Thirsty River (mission)

Objectives
Annihilate the opposing enemy teams.
 * Defeat Goss Aleessh's team.
 * Defeat Issah Sshay's team.
 * Defeat Hessper Sasso's team.
 * Defeat Josso Essher's team.
 * Defeat Lyssha Suss's team. (Note: The boss in this team is Custodian Phebus)
 * Defeat Kesskah Shissh's team. (Note: The boss in this team is Custodian Hulgar)
 * Bonus Cleanse the area before King Khimaar's spirit is driven away.

Primary
The first part of the mission is to traverse the path from the starting area to the Ghostly Hero at point B. A number of Rockshot Devourers will pop up along the way to fight you. They stack Dust Trap and Flame Trap quite a bit, but aren't much of a difficulty unless you stand in the traps as they trigger.

There are also five Sand Giants at the points marked A on the map. Each of these will give you a morale boost, so that you can get your party the maximum 10% morale boost before reaching the arenas.

The main part of the mission is to defeat the six enemy teams in the arenas. The Ghostly Hero will accompany you as an ally, and must be kept alive to complete the mission. He's durable enough to not be in that much danger of dying under normal circumstances. If you try to retreat and he gets body blocked, that can leave him fighting alone, which usually gets him killed. You can talk to the Ghostly Hero to make him stay at a particular spot, and talk to him again to make him follow you.

Each enemy team has eight or nine mobs, split into three separate linked groups. Two of the groups will wander out somewhat, making them easy to pull separately. These two wandering groups each have three normal mobs. The remaining group has a boss, an Enemy Priest, and sometimes one other mob. The third team will stay back inside a building, and will not wander out to fight.

The first arena has one team, the second has two teams, and the third has three teams. The teams stay apart somewhat, so you can readily fight one team without aggroing the others. It is critical that you do so, both to avoid being overwhelmed, and to not waste time fighting extra opponents.

When the Ghostly Hero starts opening the gate to an arena, a timer will start. The total amount of time elapsed since entering the arena is irrelevant. What matters are the two minute intervals. Every two minutes (i.e., at 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, etc.), if an enemy priest in one team is still alive, he resurrects all other mobs on his team. This includes mobs that were not linked to him, so the team will be back to full strength at 8 or 9 mobs. If a team's enemy priest is dead, he cannot resurrect his team. An enemy priest only resurrects his own team, and not other teams.

Once you start killing mobs in one team, it is vital that you kill the enemy priest before the next two minute mark. It is recommended that you refrain from killing mobs just before a two minute mark, but start killing a team immediately after the two minute mark, in order to have nearly the full two minutes to kill a priest. You can get a slight head start by damaging part of a team a little before a two minute mark, but be careful not to finish anything off until after the two minute mark.

The advice to start killing a team just after the two minute mark applies to all teams, whether the first team you fight after entering an arena, or subsequent teams in the same arena. For the first team in an arena, if you need a head start, you can wait until about 1:55 to attack. In the third arena, it's probably better to just rush in and save King Khimaar, as the firepower he provides is at least as useful as an extra ten seconds or so.

Still, for the first team in an arena, if you just rush in and start attacking immediately, that starts you out not that much past the two minute mark at 0:00. For subsequent teams in an arena, if you start attacking one team right after finishing off the previous, the next two minute mark may well be far less than two minutes away. It is often better to stop, regroup, and wait for the next two minute mark to approach before attacking the next team.

It is often impractical to simply rush in and focus fire on the priest. If you do this, you'll aggro all three groups of the team, and have to fight 8 or 9 mobs at once, which can overwhelm your party. Instead, let the groups that are inclined to come out do so, and pull and kill them separately when they do. The bulk of the enemy team should be dead before you go for the enemy priest.

Once either the first two groups of a team are dead or you're getting short on time, push through and focus fire on the enemy priest. It can take some time to wear down, as it heals itself with Word of Healing. Be sure to allot enough time to kill it, and if it looks like you're not going to finish off the enemy priest before a two minute mark, then retreat. Getting caught in respawns if you don't kill the priest on time will probably wipe your group.

It is generally recommended that you kill the enemy priest before anything else linked to it, and in particular, before the team's boss. Once the enemy priest is dead, if you didn't get caught in respawns, finishing off the rest of the team is usually pretty easy. With the priest dead, there is no time pressure to finish the rest of the team.

Once all of the teams in one arena are dead, you can move on to the next arena. You thus must defeat all of the teams in one arena before you can do any of the teams in the next, but you can take the enemy teams within an arena in any order you like. Because of mob spawn locations and movement patterns, it is easier to defeat the team at E2 before E3. If doing the bonus, you'll need to defeat the team at E6 before E4 or E5. Once all three arenas are clear, the mission is complete.

Josso Essher is the boss of the team at E4, and is a monk boss. It is quite a capable healer, and can make it difficult to kill that team's enemy priest. It can help for this team to bring some interrupts or other anti-healing skills, in order to make it easier to kill the team's enemy priest.

Note that the awkward terrain often leads henchmen and heroes to try to shoot at the enemy priest through a wall. You may need to flag them inside the building and near the priest in order to get them to do the proper damage. It can also help to spread your party out slightly, as the enemy rangers use Throw Dirt, an area blinding attack.

The relatively tight quarters, especially in the second arena, mean that melee AI team members will often run off and pull extra groups, making them a liability. This includes both warrior henchmen, melee heroes, ranger pets, and minions. This is not a problem with melee players who are conscious of pulling issues.

Bonus
The bonus objective is to clear all the enemy teams in the third arena before King Khimaar dies, and before he leaves (which takes precisely ten minutes). The bonus is still achievable as long as King Khimaar is standing in the central area of the third arena. You cannot complete the bonus without also completing the mission. After you defeat all the teams (in any order), you will receive the bonus reward right before the ending cutscene.

The King gets attacked by Custodian Hulgar's team (at E6 on the map toward the right of the entrance) about 10-20 seconds after the timer starts and will be killed in less than a minute if you do not heal him and kill the foes near him. Rush in to the King's position counter-clockwise to avoid aggroing the team on the left. The other two teams very rarely attack the King.

While he has some firepower, it's not worth the time or risk to lure enemies to him, and it's never enough for him to defend himself against an entire enemy team.

Hard mode
Rockshot devourers have Barrage, so a group of five of them at a time can deal impressive damage if you don't spread out. The many traps that the devourers lay can even get heroes or henchmen killed when otherwise out of combat, as they can do massive damage in a hurry. Proceed carefully in the initial area, having one human character leading by an aggro distance the rest of the team, so only one character sets off the traps and the minimum number of devourers are engaged at once.

Enemy priests casting Word of Healing on themselves are very potent healers. It helps immensely to daze them, after which they will die fairly quickly. Interrupts with a short recharge are also very useful. However, the enemy rangers Throw Dirt, causing blindness &mdash; unless removed, it can cause most daze-causing skills to miss.

If you wish to do the bonus, you must rush into the third arena quickly to save the king: if you get there immediately, mobs will attack you and leave the king alone; if you dawdle, they can focus their fire on the king and kill him quickly.

Josso Essher healing his associated priest can also be a problem. Locking a mesmer hero with several interrupts onto the boss while the rest of the group kills the enemy priest can prevent the boss from causing too much trouble. Another player is unlikely to have the necessary reflexes to interrupt most of the spells the boss has.

One of the groups associated with Custodian Phebus at E5 won't come out of the small room with the boss and priest on its own. Casting a non-projectile spell on one of the foes through the wall will get it to come out. Pull the group well out of the room, or the enemy priest will step up to heal it. The group has two Forgotten Arcanists that can cause major trouble for your group if you try to ignore them to kill the enemy priest.

NPCs

 * Ghost
 * /20 Ghostly Hero
 * 24 King Khimaar

Monsters

 * Devourer
 * 20 Rockshot Devourer
 * Enchanted
 * 20 Enchanted Sword
 * 20 Forgotten Champion
 * 20 Enchanted Bow
 * 20 Forgotten Avenger
 * Forgotten
 * 20 Enemy Priest
 * 20 Forgotten Sage
 * 20 Forgotten Cursebearer
 * 20 Forgotten Illusionist
 * 20 Forgotten Arcanist
 * Giant
 * 22 Sand Giant

Bosses - elite skill captures

 * Enchanted
 * 24 Custodian Hulgar - Warrior's Endurance
 * 24 Custodian Phebus - Marksman's Wager
 * Forgotten
 * 24 Josso Essher - Word of Healing
 * 24 Hessper Sasso - Order of the Vampire
 * 24 Goss Aleessh - Mantra of Recovery
 * 24 Issah Sshay - Ether Renewal

Dialogues
Briefing from the Ghostly Hero.

Intermediate cutscene
Ghostly Hero: ''Before you can Ascend and enter the Rift, you must first be cleansed. Lead me safely to the Rune Circle at the end of this test, and I will cast the ritual to burn away your earthly imperfections. Your first challenge will be to defeat a single legion of Forgotten. Your opponents will be resurrected every two minutes unless you destroy the priest who tends their shrine. Once you have defeated your foes, lead me to the door, and I will usher you into the next challenge. The challenges will grow harder as you progress. If you defeat all of the foes along your path, we will claim the Rune Circle, and you will be cleansed. Prove yourselves worthy, and you will be one step closer to gaining entrance to the Rift.''

Ghostly Hero: ''Defeat the enemy priests to stop the other team from resurrecting. Once the enemy team is defeated, we will move on. Quickly! Through this door. We face much harder challenges ahead. This last battle will test us all. May Balthazar grant us strength and courage.''

Bonus objective:

King Khimaar: ''The Forgotten defile the resting place of my people. Have we not suffered enough...? I will never fully rest until the memory of my people is no longer taunted by these filthy creatures...My spirits have been weakened by such blasphemy. I must see the Forgotten removed from this place before I slip away...In a matter of moments, I shall leave this world for good, never to see my people's resting place cleansed...''

Ending cutscene
Ghostly Hero: ''Under the scrutiny of the gods, your souls will be pure, your bodies cleansed. You are ready for the next phase.''

Follow-up

 * Upon completion of the mission players will find themselves in: Augury Rock.
 * If you completed Dunes of Despair and Elona Reach you now must defeat the Doppelganger.