Curse

widowdaballa · Apr 19, 2006, 08:49 AM // 08:49

Rohar!! I was just gonna direct the people to the website, so they could see the video of the 3 man THK pwnage! I'll let you post it.

ender6 · Apr 19, 2006, 01:44 PM // 13:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by rohar

You absolutely have to light both beacons within 30 seconds of the end of the cut scene to get the bonus. This can be done easily without a running skill, but send 2 different people, one for each beacon.

We beat this mission early this morning with 3 people and no henchies. We had a stance tank with orison, hands, def stance, discipline stance, flurry, healing breeze, life vicariously, and rebirth. I carried a physical and ice sword. Our necro had AtB, Arcane Echo, SS, Mark of Pain (triggered by my physical sword), Putrid Explosion (quick corpse exploit), Spinal Shivers (triggered by a Flurried IDS), BR, and Res. Our monk carried orison, word of healing, mending, healing breeze, BR, rebirth, and heal other.

You can see an 8 1/2 minute video of the highlights at here.

Firstly, congrats.

A couple of points worth mentioning:

-I use a boon bonder build for my monk that makes entire process cake -- especially if you are going to 3 man it. I would recommend you bond up the 4 dwarves and make them your tanks for the entire run. Easier to bond them and keep them alive than to heal them as you go. And of course as a boon bonder RoF and Mend Condtion act as wicked heals. LifeBarrier and Life Bond will make the incoming dmg considerably less. Bring along a hex remover like holy veil and you can stop almost any type of degen that circumvents your enchants (Barrier/Bond).

-I noticed you discovered that you can kill the boss without triggering the cutscene, I am always shocked at how many ppl don't know this. Always kill the boss first here, he is a ranged attacker, but you can still pull him slightly, and then kill him. Once he is dead pull 1 of the two groups in the courtyard and kill them, then repeat on the other. You have to make sure whomever the king is following hangs back or he will charge in and cause a dbl agro. Once those groups are done, work your way around the walls killing the remaining groups. This method is far smoother than killing the enemies on the walls first, only because 50% of the time the king will be aggro'd and pulled down into the courtyard causing you to fight more than your fair share of enemies at once. Esp. if you are in a pug group.

With that said , good job, and nice use of the torch trick.

thundarr · Apr 19, 2006, 02:12 PM // 14:12

After 4 failed attemts in thunderhead with crappy pugs (are there any other kind), i was fed up and decided to give it a go with a full henchie group.

so my lvl 20 w/mo and 7 henchies.

I actually cast meding on 2 of the dwarf helpers and kept them alive until the last part somehow, but that isn't critical for the plan.

I was surprised how easy it actually was as i finished teh mission AND bonus on that first try with henchies and never lost a singel person.

here is what I did....

I camped teh king the whole time. that it is. nothing more. I never touched the catapults. I lit the stupid torches right away and camped teh stupid king... bam, mission AND bonus complete. When he left his platform, i followed. other then that i just stayed right with him, sometimes sitting for minutes without any action.

I then grabbed one of my guildies and ran it again for him. so 2 humans and 6 henchies.... bam... finished it again.

then just did it a few days ago with my new ranger toon and 7 henchies, bam finished it again.

so final score pugs 0 for 4 and henchies 3 for 3.

I also just did the mission without the bonus with my wammo just to see how much harder teh torches made things.... it really seems like it adds a group or two, but didn't make it much harder really.

PUGS are just to damn stupid. i always seemed to find the 10 year old kids that just mash teh keyboard with no rhyme or reason.

If you want my help just send me a PM in game and I can help. only takes about 20-25 minutes my way. if not, just stay with teh king on his platform. keep the group together and focus on one target at a time. I couldn't believe how easy it was with henchies compared to PUGS.... seems like the opposite should be true, but like i said....... PUGS are full of dummies.

Alodarn · Apr 19, 2006, 03:26 PM // 15:26

Did thunderhead keep last thursday.

EL/ME
EL/MO
WA/?
R/?

And 4 henchies, and we ownzored ..

Oh, and the ranger had forgotten to infuse his armour so was just there for the comedy element :O

I played my EL/ME Air/Interrupt build and I could solo most of the mursat casters.

Oh, and we had nasty nasty lag for most of the mission, no idea, but I suspect it was my ISP. (Ranger and other elly was round my place)

Evilsod · Apr 19, 2006, 03:31 PM // 15:31

Having never actually attempted the bonus for Thunderkeep, do the Mursaat around the outside charge at you when you light the beacons before the Stone Summit boss appears?

Because if not once when Borlis Hillshaker turned up i just stood there with my monk and healed against him while the rest of the team went and killed random Mursaat around the outside. Dunno if that would work when the bonus is activated though.

Guardian of the Light · Apr 19, 2006, 07:22 PM // 19:22

My guildies have discovered the secret to beating THK.

Don't go into PuGs in THK.

Goats17 · Apr 19, 2006, 08:10 PM // 20:10

Not true. PuGs work. I've done it about 3 times with PuGs. You just have to get lucky.

felinette · Apr 19, 2006, 08:13 PM // 20:13

I've *always* done THK with PUGs. The good thing about it is that if a PUG sucks, you usually all die well before getting to the defend the king part, so not much time is wasted. I've never had to try this mission more than a few times with any of my characters.

Dralspire · Apr 19, 2006, 08:22 PM // 20:22

Time for a shameless plug for our IRC room ...

I'm not sure right now if we have a 100% completion rate for Thunderhead Keep, but we are clearly up there. People meeting in our IRC room usually do the bonus as well, and I don't recall a group ever failing.

pyrohex · Apr 19, 2006, 08:46 PM // 20:46

If you want a good PuG group, TAKE THE DAMN INITIATIVE. Start a group, weed out the stupid people, take intelligent players, communicate, give orders, have fun.

You can't expect to just consistently JOIN a good group out of nowhere.

rohar · Apr 19, 2006, 09:35 PM // 21:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by ender6

-I noticed you discovered that you can kill the boss without triggering the cutscene, I am always shocked at how many ppl don't know this.

Its not so shocking if you consider that this mission can go bad in a hurry, and who wants to risk having 2 groups of heretics, two groups of gnashers and a healer killing you during the cut scene. We had just never tried it before

Also, thank you for your kind words. I'm sure other groups have done it with 3 but I'm willing to bet there are not very many!!

rohar · Apr 19, 2006, 09:38 PM // 21:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evilsod

Having never actually attempted the bonus for Thunderkeep, do the Mursaat around the outside charge at you when you light the beacons before the Stone Summit boss appears?

Because if not once when Borlis Hillshaker turned up i just stood there with my monk and healed against him while the rest of the team went and killed random Mursaat around the outside. Dunno if that would work when the bonus is activated though.

Essentially, you'll draw two additional groups of mursaat that attack prior to the Stone Summit boss. If you get lucky, they aggro the Giants prior to getting to you so you do not get the giants and 1 or 2 less mursaat.

sorcees · Apr 26, 2006, 09:38 AM // 09:38

At last i completed the mission, after about 10 times, with PUG's, i decided to read about the mission, came to this thread, and tried it myself.
First i was to rushy, but the 3th time is was a succes.
Me, R/Mo, and 7 henchies (all except for 1 warrior).
Easy going, groups 1 by 1.
Hard part is defending the keep / king.
I went upstairs, and stayed with the group, killing monks first, mesmers, elementalists and necro's a.s.a.p. and leave the bosses till the rest is death.
No deathts, not 1 henchie, and now i am at the ring of fire.
The whole mission cost me about 1 hour, that is pretty long for a gamemission.
But it is fun, i now know how to do it, so i will do it more often.
Now it is really a lot of fun, especially when i go with PUG's again.
But they tend to die before the first bridge, then i tell then they have no chance if theyt dont listen and obey orders.
Mostly i give them an other chance and then i quit (mostly in about 1 minute), start helping the next PUG.

d3kst3r · Apr 26, 2006, 10:01 AM // 10:01

I beat it first go with my ranger spike group. Heck I pretty much beat most of the game using ranger spike... Even in PvE mode I tend to lean towards PvP tactics.

Sab · Apr 26, 2006, 11:03 AM // 11:03

A trick to getting a good THK PUG is to look for "GLF Bonus" messages - they're the ones who know what they're doing. Since the bonus is tied into the main mission, you hit two birds with one stone when you complete it.

frickett · Apr 26, 2006, 12:04 PM // 12:04

I am currently at THK with my third character, a mesmer elementalist. Up until this point I had primarily been using domination magic, with a couple of Inspiration skills, (energy drain, and ether feast). But had trouble getting invited to a group, so i switched to nuker, and have tried this mission with about 5 pugs so far. I think i will try LuxA's Idea. Wish me luck.

Across The Battle · Apr 26, 2006, 08:06 PM // 20:06

I really wish they would make this mission harder. and quicker

Francis Demeules · Apr 26, 2006, 08:13 PM // 20:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by LuxA

A trick to getting a good THK PUG is to look for "GLF Bonus" messages - they're the ones who know what they're doing. Since the bonus is tied into the main mission, you hit two birds with one stone when you complete it.

Or try a team mesmer

.

Seriously, ppl try to create the only 3 profession "invincible" team: Warriors, Monks and Elemantalist(Nuker) or Necro. Less for Rangers and Mesmers. Otherwise, you can get Henchies to do the mission too. They're not Rage quitters

Evilsod · Apr 26, 2006, 08:26 PM // 20:26

Can't go wrong with a team of 8 mesmers

Unless 1 of em is Dunham...

I always have lots of fun when a Warrior or Ranger heads out to go 'pick off' this 1 Jade or Mursaat that usually comes in solo and ends up almost dieing. When my mesmer can go do it taking damage only from Spectral Agony in most cases. I usually just wander around after hte Mursaat Boss and kill things outside the keep.

Should be a good trip though, 8 mesmers doing THK and Bonus.

BrotherGilburt · Aug 18, 2006, 06:52 PM // 18:52

I did this with my ranger a few nights ago... I have no idea how he were able to finish it...

-Our group only healer was mhenlo
-we had 4 rangers 1 nuker, 2 warriors, and mhenlo
-Some guy started bonus...
-No one listened to me so rather grouping infront of the king my group used no stratagy and ran back and forth at the two gates.

I was so surprised(and relieved) when we completed it somehow.

Brother Gilburt