Guild Wars 2

I’m having a terrible time in the Flower of Death mission (where you join the Vigil to kill Mazdak).

Not only does my Guardian suddenly lose access to her Virtues (they’re gone from the UI, reported as a bug), but the supposedly superior weapon you wield in the mission is completely useless.

The damage is pitiful, the skills have no synergy (or defense for that matter) and the cooldowns are such that you always get knocked and locked down by the risen brutes inbetween your own knockdowns.

The first part is no problem since the Vigil NPCs actually do most of the work, but when I have to go up the hill to confront Mazdak, my heroic companions and I can barely keep up with the single(!) spawns running down the hill..

On my own I can’t even kill a single risen thrall before the next one arrives…

Does anyone have a way to get rid of the weapon or otherwise make it through?

Edit: I’m starting to wonder if downscaling is causing problems here. I’m 40, down to 28, and I wonder if Caladbolg is actually a lvl 28 weapon getting downscaled by 12 levels.

I’ve done Flower of Death on level 28.

It is that simple: Caladbolg isn’t a good weapon. Perhaps the Pale Tree just wanted to troll Trahearne as she gave that thing to him. ^^

No Caladbolg is just kitten. :/ Doing that mission on an elementalist at level with no access to my elements was horrible! I had to call in a friend to kick the Lich’s butt for me.

I literally just beat this at level 21 with my ranger.

I… I dont really know how you can have an issue with it.

Oh wait, vigil? I chose whispers, and the 3 helpers (cai, caithe and trahearne) can pretty much straight solo mazdak by themselves.

As for fighting, have you tried kiting? Move around in a circle mashing the heck out of your 2 button. The lightning zap move has a longer range than you’re giving it credit for. Literally EVERY attack I did was a glancing blow (50% less damage) and it was still more than enough to allow me to fight 3 risen at once and win.

Kiting?! I am kiting the hell out of this game! O_o*
This isn’t a question if I tried. Caladbolg replaces half your skills, the skills that do damage and Caladbolg wasn’t as good as my rifle. I beat the mission solo without much problems, as I did with any other mission in the game, but I can see why people have a problem with that and I can say for sure the Caladbolg was a handycap.

6+ Risen on the Priory line with taking a single attack Mazdek is half my health… yeah no. :/ The only way I got it done with my thief buddy standing outside the aggro range of the risen while edging back and forth at max range from Mazdek.

Mazdek RUINED Caithe, Iowerth, and Trahearne in under a minute when he got bored of savaging me.

I dunno what to say then. I was literally getting 1-2 shot by risen and 1 shot by mazdak and I was still able to do it just fine.

One thing to note, if you leap off the edge of the cliff behind mazdak (I assume he spawns next to greywinds grave in the other paths) it will teleport you back to the entrance of the graveyard. You can use this to get away from monsters/dodge attacks. I know I used it about 3 times to re-distribute aggro off of myself.

Well the re-distributeing aggro thing is probably the key there. When you can’t, good luck, it sucks. I did the priory line where you’re stuck in a cramped tomb. There is no escape.

Thanks for the cliff-jumping tip, Zenyatoo.

I haven’t had time to try again yet, but with better preparation it should be doable. I did notice I was still running around in level 16-20 armor at lvl 40, I was destroying everything so I never checked. It also didn’t help that I traited everything to improve my active Virtues and suddenly can’t use them. Now that I know what to expect, I’ll get this done tonight.

That still doesn’t change the fact that it’s not fun at all to be forced to use a supposedly powerful weapon only to find out it can barely scratch a zombie.

Well, I tried again and this time I came prepared. Either the higher level armor or the tactics made a huge difference, since I didn’t have any problems at all this round.

Here’s some helpful tips:

1. Turn on auto-attack (ctrl + rightclick) on skill #2. This allows you to stay at range, kite and spam chain lightning until everything is dead.

2. Use skill #4 to gain distance again if mobs get into melee range. Don’t use #3, it takes a little longer than the Risen brute’s own knockdown, always leaving you biting the dust.

3. Unlike its much better Guardian version, skill #5 doesn’t work while moving. It’s most effective when surrounded by mobs, but since they kd you, use it only if you have a stability skill or escape ready. You really only need #2, but this can speed things up a little.

4. Bring utility skills to support a ranged playing style. I took mostly shouts, including the very useful “Retreat!”

Yeah, your mighty greatsword is actually a magic gun, mesmer style :-P.

This mission is so so so so hard… -.-

I selected the Vigil because i find sneaking around and playing at being a ‘spy’ boring, but this is just ludicrous – I’m being punished for exercising my right to choose my favourite order.

That sword is a totally stupid weapon, and forcing me to melee ? I’m a ranger for heaven’s sake!! I don’t wear plate!!!

Honestly, I think this mission needs a LOT of tweaking. This has totally derailed my personal story questing – I don’t call dying 10 times in this mission fun, and won’t be attempting it again until it’s fixed.

Ranger is tougher than a Warrior.