Fast, post-nerf E/W Vermin farming

Profession: Elementalist/Warrior

Type: Solo farming, Vermin

Category: Geomancer

Attributes:

Earth Magic: 16 (12 + 3 + 1)
Fire Magic: 10; could easily go 11 (10 + 1)
Energy Storage: 3 (2 + 1)
Tactics: 8

Skills:

Healing Signet
Balanced Stance
Glyph of Lesser Energy
Bed of Coals
Unsteady Ground {E}
Aftershock
Sliver Armor
Armor of Earth

Equipment:

A shield or offhand with a -2 damage (while enchanted) modifier. Just about any one-handed weapon or wand will do, although a +20% enchantment duration bonus can be helpful.

Summary:

This build gets around the 10/25 AI tweaks by initially weakening the Vermin with DoT AoE then delivering a large packet of damage before they can flee; the burning inflicted by Bed of Coals finishes them off. The speed of this build is at least comparable to that of pre-10/25 builds -- in many cases, it's better.

Videos:

Single battle
Full run

Specifics:

Initially, you want to aggro as many Vermin as you can without actually subjecting yourself to any attacks. You can dodge the Vermin fairly well, as they only move as fast as you do (just don't put up Armor of Earth yet). If you get hit with a Jagged Strike, however, you may as well stop and enter battle because the knockdowns and degen will soon follow. Note that setting up the battle is critical, as you cannot tolerate late-arriving Vermin well. So try to make sure you've aggro'ed all the Vermin that might conceivably walk up to the battle within the next 20 seconds or so. Finally, you cannot comfortably kill Shreader Sharptongue with this build, so give him a wide berth.

Next, settle down somewhere and activate Armor of Earth and Glyph of Lesser Energy. Watch as the Vermin's attacks fall; when you see a Jagged Strike, hit Balanced Stance. Remember that you can activate Balanced Stance while you are moving or activating another skill.

When all the Vermin are reasonably close to you, hit Bed of Coals. You want to make sure they are all attacking when the initial batch of damage hits; otherwise, they tend to scramble off. So, don't hit it too early. At the same time, you only have so much longevity under the barrage of Vermin attacks; so, don't wait too long.

Now, wait for Bed of Coals to fire 3 or 4 times. Then, cast Unsteady Ground, remembering that you must have a target for it to work. Again, timing is important. If you hit it too early, the Vermin tend to live through the spike; if you wait too long, they'll run off. While Unsteady Ground is activating, queue Aftershock. This sets up an avalanche of damage which should kill off all the Vermin. I usually hit a Healing Signet at this point while I am waiting to see if any make it through alive. This can happen if they were standing when Aftershock hit.

If any do still live, then hit Sliver Armor and maybe another Healing Signet while you are waiting for Aftershock to recharge (incidentally, do not use Sliver Armor at the beginning of a battle! This will cause them to scatter and will generally ruin everything). One last Aftershock should finish off the remaining Vermin.

Use Healing Signet to stave off death, but don't worry about getting back up to full health. You'll generally heal about 100-250 HP naturally while setting up the next battle.

Notes and Concerns:

Battles last 12-15 seconds, assuming that you get a good, clean aggro and everything dies in the first assault. A run will take 5 1/2 to 6 minutes, and in an average hour of farming, you can expect to collect about 10k.

You might consider swapping Ward of Stability for Balanced Stance and switch Aura of Restoration for Healing Signet to make this a straight Elementalist build. I don't know that there is any advantage to that, though, since Balanced Stance is more flexible and Healing Signet is less energy-intensive. Of course, you might contemplate running a 55 hp version of this build, as well.

I haven't had the opportunity to try out any of the Nightfall skills with this build, but Savannah Heat and Sandstorm seem like they might work well against higher level monsters. Stoneflesh Aura could possibly replace Armor of Earth as well.

Variant:

Minotaurs/Mountain Trolls

Aura of Restoration
Lava Font
Glyph of Lesser Energy
Unsteady Ground {E}
Bed of Coals
Aftershock
Armor of Earth
Ward Against Melee

Earth Magic: 14 (10 + 3 + 1)
Fire Magic: 12; could easily go 13 (12 + 1)
Energy Storage: 9 (8 + 1)

Videos:

Minotaurs
Mountain Trolls

Specifics:

Minotaurs and Mountain Trolls present a different sort of challenge than Vermin. On the one hand, you no longer need to worry about getting knocked down or about having health-degenerating conditions put on you. On the other hand, they are significantly more resilient to damage and can easily outlast the spike that kills the Vermin.

So, a few changes are in order. Most importantly, Lava Font has been added to boost the damage output of the build. Ward Against Melee replaces Sliver Armor to reduce the damage taken, as well as the occurence of Mighty Blows and Disrupting Chops.

Playing this variant is somewhat different, as well. Cast Aura of Restoration before aggro and then Armor of Earth and Ward Against Melee as the creatures collapse on you.

Start the battle by casting Lava Font, then Glyph of Lesser Energy. Next, cast Unsteady Ground then Bed of Coals (note that the order is reversed here). Try to put these spells down as quickly as possible. Follow them with Aftershock, making sure to time it to coincide with the second knockdown from Unsteady Ground.

After this, the creatures will flee as they are burning, which is pretty amusing to watch in and of itself, but they will return. Since at that moment the spells you will need to finish them off won't have recharged, you'll have to temporize by doing what I call "juggling" the monsters using Lava Font. Essentially, we're taking advantage of the AI's fear of AoE spells to drive the creatures off, thus reducing the amount of damage they can do. Assuming their health is low enough, when they return they should promptly run off again, as if you are juggling them.

It will be necessary to reapply Ward Against Melee around this time, and maybe Armor of Earth also. When Aftershock recharges, let the creatures approach and hit as many as possible with it. It will generally take a couple of Lava Font/Aftershock cycles to kill them all.

As before, aggro'ing is critical. Mountain Trolls stack up nicely in the cave, so it's not too difficult to set up against them. However, Minotaurs tend to wander in and out of battle, which can be annoying. I like to make three circuits around the central crystal pond to ensure that I've aggro'ed all the Minotaurs in the area.

Minotaur battles take between 35 and 45 seconds, generally; troll battles are a bit longer, more like 45 to 55 seconds. Also, the Troll bosses will outlast you, so run off them once you've killed the rest of their group.

Credit:

This build uses the same core skills in a PvP context. Also, here is a loosely similar E/Mo build that uses Meteor Shower for knockdown.

Well, that should about do it. Good luck with the build!

EDIT: Ward of Stability has been fixed; so, the remark about that situation was removed.