Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Vanquished! Tyrian Day 6

Areas Completed:

  • Sage Lands
  • Majestry's Rest
  • Nebo Terrace
Sage Lands
Party: W, P, R, E, Rt, Mo, Mo, Olias
Foes: 236
Time: 1hr 10min

So many pop-ups….

Spiders, necromancer touch scarabs (who do melee damage for you thorn tanks out there), devourers, etc. I’d venture to say close to half (if not more) of our kills were pop-ups. This area is one of those areas that you’ll feel extremely frustrated after vanquishing it. Not too much was painful here but then again we had two good human monks.

Majestry's Rest
Party: W, P, R, E, Rt, Mo, Mo, Olias
Foes: 55
Time: 28min

Ok, so we all thought this area was going to be incredibly difficult. We left from Temple of Ages for the 8-man party, ran through Curtain, and fought what little we had to as to get to Majestry’s Rest. We killed only what we had to kill to get to Rotscale in case we needed to work off some death penalty. Fortunately we didn’t have to do that though. We killed of the group at the foot of Rot’s bridge and then we were able to get him and all of the Dragon rangers onto the bridge quite easily. We had to retreat a few times when our casters ran low on energy, etc but we finally whittled down the group to just Rotscale. At this point, I got behind him so he couldn’t retreat and we pounded on him… Then we pounded on him some more... Then some more until he finally went down. Some 10-15 minutes of this vanquish was killing Rotscale and the inhabitants of his little island.

Something to note: if you leave from Majestry’s Rest, kill everything outside of the desert area before going there. We were able to complete this without stepping foot into the desert area.

Nebo Terrace
Party: W, P, R, R, Mo, Mo
Foes: 154
Time: 51min

You’ll need hex removal for the mergoyles and scales and condition removal for the undead. We were able to get by with minimal condition removal and a lot of hex removal.

Vanquished! Tyrian Day 5

Areas Completed:

  • Watchtower Coast
  • Ascalon Foothills
  • Diessa Lowlands
  • Flame Temple Corridor
Watchtower Coast
Party: W, R, R, E, Tahlkora, Razah (MM)
Foes: 158
Time: 41 min

There is more scale and mergoyle troubles here so bring your hex removal.

Ascalon Foothills, Diessa Lowlands, Flame Temple Corridor
Party: W, E, R, R, Rt, Tahkora
Foes: 58 (Foothills), 365 (Diessa), 103 (Flame)
Time: 16min (Foothills), 2 hr 8min (Diessa), 35min (Flame)

We left from Yak’s Bend and just kept going. After doing them with 6, I don’t want to imagine doing these areas with only a 4-man party. The Charr and Gargoyles in Lowlands and Flame Temple can do an insane amount of damage in an incredibly short amount of time. The Charr Warriors have Wild Blow and I was running my Gladiator’s Defense thorn build….

Monday, June 18, 2007

Vanquished! Tyrian Day 4

Areas Completed:

  • The Arid Sea
  • The Scar
  • Spearhead Peak
The Arid Sea, The Scar
Foes: 260 (Scar)
Time: 1 hr 48min (Scar)

We started from Elona. That’s right we brought an 8-man party into the Crystal Desert. The hydra can be fun if you don’t take them down fast enough and watch out for pop-ups but other than that not bad. We did have to run around for 10-15 minutes on each of these to find the last 1-2 groups/monsters.

Spearhead Peak
Foes: 233
Time: 1 hr 45min

This area was fun. Our Elementalist lost communication with the server 10 minutes after a new build had been released so she couldn’t join back up… We did well over half of this area with 7 people and I had flag only control of her two heroes with their resurrection skills permanently turned off. The area wasn’t too bad after we got the feel for the area but it took a lot longer to bring stuff down. Watch out for patrols! We did wipe a few times at the beginning because we were rushing a bit and not watching patrol routes and not pulling far enough.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Vanquished! Tyrian Day 3

Areas Completed:

  • North Kryta Province
  • Ice Flow
North Kryta Province
Party: W, W, E, R, Tahlkora, Tahlkora
Foes: 197
Time: 1 hr 39min

A lot of bog skales.... That much Spiteful Spirit sucks! Everything else wasn't too bad but the degeneration plus the SS was hard to deal with. Thank god for Lyne and her infinite MS build.

Ice Flow
Party: W, E, R, Margrid, Razah (MM), Master of Whispers, Tahlkora, Tahlkora
Foes: 212
Time: 1 hr 38min

Pull! Ice Imp groups can become overwhelming fast if you pull more than one group. The Mursaat group patrols can be problematic as well so pull again with these. Another thing to watch out for is the size of some of the Mursaat groups. String them out for a bit of help.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Vanquished! Canthan Day 12

Areas Completed:

  • Silent Surf
Silent Surf
Party: W, Razah (MM), Sousuke, Dunkoro, Illusion Hench, Interrupt Hench, Protector Hench, Earth Hench
Foes: 268
Time: 1 hr 8min

And that's all for Cantha! I am now a Canthan Vanquisher!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Vanquished! Canthan Day 11

Areas Completed:

  • Shenzun Tunnels
  • Raisu Palace
  • Rhea's Crater

Shenzun Tunnels
Party: W, E, Razah (MM), Sousuke, Jin, Master of Whispers (SS), Tahlkora, Tahlkora
Foes: 253
Time: 1 hr 18min

Same as Sunjiang District.

The Ritualists are a pain with Flesh of My Flesh, the Elementalist do a lot of damage and the Mesmers can really aggravate casters. Take your time and don't throw caution to the wind and you should be fine given your monks can handle the extreme amount of damage these guys can dish out.

Raisu Palace
Party: W, E, R, Rt, Razah (MM), Olias (blood), Tahlkora, Tahlkora
Foes: 261
Time: 1hr 24 min

Not as bad as we thought it would be but it definitely deserves caution. The major thing to remember is if you do happen upon multiple groups... run! Unlike some other areas if you aggro multiple groups here, it is much safer to run and reposition once one group breaks off or just break aggro all together.

Rhea's Crater

Party: W, E, R, Rt, Razah (MM), Master of Whispers (SS), Tahlkora, Tahlkora
Foes: 264
Time: 1hr 34 min

Wavecrest Stonebreak (Water Ele boss) = evil! Unfortunately his group is a patrol and we didn't fight it until last so we couldn't drop DP with other groups. Prot Spirit (Mo), Shelter (Rt), etc would be extremely useful... but we didn't have them. I think we all got a bit worried that we'd DP out. Still don't know how we pulled it off but we finally beat him.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Vanquished! Canthan Day 10

Areas Completed:

  • Sunjiang District
  • Unwaking Waters

Sunjiang District
Party: W, R, E, Rt, Razah (MM), Master of Whispers (SS), Tahlkora, Tahlkora
Foes: 210
Time: 1 hr 20min

Lots of Afflicted. The Ritualists are a pain with Flesh of My Flesh, the Elementalist do a lot of damage and the Mesmers can really aggravate casters. Take your time and don't throw caution to the wind and you should be fine given your monks can handle the extreme amount of damage these guys can dish out.

Unwaking Waters

Party: W, R, E, N (MM), Master of Whispers (SS), Jin, Tahlkora, Tahlkora
Foes: 153
Time: 51 min

We did well in this area which was worrisome for a fear of us before we entered. The biggest issue is the amount of patrols. Pull far so you don't encounter multiple groups. A protector monk helps a lot too due to the Ride the Lightning elementalist.

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Vanquished! Canthan Day 9

Areas Completed:

  • Archipelagos
  • Gyala Hatchery
  • Boreas Seabed

Archipelagos
Party: W, Razah (MM), Sousuke, Dunkoro, Interrupt Hench, Illusion Hench, Earth Hench, Protection Hench
Foes: 174
Time: 1 hr

Gyala Hatchery
Party: W, Razah (MM), Sousuke, Dunkoro, Interrupt Hench, Illusion Hench, Earth Hench, Protection Hench
Foes: 191
Time: 57 min

Boreas Seabed
Party: W, R, Razah (MM), Sousuke, Sousuke, Tahlkora, Dunkoro, Jin
Foes: 220
Time: 56min

These three areas are comprised of mostly the same enemy types and there are a lot of groups that will fight each other making your job much easier. For example, in Boreas Seabed there are a lot of patrols that will patrol right into hostile groups if you stand far enough away and just enjoy the show. The Naga Ritualists can be a pain if you let them live for too long but make sure to kill any melee first unless you have a live, human tank.

The areas aren't too bad and as you can see I did 2 of the 3 with just heroes and henchmen. I have tried to do Sunjiang District a few times with heroes and hench and the Afflicted area of effect is too much for the AI. It looks like I will need to get the gang together to finish off Cantha.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Vanquished! Grenth's Footprint

Party: W, W, Mo, N (MM), Jin, Sousuke, Tahlkora, Master of Whispers (SS)

This area has a lot of groups bunched close to other groups so you will want to make long pulls to avoid extra aggro. Corners should be used when you can but with an MM it's more important for bunching enemies than for protecting casters from melee. The warriors were usually only 1 per group maybe 2 and that's if the group had a warrior at all. Corners will also help with groups consisting of a lot of rangers. They can do a lot of damage quickly if they decide to spike a target. As usual, the Gnashers (necromancers) are a pain and as such should be targeted after any warriors are dealt with. The groups consisting of Ice Imps and Ice Golems, be sure to spread out to avoid AoE spells.

Vanquished! Maishang Hills

Party: W, R, Razah (MM), Sousuke, Sousuke, Tahlkora, Dunkoro, Jin
Foes: 189
Time: 51

Before I go too far, remember to pull the Assassin boss and the Elementalist Island Guardian boss groups together. Then, you can sit back and watch the fireworks and kill the remaining 2-3 creatures after. Thanks to Donut for that tip!

More Naga, Wallows, and Kappa here. Naga have channeling ritualist who's AoE can be deadly if you don't spread out. Wallows can spike a single target if you aggro a large enough group and they all target the same person. Kappa at this level are pure annoyance here.