User:Quizzical/Factions Easy

Minister Cho's Estate
Difficulty: *

Yijo and Togo will take their own slow, meandering path whether you go along with them or not. Stay with them or they can get themselves killed, causing mission failure.

Zen Daijun
Difficulty: ***

You have plenty of time. Allow time to recover from miasma, and don’t try to skip past mobs. Yijo hits hard, so kill him quickly.

Vizunah Square
Difficulty: *****

One thing that makes this harder than it intrinsically is is that you’ll often be paired with some low level player from the other side whose group will inevitably wipe. Worse, he may bring low level heroes that he wants you to effectively power level for him. If you get paired with a low level player from the other side, you may wish to abandon the mission and try again rather than pressing on to the inevitable wipe.

The biggest problem with the mission is the three areas where lots of mobs spawn. Each such area has mobs spawn in three particular spots, and this tends to have two spawns attack one party while only one spawn attacks the other party, and the party fighting two spawns can get into trouble. If your party is in trouble, back off and let the other party take some hits for a while. Conversely, be ready to go help out the other party if you’re not taking a lot of hits, as that probably means the other party is.

Skills that help both parties can help immensely. You can’t see the other party’s lifelines directly, but you can still help them considerably with wells, wards, and especially healing spirits like recuperation and life. If you get henchmen from the other side, the mission is entirely doable, but the henchmen party will be short on healing, so you may have to help protect them.

Don’t bring a minion master. There are far more than enough corpses, but minions get slaughtered very quickly by afflicted soul explosions. Furthermore, if you’re going for master’s reward, time is tight, and Mhenlo will often stop to heal minions, slowing your party way down.

The afflicted ritualists can resurrect, and will do so endlessly if you don’t kill them quickly. They’re decent healers as well, but can be taken down quickly if you focus fire on them.

Mobs tend to bunch up a lot. Multi target attacks, whether true area of effect attacks or not, can help to take them down quickly. You may want players to spread out some, though, so that you don’t take too much damage from the resulting afflicted soul explosion when mobs die.

If one party wipes, you’re not going to get master’s reward unless essentially done, but if nearly done with the third area where hordes of mobs spawn, you may be able to finish the mission. The final area can be done with just one party. The afflicted can be pulled without the shiroken, and tend to bunch up on the narrow isthmus, leaving them vulnerable to area attacks.

Nahpui Quarter
Difficulty: ***

Kill the monk boss first and work around. Killing a boss spawns a lot of additional mobs, but the monks that spawn from the monk boss are very weak smiting monks. There is adequate time to pretty reliably get master’s reward even with henchmen if you don’t dawdle.

Getting master’s reward does depend heavily on the path you take. Work your way around the perimeter most of the way, but turn north after killing the third boss. Having fewer mobs to kill saves quite a bit of time.

The third and fourth bosses will be in pretty large groups of mobs once supplemented by the ones that spawn when you kill the first two bosses. The mobs mostly aren’t linked, so you can pull several away from the third boss before taking on the boss. Be aware that killing the boss will spawn more mobs.

When you kill the fourth boss, the mission ends. If you have plenty of time, you may wish to pull some mobs away from the boss first, but you can take down the boss reasonably quickly by focusing fire on it if necessary.

Tahnnakai Temple
Mission difficulty: ***

Master’s reward difficulty: *****

Completing the mission isn’t really that hard, and the displayed timer is not a meaningful factor, but time is very tight if you want to get master’s reward with just henchmen. Masters reward with heroes in addition to henchmen is much easier. There won’t be time to kill every mob in the whole mission, so you’ll have to avoid the ones that you can.

In the second room, there’s no need to fight the mobs on the right wing of the room. Kill the boss and move on.

In the third room, don’t go down to the area where the boss is. Run to the corner, about as far from the stairs as the boss, and most of the mobs, but not the boss, will come up. Kill those mobs before moving on to kill the boss. Elementalist bosses tend to do a lot of damage, and if the boss gets a chance to get sliver armor off, you’re probably looking at deaths (but not a wipe) unless you can strip the enchantment or finish off the boss very quickly.

In the fourth room, kill some temple guardians, and then go to the open area by the gate to the next room. Pull some mobs down there and kill them, then pull the boss and kill it. You can leave a lot of mobs on the platform untouched.

There are two gates from the fifth room to the sixth. Both are guarded by four mobs. You have to clear both groups of mobs, or else the one remaining will attack you while you’re fighting in the next room, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

In the sixth room, run up toward the mobs but don’t aggro anything. The mobs will aggro off the platform, but the temple guardians will stay put. Back up to have room to kill the mobs that do come at you before aggroing any temple guardians.

In the seventh room, be aware that the restoration spirit will resurrect any mobs not pulled away from it, though they’ll come back low on life and easily be killed again.

In the eighth room, clear some roamers along the perimeter until they stop coming before going after the mobs in the center. Pull some mobs a few at a time from the center area rather than rushing in and being overwhelmed. The boss tends to come fairly early, so be ready for this. The mission does not end until all of the mobs on the center platform are dead, but you don’t have to kill all the mobs on the perimeter.

You can use the timer for how long you have to rescue Vizu to time yourself. Be aware that the mission timer for master’s reward purposes starts about 20 seconds before the displayed timer starts at 10 minutes.

Arborstone
Difficulty: ***

Get out of the cathedral collapse environmental effect, as it will spam interrupts on you. Keep henchmen out of it as well. It only affects fairly small areas, but the areas aren’t clearly visible except by watching the effects monitor on your screen.

The fight at the very end can get kind of hairy, but ends when Danika opens the cathedral door. The time this takes varies, but basically survive a while and you win, even if you don’t clear the mobs.

Boreas Seabed
Difficulty: ***

At the convocation, bosses bring resurrection signets. Try to kill easy to kill mobs first to burn through their signets before resuming normal tactics. The elementalists in Argo’s group can be dangerous with their high damage output.

Bring interrupts to deal with Zhu Hanuku. Don’t rely on hex-based interrupts like spinal shivers, as the kraken spawns carry expel hexes. Interrupting resurrect long enough to let kraken spawns despawn once dead can help. Interrupting jade fury is absolutely essential, as that does massive damage.

Sunjiang District
Difficulty: ***

The spirit rift toward the east has awkward terrain, and henchmen often end up just shooting the ground and doing no damage. Be careful not to pull too many mobs at once, and you’ll probably have to flag the henchmen around a bit to make sure they’re able to hit the mobs.

There are four bosses at the end, which fortunately aren’t that strong for bosses. Still, four bosses at once and be daunting. Flag the henchmen in a corner immediately after the cut scene, and try to pull only one boss. You’ll probably end up pulling two or three, but if it’s not all four, it’s quite manageable.

You don’t have to rely on a lucky boss spawn to capture skills here, as the same bosses spawn elsewhere in the game.

The Eternal Grove
Mission difficulty: **

Master’s reward difficulty: *****

The challenge basically is to run out and kill the siege turtle groups when they come, but also stay back to kill the pairs of Luxons that attack directly. This is vastly easier if you can split your group, but that’s hard to do with just henchmen. You can flag the seven henchmen to go kill a siege turtle group while you stay back and manage juggernauts. The master’s reward difficulty rating assumes that you have only henchmen; it’s much easier with heroes or other players.

After the cut scene, three waves of mobs will come. Have the juggernauts defend the north gate while the bulk of your group defends the south gate. Juggernauts respawn kind of near the north gate when they die, so move them back up to rejoin the fight at the gate. Split forces as best you can if you have heroes or other players to keep NPC defenders alive as long as possible. The third wave of mobs has most of the mobs assault the north gate, so kill the ones at the south gate quickly before moving everything to the north gate.

Skills that defend all allies can help immensely, as they’ll keep your NPC allies alive longer, too. The usual assortment of wells, wards, and spirits can make the mission vastly easier.

Long lasting ritualist spirits are especially useful in this mission, as you can have a spirit up at the north gate and an identical one up at the south gate at the same time. A ritualist running back and forth to keep spirits such as bloodsong, vampirism, pain, rejuvenation, or preservation can provide meaningful support at one gate even while he’s at the other gate. Life and recuperation halfway between the gates is far out of range of the enemy mobs, but can provide considerable healing to party members and NPC allies on both sides at once.

This mission is much easier to get master’s reward on with heroes, and the tactics are substantially different from with henchmen. Bring two necromancers with minions and wells, and a ritualist with recuperation, life, and some direct healing spells. The rest of the group can be filled in as needed to provide a reasonably balanced group.

Start by going west and killing the first siege turtle and its accompanying mobs. Once those are dead, come back to the base and flag a necromancer and ritualist hero in the north gate, while you head to the south with the rest of the party. When the siege turtle comes from the south, go out to kill it and its escort. Head back to the base, this time to the north gate, while you move the two heroes that had been there to the south gate. When the siege turtle comes from the north, kill it with its accompanying Luxons.

The next siege turtle comes from the south, so move the two heroes to the north gate while the rest of the party guards the south gate until the siege turtle approaches. Head out and kill the siege turtle, but this time, leave as many of the other Luxons alive as you can. Repeat this at the north side, with two heroes guarding the south gate while the rest of the party goes out to kill the siege turtle but not its escort. Finally, head to the west to kill the last siege turtle and the luxons with it. Killing this last group triggers a cut scene.

Most luxons that are still alive will turn friendly at the cut scene. If those that don’t stay at the siege turtle firing spots, you can ignore them. You also get two Luxon warriors and their pets at each gate, along with Mhenlo to heal at the north gate You have a minute to set up defenses before waves of afflicted start coming.

Move all three juggernauts to the north gate in front of the NPCs, and flag a necromancer hero just behind the new Luxon allies. Flag the ritualist hero halfway between the gates, so that recuperation and life will heal all players and allies at both gates at once, and the ritualist can throw additional heals to characters at both gates. Flag the rest of the party at the south gate and wait for the afflicted to come.

If the ritualist is a player, still drop recuperation and life halfway between the gates, but run back and forth setting up spirits such as pain or vampirism for fire support behind both gates. The gates are far enough apart that you can have the a copy of the same spirit up at both gates at the same time.

The south gate takes the brunt of the first wave of afflicted, which officially consists of five groups. If you have a lot of AoE, take down most other afflicted before the warrior boss. If you have good skills for taking down one boss fast (e.g., a player assassin), focus fire on the boss to kill it as soon as it comes. One hero with minions and NPCs should be able to hold the north gate just fine.

The next wave of afflicted officially consists of four groups and no bosses. If it is easy to do so, you may wish to move one character from the south gate to the north gate, but be sure to keep the necromancers and their minions at opposite gates. If the north gate didn’t lose any characters from the first wave, it won’t need reinforcements for the second. The second wave doesn’t add any bosses, but just a lot of afflicted.

If you can survive the second wave without losing any tree singers, you’ve virtually won. Flag the party at the north gate, while a player and one hero guard the south gate. Only two or three afflicted come to the south gate, while many rush the north gate. Heals from the ritualist in the center will be adequate to defeat the afflicted at the south gate, and then you can go join the north gate group to finish them off.

The tactics for the fourth wave are the same as for the third, though with two bosses, the fourth wave is a bit tougher. After the couple of afflicted that attack the south gate are killed, move to the north gate and unflag the party, to make it easier to go out and kill the ritualist boss.

Gyala Hatchery
Difficulty: **

Don’t run to the NPCs at the start of the mission. Instead, follow the perimeter of the area to the west around the NPCs, and clear most of the mobs. There are several places in the mission where killing one group will spawn a couple more groups. Be ready to run away after killing one group, and either intercept one of the incoming groups while far enough away from their meeting point to aggro the other, or get away from the groups entirely and pull carefully.

You do have to fight one wave of Luxons at the very start with the young turtles in danger. Drop a smoke canister in the middle of the turtles and go pick off the monks that stay along the perimeter. The siege turtles will destroy melee mobs that go for the young turtles without needing your help.

Unwaking Waters
Difficulty: ***

Bring as many ranged interrupts as you possibly can. Daeman and Erys are especially good for this. Kuunavang has resistance to interrupts, so that when it would normally be interrupted, sometimes the interrupt is ignored and the cast continues. You need to interrupt corrupted dragon scales and spores, so when Kuunavang starts casting one, fire off one interrupt after another until the cast is interrupted.

You generally want to keep most of your group behind a gate while one party member goes through it to cause some afflicted to spawn on the other side, and wait for them to come through the gate. The afflicted aren’t that hard, and neither is Kuunavang, but fighting both at once could get you wiped. If wearing down Kuunavang and you see some afflicted coming, drop what you’re doing and run away and wait for the afflicted before resuming battle against Kuunavang.

If Kuunavang gets a cast of corrupted dragon scales or spores off before the cut scene, run away and wait for the spores or scales to die on their own, which they do after 30 seconds. Standing in the middle of them is likely to get your group killed, too.

This mission is actually reasonably easy if you get paired with henchmen from the other side, as the party of henchmen will follow you and retreat when you do. It can be really hard if you get a human party from the other side which is excessively aggressive and gets itself wiped. You have plenty of time, and a leisurely pace will only use about 2/3 of the time available for master’s reward.

Raisu Palace
Mission difficulty: ****

Master’s reward difficulty: *****

The shiroken monks and ritualists can heal somewhat, and ritualists can resurrect, too. Meanwhile, elementalists have impressive damage outputs, especially with sliver armor. These three types of mobs must be the top priority to kill.

While the groups of mobs are perhaps the strongest in the standard missions in the entire game, your group will get a boost from extremely powerful celestial skills. Elementalists get celestial storm, which can nearly wipe out a group of mobs on its own. Warriors get storm of swords, which can do the same if the mobs and your group bunch together enough. Use the flag when a warrior henchmen is likely to use storm of swords to force your group to crowd around so that everyone gets the storm of swords effect. If you’re going to bring any henchmen at all, be sure to bring the warrior and elementalist henchmen for these celestial skills.

Heroes do not get celestial skills, which may be all right for classes without particularly potent celestial skills, but is an unacceptable loss of firepower for warriors and elementalists if you could have taken a henchman instead.

Celestial skills recharge when you kill a boss. As such, if you still have your celestial skill when you get to a boss, use it. Henchmen will burn their celestial skills in the first couple battles after getting them recharged. That’s all right, as these tend to be the hardest battles.

Bring Cynn and Danika as your two allies. They will help your group through most of the mission, and then let you skip some critical hard parts.

The first couple groups of mobs are loaded with monks and elementalists, making them perhaps the hardest groups of the instance. I haven’t found a reliable way to beat this without taking some deaths, so if you take a lot of deaths early, just restart and try again.

The elementalist boss can do a ton of damage in a hurry, so it’s best pulled separately. It’s okay to attack the boss while some other shiroken are still roaming around, but focus fire on it to kill it fast. Once it dies, run further to the east, away from any other shiroken that have aggroed. Getting to the next room triggers a cut scene (assuming you brought Cynn) and gets you to safety.

When you get to the acid traps, you can see them dripping, so don’t stand in them, and use the flags if necessary to prevent henchmen from doing so. If you have a lot of firepower, such as a player with storm of swords or celestial storm still charged, you can run past the mobs, kill the boss fast, and move into the next room to trigger a cut scene. If not, you‘ll have to clear the room, and the mobs wander quite a bit, so pull carefully to avoid getting overwhelmed.

Imperial Sanctum
Difficulty: *****

Grab the celestial skill quickly and run to Shiro. The clock starts as soon as you start the mission, and you only have 2:30, much of that spent running to Shiro.

Bring the elementalist and warrior henchmen, as their potent celestial skills will do massive damage to Shiro. You really only need one monk healer henchmen, as Mhenlo will heal you as an ally, too.

Bring a stance-ending skill if you can. No henchmen have one. Ending Shiro’s battle scars stance will prevent a lot of lifestealing, especially once he gets low on life and starts using impossible odds. Wild blow is the most effective. Wild strike is an off-hand attack, so an assassin will have to mostly just use a main hand attack and wait to use wild strike, then restart the combo with another lead attack to be ready with wild strike again. Wild throw takes too long to recharge, but it’s still better than nothing.

The top priority for the group is focusing fire on Shiro when he uses meditation of the reaper. The faster you can get to 500 damage to end it, the less lifestealing he gets from it. If you take too long, he can get massive healing or even wipe your group.

The next priority for the group is killing the bound shiroken that his echoing banishment skill creates. This will get back the banished player, prevent them from accumulating, and most importantly, recharge celestial skills.

Otherwise, focus on damaging Shiro. Use flags to make the party crowd around Shiro so that everyone gets the storm of swords effect that the warrior henchmen use, which can do massive damage to Shiro.

When Shiro gets fairly low on life, he’ll use impossible odds. If battle scars is up at the time, this will get him massive healing and possibly wipe your group. If not, but if he has empathy, insidious parasite, or spoil victor on him, he’ll take massive damage which can finish him off in a hurry. Impossible odds will shed conditions and remove one hex, so bring a cover hex. Erys has empathy, which can be useful to bring.

If you can’t end stances, fighting Shiro is fairly random, with victory or defeat based largely on what happens when he uses impossible odds. If you have heroes and can bring the critical skills of wild blow and spoil victor, it makes Shiro much easier. Otherwise, it may take several tries until you get lucky.

If you bring heroes and are relying on heroes to use wild blow to end battle scars, you’ll have to disable it and trigger it manually. Shiro uses two different stances, and heroes don’t know to ignore the other one and save wild blow for battle scars.