Thunderhead Keep frustration - Page 2 - Guild Wars Forums

Lord Malikai · Jul 19, 2005, 06:27 AM // 06:27

Yup, the people who say stay near the King are right. Every group I have seen that stays in the middle gets drawn towards one gate then BAM, mursaat come into the other gate and go straight for the King. Then it's a mad rush to get back to him and whaddya know "The King is NOT infused!!", so he dies.

Please, save the whales, feed the children and help keep the King alive, stay by the King.

Xeno Demachilo · Jul 19, 2005, 06:46 AM // 06:46

They need to infuse the king..It really isnt fair..:/ This mission is one tough cookie..Although it always seems idiots in the group ruin it, by attracting 2-3 mobs at a time in the beginning, then saying OMG U IDIOTS WHY DIDNT U KILL THEM ALL! All while they lie dead..

telarin · Jul 19, 2005, 07:00 AM // 07:00

i didnt remember this mission to be this hard when i was playing my monk and warrior character. heck sometimes i even come back with my monk and play the mission again with PUGs just to get loots. most of the times i played with my monk, we always did the bonus, and guess what? the extra mursaats isnt a problem. even with 1 tank whose health seemed to drop incredibly fast when he got spectral agony on him. (I suspect he didnt infuse his armour, must have forgoten to talk to the seer)

But now with my ranger, finding a group was hard, nobody wants you. they are all yelling need 2 monks/nuker/tank for mission, never a ranger... and if i ever got into a group, most of the time we end up failing cos the king got slaughtered. Well, after reading this i guess i will try changing into a trapper build and see if anybody wants me, heh.

Gedscho · Jul 19, 2005, 07:27 AM // 07:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oni No Arashi

Oh, and they're right... leave the bloody bonus alone, don't light the torches. Three times the mursaat is not fun.

isnt it the other way round? >
dont like the torches > get ganked?

we only survived easily after lighting the torches.
the first two tries were a pain (maybe because nobody listened)

d4nowar · Jul 19, 2005, 07:30 AM // 07:30

from what i remember, this mission was a piece of cake.

i've always done the torches, and i've never lost, so don't blame those. The best way to do it is just to stand close to the middle - relatively spread out - and attack the guys as they come in. If you ever have more than 4 guys on you, then you did something wrong. Or you just had no damage output. Remember, it only takes one hit to aggro the guys heading towards the king. So just attack them once if they are heading slowly up the stairs and go back to what you were doing.

Seiges aren't very necessary, but if someone wants to dedicate their time to that, then there really is no problem.

Just watch the minimap and play smart. Splitting your team into 2 groups even works in this mission. 4 on the east - 4 on the west, and then converging onto the other if one gets overwhelmed.

This mission is pretty easy - its just loooooonnnnnggggg.

Linkie · Jul 19, 2005, 01:15 PM // 13:15

Not to be rude, but if you can't do this mission as a monk primary, you really suck. I've done it about 6-7 times with my monk primary and henchies, failed it once. Take the two monk henchies, two fighter henchies, cultist henchie, and then select whatever you want. Bring spamming skills, rebirth, breeze and seed. Stay by the king, and make sure you're aggroed before he is. You should be able to complete it pretty easily.

Santanus_Perro · Jul 19, 2005, 01:38 PM // 13:38

Did it on my second try. We had two on the ballistas, the king was with them. The six of us took care of business against the mursaat and the jades. Don't extend more than a few meters from the fort.

And Linkie, you are a waste of server memory to store your rude comments. If you are not meaning to be rude, then don't be.

kirkmping · Jul 19, 2005, 04:24 PM // 16:24

lighting the torches distracts some of the mursaat so they will sit still in the middle of the catapults blast radius. One person can easily light both torches in 30 seconds, I think its worth it.

kleps · Jul 19, 2005, 04:29 PM // 16:29

the key is just to have an organized team, whether guildies or PUGs. my guildie was having trouble completing this mission, so i helped him in a PUG and we completed the mission and bonus with no problems. 2 people should watch the ballistas, preferably casters, and the other six split up and stand at each gate entrance calling targets as they approach.

Gedscho · Jul 19, 2005, 04:30 PM // 16:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by kirkmping

lighting the torches distracts some of the mursaat so they will sit still in the middle of the catapults blast radius. One person can easily light both torches in 30 seconds, I think its worth it.

ah thank you, that explains a lot

Oni No Arashi · Jul 19, 2005, 04:49 PM // 16:49

Actually the bonus now says: Light the beacons to ATTRACT MORE MURSAAT to the fort. Tried it, and they didn't hang out in the blast zone for a long time, basically had almost a streaming group of mursaat when it was their turn to come in (after all the giants and other stuff). It was like a converyer belt. The firing time on the cats is pretty crappy to rely on them alone.

Mawgleah · Jul 19, 2005, 05:55 PM // 17:55

Well, I though I was going to finally get through this with just henchmen. Alas, got hung up on trying to kill a level 28 Protected Cloak and ended up getting overwhelmed.

I just wanted to know, how close was I from finishing at this point. And should you concentrate on the level 28 or take care of the masses first?

Wolfedude · Jul 19, 2005, 06:06 PM // 18:06

OK. Now I understand how to do this mission. Light the torches, no don't light the torches. Stay near the king, no don't stay near him stay in the middle, no don't stay there split up into two groups near each entrance.
Get a trapper or two and the mission is easy.
Get a well balanced group and man the catapults.
Don't bother with the catapults just stay near the king.
Get a group composed partially of henchmen.
Since I'm a monk primary and I obviously suck at this just get the henchmen group recommended and the mission is easy. (Thanks for that Linkie)

Well it appears that there must be 10 or so ways to beat this mission but I or the groups I have been with are not smart or capable enough to figure out even one.

I appreciate all of the "constructive" criticism and advice. But except for playing with a group of only henchmen I have done all of the above. And after 16 failures so far perhaps I am the worst group picker there is or the groups that allow me in are the worst monk pickers. All I do know is that I have now attempted this mission a large number of times. AND the people I am grouping with are averaging 8-10 attempts themselves. I am not with them during all of their failures just one. They are not with me during all of my failures just one. So, I find it actually surprising that so many fail this mission so many times when the formula for success is many and varied.

Thanks for all of your replies, even yours Linkie. All I can do is to keep trying.

Jul 19, 2005, 06:55 PM // 18:55

I also failed this mission at least 10 times and some of the groups I had seemed very organized and full of strategy before we started. I had groups that tried using the 'door bug' which lets you walk out of the fort without officially opening the gates so you can kill a few of the jade prior to them streaming in.. I had groups that tried staying up top with the king and others that split up the warriors & monks to stay at each gate. I hated this mission.
Finally I asked for help from my guild and we got it on the first try (no bonus, just mission) with a few guildies plus a few others we picked up in the zone. In the end our strategy was to stay in the middle area on the bottom level and run to each gate together to quickly knock out the mobs. We did have one person up top who manned the cats and gave us warning on approaching mobs.

The thing that kept happening with the PuGs I joined was that everyone would fall apart at the end. If a mob slipped in and started heading toward the stairs everyone would get freaked out and start attacking different things which lowered our effectiveness at killing anything. When I do this mission again (ugh) to help out my friend I will definitely suggest that we try keeping the group together at the bottom and NOT running too far out of the gates.. you simply don't have enough time to run back to the other gate if you walk too far out.

Good luck with it.. I agree that it is a really difficult mission because it actually requires that Everyone in the group be on the same page with regard to strategy & act accordingly.. as opposed to walk along, pull mob, kill, rinse, repeat. If you have a crackpot who refuses to follow whichever plan the group chooses then it can easily screw up the mission.

duverga · Jul 19, 2005, 07:22 PM // 19:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by JustAWarrior

If a mob slipped in and started heading toward the stairs everyone would get freaked out and start attacking different things which lowered our effectiveness at killing anything.

And this is why a full team of henchmen succeeds. They don't panic and they always focus fire on the selected target. Find a group of humans that behaves the same way and you win.

Halmyr · Jul 19, 2005, 07:37 PM // 19:37

How I beat it with 7 ppl, some one drop out ><, and an other had to had 60 dp, I think catapult are only so usefull, so I say try to kill stuff before they enter, but if you get overwelm, go to the king and protect him, lucly we only had to retreat to the king 1 or 2.
even got a small trick even before the invasion start

Ensign · Jul 19, 2005, 07:53 PM // 19:53

Take seven henchies and sit at the top of the stairs next to the king.

Do not mess around with the torches. Ignore the catapults.

Do not run outside the base to fight mobs as the come in.

Do not even run down the stairs to fight mobs in the large central area of the fort.

Every enemy on this map funnels directly to the king. There is absolutely no reason not to let them come to you.

Just stand in front of the king and smash each pack as it comes. When the boss Mursaat comes, kill every other monster before the boss as the bosses are disproportionately tough for the damage they deal.

The henchies can practically beat this mission themselves.

The *fastest* way to lose this mission is to run around the fort trying to pick off mobs as they come. All you're doing is leaving a clear path for mobs to come in the other side and kill the King.

The most difficult part of this mission is the boredom. It's so painfully easy that people start getting stupid, charging mobs as soon as they see them. See the previous paragraph.

This mission is 10x easier to complete with henchmen. Henchmen don't get bored and decide to run around and start aggroing things. Henchmen don't freak out when a pack comes in the other side and completely loses it. Henchmen just sit there next to you by the king, exactly like they should, and kill each pack systematically as they come. It's perhaps the one mission where henchman AI is strictly superior to your average player's AI.

Peace,
-CxE

Corbin · Jul 19, 2005, 08:07 PM // 20:07

i found this mission to be incredibly easy on my Ranger. i just made sure that i got a group that knows what they are doing. the group is everything, and when it came to the end, the caster and each took a cat, and the rest stayed in the mddle where they switched sides according to the calls given by the caster and i, but we were good enough to either kill or really weaken the mobs with the cats, and then when the conffesor dorian showed up he walked right into my cat and i crushed his ass. its really easy but like i said, the group is everything

sledgeunderhill · Jul 19, 2005, 08:22 PM // 20:22

The one thing that I wish the developers would have done with this mission was make the bridges over the doors a viable place for from which rangers could shoot.

As a ranger, I was given catapult duty in all 5 attempts. It's frustrating to not be able to contribute needed firepower on mobs as they come in the gates.

exploding flowers · Jul 19, 2005, 08:30 PM // 20:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linkie

Not to be rude, but if you can't do this mission as a monk primary, you really suck.

You should be able to complete it pretty easily.

i somewhat agree. i had never seemed to have any problems with this mission at all the last few times i've done it with any of my characters.

Jul 19, 2005, 01:38 PM // 13:38	#27
Santanus_Perro Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Scott Township, PA Guild: Iron Rangers Profession: W/Mo	Did it on my second try. We had two on the ballistas, the king was with them. The six of us took care of business against the mursaat and the jades. Don't extend more than a few meters from the fort. And Linkie, you are a waste of server memory to store your rude comments. If you are not meaning to be rude, then don't be. Last edited by Santanus_Perro; Jul 19, 2005 at 01:45 PM // 13:45..

Jul 19, 2005, 07:53 PM // 19:53	#37
Ensign Just Plain Fluffy Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Berkeley, CA Guild: Idiot Savants	Take seven henchies and sit at the top of the stairs next to the king. Do not mess around with the torches. Ignore the catapults. Do not run outside the base to fight mobs as the come in. Do not even run down the stairs to fight mobs in the large central area of the fort. Every enemy on this map funnels directly to the king. There is absolutely no reason not to let them come to you. Just stand in front of the king and smash each pack as it comes. When the boss Mursaat comes, kill every other monster before the boss as the bosses are disproportionately tough for the damage they deal. The henchies can practically beat this mission themselves. The fastest way to lose this mission is to run around the fort trying to pick off mobs as they come. All you're doing is leaving a clear path for mobs to come in the other side and kill the King. The most difficult part of this mission is the boredom. It's so painfully easy that people start getting stupid, charging mobs as soon as they see them. See the previous paragraph. This mission is 10x easier to complete with henchmen. Henchmen don't get bored and decide to run around and start aggroing things. Henchmen don't freak out when a pack comes in the other side and completely loses it. Henchmen just sit there next to you by the king, exactly like they should, and kill each pack systematically as they come. It's perhaps the one mission where henchman AI is strictly superior to your average player's AI. Peace, -CxE __________________ Don't argue with idiots. They bring you to their level and beat you with experience.

Jul 19, 2005, 06:27 AM // 06:27	#21
Lord Malikai Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: May 2005 Location: Colorado Guild: Imperial Fist Guild Leader Profession: W/E	Yup, the people who say stay near the King are right. Every group I have seen that stays in the middle gets drawn towards one gate then BAM, mursaat come into the other gate and go straight for the King. Then it's a mad rush to get back to him and whaddya know "The King is NOT infused!!", so he dies. Please, save the whales, feed the children and help keep the King alive, stay by the King.

Jul 19, 2005, 06:46 AM // 06:46	#22
Xeno Demachilo Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Jun 2005 Guild: Benefactors Of Darkness Profession: W/Mo	They need to infuse the king..It really isnt fair..:/ This mission is one tough cookie..Although it always seems idiots in the group ruin it, by attracting 2-3 mobs at a time in the beginning, then saying OMG U IDIOTS WHY DIDNT U KILL THEM ALL! All while they lie dead..

Jul 19, 2005, 07:00 AM // 07:00	#23
telarin Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Jun 2005	i didnt remember this mission to be this hard when i was playing my monk and warrior character. heck sometimes i even come back with my monk and play the mission again with PUGs just to get loots. most of the times i played with my monk, we always did the bonus, and guess what? the extra mursaats isnt a problem. even with 1 tank whose health seemed to drop incredibly fast when he got spectral agony on him. (I suspect he didnt infuse his armour, must have forgoten to talk to the seer) But now with my ranger, finding a group was hard, nobody wants you. they are all yelling need 2 monks/nuker/tank for mission, never a ranger... and if i ever got into a group, most of the time we end up failing cos the king got slaughtered. Well, after reading this i guess i will try changing into a trapper build and see if anybody wants me, heh.

Jul 19, 2005, 07:30 AM // 07:30	#25
d4nowar Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Apr 2005 Profession: Mo/	from what i remember, this mission was a piece of cake. i've always done the torches, and i've never lost, so don't blame those. The best way to do it is just to stand close to the middle - relatively spread out - and attack the guys as they come in. If you ever have more than 4 guys on you, then you did something wrong. Or you just had no damage output. Remember, it only takes one hit to aggro the guys heading towards the king. So just attack them once if they are heading slowly up the stairs and go back to what you were doing. Seiges aren't very necessary, but if someone wants to dedicate their time to that, then there really is no problem. Just watch the minimap and play smart. Splitting your team into 2 groups even works in this mission. 4 on the east - 4 on the west, and then converging onto the other if one gets overwhelmed. This mission is pretty easy - its just loooooonnnnnggggg.

Jul 19, 2005, 01:15 PM // 13:15	#26
Linkie Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Norway Profession: P/W	Not to be rude, but if you can't do this mission as a monk primary, you really suck. I've done it about 6-7 times with my monk primary and henchies, failed it once. Take the two monk henchies, two fighter henchies, cultist henchie, and then select whatever you want. Bring spamming skills, rebirth, breeze and seed. Stay by the king, and make sure you're aggroed before he is. You should be able to complete it pretty easily.

Jul 19, 2005, 04:24 PM // 16:24	#28
kirkmping Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Jun 2005 Guild: Brothers of the Blood Profession: W/N	lighting the torches distracts some of the mursaat so they will sit still in the middle of the catapults blast radius. One person can easily light both torches in 30 seconds, I think its worth it.

Jul 19, 2005, 04:29 PM // 16:29	#29
kleps Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Jun 2005 Profession: W/Mo	the key is just to have an organized team, whether guildies or PUGs. my guildie was having trouble completing this mission, so i helped him in a PUG and we completed the mission and bonus with no problems. 2 people should watch the ballistas, preferably casters, and the other six split up and stand at each gate entrance calling targets as they approach.

Jul 19, 2005, 04:49 PM // 16:49	#31
Oni No Arashi Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Puget Sound area, WA State Guild: KnightMare Brigade [KB] Profession: E/R	Actually the bonus now says: Light the beacons to ATTRACT MORE MURSAAT to the fort. Tried it, and they didn't hang out in the blast zone for a long time, basically had almost a streaming group of mursaat when it was their turn to come in (after all the giants and other stuff). It was like a converyer belt. The firing time on the cats is pretty crappy to rely on them alone.

Jul 19, 2005, 05:55 PM // 17:55	#32
Mawgleah Ascalonian Squire Join Date: May 2005 Location: Florida Guild: Angry Souls Profession: Me/E	Well, I though I was going to finally get through this with just henchmen. Alas, got hung up on trying to kill a level 28 Protected Cloak and ended up getting overwhelmed. I just wanted to know, how close was I from finishing at this point. And should you concentrate on the level 28 or take care of the masses first?

Jul 19, 2005, 06:06 PM // 18:06	#33
Wolfedude Academy Page Join Date: May 2005	OK. Now I understand how to do this mission. Light the torches, no don't light the torches. Stay near the king, no don't stay near him stay in the middle, no don't stay there split up into two groups near each entrance. Get a trapper or two and the mission is easy. Get a well balanced group and man the catapults. Don't bother with the catapults just stay near the king. Get a group composed partially of henchmen. Since I'm a monk primary and I obviously suck at this just get the henchmen group recommended and the mission is easy. (Thanks for that Linkie) Well it appears that there must be 10 or so ways to beat this mission but I or the groups I have been with are not smart or capable enough to figure out even one. I appreciate all of the "constructive" criticism and advice. But except for playing with a group of only henchmen I have done all of the above. And after 16 failures so far perhaps I am the worst group picker there is or the groups that allow me in are the worst monk pickers. All I do know is that I have now attempted this mission a large number of times. AND the people I am grouping with are averaging 8-10 attempts themselves. I am not with them during all of their failures just one. They are not with me during all of my failures just one. So, I find it actually surprising that so many fail this mission so many times when the formula for success is many and varied. Thanks for all of your replies, even yours Linkie. All I can do is to keep trying.

Jul 19, 2005, 06:55 PM // 18:55	#34
JustAWarrior Guest	I also failed this mission at least 10 times and some of the groups I had seemed very organized and full of strategy before we started. I had groups that tried using the 'door bug' which lets you walk out of the fort without officially opening the gates so you can kill a few of the jade prior to them streaming in.. I had groups that tried staying up top with the king and others that split up the warriors & monks to stay at each gate. I hated this mission. Finally I asked for help from my guild and we got it on the first try (no bonus, just mission) with a few guildies plus a few others we picked up in the zone. In the end our strategy was to stay in the middle area on the bottom level and run to each gate together to quickly knock out the mobs. We did have one person up top who manned the cats and gave us warning on approaching mobs. The thing that kept happening with the PuGs I joined was that everyone would fall apart at the end. If a mob slipped in and started heading toward the stairs everyone would get freaked out and start attacking different things which lowered our effectiveness at killing anything. When I do this mission again (ugh) to help out my friend I will definitely suggest that we try keeping the group together at the bottom and NOT running too far out of the gates.. you simply don't have enough time to run back to the other gate if you walk too far out. Good luck with it.. I agree that it is a really difficult mission because it actually requires that Everyone in the group be on the same page with regard to strategy & act accordingly.. as opposed to walk along, pull mob, kill, rinse, repeat. If you have a crackpot who refuses to follow whichever plan the group chooses then it can easily screw up the mission.

Jul 19, 2005, 07:37 PM // 19:37	#36
Halmyr Krytan Explorer Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Canada! eh! Guild: ~none~ Profession: W/Me	How I beat it with 7 ppl, some one drop out ><, and an other had to had 60 dp, I think catapult are only so usefull, so I say try to kill stuff before they enter, but if you get overwelm, go to the king and protect him, lucly we only had to retreat to the king 1 or 2. even got a small trick even before the invasion start

Jul 19, 2005, 08:07 PM // 20:07	#38
Corbin Academy Page Join Date: Jul 2005 Guild: Seraphic Legion Profession: R/E	i found this mission to be incredibly easy on my Ranger. i just made sure that i got a group that knows what they are doing. the group is everything, and when it came to the end, the caster and each took a cat, and the rest stayed in the mddle where they switched sides according to the calls given by the caster and i, but we were good enough to either kill or really weaken the mobs with the cats, and then when the conffesor dorian showed up he walked right into my cat and i crushed his ass. its really easy but like i said, the group is everything

Jul 19, 2005, 08:22 PM // 20:22	#39
sledgeunderhill Krytan Explorer Join Date: Jun 2005 Guild: Gathering of Friends [GoF]	The one thing that I wish the developers would have done with this mission was make the bridges over the doors a viable place for from which rangers could shoot. As a ranger, I was given catapult duty in all 5 attempts. It's frustrating to not be able to contribute needed firepower on mobs as they come in the gates.