Dunes of Despair (mission)

There is little to this one except for continue along the path, though try your hardest to avoid the Siege Wurms which are shown quite obviously on some high rises, with a massive range, a huge amount of health, AoE damage, and really no reason to fight em. Continue along the path all the way to the west wall where you'll turn south, probably after meeting your third wurm or so and a few of the centaur patrols. Head down here and there is sort of a choice of areas to go, east or west, east is the mission, west leads to a temple with a slowing totem you can pick up. The slowing totem is not necessary, however it slows down all enemies within its radius, and is especially useful for the bonus. The best advice is to go east (use the ghost to lower the drawbridge and kill the wurm), then continue onward to kill the boss, thereby activating the cutscene. After the cutscene is over you can retrieve the totem. Make a small U-turn (doubling back a little bit, but not all the way) around the sand dune and heading toward the temple. This path to the temple is much shorter and avoids a difficult run by a wurm and over a narrow rope bridge. Once you've defeate the enemies at the temple, bring the totem back to where you were at the time of the cutscene.

Now you should be at a keep with a draw bridge. You will see groups of archers standing on the hills off to the sides. Leave the ghost behind (click on him to order him to stop following the players) and get a couple of long-range fighters from your team to take them out. Once both groups of archers are killed, bring the ghost forward again and he will lower the drawbridge. At this point about 6 small groups of enemies will charge at you, one after the other. It is a good idea to drop the slowing totem under the archway and wait there. This will force the enemy groups into a tight area within the radius of the slowing totem and make for an easy victory.

Once the groups have stopped coming, again leave the ghost behind (click on him so he doesn't follow) and move forward to kill the enemy ghost on the altar. This is helpful for solving the bonus. You can now explore the courtyard area without any time constraint. Trace the perimeter of the wall and kill the nearby enemies if you can (this includes a boss enemy to the south and another group of enemies to the west). Here it is necessary to have a long-range weapon handy, such as a longbow. Sometimes the enemies are too far out of range to be reached, but occassionally you will get lucky and can kill them off before the big battle begins.

Now you can bring the ghostly hero forward to the altar (remember to bring the totem with you if you have it). At this point he will begin casting a spell. It takes 10 minutes for him to complete the ritual, during which time you must defend him from the onslaught of enemies that approaches. I suggest leaving the totem at the bottom of one of the staircases, or on the altar itself, so that enemies that come near the hero will attack him at a much reduced pace.

If you choose just to complete the mission, it is a simple matter of everybody staying near the king and killing off the groups of enemies that approach. The bulk of what is coming are Forgotten Arcanists and their type, so warriors may have to sit this one out a bit. If you run up about halfway to them, you'll awaken Seige Wurms. Staying your ground in this map and winning is easy. However, if the Seige Wurms are denting your forces, you can kill them quickly during a reprieve in the fight (this happens at around 7:50 on the countdown timer).

If you choose to do the bonus, you will need to defeat the three captains of the Forgotten, in their respective areas (East, South, and West). The drawbridges to these areas open up as soon as the ghostly hero begins his ritual. This is one of the hardest bonuses in the game, and there is a lot of conflicting advice on how best to complete it.

1.) Stick together near the altar until the 7:50 mark, and then split up into two groups (for instance, four in one group, and two plus the slowing totem in the other). The purpose of the smaller group is to hold off the invaders, while the other party sweeps through the areas and defeats the captains.  If the large party moves south, a boss enemy will attack the ghostly hero from the west.  A single warrior with a good healing monk by his/her side is all that is needed to stop the advance, but make sure to use the slowing totem to your advantage: place it at the epicenter of a battle.  The larger party will also need a monk and at least one warrior.  I have seen this strategy succeed with about 3 minutes to spare.

2.) Stick near the altar until the 7:50 mark, and then the entire group charges headlong into one of the areas--in this example, the east. Now you'll need to race back to the altar to fend off the oncoming groups.  Move out and head west, this will aggro the wurms but you can kill the group attempting to move up, and then turn to the west to kill the next group and run into that boss' area.  This should deaggro the other sets of wurms and eliminate all opposition to the ghostly hero. Obviously when this is done, turn south.

3.) After 5:00 all enemies stop charging the altar. At that point it is safe to move the entire group out into the three areas.  This plan seems to most doubtful to me, as killing the three captains in under 5 minutes is a tall order.

Good luck.