Print Author Topic: Guardian's Guide to Twilight Arbor Explorable COMPLETE (Read 5233 times) 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. Ibioc



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Secondary Game: TESO Guardian's Guide to Twilight Arbor Explorable COMPLETE « on: November 04, 2012, 04:16:32 PM »



The explorable always starts the same way. You meet a vegeta..eer...Sylvari named Morrigu and she asks you to venture into the Arbor. Before you do that you should learn about the first and primary mechanic of this dungeon that you need to remember: Volatile Blossoms.







These buggers, indicated by the red arrows in the picture, are EVERYWHERE. If you step on them what they will do is explode into a green poisonous gas. If you stay in that gas you will die in a second or two. Many people don't like Twilight Arbor because they don't know how to deal with these pretty little flowers. It's really not that bad. You need to do the following:



1. PAY ATTENTION! Know what they look like, pay attention to when they will repop and don't run into them!

2. Show the names. If you hold the control key (Default) you'll see everything!

3. Be a weedwhacker. Knock down the blossoms from short-mid range before they explode. They only take a hit or two.

4. Slot Condition Removal. For most of the dungeon I run with two condition removals. You should too!



The blossoms are not that bad if you know how to deal with them. It's just a matter of always being aware of them and paying attention. If you do get poisoned, remove the condition as fast as possible. Remember, your healing doesn't work as good if you have poison, so get rid of it before using your heal.



The other thing about this dungeon is a lack of waypoints. This compounds with the blossoms. Try very hard not to get fully dead on a boss fight. If you do that, it will take quite a while to get back into action, and you will have to weed-whack blossoms the whole way.







You enter the dungeon through a narrow hallway, and immediately get a rude welcome from a ton of volatile blossoms and some nightmare hounds. The hounds should be crippled, kited, and ranged to the extent possible, as they have a knockdown massive damage attack (like a Graveling Scavenger from AC Explorable). You should slot a stun break to deal with the knockdown. It takes groups a bit to learn to respect the blossoms, so don't freak out and rage quit if you die here. After you get the hang of it, kill the hounds and then some nightmare husks, and then move to the first boss.



NIGHTMARE VINES: ALL PATHS







The nightmare vine boss consists of a ring of veteran nightmare vines surrounding a champion nightmare vine. You need to kill the veterans first to make the middle champion vine spawn. At 75% and 50% the champ will spawn more veterans. If you want to stay in melee you need to kill the additional adds. Otherwise there is a safespot to the left of the room through the arch that you can use to just range down the champ Basically this fight is about avoiding the red rings that they put up while not killing yourself on the volatile blossoms that are everwhere.







A lot of times, as a long range caster, I'll stand on this mushroom towards the left of the room, very near the edge. I find the vines very rarely will attack me on top of it. I can hit all of the different vines from this location. When people go down, do NOT panic! Your salvation is the volatile blossoms. You can rally off of them to recover from downed state, and they only take a shot or two to die. I'll often leave a blossom or two near me alive, just in case .



Other than that, use targets and move from vine to vine. When the champ spawns, assign one melee to prioritize just the champ, and have the rest of the group finish off vets and hit the champ when possible. Doing it this way shortens the fight quite a bit. All vines will despawn when the champ dies. After the fight, you collect a chest and choose to go either up or forward.



UP PATH: SPIDERS







Choosing the up path first takes you through the spider tunnels. There are various types of spiders, and they all have nasty conditions, so keep your condition removal slotted. AoE Chill/Cripple/Stun/DPS devastates these packs of spiders, so make sure to bring a staff if you are a caster. It's hella fun for an elementalist like me. After a few pulls you'll mee the first boss.







Malrona is a giant spider who hates melee people. She has a frontal spit that will kill you if you try and stand and fight her. To beat her, everyone needs to spread out with range weapons and cripple/chill her movement while burning her down. She moves fast if she is not impaired. That said, if you stay spread out and keep her movement slowed, she's entirely manageable.







You will move foward into a room with volatile blossoms and more spiders. Near the fork, three nightmare vines will spawn. This is a challenging area, you need to focus down the vines while staying out of red rings from the vines and poison clouds from the volatile blossoms. Remember, you can rally off of blossoms. Take the left fork, and it will bring you to the next boss.







Fyonna, Queen of Spiders is far less dangerous than her room. The eggs in the room will each turn into a veteran spider with condition effects if you get near them. So, what you need to do is forget how you fight every other boss, and STAND STILL. If you stand still and don't knock eggs this is a breeze. Alternatively, you can pull her back and fight her in the tunnel. She does pull people towards her from time to time, so make sure there isn't an egg between you and her. She also turns into a spider at one point. The spider dies just as easily as she does.







The final journey to the twilight tree is highlighted by some very dangerous trash. The hammer wielders (Knights here) that inhabit this area can easily two shot a player. To address this, target them first, pull them away from their pack if you can (scorpion wire/spectral grasp) use movement impairing effects and blind, and burn them down before they get to you. The rest of the mobs are not bad. Right next to the tree, there is a group of two Knights, one of which is a veteran and one is a champion. Kill the veteran first, then just make sure the champ never gets to hit anyone. Then move into face the Nightmare Tree.







Nightmare Tree - Laurent. This fight starts with a domestic dispute between Morrigu and her ex-lover Laurent. Laurent rejects Morrigu and instead decides to get eaten by the nightmare tree. In this form, the tree can summon mortar turrets and healing turrets. To beat him, just have the entire group hug the right wall and take up position on the side of the room. Use range to attack the tree, and burn down any mortar turrets that get close. Do not move from this spot, it makes the fight much harder. Once the nightmare tree falls, collect your loot and deadly blossoms .



FORWARD UP PATH: BEES



To do the Bees path, you need to tell Morrigu to go foward after the inital Nightmare Vine Boss. After you do this, you move forward through another room and then she'll ask if you want to go up or forwards. If you pick up, you'll start towards the bee path. I call it the Bee Path because there is a debuff that damages you with Bees, and you need to dodge/roll to get rid of it. You kill a few husks, then face the first boss.







The Defiler. This guy is essentially just a husk with more health. He'll do the bee debuff, so if you get that dodge. Otherwise this boss is easy peasy lemon squeezy. Kill him and get to the fun part.







You see here a fountain of sap, that makes you invisible to insects, and then a hallway full of insta-killing swarms of bugs and water jets. Basically, so long as you're invisible from the sap the bugs won't hurt you. If you let the water jets wash off the invisa-sap, you're gonna die. So, the goal is to get through the hallway without the jets getting you. At least 3-4 people need to get through. To do this, use your timing to get as far as you can without getting washed, and then try to swiftness/dodge your way to the end. If you have something like a teleport (elementalists/thief/mesmer) use it to get through the final stretch. Once you have three or four people through step forward through the tunnel.







You'll be confronted by a conga line of non-elite nightmare hounds (thanks for the term Makani). They aren't hard but there are tons of them. If you kill the hounds, the bee tunnel will turn off and people can run through it safely. You'll come across the next boss, who is fighting with Morrigu's ex-lover Laurent.







Vivena, the Mesmer. This boss is attacking Laurent as the fight starts, and has two NPC adds. Kill the adds first, and do what you can to extend Laurent's life, the longer he lives the easier the fight is. It's not possible to keep him alive throughout the fight, but he makes it easier. Vivena herself has Chaos Storm (a big pink/purple bubble around you), Chaos Armor (Pink/Purple Bubble around her) and causes confusion. If you are confused don't attack--you'll hurt yourself. If she casts Chaos Storm around you, get the heck out of there. If she casts Chaos Armor around herself, every attack will give you a condition, don't attack! This fight is about managing your attacks and using them at the right time. You might want to turn off auto-attack here. Once she dies, Morrigu will mourn Laurent's loss, and you'll move into face the nightmare tree.







Nightmare Tree - Fyonna. This time, the nightmare tree will nom-nom on Fyonna Queen of Spiders, and gain spider summoning abilities. There are millions of spiders around this boss. This could be a problem, if you are silly enough to move into the room. On the other hand, if you stand in the door and range down the boss, they aren't a problem. Don't use melee summons and use ranged pets. Have melee people drop any spiders who do aggro. Just stand in the door and range down the boss. When it dies, collect your tokens!



FORWARD FORWARD PATH: WARDENS



The hardest path is going forward from the Nightmare Vines, and then forward again in the next room. You swim under a wall, and enter a giant chamber.







The problem with this room is the nightmare court hammer wardens that inhabit it. They knock people down and kill them fast. You need to target these goons first, use cripple/chill/blind to mitigate their attacks, and burn them down fast. They're not unmanageable once you get the hang of it, but they are not fun to deal with. Moving through this room, you'll face the first boss event.







Shielded Archers These nightmare archers have a crappy trick, they hide behind bubbles, and the only things that can hit them through the bubble is Ground targetted AoE (i.e. Lava Font). Any sort of projectile reflect/block is awesome for defense here. As far as offense, if you have good ranged ground AoE (elementalist/necro) go nuts. Otherwise you gotta use the portals. There will be some unmarked shielded portals in the room that will take you inside the bubble that has the cog. These move around. You need to visually find the unshielded entrance and then crash into a bubble. Once you're in, melt the archers face in melee then move to the next mob. Don't try to walk through the shields--doing so will hurt. There is currently a bug where the shield stay around a few seconds after they should be gone. Be wary of this, as if you try to walk through a shield too early you will get shocked. There are also a ton of dogs to kill after the boss event ends, they are not difficult.







The hallway leading to the nightmare tree has more uber hammer wardens and knights. Just use care here. Kill the danger mobs first, keep them away from you with your control skills, and don't let the volatile blossoms kill you. It's only hard if you're not paying attention to what needs to be done. At the end of the gauntlet waits Laurent with his knight guards.







Laurent - the Nightmare Knight. Laurent has three veteran knight adds. It is possible to pull one or two at a time and allow the others to leash back. These need to be killed safely and quickly as described in previous sections. Use blind and movement impairing effects!Once the adds are down the fight is much more manageable. Laurent himself has a knockdown and also immobilizes you with binding roots. Kill your roots and fight him like a super-knight and he's not too bad. Just through the door is the Nightmare tree.







Nightmare Tree - Vevina In this version the nightmare tree eats Vevina the mesmer. This gives it regeneration, binding roots, and the ability to summon veteran oakhearts. The oakhearts are very hard to kill, infinitely respawn and are very slow. Bascially you need to kite the oakhearts and damage the boss. Poison is very helpful here, as it prevents regeneration from doing too much. If you someone gets bound with roots, instantly attack them to free yourself. Teleports and stun breaks are a must here for classes that have them. It's an endurance fight, but in the end it's quite an enjoyable victory. Kill the tree, take your hard earned tokens, and get outta there.



Well, that's it for Twilight Arbor. It's a fast dungeon to run. The armor sets and weapons for this place look amazing on the right toon, and it's a blast to do the instance. Credits for this guide go to Malious, Pinkey, Edgarr, Juicy, and Ibioc, and Makani. The first five were the group that did the three path clear to make the guide, and Makani did an amazing job of writing up the strategies, and I"ve mostly copied them here.



I'll update this guide as I learn more. If you find anything to be incorrect or needing to be changed let me know!



Twilight Arbor is a dungeon found in the Caledon Forest and is the home to the twisted firstborn Faolain and her Nightmare Court. The explorable mode is available to anyone level 55 or higher. The three explorable mode paths are unique in that they are accessed not by picking a path, but instead by picking a direction. I'd say that the Spider Path and Bees Path are both a little easier and faster than the Wardens Path, with the Spider path probably the most straightforward of the three.The explorable always starts the same way. You meet a vegeta..eer...Sylvari named Morrigu and she asks you to venture into the Arbor. Before you do that you should learn about the first and primary mechanic of this dungeon that you need to remember: Volatile Blossoms.These buggers, indicated by the red arrows in the picture, are EVERYWHERE. If you step on them what they will do is explode into a green poisonous gas. If you stay in that gas you will die in a second or two. Many people don't like Twilight Arbor because they don't know how to deal with these pretty little flowers. It's really not that bad. You need to do the following:Know what they look like, pay attention to when they will repop and don't run into them!If you hold the control key (Default) you'll see everything!Knock down the blossoms from short-mid range before they explode. They only take a hit or two.For most of the dungeon I run with two condition removals. You should too!The blossoms are not that bad if you know how to deal with them. It's just a matter of always being aware of them and paying attention. If you do get poisoned, remove the condition as fast as possible. Remember, your healing doesn't work as good if you have poison, so get rid of it before using your heal.The other thing about this dungeon is a lack of waypoints. This compounds with the blossoms. Try very hard not to get fully dead on a boss fight. If you do that, it will take quite a while to get back into action, and you will have to weed-whack blossoms the whole way.You enter the dungeon through a narrow hallway, and immediately get a rude welcome from a ton of volatile blossoms and some nightmare hounds. The hounds should be crippled, kited, and ranged to the extent possible, as they have a knockdown massive damage attack (like a Graveling Scavenger from AC Explorable). You should slot a stun break to deal with the knockdown. It takes groups a bit to learn to respect the blossoms, so don't freak out and rage quit if you die here. After you get the hang of it, kill the hounds and then some nightmare husks, and then move to the first boss.The nightmare vine boss consists of a ring of veteran nightmare vines surrounding a champion nightmare vine. You need to kill the veterans first to make the middle champion vine spawn. At 75% and 50% the champ will spawn more veterans. If you want to stay in melee you need to kill the additional adds. Otherwise there is a safespot to the left of the room through the arch that you can use to just range down the champ Basically this fight is about avoiding the red rings that they put up while not killing yourself on the volatile blossoms that are everwhere.A lot of times, as a long range caster, I'll stand on this mushroom towards the left of the room, very near the edge. I find the vines very rarely will attack me on top of it. I can hit all of the different vines from this location. When people go down, do NOT panic! Your salvation is the volatile blossoms. You can rally off of them to recover from downed state, and they only take a shot or two to die. I'll often leave a blossom or two near me alive, just in case .Other than that, use targets and move from vine to vine. When the champ spawns, assign one melee to prioritize just the champ, and have the rest of the group finish off vets and hit the champ when possible. Doing it this way shortens the fight quite a bit. All vines will despawn when the champ dies. After the fight, you collect a chest and choose to go either up or forward.Choosing the up path first takes you through the spider tunnels. There are various types of spiders, and they all have nasty conditions, so keep your condition removal slotted. AoE Chill/Cripple/Stun/DPS devastates these packs of spiders, so make sure to bring a staff if you are a caster. It's hella fun for an elementalist like me. After a few pulls you'll mee the first boss.is a giant spider who hates melee people. She has a frontal spit that will kill you if you try and stand and fight her. To beat her, everyone needs to spread out with range weapons and cripple/chill her movement while burning her down. She moves fast if she is not impaired. That said, if you stay spread out and keep her movement slowed, she's entirely manageable.You will move foward into a room with volatile blossoms and more spiders. Near the fork, three nightmare vines will spawn. This is a challenging area, you need to focus down the vines while staying out of red rings from the vines and poison clouds from the volatile blossoms. Remember, you can rally off of blossoms. Take the left fork, and it will bring you to the next boss.is far less dangerous than her room. The eggs in the room will each turn into a veteran spider with condition effects if you get near them. So, what you need to do is forget how you fight every other boss, and STAND STILL. If you stand still and don't knock eggs this is a breeze. Alternatively, you can pull her back and fight her in the tunnel. She does pull people towards her from time to time, so make sure there isn't an egg between you and her. She also turns into a spider at one point. The spider dies just as easily as she does.The final journey to the twilight tree is highlighted by some very dangerous trash. The hammer wielders (Knights here) that inhabit this area can easily two shot a player. To address this, target them first, pull them away from their pack if you can (scorpion wire/spectral grasp) use movement impairing effects and blind, and burn them down before they get to you. The rest of the mobs are not bad. Right next to the tree, there is a group of two Knights, one of which is a veteran and one is a champion. Kill the veteran first, then just make sure the champ never gets to hit anyone. Then move into face the Nightmare Tree.This fight starts with a domestic dispute between Morrigu and her ex-lover Laurent. Laurent rejects Morrigu and instead decides to get eaten by the nightmare tree. In this form, the tree can summon mortar turrets and healing turrets. To beat him, just have the entire group hug the right wall and take up position on the side of the room. Use range to attack the tree, and burn down any mortar turrets that get close. Do not move from this spot, it makes the fight much harder. Once the nightmare tree falls, collect your loot and deadly blossoms .To do the Bees path, you need to tell Morrigu to go foward after the inital Nightmare Vine Boss. After you do this, you move forward through another room and then she'll ask if you want to go up or forwards. If you pick up, you'll start towards the bee path. I call it the Bee Path because there is a debuff that damages you with Bees, and you need to dodge/roll to get rid of it. You kill a few husks, then face the first boss.This guy is essentially just a husk with more health. He'll do the bee debuff, so if you get that dodge. Otherwise this boss is easy peasy lemon squeezy. Kill him and get to the fun part.You see here a fountain of sap, that makes you invisible to insects, and then a hallway full of insta-killing swarms of bugs and water jets. Basically, so long as you're invisible from the sap the bugs won't hurt you. If you let the water jets wash off the invisa-sap, you're gonna die. So, the goal is to get through the hallway without the jets getting you. At least 3-4 people need to get through. To do this, use your timing to get as far as you can without getting washed, and then try to swiftness/dodge your way to the end. If you have something like a teleport (elementalists/thief/mesmer) use it to get through the final stretch. Once you have three or four people through step forward through the tunnel.You'll be confronted by a conga line of non-elite nightmare hounds (thanks for the term Makani). They aren't hard but there are tons of them. If you kill the hounds, the bee tunnel will turn off and people can run through it safely. You'll come across the next boss, who is fighting with Morrigu's ex-lover Laurent.This boss is attacking Laurent as the fight starts, and has two NPC adds. Kill the adds first, and do what you can to extend Laurent's life, the longer he lives the easier the fight is. It's not possible to keep him alive throughout the fight, but he makes it easier. Vivena herself has Chaos Storm (a big pink/purple bubble around you), Chaos Armor (Pink/Purple Bubble around her) and causes confusion. If you are confused don't attack--you'll hurt yourself. If she casts Chaos Storm around you, get the heck out of there. If she casts Chaos Armor around herself, every attack will give you a condition, don't attack! This fight is about managing your attacks and using them at the right time. You might want to turn off auto-attack here. Once she dies, Morrigu will mourn Laurent's loss, and you'll move into face the nightmare tree.This time, the nightmare tree will nom-nom on Fyonna Queen of Spiders, and gain spider summoning abilities. There are millions of spiders around this boss. This could be a problem, if you are silly enough to move into the room. On the other hand, if you stand in the door and range down the boss, they aren't a problem. Don't use melee summons and use ranged pets. Have melee people drop any spiders who do aggro. Just stand in the door and range down the boss. When it dies, collect your tokens!The hardest path is going forward from the Nightmare Vines, and then forward again in the next room. You swim under a wall, and enter a giant chamber.The problem with this room is the nightmare court hammer wardens that inhabit it. They knock people down and kill them fast. You need to target these goons first, use cripple/chill/blind to mitigate their attacks, and burn them down fast. They're not unmanageable once you get the hang of it, but they are not fun to deal with. Moving through this room, you'll face the first boss event.These nightmare archers have a crappy trick, they hide behind bubbles, and the only things that can hit them through the bubble is Ground targetted AoE (i.e. Lava Font). Any sort of projectile reflect/block is awesome for defense here. As far as offense, if you have good ranged ground AoE (elementalist/necro) go nuts. Otherwise you gotta use the portals. There will be some unmarked shielded portals in the room that will take you inside the bubble that has the cog. These move around. You need to visually find the unshielded entrance and then crash into a bubble. Once you're in, melt the archers face in melee then move to the next mob. Don't try to walk through the shields--doing so will hurt. There is currently a bug where the shield stay around a few seconds after they should be gone. Be wary of this, as if you try to walk through a shield too early you will get shocked. There are also a ton of dogs to kill after the boss event ends, they are not difficult.The hallway leading to the nightmare tree has more uber hammer wardens and knights. Just use care here. Kill the danger mobs first, keep them away from you with your control skills, and don't let the volatile blossoms kill you. It's only hard if you're not paying attention to what needs to be done. At the end of the gauntlet waits Laurent with his knight guards.Laurent has three veteran knight adds. It is possible to pull one or two at a time and allow the others to leash back. These need to be killed safely and quickly as described in previous sections. Use blind and movement impairing effects!Once the adds are down the fight is much more manageable. Laurent himself has a knockdown and also immobilizes you with binding roots. Kill your roots and fight him like a super-knight and he's not too bad. Just through the door is the Nightmare tree.In this version the nightmare tree eats Vevina the mesmer. This gives it regeneration, binding roots, and the ability to summon veteran oakhearts. The oakhearts are very hard to kill, infinitely respawn and are very slow. Bascially you need to kite the oakhearts and damage the boss. Poison is very helpful here, as it prevents regeneration from doing too much. If you someone gets bound with roots, instantly attack them to free yourself. Teleports and stun breaks are a must here for classes that have them. It's an endurance fight, but in the end it's quite an enjoyable victory. Kill the tree, take your hard earned tokens, and get outta there.Well, that's it for Twilight Arbor. It's a fast dungeon to run. The armor sets and weapons for this place look amazing on the right toon, and it's a blast to do the instance. Credits for this guide go to Malious, Pinkey, Edgarr, Juicy, and Ibioc, and Makani. The first five were the group that did the three path clear to make the guide, and Makani did an amazing job of writing up the strategies, and I"ve mostly copied them here.I'll update this guide as I learn more. If you find anything to be incorrect or needing to be changed let me know! « Last Edit: November 07, 2012, 02:29:53 PM by Ibioc »



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Secondary Game: None Re: Guardian's Guide to Twilight Arbor Explorable COMPLETE « Reply #1 on: November 04, 2012, 05:20:56 PM » Awesome Guide!



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