Guild Wars 2

If you just killed Laidra and are thinking WTF, this is not possible, and definitely not within the time frame!.. Well. It’s the hardest achievement I’ve done to this date, but it is possible.

I’d like to share a few tips for it that I think many people don’t realize. At this point I assume you have already beaten her.

1: Berserker gear is a no-go! I did every fight up to this with berserker and it was just fine. But trust me, since you can’t just circle here when chasing pools on the ground, you WILL eat some damage. I’m not going to say impossible, but very close to it. Get some healing power and toughness. I did it in all berserker except my rings + traits in toughness

2: But there’s no way we can make it in time, it was hard enough the first time. Not true. What you do not realize is that throwing additional thingies at her makes her vulnerable by a significant amount meaning you hit harder. This makes up for the lost time and is also why berserker gear isn’t needed.

3: Memorize the pools on the ground and remember which arena you use. The pools are not random and spawn same place every time. You want to make effective use of them.

4: Don’t be greedy! If you get really low, leave that pool alone and start circling until you have some HP again. You have a little spare time.

5: Don’t even try doing a stunt to get 2 illusions into a pool. You won’t have time to pick up the remains of both.

6: While pets are near useless in this fight do bring wolf and dog. If you get in trouble their ability will buy you a few seconds to run from Liadra. (Fear and Immobilize). Note that the illusions can be feared as well.

7: Use the rifts to rally. You might want to kill off the first 2 before you get to the part where Liadra chases you, but after that leave them alone. You can use Rampage as One to avoid the first pull, but after that, accept you will get pulled and that you might go down. Rally and get on the horse again. If you are lucky you can sometimes range the rifts but don’t count on this.

8: Buffs! Recommendations:
– Food: Omnomberry Ghosts for the 66% chance of stealing life. You can steal HP from illusions too in the beginning if you want. Don’t waste too much effort on it though.
- Nonfoods: I used Sharpening Stones for a bit of extra power. Not essential though, but I guess it is useful if you have trouble making it within the time limit.
- Gemstore boosters: While I didn’t get much out of what I had, these boosters can be somewhat helpful (Tested, they are not removed upon entering arena) : Armor Booster (-5% damage) Damage Booster ( + 5% damage), Rejuvenation Booster (Around 100hp/second) and Speed Booster if you don’t choose Signet of the Hunt (+15% movement speed).

Note: People normally use endurance regeneration food, but remember that just 5 trait points = 50% regeneration for us.
Good luck!

Edit: I seem to get a few requests on my setup; I run shortbow (the extra dodge on #3 is amazing for this fight, + you can keep Laidra somewhat away with the cripple and daze (#4, #5). Offhand is sword+warhorn, but isn’t really utilized – Only for meleeing rifts in the beginning. On a few times sword have saved me using #3 as dodge though, but you also waste 9 seconds until you can get back on the shortbow. I run Scholar runes on my gear, but I would easily have picked something different for the fight – At nearly no point am I over 90% HP, which is the idea with those runes.

The part about the additional crystals you toss at her making her more vulnerable is very good info to know! I will definitely give this a try once I get the chance!

Setun.4368:

The part about the additional crystals you toss at her making her more vulnerable is very good info to know! I will definitely give this a try once I get the chance!

I almost decided not to attempt the achievement because I would never make it in time. The first time I beat her the announcer was doing the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 count and I only made it with 3 seconds remaining. This was running all berserker gear and 30/30/10/0/0 traits.

With the achievement I ran 30/0/30/10/0, still with berserker gear, except my rings (Power, Toughness, Critical damage). – Basically I traded around 20% critical chance for ~ 500 toughness. Even so, doing the achievement I finished faster than on a regular attempt. Point is that while picking up the additional 5 thingies is incredibly difficult, the fight is actually faster. The vulnerability stays on for long, maybe a little less than a minute and it stacks. If I had to guess, I would tip the vulnerability to increase your damage ~10-15% per stack.

The difficult part is picking up/throwing the orbs at her while staying alive. I found that signet of stone and the condition removal signet helped a lot here.

One more thing, that I forgot in my original post:

8: Buffs! Recommendations:
– Food: Omnomberry Ghosts for the 66% chance of stealing life. You can steal HP from illusions too in the beginning if you want. Don’t waste too much effort on it though.
- Nonfoods: I used Sharpening Stones for a bit of extra power. Not essential though, but I guess it is useful if you have trouble making it within the time limit.
- Gemstore boosters: While I didn’t get much out of what I had, these boosters can be somewhat helpful (Tested, they are not removed upon entering arena) : Armor Booster (-5% damage) Damage Booster ( + 5% damage), Rejuvenation Booster (Around 100hp/second) and Speed Booster if you don’t choose Signet of the Hunt (+15% movement speed).

I just beat her on my ranger just a moment ago;

I finished her in Beserkers and Knights gear; Almost all her attacks 1 shot you and as long as you kite her in a circle it’s hard for her to get you with the whip I found. I used long bow to knock her away when she went in for burst during phase 2.

I used Signet of the Hunt, Signet of Stone, and Signet of the Wild with Troll Unguent and Rampage as One. The pet can’t survive phase 1, and it doesn’t need to since it can’t really attack anything. As soon as phase 2 started I swapped pets and popped signet of stone (I’m a signet build, so 30, 25, 5, 0, 10) and all my signets, except signet of the hunt so I can outrun the rotating pattern of AoE instead of wasting my dodge everytime it came down. My pet would survive a little bit after stone would wear off, and I would swap her out when she died.

To be honest, I thought I had incredible luck when it came to my pet surviving in phase 2, and that’s probably the main reason I was able to get through it as I did and in such a timely manner (I didn’t get a time warning)

Phase 1 is where I had all my problems really; but it was mainly due to wonky loading and invisble AoE. I spent more attempts trying to get pass phase 1 than 2.

Troll Unguent, Signet of the Wild, Signet of Stone and Rampage as One was my choice too. Went with condition removal signet though.

Just got Light Up The Darkness on ranger.

Used a 20 20 10 20 0 build. Important traits being vigor on heal, 33% longer regen, piercing arrows. Troll Unguent, RaO, Renewel, Wild, Hunt. SB + Axe/Torch. Mix of zerk / cleric gear. Mango pie food.

Went axe/torch for easy rift killing with #4 and then still being able to chill and damage Liandri before swapping back to shortbow. Chose to take out every rift asap as they’re just too annoying pulling you as you’re about to pick up a shard and upsetting your rhythm.

Biggest mistake I made in early attempts was forcing the shards and dying trying to get them in time. Final attempt I just took my time and picked up shards when convenient. Still had lots of time at the end of p2 where I didn’t need to worry about shards and just kite/dps.

Found it easier doing it on ranger than thief/engy/war.

Didn’t know torch could kill the rifts. Axe/torch is definitely better than what I ran with (Sword/Warhorn) – If I got forced to change weapon I would lose DPS for a while – Sword did have a few extra dodges but it was not really needed.

I haven’t tried Liadri yet but I’m thinking rampager and bleeds. Any thoughts on that approach?

I’m thinking you will die. Rampager’s gear is Power, Precision and Condition damage. Remember you don’t get to circle her all the time for the achievement. Sometimes you need to get a bit in harms way. I will not claim it’s impossible, but maybe find a less aggressive build.

Alright, cool. I was thinking bleeds for damage when I’m not attacking her. I’ve got like, what, 80% bleed duration? Sounds like I might need to toss in some rabid and knights pieces though. Shoot, I might as well go full carrion then or else full rabid/traps, right? Of course, I could go knight’s or zerker

Chopps.5047:

Alright, cool. I was thinking bleeds for damage when I’m not attacking her. I’ve got like, what, 80% bleed duration? Sounds like I might need to toss in some rabid and knights pieces though. Shoot, I might as well go full carrion then or else full rabid/traps, right? Of course, I could go knight’s or zerker

I’d say try going with Carrion ARMOR and Weapons, and then go with Rabid or Rampager Accessories, unless your crit focused, then try ramp armor and weps with Rabid accessories.

The main reason i say try Carrion is because it gives you power, which will take advantage of the vuln that gets applied to her.

So I’ve been trying to get Light Up the Darkness on my Mesmer and am having a ton of difficulty due to cripples/damage/lack of endurance (yes I cleanse the cripples but she just puts it right back on).

I thought about trying my Ranger but was concerned about my pet immediately dying. But the more I think about it, Ranger might be an optimal choice due to its passive speed boost signet, short bow # 3 evade skill, trait to up endurance gain (does it stack with the orrian stew?) and short bow attack to cripple Liadri.

But – what about condition removal? I know there’s a signet which moves conditions to your pet, but anything else?

Day Trooper.3605:

So I’ve been trying to get Light Up the Darkness on my Mesmer and am having a ton of difficulty due to cripples/damage/lack of endurance (yes I cleanse the cripples but she just puts it right back on).

I thought about trying my Ranger but was concerned about my pet immediately dying. But the more I think about it, Ranger might be an optimal choice due to its passive speed boost signet, short bow # 3 evade skill, trait to up endurance gain (does it stack with the orrian stew?) and short bow attack to cripple Liadri.

But – what about condition removal? I know there’s a signet which moves conditions to your pet, but anything else?

I can say that Rangers don’t have an issue with surviving the fight, what we have an issue with is killing Liadri, if you have zerker gear on your ranger (apparently full isn’t needed for the light up the darkness) then you should be in good shape as long as you avoid her stuff.

What i ran with was a 30/20/10/10/0 build and took Sig mastery, piercing arrows, sig of BM, sharpened edges, quick draw, vigorous renewal, natures protection. My utilities were Heal as One, Sig of Wild, Sig of Renewal (never activated), Sig of the Hunt (never activated), Rampage as one (used with sig of wild at start of phase 2).

My weapons were LB/SB i used LB in P1, and then after P2 began i swapped to SB and would only bring my longbow back out to kill those stupid orbs (barrage will kill them with the first tick). I haven’t done the Light Up the Darkness achievement but when i actually killed her i hit her with a total of 6 crystals (3 P1 3 P2) because i figured “Hey they’re laying where i can get them may as well use that added vuln to help me out!” i doubt getting another 2 crystals would’ve been out of the realm of possibility…

The signet is all you need, every 10s it removes a condition, the ACTIVE will funnel every condition on you and allies onto your pet as long as your pet is alive, so just don’t activate it and it will do what you need which is remove the cripple (weakness is kinda not noticed due to the evade on SB which you should use over dodging 99% of the time). As for the food, no 2 endurance regens stack with none another, so i’d use it with something to make you tankyer because if you’re in full zerkers the damage wont be -that- big of an issue.

@Durzilla – thanks for the insight!

So what would be the best armor/accessories/weapons/runes/sigils?

Day Trooper.3605:

@Durzilla – thanks for the insight!

So what would be the best armor/accessories/weapons/runes/sigils?

i had full zerker (with cleric weapons) LB had restoration sigil (go go random sigil i had on me!!) and SB had sigil of air, runes were ranger, i’d say a mix of knights (or valk) with zerker would probably be best though because she could literally slaughter me with her auto attacks if i stayed too close to her, make sure to cripple and daze her to keep distance.