Curse

Perception · Jul 22, 2005, 08:36 PM // 20:36

I died a few times with PUGs, although passed when I went in with guild mates. 4 henchmen, 4 players with teamspeak on and we beat it. Have yet to try it for bonus, but considerating how people complained we couldn't do it, we sure provide them wrong. (Lol, our henchmen were the tanks who did the up close fighting, the monks were the ones leading the tanks to the mobs and the ranger and elementist stood manning the catapults. It's not hard if you're able to keep everyone alive and able to kill them in a timely manner. ^-^)

Shamblemonkee · Jul 24, 2005, 09:29 AM // 09:29

Wee,
I finally did this on my 4th attempt with henchies.

It was tough, when the lvl28 random boss attacked (an Ele this time) we went down to4 people at one point, Managed to hold on through judicous use of putrid explosion and healing breeze.

After that it all went a bit easy, especially the last set of bad guys.

Die Confessor die!

Amei Leng · Jul 24, 2005, 02:00 PM // 14:00

Gee we did it with as grp of real ppl twice. Its fun.

Have 3 ppl at each gate. Me in the center going between the two for support.
My sis guarding the guy and firing the catapult, damaging a lot of them b4 they get close.

o0Dominic0o · Jul 24, 2005, 03:52 PM // 15:52

Ooooh....the horror! This mission took me about as many tries as it took you and it got me so frustrated!
But....finally! It seemed like we were winning...yes we were! We were gonna make the mission! THEN ... suddenly it freezes up.
I knew my dad was working on the network on his computer so I feared the worse....
- "Dad...you did not...by any chance reset the router....did you?"
- "Oops, yes."

>.<

Very, very, frustrating. Some guys from the mission talked to me later asking what happened and also: "oh btw we made the mission"....grrrrrr.
I completed the mission later that night.

XENOGEARSHARINGAN · Jul 24, 2005, 05:17 PM // 17:17

congrats. and yea sometimes hencmen are better at certain missions. its funny that most people die at thunderhead keep in the beggining when your gettng all swarmed. but after that its funny if you noticed it that no more monsters come, or maybe 2 every 4 min. lol my whole group was bored

Vampyre · Jul 25, 2005, 01:22 AM // 01:22

115 times but I beat the god damn thing... Woot
finally found a good group and the random boss's were better this time... that one unkillabe guy did not come!

Anya · Jul 25, 2005, 06:26 AM // 06:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by XENOGEARSHARINGAN

congrats. and yea sometimes hencmen are better at certain missions. its funny that most people die at thunderhead keep in the beggining when your gettng all swarmed. but after that its funny if you noticed it that no more monsters come, or maybe 2 every 4 min. lol my whole group was bored

yeah ... my group ended up bored too, some people suggested doing the bonus, but most of us were dying to get the mission done so we just ran around in circles

Snuk the Great · Jul 25, 2005, 02:13 PM // 14:13

Only tried it once, without a human monk and the King died (and the party was doing pretty well realy, though the King ran down to kill some enemy's and that killed him). Now a bunch of guildmates wanna do the mission and I will atleast point out the 'Stick to king' strat.

Jenosavel · Jul 25, 2005, 02:31 PM // 14:31

I definitely prefer henchmen to real people on this mission. I beat it my second try on my E/Mo when it was just me and a guildmate's Me/Mo (note: neither of us were spec'd in anything monk; we were straight ele and mes). The henches gave us a slight bit of grief since a mesmer can't really just focus on one enemy and it threw the hench AI off a bit, but I could generally pull them back to the real target in time.

On my ranger character I haven't played it with henchmen yet. I know it's somewhat cruel, but I find it quite amusing to join a PUG with her (since she's my character with the strongest build, imo), tell them we need to stay with the king, and then watch them fan out so that there's no more than 2 people together in any one spot. Everyone dies and I, laughing to myself, do it again.

It's the funniest when they flame you 'cause camping the king is the wrong strategy. Heh.

Shamblemonkee · Jul 25, 2005, 02:33 PM // 14:33

You only need to look after the king on the way to the keep as he has a tendancy to run into the fray and get all kinds of icky crap on him like poison and lord knows what else.

A */Mo with healing breeze at +7 regen and Vigorous Spirit will be able to keep him upright with no trouble at all. Thisis how I approached it with a full henchie team:

Once at the keep, as son as the cut-scene finishes man the right hand catapult, kill or weaken the mob incoming - pick off anything that makes it through from the safety of the walkway over the entrance.

Kill the second lot on the same side using the catapults.

Run to the other side and help the undead on the left side, then fall back to the steps. (if you have the people to do it, keep one person on each cat at this point).

Fend off the giant herders and enslaved giants from the steps, I usually take out the giant herders first as i find them the most annoying.

Now you should be upto the first waves of Mantle and Jades. These will come in dribs and drabs of two, if you simply wait at the top of the stairs these are stupidly easy to take out, you should have at least 2-3 seconds between assaults from pairs. Resist the temptation to go down the steps and meet stuff.

Eventually a random lvl28 boss type will turn up. This is the part that always caused me the most trouble. If you're really unlucky you'll get a monk boss (feckhead the Undying i think he's called) I found this guy impossible to take down on this mission with henchies. Depending on your group this is much easier if you get a Ele, Nec or Wa boss.

For me the best approach was to take out the guys that he brought with him first (mantle / mursaat / jades) and then concentrate on the boss. You'll likely lose one or two team members at this point, don't panic, keep cool and plug away - once you kill the boss you will get time to ressurect. The only time I'd say you should erz while in this fight is if a healer goes down or your at 3 men - at this point a rez signet might be wise

otherwise you're diverting fire away from a bad guy and endangering the group.

After this its all plain sailing of mantle and muursaat / jade in groups of 2-3. just stay with the king as after this point he tends to wander down the two stairways.

oh and don't e scared by the size of th final group - let them into the arean and they'll fan out and you can kill them one at a time while sitting back and smoking a hamlet or seomthing - they are pansies!

Mistress Dasha · Jul 25, 2005, 02:47 PM // 14:47

aye I got this mission completed.

We had a full PC group. 3 Warriors 1 Monk 1Me/Mo who went healing prayers 2 rangers 1 necro

We pretty much stayed in the middle and charged which ever side was getting assaulted. We had one ranger and the necro man the catapults and click there side of map if enemies were assaulting splitting if necesarry.. we had one close call when 2 large groups made it through both sides at the sametime but we dragged em to the middle and got em..

I had no idea it was gonna be that long of a fight though (my 3rd attempt).. great great fun..

oh and we spent 30 minutes going over strategy and changing out skills/spells to compliment the group shoot some of us chaged our attributes.. all in all this is what won us this mission the communication and the cooperation of us 8..

bossashbash · Jul 25, 2005, 05:37 PM // 17:37

everyone seems 2 hav a problem with this mission i personally try every mission 1st with henchies...and i think its alot easier

HappyHands · Jul 25, 2005, 06:20 PM // 18:20

Congratulations! I'm on my second character through the game, and it's stuck at Thunderhead Keep. I was able to get through in one try on my Monk--so I didn't realize how tough this mission really was for secondary support classes (like my Ranger who is so stuck). Being in that zone for more than 10 minutes brings me down, and it sucks when a game can bring you down, so I'm gunna try the henchmen today. Glad you posted.

CKaz · Jul 26, 2005, 12:20 PM // 12:20

smart people who know their characters, are paying attention, and are working together >> henchies >> dumb/immature people, afkers, droppers, bumrushers

Shamblemonkee · Jul 26, 2005, 12:26 PM // 12:26

Well obviously. The problem is that these are in even shorter supply than monks at the Keep

Shaquira · Jul 26, 2005, 01:08 PM // 13:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by aB-

Congrats!

Henchmen can be more useful in some circumstances since they typically don't aggro too much, (notice typically) and focus fire on the target you are attacking.

They seem to aggro the whole zone at times ))

I find that sneaking past any group of mobs is a stupid thing to do with henchies. Either they will aggro them anyway, or they aggro them when they take some distance fighting other mobs .. alesia and durham are renowned (to me) for this.

Taking them with you forces you to go slow and kill (almost) everything in your path ...

But when you do this .. THEY ROCK ))

Another funny is shooting, or being shot by,

a mob at an elevated position. Stephan and Thom will try to find a way to get into melee range, run back and forth if they don't succeed easy and aggro a whole range of territory doing so ....

Being a monk myself .... they keep me busy and on my toes during any mission or quest))

Shaquira

RTSFirebat · Jul 26, 2005, 01:45 PM // 13:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snuk the Great

Only tried it once, without a human monk and the King died (and the party was doing pretty well realy, though the King ran down to kill some enemy's and that killed him). Now a bunch of guildmates wanna do the mission and I will atleast point out the 'Stick to king' strat.

He did? Not not right. Once the king is standing on top the Fort he doesn't move... he's not meant to. So you must have encounted a bug. Since when I've done the mssion he just stands there and fights whatever comes to him.

Shamblemonkee · Jul 26, 2005, 02:45 PM // 14:45

He moved down the stairs on a couple of occasions when ii've doen this, so it's not a one off and I'm not even convinced it's a bug.

Vicha · Aug 01, 2005, 04:32 PM // 16:32

Finally made it with a great bunch of players!

Just for your information, we killed Confessor Dorian from the top of the fort, just behind the throne of the King. He was standing there with a few body guards, and we decided to attack. I cast a Favorable Winds druid, conjured frost on my arrows and then Barrage the whole bunch. When I noticed the name! Dorian. Oh! man, I was tempted to switch to my vampiric bow and steal his life forever! But he died, eventually. LOL

Our strategy: keep the group toghether and fight à l'unisson. Patience. One at the time. They all fell.

It was my 9th tentative. Finally.

Blue Steel · Aug 01, 2005, 04:52 PM // 16:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by MCS

Henchmen are underrated....

Henchmen stupidity is predictable, human stupidity isn't.

I did all ring of fire and abbadons with henchmen, would have done all 3 with em but my guild was on so I the other with them.

Henchmen are far better than people.

Exactly right. You can tell how good a player is by how scared they are of using henchmen in a mission. If they don't mind that you are taking henchmen along, then they know how to play the game. And if you are taking all henchmen, you know they wont drop out half way through and they will all attack whatever you are attacking to take stuff down fast.

My strategy on putting groups together is this: announce to the area that you are going with all henchies unless people join you in 1 minute, and that people who join have to (1) listen, (2) stay the entire time, (3) and not mind henchmen. People who agree to those three conditions are good players, and you will find that when people see you aren't concerned about fighting with henchmen, you must know what you are doing and they join your group quickly.