Helm's Dike Epic Battle, Fellowship Version Guide

[ezra_h]

Seeing a lot of questions about HD EB I wanted to make a guide to help some folks out with it. I may make guides for other battles if there is a positive response.


Helm's Dike Fellowship Epic Battle
- You need at least 3 ranks of engineer to be able to move barricades into the lanes of attack. You need at least 5 ranks of engineer to add spikes to the barricades. The barricades alone, even without spikes are helpful to slow attackers. I recommend taking as much engineer points as possible up to rank 5 focusing on bear trap damage, trap trigger count and trip wire. Placing traps under the barricades in the lanes of attack will help the defenders immensely.
- Once you have 5 or 6 ranks of engineer I recommend then taking 3 ranks of officer. This will allow you to assign two-handed stance to the defenders which will upgrade their damage to attackers.

In the following picture:
grey arrows - normal routes of attack
pink and yellow circles - focus points for side quests if the first wave is on western side
pink arrow - route for stone carriers
light blue and dark blue arrows - routes of attack for side quests if first wave is on eastern side
red arrows - routes of attack for 3rd stage war machine side quest (Flames At The Gate) (random)
orange arrows - routes of attack for 3rd stage side quest Statue of Helm Hammerhand (random)
3 trenches west of main gate are marked A1 through A3
5 trenches east of main gate are marked B1 through B5



If 1st Wave Is On Western side
Western Side Setup
- 4 or more upgraded barricades in trench A1
- 3 upgraded barricades in trenches A2 and A3
- 1 or 2 upgraded barricades in B1
- catapult over main gate or vanatge point either side of gate to hit stone carriers

1. Stone Obstruction (1A)
spawn points
- stone carriers will spawn in front of vantage point west of main gate
- larger waves of enemies will attack up all western trenches and first trench east of main gate
strategy
- catapult over main gate or vantage point on either side can kill the stone carriers
- all 3 western trenches and 1st trench on eastern side must be defended and archers should be ordered to fire after the first priority of making them safe
- this quest takes at least 4 people guarding the routes of attack. 1 other person on catapult makes it easier so the others don't have to worry so much about ordering the archers to fire.

2. Guarding The Watchtowers (2A)
spawn points
- all 3 western trenches will spawn an unordinarily larger number of attackers
strategy
- guard the 3 western trenches
- having upgraded barricades in the trench helps a lot
- laying traps and using crowd control skills on enemies can help soldiers deal with them

If 1st Wave Is On Eastern Side
Eastern Side Setup
- 2 or 3 upgraded barricades in trenches B1 and B2
- 1 or 2 upgraded barricades in trenches B3, B4 and B5
- place some upgraded barricades in front of stables to prepare for the side quests
- possibly setup some siege weapons in front of stables to prepare for side quests. if you have good dps it's not necessary.

1. Powder At The Gate (1B)
spawn
- incoming enemies will be spread wide from front of stable all the way over to water line on their way to the main gate
strategy
- bring barricades and perhaps other siege weapons to slow enemies and defeat them before they reach their objective near the gate
- explosives can be defused if they are attended to quickly
- there is no one size fits all strategy here. if you have a couple good dps here with some barricades slowing the enemies the rest can go prepare for the next stage.

2. Protect The Horses (2B)
spawn points
- enemies spawn just south of a small bunch of white flowers at 71.30 N, 75.60 W (need to turn up the frill density to see the flowers)
- also a small group of enemies will spawn just south of a bush behind the stable
strategy
- kill the enemies at the spawn points or at the stables
- barricade / ballista combo at 71.30 N, 75.60 W is effective
- catapult and barricades can be used to cover wide area of attack in front of stable

3rd Objective Is Random
War machines (WM)
spawn
- 1 war machine will move to main gate
- 2 other war machines will spawn and attack from the trenches on each side of the main gate (A1 and B1)
- larger groups of enemies will attack from A1 and B1 trenches

strategy
- place a ballista at first vantage point west of main gate as seen in the picture to hit the war machine at the main gate. since this war machine cannot be attacked directly it must be destroyed by siege weapons or ordering archers to fire at it.
- you could also attack the war machine with a catapult but a ballista only takes 3 shots and is much faster
- someone must stay below main gate walkway to repair and extinguish the main gate throughout entire side quest
- 2 other war machines will appear in trenches on either side of main gate (A1 and B1) shortly after the first one reaches the gate
- deal with the other war machines by any means necessary. it's helpful to have someone with ranged attacks on them since they may be too far down the trench for melee dps.

Statue of Helm Hammerhand (SHH)
spawn
- unordinarily larger groups of enemies will spawn in 4 eastern trenches (B2, B3, B4 and B5)
- B2 and B3 will attack the statue
- B4 and B5 will attack munitions at the easternmost vantage point
strategy
- fellowship should split into 2 groups with one guarding the statue and the other guarding the munitions
- barricade / ballista combos are useful here since the attacks are focused on the 2 points
- one person can guard B3 or just make sure those enemies are killed before reaching statue