The unreliability of others...

[Trisel Vermock]

Tonight me and my guild attempted the Vizunah Square mission. This mission seems to be rather notorious in its difficulty. Some have beat it, some havnt. The one constant it seems in those who have beaten it is that they had a situation where both teams succeeded in their objectives.

Our experience tonight was awful. The first time there wasnt a second team. We got down to the first area to meet up with Master Togo and succeeded in defending him. All that was there were a few henchmen corpses in the end. We died in the second area because we were by ourselves. Actually, we didnt die, but Menhlo did. Idiot.

The second time we tried, the stupid gate wouldnt open. Restart.

The third through fifth times we tried we only made it down as far as the second group of Am Faa assassins that spawn, only to fail the mission because Togo died. The other goup failed. Either it was all henchies with one human, or it was just all henchies, and we all know how great henchies are at doing anything.

Since a lot of our guild works during the day we dont exactly have hours upon hours to try this. So therefor we gave up after those few tries.

So why does our inability to succeed have to depend on someone else? As we've seen that dependance is costing us our progression forward with this game. If we dont line up with another successful team, we wont win, and hence we cant play the game. All because of one lousy mission.

There is a difference between being able to beat a mission based on skill, and based on random chance. This is a situation where chance is what matters; the chance that you'll end up with another team who happens to succeed. I dont like that its based on chance, and not skill.

I dont like to complain, and I hate to do it now. I really like ANet and I think they've done a superb job with this game, but as in this case it just appears to be a good idea gone horribly wrong.

Now, I really want to finish this mission, so I ask is there a way to beat it in case we find ourselves alone again? Has anyone else managed to beat it with just their team? If so, what pointers can you guys give out?

Thanks, and sorry for the complaining.

[lavenbb]

I think it really depends, when I did that mission with my new ritualist I was only level 14 and was one of the early people. I was using the few skills that I managed to purchase and was using non max armor..

Well in the mission I took all henchmen (coz there was no one yet) and just went. You bet I died A LOT, and was barely keeping Togo alive. The other team however was a Well of Power spamming nec that also took all henchmen and we.. or should I say she completed the mission with Master standing..

so really, one person CAN do it :P

[Trisel Vermock]

I think it really depends, when I did that mission with my new ritualist I was only level 14 and was one of the early people. I was using the few skills that I managed to purchase and was using non max armor..

Well in the mission I took all henchmen (coz there was no one yet) and just went. You bet I died A LOT, and was barely keeping Togo alive. The other team however was a Well of Power spamming nec that also took all henchmen and we.. or should I say she completed the mission with Master standing..

so really, one person CAN do it :P

But you had both teams right? Our problem was that either we had no second team, or the second team always died before we could get to them.

[Tristan Chapin]

On that note, success does seem to rely somewhat on the incoming Tyrian due to their use of tried-and-true pve builds and optimal elites... and to be sure, a minion master would flat out carry this mission, and you're not going to see many of those coming from the Canthan direction at this stage of the game release.

Henchmen actually do quite well in this mission, because they can completely ignore the general chaos and follow the called targets. I'd definitely advice the Canthan side to be henchman-heavy.

[Rob Van Der Sloot]

Now, I really want to finish this mission, so I ask is there a way to beat it in case we find ourselves alone again? Has anyone else managed to beat it with just their team? If so, what pointers can you guys give out?

I completed it rather easily with my necromancer/ranger, and a guildy, warrior/monk. The rest were only henchies. Cyclone axe and Putrid Explosion are devastating when so many foes are tight together. The henchies perform marvelous. Here is what we did:

First of all, a lot of groups keep spawning, but new groups only spawn once a previous group has been cleared. So don't clear the group, leave one foe standing and kill it later. It will make the amount of foes more manageble. Secondly if any of your healers, or the two npc's is dying (Health near 50%) rally around them so the aggro goes to you. Keeping them alive is essential after all. Also aim for ritualists and monks first.

I love this mission by the way, it's my favourite so far. I've never seen so many explosions.

[Jandau]

It's the same problem as when trying to unlock Team Arenas. You need to rely on random people that you didn't choose and didn't get to make any plan. They can be lvl 5 for all you know...

[Sniperworm]

I had the same luck as you untill a friend got to the place where the second team starts out, we got on TS and managed to henchie the mission with no real difficutly.

A good person in one team is all it takes, just keep on at it.

[Tsukasa Kamiya]

I didnt even realise that there wer other teams at first.

I thaught that ANET stated that we wouldnt have to PvP OR join with other teams of players if we didnt want to....

I got to this mission last night and went in with all henchies, halfway down the first ramp before we got to the assassins we died as togo had died..

I thaught oh well must have been a bug. and started again.

This time got to the point where you can see down to where togo is and saw henchies fighting the afflicted and thaught "Cool more henchman must be part of the story" then died again.

Next time i got to the second team of assassins only to die due to my henchies running off (To what i later discovered was another team)

Tried again and this time got to where togo is and found that the other player was using henchies too and we actually finnished the mission :)

But i found that my henchmen followed him instead of me

He ran off and they all (Including his own) followed him yet when i ran none followed me, so i wasnt even in control of my own henchies

It dissapointed me to learn that it relied on 2 Teams, as i use henchies for a reason, so if i screw up its my fault and i have no one else but myself to blame.

But when your forced to play with another team and THEY screw up when you dont want them there, then the missions becomes tiresome....

Not the start to factions i was hoping for > _ >

Can anyone confirm to me whether ALL the story missions are like that? or if it was just a "One off" experience..

Eitherway i agree that this missiongets very annoying when you died because the other team doesnt get it right....

- Tsukasa

[Steep]

Ive learnt if the door dont open it means Methlo and Togo aint followed meanning Methlo is stuck. You go back and kill the assassins he should become unstuck and he will open the gate for you.

[My Sweet Revenga]

I had heard about how notorious this mission was. Then I tried it and I had to do the defend Togo part since I was assassin. Sat in the mission lobby trying to join a team but no takers because everybody and I mean EVERYBODY was either rit or assn. So I took henchies in. I apologized to the other team and explained I had to bring henches. I dunno what they said in team chat but the one guy that replied said he understood. Well here I was expecting it to be hard but actually, the henchies held their own and nobody died when the cavalry showed up. The rest of the mission was just a slaughter. Only 1 person died once in the entire mission and that was one of my henches who was promptly rezzed right away. I dunno, the mission turned out easier than I thought it would be after hearing all the horror stories. Either that or I just lucked out and ended up with a really good tyrian team.

And to top it all off, *spoiler* at the end when everybody died, the necro's minions were still alive and pelting away at shirow and the other spirits all throughout the cutscene. I just couldn't take the story too seriously because I was laughing so hard at these all these fiends just beating away at these guys while they were taking their turns monologuing