Arkjok Ward Solo W/X -Tusked, Termites & Ntouka

Seren!ty

Seren!ty

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2006

[iDum]

R/E

Hi there,

Welcome to my first build thread in the farming section.
The creatures in this Area drop some decent items, ranging from spears and swords to staves and rods that aren't very common. So far, each run can net you a decent sum. But the other great thing about these runs is that you'll get a boss (Onwan, Lord of the Ntouka), which drops a nice green. All that by using a easy and save build. So let's get started!

Arkjok Ward -Elona

Equipment:
For Pulling: Either a Long- or Flatbow. The stats don't matter ofcourse.
For Fighting: Just some good stuff, I'm using the following:
Furious Gothic Sword of Shelter
15-22, dmg +15% (armor -10), Armor +7 (vs. physical), Double Adrenaline (10%).
Exalted Aegis
Armor: 16, dmg -5 (20%), HP +30

Armor:
You need max armor. I use a mix of Dreadnought and Knights. Just choose whatever suits you best, just keep in mind that you will recieve quite some damage and hits.

Runes:
Superior Vigor and Superior Absorbtion are highly recommended, but you can do without. For this build I'm using my Tactics Helmet with a Superior Tactics Rune and a Minor Strength Rune on my armor. I had no place for a swordsman rune because I placed a minor tactics on my armor and I can't be bothered to remove it just for this build.

Attributes:

Strength: 9+1(Minor Rune)
Swordmanship: 12
Tactics: 9+1(Helmet)+3(Superior Rune)

Skills:

From Left to Right:
Dolyak Signet, Victory is Mine! [e], Sever Artery, Gash, Desperation Blow, Sun and Moon Slash, Shields Up!, Lion's Comfort.

Dolyak Signet is there for a nice armor boost, and keeps you from getting knocked down when using Desperation Blow.
Sever Artery, Gash and Desperation Blow are there for conditions and damage at the same time. With the conditions applied you will gain benefit from ViM (Victory Is Mine!), which is your primary Heal.
Sun and Moon Slash serves two purposes: First is extra damage ofcourse and second is adrenaline gain.
Shields Up! Helps when fighting the tusked creatures (paragons) and the Beetle Paragons.
Lion's Comfort is another heal. When you fight bladed termites you usually don't have enough conditions applied to your target to make ViM useful -They die really fast due to their use of "Frenzy" and to their low level. When fighting the other creatures you will rarely have to use this.
Learn your skills

The Actual Farm:

Exit from Johlon Haven and enter Arkjok Ward. Once outside you see the area's I marked in the map above. I suggest clearing the area's in the order I mentioned. Area 1 -> 2 -> 3, that is.

First Area is full of Tusked Howlers and Hunters, don't let their names confuse you, they are no Necromancers and Rangers. No, they are paragons, and easy to kill too! Run in and kill them by using your attack skills, apply conditions and use ViM when you are in need of energy, or health. Try to keep Dolyak Signet up at all times, as it gives a nice little armor boost. Shields Up! (I name it an optional skill, but it helps a lot) can be used when you see fit, note that it makes you block 50% of their attacks.
When things go out of hand, use Lion's Comfort to heal yourself, just be careful when using this skill, because it disables your signet rings (Dolyak Signet) for 12 seconds. I used this skill when I just used Dolyak Signet, but if you really have to you should use it no matter what.
The tusked, or apes, should be really easy to kill. Just be careful with the nearby Mandragor, aggro one and you are certain of a death.

Second Area really depends on the spawn you get. You should see a huge group of termites sitting there. These are actually 3 seperate groups, and 1 is almost always available for a lure. So get these first and pull them back to where you came from. If there is a Queen in this group, kill her first. It is rather time consuming but you can kill her. Once she is dead kill the others. Save the Lance for the last as the blades are easier to kill. If you have multiple lanced lured in this group you can hide behind a rock or something to protect you from their spears. This is not necessary at all, it just makes things a bit easier.
When fighting the blades you will face a problem I faced: You kill the creatures to fast to gain benefit from ViM. So use Lion's Comfort on occasion.
Blades are pussies, Queens are time-consuming and Lances are like the Tusked -Easy.
When you killed the first group you can try to pull the second and third group (you will most likely get them both -so watch that. If you think you cannot take them, leave them. If there are 2 Queens in this group, leave them. You will not be able to kill them. If you have a lucky spawn do the same as I told you above, use terrain to your advantage, kill the queen first and whack away.

Third Area:
Termites, again. This is only one group and should be easy. Do the same as I said above.

Now it is time to go to the fourth area, here are still some tusked creatures and a Ntouka Boss (warrior, carries a Elite as well). When running to the fourth area follow the path I took and evade all other groups at all costs. Mandragor group with the ele's means death. The Mesmer creatures (Crested Ntouka Birds) and their Elementalist companions deal a lot of damage and will likely result in a death as well. Cracked Mesa's are not a real problem as they are warriors and will drop the chase soon, Stone Shard Crags however do pose a threat. Try to evade everything untill the fourth area. (Area 5 is the most difficult part to run through -try not to aggro anything in here)

Fourth Area is the area where you will find the Warrior boss (Onwan, Lord of the Ntouka) with some Tusked. Aggro them and pull them to a save spot. I found a nice hill in this area and walked to it to hide from the tusked so I could savely kill the boss. I highly suggest you do this as well. The boss is a easy. He dies quick and poses no real threat if faced alone. Kill him, hope for a green, and move on to the tusked, please note that you cannot kill the elementalist and mesmer ntouka. You can kill the Rhino-like Ntouka if you manage to get them seperated from the casters.That concludes this farming run.

Conclusion:
A very easy farm run with a chance of some very nice drops. I hoped you learned a thing or two and that you enjoyed reading it. Even though it is quite lengthy

Comments, tips and hints are welcome.
- Fymir Linry

thomasnl88

thomasnl88

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Feb 2006

Netherlands

[iDum]

Nice Guide!!

Seren!ty

Seren!ty

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2006

[iDum]

R/E

307 views and only 1 reply? C'mon where's the feedback

Zamochit

Zamochit

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jul 2006

N/A

Very nice

I am curious as to what sort of drops you are getting, any nice skins?

Also the build looks highly adrenaline reliant. have you considered bringing both drunken and desperation blow at the expense of an adrenal skill like sun and moon slash? Vim will cover the cost of this especially if you use a zealous mod on your sword and dolyaks obviously prevents the knockdown. This way you are more likely to gain additional health from ViM as I find often the deep wound gets duplicated leaving a minimal health boost with the use of just one condition based attack.

Obviously the health of the enemy plays a big part in this but I am sure it will drop those monks quicker than charging adrenaline for a spike.

very nice idea none the less, a challenge and a time sink.

Oh and i love pure warrior builds
Good job Serenity

Mostlarble

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2006

LiFe

W/N

Nice work, looks promising, I will give this a bash tonight when I get home.

Lt.Crumpet

Lt.Crumpet

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2005

Michigan

R/

looks solid, ill have to give it a try later. good work

watrah

watrah

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Mar 2006

The Dynasty Warrior

N/Me

it look good I haven't try it yat but I see u use Sun and Moon Slash to get extra damage and adrenaline gain and it take 8 adrenaline to charge

but u could use Flail which take 4 adrenaline to charge that speed ur attack by 33% which mean fast exrta dmg and fast adrenaline gain yah it slow ur move by 33% but u are already slowed by 75% by the Dolyak Signet and both of them are Strength skills so you don't need to spend attribute points in something else for this combo to work

thx

Seren!ty

Seren!ty

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2006

[iDum]

R/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by watrah
it look good I haven't try it yat but I see u use Sun and Moon Slash to get extra damage and adrenaline gain and it take 8 adrenaline to charge

but u could use Flail which take 4 adrenaline to charge that speed ur attack by 33% which mean fast exrta dmg and fast adrenaline gain yah it slow ur move by 33% but u are already slowed by 75% by the Dolyak Signet and both of them are Strength skills so you don't need to spend attribute points in something else for this combo to work

thx The thing with Flail is that the tusked use wild throw which cancels the stance, so in most cases it has no use at all. Except for those fights with the termites, but I don't think you need to bring it for those alone. Sun and Moon is just better in this case, I think.

I've been tweaking this build a bit and I manage to kill most of the Mandragor groups now as well. The new build is far from perfect and I'm still tweaking it. I'll post it here when its done

Aun

Aun

Banned

Join Date: Oct 2006

Sweden

Its Gi [Joe]

N/

I'm really interested in what you are getting off this build, I'm a poor player that hasn't done much pve but I really want to get a cool pve warrior going now. So I need a promising build to help me gain cash.

??Ripskin

??Ripskin

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jul 2006

Mo/

I just kill the insects with my ele.. I don't have ViM I don't think.

Silly Warrior

Silly Warrior

Hold it!

Join Date: Jul 2006

In your local courthouse.

The Arctic Marauders [TAM] (elite PvE, PM)

How goods to drop rate of weps and gold?

Xiaxhou of Trinity

Xiaxhou of Trinity

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

CA

Scythes of Chaos [SoC], [PNOY] alliance guild forums: http://socguild.cjb.net

E/

Are there interrupts or is the extra armor from dolyak important? If not I would switch out lions comfort to heal sig (nasty effect lions has on signets, which must mean that you aren't too dependant on dolyak) Desperation blow deals many different condtions, including bleeding and deep wound, sometimes replacing it if it has been thrown on by another skill (referring to sever and gash) I would take those out and replace them with drunken blow (factions copy of desperation) and galrath slash (gotta love galrath+sun and moon for quick spammin those big numbers). Otherwise pretty solid. For fun I run a ViM desperation+drunken war in RA but I didn't think it to be usable in pve, great job Serenity.

RebelHero

RebelHero

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Apr 2006

Shaolin Monastery [Heal]

Mo/

Lions Comfort works fine with dolyak, it just requires good timing

jugglingpenguin

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2006

I Plan B I [run]

W/

very nice im gonna try this later, i wanna start farming on my warrior rather than monk, its more interesting

Kyubbi

Kyubbi

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Sep 2006

W/

very nice tried it with my warrior

TeeJay

TeeJay

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2006

The Netherlands

OBE

R/

ViM is enough to keep you alive? You know it only effects your target right? If it's still enough, great build

Witte Was

Witte Was

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Apr 2006

Left GW

Proud Member of : Glob of Ectospasm [GoE]

W/

Nice to see more warrior solo builds. I do not doubt about ViM it's on of my favorite skills, good job!

KennethD

KennethD

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2006

--

W/

Works great
Not that you earn big money on it, but on my first run i got the green for the boss

KingKryton

KingKryton

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jun 2005

New Zealand

W/Mo

i swapped out sun and moon for final thrust which finishes off the queens fairly easily. i had problems with the tusked howlers thou because they always made me cripple and bleed is this new or am i doing something wrong?

merciless

merciless

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

Sin Squad www.sinsquad.us

W/

For attributes this setup is better:

strength 9+1+1
sword 10+2
tactics 12+1

5 unused points. I did not take time to make these attributes. My armor was naturally setup with runes like this already.

No superior means more health

Krazi Bastid

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Dec 2006

A/

this is a pretty sweet farm. all meleers and some chump monk. i cant try it on my war dusty ol warrior cus his ass still stuck in tyria with no skills. so gonna try it on my sin with ultimate sin-melee-defense(flashin blades/crit defense together). hope these guys dont have stance removal.

Puran Lighthart

Puran Lighthart

Academy Page

Join Date: Jan 2007

GoAnubis

W/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Krazi Bastid
this is a pretty sweet farm. all meleers and some chump monk. i cant try it on my war dusty ol warrior cus his ass still stuck in tyria with no skills. so gonna try it on my sin with ultimate sin-melee-defense(flashin blades/crit defense together). hope these guys dont have stance removal. pretty sure they have wild blow