GW1: 30/50 Hall of Monuments guide

Jatz wrote:

because I haven't been playing frequently, I'm unaware of the value of things. Here's one example. Just yesterday, I received a 7th birthday present. I opened it to find a mini black beast of aaaarrrrghhh, a gold mini that I had already dedicated to the Hall of Monuments. I sold this for 40k, and only just found out that I could have sold the actual unopened present for much much more (I now have 100k after getting 50k for Z keys using your suggestion).

There's a big scam going around about minipet prices. Other websites make real money from these trades, both directly and indirectly. The prices are bloated to such a degree that mini's and tonics can be priced at up to 5,000 ectoplasm on those websites. The truth is, they are worth far far less. People hear the prices and jump on the bandwagon in hopes of getting a lot of cash. But minipets are as common as cockroaches. Aim for cheap lower year whites first, and you will have all you need. The Black Moa Chick was added to help fix the price gouging problem with getting a unique green. I have my own price list for every single minipet and everlasting tonic in the game here. I price the Black Beast of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh at only 25k. Sometimes you get lucky, but my price list is a realistic price list with an explanation for the prices. I've seen people spend all day trying to sell minipets for bloated prices, and in that time they could have made the gold they seek and more. It's like Ebay, where people sometimes do stupid things like sell Lady Gaga's alleged toenail clippings for a small fortune. I wouldn't be so concerned about spending so much time getting a little more out of a sale. Instead, focus on titles and monument statues. They're designed so that you get the gold you need along the way. I personally have 50/50 minipets and 50/50 HoM, and I never had to profiteer or farm for it. If you're looking for a few stray whites to get an extra point out of your HoM, you're best off asking around for those in a similar situation.

Jatz wrote:

I plan to buy 4 more white minis to get to 20 points. But I'm not sure on the most efficient method to get the next 10 points. I'd appreciate any advice .

You don't need those whites to get to 30. If you can get them, all the better. But its not a requirement. In the 30/50 guide, only one minipet is used, the one anyone can make anytime. This bypasses supply and demand, assuring that you can get what you need without spending all day trying to make money from trades in a ghost town. If you follow my guide, you might be able to skip a few points along the way since you already have those minipet points. Perhaps you can skip doing the PvP statue or the extra weapons. Either way, 30/50 is a basic coverage of the game. So cover the basics that the guide covers, (like weapons and cheap armor, mission bonuses etc) and you dont need to worry about scrounging for cash. Many of the steps are mutlipurpose, saving a lot of time and getting cash in the process. At the end of the day if you're still short, just do some Fort Aspenwood and sell Zaishen Keys.

ay11 wrote:

I've been using your guide and it's proved useful thus far. Some of the latter missions in Nightfall are becoming exceptionally difficult, though. I've been stuck on the Gate of Madness mission for awhile now.

I've written a guide for pulling mobs here if it helps. If it's the end of the mission you're stuck on, there's a special way to do it. Pull both the Lich and Shiro to the gate that goes into the complex they reside in. They will only chase you to that spot and lose aggro past that. It serves as a safety zone in case your party is getting wiped out. Take out the Lich first. If you want to do the bonus, switch all your heroes to avoid combat, and use a couple of spirits here and there to keep Shiro busy. Go around the shrines one by one, taking out the Margnoites that guard them, stand there and capture them, and move on to the next. When you're done, go back out to the gate entrance while Shiro pursues you. Be careful to watch Shiro's health, as he will wipe you out if he gets below 50%. If that happens, run back out and let him regenerate. If you only use a couple of spirits to keep him occupied, it relieves pressure off your team while you clear the shrines, without damaging him much. When you're ready, pull shiro to just past the door at the edge of his aggro range. My hero spirit spammer build will do a considerable amount of damage, while two Monk heroes with [unyielding aura] will guarantee against a wipe. Bring a Necromancer with [spoil victor] [insidious parasite], and once Shiro goes below 50%, he will do Impossible Odds. You should defeat him fast and easy, thanks to [unyielding aura] [spoil victor] [insidious parasite] [signet of spirits] [painful bond]. Be sure to flag your heroes where you need them to be when pulling Shiro.

ay11 wrote:

Anyway, your build page lacks Dervish guides; do you have any advice for building this class effectively?

The reason is because they completely remade the Dervish profession and everyone had to start over. Before the change, I had a list of insanely overpowered Dervish builds, like Dervish Hamstorm in PvP and a build in PvE that could do up to 884 damage per second, 600 consistently. You can check the PvP sections for recent ideas though. Playing Dervish is about using Flash Enchantments to feed a damage combo. Not only do you need to tear down a stack of Flash Enchantments to do your combo, you get bonuses for casting and removing them. If you try out the PvP builds, you can get some ideas on what works. [wounding strike] is a very handy Elite skill.[build prof][/build]

I received help from another player with the gate mission, and his party made it appear trivial.

I've reworked my own party as much as I could to be on par with your guides, though lack of progress in alternative campagins means I can't get the elite skills I need just yet. Regardless, things are going a lot more smoothly now (with the Factions campagin). Once again, your guides are much appreciated.

In regards to those birthday presents- are they worth opening? I've found a few lying around and I should be able to pillage some more from idle accounts that friends have. Should I sell or open them? They appear to be a gamble of sorts, and I'm unsure how much they're worth compared to their potential content.

Thanks in advance.

ay11 wrote:

Anyway, your build page lacks Dervish guides; do you have any advice for building this class effectively?

If you haven't already, check out the wiki's Guide to Playing as a Dervish. I've found the wiki's guides helpful in giving an extensive yet basic overview.

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Profession/class isn't important. My personal choice would be Monk or Warrior, avoiding Ranger and Paragon. At Fort Aspenwood, you can enter with a PvP character, so it won't matter. Also note that this guide starts from scratch. If you made progress on your account in certain areas already, there might be an even fasrter way to get to 30. If you need any help with that, let me know your character name and I'll look your account up.

Could anyone clarify on that? I can get to the fort, but I can't get to the armour crafter with the PvP only hero.

How do I go about crafting that armour set with a PvP character, and how do I then take that set to the HoM to put on display?

It's probably a silly question, and I'm likely missing something rather obvious here, but I remain somewhat confused.

ay11 wrote:

Quote :

Profession/class isn't important. My personal choice would be Monk or Warrior, avoiding Ranger and Paragon. At Fort Aspenwood, you can enter with a PvP character, so it won't matter. Also note that this guide starts from scratch. If you made progress on your account in certain areas already, there might be an even fasrter way to get to 30. If you need any help with that, let me know your character name and I'll look your account up.

Could anyone clarify on that? I can get to the fort, but I can't get to the armour crafter with the PvP only hero.

How do I go about crafting that armour set with a PvP character, and how do I then take that set to the HoM to put on display?

It's probably a silly question, and I'm likely missing something rather obvious here, but I remain somewhat confused.

PvP only characters do not unlock the armor sets in HoM. HoM is a PvE thing to begin with.

Basically you unlock skills and armors on ur PvP character. This means that everytime you find a new inscription and it says "inscription unlocked, or rune unlocked" you can go on your PvP character and in his inventory you can open up the pvp tab and cycle through what you have unlocked for him. They can keep creating things they have unlocked but it is only used for customization in PvP since that's all they are allowed to do.

You have to craft your armor set with ur PvE character and then get a tapestries from going through the eye of the north. Once you get the a tapestry, you take it to your HoM, display it and under resilience you have to first satisify the armors it allows to be showcased. Wear the entire set go up to Resilence in your HoM once the tapestry is put up ( you put up the tapestry by simply double clicking on it while in ur HoM), and you will be allowed to show case it. This will add points to your HoM if it satisfies the conditions.

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PvP only characters do not unlock the armor sets in HoM. HoM is a PvE thing to begin with.

So I can't get the Kurzick / Luxon armour at all with my Dervish PvE character?

Quote :

Profession/class isn't important. My personal choice would be Monk or Warrior, avoiding Ranger and Paragon. At Fort Aspenwood, you can enter with a PvP character, so it won't matter.

That statement seems to indicate you can get that statue with a PvP only character.

I really hope I'm not missing out on a statue because I'm a Dervish D:

How then do I go about getting that statue when there's no armour Kurzick / Luxon armour set for this class?

Birthday presents: If you aren't going to use them for your Hall of Monuments, you might as well sell them. Be sure first, since you might be close to another minipet point for your Hall of Monuments. Prices vary a great deal, but I have a pricing guide for the realistic prices as shown in my previous post. Don't worry so much about scrounging for cash. When you do Fort Aspenwood/Jade Quarry/Alliance Battles, you get a lot of Zaishen keys which sell fast for a lot of extra cash. If you focus on the campaigns first, you get a lot of gold on the way anyway. Worry about gold once you have everything else done.

Elite Kurzick/Luxon armor: You can only get PvE armors on a PvE character. PvP characters can only access the PvP Arenas that reside in the PvE towns. Try and walk outside the portal and see the warning message. You can't get Elite Kurzick or Luxon armor on Dervish or Paragon, but that's ok. Just make a second character from Factions, and rush through the campaign until you get to the Armor NPC's at Vasburg Armory (Kurzick) or Leviathan Pits (Luxon). Buy it, and rush through the start of Eye of the North. Apply your first tapestry to resilience and dedicate it there. It doesn't matter which character you put it on, it applies to your whole account. The only reason why there's no Elite Kurzick/Luxon armor for Dervish and Paragon, is that Arenanet was too lazy to finish making the game.

Okay, thanks again for the information.

You're all pretty much amazing. Much appreciated. Without your guide getting 30 would've been nearly impossible. Thanks for clearing that up.

*would I should say, not there yet

Thanks for the really awesome guide!

Like many people, I had so much fun with the GW2 betas, I pulled out my old Prophecies character, and started working on your 30/50 HoM Guide. I made it up to the Tournament part of Section 2, and hit a brick wall.

Any suggestions on skills and speccing a lvl 20 Warrior to survive those solo fights? I took at look at your Warrior builds, but those seem to be made for use in a party. They also include skills from trainers that I can't reach yet (unless I'm missing something).

FYI, I have access to Monk, Ranger, and Necro as a secondary professions. I can gain the other ones too if necessary. Right now I'm just finishing up the Prophecies campaign by using the heroes your guide helped be get so far.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

-jeff
(HoM charname: Dirk Pardu)

Don't worry if you can't get Kahmu, you can go back and get him later when you have all the right skills. Xandra is the important one, his spirit build makes the game much easier. You have a chance at fighting Xandra during round 2. He isn't that hard to beat. I'll show you both Xandra and Kahmu's builds, but keep in mind the skill info in my forum is out of date with changes to the game, and I don't have the means to update it, so some skills might be a little different...

[build prof=Rt name="Xandra" channeling=15 restoration=15][channeled strike][destructive was glaive][renewing surge][soothing memories][vengeful weapon][Empty][Empty][Empty][/build]
[build prof=Rt name="Kahmu" mysticism=15 scythe=15][avatar of balthazar][balthazar's rage][chilling victory][faithful intervention][heart of fury][mystic vigor][rending touch][victorious sweep][/build]

There are plenty of options available.

You could go into factions and get [signet of spirits][pain][bloodsong][painful bond].
You could go into Eye of the North, do the Norn section until you get [ursan blessing].
You could go W/E and nuke with [fire storm][bed of coals][breath of fire][savannah heat][meteor]
You could go W/Mes and use [echo][backfire] and pummel him with adrenalin skills.
You could go W/Mo and use [vigorous spirit][live vicariously][healing breeze] with a zealous weapon.

If you still can't do it, you can always get Xandra later, once you have the complete tournament build. It's just easier to go through the campaigns if you get him early. Don't forget to buy some gear from a Rune Trader to buff your health/energy/attributes. Also, I think if you beat a campaign or even just reach the ascention part, you can go to Great Temple of Balthazar and buy every second profession there for 500 gold each. The profession changer there gives you a lot of skills to work with.

Those are all great options to try. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I'm almost done with Prophecies, which is already a lot easier with the heroes. Once I finish this campaign, I'll buy some skills and other secondaries and give the tournament another try.

So I've read your guide, and it's really good. I just don't think I have enough time for all of that before GW2.. however I am in the lucky situation that a friend donated a lot of zkeys to me, leaving me now with a bit over 600 platinum, 90 ectos and 35 zkeys.. I was just wondering if you could tell me how you would spend that money? So far I've only completed Eotn, pretty far in prophecies and NF

any help would be appreciated, and thanks for these forums!

Atm I'm at 14/50, got zaishen title, 29 minis (plan on doing quest for black moa chick so I get unique mini aswell), 1 pet and 1 hero statue

Hey, i just stumbled upon this, even if im a bit late i want to go all in, since i have 6 weeks of sparetime now. Wanna see how far i can get.

So i was wondering how exactly am i able to sell Those zaishen keys? I mean i Press P and just the group search pops up. I guess im just seeing it too complicated :/

Elarian wrote:

I am in the lucky situation that a friend donated a lot of zkeys to me, leaving me now with a bit over 600 platinum, 90 ectos and 35 zkeys.. I was just wondering if you could tell me how you would spend that money? So far I've only completed Eotn, pretty far in prophecies and NF...Atm I'm at 14/50, got zaishen title, 29 minis (plan on doing quest for black moa chick so I get unique mini aswell), 1 pet and 1 hero statue

Nice, looks like you're in a good position. Just follow the first four steps of the guide, since it covers the very basics you need anyway. Once you get to step five, you'll need less points to cover the final stretch. If you have enough to skip doing the Zaishen title, it will save you a lot of time. If you want more detailed recommendations on what to work on, let me know your character name and I can look it up.

Melando wrote:

So i was wondering how exactly am i able to sell Those zaishen keys? I mean i Press P and just the group search pops up. I guess im just seeing it too complicated :/

When you're in town (preferably Great Temple of Balthazar), press P. A window should pop up called 'Party Search'. There are three tabs: Party, Heroes and Henchmen. Be sure you're on the Party tab. So long as you're not in someone else's team, you should see a blue drop-down box up the top. Click it and choose trade. Next to the drop-down box is a field where you can type your trade message. Type 'WTS Zaishen Keys 5k each'. People will find you and trade with you. Alternatively, you can look through Party Search for players who want to buy Zaishen Keys. Click their name in Party Search and then Click 'Whisper' down the bottom if you want to talk to them, or find them in town, click on their character and click the trade button. When the trade box pops up, drag your Zaishen Keys from your inventory into the box and click 'Submit Offer'. When the other player submits their own offer, click 'Accept'. When the other player accepts, the items are exchanged. Hope that helps. With no clear instructions, the game can be very difficult to navigate at times. It confuses us all at first. It still gets to me at times, when I forget to click the chat box and start typing... 100 windows all pop up everywhere! Have to mash escape to clear the screen again!

Yes of course, my ign is elarian the shocker

Since you already have so many points invested into minipets and completed the Zaishen title already, you can defniitely save a lot of time. You're not actually that far from reaching 30. If it was me, I would do the following...

Complete all campaigns first to unlock towns and get the 3 completion statues. Then get all the pieces for the Black Moa Minipet quest, and finish it in Sorrows Furnace, completing Sorrows Furnace at the same time. This gives you +3 to Honor for having 5 statues, raising you to 17/30. The Black Moa minipet will give you another +2 to Devotion, raising you to 19/30.

Next you could capture the Black Moa pet. All you need is someone who completed the quest chain to go with you, and it spawns right outside a town. It comes already at Lv20 and counts as a Rare Pet. Then apply just one more Hero Armor for another +3 to Fellowship, raising you to 22/30.

Make 1 Destroyer Weapon and complete the War in Kryta for 1 Oppressor Weapon for +2 to Valor, raising you to 25/50.

Make 5 sets of armor: Start with Elite Kurzick/Luxon Armor, then get your own choice of 4 cheap armors that apply to your Hall of Monuments. The prices vary a great deal between Professions, armor types and fluctuating material prices, so be sure to check your options thoroughly. This will give you +5 to Resilience, raising you to 30/30.

If you sold your Zaishen Keys and Ectoplasm, you easily have enough to pay for everything already. To sum it up into a list...

Finish Prophecies
Finish Factions
Finish Nightfall
Finish Eye of the North
Finish Sorrows Furnace
Make a Black Moa minipet
Make a Destroyer weapon
Make an Oppressor weapon
Make 5 Armor sets

Cool, thanks for the help, really glad I stumbled upon this website

Oh, and I'm completing it with a warrior, would you recommend running a universal team type 2 and replacing the anti-caster mesmer with my warr?

Elarian wrote:

I'm completing it with a warrior, would you recommend running a universal team type 2 and replacing the anti-caster mesmer with my warr?

The universal team builds only amount to 7, they go alongside the player using them. While you can use them alongside anything, Warrior is probably the easiest. I have GWAMM on my Warrior (Terran The Tank) due to the universal team type 2. They work together in specific ways, so if you mix and match hero builds it won't work as well. To ensure survival against the toughest mobs, I used the pulling tactics here alongside this Warrior build.

Ow, just me who can't count then.. Btw do you have any idea how long each of the campaigns take to do?

Elarian wrote:

do you have any idea how long each of the campaigns take to do?

Hard to say. A mission that takes one person 15 minutes might take an hour for someone else, or longer if they get lost or stuck. I remember playing The Wilds while drunk, and got lost for 2 hours. At a guess, maybe 30-50 hours to do them all.

but since I'm not doing it hard mode, are there any essential changes, you'd make?

Elarian wrote:

but since I'm not doing it hard mode, are there any essential changes, you'd make?

Well in normal mode you could afford to go more offensive to save a little time, but its not a big deal. If you're not sure about what you're doing, just leave the builds as they are. Spend less time trying to get everything perfect, and just power through it .

Might just be me who's blind, but where is it show how the attributes should be distributed ?

edit: found it

Looking for best way to get to 30. I currently have 18k faction with Luxon and 8k with Kurzick and 48 ectoplasms I can trade/sell.

Character name is Pretty Spork.