Goal: Complete Ascension and receive the blessings of the Gods of Tyria.
Reward: Transport to The Dragon's Lair mission area.
50,000 experience points
Requirements: Completion of the Elona Reach, Thirsty River and Dunes of Despair missions (they can be completed in any order).
How to Ascend: You must win a battle against your mirror-self.
Talk to Great Ritual Priest Zahmut in Augury Rock about the mesa.
Then walk past him and talk to General Mendoza, Lord Valodor and Commander Joziah.
Walk to the illuminated circle to get the Divine Fire Enchantment.
You then need to walk through the three circles to open the mountain.
BUT, before stepping on the third circle, you should cast any self-buff enchantments, since stepping on the third circle will begin the cut-scene. As soon as the cut-scene is complete, the battle with your mirror-self will begin.
Mirror-self Facts
- The mirror-self has all attributes at level 15.
- The mirror-self will use either a bow or sword.
- If you can defeat your mirror-self in under 50 seconds, you get a bonus of 1000 experience points.
- The mirror-self can only use the skills that you have in your skill bar.
- The mirror-self appears to use skills in the order that they are in your skill bar (1-8).
- All character classes should equip any slow-casting self-buffs, since the AI will waste time at the beginning of the fight casting every buff on itself.
- One strategy that seems to work for all classes is to equip certain skills forcing the mirror to use them, while not using those skills yourself.
Recommendations for each class:
- Elementalist - Use Aura of Restoration, then Fire Storm and Meteor Shower. Bring a few skills that have a long casting time and ones that cause Exhaustion, but don't use them yourself.
- Mesmer - Use Backfire and then Empathy. Since the AI has faster reflexes, don't bring a lot of interrupts. Energy draining skills can be very useful, if the mirror uses them early in the battle.
- Monk - Use Healing Breeze and Retribution, the mirror will not use them. It appears that Smiting skills can be cast faster by a player than the AI can cast them. Bring useless maintenance skills, like Divine Boon, Life Attunement, Blessed Aura and Holy Veil; the AI will cast them and then have virtually no energy regeneration ability left. If you are a Necromancer/Monk or Monk/Necromancer, bring Scourge Sacrifice, Awaken the Blood and Order of the Vampire, and the mirror will kill itself.
- Necromancer - Bring health sacrificing skills that don't deal much damage, in particular, Awaken the Blood. Hexes that take time and energy to cast are also helpful. Since nothing will be dying during the battle, points in Soul Reaping and any skills requiring a corpse are useless. If you are a Necromancer/Monk or Monk/Necromancer, bring Scourge Sacrifice, Awaken the Blood and Order of the Vampire, and the mirror will kill itself. Bring Signet of Agony, Chilblains, and/or Order of the Vampire and don't use them yourself; the mirror will curse itself.
- Ranger - Use all your slow-casting Nature Rituals and Penetrating Shot. Cast traps at the beginning of the battle, run straight back, and the mirror will follow you in a straight line, setting off the traps. Bring the quickest firing bow that you own so you can get off as many shots as possible.
- Warrior - Load Frenzy, but don't use it yourself. Even though the mirror uses an axe, it will be able to use Hammer Mastery and/or Swordsmanship skills. Any skills that result in loss of all adrenaline will be a big help, as long as you don't use them yourself. The AI isn't aware that some skills work better in particular order, so use that to your advantage. Use Sever Artery before Gash, and wait to use Final Thrust until the mirror is below 50% health; the mirror doesn't know these things.
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