up but I didn't feel like starting over. Kinetic armor on top of mantra/stonebreaker/stoneflesh is kind of overkill and I think it could be advantageously replaced by sliver armor. Double attunement was also overkill, consider dropping elemental attunement and bring another elite, shockwave maybe or glyph of renewal for sliver armor.

It's really not hard to vanquish EF with that build if you tank and flag your heroes correctly.

Thanks again for the help, I really appreciate it

zenatomiser · Jul 17, 2007, 12:08 PM // 12:08

I had a few problems with this area although it was mainly due to bad pulls/double agro.

Used Tahlkora as prot monk OwYS8YIP1j76K57tpv0IjAC
Sousuke as sf ele OgljowMrpN0tm2YFYgMwF1Y5NA
Olias as mm OAljUwGrpNoMqwRFPkFqq1Y5NA

Stand your ground really helps against the charr, because they hit really hard... and the necros are a pain I would suggest bringing convert hexes too for the extra hex removal + armor.

For grawl the most important point is to have a great war or sin (me ^^) pulling and grouping them together. Those grawl are pretty easy to group around corners or stairs where they can't get past the tank + minnions. Bringing enchant removal would greatly help in spikes but i didn't find it neccessary since minnions + meteor shower took care of most groups.

Charr were actually more difficult due to their necros spamming hexes but they have really low armor it seems so a quick spike and they go down fast. Group them again if possible and try not to target the mob with Shield of Judgement on him. Me and heros outdamaged their healing so usually didn't worry about SoJ.

I started from sardalec sanitarium, because i was vanquishing the area outside there and once i got to eastern frontier i noticed there was a warrior devourer boss on the left side just after you begin. You can easily go back and forth killing the boss to get 10% morale which really helps fighting the charr.

And a small note for diessa lowlands/flame temple/dragon's gullet, start from yak's bend it's extremely easy to get to diessa from there and the extra 2 people make those areas a breeze.

Evilsod · Jul 17, 2007, 04:28 PM // 16:28

It really doesn't sound like it was that successful if it took you several candy canes and 3 hours...

And of course... Charr Ash Walkers eat enchantments for breakfast, not much point making a build thats successful vs the Grawl and completely gimped vs the Charr.

Jayden_Angelus · Jul 18, 2007, 03:32 AM // 03:32

I was able to beat Eastern Frontier with a 4 man party going from Frontier Gate.

I had myself as a Sword warrior (using the Ghials farming build), Goren as a hammer warrior (with same build cept with hammer skills) and both Talhkora (Prot) & Dunkoro (Heal). It took me awhile though, as what I needed to do was flag my heroes back, as YOU really need to be the one to control the aggro and pulls. Most of what I had to do, was to pull the groups (usually two warriors and two monks) into a small little spot to block them in to keep the warriors off of my monks and focused on me and Goren while we beat down the enemy monks. It did take a bit of time but it was doable. I made sure to start with the Grawl, as the Charr and insects and other stuff aren't that difficult.

In HM, the monks are the worst enemies to face. They kite like crazy and are near impossible to kill singlehandedly. I've found that they need to be bodyblocked and taken out before anything else. Which can be a problem because chasing after them you can't really keep aggro control.

~|AW|Jayden

blue.rellik · Jul 18, 2007, 05:41 AM // 05:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yol

Eastern Frontier is easy if you bring enough muscle and are prepared to put in the time....

Holy crap that would have taken like two hours or something to get there

Kris · Jul 18, 2007, 03:12 PM // 15:12

Yol has made me seriously concider coming from ToA lol.... Doing Eastern Frontier as a monk, with heros, is virtually impossible with 4 as you cant make your heros attack the right things.

Vampyrija · Jul 18, 2007, 05:23 PM // 17:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evilsod

It really doesn't sound like it was that successful if it took you several candy canes and 3 hours...

And of course... Charr Ash Walkers eat enchantments for breakfast, not much point making a build thats successful vs the Grawl and completely gimped vs the Charr.

I said my build wasn't optimized, it was my first try and I wasn't aware there were also necros in that area. I used more or less the same earth tank build to vanquish Flame Temple Corridor and Dragon's Gullet but I dropped kinetic armor for sliver armor and replaced elemental attunement with Obsidian Flesh. It's very useful against mesmer and necro charrs as well as hydras. It took me less than 2 hours to clear both FTC and D's G and I didn't die once

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kris

Yol has made me seriously concider coming from ToA lol.... Doing Eastern Frontier as a monk, with heros, is virtually impossible with 4 as you cant make your heros attack the right things.

You could perhaps try the build I posted earlier except that you'll have to tank as 55 or 600hp monk (bring SB to counter Ash Walkers ^^) because heroes obviously aren't very good at tanking. I think it should work.

Cherno · Jul 20, 2007, 04:45 AM // 04:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by elsalamandra

I want to add my 2 cents to this thread if I may.

I too find this area a bit too much to vanquish. the same applies to Diessa Lowlands, Flame temple corridor and the area immediately after (dont remember the name).

Don't get me wrong here please, but due to the party size of four and the size of the mobs (char and Grawls) the setting is defenitely not right if you compare these areas of a party of four to that of a party of either 6 or 8.

I too have tried several combinations to attempt these vanquishes and so far have been unsuccessful.

I play necro, so any suggestions are welcome.

Actually, Dragon's Gullet (the zone name you forgot) is quite easy on hard mode. The necros in there don't even use an elite. So they are just higher level version of themselves.

Getting there is the problem, and right at the beginning there are some charr that can hurt, but if you made it that far, then you should be ok. Make sure you don't have Titan Source active. Diessa Lowlands is the last 4 man area in the game I have to do in HM and I am not looking forward to it.

hypatia · Jul 26, 2007, 12:34 PM // 12:34

I recently vanquished this area in HM, with a party of 6 from Yaks.
We vanquished Regent Valley and Pockmark Flats along the way.

We had;
Warrior (real)
Paragon hero
SS Necro hero
Monk (real, healing)
Bond monk hero
Ranger hero w/ BHA

It was incredibly easy, the whole trip only took 4 hours (well.. that doesn't sound good but.. it could have been worse! hehe). It probably would have been shorter if we were not mapping.

The ranger really helps out a lot, you can tell her to target the one grawl monk w/ BHA and have the rest of the party attack the other grawl monk (if you were having problems).