Curse

Edge Martinez · Aug 20, 2005, 09:40 AM // 09:40

I was doing Elona's with a PUG about half an hour ago in a bid to get my Mesmer ascended and I have to tell this story before I forget details.

We had a few mishaps just getting the first crystal and some of us died. The monk managed to stay alive and get everyone rezzed up and the final part of the mission, to get the two remaining crystals, began. As we aggroed seemingly everything, people started dropping and the monk ended up dieing. My Mesmer was the only one with a rez signet. So I rezzed her. She promptly died again, we killed a boss and I rezzed her again since it renewed. We get to the 2nd crystal and the monk dies again... it should be noted that a necro also kept dieing and a warrior and a nuker died a few times as well. We kill the boss guarding the second crystal, I rez the monk, and as we are transporting it back, the monk dies again. No more rez. At this point the elemental leaves, the necro dies and leaves, a warrior dies and leaves and the monk, realizing we can't rez her, leaves. So now it's me and a warrior holding a crystal while the damn rapture is happening. We make it back to the ghost and basically decided to make a run for the 3rd crystal. I didn't think a mesmer and a warrior could make it. As luck would have it. we get split up, but still within sight of each other. I see the warrior make the dash and I run up and aggro the group that was going after him. When he's through I run away. He grabs the crystal and runs back, but the way is blocked, so he ends up going the long way. As there are groups in his way, I try and aggro as many of them as I could and lead them away. With some fine moves on his part, we end up finishing the mission.

I know there's lots of you out there who can do that whole mission alone... heck, my monk can, but the warrior wasn't set up for it, and my mesmer sure as heck couldn't do it. I read about all these awesome moments on GW, and finally I have one of my own. I know we can't say people's names on here for good or bad, so I'll just say thank you L. And for those four people who bailed, and are probably still trying to do the mission with a more elite group? That's why you never say die and never give up!

So sayeth the ascended mesmer.

Vax · Aug 20, 2005, 09:43 AM // 09:43

yes its a true pain with 60% death pen

but
gj with only the 2 of u with the last crystal left congrats

Asrial · Aug 20, 2005, 10:03 AM // 10:03

Way to go!

GraceAlone · Aug 20, 2005, 10:46 AM // 10:46

Good job! I hate it when people leave. Better to wait and see what happens then leave and and be stuck doing the mission over, and over, again.

Ultimate_Gaara · Aug 20, 2005, 10:52 AM // 10:52

i give you two cheers and a clap... i can't stand when people act like they have never died before and leave.. i can only imagine how happy you were to finnish the mission.. good job

bobrath · Aug 22, 2005, 07:47 PM // 19:47

Just the other night, I had my own "wow can't believe we pulled it out" moment. Gonna be a long read, so just skip this post if you don't like stories.

Doing Aurora Glade with my E/Me. Had tried it once already with a group that wanted to do bonus and mission, but had no clue on how to maintain two circles and we promptly lost all three. One hint - if you say you're a runner... don't run off to try to kill the demagogue.

So we reset and the warrior (runner) leaves along with one monk. boo hoo. Finally get a group with two rangers, mesmer, warrior, myself and a monk. Should be easy, esp since the rangers were both with me for the first failed attempt and have rekitted to be runners. Our new warrior keeps repeating, "you guys do know how to do the bonus right?" I told him ya, just be ready to go kill the demagogue once we've knocked the army down. He's in this for bonus only, but that's fine if he decides to leave after completing it.

We blitz through the mission and are getting ready to enter the 3 circle area. I get everyone to pause and make sure the two rangers are ready to run crystals to keep us at 2 captured, but never capping all 3. Everyone else will just concentrate on killing mantle. That was the plan.

Warrior charges to the left side and sets up camp, so the mesmer, monk, and I all follow suit. We're doing ok when the warrior decides to chase the mantle runner back into camp. Yes he dies and begins calling for a rez. Even tho myself, mesmer, and monk have our hands full staying alive. Monk rushes in to restore life and dies. Great. I manage to clear out my surroundings of mantle and use my rez sig on the monk. Who runs back into the mantle mass to try to rez the warrior again .... and dies. At this point our runner calls for help and see him being chased by two mantle warriors. Somehow one of our two ranger runners has died.

We're down to a ranger, mesmer, and myself alive. One very dead monk, lost/dead ranger, and a mouthy dead warrior telling us that we have no clue on the bonus. Well, the best thing I can hope to do is to try to solo the two warriors chasing my runner. My meteor/firestorm/phoenix/chaos storm combo (running AoR) manages to kill one but now I'm be chased madly by the other warrior. Much running while the Me tries to kill the warrior with conditions... Finally my energy has recharged and I luck into another kill (less then 10% life left at that point). Our ranger went back to running while I was fending off swords.

So there's a slight pause, so I ask if either ranger or mesmer have rez sigs.... "nope, that would take away a skill slot." Great. The warrior calls us all noobs (or newbs or n00bs) and leaves. The dead ranger follows suit. I figure that I can try to go kill the demagogue and get the rest of us the bonus or die trying. I watch the runner's group head out to retake another circle. Its one abbot, the runner, and a warrior. I dive in and pump as much fire damage into the demagogue as I can. Once again at about 10% health left I get the kill (meteor storm saved my butt here).

Even better.. our ranger drops (he later whispered me to apologize for kicking his network cable out of his computer!). We're down to 1 captured circle, dead monk, live memser, and me. The mesmer grabs a crystal and gets us back up to two but manages to attract the warrior and dies, but slowed the warrior up enough that I was able to kill the warrior off.

Status: 2 captured circles, 1 live E/Me vs. abbot and runner. I take a crystal and run off to the left hand side circle that we currently control. Here comes the mantle runner with his abbot in tow. I take down the abbot (so much easier then a warrior!) and reclaim the circle. Problem is the runner never stands still long enough for me to kill and I don't have enough knockdown skills to hold him still (and you can't cast AoE spells on an area to set a "trap" to help yourself out).

So I try to out run the runner and take and hold all 3 circles. After 10-15 mins of senseless running (combined with attempts to kill the runner) that nothing is working. I'm basically trading the left hand circle off with him and if I go to the right side (farthest), he's able to cap the left side and be heading towards my middle before I can get another crystal.

Thank god our monk finally engaged his brain. His suggestion: Let the runner capture left while I go to cap the far right. Then instead of running back to cap the left side, let the runner cap our middle but then cap it right away and then head to the left side. Only took me 3 or 4 attempts to figure out what the monk was telling me to do. (so fyi, it is possible to win a 1-1 run off on Aurora).

We completed the mission (since after the circles its all easy). I made sure to whisper the warrior and let him know that he missed out.

Tons of fun, and I'm sure both the Mesmer and Monk were very happy to have stuck it out. (and I hope it was worth sticking it out to read this as well!)

Ole Man Bourbon · Aug 22, 2005, 08:40 PM // 20:40

Not to be a fuddy-duddy, and I realize you were trying for bonus, but the mission only can be done solo.

Or at least with henchies, if you aren't a tank type.

Ole Man Bourbon · Aug 22, 2005, 08:40 PM // 20:40

Not to be a fuddy-duddy, and I realize you were trying for bonus, but the mission only can be done solo.

Or at least with henchies, if you aren't a tank type.

bobrath · Aug 22, 2005, 11:54 PM // 23:54

heh, no worries. I was honestly suprised that it was possible to out run the comp. Looking back... it might be obvious, but in game with all those folks dropping and dieing. Well it seemed like a real uphill battle. If anything, the bonus seemed easier then the mission, but of course that was after most of the mantle had been killed.

zehly · Aug 23, 2005, 12:14 AM // 00:14

I had a "WTF? HOW DID WE DO THIS?"

Incidently, it was in Elonas as well. Two warriors, two healers, and two henchies. FTW!!!

The story is blase, until the last part. To make it short, I was the only one left and grabbed the third crystal. I had nothing but sprint and endure pain. I ran like a mofo. The clock was ticking. I talked to the Ghostly when there was one second left. ONE SECOND LEFT! And I was running my ass off. It was sheer luck.

Tourist · Aug 23, 2005, 01:37 AM // 01:37

Elona and Aurora seem to inspire a LOT of "Oh wow how did we manage to pull THAT off?" stories like that. I don't have anything from Elona myself -most of my experiences are of mind-blowingly, repetitively stupid teams that either failed miserably or triumphed in mediocrity- but Aurora...Well, there's a couple stories.

Best one I have was from my W/Mo going back to get the bonus. Now, we had a pretty solid crew. Most everyone knew what to do, where to do it, and who to do it to. And those who didn't know what was going on, were good at listening and following instructions. BUT! As they say, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy, and so we started getting into some serious trouble- too many mantle, we couldn't eliminate them fast enough, war of attrition and they've got overwhelming numbers, my stupid ass gets killed trying to smack their runner down near the gate to their camp, etc.

We bring all their runners down -my suicidal solo attack into the teeth of their army got the last one, JUST before I died!- but they in turn have eliminated EVERYONE in our group except our monk. And he's kinda getting beat on. So, he throws down a res on who, for the salvation of our group? The one guy who didn't have room for a res with all the extra snares he brought, ME.

So there I am, crippled but fighting(thank god I was able to get a vigorous spirit up and running), trying to draw aggro away from the monk as he attempts to escape, trying not to die myself. Did end up dying, but again my sacrifice pays off: with everyone bent on killing me, the monk broke aggro long enough to res someone with a res sig, and they go about bringing everyone else back and sweeping out all the mantle leftovers. I get revived last, we go on to crush Demagogue and his bodyguard, and then Booya! easy mission completion.

Amazing thing was though, not a SINGLE person quit, the whole time. Even when we were reduced to a single monk with about half health under attack from 2-3 archers and casters, who res'd me JUST to run interference for his escape. We all stuck with it, and it paid off.

Yukito Kunisaki · Aug 23, 2005, 04:02 AM // 04:02

The line betweeen winner and 'weak pathetic losers' is separated by just one word...

Quitter...

"Best to win dead, then to live in defeat...*

Oh wait a second... ^_^

Puddin Tame · Aug 23, 2005, 04:31 AM // 04:31

I know a strategy for elonas with next to no fighting and can get both crystals in about 5 or so minutes.
Can't do it with henchmen though, as you will need 2 people to carry each crystal and avoiding aggro is ahrd.