Guild Wars 2 Source of the Issue Quest

In Guild Wars 2, the Sylvari personal storyline continues into the source of the issue quest. This particular quest may be hard for some professions because this is a purely combat orientated quest, and requires the hero and his NPC companions to fight their way through hordes of Nightmare courtiers, monsters and finally withstand a mass attack by the nightmare court. Heroes deficient in the vitality area of their stats may find this mass attack very overwhelming indeed. This will guide the elementalist hero on how to use the staff and trident fire attuned skills to defeat the enemies one batch at a time and then stand his ground on the final assault to finish the source of the issue quest and proceed on in the sylvari personal storyline.

Note that it may be worthwhile doing this quest at one level above the recommended level for the elementalist hero.

Malyck and Caithe will assist the hero. Follow Malyck into the shores of the river. Malyck uses the pistol in battle, and Caithe is a melee fighter mostly. The elementalist hero is a support magic user type character and should attack from behind Malyck and Caithe. Spot the nightmare courtiers from above the slope and arm the hero with the staff. (Hint: The hero can get a powerful staff from a level 19 or 20 mission in Brisban Wildlands.)

Now unleash meteor shower on the nightmare courtiers from a distance. The archers nightmare courtiers will start releasing arrows at the hero. This can defeat the hero in an instant. So shield the hero with the arcane shield, and speed up the demise of the enemies by summoning the fire elemental to help the hero. It will also help to use elemental traits to enhance the hero's fire prowess and damage.

With the nightmare courtiers defeated, head into the river.

Next, one hopes that the elementalist hero has mastered the art of trident underwater attacks, especially in the elemental area that the hero has been attuned to. In this case, it is fire. There is a good Caledon Forest stretch where the hero can level up the trident underwater attacks.

Enter the river and face the Brackish Skales one at a time. This can be done by positioning the hero far from the brackish skales and then launching underwater fire attacks at the brackish skales one at a time. This technique will only draw one brackish skale to attack the hero at any one time. Finish off the solitary brackish skale with attacks from Caithe and Malyck and then target the next brackish skale. However, this tactic may break down if a rush of blood reaches the brains of Caithe and Malyck and they attack next brackish skale before the current one is defeated. In this case, the hero needs to launch area attacks such as steam and lava chains to eliminate the skales. If multiple skales attack the hero, he may need to evade and swim away to avoid death.

The nightmare courtiers at the seedpod are the most difficult to defeat out of all the monsters in the source of the issue quest. However, before these nightmare courtiers appear, the hero needs to deal with the nightmare courtiers at the shore of the river after the brackish skales are defeated.

The hero can employ the following tactics to defeat these nightmare courtiers – swim out of water quickly and launch meteor shower at the nightmare courtiers. Then jump back into the river and allow Caithe and Malyck to round up and eliminate the courtiers (whose health has been depleted due by the hero's meteor shower spell). When the coast is relatively clear, jump out of the river again and put down the remaining courtiers.

And then there are the nightmare courtiers at the seedpod left. These are difficult. The elementalist hero armed with staff and attuned to fire needs to arm himself with meteor shower and glyph of the elements (firestorm). Defensive spells crucial to this fight include glyph of harmony and arcane shield.

Emerge at the seedpod and quickly cast arcane shield. Next, throw up the glyph of the elements spell and meteor shower. Finally, heal the hero as he would have been damaged trying to cast the first three spells. Using this technique and for this particular hero, only one nightmare courtier will be left.

Now jump into the water and swim ahead to avoid this last courter. On the left side of the river will be a shore. Jump onto it and use it as a platform to throw fireballs at the Knight of Embers. Once the Knight of Embers have been driven away, the hero's health will be restored to full. Jump back into the water and head for the seedpod. Jump out of water and defeat the remaining nightmare courtier(s) using the tactics above.

By doing so, the hero will have finished the source of the issue quest. It's time to hunt down the main nemesis of Malyck.