Wild Blow
Victory is Mine!
Desperation Blow
Watch Yourself!
Riposte
Deadly Riposte
Healing Signet
Dolyak Signet
Strength: 10 + 1
Sword: 10 + 1
Tactics: 11 + 4
Equipment is hard to say on this one. Regardless, make sure you are 100% infused otherwise you deserve a slap in the face for even trying this. I have been doing this with my stance equipment, and if you'll look closely there is not one skill that puts me in stance. The problem with stances is that they are near useless against the mursaat at the opening. The Mursaat Armour use Wild Blow, and the Mursaat Mesmer will drain your energy constantly with Ether Feast and Energy Surge. As such, you'll have one useless skill on your bar for the first opening groups.
So basically, a 15>50 weapon or a 20<50 weapon is best. My health has been dipping above and below that 50% mark through sudden spikes of Victory is Mine! and Healing Signet. For a shield, you won't be hexed, you won't be stance, but if you find a way to fit an enchantment in there by all means do it. I would say... a -3 damage (10% chance) and reduces duration of weakness shield would be best. Devestating Hammer from the Mursaat Armour, Enervating Charge from the Mursaat Elementalist, and Staggering Blow from the Ettins.
When you enter the mission, stay back until that large group of Mursaat start to chase after the dwarf (can't remember his name, Brechnar or something like that). After they leave, hang a right and walk to the end before the path turns up. Wait there for the patrol of a 2 armour and a bow.
Remain in the corner, let the two armour get on you. Dolyak, Deadly, and Desperation Blow to open. Use Watch Yourself when it fills, followed by Riposte. Make sure that Watch Yourself stays on constantly. Use Healing Signet frequently. After you've used Desperation Blow twice, use Victory is Mine which *should* return 10 energy and 136 health. If Desperation Blow tries to induce Bleeding, you'll lose out on 68 health and 5 energy.
During the 3 seconds in which Dolyak Signet is down, you will probably suffer a Deep Wound. If you are familiar with Riposte and Deadly Riposte, you can time both to interrupt their Crushing Blow attempts and prevent the Deep Wound. If not, don't worry about it. Just make sure that your health is nice and high before Dolyak Signet starts to fade.
Once the two armours are dropped, start to run up to the Mursaat Elementalist and Mesmer crowd. Don't engage them, just do this to pull the Mursaat Bow closer to you. If you engage it where it was attacking you from, you risk being attacked by the a patrol of 2 armour and a bow. Just take it one patrol at a time. Defeating the bows is simple, Wild Blow when they use Whirling and they'll drop in a matter of time.
Repeat this process on the other patrol of 2 armour and a bow by pulling them into the corner.
After they're dispatched, pull the closest Mursaat to you. Pull them back a fair amount before you start to attack. Attack the elementalist first after you have them. They will usually open their attacks with two Energy Surges, a Chain Lightning, and Spectral Agony. At first, the thought will probably pop into your head that there is no way you'll survive but that's only because the Energy Surges are taking the full amount they can dish out. Healing Signet, maintain Watch Yourself/Dolyak Signet and you'll be fine. Use Desperation Blow whenever it fills, and Victory is Mine if able. The extra health boost is always good. They take a while, but you're in no real threat of dying aside from that initial damage.
Continue to clear the remaining groups using the above patterns. Head over to where the dwarf ran too. Two Nightmares will pop up, but be aware that they can kill you fairly quickly. Run circles around them using Deadly Riposte, Desperation Blow followed by Victory is Mine to gain some health before they Plague Touch. You don't want to stand there attacking them because Dark Aura + Touch of Agony deals over 100 damage. If you're moving when they use Touch of Agony, you won't be struck from Dark Aura. Stop to use Healing Signet, and let them wear down their health until they stop using Touch of Agony. At which point, attack, use Deadly Riposte and Riposte until they're dead.
Head back over to the 4 bows and the tower. Hug the left wall, and sneak around. If you can pull the bows out of the tower's range, by all means kill them. They're quite stubborn sometimes and refuse to move. Not worth the time.
Take the closest path to advance furthur through the mission, it's the one that doesn't have a lot of drakes in the way. You'll probably pop some Nightmares, just dispatch them in a similar manner as before. Moving down the path you'll find the Ettins. Easy stuff, maintain Dolyak Signet, Watch Yourself, and use your Ripostes when they fill. Desperation Blow + Deadly Riposte will load the conditions on the ettins for 200+ health Victory is Mine every 15 seconds.
Don't engage the next group of ettins, for the boss and two ettins will approach from behind. If it's the ranger boss, kill the Primal Echoes whenever he drops it. He'll fall like the other ettins, just a little slower. The same goes for the warrior boss ettin if he shows his face.
Clear all the ettins, and make your way around Seer to the drakes. Fight them in the same pattern as the Ettins. The first group you encounter you can make block themselves on the bridge. This will make surviving the pressure of a lot of Flame Bursts less of a worry. Maintain your defenses and a high health and they'll drop fairly quickly. Against the next groups of drakes however, make sure to spread the conditions so that Victory is Mine will gain you a lot of health. Try to time your Healing Signets so that you're not hit by Flame Bursts too often while suffering -40 AL.
Head back and through the lava to the ettins there. Kill them, you know the drill. Trying to get past the tower here can be a problem. It depends on one of two things:
1. Which boss spawned? If it's a boss that will cause you problems when running through the tower then don't get that group of ettins. The boss will slowly make it's way over to the ettin spawn and kill them. Once they start fighting, make your way through the lava and through the tower area. Note that you'll be hit by a Mind Shock, a Chain Lightning, and some Mursaat Bow attacks. Good chance for death here.
2. Sometimes a group of ettins will come from behind the tower and engage the mursaat. This makes for smooth sailing allowing you to bypass into the cutscene quite easily.
9 times out of 10, let the boss kill the ettins. It's just easier. If you just want to stop at that point then by all means kill them. If you're looking for the real challenge here, keep going.
Against the Breeze Keepers, they're a breeze (hee hee). Just don't get Wastrel's Worried to death. If the monk boss spawns... well, I haven't had that happen yet. Just the annoying mesmer one with infinite energy who can use Wastrel's and Ether Feast like there is no tomorrow. He'll take forever to kill, but it can be done.
The spiders... now, they're the one thing that I'm not sure about to get past yet. Their preperation... Incendiary Arrows... gets annoying in groups of 4 when you're interrupted constantly for several seconds. You'll need to do a few things here:
1. Spam Healing Signet when none of them have their preperation in effect.
2. Flee everytime you kill one and recoup.
3. Disable Dryder's Defense ASAP. You need to load the conditions which can be very difficult to do. Between that stance and the interruptions... it's tough. Not to mention they also use Unguent... they are very, very annoying.
4. As always, Dolyak and Watch Yourself always in effect.
5. Desperation Blow timing is the hardest part about this. If done as you are interrupted will mean that you will get it away. I'm not sure why, you'll see the damage appear above their head (50+) but you won't make the attack animation.
I haven't gotten very far as far as the spiders are concerned. I keep forgeting to follow my second step. But, if you don't have the favor this place offers just as much a challenge as the FoW spiders and the UW solo. My goal is to make it to the imps, but I don't think that will happen any time soon.
Enjoy.
