Hell's Precipice (mission)

Objectives
Stop the Lich from destroying the world.
 * Disable the Titan Portals.
 * Defeat Undead Rurik.
 * Destroy the Lich.
 * BONUS Destroy all three Armageddon Lords.

Primary
The mission itself is straightforward, but requires much preparation. Your main foes in this mission will be the Burning Titans, which you first met at the end of the previous mission. Unlike that docile creature, which you probably dispatched quickly, these Burning Titans are trouble. They inflict massive damage, and when destroyed, a Risen Ashen Hulk rises in their place. When that is destroyed, a pair of warrior creatures spawn: a Hand of the Titans and a Fist of the Titans. In addition, members of your party adjacent to burning titans and risen ashen hulks will suffer burning. The other common mobs in the mission are Sparks of the Titans, which can do massive damage with fire spells.

A typical battle will consist of fighting a few of these creatures, but each battle will drag on for a long time, as each creature breaks into smaller creatures. Sparks are generally the highest priority to kill, as they can deal massive damage, but die relatively quickly. Hands and fists are the next highest priority, as they do not spawn anything else when killed. Burning titans come next, and risen ashen hulks are the lowest priority targets.

None of the mobs in this mission can heal other mobs, so they only have fairly meager self-healing capabilities. As such, it does not take very much damage to eventually kill them. Conversely, even if you bring a very high damage build, they have so much health and break into so many other mobs that battles will still drag out a long time, and your party will take considerable damage in that time.

As such, it is vital that the party bring adequate defensive skills to survive as long as it takes to kill the mobs. Other than Alesia and Lina, henchmen supply little defense, but heroes can be immensely helpful. A monk or ritualist as a third healer can make the mission much easier. So can an elementalist with suitable wards, especially Ward Against Harm. A necromancer can nearly cancel the health degeneration of burning with Well of Blood or Well of Power once the first mob in a group dies. The battles against sparks can be made much easier by interrupting them. It is especially useful to interrupt Rodgort's Invocation, their most dangerous spell, which has a two second cast time.

Other characters can bring skills to blind or weaken mobs or make them miss. Most classes can bring defensive or self-healing skills. Mantra of Flame works well for mesmers. Melee classes can benefit from Frigid Armor or Avatar of Melandru for immunity to the burning caused by standing next to some titans. If burning is caused by standing next to titans and removed, it will be immediately reapplied, so if other conditions are to be removed, it may be necessary to bring skills that remove multiple conditions at once.

When you start the mission, just follow the path on the map in red. At the place where the red and green paths diverge, a boss will come shout something unintelligible, and several groups of titans in the area will follow him. It may take a while, but they'll get out of your way to let you move along the green path.

Beware of overlapping patrols of titans, as they are easy to dispatch in small numbers but can be devastating in large groups. As you fight your way along, the Lich Lord will be waiting and will usually summon Quickening Zephyr and then teleport away after a short time.

Continue on your path until you get to point 2 on the map, which is guarded by two Ashen Hulks. Make sure to lure them away up the path from which you came, because the pool of lava to your right will spawn quite a large number of Hands and Fists and also two bosses (fortunately one-by-one or in small groups only). After the second boss spawns, titans will stop spawning from the lava. They will walk by and gather in the area around the portals. Lure them away and take them out one or two at a time. If you do this effectively, you can clear out the whole area, and be left with only one large patrol, which moves in front of the three portals (points A, B and C) you want to destroy. You can either:
 * Time the patrol and destroy the portals after they leave, tackling only the Portal Wraiths.
 * Lure the patrol and engage it. Then destroy the portals at your leisure.

After destroying the portals, you will see a cutscene where the Lich Lord will introduce you to Undead Prince Rurik. Rurik is linked to two sparks of the titans, and there are separate groups of four fists and four hands. If you come just within range of Rurik, he will run around the ledge to come attack you while the sparks stay up on the ledge. The hands and fists will stay where they are, allowing your party to kill Rurik. Pull and kill the two sparks to trigger a cut scene, which eliminates any remaining titan warriors.

The Lich Lord comes accompanied by two hands or fists. There are two more further back which will stay out of the way, so that you don't have to fight them. Kill the hands or fists with the Lich first, as the Lich will take a while to kill. The Lich has very low armor against all types of physical and elemental damage, but a huge amount of health. None of his skills are significantly dangerous, but Soul Vortex will warp a character far into the lava, which can be a nuisance. If a party member, he should run back to rejoin the party. If the Lich warps himself out into the lava, wait for him to return.

When the Lich dies, he will recharge two, four, or six of the soul batteries scattered around the bloodstone. It is unknown what determines how many batteries are charged upon his death. Charging all six soul batteries completes the mission. If killing the Lich leaves some batteries uncharged, then he will respawn, along with one titan hand or fist for each battery charged. Kill the titans first, then kill the Lich again.

Bonus
Acquiring the bonus in this mission is harder than completing it. To acquire the bonus you need to follow the green path to point 1 on the map. At the point where the green path splits from the red one you will encounter a Burning Titan and a Titan Boss who will walk towards you shouting strange words ("Shith Mal Hacto!"). This will summon mobs from the immediate surrounding area to their position, clearing the path towards the bonus. Just stay well away from the now very strong group of opponents who will slowly wander southeast.

At point 1 you will find a Burning Titan and an Ancient Seer who will give you the bonus. You need to take it slowly; make sure to take out the group of Ashen Hulks and Sparks in front before getting near to the Burning Titan and the Seer. Do not rush for the Seer. Upon approaching, the Seer will engage the Burning Titan. Although the Titan doesn't fight back, the Seer will take damage from burning. If you don't take care of the group of Hulks and Sparks before this happens, the Seer will very likely die. Speak with the Seer and you will get the bonus objective.

When you acquire the bonus, three Armageddon Lords spawn at point 2 in the lava pools from which many titans emerge. Once the second boss comes from the lava, no more mobs will spawn, making it safe to pull and kill the Armageddon Lords. Their damage-dealing capacity isn't much to worry about and they drop quite quickly. As the Armageddon Lords are not bosses, you can expect them to have the usual chain of spawning (Armageddon Lord &rarr; Risen Ashen Hulk &rarr; Hand+Fist of the Titans) after they are defeated. Note that the three Armageddon Lords are not linked, and that their spawns need not be killed to achieve the bonus.

Tip: When you save the Seer, you do not need talk to him immediately. This will cause the bonus to be triggered earlier than you may want it. At the area where the Armageddon Lords appear, there is a pool of lava which will spawn several hands and fists of the titans and three bosses, over a long period of time. If you do not trigger the bonus, the Armageddon Lords will not be there and you can kill the normal titans as they spawn. Then you can return to the seer and trigger the bonus, which causes the lords to spawn, then you can kill them. If you do not do this you may have to wait for the monsters to stop spawning to kill the Lords. All the creatures that spawned will gather en masse at the portals making them take slightly longer to kill.

Note: If the Seer dies before completion of the bonus you will not receive credit for the bonus even if you kill the Armageddon Lords.

Hard Mode
All monsters are boosted 2+ levels with the Undead Lich at level 32. Sparks are deadlier and their fire magic is high enough that Mind Burn or Rodgort's Invocation can kill the majority of an unprepared party with 3 or 4 casts, especially if they focus on the caster backline instead of the tank or puller.

Also since the Hands and Fists damage has been increased, it's imperative not to release more than just a pair as they don't usually focus on the same target and can kill the more vulnerable party members quickly if left unchecked.

Another mission that can be done with only heroes and henchmen. Control your spirit summoning hero manually and be sure to focus fire every target.

When you're fighting the Lich, if you're with heroes and henchman then be sure to flag them near the Lich. Otherwise if you get teleported into the lava then they'll stop what they're doing and rush to join you in the lava.

Extra Profession-specific tips:


 * Tip 1: High amounts of spike damage occur very often so monks must be well-prepared. Protective skills that provide damage reduction are very important as the constant high damage inflicted will cause a healer monk to run out of energy when a fight ensues for too long. Protective Spirit and Spirit Bond are recommended.


 * Tip 2: Bringing a third monk as a healer is beneficial, although this will reduce the damage dealing capabilities of the party. Having one of the monks maintain Life Bond for the tank can be helpful. This however would require some recasting since the Risen Ashen Hulks use Strip Enchantment.


 * Tip 3: Interrupts work wonders against the Sparks, so bring a Ranger with Broad Head Arrow and similar interrupting skills to daze them. Mesmers may also work as well with Power Drain or Power Leak. Ward Against Harm can also help if you bring a Water Elementalist, as they do massive fire damage.


 * Tip 4: Water Elementalists with Rust can slow the Hand's/Fist's abilities to use Healing Signet and make them very susceptible to damage. An Air Elementalist can also help by spamming Blinding Surge or Blinding Flash on them.

NPCs

 * Avatar
 * Vision of Glint (cutscene only)
 * Seer
 * 30 Ancient Seer

Monsters

 * Titan
 * 24,28 (26,30) Fist of the Titans
 * 24,28 (26,30) Hand of the Titans
 * 28 (30) Burning Titan
 * 28 (30) Risen Ashen Hulk
 * 28 (30) Armageddon Lord (bonus only)
 * 28 (30) Spark of the Titans
 * Undead
 * 24 (26) Portal Wraith
 * 30 (32) Lich Lord

Bosses (elite skill captures)

 * Titan
 * 28 (30) Tortitudo Probo &rarr; Eviscerate
 * 28 (30) Valetudo Rubor &rarr; Greater Conflagration
 * 28 (30) Maligo Libens &rarr; Aura of the Lich
 * 28 (30) Moles Quibus &rarr; Panic
 * 28 (30) Scelus Prosum &rarr; Mind Burn
 * Undead
 * 28 (30) Undead Prince Rurik &rarr; Hundred Blades

Dialogues
Briefing from Jacob Salinger.

Follow-up

 * Upon completion of the mission players will find themselves in: Droknar's Forge.
 * To continue the storyline players should take the quest Defend Droknar's Forge from the Vision of Glint in Droknar's Forge. Though this is not technically part of the main plot of Prophecies, it does continue the story.