Thirsty River

Thirsty River is one of the missions required to achieve ascension in Prophecies. As part of the trials to ascend, defeat six teams of ever-increasing difficulty in a combat arena.

Objectives
Annihilate the opposing enemy teams.
 * Defeat Goss Aleessh's team.
 * Defeat Issah Sshay's team.
 * Defeat Hessper Sasso's team.
 * Defeat Josso Essher's team.
 * Defeat Lyssha Suss's team. [sic]
 * Defeat Kesskah Shissh's team. [sic]
 * *BONUS* Cleanse the area before King Khimaar's spirit is driven away.

Walkthrough
Before you fight the six teams mentioned in the objectives, there is the opportunity to gain morale bonuses by killing the Sand Giants that precede the first boss. There are five giants in all, each granting a 2% morale bonus. Three are in the first area, before continuing south down a path with burrowed scarabs, and two are after the path but before the gate. You are not timed yet, so feel free to pull devourers at your leisure to clear the way to the giants. The Sand Giants are not mission critical and a runner could rush ahead (meeting only minimal resistance from ranged devourer attacks) to talk to the Ghostly Hero and invoke the cutscene this will pull the rest of the party ahead. The lack of the morale boost from the Sand Giants can be made up by a strong team as morale is gained from each boss and by the Ghostly Hero using Claim Resource on the exit doors of each room.

The rest of the mission is separated into rooms, each containing 1-3 groups. These groups have a boss, a priest, and a number of Forgotten foes. Every two minutes after the door to a room is open, if the priest of the group is alive, it will resurrect all defeated foes in that group, thus timing is highly important in the larger rooms. Common practice is to focus fire on the priest at around the 1:30-1:40 mark (3:30, 5:30, etc for rooms with multiple priests) to ensure it is not alive at the 2:00 mark to resurrect everything you already defeated. If the timer reaches 1:55 and it appears your party will be unable to defeat the priest in time, exercise the better part of valor and pull back to prevent being instantly swarmed by the respawned foes. The door to the next room is opened when all foes in the current room are bested. Between rooms, the timer stops, and will reset when the next room is opened. There is sufficient time to fully regenerate and recharge between rooms. Make use of this, so the group's spellcasters can enter the next room at full energy. Remember that if the Ghostly Hero dies, the mission is over. Some find it easier to have the hero wait by each gate if your healers cannot keep him alive.

You'll see a Ghostly Hero in front of a gate to the first room. This room has only one group, the mesmer, Goss Aleessh and a couple of Forgotten Illusionist and Forgotten Champion subgroups. Chaos Storm is annoying, so target the Illusionists first before proceeding to the warriors and spread out. Remember to focus on the priest before it has a chance to resurrect its allies. Once all the foes are defeated, proceed through the door the Ghostly Hero opens and follow the path to the next room.

This room has two groups, headed by the elementalist Issah Sshay and the necromancer Hessper Sasso. Each group has its own priest, so it is not required to kill both before 2:00 has passed. You will most likely aim to finish off one group in the first two minutes and the other in the following two minutes. Issah and Forgotten Arcanists await straight ahead through the gate, while Hessper and Forgotten Cursebearers await to the right. Whichever group you choose to engage first, try not to aggro anyone from the other group. If it takes a significant amount of time to kill one group, consider waiting until about 3:50 before attacking the second group (try not to kill anyone until after the 4:00 mark has passed). However, foes do gain death penalty if you want to defeat a patrol or two beforehand, making them easier to kill the second time around.

The third room has three groups. Custodian Hulgar (warrior) is to the right, Josso Essher (monk) to the left, and Custodian Phebus (ranger) in between. In this room the right group will attack and kill King Khimaar. In doing so, they'll leave a gap large enough to get through to their priest and kill it. So, if you don't care about the bonus it's easier to get there quickly, eliminate the priest and defend the position when the group returns. As before, time your attacks such that the priest can be eliminated before every two minutes passes. Of the six groups, Josso's is most difficult. He has Word of Healing, often making it very difficult to kill his priest within a 2 minute window. If your team has high enough damage output, it's possible to simply outdamage the healing. Otherwise, someone should try to interrupt or disable Josso's healing skills while the rest of the party focuses on the priest. A well suited skill is Scourge Healing, which, when cast on Josso's priest and Josso himself, causes massive damage to both of them. Without his priest for support, Josso is much easier to defeat. Once all three groups in this room are defeated, the mission ends.

Bonus
In the final room, you'll hear the ghost of King Khimaar calling for help. The bonus is achieved upon completion of the mission if the king is still around. He will leave if the party takes more than ten minutes to clear the final room after triggering his dialogue, and he can be killed by foes. Either condition will fail the bonus, so make sure healers keep the king alive if he falls under attack. Usually, Custodian Hulgar's team will start attacking the king when you enter the final room. The king will die very quickly under attack, so taking down Custodian Hulgar's team first is essential as it is the only group that automatically aggros the king.

Having one player with a speed boost of 25-33% is helpful to draw the inital aggro away from the king at the beginning of the final room.

Skill recommendations

 * If the party has an overall low damage output, bring skills specifically to interrupt or disable the monk boss's healing. It can be frustrating to get all the way to the final room just to be unable to kill Josso Essher and his priest. Scourge Healing and Backfire are especially helpful in quickly killing any priest.
 * A Boss of every core profession type can be found in this mission. Bring a Signet of Capture if you have not yet captured the elite for your profession here. Remember the mission ends as soon as the final group is defeated, so if you wish to capture the elite from one of the final bosses, do not leave that group for last. It is possible to kill the boss before the priest to allow time for a capture but it is not recommended as you risk a respawn at every 2:00 min mark.
 * Consider bringing a minion master ally or some type of corpse control skill. Almost every enemy in this mission is fleshy and will leave exploitable corpses that the enemy Necromancers will use if your team does not.
 * Enemy groups have no protection from hex spells. Consider bringing hexes.
 * Enemy groups have no protection from conditions. Consider bringing conditions like blindness against the warriors and rangers or daze for the casters.  Be wary as the Sand Giants will use Plague Touch so save your conditions for other targets.
 * Enemy rangers will use the skill Throw Dirt to inflict blindness. Consider bringing some quick condition removal to assist your melee players.  Physical damage players with a secondary profession of necromancer can bring Plague Touch to use blindness against enemy rangers. "Can't Touch This!" will also render Throw Dirt completely useless against your entire team hassle-free.
 * The Forgotten Priests and Josso Essher can be defeated quickly by using skills that inflict the Dazed condition, such as Bestial Mauling and Concussion Shot or Broad Head Arrow.

Allies
Ghosts
 * 20 (20) Ghostly Hero
 * 24 (24) King Khimaar

Charmable animals
Animals
 * 5 Dune Lizard (near the Devourers and Sand Giants)

Foes
Constructs
 * 20 (26) Enchanted Sword
 * 20 (26) Forgotten Champion
 * 20 (26) Enchanted Bow
 * 20 (26) Forgotten Avenger

Devourers
 * 20 (26) Rockshot Devourer

Giants
 * 22 (31) Sand Giant

Forgotten
 * 20 (26) Enemy Priest
 * 20 (26) Forgotten Cursebearer
 * 20 (26) Forgotten Illusionist
 * 20 (26) Forgotten Arcanist

Bosses
Constructs
 * 24 (30) Custodian Hulgar &rarr; Warrior's Endurance
 * 24 (30) Custodian Phebus &rarr; Marksman's Wager

Forgotten
 * 24 (30) Josso Essher &rarr; Word of Healing
 * 24 (30) Hessper Sasso &rarr; Order of the Vampire
 * 24 (30) Goss Aleessh &rarr; Mantra of Recovery
 * 24 (30) Issah Sshay &rarr; Ether Renewal

Intermediate cinematic

 * Ghostly Hero: "Before you can Ascend and enter the Rift, you must first be cleansed."
 * Ghostly Hero: "Lead me safely to the Rune Circle at the end of this test, and I will cast the ritual to burn away your earthly imperfections."
 * Ghostly Hero: "Your first challenge will be to defeat a single legion of Forgotten."
 * Ghostly Hero: "Your opponents will be resurrected every two minutes unless you destroy the priest who tends their shrine."
 * Ghostly Hero: "Once you have defeated your foes, lead me to the door, and I will usher you into the next challenge."
 * Ghostly Hero: "The challenges will grow harder as you progress. If you defeat all of the foes along your path, we will claim the Rune Circle, and you will be cleansed."
 * Ghostly Hero: "Prove yourselves worthy, and you will be one step closer to gaining entrance to the Rift."

Intermediate dialogue
When the Ghostly Hero opens the door to the second challenge.
 * Ghostly Hero: "Quickly! Through the door. We face much harder challenges ahead."

When coming into range of King Khimaar.
 * King Khimaar: "The Forgotten defile the resting place of my people. Have we not suffered enough...?"

When the Ghostly Hero opens the door to the third challenge.
 * Ghostly Hero: "This last battle will test us all. May Balthazar grant us strength and courage."

Randomly during the third challenge.
 * King Khimaar: "I will never fully rest until the memory of my people is no longer taunted by these filthy creatures...."
 * King Khimaar: "My spirit has been weakened by such blashphemy. [sic] I must see the Forgotten removed from this place before I slip away...."
 * King Khimaar: "The Forgotten defile the resting place of my people. Have we not suffered enough...?"

If the group fails the bonus objective.
 * SECONDARY FAILED: King Khimaar has left this world without seeing the redemption of his people.

End cinematic

 * Ghostly Hero: "Under the scrutiny of the gods, your souls will be pure, your bodies cleansed. You are ready for the next phase."

Trivia

 * The beginning of this mission is similar to the first morale system of the Tomb of the Primeval Kings (now Heroes' Ascent). It requires you to kill Sand Giants for morale boosts; the first morale system of Tombs required you to kill Rift Wardens to get morale boosts before the beginning of the Tournament.
 * This mission's objectives are based on the Annihilation game type in Heroes' Ascent. Maps within Heroes' Ascent that use this game type are: The Underworld, Burial Mounds, and Golden Gates.