Curse

Fantras · May 19, 2005, 08:45 AM // 08:45

I finally beat these as well. Elona's for me was by far the hardest as I was trying to complete it with henchman and didn't know the back way to the second crystal nor the fact that you don't wanna turn in the first crystal till you have the second. Finally got a good group and we did Elona's and the River in about an hour, was such a relief.

none · May 19, 2005, 09:23 AM // 09:23

it's not so much about good or bad players, but rather about good or bad teams. i've done ascension twice now, with an e/me and mo/r build, and both times had a pretty good time with it. on first run (ele) i made dunes and river in first or second try, but spent about half a day with elona. second run was quite the opposite, i made elona on first, dunes on second and thirsty river after maybe one dozen tries. in the end, it all comes down to the group. if ppl listen to what everyone else is saying (especially those that already know the mission) it's quite easy. dunes is a cakewalk, and you really have to have a group that sucks, if you don't beat it the 2nd or 3rd time. thirsty requires ppl that don't rush into the priest and aggro everything at once (if no one does that, it's really easy, because except for the last you can kill all groups - including the priest and boss - in less than 1:40 min). you don't even have to kill mobs before you open the gate. elona is the same, if everyone stays close, things are done quite fast. i actually tried elona with henchies only (myself being monk) and they were more effective than most of the groups i've seen before.

as for the missions after ascension. ring of fire can be pretty tough if teamwork is bad, and it's close to impossible without a player monk. the keep is quite the same, everything is fine if you have one - or better two - skilled monks with you. and for both missions, it's of utmost importance that everyone has fully infused armor. that said, with my second char i've done the keep, as well as ring of fire on first try. both times in random groups that started weak but turned out quite good in the end.

one thing that makes ring of fire (and abaddons mouth) abit more difficult is the misleading description - or rather: bad mission design. there are long ways for both missions, and those long ways actually are more difficult, or at least of the same difficulty as the short way - you just spend 1h instead of 30mins until you die. this is true especially for ring of fire. the long way has so many imps and spiders, that it's almost inevitable for ppl to not die once or twice. and in the end, you have to kill almost all the mobs you have to kill if you go the short way. the only thing that's different are the ether seals on the way to the bridge. but if you carefully draw out all the mobs around the ether seals, you can take those down pretty fast. i've finished the mission on both - the long and the short - ways, and i've found it easier, and more fun, to do the short way. you even get the bonus mission done for free if you do the short way.

Romac · May 19, 2005, 10:37 AM // 10:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by none

it's not so much about good or bad players, but rather about good or bad teams.

i think you're absolutely spot on here, but people's natural tendency to pump up their own egos makes them think that a mission was easy because they are smarter than every one else.

When people complain about missions being too hard i always see comments claiming that they were a total breeze. I highly suspect these people that think they were a total breeze got lucky enough to get on a team of people where at least a few had banged their heads against that particular mission a few times before.

Unless they did one of these hard missions, first try, easy peasy, with a henchman only team, they are getting a false impression of the mission's difficulty because they are on an experienced team.

I group with humans as a last resort...i just don't have the time, and when i do play it's often early morning and there will be only 4 or 5 people standing around in the higher level towns...as a result i found thirsty river, elona's, thunderhead keep, and ring of fire extremely difficult, but i have succeeded in completing every mission in the game with all henchie teams except for thirsty river, and ring of fire.

In light of that, it's pretty funny when people cruising through missions on the coattails of others claim i have no skilz.

Manderlock · May 19, 2005, 12:51 PM // 12:51

/burn the petition

The ascention missions are keeping fools that can not, or willl not play the game properly from bugging the good players. If im doing the ring of fire I dont want some jackass argoing all the mobs yelling "WE CAN TAKE EM".

No thanks.

free4all · May 19, 2005, 03:34 PM // 15:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raganorn

I have now spent an entire week trying to complete all three trials of ascension.

Ascension missions are not hard.

If some are finding them so hard they must be the first missions in the game which require an intelligent organised approach. Perhaps that is the problem the missions are too easy prior to ascension.

Mordread · May 19, 2005, 06:43 PM // 18:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Romac

i think you're absolutely spot on here, but people's natural tendency to pump up their own egos makes them think that a mission was easy because they are smarter than every one else.

When people complain about missions being too hard i always see comments claiming that they were a total breeze. I highly suspect these people that think they were a total breeze got lucky enough to get on a team of people where at least a few had banged their heads against that particular mission a few times before.

Unless they did one of these hard missions, first try, easy peasy, with a henchman only team, they are getting a false impression of the mission's difficulty because they are on an experienced team.

I group with humans as a last resort...i just don't have the time, and when i do play it's often early morning and there will be only 4 or 5 people standing around in the higher level towns...as a result i found thirsty river, elona's, thunderhead keep, and ring of fire extremely difficult, but i have succeeded in completing every mission in the game with all henchie teams except for thirsty river, and ring of fire.

In light of that, it's pretty funny when people cruising through missions on the coattails of others claim i have no skilz.

Maybe instead of blaming everyone else for your struggles you should take it upon yourself to lead. I've found the main reason PUG's suck is a lack of leadership among strangers. So for each ascension mission (which I did with all PUG's) I explained to everyone how to call targets and auto-assist, then I would call targets and we would focus fire. I had guildwarsguru open as well so I could look at the maps as we were going, and see what advice there was from people who had already done them. Most people are happy to take orders if you do it in a non-aggressive/abrasive fashion. Having one person directing the group makes things much less chaotic as well, Good luck!

Pevil Lihatuh · May 19, 2005, 07:35 PM // 19:35

did i read that someone was complaining the ones after ascension are harder? Of course they are, ascension was a test to be sure you could handle them!!!! *sigh*

Lemme put it this way: Tombraider does my nut in. Why? Coz its actually a very simple game, but i make stupid mistakes, like not grabbing that ledge and falling 300ft to my death. Ascension? Same thing. Your team makes mistakes. In a singleplayer game that mission woudl be easy; only you to account for, you do what you tell yourself to do. Try telling 5 others what to do and you have to hope they have the sense to listen.

Perishiko ReLLiK · May 19, 2005, 07:41 PM // 19:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raganorn

I have now spent an entire week trying to complete all three trials of ascension. So far I have only done the Dunes. Elona and the River are TOO DAMN HARD. And it would take a week for my guildies to reach ascension to help me. I have begun to hate this game because I can't get past these 2 damn missions. My pettion is for ArenaNet to make these two missions a little easier so ppl dont get burned out. Holler if ya hear me.

-God of Titans- Shadow Wolves

I guess it depends on how well your team works, instead of rushing in with random people... how about trying to get people that are willing to stay in the group party for roughly 20 minutes, just to make the "perfect" team... then go in, and beat it... i beat dunes after my second try (tried with henchies cause i was told it was really easy), beat the one where you fight the different groups of people on my third try... and the one where you have the time limit... that took me about 9 tries, being the hardest for me... But over all, it took me maybe 2-3 days to beat that plus beating my mirror... i found the ascention missions to be alot easier then fighting the Godlike sand wurms! haha, that... and those pesky sand elementals.

Did you think the final test before the HARD lvls was going to be easy?

If you think those are hard, try going after the mursaat without infused armor (of course when your done with that)

Or , better yet... go back to the temple of ages, and go into the underworld!
You thought you knew what could be hard... mwuahahhaha. The game is only as hard as your team is crappy... its a team game, so you cant blame it on only your teammates, or yourself.

Mesmer1287 · May 19, 2005, 08:41 PM // 20:41

/sign

I have to agree. These missions are hard. I wish they would tone them down just a little bit. Make a few monster levels lower. Nothing drastic but efficient. It isn't very likely they will do so and i could care less if they do. I got tired after completing dunes and getting a good party rare so I made 2 more characters and I'm having fun letting my Elementalist sitting there in Elona

KaniBal · May 19, 2005, 09:11 PM // 21:11

Thirsty River and Dunes on first try, Elona's Reach on second.
That was with me leading random pickup groups with a balanced buildup.

In my opinion, PvE is much too easy in this game, I do agree it shouldn't be too much time-demanding but they should have harder PvE zones that requires people to be very fast, smart and organized to succed.

Quote:

Ascension is terrific - it helps prevent poor players from making it to the end-game content. I'm sorry, but poor players don't belong past Ascension and it makes my life a hell of a lot easier as a healer when players have a clue.

I'll have to agree there, people you meet after Ascencion are usually better than in lower-tier zones, even thought their are exceptions (lots of them, actually

)

Perishiko ReLLiK · May 19, 2005, 09:15 PM // 21:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by KaniBal

Thirsty River and Dunes on first try, Elona's Reach on second.
That was with me leading random pickup groups with a balanced buildup.

In my opinion, PvE is much too easy in this game, I do agree it shouldn't be too much time-demanding but they should have harder PvE zones that requires people to be very fast, smart and organized to succed.

i see people like this all the time... have you not been to the underworld? there are hard pve areas, you just have to be willing to find them.

KaniBal · May 19, 2005, 11:07 PM // 23:07

Quote:

i see people like this all the time... have you not been to the underworld? there are hard pve areas, you just have to be willing to find them.

Yes, I've been to Underworld (and Fissure),got pretty damn far on my first try with a random group until we eventually lost because we got a quest that had us protect a bunch of ghosts, which were already half dead because we pulled other mobs to them beforehand

It's cool to have those two zones, but we need harder stuff or they'll be farming material for tons of players in under a week.

I'm not saying you should have to grind for 6 months before being able to PvP, I'm asking for hard PvE, where every single pull is a challenge and has to be figured out.

Perishiko ReLLiK · May 19, 2005, 11:13 PM // 23:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by KaniBal

Yes, I've been to Underworld (and Fissure),got pretty damn far on my first try with a random group until we eventually lost because we got a quest that had us protect a bunch of ghosts, which were already half dead because we pulled other mobs to them beforehand

It's cool to have those two zones, but we need harder stuff or they'll be farming material for tons of players in under a week.

I'm not saying you should have to grind for 6 months before being able to PvP, I'm asking for hard PvE, where every single pull is a challenge and has to be figured out.

We also have to keep in mind, this is only the begining... the good thing about anet, is that they'll be adding areas, and quests, for FREE... so we'll both just have to wait till more places come. I just heard about some place under beacons perch (sp), so i might go check that out...

Not to mention the expansions, which will probably end up having quite a few areas for us "challenge" seeking players.

Yojinj · May 20, 2005, 11:24 AM // 11:24

Firstoff:
I am a Team player and i listen. I tried river at least 11 times now. 8 Times hte group was bad, 2 times the game crashed and one time the Hero didnt respond anymore.

I got Elona, i got Dunes but River.. i hate it. Really start to hate it. Maybe i should try henchmen -_- but i fear that they wont be strong enough for the job.

I concider myself a mature person that has no luck with groups and i'm frustrated because i can't ascend because of the circumstances.

My suggestion would be to remove 2 enemy Teams to shorten the mission.

Kopus Tol · May 20, 2005, 03:13 PM // 15:13

Here are my thoughts on the River:

Designate a caller. (This seems obvious, but it needs to be said in my experience.)

You don't need to take out all 5 Sand Giants, 4 is enough because you will get a morale bonus from the first boss.

Leave the Ghostly Hero behind after he opens a gate.

In the area with two bosses and the area with three bosses, it is possible to attack the enemies from outside of the gate. A necro get teleport in with Necrotic Traversal and pull other groups towards the snipers.

Don't rush the priests. For the area with one boss, attacking the priest at 1:15 works well.

Mephala · May 20, 2005, 03:16 PM // 15:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raganorn

I have now spent an entire week trying to complete all three trials of ascension. So far I have only done the Dunes. Elona and the River are TOO DAMN HARD. And it would take a week for my guildies to reach ascension to help me. I have begun to hate this game because I can't get past these 2 damn missions. My pettion is for ArenaNet to make these two missions a little easier so ppl dont get burned out. Holler if ya hear me.

-God of Titans- Shadow Wolves

If you think the ascension missions are hard, wait until you get past there.