Vizunah Square (mission)

Objectives

 * Locate the source of the plague in Kaineng City
 * Mhenlo must survive
 * Master Togo must survive
 * Destroy Shiro's Construct

Two Party Missions
This is the game's first two party mission. One party will come from Vizunah Square (Local Quarter) and the other from Vizunah Square (Foreign Quarter).

Parties can only begin a mission every 60 seconds. When you attempt to start the mission, the game will start a timer that shows how long until the next 60 second interval. Every 60 seconds, all parties waiting to enter the mission will do so. The game will try to pair parties from opposite starting locations, though if one has more parties starting than the other, excess parties from that side will be paired with henchmen teams.

You can try to get paired with a particular party from the other side by having both parties attempt to start the mission at the same time.

Parties may be paired from different regions or different languages. As such, communication with the other party may be impractical.

Another common problem is that you may be paired with a low level party from the other side, sometimes too low level to be of any practical use in the mission. In such cases, it is much easier to restart the mission than to try to give the low level player from the other side a free run through.

It is highly recommended that all players and heroes be level 20 before entering the mission. Unlike most missions, trying to do this one at a low level not only makes things harder for you, but also can sabotage someone else on the other side who merely wishes to get past the mission. There are many easy quests in Kaineng City which can level you very quickly.

Primary
The party that started from the local quarter will begin in the courtyard at the blue dot. This party must fend off waves of Afflicted for a while until the other party can arrive. The final wave brings a boss. The party that started from the foreign quarter must clear three groups of Am Fah to rach the other party. After both parties arrive and finish clearing whatever afflicted are there, a cut scene plays, and then the mission begins in earnest.

After the cut scene, the two parties must fight off additional waves of afflicted mobs in the area with the blue dot. The final wave again brings a boss, so once the boss appears, no more afflicted will spawn there. Note that only one party gets a morale boost for killing the boss, so the other party will not have rez signets recharge.

After clearing all of the afflicted that spawn by the blue dot, follow the path. Similar waves of afflicted arrive at the next two green dots on the map. As before, the arrival of a boss indicates the end of additional spawns of afflicted. In between are various scattered afflicted and groups of Am Fah. Higher level afflicted come to attack as you get further into the mission. There is a large group of afflicted as well as a single Shiro'ken at the final green dot. No additional mobs spawn there, but only the ones you see when you arrive.

There are many Canthan Peasants scattered about the mission. When one dies, it is replaced by an afflicted mob. The peasants may help you fight a bit, but are pretty fragile.

If player parties joined from both sides, the two parties can move around independently. If your are joined by a henchmen party from the other side, it will mostly follow you around after the first cut scene. Mhenlo and Togo will more or less follow you in between the large combat areas, though they will stop to fight anything they see. At the areas with the dots, Mhenlo and Togo will prefer to stand roughly in the center of the area, though they will move around somewhat to chase mobs.

Mhenlo's and Togo's pathing is very buggy, with one or both sometimes getting stuck, running off in the wrong direction, or stopping short of where they need to reach to trigger afflicted spawns. Some such glitches seem to be triggered mainly by Mhenlo chasing minions around to heal them. You may have to flag a minion master far in front of your party to get his minions to follow in order for Mhenlo to move up enough for the mission to proceed.

The main complication of the mission is that it is awkward for parties to heal each other. The lifebars of the other party will not appear in your party window for easy reference, though Mhenlo and Togo do. Often mobs will mostly attack one party and ignore the other, which can overwhelm that one party. It can be useful to bring a fairly defensive setup to prevent your party from being overwhelmed.

Furthermore, the parties cannot resurrect each other at all. If one party wipes, the other party must continue the mission alone. It is very difficult to finish the mission if the other party wipes unless either the wipe is very near the end of the mission or your party is far stronger than the mission is intended for, such as bringing several strong heroes well suited to the mission or unbalanced skills from GWEN. The fight at the last green dot is very doable with only a single party, but the one at the next to last green dot is not.

Skills that heal or otherwise protect all allies (as opposed to merely party members) are highly useful in this mission. This includes a variety wards, wells, spirits, and spells. This can help prevent the other party you are paired with from wiping. The plethora of corpses from enough afflicted to challenge two parties means that skills that rely on mobs dying can be highly useful. Necromancers will get massive energy from Soul Reaping and have many corpses available to exploit. Other skills such as "I Will Avenge You!" can be useful, with the dead canthan peasants counting as allies.

If both parties include players and are decent single parties in their own right, the main challenge of the mission is to distribute the damage that mobs do between your two parties. If your party is taking most of the damage and in danger of being overwhelmed, back off and let the other party absorb some damage for a while. Conversely, if there are many mobs up but they aren't attacking your party much, get in there and take some hits to take pressure off of the other party.

If the party from the other side is only henchmen, it will be rather short on defensive skills, but not wholly inadequate for the mission. Assume that your party will have to take the bulk of the damage and rely on the henchmen party mostly for damage dealing. They can take some hits on their own and survive, but can wipe pretty quickly if you leave them to fend for themselves. It can sometimes help to thin a group of afflicted but not finish it off entirely if there are other large groups up, as the smaller group won't pose much of a threat to the other party.

Additionally, you'll have to protect Togo and Mhenlo. They don't tend to get themselves into trouble from Am Fah, but at the dotted combat areas, will stand around the middle. If both parties run off in the same direction while a group of mobs comes from another direction, they will all target Togo or Mhenlo, which can be a big problem. Be careful not to chase mobs too far for this reason. Also keep an eye on Mhenlo and Togo, as one may see mobs off in one direction and chase them, and you'll have to rush over to help out to save him if there are too many.

Master's Reward
For the big fights in the areas marked by dots, one wave of afflicted will spawn when the previous one dies. The speed with which you kill afflicted matters, but don't finish them off so quickly that more spawn while your group is low on health and energy. Multi-target attacks and true area of effect attacks can kill mobs quickly, as they tend to bunch up a lot.

Much time can sometimes be lost when running from one big fight to the next. Don't get too far ahead of Mhenlo and Togo, as sometimes a single mob will spawn far behind you, and they will stop to fight it. You'll have to head back to help them out, as it will take a long time for them to kill the mob on their own.

Minion Masters can be a mixed blessing. The extra minions can help in the big combat areas, but they often slow Mhenlo way down outside of them. If you bring a minion master, be sure to send him well ahead of your parties except when fighting Am Fah, so that you don't lose a lot of time to Mhenlo stopping to heal minions. Beware that with multiple minion masters, the health sacrifice of Blood of the Master will heal all of the minions, which can be a far larger sacrifice than an unprepared necromancer was ready for, possibly even killing him.

The Afflicted Ritualists of level 24 or higher have Flesh of my Flesh. Target them quickly, as rekilling many mobs after they die and are resurrected can waste a lot of time.

Afflicted that spawn when a peasant dies do not necessarily need to be killed to complete the mission (unless Togo or Mhenlo engate them). These are most easily recognized as the ones that wander off into a corner and are content to stay there, rather than coming to attack you. Don't be in a rush to kill them while there are other mobs to fight. Sometimes, you can skip them entirely.

Hard Mode

 * Always leave from the foreign quarter. The henchmen from local do an immense job at taking damage and somehow resurrecting themselves during some of the more heated battles.
 * Shouts work very well. Consider taking a defensive paragon.
 * Play defensively; Position your party and let enemies come to you. Kill off melee units that try to squash your monks, since a single afflicted warrior is capable of killing one off. It's not wise to push into the enemy, since they are capable of spawning behind your casters. Being impatient can cost your damage dealers the price of dropping offensive duties to resurrect healing units.

NPCs

 * 10 Canthan Peasant
 * 20 Canthan Guard

Allies

 * 20 Brother Mhenlo
 * 20 Master Togo

Monsters
Afflicted Humans Shiro'ken
 * 14, 20, 24 Afflicted Warrior
 * 14, 20 Afflicted Ranger
 * 14, 20, 24 Afflicted Monk
 * 20, 24 Afflicted Necromancer
 * 10, 20, 24 Afflicted Mesmer
 * 10, 20, 24 Afflicted Elementalist
 * 14, 20, 24 Afflicted Assassin
 * 12, 20, 24 Afflicted Ritualist
 * 10 Canthan Peasant
 * Am Fah
 * 20 Am Fah Marksman
 * 20 Am Fah Healer
 * 20 Am Fah Necromancer
 * 20 Am Fah Assassin
 * 28 Shiro'ken Warrior
 * 28 Shiro'ken Ranger
 * 28 Shiro'ken Monk
 * 28 Shiro'ken Necromancer
 * 28 Shiro'ken Elementalist
 * 28 Shiro'ken Mesmer
 * 28 Shiro'ken Assassin
 * 28 Shiro'ken Ritualist

Bosses

 * 24 The Afflicted Ako - Enraged Smash
 * 24 The Afflicted Huan - Broad Head Arrow
 * 24 The Afflicted Miju - Ray of Judgment
 * 24 The Afflicted Thu - Order of Apostasy
 * 24 The Afflicted Li Yun - Stolen Speed
 * 24 The Afflicted Kam - Mind Burn
 * 24 The Afflicted Soon Kim - Shadow Form
 * 24 The Afflicted Hakaru - Weapon of Quickening

Follow-up
Upon completing this mission, players are sent to Dragon's Throat. Accept the quest Finding The Oracle from Messenger Gosuh to continue with the campaign.