I beat Sanctum Cay yesterday in Hard Mode to make it 14/25 towards the Guardian of Tyria title.
This was a noteworthy accomplishment since it was achieved in a strange session during which I somehow contrived to make every possible mistake I could.
My first try was curtailed almost immediately when I hit Shift+Power instead of Shift+Print Screen. Instead of taking a screenshot without the UI, as I intended, the PC quickly shut down.
Thankfully, the reconnect feature is available once again so I continued where I left off in the mission after I powered-up my PC and logged on.
Things didn’t improve.
The party was beset by a pack of Inferno Imps as I was distracted by Evennia’s character model. This resulted in four of my party of six kissing dirt. Remarkably, the expected party wipe was avoided and I recovered from this early setback. Whatever satisfaction I gained from punishing the Imps for their impudence was short-lived as I suffer the ignominy of a party wipe at the hands of the very next group of Inferno Imps.
Take two
I swapped Master of Whispers, who was set up as a Spiteful Spirit Necromancer, for Olias, my standard minion master. This would prove to be a good decision as Olias’s dead pets distracted melee foes away from the party’s vulnerable casters in the second half of the mission.
I also replaced Orion with Reyna. I rarely use the archer in Normal Mode and was wondering if perhaps the Hard Mode version would be packing interrupts.
What I had in mind: a Tyrian equivalent to the mighty Zho, interrupter extraordinaire.
What Reyna actually used: Dual Shot and Power Shot.
In Hard Mode.
So, this really was a terrible decision. I belatedly realised the change in party composition also caused a significant reduction of the party’s firepower. This would explain why I had a lot of trouble during the mission; foes weren’t dropping fast enough.
Still, the second attempt went better than the first. Instead of getting wiped at the second combat encounter, the party was wiped by Lightning Drakes in the third combat encounter.
Take three
This time, we don’t get wiped at the third combat encounter. We do, however, get nearly wiped at the fourth when a large group of Undead converge upon us.
Olias was the last one standing because he shunts most of the damage he receives to his minions. I flagged him well back and once it was safe, I had him revive the party.
I did much better after this and the party made our way to the Vizier without much problem.
The final part of the mission was hairy, though.
The finale involves protecting Vizier Khilbron, a critical NPC, while he arranges for transportation on a pier. This part is hairy due to an assault by the White Mantle. If the Mantle kill the Vizier, it’s all over.
I thought it would be too difficult in Hard Mode if done the conventional way so I tried something different. Instead of waiting for the bad guys to come to me on the pier, I would take the fight to them.
The Mantle come from either side of the pier. I made a right turn at the beach, intending to take out the Mantle that come from that side first. By avoiding the pier, I also avoided summoning the Vizier. If he’s not there, he can’t be killed.
I still had to kill the Mantle.
There was a large group on the right side of the beach but I managed to get them piecemeal in groups of two or three as they headed towards the pier. Alesia, as is her wont, got herself killed on a regular basis, however. This was worrying since the party’s main healer was now significantly less effective.
This became truly worrying when I made my way back towards the pier and spotted this group packed tightly together on the pier waiting for me.
I looked at this group and I resigned myself to replaying this hour-long mission.
I intended to go down fighting, however.
So, I whipped out my longbow, an essential item in any PvE character’s inventory, and began pulling. Sometimes I succeeded in attracting small manageable groups of two or three.
At other times, the pull attempt went awry and the party had to run like hell as a large group of White Mantle charged towards us. Retreating is really hard to do in Hard Mode as foes have been given a speed boost. But we still somehow survived these bad pulls and eventually whittled down the Super Scary White Mantle Group of Death bit by bit.
Finally, there was only one White Mantle Knight left as the party moved towards the pier. As we closed in, Vizier Khilbron appeared and was set upon. We quickly took out the last foe and simply waited out last few minutes of the mission in peace and quiet.
All told, the mission took about 75 minutes. It would have gone much quicker and smoother if I hadn’t been so careless while composing the party. Lesson learnt.
