Curse

Boolieman · Jul 19, 2005, 10:17 AM // 10:17

whoops

Bubba J · Aug 22, 2005, 09:07 PM // 21:07

I finally did this with henchmen over the weekend. I had tried several times with henchmen, with PUGs, and gave up on it for 4 weeks... (started a new toon.)

I found this thread, and in particular the post by Mourning Air, and tried it again. Lo and behold, made it first try! Didn't even seem that hard.

My key points:
*) Timing, timing, timing. As everybody else has said, wait till 10-15sec before rez, and attack priest 30 seconds before following rez.
*) Try to attack first group of 3 when they are far from other groups (don't needlessly aggro.)
*) I honed my build, added interrupt, got good armor from Crystal Desert collectors (no I didn't get run to Droks, so I didn't already have that armor.)
*) With henchies, getting down to just priest and boss is critical. I noticed if there are too many baddies left, the henchies can't get anywhere near the priest because of the narrow entrance.

I was a WaMo, took Alesia, Lina, Thom, Orion, and Reyna.

Thanks for the help, everybody!

smurfhunter · Aug 22, 2005, 10:09 PM // 22:09

ive done this a few times to help friends, guildies, etc.

what worked best for me was this build, probably not that easy to get practically but we were able to get all the priests down in about 1:30 a group.

2 monks, 1 air ele, 3 warriors.

one monk was a smiter, personally i think that could have been replaced by a fire ele but he was the one i was helping so w/e. standard stuff, BA, symbol, nothin too extreme.

air ele was me, so i know the build best. just standard spike build, i used elemental attunement and tried to stay away from those archers.

3 warriors, they just ran in and moved as a group. one healing seed on the one getting beat up on was enough to keep them happy usually.

it was a pretty standard, if slightly boring, strategy. run in, let the warriors take the aggro first, etc.

on josso's team, we killed the groups outside until there was josso, the priest, and i think 2-3 archers and maybe a sword guy inside. then the 3 warriors rushed the priest, while i spiked him. we left the smiter sitting next to josso to keep him busy with himself.

this strat worked like a charm, finished in about 15 mins. (i think, dont quote me on that. it seemed really fast tho)

although i realize this kind of build probably isnt the easiest to find by just randomely asking, well, it worked for me. just thought id share.

Tourist · Aug 23, 2005, 01:06 AM // 01:06

I wish I remembered the group I was with when my W/Me did this one, because it was EPIC. All I remember with any certainty was that I was our only warrior, and we were a largely spellcaster group- at least one Elementalist primary, at least one Necro primary, and I think a Mesmer primary as well. Probably a monk healer in there too. Maybe a ranger? I can't remember at all. I also wish I had some screenshots to prove this, because I doubt many will believe me when I say that we killed every single group in about less than two minutes from first contact, and we never once stopped and waited an interval to heal and recharge before continuing against the next group.

We DID have full 10% morale bonus from killing sand giants before we hit even the first group, but still, we tore down EVERY single group we faced. I couldn't even say what everyone else in the group was doing, but for my own part I'd rush their casters and beat away on them for the first minute or so of our attack run. Kill a few casters, maybe a tank or archer too, then at about 1:15-1:30 into the run I'd rush their priest, kill him with help from others(usually by that point we had at least a couple of our casters were free to attack the priest and boss), and then the entire team would mob and bury the boss. The last test with the 3 groups, we took on the monk-led team first and just DESTROYED them. The monk boss himself didn't last any longer than any other boss out there, he just got demolished, so at about 1:50 we moved out against the next team, and started killing them just after the 2 minute marker. Wiped them out pretty fast, and then engaged the last group at about 4:57. Last boss fell at 6:47.

No deaths whatsoever. Not a single pause or delay to wait for regen or the timer to approach a 2 minute threshold. Best power group I ever gamed with, EVER.

Charrbane · Sep 01, 2005, 04:43 AM // 04:43

Thirsty River with henchies can be a real toughie. The thing is, I was determined to do it with henchies and just beat it tonight. I don't recall how many times I got to the monk boss and died. After failing it a few times and trying to do the monk last, I then decided to go after the Monk boss team before doing the other 2 teams in the last area. I figured why bother killing those guys off when the Monk boss team is more likely to kill us all afterwards. heh. My character is a W/E and I read some strategy on the forums after dieing a few times. I tried the suggestion of using Meteor Shower on the Monk and then attacking the priest. It didn't seem to work and I died. Maybe I was too slow goin after the priest.... but anyways, tonight I tried using Maelstrom (had never used it before) on the Monk boss instead as it interrupts spell casting. Worked like a charm. Took the priest out, had a few enchanted to fin and then the Boss went down easy. The last two teams were easy after that. Got the mission done including bonus with the olde Henchies.

The hench I took were Orion, Stefan, Claude, Aleisha and Lina.

At the begin of the mission the devourers are a pain. I figured taking out 4 giants to get a +8 morale boost was good enough considering the first Forgotten boss will give the other +2 and you can avoid not going in with that cloud of devourers near the start and get on with the mission.

Nuke_Dembastages · Sep 01, 2005, 06:29 AM // 06:29

if you STILL have not completed this mission (STUPID NUB!! OMGWTFPWN!!) kiddin!

send me a msg:

Nuke Dembastages
Heal Dembastages <--- probably be on this one farming uw
Smash Dembastages

I'll grab some guildies and get you past.

Orvix Thang · Sep 12, 2005, 02:17 AM // 02:17

Thirsty River:

I did it, I couldn't believe I did it with henchies. After cursing, crying and darn near quitting I did it. I decided to analyze this. I think Anet made it so it can be done with henchman so I had to find the secret.

Nobody died.

Took 3 times till I learned.

I used the two warriors, 2 healers and Orion. I am a axe wielding Warrior/Necro and was using cyclone, penetrating, dismember and executioner, Mark of Pain (didn't really use this but got it from boss on first try and was still in bar) and Shadow of Fear (slow) used it but probably could have done it without. Had a Cap Sig up and Distracting Blow for the monk boss but didn't need. I am not "leet" just the desert collector armor and a bought max damage axe with a found armor +5 vs elemental mod but I do have a reduce blind shield which helped.

I took the 10% from the giants.

Take the ghost guy into battle with you too he helps a lot

I looked and watched, I can take the 3 per group easy, we all can, the problem is with the timing and getting aggro from the other groups. So I found each priest/boss/group can be taken without aggroing the others, watch the pathing and use the edges.

Timing, go in early start at 30 secs before res and by 20 secs till res you'll be fighting, do a melee mob first, if he dies so what only he will res back at priest/boss, then kill the casters or bow, should be at or after 2:00 mark. By then second group comes around, kill melee or a few casters, when you have 1 or 2 left, target the priest, use the next target keys and go get him. Priest goes down fast kill boss and stragglers and that's all she wrote. I didn't record it but most times I was finished with 30 to 45 seconds left till res

Funny on the next to last set I did I had the priest and boss dead before the second group even came around so I had to make sure they were killed after I got the boss and priest to make that set recorded as dead.

I did them is this order, first section obvious, second left first hugged the left side then the right, third section, left with Monk, then right, last middle.

As for the Monk boss, Josso Essher, I didn't even know I was doing him till I saw the priest was a bit tougher but with getting 3 adrenal attacks in a row and one with deep wound and 2 other warriors banging on him he went down, maybe Orion got warmed up too, then I did the monk, this group was able to take him easy too.

As a bonus I got the bonus mission, I was ignoring it but got it anyway and I captured Warrior's Endurance elite stance on the successful try and Necro Mark of Pain earlier.

ADDED: As I drove into work tonight I thought more about this. What you are doing is trading some resses for time and location. You start before the res 2 minute multiple and don't care if early kills get ressed, that puts them out of the way for a bit and you are on the scene with the full 2 minutes to do the deed. There can never be more mobs only fresh ones. Once you get a handle on things you can take the priest out then time means nothing. So at max you are killing 4 maybe 5 mobs till you get a group you can handle easily, then the priest, then the rest including the boss.

Mavrik · Sep 12, 2005, 03:48 PM // 15:48

ok so I tried this mission 4 times yesterday with a friend and the rest henchies... its one very mean river. We got the 10% moral boost easy and then talked to the spirit, he opened the gate and we made sure he would stay there. At first we took the "kill the priest, then the rest" advice everyone had been telling us... we died horribly... twice. Third time decided to adapt a different approach on the first priest. We went after the first group. then killed the priest, the boss and the remaining guys. But that was not the end of the mission... apparently there are 5 more priests and bosses right? Or is that simply the bonus? Anyway, mission didn't end for me so we went after the next group... sadly by the time we figured out which direction the priest was in, we had aggro'd way to many enemies and we all died horribly.

Now... no one has mentioned it here... but did you know that the time gets reset to 0:00:00 when your ghost opens the gates to a new area? Yeah so toss out your timing ideas...

Anyway any tips? I tried this with my Elementalist, we brought both healers, both warriors and my friend plays a Necro. Obviously... we didn't succeed so I'm going to try this yet again today. Hopefully to complete it.

XenophonTheElder · Sep 12, 2005, 07:35 PM // 19:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mavrik

ok so I tried this mission 4 times yesterday with a friend and the rest henchies... its one very mean river. We got the 10% moral boost easy and then talked to the spirit, he opened the gate and we made sure he would stay there. At first we took the "kill the priest, then the rest" advice everyone had been telling us... we died horribly... twice. Third time decided to adapt a different approach on the first priest. We went after the first group. then killed the priest, the boss and the remaining guys. But that was not the end of the mission... apparently there are 5 more priests and bosses right? Or is that simply the bonus? Anyway, mission didn't end for me so we went after the next group... sadly by the time we figured out which direction the priest was in, we had aggro'd way to many enemies and we all died horribly.

Now... no one has mentioned it here... but did you know that the time gets reset to 0:00:00 when your ghost opens the gates to a new area? Yeah so toss out your timing ideas...

Anyway any tips? I tried this with my Elementalist, we brought both healers, both warriors and my friend plays a Necro. Obviously... we didn't succeed so I'm going to try this yet again today. Hopefully to complete it.

There is a total of six groups, each with a priest. The first area has one group. The second area has two groups. And the third area has three groups. The timer resets to zero at the entry to each area.

General information - strategy. A priest will resurect any dead forgotten (from his team) at the two minute marks. That is at 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, and so on. So strategic goal one is to kill the priest before the rez timer. The successful groups normally do this by rushing the priest 30 seconds before the rez point. Two warriors and an elementalist should be able to bring the priest down in that amount of time.

For the areas with multiple teams, you want to only take them on one at a time. This means being careful to only aggro groups from a single team. The other trick is to not tackle a group too soon. This is the timer watch of engaging a new group about 15 seconds before the rez clock (eg, at 1:45, 3:45, etc). This gives you 15 seconds of damage on the support mobs so you can kill then just after the rez time.

Now for specific areas,

First area - single team - kill the guys outside, rush priest at 1:30 on the timer.

Second area - two teams -
Take the team on the left first. Hug the left wall so you do not aggro the second team. Rush priest at 1:30. Once priest goes down, then clean up any stragglers.

Wait till 15 sec till before starting on second team. Start on next team at 1:45, 3:45, 5:45. Same approach, kill outside mobs then rush priest at 1:30 into rez cycle.

Third area - three teams -
Take the right team first. For this team just rush the priest at the beginning.

Take the middle team second. Don't forget to wait for time in the rez cycle.

Tackle the left (third) team last. This is the team with the monk boss. Anything that can interrupt healing helps. If your damage output is a little low then you may need to rush the priest a little earlier - eg 45 seconds before the rez time.

Other tactics - once you rush the priest, caster should move inside the buildings. This allows you to use the building as cover from the outside archers and casters.

Bonus is doing this in some time frame. A reasonable group will get the bonus without doing anything special. I'm not sure of what the bonus time is, but I think it is about 10-12 minutes for the third area.

If you want additional help - give me a shout in game (IGN: "Xenophon the Elder" or "Monkie Monkie").

Mavrik · Sep 12, 2005, 09:16 PM // 21:16

Well I tried again and failed... so gave up going with henchies and sat around in Thirsty River D1 for a while calling out "Lv20 fire E/Mo looking for group." Eventually a group of 3 took a bite so that became four of us PLUS Lina and Alesia. In we went, wondering just how well this would go. Well we kicked ass basicly, bottom line. One of them had done the mission before so he had the charge.

First group, we went after the enchanted warrior guys, took out 4 of them till the 1:30 min mark, then we took out the priest. Of course the clock got reset by the ghost as we entered area #2. In we went, straight ahead (or left instead of right) and took out as many as we could from that group to the 1:30 mark. Then we hit the priest and killed him. Back to the other group, took them out as well after the 2min mark, and at 3:30 time took out the priest.

On to the third area with three priests and bosses. We took a right from the gate as the reset of the clock and this time they were all clumped together at the priest. We took them out all at the same time, then on to group #2. Same thing however at 4:25 we had the first two groups killed off. We recharged and stood around to the 6:00 time and then battled the first group running around. At 7:00 we took out the priest and by 8:00 roughly we were victorious AND got the bonus.

Then off I went, ascended and completed dragon's lair + bonus. Over all... awsome morning. I'll help anyone who needs help with thirsty river now. Ruth Ann is my IGN

Stell Pol · Sep 12, 2005, 09:28 PM // 21:28

A friend and I did this quest with henchies, beat it first try.

I was Ran/Mo and he was Mes/Nec.
I brought disruption/backup healing and he brought mostly castor hate and damage.

We just tiptoed around the groups, doing one at a time, waiting until about 10 seconds before they respawn. We'd hack through most of the people outside, then kill the priest when there wasn't enough guys outside to kill us from behind. After the priest we just mopped up.

This is how we beat the monk boss:
I used tiger's fury and distracting/savage shot at the right time on the priest and also had the henchies attack him while my friend just spammed blackout on Josso.

It worked like a charm. With blackout on Josso, I think anyone can do it. Disrupting the priest helps a lot but if everyone but the mesmer is attacking him, and josso's pretty much out of business, he's dead.

Orvix Thang · Sep 12, 2005, 10:34 PM // 22:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mavrik

Now... no one has mentioned it here... but did you know that the time gets reset to 0:00:00 when your ghost opens the gates to a new area? Yeah so toss out your timing ideas...

That doesn't matter the whole thing rests on multiples of 2 minutes, so you just wait it out. Think of it this way there are 6 groups you need to kill. Each group consists of 8 members which includes two 3-member squads, a priest and a boss. That priest must be killed before any 2-minute multiple or all the guys of his group res near him that's 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, etc. That's it, you need to kill the priest of a group before a multiple of 2 minutes ticks off or he resses any dead members of his group back at his location.

With observance each grouping can be attacked and killed without aggroing the other groups nearby.

Where people get stuck is they try to kill everything and then a 2 minute mark comes along and everything they killed gets ressed by the priest or they aggro another group.

Here:

First if you aggro members of 2 groups run out and wait for the next time to roll around. You have to determine by observance which groups belong to each priest. You don't want to stir up more than one group at a time.

At 3:40 or 5:40 or 7:40 or anytime 20 seconds before a 2 minute mark you attack one of the 3-man wandering squads. Say you kill a champion before the 2-minute mark, at the 2 minute mark he resses back at the priest. You still have the same amount to kill now but you are in location. Now you have 2 minutes to kill the priest. Kill the 2 arcanists left. Now you have another squad of 3 to go and near the priest is the priest, a boss and the ressed champion. Kill the other squad or at least 2 members of it, now you only have 4 guys left and probably at least a minute before a 2 minute mark. So can you take the priest with 3 other guys pounding on you if not kill one more then get the priest.

Simply put you have 2 minutes to kill enough of the 8 guys so you can kill the priest with the caveat that at each multiple of 2 minutes anything that was killed from a group will be ressed as long as the priest of the group lives.

I'm not too good at explaining but it's a headslapper once you get the concept. It looked totally impossible to me then all of a sudden "click" and it became not exactly easy but very doable and repeatable with henchman.

Mavrik · Sep 13, 2005, 03:52 PM // 15:52

well if you look back at my last post, I realised as you progressed, there was more groups under the same timer lol. But you still get 2 resets of the clock to 0:00:00

Age · Sep 13, 2005, 10:25 PM // 22:25

Yeah I agree.I did this with good pugs 2 Monk real and we died a few time but resed those who did.I have done this about 4 or 5 times with my Monk and 4 times with my Warrior alway get return to outpost.

Deacon Brodie · Sep 14, 2005, 03:01 PM // 15:01

I tried this last night as well with Hencies, got through everyone but the last boss (Josso I'm guessing cause I just couldn't kill him with my W/M). I didn't read this thread before hand but was using most of the tactics described here (seemed like common sense). I think I could have beat it but didn't realize Josso was the primary healer and focused too much on the priest. I did take a couple of screenshots of something odd. The sword guys (something champions) at a couple of the entrances were suspended in the air about 3 feet off of the ground. They didn't attack, just sat there blocking the way. After everyone else was dead I had to sit there and hit them with cyclone axe since I couldn't target or attack them directly. Was very odd. I don't know if I'll try it again with hencies, I think I'd rather get some help from my guild than take the time again. I'm lazy...

Mister Overhill · Oct 12, 2005, 03:17 AM // 03:17

Finally got my r/mo through here with henchmen after about ten tries by leaving the tanks at home, same as at Elona. Seems odd, but that's how it was.
Thanks for the tips everybody -- they really came in handy on this one, especially the timing and leaving one man standing besides Josso and the priest.

nicksguild · Oct 13, 2005, 07:44 AM // 07:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mourning Air

The key for Josso (monk boss) is that you do NOT want just Josso and the priest left. If that is all that is left, Josso will focus on the priest and it's going to be hard to kill either of them before the timer expires. But if there are other enemies left, and they also need healing, Josso will lose focus. Especially if you can lure Josso out of the shrine first, which I was able to do while battling the last group. Make sure some damage has been done to the last group, of course, or Josso won't need to heal them. Then rush the priest at once.

A mesmer is very, very useful for priest killing. I am a mesmer and that definitely helped in doing this mission with henchies.

Most importantly, don't be afraid to retreat if it's getting too close to the 2 minute interval and you don't think you can kill the priest in time. Better to fall back and start over than to be stuck in the shrine when they all resurrect.

Also, here is the strategy I posted for Thirsty River with henchies if you want to try that. Most of the general strategy applies to any group, not just with henchies.

After days of getting no-where with henchies I tried this last night and got all the way to Josso on first attempt. Couldn't kill him and priest and in the end the ghost died! Will try again tonight but this clearly seems a methodology worth following.

Lotii · Oct 09, 2006, 05:34 PM // 17:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charrbane

Thirsty River with henchies can be a real toughie. The thing is, I was determined to do it with henchies and just beat it tonight. I don't recall how many times I got to the monk boss and died. After failing it a few times and trying to do the monk last, I then decided to go after the Monk boss team before doing the other 2 teams in the last area. I figured why bother killing those guys off when the Monk boss team is more likely to kill us all afterwards. heh.

After failing this one at least 20 times - I tried this, too. If the Monk was just going to defeat my henchies and I - might as well get it over faster. And what do you know.... I killed Josso and his priest right off the bat. Then I took care of the Warrior and Ranger bosses, and I was done!

**soooo happy that one is over with!**

Desires · Oct 10, 2006, 03:30 PM // 15:30

Well mm's can solo it i belive(I used to run people through it with a mm but that was pre nerf so maby not solo anymore) but a good mm should basicly gaurente that it gets beat.

Kiseiko · Oct 10, 2006, 09:45 PM // 21:45

Another trick to this that nobody has mentioned yet is that the groups for the different bosses will aggro and attack each other. IWAY mission runners use this to distract the groups so they can go directly for the priest. I would think it's difficult to use with henches (I've never tried it), but maybe if you left the Ghost faaar away and ran away after aggroing the groups, it might be doable. This is especially useful against Josso since if you can start a big fight between the three groups outside his little cave, he'll come out and heal, leaving you free to get the priest.