Talk:Dzagonur Bastion (mission)

So if we chose Margrid can we get this after we wrap up? :b --CKaz 23:54, 21 November 2006 (CST)


 * Yes. You can enter the mission after you finish the campaign and recruit Master of Whispers in the postgame area. I've also heard that it's possible to do the mission earlier if another party member has Master of Whispers. -- Gordon Ecker 23:49, 26 November 2006 (CST)

Just as a note, I had Margrid, for me to enter this mission I had to complete Greed and Regret before it would allow me to do Dzagonur Bastion (Mission) Sax Dakota 21:12, 1 February 2007 (CST)
 * Y'know, I thought there was something wrong about that, but I couldn't figure it out. I'll fix both this and Dasha Vestibule now.  &mdash;Dr Ishmael [[Image:Diablo_the_chicken.gif]] (talk|contribs) 22:10, 1 February 2007 (CST)

Master's
Who wrote the tip for master's reward? it doesn't work. I sent 2 to the east, 1 to the centre like it said. Everything is fine until the generals appear. Then I kill the west general and all the enemies near and the general next to the west general, and about this time the east bombard falls. I am nowhere near it and can't help, and apparently the 2 Whispers can't either. I will try some different strategies now since the one listed here doesn't work. --Carth 17:47, 25 November 2006 (CST)


 * Five hours after I started it's done. I sent a minion master hero to the east. After both teams of whispers were dead, he held it by himself for a long time, before finally dying just as I arrived. :) I have of course just realised that you only need 5 intact for master's. That is very easy to do and I can't believe I spent so long getting all 6. --Carth 19:30, 25 November 2006 (CST)


 * Yes, you're right, after following the article to get Master's and failing quite a few times, I decided to do it the opposite way and defend the East first. The Elementalist general has to go down first, because if don't kill him early, he's going to come down with the rest of the Margonites and just absolutely lay waste to to the Whisper squads.  This would leave the Warrior general, who deals decent damage, on the far west last, but he doesn't come close to the damage output that the Elementalist general has.  Kill the Eastern elementalist general, mop up, and move on to the Paragon general.  You can even skip the Monk general and kill the Warrior general first.  But if you let the Elementalist general come towards the castle with his troops and you're not there, you're definitely going to lose at least the bombard if not the gate too.  --waywrong 01:06, 1 December 2006 (CST)


 * That's funny, I had exactly the opposite results with my Mesmer. Tried over and over again to take the Elementalist first, and got TPK after TPK.  Then I decided to post my heroes on the East bombard, while I covered West.  When the generals showed up, I pounced on the Monk boss (middle-west).  The asymmetrical map puts the Warrior boss very close to the bombard, which meant I could cover his reinforcements while taking out the two western bosses.  I then regrouped with my heroes (letting them heal and recharge a bit) before taking out the Paragon.  Finally, with three rifts closed, I de-flagged my heroes and took out the elementalist boss with a full party.  Kept all six defenses, and beat the mission in under half an hour. Auntmousie 02:43, 1 February 2007 (CST)

When the generals showed up for me, I immediately sent my minion master hero to the west to help guard it, while I and the rest of the party went east and attacked the eastern general. Once he was dead, I sent the minion master to help defend the center while I and the rest of the party went to the west to kill that general. Jarus 06:09, 27 November 2006 (CST)

I tried camping the gates and waiting for the generals to come down on their own, but they never moved. Then I ran up and pulled their escorts down to my group and killed the escorts easily, and then I could leave more henchies at the gates. Pulling the margonites away from their healer also helped. On the other hand, most of the NPCs died because of how long I was camping.

I just hit masters easily, I went the opposite to the guide. 2 groups to the west, 1 to the center and my team taking the east. I ran around as said, once the generals appeared. Took down the east general and then cleared his men out, ran over and provided help to the center. Then went for the monk general, again running back to provide help for the center, then the west general, during this I sent my MM hero to the center. After clearing all the west, my entire team went for the Paragon general, and we didn't lose a single defense. Taeliesyn 20:45, 2 December 2006 (CST)

I have gotten masters several times also by going the east gate first (all heroes/hench) - the first time I did this I was not trying for masters, just to complete the mission. I send all the groups to the center (west may work, never tried - it would at least be less running) and killing all the incoming groups off until the generals come. I then kill the east most general (nothing else - no underlings) and run to the west gate. By then there is one general attacking there, I kill him (note: I usually loose one bombard - still masters though). I kill all his underlings as they will continue to assualt the gates. I then go through and kill the general *only* from west to east. I've never had problems once I did this, at least the in game text says the gates are closed, I never see any other generals or general's groups attack, all the defenders on one gate can defend it well, and once all the generals are dead mission ends. Strcpy 04:40, 3 December 2006 (CST)

After two failed PUG runs, I read this and built a hero hench team with my assassin, a MM hero, SS hero, Dunk (heal), Khim, Odurra, Devona and Herta. Sent two groups west, one center, and took the other with my team. Killed groups in east and center, concentrating on margonites and letting whispers/minions mop up the kournans. Ganked ele boss when he came out, then sent both necros to center and finished cleaning up the east. Ran across to west, brought both necros and ganked war boss. Then slowed down, taking my time with the monk and finally the paragon. Whenever a bombard was threatened, I'd break off and go kill the guys around it unless a boss was close to death half. Never lost anyone (although I got close once with the war by getting too far ahead) and got masters(protected all 6 as well). I really think the master's tips should be changed to go after east first -- with that ele boss hitting for 400+, I don't think you can afford to leave him alone.--Dfscott 15:54, 5 December 2006 (CST)


 * I'm in agreement here. I did it similarly, as a dervish with MM, Bond/Prot, and nuker heroes, and Eve, Cynn, Mhenlo, and Sogolon for henchies.  Took the east, killed the generals Ele-War-Monk-Par.  They threatened the Western Bombard *once*, and none of my party died.  Master's with all 6 defenses left.  &mdash;Dr Ishmael [[Image:Diablo_the_chicken.gif]] (talk|contribs) 16:27, 5 December 2006 (CST)


 * Similar here. I just now did this with my warrior, D/W dervish, MM, SF ele, cynn, holy hench, motivation hench & healer.  (Just realized... only one healer) - I took out the worst of each group, rushed the elementalist, ctrl-attacked to focus fire on him (he had no healers) - once I took him out, I sprinted to the other side of the map to take out the enemies on the opposite side.  After that, it's no pressure to guard your shrines, because you can keep an eye on both. Craw 20:26, 7 December 2006 (CST)


 * After failing my first attempt with my Warrior (lost west bombard, west gate, then the citadel), I took exactly the same heros and hench that Dfscott took (LoD, MM, and SS), then sent 2 groups to west, one to center, and with my group all over. A lot of running from east to west (mostly east and center), but all in all it was an easy victory with 5 def left for masters reward (lost east bombard).  I kept my Necro heros with me, and a side benefit was the MM would leave death nova minions all over the map as we ran back and forth.  Kill the Margonites, let the NPCs and straggler minions take out the rest.  I am not sure how much the earth hench helped, as his wards were always put up just after what I was attacking was dead.  None the less, this strategy worked like a charm.  Queen Schmuck 18:00, 19 December 2006 (CST)

I played this through 4 times, even though oddly enough I got Masters on my very first attempt despite not knowing what I was doing yet (it was very chaotic, but somehow effective). The second time I lost :) The third time was 4/6, fourth 5/6 successful. I'd say it's very hard not to lose at least one bombard. Which is probably why they 5/6 is good enough for Masters.  I'm still not sure what the best approach is.  I had the most success by putting one group of Whispers at EACH location - they seem to do a pretty good job holding out just long enough for you to arrive.  If you leave one spot open it forces you to watch it like a hawk or lose it quickly.  Having Whispers at all 3 lets you move around much more.  If you lose a bombard, that enemies that took it immediately assault the associated gate and you better run to kill 'em fast.  This makes it much more difficult to cover the field, 'cause the bridges are quite long.  So try to hold all 3 bombards as long as possible.  The best deal I think is to stand just ahead of the central bombard and watch the radar as well as panning around with the CTRL looking for incoming red guys. You can generally take them down quick and return to the middle to go after the next batch. Once the generals show up, they'll send guys to attack from the wide flanks and it really takes you out of position to take them down. Therefore I think ranged characters are much better here than melee characters. I switched out my 2 warriors for 2 rangers for the last attempt, seemed to do the trick. Watch the blue zone-under-attack indicators to warn you about which spot is being attacked and try to get there ASAP. I was able to stop everything they sent down and eventually started killing them one at at time during lulls in their assaults, without any special strategy. My guys often seemed to have trouble staying with me and got hung up trying to kill some single guy along the way while I was trying to get them to do more important things (even using target calling). Party-wide running buffs would REALLY help here, too, although I didn't use them. Stance-breaking skills would really help too, as the attackers use a ton of archers with Whirling Defense stance that tends to stall your entire attack for a really long time when you should be getting elsewhere. I didn't use any Minion Masters - did't have any made! P/W build with attack-based skills. Perko 9:40, 24 January 2007 (CST)

~I found sending 2 groups to the elementalist side, 1 to the center and the rest of the team to the warrior side works well. After sending the groups to their side, proceed with killing of the initial weak waves of mobs, all the while trying to make sure you are as close to the warrior boss as can be when the generals do come. As soon as they spawn, focus fire on the warrior general, as soon as he is finished retreat to the bombard until all of his reinforcements are dead(the kournan, the margonites are not important)(to force the npc's from fighting, flag them near the bombard when you are ready to retreat).

After that group is finished, make a quick run up to the monk general, focus fire on him, and once he's finished retreat again to the bombard that the warrior general was near.

At this point there should no need to worry about the bombard the warrior general was at, so quickly go to the elementalist side where the last of the whispers should be dying. In my experience, only kournan rangers come from the elementalist, so as soon as they get in bombard range, make a run for the elementalist and dispose of him as quickly as possible. Now you can finish off his troupe, as well as any kournan that are left, or you can hang out by the bombard until you are recharged.

Maybe a note that should've been mentioned is that there is another group that should be alive protecting the center bombard, this group combined with the whisper group is pretty effective at holding off the kouran reinforcements. Anyway, after the ele general is dead the only one left is the paragon general, which you can easily go in and finish, with all 6 defenses intact. team used:Dervish(me),zhed, souske(both with searing flames, liquid flames, and other fire dmg),master of whispers(BiP usually, but before i had that, he just used various hexes, no MM or SS here), mhenlo, khim, cynn, and any other ranged npc, illusionist or archer normally)

Warrior Side First Tactic
I've done this mission with two characters. Both took 3 tries to get masters (alone with heroes/henchmen). First masters was 5 points saved, second was all 6. I originally stumbled through the mission, then read this wiki. But I never succeeded with the general consensus advice of taking the elementalist general out first. Here are some tips based on the experience: Anyways... that's what worked for me. I just hope one of those tips are useful. --Mooseyfate 23:26, 7 March 2007 (CST)
 * Take the warrior general out first. Both W and E teams seem to dominate their bombardments pretty well, but the elementalists team takes me longer to take out.  I suspect this is because of greater Kournan support when my natural attack timing occurs (pretty quickly after the generals spawn).  Or maybe it's the shorter distance to the W rift.  It could just be luck or play style, but it works for me.
 * Take the opposite side (elementalist) out second. Not because of the damage he does, but so to better concentrate the remaining attackers.
 * Remember, one bombardment can fall. Plan which one you want to let fall ahead of time (I suggest the E bombardment)
 * Kill priests first. More so the Kournans, as they don't use Spell Breaker.  This is a duh, but (especially on this map) they can require more overextending than I typically like.
 * Bring the enemy to you. Flag your troops to an area to attack something, but loop around and catch groups running to adjacent bombardments.  There are many groups, but they are all small, so don't be afraid to take on more than one at a time.  I did this just fine with a survivor character.
 * Send the NPC groups to whatever bombardments fits your strategy. I like one to each bombardment.  This is an effective way to buy yourself time, but not to save any bombardments.
 * If you have a minion master to compliment an NPC group, know that it won't live forever, just act as a stall. Don't worry if this character dies, but do start heading over for support once this happens.  His dead minions should continue to stall the enemy for a bit.  If you don't have a minion master (which I think is fine), send a ranger.  Rangers are good at helping stall the enemy and staying alive (sometimes even without self heals).  But the most important thing about this character is how their life meter will be a good gage as to the situation on the opposite side of the map.
 * Bring Devona. Charge is very nice here.
 * Bring Mhenlo. He does a good enough job, and just a couple hard resurrects should be enough to keep your team up.  Killing speed is more important than healing.  Just have your heroes carry a self heal.  If you are a monk, you may spend too much time commanding and running around to be a successful healer, so consider going all or part smite.
 * Suggested: Chilblains or Avatar of Grenth type enchantment removal. I didn't bring either, but the enemies use of Spell Breaker can slow you down if you have good caster damage.
 * Bring an offensive spirit summoner. Assuming you don't have a Rt hero at this point, an expertise/channeling/communing R/Rt worked well for me.  As you move around the battlefield, old abandoned spirits serve to slow remote attackers.  Don't worry about manually controlling where spirits are placed.
 * Bring a minion master if you want. Personally, I feel the minion master is an annoying crutch too many lean on in PvE (and too unpopular for most PvP).  But there are certainly many corpses here.


 * Did it like you said, Mooseyfate. One group of NPCs to each bombardment, first the Warrior, then the Elementalist, Monk, and finally the Paragon. Worked perfectly! Got Master's with all 6 defenses still intact.
 * Thanks a lot for the tips! --Kemar 11:46, 10 April 2007 (CDT)


 * I sent 2 groups to the west with Master as MM, 1 group to the center. I stationed the rest of my party (myself as blood necro, 2 SF elementalists, Devona, Mehnlo, Khim, and Geheraz) between the east and center control points, closer to the east.  I left my troops stationed there and tried to pull in as many groups as possible, letting the whispers groups take care of any stragglers.  When the generals appeared, I took them out in this order: elementalist, monk, paragon, warrior.  I wanted to do the elementalist first because he owned me with a previous build that I tried, so I thought I would get it over with.  Otherwise, Master was holding the advances from the warrior group just fine, so whenever I was attacked by a Kournan wave, I attacked the boss at the portal they came from next.  All the bosses went down pretty easily, and I only had to run and resurrect Master once, during the initial phase where he was building up minions.Xylia 00:08, 25 April 2007 (CDT)


 * Xylia's build worked out very well - the only minor change was that I was one of the sf eles, and that instead of a blood nec I had a monk that was half blood (for blood ritual). I went ele-para-war-monk. Got 6/6 success on the first time I ran it. ^_^ --Myrrinth 05:39, 5 May 2007 (CDT)

I know this is late but i need to know Dr ishmaels dervish build that he mentioned on 5th december last year 212.74.96.200 14:19, 31 May 2007 (CDT)
 * o.O Durr.... It's been 6 months, I've gone through a lot of dervish builds since then - sorry, but I don't remember what I was using at the time. &mdash;Dr Ishmael [[Image:Diablo_the_chicken.gif]] 17:55, 31 May 2007 (CDT)

hmm i send all the whispers groups to the west and they can hold the west side with ease. i holded the east and centre and started with killing the elementalist boss. i did this in hard mode got masters with 6 defenses intact it wasn't that hard. i had a broad head arrow ranger two hench monks a hench paragon hench warrior minion master hero and curses hero and a earth elementalist. it didn't turn out to be very hard.

Did it just like Mooseyfate said on my Paragon. Masters, all 6 intact, piece of cake. Thanks a lot for the tip. --NYC Elite 19:46, 6 June 2007 (CDT)

I was getting frustrated following these tips without success. That's until I found out something that no one has mentioned thus far. There is a first wave of attackers consisting of 5-6 groups of 1 margonite and 3 Kournan. This occurs before the bosses spawn. The final 2 groups of this first wave consists of a Margonite Executioner for 1 group and a Warlock for the other group. These 2 final groups converge on the center. What I figured out was to leave 2 Kournans alive from these groups. The 3 Vabbi guards that are situated there will slowly but surely take care of these two. Then I ran over to the eastern most point and waited for the elementalist boss to spawn. Once he spawned, we began pounding him silly. Then we just traveled westward taking out the bosses. This was done with Acolyte Sousuke and Zhed as searing flames spammers and MoW as minion master. Got master's without a problem.

Hard Mode
After trying Hard Mode several times with 1-3 MMs, trying Warrior first or Ele first we finally suceeded. We had been trying to use lots of MMs to help the Whispers groups or to help ourselves but we found we had a hard time dealing enough damage where it was needed since minions are brainless. Our old strategy that worked in Normal mode wasn't working in Hard Mode. We took too long and all the groups of Whispers would die off and it would go down hill fast. We knew we needed to be able to kill a lot faster. We have been using lots of pets in Hard Mode to supplement our group with more bodies to distribute damage and this tatic didn't change. What worked for us in hard mode was a lot of Ele's mostly using your typical Searing Flames build. Our build was basically 2 human and the rest heros (1 Human Ele, 1 Human Ranger, 3 Ele Heros, 2 Monk Heroes, one MM Hero, 7 pets). The basic thought was kill fast or be killed; good defense through great offense. We sent 2 Whispers groups West and one Center. We helped out with the initial Kournan groups mostly on the East and Center. Right before clearing the last group we headed for the Ele General and as soon as he spawned we hit him hard Searing Flames, Liquid Flames, GlyphSac Meteor Shower and he dropped quick. Then we ran away heading south and around to the Warrior General. This took a few tries as our monks or some eles would get killed trying to run away but with some luck on one run we managed to get away with only a dead pet. Then we used a similar tactic on the Warrior General though he took much longer to take down. Then we cleared most of his group for fear of being wiped trying to run away. It got a lot easier at this point. Then we snagged a spawn group from the center before they headed for the whispers groups and once we cleared them headed for the Monk General. Once he was down we just rushed the Paragon General and it was over. 6 of 6 defenses still standing. I don't know if this is the best tactic but with a lot of luck it worked for us. We must have tried a dozen times on our previous builds this build took about 3 tries. Having completed Tyria and Cantha and most of Elona in Hard Mode this mission took us more tries than any thus far and was certainly the most frustrating.--User:Brigatta 11:02, 14 June 2007 (MST)