W/D farmer concept

http://gw.gamependium.com/tools/builds/show/724

Here's my first stab at a W/D farming build. It's defenses are all uninterruptible and unstrippable, has constant healing from Victorious Sweep, and an extra heal in Lion's Comfort. It's heavily based on adrenaline, which should roll in with a scythe, and the 2 energy skills are easily paid for with a zealous mod.

Of course, this build will have severe problems with any life stealing or armor ignoring mobs, but should be able to heal through even max degen.

One unlisted variant might include "Fear Me!" to shutdown monk mobs.

Let me know what you think.

It's definately nice as far as defense goes but it doesn't seem like you'd be dealing much damage. The occasional earth damage and maybe some other stuff but most of it's going to be how much and how fast you can hit them with your scythe. Which may work fine, just thinking that maybe there is a faster method with more damage?

There is the option of using chilling victory instead of Mirage Cloak. It would give you a nice AoE skill to add on the extra damage, but causes scatter. However, the scatter effect might be desired in order to spread out the mob and decrease incoming damage. However, when it comes down to it, all AoE builds come down to fighting 3 mobs at a time at some point, while the rest of the mobs stand out of range and heal. This build just acknowledges that fact right off the bat and uses a weapon that is tailored for that fact. The scythe automatically hits 3 targets at a time, and has a huge damage range. With a Victorious Sweep every 4-5 seconds, you will average around 35 dps per mob hit. There aren't many (any?) builds that can match up to 105 sustained dps after the AoE nerf. AoE's will blow it out of the water with enough mobs around, sure, until the AoE nerf kicks in. Then all the mobs will run away and heal up all that damage you just caused.

If you want to really destroy mass mobs of trolls really quickly post nerf, trapping seems to be by far the best way to do it. This build is designed to go up against more difficult areas with smaller groups of higher level and more powerful mobs. I'm going to try it out in the Tombs as soon as I get it unlocked on my warrior. (He started in Factions). If I had a chance to fight at night when America takes the favor from Europe, I might also try the old underworld.

Quote: Originally Posted by Progor There aren't many (any?) builds that can match up to 105 sustained dps after the AoE nerf. Yes. SS still has the 150 DPS it had before, and now with Searing Flames, that 150 is easily matched.
Quote: Originally Posted by Progor

How do you keep mobs from running off with SS and Searing Flames? I tried several different builds with SS after the latest nerf, and the mobs would do just what they always did until they got down to about 50-60% health, then run off. SS on a foe that's not attacking has 0 DPS. That's why I specifically said sustainable DPS. Assuming you can keep the two foes attacking you that are hexed with SS, all the rest of the mobs should be standing out of its range healing up, so it's DPS is 37x2 = 74 DPS on 2 mobs. So I get where you're saying 150 DPS... but that is assuming you can keep 2 low health mobs attacking you constantly.

SF also has problems: once the mobs scatter, it might hit what... 3 foes? Maybe in a build with Mark of Rodgort you can keep the burning going constantly, making it's damage 120ish every 3 seconds, plus 14 dps from burning. That's 54 DPS on probably 3 foes at a time after they scatter. The only damage that really matters is post-scatter damage... any damage done before the scatter will be healed by all but those that are hit immediately after the scatter. So 54 DPS on 3 foes at a time is about 162 DPS. Is there a good solo build out there that incorporates enough defense to survive the trolls, the requisite Mark of Rodgort / Searing Flames / Glowing Gaze / Fire Attunement, and enough additional energy management to keep it going until all the trolls are dead? I imagine that a channeling powered build with mantra of resolve and Kinetic Armor + Stoneflesh Aura for defense could pull it off. So this build should be able to maintain 162 DPS.

However, I also forgot to incorporate a 15^50 mod and a 20% customization bonus into my calculation of the scythe damage.

Critical Hit chance at 11 scythe mastery: 15%
Damage range of a scythe: 9-41
9-41 range, adjusted for 15^50 and 20% customization becomes: 12-56
Damage Rating at 11 scythe mastery: 55
Armor Penetration: 15%

Now, assume we're hitting against AL 60 (to be consistent with SF damage). 15% armor penetration brings this down to 51. With 55 damage rating, that means you'll do 12-60. When you critical you'll have 75 damage rating and max damage, dealing 84 damage. Put all this together, and you average 36 damage 85% of the time and deal 84 the other 15% of the time for an overall average of 43 damage per hit. That's 36 DPS with the IAS from flail. Victorious Sweep adds about 6 DPS, making the grand total 42 DPS per foe. If it hits 3 mobs, that makes it a total of 126 DPS. So you do need to include something like Eremite's Attack for another 7.5 (x3) DPS (as well as increasing the base DPS by 4 due to the fast swing) to reach the magical 150 DPS number. All total, with Eremite's Attack in Mirage Cloak's place, you end up with 53.5 DPS per foe, or 160.5 DPS total. In other words, this build compares favorably with a Searing Flames build, unless you can consistently make Searing Flames hit 4 or more of the foes that are programmed to run away from it.

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The vermin farming build works well for vermins, but that's because they are low armor assassin mobs and trolls/minos are high armor warrior mobs. The poster of that build states that trolls and minos really don't work near as well... they run away before the damage is done and you have to juggle them around. I played with several builds along this concept but never could get them to work quite as well as he states. I didn't have Unsteady Ground, and that may make the difference.

Note that this build is designed for smaller groups of higher level mobs. How does anyone with experience with Underworld and FoW think this build would do there? I might have everything I need to try it out in the Tombs by tomorrow sometime.