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.

Walkthrough
The first thing you will notice about this mission is the 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 singer makes for one quarter of the tree's hitpoints. When the singers are damaged, the health bar of their tree will degrade, and if a tree singer dies their 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.

Each tree has an associated Juggernaut in the mission. Each juggernaut will continuously resurrect as long as its forever tree stays alive. In addition to providing the Aura of the Juggernaut, the juggernauts make great tanks and do good damage as well.

Tip: You can get a Juggernaut to follow you by talking to it, unless it is already following someone else. This is a good way to bring the Aura of the Juggernaut with you if you need to leave the Grove.

The mission takes place in a very small area. Usually you will rarely venture very far from the hill with the trees, which is also the starting area. There are two gates leading up to the hill. With a well coordinated and balanced team it is possible to block both gates so that no attacker can enter and be a threat to the Tree Singers. Unfortunately, you will also have to leave the area to dispatch long range attackers. You should only do so when necessary, so that you can benefit from both the Aura of the Juggernaut (which boosts your energy regeneration) as well as the Aura of the Grove (which boosts your movement speed) as much as possible. If you are doing the mission with henchmen, you will of course have to run back and forth between the gates. In this case it will often be advantageous to attack approaching enemies as soon as they come into view and not wait for them all to converge on you.

Both Mhenlo and Danika will always be there as mission NPCs. Unfortunately you will have no control over them whatsoever. It does not matter if one or even both of them die, you will not fail the mission.

First part
The Luxons will attack from all sides, coming down the paths from the north, west and south. The first wave will be the strongest and come from the west. It can be advantageous to intercept this group early, before it reaches the Grove, and splits up. After this, attacking groups will consist of pairs of Luxon Warriors, Elementalists and Rangers only. Dispatch the smaller groups quickly, making sure not to let any Warriors or Elementalists get past you to the Tree Singers, as they can take down a Singer in a matter of seconds. Do not go after the Siege Turtles as long as there are any Warriors or Elementalists around. The Rangers can be mostly ignored, as they don't deal much damage and will be taken care of by the Juggernauts. The Siege Turtles will come down the paths from all three sides and start firing once they arrive on the small hills, marked with an X on the map. Each Turtle has an escort of three Rangers, which again can simply be ignored, as they will not attack the Tree Singers.

After you have defeated several waves, including six Siege Turtles (two per tree), the attacks will cease. A cutscene will explain the second part of the mission. If any Luxon Rangers are alive, the cutscene may not trigger.

Second part
This part is much the same as the last, however the opponents are both more difficult and more plentiful. The handful of (newly joined) allies you have will not make up for this. One of the best approaches for holding off the Afflicted is to block the gates with one or two tanks and have the rest of the party use ranged attacks and skills, so that not too many are hit by the Afflicted Soul Explosions, which occur whenever an Afflicted dies. The Afflicted do not have any siege weapons, so it is safe to wait for them inside the Grove. Several of the attacking groups will also have a boss with them. If a boss is attacking a Tree Singer directly, it can be very helpful to place Protective Spirit on all tree singers around that tree, as a single boss Afflicted Soul Explosion can very easily hit the Singers for 3/4 of their total health.

The Juggernauts make great tanks during this part of the mission, as long as the forever trees stay alive. They absorb damage well and if killed resurrect almost immediately, very close to the fighting.

Note on Success and/or Getting Masters Reward:

Having two Minion Masters, one on each side, can really tip the battle in your favor, just don't forget to have Soul Feast or some other way of healing yourself after you use Blood of the Master. Another very helpful tactic is to deploy trappers on each gate.

Skipping the cutscene towards the second part of the mission will delay the Afflicted for a few seconds. Useful for any preparations that you might need to make (such as moving the Juggernauts).

Note on Henchmen: The second part is quite difficult to do with henchmen. Stick to guarding either the Northern or Southern tree. Stand close to the tree, and do not go down the stairs. It may not be possible to keep all the Tree Singers alive, but you will complete the mission. Spellcasters will have an easier time.

You could also try letting all your Henchman defend 1 side, and you and all the juggernauts the other. Then when your Henchmen team has defended their side, they could go and help you.

If you have heroes available you can achieve the masters with 3 heroes and henchmen but it is not easy. For the first part set your heroes to the south and the henchmen to the north. Pull the Juggernauts to the henchmen and set them at the bottom of the stairs. You will have to run back and forth to get the Siege Turtles using whatever group is closer.

After the cutscene put all your heroes and henchmen on the south gate. Pull the Juggernauts with you to the north. Mhenlo will have to be your healer so don't stray from him too far. Using a ?/trapper build makes things easier, slows the Afflicted down so the Juggernauts can get ahold of them. Keep track of Juggernaut deaths and run back up to the north tree to get them down to the fight faster. When the final wave comes both bosses came to the north gate so watch for when the south gate is clear. Realease your heroes and henchmen to help you out.

Elite Skill Capture

 * [[Image:Warrior-icon-small.png]]The Afflicted Maaka - Enraged Smash
 * [[Image:Ritualist-icon-small.png]]The Afflicted Xenxo - Weapon of Quickening
 * [[Image:Assassin-icon-small.png]]The Afflicted Senku - Shadow Form

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