The Eternal Grove (mission)

Mission Objectives

 * Protect the Forever Trees by keeping the Tree Singers alive. You have x of 12 Tree Singers remaining.
 * ADDED Defeat the Afflicted forces. You have 12 groups remaining.

Rewards

 * 1,000 XP, 100 gold, and 1 Skill Point.
 * To obtain Expert Level you must keep 6 Tree Singers alive. This earns 1500 XP, 150 gold, and 1 Skill Point.
 * To obtain Master Level you must keep all 12 Tree Singers alive. This earns 2000 XP, 200 gold, and 1 Skill Point.

Mission Walkthrough
The first thing you will notice with this mission is the additional health display on the top left corner of your screen, which shows the health status of the three Forever Trees. The trees are located at the points 1, 2 and 3 on the map. There are four Tree Singers each grouped around each tree - each singer makes for one fourth of the trees hitpoints. When the singers are damaged, the health bar will degrade and if one of them dies it will not regenerate back up to 100%. When all four singers of one tree are dead, so is the tree. Note that this does not result in a failure of this mission! Success only requires one Tree Singer to survive.

Each tree has an associated Juggernaut in the mission. Each juggernaut will continuously resurrect as long as its forever tree stays alive. In addition to providing the Aura of the Juggernaut, the juggernauts make great tanks and do good damage as well.

Tip: You can get a Juggernaut to follow you by talking to it, unless it is already following someone else. This is a good way to bring the Aura of the Juggernaut with you if you need to leave the Grove.

The mission takes place in a very small area. Usually you will rarely venture very far from the hill with the trees, which is also the starting area. There are two gates leading up to the hill. With a well coordinated and balanced team it is possible to block both gates so that no attacker can enter and be a threat to the Tree Singers. Unfortunately, you will also have to leave the area to dispatch long range attackers. You should only do so when necessary, so that you can benefit from both the Aura of the Juggernaut (which boosts your energy regeneration) as well as the Aura of the Grove (which boosts your movement speed) as much as possible. If you are doing the mission with henchmen, you will of course have to run back and forth between the gates. In this case it will often be of advantage to attack approaching enemies as soon as they come into view and not wait for them to close in on you in a pincer move.

Both Mhenlo and Danika will always be there as mission NPCs. Unfortunately you will have no control over them whatsoever. It does not matter if one or even both of them die, you will not fail the mission.

First part
The Luxons will attack from all sides, coming down the paths from the north, west and south. The first wave will be the strongest and come from the west. It can be of advantage to intercept this group early, before it reaches the Grove and splits up. After this, attacking groups will consist of pairs of Luxon Warriors, Elementalists and Rangers only. Dispatch the smaller groups quickly, especially take care not to let any Warriors or Elementalists get past to the Tree Singers, as those can take down a Singer in a matter of seconds. Do not go after the Siege Turtles as long as there are Warriors or Elementalists around. The Rangers can be mostly ignored, as they don't deal much damage and will be taken care of by the Juggernauts. The turtles will come down the paths from all three sides and start firing once they arrive on the small hills, marked with an X on the map. Each Turtle has an escort of three Rangers, which again can simply be ignored, as it will not attack the Tree Singers.

After you have defeated several waves, including six Siege Turtles (two per tree), the attacks will cease. A cutscene will explain the further mission. If you have left any Luxon Rangers alive, the cutscene may not trigger.

Second part
This part in general is the same as before, with the difference that the opponents are quite more difficult and plentiful. The handful of (newly joined) Luxons you have to your aid now will not make up for this. The best approach for holding off the Afflicted would probably be to block both gates with one or two tanks and have the rest of the party use ranged attacks and skills, so that not too many will be hit by the Afflicted Soul Explosions, with which every Afflicted dies. The Afflicted do not have any siege weapons, so it is safe to wait for them inside the Grove. Several of the attacking groups will have a boss with it. If a boss is attacking a Tree Singer directly, it is highly recommended to place Protective spirit on all tree singers around that tree, as a boss Afflicted Soul Explosion can very easily hit them for 3/4 of their total heath, each.

The Juggernauts make great tanks for the second part, as long as the forever trees stay alive. They absorb damage well and if killed resurrect almost right away very close to the fighting.

Note on Minion Masters:

Having two Minion Masters, one on each side, can really tip the battle in your favor, just don't forget to have Soul Feast or some other way of healing yourself after you use Blood of the Master.

Bosses and Elite skills
The following bosses can be encountered during The Eternal Grove mission:
 * The Afflicted Xenxo - Weapon of Quickening
 * The Afflicted Maaka - Enraged Smash
 * The Afflicted Senku - Shadow Form