Thirsty River (mission)

Mission Objectives
Annihilate the opposing enemy teams.
 * Defeat Goss Aleesh's team.
 * Defeat Issah Sshay's team.
 * Defeat Hessper Sasso's team.
 * Defeat Josso Essher's team.
 * Defeat Lyssha Suss's team.
 * Defeat Kesskah Shissh's team.
 * Bonus Cleanse the area before King Khimaar's spirit is driven away.

Primary
The idea of this mission is to defeat the above mentioned sixteams. At first you will meet one team, then two together, and finally three teams. Each opposing team is varied in number and formation, but will have 1 boss (which the team is named after) and 1 priest who resurrects fallen team members.

For starters, it is recommended that you kill all 5 sand giants on your way to the opposing teams which will give you a 10% morale boost (2% from each giant). The sand giants are at the locations marked with A on the map.

Continue on the obvious path forward, mostly south towards a passage over a wrecked ship. A few devourers should be in your way. Continue along the path over the ship and you'll fight another set of devourers, and soon make your way into an oasis of sorts.

Talk to the Ghostly hero to begin facing the team, and a timer will appear. The timer is not counting against you, it is actually an excellent tool to time your attacks.

The first team has three groups. Focus on one group at a time and take out the spell-casters first. The use of the timer is that, you need to make sure you kill the enemy priest before the time hits a multiple of 2. At 2:00, 4:00 and so forth, the enemy priest will resurrect fallen team members as such undoing any harm you did to them. So, you need to make sure that if you engage a team, that you take out its priest (not necessarily the whole team) before the timer reaches a multiple of 2. A team is defeated if you have killed all it's members.

Tip: The usual scenario is to take out one or two groups blocking your way, then have 3-4 members break through the enemy and kill the priest and then resume taking on the enemy.

The next fight is against two teams so you should focus on one team at a time. The ghostly hero will open the door to the teams when he nears it. Time the ghostly hero to be at the door as the first southern group is moving away, since it will take a few seconds for the doors to actually open, and you can immediately engage the priest and the boss. Kill the northern team and the priest before 2:00. Proceed to the next team, but wait until the timer has passed a 2 min. interval (2:00, 4:00, etc).

Tip: If you are worried about being unable to finsih off a priest before he revives his fallen comrades (timer nearing a multiple of 2 minutes), then retreat. The revived patrols will move out and you can engage them again. Running in and desparately trying to throw everything at the priest only to be caught in that respawn is a sure way to fail. Re-doing a team is easier than restarting a mission.

Continue on to the last fight against three teams taking one team out at a time. Again, kill the priests before a 2 min. interval. It's best to take them clock wise starting to the right.

The boss in one of the final three teams (usualy the leftmost one at E4) is a monk. He is an exceptionally good healer. It is best to engage his team away from him and when only he and the priest are left. Everyone on the team should focus fire on the priest. If the team has anyone who equips interruption skills (like Cry of Frustration and Distracting Blow) then they should try and disrupt the boss as much as possible. Trying to kill the monk boss first is a certain failure as it will drag the battle into the next multiple of 2:00.

Bonus
The bonus objective is to clear all the enemy teams in under 10 minutes. You will know that the bonus is still achievable if King Khimaar is standing in the central area of the third trial; If he leaves before you finish, then you've lost the bonus.

After you defeat all the teams (in any order you prefer), you will receive the bonus 1000 xp, right before the mission ending cutscene.

Bosses and Skills
The following bosses can be encountered during the Thirsty River mission:
 * Custodian Hulgar (warrior): Warrior's Endurance, location E6
 * Custodian Phedous (ranger): Marksman's Wager, location E5
 * Hessper Sasso (necromancer): Order of the Vampire, location E3
 * Josso Essher (monk): Word of Healing, location E4
 * Goss Aleesh (mesmer): Mantra of Recovery, location E1
 * Issah Sshay (elementalist): Ether Renewal, location E2