Curse

black_mischief · Dec 05, 2006, 02:33 AM // 02:33

After a few days of trial and error, we finally completed Ravengloom Heart. The core group was primarily PvP guys. Thanks to the Ghostly Heroes [GoH] guild - Junkie (who went to bed!), Eva Starlight, Evil, and especially Desperate. Thanks also to Slims from Treacherous Empire, Asp from Ominous Latin Name [tag], Fiona (Klaus), and our 2 pick-up guys Mental Shadow [AB] and Be Mi (Kim). Also thanks to others who helped us over the last two days but couldn’t make it for character/build changes (Ifitbleedskillit, gareth, and others I’m forgetting).

Team:

ASP LODE – Earth Ele Tank – Obsidian Flesh, Armor of Earth, Stoneflesh Aura, Ward Against Melee, Ward Against Elements, Ward Against foes, Glyph Concentration, Mantra of Resolve

MENTAL SHADOW – BIP/Death Necro – Blood is Power, Blood Renewal, Putrid Explosion, Well of Suffering, Animate Bone Minions, Lightbringer’s Gaze, Draw Conditions, Convert Hexes

BE MI – Curse/Illusion Necro – Spiteful Spirit, Reckless Haste, Parasitic Bond, Suffering, Arcane Echo, Sympathetic Visage, Ancestor’s Visage, Blood Ritual, Res Sig

SLIMS – Fire Ele #1 – Searing Flames, Glowing Gaze, Glyph Sac, Met Shower, Fire Attune, Lightbringer’s Gaze, Glyph Lesser Energy, Res Chant

FIONA DA APPLE – Fire Ele #2 – Searing Flames, Glowing Gaze, Glyph Sac, Met Shower, Fire Attune, Lightbringer’s Gaze, Glyph Lesser Energy, Res Chant

EVA STARDUST SX – Ritualist – Weapon of Quickening, Edge of Extinction, Displacment, Bloodsong, Pain, Shadowsong, Lightbringer’s Gaze, Boon of Creation

BLACK MISCHIEF – Heal Monk – Spellbreaker, Glyph Lesser Energy, Heal Party, Heal Other, Dwaynas Kiss, Dismiss Condition, Healing Touch, Convert Hexes

DESPERATE – Bonder/Prot Monk – Life Barrier, Life Bond, Balth Spirit, Shield Absorption, Prot Spirit, Mantra Inscriptions, Blessed Signet, Blessed Aura

Full Team Build here:

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/4829/doa19rl2.jpg

If you have questions, I would encourage you to go to to IRC at irc.gamesurge.net in the channel #gwp (same server guildwarsguru uses). Most of us do not read these pve msg boards very often, but several of us are always in IRC. I will try to make this post thorough and accurate, so that it doesn't require many questions (hopefully).

The entire strategy we used was based around 1 Earth ele drawing all aggro as possible and having him geo-tank tons of enemies, while the other players stay just out of range to cast around him and heal the tank. The Earth Ele maintains Obsidian Flesh constantly (accelerated recharge from Rit’s Weapon of Quickening) so no hexes are on the Earth Ele. Any temporary gaps are covered by Spellbreaker from the heal monk. Using Obsidian Flesh/Spellbreaker, allows enchants to be maintained on the tanker because the dervish enemies use rending sweep (requires hexes on target) and the enemy necros use corrupt enchantment. Therefore, Life Barrier/Bond/Prot Spirit/Armor of Earth/Stoneflesh Aura can be maintained infinitely and the damage is almost nil.

The rest of the team will run in and cast a met shower/spiteful spirit, etc. but then quickly back off. In/out casting and allowing the agro to stay on the geo tank is key. Later parts of the quests involve enemies spawning surprisingly on top of you – this requires good mobility to run away and let the aggro re-connect to the single Earth ele and continue w/ the strategy. We went short on res sigs and instead used the gvg-style glyph sac res. We also never put res on a monk, becuz they are too busy healing to deal w/ res’ing people if your party is dying. We only suffered a couple of deaths throughout the entire ordeal.

This build is definitely not the only build one group could use. I am somewhat surprised we did not have a dom mesmer (earlier iterations did), and you could do a better job of fighting things head on, if not for the first quest-related mob in the area (which I still think is too difficult). We instead had to take, what amounts to the ‘wimp’ route and letting the gimmicky-geo Ele tank everything by tricking the AI into constantly aggro’ing on him alone. I think it would have been more fun fighting head on w/ a dom mes or two, but this was easiest and successful.

RAVENHEART GLOOM / GREATER DARKNESS IS BROKEN UP INTO 3 QUESTS.

1. To The Rescue!

This part involves defending an Order of Whispers guy back in the pocket of a small crevice. Instead of going deep into the crevice, position yourselves forward. The Geo Tank stand out alone and let all the enemies collapse on him. Several waves will continue to build. Eventually through the wells/putrid/fire eles and edge of extinction they will all drop.

See positioning here (notice the mini-map where Asp Lode the Earth Ele is way out alone in front):

http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/790/doa1sw6.jpg

Some guys may sneak past if they drawn to the aggro on your other teammates, just nuke them asap and back off to make sure as few get past your earth ele as possible. After you finish, go back to Warden of Whispers, collect your reward and you will pick up quest #2.

Reward collected, new quest picked up:

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/1685/doa3ge3.jpg

2. The Rifts Between Us

This quest involves closing the portal which lets demons into the area. Follow the arrow almost directly North, and you will find several groups of enemies including 1 particularly long line of guys. Let your Earth Ele continue to pull/tank groups and kill the groups off. At a certain point a group will spawn on top of you, be mobile, run around, let the aggro get to the earth ele (don’t drop bonds like a noob, our bonder rocked) and then regroup and kill. Make sure you don’t aggro more monsters when you run around. As soon as you can, kill the torment claws after you have cleared the area. Immediately start killing the claws. I’m not sure exactly, but I think more demons/torments keep coming thru the portal if you don’t kill it right away, so just do it.

Picture of the portal/torment claws:

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/8746/doa6af1.jpg

Go back to voice of whispers to collect your reward, and pick up the third and final quest.

3. Deathbringer Company

This quest involves killing a really tough army in the northwest direction of the map. I don’t know what the hell these guys had, but it was a lot of damage. It was also trick for our Geo tank to draw the aggro. He had 2 physical enemies on him, but had to pull them into a much larger group of casters in order to get everyone together.

Pitcture of Asp tanking before he walks towards the main group (see mini map):

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6633/doa8qo1.jpg

Quest completed, go see Whispers again:

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/4965/doa9qu1.jpg

After it’s completed, the Greater Darkness boss presents himself and you have to kill him:

http://img274.imageshack.us/img274/8287/doa10nt4.jpg

Here he is w/ his 2 minion guys, the Darkness (notice his monster skill has a different effect on each char type):

http://img422.imageshack.us/img422/2826/doa11mg2.jpg

http://img172.imageshack.us/my.php?image=doa12vt7.jpg

Great Darkness and Darkness are domination mesmers with esurge, diversion, ignorance, and backfire. The first thing they will do is Ignorance your bonder. It caught us off guard for a second, but we removed it quickly and did not drop bonds.

We killed the 2 minion guys first. After you kill Greater Darkness more Darkness Minions will pop out – like maybe 5-6. Each time you kill one of this domination Darkness minions, they will spawn about 5 Earth Tormentors (dervishes). Be careful to scatter and maintain the aggro on the earth ele at all times. Early on, it can get a bit chaotic with all the incoming mesmer diversion/backire, but it will get easier as you slowly take down each Darkness and the resulting Earth Tormentors (kill the set of tormentors first before you continue on to each new Darkness).

Path to Foundry opened / Darkness quest finished:

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/3884/doa17fk9.jpg

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/6848/doa18rt4.jpg

Again, I would encourage you to not be locked into our exact build. I think a single hex removal such as a smite hex/holy veil would have been very helpful to remove the diversions/backfires at the end. Our monks only got diverted once or twice, but it’s still a pain in the butt and we only had 2 converts to deal with the mesmer hate at the end.

Good luck all!

- Black Mischief.

papryk · Dec 05, 2006, 02:42 AM // 02:42

how long it take to finish it?

Asplode · Dec 05, 2006, 02:57 AM // 02:57

Oh and to those of you interested in green items, the two The Darkness mobs that spawned with The Greater Darkness dropped 1 green each, both were staves. 20% HSR, 60hp, +5 energy while health is above 50%. Skin was a black illusion staff.

Eclair · Dec 05, 2006, 03:01 AM // 03:01

Congrats and thanks for the guide ^^

aohige · Dec 05, 2006, 03:01 AM // 03:01

ZOMG you beat us to it! very nice.
I've been brainstorming and losing sleeps over this area, gonna check it out!

Thanks for a great guide, gonna give this a run

papryk · Dec 05, 2006, 03:14 AM // 03:14

and if somebody need a nuker or any ele build whisp me
Satella Harvenheiht (EU/Int servers)

Indian · Dec 05, 2006, 03:46 AM // 03:46

nice guide!

but i wish u would have posted earlier :P

beat this 2 days ago, was fun took us less than 90 mins

well gl to rest of you

Volitar · Dec 05, 2006, 03:48 AM // 03:48

Excellent guide! I haven't done much in Ravenheart Gloom since I've been concentrating on Stygian Veil so this helps me get an idea of what to expect here. Thanks for posting it up

AlienFromBeyond · Dec 05, 2006, 04:06 AM // 04:06

I hope this build doesn't become the norm for Gloom, or I will never finish this damn quest =/.

Poor warriors

.

gimpy wimmer · Dec 05, 2006, 04:26 AM // 04:26

dude stop posting these walk thrus this makes this not so leet nemore i mean comon just figure it out yourself RFE/SK mixed group did it in like 1 hour 2nd try plz just use your brains and do it yourself its not so hard

ubermancer · Dec 05, 2006, 04:46 AM // 04:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by gimpy wimmer

dude stop posting these walk thrus this makes this not so leet nemore i mean comon just figure it out yourself RFE/SK mixed group did it in like 1 hour 2nd try plz just use your brains and do it yourself its not so hard

Yeah... if your in my alliance, please try to um type intelligently.

gimpy wimmer · Dec 05, 2006, 04:48 AM // 04:48

Rofl^^^^^^

Trevor Reznik · Dec 05, 2006, 05:26 AM // 05:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by gimpy wimmer

dude stop posting these walk thrus this makes this not so leet nemore i mean comon just figure it out yourself RFE/SK mixed group did it in like 1 hour 2nd try plz just use your brains and do it yourself its not so hard

To be clear, you're equating beating a mission before other people with 'being leet', right? If so, good day to you sir.

gimpy wimmer · Dec 05, 2006, 06:12 AM // 06:12

Acctually what i was hinting at was that beating them yourself is much more rewarding. Teams shouldn't have to rely on a guide to help them out for an "elite" mission which is and is meant for exactly what the title says. So yes i do consider anyone who beats these quests an elite player in general. Please do not bash me and say that this is still just pve and pvp is harder no matter what. It's not this is one of the most difficult things to do in the game.
SO GOOD MOTHERING ******* GAME GRAMMER>ALL CEPT TEH ELITEZORS MISSI0N [email protected]

Eclair · Dec 05, 2006, 06:30 AM // 06:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by gimpy wimmer

Acctually what i was hinting at was that beating them yourself is much more rewarding. Teams shouldn't have to rely on a guide to help them out for an "elite" mission which is and is meant for exactly what the title says. So yes i do consider anyone who beats these quests an elite player in general. Please do not bash me and say that this is still just pve and pvp is harder no matter what. It's not this is one of the most difficult things to do in the game.
SO GOOD MOTHERING ******* GAME GRAMMER>ALL CEPT TEH ELITEZORS MISSI0N [email protected]

For some people, being able to beat it at all would be rewarding enough ^^
Myself included.

conjurer · Dec 05, 2006, 09:56 AM // 09:56

I'm wondering, how could u complete it with Shadow

Symon · Dec 05, 2006, 10:55 AM // 10:55

Really nice guide. Good work. I managed to do this area yesterday, it's my first area I got through without an err=7. We went with 2wars, 3eles, 3monks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gimpy wimmer

dude stop posting these walk thrus this makes this not so leet nemore i mean comon just figure it out yourself RFE/SK mixed group did it in like 1 hour 2nd try plz just use your brains and do it yourself its not so hard

If you don't want to use a guide yourself... don't. But others may want the help. I don't see what you have to complain about O_o

aohige · Dec 05, 2006, 11:07 AM // 11:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Symon

Really nice guide. Good work. I managed to do this area yesterday, it's my first area I got through without an err=7. We went with 2wars, 3eles, 3monks.

If you don't want to use a guide yourself... don't. But others may want the help. I don't see what you have to complain about O_o

Let me try to make sense out of that horribly incomprehensible post he made.

"I just bought NeverEnding Fantasy 9 and got to the Searing of the World part, but Jimmie down the street already beat the game by buying the strategy guide!!! No fair!!! WAAAAAAHH

"

I thought we tossed aside these rediculous feelings aside back when were were like, I don't know, 8 years old?

The Mental Shadow · Dec 05, 2006, 01:23 PM // 13:23

lol Sina

HolyHawk · Dec 05, 2006, 04:57 PM // 16:57

I'm wondering, did the mobs ever break past the ele tanker and went for the support line behind him? No matter how far we are from the tank, 1 or 2 mobs always seem to change targets and break the team on the back down.