Thunderhead Keep (mission)

Mission Objectives
Retake Thunderhead Keep.
 * Clear the city.
 * Clear the fort.
 * Kill Dagnar Stonepate.
 * ADDED Help King Jalis Ironhammer hold Thunderhead Keep.
 * BONUS Light the beacons to draw additional Mursaat forces into Thunderhead Keep.

Note: The king must stay alive, otherwise you lose the mission. Make sure that the healers in your party give precedence to healing him.


 * This mission requires good teamwork. A party that doesn't work together and communicate will not stand a chance.

Primary
''Note: This mission is the only way to get to the Ring of Fire Islands, where the skill trainer with all non-elite skills, Dakk, can be found, and where many elite skills can be captured. This means that it is important for any player seeking to unlock skills to complete this mission. Unfortunately, it also means that there are many players being run to this mission directly from Beacon's Perch through Droknar's Forge. These players do not have infused armor and do not know about it. Make sure to confirm all your party members are infused, or they will melt before the Mursaat.''

Preparation
Lack of teamwork is the primary cause of failure on this mission. Make the following decisions before heading out:
 * Determine which party member will talk to King Jalis Ironhammer at the start of the mission. The king will follow whomever first talks to him, but will run into the fray if he gets too close to an enemy. To increase the king's survivability, a caster should talk to him and try to stay out of the frontlines. Later, when the king opens the gates to the keep, he will start following whomever is closest to him when the gates open.  Everyone but the king's babysitter should stay away from him at this time.
 * Agree on the defensive strategy to be used during the siege of the keep (see below).
 * Decide who will lead the party and call targets.

This mission has lots of Stone Summit Herders and Giants that can knock you down. Warriors should carry skills such as Balanced Stance. Remember that Giant Stomp is a skill (but not a spell) that can be interrupted. As a general guideline, consider bringing at least one dedicated interrupter; well-placed interruptions will considerably ease the difficulty of defending the fort during the siege.

Here are some additional tips on party formation:
 * Bring at least one warrior who can soak up damage and keep the enemy warriors (especially the Jade Armors) busy.
 * Bring three to four ranged offensive units (spellcasters or rangers). They will be the primary damage-dealers.
 * Trappers are very effective in defending the fort during the siege. Traps at the two entrances hinder the enemy's movement, which also helps the tanks keep aggro. Placing traps on the bridge above the gates will still hit anything attempting to enter, while also keeping the ranger somewhat shielded from direct melee attacks.
 * Shutdown Mesmers and mesmers with degenerative and interrupting skills are very useful against Mursaat spellcasters. Interrupt the Chain Lightning of Mursaat Elementalists, and divert the Orisons of Healing of Mursaat Monks. Keep an eye out for Marks of Protection and shatter them. Shatter Hex on your hexed tanks can also be immensely effective, because of the preponderance of enemy mesmers and necromancers.
 * Minion Masters are useful in the first part of this mission, but are less useful during the siege, as Jade Armors and Bows do not leave exploitable corpses. Corpses will be available, but fewer than in the earlier parts.

Reaching City Gates
The first portion of this mission is very manageable if care is taken not to aggro multiple groups at once. Begin by speaking to King Jalis Ironhammer to have him follow your party (point A).

You will first encounter a group of three Stone Summit Beastmasters patrolling directly ahead of where you enter the mission. Kill them and then head up to the right. Circle counter-clockwise around the peak, and attack the Ice Golems standing atop it; this will avoid having to fight the Stone Summit on the left rear side of the peak while Ice Golems are firing down on you. Kill the Stone Summit group next and then head across the bridge. At the other end of this bridge is a stationary group. A second group patrols the ridge behind this group, and is usually heading towards the first group when the party approaches. As it is not advisable to take on both groups at once, you have two choices: wait until the patrolling group comes down, turns around and heads back up the hill, or use someone to quickly pull the stationary group out onto the bridge to handle them there. The bridge itself provides a narrow chokepoint, so is an excellent place for rangers to lay traps. A random boss will spawn on the ridge too, providing an elite skill.

The path from the ridge leads down to the front gates of the city.

Clearing City and Fort
Here is the first objective: clear out the eight groups of foes in the city. As with the previous section, this part is not difficult if the party is careful not to aggro multiple groups.

After completing this objective, lead the king to the right-hand side of the wall (point B). There is a gate here&mdash;lead him to it and he will open it for you. However, be careful with the king: he will start following whomever is closest to him when the gates open.

Three groups reside in various parts of the area behind the wall: one on the far battlements, one in the centre and one coming down off the hill on the far side. If you time this right without charging in, you should only have to fight one group at a time. If the party has a sufficient number of ranged attackers, they can attack these groups from below the wall. Often, the enemies here will not stand close enough to the battlements to return fire, making it very easy to eliminate them. Either way, once you've cleared out this area, head up the path on the far side.

From here, the path leads around to the right, and into the fort. Again, take your time. There are several groups containing Stone Summit Gnashers, who will attempt to use any corpses to create minions. A good counter-strategy for a Necromancer is to quickly cast Well of Blood when a body drops, even if the party doesn't need it, as it can be cast quicker than the Gnashers' Animate Bone Fiend spell. All these groups are stationary and should be taken out one at a time.

Once you reach the east wall of the fort (where the two ballistas are), descend the steps to the courtyard, and hug the east wall. Leave Dagnar (for now) and instead wipe out the east stationary group. Go up the other stairs on this side and kill the remaining groups, one at a time, until the fort is clear; this completes the second objective. Then, fire the west wall's ballista at the group of giants foolishly standing out there; otherwise, you'll have to fight them later. During all of this, the party member the king is following should make a special effort to stay far enough away from the fighting, as he has a tendency to run into the middle of the melee. Finally, kill Dagnar.

Holding the Fort
Now for the hard(er) bit. During the cutscene, Vizier Khilbron appears and gives you some Smoke Phantom aid (six: three per fort entrance) and the king settles down onto his throne, leaving the fighting to you. You must now defend the fort against numerous random groups of Enslaved Frost Giants, White Mantle, Mursaat and Jade Bows/Armor.

Make sure that the east and west walls are each manned by a party member, preferrably a Ranger or caster. These players have three tasks: Tip: This is optional with Strategy B because enemies have the time to regain all health before fighting the party.
 * Watch their side of the wall and warn the party when the enemy groups start their approach.
 * Operate the ballistas as needed. The attacking forces will often pause in a ballista's target area, and can be killed or weakened before they get near the fort.
 * Use their ranged attacks as the enemies get within range.

There are three common strategies for holding the fort:

Strategy A
The rest of the party should split into two groups, one guarding each gate. Ideally, a Monk will be in each of these groups, to provide healing and maintain enchantments. Heal the phantoms as well, if possible. As tempting as it may be, don't stray too far from the fort to attack a group that has stopped outside. If you become too divided, the enemies will overwhelm you.

The enemy groups will usually assault alternating sides, but not always. If one side is starting to get overwhelmed, the group covering the other side should be able to run over there to support them and have time to get back. The most challenging groups are those led by the Mursaat Bosses, flanked with Jade Armor/Bows. These mobs require a significant amount of damage to defeat; unless everyone is attacking in unison, they will stack up and overpower your group. Warriors should consider using a speed boosting skill (such as "Charge!" or Sprint) to run quickly from one side of the courtyard to the other as needed. Make sure no Mursaat break through to King Ironhammer: he doesn't have infused armor and will die almost instantly if they attack him.

Strategy B
The rest of the party should stand near to the king's throne in the area at the top of the stairs, and wait for the enemy to come to them. This alternate strategy is arguably easier, as it can be pulled off with just two or three humans and a group of henchmen. As soon as an enemy group makes it inside the gate, the people on the walls should join the rest of the party. Attacking the groups while they are on the stairs or catwalks that lead to the throne area works best. Do not be lured down the stairs to go after the next target: if you die in the courtyard, it will be very difficult for the rest of your team to resurrect you until the current wave is over, potentially costing the team the mission.

Priority should be given to the attackers that pose the greatest threat to the king: first eliminate the Jade and Mursaat, then White Mantle, and finally any bosses. The only exception to this order should be if a priest or healer is impeding the elimination of an otherwise higher-priority foe. Because more enemies may arrive during a fight, constantly reassess which of the targets at or near the top of the stairs has the highest priority. A single person should be designated to call targets.

Whenever there is a lull in battle (i.e., you are not currently fighting any groups), heal the party. Send the assigned people back to manning the siege weapons, so your enemies are weakened before they get to you.

The easiest way to do this mission, is to have one of your warriors (preferably a Stance Tank) wield one of the enchanted torches, but not use it, stand at the top of the stairs to the throne area. The enemy group will automatically target the torchbearer if they are within range of him/her. With the rest of the party standing behind the torchbearer, a monk's job is keeping the torchbearer alive while the rest of the party deal with the enemy group. Tip: use Protective Spirit to protect the torchbearer.

Strategy C
A new technique that is becoming more frequent begins similarly to strategy B. The party initiates the bonus by lighting the torches, then defends near the king's throne. However, after the initial several waves of attacks, there is a break in the battle. At this point, the entire party heads outside of the gates and proceeds north, ensuring that no creatures were already enroute to the keep from either the east or the west (note: you can safely ignore the Murssat and Jade that are in the Dwarven villages, they will not attack unless you approach them).

All enemies that attack from this point onward spawn in an area to the north of the keep, near the portal that later transports everyone to Ember Light Camp (Note: the portal only works in the cut-scene, walking through it prior to completing the Thunderhead Keep mission will have no effect). To reach the keep from the spawn point, all enemies must pass a narrow choke point. The party can station themselves at the choke point, and eliminate all attackers without risking the King engaging any of them. Dorian's party also spawns at this location, and can be eliminated in the same way.

Note that just below the choke point are two parties of Jade. These can optionally be ignored, or destroy them during breaks in the spawns so that risk of accidentally aggroing them is eliminated.

Killing Confessor Dorian
The last group to attack is Confessor Dorian and his group of White Mantle. They will appear on the eastern side, but will enter at the west gate. When this group is spotted, everyone can leave their assignments and engage the group together at the west gate. After he is defeated, collect any drops in and around the Keep, then talk to the king.

Tip: After defeating Confessor Dorian, if party members go outside of the Keep to collect drops, always keep at least one person inside the Keep. Additional Jade and Mursaat are in the foothills around the Keep. If they wipe out the rest of the party, the member who stayed in the Keep can still talk to the king to complete the mission.

Bonus
After clearing the fort, killing Dagnar, and watching the cutscene (right before the siege), the king will ask you to light the beacons to save the Dwarves trapped outside the walls. There are two Storm Beacons that you have to light: one on the east wall and one on the west wall (both points marked 1 on the map). Enchanted torches appear at the base of each, so it is just a matter of running to each beacon, picking up the torch there and clicking the beacon. You have only a few seconds after the cutscene to do this, so designate one person on the team to light each beacon before taking their assigned position.

Lighting the beacons will draw more groups of Mursaat to the fort, meaning that you will have to fight an additional Mursaat boss pack or two. Once you kill Confessor Dorian's group at the end of the mission, you should receive the bonus credit.

Bosses and Skills
The following bosses can be encountered during the Thunderhead Keep mission:
 * The Judge: Water Trident, location E1-2
 * Chrysos the Magnetic: Thunderclap (Mursaat Elementalist, siege only), location C
 * Fuury Stonewrath: Crippling Anguish
 * Panthar The Deceiver: Energy Surge (Mursaat Mesmer, siege only), location C
 * Bolis Hillshaker: Mark of Protection
 * Demetrios the Enduring: Aura of Faith (Mursaat Monk, siege only), location C
 * Riine Windrot: Offering of Blood
 * Agyris The Scoundrel: Life Transfer (Mursaat Necromancer, siege only), location C
 * Ulhar Stonehound: Melandru's Arrows, location E1-2 and C
 * Perfected Cloak: Oath Shot (Jade Bow, siege only), location C
 * Gornar Bellybreaker: Cleave, location E1-2 and C
 * Perfected Armor: Devastating Hammer (Jade Armor, siege only), location C

Additional Notes

 * The players will be in Ember Light Camp at the completion of this mission.
 * The Thunderhead Keep Mission is commonly know as the "noob filter" since it is difficult to defeat the mission and many become so frustrated in finding a good party to be in. As a result, there is a very rare amount of random groups at Thunderhead Keep that does the bonus for this mission.

Exploits
Mysterious rumors claim that by taking the bonus, (lighting the two beacons in time), and standing on the platform behind the king, (as if he was the one protecting the players), the last bit of keeping the fort can be done with little or not fighting at all.