Livingston's Guide to becoming a Grandmaster Elonian Cartographer! (No Map checks!)

I've been stuck at 99.9 all frickin day, but I thought I'd post a mini-guide on exploring the only non-straightforward zone, that being Tihark Orchard mission. You have to do it in the actual mission, since there is no explorable zone.

1. Set up with a build to solo a lvl 20 blood necro and a couple running skills, enter mission.
2. Dance with the little girl, re-enact the fight, and kill the lady with the rare artifact (do the other 2 mini-games if you're going for bonus), and go talk to the princes.
3. After the cutscene, all the guards blocking the stairs will have left their posts to attack the skree. Now's your chance to simply run outside and explore the whole zone.

It turned out to be about 1.5% I believe.

Edit: I got it. Assembling the map now. You can most deffinently explore the orchard without doing the mission. You have to bring Talkora because she's royalty.

Is it my imagination, or is GMC going to be a lot easier to get in Nightfall than it was in the previous two games.

I decided that I would make sure that I have 100% of each area before moving to the next, so I have been wall hugging each area before moving on.

Here is what I noticed yesterday. I was farming sunspear points in Yohlon yesterday and did a basic scout round to find the edges of the map. When I got enough points I decided to wall hug the zone properly, so I opened my title tracks to see how much I gained by wall hugging. After doing the entire edge I gained ZERO%. I am really suprised by this as you never clear an area, especially a big area first time withour wall hugging it.

My theory is that you dont need to get right up to the walls in this game to un-fog the edge of the map.

I have GMC in Tyria and Cantha, so I am pretty experienced at exploring and mapping and was really surprised to gain nothing by wall hugging an area that I had only made a rather basic exploration of previously.

Anyone else seen this happen or have any comments?
I noticed this also when clearing Marga coast yesterday...had cleared mobs, then went back to "hug" the southern edge by the sea...expecting to get at LEAST .1-.2...and like you, got nothing. Made me think a bit...however, experience in tyria, then cantha has taught me that wall hugging is the easiest way to NOT need to come back.... ;] I shall make the most of this moment, because I may not pass this way again....

Anyone else seen this happen or have any comments? There are still those snag points you'll never clear if you don't hug the walls. No specific examples with nothing to compare to... but there have been a few .005 pieces I would have missed without hugging the walls.

That said, it doesn't seem quite so touchy as Cantha was (and to a lesser extent Tyria).