Thunderhead Keep (mission)

Primary

 * Clear the city.
 * Clear the fort.
 * Kill Dagnar Stonepate.
 * Defend King Ironhammer....

'''Note: The king must stay alive, otherwise you lose the mission. Make sure the Monks give precedence to healing him.'''

Possible boss spawns: The Judge, Fuury Stonewrath, Bolis Hillshaker, Rine Windrot, Ulhar Stonehound, Gornar Bellybreaker Possible Mursaat/Jade Armor/Jade Bow boss spawns: Agyrus The Scoundrel, Perfected Cloak, Perfected Armor, Chrysos The Magnetic

This is a fairly simple mission if done well with reasonable teamwork. Unfortunately this means it is rarely simple. The run to the city is very basic if care is taken not to run into multiple groups at once. You will first encounter a group of Stone Summit patrolling directly ahead of where you enter the mission. Kill them and then head up to the right. Circle counter-clockwise around the peak with Ice Golems on it and attack them, 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 another group. However be aware a second group patrols down from the ridge behind this group. You have two choices, to wait until this group comes down and then turns around and heads back up the hill or use someone to quickly pull the first group out on to the bridge to handle them there. Once this is done, the second group is easy. A 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. Here is the first part of the mission, you have to clear out eight groups of foes from the city. The first is just inside the gates. After killing these, head left along the wall for the second and then follow the path around to catch the third. At the other end of the loop path you have two groups, one stationary to your right and another patrolling to your left. Take the patrolling group and then finish the stationary one - groups four and five down. From here head across the city and find the stray groups that aren't sitting directly in front of the walls. Before attacking the walls, head up the path on the right-hand side of the wall. Here Rangers, Elementalists, etc can easily take out the close group of ranged attackers on the battlements. Head back down once these are dead to clear out the group(s) in front of the walls. Another boss will spawn here with an elite skill. Kill them and you've completed the first part of the mission.

Lead the king back around to where you just where, on the right-hand side of the wall. There is a gate here - lead him to it and he will open it for you. Three groups can reside in various parts of this 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. Once you've cleared out this area, head up the path on the far side.

From here you head down into the fort. Again, take your time. All these groups are stationary and can be taken one at a time. Once you reach the area adjacent to some catapults/ballistas you have two choices of a path to take. The easiest is to head down in the centre of the fort, lure in Dagnar and kill him (third part of the mission complete) and then kill off each singular group to clear the fort (second part complete). The other way is to sneak around past the ballistas to take on one group at a time. However the aggro circle is about the same size as the wall width, so you can often end up with two or even three groups on you at once if the group isn't precise. Either way, the hardest thing in the fort is to make sure the king stays alive as he has a tendancy to run off and attack whole groups. Send someone to the far side of the fort to fire the left ballista three or four times to kill off the giants out there, otherwise you'll have to fight them later.

Now for the hard(er) bit. Once you have cleared the fort and killed Dagnar you get a cutscene, the Vizier Khilbron appears and gives you some Smoke Phantom aide (six, three per fort entrance) and the king starts doing his bit. You just need to hold the fort against scattered groups of giants, Mursaat and Jade Bows/Armour. Make sure you have one person on each set of ballistas (ideally ranged - Rangers are perfect, so they don't have to come down to attack invaders in the fort) as it makes it far easier given the majority of attacking forces will stop in one of the firing spots before attacking. This can result in killing a large number or severly hurting them prior to them getting a chance to invade the fort. The hardest part of this will come with a Mursaat/Jade boss of some form. These can be hard to kill, resulting in two or three groups of Mursaat and Jade Armor/Bows stacking up and overpowering your group. Once he's dead, the remaining groups are easy enough to hold off until you complete the mission. Make sure no Mursaat brakes through to King Ironhammer! He doesn't have infused armor and will die almost instantly as soon as they attack him.

Bonus
Light all the storm beacons.

There are two storm beacons positioned at the ends of the battlement. Light them as quickly as possible (as long as the Smoke Phantoms are still holding the entrances), because later you'll be too busy. You'll get the reward for the bonus at the end of the mission (i.e. it is not possible to complete the bonus only).