Survivor

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Survivor
Campaign Core
Title type Character

The Survivor title track is one of the more frustrating and nerve-wracking titles to pursue. The tiers in this title are all earned by achieving a certain amount of experience without dying even once. This title can be displayed in the "Honor" monument.

Contents

[edit] Survivor title track

Tier Title Experience gained without dying Average time (sample size) Range
1 Survivor 140,600 10 hours (N=4) 8.5-11.5
2 Indomitable Survivor 587,500 50 hours (N=3) 46-52
3 Legendary Survivor 1,337,500 33 hours with farming (N=7) 10-55
95 hours without farming (N=8) 52-157

[edit] Acquisition

Your character must not die if you wish to progress in this title track. A single death will halt its progress for that character permanently and irrevocably. Type "/deaths" in the in-game chat to run the command that checks the number of deaths your current character has suffered. If the command reports anything other than 0 deaths, this title track is no longer active.

If the character dies after achieving at least tier 1, the title track will still be visible and the title can still be displayed, but it will not progress any further. It will remain at the amount of experience the character had when the first death was accrued.

Players attempting this title will often restart their character if they die. This adds costs to re-equip and re-skill the character and heroes. Costs can be somewhat reduced by using uncustomized items, and salvaging runes and mods. However, armor crafting costs cannot be saved.

[edit] Types of deaths

Not all deaths are counted as deaths by "/deaths" command. The following circumstances will not affect the progress of Survivor:


The following circumstances will cause you to incur a death and will halt your Survivor progress:

  • Dying from losing all health from damage or sacrifice (includes deaths during PvP)
  • Deaths accrued while in a state of disconnection (when connection is lost, but you are still logged in).
  • Your Junundu losing all health (Nightfall only).
  • Failing to use STAND UP! in time when knocked out while brawling.
  • Getting killed by flame geysers in the Catacombs.
  • Getting killed by one of the Catapults in the Fort Ranik Mission.
  • Losing a round in a Polymock match.
  • Dying in the mock PvP Battle when leaving pre-searing Ascalon, before meeting up with Rurik.

[edit] Useful tips

[edit] Planning

  • If possible, decide early if you desire to achieve this goal. Planning your progression throughout the game will help immensely on where you can easily rack up experience points. Things such as marking areas, missions, quests, and bosses that are considered high-risk will help on minimizing the chance of dying.
  • Aim to complete the Augury Rock mission in Tyria before completing the mission Nahpui Quarter in Cantha or the quest Hunted! in Elona - you will receive 50,000 XP for completing Augury Rock if it is your first Ascension-equivalent accomplishment.
  • Get yourself run through dangerous areas either early on, or not at all.
  • The Journey to the North buff allows to level characters in GW:EN from level 10 to 20 with higher health and attributes. However, the difficulty in GW:EN is higher, so even with the buff, this is not advised unless you are well prepared.

[edit] Where to find XP

(With a Scroll Of The Lightbringer you can gain an average of roughly 35k xp from one run.)

[edit] Character build

  • Aim for a combination of high armor and ranged attacks or effects, e.g. ranger and paragon primaries are recommended.
  • Aim for a support role: healing, condition removal, and buffs are non-threatening to enemies, thus you are less of a target for them. It also allows you to help your team without necessarily going into aggro range yourself.
  • Include a skill for running if possible.
  • Include an emergency skill that will either keep you alive long enough to map out of the area if things turn ugly, or just help you long enough to cause whatever is targeting you to target someone else. Some examples are Endure Pain, Shadow Form, Whirling Defense, Shield Stance, Obsidian Flesh, Mark of Protection, Feigned Neutrality, and Healing Hands.
  • Always include a self-heal of some form, just in case the healers are dead, dazed, or otherwise occupied.
  • Get high health by using Survivor's insignia, Runes of Vigor/Vitae and weapon upgrades of Fortitude. A high health not only improves your general survivability, but also makes you a less desirable target for the monster AI.

[edit] Party

  • Ask your friends to help out. Guild and alliance members are much more understanding of your goal and will tolerate sudden departures in mid-play. Playing in pick-up groups (PUG) is much more risky as random players may not have good teamwork or may simply not put the effort to protect you. Guild and alliance members that you have played with is usually preferred.
  • When progressing on this title alone, consider using Henchmen and/or Heroes over joining a PUG. When adventuring alone with heroes and henchmen, you are free to use your escape method at any given time, as you are the only human player in the game.
  • If one must go with a PUG, it is recommended to advise the party members of your goal and intention. It lets the party members and party leader decide if they wish to have you aboard. Some may not tolerate sudden departures in mid-play when a massive battle is taking place. And this will give the party a fair enough warning to decide on keeping you around. Keep in mind that some people will deliberately try to get you killed to foil your attempt at the title, so keep an eye out for trouble.
  • Be more defensive than aggressive. It is easier to recognize and react to a losing fight if it is drawn out.

[edit] Using heroes and henchmen

  • Learn to control them. Use target calling to tell them to attack your target without attacking it yourself, which is important to stay out of the frontlines.
  • Use them to acquire initial aggro. The AI tends to attack the target caller so having your heroes and henchmen out front makes you less of a target. Use them to pull enemies too.
  • When fighting AoE-heavy enemies, spread your heroes around using the flags.

[edit] Maximizing your runs

  • Use XP gained from monster kills to your advantage. Every point counts no matter how little it gives you. Consider using XP scrolls in areas where monsters are plentiful.
  • Hold off on using the Signet of Capture until you are at level 20. This way, each elite skill capture is worth 5,000 XP. This is one of the quickest methods of advancing in the title.

[edit] Strategy

  • Have an escape plan ready to execute when the situation worsens. A logout key or warping to an outpost, town, or guild hall is the most common method of escaping from scenarios where the battle outcome may not be in your favor. Do note, however, that latency between the server and your computer (also known as lag) can spike, causing the server to believe you are still in the area taking damage. It is not a foolproof method to escape and cheat death and one should refer to the above tip about planning ahead and marking high-risk (dangerous) areas.
  • Draw the enemies to you using bows, especially if they lay traps.
  • It is often preferable to kill nearby enemies first (warriors/assassins) rather than rush through to the monks and other squishies.
  • Take less risks. Avoid rushing for master's rewards, pull back and regroup if your party is taking too much damage.

[edit] Bugged Cinematics

  • It is very important to note that you can die during certain mission cinematics, most notably the one at the end of Vizunah Square. These bugs are caused by unbound minions present during the cinematic. In Vizunah Square, the cutscene forces minion masters to lose control of their minions due to the mechanics of the cutscene, which will then kill some of the party.
  • To avoid such deaths, either skip a cutscene the moment you see you are being attacked by minions, or close Guild Wars if someone in the party is not skipping. In the case of Vizunah Square, simply closing the game the moment you receive experience for the mission is the safest course of action.
  • In Prophecies chapter, in order to cross over from pre-searing you must go through a type of trial PvP arena. To avoid deaths in this arena (since levels can span from 1-15 or higher) Simply log out while waiting to go into battle. Once you log back in, you should be in the latter stages fighting grawl and charr with your party. In this situation you can simply hang back and strike from a distance or just wait for your party members to vanquish the area.

[edit] Case studies

[edit] With farming

  • Legendary Survivor (3) has been earned on a ranger in 69 hours using only the Nightfall campaign (with the exception of skills for other builds). It was done by farming the Battle of Turai's Procession quest with a R/Rt Splinter/Barrage build in normal mode with Insight scrolls. Note that farming points with this quest will now take longer due to changes made to the Splinter Weapon skill.
  • Legendary Survivor (3) has been earned on a warrior in 91 hours of play using scrolls and farming Jade Brotherhood Knights in hard mode. 3 Heroes with bonding enchantments were used in combination with Symbiosis.
  • Legendary Survivor (3) has been earned on a ranger in 55 hours starting from the Nightfall campaign: reaching the Consulate Docks at level 17 by playing through the story, then farming Bukdek Byway in hard mode with experience scrolls.
  • Legendary Survivor (3) has been earned on a monk and an elementalist in 35 and 42 hours respectively farming Kilroy's Punchout Extravaganza over and over, using experience scrolls to speed up the process.
  • Legendary Survivor (3) has been earned on an elementalist in 35 hours 45 mins starting from the Nightfall campaign: getting to level 10 with exp scrolls farming mainly in Plains of Jarin, and then the quest A Decayed Monument, and Kilroy hard mode using Hero scrolls.
  • Legendary Survivor (3) has been earned on a Paragon in 82 hours starting from the Nightfall campaign: reaching level 10 by playing through the story, then went to GWEN to Brawl Gunnar's Hold in normal mode using Lightbringer experience scrolls.
  • Legendary Survivor (3) has been earned on a necromancer in 34 hours by completing all quests in Kaineng Center reaching level 20, then doing all missions until after Sujiang District, then when he reached House Zu Helter, did Faction Farming run's earn 2k experience every time. No scrolls were used in this process.

[edit] Without farming

  • This timeline is based on one attempt, and meant to give an idea of the work involved in completing this title track. It was accomplished with a paragon (mesmer and monk secondary professions) using only henchmen and heroes:
  • Legendary Survivor (3) has been earned on a warrior, a ranger, and a mesmer in 125 hours (without Nightfall), 52 hours, and 64 hours, respectively. For each, complete most missions with Master's, complete most quests, and capture between 50-100 elite skills. No scrolls or repeatable quests were used.
  • Legendary Survivor (3) has been earned on a ranger in 59 hours using quests and missions (many during the 3x exp weekend) in the Factions and Nightfall campaigns, as well as capturing as many elites as possible. Only heroes and henchmen were used.

[edit] Notes

  • This title track will only appear on the Hero Panel upon attaining level 5 with zero deaths. If the character has died prior to reaching level 5, this title track will not appear.
  • The Survivor title track is mutually exclusive with the Defender of Ascalon title due to the "death leveling" strategy used to acquire the latter title. Revived pets and minions do not give experience, and as such those cannot be used to death level monsters. Nor can a willing partner be used to death-level the monsters, because there is no legal way to obtain a hard res in pre-Searing.
  • When Legendary Survivor is reached, the experience shown in the title track bar will not freeze until you incur your first death, at which point it will freeze.

[edit] Trivia

  • The Legendary Survivor experience requirement is 1,337,500. The first four numbers in that are 1337 which refers to Leetspeak.
Titles
Character titles
Core Cartographer • Drunkard • Guardian • Maxed Titles • Party Animal • Protector • Skill Hunter • Survivor • Sweet Tooth • Treasure Hunter • Vanquisher • Wisdom
Prophecies Legendary Defender of Ascalon
Nightfall Lightbringer • Sunspear
Eye of the North Asura • Deldrimor • Ebon Vanguard • Master of the North • Norn
All campaigns Legendary Cartographer • Legendary Guardian • Legendary Skill Hunter • Legendary Vanquisher
Core Champion • Gamer • Gladiator • Hero • Lucky • Unlucky • Zaishen
Factions Kurzick • Luxon
Nightfall,
Eye of the North 		Commander
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