The Eternal Grove (mission)



''This is a mission entry. For information on the location The Eternal Grove, see The Eternal Grove (Location). For information on the explorable area The Eternal Grove, see The Eternal Grove (Explorable).''

Objectives

 * Protect the Forever Trees by keeping the Tree Singers alive.
 * Defeat the Afflicted forces. You have 12 groups remaining.

Primary
There is an additional health display on the top left corner of your screen, which shows the health status of the three Forever Trees. The trees are located at the points 1, 2, and 3 on the map. There are four Tree Singers grouped around each of these trees, each of which accounts for one quarter of the tree's hit points. When the singers are damaged, the health bar of their tree will degrade, and if a tree singer dies his tree's health bar will not regenerate back up to 100%. When all four singers of one tree are dead, so is the tree. Note that this does not result in a failure of this mission! Success only requires one tree singer (out of 12) to survive. While in the area near the trees, you will get the Aura of the Grove environmental effect, which boosts your running speed.

Each tree has an associated Juggernaut in the mission. Each juggernaut will continuously resurrect near the north tree as long as its forever tree stays alive. In addition to providing the Aura of the Juggernaut, which boosts your energy regeneration, the juggernauts make great tanks and do good damage as well. You can talk to a juggernaut to make it follow you, and talk to it again to make it stop.

Luxon attack
There are two types of Luxon groups. One consists of pairs of Luxon Warriors, Elementalists, and Rangers. These will rush into the grove to attack tree singers. They must go through one of the two gates, so it helps to guard both gates and intercept them there.

The other type of Luxon group consists of a Siege Turtle and two or three rangers. These will go to a hill (marked X on the map) overlooking the grove and stay there. The siege turtle will bombard the corresponding tree, and kill tree singers if ignored. Siege turtles may attack your group instead if you get close. The rangers that accompany the siege turtles will not attack the grove, but will only attack you if you come near.

The siege turtle groups come, in order, from the west, south, north, south, north, and west. The other pairs of Luxons come from all three directions, and sometimes take circuitous routes on their way to the grove.

It helps to go far west of the grove to kill a siege turtle and several Luxons at the very start of the mission. After this, hang back in the grove and kill any Luxon raiders that come, leaving only to kill siege turtles. If you can split your party (e.g., with heroes), it can help to have a couple characters guard one gate while the rest of the party leaves to kill a siege turtle in the other direction. The rest of the party can readily intercept any Luxons heading for the other gate before they get there.

Once all siege turtles that come from the west and their accompanying Luxons are dead, there will be a cut scene. It is not necessary to kill the rangers that accompany the siege turtles that come from the north or south. Indeed, most such rangers that are left alive will become your allies at the cut scene, so it can be beneficial to leave them.

Afflicted attack
After the cut scene, your defenses will be reinforced by two Luxon warriors and two pet crabs at each gate. Mhenlo will go to the north gate to heal. Danika will stay back initially, but often step up to heal. Most Luxon rangers left alive at the cut scene will become allies, and will run back and forth between the hill they were at and the gate on that side. If not all such rangers become allies, those that do will usually kill those that don't.

Twelve groups of afflicted will assault the grove, split into five distinguishable waves. Unlike the Luxons, the afflicted have no means of bombardment, so you can guard the two gates and wait for them to reach you there. The waves are timed, and one wave can come before all mobs in the previous wave are dead. Indeed, the second wave will usually arrive before the first is completely cleared.

The first wave has mobs attack both gates, but more attack the southern gate. The second wave is similar, and includes the warrior boss The Afflicted Maaka at the south gate. The third wave balances the mobs more evenly between the two gates. The last two waves each most of the mobs attack the north gate, with only two or three attacking the south gate. The last wave also brings two bosses to attack the north gate, The Afflicted Senku and The Afflicted Xenxo. When all afflicted are dead, you complete the mission.

The second part of the mission is harder than the first. As it is a point defense mission, standard area defense tactics such as traps or a minion master can be useful. Spirit range is long enough that a spirit dropped in the middle of the grove can have its effect throughout the grove, affecting combat at both gates simultaneously. Ritualist spirits such as Recuperation and Life will not merely heal party members at both gates at once, but your Luxon allies, Juggernauts, Mhenlo, and Danika, as well.

Note that if you only care about mission completion and not master's reward, you only have to keep one tree singer alive. If having trouble with the mission, you could camp out in one spot and fight mobs there. The north tree is probably the most easily defensible, as it contains Mhenlo and the juggernaut respawn point.

Master's Reward
To get master's reward if grouped with only henchmen here is unusually difficult. You can try flagging henchmen off to one area while you guard another, and using juggernauts to accompany you, providing a more even group split. It is possible to do either portion of the mission without losing any tree singers even with only henchmen, but you'll most likely need either heroes or other players in order to effectively split your group and get master's reward. Getting master's reward with heroes and henchmen is much more doable, so the remainder of this section will assume the presence of heroes or players who can move independently of the rest of the group.

For the group setup, it helps to have a ritualist with Recuperation, Life, and some other healing spells. It also helps to have a minion master who can keep some minions up even with corpses only intermittently available. Spells such as Animate Flesh Golem, Animate Bone Minions, Animate Shambling Horror, and Jagged Bones can effectively provide multiple minions off of one corpse making them more effective than other minion spells. The minions are going to have to take some hits and die, so it is better to bring Death Nova for a minion bomber build than to try to heal them. The other six party members should comprise a reasonably well-balanced group of six.

The entire party should initially head west of the grove to kill the first siege turtle and the various Luxons near it. After that, come back to the grove and leave two party members (one of which is a healer) standing in the north gate to kill any Luxons that attack from that side. The rest of the party can guard the south gate, then head out to kill the south siege turtle when it comes. After that, switch the two party members at the north gate to the south gate while the rest of the party heads to the north gate. Kill the north siege turtle when it comes. Repeat this shuffling to kill the next two siege turtles, and then the six party members at the north gate can head over to kill the siege turtle party coming from the west, triggering the cut scene.

After the cut scene, send all three juggernauts and the minion master to the north gate, the ritualist to the center of the grove, and the rest of the party to the south gate. If a juggernaut dies, then move it back to the north gate between waves. The ritualist should cast recuperation and life as often as possible to heal, and various other healing spells to heal party members or allies on either side as appropriate.

The ritualist should not set up any attacking spirits in the center of the grove. Mobs prefer to attack things that are attacking them, so this can make them run to the center of the grove to kill a spirit. Mobs also prefer nearby targets over distant ones, so after killing an attacking spirit, they sometimes move on to attack tree singers. A hero ritualist should not bring any attacking spirits for this reason. A player ritualist can set up attacking spirits by the gates, but not in the center. A player ritualist can even set up the same attacking spirit by each gate and have two copies of it up and fighting at the same time.

Depending on the course of the fighting, a character from the south gate may need to go help at the north gate once the south gate is reasonably secure. Once the mobs to the south are cleared in the second and third waves, all characters defending the south gate should help clear the north gate. This setup should get you through the first three waves. When you get a message saying that 3 groups remain, it's time to change tactics.

After that, send two or three characters (including a healer) to the south gate while the rest of the party defends the north gate. The characters at the south gate should clear the couple of afflicted that come, and then head over to help at the north gate. Once the fourth wave is clear, the two or three characters can return to the south gate to kill the couple of afflicted that come there in the fifth wave, before again returning to the north gate to fight.

Hard Mode
Rather than the usual build on each team, bring one solid ranger who can attack the Luxon turtle in the center area from the middle forever tree. This means they don't have to leave the base and risk wiping a side or exposing the Tree Singers. The Luxon rangers who come with the turtle will just sit there until the end of the Luxon part of the mission and will become your allies afterwards (though they get rapidly wiped out by the afflicted after the cut-scene).

During the afflicted phase of the mission each team should have a good protection monk who will precast Protective Spirit on his teammates when the Afflicted elementalists appear (Otherwise they can easily wipe a side out in a matter of seconds). Also having two human monks is suggested as they can heal the juggernauts to ensure continued tanking (if your MM's minions are dead).

Recuperation works wonders here, as it heals all of the NPCs including the juggernauts and tree singers, minions, pets as well as the party for +3 health regeneration and can be kept up indefinitely. This will greatly relieve pressure on your monks and provide a nice boost to the natural healing of NPCs when they are not under attack. It also greatly increases the lives of minions by providing them with an initial buff and then reducing the amount of work required to maintain them.

Allies

 * 20 Pet - Elder Reef Lurker
 * 20 Baron Mirek Vasburg
 * 28 Elite Juggernaut Berta
 * 28 Elite Juggernaut Klaus
 * 28 Elite Juggernaut Lieber
 * 20 Luxon Ranger
 * 20 Luxon Soldier
 * 20 Brother Mhenlo
 * 20 Danika
 * 20 Ex-Redemptor Berta
 * 20 Klaus
 * 20 Leiber
 * 20 Tree Singer

Foes
Afflicted Luxons Turtles
 * 20 Afflicted Warrior
 * 20 Afflicted Ranger
 * 20 Afflicted Monk
 * 20 Afflicted Mesmer
 * 20 Afflicted Elementalist
 * 20 Afflicted Assassin
 * 20 Luxon Warrior
 * 20 Luxon Ranger
 * 20 Luxon Elementalist
 * 24 Siege Turtle

Bosses (Elite Skill Capture)

 * 28 The Afflicted Maaka - Enraged Smash
 * 28 The Afflicted Senku - Shadow Form
 * 28 The Afflicted Xenxo - Weapon of Quickening

Follow-up

 * Upon completion of the mission players will find themselves in: Vasburg Armory
 * To continue the storyline, take on the following Primary Quest: Into the Whirlpool

Note
This mission is the Kurzick equivalent to the Gyala Hatchery mission for the Luxons.