Guide to Legendary Survivor

This guide describes the optimal ways to get the title "Legendary Survivor".

Survival Guide

After deciding that you want to pursue this title, plan your progression to optimize your gain of experience points.

• Avoid claiming quest rewards until claiming them all will attain you the title, since those can provide you with tons of thousands of experience and have no risk of getting yourself killed. For specific quests, see Where to find XP (below) or Category:High XP Reward.
• Take as many Zaishen Quests as possible at the Embark Beach. Those quests can provide thousands of additionnal experience for little to no additionnal effort if you are planning to do the corresponding mission, bounty or vanquish soon.
• Take Storybooks. They provide an extremely helpful high amount of experience. Storybooks are so helpful that if you store them and fill new additional ones the total amount of experience they yield can allow you to get the title by itself.

Preparation tips

• Have as much armor rating as possible, and also as much health (Rune of Vigor and Runes of Vitae, Survivor Insignias and high-health weapon set) as possible. This will make foes less likely to target you, will reduce greatly the damage you take and also allow you more time to avoid death if needed.
• Avoid joining a Pick-up Group (PUG) — as the only human player, you will be free to use any escape method at any given time.
  • If adventuring with other players nevertheless, remind the team of your status and give the party a chance to decide if they want a survivor in the group; not every group is willing to chance someone exiting at a key moment. Some players also might lack good team work or might be unwilling or unable to put in the effort to protect you or even deliberately try to get you killed to foil your attempt at the title: ask your friends to help out. Guild and alliance members are more likely to be supportive than PUGs.
• Avoid high-risk areas, missions. Avoid taking quests. This is especially important if you have very few knowledge of the place and walkthrough of said mission or quest, even if there is a high experience reward at stake. Taking a quest often affect spawns, especially in high-end and elite areas.
• You can also bring:
  • A running skill to move out of danger quickly and also to pull mobs towards your heroes.
  • An emergency skill to protect you long enough to map out, make you a less attractive target, or help you escape the immediate danger. Such skills include Shadow Form, Vow of Silence or Death's Retreat.
  • A self-heal of some form to help you not to rely entirely on your healers (who might be dead or otherwise occupied).
  • A resurrection skill to resurrect your team if your other team members are dead.

Playing tips

• Control your aggro. Always pull opposing groups (using a Longbow or Shortbow, this gives your team the initiative and wastes some of your opponent's preparatory actions such as setting traps) then fall back. Be more defensive than aggressive; this gives you more time to react, allowing you a chance to escape, exit, or turn the tide of battle. Use your heroes, henchmen, minions, spirits, summoned allies and pets as a decoy as much as possible. Don't expose yourself too much, especially if you have a low armor rating. Don't hesitate to log out if experiencing over-aggro.
• Target the enemy damage dealers first. Casters such as ritualists, mesmers and elementalists (the latter of which are always damage-dealers) are the most dangerous ones. Melee foes are a much lesser threat since you can kite to avoid their attacks but try to snare them or blind/weaken them to greatly reduce their ability to sweep. Do not expose your team by rushing towards the enemy's backline (e.g. monks).
  • Bosses and boss-like foes deal double damage and have halved casting time: they can kill a character before the player has the time to log out. This is especially true when facing elementalist bosses and when capturing elite skills. Protective skills such as Protective Spirit or Protective Bond can allow to sponge the damage.
• Flagging heroes is good to avoid having them to die due to AoE damage but avoid doing it too much: if you forget that you flagged your heroes, you may engage a group of foes on your own and quickly get killed.
• Calling targets is good to focus your heroes' attention on one target in order to deliver a spike, but bear in mind that the AI tends to attack the caller.
• Do not go afk in an explorable area or during a mission if you might be attacked by foes.

General tips

• Follow the storyline: not only will you get experience from completing quests, missions and killing foes, but you'll also be able to fill storybooks and complete Zaishen Missions.
  • For your first Ascension-equivalent accomplishment completing the Augury Rock mission in Tyria before completing Nahpui Quarter in Cantha or Hunted! in Elona will grant you a 50,000 XP bonus.
  • Identify the critical missions, quests, dungeons (if any) that you will need to do in order to progress the storyline. Among other warnings:
    • Heroes in junundus can't heal you. This is especially important in the Gate of Desolation mission and during the Horde of Darkness quest.
    • Many late storyline bosses and boss-like foes, especially those you'll fight during A Time for Heroes, Unwaking Waters, Imperial Sanctum, Gate of Madness or Abaddon's Gate, can deal a high amount of AoE damage and cause a wipe or spike your character to death if your team is not prepared enough. Read the skill recommandation on the corresponding pages carefuly.
      • Cyndr at the end of the Heart of the Shiverpeaks dungeon can wipe out an entire party very easily with Pyroclastic Shot and the powerful Bed of Coals and Flame Burst. It is also almost unkillable by normal means when using only heroes and henchmen.
      • Charr Effigies at the end of Warband of Brothers have Shield of Fire which cause the damage to backfire to the damage dealer and use the powerful Mind Burn and Breath of Fire.
  • During missions with a timer, avoid rushing for master's rewards, pull back and regroup if your party is taking too much damage.
• Avoid solo quests and more generally areas where you have no healer or where your healers may not be able to help you survive, unless there is a high experience reward at stake.

Increase your experience gain

• Air of Superiority gives you a 20% chance to double experience gained from killing foes.
• Hard Mode increases foes' level and give an experience bonus, but foes are a bit harder to defeat and deal more damage.
• Use XP scrolls in areas where monsters are plentiful.
• Capture elite skills after you reach Level 20 to maximize the experience gained at 5,000.
• Similarly, hold off on claiming experience rewards from quests until you reach L20 so that you maximize the gains from killing lower level foes.
• In Nightfall, use bounties to get double experience from kills (and, as a bonus, you also progress in Sunspear or Lightbringer titles).

Escaping death

Always have an escape plan ready and execute it whenever you feel threatened; if you wait until things are dire, you could lose the title due to lag.

Fast, but subject to lag

Two common techniques are subject to lag, but are safer than running away.

• Warp out: either to Guild Hall (default key: [G]) or to an outpost. (Guild Hall is slightly faster, if for no other reason than you don't have to search for a destination).
• Log out your character (default key: [F12]): possibly faster than warping, but some believe you can continue to suffer degeneration until you re-enter the game.

Dangerous

These methods are worse than any of the others:

• Disconnecting
• Exiting the game.

In both cases, Guild Wars will wait 15 minutes for you to reconnect, allowing foes and degeneration to finish you off.

Where to find XP

Experience farms

These XP farms are currently popular for maximizing the title quickly.

High-risk, high-yield farms

• (Nightfall) Farming titans during Gate of Madness (can be done while afk) yields approximately 4,000 XP/minute in hard mode using experience scrolls or about five/six hours to maximize the title. See also: Guide to Gate of Madness farming
• (EotN) Farming Spectral Vaettir in Jaga Moraine takes about three minutes and yields ~18,000 XP per run in hard mode (300-400kxp/hour). See also: Guide to vaettir farming
• (EotN) Farming raptors outside Rata Sum yields approximately 10,000 XP/minute. However one should beware of the assassin boss' high damage output.
• (Core) Completing all quests in the Fissure of Woe yields 100,000 XP (in addition to the experience gained from killing foes). Can be easily managed using 7 heroes and/or consumables.

Eye of the North

• Kilroy Stonekin's Punch-Out Extravaganza!: 8,400xp each round (~51,000 XP/hour), in normal mode without scrolls. In Hard mode, this increases to 20,000 XP per run without scrolls; or up to 44,000 XP per run using +300% experience scrolls. These are safe for survivors provided you STAND UP! after getting knocked out. If you think you might not get back up in time, travel to an outpost to avoid dying.
• Snow Wurms outside Boreal Station: 1,300 XP/solo run (9,750 XP/hour for 9 min. runs) in normal mode without scrolls; up to 10,500 XP per run (126,000 XP/hour for 5 min. runs) in hard mode using scrolls. This farm is popular due to its low risk and because it combines well with the Treasure and Wisdom titles.
• There are two quest items that can be farmed in advance (or purchased from other players).
  • Hammer of Kathandrax: 7,500 XP each for completing Kathandrax's Crusher in Catacombs of Kathandrax. (When you are ready to claim the experience, have someone run you to the dungeon, exit to claim the reward, and repeat until you run out of the item.)
  • Prismatic Gelatinous Material: 5,000 XP each for completing Watch it Jiggle in Ooze Pit. (The quest giver is just outside Doomlore Shrine.)

Factions

• Cantha Courier Crisis: Provides about 90,000 XP/hour on hardmode, more with XP scrolls. Brawl quest, so as long as you stand back up you can't die, can farm event items and gold rarity items. Must teleport to an outpost before the quest mission is completed to keep farming.
• The Jade Arena in Archipelagos, southeast of Breaker Hollow, provides about 40,000 XP/hour.
• Unwaking Waters outside of Harvest Temple. Use seven heroes to kill the first group of foes (composed of five physical attackers) using anti-attack skills such as Empathy and Spiteful Spirit. Rezone and repeat. Each hard mode run yields 250 XP in 40 seconds or 22,500 XP/hour.

Beyond

• (Hearts of the North) Rise is repeatable and yields 5,000 XP each (among other rewards). Any deaths while disguised as Keiran Thackeray will stop progress in the title.
• (Winds of Change) Cantha Courier Crisis provides ~135,000 XP/hour through foe deaths, using experience scrolls in normal mode. (Recommended for experienced players. The quest is not repeatable, so it must be abandoned and retaken.)

High yield rewards

See also: Category:High XP Reward and List of high xp reward quests

Core

• 5,000 XP/elite skill when capturing elite skills. Beware especially of elementalist bosses, as they almost always carry powerful AoE spells.
• 50,000 XP: Zinn's Task, requires M.O.X. and each of the main campaigns.
• Combine with other titles or with farming, such as faction farming, e.g. for Sunspear ranks.
• Storybooks yield substantial amounts of XP and gold, especially if you were planning on completing each game story.
  • Collect multiple copies of the same book (you need between 11 to 30, depending on the book.
  • Save the books as you go through each campaign and every dungeon, for over 750k XP.
  • Save a few books to help you top off the last nerve-wracking 100–300k XP.
  • If you're planning to use normal mode Night Falls, take care to hand it in before you reach both Sunspear rank 8 and Lightbringer rank 5, as the NPCs won't accept them afterwards.

• Zaishen Missions, Zaishen Bounties, and Zaishen Vanquishes yield thousands of additional experience points.

Prophecies

• 34,000 XP: The Villainy of Galrath (Hard mode)

Factions

• Duel of the Houses yields 2,000 XP per every 2-3 minutes run (40,000-60,000 XP/hour). Very safe method with a meta hero team.
• Several quests*3000 XP: most primary quests don't need to be completed to go further in storyline and can be saved for later.
• 10,000 XP: Befriending the Luxons and Befriending the Kurzicks
• 10,000 XP: Raze the Roost (requires no effort if outposts are unlocked-you don't even have to pay the required 2)
• Various: A number of high-yield quests in Kaineng City can be completed with little to no danger, especially if you exploit the quest Seek out Brother Tosai to turn all Am Fah into allies.

Eye of the North

• 15,000 XP each:
  • Deeprunner's Map has zero risk. Gather the map pieces from other players (or characters).
  • Haunted (from Magni the Bison, after unlocking Xandra).
  • Nornhood (after unlocking Kahmu)
  • The Great Norn Alemoot, an easy solo-quest.
  • Unlocking Hayda (via Frogstomp and Give Peace a Chance).
  • Worthy Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap) & Anything You Can Do, from Sif of Sifhalla. (If you equip a Signet of Capture, you can gain an additional 5,000 XP after killing each of the bosses.). Beware of elementalist bosses and bunnies (Nulfastu Earthbound).
• 50,000 XP: Justiciar Naveed's full quest chain (also offers other modest rewards).

Event-driven

In addition to experience, these repeatable quests also reward substantial amounts of gold and seasonal items.

• During Halloween:
  • Every Bit Helps rewards 10,000 XP/run and presents no risk. The title can be maxed by capturing 402 skeletons ahead of time. (However, use caution: many players find the prerequisite quest to be deadly.)
• During Wintersday:
  • Snowball Dominance can be completed with a hero. It takes 268 runs to max the Survivor title (approximately 9 to 12 hours, depending on your primary profession). Very effective for rangers due to their skill Flurry of Ice.
  • Fighting in a Winter Wonderland in Hard Mode yields 7,500 XP/run, which an experienced group of eight players can finish in 3.5 minutes or less; pick-up groups are easy to find during the event. It takes 179 runs to maximize the title, or around 10 hours at peak efficiency.