Curse

Krazax · Jan 20, 2006, 11:17 PM // 23:17

It wouldn’t be Thunderhead if someone didn’t leave, right? So are you up the creek if one of those people to leave is one of your two monks? Not necessarily. Here are some tips and a strategy that works for when you are in the fort – since just about every group makes it to the fort one way or the other, there is little reason to go into that. It’s all about Clearing the Fort and holding out. So that’s what we are talking about.

- Group Configuration
- Mission Strategy

GROUP CONFIGURATION
There are guides already that discuss the in depth ways to building a good PUG, I’m going to summarize my methods and break it down for this mission specifically. Your group’s primary class orientation should look like this:
1 Warrior
2 Monks
*2 Rangers or Mesmers
2 Elemenalists
1 Necromancer

Any class that has ‘Monk’ as one of their classes, should be bringing a form of Ress.

-Warrior: For this mission and group orientation, go with an Axe build. Your essential skills to bring are Disrupting Chop, Dismember, and Sprint or Rush. Naturally if you have Eviscerate, bring that instead of Dismember. Those 3 skills are necessary, the rest of your skill bar is pretty much open. If you are War/Mo it doesn’t hurt to bring a hex removal, and bring rebirth as well. I also suggest bringing Balanced Stance (if you are using Tactics Shield) OR Dolyat Signant (if you are using Strength Shield) – these are just for use BEFORE getting to the fort so you don’t go down from Giant stomps. Bring a self heal as well. Just one.

*- Ranger: For this mission and group orientation, you are a trap ranger and poison degen with at least one interrupt (preferably Concussion Shot) – Yes both of you. Your essential skills to bring are Poison Arrow{E} (located out the east side of Droknar’s Forge), Barbed Trap, Flame Trap, Troll Urgent, and Whirling Defense. Pin Down is another good skill to help slow down your targets and let Poison last that much longer. Yes, bring a Poisoner’s Longbow. Bow type is more important then it being max dmg for this build and mission.

*- Mesmer: For this mission and group orientation, you are a Cripple Mes. Like the Ranger you will also be held responsible for one set of cats and eliminating as many hostiles that come your way. Your essential skills to bring are Crippling Anguish{E}, Conjure Phantasm, Phantom Pain, Mantra of Persistence, and Ether Feast. It’s a very good idea to also bring Power Drain to replenish energy quickly off Mursaat. With the CA build in good working order, you should be able to nearly solo any non-monks making past your cats.

-Monk: For this mission and group orientation, you are a Healer/Prot – Yes both of you should be running nearly the same build. Because if one of you dies it won’t overburden the other, or leaves it will still leave the group with a strong possibility to still win. Do not bring Rebirth, bring Restore Life. So build your build accordingly.

-Elementalist: For this mission and group orientation, one Ele should go with Fire nukes, and the other should be Air Spike (for Jades). For the Fire Magic caster, bring Immolate, Meteor Shower, Fireball, and Rodgorts Invocation. DO NOT BRING Firestorm or Searing Heat. Leaders, if your Ele is using either of these, return to town and make them change or get a new Ele entirely. For the Air Magic caster, bring Enervating Charge, Blinding Flash, Lightning Strike, and Lightning Orb. Do not bring Chain Lightning because mass target damage is the responsibility of the fire caster. Your priority is to spike the Jades and the White Mantle knights, and blinding any of these that are particularly nasty and beating up on casters. Don’t bring Gale either. Refrain from using any exhaustion causing skills.

-Necromancer: For this mission and group orientation, be a battery. Bring wells that increase the healing and energy regen rates of your party members. Your essential skills are Blood Ritual, Well of Blood, Well of Power {E} (located in Mineral Springs north of Granite Citadel). Other skills to bring are things that help you stay alive and inflict dmg. You are the battery, so if you die, the entire group suffers greatly. Keep them charged by staying alive!

Tips to keep in mind when grouping people:
- Immediately boot anyone that says ‘gogogogogogogogo’ or similar, as they are an impatient teenager (if even that old) with the attention span of a gnat. If they are a warrior, they’ll rush constantly. If they are anything else, they’ll rush right out of your group. Ditch them before they ditch you. They aren’t going to listen to you any more then they have the required amount of time to do the mission in the first place, or else why would they be in such a hurry?
- Immediately boot anyone that uses the term ‘noob’ or any derivatives, because anyone who is using this term is subject to the same behavior as the person above. Something you can seriously do without. A 14 year old know-it-all isn’t something any group needs, they are just gonna harp on someone else til someone leaves. Boot em and ignore em.
- Both these tips apply to any and all classes. Monk or not. Boot em.
- If you have a bad vibe about anyone? Trust your instincts and Boot Em.

MISSION STRATEGY

First things first, let the Monk or Necromancer, tag the King. If your warrior tags him, go back to town, and restart. Boot your warrior and get another. They are a dime a dozen. If he’s too dumb to not click the king, he’s only going to get worse as things progress. Ditto on the rangers.

Thunderhead, like most game missions, is set up on a series of events that trigger subsequent events, believe it or not. An event can be triggered by crossing an invisible line on the map, or by killing specific mobs for example. Yes there are other ways, but these are the most popular ways in GW’s and the ones used in the THK mission specifically.

For example, you do not trigger the King cinematic until you kill all monsters within the Fort. It doesn’t matter who you kill first, but once there are no mobs in the area, the event is triggered. Because of this, it’s usually best to kill Dagnar first, and then pull up the rest of the mobs to the far end of the Fort (near where you entered it) and clear them as necessary. During this time, whoever has control of the King NEEDS TO STAY BEHIND EVERYONE ELSE. This is because the King has an awful tendency to race up and keep aggro’n more stuff. Control him, don’t let him control you.

Now, once the King’s Cinematic is triggered, this is what you need to do:

Positions
- 1 Ranger/Mesmer on each set of Cats.
- EVERYONE ELSE center stage in the middle of the fort. No, not by the king, center stage. If you hold up near the King, you make him a target. The programming of the mob AI in THK tells the mobs to enter the fort briefly and then turn up the stairs for the King. If you tag them after they’ve entered, they’ll come after you and leave the King a lone.

- Each Ranger/Mesmer runs to a set of catapults and uses them. That’s where you will be until the very end of the mission when the Confessor shows up (When he arrives, he’ll come thru west gate, if you are working east gate, it’s time to leave your position). If you are a ranger, trap above the entrances and wear down anything with Cats and Poison that makes it past them. REMEMBER STAY ALIVE! Use the higher ground and your skills Whirling Defense and Troll Urgent to stay alive. If too much gets past you, don’t worry, pull back and let the group finish them off. So in between firing cats, keep your traps up. Rangers take out Mursaats this way, while Mesmers focus on taking out the Jades first. A cripple build will eat thru a Jade with 3 spells, but these guys go down harder for everyone else.
Ranger = Priority Kill Mursaat
Mesmer = Priority Kill Jade

If you cannot cut the amount of incoming mobs in each patrol to half, you are not being effective and instead are being detrimental to the success of the mission. Get on the ball and work your class and those cats like you know you can.

TIP: Even if you are a mesmer, bring a longbow. Sometimes you can pull mobs into cat range with your bow and take them out. Huzzah!

- The Monk should focus on staying as close to center stage as possible to keep out of agro bubbles of incoming mobs yet still remain within heal radius of group members as the main party moves from side to side.

- No group members, I repeat, NO GROUP MEMBERS should run out the gates and beyond the walls of the Fort. This is why you brought trap Rangers. Also, by holding them AT the doors, you can cluster them. By clustering them, you allow the nukers to be more effective and slow them down. It doesn’t matter what dropped. Stay inside. If there is one near dead White Mantle Ritualist, let the warrior finish him off while everyone else moves back to Center Stage. He’s got sprint, you don’t and shouldn’t.

- When a Boss comes in with monsters, TARGET THE BOSS LAST! In every single case, it is ALWAYS the boss last. Even if another patrol comes in, kill that minor patrol first and then go back to the boss when everything else is dead in the Fort. Bosses, unlike normal mobs, can be pulled all over the map. So mop up the little guys, and THEN bumrush the big one. You are more effective as a group that way. Also, here’s a big thing most people don’t realize, the death of a boss triggers the next event. So yes, kill him last.

EDIT: Air Ele, when the Warrior Jade boss comes in, make it your priority to keep them blind while lesser mobs are mopped up. If he's blind, he's as harmless as a puppy.

- If any monsters get past you and start making their way to the King, pull them away from his direction and back to the group. Do this the second you see them heading towards him -whoever is closest and isn’t the Monk – before they get within agro of him is best, but you can still pull them off him if you are late. This is also why you kill bosses last, because THEY ARE EASIER TO PULL OFF AND AWAY FROM THE KING!

THE DEATH OF THE CONFESSOR:

STOP! Now don’t race over and click the king. Why? Because you should have a TON of loot all over. Use this time to loot up. When Confessor is dead, you have won and nothing more comes. So relax, celebrate, and loot up!

Asrial · Jan 21, 2006, 01:31 AM // 01:31

Great post

carnivore · Jan 21, 2006, 01:38 AM // 01:38

yea its a good post.

but why does everyone have to make a guide for this mission. all you need to do is grab the henchies and camp the king.

Krazax · Jan 21, 2006, 04:04 AM // 04:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by carnivore

yea its a good post.

but why does everyone have to make a guide for this mission. all you need to do is grab the henchies and camp the king.

Well, did you use 1 hench or 2 monk hench when you camped king?

I've yet to see a group successfully camp King. This system is just an easier method for those having trouble getting thru the mission.

Samuel Dravis · Jan 21, 2006, 04:50 AM // 04:50

You can use the henchies and be a necro and camp the king. Stacking +7 wells works like a charm...

DeanBB · Jan 21, 2006, 09:03 PM // 21:03

I think any good group can do the mission, you don't need to spell out which professions and skills to bring. I've beat it either camping the king or guarding the gates - I've also lost trying both methods.

2 warriors and 2 monks make life easier, after that any 4 professions work. Yes, rangers laying traps are good - if the group is good enough to let the enemies come to the traps. Yes, mesmers are good, regardless of their focus.

Eliminating and weakening the enemies with the catapults is always beneficial, so long as people know when to leave them and return to the king or otherwise not try to take on too many enemies at once by themselves.

Ultimately it comes back to a good group will succeed and those that don't follow leadership, target the called targets, leave the fort and get out of healing range, etc, fail.

Dwimmerlaik · Jan 22, 2006, 05:50 AM // 05:50

Why such a runaround on this?

Take a single stance tank, preferably axe based for cyclone and the like. Take an MM Necro, E/SS Necro, Healing and bond/prot monk, and the rest DPS as you will. Have the tank grab a torch and voila, you're now in FoW/SF/any map with a holdable item. Just DPS everything down. It's not exactly hard.

fiery · Jan 22, 2006, 06:10 AM // 06:10

or you can do the t-head service if sunra is still running it ^^

Eclair · Jan 23, 2006, 06:34 AM // 06:34

I really don't see why everyone is having trouble with this mission. I've PUGed it with all 3 of my chars, and once with only henchies for the healers, and no warriors (something like 3 rangers too I think).

Just have the ranged people man the catapults (1 on each side) and have the rest guard the King.

Puppets · Jan 23, 2006, 06:44 AM // 06:44

I think mesmers work better as shutdown/interupt mesmers for this mission.

Hockster · Jan 23, 2006, 08:37 AM // 08:37

Two ele's and use a necro only as a battery? Holy noob build.

If you want an air ele, glimmering mark and chain lightning. Make the other earth and use wards. Ele's and monks at that stage of the game had damned well know how to manage their energy. Let the necro do what necros do best. Kill stuff with curses. MM's are awesome for clearing the city, but the lack of corpses later on diminishes their value. An interupt ranger and or anti caster mesmer makes the monk boss cry like a baby if you get that spawn.

ange1 · Jan 23, 2006, 11:26 AM // 11:26

or u can just camp the king with an mm =D

cerb · Jan 23, 2006, 12:26 PM // 12:26

Hey, I always say gogogogogogogo but I'm not impatient or anything -_-

Tatt2 · Jan 23, 2006, 06:26 PM // 18:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Krazax

Well, did you use 1 hench or 2 monk hench when you camped king?

I've yet to see a group successfully camp King. This system is just an easier method for those having trouble getting thru the mission.

I have 4 chars Ranger, Monk, Necro & Warrior all missions except Hells Presipice have been completed with henchies. Learn how to use them they work well. Oh yer they don't argue or leave group

Krazax · Jan 24, 2006, 12:58 AM // 00:58

Oh I know how to use them, but with the changes that went in to AoE, they just aren't as effective as they once were. The only mission I haven't managed to actually full hench at some point is THK.

Now there are naturally other ways of doing THK, and with a solid group this can easily be done - much like killing Glint. But let's be honest here folks, how many people you see stranded at THK mission are there cuz they know what they are doing and have done it already? Let's be real. You don't normally hang out at THK unless you're stuck there. This guide is nothing more then helpful advice to those who are having problems with it, OR who have never even attempted it. It's just one of many strats available to be done, and that still remain to be a tad exciting when used. I see a lot of people in PuG's that have absolutely no idea what skills to even bring. Or groups that give up when one monk leaves. That's the more common then not.

Yeah, so some of you've done it? Congratulations. You know what to bring. That's a no brainier. So is the fact that this guide isn't for you because you've made it. Why are you reading a guide about a mission you already know how to do in the first place? Why would you need to know how to one monk THK if you already have a solid group you don't have to worry about people leaving?

Noob design?

You don’t think I could sit here and say:
-Get a stance tank
-Have em hold torch
-Camp king
-GG

But you know what? That's the boring way to do it. Woopdy-freaking-do-doo I stood there and spammed my skills dry on mobs that all targeted the same person! Boring. No challenge.

I like doing THK this way for guildies and friends because it makes everyone in that group feel like they had an integral and important commitment to the success of the mission, because they actually did. It’s all about promoting comradery, good vibes, and making people feel good about themselves, not what a terrific leader I was. I've had the same PuG's I took thru THK with this method turn around and all members stay for Final Blow quest, and then do Ring of Fire mission, then take a short break and pick back up and finish Abb's Mouth. How many PuG's you know last that long between multiple missions/areas without loosing a single member? I mean Seriously. When you finally start getting messages form people you don't even remember, but they remember how much fun they had grouping with you, you'll finaly be on my level.

And hey, the strat works for the mission. So go figure.

“If you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did, an agent of evil you will become.” - Yoda

Lady Lozza · Jan 24, 2006, 02:04 AM // 02:04

Camp the King works wonderfully well if you don't get the Monk Mursaat boss. He requires a full shutdown mes, and well focused fire. (Aura of Faith!)

Otherwise I've found it best to get people on the catapults who actually know how to work them - ideally it should be eles or mes but I've been a monk and had to do it. Why? 9/10 players know you pull the lever, only 1/10 players know when, and where, and how many times.

One other note, people who don't listen to you when you tell them what to do, or say they have done it a hundred times before, when you start talking tactics, boot them. THK is an easy mission, but so many people fail it because they don't listen.

Good guide Krazax, well done

Yichi · Jan 24, 2006, 03:39 PM // 15:39

Two words.. = Divine Boon. Have been the only monk more than once using either a boon prot or boon healer in thk and won easily