Talk:When Kappa Attack (Hard mode)

General Tips

Panic is extremely helpful in controlling large groups.

-Wave 1- Some have suggested that killing a group of Kappa will trigger the next wave to arrive sooner. I feel like the entire mission timed and additional time saves by running towards the Kappa is valuable at times.

-Wave 2- If you still have Cleansing the Undercity quest you can try to use the Afflicted to your advantage. After clearing the first wave you can then clear the first group of Afflicted on the way to the second shrine. As you approach the second corrupted location you can run by a group of Afflicted and initiate the cleansing. This will spawn the first wave of Kappa that will fight with remaing Afflicted. While the Kappa are engaged you can join the battle and retreat until you take out the remaining waves.

Either way you can also confuse the lower level Kappas to run on top if you are close enough to their spawn point. Which can buy you more time and reset your tank or Panic Mesmer to get a nice bunching for the next wave. I prefet spirit blocking and then engaging when the Kappa are focused on the spirits. Maybe offer your Tank as a target.

-Wave 3-

I am beginning to believe to key to this level is using the differences in elevation to gain and advantage.

-Wave 4-

7 Hero team

Is this even doable? I thought a long time about hero builds, and created a 7 hero team that works very well. I flawlessly cleared the first two spawn points, without any heroes dying. Even my summoned siege turtle stayed alive. Then at the third spawn point, I didn't stand a chance! Way too many kappa coming in, and the fact that they come from different directions means 1) they can't be caught in aoe and 2) you can't tank them all because if you tank one side the other side will gank your backline or Oroku. I tried this quest many times, but there is no way that I can beat the waves at the third spot. Did anyone actually succeed at this, with heroes? PS I did not use consumables apart from a summon stone, and I'm a ranger.62.238.207.70 16:01, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Forget this quest. It is not like it is going to get you anything. 2 imperial Commendation...not even worth it. It is even harder than the HM quest "Last day dawn". Skyblue trueaim 16:17, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

Ridiculously hard (and expensive) to deal with! I did manage to beat this HM with heroes but it took some strategizing. I ended up using cons, summon stones (regular ones and at least one shining blade warhorn or tengu flare) and a rez scroll. A bonus is having Xan Hei (for the extra heals) and doing this along with Cleansing the Undercity active. For heroes a panic mez, partywide condition removal to deal with the disease kappas, a mm with veratas aura, and spirits were useful. The first stage is passable with using just a summon stone and no cons. You just have to run to meet the first spawns of each of the 3 waves while keeping an eye on Oroku. Leave off and let the spirits and minions finish these first mobs while you engage the others but be sure to catch the violent kappas (the eles) and kill them right off (pain inverter is great for this). The second stage is when I popped a set of cons and another summon stone if the first one got killed. Set up along the top stairs. Be sure to kill off the afflicted mob on the top level in case it wanders into Oroku's aggro zone before triggering this stage. Then spread your healers along the space at the top of the stairs and place yourself and the rest of your heroes a bit before them. Again try to target the violent kappas first. More than likely you'll use the rez scroll somewhere during this fight. If you survive, pat yourself on the back and gear up for the third stage! Stop and take time to set up here before triggering this last one. Your cons should still be active (if not pop another set before triggering) and if you are still under the summoning sickness or you summons hasn't died I'd wait it out so you can pop the summoning stone that summons 3 allies here (best is either the shining blade warhorn or the tengu flare because if you're lucky you'll get an ele, monk and nec allies). I used a warhorn summon and got a war, ele and ranger ally that lasted through the entirety of this battle. Use the same strategy as the first stage. Run to meet the intial spawns (but dont go past the bridge), keep tabs on Oroku, kill the violent kappas, and know when to leave off the mobs and let the minions and spirits finish them while engaging the other spawns. The last stage is pretty simple. Just spread your heroes out before engaging the boss. For safety I cleared the area of Mina Shatterstone's mob before triggering the end battle. Target Giovanni the ele with PI. Goodluck! I really think they need to adjust this. A party wipe equals failure even when the rez shrine is close by, since Oroku will get killed during the 10 sec rez countdown. It'd be easier if they made Oroku non-targetable. Coriander 21:43, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

Or let him do something other than... nothing... At least Xan Hei does something usefull (KILL MementoMori 17:33, 7 April 2012 (UTC))

Or better again, didnt make it that you failed if he dies, make himself self-rezable, etc., even though i have managed to eat this once in HM, this is one of them quest you ask ArenaNet, WTF were you thinking?....and i refuse to ever use cons for ANYTHING, since so far i have never needed them to beat anything i came across, NM/HM ;)--60.231.233.243 21:27, 3 September 2012 (UTC)

You can do DoA HM with 7 heroes and no cons? I find that extremely hard to believe.--98.114.178.63 06:37, 4 June 2015 (UTC)

That comment was submitted prior to the elementalist redesign, when it was still very much possible to 7-hero-no-cons DoA HM. - Infinite - talk 10:53, 4 June 2015 (UTC)

Still possible to do DoA HM with heroes & no cons, the 3rd room in Foundry is the biggest potential stumbling block and it was done successfully [1], links are broken now though.

Got 6 people to join me for this quest, including an SoS, ST, and Wanderlust Rit. Planned out heroes and everything. We used Cons at part2 and STILL LOST! Do not try this quest unless you are pro!!! Huge waste of cons.

"Hard Mode"

I can understand wanting a challenge in a game and I am all for it. But Arenanet clearly had no idea how to make the game harder they literally just overtuned everything in the mode and decided alright throw yourself at this and hope for the best. They clearly never tested it as shown by the comments here. As someone playing in 2018 if you are browsing looking for help on this, my best advice is this. Ignore any hardmode specific quests for a long time, perhaps never as they are very much not worth the time and do not offer you anything special in terms of Hall of monuments and such. They are just there for you to feel better about yourself but they clearly fail at this as most are impossible or near impossible to complete with a full compliment of heroes in decked out gear and clever strategy going in. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 73.196.193.211 (talk) at 01:17, 27 September 2018 (UTC).

As per the above section, this quest was designed and introduced prior to the Elementalist rebalance of 2012. The updates from that patch have made this quest significantly harder to complete. The quest was at least somewhat manageable before that time. - Infinite - talk 19:46, 27 September 2018 (UTC)

Previously made a guide on it, here's some info about the quest in HM

As stated I did write a guide on this on guru, some time later guru got killed (it had around 70k+ views if i recall correct in the section "The Campfire" or Explorer's League) but i can't find the guide - here is the builds and how to flag your party however (as i found it in my ss's); imgur.com/a/jyRYXea .

Consets & tengu flare etc is a must if you want to have a somewhat smooth ride (it's not impossible without but NOT recommended - this is probably the hardest quest in the game (elite areas & WoC excluded).

There are ways to access guildwarsguru still (well, parts of it) as below (if you do not think my builds helped);

web.archive.org/web/20140405143406/ [http:] //www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/when-kappa-attack-hm-t10503613p2.html - note this is not my guide (I am not Jeydra), mine had more hitts and was post nerf with point by point explanations.

NR (ranger) should aparantly also be useful, stated by a later poster in that thread.

Good hero build for hard mode

After reinstalling GW after many years, I remembered that this was the only quest I couldn't do. After about 20 tries and lots of experimenting, I did it as a Warrior! Leaving from Vizunah Square (local), clear the Am Fah all the way to Oroku, then take on the first group Kappa group (easy enough, didn't even flag heroes). For the next section of Kappa, move heroes to above the bridge and leave them flagged there, this messes up the AI pathfinding a little and keeps heroes safe from lots of the elementlaist spells, enemy minions, spirits, and all the normal ranged attacks, this tactic worked two out of three times. For the final group, just run at them and target the violent's first. The final group here is hard, but my hero build was big AoE and damage on death. The final boss group was actually really easy: target the ele and monk. I found it best to manually cast spirits for my Soul Twisting rit and manually have heroes cast shield of absorption on myself in the second fight. No consumables needed, but the res shrine belssings of Dwayna (+10 armour, +1 regen) and grenth (+3 life steal on attack) were useful and I used a canthan guard summon at the last fight to confuse enemies with more targets. Only one death on the successful run, so my Urals hammer was wasted, but I'm glad this quest is finally done (only took 8 years!)

Builds were WA SY/endurance OQcSE5OTvl2FOMMMHMdapixg, Rt/x ST: OACjAyhDJPWTs5jz6FOdmQzLGA, N/Rt Icy/resto: OAhjYwHTIPV1amdYqOOncSzhJA, N/Mo AotL prot OANDUspPSVVyBVBbhKgoB3VaRA, Me/Rt Esurge OQhkAoC8AGKjp7EM9yBDhMwI8iB, Me/Rt Esurge OQBDAqwDOmuTw0LHMEyA4UXA, Me/Rt Esurge OQBDApwTSmOnATP5A4UZAjQHgA, Rt/Me SoS/resto OAWkMIhrITaDG7aWOXmTOp5wMuB.

Just did it (2024-10-24). Deathless and consless

Sorry for bad formatting, I'm new to wiki edits.

Quest log showing completed When Kappa Attack

Build:

For the player, I used a E/any Elemental Attunement Fire, with Ebon Battle Standard of Wisdom. For the heroes, I used 7-hero mercenary mesmerway, with the following differences:

1) The ST Prot has Flesh of my Flesh instead of Fall Back (turned out to be unnecessary)

2) The SoS Resto has Flesh of my Flesh instead of Ancestor's Rage (turned out to be unnecessary)

3) The BiP is unchanged

4 & 5) I used 2 Dom Mesmers with Panic (instead of Energy Surge), Chaos Storm (instead of Spiritual Pain), and Flesh of my Flesh (instead of Drain Enchantment, turned out to be unnecessary)

6) The third Dom Mesmer uses Energy Surge, Spiritual Pain, and Flesh of my Flesh (turned out to be unnecessary)

7) The Illusion Mesmer is replaced with a Death Necro (12+1+3 Death Magic, 10+1 Soul Reaping, 8 Command) with the following skills and gear:

 a) Insightful Soul Shrieker (20% chance of half casting time of death magic spells, /bonus in a town to obtain it)
 b) 4 blessed insignias, 1 bloodstained insignia
 c) 1 rune of Major Vigor and 2 runes of Vitae
 d) Aura of the Lich, Animate Bone Fiend and Animate Shambling Horror
 e) Putrid Bile, Blood of the Master, Masochism
 f) Signet of Lost Souls, Stand Your Ground

Walkthrough:

1) Have Cleansing the Undercity quest active (lvl 28 Zei Ri is really helpful)

2) Start from Vizuna Square (Local), travel to meet Oroku

 a) It's on the other side of the map (see image for optimal path)

The path for When Kappa Attack

 b) Clear the Am Fah and Afflicted along the way (two groups), as well as pre-clearing spot 2
 c) If you see afflicted fighting Am Fah, prioritize killing the afflicted first
 d) Make sure to pre-cast Shelter, Union and Displacement before every battle
 e) Spread-out the 3 mesmers before every battles

3) First spot:

 a) Focus Violent kappas
 b) Let minions finish off spirits
 c) Use Ebon Battle Standard of Honor on every CD, try to have at least 3 heros in it

4) Second spot:

a) Place the 3 mesmers and the ST/BiP on top of the bridge directly over where Oroku stands. Place the three mesmers far enough apart from each other, and the ST/BIP far enough apart, behind them.

Hero placement for spot 2

 b) The player, Zei Zi and the MM will go stand right on top of Oroku underneath (and slightly behind) the bridge
 c) The MM and the heros being on the bridge will seriously confuse the enemies, spreading the waves out and making them manageable
 d) Chaos Storm and player AoE really shines here
 e) The MM's Putrid Bile also helps tremendously with killing off the waves quickly (when one enemy dies, the rest usually die as well)
 f) Use Ebon Battle Standard of Honor on every CD, right underneath the bridge, to grant its buff to all your heroes
 g) Try to focus the Violent Kappas, but honestly things get chaotic pretty quickly, and they should die to AoE easily
 h) Sometimes the minions will move forward enough that the enemies will bunch up out of range of the mesmers. Just use player AoE to deal some damage, but it's fine to just retreat until and wait for the minions to die.
 i) When the area is cleansed, watch out for any stray enemies that might be outside compass range. Flag the heroes close to the wall to help take them down from above.

5) Third spot:

 a) Success here depends on how much AoE you can dish out
 b) Therefore, try to have enemies bunch up as much as possible to make Putrid Bile as effective as possible
 c) Run towards the waves when they approach, but don't move more than one aggro bubble away from Onaku
 d) The minions here should really tank most of the damage while you focus on killing enemies
 e) It's extremely important to finish off each wave before the next one appears, otherwise you will quickly become overwhelmed
 f) Towards the end, instead of many small waves coming from all directions at once, each wave will consist of one large mob (approx. double the normal size)
 g) Make sure to pre-cast spirits and to use Ebon Battle Standard of Honor on every CD, with at least 3 heros in it

6) Bosses:

 a) I totally messed up this part and had to kill all the bosses at the same time
 b) I focused the monk first though, but I was never in any danger because I pre-cast spirits and used Ebon Battle Standard of Honor

7) Finish off Cleansing the Undercity

 a) Remmber to pre-cast spirits, and keep Ebon Battle Standard of Honor up
 b) say goodbye to this zone!