Hard Mode: Tips and Tricks

Tips for when fighting Charr.

Note with the salvaging of these items it may of changed all i know is that afew months ago I salvaged two 25% vs charr mods off the weapon smiths sword.

If you are playing a hammer warrior i would suggest getting this collector hammer and salvaging the
+25% vs Charr mod off it. (replaces fortitude, armor ect)
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Ascalon_Maul

If you are a protection monk that prefers using shields i would suggest getting this prot icon as it is effectively a shield with +15 armor (normally you only get 8 from shield) and +6 energy.
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Protective_Icon
Soul reaping and air off hand versions here
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Louise_Haup
Inspiration version here:
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Wain_Hughes


This shield may also be useful as it only requires 4 tactics (secondary warrior using spare points) and gives you 6 armor, +10 vs Charr and + 10 vs ele damage ( +26 vs the charr firecallers!)
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Ascalon_Aegis

This collector has a bow and sword with +20% against charr which you can (could?) salvage.
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Louise_Haup

Note:I got 25% ones from somewhere but they don't seem to be listed on wiki (changed maybe) I am pretty sure i got them from Piken weapon smith so it might pay to have alook there first if you want the 25% vs charr sword or bow.

Hehe, 20-25% is not that great but just thought i would inform those who don't know so they have the choice
Good luck!

Wow this thread is great =D I'll definitely be remembering some of these

any tips for PvE sin in HM ? such as don't enter HM ?

Why use an MM? I just don't see the point in it... They rely solely on your enemies not been able to overwhelm your minion army. Pretty much any warrior in HM will kill an entire minion army very quickly. Plus once they lose all the minions they're completely useless.

I've been using a basic Broadhead Arrow w/ Apply Poison build. Takes those Dolyak Masters out in no time.
Norgu with a basic MoR Domination build. Mistrust is great in some areas. Specially vs Grenths Balance.
Olias with an SS/Reckless/Price/Enfeeble build, yeah he's a bit shit with it... but tbh both of them can take some intuition and hex things off target.
Sousuke with a reasonable Warder build, Elements, Melee, Eruption, Stoning, etc. Works nicely when he hits enfeebled enemies.

They got me through Grenths Footprint without much hastle, once i'd figured out the tactic anyway after nearly been wiped on the first few mobs. Don't expect to suceed first time... its a case of sucessfully countering the enemy and learning where to put your interrupts.

Seriously... how the hell has anyone cleared Kessex Peak? I went in there earlier... managed ot kill the mobs of mostly MMs. But the Rangers and Mesmers... they're just insane. Punishing Shot/Choking Gas been spammed at everyone. Migraine making it even easier for them to interrupt everything.

Hmm my post got deleted?

Heres a nice little trick:

Flag a hero somewhere far out of danger and leave him there as long as you don't need him. This way you will never get sent back to an outpost as that hero will never get up to 60% DP!

And for pve-er, just use a tanking build, but don't tank. Look in the Assassin forum in a thread called "fav sin builds" and in my post I put a few good ones. The 2nd and last ones are great in HM.

just bring death pact signet and you don't need to worry about flagging a hero away

First off, I'd like to say:



If anything, there isn't one build that will work for all missions. Depending on how much hex use or melee there is you will have to change your load outs. Fortunately, the later missions aren't much harder at all than the normal mode verisons... probably because with 8 people you can bring enough skills to cover everything. I'll just go over some short tips for some missions I remember:

Aurora Glade: If you want to get the primary/bonus the easy way, bring along Razah as a Spirit Spammer and have your hereos/henchies spread out near the base shrine. When you first come upon there, start running your crystal to the one the White Mantle capture while your Rt Hero sets up spirits. Run back after you recap it and capture the middle shrine after the White Mantle get it. Basically you need to kill off all the enemies - it's way to hard if you try to run around constantly because a mob of level 25 enemies will own you...

Sanctum Cay: I had some trouble with this one. Searing Heat + Fireball OWNS heroes if you have them flagged in one group.... I barely beat this one with Dunkoro + Talhkora + Alesia.

Thirsty River: Rush the King at the start and kill everything. I used a MM here and it worked excellently. Just need high DPS and a few interrupts (my monks bring Power Drain)

Other than that, like it's been said before... SS works great. I ran as a Splinter Barrage Ranger with Distracting/Savage. It wasn't that hard. THK is still easy.

Also, this cool bug showed up in hard mode! There was a Jade Armor called Black Bear!

Excellent job m8! I wish I had more time to play, HM is definitely my favorite feature of the game added since Prophecies.

This might seem kind of intuitive, but going through Dejarin Estate to kill the Acolyte of Dwayna with guildies, once or twice we ran into hard times since some of those mobs are very close together. If you have some DP, it is worth it to seek out smaller mobs that are easier to kill to get back. This is something that you couldn't really do before to gain XP, but since most creatures are lvl 26+, instead of going after that 6 creature mob and going for the 3-4 one first is really handy. Thats my two cents.

Camp right below the ridge they won't be able to hurt you. HM baddies still aren't smart enough to deal with "shot obstructed".

Loki, I hate you.

What hero builds are you using?

I've been trying Tahnakki Temple with Heroes/Henchmen...Temple Guardians' Breath of Fire + Heroes' refusal to flee = MASS HYSTERIA.

Cantha, IMO, is the most difficult of the three continents to get Guardian due to the sheer volume of mobs. I wonder how exactly you complete Vizu's room in Tahnnakki Temple...

Tip #infinity: Don't use Heroes/Henchmen if you can help it!

yip on Nolani Acadami when rurik aggros every thing at end please

As for hero builds I'm using mostly staple ones.

One necro is a pretty basic SS build with some twists. I made him bring Rip Enchantment and Shadow of Fear / Faintheartedness (this helps for hard hitting mobs that have 50% IAS). SS, Insidious Parasite, Reckless Haste, SoLS, etc...

My protection monk was running either Blessed Light or Life Sheath depending on the area. On top of that, I have Guardian, RoF, Protective Spirit, Aegis, Power Drain (great in HM), etc..

The rest of my builds are pretty basic. SF nuker, MM, and WoH or Light of Deliverance monk. It depends on how many monks I have from henchies (4 group missions I bring 2 monks, my SS, and myself as Splinter Barrage)

As for tough spots, I really had trouble on Sanctum Cay and the White Mantle Savant's Searing Heat because on the "new" and "improved" henchmen AoE "flee" AI... they don't flee - they run around in circles while being burned alive!

More realistic? ..... Yes.

More fun? ... No.

I hope they fix it. It's much worse because now they don't even heal inside AEs. I'm going to do Elona next since Cantha is probably the toughest overall.. .

Then you're doing something wrong. Probably bringing tank skills instead of attack skills.
In the Northern Shiverpeaks missions, a normal elemental mod sword was doing 58-60 damage to Stone Summit dwarves (yes, the warriors).
With an elemental bane weapon I was doing 68-72.
Mind you, that's because I usually run builds that keep pumping out the +damage skills.
If you're foolish enough to be running tanking skills instead of +damage skills, then of course you're not going to see much benefit from bane weapons.

Edit: Also, you do realise that bane mods are suffix type mods, don't you?
This means that you can have a Vampiric Sword / Hammer / Axe / Bow of Monsterslaying.
In the future Chicken Ftw, don't be so hasty to flame someone about something you don't understand.

Imo knockdowns seem to be one of the best shut-downs in Hard Mode. My method of vanquishing most areas consisted of having Razah set up Union, Earthbind and Displacement, then I would lure the mob and try to have them form a nice tight ball. When in position me (ele) and Sousuke, both using earth magic, pile on the AoEs and chain Dragon's Stomp/Earthquake. It's usually enough to keep them licking floor during most of the fight. This method worked a treat on Jade Brotherhood casters (especially the Rits to stop them from outhealing us), and also on the elementals in the Mirror of Lyss. The only group this didn't work on was teh Paragon boss' group in the Mirror of Lyss...dear god he was hard.

How would you solve "Siege of Tsumei" in HM?

good thing they made razah easier to acquire a while back, as he comes in quite useful in HM, imo.

i've essentially equipped him with the standard rit lord build used at urgoz. i figured if it helps so much there against the spike damage and the insane amount of baddies, that it might be worth a shot in HM. i spent a lot of time over the weekend farming LB points in HM nightfallen jahai, and nearly spent my entire stash of 4-leaf clovers because i was getting party wiped so often by the demons. bringing a necro hero with SS coupled with razah's spirit spam cut the party wipes down significantly. earthbind is particularly useful if you're using knockdowns, and bring along shadowsong when dealing with those hard-hitting melee creatures.

requires some setup though, as its best to have all his spirits up before you engage a mob. its also a very energy-intensive build, so putting BR on the necro is essential, and its kind of a pain because razah needs to be driven most of the time. however, the payoff is good! setup his spirits, send in the tank, and blow em to smithereens.

Barrage Pet hero teams are quite viable at owning Hard Mode, in missions with many chokepoints and bundled mobs you can get away with using that. I owned raisu palace and tahnakai temple at masters level with 2 people and 6 heroes. Eles with sliver armor rule out any usage of AI melee anyway. If you run a build without enchantments you can also put natures renewal in there to get casting speed back to normal.

I also found out that aegis is one of the best skills in the game (DOH). I didn't try areas with much enchant hate yet.

Curses and mesmers are more or less a must, while I find that pretty lame, it still helps. I managed to make it through tahnakai with only myself as necro+hench. With any other character I wouldn't have made it, but the necro owned some.

Last but not least: give the mm 9 points in Blood Magic and give him BIP as elite, since flesh golem was overrated anyway. It's such a waste if a mission fails because a healer somewhere was out of energy.

Spirits to stop spike damage kinda own, but that has been discussed thouroughly already...

This is indeed true...but like you say, the payoff is good. I tried engaging mobs and have razah do his own thing and when I have him put up his Key spirits first we mow through everything with considerable ease. When I've had him put the key ones down I ley him do whatever he wants and he generally keeps them up through a sustained battle pretty well.

Some tips and tricks for Vanquishing areas with heroes and henchies.

• Plan ahead, adjust your builds to the area. (Yours and your heroes of course.)
• Do the hardest bits first so you don't waste time.
• Don't kill anything you don't need to before you've finished all the hard bits. You'll need easy marks to erase DP.
• If a group is a bit tough to kill, use attrition: kill some key members in a suicide run, respawn, use an xp scroll and kill easy monsters to get rid of the DP. Lightbringer scrolls FTW, but any will do. Go back to finish the job once you're back up to full strength again. Rinse and repeat.
• Frozen Soil is a perfect tool to get rid of cross-rezzing monsters; plus, on suicide runs to kill them it guarantees an even DP progression on your own party, which makes it easier to recover. (It's annoying to have one member with far more DP than the others.)
• If you can't kill something, move on and find the next big threat. Don't resign to make build adjustments too soon. Try everything on for size; gather more intel, so to speak.
• Be patient. Treat no fight as a trivial one.

I managed to Vanquish half of Elona that way in just 3 days.

Note for areas with lots of human opponents (e.g. Bukdek Byway):

Edge of Extinction Kamikaze is not dishonourable. You can respawn; they can't. Just be sure not to get stuck at -60%.