Any other tips for getting Aurora?

[StormyFae.2761]

I posted earlier about my frustration in going for Aurora and how I was having a hard time doing the story chapter completions for the amor boxes. Someone answered that you don't have to do ALL the achievements but only like 20 something. For some reason my post was removed. Was it because I mentioned another game?🤫  Anet didn't bother to say why, just poof. LOL.

Anyway, thanks for real to whomever gave that answer. I swear I didn't realize there were more cheeves than necessary and was basically tearing my hair out trying to get them all.

 

So...does anyone have any other good tips before I swear off this game forever? 
And Anet, if I say something you don't like please tell me what it is so I won't do it again. Thanks.

[Harfang.1507]

I assume this is not your first legendary and will focus on what is specific to Aurora (or at least lengedary accessories).

The Gift of Energy is very dust-intensive, so hoard it and/or prepare to pay a hefty chunk of change for it.

Likewise, you not only need Mystic Clovers, but a whopping 250 Mystic Coins. Again, hoard and/or pay up.

The Gift of Valor is probably the one that you have been tearing your hair out over. Yes, you need a ton of achievements for it, but not all.

In that vein, Draconis Mons is probably the most annoying map to work on. You need to complete the Searing Ascent JP. Do yourself a service: burn a TP to friend on one of the nice commanders permaparked at the final chest and tip them handsomely. (No, I am not one of them.) You also need to unlock the Wayfarer's Henge backpack skin, and that one takes weeks to do. Not hard, just long. Start early.

In Ember Bay, you'll need to complete the aptly-named Chalice of Tears JP, and it has checkpoints, contrary to the Searing Ascent one. AyinMaiden is your friend.

Just in case you had not noticed: maps are more active on the day the corresponding S3 dailies are on. That's great for those countless events you need to complete.

Patience and perseverance is what you need most. Good luck.

[Endaris.1452]

They're mostly not too bad, pretty easy I would even say.

You always have the option to go through PvP/WvW reward tracks to get the corresponding armor items that are the reward for the meta achievement so if one meta achievement seems particularly insufferable it's certainly an option.

Note that especially Head of the Snake has a lot of hidden achievements that all count towards the meta achievement so you may be able to cut corners on that one a lot more than apparent from the visible achievement list by referencing the wiki.

[StormyFae.2761]

Thanks guys! I didn't know that about WvW/PvP tracks. But I probably won't do that because I hate those! LOL.

My problem now is getting my best character up to the story instance I need to do all the achievements. If I could have done them with the original character I did those chapters with I probably would already have them. I'm not a good fighter so I use a mech. Dont' judge me. I'm old and have arthritis in my hands. 🙂

I'm working on Crack in the Ice right now and it says I have to get all 21. Am I reading that right? So I'm missing 4 of them: Stay unfrosty, vigilant, New in Box, and Beasts Slain Quick. The only char I've done that story on is a Revenant. Two of those are in the very last chapter "frozen out". So if I want to use my mech or another char to get them I have to go through the whole story instance again right? That's so tedious. But still better than doing WvW/PvP to me.

BTW I've already done Head of the Snake so I'm happy about that!

[Linken.6345]

14 minutes ago, StormyFae.2761 said:

Thanks guys! I didn't know that about WvW/PvP tracks. But I probably won't do that because I hate those! LOL.

My problem now is getting my best character up to the story instance I need to do all the achievements. If I could have done them with the original character I did those chapters with I probably would already have them. I'm not a good fighter so I use a mech. Dont' judge me. I'm old and have arthritis in my hands. 🙂

I'm working on Crack in the Ice right now and it says I have to get all 21. Am I reading that right? So I'm missing 4 of them: Stay unfrosty, vigilant, New in Box, and Beasts Slain Quick. The only char I've done that story on is a Revenant. Two of those are in the very last chapter "frozen out". So if I want to use my mech or another char to get them I have to go through the whole story instance again right? That's so tedious. But still better than doing WvW/PvP to me.

BTW I've already done Head of the Snake so I'm happy about that!

daily today is go to guild hall an spend 25 badges for a potin.

you need 80 potions for a track

[Endaris.1452]

Don't necessarily discount WvW, it can be somewhat short and painless, depending on your progress n the PvE meta achievement. And you'll need a Gift of Battle anyway so it's not like you can completely get around WvW so the following will be good to know if you don't already.

Unless or even if your server is hopelessly losing you'll probably be able to encounter so called "karma trains", especially in morning hours that basically just PvE the hell out of WvW by just flipping all the objectives. Get your guild hall boost, pop a celebration booster, XP booster (if you have one; WvW is pretty much the only place they're worth using), get the enrichment for amulets and reward track progress can get seriously fast. With some luck there will be another WvW event for alliance testing soon(tm) for extra gains.

The way reward track gains work is that you gain nothing for the first skirmish timer running out after you join WvW and then whenever it times out depending on your participation. That is why extended sessions are usually more efficient as with smaller sessions you will often "waste" the first couple minutes without getting reward track progress and those karma trains are just the best for ramping up your participation fast and racking in a lot of progress in one session. 2h of karma train with all the boosts mentioned above (minus the event one) would sum up to nearly 8000 points or 40% of a reward track. So overall roughly 5h of pretty chill content for one reward track if you can find out when karma trains happen on your server and you're available for them. Participation stays over multiple sessions so basically wait until you get the next reward and then log off to conserve your time at max participation.

WvW dailies also go a very long way in saving you time as often there will be easy dailies like Master of Monuments, Big Spender, Land Claimer, Mist Guard Killer, Veteran Creature Slayer and Caravan Disruptor that don't depend much on player cooperation and can be very quickly finished while netting you a sizeable amount of WvW reward track potions. One potion is 1.25% progress and some of the dailies even reward two of them and you obviously have the benefit of finishing your dailies for gold as well.

[Cuks.8241]

If you dont like JP, check Ember Bay lfg from time to time if there is a friendly mesmer there helping getting people through. That one can be a nightmare solo even with a guide. But quite fun in groups. 

Also there is one collection achiev in Ember Bay where you need to collect 564321 items in the most obscure places possible. Some are also in the Chalice of tears JP in the most insane spots possible. Like climb that hill on the top of the most annoying jp ever, look in a specific spot, glide in that direction, drop into a small crevase and find a ledge under another ledge. Oh if you miss it you can start everything from scratch. 

Whoever designed this stuff and whoever solved it first are mazochists. 

Oh and get yourself position rewinder from ls4 before you go for it if you dont have it yet. 

[Endaris.1452]

1 hour ago, StormyFae.2761 said:

I'm working on Crack in the Ice right now and it says I have to get all 21. Am I reading that right? So I'm missing 4 of them: Stay unfrosty, vigilant, New in Box, and Beasts Slain Quick. The only char I've done that story on is a Revenant. Two of those are in the very last chapter "frozen out". So if I want to use my mech or another char to get them I have to go through the whole story instance again right?

Yep, unless you team up with others. Which I would actually strongly recommend for completing your missing ones.

A Crack in the Ice is the one exception that doesn't give you a choice and man, these achievements in the ice cave story instance can be a real pain.

The usual idea is to go in twice:

Once you basically just stay in a safe spot while your group kills the ice beast to guarantee you don't get "Stay unfrosty". Then swap if your group mate still needs the achievement as well.

If you are replaying the instance for achievements, there is a brazier just as you enter the mission that you can light to teleport you to the boss, skipping all the time-consuming fluff before. Might only work for characters that are replaying the story rather than playing it for the first time though.

And then go in a third time for the time restricted one although it might be a bit harder to coordinate the charge directions.

[StormyFae.2761]

Lot of information here. Much appreciated. Maybe I will bite the bullet and go WvW. I know I already have to do the gift of battle track so might as well do a few more.

[Farohna.6247]

14 hours ago, StormyFae.2761 said:

Lot of information here. Much appreciated. Maybe I will bite the bullet and go WvW. I know I already have to do the gift of battle track so might as well do a few more.

Do the pve dailies in WvW (kill guards or dolyaks, etc when they are available).  You can do a lot of non player combat in WvW, like taking camps, frequently without too much of a headache if you absolutely don't want to do a mastery line for Aurora.  I do recommend using a booster from the laurel vendor (or daily log in rewards) and a guild perk to help speed along your earnings.  

 

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

I would hold off aurora and do Aurene's lege amulet first.

Rewards you get from that help with Aurora and Vision down the line.

[idpersona.3810]

21 hours ago, StormyFae.2761 said:

Thanks guys! I didn't know that about WvW/PvP tracks. But I probably won't do that because I hate those! LOL.

My problem now is getting my best character up to the story instance I need to do all the achievements. If I could have done them with the original character I did those chapters with I probably would already have them. I'm not a good fighter so I use a mech. Dont' judge me. I'm old and have arthritis in my hands. 🙂

I'm working on Crack in the Ice right now and it says I have to get all 21. Am I reading that right? So I'm missing 4 of them: Stay unfrosty, vigilant, New in Box, and Beasts Slain Quick. The only char I've done that story on is a Revenant. Two of those are in the very last chapter "frozen out". So if I want to use my mech or another char to get them I have to go through the whole story instance again right? That's so tedious. But still better than doing WvW/PvP to me.

BTW I've already done Head of the Snake so I'm happy about that!

 

18 hours ago, StormyFae.2761 said:

Lot of information here. Much appreciated. Maybe I will bite the bullet and go WvW. I know I already have to do the gift of battle track so might as well do a few more.

I chose one of the event weekends (bonus WvW track progress) and stacked boosters and knocked out all the tracks one after another. With dailies and weeklies now it isn't too bad an experience. I would recommend for newer players in the mode to get a defensive build that can buff or deal out aoe dmg and find a commander/zerg to follow.
If you are going to achievement hunt, then look up them up on the wiki. All the hidden achievements also count towards progress. so if it says you need 37/37 it could end up being 37/52 with the hidden ones as you go. I didn't know that until way after.
TP to friend for the draconic mons JP. For chalice of tears, there are players that will port you though it on now and then. You need to hit multiple checkpoints on the way up. If you go that route, just tip well. It saves a ton of time, especially if JPs aren't your thing.
 

[StormyFae.2761]

4 hours ago, ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

I would hold off aurora and do Aurene's lege amulet first.

Rewards you get from that help with Aurora and Vision down the line.

I've got the Prismatic Champion amulet. is that the one you mean? I did the Return to stuff when if first came out so there were lots of people around to help.

[StormyFae.2761]

3 hours ago, idpersona.3810 said:

 

 For chalice of tears, there are players that will port you though it on now and then. You need to hit multiple checkpoints on the way up. If you go that route, just tip well. It saves a ton of time, especially if JPs aren't your thing.
 

Strangely enough I've done the JPs already. I used to hate them now I actually enjoy them. I wonder if WvW will ever grow on me like that? Nah.

[StormyFae.2761]

I spent most of two days doing and redoing the ice champion and finally got Stay Unfrosty by hanging out on the cliff and letting Brahm do the work. It took 50 minutes but it worked. Now I just need to kill it in 5 minutes. I think I will have to find a friend or two to help with that. I just can't get that one by myself.

[idpersona.3810]

1 minute ago, StormyFae.2761 said:

Strangely enough I've done the JPs already. I used to hate them now I actually enjoy them. I wonder if WvW will ever grow on me like that? Nah.

WvW doesn't have to grow on you. It's just a matter of priorities. Time-wise it was a lot faster for me than knocking out huge lists of achievements. Stacking bonuses, I think I completed each track in about 3-4 hours. And for me, it got to be decently fun. I did all the Aurora tracks in one week. And finished the Vision ones during the next event. It took me months to get back to completing Vision since I didn't want to do the "A Star to Guide Us" achievements. But that didn't end up being as bad as I had thought. That map is where I found out all of the hidden achievements count and can replace a lot of the harder or more time consuming ones.

[StormyFae.2761]

YooHoo! I did it! Finished Crack in the Ice/Bitterfrost Frontier Mastery. I did it about 5 times failing miserably then thought I'd give it one last try before I ask for help and managed to get it done! I'm so relieved. Now I just have to slog through the rest of Draconis Mons and WvW for the Gift of Battle. I always wonder if legendaries are really worth it but when I'm done with one I'm not sorry I did it. Thanks for all the tips!

[Farohna.6247]

31 minutes ago, StormyFae.2761 said:

YooHoo! I did it! Finished Crack in the Ice/Bitterfrost Frontier Mastery. I did it about 5 times failing miserably then thought I'd give it one last try before I ask for help and managed to get it done! I'm so relieved. Now I just have to slog through the rest of Draconis Mons and WvW for the Gift of Battle. I always wonder if legendaries are really worth it but when I'm done with one I'm not sorry I did it. Thanks for all the tips!

Well done!!!!! Draconis Mons at least stays fairly active, and just do a bit every day of WvW.  You can do it!!!  Legendaries are great, thank yourself later when you can change stats easily on any character and it also has a cool effect.

[Erich.1783]

Others have mentioned WvW/PvP reward tracks, but one thing related to that that I do not know was mentioned (sorry I skimmed) was that each reward track will also give you 2 Mystic Clovers, which will help with over all cost.  Same will appy with Vision when you get to that, except Jahai Bluffs, there you have to do the achievements, the reward track does not give the item you need.

[Luthan.5236]

Considering that you still need some money for the other gifts (still less costly then legendary weapons) ... the achievement should not be your biggest wory. Worst case it might be possible to get help. But glad you managed to now to the stuff where you had been stuck. Later there is also Vision - another legendary trinket. Requires a lot of work. (Cause you need to get the Skyscale first that is a lot of work itself.)

The season 3 achievements are not too bad if I remember correctly. Most can be soloed. S2 had more annoying ones. (Not relevant for any other major stuff though.) I think the only one that I skipped (was not necessary to do the meta achievement) was the one where Aurene's health can't fall under 50 percent. Defending the egg or when Aurene just hatched. That one was pretty annoying. (I know - it is weird. Some people claim it was pretty easy and claim other stuff was harder where I did not have any problems. But the mobs just charged at the shield all the time making it too frustrating to try even more after a lot of tries lol.)

[Harfang.1507]

15 hours ago, StormyFae.2761 said:

Strangely enough I've done the JPs already. I used to hate them now I actually enjoy them. I wonder if WvW will ever grow on me like that? Nah.

Re: WvW

Carebear since 2004. (Started with WoW.) Aurora was my first legendary and it forced me into WvW. When I linked it in guild chat, they told me that once you get going on legendaries, you can't help yourself striving for more. Then I stayed in WvW for the easy dailies. And now I am farming WvW Skirmish Claim Tickets for Conflux. And through all that, I am still a bag. I cannot say I like WvW, but at least I don't detest it.

Congratulation on your achievements. Good luck.

[Farohna.6247]

1 hour ago, Harfang.1507 said:

Re: WvW

Carebear since 2004. (Started with WoW.) Aurora was my first legendary and it forced me into WvW. When I linked it in guild chat, they told me that once you get going on legendaries, you can't help yourself striving for more. Then I stayed in WvW for the easy dailies. And now I am farming WvW Skirmish Claim Tickets for Conflux. And through all that, I am still a bag. I cannot say I like WvW, but at least I don't detest it.

Congratulation on your achievements. Good luck.

Ooh that may be my next project!  And that's exactly what it's supposed to do...it gets you to try parts of the game you might otherwise avoid.  The easy dailies really add up!  

I love reading posts where people grit their teeth and go do it, always encouraging!

[StormyFae.2761]

15 hours ago, Erich.1783 said:

each reward track will also give you 2 Mystic Clovers

Good to know! It does get expensive to keep chucking mystic coins etc into the forge. That's the first thing I do though since it does give some other useful mats besides clovers. But it's sounding more and more like I need to just jump into WvW more. 

[StormyFae.2761]

3 hours ago, Harfang.1507 said:

once you get going on legendaries, you can't help yourself striving for more.

True that! I started with the Shining Blade just because I liked the way it looked. I thought that would be my one and only. But Aurora is actually my fourth leggy I'm doing and I know now it won't be my last! 

[Erich.1783]

1 hour ago, StormyFae.2761 said:

Good to know! It does get expensive to keep chucking mystic coins etc into the forge. That's the first thing I do though since it does give some other useful mats besides clovers. But it's sounding more and more like I need to just jump into WvW more. 

If you decide to do that, and find that you enjoy WvW and/or PvP there are some non-repeatable reward tracks that offer even more clovers, up to 14 I think, you would want to check into those after the ones you need for Aurora/Vision and after building up a few GoBs.