1st post, quest has me tearing my hair out

So ok, I've been at this quest since literally 10:00am this morning. It's just me and the henchies, because my friends are at work (I'm off today).

I've sacrificed myself more times than I can now count in order to clear the zone (Kessex) on the way to Galrath (sp). I finally get to the area where he is and there are like... a FREAKING BAHZILLION CASTERS on the hillside between me and him.

Excuse me, but W -- T -- F is that?

I'm halfway through 18, wearing the 45 Armor (Mesmer/Monk) and my henchies are LEVEL FREAKING 12.

I have had to eat 60% penalty (max you can get, as I've found) all day long and die repeatedly just to get to where I am, because the minotaurs and trolls high much higher than they should for a quest I got at LEVEL 14.

I'm finally through to the place and there's things I have no hope of beating between me and the goal.

Necros. Nice. Let's see, if I kill one each run (wiping out in the process), then I only have to sit back and wait four minutes for all the minions raised off our dead bodied to die, then run in and hope to kill another before we wipe again.... slowly up the hillside. That's going to be at least another four to six hours of work (judging from the four it has taken to be this close... across The Black Curtain and the first half of Kessex).

It was an insult when it was 500 experience. It is now a joke at 4000. Obviously this isn't supposed to be done until level 20 or so... or from some other area that you have no way in hell of getting to short of cheating (protected run).

So I guess my question is -- Why in the hell is this a quest given at level 14?

The fooking sad part is, even WITH my friends, this is not a quest that seems doable before 20 (unless of course you've got friends with twink gear).

It is totally out of kilter with the 'hard but possible' quests to this point.

So ArenaNet -- tell me -- what sadistic bastage made this one? If I pay you, will you slap him/her through a wall for me?

(panting....)

Ok. Ok. I feel a little bit better now. A little. Sheesh. Here is the group heading out YET AGAIN from the death shrine (which is, of course, by where you enter. Heaven forfend convenience.).

easy answer?

leave from ToA, better henches, and you should be a higher level by then...

I have no idea where ToA is.... but will keep that in mind.

Quote: Originally Posted by Verbose

Verbose, If it makes you feel any better it took a group of 8 of us to get to it and take it, required ALOT of teamwork.

Temple of the Ages is in northern part of The Black Curtain and you can form a party of 8 instead of 6.

Quote: Originally Posted by chalt2

I'm not quite sure what happened when I attempted it in my first go, but we all held back while one guy went in there a dn I think wiped out most of what was there on his own.

Something to do with rotting flesh or whatever. I have no idea what he did, but hardly any of us had even a DP of 15% by the time we got there, then we went up and finished off the rest.

Like i say, it seemed very easy at that point, just a real pain to get there. I would really like to know what he did.

This quest would probably be better if it was give at the Temple of the Ages instead, or that villainy leads you to the temple, and a NPC will direct you from the temple to the final destination.

Once you have a strong team, it's a piece of cake.

It's definitely a very hard mission. It *would* be good, I think, for there to be some warning that it's very difficult.

However, I don't agree that it just shouldn't be given out when it is. I like the idea of giving out quests which are enormously difficult for the level they are given out at. *Not* all quests, or even most quests, but a few quests here and there which are clearly described as being quite hard (no, I'm not entirely sure how to do that, but people are creative =).

As long as players understand that the quest WILL be difficult and that they will PROBABLY fail unless they are higher levels than they are now, and/or unless they bring lots of relatively high level human players (since they are often higher than the henchmen available, anyway), I don't see a problem.

I failed the quest badly the first time I played, and just waited a couple levels before trying again. It was extremely satisfying when I beat it, though, far more than most quests.

All that said, here's something ArenaNet should maybe keep in mind: There should be short and long quest throughout the game. This exists to some extent, but it seems that there's a fairly strong trend towards later quests being much longer. (I'm not asking for epic journeys pre-Academy; that would be silly.)

Once you get there, its not that bad.

I did it yesterday with a team of henchmen. We set out from temple of the ages and upon meeting the casters i just eliminated the few on the right side and the ones in the front.
I lost 3 henchmen, including my healer amongst the rest of the enemies but i cleared enough on one side for me to sneak past the rest.
I went along the ridge on the right to fight the level 20 bandits and then just killed galrath himself.
Hope this helps.

The bandits were level 20 for you, Tactical? I don't remember what they were when I did it, but we (group of 8 level 15-18 and 2 level 20s) stomped them like they were level 13 mobs. Not to mention Galrath... what a wuss... and I was expecting a really tough fight with him.

Finally finished it. Man, what a mess. There were four named up the slope to him, they were all 21 - 25. Groups of about 4 - 5 each (including named). Hell, the bandits were only 11 and Galrath was 20. It was GETTING to them that was the nasty part.

There was no easy route to the place and every darn thing in the place was on either me or Alesia the entire time. Guess the mobs heard there's a priority order. =/

Anyway, its done and be damned if I'm not glad of it.