Curse

Willow · May 06, 2005, 04:35 AM // 04:35

Althea's Ashes is by far the hardest quest I have encountered. Many groups of adventures have fallen trying to get that darn urn filled. I think their biggest problem is lack of focus and cooperation- this seems to be a very hard game in some places.

I came up with this strategy around level 11 or 12, but it wasn't until level 14 that I finally managed to do it (partially thanks to a full set of Ascalon Armor). But I'm convinced that a lower level warrior can do it, with alot of luck and focus. It took me many tries- and both my character and I had to get more experienced before it would work.

The strategy is to use a warrior with as much health as possible, and just run for the urn, fighting no Charr if possible.

(All enemies I've found cease pursuing after the player is a certain distance away, or they leave what they consider their territory.)

The key skills in the build are Sprint, Blood Renewal, Healing Signet and Endure Pain. I rounded it off with Watch Yourself! to complement the defense, a (retrospectively) redundant Vampiric Gaze, and Severing Blow(?) and Gash for picking fights.

Here's what I do:
1) Use Blood Renewal, taking lots of damage, but gaining fast healing, and a delayed healing effect.
2) Use Healing Signet to heal a bunch of the damage you just took. You're regenerating, and will get a burst of healing.
3) Use Sprint to run past enemies.
4) Use Endure Pain for 200+ hit points when things get rough. (I made a mistake in early trials of using Endure Pain too early. I ended up dying when it wore off, losing 200 hp.)

With this strategy, just about any group can be avoided. I'm confident that it can be adapted to other professions, and that there's a more efficient build. (This is the only character I've ever played, but from what I've seen, my guess is that Warrior/Monk would be the best build for this. Strength is a must for Endure Pain and Sprint, so Warrior has to be primary... for this strategy.)

However, in the Flame Temple Corridor, there's TONS of Charr. All that wasn't enough to get me all the way. Luckily, there's a Ressurection Temple near the Altar. Coming back there, it's still hard to get up to the Ashes- there's not one, but two sets of Charr Warriors that need to be evaded. After a few tries I had the bright idea of killing off the two Charr Rangers near the temple, letting me get a little bit closer before I activated my skill combo.

And I was able to dash up the temple and grab the ashes. And die right afterwards.

Skeptical? You should be. I have screenshots.

http://www.princessbill.com/images/gw002.JPG

There's me right after grabbing the prize. I wasn't able to get a shot of me immediately grabbing the urn, but you can see the text in the lower left that says 'Quest Updated.' The Party box shows that yes, I am alone out there.

http://www.princessbill.com/images/gw003.JPG

Here's one of me on the Temple, close to the Ashes, but with no way of getting past those Charr. This was taken after I already got the Ashes to show that yes, it's possible to get up on there on your own.

Note that I was doing it with a -60% death penalty. That's part of why I had to level up so much. Someone with more patience for reloading, or with the foresight to go after the two archers earlier, would only have a -15% penalty- and therefore need a much lower level to solo this quest.

So, I hope this writeup helps you- either to do this quest, or come up with your own insane strategies. And, yes, I am still guildless.

-Willow

obvlexi · May 06, 2005, 05:42 AM // 05:42

how about just leaving from yaks bend with 5 henchies instead of 3... easy way to solo it and you dont have to worry about how many times you wipe

Last Gasp · May 06, 2005, 06:16 AM // 06:16

Later on in the game, you find monsters a bit different.

1. Many of them are faster than you.
2. Some of them won't stop chasing you, ever.

That said, a well run henchmen team has no problem with this mission, well, long as the human is */monk and has rez or rebirth, lol.

dbodenheim · May 06, 2005, 10:00 AM // 10:00

Yah no shit. We just left from Yaks and backtracked. It was still a difficult fight but was very very doable. This quest is hard to pass up because of the 2K experience carrot.

Willow · May 06, 2005, 06:15 PM // 18:15

Well, I could have taken Henchmen along, which could have made it easier, but I didn't. You'll note from the Screenshot that I was completely alone.

LiquidLithium · May 06, 2005, 06:25 PM // 18:25

cant be THAT hard. Just get a group together.

Dumahim Ashenbane · May 06, 2005, 06:46 PM // 18:46

I did it too early and made it real hard on myself, but I did it. Had the 3 henchmen and just fought my way in as best I could. It didn't take long to realize it wasn't very far, but there was quite a few tough fights. I had died a couple times and the death penalty was getting bad, but I kept at it. After a few more deaths, the penalty was capped at 60%, so I'd just keep respawning and killing what I could. Eventually I got close enough to the alter and respawned right next to it. Problem then was that there were 2 groups of the Charr all attacking me right as I was respawning. Oh well, just kept killing off and respawning. I'd come back to live with full life and energy while the Charr had not recovered anything. Just kept at it until I had the alter cleared and I was done.

cyberzomby · May 06, 2005, 08:50 PM // 20:50

I just have to reply to this thread.
Great job you did with ure running
Myself I did it weird 2. We started with an Elementalist and a necro and me myself being a Necro 2. We took the Fighter henchmen. We just battled our way to the temple but getting there kept dying. This is were the elementalist quit. Leaving us 2 necros left We had just enough energy and hp to take the 1 charr round the ash out and die. Than respawn and take another one down. As soon as we cleared a path, we just made a run for it

we did it. But once again i realy like ure way 2 with the sprinting.

Wind · May 07, 2005, 12:30 AM // 00:30

Haha, you better go in game and type /deaths

ocoini · May 07, 2005, 12:47 AM // 00:47

We did it last night fighting our way in!

1 E/N level 12
1 M/E level 11
1 R/M level 9
1 Monk Henchmen

Damn it was hard!! We got to BEHIND the urn, next to the ressurect place and then we finally all died, but then we dident care as much since we had the neat ressurect station right next to us

We pretty much used the ranger as bait, cursed/slowed the enemies, got them into groups and cooked the Charr with firemagic

VonGimli · May 07, 2005, 06:11 AM // 06:11

I brought an entire group of henchmen with me and just beat my way through them (im a W/Me)

Wired · May 07, 2005, 08:16 AM // 08:16

ya, some friends and I did the same thing (although unfortunately we hadn't found Nolani yet...so we ended up hiking down from yak's bend lol) and after getting worked when we tried it with a group of 4, we totally cleared them out with a group of 6 without ever breakin a sweat.

Erod · May 07, 2005, 08:26 AM // 08:26

Where is the flame temple corridor.. to do the quest?

Animuz · May 07, 2005, 08:52 AM // 08:52

hmm i have a warrior lv16 and dont have the skills u have. I dont have number 6 and 8, can u tell me the name of the skills and where u can get them from?

Tomo · May 07, 2005, 09:43 AM // 09:43

This tactic does work, as its the more or less the same one i used. after you hit 60%dp, its just not worth it- attack the group guarding the bottom part of the stairs, then run past- the henchies should get full blast of chaar axe, then beging the hunt for you
luckily, you should have the urn by then ^^. i just used mending, sprint, and endure pain though

d4nowar · May 07, 2005, 09:56 AM // 09:56

i had just found the grendich courthouse on the previous quest, so i just booked it from there and map-jumped after grabbing the ashes.

cmseagle · May 07, 2005, 02:39 PM // 14:39

This is slightly noobish, but where is yaks bend?

Willow · May 07, 2005, 04:22 PM // 16:22

Animuz- Skill 8 on my screenshot is Gash, which I got pretty early- it might be from pre-searing.
Skill 6 is "Watch Yourself!", one of my favorite skills- for about 5-10 seconds it gives you and closeby allies +20 armor. I *think* one of the fighter trainers early on in post-searing Ascalon teaches it.