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Eternal Grove HM

Ok so after a few attempts we were able to finally get Masters with the following setup:
South Team: 1 warrior (me with my HM thorns build), 1 fire ele, 1 MM (Razah), 1 Monk
North Team: 1 conjure barrager, 1 splinter barrager, 1 MM, 1 monk

We played off the high damage output of our barragers for one side and I tanked with the help of Razah's minions while Lyne dropped every fire spell imaginable on our side.

I would highly recommend each side take a minion master and a human healer. Also, after failing Masters once because of not doing this... I highly recommend that you setup the jugs as soon as possible. Get at least one in each doorway for a distraction in case something gets by you. This will give you time to get back before whatever gets by has a chance to kill a singer.

Thanks to everyone that helped out!

HM Raisu Palace

Easily the most frustrating HM mission that I've done yet. We must have tried this five times before we were finally able to do it. We tried the first 4 times with a full party of 8 (3 W, 2 Mo, 3Eles). After the 4th try, 2 of our eles had to leave so we replaced them with heroes (Razah as MM and ele nuker hero). We found the MM to be invaluable. The extra targets for enemies, the "wall" effect of the minions, and the damage (Death Nova) the minions added helpedtremendously. We finished masters with time to spare with the minions.

DoA News

So I took a little break after completing the Legendary Vanquisher title and haven't been hitting things as hard.

I did get to run a few test into DoA with 4 humans and 4 heroes. Good news: DoA can now be done without the default build. I'd advise against pugs if you are going to do non-build 8man. Bad news: heroes are doable now but incredibly hard. We got to Jodath in City and wiped with only him left. The monster wear you down little by little and sooner or later the DP gets hard to work with. The quest reward helped a lot though but the DP didn't stay gone for long. :(

Update 13 August 2007:
It'll take work to figure out what works for which area. Get a full human party of DoA experienced players and play around with some builds. In the least run through the areas a few times so others can become familiar with the enemies of each area and their skills.

Also, if you want to go through all the areas in sequence, the best build is still the default Balanced DoA build.

Legendary Vanquisher

Tonight I completed my last vanquish needed for the Legendary Vanquisher Title!

I know that I need to go back and retro-actively add all of the notes about the areas I've Vanquished in the past week. I've got some pretty good notes on kill counts and times but I don't remember all the party setups.

I'll post the notes and update this post later.

Thank you to everyone who helped along the way!

Evil forces in Fissure destroyed!

In an incredible expedition on the evening of July 5, 2007, eight adventurers successfully pushed the forces of evil out of the Fissure of Woe. Every foe was defeated and every quest completed. The ardent adventures did not go unrewarded for their efforts. The group was awarded with 25 obsidian shards, 6 non-chest gold drops, 4 obsidian keys, 1 Passage Scroll to the Fissure of Woe, 1 sapphire, and an undisclosed amount of gold. Rumor has it that a single member of the expedition deposited over 5 platinum into his storage account.

Vanquished! Tyrian Day 11

Areas Completed:

• Iceflow

Iceflow
Party: W, E, E, N, P, R, Mo, Dunkoro
Time: 30min
Foes: 140

This is a small area with lots of good corners. The corners are so good in some places that we were able to pull multiple groups at a time. The usual for Stone Summit works here. Dolyaks should be dealt with first while the tank holds the Carvers and Herders. Gnashers and Heretics are constant nuisances but the Carvers are capable of spiking backline characters and need to be dealt with first with Dolyaks. Just be careful with enchants as Heretics have Strip Enchantment.

Vanquished! Tyrian Day 10

Areas Completed:

• Frozen Forest

Frozen Forest
Party: W, N, E, E, E, R, Tahlkora, Tahlkora
Time: 2hr 39min

I was rushing to get through and probably took a few chances I normally wouldn’t so we had a few deaths that were unnecessary. Also, I really missed having an MM here too. The snares were so bad that I could not hold aggro as usual. I could re-position myself when needed, etc. An MM with body blocking minions would have been a great help with stopping melee from getting to the backline and giving the enemies a few more targets to attack.

Vanquished! Tyrian Day 7, 8 and 9

.: Weekend Edition :.

Areas Completed:

• Traveler's Vale
• Talmark Wilderness
• Tears of the Fallen
• Twin Serpent Lakes
• Regent Valley

Traveler's Vale

This is a very manageable area if done using the terrain and pulling (oh and without any quests). The patrols here were a problem but after the first one caught us we started pulling pretty far and didn’t have a problem after that.

Regent Valley
Party: W, E, Razah, Tahlkora
Foes: 155
Time: 1hr 24min

The more I play in the 4-man areas the less I want to. These areas can be extremely difficult. The abundance of Grawl Ulodytes was the largest aggravation here. Most of this area was fairly simple using the terrain and pulling, but when 2 Ulodytes aggro, it’s nearly impossible to take them down with 4 people.

To kill them, separate them. They have a very strong Heal Area and it will keep them both up through multiple Meteor Showers. Luckily, I was running a damager build so we split chores. I charged adrenaline on one then quickly switched to the second while Lyne (E) dropped Meteor Shower on the first then turned her other spells on my target. This seemed to work quite nicely for us and we were able to cruise along once we figured it out.

Talmark Wilderness
Party: W, W, E, Mo, Mo, Razah, Sousuke, Margrid
Foes: 227
Time: 1hr

Imps here are pretty powerful but other than that not too much to worry about.

Tears of the Fallen, Twin Serpent Lakes
Party: W, E, R, R, Mo, Mo, Razah, Norgu
Foes: 72 (Tears), 181 (Twin)
Time: 22min (Tears), 55min (Twin)

Warning: You are now entering hex country.

These area were nothing but Scales and Mergoyles. Both come in two flavors. The Scales come in Spiteful Spirit and Tainted Flesh while the Mergoyles come in Power Block Mesmer and Water Elementalist. As a warrior, I felt like I do when I’m tanking in DoA: all meat shield with no other duty to the party other than holding aggro. The SS scales run Spiteful Spirit, Price of Failure, Soul Barbs, and Life Siphon. The Mesmer Mergoyles run Mind Wrack and Spirit Shackles. I spent most of the time in these zones unable to attack without paying for it.

Underworld Excursion

This week our guild’s high-end PVE excursion was to the Underworld. Our group walked away with 15 ecto! (3 for me :)). We decimated the Labyrinth, the Chaos Plains, the Bone Pits, the Forgotten Vale, and the Spawning Pools. We completed Clear the Chamber, Wrathful Spirits, Terrorweb Queen, and then it got late and we got adventurous. We then returned to the Chaos Planes to try The Four Horsemen (none of us knew what we were in for)… We killed a few Terrorwebs out of 1 of the 4 Banished Rider boss Horsemen groups and then it all went south. Not knowing the quest we setup badly, the other groups rushed the Reaper, and even though our Ritualist was doing an awesome job spirit spamming we couldn’t get back to help him and the Reaper deal with the other Horsemen and their Terrorweb groups…

It really was an excellent run though and it was actually Kousei’s greatest and most far reaching excursion into the Underworld. I had never even been to Chaos Plains, Bone Pits, and Spawning Pools with any character before last night.

Thanks to all who were in the party!