Curse

Swampgirl Inez · Jun 03, 2005, 04:37 AM // 04:37

A couple days ago, my husband and I were running around Yak's Bend doing various quests. It was just the two of us, a W/E and Me/Mo, both level 13. We were able to kill pretty much everything. We failed Shiverpeak Stragglers because we were just running around half-heartedly mostly, but we did get Elsa near the gate of Yak's Bend before she died. We decided to call it a night, and try again later.

Tonight, a couple guildies offered to help me do some quests. One of them them was Shiverpeak Stragglers. Both my guildies are level 20. We failed repeatedly. Some other guildies offered to help. By the end of the night, there were 5 of us (two 20, two 12 and a 14) and Alesia. We never could get it. This mission is 10 TIMES harder than it was two days ago.

ONCE, early on, we almost passed the quest, but a guildmate ran into Yak's Bend too early and I didn't get my quest update. Only twice was Elsa still alive when we got to her. We tried approaching from several directions, some of us even ran ahead and ignored all mobs to get to her sooner. The times we did get to her still in one piece, some huge mob (one was close to 15) would kill our whole party somewhere along the way.

I'm not going to go into the "Save Us!" while she runs into the fray.

What happened? Two days ago, if I wasn't just goofing around at the time, I could have easily beaten this quest with just two or three people. We had 3 warriors, a ranger and 2 monks, with a variety of secondary skills, tonight and we got our rears handed to us repeatedly. Everyone in my group agreed that there were TONS more mobs than there were before.

Drakron · Jun 03, 2005, 05:30 AM // 05:30

I think it depends were you reach then, I dont go the main road and take the side road that runs behind the main road, it allowed me to clean a safer route and got there before the mob decided to play tag with then, I think they are positioned in a way its best you lead then away since god knows NPCs loke to attack everything in sight.

psycore · Jun 03, 2005, 06:51 AM // 06:51

Elsa's NPC behaviour is most frustrating, espeacially when they are yelling out "Please protect me!" and "Save us!" and "The dwarfs are coming!" whilst running towards a huge group of nasties, it's like a level 1 going "HELP ME!" then agroing Glint, what makes it worse is that mobs tend to target the NPC's first. Makes zero sense and I have no idea why arenanet decided to use the single NPC script for everyone, it would be easy to make a cowards / agressive scripts for different NPC's depending on the situation.

Ironsword · Jun 03, 2005, 11:32 AM // 11:32

i always leave out of yaks bend and clear out the enemies on the path to them using the back road it's a pain but worth it and once you get close to where the party is your warriors need to use sprint and get in there before they die to distract the dwarves once you've done that all you have to do is walk back to yaks bend

the only problem i ever had with it was the party would get killed before i could get to them

thejynxed · Jun 03, 2005, 03:05 PM // 15:05

The missions/quests also seem to scale in difficulty based on the average level of the party, so if you go out with more high-level players it seems to get more difficult than say going out with a few henchies. I completed Stragglers easily using henchies only where as I failed every time I went with other real players.

Swampgirl Inez · Jun 03, 2005, 04:38 PM // 16:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by thejynxed

The missions/quests also seem to scale in difficulty based on the average level of the party, so if you go out with more high-level players it seems to get more difficult than say going out with a few henchies. I completed Stragglers easily using henchies only where as I failed every time I went with other real players.

Thanks, this is part of what I wanted to know. Also, did they increase the difficulty of this quest? Everyone in my group mentioned that it appeared harder and we have all tried it in various ways and with various groups before.

Arrow Whisper · Jun 03, 2005, 05:07 PM // 17:07

You only have to save the NPC with the "!" over their head. It can be hard, but with a quick shot of Healing Seed it was a peice of cake keeping her alive until I could get off Healing Breeze. Those two spells coverd her until we could get the dwarves killed.

Again just save the NPC with the "!" over her head.

Swampgirl Inez · Jun 03, 2005, 05:10 PM // 17:10

Yes, I know. My problem was she was usually dead before I even got to her. The other times, the mobs were so huge, my party couldn't keep up. At one point, we even assigned two people the jobs of being her protector and nothing else. My level 20 monk guildmate and myself, a level 14 warrior could NOT keep her alive because she aggroed EVERYTHING.

I could almost swear at one point there were dwarves respawning from nowhere.

Swampgirl Inez · Jun 03, 2005, 05:28 PM // 17:28

*bangs head on keyboard*

Nevermind... I just soloed it with a bunch of henchies.

*sigh*

Lewick · Jun 03, 2005, 06:57 PM // 18:57

What you probably ran into was a combination of quests. When you get The Road is Blocked, along with Shiverpeak Stragglers, both quests appear to drop extra mobs in the zone in order to emphasize the quest. That's what happened to me last night. I had every active quest in the zone, and basically there were hundreds of mobs in the zone. Even with the extra firepower of the stragglers, as well as having Cynn around (to do that quest) it was harsh. Heck, even Alesia died!

Swampgirl Inez · Jun 03, 2005, 07:23 PM // 19:23

The more I think about it, I think you are right. When I get to a new place, I load up my quest log with everything I can get. I'm sure some others in my group had a few queued up as well.

Apoc · Jun 03, 2005, 10:56 PM // 22:56

I was able to clear my way to them (from Boris), but when I click on them, nothing happened...

Bug?

Siran Dunmorgan · Jun 03, 2005, 11:08 PM // 23:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lewick

What you probably ran into was a combination of quests. When you get The Road is Blocked, along with Shiverpeak Stragglers, both quests appear to drop extra mobs in the zone in order to emphasize the quest. That's what happened to me last night. I had every active quest in the zone, and basically there were hundreds of mobs in the zone. Even with the extra firepower of the stragglers, as well as having Cynn around (to do that quest) it was harsh. Heck, even Alesia died!

This "additive" property of quests is true. It's also why you shouldn't take "Siege of Piken Square" with any of the other Piken Square quests.

Also, it applies across the party: if any of you have an active quest pertaining to the area you're in, all of the associated mobs, bosses, and objects will be there for all of you. What I have not verified is whether things get worse when multiple party members have the same quest, e.g. if there are more enemies around when more than one of you has The Road is Blocked.

The general rule for me is that when I want to explore an area, I don't take any quests associated with it. I go in, things are real peaceable-like, explore the area, figure out what's what, and then I go back for the quests; that's when I get my ruddy bum handed to me on a Res.-shrine-shaped platter.

—Siran Dunmorgan

Swampgirl Inez · Jun 03, 2005, 11:20 PM // 23:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Siran Dunmorgan

What I have not verified is whether things get worse when multiple party members have the same quest, e.g. if there are more enemies around when more than one of you has The Road is Blocked.

—Siran Dunmorgan

Hmm.. I don't think that applies. After getting tired of dying on Shiverpeak Stragglers, our group went on to do some other quests. Again, while running around with my husband a few nights ago, we did the first two Minaar's quests at Iron Horse Mines. Last night, three people in my group also had to do these two quests. I didn't notice a change in that one at all.

TIP: While in a group, if you do the quest and return to get your reward, wait a moment to talk to your reward NPC. The others in your party who did not have the quest can talk to that person, get the quest and then you can all benefit from the reward. EG - A guildmate had Minaar's Troubles queued up. Our party helped him do the quest. Before he talked to Rangil, my husband talked to Rangil, put the quest into his queue and then my guildie talked Rangil and both of them got the reward.

spiritofcat · Jun 04, 2005, 04:36 AM // 04:36

I did Shiverpeak Stragglers a few weeks ago now, but I had a lot of trouble with it at that time too.
Eventually I found a strategy that worked well though.
I entered the area from Ascalon Foothills and rushed immediately to the aid of the stragglers and with a little luck, killed the dwarves before they could kill the important NPC. After she was safe I then proceeded to clear the path back to Yak's Bend before talking to her. By clearing the path before talking I ensured that she stayed in the nice safe place she was in while my henchies and I cleared the way, then when the way was clear we talked to her and got her to follow down the now deserted road to Yak's Bend.

madness2k4 · Jun 04, 2005, 08:11 AM // 08:11

I done this quest just a few hours ago, it was piece of cake first try solo with henchies I play as an elementalist throws some phoenix, immolate fire storm them a bit and I saved them and lead them back to yak's bend quest done easy.
Oh yeah I was lvl 12 when I did that.

Judas Hawksriff · Jun 08, 2005, 01:27 PM // 13:27

How hard is this quest STILL - tried with henchies - still can't do it!

Alodarn · Jun 08, 2005, 01:56 PM // 13:56

I found a the best way (assuming you can get to her in time) is to head away from town, towards ascalon foothils, and then go up the "back passage" to the east.

lightblade · Jun 08, 2005, 04:48 PM // 16:48

it depends on where and how you reach them

i went from the northern main road, and got off of it right north of the stragglers

Harlas Kije · Jun 08, 2005, 07:21 PM // 19:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lewick

What you probably ran into was a combination of quests. When you get The Road is Blocked, along with Shiverpeak Stragglers, both quests appear to drop extra mobs in the zone in order to emphasize the quest. That's what happened to me last night. I had every active quest in the zone, and basically there were hundreds of mobs in the zone. Even with the extra firepower of the stragglers, as well as having Cynn around (to do that quest) it was harsh. Heck, even Alesia died!

I had the same problem. I took the stragglers quest by itself--I did not complete the quest at that time--too busy exploring. BUT there were not an ass whooping gaggle of mobs at the time. When I logged back on to finally do it--I took every quest in Borlis that I could get. Once in--I got beat down pretty damn hard. There were mobs coming at me from everywhere.

I abandoned a few quests and redid it. The zone was back to the way it was when I just had the straggler quest. Finished that--then got the other quests back to complete.