Having acquired the Protector of Cantha, Guardian of Cantha and Guardian of Tyria titles for my Mesmer in Guild Wars, I was 3/5 towards the Kind Of A Big Deal title and 3/6 towards the Legendary Guardian title. I logged on to Guild Wars today for the first time in seven weeks and headed over to Kamadan in order to grab the next title on the list: Guardian of Elona.
The Wintersday celebration is still going on so the Jewel of Istan was seeing a lot of the white stuff.
Living as I do in a tropical country, I’m only vaguely familiar with what passes for appropriate winterwear but I’m pretty damned sure a miniskirt is not the best way to go.
Especially if you’re a guy.
I moseyed over to the Kamadan docks for my first Nightfall Hard Mode mission.
Consulate Docks is one of the finest Guild Wars mission designs. It’s quick, action-packed and has a bonus objective that is straighforward. There’s no time limit and there’s no way to get lost during the mission. And there’s a cool cutscene to look forward to at the end of it.
The mission isn’t especially hard in Hard Mode but I did have to take two tries to beat it. My first attempt was a little sloppy but in my defence, I hadn’t logged on in almost two months and I had an average ping rate of 700ms.
Still, I managed to do all right until I met an Elementalist boss close to the end who eventually wiped out the entire party out with his powerful AOE attacks. I expected to him to cause some problems but had underestimated his hitting power in Hard Mode. I had clearly erred by not bringing along a Protection Monk. (The mission requires Dunkoro’s presence but I had set him up as a pure healer.)
Out went Master of Whispers and in came Tahlkora.
Take two was much more successful. I had Tahlkora cast Protective Spirit and Life Sheath on Olias and sent the minion master ahead to attract the Elementalist boss’s attention. Once the boss was distracted by Olias and his merry gang of undead, the rest of the party could lay the smackdown without fear of retribution. The boss succumbed quickly and the party progressed to the end without further complications.
Guardian of Elona: 1/20.
Next: a visit to the cemetery.
