Curse

Age · Aug 08, 2005, 04:24 AM // 04:24

Yeah those stone summits can be a pain and Orion still can't perform all that well and that includes the desert most of the henchies have good skills but not him.He needs eruption and meteor showers.

Lenneth Arbalest · Aug 08, 2005, 02:32 PM // 14:32

If you think that's crazy, go skill capping in the Mineral Springs. It's not so bad at first, until you come up to the first group of six Avicara Fierce. It's just six ranger enemies, how bad could it be, eh? Surprisingly, when using henchmen, we can kill 4 or 5 before being completely wiped out or all six are killed and the only one left alive is me. All the Fierce really use is Ignite Arrows and some bow attack. Of course, the henchmen love to bunch up, and the AI isn't that stupid; they know exactly who to target. That Ignite Arrow damage really adds up quickly.

Witman's Folly is such a tease. You go through there first and you're like "These big groups aren't so bad. I can handle them." Then you hit Talus Chute and encounter that group of 10-15 Avicara near Camp Rankor. Fun.

Cymmina · Aug 08, 2005, 11:53 PM // 23:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by TideSwayer

before the big "botter" craze, were these zones this populated? I mean, is this something ANet did to combat the botters?

Yes. I was exploring the southern shiverpeaks about a week after the first patch (the one that fixed SoC in regards to unlocking skills), and they were that populated then.

TideSwayer · Aug 09, 2005, 12:13 AM // 00:13

Well, I finally managed to get all my elite caps in Frozen Forest (Offering of Blood. Yay.), and I hope ANet is satisfied that I'm never going into that zone ever again with this character. Too much hassle. Those mobs just aren't all that fun to fight.

In summary, Frozen Forest isn't really an exploration zone IMO. It's more suitably described as a mission for elite caps.

Regarding Mineral Springs, I actually found a cap group last night and capped my skills there. Yeah, those Avicara are pretty crazy. All in all, I don't think it was as bad as the mobs in Frozen Forest. At least in Mineral Springs the mobs are spaced out properly so you can prepare for the upcoming battles. However, that little area on the way to Mineral is downright NUTS with huge mobs. Our group cleared the whole area out, and we even made it up to the Seer's cave (cool cave too). With the alpine seeds I got from my Frozen Forest troubles I traded into the collector in Mineral for a 15%>50 Ascalon Bow too. Going to use it on my Ranger if I ever make one.

The main thing I wonder about these zones is, does ANet not care if you die since DP gets removed fairly quick in these later zones? I think that's pretty lame. You should die from stupidity, not from a biased mob placement intended to cause such a result. We're capped at Level 20, and there's a limit to how strong a mob an average group can reasonably take on. I'd still rather the individual monsters were a bit stronger and there were less of them, than have a million monsters of lower strength.

JanderBlackstar · Aug 09, 2005, 03:31 AM // 03:31

What classes are you using against those Frozen Forest mobs?

I've got my lvl 20 EMo and with seven hench, I can clean out the entire forest with little to no DP. The hench I use are:
Protection and Healer (obvious reasons)
Fighter and Brawler (healing)
Mage (fire storm damage adds up after awhile)
Necromancer (energy regen spell)
Archer (another body to hide behind and added damage)

Current skill set:
Capture Signet
Ressurect (was using rebirth but losing 60 E after a res then waiting on regen was too time consuming)
Flare (5 energy and fastset cast time = near constant damage attack)
Fireball (area damage)
Fire Storm (constant damage attack)
Meteor shower (knockdown and high damage)
Flame Burst (attacks nearby enemies, can hit directly in front of my tanks if i run up behind them)
Meteor (to knock down mesmers)

Still working on getting spellbreaker or I'd have that in there too for the spellcaster interrupts.

Using pyromancer forge armor with 1 major fire, 2 major vigors, 1 minor water and 1 major water. Working towards my 15k armor.

Howling Wind · Aug 09, 2005, 11:31 PM // 23:31

Heh I kinda agree with this, not all the places in shiverpeaks but just some points they put a ridicolous amount of mobs like frozen forest I agree, I hate the mixture of monsters they use, those damn arcanists and fierce are quite annoying because the dmg from ignite still hits you and conjure + bleeding is annoying when they put it up every few sec. I mean a few mobs is okay to handle but 3 mob groups just all of a sudden come rushing in at you even if you target 1 mob which is slightly out of his group and i'm talking about frozen forest here.

Mineral springs, can be annoying but I think its easier to organise and manage but frozen forest just has too many clustered up groups.

Other annoying parts of shiverpeaks is when they litterally put an army outside some town portals making it difficult going there and two that pop into my mind is granite citadel or camp raknor (not sure which one, I know one of them was a pain the ass) the god knows how many imps near the grotto.

MaglorD · Aug 10, 2005, 01:25 AM // 01:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by TideSwayer

WTF were they thinking when placing mobs in these zones? You can't pull a few without getting 100 other monsters to follow. It's ridiculous. Mobs aggro other mobs like it's nobody's business in the Southern Shiverpeaks, which mean you tend to get into huge fights with little chance of success. It's almost like the developers are promoting Death Penalty and cumbersome backtracking at this point. I'm trying to cap some monk skills in Frozen Forest right now, but it's taking forever just to move 10 feet, and god forbid I can ever get anywhere without any of the stupid henchmen dying on me. Forget trying to assemble a skillcap group of humans, because 1) it would take an hour to get that many, and 2) too many losers would just leave after they got their desired caps.

This is so lame. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too many monsters in these Southern Shiverpeak zones. I can't stand playing in the Southern Shiverpeaks. I want to go out and explore these areas, but the only thing that this game allows at this point is doing those shield missions. I'm a healing monk but I can't tell the henchmen to start the fights against these monsters (lovely assortment of hench-controlling features that we have here). I have to start the fights myself (never mind that I shouldn't be going anywhere near clusters of mobs with this character type), which means I take a few hits right off the bat, and have to waste time and energy healing myself before any of the henchmen.

WTF? Seriously. Throw some bones to the people who want to actually WALK AROUND IN THE WORLD YOU CREATED. Why are there so many damn monsters in these Southern Shiverpeak zones? MAKE THE INDIVIDUAL MONSTERS STRONGER AND PUT LESS OF THEM THERE, PLEASE! I keep dying because there's no way to survive battles against 800 monsters at once, not because I lack the ability to pull or put together a competent skillset.

Let's not forget that I'm only going into these zones to get elite skills, not because I give a crap about going out into the wild where there are way too many monsters. The developers obviously don't want random groups just walking around the Southern Shiverpeaks, or they wouldn't have put 8 billion creatures every 4 steps of the way.

I do agree some parts of Frozen Forest have tons of monsters, which probably needs a really good PUG to handle, but by and large the place is navigable. I got all the elites available there for all the professions. The thing is the boss spawns are random so the trick to get the elites is to simply go back to the accessible areas over and over until you get the right boss.

magnusmu · Aug 10, 2005, 04:48 PM // 16:48

Ok, I did Ice Tooth Caves, Iron Mines, Marhan's grotto with my lvl 13 Ele/Me. Found that the armor I wanted wasn't at Marhans, so then I went to Copperhammer and up to Granite Citadel. Some parts took a lot of patience (waiting for mobs to separate), and stealthiness but its *supposed* to be tough.

Sure at times I had 40-60% DP, but I made it, and lvled to lvl 16 by the end of the long journeys and got a piece of my 15k armor.

Yes, its tough. Would I like to do that again if I were in a hurry? No! But now that I have the waypoints I can teleport wherever I please.

(And yes, I did go down Lornar's pass, but I had someone run me)

I guess I'm not your average GW gamer, but its completely do-able. Other than the mission zones, I did this with henchies only! (hard to find *anybody* that will take a lvl 13 character with them). I even led the mission zones because nobody would take me, so I had to lead a group there myself but completed both missions successfully with my PuG on the first try. A member in the PuGs still bugs me to complete Thunderhead Keep with them (while I was still lvl 13, lol), but I'm not crazy enough to try that one till I've lvled up; imagine the blame I'd get if we failed! - gotta keep my 'first try mission complete' record in the shiverpeaks!

Swordzkof · Aug 10, 2005, 05:40 PM // 17:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by TideSwayer

... I'm a healing monk but I can't tell the henchmen to start the fights against these monsters (lovely assortment of hench-controlling features that we have here). I have to start the fights myself (never mind that I shouldn't be going anywhere near clusters of mobs with this character type), which means I take a few hits right off the bat, and have to waste time and energy healing myself before any of the henchmen.

My lvl20 Monk can go anywhere in the Shiverpeaks, using just henches, without a problem. The secret to my success is a Longbow. I use the bow to give henches a target to attack and keep the mob away from me. Then I target with "Ctrl+Space" to get them ALL focusing on the same guy.

Once they've become the primary targets, I cast Seed, Aegis, Breeze, Hands, etc. as needed. If they get wiped out, I move back, wait for mob to lose interest, and then Rebirth team to my location. It can be time consuming, but the Shiverpeaks are quite doable with a Monk.

My skill bar is:

Orison - Breeze - Mend Ailment - Hands - Seed - Aegis - Word - Rebirth

Former Ruling · Dec 03, 2005, 09:32 PM // 21:32

Frozen Forest isn't designed for you to have to Push through like 30 Summit enemies.

Notice the curving paths?

Its a planning thing - You can easily clear Frozen Forest WITH HENCHIES and never fight more than 6-7 enemies at once, and die none (some henchies might die 1-2 times).

Come in through Iron Mines, and wind around the lower paths that come in and out of each other, and you can skip the summit groups all together, or hit them from behind, where you fight maybe 2-3 groups max at a time.

Merry Madrigal · Dec 04, 2005, 05:31 AM // 05:31

Pretty much agree with OP. Depending on your luck with mobs moving around, you can easily get in some unwinnable fights in FF. Esp. if you let some gnashers get some pets up. There's one place where you tend to rez right back into the middle of multiple mobs, and getting killed over and over by them gets old pretty quick!

BTW for the poster above - 2 major vigors on your armor won't do anything for you. They are not additive. Go for one major, or a sup if you're lucky, although the extra 9hp isn't that big a deal.

Banebow · Dec 04, 2005, 06:26 AM // 06:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by magnusmu

some parts took a lot of patience (waiting for mobs to separate), and stealthiness but its *supposed* to be tough.

I am afraid I have to agree with this statement. Why do something if it is going to be a cakewalk?

Quick example: quest was titan source (5th glint quest) group only had 4 people. In the end we all had 60% dp and were doing suicide runs to finish the quest. But when we did, I was quite pleased that I had completed what had been, at that point, the hardest quest I had ever done. But if it had been simple and easy, I would have cared little.

Yes, the area is tough. Some of those mobs are, perhaps, a bit large. But I also don't think it should be a breeze to get through the area. I'd rather die and have to zone out to try again, than have the area reduced to a few tiny mobs.

On a side note:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Krank

ive counted, there are over 250

I knew there were a lot, but. . .250?!?

thelessa · Dec 04, 2005, 01:14 PM // 13:14

i have to agree with you. there needs to be something done about the mobs in southern shiverpeaks. it would be nice for once to go out and explore the different areas available.

i don't mind fighting my way through, but even if you sit and watch the mobs for 10 mins. and think that you have a separate group and you start a fight and you always end up aggroing the whole group anyways.

my last two chars. i brought up there did the first two missions and then limped to the other towns. but go exploring bah, not worth the aggravation and i love to explore.

Joe L. · Dec 04, 2005, 09:14 PM // 21:14

The worst by far, IMO, is the mursaat mobs to all around the Grotto. Seriously, has anyone ever capped the elite available there. I don't think there is a team on earth that can take all 20 or so mursaat/jade. It is absolutely ridiculous. If this elite was only available there, you would hear alot more about it. Wonder if this would be good to farm? Hell, worth the bragging rights if you can just survive the encounter.

dpince182 · Dec 04, 2005, 10:35 PM // 22:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Banebow

Quick example: quest was titan source (5th glint quest) group only had 4 people. In the end we all had 60% dp and were doing suicide runs to finish the quest. But when we did, I was quite pleased that I had completed what had been, at that point, the hardest quest I had ever done. But if it had been simple and easy, I would have cared little.

I found Titan Source along with Defend North Kryta to be the most difficult. As for Titan Source, our group monk would run when things got hairy, and rebirth from afar. I was up to 60 DP on my E/Me air/earth hybrid and the monk had a morale boost still.

We never had to use one single res shrine...felt mighty good finally beating that quest. I reccommend that everyone beat the Glint quests with at least one character

Ajantis · Dec 04, 2005, 10:55 PM // 22:55

Pfft

The imps outside grotto can be pulled relatively easy with a long bow.. I can solo up to five of them and most groups consist of 5 if you pull them right

Took my lvl 12 monk with henchies to Mineral for skill capping, died tons of times but got them in the end..

Too many mobs? Maybe, but then again, it is supposed to be one of the hardest areas in the game

Former Ruling · Dec 05, 2005, 05:03 AM // 05:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merry Madrigal

Pretty much agree with OP. Depending on your luck with mobs moving around, you can easily get in some unwinnable fights in FF. Esp. if you let some gnashers get some pets up. There's one place where you tend to rez right back into the middle of multiple mobs, and getting killed over and over by them gets old pretty quick!

BTW for the poster above - 2 major vigors on your armor won't do anything for you. They are not additive. Go for one major, or a sup if you're lucky, although the extra 9hp isn't that big a deal.

Since I am the "above poster" for this post - I can only guess it was at me?

But that doesn't make much sense because I never mentioned 2 major vigors..Or any runes at all for that matter.

So I'll disregard that >_>

Quote:

... I'm a healing monk but I can't tell the henchmen to start the fights against these monsters (lovely assortment of hench-controlling features that we have here). I have to start the fights myself (never mind that I shouldn't be going anywhere near clusters of mobs with this character type), which means I take a few hits right off the bat, and have to waste time and energy healing myself before any of the henchmen.

Think its already been said - But.....Hmmm....There IS a "Yall attack while I stay back here" button combo...

Its called "Calling a target"

aron searle · Dec 05, 2005, 10:10 AM // 10:10

The key i find with those large mobs is to keep moving back, which sometimes dosnt work because the henchies dont react quick enough, but 8/10 times it works.

Agro them then run back, as soon as they lose interest hit em with a bow untill they start following. You should have a few of them running ahead of the pack, quickly kill 1-2 of these leaders and run as soon as the others catch up, rinse and repeat, if you do it right you can kill them just before the rest arive to do any real harm and you can whittle them down this way, but......

/signed

I agree these huge mobs all over the place are just tedios, makes exploring the place just annoying and not worth it for me, but i think there should be a few biggens, just not at every narrow pathway.

HelamisTheDark · Dec 12, 2005, 12:58 AM // 00:58

the area outside of Grendich Courthouse has gotten hard, even for my Warrior Runner....i mean, mobs of hydra only lvl 10, but mobs so they can kill u so easily. i cant run that place anymore, nor southern shiverpeaks.

Bane of Mortality · Dec 12, 2005, 01:08 AM // 01:08

I've noticed they've added bigger mobs to the Northern SHiverpeaks outside Yak's Bend too.