Curse

Shadowdaemon · Jul 04, 2005, 07:58 AM // 07:58

just give yourself a break and then come back and keep trying, eventually you will get a group that is tired of it also and can concentrate enough to pass it, and it is true that the missions only get harder afterwards, so the next will only be worse

also, cannonfodder why would you post that quote on here, all you did was advertise for that person one more time

BrokenSymmetry · Jul 04, 2005, 08:14 AM // 08:14

I have now spoken to a lot of players (in the Euro zone), that are stuck at Thunderhead after 10+ tries. Many of these are ready to give up on GW.

The bad thing about this mission is that you have to go though a lot of fighting before you get to the last part, which is very easily failed if you make a single mistake, or your team is not 100% coordinated.

All the strategies mentioned on this and other threads to beat the mission, are not really useful in the Euro zone, as you will be glad if you can find 8 people for the mission, and you don't really have much choice in professions and builds.

Another issue is that you can not continue without beating this mission, as you can not reach the fire region on foot. So, for players there's no other option then keep trying to beat the mission, or to give up on GW completely....

Tziouv · Jul 04, 2005, 11:33 AM // 11:33

I er...did this on my 3rd try, I'm a monk and I always play with henchmen unless "thinking" people are required. Especially, ascended henchmen tend to be better than real people since 70% of people (in Euro zone at least) haven't got the extra 30 attribute points or elite skills at all.
I used the catapults as much as I could, probably killed 2-3, and battled at the gates, either one. If another enemy party was coming from the other gate I'd aggro them in the ongoing battle with the enemies from the other. Also, the jade armors that come in the first wave will kill frost giants/stone summit and all 3 times they never attempted to kill the king so if you can't handle them, let them be and dont aggro them. And yes the mursaat boss is a problem, though it was the reason I failed my first 2 attempts (1st Jade Armor Boss, 2nd Mursaat Monk Boss) on my 3rd try it was a Jade Bow Boss so I just let him be until the rest was clear.
I believe this area, just like the desert missions, is a great "filter" for incompetent people, I find it hard to believe that people who don't PUG right have made it past Elona Reach or Thirsty River o_O;
Anyway if someone European really needs help with this, add to friend list and message me, I'm tired of looking at ring of fire districts with only 5-6 people -_-.

Neo-LD · Jul 04, 2005, 04:05 PM // 16:05

I didnt think henchies are possible with this mission because they are too stupid to heal the king, and frequently aggro 4 groups at once.

Tourist · Jul 04, 2005, 07:42 PM // 19:42

I actually decided to unlurk and start posting around here specifically so I could relate my own experience with this mission. Howdy folks, don't hate me too much; I got through this, with the bonus, on my first try.

Ok, so I'd read on these forums and others that this was kinda a rough mission, mostly because of bad(or no) coordination and having to keep a semi-suicidal king alive for quite awhile. So naturally I was kinda worried when I got asked to join into a group within seconds of my showing up at the starting point- I was just about the last person on the team too, so I didn't really have any time to find out if I had just joined a bunch of kiddies or some people who actually knew what the hell to do. The only reason I decided to ignore the alarm bells and just go with it was A. This was only my first try, so what the hell why not, and B. The group leader was making sure that everyone understood and appeciated that this would be a long, slow going mission, and no one was going to abruptly leave or had anything better to do for awhile. Basically, we weren't going to rush it.

So, our group consisted of something like this(and my memory is hazy now, so I may be a little off):

Mo/(mesmer?): Our group's founder but not really leader as it happened. Pretty much a pure healer with some hex removal and resurrecting on the side.
E/Mo: Skilled up as a fire-nuker, but also had healing breeze for support healing.
W/N: This guy was our real leader, one smart mofo that was more responsible for us winning than any other single thing. More on him later.
R/?: Traps and long range archery, this guy was our chief puller, later ran one of the catapults.
N/?: Blood magic I think, maybe some other stuff but I can't recall- no minions though, I do know that. Also ran a catapult in the endgame.
2 others- I honestly can't remember what they were, maybe another necro and another elementalist? Hell, maybe even a mesmer. I don't recall but their work was fine and they were there when we needed them.
And lastly myself, a W/Mo with Sprint, a mess o' sword skills, mend ailments(I HATE bleeding and poison, and no one else seems to bring that skill along), and a sig of capture(opportunist, yes I am). I'm our only other warrior, so I get to tank a lot, and that suites me fine. Sprint also kinda made me serve as fire brigade whenever there was trouble somewhere else, because I could get there fastest.

So, we had 2 tanks, a healer(and a semi-support healer), a nuker(or two maybe, I don't remember), a ranger, and a necro for wells of blood and other handy things. Overall it was a solid group.

We get into the mission though, and almost immediately our other Warrior -Windy Breeze I think was his name, damn me for not adding him to my friends list- sets us down and takes charge. I don't know, but I think he had done the mission before, probably a bunch of times, and I think this time he was going back for the bonus. Or maybe just to help others get through, dunno. Anyways, guy knew EXACTLY where to go and what to do. He never got angry, he never yelled at anyone, he never got obviously excited, and whenever he talked he'd use some flawless spelling and punctuation and grammer. I know that last bit seems silly, but when what you type and how you type it is the only way to convey yourself, and when virtually no one else pays much regard to such things, it really sets you apart as someone who knows what the hell they're doing when you do something as simple as end every sentance with a period. Anyhow, our Warrior made it clear that he knew what we had to do, and perhaps most amazingly of all, everyone listened to him. Those two things made ALL the difference.

Clearing the city was just a matter of classic Guild Wars PvE tactics: ranger sets traps and pulls, aggro only one group at a time, rest and recharge between battles, protect the healers and in this case, the King. Also, we kept close track on who the king was following, and that person kept back behind everyone else to avoid having the king go suicidal on us so much. And hey, it worked. There was one brief exciting moment when our monk died and no one was sure if anyone had brought a res sig or any other res skill, but turned out we had 3 or 4 sigs running around. Cleared out the city, and then moved on to the fort.

As you might guess, our leader got us to take the fort smart, clearing out all the groups around the walls before gearing up for Dagnar. Before dropping him, he also sat us down again and spent a good solid 5-10 minutes explaining what was about to happen, and determining what roles we would play. Me and him would light the beacons for the bonus, our Ranger and Necro would man the 2 sets of catapults, and then the rest of us would take to the center, roughly where Dagnar stood, and move against whichever gate they got through, trying to intercept them right between the inner and outer doors. As the situation evolved I also became our fire brigade, sprinting off after anything that got through the gate we weren't fighting at. But in general, the whole team except the catapultists would fight the biggest threat to reach the gate. But under NO circumstances would we leave the fort and fight outside the walls, nor did we really fall back to the king(or need to, for that matter). For the most part, the strategy worked; I couldn't tell how much damage our catapults did but they seemed to be at least crippling some of the guys that got through, and probably killed a few per group. I got myself killed rushing a group of Jade Armors that broke through on the far side from where we were fighting at the time, but everyone else got over fast enough to finish them off and get me res'd. And there was one more moment when we lost 3 or 4 guys fighting against the Jade Armor boss and his buddies, but we held out and got everyone resurrected before the next wave showed up. I don't even remember a mursaat monk boss, so it's possible he got killed outside the walls, or weakened out there and then brought down really quickly at the gate.

Anyways, suffice to say we held out, and I don't think the King ever came under attack the entire time. But it took a lot of time, patience, good leadership and planning, and a team that was willing to listen and then stick to those plans. Easily one of my most favorite mission experiences ever, and one of the best teams I've been lucky enough to play with, right up there with the time I did Aurora Glade and had my team almost entirely wiped out fighting for the gate to Denravi, only to have our last monk save us and we rallied to win the mission and bonus. But that's another story...

And if anyone wants a competant, won't-aggro-every-damn-thing-in-sight W/Mo to help with Thunderhead, give Tsen Oneblade a ring. If I have time and I'm available, I'll be happy to help.

Tziouv · Jul 04, 2005, 08:32 PM // 20:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neo-LD

I didnt think henchies are possible with this mission because they are too stupid to heal the king, and frequently aggro 4 groups at once.

Have you EVER tried to play with henchmen? o_O;
They don't do that.
Only the warriors may attack without a command and this doesn't happen often.
Not to mention that aggroing more than 2 groups at once is like impossible in this mission unless you run around the ENTIRE city or fort during battle.
The suicidal king needs little healing, and if he does, a single monk can easily handle him, he has a crazy armor rating and tons of health.
I believe it's just that people still haven't heard of "calling", "luring" or "kill enemy casters first", and just scream gogogogogogogogo in the beginning calling you a "noob" (in capitals) while they are the ones with a -60% death penalty attacking everything but an enemy monk.
Euro warriors are the masters of this. Don't know about other regions.

Neo-LD · Jul 05, 2005, 03:20 AM // 03:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tziouv

Have you EVER tried to play with henchmen? o_O;
They don't do that.
Only the warriors may attack without a command and this doesn't happen often.
Not to mention that aggroing more than 2 groups at once is like impossible in this mission unless you run around the ENTIRE city or fort during battle.
The suicidal king needs little healing, and if he does, a single monk can easily handle him, he has a crazy armor rating and tons of health.
I believe it's just that people still haven't heard of "calling", "luring" or "kill enemy casters first", and just scream gogogogogogogogo in the beginning calling you a "noob" (in capitals) while they are the ones with a -60% death penalty attacking everything but an enemy monk.
Euro warriors are the masters of this. Don't know about other regions.

I DID try that mission with hechies with my ranger. Know what happened? We kicked butt until we got to the end of the city, when you have to climb around to the towers with giants on them and try to kill them without aggroing the enemies either in front or behind. As soon as you try to kill them, the fighters go and aggro everything, and the king will die because the henchmen are too stupid to heal him. I dont doubt that since you were a monk, you were able to accomplish this since you can make up for the henchies lack of foresight, but the rest of us are stuck.

Lost · Jul 05, 2005, 05:02 AM // 05:02

Quote:

the towers with giants on them

You attack the towers from below before you open the door. If you have no means to do this yourself, you get your mage henchmen (and maybe the ranger if he can aim) to attack the towers with Fire Storm and whatever else. It oculd take a little bit but they will die.

KaPe · Jul 05, 2005, 07:42 PM // 19:42

Did it with henchmen on first try. Was bit surprised how easy it was - just stood near king and waited for enemies to come. Didn't bother with ballista, too much running for single person. Only annoying thing was Mursat Monk boss, took a while to kill him - because I didn't take mesmer skills with me. Still, as long as you leave bosses for last, there shouldn't be any problem. Also, make sure you attack everything that comes close, so they fight you, not the king.

Ristaron · Jul 06, 2005, 07:45 AM // 07:45

I have tried this mission a good 30 times. I sh!t you not 30 @#$%ing times. Every single time it's been an idiot who goes and agros 6 groups racing to where he thinks would be a video, or our healers get snipered from the hacking enemies out of nowhere (literally, the arrows fly halfway across the map), and the most common: Jalis reveals himself to be Rurik's dwarven counterpart and runs off on a suicide mission while my NPC healer is sitting there twiddling her thumbs, or my real player healer is off picking his nose or other obscene things.
The first time I tried the mission, I had held the fort for a good 5 minutes before we had too many Mursaat come and sneak behind us while we were defending the other gate. Rurik the Second (King Ironhammer) sat there (no doubt drunk on dwarven ale) while the Mursaat pelted the living hell out of him. Failure.
Every single time since then has increased my frustration with the mission and given me more gray hairs. I can't wait to do this with my monk. The mere thought of the n00bs lying dead for the fifth time in five minutes screaming "res me res me" while I'm trying to keep the King alive is enough to make me want to put my head through the screen of this monitor.

Three of my guildees (and one former one I had to ask to leave because he was being an overall disturbance) have completed it, and this simply adds to my frustration.
Before this friking mission, I was the furthest ahead, the richest, and the most knowledgable of the game in the entire guild. Now I have people ahead of me and knowing things I don't know.

I never lorded it, barely even thought about it... but it irks me now!
Thankfully, though, I'm still the richest in the guild... so that counts for something at least.