Curse

zeodeicasia · Jun 30, 2005, 08:51 PM // 20:51

Alright, I spend most of my time in the Underworld whenever the American servers have favor, so in order to make it easier to find good PUGs I thought I'd add all the information I have on surviving the Underworld. If anyone has anything to add as I have not completed the Underworld, it would be appreciated.

Basic Information
1. Every quest in the Underworld I've seen is going to spawn in more enemies when it is accepted. Therefore the most important thing to remember is never to take any quests without clearing it with the rest of the group. Ideally you should clear out the area that quest will take you through of all enemies so you do not get overwhelmed by multiple mobs.

2. You are booted from the Underworld automatically if you fail any quests or allow any Reaper to die.

Specific Quests
1. Clear the Chamber
For this one you will need to clear the starting area of Grasping Darkness and some Terrorweb Dryders when you reach a statue of Grenth in the labrynth. First kill all the creatures up to the two locked doors behind the staircases to the north, then take the quest from the Lost Soul. This will cause 3 groups of Grasping Darkness to appear and patrol the area. Eliminate them and proceed through either door, taking care to wipe out all Darkness and Bladeds before the Dryders. When the Dryders die talk to the Reaper of the Labrynth who appears in front of the statue for your reward.

2. Escort Souls
First clear out everything up to the statue of Grenth in the Forgotten Vale, which is through the passage leading downwards from the Reaper of the Labrynth. Then take the quest from the Reaper, which spawns in 2 groups of Mindblade Spectres. One group is visible at the bottom of the first staircase and the other pops out of the ground just before the bridge into the Vale. During these fights none of the 4 New Souls may be permitted to die or you fail. After clearing the bridge, bring the souls to the Mayor of the Vale and the quest is complete.

3. Unwanted Guests
This is the one that kills parties and should be avoided unless you are well prepared to do it. This quest spawns in large groups of enemies, most importantly several invincible Bladeds. That is not a statement of difficulty, they are literally invincible. In order to destroy them and complete the quest you must kill the Keepers of Souls. Doing so will cause the Bladeds to die and end this challenging quest. The first Keeper is back towards the starting area and will likely require someone to sacrifice their life to distract the Bladeds in front of him. Apparently there is another Keeper in the Forgotten Vale, but I have never been in a group who made it to him without aggroing an invincible onto the Reaper of the Labrynth.

4. Restore the Monuments of Grenth
The big quest in the Underworld, this requires you to clear out 3 Terrorweb Dryders around each of the 6 Statues of Grenth scattered throughout the regions of the Underworld, not counting the Labrynth statue. Killing the terrorwebs causes Reapers to appear, which can give you their own quests. Each Reaper's quest also spawns a chest containing a random purple item and a charmable spider for rangers in addition to experience rewards.

5. Wrathful Spirits
Obtained from the Reaper of the Forgotten Vale, this requires you to defend the friendly villagers against hostile villagers, who function as Me/Ws with Illusionary Weapons. Clear out the Coldfires on the ridge overlooking the village first since some hostiles will spawn there. As long as at least one villager survives the quest is successful.

Enemies
1.Grasping Darkness
Weakest of the enemies of the Underworld, they are vulnerable to fire and inflict relatively little damage. They do appear to drain energy with their attacks, so they are an annoyance to casters.

2.Bladed Aataxes
These minotaurs spike high physical damage, killing most casters in two hits. A protection monk, defensive stances, or blinding are recommended methods of killing these.

3.Terrorweb Dryders
Appearing in groups of three, these are high level fire elementalists with a love of the spell Meteor Shower. They aren't very difficult as long as you avoid the meteors.

4.Mindblade Spectres
Powerful mesmers, they like DoT, hexes, and all the other things that make well played mesmers a hinderance. Deal with them like any other mesmer.

5.Smite Crawlers
Smiting monks aren't very common, but these show how annoying they can be. Expect Zealot's Fire, Reversal of Fortune, and knockdown.

6.Coldfire Nights and Coldfire Lurkers
Drakes who function as water elementalists. Avoid their maelstroms and you should be fine.

7.Obsidian Burrowers
These stationary rangers use enchantment debuffing spirits and traps, making them annoying in melee. Beyond that they are not an issue.

8.Charged Blackness
Easily mistaken for their weaker cousins, Grasping Darkness, these are air elementalists who spike lightning damage.

Tactics

1.Trapper Group
This strategy consists of bringing at least 4 rangers with all traps. They can use either the Energizing Wind + Quickening Zephyr combo or Serpent's Quickness to allow them to lay down more traps before the 90 second duration ends. Enemies are lured through the traps field, taking severe damage and multiple negative stat conditions, killing the early ones outright and seriously weakening the ones that survive. Many rangers will drop spirits behind the trap field as a distraction for any survivors. This works well because the Underworld is filled with narrow chokepoints that force enemies into a high concentration of traps.

2.The Wall: Corner Blocking Edition
This is better explained with diagrams in SnyperP's excellent thread http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=23391 and is more effective than the standard warrior wall technique. Basically, a warrior aggros the mob and runs to the edge of a corner. The casters stand a bit behind the opposite side of the corner. Melee enemies will run to get at the casters, be blocked by the warrior, and redirect aggro to the nearest available enemy, i. e. the warrior. This is useful because it requires only one warrior to pull off with perhaps a second to intercept any who get by and allows a protection and healing monk to focus entirely on the tank.