Talk:Dunes of Despair (mission)

Possible Glitch
I have just taken my paragon into this mission 6 times in a row. With and without Heroes. The Ghostly Hero has glitched at the first seige worm and bridge everytime I have gone in. He actually just stands there and will not fight or lower the bridge to cross and kill the worm. Even if you go down further and cross the bridge and kill the boss. The cutscene starts and plays. when its done, the ghostly hero just turns and runs back toward the seige worm and gets stuck against the wall. Every single time. I have yet to try it with a human team.Has anyone else tried a Dervish or Paragon on this mission and had this problem? Or not had it? Any suggestions or Ideas? HungryArmadillo 00:45, 26 November 2006 (CST)


 * Went back a 7th time. He glitched again, but this time after the cut scene I talked to him and he followed once again. Used all henchies and failed. lol gonna try again with heroes.


 * 8 times the charm. Went back for another trip with heroes/henchie party. No glitching and everything went just fine. easily done like I remember. But I think the glitch is obviously still there. HungryArmadillo 01:44, 26 November 2006 (CST)


 * This happens without heros in the team if you attack the wurm before GH casts claim resources. At a guess the heros may be attacking and glitching the GH. --JP 01:55, 26 November 2006 (CST)


 * Have you tried going around and taking the suspension bridge? --Rainith 01:57, 26 November 2006 (CST)


 * I also came across this bug. I was with two heros.  Searing Flames Ele x2, Prot Monk, Prot Hench, Healer Hench.  The mission was a breeze.  Killed all mobs way before 3 minutes.  Decided to attempt the bonus.  After reaching the top area I noticed the health of the GH.  Had to run back and tell my prot hench to get healing.  For 3 minutes I watches as all hencies spammed healing on him and the whole team from the incoming attacks of the 4 wurms.  The game ended with me on about 20 health, the prot hero with about 50 and all others dead.  I have to redo this mission again at some stage, I will see if avoiding the first wurm helps. --SK [[Image:Warrior-icon-small.png]]  01:59, 18 December 2006 (CST)

I'm almost positve it is related to the jade scarabs that spawn near there. I would assume you have brought him into aggro range of them (but they don't spawn unless you're closer than that). Just kill all the scarabs in the area and try again, it should be fine.

Locations
I just did this and all 3 generals were near point 1 on the map and there wasn't even a boss at point 2. Is this random or did the original writer just get confused?--Cloak of Letters 12:36, 14 Aug 2005 (EST)
 * I just did the mission with a group last week and we killed all three at point 1 and we didn't get the bonus. Even thought the few times I did the bonus, we did find them all at position 1. I am not sure what is going on. --Karlos 17:37, 14 Aug 2005 (EST)
 * Did you get the nonbosses too?--Cloak of Letters 21:52, 14 Aug 2005 (EST)

Exploit
This is an exploit, not an alternative method, and recently, I went with two groups who tried it and both failed to find a single corpse (you can't use the Enchanteds for Necrotic Traversals and they seem to have moved the Jade Scarabs to the other side of the bridge). Are you sure this still works? Have you tried it recently? --Karlos 17:37, 14 Aug 2005 (EST)
 * I did it just before posting. I didn't see it come out of the ground but there was a scarab running around in range. I guess you just need to get lucky.--Cloak of Letters 21:52, 14 Aug 2005 (EST)
 * A couple of weeks ago, a group I was in tried the approach of not bringing ghost to the altar and trying to kill/lure monsters at the southern raised drawbridge. In a half dozen times, we could only find one within range of a caster or bowman once or twice, and they didn't 'pull', they only scurried off. User Queen of Spades 128.252.10.27 05:11, 11 Oct 2005 (EST)
 * I just tried this tonight with a group and couldn't find any spawns within range. This must just be a lucky spawn. - SilentVex
 * This was previously possible, but not anymore. It was changed a long time ago. Now they only rarely spawn in range and will run away if attacked. I'll update the artcile when I have the bosses explored. --Gem [[Image:Gem-icon-sm.png]] 09:10, 20 April 2006 (CDT)
 * Its now again possible to kill the first boss before lowering the bridge. Dunno when it was broken again. --Gem [[Image:Gem-icon-sm.png]] 10:17, 20 April 2006 (CDT)
 * I tried it today twice, both time this boss group behind the south gate was FAR outta range of my flat/longbow.... seems this got fixed some way :\ HJT 11:05, 14 May 2006 (CDT)
 * I also tried 2-3 times and met with the same results - the boss group was beyond the range of my longbow. However, the impression I get from reading some online forums is to look for a group of Jade Scarabs that may randomly spawn near the south door; it is suggested using PBAoE or PBAoEDD spells to bring them out. --DaveBaggins 18:35, May 14 2006 (CST)
 * I just did it a couple of days ago. An E/N in our group used necrotic traversal or consume corpse (not sure which) to get past the south draw gate and killed 2 bosses before starting the timer. --thecount June 22 06
 * Tried a couple of times to do the timer exploit but not a single monster in range, does anyone know how to uncover the map an do the bonus without running skills (I'm a necro)? Samael 14:55, 26 October 2006 (CDT)
 * Did it today on the first try ; boss was a forgotten, not an enchanted.Yves 16:32, 3 March 2007 (CST)
 * I was able to find some scarabs to kill from afar and actually sent Olias over with Necrotic Transversal, then gave me and my other heroes the vamp and had Olias rebirth us. This was about a week ago- so it works great! I did try the 'hurry up and kill stuff' methods before without success. So I want to note that contrary to some of the other claims later in this article, this mission AND bonus is totally possible with only heroes and henchmen. I used Reyna to kill the scarabs from afar since she seems to use a longbow, a hero monk so I could disable all healing spells until we were over, and flagged the henchmen far away so they wouldn't use their rez signet on us. --Jasminethetender 10:59, 26 March 2007 (CDT)


 * "this mission AND bonus is totally possible with only heroes and henchmen"
 * Yes, this mission and bonus are both able to be done with only heroes and henchmen. But, using the NT trick, not at the same time (finish Mission, come back for bonus next time, or vise versa).  Once you, as solo human in group, get rebirthed across the chasm, you no longer have the ability to finish the mission (no one to take Ghost to cap alter).  I believe the mission itself is still doable with just henchmen (no heroes), only much easier (less hard?) if you are a Monk primary.  I won't be testing it though, as I bought Nightfall to avoid using all hench ever again.
 * Yes, the NT exploit still works. Jades are now harder to come by than before, but still can be found if you look hard or last resort resign/restart mission.  The NT trick is the only way I know of to get that area 100% mapped, let alone in a single run.
 * I think the biggest complaint on this mission is that it used to be henchable to get mission + bonus in the same run. This is definitely not the case anymore, unless you have godlike speed in killing the 3 bonus bosses (you have 3 min at end to do it in, which includes getting there).
 * BTW, there is another AI "exploit" you can use to not have to kill off your heroes/hench once you are NT/rebirthed across the chasm. See below under Some sort of miracle, bug, or feature.  Queen Schmuck 11:33, 26 March 2007 (CDT)

It appears even the Enchanted bosses are exploitable - I just took down the Ranger Enchanted boss and my Olias was able to get a minion out of it, so NT should work for this as well. HanokOdbrook 12:01, 1 May 2007 (CDT)

Pfft you don't even need to use this to get to the bonus. I completed mission and bonus at the same time. We activated the final fight and five of us (we had two monks, a healer and a smiter, with the smiter staying behind) took out te bonus. Dr Elvis was the guy's name, he used Balth Aura, SoJ and the like wit using divine favour bonuses to heal the ghost. Quite effective. I laughed when I heard people attempted the bonus by killing themselves. You just need to think around such issues.

"Could someone confirm this"
I just removed the "Could someone confirm this" note from the Bonus objective. I recently did the mission and I hereby confirm that the Bonus objective is right.

Goss Aleesh
The Bosses and Elite Skills section should be updated. Instead of Ayassah Hess, I found Goss Aleessh. --DaveBaggins 09:54, Feb 12 2006 (CST)

Staff of slow
not exactly sure where, but there is an object in this mission called the staff of slow You can pick it up and hold it (you get the drop item button)

when dropped, it radiates as slow area spell any mob entering the circle wil move very slow

We did the mission pretty easy that way :)
 * It's already in the article -- it's called the Slow Totem. --Bishop 19:05, 2 March 2006 (CST)

location of generals for bonus
The map is wrong: all 3 generals are in the southern fort. you only need to head south, not east and west --
 * The numbers on the map do not represent the locations of the generals. They are mearly reference points.  Read the walkthrough of the bonus, as it clarifies the information. --161.88.255.140 15:32, 18 April 2006 (CDT)
 * That clears it up! I always thought the generals were in the 3 forts.. didn't read the text that well. I still think the image is incorrect though because it suggests that the green path is the bonus path and the 3 points are the 3 generals. What do the points represent if they do not represent the generals? Only point 2 is referenced in the text. This is a hard mission and I think this image only confuses people... --82.73.178.173 05:55, 19 April 2006 (CDT)


 * The image should be updated. I uploaded the original (back then I thought the generals were there), I'll see if I can get around to uploading another, but don't hesitate to do your own one. --Karlos 06:00, 19 April 2006 (CDT)

Missing bosses
There are some bosses missing. There is atleast a warrior boss at the south fort. --Gem 04:43, 20 April 2006 (CDT)


 * The nature of the mission makes it hard to explore fully.. You can't go out and explore the bosses and leave the ghost with henchies, so you'll need to get other players with you. I agree there is a warrior boss, and judging by the other 2 desert missions, there has to be a ranger in the southeast fort. --Karlos 05:13, 20 April 2006 (CDT)


 * I am arranging an exploration group with Kalomeli and 2 other friends to reveal the mysteries of the bosses. This will need a few tries to get all of the bosses and SoC confirmations. (And to be sure of the spawn locations) I will create a new map for the mission at the same time. The current one is very misleading. --Gem [[Image:Gem-icon-sm.png]] 05:35, 20 April 2006 (CDT)


 * First try, everything went well. Killed the first mesmer boss ofcourse, then the elementalist which was too close to the centre before we took the hero to the altar, then the ranger which attacks to the Hero and then the warr and necro at the southern base. --Gem [[Image:Gem-icon-sm.png]] 10:17, 20 April 2006 (CDT)


 * Locations are rotating. The warrior boss often attacks in the missions I played while the ranger dude is found just outside the bonus fortress (where the exploit used to be). --Karlos 21:00, 20 April 2006 (CDT)


 * I kenw they rotated, but didn't know that the one attacking the fort changed. I have always had the ranger attack and I have done the mission many times. Are there some differences between the possible locations? Atleast some bosses are in some places more often. I have never seen the monk. --Gem [[Image:Gem-icon-sm.png]] 03:38, 21 April 2006 (CDT)


 * Ok, I found the monk atlast. Any bosses can spawn at the southern fort, but I have only seen the ranger, warrior and necromancer attack the fort. I assume that the others might rarely attack too.
 * I also have the area fully explored (There is a huge empty area in the east. I might have been the first man there ever :P ) Only a few square millimeters missing from the western fort, but I couldn't get in. I need to kill the Enchanteds in front of it first. I am not sure if there are bosses in the west and east forts, but I have to check it. After I get to the western fort I will submit a new better map. --Gem [[Image:Gem-icon-sm.png]] 04:50, 21 April 2006 (CDT)

Custscene Dialog
This is the first mission on which I've started to add cutscene dialog (original discussion). Please feel free to review, discuss, correct or improve what I have done so far. --IAmAI 06:57, 26 July 2006 (CDT)

Bonus Description Wrong?
I'm following the current bonus description, and appears as if the mission has perhaps been changed. After the rounds of arcanists, the westward charge to get the two groups leaves a group of enchanted bowmen to the south that move in to attack the hero. I'm going to try staying closer until the west group, south group, and boss group are dealt with and see if that yields better luck.--66.92.73.217 18:30, 12 September 2006 (CDT)


 * I'm having trouble understanding what issue you are having.- 18:53, 12 September 2006 (CDT)


 * There are 4 rounds of arcanists (east, south, west, then east again). According to the bonus description, you then take out the group of enchanted at the west bridge, and then head a little further ("towards point 2") to take out the boss group. There's also a group of enchanted bowmen to the south that show up at about the same time as that first group of enchanted on the bridge.  If you head further west to take the boss group, the ghostly hero gets wiped by the bowmen every time.  Killing the bowmen allowed me to proceed toward the fort, but didn't leave enough time to kill the generals.--66.92.73.217 19:44, 12 September 2006 (CDT)

Bonus and current AI?
With the current (Nov '06) AI most of the bonus strategies are unlikely to be successful. First, the seige wurms never break agro with the ghostly hero. Previously the would stop attacking him once you were out of their agro, now their agro appears to include the 'throne' the ghostly hero must hold for 10 minutes. Once the wurms spawn they will continue to attack him and if you leave him without a healer he will die long before the time runs out. The other change has to do with kiting. The forgotten generals kite like mad, unless you can pin them 100% they will agro a ton of the jade scarabs buried every couple of feet outside of the 'castle'. This makes going outside the 'castle' to kill the last incoming group highly inadvisable and it makes doing the secondary the "normal" way difficult at absolute best. Basically the necrotic traversal 'trick' has become the only way of getting the secondary with any degree of certainty. -- 127.0.0.0

...Moreover this bonus can no longer be done with henchmen. Period. As far as I know this is the only bonus in game which is 100% in need of human assistance. Not even Heroes would help out. Things that need to be done:

-Leave a healer behind to attend to the Ghostly Hero.

Problematic, as party size is only 6, and most PUGs can only grab one or two monks.

-Kill or interrrupt all 3 siege wurms.

Need 3 good Mesmers or Rangers; probably have to be humans. Can a party of three take out the Forgotten generals?

-Work fast.

Like most missions, this one got harder because monsters are smarter. The statement, "having over six minutes left" really doesn't apply anymore unless you're in a very good party that is well prepared. (Besides, you must wait for the last wave from the West, due to Jade Scarabs).

Even just the mission itself is hard with henchies; the siege wurms out-damage both healer henchmen in the final minutes, leading to near-wipe. It's sad really. Personally I think the change to Siege Wurm aggro has something to do with the new Wurms from Nightfall. I think it is an oversight and not intentional...the mission and bonus are just way too difficult now. Nearly the hardest in the game, period...harder than Glint, even. And that's just not right. Especially since this is a "required" mission to advance the storyline.

Perhaps there are some new countermeasures out there that have just not been discovered yet. Some new 'tricks' for this bonus and mission. That seems only fair... 24.6.147.36 02:26, 17 November 2006 (CST)(Entropy)


 * I have tried leaving Dunkoro with the Ghostly Hero, unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anywhere to leave him where the wurms won't eventually pound him into the sand before they move on to the Ghostly Hero. The best I've managed was to kill all of the generals and have only two of the enchanted left before the Ghostly Hero wiped. Mind you, I probably only got that far because the spawn was such that I could wipe the first general and his enchanted before the timer started. Dunkoro dies surprisingly quickly under wurm fire, the hero monks seem to place self-healing at a very low priority, so leaving Dunkoro behind only buys you a minute or so before the Ghostly Hero dies.


 * As for killing or interrupting the wurms, I just don't see it. Killing them would take too long, interrupting them would tie up half your team -- it'd be unlikely you'd have enough firepower left to take out the generals, their enchanted, and whatever scarabs joined the fun.


 * The only way I can see the secondary being halfway doable at the moment is either you have an excellent group and a lot of luck -- an unlikely combination in this game -- or you use the necrotic traversal trick. I think you could probably even do it using heroes. Kill something, necrotic traversal yourself over, switch your heroes to vampiric weapons, rebirth them. Alternatively, make all of your heroes a necro secondary and keep grabbing and killing scarabs so each of them can necrotic traversal over. It'd be a massive PITA, but it should be doable.


 * It appears to me that there was no real thought given to how the AI changes would effect missions in previous chapters. I suspect said changes have probably messed up a number of missions, especially any with a time component. It's hard to see how they could mess up a mission much more than this one, though. The secondary on this one was always a bit of a PITA, but it was doable even with henchies -- I've done it several times. Now you really have to stretch things to even call it doable, it's certainly not what I'd call reasonable. I hope they fix it, just fixing the wurm agro would make all the difference, but, frankly, I'm not going to hold my breath. -- 127.0.0.0


 * Well, the peculiar thing is that this is the only mission in Prophecies which has been messed up badly. I've recently played through every mission and bonus (through Hell's Precipice) and while monsters in general are harder due to improved AI...there are no disastrous changes like in this mission. So it seems to be an isolated case.


 * Also - I've found that if you kill the first wurm that pops up (after 4 waves of Forgotten Arcanist), things almost return to a doable state. I managed to defeat two generals (first one using longow method) and minions plus some Jade Scarabs. However, the Ghostly Hero was overwhelmed by the "mystery group" of foes that sometimes spawns as you head towards the fort. If not for them I would have been able to do the bonus. My theory is that they trigger (sometimes) after you clear the first General and all his minions. I still had maybe 1:30 left...I could have done the bonus! ...But, yes, it seems it is still doable. You've got to be fast though, and bring lots of armor-ignoring damage for that Wurm. And it really is very difficult overall...luck needs to be on your side.


 * Here's a tenative build for doing it with hench...Mesmer primary would work best, but an Energy Storage-oriented Elementalist/Mesmer works also. All points should go to Domination, Energy Storage or Fast Casting, and leftovers to Inspiration. Equip: Energy Surge (elite), Energy Burn, Wastrel's Worry, Power Spike, Cry of Frustration, Shatter Enchantment, Drain Enchantment, Inspired Enchantment. Versus Enchanted, Wurms, and Centaurs, use the first three for armor-ignoring damage. Use the two interrupts to stop Wurm Siege. Versus Forgotten Arcanists, remove as many enchantments as possible and save interrupts for Earthquake. Finally, for the Generals, use Wastrel's Worry since the duration needed is reduced to about 1 second. Bring Alesia, Lina, Orion, Little Thom, and Stefan. Cross your fingers...24.6.147.36 14:53, 18 November 2006 (CST)(Entropy)


 * Tested, works like a charm - wurms go down in less than 30 seconds. I would have gotten bonus except I was treated to the stupid Monk general, Dassk Arossyss, who kited like mad. Didn't even pull the first General with a Longbow, either. So I guess the bonus is still doable, but nevertheless needs a very specialized build and high coordination. Plus luck.


 * Aye, that mesmer build helped me too. I didn't take care of the worms though, the damage they did to the ghostly hero was minimal. I just ignored them. Went as dervish and took protter hero, interrupt+poison ranger hero with me + mesmer hero with that build above (rest: necro npc and Alesia npc). The monk boss is annoying, even with balthasar form active he's just as fast and still manages to run away >:( Whatever, got him anyway aswell as the rest. Bonus success, mission failure ;) The running after the chicken monk boss took too much time. Suppose a long lasting cripple skill like Pin Down would help there. (Lilly, 23. November 2006)


 * I managed to complete the bonus with heros/henchies. No specialized build.  I equipped Dunkoro with Heal Area and left him with the Ghostly Hero.  It works for the most part, but you do have to keep an eye on his skill bar to make sure he uses it.--66.215.48.110 01:37, 25 November 2006 (CST)


 * Not owning Nightfall, I have not been able to use Heroes; however, every single time I try the bonus the "old fashioned way", the Ghostly Hero gets annihlated by Wurm Siege. I don't understand why for some folks it doesn't deal much damage...
 * In any case I managed to complete the bonus with all henchmen! It's difficult though...Need to use Necrotic Traversal or Consume Corpse, then lure and kill all three Generals. Since they kite like mad it takes forever...plus, only the Archer henchman has the range to assist in the kills (usually). It took me at least an hour, thanks to two generals having healing skills (Orison, Aura of Restoration). But, it's possible. :) Still it seems unfair, because so far the consensus is that to get the bonus you need to do one of the following:


 * 1) You must have Nightfall, and thus Heroes.


 * 2) You must "cheat the clock" via the Necrotic Traversal trick.


 * 3) You must have at least two human players to deal with improved Siege Wurm range.


 * And this is not fair, because this is the only Prophecies mission/bonus that can't be done with all Henchmen. Even if you use the "trick" it's not fair; players shouldn't have to rely on exploits to complete something that used to be doable without exploits. Where is the "challenge" or "skill" in using the Necrotic Traversal + Rebirth trick? Lastly, the problem is that if you're not a Necromancer or Assassin primary or secondary, and you haven't Ascended/Weh No Su etc to change professions, you can't even use the Trick. Thus preventing you from getting the bonus without Heroes or human help. It's just unfair. *end rant*
 * ...And while I'm at it, you have to use Necrotic Traversal trick to explore the entire map; there is a huge section to the southeast that is not part of the mission. That's not fair either, since it counts towards the title. Entropy 22:35, 25 November 2006 (CST)


 * FWIW, you don't have to use the necrotic traversal trick to map the area, you can use the ~5 minutes or so you have left after protecting the Ghostly Hero to run around outside. It takes several runs and you can't really get inside the other forts that way, but you can get the vast bulk of it that way. I got Tyrian Grandmaster Cart on one of my characters using only henchies and that was the only way I could come up with to map that area since the nec-traversal trick is of little use if it's just you -- too many scarabs for one person to take on.


 * That aside, I believe the AI changes yesterday (12/15/06) fixed the perma-agro worm issue. Perhaps needs more testing, but I did the mission last night with a friend and it appeared the worms no longer lock on the Ghostly Hero and pound him to oblivion. They do, of course, lock on to you and try and pound you into oblivion (what did I ever do to them, anyway?), but that's always been the case. -- 127.0.0.0


 * I apparently was mistaken. Tried to do the secondary today with another character and watched as the wurms pounded the Ghostly Hero into the dust. I really, really wish they would fix this, not to mention the horribly broken AI all over. -- 127.0.0.0


 * Yes, the Ghostly still gets beaten to a pulp, it sucks. I was playing as a Monk and even with Two Hench monks it was a struggle to keep him alive! Grr.
 * Oh, Scarabs are easy to deal with actually - I can take out one to two solo with Ele, War, or Ranger. And remember that if you're ever in trouble, just run back to the hench, who you should set flag for at the cliff where you snipe that first boss. :) They'll help you out. Fairly easy solo mapping, but definitely easier with a party... Entropy 15:07, 28 December 2006 (CST)

Moved this text to Bonding for Bonus HOW-TO.

Some sort of miracle, bug, or feature.
Well, a very strange thing happened during the mission today...basically, I got a party of henchmen to break through walls, somehow, someway.

I was playing through with my Ranger, and I thought I'd use good old Necrotic Traversal to get the bonus by luring all the generals towards my henchies, who I've ordered to wait on top of the southern cliff (where you snipe the first boss with a longbow). Things went just fine and I took out the Mesmer and Monk generals, Ayassa Hess and Issah Sshay or whatnot. Now there was only one boss left: Custodian Kora, the Enchanted Bow Ranger boss. I lured and eliminated his minions, easy. But he refused to pull, so I was forced to tackle him alone.

The problem is that it's Ranger vs. Ranger; he has Troll Unguent and Throw Dirt, giving an obvious advantage. To counter, I drop the Slow Totem right on top of him and keep running around. Using Whirling Defense and Lightning Reflexes, it's pretty much neck and neck: both of us are spamming Penetrating Attack and it looks like we'll both die at the same time! I try to run, but just then my stance fails, and I die.

I think, Now what? Better start over...henchies obviously can't come and ress, because the bridges are still up, the Ghostly Hero has to be player-controlled to move, etc etc. But just for kicks, I decide to turn off my Hench order.

That's when the strangeness starts happening.

After a minute or two, I see something approaching on the radar. Could it be...? A green dot! And then two more after it! Soon, the whole hench party is standing beside me, and in no time I've been resurrected. The whole thing just blows my mind, because it's bloody impossible. How in the hell can henchies move in and out of the fort, when the bridges are up? Is there some sort of secret passageway that only they know about? It was the most amazing yet strange thing I've ever seen in Guild Wars. I thought I was hallucinating.

Just to make sure things were really real, I went ahead and attacked Custodian Kora. Sure enough, the henchies really were there. We easily beat the general and I acquired the bonus. Arriving back at the Dunes of Despair outpost, I was of course happy but more than a little perplexed. But it just goes to show, henchmen are better than they seem sometimes.

Comments, questions...shared experiences? Is this an isolated occurrance or have others seen something like this happen before too?

Entropy 02:06, 3 December 2006 (CST)


 * While I have not experimented with Dunes of Despair in some time (the elonian equivalent is so ridiculously easy, I just do it), I HAVE seen odd AI for heroes and henchmen after dying. Even being just 3/4 of a radar away, I've seen odd things.  I died once because I ran into the fray like usual... only to realize that my heroes and henchies were still standing at the flag I had placed in the last battle.  (splat).  So I turned off the flag, and I expected them to be either lost, or come after me.  Logical, right?  There were no barriers in the way, but I didn't know if they were smart enough to find the way to me.  Get this:  they went two different ways!  Hereos went one way, away from me, the henchies appeared to come toward me.  It appears they use different AI algorithms for how they try to reach and follow you.  One thing to try with these henchies and the AI glitch that you noticed, is to A) try it again, does the same thing happen and B) select one of them and watch them, what do they do?  Or c) does it only work if you aren't watching them :DCyrogenic 14:51, 18 December 2006 (CST)


 * (A)It happened again! I died, I unset the flag...and the henchmen just teleported outside the fort! I have no clue what's going on now :D. I've noticed the same thing you have, sometimes the AI makes em split in funny ways.
 * I suppose I can try and watch them, that never occurred to me. Bu I doubt it would reveal anything. I'm just happy because now I have a haxxor way to do the bonus. :) Entropy 15:09, 28 December 2006 (CST)


 * Wow, hilarious. This worked for me, also -- traveled over after drawing the first general and killing him, drew off as many Enchanted and Jade Scarabs as I could before dying, and then recalled the calvary.  Silly AI walked up to the nearby cliff and then suddenly appeared below on the ground to come to my aid.  Hilarious.  - unregistered user :) 19:23 EST, January 9, 2k7


 * Yup, same thing on me. Did the Necrotic trick with heroes, and obviously turned the flagging off to make them follow me, and suddently(after a few minutes) i've noticed my two henchies joining the fray o_O Funny thing...(EDIT: I think that this "bug" is worth mentioning on the mission's page. Adding). --80.3.64.13 07:44, 10 January 2007 (CST)

This doesnt relate to the mission in general, but I have noticed similar things elsewhere. Once actually, in dunes, my friend had his hero's flagged back some, and when he unflagged them, they ran away from us even though they were still on the radar. I assume this is similar to what others have noticed, instead of waiting we just moved towards them and they changed direction.

Another instance, I went to powerlevel 2 hero's outside Lair of the Forgotten, I set a flag right by the zone as I went to hop in a wurm and clear the way for the hero's. After I cleared the way, I canceled the flag and they ran at the portal, and teleported to me.

Another(and last) instance I had this occur, I was skill capping and I set henchies/hero's to sit by the zone while I checked the boss spawn(this was in prophecies), it was the right boss, so I canceled the flag(hench/hero's dont trigger monsters till they are within radar, so they are 100% safe out of radar range, unless its a mission with certain spawns related to objectives), and they suddenly started to just appear next to me, much like sending them through a zone does, yet I just canceled the flag, I didnt send them through the portal. Anyway, thats what I have to add, so I think this is somewhat how the control system was designed, allowing hench/hero's to reach their master even if the normal way is impossible. --Mwpeck 21:59, 11 January 2007 (CST)


 * ok, just tried it on dunes, had them up on the ledge(flagged), and I took out the first boss, moved JUST outside the aggro of the 2nd and 3rd bosses. Unflagged and they teleported to about where the first boss spawned at. --Mwpeck 14:21, 12 January 2007 (CST)
 * I think it's just a easy fix that prevent them to get lost. Way easier to make them appear there then write an AI that can find you all the way on the others side of the maps.&mdash; ├ A ratak ┤  14:24, 12 January 2007 (CST)

Changes to bonus ability
Before the January 11, 2007 update, I was able to put monk hero with standard solo bond build on ghost (Life Barrier, Life Bond, Mending, Watchful Spirit, in that order of casting so bonding monk never takes damage), then park the hero monk at the bridge near the throne. This would keep the hero alive forever, and his health would never get below 50%. As a bonus bug, once the rest of the party (sans bonding hero monk) were outside of radar rage of the ghost, the ghost would quit taking damage (I'll admit that part was a bug, and needed fixed).

After the January 11, 2007 update, you are lucky if the ghost lives to 7 minutes, and is usually near death at 6:30. This happens even if I am clear on the Southeastern side of the map (WAY out of radar range, so they did fix out-of-radar-no-damage bug). Wurms also never stop attacking, and appear to do more % damage to ghost than they do to your party (his health appears to go down farther than my heroes' health, so maybe he now has less HP?).

Also of intersting note when the ghost is bonded: once the ghost gets to about 20% health, he instantly dies (right around 7 min into mission). Literally, his health goes straight from 20% to dead. The only thing I can think of that would do this is a pair of jade scarabs found him and instantly removed his 4 enchantments (could be possible and I don't know of any other enchantment removal creatures in this mission).

Before Jan 11, 2007 After Jan 11, 2007
 * Mission + Bonus at same time was guarenteed with a bonding hero monk, and did not require traversal exploit to accomplish this.
 * Bonus can be done, but you have to:
 * kill south bosses in under 7 min after hero takes alter
 * use traversal exploit (if you do this, might as well map too)
 * using above method, have someone baby sit ghost (see below)
 * Mission and Bonus now appears to be impossible to get at same time with heroes and henchies
 * Mission and Bonus now appears to be possible to get at same time
 * if another human babysits ghost (before him taking throne) while rest of party traversal/rebirths to bonus area, then you come back in to fight normal mission

Did something change? Oh yes.

An unrelated note, the bonus in Thirsty River now appears to be VERY hard to get, as the King ghost gets attacked as soon as you enter the last fighting area, which throws most game plans out the window if you want to keep him alive. This is only related because this also changed on Jan 11, 2007 (I did Thirsty River on the 10th and the 13th, Thirsty River has definitely changed).


 * As far as I know there has never been any evidence that the seige wurms were acting other than as intended when they stopped attacking once your party was out of their agro, certainly the secondary makes absolutely no sense if the seige wurms were meant to continuously pound the ghostly hero into the sand. Regardless, the introduction of Nightfall changed the seige wurm behavior drastically, things have gotten worse ever since. I don't think this was intentional as far as this mission is concerned, just as a side effect of changing the seige wurm AI, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it to be fixed. Basically at this point the Necrotic Traversal/Rebirth 'trick' is the only reasonable option if you want the secondary, albeit with teleport being modified I wouldn't count on that one working forever. It can be done without nec traversal if you have a good team and a little luck, but both can be hard to come by. I feel really sorry for new players trying this now, it must be hugely frustrating.


 * As for Thirsty River, the last time I did it was maybe a week and a half ago or so, but at that point everything seemed fine -- or, at least, I got the primary and secondary easily enough. In my experience, if you go right when you enter the last area there's always been a good chance the ghost would get attacked, but it didn't matter. I've always gotten the secondary as long as he hadn't left -- whether because he was 'dead' ('redead'?) or the timer hadn't run out didn't matter which. -- 127.0.0.0


 * I did Dunes on Jan 14, with a party of 4 humans and 2 heroes. We fought at the ghost until there were no more Forgotten spawns (at about 3 min left on the timer), then parked the monk hero with the ghost and rushed for the bonus. It was quite a close fight, but the monk hero was doing fine with healing the ghost.  We also previously went in twice with the intent of doing the traversal trick, but not once did the boss spawn close enough nor were we able to get the scarabs to pop up.  &mdash; [[Image:Fin_sig.gif|User:Kyrasantae]] kyrasantae   16:51, 17 January 2007 (CST)


 * I concur, you now need either Elonians heroes or two human monks to complete the bonus without using one of the tricks: one to keep hero alive under worm pounding, another to support the team assaulting the enemy generals. With pure Prophecies characters, solo bonus has gone up to a whole new level of difficulty. 83.159.9.78 04:42, 4 February 2007 (CST)

Wow, why is everyone so intent on KILLING THEMSELVES TO GET THE BONUS. You don't need to, just get two good monks (I mentioned above) a healer to help with bonus and a smiter to stay behind and help the ghost (while staying out of aggro range). It seems common sense isn't that common...

Current mission (no bonus)
Well, the actual mission, if you totally ignore the bonus, is not too hard anymore now that Heroes are out. Wurm Siege can strike for up to 100 damage dead-center now, and the two Monk henchmen (Alesia, Lina) were never designed to deal with that sort of thing. However I find that the easiest, most pain-free way to do things, even just using the Prophecies henchmen, is to go and eliminate the Siege Wurms whenever possible. It requires a fairly strong offense, because you don't want enemies attacking the Ghostly while you're busy with the Wurm; but that's not too hard to do. Anyways, I'll go edit the Strategy section now. Entropy 11:19, 28 January 2007 (CST)

Copyright stuff for new wiki.guildwars.com
I'm the author of "approach 6" bonus guide and relinquish any copyright I have on that text and allow it to be published in full and unmodified on wiki.guildwars.com in a similar article on this mission.
 * You did that when you wrote it on Guild Wiki. It's part of wiki policy.

LOL &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by 220.237.103.13 (contribs).
 * What? No, bullshit. &mdash; Skuld 20:16, 12 May 2007 (CDT)

Mission with bonus : glitch
The necrotic traversal trick still works as of today (march 2007). I found (probably not the first, though) an interesting glitch that allows you to visit the outside castles for which the drawbridges are closed : you can just walk on plain air.



Also note that the party is heroes/henchmen only (Tahikora having the required necro skill), and that the henchmen are present (the trick for "calling" henchmen using the green flag thus still works).

Note that it does not appear possible to reenter the mission area using this method.Yves 17:13, 3 March 2007 (CST)
 * Made your image a thumbnail on this page, click for full size. Queen Schmuck 17:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)

Bonus alt method 3
The map is too big for the page. Either resize it, or make it a thumbnail. At full size it distracts from the text, not enhances it. I wasn't sure what was being said until I saw the map, especially when the north/south was reversed. :P Queen Schmuck 17:10, 13 March 2007 (CDT)

Bonding for Bonus HOW-TO
This has been moved to User:Queen Schmuck/HOW-TO/Dunes of Despair - Bonding for Bonus.


 * That's the most erroneous advice ever. It applies to every form of play in GW. Sirocco 13:10, 3 April 2007 (CDT)
 * See reply on your user page. Queen Schmuck 18:04, 3 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Erroneous? If it applies to all of GW it's hardly erroneous; I think you meant "redundant". And anyway, if these are really such wide-spread problems, there's no harm in repeating the advice where it particularly applies. --Bonjela 18:13, 3 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Redundant is probably a better word, yes. Sirocco 19:00, 3 April 2007 (CDT)

You can do this with monk hero!
I went with a group (two rangers, three warriors, and monk hero). We equipped the monk hero with Necrotic Traversal and Rebirth. At the time of doing the bonus, we all put on Vampiric weapons and managed to get to the other side of the bridge due to the monk hero. We weren't sure if it was possible to get her to use Necrotic Traversal and Rebirth for that, but she did. We accomplished the bonus. It took awhile to kill ourselves with vamp weapons, but we did it! Just thought I should add in that you can do the bonus with a M/N monk HERO. :) Good luck, people! Morgan Fairweather 18:54, 4 April 2007 (CDT)


 * That is strange. I tried to do the exact same thing, but I was using Mo/N with Consume Corpse and Unyielding Aura instead. It was working just fine, but at a certain point the Heroes just decided not to use CC anymore, even if there was a body right in front of them. So I managed the bonus by getting myself over, killing with OoP, and having UA repeatedly kill me so everyone else could CC across. It was messy but avoided party-wide DP. However, when I tried to get back across to continue mission, I went and aggroed some Scarabs west of the fort entrance. They died, and I hopped over the cliff with CC again. Once again I suicided...but, for whatever reason, none of my Heroes would use CC, even if I commanded them to by clicking the icon. I do not know what the problem was...Consume Corpse should be treated the exact same way as Necrotic Traversal, right? I'm confused... [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 15:45, 5 April 2007 (CDT)


 * You can order your hero to use necrotic Traversal/Consume Sorpse yourself, even if their AI isn't telling them to use it. Just click the number beside the hero's name and their skill bar will open for you. oops I must have missed the part about you ordering them to use it sorry.--Devils Apprentice 15:40, 11 April 2007 (CDT)


 * I even went back and tried to get Olias, Necro primary to do it. But, he still refused, even though every other corpse in the mission he was using CC on. I don't get it. AI must have trouble dealing with ledges. :\ [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 21:24, 12 April 2007 (CDT)


 * That's possible it was glitching or something. Though, we did not do bonus & mission at once. As I said, we accomplished the bonus but I didn't say the mission. It's easier to do them seperate. We already each had the mission itself, but needed the bonus. After we did the bonus, we goofed off and aggroed as many Jade Scarabs as possible, then died. xD Morgan Fairweather 02:04, 15 April 2007 (CDT)

Ridiculously easy way to solo bonus with heroes
No special builds are required. Just take a competent team of 3 heroes and equip everyone with Necrotic Traversal. Start doing the mission as normal. When you reach the temple of ascension, leave your ghostly outside after he has opened the way in. Then proceed to southern edge of the temple, kill a scarab outside, Necrotic Traversal to it, pull 3 more scarabs to the edge and necrotic traversal your heroes. Simple! - 91.153.22.139 18:03, 8 April 2007 (CDT)


 * And just in case someone's interested, my team was me as protmonk, MM necro, interrupt ranger and nuker ritualist. - 91.153.22.139 18:05, 8 April 2007 (CDT)


 * Unless I'm mistaken, Necrotic Traversal leaves an exploited corpse. --Warwulf 12:30, 9 April 2007 (CDT)


 * Correct. That is why I had to pull 3 more scarabs to the edge. Minion summoning skills were naturally disabled during this. - 91.153.22.139 14:34, 9 April 2007 (CDT)


 * I got the bonus doing this way. However, I also had two henchman with me - obviously without necrotic transversal.  Somehow, after I and my heroes got across with necrotic transversal - they went THROUGH the middle drawbridge.  Additionally, the dots on the U map and the M map reset after the henchman come across.  Baron Diamon 15:49, 17 April 2007 (CDT)
 * This approach does, indeed, make things ridiculously easy. &mdash; 130.58 (talk) 06:37, 6 May 2007 (CDT)

Cartographer Notes
I just used the necrotic traversal / rebirth method on the Bonus of this mission, and having done the bonus i uncovered exactly 0.7% of the map of Tyria. This may help some people who are having problems. Note.... the dwarbridges are SEETHROUGH but do exist. In certain places around the edge there are enemies hidden by a bridge that looks impassable. Simply click the other side of the bridge and you literally walk over thin air to the other side, and you can also walk through the gate. This results in the the Dunes of Despair map having perfectly straight edges allong the south and western sides. Hope this helps :) - Hunter Darkbow ingame

Nerf?
Some alliance and I tried doing this last week and this week (numerous people needed the bonus in our alliance of a large scale) and everytime the scarabs did not show up and did not give them corpses. Several times, the boss and his cohorts were too far to even be shot at with longbows. Is this some sort of nerf that has been implamented? Anyone else have this problem this past week? Morgan Fairweather 01:43, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * It's the randomness of spawns. You'll have to just keep redoing the mission or work with the constraints. However, I don't think it's possible to survive long enough to do both the mission and bonus. --Kale Ironfist 02:06, 19 April 2007 (CDT)


 * I've pulled it off before. 2 humans and 4 henchies (before the introduction of Heroes) via Approach 2, though I used my own bonding build. -PanSola 02:11, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Bleh, tried the NT trick today, managed to lure 3 (!) scarabs and killed them all (one very close to the bridge - I could almost smell it :p ). NT didn't work, kept saying "invalid spell target" although I didn't have anything selected. Heroes had NT disabled. What did I do wrong ? --Erszebet 09:14, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Nothing, there really are just times where NT and Consume Corpse refuse to work, for whatever reason. It is an exploit after all, you can't expect it to work 100% of the time because the designers never meant it to work at all. ;) As far as I know, though, the Boss' corpse works 100%, even on Heroes. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 21:33, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Ah, didn't know that. It's ok though, tried again yesterday. Bought myself a crappy longbow to lure the boss and used his corps to travel. After that I pulled some scarabs for my heroes, which also worked this time. And flagged my henchmen over thin air to my side, which results in one very happy explorer...who still needs 0.9%, ugh :p --Erszebet 06:53, 20 April 2007 (CDT)

Don't need to suicide
It's clear to me that everyone is intent on killing themselves to get the bonus whereas you can do this mission and bonus in one go. We had a well balanced team with 2 monks. One for healing, the other was set for smiting. When we got to the ghost, we activated the final battle, the smiter stayed out of aggro range while casting buffs on the ghost (SoJ, balth aura, etc) while healing him occasionally (can't remember if he used just divine favour bonus or used other healing skills), while the rest of us went and killed the bosses. It wasn't that hard, and we didn't need to kill ourselves to do it. If you don't believe this is possible, pm Dr Elvis, he was the smiter (he usually helps people obtain the bonus in this fashion). YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME KILLING YOURSELF: and from what I've read, it isn't completely flawless either. Maybe a little more thought needs to go into your mission planning next time, people... King Neoterikos
 * In all fairness, trying to find even just one human monk, let alone two, probably is harder and takes more time then keep retrying the mission to get the right scarab spawn. The suicidal method has the additional benefit of uncovering a rather huge area of the map for the explorer title.  PUGs trying to find one healer AND one smiter will probably end up wasting more time. -User:PanSola (talk to the [[Image:follower of Lyssa.png]]) 20:07, 12 May 2007 (CDT)
 * True. I neglected to take into account that I was in the right place at the right time in finding the right party. But hey, that's what guilds and alliances are for. King Neoterikos 18:51, 19 June 2007 (CDT)
 * I have serious doubts, not to the fact that you did achieve the bonus easily, but to the idea that doing the bonus without suiciding is faster. It's true that it is not a completely flawless method...you need one scarab or any of the bosses but the Warrior one, and they must be in max bow range. However, if you are successful in getting a corpse to exploit, then the suicide method works 100% of the time unless you are so bad at GW that 15% DP overwhelms your party. Now, I've been using the suicide method since forever, and even when there's an occasion where it fails to work, it just means you have to do the mission and bonus normally. So really they're not mutually exclusive, even. But anyways. The time it takes to organize a good, strong fighting party, even if you go two players and Heroes (hench aren't good enough for bonus anymore), as well as the time wasted should you for some reason fail, is in my opinion much greater than the time it takes to restart and try again should the suicide method not be available. Since there is a cutscene right before reaching the Temple, it is pretty easy to just leave the Ghostly behind and have the party run there, avoiding fights along the way.

Finally, don't forget the single greatest benefit to the suicide method: it enables one to do the bonus solo, using just the regular henchmen available. All it takes is a Necro secondary and NT/CC...you may or may not have those right when you get to the Desert, but there really is nothing lost by ignoring the bonus for the time being and advancing until you can change class. The only other way I know of that a lone human player can do the bonus, is going all out with L20 Heroes, using stuff like SF and whatnot...steamrolling over the enemies with just 4 players. But that probably takes even more time than finding a good party as you did, so...meh. Of course, there wouldn't even be a need for suicide method if Hero AI for Monk skills was smart as humans...but it's not...Fear the day that ANet lets them work as efficient Bonders! >.> (T/C) 23:01, 19 June 2007 (CDT)

Bug?
I was doing bonus and mapping the bonus section with 3 heroes with necrotic travelsal and 2 henchmans. When I was with heroes by the southwest corner my henchmen just appeared and ran towards me. So, is there a way to get to the bonus area without using necrotic travelsal?

Not a new bug, somewhere in above I mentioned it...it is a strange bug related to the hero/hench AI, noone really knows why it happens. This mission is also the only place it's regularly observed happening. An easy way to see, is use Necrotic yourself and go to the two Generals past the fort...let one kill you. You're out of radar range, but for some reason the Heroes/Hench will just "appear" and come rez you. Works almost every time, it's a cheap way to do the bonus for any Necro primary or secondary.

As to abusing it...well, I don't think it works unless you are far away from your Hench and Heroes. Since you would have to be over on the other side anyways, you still use Necrotic either way. I believe (never been confirmed) that you can also do Shadow Step across the bridge to get out of the fort. If you watch, sometimes a Jade Scarab will come up and get inside the fort by running across the bridges - even though they are not actually down. I think you could teleport through to them, but I have never been able to test it... (T/C) 19:02, 16 May 2007 (CDT)