Walkthrough for Trial of Harclave instance

[Jay]

<DIV> <DIV> <P>The Splitpaw Saga's Trial of Harclave is a great chance to do some fun soloing with a massive boost to power, health, damage, and attack speed. You also get a very nice damage shield, so your enemies take a serious hurtin from ripostes. Some rangers have noted problems in this instance, so I thought I'd write out some general tips. Note that there are obviously spoilers below.</P> <P>Start this quest by getting the quest from The Storyteller in Splitpaw Den. Sit and listen to him for a few minutes until he comes to the conclusion of his stirring tale, at which point you're prompted to accept the quest. Zone in to the Trial of Harclave instance by using the entrance in the tunnel next to the Upper Tunnels gate in Splitpaw Den.</P> <P>The key to success in Harclave's Trial is stay alert, watch the roamers, and pull carefully. Slow and steady wins the race; you're in no hurry here as the buff lasts over three hours, but if you rush and get killed, you'll have to get the quest again and wait hours for the lockout. No single mob is going to be that much of a threat to you, but you do not want to aggro too much at once or you'll go down fast. I've done the trial five times now and it's pretty routine at this point, I'm familiar with the patterns and I know where to look for the roamers. Just watch your surroundings and know what you're getting into before you get into it. </P> <P><STRONG>Summary and Tips for Trial of Harclave<BR></STRONG>First, enter the zone, grab the torch, and activate stealth. Make your way to the Ark, lighting the six torches along the way, then build the stairs to the ledge where the Ark lies. Note that the two final braziers are next to the Ark. Light them, buff up, then activate the Ark and prepare to get jumped.</P> <P>1. Kill the mob that spawns around the Ark right there, at the Ark. If you stay put, they won't be much threat. Kite around on the ledge if you want to, but do not get to close to the edge. </P> <P>2. Be careful of the roaming mobs in the Ark room. Make sure they leave the area before you drop down from the ledge and aggro the group immediately below you. Do not kite. (In general, don't plan on using your bow too much down here.)</P> <P>Now is a good time to outline a bit about your enemies: the "<STRONG>unearthed</STRONG>" gnolls are the healers. Go for them first. The "<STRONG>ghastly</STRONG>" gnolls are mages; take them down second. The rest are a grab-bag of melee and you don't need to differentiate very much, IMO. If nothing else, go for the unearthed ones first - as always, the healers are your priority.</P> <P>3. Watch for more roaming mobs as you clear the first room. Wait for them to return (or go pull them) before you attempt to move on to the next cavern. Stealth is your friend, use it!! Once you are sure of your surroundings and aware of all roamers, find a safe place and pull when ready.</P> <P>4. There at least one other roaming mob in the next cavern. Pull them into the left tunnel and dispatch at your leisure. Don't go running into the cavern and aggro the stationary mobs while the roamers are still about. (In general, don't pull roaming mobs too far or they'll break the encounter. You may end up still having to fight them in their broken state as they may return and continue attacking you, and you'll get no XP or reward. Harclave seems a bit buggy that way.)</P> <P>5. Clear the mobs on the ledges, then use both planks to build the bridge to the mushrooms if you need to. Note that you CAN jump to that ledge with only one plank, just make sure you have PF and sprint up. If you fall into the pit, use the 'gear' elevators to get to the first ledge. You CAN jump from the very first ledge to the ledge with the two braziers by using sprint and PF, running up the bone protrusion and jumping off that. (I may have had Jboots at this point, so I can't swear that it's possible for everyone, but I think so.) </P> <P>6. Either move to the mushrooms on the third ledge and whack 'em, or aggro them and sit tight on the second ledge. They'll mysteriously work their way around to you in a few seconds, so you can kill them at a safe distance from the other mob on the third ledge. Take them one group at a time. If you kill them both on the third ledge, don't move around on the ledge too much or you can aggro both groups, or worse, fall down into the bottom of the cavern. </P> <P>A bit about your shroomie friends: I *think* the "herbalists" are your healers. I believe the overseers are mages of some type, possibly illusionists. Any more info here would be useful.</P> <P>7. After killing both mobs on the third ledge, move into the tunnel leading to the Spore King's chamber. Be careful at the intersection just prior to this chamber, as this is where a lot of roaming mobs will move or magically appear. Use stealth to explore the intersection before you move through it. Watch for igneous rumbler-type worms, underground wasps, and spiders. The wasps come in mobs of six or so, the spiders in pairs. The rumblers tend to be solo.</P> <P>8. Pull the first two mobs of mushrooms into the tunnel and dispatch them. The first mob is immediately at the entrance to the king's chamber, the second mob is right around the king. I could reach them both safely using Sniping Shot, or Miracle if I got the "can't see target" message. </P> <P>9. After you've cleared these mobs, buff up and pull the King. He's relatively easy as he has no support staff, just a musty aroma and a bad attitude. At this point, you'll get a quest update directing you to reclaim the Throne of Harclave from Rosch Val Gornas. Clear the rest of the Spore King's room as desired; these are generally easy mobs and every one of them gives decent XP and a possible chest drop. </P> <P>10. Activate stealth, move to the far end of the king's chamber (dispatching mobs as necessary), and take the tunnel leading slightly upward. (My memory is a little fuzzy here, so proceed with caution.) All of these tunnels will lead to the large open cavern that contains Mr. Named Gnoll, but it can be confusing to navigate and you can get easily turned around in the tunnels. But you're a scout, so you have tracking. Use it. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>11. Lots and lots of mobs in this cavern, most of them miners with overseers. Dispatch as desired. If you're short on time or just want to get this over with, you can probably stealth through the entire rest of this area - all you need to do is build stairs up to Rosch Val Gornas, then jump up there and kill him and his two minions. If you prefer, you can clear the chamber and get a nice chunk of XP and some possible chest drops. </P> <P>One note: if you want to kill the dreadsnouts up on the ledge to your right, use Miracle Shot to pull them after clearing the cavern floor in that area. You'll have room to kite, and you'll need it as these mobs are slightly tougher than the surrounding undead gnolls. The ones with the funny names starting with "I" are your healers, and thus your primary targets. (I'll try to fill this in later.)</P> <P>12. The rest of it is pretty straightforward - kill whoever you please in here, watch for the solo roamers, and use your bow to pull to a cleared area as you finally have some room for kiting. As before, I always target the "unearthed" gnolls first b/c they're the healers, and I could often kill them before the rest of the group closed to melee range. Again, if you'd rather avoid the fighting, just use stealth to grab the boxes and build the stairs to the throne ledge. </P> <P>13. The fight with Rosch Val Gornas was pretty easy for me. I whacked the two minions first, then kicked on Honed Reflexes and Feral Instinct and mowed Gornas down. The tough part here is that it's all melee - you have no room to use your bow b/c the ledge is so small. I've never tried pulling them down from the ledge, as my general experience has been that making mobs cross barriers that require a homemade stairway or bridge can break the encounter. </P> <P>14. Once you've disposed of Rosch Val Gornas, do NOT immedately right-click on the throne and Sit on it. Doing so will immediately zone you out of the instance. Make sure you've cleared all you intended to clear, and THEN click out. If you want to go the whole nine yards, it is possible to kill every single enemy in this zone before leaving, using the methods I described above for clearing the ledge jumps in the beginning. </P> <P>15. Congratulations!! You've defeated the Spore King and Rosch Val Gornas and restored the honor and glory to Harclave's legacy. Note that you are now locked out for a period of hours, but can repeat this quest at any time thereafter by getting it from the Storyteller and zoning back in just like you did the first time. </P> <P>Hope this helps some rangers and other scouts get through the zone and successfully complete the quest. I found this quest to be a ton of fun and pretty lucrative XP and loot. Enjoy!</P></DIV></DIV>

[Syrano]

Quick note, not familiar with ranger stealths but you can skip a TON of harclave depending on time.  If you're in stealth when you activate the ark, you will not lose stealth.  You don't *have* to fight the mobs that spawn.  If you don't, all the undead won't spawn. Stealth straight to the spore king and kill... stealth straight to Rosch and kill.  Done. <div></div>

[Jay]

Good tip. This instance can take 20 minutes or two hours, depending on how much slaying you want to do. Of course, the more you fight, the more XP you earn and the more drops you get, but it can be knocked out very quickly if necessary. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Teksun]

Greta write up Kaeros!! I will throw in my 2cp. I was trying to pull the first group below the ledge up to the ark, but they would not follow. They ran off in the opposite direction and eventually reset. Later on, I was fighting a group and got jumped by the wandering group. I jumped back on the ledge, and again they all reset. I'm not sure if it will work everytime, but, if you find yourself on the losing side: Jump back up to the ark and hit the back wall, you should at least lose some of the MoBs and be able to continue... <div></div>

[draconetti]

i noticed that yesterday myself but it appears to have been fixed, so theres no where to hide now if it all goes pear-shaped <span><span>:smileywink:</span></span> <div></div>

[Do]

I got to the spore king and killed him and cleared his chamber. As i went up the tunnel as you said, I started fighting at the junction there and died, failry quickly. Did I maybe pull too many? What's the limit of the uber buff you get from the ark?

[Teksun]

<span><blockquote><hr>Dolm wrote: I got to the spore king and killed him and cleared his chamber. As i went up the tunnel as you said, I started fighting at the junction there and died, failry quickly. Did I maybe pull too many? What's the limit of the uber buff you get from the ark? <hr></blockquote>Short answer: YES, you pulled to many. Long answer: you probably had 2+ groups on you. Everytime I ran in to trouble in this zone that was the case. Just remember to take your time. I don't think anything can see through our stealth so check out the area before pulling, and make sure you pull them back to a cleared area and kill at your leisure. The zone is fun, you can fight better than you can anywhere else in the game, but it is certainly NOT a cakewalk. If you get into trouble, go oldschool: KITE. With PF up, you can stay a few steps ahead of your foes and it is AMAZING how fast your health bar goes up. That's why I alwasy clear one area before hitting another. Well, that and the XP <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></span><div></div>

[HappyLoveBa]

If your health starts to go down FAST start kiting until you hit full health again =) <div></div>

[Teksun]

I did Harclave last night on extremely difficult. WOW, that was fun. Unfortunately it was getting kinda late by the time I made it to the boss and he just wiped the floor with me. I will definately be trying that again REAL soon <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <div></div>

[Kthaara]

<DIV>With the 6 hour lockout, I almost always wipe the entire zone every time I do it.  Takes about 2 hours.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>After I get the ark buff, I kill the gnolls that spawn up at the ark first.  Next up is the gnoll that is by himself and single^.  While fighting him, the group in front of the stairs I built always aggros, but it is an easy fight.  Next, get the other single ^ gnoll.  Work your way clockwise through the cavern.  You will have just enough time to kill the 3rd group before the wandering group arrives.  If not, you can easily kite around the cavern.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The spiders by the spore king are healers.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As a Ranger, it is easy to pull both groups of mushrooms from ledge #3 from ledge #2 with your bow.  Makes the jump to ledge #3 less risky.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In addition, you can use miracle shot and pull all of the ghost type Gnolls from the bottom of the cavern.  From ledge #2 you can easily pull the weird underground beasts from the upper ledge as well (cant remember what they are called but they look like a big crystal sticking up out of the ground until you aggro them).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>One note about using both planks for an easier jump to ledge #3 - if you screw up the jump or fall off, you are going to waste a lot of time trying to jump from ledge #1 to #2 again without a plank.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Work your way into the cavern of the spore king slowly.  The bees and the other wandering mobs eventually come by.  Pull what you can out near ledge #3.  Wipe the cavern with the spore king slowly, then pull the tunnel mobs (bees, big snake things etc.) back into that cavern.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The last big cavern is easy if you take your time.  You need to get the wandering ^ gnolls or they will cause you problems.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Kwent</DIV>

[meest]

You do not lose your Stealth when you check out the ARK. If you are like me and you use it to Get drops (Make money) and for the XP you clear the Zone. Here is a good bit of knowledge i'm suprised no ones said so far. As soon as you examing the ark and the Ghost Mobs spawn up top, <font color="#cc0000" size="4"><b>DO NOT KILL THEM!</b></font> Jump Down from the ARK platform and clear the whole Zone (Excluding those Ghost Gnolls), including the cavern Floor if your like me and want to get every bit of XP you can get. Then once you clear everything else besides the Ghost Gnolls Go back and kill them. A Whole new set of Skellie Gnolls will spawn. So you get Alot more Mobs to kill per time in Harclave. Once your done just run to the thrown and sit down. <font color="#ff0000" size="5"><b><font color="#000000"><font size="3">f</font></font> </b></font><div></div>

[Teksun]

Now that was very informative, thanks a lot <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <div></div>

[Aral]

<P>If you don't enjoy spending the time to kill the first set of normal solo mobs without the Harclave buff on, it's possible to avoid all but the first ledge one (it's not fun to place a plank while getting beat on) while only taking minor damage. This allows you to get the buff ASAP, and you can kill those solo mobs with your harclave buff up if you jump back down before the ghosts spawn. </P> <P>Before you do this make sure your pants are off.  <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  Only if you have imbued pants that is. (sanguine effect ruins this)</P> <P>Set up a good camera angle so that you can quickly run up to a brazier, get your mouse hand over it and hit F.  Run to the next and repeat.  As long as you (or your pants) don't attack the gnolls, they will break at convenient spots, allowing for a quick rest up if you get hit too much.  You're just training here until you get to the top room.  Be sure to walk right between the two nearest gnolls as you exit the final tunnel to the ark chamber.  </P> <P>It is then possible, in the ark chamber, to activate the 2 braziers AND pickup all the boxes without aggroing the gnolls.  The boxes are placed just barely outside agg radius, so if you edge up with the box between you and the gnoll, you can always grab it and move back before the gnoll will agg.  Stack your boxes and jump up.  If you can take more hits, you could just rapidly grab the boxes , stack and jump up to lose agg, but I can't take that many hits myself, especially at the higher difficulty levels.  </P> <P>This method works great for any class - I do this with my warden and warlock all the time, and is faster than using stealth.  Just make sure you have your pants and any other damage shield off!  </P>

[meest]

Well idk. i took my lvl 40 spec as the invis with no slow down.... and even before that i did normal sneak... I don't reccomend any ranger to Train stuff... especialy those gnolls.... without that buff you have a good chance of going down pretty fast if you don't get the braziers lit fast enough... and for the extra 3-5 minutes it would take with sneak i don't see the reasoning behind it. <div></div>

[Keredh]

<DIV>As I am never sure how long I am going to get, I always start Harclaves the same way.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I invis along to the first ledge, plank jump it to the second ledge where I put a double-plank across to the third for later. I scoot along invis, lighting the braziers until only the Ark is left (as others have said, boxes can be moved invis with no difficulty). At that point, I rebuff before reinvising and hitting the Ark. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It's then invis all the way along to the Spore King (if you follow the direction he is looking in you end up in a mob-free dead-end you can pull into without aggroing the others). I then reinvis and run round to the Gnoll nasty's ledge, build up the steps and [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] up. I kill him and his two sidekicks there and then.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Assuming I am going to carry on, I pull the dreadsnout groups on top of the columns, then the roamers (two are linked) and then the groups off to the left. From there on I clear until I have to scoot or a guild group is forming up.  A nice clearance session can net anywhere up to 20-40gp in equipment to vendor and broker, especially as you get t5 drops (though no rares AFAIK) from your late 30s.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If you get complaints from fighters about this being a scout-only way of doing things, and how they have to slug their way through, point them to a friendly woodworker for an invis totem. You can also point out to them we can't get a totem to give us the mitigation they have!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Ker</DIV>

[Jay]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Aralys wrote:<BR> <P>It is then possible, in the ark chamber, to activate the 2 braziers AND pickup all the boxes without aggroing the gnolls.  The boxes are placed just barely outside agg radius, so if you edge up with the box between you and the gnoll, you can always grab it and move back before the gnoll will agg.  Stack your boxes and jump up.  If you can take more hits, you could just rapidly grab the boxes , stack and jump up to lose agg, but I can't take that many hits myself, especially at the higher difficulty levels. </P> <P>This method works great for any class - I do this with my warden and warlock all the time, and is faster than using stealth.  Just make sure you have your pants and any other damage shield off! <BR></P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Hmm, I don't really see much advantage here, at least as a ranger. Sneak doesn't really slow me down; even if it did, this would only save what, five minutes or so? For those poor saps without stealth, this might work wonders, though. For me, the tiptoeing around gnolls' aggro radius would probably take just as long as zipping through the whole thing stealthed. I do have the advanced training stealth, though, so I don't really lose much move speed. (Technically I don't "lose" any at all, just ignores my existing speed buffs.)</P> <P>But I always take my pants off before I go hunting, who doesn't?? </P> <P>Oh, you meant IN game...</P>

[Teksun]

Two thing Kaeros: 1) I agree with you yet again. 2) Your a freak <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <div></div>