After a few days of trial and error, we finally completed Ravengloom Heart. The core group was primarily PvP guys. Thanks to the Ghostly Heroes [GoH] guild - Junkie (who went to bed!), Eva Starlight, Evil, and especially Desperate. Thanks also to Slims from Treacherous Empire, Asp from Ominous Latin Name [tag], Fiona (Klaus), and our 2 pick-up guys Mental Shadow [AB] and Be Mi (Kim). Also thanks to others who helped us over the last two days but couldn’t make it for character/build changes (Ifitbleedskillit, gareth, and others I’m forgetting).
Team:
ASP LODE – Earth Ele Tank – Obsidian Flesh, Armor of Earth, Stoneflesh Aura, Ward Against Melee, Ward Against Elements, Ward Against foes, Glyph Concentration, Mantra of Resolve
MENTAL SHADOW – BIP/Death Necro – Blood is Power, Blood Renewal, Putrid Explosion, Well of Suffering, Animate Bone Minions, Lightbringer’s Gaze, Draw Conditions, Convert Hexes
BE MI – Curse/Illusion Necro – Spiteful Spirit, Reckless Haste, Parasitic Bond, Suffering, Arcane Echo, Sympathetic Visage, Ancestor’s Visage, Blood Ritual, Res Sig
SLIMS – Fire Ele #1 – Searing Flames, Glowing Gaze, Glyph Sac, Met Shower, Fire Attune, Lightbringer’s Gaze, Glyph Lesser Energy, Res Chant
FIONA DA APPLE – Fire Ele #2 – Searing Flames, Glowing Gaze, Glyph Sac, Met Shower, Fire Attune, Lightbringer’s Gaze, Glyph Lesser Energy, Res Chant
EVA STARDUST SX – Ritualist – Weapon of Quickening, Edge of Extinction, Displacment, Bloodsong, Pain, Shadowsong, Lightbringer’s Gaze, Boon of Creation
BLACK MISCHIEF – Heal Monk – Spellbreaker, Glyph Lesser Energy, Heal Party, Heal Other, Dwaynas Kiss, Dismiss Condition, Healing Touch, Convert Hexes
DESPERATE – Bonder/Prot Monk – Life Barrier, Life Bond, Balth Spirit, Shield Absorption, Prot Spirit, Mantra Inscriptions, Blessed Signet, Blessed Aura
Full Team Build here:
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/4829/doa19rl2.jpg
If you have questions, I would encourage you to go to to IRC at irc.gamesurge.net in the channel #gwp (same server guildwarsguru uses). Most of us do not read these pve msg boards very often, but several of us are always in IRC. I will try to make this post thorough and accurate, so that it doesn't require many questions (hopefully).
The entire strategy we used was based around 1 Earth ele drawing all aggro as possible and having him geo-tank tons of enemies, while the other players stay just out of range to cast around him and heal the tank. The Earth Ele maintains Obsidian Flesh constantly (accelerated recharge from Rit’s Weapon of Quickening) so no hexes are on the Earth Ele. Any temporary gaps are covered by Spellbreaker from the heal monk. Using Obsidian Flesh/Spellbreaker, allows enchants to be maintained on the tanker because the dervish enemies use rending sweep (requires hexes on target) and the enemy necros use corrupt enchantment. Therefore, Life Barrier/Bond/Prot Spirit/Armor of Earth/Stoneflesh Aura can be maintained infinitely and the damage is almost nil.
The rest of the team will run in and cast a met shower/spiteful spirit, etc. but then quickly back off. In/out casting and allowing the agro to stay on the geo tank is key. Later parts of the quests involve enemies spawning surprisingly on top of you – this requires good mobility to run away and let the aggro re-connect to the single Earth ele and continue w/ the strategy. We went short on res sigs and instead used the gvg-style glyph sac res. We also never put res on a monk, becuz they are too busy healing to deal w/ res’ing people if your party is dying. We only suffered a couple of deaths throughout the entire ordeal.
This build is definitely not the only build one group could use. I am somewhat surprised we did not have a dom mesmer (earlier iterations did), and you could do a better job of fighting things head on, if not for the first quest-related mob in the area (which I still think is too difficult). We instead had to take, what amounts to the ‘wimp’ route and letting the gimmicky-geo Ele tank everything by tricking the AI into constantly aggro’ing on him alone. I think it would have been more fun fighting head on w/ a dom mes or two, but this was easiest and successful.
RAVENHEART GLOOM / GREATER DARKNESS IS BROKEN UP INTO 3 QUESTS.
1. To The Rescue!
This part involves defending an Order of Whispers guy back in the pocket of a small crevice. Instead of going deep into the crevice, position yourselves forward. The Geo Tank stand out alone and let all the enemies collapse on him. Several waves will continue to build. Eventually through the wells/putrid/fire eles and edge of extinction they will all drop.
See positioning here (notice the mini-map where Asp Lode the Earth Ele is way out alone in front):
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/790/doa1sw6.jpg
Some guys may sneak past if they drawn to the aggro on your other teammates, just nuke them asap and back off to make sure as few get past your earth ele as possible. After you finish, go back to Warden of Whispers, collect your reward and you will pick up quest #2.
Reward collected, new quest picked up:
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/1685/doa3ge3.jpg
2. The Rifts Between Us
This quest involves closing the portal which lets demons into the area. Follow the arrow almost directly North, and you will find several groups of enemies including 1 particularly long line of guys. Let your Earth Ele continue to pull/tank groups and kill the groups off. At a certain point a group will spawn on top of you, be mobile, run around, let the aggro get to the earth ele (don’t drop bonds like a noob, our bonder rocked) and then regroup and kill. Make sure you don’t aggro more monsters when you run around. As soon as you can, kill the torment claws after you have cleared the area. Immediately start killing the claws. I’m not sure exactly, but I think more demons/torments keep coming thru the portal if you don’t kill it right away, so just do it.
Picture of the portal/torment claws:
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/8746/doa6af1.jpg
Go back to voice of whispers to collect your reward, and pick up the third and final quest.
3. Deathbringer Company
This quest involves killing a really tough army in the northwest direction of the map. I don’t know what the hell these guys had, but it was a lot of damage. It was also trick for our Geo tank to draw the aggro. He had 2 physical enemies on him, but had to pull them into a much larger group of casters in order to get everyone together.
Pitcture of Asp tanking before he walks towards the main group (see mini map):
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6633/doa8qo1.jpg
Quest completed, go see Whispers again:
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/4965/doa9qu1.jpg
After it’s completed, the Greater Darkness boss presents himself and you have to kill him:
http://img274.imageshack.us/img274/8287/doa10nt4.jpg
Here he is w/ his 2 minion guys, the Darkness (notice his monster skill has a different effect on each char type):
http://img422.imageshack.us/img422/2826/doa11mg2.jpg
http://img172.imageshack.us/my.php?image=doa12vt7.jpg
Great Darkness and Darkness are domination mesmers with esurge, diversion, ignorance, and backfire. The first thing they will do is Ignorance your bonder. It caught us off guard for a second, but we removed it quickly and did not drop bonds.
We killed the 2 minion guys first. After you kill Greater Darkness more Darkness Minions will pop out – like maybe 5-6. Each time you kill one of this domination Darkness minions, they will spawn about 5 Earth Tormentors (dervishes). Be careful to scatter and maintain the aggro on the earth ele at all times. Early on, it can get a bit chaotic with all the incoming mesmer diversion/backire, but it will get easier as you slowly take down each Darkness and the resulting Earth Tormentors (kill the set of tormentors first before you continue on to each new Darkness).
Path to Foundry opened / Darkness quest finished:
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/3884/doa17fk9.jpg
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/6848/doa18rt4.jpg
Again, I would encourage you to not be locked into our exact build. I think a single hex removal such as a smite hex/holy veil would have been very helpful to remove the diversions/backfires at the end. Our monks only got diverted once or twice, but it’s still a pain in the butt and we only had 2 converts to deal with the mesmer hate at the end.
Good luck all!
- Black Mischief.
b
