It once again took me hours to nail a Hard Mode mission in Guild Wars Nightfall. Jennur’s Horde was the previous time-consuming, pain-inducing mission; this time it was, appropriately enough, the Gate of Pain.
Gate of Pain is certainly doable in Hard Mode even with Heroes and henchmen but there will be a lot of gnashing of teeth and snarling. I certainly found it frustrating when I tackled it earlier today. I was seeing way too much of this:
This is one of those missions where players need to be adept at micromanaging AI allies. Flags are your friend here.
Flag a Hero ahead of the party in order to draw the aggro of the elementalists — Protective Spirit would ensure the Hero would survive the first few vicious blasts — before moving in with the rest of the party.
Flags can also be used to move Heroes and henchmen away from the Terrorweb Dryders’ deadly bombardments. The Terrorweb’s main threat is the Meteor Shower — a slow and easily interrupted spell. Unfortunately, the bonus for this mission requires taking out mobs featuring three Terrorweb Dryders each. If you lock on one, the other two are free to party wipe you.
To avoid that, you can try a few different things. One possible solution is to have two Heroes lock on to a Terrorweb Dryder each while the rest of the party tackles a third. I preferred to use hit and run tactics to take out those groups. My first attack would be aimed at the Emissary in each bonus mob and subsequent attacks would target individual Terrorweb Dryders. If your Heroes and henchmen aren’t withdrawing from battle as quickly as you’d like, flag them away from foes.
It’s a long mission that might see many a near-wipe but the patient player will find victory, sweet victory, is there for the taking.
Alternately you can play with “real players”…but then again they might be harder to control then heroes/henchies..hmm….the dilemma.
Most players don’t take too kindly to being commanded by a stranger in a PUG. I suppose it’s understandable considering computer games have long conditioned players to believe they’re the main star of the show. PUGs typically fail because there are eight egoistic leads, each firmly convinced their own way is best.
Still, I have no doubt an 8-player party would tear through most Hard Mode missions. Multiplied by 8, powerful PvE skills like Lightbringer Gaze would devastate Torment and Margonite mobs.
Unfortunately, I almost never see PUGs forming for Hard Mode missions.
I’m seriously considering putting together a
weekly Guild Wars group this year. I’m almost done with my Guardian of Elona title but I’d like to try the Elite PvE missions in the game and eventually sample PvP as well.