User:Gelbrekt/Prophecies & Eotn Rush

Document Summary

• This document describes the proposal for a team composation consisting of one character from each profession, rushing all 4 campaigns as fast as possible. This has been written by assuming the start is from Prohpesis (but not with any restrictions after that; i.e it is legal to complete EoTN directly). However, in a true rush, starting in Factions or Nightfall would likely be beter. Nightfall is convenient since it gives early access to PvE skills and the 30 attribute quests.

• Other Documents:

• • MAIN DOCUMENT TO USE: User:Gelbrekt/All Campaigns From Scratch Rush
  • User:Gelbrekt/Prophecies Rush - Build Overview
  • User:Gelbrekt/Prophecies Rush with skills unlocked
  • User:Gelbrekt/Prophecies Rush From Factions and Nightfall - Talks about the strategies of runnin Prophecies from the other campaigns.
  • User:Gelbrekt/Beacons Perch to Droknars Forge - Talks about the foes between Beachon's Perch and Droknar's Forge, including their strengths and weaknesses.
  • User:Gelbrekt/Prophecies Rush/Skill Trainers

• The characters are made from scratch and are only allowed to exchange items with each other (No other players). The only services allowed in town are Skill Trainers, Merchants and Armorsmiths.
• Pre-unlocked skills with faction are not allowed; you can only use skills originally available from the skill trainers.
  • HOWEVER: If playing solo, in order to make speedrun realistically playable in a single sitting, unlocked skills SHOULD be allowed for use on Heroes. This is to COMPENSATE for the fact that Heroes:
    • Cannot use PvE-only skills.
    • Cannot get the Powerstone of Courage and Armor of Salvation
    • Cannot be traded with to aquire the relevant weapons and runes otherwise available if doing this with other players (the material for armor is relevant to trade too, but this is not an applicable thing that should be compensated for since the heroes already have max armor).
      • This includes the Lockpicks that would be aquired from Kilroy Stonekin's Punch-Out Extravaganza! and Mano a Norn-o, which in turn could be used to trade powerful gold weapons between the characters from locked chests (Trade would be relevant since each player can be expected to get 1-2 gold items as drops, but each player is unlikely to get an appropriate weapon for them).

• If not allowing this use of faction skills even on Heroes; it should at least be allowed to quickly create new characters on other accounts and play them for 15 minutes to unlock skills for heroes. For example:
  • Ogden: Heaven's Delight (in Factions)
  • Gwen: Energy Burn / Signet of Disruption (in Factions) Backfire (Prophesis)
  • Xandra: Bloodsong, Weapon of Warding and Spirit Light (in Factions)
  • Vekk: Lightning Bolt, Meteor (Meteor is relevant for the KD and to trigger Vekk's Lightning Strike) (Nightfall)
  • M.O.X and Kahmu: Vital Boon, Intimidating Aura, Zealous Renewal
  • Consider adding Glyph of Lesser Energy to any or all of the heroes. Meteor can also be useful for the knock-down.

Various Notes

• I managed to get to level 8 in Yak's bend in just under 3 hours (having completed all bonus objectives of the 4 missions in ascalon), to Lion's arch one hour thereafter, and finally reached level 20 in Gunner's Hold in 5 hours and 15 minutes of total playtime. I did Kilroy Stonekin's Punch-Out Extravaganza! 4 or 5 times. Profession: Necromancer/Monk. In this case i didn't use the Igneous Summoning Stone, but that should be a fair to bring in the run.

Links with skills accessible for this part of the game (In order of appearence)

• Sir Bertran
• Helping the People of Ascalon
• Captain Osric
• Firstwatch Sergio
• Michiko
  • Note: This trainer also offers skills from the previous trainers, Zhao Di (Shing Jea Monastery), Xu Fengxia (Ran Musu Gardens) and Masaharu (Seitung Harbor
• Micah Fergson
• Tohn [Optional]
• Bartoch (Droknar's Forge, doesn't have fantastic skills)
• Dakk (Very attractive since he has all non-elite prophesis and core skills)

General Notes

• The build is designed keeping in mind that this should be doable by a set of players with no experience in Guild Wars. Professional players could likely do it in a faster way using different builds.
  • As such, the skills are listed in order of cost-efficiency: Players should prioritise using the skills in that order; e.g do not use your second skill if your first skill is available for use.
• The elementalist secondary profession is chosen for all players except for the Necromancer.
  • The reason for this is mainly due to Glyph of Lesser Energy, which becomes very useful throughout the game and especially after Snow Storm and Ebon Vanguard assassin are unlocked. In this case it is especially useful for the warrior and ranger, since they have otherwise limited energy management. Throughout the entire game, the glyph is useful for energy management for the Monk, Mesmer and Elementalist.
  • As Fire Magic is a very cost-effective attribute for damage early in the game, the builds use a lot of fire magic early on, but this changes after Lion's Arch
  • The elementalist is Mesmer secondary, in order to use Energy Trap for extra energy management and Ether Feast for healing.
  • The necromancer is Monk in secondary profession, since this allows them to act as a protection monk using soul reaping for energy management.

PRE-SEARING

• Do the Message from a Friend quest series until you get your first skills
• The first 10-20 minutes in pre-searing should be spent going to Foible's Fair in order to do The Elementalist Experiment quest about 5 times until reaching level 4. This means that you should NOT accept the quest after completing it. Instead pres M and double click on Foible's Fair, press L and Abandon the quest, and then go back to Elementalist Azurie and retake it until you hare level 4. All players EXCEPT The necromancer should accept Elementalist to be their secondary profession after the quest. The necromancer should instead become a monk secondary, and the Elementalist should become a mesmer.
  • During this time, make sure to save all blue-rarity [unidentified] items that you find until you can buy an identification kit from the Merchant. Use the identification kit on the items (to increase their value) and then sell all items except for the weapons that you might want to use. When you can afford, also buy a Salvage Kit from the merchant; this will be needed to salvage materials in order to get materials for the Armorsmith throughout the game.

• After reaching level 4, the characters should split up to do the quests that grant them their skills:
  • WARRIOR: Grawl Invasion (Just take the skills; dont actually complete the quest)
  • RANGER: The Ranger's Companion and A Test of Marksmanship. Both are located near each other. The latter one does not have to be completed; just take it to get the skills.
  • MONK AND NECROMANCER [Optionally also WARRIOR - See discussion elsewhere]:
    • A Monk's Mission + Rites of Remembrance. Do the quests together. The latter quest offers no skills, but gives experience and is along the way of A Monk's Mission.
    • Protection Prayers (quest). Just take skills from the quest and map travel back to Ascalon City. Doing the quest is a waste of time.
  • ELEMENTALIST AND MESMER:
    • A Mesmer's Burden. [The Elementalist uses the quest to get mesmer as secondary profession]

• After the players have their skills and their secondary professions: Do the quest Charr at the Gate from Prince Rurik, since this will give you a Long Sword (+5 physical armor). This is especially relevant for the casters [Monk, Necromancer, Elementalist, Mesmer] since they have very little armor initially, so they gain a proportionally large armor boost from this. If doing this, I highly recommend going into the game Options/Settings and putting on the "Double-click to attack/interact" setting, since this will otherwise cause your character to attack in melee range with the sword whenever selecting an enemy. [The damage should be dealt with the skills, not the sword]

• The shield from Unsettling Rumors is very useful for all professions for a long period of time (probably all the way to Yak's Bend and some time after). The only exception is the ranger, who can't wield the shield if using a bow.

• Also don't forget Resurrection Signet.

ASCALON CITY (Post Searing)

These are the builds that each character should have after completing the quest Helping the People of Ascalon and learning skills from Sir Bertran in Ascalon City. This is done before starting The Great Northern Wall.

General things to keep in mind

• Remember to get a Belt Pouch from (Calissa Sedgwick in ascalon city gives it for 4 charr hides)
• Between Frontier Gate and Ruins of Surima: Get the Protective Icon from Paige Osbourne, as this gives +15 armor against charr!
• In the fort Ranik mission: Get the quest Deliver a Message to My Wife from Gurn Blanston in the beginning of the mission. This gives a free 500 experience.
• Ruins of Surima is the longest mission (can take 30-40 minutes including bonus). When doing it, clear out the 3-4 first nearby charr groups in the fort BEFORE opening the Lever to let Rurik in. Otherwise it's likely that he will run in and die.
• Ascalonian keys are likely not worth getting (spend the money on ARMOR instead). Getting Steel Keys could be worth getting IF you have the armor!
• Ruins of Surima:
  • The bonus here likely takes 5-10 minutes; I would skip it, but to make the run easier it can be worth it.
  • In the last defese- section, only have one mage placed on an obelisk; the other mages will stop if you talk to them, and it is better to have them all gathered. If you are the healer, try to keep them alive.
• Nolani Academy: The bonus might be worth it since there are many level 10s to level up on. NOTE: The bonus is largely based on delivering the tablet; you are NOT supposed to clear out all the ghosts, since they disappear once the tablets are delivvered.

Warrior (Ascalon)

• Swordsmanship
• Fire Magic

						File:.jpg

If playing MONK

• Swordsmanship
• Tactics

						File:.jpg

Notes

Ranger (Ascalon)

							File:.jpg

Notes

Necromancer (Ascalon)

					File:.jpg	File:.jpg	File:.jpg

Notes

• The teams have to split up 3/3 until the party reaches Yak's Bend. As such, the Necromancer acts as a healer for their team, while the Monk is the healer for the other team.

Monk (Ascalon)

• Healing Prayers
• Fire Magic

Elementalist (Ascalon)

Notes

Mesmer (Ascalon)

Notes

• This team composition might look poorly designed - It is not balanced an almost all players [even the warrior and monk!] use fire magic. However I strongly beleive that these are the most cost-efficiet skills in this game (i.e best use of the energy).
  • WARRIOR: The warrior can go either Elementalist or Monk Secondary.
    • ELEMENTALIST: Initially i intended it to be Elementalist; The case for this is: (1) Warrior can do fine just using warrior skills in the late game. Using Glyph of Lesser energy, the warrior easily has enough energy to use Ebon Vanguard Assassin support and the Asura Summoning skill. (2) In the early game, fire magic is with NO DOUBT an effective use for warriors due to the limited skills available [and due to the fact that warriors have 3 weapons, greatly limiting the skill bar; e.g only Sever Artery and Gash are used if playing swordsmanship]; Lava Font combined with Glyph of Lesser Energy can deal massive damage compared to the other skills that are available.
    • MONK: Monk is likely better for a speedrun, as Holy Veil can be very effective for the warrior when running, as it can greatly hinder skills that reduce movement-speed. Additionally, the energy management for PvE skills such as Ebon Vanguard Assassin can be managed through the energy from Bonetti's Defense.
  • RANGER: A ranger using fire magic is normally outrageous, but especially the ranger skills are extremely limited and weak at this stage of the game.
  • MONK: Just like the Warrior, a monk using firemagic is normally ridiculous idea. However in this case, a fully dedicated healing monk is complete overkill and unnecessary, and fire magic is the best damage available.
  • MESMER: The mesmer is capable of dealing armor-ignoring damage using Backfire, Empathy, Conjure Phantasm and Shatter Delusions, but the Fire Damage is only disadvantageous when fighting the Whiptail Devourers. In other situations, both the damage and healing will be less, because fire magic is more cost-efficient, and a single attribute for damage-dealing (Fire Magic) rather than two attributes (Illusionand Domination Magic), allows no significant investment in Inspiration magic, which in turn allows healing with Ether Feast.

YAK'S BEND

These are the builds that each character should have after unlocking the skills from Captain Osric at Yak's Bend.

General Remarks

• In Borlis Pass:
  • If the wiki is to be believed, Dolyak Masters have NO self-healing other than Shielding Hands. However, they spam Heal Other and Strength of Honor on allies, so they should definitely be the highest-priority target. This also applies to The Frost Gate.
  • There are several points in the mission where it is easy to aggro several groups at once, making the mission much harder, so make sure you take out the groups individually.
  • The last boss in the end of the mission (e.g Priest of Dagnar) is dangerous, but does not belong to any party, so make sure that you pull and kill him individually.
• In The Frost Gate
  • Similarly to Borlis pass, there are several places, especially towards the end, where it is easy to engage multiple groups at once, so be careful when you engage, and remember that it is often a good idea to retreat as soon as you notice that two groups have been engaged! Also remember that the summoned Fire Imp can easily be re-summoned if it dies, so don't worry about abandoning him.
• On the path to lion's arch
  • The quest "To Kryta: The Ice Cave" is worth taking, but to NOT take the quest that follows (from Adian), "To Kryta: Journey's End" since spawns a bunch of undead in Scoundrel's Rise.
  • If you didn't take the quest from Adian, it's easy to run past any groups of Mergoyles in Scoundrel's Rise as long as they do not contain Mergoyle Wavebreakers.
  • Similarly, the Mergoyles and Bog Skales in North Kryta Province can be run past as long as you flag the heroes.

Warrior (Yak's Bend)

If playing ELEMENTALIST

• Swordsmanship
• Fire Magic

Notes

If playing MONK

• Swordsmanship
• Tactics

Summary

• Good build: This is both easy to use (since all skills are spammable - only Wary Stance costs energy; the energy for Purge Conditions is miniscule), has good defense due to spamming "Watch Yourself" and the condition removal from Purge Conditions isn't strictly necessary. Use Wary Stance before Healing Signet since it has a 2 second duration and offers great Protection.
  • Can replace Purge Conditions with Bane Signet if a more simple build is desired.

Ranger (Yak's Bend)

Fire Magic Version

• Fire Magic
• Wilderness Survival / Beast Mastery - The build can become easier to use if focusing on Beast mastery / Fire Magic to make the build more offensive and skipping Troll Unungen (Relying on allies for protection instead)
• GEAR: The ranger should use the +5 Physical armor sword and the +9 armor shield from Pre-searing and fight in melee range with this build; This is convenient as it will mean that the ranger is constantly near enemy targets. Alternatively, they can use the ranged version and a staff if wanting a more simple approach

MELEE

RANGED

Bow Version (Likely inferior)

• This is likely inferior to the fire magic version since:
  • It has no area damage
  • The main damage output comes from Read the WInd & Point Blank Shot., which ultimately isn't very impressive.
  • Physical attacks introduce vulnerabiliy to Empathy from the Stone Summit Mesmers.

• Marksmanship
• Expertise

• The optional skill likely doesn't make much difference. Hunter's Shot can be decent, but not if the warrior already uses Sever Artery. It is however useful if the warrior does NOT use this skill.

Necromancer (Yak's Bend)

• Death Magic
• Protection Prayers
• Soul Reaping

Aggressive build - Minion master (Likely Best)

• Death Magic
• Soul Reaping
• 2 Healing Prayers (Use Healing Breeze to keep minions alive)

					File:.jpg	File:.jpg

Notes

Defensive Build - Protector

• Protection Prayers
• Death Magic
• Soul Reaping

Monk (Yak's Bend)

• Healing Prayers
• Fire Magic

Notes

• Important: If the player is a beginner: Just max out Healing Prayers (Get 7+1 healing prayers to get 7 pips of health regeneration, spend the rest on fire magic and get FLARE instead of fireball). Then focus on spamming healing breeze, Glyph of lesser energy, and Orison of Healing.
• Orison of Healing is a bad healing skill only used for desperate situations to quickly save an ally. Healing Breeze heals slowly over time, but is much more cost-efficient.
• With a high investment in healing prayers, Healing Breeze should be enough to keep the party alive as long as they spread out the damage between them (i.e the party memebers retreat when they take too much damage), and as long as healing breeze is maintained on as many allies as possible that are injured.

Elementalist (Yak's Bend)

• Fire Magic
• Energy Storage

Notes

Mesmer (Yak's Bend)

• Fire Magic
• Inspiration Magic

Notes

LION'S ARCH

These are the builds that each character should have after having unlocked the skills accessible from Lion's arch Firstwatch Sergio and the linking Kaening Center Michiko.

• • FOR A COMPLETE LIST: See here: User:Gelbrekt/Prophecies Rush/Skill Trainers
  • Note that this list does NOT include several skills that can be accessible during this time; e.g Defy Pain, Double Dragon and the quest Graven Images.

General comments

• STRONGLY RECOMMENDED: Get to Seitung Harbor to buy the armor there. It is very easy to get there by simply talking to First Mate Xiang near The Marketplace at the docks. This armor is MUCH cheaper than the max armor, but provides very good armor bonuses!

Warrior (Lion's Arch)

• Swordsmanship
• Tactics

General list of the most interesting skills available at this point, from the mentioned skill trainers above

• Most interesting skills:
  • Best general skills:
    • "For Great Justice!" - Great cheap skill that is good with adreanline skills, freeing up energy for Lava font, which deals great damage while other skills aren't available.
    • Bonetti's Defense - Great defense even at 0 tactics. Also supports with extra energy, which is easily spent by lava font.
    • Resurrection Signet
    • Endure Pain - Good skill if playing Monk (No fire magic to rely on, opening for Strength). But it is easier to use an adrenaline skill such as Mighty Blow, which also synergizes with "For Great Justice".
  • Hammer Mastery is likely the best weapon to use likely BEST because of the skills available: Inflicting Weakness, Deep woond, and many adrenal skills: '
    • Yeti Smash - Compatible with Auspicious Blow & Fierce blow since they have lower adrenaline costs. Also opens up for using Power Attack since Bonetti's Defense potentially grants tons of energy!
    • Mighty Blow,
    • Counter Blow,
    • Staggering Blow,
    • Auspicious Blow,
    • Fierce Blow
    • Counter Blow
    • Hammer Bash - SHould NOT be used; Yeti smash is far superior since it's condition for knocking down will always be met due to Staggering Blow & Fierce blow, and Yeti smash is area attack.

Less interesting skills

• Swordsmanship: Sever Artery, Gash, Standing Slash, Jaizhenju Strike
• Axe Mastery: Cyclone Axe, Dismember, Executioner's Strike, Disrupting Chop, Penetrating Blow

EoTN - initial changes

Changes once reaching Micah Fergson

• Potentially interesting skills:
  • Pulverizing Smash - Interesting because together with Dwarven Headbutt, it can be used to substitute both Staggering Blow and Fierce Blow, freeing up an entire skill slot. HOWEVER, there are some reasons why this might not be great (1) Once ursan blessing is unlocked, there will be 3 pve skills that are used, meaning that the headbutt can't be used anymore (2) The headbutt has a higher adrenaline cost and can't knock down many enemies that are immune to it.
  • Body Blow - Convenient to use if not using FIRE MAGIC; since this will free up another attribute (strength). Especially good if someone can inflict cracked armor.
  • File:.jpg [[]]

Other changes

• Double Dragon (Optionally Skull Crack from the Snow Storm quest, but i think
• PvE skills are already listed elsewhere.

Ranger (Lion's Arch)

• ASSUMPTION: The ranger will likely need to handle both marksmanship AND fire magic builds during the run, because of several reasons:
  • Marksmanship is likely best in the early stages of the game since all other players play fire magic already.
  • Fire Magic is good since Double Dragon becomes unlocked quite early.
  • Fire Magic is terrible in mission such as Destruction Depths, while Marskmanship (Dshot) can be great against

MARKSMANSHIP - Likely better than Fire Magic, but will have to be replaced once DD becomes available.

• Marksmanship
• Expertise

FIRE MAGIC

Interesting skills from Micah Fergson

• Expert Focus
• Sloth Hunter's Shot

Necromancer (Lion's Arch)

• Death Magic
• Protection Prayers
• Soul Reaping

Dedicated protector with some healing prayers - Likely BEST

• No-brainer skills inlcude:
• Aegis - Extremely cost-efficient skill
• Shielding Hands - Easy to use skill.
• Spirit Bond - Extremely suitable skills for Soul-reaping Necromancers.
• Extinguish - Very easy way of removing conditions
• Other skills are more debatable, but this build should be both great and easy to use.

Minion master - Great and powerful, but hard to use and not defensive

Dedicated protector - Pure protection magic

Other General interesting skills

• Vital Blessing - While not an amazing skill, this effectively becomes a 100 health healing skill, which can be useful to save key targets, and also is great if parties gain alot of death penalty
• Restore Life - Great hard res. This would be a no-brainer if it weren't for the fact that the necro doesn't use healing prayers.
• Gift of Health - Probably worth it
• Extinguish - While BURNING might not be common. this is great for removing all conditions on the party, which is very easy to use. This can be useful to for example Margdor attacks (using lots of bleeding and poison), as well as in Warband of Brothers who uses Mark of Rodgort, causing losts of burning, thereby triggering the healing from Extinguish.
• Life Bond - May be difficult ot use, but is great.
• Protective Spirit

Changes once reaching Micah Fergson in Eye of the north

• No changes,

Monk (Lion's Arch)

• Healing Prayers
• Divine Favor

Other skills

• Signet of Devotion - Great cheap skill if out of energy. Also EASIER TO USE than Vig spirit, since you don't have to track the duration and track not using it after Glyph of Lesser energy!
  • Should probably NOT BE USED over "Deny Hexes" [Despite the fact that that skill is harde to use because]: (1) Mindlessly spamming Deny Hexes is better than mindlessly spamming Signet of Devotion; Spamming Deny Hexes on a target can remove crucial skills like Backfire and Empathy. (2) Deny hexes can remove multiple hexes due to Haven's Delight. Optionally also add another Divine Favor skill to get a third. (3) The necromancer can remove conditions using Extinguish, so with this skill, the party has the easiest ways of removing conditions and hexes [suitable for beginners].
• Vigorous Spirit - More powerful than Signet of Devotion, but harder to use.
• Divine Intervention - Decent cheap heal.
• Deny Hexes - BETTER than Healing Seed, however it is harder to use.

Changes once reaching Micah Fergson in Eye of the north

• Patient Spirit
• Cure Hex

Elementalist (Lion's Arch)

• Fire Magic
• Energy Storage

Changes once reaching Micah Fergson in Eye of the north

• No changes.

Mesmer (Lion's Arch)

Illusion Magic Version - Likely best since he will have to switch to illusion shortly after anyway

Interesting skills from Micah Fergson in Eye of the north

Fire Magic version

• Fire Magic
• Inspiration Magic

General notes

• Players will have to come back to Kaening Center (and likely Kamadan as well) in order to get skills relevant for the later stages of the game.

Initial Eye of the North - Builds after the initial (easily accessible) skills have been aquired

• This section focuses on the builds after the initial easily accessible skills have been acquired in the early stages of eye of the north, before the more advanced PvE and Elite skills are unlocked. See: User:Gelbrekt/All Campaigns From Scratch Rush.
• IMPORTANT: Because there are already a bunch of discussion in the previous section, don't repeat it here, instead focus on just listing the FINALIZED builds.

• Skills that are NOT included here are:
  • Nightfall skills (although these should be possible to aquire after these builds have been made)
  • Elite skills other than Double Dragon (and optionally Skull Crack)
  • Optional non-elite skills captured by bosses in Eye of the North.

Warrior

Suggestion 1 - likely best

				Elite

				Elite

• NOTE: I believe snow storm is actually not better than Lava Font for this build (BEFORE the ebon assassin is unlocked), because (1) With both Bonetti's and Glyph of Lesser energy (in addition to many skills being adrenaline or long recharge time), the build will likely have too much energy if using Snow Storm. (2) Fire Magic investment is required due to Double Dragon (so Snow Storm's lack of attribute is irrelevant here). (3) The warrior is already adjacent to foes, so the limited range is not a problem. (4) Meteor increases Lava Font radius.
• Once nightfall is unlocked: Whirlwind Attack could be worth getting, but i guess this WON'T actually make much of a difference since (1) both Meteor and Bonetti's are great skills, and (2) It adds extra complexity, that will only last for a limited amount of time until Ursan Blessing & Naga Shaman is unlocked.

Suggestion 2, no Energy Glyph

				Elite

• Idea: With both the energy from Bonetti's and Auspicious Blow, the energy management should be good enough for this. Also, Auspicious Blow has some synergy with Double Dragon since another attack skill increases burning duration. HOWEVER, this is less viable when the Vanguard Assassin is unlocked, adding more energy pressure. Also it is worse if incurring lots of death penalty.

Ranger

File:.jpg [[]]

Suggestion 1 - Fire Magic with bow (to deal damage with basic attacks)

				Elite

• Similarly to the warrior build: Before Ebon Vanguard Assassin is unlocked, Lava font is likely better than Snow Storm.
• While the build looks like a mess, I think it overall has more DPS than a bow version.
• Dshot is great vs bosses, especially if the mesmer uses Arcane Conundrum.
• UPDATE when Ebon Assassin is unlocked:

				Elite

Mesmer

Suggestion 1

• UPDATE after Ebon Vanguard Assassin AND nightfall:

Eye of the North

Skills to get AND quests to do

• THIS SECTION WAS MOVED TO THE OVERVIEW: User:Gelbrekt/All Campaigns From Scratch Rush

Notes if playing solo (heroes)

• The Norn Fighting Tournament: If playing SOLO. It is likely hard to COMPLETE this quest with the skills available. But with Snow Storm, Ebon Vanguard Assassin and Ruby Djinn it should be easy to win enough battles to unlock Xandra or Kahmu. Without this extra hero, you only have 4 Heroes for Beacon's Perch, and the level 10 henchmen there are useless.
  • Gedrel of Ascalon can unlock hero skills in this case (if not allowing pre-unlocked skills to be used). Glyph of Lesser energy is most likely worth getting for the heroes if it isnt already unlocked.
  • If planning to run with heroes and without pre-unlocked (faction) skills, it may be necessary to unlock an elite skill somewhere in Eye of the North for the heroes using Signet of Capture.

Getting to Gadd's Encampment

The RIGHT route to Shards of Orr - Taking other routes likely lead to multiple deaths and huge death penalty! Avoid entering Shards of Orr if your party has more than 15% death penalty when getting there, or it will be very time-consuming!

Tactic for engaging difficult groups (e.g shards of orr)

• note: This gude was written before I came to think of Ursan blessing. Once this skill is obtained, Shards of orr will not be a problem to get through (and I believe this is the hardest part before Destruction Depths). This is because Ursan Blessing sets your health to 750 and doesn't require energy, meaning that it is very effective even at 60% death penalty. This GUARANTEES that even a relativel inexperienced party can cross the shards of orr. Ursan blessing is also easy to get after you have completed Blood Washes Blood.

• First of all: Keep in mind that sometimes, just sneaking/running past a powerful enemy group might be the best alternative:

The goal with the tactic is to kill at least one member of the group as quickly as possible, and then (if needed) retreat so that the party don't wipe.
1. The players use Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support on a random enemy target in order to spread them out (you don't want to use them om the same target since they will all die from AoE then).
2. The first player who has Meteor calls an enemy as they cast the Meteor.
3. As soon as possible: All other players activate Snow Storm on the called target EXCEPT for the other player who has meteor. This player keeps a careful eye on the first player who casts meteor, to make sure that as soon as the first player has finished casting the Meteor, he starts casting his Meteor.
4. The players can then either retreat immediately, Drop their most powerful spells and remaining Energy while the enemy wastes time on the ebon vanguards, or simply stay and fight if that is an option.

These are the builds that each character should have after having unlocked some additional PvE-only skills in eye of the north:

• Snow Storm
• Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support

• ASURAN SCAN IS NOT WORTH GETTING: Arguments: (1) It is an extra quest that has to be done. (2) It can bee substituted largely by using powerstones of courage and Armor of Salvation, which can comfortably be saved for the Beachon's Perch run since it is easily one of the hardest missaions (if not the hardest) (3) using asuran scan over another PvE-only skill weakens the player significantly.

Polymock - Guide for how to solve it

• The guide assumes you have no extra pieces; if you do, this gets easier.

• Focus on these 3 things:
  • 1. Use basic attack whenever you are not doing anything else.
  • 2. Make sure you get your skill 2 and 3 in place
    • For [Skill with 1 second activation time]: use it as often as possible AS LONG AS your opponent is casting another skill; this will ensure you can't get interrupted (Usually, except when they use Meteor or Earthquake).
    • For [Skill with 2 seconds activation time]: See the comments below regarding baiting your opponent's Power Drain using your glyphs.
  • 3. Advanced, Use Power Drain and/or Glyph of Power.

• Basic assumption: All enemies can be beat as long as you meet these criteria:
  • Use basic attacks frequently.
  • successfully use all skills 2-3 without getting interrupted [Interruptions from Block do not count]
  • interrupt 0-2 attacks

CHECKLIST - If you do these things, you will beat all required missions

• (Of course, this assumes you register and use the right pieces, see the list below.)
• Use the Skill 1 (basic attack) frequently (as in, whenever you don't have anything else to do).
• Successfully use skill 2 and skill 3, meeting the following conditions:
  • Use them reasonably quickly (don't wait more than 5-10 seconds from the point they become available).
  • Don't let your opponent interrupt them.
• Successfully interrupt 0-3 of your opponent's spells.
• Bonus: Use the glyph of power when at 25% health or lower.

General Tips

Note: I use [Skill 2] to refer to the powerful skill with an activation time of 2s, and [Skill 3] to the skill that has a 1s activation time. Multiple polymock creatures have skill bars that don't follow this model. For example the Earth Elemental has 2 powerful skills with 1s activation time. In this case, both of them would be used as described by [Skill 3].

• Pieces to use:
  • Gargoyle
  • Skale (Overwrite when Kappa is unlocked)
  • Fire Imp (Overwrite when Earth Elemental is unlocked)
  • Kappa
  • Earth Elemental

SUGGESTED STRATEGY (Based on "best tips)

• This Guide is written based on using the FIRE IMP against the Earth Elemental in mission 3 (but can be used by basically any piece except that the skills are different). I suspect this method is by far the easiest and most powerful way to beat the polymock missions and get the asura summons.

• Use these skills in the given order and with the proper timings as soon as the battle begins
• 1. Immediately use Flare (the opponent will begin casting Glyph of Concentation).
• 2. Immediately after flare, use Glyph of Power (queue while casting flare) -> This will prompt t he AI to interrupt the glyph, causing him to waste both his interrupt, and his Glyph of Concentration.
• 3. Most difficult part: Shortly after the opponent uses his Power Drain, use Meteor so that it interrupts his next ability; I BELIEVE that all Opponents after the second missions are hardcoded to use their most powerful abilities right after their glyph.
• 4. Use your power drain to interrupt his second skill.
• 5. Use your other powerful ability (Immolate in the case of the fire imp). At this point, your opponent won't have any more interrupts, so you can easily and safely use this ability.
• NOTE: While this might be somewhat tricky to pull of, it should be an extremely powerful tactic because:
  • (A) If successful, you will have interrupted BOTH of your opponent's 2 powerful skills, while having successfully used your own 2 powerful skills skills. Mathematically, this should mean that you basically have already beaten the most difficult piece (Blarp's Earth Elemental), since it has about 1000 more health than you, and you have prevented over 1000 damage by interrupting his 2 most powerful abilites.
  • (B) If not successful, you have just spend a couple of seconds in the match, and can easily restart with minimal time wasted.
• ...
• 6. Repeat the cycle when the skills are available again - As soon as your Meteor [Skill 1s] is available again, simply BAIT your opponent's Power Drain with another glyph, and then safely use your powerful abilites. (It is technically possible that he will interrupt you if he has Earthquake and meteor, but this can be ignored since it is a small risk; if it happens and you fail, simply restart.)

BEST Tips

• (Note: If the quest fails, one last chance is that Heart of the Shiverpeaks has a chance of dropping a Naga shaman piece, which isn't guaranteed, but will dramatic increase the chances of winning. In the meantime, the other party members can try completing the remaining missions to get an ibolga piece from Hoff.)
• The opponent will never accidentally interrupt your skill 1, but will ALWAYS (if provided with the opportunity) interrupt any of the 2 glyphs that you have. This is a good way for making your opponent waste their interrupt.This will ALSO consume his Glyph of Concentration if he has used that before, allowing you to interrupt the next skill.
  • A great opening as a result of this, is to first use your skill with a 1 sec activation time (typically skill 3), immediately followed by Glyph of Power. The opponent always starts with Glyph of Concentration, so doing this will mean that (1) You get your powerful skill 1 successfully hitting him. (2) Your opponent wastes his power drain (3) Your opponent wastes his Glyph of Concentration (since it's consumed by power drain!)
  • You can also follow up by using power drain immediately after, since most enemies (after mission 2) tend to use their powerful skills right after glyph of concentration.
  • Note: I USED to recommend that players wait for the opponent to use Block, and then use [Glyph of Concentration] + [Skill 2]. However, I realize now that a better approach is to simply bait the power drain with a glyph , thus removing the need for Glyph of Concentration since the opponent has already wasted their rupt (There is a slight exception to this when facing Eartquake / Meteor, but this is less important.

• Restart the mission if you don't win the first monster fight. If you win the first monster fight, try to make sure that you deliver your [Skill 3] to this target before your piece goes down. Do this by:
  • (1) Don't finish your target too quickly if your Skill 3 is recharging.
  • (2) Buy time using polymock block.
  • (3) More advanced:
    • Deplete energy: If you have 4-5 energy and need to use your 6-energy skill, repeatedly press 1+Escape (cycle between them) to burn all your energy, then use ether signet.
    • Damage with power drain: Power Drain can be useful just for triggering Glyph of Power; This is useful fairly often; every time you win a battle, your surviving piece is typically at low HP, and this allows you to dash out some extra dmg.

Other tips

Specific Mission Guide

Mission 1

• Trivial

Mission 2

• Confirmed: Mission 2 (Plurgg) can be beat without using power drain, as long as you register and use the Fire imp piece (the mergoyle sucks) and dont get interrupted on skill 2 and 3.

Mission 3

• Most likely cannot be beaten without using Power Drain on his skill 2 or 3 at least once. However:

• • His first piece (Earth Elemental) is very predictable with its earthquake and Obsidian flame; he uses it as soon as he can.
  • His second piece (ice elemental) should lose against any of the 3 pieces you use 1v1, since its skill 2 is terrible (especially if you are able to interrupt it when he is about to die, in which case he doesn't benefit from it at all).

Mission 4

• Can easily be beaten without using Power Drain.
• His first piece (Kappa) is decent, but his next two are very week:
  • His Aloe Seed really sucks, since if you dont use hexes against it, it has no skill 2.
  • His Wind Rider is decent, but if you are aware of when he uses guilt, you can simply skip using skills against him that point.

Mission 5a - Naga Shaman (Dune Teardrinker)

• Can easily be beaten without using interrupts.

PVE-SKILLS and builds to bring for the DROKNAR'S JORNEY

• User:Gelbrekt/Beacons Perch to Droknars Forge

Elite Skills to Capture along the jorney in Eye of the North

• NOTE: THIS LIST IS OUTDATED -> The better recommendations are available at User:Gelbrekt/All Campaigns From Scratch Rush.
• The list only displays the bosses in areas that are ALONG THE WAY of the quests leading to the Summon Ice Imp and Asuran Scan. They are listed in order of appearence (Bring signet of capture only on the relevant areas for each profession):
  • PVE:
    • Ursan Blessing - Likely best to get on the following characters: Warrior, Necromancer, Ranger (Unless Ranger gets double Dragon) and MONK. While getting it on the monk might be dangerous (due to temporarily removing the healer in the party), WoH is a difficult skill to capture, and arguably not much better than Ursan Blessing. Ursan blessing is very good to get for several reasons.
      • (1) It gives bonus health which covers for any death penalty (very useful if the party dies a lot).
      • (2) It gives a set armor, which covers for the likely poor armor the user will have.
      • (3) It has GREAT synergy with the summon skills Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support and Summon Naga Shaman due to increasing their attack damage.
      • (4) Multiple characters (Especially Necromancer and Ranger) have no other great elites available.
      • IMPORTANT NOTE: If geting Ursan Blessing, assign the storybook to the norn, so that Ursan Blessing is maxed
  • WARRIOR:
    • Verdant Cascades: 28 (30) Facet of Destruction → Gladiator's Defense (during The Cipher of Balthazar) (Less relevant since Defy Pain + Lion's Comfort is likely better in the later stages of the game)
  • RANGER:
    • Tarnished Coast: 28 Facet of Creation → Melandru's Resilience --> Likely the *best* skill to capture.
    • Ice Cliff Chasms: 24 (30) Johon the Oxflinger → Prepared Shot (Johon's Longbow)
    • Verdant Cascades: 24 (30) Petraj the Evasive → Glass Arrows (Petraj's Recurve Bow)
    • Riven Earth: 28 (30) Storm of Destruction → Barrage (Destructive Hornbow)
  • NECROMANCER:
    • While grenth's balance is avaliable, it should NOT be captured by the Necromancer since this will cause the necro to lose its elite slot when capturing Life Bond, making the jorney to droknar's forge harder!
  • MONK:
    • Arbor Bay: 28 (30) Flannuss Broadwing → Word of Healing (Flannuss' Rod)
  • ELEMENTALIST:
    • Ice Cliff Chasms: 24 (30) Elsnil Frigidheart → Water Trident (Elsnil's Frigidheart)
    • OPTIONAL: Since Kaiening Center is unlocked, capturing Double Dragon from Lian, Dragon's Petal could be useful
  • MESMER:
    • Verdant Cascades: 24 (30) Wilderm Wrathspew → Migraine (Wilderm's Wand) - Migraine is a nice skill easy to capture to take because it is right along the way. HOWEVER Ineptiude is DEFINITLY worth getting instead because of the extreme numbers of powerful warriors present between Beachon's Perch and Droknar's Forge
    • Alcazia Tangle: * 24 (30) Kemil the Inept → Ineptitude (Kemil's Scepter) (Worth taking if it's along the way))
  • ASSASSIN:
    • Riven Earth: 28 (30) Rekoff Broodmother → Assassin's Promise (Claws of the Broodmother)
  • RITUALIST:
    • Alcazia Tangle: 24 (30) Reesou the Wanderer → Spirit Light Weapon (Staff of the Wanderer)
  • PARAGON:

Sparkfly Swamp: 28 Grenth's Balance Facet of Death → Grenth's Balance(Relevant since the paragon has necro as secondary profession, no other suitable skills are available, and this boss is REQUIRED for Asuran Scan)

• • DERVISH:
    • Varajar Fells: 26 (30) Asterius the Mighty → Reaper's Sweep (Asterius' Scythe)
    • Sparkfly Swamp: 28 (30) Brynn Earthporter → Ebon Dust Aura (Brynn's Scythe)

• Later relevant boss encounters:
  • Lornar's Pass
    • 28 (30) Clobberhusk → Defy Pain
    • 28 (30) Quickroot → Life Barrier
      • IMPORTANT: These should be captured by zoning near Beacon's Pearch, since this allows the warrior and necromancer to not have to bring signet of capture for the actual run.
  • Iron Mines of Moladune
    • 28 (30) Balasi the Arcane → Energy Surge
  • Hell's Precipice
    • 28 (30) Moles Quibus → Panic (Only relevant if continuing with another speedrun, e.g eye of the north or nightfall)

General tips

• Make sure to bring at least one Expert Salvage Kit so that you can salvage runes and materials during the journey
• Collectors along the way to Droknar's Forge are NOT RELEVANT to trade with: Almost all of them lack mods (so almost no weapon is perfect).

Warrior (Prepeared for jorney to Droknar's)

			Elite

• Glyph of Lesser Energy - The blocking ability from Bonetti's Defense is very useful for tanking. However: if glyph of lesser energy isn't used, the warrior will be unable to use the 10 energy skills if he gets too much Death Penalty (Although this COULD be solved using a staff). As such, using Glyph of Lesser energy over Bonetti's is worth considering.
• Ursan Blessing.
• "For Great Justice!"
• Final Thrust - Good synergy with For Great Justice.

Ranger (Prepeared for jorney to Droknar's)

• Fire Magic or Earth Magic or Beast Mastery or Expertise

				Elite

				Elite

				Elite

• Likely Best Elites:
  • Ursan Blessing
  • Barrage

• Marksmanship (if using Barrage). Note that Expertise will be required here since the energy management won't be sufficient otherwise
  • Light of Deldrimor - (Just requires 3 Destroyer Cores). Great because it deals high AoE and is very cheap.
  • Lightning Reflexes
  • Antidote Signet
  • Distracting Shot

• Fire Magic. NOTE: If fire magic is used; Set BEAST MASTERY to max, and use a fire staff. Expertise can be LOW since only Throw Dirt benefits from expertise unless focusing on Beast Mastery).
  • Likely BEST:
    • Fireball - Much easier to use than Lava Font and does not cause enemies to scatter, but less damage.
    • Meteor - Great skill, but requires Nightfall.
    • Inferno - Probably BEST because: (1) has low energy consumption, making the build easy to use since you can just spam all skills. (2) does not cause AI to scatter, like Double dragon, allowing you to deal tons of damage!
  • Others:
    • Double Dragon
    • Lava Font - NOTE: No other teammate uses periodic AoE-damage (causing scatter), so this is likely a bad option. Great for burning all energy with a single slot, but can be difficult to use properly.

• Defensive Anti-melee skills:
  • Throw Dirt - Very powerful since most foes on the road to Droknar's Forge are melee. However, it is the only expertise skill used.
  • Ward Against Melee - Possibly more effective than Throw Dirt, but demands investment in Earth Magic.

• Others
  • Melandru's Resilience - Good because: (1) It gives great energy management for fire magic. (2). It allows the ranger to tank. (3) The party has no hex/condition removal. (4) The ranger can go full investment in wilderness survival + Fire Magic.
  • Resurrection Signet - Nice for resurrecting allies.
  • If not using ursan blessing: SNOW STORM or EBON ESCAPE.

• If focusing on pet (Get Expertise and Neast Mastery. Advantage: Easy to use. Feral Aggression synergizes with Ursan Blessing):
  • Feral Aggression
  • Scavenger Strike
  • Poisonous Bite

File:.jpg [[]]

Alternative build (The build above is likely better)
Marksmanship Expertise For the optional skill: use a PVE-only skill (Since Asuran scan was removed from this bar). Expert Focus - If not using Signet of Capture. Glass Arrows is relatively easy to capture, but using signet of capture to get Escape along Snake's Dance is likely better! Dodge - Can be used to run past enemy groups, especialy the 14 grawls at the end of lornar's pass.

Necromancer (Prepeared for jorney to Droknar's)

• Protection Prayers
• Soul Reaping

					Elite

• Reaper's Mark - While this is a good skill, i suspect Life Sheath is overall better in the end for this build since (1) The team overall has somewhat limited healing/protection since both the monk and necro uses offensive PvE skills. (2) Life Sheath gives condition removal that is easy to use (since it is also used for healing other allies, to the user doesn't need to think much about when to use it). (3) Life Sheath is easy to capture and also has a chance of giving a Green staff perfect for this build.
• Ursan Blessing
• Breath of the Great Dwarf - Great since it gives healing and is easy to use (simply spam all the time)
• Angorodon's Gaze - Great since it is linked to Soul Reaping and can potentially grant extra energy.
• Enfeebling Blood - VERY STRONG considering that (assuming all players complete the Polymock) all players uses Naga Shaman. While weakness IS inflicted by the warrior's Staggering BLow as well as 2 players using Ursan Blessing, this is by no means permanent.
• Shield Guardian
• Shield of Absorption - Becomes available very early in nightfall, since it is unlocked when gaining Talkora.
• File:.jpg [[]]

Necromancer ALTERNATIVE: Death Magic Minion Master

• Death Magic
• Soul Reaping

Optionals

Elite Optionals Blood of the Master - Animate Bone Fiend - Substitute for Bone Horror; Great because it has good synergy with Ursan Blessing, and the EoTN summons can help cover the Bone Fiends. Masochism - Good for both Energy management and increased Death Magic Putrid Bile - Great area damage skill. Restore Life - Good Perma res Animate Bone Horror Death Nova - Strong, but might be hard to use for beginners.

Easy to use

	Elite

Advanced build

	Elite

Strengths

• The party might not need a fully dedicated protector necromancer for the Drok's run, which in that case frees up the necromancer as a damage-dealer instead of a protector.
  • Most foes are melee units, and the party can already cover that to a large extent through Throw Dirt, Bonetti's Defence, Ineptitude, Clumsiness, Ursan Roar, etc.
  • The minions provide protection for the party, in addition to the Asura Summons and Ebon Vanguard Assassins.
• Additional minions synergize with multiple party members using Ursan Blessing (Additional allies that have increased damage)

Weaknesses

• Lacking the protection from Guardian and Spirit Bond can be risky.

Monk (Prepeared for jorney to Droknar's)

• Healing Prayers
• Divine Favor

				Elite

• Word of Healing
• Ursan Blessing
• Ebon Escape / Seed of Life - If not using Ursan blessing.
• Jamei's Gaze -
• Vigorous Spirit -
• Cure Hex - If the player is more experienced

• An idea for a team build for the [Beacon's -> Droknar's] run is for the team to rely on the monk for resurrection and Asuran Scan to clear death penalty. The advantage of that strategy is that the other players don't need a Resurrection signet.

Elementalist (Prepeared for jorney to Droknar's)

• Fire Magic
• Energy Storage

					Elite

• Asuran Scan
• Flare
• Intensity - Nice synergy with Inferno, however it has POOR synergy with Double Dragon since DD will likely trigger this effect.
• Light of Deldrimor, although Snow Storm might be better due to dealing more overall damage.
• Meteor - If nightfall is unlocked.
• The unlocked skill Water Trident is used later on, when entering the fire islands.

Mesmer (Prepeared for jorney to Droknar's)

• Illusion Magic
• Fast Casting
• (Inspiration Magic)
• NOTE: All energy runes/Insignias should be given to this mesmer, due to the large potential energy gain spikes from Arcane Conondrum.

					Elite

• Ether Feast - Useful self-healing, but signet of clumsiness is likely better since it deals damage while also being aggressive.
• Asuran Scan
• Clumsiness - A great skill, but the build likely doesnt have enough energy for this.

Strengths

• I believe this build will be very good for this run because:
  • It has three skills that are good defensively against Martial Professions (Signet of Clumsiness, Ineptitude and Wandering Eye)
  • It has high damage: Has strong AoE effects in addition to summoning 2 strong allies.
  • It should have good energy management due to many cheap skills (due to cheap costs or long recharge times) as well as Arcane Conondrum.
  • Arcane Conondrum + Cry of Pain will be effective against the dolyak masters.

Should perhaps Domination Magic be used instead?

• Domination Magic is more useful to take down the Dolyak Masters. HOWEVER the illusion version is guaranteed to be better because:
  • There are relative few Dolyak Masters in total
  • There are HUGE numbers of warriors present; all are weak against the Illusion Magic build but unaffected by most domination magic skills avaliable
    • In Lornar's Pass, the most difficult foes are arguably the large Grawl Groups, and as noted in User:Gelbrekt/Beacons Perch to Droknars Forge, the only strong foes in these groups are the Grawls (Warriors).
    • I would estimate that over 75% of the foes in Snake Dance are Mountain Trolls and Tundra Giants.

Support from Other Campaigns

• • User:Gelbrekt/Prophecies Rush From Factions and Nightfall - Talks about the strategies of runnin Prophecies from the other campaigns.

Final Builds (Once at Ember Light Camp)

• These are the builds used once an elite on the fire island has been captured. In order to capture the skills, bring Signet of Capture only to the relevant mission.

Warrior

• New skills from Ember Light Camp:
  • Belly Smash - Good synergy with Dwarven Headbutt.
  • Crude Swing
  • Crushing Blow

• New Elites:
  • Optional: "Charge!" (Can be very useful for running past enemies)

Ranger

• New skills from Ember Light Camp:
  • File:.jpg [[]]
• New Elites:
  • File:.jpg [[]]

Elementalist

• New skills from Ember Light Camp:
  • Note that WATER MAGIC is likely viable here. Ice Trident is available from EoTN.
  • File:.jpg [[]]
• New Elites:
  • File:.jpg [[]]

Monk

• New skills from Ember Light Camp:
  • Optional: Essence Bond
  • Optional: Divine Healing

• New Elites:
  • Optional: Unyielding Aura (Capture outside Droknar's Forge). This is VERY LIKELY worth getting because:
    • This frees up A LOT of skill slot since it basically means that the rest of the team can skip gettin res.
    • The capture should be fairly quick and easy.

Necromancer

• New skills from Ember Light Camp
  • Aegis
  • Optional: Essence Bond
• New Elites:
  • Hell's Precipice: Aura of the Lich (Strong, but it is likely easier to just stick to pure Protection Prayers / Soul Reaping).
  • Ring of fire: Restore Condition (Strong, but might be hard to use for new players!)

Mesmer

No new skills from Ember Light Camp for the Illusion Magic build, but after getting access to Panic (and transitioning to DOMINATION MAGIC, get the following skills:

• Signet of Weariness
• Chaos storm is likely NOT worth getting due to causing scatter.

					Elite

• LEAVE THIS: File:.jpg [[]] File:.jpg [[]] File:.jpg [[]] File:.jpg [[]]