User:Quizzical/Nightfall Hard

Chahbek Village
I haven't done this one yet, but include it now only to number the missions properly.

Jokanur Diggings
Difficulty: **

It helps immensely to have two healers, as mobs use disease extensively, which can put a lot of pressure on a single healer. This doesn't have to dampen your damage much, however, as if both healers are monks, they can bring a couple smiting skills and do hefty damage to the undead mobs. Likewise, Melonni should be loaded up with holy damage, especially from heart of holy flame.

Blacktide Den
Difficulty: ***

The skale stampede can be dangerous if you take them all on at once. Instead, split off west from Besuz as to go on the route to the last two rinkhal monitors, and then turn south at the first opportunity. You'll reach the skale stampede mobs from the north, but they won't stampede until you approach from the east. There are three groups, and they have different movement AI that makes them easier to pull apart if it is before they stampede.

The harpies can be a nuisance if they have a griffon with them, which is quite a potent healer. Kill it first, to prevent it from perpetually healing the other mobs.

Consulate Docks
Difficulty: ***

Bring something to stop the groups of Kournan Bowmen from doing their normal damage, as packs of them focusing fire on a single character can be a problem. There are several places where it helps to pull small groups of Kournans apart a little, though they won't chase all that far. In particular, after Lonai, Rojis, and Nerashi join you, it can help to let the sunspear warriors that spawn ahead die on their own before pulling the Kournans there apart.

If having trouble with Captain Lumanda, you can pull his group back to the sunspear rangers for help. Captain Mwende hits very hard with fireball and meteor, so it can help to spread out a bit and interrupt his casts. Conditions are unreliable, as paragons in his group will remove them.

Venta Cemetery
Difficulty: ***

Mobs get a little cluttered toward the end. After the ninth guard post, pull the roamer group that will be to the east of the bridge when you approach, to get it out of the way for later. After clearing the last guard post, stay near the south wall. After clearing a small group of bowmen, wait for a larger roamer group to get out of the way. They'll be away for plenty long enough for you to clear the last group of bowmen and head west to the exit.

Kodonur Crossroads
Difficulty: ****

Group will wander very long distances, and chase unusually far if you try to run away. Be very careful about pulling, and watch radar, to move out of the way of any approaching groups while you're already fighting another group. Taking on two groups at once can be big trouble.

In particular, when you approach the group guarding the centaur boss, a roamer group will come from behind it and move west. Approach from the west to make it start moving, and then back off and wait for it to come out of range of the stationary group. Similarly, when approaching Sadi-Belai's group, another roamer group will come up from behind it. Come close enough to make it start moving, then back off and wait for it, so you can kill it without having to fight the boss group at the same time.

Kournan priests can be a major pain. Dazed and backfire can help, but neither are reliable. The paragons will remove dazed with cautery signet, as well as other conditions that you may use to try to limit mob damage. Priests can remove hexes, too, with convert hexes, though this skill can't self-target, so they can't remove hexes from themselves. Enchantment removal helps quite a bit when trying to spike single targets, so that you can remove shielding hands.

Many of the mobs spawns are random, in that some fixed number of Kournans will spawn in a linked group, but which particular mobs actually spawn are random. The difficulty of groups can vary quite a bit by composition, but the probability that you'll have to face at least one fairly difficult group is pretty high.

The garrison at the end has mobs split into three separate groups, and it helps immensely to fight them separately. Pull them somewhat, so that you don't accidentally aggro one group while fighting another. Your centaur allies are trappers, and you can kill melee mobs pretty quickly by pulling a group, then running far enough away for mobs to run all the way up to the centaurs--and into a big stack of traps.

Pogahn Passage
Difficulty: ****

When you approach the stairs going down after rescuing Kormir and Shahai, a large roamer group will approach from behind. Back up and wait so that you can kill the roamer group by itself.

Guard Linko is linked to only one other mob--and not the group containing Colonel Kajo behind him. Clearing those two mobs before taking on Colonel Kajo's group can help.

At the end, there is a group of four Kournan guards at the front of the pier, and Captain Nebo's group is at the end of the pier. If you can pull the four guards without bringing Nebo's group, then do. If you try and both groups come, run away. The four guards will stop chasing and return to their spawn location pretty quickly, while Nebo's group will chase much further, allowing you to pull it alone.

The terrain is awkward, and Nebo hits very hard with meteor and fireball. Terrain can block fireball, but not meteor. Either one will come close to killing some party members in one hit if you don't have defensive measures such as interrupts or wards.

Mobs will ignore Kormir and Shahai unless they have no other targets nearby. If necessary, you can sometimes just run by Nebo's group, get Kormir and Shahai to follow, and trigger the cutscene to complete the mission as your party is in the process of wiping.

Rilohn Refuge
Difficulty: **

Clear the three groups of droughtlings from The Drought's group before taking on The Drought. Fire broad head arrow at The Drought from out of aggro range, and don't otherwise enter combat until broad head arrow hits. From there, focus fire on the drought (and refire broad head arrow as necessary) to ensure that it can never get a cast off--and particular, can't use sandstorm.

Moddok Crevice
Mission difficulty: ***

Master's reward difficulty: ****

The first large cavern has several groups of mandragors, some of which will wander a good distance. Stay by the entrance to the cavern, and pull groups of four to your party one at a time. If you run to where they are, you may end up fighting two or three groups at a time, which can overwhelm a party.

Don't trigger Dunkoro's fourth suggestion by approaching the corsair runners until your party is ready. Approach wide, from the southeast, rather than more directly south, to reduce the chance of aggroing bugs to the southwest of the runners. The deep freeze and mind freeze approach that works in easy mode may not be enough in hard mode. Mind freeze can still hold one runner plenty long enough, but some parties may not kill the first runner within ten seconds, before deep freeze wears off. If that happens, between blocking, condition removal, and speed boosts, the first runner may well get away. A second slowing hex applied shortly before deep freeze wears off can prevent this; imagined burden works especially well.

Don't try to kill the Kournan bowmen at the end from below. Instead, use the run all the way past everything strategy, as it still works quite nicely. You'll probably lose a party member in running by; ignore that and keep running. The Hunger will follow your party, but once it gets low on life, may try to run away. If so, let it, and finish the mission as though The Hunger had not followed you in the first place.

Tihark Orchard
Difficulty: *

Bring some out of combat healing if you can, as "Palawa Joko"'s life siphon can take another 200+ HP off you after he is defeated.

Dasha Vestibule
Difficulty: ***

The same basic tactics as in easy mode still work, but it's now considerably more important to pull only one group at a time. Be careful not to run at the start too fast and get hit by two groups when they pop up. Clear the first trial room before approaching the chest, which makes mobs pop up. When you get into the second trial room, grab a pair of mobs and kill it, without waiting for them to all swarm on you.

For the elementalist boss at the end, flag your party apart somewhat, to avoid everyone getting nuked at once. Skills such as power block, broad head arrow, ward against harm, or extinguish can help, but aren't completely reliable.

Dzagonur Bastion
Difficulty: *****

The easy mode strategy does not work in hard mode. Instead, hard mode requires a much more chaotic strategy, which can work in easy mode, though not as easily as the method posted for easy mode.

Bring a curse necro with Insidious Parasite and Spiteful Spirit, a domination mesmer with Empathy and Ignorance, and a Broad Head Arrow ranger. Other potentially useful necro skills include Reckless Haste and Barbs. Since you must bring Master of Whispers, he could be the curse necro. If you can fill one of these builds yourself or have multiple players, other useful builds include an air/earth elementalist with Lightning Orb and Ward Against Foes, a tactics warrior with "Charge!" and Wild Blow, or a command paragon with "Fall Back!" and Wild Throw. Disable ignorance and ward against foes if it is a hero carrying them, and cast them manually at the appropriate times.

If doing the mission with only henchmen and heroes, bring Mhenlo, Kihm, Sogolon, and Devona as your henchmen. If using multiple players, bring three healers (including healing paragons), and as many characters with useful builds as you can. Ritualists tend not to be terribly useful as healers here, as the party constantly has to run away from any spirits that the ritualist could have set up.

Send all three Whispers groups to the center bombard to defend. They can hold it for long enough for you to complete the mission without having to help them. They won't be of much help before the generals spawn, but that's the easier part of the mission anyway. It is vital that your entire group quickly shuttle from one location to the next, in order to quickly kill mobs and keep the bombards secure. In particular, stand near enough to the bombards while fighting to often recapture them while fighting, so that as soon as the mobs are dead, you can run on to the next location.

At the start, go out into the central area to help the front three Vabbi Guards kill the first group that comes. When that group dies, run to the east bombard to kill the group that comes. After that, go to the west bombard to kill the group that comes, and is likely to be attacking the bombard before you arrive. Next, go back out into the center. The Vabbi Guards will already be fighting one group, and a second group will cross the center headed for the west bombard. Make sure you kill the latter group; it is often easiest to kill both groups, in order not to have to keep track of which mobs are in which group. After this, go to the east bombard to kill the group that comes. The final pre-generals group will cross the center area to attack the center bombard. Do not aggro this group, but instead circle north of the bombards, and then south to near where the warrior general spawns. Stand about an aggro bubble away from where the warrior general will spawn. The Whispers groups will kill the last pre-generals group of mobs, and this will trigger the generals to spawn.

Focus fire on General Dorian, and kill him as quickly as you possibly can. Use empathy, insidious parasite, and spiteful spirit on him. If heroes are using these skills, you will need to disable the skills and cast them manually, to prevent heroes from using them on the wrong targets. Remember to enable them again after Dorian is dead. These skills will ensure that Dorian takes quite a lot of damage with every attack. Since he attacks fast, he dies fast.

Once Dorian gets down to half health, he will try to use Healing Signet. This both heals him and temporarily stops him from attacking, and hence from taking as much damage as you'd like. Using Ignorance on him before he gets to half life will prevent this.

While you may wish to use weakness or blocking skills to blunt Dorian's damage, blinding him should be avoided, as it will cost you the damage from insidious parasite, unless you also use Price of Failure. Attack or action interrupts (except those that deal considerable damage), knockdowns, and attack speed slowing hexes should also be avoided, as slowing Dorian's attack will slow the damage from the hexes on him.

As soon as General Dorian is dead, your entire party must run away. Using charge or fall back will help here. Using ward against foes is particularly useful, to prevent mobs from being able to follow you very well. It is vital that the entire party run away as soon as Dorian dies. If part of the party runs and part does not, the part that dawdles is likely to quickly die, and be a major pain to resurrect later without having to abandon and potentially lose bombards. If the entire party takes its time before running away, you may lose the east bombard. While technically, you are allowed to lose one bombard and still get master's reward, losing the fire support that a bombard supplies makes it much more difficult to complete the mission.

When running away after killing the warrior boss, do not cross through the central area of the mission. Periodic groups of Kournans will cross through there, and if you aggro them, they'll attack you rather than the Whispers groups that are supposed to handle them. This could easily get your party overwhelmed. Instead, go north and then east, behind the bombards, to get to the east bombard that way.

There will already be a group of three Kournans at the east bombard by the time you arrive, and another will be on the way soon. Stand near the bombard to start recapturing it while fighting the Kournans. If you start to get overwhelmed, you can run back to the center and drag the Kournans with you, to get help from the Whispers groups in killing the Kournans.

If you're fast enough in killing General Dorian, you can kill him before any Kournans spawn at his rift. In this case, the west bombard will be secure. The three Margonites that accompanied Dorian may chase you when you run away. If so, you'll get a message about them attacking the west bombard, but they'll turn back before they capture it.

If you're a little slow in killing Dorian, a group of three Kournans will attack the west bombard. In this case, you'll have to go fight at the east bombard and mostly recapture it as before, but then will have to run back to the west bombard to kill those three Kournans. Once they are dead, the west bombard will be secure for good, and then you can return to the east bombard to kill any additional Kournans and recapture it again.

Kournans spawn from the rift guarded by the elementalist boss to attack the east bombard fairly quickly. Kournan Bowmen are often content to stay back and fire from long distances, which can make them a pain to kill. You may have to frequently make your entire party back up in order to get them to come near enough to get help from the bombard. It may take a couple minutes to get things under control at the east bombard. If you lost any party members, send someone off to go resurrect them to rejoin the party at the east bombard. If you start to get overwhelmed, you can move your party to the center bombard to drag the Kournans with you and get help from the Whispers groups and perhaps the center bombard itself.

When the situation at the east bombard is stable, check on the spawn location of General Tirraj, as compared to the three Margonites that escort him. If the general is significantly behind the other Margonites, you can run up to the margonites and pull them a bit, to kill the two melee ones without the boss aggroing on you. The Margonites won't come all the way to the east bombard itself, but can be pulled within range of its attacks.

Once the situation is stable and either a couple Margonites are dead or General Tirraj is in front of the other Margonites, it's time to look for an opening to spike Tirraj. Kournans spawn fast enough that you'll be under attack from them while fighting the elementalist boss, but at least try to get to Tirraj to start attacking before the Kournans arrive. Have your ranger use broad head arrow to daze Tirraj. You may need to disable the skill and cast it manually to prevent a hero from wasting it on the wrong target. Tirraj is not inclined to move around, so broad head arrow can be fired from full flatbow range without significant risk of missing him.

Tirraj should mostly stand there getting interrupted, but other Margonites and Kournans will attack you. Focus fire on Tirraj to kill him as fast as you possibly can. As soon as he dies, your entire party should run away, just as you did after killing Dorian. Use charge, fall back, or ward against foes to help with your escape again. This time, you'll be under attack from both Margonites and Kournans while trying to escape, so you may take some deaths, especially if unable to pull any Margonites separately from General Tirraj. As long as several party members get away, you should be fine.

Run west, back to the east bombard. Go to the north of it, behind the bombard. If enough of your party gets away to easily handle whatever mobs follow you, stay there and fight whatever comes. If not, don't stop at the east bombard, but keep running all the way to the center bombard, behind the Whispers groups. Any Margonites will probably turn back and leave, while the Whispers groups can help you kill Kournans. Be sure not to aggro any Kournans coming across the center, as you don't want to get overwhelmed.

Once any Kournans that spawned at the far east rift and attacked the east bombard are dead, the east bombard will also be secure. If you can get this far without losing any bombards, finishing the mission is a mere formality.

Go west behind the bombards, and then south along the west side, as if headed to the warrior boss spawn area. Go between there and the Monk boss, to the side, so that you'll be out of the way of any Kournans that spawn and attack the center bombard. Wait until such a group of Kournans spawns, and then wait for it to leave to go attack the center bombard. After this, it will be a long while before another group of Kournans spawn, so you can spike General Nimtak without interference from Kournans. Daze him with broad head arrow and he will die pretty quickly. You can either run away from the Margonites there, or kill them after killing the boss.

Finally, repeat this at the paragon boss, attacking after a group of Kournans leaves. When General Kumtash dies, the mission is complete. You may wish to stop to loot before attacking the paragon boss group; stopping to loot earlier in the mission could delay you enough to cause mission failure.

Note that while two rifts spawn Kournans to attack the central bombard, these two rifts spawn Kournans much more slowly than the edge rifts. Additionally, when Kournans come from either of the center two rifts, they come within range of both the center bombard and the bombard on one side or the other. This additional bombard fire support greatly aids the Whispers groups, and allows them to hold the central bombard for long enough for you to complete the mission.

Grand Court of Sebelkeh
Difficulty: ****

About the same tactics as in easy mode still work. In hard mode, it is more important for the entire party to quickly get to the center of the altar, without aggroing any additional mobs to pull them before they are supposed to come. Additionally, it is important for all party members to stay near the altar, rather than wandering off into one of the rifts to aggro more mobs before the center is clear.

You get twelve minutes for master's reward, which is far longer than the mission should take, so there isn't any time pressure. It will be simpler if you don't try the "leave one Margonite alone" approach, but just kill all of the Margonites that come to the center at the start as they come.

If The Blasphemy spawns on you in a rift, let it go to the center unimpeded. Killing it and getting the Last Rites of Torment hex on you while fighting Margonites can make things much harder.

Jennur's Horde
Difficulty: ****

The basic tactics of easy mode still work. The main difference that hard mode makes is that you must be slower to pull mobs, since fighting two groups of Margonites at once can be trouble.

In particular, if you kill a runner group and then go kill some other group of Margonites, don't pull anything else until you've killed the next runner group. If you're fighting some other group and haven't quite cleared it when the next runner group comes, once you finish off both groups, don't pull anything else until after clearing the runner group after it.

Doing the bonus also takes quite a bit more care than before. Don't mess with the bonus except until all of the other harbingers except the end boss are dead, and three stationary groups of Margonites to the east of the ditch are also cleared. Furthermore, only go to the bonus area immediately after clearing a runner group.

Don't try to do an entire side of the bonus all at once. Instead, go up onto the platform in the direction of the bonus and flag your party toward the west end of that platform. Move up a little further to aggro Margonites, and pull them down to the platform to fight your party there. If you run up to the Margonites, you may aggro an additional Margonite group below, which can be a disaster.

Furthermore, don't try to clear the entire group of Margonites in a bonus area all at once. Instead, kill a few of them, and then run away, to go intercept the next runner group. You can come back after killing a runner group to finish that side of the bonus.

Nundu Bay
Difficulty: ***

It again helps immensely to clear out a few groups of Margonites before acquiring Vial of Purified Water from Elder Jonah to start the siege. Two groups southwest of Ronjok have overlapping spawn areas, making it easy to accidentally pull both. If this happens, you can run back into Ronjok for help from the Istani Peasants.

The assault on Ronjok is notably more difficult than in easy mode. Try stand slightly in front of the Istani peasants to draw fire away from them, but near enough that they will run over to help when you are attacked. If you have enough peasants left when Zealot Sheoli, the hardest boss, arrives, you should be fine.

In doing the bonus, it helps quite a bit to pull mobs far enough to get away from the awkward terrain. For the first group, flag your party a little over a full aggro bubble radius away from the door to the fort, and pull the group out of the fort entirely. For the second, go as far north as you can in the middle of the fort, and pull the mobs up the stairs, out from behind the walls.

Gate of Desolation
Difficulty: ***

Bringing a couple of characters that deal holy damage should provide you with adequate damage to fight off the undead that come in the initial siege as fast as they come. As in easy mode, Awakened Acolytes, Awakened Cavaliers, and Chakeh the Lonely should be your top priority targets because they can resurrect. When the bosses come at the end, kill Queen Aijundu first, as she a greater damage output and fewer defensive skills than the other bosses.

Ruins of Morah
Difficulty: ****

Prophet Varesh is now the hard part. Use the same basic tactics as in easy mode (enfeeble/spoil victor necro and a mesmer with revealed hex or inspired hex), but be aware that any conditions you use to try to hamper varesh will be removed by the Margonite Clerics until they are dead.

Once the Margonites are dead, drag Varesh to the opposite side of the mission from where you began to kill her there. When she respawns as Commander Varesh, keep out of her aggro range and kill the torment creatures. As in easy mode, you can kill all (or nearly all, as there tends to be a huge gap before the last two arrive) of them before pulling and killing Varesh. Unlike in easy mode, this will get you master's reward in hard mode, because the torment creatures will come to you faster, and you have more time allowed.

Gate of Pain
Difficulty: ****

This mission is mostly about careful pulling, and more to the point, pulling only one group at a time. Note that it usually isn't too hard to run away, unless hexed with slowing hexes from a Rain of Terror, and it may at times be essential to do so in order to prevent a wipe. Once you get to the ring where the bosses are, you'll have plenty of morale boosts for rez signet recharges. If you get hit by a second group while fighting, run away immediately. Hesitating may get you wiped.

Note that using a skill will cost you 20 health in this mission. As such, your entire party will often need substantial healing, even if not being directly attacked by mobs. It can help greatly to bring some party healing skills. Ritualists and paragons get some good skills for this. If using only henchmen/heroes and not a healer yourself, giving Dunkoro party healing skills such as Light of Deliverance, Divine Healing, and Heaven's Delight can help.

Early in the mission, groups mostly wander back and forth along a path. The back end of the path of one group will overlap the front end of the path of the next group, so do not chase a group to the back of its path. Instead, get into the set path of a group and wait for it to come back to you.

It can be useful to have a broad head arrow/interrupt ranger. Daze the Tortureweb Dryders by firing broad head arrow from outside of combat, and with the party pouring on damage, they'll be able to cast very little. Any casts they get off can still be devastating, so it can also help to have a water elementalist with Ward Against Harm and Maelstrom.

Not coincidentally, these will also help you with the Terrorweb Dryders. Meteor Shower is still their deadliest attack, so you should try to interrupt it. If they get it off, you'll have to move your party (including flagging heroes) out of the way immediately. Without defensive measures, Fireball or one tick of Meteor Shower can take about half a lifeline off of whatever party members you have standing in the area. Ward Against Harm makes this loss a lot more manageable. Rangers have adequate defenses against elemental damage to not need the benefit of the ward, and it may be useful to set them away from it to try to draw the dryders' fire.

If you have room, it can help to have an interrupt mesmer in your group as well. Any party members of a class with interrupts should bring at least one; note that Lightbringer's Gaze does not affect Terrorweb Dryders. When fighting Terrorweb Dryders, call targets frequently to try to get your heroes to see and interrupt meteor shower when a mob uses it. Once a dryder has used meteor shower, it takes a long time to recharge, so ignore that dryder and focus on the others.

In the bonus groups, kill the dryders before the Emissary of Dhuum, as they're far more dangerous. The bonus group in the center of the ring has two other groups patrol across its area: a pair of Terrorweb Dryders and a group of Torment creatures. They wander a little erratically, so make sure you can pull one group without anotehr group coming along. Keep your party all the way back at the top of the stairs while you pull, as coming closer to the center of the ring is an invitation for another roamer group to wander right into you.

For the other two bonus groups, it can help immensely to pull them all the way across their respective bridges, so that you can attack from a much wider angle without getting your attacks blocked. This will allow you to move around as needed to get out of a meteor shower without getting subsequent attacks targetting the dryders blocked by the bridge.

Note that when pulling dryders, they may stop to cast meteor shower at your puller. This will drop the meteor shower whereever the puller is when the cast ends. It can help immensely if a puller is aware of this and does not run right back to his group, but instead, off to the side to waste the meteor shower. If a dryder wastes meteor shower like this, you can freely focus on the others first, without having to worry about interrupting the first one again.

Gate of Madness
Difficulty: ****

The tactics are not fundamentally changed from easy mode. What is different is the increased importance of pulling only one group at a time. If you get hit by a second group, run away immediately to avoid a wipe. The 15% reduction in healing puts more of a premium on health regeneration as opposed to direct healing.

Abaddon's Gate
Difficulty: **

As in easy mode, load up very heavily on healing and condition removal. Again kill one pair of monoliths at a time, stopping to kill Torment Claws as they pop up. The deadliest attacks are armor-ignoring and do not scale with level, leaving hard mode more similar to easy mode than for most missions.

The monoliths in mesmer form can be a bit of a pain to kill through their Ether Feast healing if your party intermittently can't cast due to dazed, intermittently can't attack due to Clumsiness, and occasionally has to ignore them entirely due to Torment Claws. As such, unlike in easy mode, it is possible to get too carried away with healing and condition removal. Three monks and two paragons seems to be about right.