Curse

Lewick · Jun 06, 2005, 06:09 PM // 18:09

Last night I started a pickup group to win the Thunderhead Keep mission. Initially it was me R/Mo and a friend W/Mo. We got a few requests for inclusion in the group, but I really wanted to get a balanced group together, having failed with completely unbalanced groups several times (5 rangers in a group is not a good thing, and that's what my previous group was filled with - no slam against rangers at all, since I AM one.)

Finally our group ended up with 7 people:

R/Mo
W/Mo
W/Mo
W/E
N/Mo
E/Me
Me/W

I think that was the comprising anyway. Should have taken a screenshot of it. We started looking for a pure monk, but then the group decided we could probably suffice with just taking Mhenlo with us as our monk. So that's what we did.

We had the initial roughish start, figuring out how to get into a groove, which is how most pickup groups work. The necro was a self-proclaimed necrotic healer, and he actually WAS a very effective healer. We had a lot of secondary healing power, and had enough DPS to basically slaughter things quickly.

We killed off the first of the mobs toward the city, and gelled quickly into a very cohesive group. Basically all of the secondary monks had enough points in healing prayers to make the group effective. We hit the city and cleared it without incident.

Of note, along the way this discussion took place:

Warrior: "Why aren't these beastmasters using giant stomp?"
Me: "Because I'm interrupting it"
Warrior: "OMG, rangers rock! How come other rangers don't do that?"

So it appears that many rangers don't know how to use their interrupts, which is quite sad.

Anyway, we got into the city and basically just leveled the place. There was never a situation where anyone was under 60% health, and the king's hitpoints didn't waver much at all. After clearing the city and the 2 guardposts above the city (sorry warriors for having to sit that out) we proceeded down to the fort.

The fights in the fort were as easy as those in the city. We wiped out all the dwarves, wiped out the mobs outside the city with the catapults, and then took out the boss to start the next portion of the mission.

The beginning of the next phase of the mission was a bit shaky. We didn't formulate our plan very well for this portion of the mission. However, after the first wave of 3 mobs on each door, we assigned 1 person to each of the positions on the wall using catapults. I was on the west side, and we put one of the W/E on the other side. The W/E could use his elementalist skills from the wall, so when mobs got by the catapults, he could just plow them with spells.

The rest of the players stayed on the ground floor bouncing back and forth between the doors as mobs got by the seige splash. When mobs got by the seiges, the catapult shooters would ring them on the minimap and the ground group would head for that side to finish off what was left. A total of 4 boss mobs came to the doors, and those bosses were at 30-70% health or so by the time they hit the door. They were dead within a few seconds of hitting the doors. The mursaat that got by the seiges were usually at less than 50% health as well.

We stayed in position for the entire seige period. Mhenlo was on the ground healing the folks down below that were bouncing back and forth between the doors. When the last mob died, only one person in the group had even dropped below 40% health at any period through the entire mission, and that person was gang healed to full in about 1.5 seconds.

It was a great pickup group, and it improved my stance on pickup groups. It's the first pickup group I'd been in that didn't have some "hero" in it that decided to solo the zone. Basically we cleared this mission without the benefit of a human fulltime monk. In fact, we had only 1 pure monk, and everyone else with healing power (including the necrotic healer) were all deemed by group standards to be secondary monks and therefore undesireable as healers.

The moral here is that you do NOT need 2 pure monks to win these missions. The classes in Guild Wars are designed for balance, especially in PvE. In the case of our group, we had enough secondary healing potential to guarantee success in the mission. We also had a well balanced group with a considerable amount of melee power as well as a good chunk of casting power in order to balance our entire party out. It was great fun and fun to prove that 2 dedicated monks isn't necessary.

Sentinel · Jun 06, 2005, 06:30 PM // 18:30

Congrats!

I was fortunate enough to join a group on my first try on this mission
with a couple of guys that knew what they were doing.
I just followed their directions like the rest and the rest seamed easy to me.

At the end they also said that that was 1 of the best PUGs they've been in.

It seems like a blur to me now but I think that was the group that took me
all the way to hell's precipice. We stuck together and finished 2-3 missions
in a row.

It goes to show you what a nice PUG can do. It also makes it more frustating
when you join a not so nice pug. I don't understand how people can still not know what to do in groups when it comes to these late missions.

Anyhow, congradulations again.

Simdarth · Jun 06, 2005, 07:08 PM // 19:08

I agree. The benefits of a full monk are not quite as good as having more than one secondary monk. As long as you got some healers and someone with a res, you are good. In fact, I prefer to have 2-3 secondaries over even 2 full monks.