HM

HM
Do any of you HM vets have any tips or advice? I imagine that there is a bunch that I simply need to figure out, but was hoping for some general guidelines. With no other place to start, I was going to use the builds from Laxin's post, at least to get a start. I am going to start in the middle of a chapter, and work my way forward. This may seem odd, but these titles begin to get boring after some time and leaving some of the easy stuff for last seems to provide some incentive late in the hunt. Does it matter if you Vanquish first, and "Guardian" next, or complete them concurrently? So as not to completely frustrate myself, are there any areas that are best completed without henchies?

Re: HM
I am going to start in the middle of a chapter, and work my way forward. This may seem odd, but these titles begin to get boring after some time and leaving some of the easy stuff for last seems to provide some incentive late in the hunt. That's the nice thing when you start tackling HM. You can start anywhere and do anything you want. However, it is better to start with easier stuff at the beginning, just to develop a feel for it. Depending on which profession you are and how many humans are on the team, the areas you find challenging will change. For me, I found certain parts of Elona nearly impossible to do without having at least one more human on the team. Joko's Domain comes to mind, which was only completed with Kamisama's help. Does it matter if you Vanquish first, and "Guardian" next, or complete them concurrently? The Vanquish and Guardian titles are exclusive of each other. Vanquishing will take longer since there are many more zones than missions. Again, there are certain "problem" missions which really need someone else in your party. Eternal Grove, anyone? How about Aurora Glade? :P Healing no longer saves you as much in HM, so Prot is your best friend. In general, you have to be prepared to throw out any builds you already use and use completely new skillbars and party configurations to finish a HM goal. Sometimes what accomplishes the job is something that looks bizarre but is insanely effective. And did mention how much I love Pain Inverter? Send a minion army at an AoE ele boss that has PI on them and watch him go down like 10 tons of bricks. :twisted:

Sheep - First I want to thank you for taking me along to Gyala Hatchery in Hard mode. I realized that I could do Hard Mode. Anyone that wants to Chime in - I have vanquished almost all of KC, except for Temple and Palace. I have vanquished all almost all of Vabbi, except for Forum Highlands. Could someone give me some sort of an idea of how the other areas compare? I am still a little nervous about Realm of Torment and Palace. I wiped in temple twice before moving on. In general though, no deaths and no consumables used.

It was my pleasure. Thanks for coming. :D The Realm of Torment is not part of the areas you have to vanquish. It was a huge relief when I learned that. Raisu Palace is a bit nasty, but doable. The worst part is just that the counter updates as you find the mobs, which makes keeping track of your progress difficult. I take it you've done Ahdashim? Nicely done, sir! The four areas I had trouble with are below: Forum Highlands: Has a Searing Flames boss. Garden of Seborhin: Lots of Djinn to play with. And a nasty Mesmer boss. The Hidden City of Ahdashim: Even more Djinn goodness :P The Gift of the Djinn quest will reduce the number of foes in the zone. Joko's Domain: Once the rocky areas are done, it's easy street since the rest is in the wurms :D Once you're done with Elona, everything else will feel much easier. Cantha's worst areas are more like the average Elona one. And Prophecies has been nice to me so far, at least in the areas where I could take 8 people.

No, no Ahdashim. Thanks a bunch for reminding me. The Djinn have not been terrible yet, even with two Ruby (assuming I can keep one dazed). I traded my pet (Charm and Comfort) and Needling Shot in for Rapid Fire, Ebon Battle Standard of Courage (I magine that would be even handier in Prophecies) and Great Dwarf Armor. I can live without Dreat Dwarf Armor, but it nice both for pulling and "saving" Master of Whispers.

The biggest things I have found that make HM much easier are: 1. Lots of interrupts 2. Lots of protection spells (as Sheep mentioned) 3. If possible, adding characters that can add allies (ie - a MM and/or a Rit with spirits) Recently I have found that my best combo of heros to take along in most zones when I only have H/H with me are: A. Protection Monk B. MM with Death Nova and interrupts C. Ranger hard core interrupter (BHA and mult other interrupts) If you see me in game, I would be happy to show you the specific builds. :)

Jet - I have been using the "SAB" build, as referenced by Laxin in this forum. THat is a minion bomber with extinguish and protective spirit, a cursing necro, and a N/RT with healing. So far, that has worked very well. I am using my Ranger, and generally end up with some variation of BHA & pet (w/Rampage as One) or IAS (Rapid fire or needling shot). Sheep - was it the Mind Burn Boss (Djinn) that made Adashim difficult? Two non-boss Rubies are not a problem (Pain Invert one and Daze the other). I did complete the Gift of the Djinn Quest in NM, which removes that boss from the explorable. The Djinn are not terrible, what really gets me are Paragons. I keep hearing that nerfs have ruined the Paragon, but HM paragons seem to disagree. I am going to try and find a place for either Well of Silence or Ulcerous Lungs on the Cursing Necro. In looking at Ulcerous lungs again, I think this will work well with the Jagged Horrors from the Bomber.

It's when there are Djinn pops and you end up with 3 or more Ruby Djinn that really makes it a problem. Pain inverter one shots them, so that helps a lot. My experience occurred before EotN, so no PI at that time.

I see what you mean, I died twice. I used a consumable, Masters (SS) was at -24%. That is long too, I am glad I did the quest (NM) to clear things out.

Actually, the quest makes it easier since there are then less foes to take down.

Jet - I have been using the "SAB" build, as referenced by Laxin in this forum. THat is a minion bomber with extinguish and protective spirit, a cursing necro, and a N/RT with healing. So far, that has worked very well. I am using my Ranger, and generally end up with some variation of BHA & pet (w/Rampage as One) or IAS (Rapid fire or needling shot). Ya, actually the necro build I use is similar, but has mesmer domination skills in place of the healing. In combination with a purebred R/Me interrupt hero (meaning that they focus almost exclusively on interrupting, and very littte on damage dealing), the results are really quite impressive - especially in HM. Not to say that any of your builds are any less effective, I just happen to prefer an interrupt heavy team and find that I usually need less healing if enemy healers/casters are shut down. The Djinn are not terrible, what really gets me are Paragons. I keep hearing that nerfs have ruined the Paragon, but HM paragons seem to disagree. I am going to try and find a place for either Well of Silence or Ulcerous Lungs on the Cursing Necro. In looking at Ulcerous lungs again, I think this will work well with the Jagged Horrors from the Bomber. Funny you should mention those skills. I actually crafted a special curses build for HM Elona that has anti-Para skills such as those built in it. I found those more effective than many of the MM builds, since the enemy tended to overpower and wipe out the minions in many areas, leaving the MM rather useless. Next time you see me in-game I can send you the HM curses build I came up with if you like, although it already seems that you have a very good handle on things. :-)

Sheep, I don't know if your list of difficult places is meant to be in any particular order, but Joko's was the most difficult for me. Double healers, triple rez, and dervishes with perma VoS. Wow, 3.5 hrs and 3 Powerstones of Courage for 430± kills. On the brighter side, though, I have completed all four of the listed areas. I am going to hold you to your word that the rest is easier. Jet, I meant to ask you for your builds, but I never seem to remember when I am online. I am interested in seeing how you changed the SAB builds, and I never got the template code for the Air Ele from you (you pasted an image in my thread on the Ele forum, but I could not type in the code and get it to work). Something interesting that I found in Vehjin Mines. I had cleared everything, and triple checked but still not finished. Not thinking it all through, I thought I would take a quest while everything was cleared out. I survived, and the quest seemed to complete the vanquish as well. Seemed strange to me that I would have to take a quest to complete a vanquish, but.....whatever works.

Maybe it is best not to have a quest acive if you plan on vanquishing that area. Had the quest not been in your Log, it may have completed the vanquish without it.

THe quest was not active when I entered the Mines. I had not spoken with the Quarry Master ever. I cleared the area, and checked three times for more baddies but found nothing. I took the quest, while in the area, only because I could not think of anything else to do. Once the quest was complete, the area was Vanquished.

Rod - Rather than creating a new thread, I thought I would ask here. I noticed that you have Heal Area on your necro healer, and wondered if that did not work against you.

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