Guide: Completely Filling HM Hero Books - Fastest way to max rep - Tips and Advice

[Missmelady]

Guide: Using HM Hero's Handbooks - The fastest way to max rep

Hard Mode Hero's handbooks is in no doubt the fastest way to max the reps. You can earn up to 30k rep approximately every 2.5 - 4 hours. This makes maxing easy, boring yet easy.

This guide covers all the tips and shortcuts you can use to complete primary quests within the fastest times possible.

Note: It is possible to simply do 4 HM quests then hand in the book for 4.5K, but this guide focuses on doing all of them for a full 30K.


Norn Primary Quests:

• A Gate too Far: No known shortcuts, but the quest itself is very easy to complete in under 25 minutes. Its possible to do this in 15 minutes with a runner's help!

Tip: Bring anti-destroyer skills if possible and also having a high rank in the Deldrimor Title Track to power Stout-Hearted will help.

Time to Complete: 15 -30 minutes depending on how fast you can steamroll the quest.

• Blood Washes Blood: ALWAYS leave from Longeye's Ledge outpost! Then run all the way to Jaga Moraine, avoiding fights wherever possible.

It is then possible to cap the Bear Shrine without aggroing anything - total cap time is approximately 3 minutes. Once the shrine is capped, you continue to the next zone.

Now skip going to the Bear Altar, instead head straight for the 'Charr Stronghold' (You target is the inner most . You will need at least one person with Ursan Blessing in order to skip the altar. Kill the several groups inside the innermost section of the fort and the quest is done.


Time to Complete: 10 - 30 minutes depending on how many mobs you can avoid along the way

• Curse of the Nornbear: Learn the direct route to take and it can be done within 15 minutes. You don't need to go to the Wolf Shrine, so bypass it completely.

Map of optimal route:

Spawn points are indicated with green numbers. Since you clear the path on the first pass through, it's just a matter of running back and forth. The Nornbear will spawn when you reach a point regardless of having the Wolf Blessing or not.Therefore a party-wide speed boost like Charge! or Fall Back! is recommended.

Time to Complete: 9 - 11 minutes depending on whether you have a party wide speed boost such as "Charge!".

Asuran Primary Quests:

• G.O.L.E.M: There is a number of ways to do this quest, some quicker then others. Generally you can speed up the time by doing a 4-4 split during the defence phase. You can also kill some of the stationary Destroyers before the defence phase.

Also once the defence is over exit over the left hand bridge, and avoid aggroing any Destroyers you don't need to. Then at the end near the Destroyer Hive simply kill the bosses and their groups to end the mission.

Time to Complete: 10 - 15 minutes depending on method used.

• Finding the Bloodstone: Sadly there are no clear cut shortcuts. Make sure to take one running skill to help get the quest starter as quickly as possible. Once inside its a very short and easy quest.

The main rule is avoiding fighting whenever possible! Also its recommended to bring a Air Elementalist instead of a typical Fire nuker. As Gadd will use Iron Mist on targets making them inderstructable to all damage other then Air.

Time to Complete: 20 - 30 minutes

• The Elusive Golemancer: Reaching the quest location is in fact harder then the HM quest itself. Try to avoid fighting or over aggoring groups along the way. Having a A Necro MM helps, but becomes worthless once your instead.

Once inside continue as normal, avoid fighting anything you can. For example when you pull the switch at the end of level one, wait for the timer to go down then simply run for the exit.

When it comes to fighting the Indestructible Golem you can use the skill "Pain Inverter" to hurt the Indestructible Golem even without using the Flux Matrix. Have you henchmen keep the Golem busy while you run back and forth with the Flux Matrix.

Once you reach the last level simply run to or flag a hero to the end at the top of the stairs near Oola. A cinematic will play and the quest will be completed, so don't waste time fighting everything on the last level.


Time to Complete: Once inside approximately 30 minutes - a runner can help get you to the quest starter much quicker.

Charr Primary Quests:

• Against the Charr:

It's recommended to use the following H+H team:

Two P/W with Defensive Anthem, Watch Yourself! and Shields Up!, a N/Mo Minion Master / Bomber and the henchmen Zho, Herta, Mhenlo, Lina.

Starting from Longeye's Ledge head SE along the road between patrols, turn right before the bridge and kill the mob of 3-5 Skales, talk to the helmet to start the mission.

Head south, kill the mob of 3 Charr that crosses the bridge, then the other 3 on the other side of bridge (both mobs Ele + 2W). Head east, hug past the entrance to Ooze Pit, squeeze past the first mob, kill the second that crosses your path (again Ele + 2W).

Continue east, kill a mob of 2 Ele +2 Necro in the ravine, squeeze between a patrol and a stationary mob manning a siege devourer, turn north and flag your H+H at the entrance of the fort. Kill the siege devourer which comes out once you get close enough, then pull and kill the Ranger patrols, kill the 2W + 2 Necro mob on the right, pull and kill the 2Ele + R + W mob, kill the 2Ele + Me + Mo mob, then finally kill the bosses.

Tip: Depending on the where the bosses spawn it is possible to aggro them and thus avoiding having to fight the 2Ele + Me + Mo mob. Sometimes however they do spawn outside of aggro bubble range.

Blue Dot: The start of the mission
Green Dots: mobs that must be killed
White Dots: mobs that can be avoided


Time to Complete: 10 - 15 minutes.

• Warband of Brothers: A very long but otherwise easy quest. Bring anti-charr weapons and skills to help speed up the time needed to kill Charr. Also avoid fighting any mobs you don't need to, for example at the end of the quest.

At the end of the quest go straight for the boss. Dont bother killing anything else. Once the boss is dead quest is over. This can save 2-5 minutes depending on how long it takes you to kill the groups with the boss

Time to Complete: 20-40 minutes

• Assualt on the Stronghold: First kill the first 2 groups of Charr near the catapults. Once the Ceretadon spawns have a Protection Monk use Life Bond on it and try to keep it alive while it charges and attacks the gate. A hero monk can handle this role as well. 1 or 2 Ceretadons is all that is needed to take down the gate.

Once inside kill any Charr in your way and make your way to the pit where the Ebon Vanguard are being held and allow the Charr and Destroyers to fight each other. Once the fight is over simply clean up whoever is left and then proceed to kill the two groups of Charr Rangers on the buffs near the gate.

Time to Complete: 10-15 minutes. Depends on your team build.

Other Primary Quests:

• Destructions Depths: There are no shortcuts, a standard tram build with one Necro Minion Master / Bomber helps. There are two hard sections of the quest, the first is the Norn section on the 2nd level.

During the Norn part it is recommended to stay outside the middle of the "pit" area the Norn are in during the 2nd wave of Destroyers. As it's easy to get party wiped if you remain the "pit" area. During the 2nd wave set at least two of the Golems to Defense mode. This not only damages the Destroyers, but will provide some additional healing for your party.

Once you reach the 3rd level leave the Golems alone, first kill the Destroyers to the left and right hand sides, and pull the ones hear the Destroyers of Lives (Ele). Avoid aggroing the Disk of Chaos for now.

Next activate the Golems and set them all to defence, since they will be mainly acting a meat shields and healers. Aggro the Disk and first kill the Destroyers that come to aid it. Finally focus all damage on the Disk.

Tip: Avoid direct fighting against the Disk whenever possible, the damage it can do is massive. Party wipes are likely to happen. Just make sure it doesn't have a chance to regain health. If you are wiped get back to the Disk and attack it asap so it doesn't regain too much health.

Time to Complete: 30-40 minutes depending on team build and bit of luck

• A Time for Heroes: Its recommended to use the following:

E/Mo with Heal Party, Extinguish, Glyph of Lesser Energy, Ward of Stability and the henchmen Zho, Herta, Mhenlo, Lina

Ideally you will need: I am Unstoppable! and Pain Inverter. Pain Inverter being the key to killing the Great Destroyer very quickly.

Start by killing the first stationary Ele Destroyers on the left and then kill the 2 incoming destroyers (Typically Warriors). Heal a bit, and then charge forward with "I am Unstoppable" active and cast Pain Inventor on the Great Destroyer and then allow him to attack. Then just interrupt him so he used Enraged Blast on your party, 2-3 of these under the effects of Pain Inventor will kill him.

Tip: If you have money to spare or short of time, its always possible to pay a runner to do this quest for you. Typical price is 1K per person.


Time to Complete: 2 - 5 minutes - Pain Inventor speeds things up massively. Otherwise its a longer fight.


Missmelady Times (General idea of times you can make):

Thank you Crazyman Ofdoom and Archie Gates for the assistance on these times.

Curse of the Nornbear - Total run time 7 minutes.

Gate to far Level 1: 8 minutes Level 2: 2 Minutes Level 3: 3 minutes. Total run time 13 minutes.

Blood Washes Blood - 2 minutes run from longeyes ledge to Jaga Moraine. 3 minutes to cap bear shrine (You can sometimes do this with out aggroing or killing anything). Finally 6 minutes to reach the fort and clear it. Total run time 10 minutes.

Against the Charr - Total run time 10 minutes.

Warband of Brothers- level 1: 7 minutes, level 2: 17 minutes, level 3: 14minutes. Total time 38 minutes

Assault on the Strong Hold - Total run time 10 minutes.

The Elusive Golemancer: Run there: 7 minutes, Level 1: 4 minutes, Level 2: 7 minutes, Level 3: minute. Total run times 18 minutes.

Finding the Bloodstone: Run there: 1 minute, level 1: 3 minutes, level 2: 5 minutes, level 3: 2 minutes. Total run time 11 minutes.

G. O. L. E. M - Total run time 9 minutes

Destruction Depths - Level 1: 6 minutes, Level 2: 8 minutes, Level 3: 5 minutes. Total run time 19 minutes

Time for Heroes: 2 minutes total.

Total Time: 2 Hours 24 Minutes. Approximately 208 rep points a minute.


Final Tip: Its possible to cut down the overall time by another 30 minutes by bringing EoE.

Thanks to: RTSFirebat, Missmelady, tmakinen and everyone else

[Jagged]

Thanks. Let's get some more tips up here!

[JoeKnowMo]

Thanks for the tips.

How long would it take to do Against the Charr + Assault the stronghold + 3 Norn mission + Golem + Time for Heroes? You'd only get 12k rep but you might be able to do it 3 times in the time it would take you to do all the missions.

[tmakinen]

First of all, I would prefer to use the word 'shortcut' instead of 'bug'

The optimal yield can be determined if you write up the time required to complete each mission, then order them as T_1 < T_2 < ... < T_11. Then, if you denote the reward from completing N missions by R_N (R_1 = R_2 = 0, R_3 = 3000, R_4 = 4500 and so on), the yield can be calculated from Y_N = R_N / (Sum i=1..N T_i).

Personally, I have been doing only those missions that can be completed in about 10 minutes or less without using any questionable shortcuts. My notes on those can be found below:

Against the Charr
dual P/W with Defensive Anthem, Watch Yourself! and Shields Up!, minion bomber N/Mo, Zho, Herta, Mhenlo, Lina
Starting from Longeye's Ledge head SE along the road between patrols, turn right before the bridge and kill the mob of 3-5 skales, talk to the helmet to start the mission. Head south, kill the mob of 3 charr that crosses the bridge, then the other 3 on the other side of bridge (both mobs E + 2W). Head east, past the entrance to Ooze Pit, squeeze past the first mob, kill the second that crosses your path (again E + 2W). Continue east, kill a mob of 2E+2N in the ravine, squeeze between a patrol and a stationary mob manning a siege devourer, turn north and flag your herohench at the entrance of the fort. Kill the siege devourer, pull and kill the R patrols, kill the 2W + 2N mob on the right, pull and kill the 2E + R + W mob, kill the 2E + Me + Mo mob, kill the bosses. Total time about 10 min.

Curse of the Nornbear
debuff N with Shadow of Fear and Enfeebling Blood, blindbot E, minion bomber N/Mo, Zho, Herta, Mhenlo, Lina
Kill a mandragor mob, then 3 jotuns, turn left. Wait for a jotun patrol to come in, kill it then the other patrol (if the incoming patrol aggroed a mob of stonewolves kill the closer patrol first). Turn right, enter the shrine and kill wolves, click shrine but don't use the blessing. Go back and continue south, kill a mob of jotuns and/or stonewolves next to a ramp that leads out of the cave, turn right and head west, kill a mob of stonewolves, turn right twice, stop before entering a large cave and wait for a jotun patrol to charge in. Kill the jotuns, then another jotun mob past that, follow the left wall past a madragor mob to spawn the bear, beat it. Go back to the previously mentioned ramp to spawn the bear again and beat it again. Go to the icy part of the cave that you've passed twice already and turn left, exit the cave and spawn the bear again and beat it to complete this boring mission in about 10 minutes. A party-wide speed boost like Charge! or Fall Back! is recommended.

G.O.L.E.M.
blindbot E, minion bomber N/Mo, healer Mo or N/Rt, Zho, Herta, Mhenlo, Lina
Go on the east side and kill the first incoming mob, flag heroes around the kiln then go to the west side with henches. Keep killing incoming mobs, move between kilns if necessary (the composition of mobs varies, Destroyers of Deeds with Punishing and Distracting shot have the potential to cause most havoc) until golems are ready, deploy golems, raze the roost. These things are total pushovers even in HM, no specific tactic is needed and multiple aggro is ok, completion time around 10 min. Even easier with a friend, do a 4-4 split with self-sufficient hero builds.

A Time for Heroes
E/Mo with Heal Party, Extinguish, GoLE, Ward of Stability, Zho, Herta, Mhenlo, Lina
You need: I am Unstoppable! and Pain Inverter
Kill the first stationary E on the left, kill the 2 incoming destroyers, kill the second E, use IaU! and cast PI on The Great Pushover. Wait until TGP stops QQing and use IaU! and PI again, mission accomplished, total time about 2 min.

[moko]

Gate to far: No known bugs but easy to complete in under 25 minutes.
Blood washes blood: Hints- Leave from longeyes ledge. you can cap the shirne without aggroing anything. Once shrine is capped and u can zone into the primary zone for it. Do not go to the altar. Head straight for the "stronghold" kill the 8 groups inside and quest is done. No need to kill the 2 or 3 bosses when it says u must go to the shrine. Make sure 1 person has ursan on there bar for this.

ty! this one worked pretty good. i was surprised it was so easy and fast when i had prepared for a little nightmare. :P

Gate to far: No known bugs but easy to complete in under 25 minutes.

did this pretty easily in about 15~ mins.

G.O.L.E.M- No known bugs.

AFAIK you can pre-clear the area here so you don't get overrolled too much.

EDIT; yep, just tried GOLEM. you can walk around the NPCs to the left and kill all destroyers there, making it easier for later & killing some groups that attack you (i believe so at least).

i'll try assault soon. :P

[odly]

Curse of the Norn bear :

No need to visit the shrine at all. No need to fight the wolves either.
Just go to the three spwan points of the bear he allways spawns in the same spot.

[Xylia]

Originally Posted by Mokone

EDIT; yep, just tried GOLEM. you can walk around the NPCs to the left and kill all destroyers there, making it easier for later & killing some groups that attack you (i believe so at least).

This does make the mission take longer, so if you're going for speed, it might be counter productive. I prefer to do it this was because it makes the mission easy, even in HM.

Originally Posted by Missmelady

Assualt the stronghold. Kill the first 2 aggros of the guys by the catapults. Once the Ceretadon spwns run up to the gate aggroing all the guys with u. Stand on the right side of the gate and die. You will res on the otherside of the gate and just run all the way to the top part where the charr are fighting the destroyers. Deaths of henchmen dont matter here. Stand back watch the fight. Clean up what ever wins the fight and then proceed to the group of charr that you ran through to get to the top. Kill the gaurds and the quest is over. This quest can be done in 6-8 minutes if done properly.

Or just bring Mark of Protection and Spirit Bond and prot the crap out of the saurus so that he can break down the gate. It doesn't take much longer, and it doesn't use any questionable exploits.

[Missmelady]

Thanks for the info on Against the charr. I will add it here in a bit when im not in class.

As for just doing the first few to get the 12k rep. It is actually more effiecient to do all the quests and turn in a full book because after the certain amount the rep you get for completeing the quests is greater plus all the quests are insanly easy any way. As for how long it took me to complete a book last night. Around 2 hours 52 minutes for 30k rep. Easily faster then vanqing zones which people still dont understand......

[RTSFirebat]

No need for that, if you rework your first post to include the tips and input from other people, then I'll sticky it for you. But till then it will remain like this.

I'll do a bit of work on it myself to get you started, but you going to have to do more before I or anyone else stickies it.

Or just bring Mark of Protection and Spirit Bond and prot the crap out of the saurus so that he can break down the gate. It doesn't take much longer, and it doesn't use any questionable exploits.

Please don't turn this into a Riverside-like debate about what is a exploit and what isn't. It isn't really a exploit anyway, the res point activates as intended. A.net need to "fix" it, so till then the game is working as intended.

Not another word about it.

[Missmelady]

Thank you firebat. Work+class = Glyph doesnt get much time on forums or in-game cept on weekends. I will gladly work on it though.

[RTSFirebat]

Your welcome, if you let me stick my name on this as well I'll be glad to do some updates on it here and there for you, I'm nice like that ^^

And now my bit of input, here my advise on how to do G.O.L.E.M HM using only H+H, its not as fast but it works:

Originally Posted by RTSFirebat

Note: You need to use heroes on this mission, using hench along WILL NOT CUT IT. Since you need to split. They don't even need to be setup or anything, just give them some skills. But you do need heroes.

Here how I managed it - this works for both NM and HM:

You need the following heroes:

- One Healing Monk
- One MM Necro
- Other (Blind Surge or Nuker should do)

For the hench take:

1 Healer
The Earth ele
Two warriors

Now start the mission but DO NOT speak to the NPC to start the assault. Instead head over the right hand bridge and kill ALL of the Destroyers you can see, all the way up to the Destroyer Hive (The Burning thing).

These Destroyers form part of the assault, and killing them before hand makes the whole thing a hell lot easier.

Now head back to the Golems and the NPCs and split your team 4-4. Order your henchmen to hold the right hand side, while you and your 3 heroes hold the left. Speak to the NPC to start the assault.

Since you killed the standing Destroyers before hand the number that attack during the assault is a lot less. Your henchmen should do fine, and so will your side once your MM Necro hero has a few minions up.

I've found if any side is in trouble, simply remove the flags for whichever side isn't in trouble and go help.

The Golems themselves during the Warm up stage can take a slight amount of damage before needed to be saved (Of course a lot less in HM). I found you have about 10-15 secs messing around time before you need to go and save one or the other.

That should work fine. Once the assault is over it is a simply matter of heading to the Destroyer Hive and killing the 3 bosses to end the mission.

In HM make sure to be extra careful when attacking Destroyer Ranger groups, since the Destroyer of Hordes use Barrage which does massive amounts of damage to bunched up parties in HM. Which sadly tends to be the case when using H+H!

[Jagged]

Originally Posted by RTSFirebat

In HM make sure to be extra careful when attacking Destroyer Ranger groups, since the Destroyer of Hordes use Barrage which does massive amounts of damage to bunched up parties in HM. Which sadly tends to be the case when using H+H!

PI on the Hordes with a bunch of minions hanging around takes them out pretty quick.

[Mr.Kotte]

Very useful thread.
/vote sticky

[Tyla]

^
Agree with Kotte, this guide is ftw!No doubt!

[tekDragon]

LOL... This guide is so.. un-guide-like.

Here's the short version.

Fill a HM Hero's handbook as fast as possible.
-Have Ursan on your bar already for Blood Washes Blood
-Bring Pain Inverter for the great destroyer
-Use the res trick for Assault on the Stronghold

Sorry.. there have been some good comments made in the thread but the OP needs to review what a guide is. A collection of "This quest is easy, do it fast" does not make a guide.

And to add my bit of constructiveness... the GOLEM quest is quite easy solo in HM. You can easly do a 3-5 split with heroes.. the 3 necro team holds its own easily. For the other side with henchies I've defended easily with Monk + Monk + 2 caster heroes (I think I used Herta and Cynn). I've also read many accounts of people easily doing solo by running back and forth with the whole team but I never tried so I can't comment.

[RTSFirebat]

Nice rude bit of input there ¬_¬

Well the op has a lot of extra stuff to add to it, but do you think you can do better? If so why not input something into the thread?

[MercenaryKnight]

So are we supposed to just do 3 missions and repeat 3 over and over again for 3 hours? Or try to complete all of the ones listed and then turn in/ repeat?

[odly]

I just did Golem in HM twice. You don't need to split if you can kill fast enough. Just run from one side to the other and kill them.

I suggest to do all that you find easy enough to complete without problems. It takes the boredom away a bit.
The list will be different for each person I guess.

Personally I find 4 easy and fast : nornbear, against the char, golem and a time for heroes.
The other 2 norn ones are easy enough, but take a little longer, the same counts for the second vanguard one.
The other 3 take more time and can be a bit more difficult.

[tekDragon]

Input

Originally Posted by tekDragon

And to add my bit of constructiveness... the GOLEM quest is quite easy solo in HM. You can easly do a 3-5 split with heroes.. the 3 necro team holds its own easily. For the other side with henchies I've defended easily with Monk + Monk + 2 caster heroes (I think I used Herta and Cynn). I've also read many accounts of people easily doing solo by running back and forth with the whole team but I never tried so I can't comment.

I can qualify that with the notion that since you can easily 3-5 split with HnH there's no tangible speed gain from doing it with another player.

I can also add another constructive bit by saying that while doing Against the Charr, when going straight for the camp it's quite easy to take a very short detour and take out the south tower and activate the south devourer. It' takes an extra 2 mins and makes the camp easier for those who might find the battle a bit more rocky.


And if it was the OP's intention for everyone to work together to create a guide he/she should have simply said so rather than billing the post as *the* guide.

[Longasc]

I am not sure about the 60K every 3.5 hours. Seems like a full HM hero book was meant by 60k, but this is XP. You get only 30K faction.

Any thoughts if doing just a few quests to get 3K XP over and over is faster than doing them all in sequence?


I could just do:

1. Nornbear
2. Golem
3. Assault on the Stronghold
4. Against the Charr
5. A Time for Heroes

and hand in the book. All the listed quests hardly take time.

But would it be more efficient than a full run of all quests?