Minister Cho's Estate

With the new WoC content, I decided that i would do the new quests in conjunction with finishing up my Canthan Vanquisher title. I've been doing the normal mode quests, but in hard mode, and when I finish killing all of the afflicted, I vanquish the rest of the zone. Now, when I got to Minister Cho's Estate, I had no problems finishing the quest. Once I started to vq, I disconnected, and when I came back, I figured I would turn in the quest so I wouldn't have to do it again, and then vanquish the zone. That was a huge mistake.

Instead of Afflicted, the zone is filled with Scavengers (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Scavenger), and they are some of the most overpowered mobs in the game. Each mob has 6 enemies, but some have pets, minions and spirits, so it is almost 8 against 4. They have a lot of heavy AoE, and the Brutes hit really really hard. I've made some progress with myself as a monk playing SoS, a MM, N/Rt healer, and an Ineptitude, and once the minion wall is up and running, most mobs can be taken down. However, there are some, with two healers and Scavenger that can res that I just can't take down. There's too much healing, and my heroes can only take so much pressure before they run out of energy.

Can anyone give me any tips to vanquish this? Should I try different heroes? I've been experimenting with different setups but the one I have now has had the most success.

On a somewhat related note, I have tried using Ebon Vanguard Sniper Support to try to get lucky in killing some of the healers, and noticed that when you use it on the Scavenger Brutes with Earthshaker, the skill does a little more than 100 damage when it triggers the critical.

I had a similar problem, as I am going for both vanquisher and cartographer. There is a small area in the northeast corner of the map that isn't accessible during the mission. Now I can't get to that area, even in normal mode, and I'm sure as hell not going to be able to vanquish. My game plan right now for cartographer is to hope I can leave that small area unexplored and rely on the leeway of the exploration title and get it anyways. As for vanquisher... I'm just hoping that once WoC is done with, the spawns will all go back to normal like they did for WiK, except I doubt that will actually happen.
I think your best bet for trying to vanquish it right now would be either using a ton of AoE, or run a spirit spammer, UA, Panic mes, and whatever else you see fit. Tell me if you find something that works

I did this one piss easy in NM, but failed in HM with a friend + two heroes.

I did it yesterday on my second attempt with some pugs HM, again I ran full channel and there were two monks and a necro.

They died a bunch of times, which isn't a drama since there are res shrines.

The only difficult part is the NPC with the scavengers, you must pull groups with a bow, and you need to ensure you retreat while doing damage to kill them without party wipe.

I could probably solo this one in HM without fuss on Rt, it would just take time, given I had the human "meat" to allow me to cast easier it wasn't too bad.

As long as you save the NPC near the scavengers, the other two are not big deal.

Personally I love the fact we finally have some content that isn't a cakewalk with heroes, the game was far too easy.

How would you go about soloing it with a rit? I'm still stuck with my heroes

hmm getting my butt kicked w/ my three heros in WoC HM any build suggestions?

There was a thread in riverside that gave some good builds but it got deleted because of trolls and morons. These are tips I picked up from the thread and from my experience with this mission.

Its all about spirits for chos estate. A solid SoS rit should be in your party somewhere.

If your a melee class splinter weapon + S&H will make things easier along with Save Yourselves to mitigate a lot of damage. Casters should have it easier than melee classes.

Use the geography and structures to your advantage, sides of the mountains, entrances etc. to ball them up and AoE them down.

If using a MM the necros are top priority, other than that eles and monks should take priority. Warriors can take priority if they are harassing a hero but they and sins can be dealt with by skills such as guardian and aegis.

Bring ample hex removal for the mesmers as they like to spam VoR and empathy.

Last but not least take your time.

I remember reading somewhere that only the normal mode spawns change to post-WoC quest spawns after doing normal mode quests, and that for the hard mode spawns to change, you need to do the HM quest as well. That's definitely not true for Minister Cho's Estate.

I did the WoC quest chain on normal mode on the 'main' character of my mule account, for some extra commendations. I did the first few 'cleansing' quests on hard mode as well, and vanquished those areas at the same time, figuring it couldn't hurt to have a level 28 ritualist NPC along for the vanquishing.

Now, reading this thread I thought, maybe I should just vanquish Cho's place before doing the rescue quest on HM, to have an easier time of it. No such luck, the hard mode spawns have already changed to huge gangs of scavengers. Before I did the HM rescue quest. Vanquishing that area is going to be a horrible chore now.

I have a guildmate stuck in the same situation. What I find most annoying is that even if you enter the area with a character who hasn't done any WoC at all as party leader, you still get the ridiculous spawns.

I hope by the end of WoC, they do what they did with WiK, where you can choose which instance you want to enter. It makes no sense lore-wise that the afflicted and sickened people would return after WoC... but maybe it can be like the WiK bounties, where you're entering a re-enactment of previous events.

Or they could just tone down the mob size.

And yes, you only have to do the NM quest for Minister Cho's Estate, and you are stuck with the 6 scavenger groups while vanquishing.

At least my guildmate still has the option of using the HM quest to vanquish, even though he had no intention of doing the HM quests.

I don't know if it's just me, but I found vanquishing Minister Cho's Estate (at least, the first few mobs; I didn't go for the full VQ) to be about as difficult as the mission itself. Once I identified which monsters were the healers / MMs / hard res, everything just fell into place.

The builds I used are the standard ones I use in 4-man areas, with E/A AP Air, SoS Resto, AotL MM and SoGM.

I just really dislike the sanctimonious folks who want to say that Chos after WOC is simply a matter of good pulling and going slow.... that is BS. Making an area so tough that it requires a full day to clear is ridiculous. I have tried Discorway and get wiped at the first group...not sure what the heros are supposed to actually do in that build but whatever it is....mine simply run around and die....need this one vq to complete the title so guess will have to buy the cons to make sure I have enough to get through this but....really why make such an area? People wanted a challenge? Then let them do it solo....

EDIT: Just did it again...with full con set...got three groups before the dying started. After that, next group had two healers -- get one killed; then they would be rezzed b4 next one dropped. melee killed two of us in two hits. After two wipes finally got that group. Next group healer; 2 melee; 2 scouts + pets + shaman(first/water ele)...4 vs. 7...Again, two wipes -- scouts had hard rez; finally got that group. Had now spent almost my full con set time AND had only taken out 5 groups. So, at that rate, figure will need 8-10 consets to complete the vq. I don't really mind the cost but still not sure about the right skill set up. Wish I had NEVER done WOC; what a total BS result from just wanting to follow the story line.

Quote: Originally Posted by Die and Serve Me

not sure what the heros are supposed to actually do in that build Perhaps knowing this would help. A lot. Taking on challenging content without understanding your hero builds and whether they are appropriate to the area is not a recipe for success. Expecting to be able to handle everything in PvE by loading up a set of PvX hero builds you don't understand and turning them loose is expecting a bit much.

Quote: Originally Posted by Die and Serve Me

I have tried Discorway and get wiped at the first group...not sure what the heros are supposed to actually do in that build but whatever it is....mine simply run around and die If you are running discord way without knowing how it works it is no wonder you are dying.

Discord: "No effect unless target foe has a condition and is either hexed or enchanted."

Against most foes you'll overpower them with discordway simply based on game dynamics. But when facing higher powered enemies such as WoC you absolutely need to know what discordway is doing because you, as the player, need to make sure the proper conditions apply and that your heroes are all focused on the same enemy for the discord spike. If you don't do this your heroes will either do no damage at all or spread their damage out so much as to be useless.

That is why an AP caller build is popular with the discord way. Assassin's Promise provides the hex plus instant recharge and energy when the enemy dies and something like "you move like a dwarf" provides a quick cripple condition.

Not saying that discordway is necessarily the best build, just that you need to know what your heroes are supposed to be doing with the build or discordway is totally useless.

yea im having issues doing this quest as well in HM on my monk. what a difference from NM... it was cake... but holy crap.
advice please?
T.T