Curse

zipp! · Jan 16, 2006, 02:37 PM // 14:37

i am sure i am not the only one who thinks this but the thunderhead keep mission is a little on the hard side

so i was wondering if any of u kind people out there wud help me with it, unfortunatly i cant give u anything for it but if u want to help me for free add me to your friends list please my character name is: Zippi Dragonscale

orrigional i know but it was first thing that popped into my head

kc99 · Jan 16, 2006, 03:19 PM // 15:19

This mission is pretty straight forward until you get to the fort, where it can all go pear shaped rather quickly!
I attempted this mission 10 times in a row once and i'm about to do it again with my second char (gulp!)
The best advice i can give is to get a good group together and get two or three rangers who trap! Believe me when i say rangers rock in this mission just get them to trap the hell out of the gates at either end, and the ramps that lead to where the king stands.
Once the mursaat come in they should be on fire crippled/bleeding and the rest of your group have a head start at taking them out. Just keep trapping healing and fighting and defending the king and you should be ok.
It also helps if you get a group who listen and not decide to do their own thing!
PM me in game and i'll get my ranger on and help you

Jaythen Tyradel · Jan 16, 2006, 04:34 PM // 16:34

I completed TK this past weekend.
I was in a group of:
1 ele (who dropped out due to connection error)
2 Rangers (I was one of them)
1 Necro ( she did healing)
1 Monk
2 or 3 Warriors (cant remember)
We beat the mission by two means:
Trapping the gates.
Keeping healers at each gate for each team.
Two people working on catapaults (though not all the time..just when enemy first came at us to take thier health down)
The game glitched, and we had to run out and kill the murssat boss, but after that it started working normal again.

heavy metal rules · Jan 16, 2006, 04:51 PM // 16:51

well granted even by galie gray that THK is probibly the hardest mission in the game.. here is what i did .. and i did it on first try at lvl 18 because no one would take me..

i took all the henchies except the mesmer.. i was a ranger. and i just stood back with the king. make SURE you bring a rez with you k..i had barrage with me. and a couple of interupt skills. the king will stay at the top but does tend to wander a bit k..the first 2-3 wave will test your mental..just stay cool .

I did die one time and the monk rez me, and vice versa..mainly its just the first 2-3 wave that will decide your outcome..

on a side note.. i went back to thk and told off all the lvl 20's that wouldn't invite me because i was a lvl 18 and having them call me a noob (even though i've been playing game longer then most of them have been alive)..lol
and they just pm'd me on how i did it and what henchies i used..

good luck to you

art_ · Jan 16, 2006, 04:58 PM // 16:58

You posted this on Guild-Hall as well. Really finding it that difficult? ^^

Personally i think the best way to beat this mission is

2 warrior
3 trappers
1 interrupt ranger
2 monks

or

4 trappers
1 warrior
1 interrupt ranger
2 monks

The warrior is only needed to tank the mobs before you defend the keep. When you get to the keep u can choose either to defend doors or stairs. If you have a lot of trappers then just trap the entrance areas. If you have a few warrior then stand up by the king and keep all the stairways etc trapped.

gl

Effendi Westland · Jan 17, 2006, 05:55 PM // 17:55

arrgh...don't forget the mesmers....

Anyways there are many ways of beating this mission, it's my favorite one and i finish about 8 times a week (helping guildies, or getting paid).

You can rely on PUGs or you can take henchies. Camping the king is definately the easiest thing to do, esp with henchies.

If you're going with a PUG you gotta make sure NO MURSAAT reaches the king, i don't think he's infused (or he just takes alot of dmg from a few hits, jade armor pwn him in 5 secs).

You can block both doorways, but this relies on good healing (altho many would recommend trappers this works best with 4 wars and 4 monks).

If you bring ele's make sure they are air, because fire and cold don't bother the mursaat much.

However if you go with PUGs be prepared for alot of bad things. Some people are really frustrated with this mission and tend to "know" the best way of doing it, and lord it over the other... which causes some to leave prematurely, and means you have to restart all over. This is probably why alot of PUGs fail here.

Evil Hypnotist · Jan 17, 2006, 06:45 PM // 18:45

I have done it three times (attempted it dozens of times

and its always been the same way:

One player stays at each set of catapults (East and West), preferably non-warriors/healers. They warn others and damage the incoming groups as much as possible before they get to the gates. The rest should be in the centre of the fort, moving to whichever side needs them.

The catapult guys can also get the attention of the oncoming enemies by moving across the bridges above the gates so they are in their agro circles. This slows down the jade and mursaat too, allowing more time for the rest of the team to dispose of them. If the catapult guys do a good job there shouldn't be a point when there are big groups coming on both sides at the same time. Although spawning is probably random, there seems to be a greater concentration of enemies that head to the West gate IMO.

Communication and leadership are very important in this, and of course Lady Luck is always welcome!

Burton2000 · Jan 17, 2006, 07:06 PM // 19:06

Ive completed this mission about 30 times overall due to helping guildies and friends etc. and the best way ive found is

2 monks
2 wariors
2 fire ele nukers
1 ranger
1 mesmer or necro

If you still have all 8 by the end you can stay next to the king and kill anything that comes at you.The nuking power is good enough to kill anything really.The only exception the 2 monks bosses where you gota trap them in a corner then nuke them.

If however you have lost a player due to err 7 etc. then you have 2 people maning the pults.The rest stay in the middle and the pulters call out there side when enemies get past the pulting range,you then go to that side and kill w/e is there.

This mission used to be hard but they've definatly made it easier.The bonus makes it a bit more fun to play.

Tgod · Jan 17, 2006, 07:15 PM // 19:15

Personally, I find this mission quite easy.

The team set up that I have used each time and has worked everytime is this:

2 Monks
2 Tanks
2 Trappers
1 Nuker
1 Battery Necro

Now, you simply fight your way to the keep using whatever tactics you want. I personally would suggest using the traps from the rangers and doing a good deal of pulling (Especially on that first long bridge).

Also, the fort wall before the keep is best handled with a solid nuker nuking the towers before your party goes running in the side gate.

Once in the keep you just move around in a counter clockwise rotation until all the stone summit are cleared out.

Now then, defending the keep is quite simple. Your setup for this should be as follows:

1 Tank on each side guarding the gateway and stopping and fighting anything that approaches. Make sure they don't go far out and stay near the gateway.

1 Trapper on each side. The best place to put your traps is a bit farther outside the keep. You want the monsters to trigger the traps, and since many have ranged attacks, you want them to trigger the traps before they reach their attacking range. Definitely should have Barbed, Flame and Dust traps for this. Barrage (Cap on Markis in the Iron Mines mission at the end) is handy for helping out the tank with taking down monsters.

1 Nuker in the middle of the keep. The job of the nuker is to patrol from the west to the east side and continue to go back and forth and deal damage with (Preferably Meteor shower, not sure when this skill is attainable, I have yet to play with an elementalist profession). Firestorm, although it makes monsters run, can still be effective after the trapper's traps have gone off.

1 Battery necro that will do nothing but follow the nuker everywhere and supply him/her with Blood Ritual or Blood is Power. Also, they can assist the monks in this fashion if need be. (The signal that I always have my party use is to have them ping their energy whenever it is getting low, so that the necro is aware of your situation.

1 Monk on each side (The monks are the ones that are firing the catapults, they should never go downstairs and nobody should go upstairs unless your entrances are breached.) From this position, the monks can heal the tank and ranger that are on their side, as well as your patrolling necro and nuker. Heal Party is an extremely helpful skill, as you can heal everybody, even those on the other side of the keep, without having to leave your position at the catapults, this makes healing for the other monk much easier. To reach allies that travel outside the gates a ways further then preferred, you can go and step onto the little tower/plateform that is right behind your catapults and you should be able to heal them from there.

Monk Skills for effective healing: (Heal Other, Healing breeze, Orison of healing, Heal Party, Shield of Regeneration (I preferred shield of regeneration for my monk, due to armor bonus + really nice health regen and a decent recharge time), ressurect (You don't really want rebirth because then it alters the current placement of your allies and moving a tank to the top can be a bad thing), Mend Ailment, and 1 more skill of choice (Maybe smite hex if you really like removing hexes).

It is VERY important that you do not go too far outside the gates or allow monsters inside. Staying fairly close allows the monks to heal you without having to travel away from the catapults which is a very helpful thing. And allowing monsters into the keep means that there is a very good chance that they will just run past the trapper and tank and march upstairs to the monk, this can be a very very bad thing and can lose you the mission, so hold the gates.

If the Mursaat Monk Boss comes, he can be quite the pain to kill, if this is the case, have the ranger located on the east side travel over to the west and have both trappers dual trap on him while the nuker nukes, he usually dies pretty fast doing this.

I suppose you can complete the bonus by doing this setup as well, though I really have not attempted the bonus at all, I will have to try it and see how well this set up does against the tougher waves.

Hope this helps whoever reads it.

PrincessKyra · Jan 17, 2006, 07:30 PM // 19:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evil Hypnotist

I have done it three times (attempted it dozens of times

and its always been the same way:

One player stays at each set of catapults (East and West), preferably non-warriors/healers. They warn others and damage the incoming groups as much as possible before they get to the gates. The rest should be in the centre of the fort, moving to whichever side needs them.

The catapult guys can also get the attention of the oncoming enemies by moving across the bridges above the gates so they are in their agro circles. This slows down the jade and mursaat too, allowing more time for the rest of the team to dispose of them. If the catapult guys do a good job there shouldn't be a point when there are big groups coming on both sides at the same time. Although spawning is probably random, there seems to be a greater concentration of enemies that head to the West gate IMO.

Communication and leadership are very important in this, and of course Lady Luck is always welcome!

Evil Hypnotist summed this up very well. I believe having 2 catapult operators is crucial to making the mission go smoothly. Therefore, I never enter Thunderhead without at least 3 human players. 2 cat operators and 1 person to bounce back and forth from the gates with the henchies. Pretty much any class will work as long as the center person is either a monk or a heavy damage dealer.

Effendi Westland · Jan 17, 2006, 10:02 PM // 22:02

And expect at least 2 or 3 other persons to have read 3 or 4 different strategies for this mission, so keeping the team together may be hard if 3 or 4 take charge of this mission.

Sereng Amaranth · Jan 18, 2006, 03:32 AM // 03:32

Enchanted Torch FTW

Arcien Trueflight · Jan 18, 2006, 03:45 AM // 03:45

I did this mission the other night with a few of my guildies. The characters went like this:

1. R/Mo (Me, Ranger Spiker)
2. R/N (Touch build, this thing was weird, but it worked...o.O)
3. E/Me (Air Spiker)
4. Me/N (Interrupter, DoT based. Just a guy we found, he joined our guild after)
5. N/Me (Blood/Death User)
6. Devona
7. Mhenlo
8. Lina

The way we did it was almost so simple and effective it turned out to be the easiest run-through of THK I've ever had. I don't even think anyone dropped below half health. Anyway, the way we set up was myself (Manning the east pult) the E/Me (Manning the west pult) and everyone else camping the king, running in a circle to keep the henchies close by. I don't know how exactly it happened, but the skills seem to mesh together perfectly, and just about every enemy was down within seconds...Even Perfected Armor, who is a complete bitch to kill for whatever reason or another. King boy got uppity a few times and ran off a little, but the ones in the middle were able to stay close and guard him. I left the east pult after a while to join in the middle, the enemies were starting to come in faster and more pile in from the west anyway. (I don't know how he got so good, but man, nothing escapes that guy on the west pult.) Anyway, if you're having trouble, try something like that. I've had incredible bad luck with THK, I've had to do the mission over 20 times due to bad connections and Kingy running off to get Spectral Agony'd into oblivion. Good luck.

tuperwho · Jan 18, 2006, 04:51 AM // 04:51

I've done this mission with my 4 char's and a number of times for guildies. With preperation and good communication, it's really not too difficult if you don't get the mursaat monk boss. If your team has players who have not thought out their skill choices, or if they are lone ranger types, you're just in trouble.

Now for strategy: I like to call it the catapult and wrecking ball strategy initially. You get 2 casters on the catapults, who are going to be firing, casting, and announcing enemies (number, type, and side). The rest of the group is the "wrecking ball" that bounces back and forth on anything that gets into the keep. Skilled catapult firers should be able to kill every single group through the first boss (stone summit, I think, and most often a necro) without it even reaching the gates. Then the mursaat start coming. The strategy needs some adjustment here, though, as the mursaat usually travel through the cat. spots too fast to take more than 1 hit. So I find it best to stick with the cat. and wrecking ball until you either get mursaat at both doors, or they start to build up a little at 1 door (by build up, I mean anything more than 3 or so). At this point, you won't feel overwhelmed yet, but it can snoball very quickly. So it's best to have the group retreat to the top of the stairs and concentrate firepower.

As long as you don't get the monk mursaat boss, it should't be too bad, as long as you announce enemies, so everyone is aware, and you keep the whole group on the same page (call targets, and res. anyone who dies quickly, so you have the full team going).

Best assets for the mission:
1. rangers -- my ranger had a pretty easy time though the mission in a group of 6 for the keep part (a monk and a nuker dropped on the way). The 3 rangers (1 trapper, 1 spiker, and 1 other), monk, hammer warrior, and necro that were left used the cat's 'till the mursaat penetrated teh walls, then did the majority from the stairs. Us rangers all had healing spring to help the monk, and we stuck to called targets (oh, and this is one mission where throw dirt can be very useful) ... good game, too easy
2. my mesmer -- my personal twist on Illusionary Weaponry + domination... the name of the game is kill the enemies before they kill you. Really, the key to this mission is to not let things get backed up. You have to kill FAST. If you can kill fast enough, you never really have to take on groups of more than 3 or so. If you don't, they start to accumulate and you get overrun

But anyway, I'm starting to ramble, so I'll wrap up... if you find me ingame, I'd be happy to help you.

Tuperwho

Blade Rez · Jan 18, 2006, 06:49 PM // 18:49

I literally started counting how many times I did this mission. It was crazy. I think i hit the low 30s..... The ONE time we won, was the time i called which i think is a coincidence, since it holds true for Hell's Precipice/Abbadon. The way we wonwas 2 trappers, and we trapped stairs. Stay next to king, and wait. Confessor Dorain actually went back out. SO i went ahead and killed him. Yeah.. I think the key is trappers, but if any of these ways work go ahead and do em

krytas · Jan 18, 2006, 07:00 PM // 19:00

i just completed thunderhead keep for the first time, and found it quite easy. What we did was keep one guy using canapults (n/mo) and we all were on one side, while some did come in and attack king jalis, but our mo/me kept healing him. We were kinda lucky cause the game glitched and the third and fourth wave fought each other =D.

Turbo Wombat · Jan 18, 2006, 11:53 PM // 23:53

If you have a group that can make it to teh for with minimal difficulty, you should be able to pass it with no problems just so long as you follow these few simple rules:

1. BEFORE you kill Dagnar, take out the first wave on the far side of the base using the catapults.

2. Everyone stay INSIDE the fort to defend.

3. Have 1 person manning catapults on each side to thin out incoming mobs

4. Defend gates until mobs start to slip through. At this point, EVERYONE retreats to the king and defends him there. (This is where most teams lose it)

5. Don't sacrifice ANYONE defending the gates. If the defenders think they might die, they should immediately pull back to the king, along with everyone else.

6. EVERYONE bring a rez

As for team builds, a couple monks is usually a good idea. Mesmers and necros make excelent support units because of empathy, backfire, diversion, enfeeble, shadow of fear, blood ritual, etc. Have a couple of warriors to spearhead the defense and take most of the hits. Ranger trappers are also quite useful as well. Depending on any problems you may have had in the past, elementalists can provide some defense using earth, slowdowns using water or good damage using air. With any luck this should help you get through the mission no matter what group build you end up with, just so long as everyone is willing to maybe play roles they're not used to.

Kaguya · Jan 19, 2006, 09:02 AM // 09:02

0 successes with random silent PUGs. 3 successes with PUGs that are more talkative or half guild teams.

Had best run yesterday, 2 Monks, 2 Wars, 2 Eles (catapult powa), ranger and necro. 1 W/Mo/E plus ranger or necro on each gate, E's at catapults to try and kill them before they enter.

0 mobs broke into the fort, all killed outside

Only problem was Mursaat Monk boss, which took quite a while to kill, luckily there wasn't other waves incoming, so the whole team was on one side to bring him down. (Other problems being the one team's E not sticking to his post and running around ninjalooting...)

Just coordination and teamplay needed, without those the mission indeed is impossible.. Got my W/Mo 'berserker' setup with Succor for support tested for real too, monks love that

(Using Battle Rage + adreline axe attacks, no self healing, but gotta trust the monks eh

)