Guide: Thwart the Inquest

Guide: Thwart the Inquest

in Living World

Posted by: Cioud.6481

Cioud.6481

Hi everyone.

Ever since the patch fix giving the Ley-Line Research event personal energies that everyone can pick up, people like myself have been finding it impossible to get the achievement Thwart the Inquest. Today, I finally got it. This thread is written from my experience over the hours I spent. I hope it convinces people who have given up on the achievement to keep on trying, and helps people still trying to finally Thwart the Inquest.

For those who don’t know: Thwart the Inquest is the achievement for perfecting the Ley-Line Research event, which is the third round of pre-Living World Season 3 events, based in Blazeridge Steppes. People generally know that the event exists, what it’s about, and that there are three spots for it: North, Middle, South, and the respective waypoints. However, they sometimes don’t know that the achievement exists.

People have been complaining about scaling as the main culprit as to the impossibility of this achievement in the Reddit thread and in a handful of threads on these forums, but scaling actually doesn’t matter. ANet is not going to change the scaling on this event, anyway. You don’t have to recruit people to form a party and try to run the event during Shatterer to scale the event down (not that I had any luck asking in mapchat if anyone “wants invites for Thwart the Inquest”). You simply need to know your class, and coordinate – /say – with people that show up at the event area.


I’ve tried many ways of organising achievement runs, and I’ve done the event with many different people. For clarify, we split the event into two parts: collection and golem-killing. The following information is everything I know about the event.

General:

  • The best event area for this achievement is North. The distance between the Inquest and friendly camps is the greatest here, and there is a conveniently placed tree almost right in the middle of both camps. With your back facing the Inquest camp, you can jump onto the trunk of the tree, then make a second jump onto the branch stump on the right. That position is unreachable to golems, who will be attracted to but unable to collect real energies dropped there. This tree is the key to getting the achievement without an organised group.
  • Don’t chase golems. This is important, and unique enough to this event that it isn’t really common sense. Tell people to line up between the camps, spread out, and hold their own spot. If two golems are far enough apart to not get hit by aoe, or if there is one really big champion, don’t go running after them. Maximise your dps on them at your spot, then let people behind handle them.
  • Communicate. Please, please do not take knowledge for granted. Don’t be the person who waits until the event fails, then says “oh well people weren’t killing golemancers.” because you shouldn’t get frustrated if you didn’t bother to /say kill golemancers, they give aegis. TELL people about the important bits. Mapchat to tell people that the event is being held at Brandview Waypoint, and tell them bluntly it is the best spot for Thwart the Inquest. Mapchat the “hold your own spot, don’t chase golems” strategy. Mapchat the difference between real and fake energies. Remind people during the event with chat. Step up and lead. It makes a difference.

Collection:

  • There are two types of energy, instant-pick-up fakes, and kneel-down-to-grab real. This is because the patch fix created fake personal energies that, if picked up by one player, can still be picked up by another, so people could get the collection achievements more easily. Golems ignore fake energies, and always go for real ones. If you instantly pick up an energy, drop it immediately and find an energy you need to kneel down to pick up. You can deny the energies from the golems in this way, which was why it was so easy to complete the event before the patch fix. Theoretically, so long as everyone doing the event follows this rule, Thwart the Inquest is as easy as before the patch fix.
  • Golems go for the energy closest to them, even if it is unreachable. This clues you in as to which energies are real, but even more important is how this lets you secure the event by dropping real energies on top of conveniently placed trees at the event area. Since golems cannot jump, they will go for the unreachable energy if it is nearest, and get stuck at the tree until the energy despawns.
  • Energies spawn and despawn in batches. The coalescence spawns energy around it on a timer, similar to the golem spawn timer. Some of these energies are real, and some are fake, but all energies of the same batch disappear the moment the next batch of energies spawn. If you dropped an energy on top of a tree and picked up another energy of the same batch to carry it to the tree, having the energy you are carrying disappear means you should know: 1) the energy on the tree also disappeared and 2) new energies have appeared around the coalescence. TURN AROUND AND GRAB ANOTHER REAL ENERGY ASAP FOR THE TREE.

Golem-killing:

  • The event progress bar reads “Inquest Morale”. This means that killing golems is good, but killing everything is gooder. The more stuff dies, the faster the bar drops.
  • Enemy spawns are time-based, and subsequent spawns are tougher. This means that the longer the event drags out, the harder the event gets. After the first few spawns, small golems begin to appear. Then they become fast small golems. Then they become veteran fast small golems, with a bunch of golemancers giving them perma-aegis, and the event is going to fail.
  • Combine the above two rules. Kill Inquest, not just Inquest Golems. The only way to progress the event fast enough to avoid the tough golem spawns is to kill more Inquest. Inquest deaths help you finish the event faster, and deny the golems from receiving buffs like aegis and healing. Inquest Golemancers which give golems aegis are also a priority.
  • Energies that golems carry are real. Upon killing energy-carrying golems, pick up the energy immediately and carry it away. Common sense? The energy is probably pretty close to the Inquest camp, and you don’t want a full health champion golem picking it up.

Now that you know everything about the event, you’ve probably figured out what I’m getting at. But let’s run through the whole thing. You’ve already been frustrated by this enough times.

  1. Figure out which event area the NPCs are going to. They should show up on the map. They take roundabout routes to the Middle and South spots, but it is immediately obvious from the route if and when they pick North. You might commit an attempt only if it’s at North to save time if you’re doing stuff in other maps inbetween tries. If both go North, don’t freak out, because it doesn’t make much difference.
  2. Mapchat to tell people that event is being held at, preferably, North. Tell them you are going for Thwart the Inquest. Tell them about fake instant-pick-up and real kneel-down-to-grab energies, and tell them to kill Inquest to finish the event faster. Tell them you will try to put the energies on a tree to deny the golems, and invite them to help.
  3. Remind people at the event area before the event starts, especially about killing golemancers. Tell them to spread out, and take the lead by going to the inquest camp and handling golems as they spawn.
  4. When the coalescence passes the tree, switch to swiftness skills and start tree-energy runs. Grab real energies and drop them on the tree, while you let others dps the golems that get stuck there. Be very careful: if the energy despawns and you don’t replace it quickly enough, golems might make it to the other energies on the ground.

With enough coordination, you might just succeed.

The information I listed above is taken from Reddit and forum threads I mentioned, a youtube video on a channel named Eil by a Spanish GW2 player who videoed his own Thwart the Inquest run at Middle with a squad of 17ish people (and one reaper who joined halfway) decked out in legendaries, and bits of details other Inquest Thwarters and myself noticed along the way.

A big big BIG shoutout to all you achievement hunters out there! And also many thanks to people who listen to extra information in mapchat. This wouldn’t have been possible without you. Also, a shoutout to Eil on youtube, which though in Spanish has some of the nicest no-commentary gameplay of GW2 I’ve seen.

And to everyone else, I hope some of you who gave up will be inspired to try again and join those who are still struggling. This thread is made in the hope for your success.

Reddit thread: Thwart the Inquest – now nearly impossible ?
Youtube video: Guild Wars 2: Thwart the Inquest

Best of luck!

(edited by Cioud.6481)

Guide: Thwart the Inquest

in Living World

Posted by: cephiroth.6182

cephiroth.6182

gz on your accomplishment.
Personally I found your post very hard to read, as I expected it to present information on how to beat the event but:
- It was full of emotion and unnecessary description. That made the post seem very “noisy”.
- At the most relevant part you couldn’t describe what made it work this try and let the previous tries fail.

(edited by cephiroth.6182)

Guide: Thwart the Inquest

in Living World

Posted by: Cioud.6481

Cioud.6481

Fair enough, I’ll clean it up.

The post was initially a happy rant, but since I gave it the “Guide” title, I’ve tweaked it more towards that framework. Thanks for giving me some tips!