Thirsty River

The core strategy of Thirsty River is to make two boss's patrols fight each other while you break their aggro and kill whichever boss's priest that you consider to be the most problematic for your class/build. The exception to this is the first boss. Beyond having a good build and good equipment, there is a ton of unintuitive knowledge about this mission which can make completing it much easier. Taking advantage of extending leash ranges, for example, can make previously very difficult encounters a breeze.

Before diving into the mission-specifics, be aware of the following general information:

• Max AL armor is available from the desert collectors. They don't allow for insignias, but it is a flat armor boost.
• An IMS (Increased Movement Speed) skill is extremely valuable in this mission since you pull a lot of patrols into each other and have to break aggro from them as well. You're also against a clock.
• There is no enchantment removal in NM.
• Regardless of class or build, bring both a martial weapon and a caster weapon.
  • The Mesmers will use Chaos Storm if you're holding a caster weapon.
  • The Rangers will use Throw Dirt if you're holding a martial weapon.
    • These Rangers using Throw Dirt will be a constant consideration throughout the entire mission.
• Have weapon sets that allow you to hide energy.
  • The Mesmers will use Energy Burn if you have > 40% of your max energy.
  • The Mesmer boss will heal off you using Ether Feast if you have > 50% of your max energy.
• The Necromancers only use Deathly Chill when you're above 50% HP or below 10% HP.
• The shrines behind where the Enemy Priest & Boss sit are great places to block LOS while avoiding patrols.
  • There are spots in these shrines where you can shoot projectiles through it but the enemy can't shoot projectiles back.
• The Ghostly Hero is useless (but must survive) and can be told to follow you and to stop whenever you click on him. He is thus generally left behind, in safety. Warning: once you clear a room, the Ghostly Hero will automatically run to the Gate he has to open; if you put the Ghostly too far back (especially in the case of the 1st room), the autopathing might not work and the Ghost will then get stuck, preventing you from continuing the mission.
• All of these boss's patrols are, well, patrols. And can therefore have their leash range extended.
• None of the patrols start in a room until you step foot into it.

Mission

• Killing Giants in the area where you first spawn will give you morale boosts. You can get all the way to 10% morale before entering the boss rooms.
• Be wary when approaching the Ghostly Hero with aggro. The nearby Rockshot Devourers can kill him.

First-Room (Mesmer Boss)

Caster Method

This room is much easier for a caster than it is for a martial weapon user. Given enough time (no more than 8 minutes), the group that patrols in front of the Mesmer Boss will stop moving. Once it stops moving, you can squeeze into the corner to the left of it without aggroing that group, nor will you aggro the group that is patrolling the entire room. This allows you to do a clean 2v1: Mesmer Boss & Priest vs you. If you're then holding a martial weapon when doing this fight, the Mesmer Boss won't use Chaos Storm on you. And so the only damage you'll take is Energy Burn. But that too is avoidable damage, by keeping your energy below 40%. From this position, you should be able to kill the Enemy Priest, then the Mesmer Boss, and finally each of the two groups. Here is a video of this method.

Martial Method

As a martial weapon user, you'll need to get into the room to kill the Enemy Priest. There's a couple things to consider here:

• By cancel casting skills before you run into the room to drop your energy, you'll avoid armor ignoring Energy Burns.
• You will be immediately snared as you try and enter into the room by both Hamstring and Ethereal Burden. Power through this.
• Be sure to run deep enough into this Priest room to avoid the room-wide patrol behind you. Aggro'ing both patrols is likely certain death.
• Take advantage of the terrain to LOS block the mesmer's wanding by using either the pillars or this room's walls.
• You might struggle to get enough energy to use skills due to Energy Burn. This is where energy hiding can be important.
• Once the Enemy Priest is dead, you can LOS block everything except the one warrior by hiding behind the shrine.

Second-Room (Necro Boss & Elementalist Boss)

After the Ghostly Hero first opens the gate into this room, he can be led away back into the first Boss room to keep him safe and give you space to retreat if needed.

From here onward, the best strategy is to create chaos by having multiple patrols fight each other while you kill the priest. This strategy isn't as straightforward as it may sound though. There are a couple of factors to consider in this room:

• The Champions in the Elementalist Boss's groups can cripple you.
• The Arcanists in the Elementalist Boss's group can hit for a lot of damage with Stoning.
• The Avengers in the Necro Boss's group can Concussion Shot your spells, shutting you down in likely a dangerous position.
  • The Avengers also hit for a lot of damage using Penetrating Attack.
  • The Avengers will run towards you and stop attacking other patrols if you're holding a martial weapon.

With all that in mind, I find that pulling the Necromancer Boss's group into the Elementalist Boss's group is best. The reason for this is that the Elementalist Boss's group has melee who like to cripple. Cripple is extremely dangerous and so by aggro'ing that group second, we're spending less time with them following us. Also, I find that killing the Necromancer Boss's Enemy Priest before the Elementalist Boss's Enemy Priest makes for an easier run since you can get into the Elementalist Boss room without aggro'ing any of the patrols.

Once two groups have been pulled into each other, pull the other group from the Elementalist Boss. Then finally pull in the second group from the Necromancer Boss. From here, it may seem too chaotic to be safe. But you're actually just fine. You don't need to rush to the Enemy Priest of the Necromancer Boss immediately — you can let the respawns happen. Remember that you can always full retreat and start the process over again. There's no rush. From here you have two options:

1. As the respawns continue to happen and fighting continues to rage on, you can start working towards helping the Elementalist Boss's groups by killing the Avengers, who are constantly blinding the Champions. You can steer the fighting towards the Necromancer Boss and get both the Necromancer Boss and the Enchanted Sword involved in the fight. Depending on the time on the clock, you'll have absolutely everything busy fighting each other and you can race inside the Enemy Priest room and quickly kill it.
2. The other method is a bit more risky. Once all the groups are fighting each other, you can run into the room of the Necromancer Boss's Enemy Priest and try to quickly kill it. This proves quite difficult because this Necromancer Boss has an Enchanted Sword with it who is in the same party as the boss and so he benefits from the Boss's elite: Order of the Vampire. Furthermore, this Enemy Priest is in this party as well. This means the Enchanted Sword is not only a powerful attacker, but also has a dedicated healer. So you have to tank the Enchanted Sword while also trying to kill the Enemy Priest — all while on a time limit for the respawns.
   • There is a way around this though. Because the Enchanted Sword is not part of the patrols, nor a boss, his corpse will disappear on a normal timer of 45 seconds and he will not be resurrected by the Enemy Priest. This means that if you kill this Enchanted Sword 46 seconds or more before the revival of the teams, he will be dead for the remainder of the mission.

As for the Elementalist Boss, his patrols can be completely avoided to get into the Enemy Priest room. It's important to keep an eye on the patrols for this boss since they will run all the way up the entrance of the room and can easily be aggro'd. Casters can go behind the shrine to kill the priest and eventually kill the Elementalist boss. There is also a bit of one-way wall glitching that can be done from behind this shrine. As for melee martial users, you'll either have to find time in between the patrols to kill the Priest, or kill the one problematic patrol before you go into the Enemy Priest's room.

Third-Room (Monk Boss, Ranger Boss, & Warrior Boss)

After the Ghostly Hero opens the gate into this room, he can be led all the way back to the start of the very first room. The only way he can further affect the mission is by dying, thereby causing you to fail the mission.

If you don't aim for the bonus, this room is more akin to a chaotic playground than a precision surgery. Most of the goals can be completed in any order you want, except for the first one: typically, you want to kill the Monk Boss's Enemy Priest first. And the best method for killing the Monk Boss's Enemy Priest is to cause the Monk Boss and the other Boss's patrols to all fight each other. As the Monk Boss fights the other groups, he can extend far enough away from the Enemy Priest to where they're not within casting range of each other. This is the ideal time to kill the Monk Boss's Enemy Priest.

Once the Monk Boss's Enemy Priest is killed, you can use the patrols from the Ranger Boss and Warrior Boss to kill the Monk Boss itself, along with all the Monk Boss's patrols. This leaves you with just the Ranger Boss and the Warrior Boss, and their respective patrols.

Each of these two bosses have unique features to their rooms. The Ranger Boss room has a group that only patrols inside the Enemy Priest room. It also has a shrine which you can full rotate around. The Warrior Boss room allows you to fully enter it without aggro'ing either of the Warrior Boss's patrols. Its shrine does not allow you to fully rotate around it.

Because the Warrior Boss's room allows you to get inside it without needing to aggro any of the patrols, I like to save this room for last. It means you can enter into the Warrior Boss's room, tank the Warrior Boss, kill the Enemy Priest while tanking, then kill the Warrior Boss, then, finally, kill the two patrols one at a time.

However, entering the Ranger Boss's room can be tricky. There's a lot of damage output with two Arcanists using Stoning in each of the patrols, the Ranger Boss itself can use Concussion Shot to daze as well as Throw Dirt, and the Champions can Cripple you. Even if you position yourself behind the shrine, you're still going to have one or two Champions attacking you the whole time. The most ideal situation is to use either the Monk Boss itself, the Monk Boss's patrols, or the Warrior Boss's patrols to distract the Ranger Boss's patrols while you quickly kill the Ranger Boss's Enemy Priest.

Once the Ranger Boss's priest is dead, you won't have to worry about the respawns from any deaths that incurred when the two patrols clashed. From here, clean up the rest of the Ranger Boss's patrols and the boss itself. Then sneak into the Warrior Boss's room to kill the Priest, then the Warrior Boss, and then the Warrior Boss's patrols.

Extending Leash Ranges

Because nearly all of the groups in this mission are patrols, they can have their leash range extended, causing them to forget their pathing back to their patrol route. This can be extremely useful because that patrol is effectively out of the fight. You will have to eventually kill that group before being able to continue or complete the mission, but by that time, their Enemy Priest has already been killed and their deaths will be permanent. Before considering this, be sure to move the Ghostly Hero in a safe spot so you don't extend the leash range of the mobs into the Ghostly Hero. Below are some examples of how this can be used:

• In the Second Room, at the Necromancer Boss, you can Longbow/Flatbow pull one of the Necromancer Boss's patrols and get them stuck in the First Room. This can allow you to get into the Necromancer Boss's room easier.
• In the Third Room, at the Monk Boss, you can pull one of the Monk Boss's patrols and get them stuck in the Second Room. This will allow patrols from the other groups to have a better chance against the Monk Boss's patrols, since one of them is now missing. Thereby, making it easier to distract the Monk Boss, allowing you to kill the Monk Boss's Enemy Priest.

Bonus

Two things make the bonus of this mission challenging:
First, you have to protect King Khimaar in the 3rd room, and since he is in the middle of the room, creating a chaos without him getting aggro'd and killed is tedious.
Second, you need to complete the last room in less than ~11-12 minutes (when the time is over, King Khimaar disappears and the bonus is failed).

Below are some advices:

• There is only 1 patrol that naturally fight King Khimaar. This patrol from the Warrior boss's group will attack King Khimaar a few seconds after you enter the room. Dealing with them is your first goal when entering the 3rd room. Note that King Khimaar will help you kill them if he get aggro'd and deals quite good AoE damage if he's not dazed and interrupted by Concussion Shot.
• The 11 minutes timer triggers when you get close (~compass range) from King Khimaar, BEFORE you even enter the room. For this reason, you don't want to bring the Ghostly Hero back to the first room as recommended when you don't aim for the bonus. Note also that you might burn time if you stand too close from the third room on the part before the last Sand Giant (before the 1st room).
• It is possible to cast spells on the Warrior boss's Priest without aggroing the Warrior Boss, which might be necessary if you are short on time after having killed the patrols that attack Khimaar.

Video links

Prophecies Only – SP W/Mo
Prophecies Only – Candy pure W
Prophecies Only – nightquist pure W
Prophecies Only – Serial pure W
Prophecies Only – nightquist W/R
Prophecies Only – OfTlam W/Mo
Prophecies Only – Archek W/E
Prophecies Only – Sigh_Purif W/E
Prophecies Only – n0xin W/E
Prophecies Only – nightquist pure R
Prophecies Only – nightquist pure R
Prophecies Only – Serial R/Me
Prophecies Only – nightquist pure Mo
Prophecies Only – nightquist Mo/R
Prophecies Only – Serial Mo/Me
Prophecies Only – Serial Mo/Me
Prophecies Only – Jamesy Mo/Me
Prophecies Only – nightquist pure N
Prophecies Only – Serial N/Me
Prophecies Only – Candy N/Me
Prophecies Only – Candy N/Mo
Prophecies Only – Candy N/Me (with bonus)
Prophecies Only – Expectation Me/R
Prophecies Only – nightquist pure Me
Prophecies Only – nightquist Me/Mo
Prophecies Only – Serial Me/W
Prophecies Only – Invader E/R
Prophecies Only – Candy pure E
Prophecies Only – nightquist pure E
Prophecies Only – Jamesy pure E
Prophecies Only – Serial E/W
Cross Campaign - Shiburito R (with bonus)
Cross Campaign - Shiburito R (with bonus)
Cross Campaign – Jamesy N/Me
Cross Campaign – Nao Me/A (with bonus)
Cross Campaign – Nao Me/A (HM with bonus)
Cross Campaign – nightquist pure P
Cross Campaign – Serial P/Me