Lurking arround the forum and listenning here and there, I got some pointers, but people want to keep their builds to themselves. And this might tick off some of those people, but i say what the heck, I'll share my info.
First off, using this strategy, I got Elonian Grandmaster Cartographer and Protector of Elona (just to prove a little point to start out).
My Group setup:
I always run a smiting Monk,as long as I'm not in a group (and the only time I went to get a group was for Gate of Madness).
16 in Smiting Prayers and 12 in Inspiration: Signet of Judgement, Bane Signet, Signet of Rage, Spear of Light, Smite, Banish, Mantra of Inscriptions, (any rez or annother skill of choice).
The Rest of my 8 Man party:
E/Me Hero, E/Me Hero, N/Me hero, Healer Henchman, Healer Henchman, Motivation Henchman, Fighter Henchman.
Hero Setups (except the first two, I only use the others for other special occasions):
My Hero's always got the same skill setup, that works for any occasion when using Heros' in a 'henchway' build.
E/Me: Mantra of (Frost/Flame/Lightning/Earth), Aura of Restoration (Almost always disabled), Searing Flames, Liquid Flame, Glowing Gaze, Glyph of Lesser Energy, Fire Attunement, Rez. Sig.
N/Me: Animate Bone Fiend, Animate Vampiric Horror, Animate Shambling Horror (generally disabled, unless I got a lot of corpses and a lot of enemies dying), Animate Flesh Golem, Blood of the Master, Signet of Lost Sould, Mantra of (Frost/Flame/Lightning), Rez. Sig.
W/R: Enraged Smash, "To the Limit!", (4 disabled adrenal skills that require little adrenaline), Comfort Animal, Charm Animal.
R/Mo: Barrage, Savage Shot, Dodge, Penetrating Attack, Lightning Reflexes, Comfort Animal, Charm Animal, Rebirth
A/R: Sharpen Daggers, Critical Eye, Barrage, Savage Shot, Crossfire, Comfort Animal, Charm Animal, Rez. Sig.
Now, it goes without saying that everyone got 16 and 13 in their respective skills. (Fire Magic/Energy Storage, Death Magic/Soul Reaping, Hammer Mastery/Beast Mastery, Marksmanship/Expertise, Critical Strikes/masrksmanship)...
And here comes the farming:
Farming Lightbringer points:
I always farm Depths of Madness (explorable from Abbadon's Gate), which nets about 500-600 points per run. It always contains 5 Margonite chests and a few bosses which might drop you some greens if you're lucky.
Here is the map with the route you (have to/are advised to) take for Depths of Madness with your 8-Man henchway team.
1: Menzies Battle
2: Margonite Battle
3: Monster Hunt
a: Monk Boss
b: Rit Boss
c: Necro Boss
d: Assassin Boss
e: Warrior Boss
A,B,C: Dangerous spots where you can overaggro very much and very fast.
When I go farming Lightbringer Points I use the following modified smiter setup: Echo, Lightbringer's Gaze, Bane Signet, Signet of Rage, Spear of Light, Smite, Mantra of Inscriptions, Ether Signet
A Few Pointers:
Generally I switch my Hero's mantra of ... depending on the area I'm exploring.
For Vabbi I use Mantra of Flame (Ruby Djins).
For The Desolation I use Mantra of Earth (Sandstorm Crags).
For the Torment area I use Mantra of Frost (Rain of Terrors).
The Shadow Nexus:
When I go to the Shadow Nexus, I always run 2 E/Me and 1 N/Me (and Monk by myself).
It gets me (my personal best is 221 #7 Alltime on Europe that time) generally over 150+ points each run, using the builds mentionet above (using Mantra of Lightning).
A few additional Hero Pointers:
On my Eles Heros' I use Kantoh's Walking Stick, although it doesn't make much of a difference (I've not noticed any to be honest) to other Fire Ele equipment. I also upgraded their armor with Pyromancer Insignia, but depending on where you are most of the time other insignia might be more worthwhile (I'll most likely get them Hydromancer Insignias soon, because I'm in the Realm of Torment most of the time).
My Necromancer uses Minion Master Insignia (and one Bloodstained), a 10/10 Deathwand and +15/-1 Energy offhand. It works a lot better than Ghails Staff (which I used before).
My barragin Hero's generally use a zealous flatbow (except the barrage assassin), the green Ironwing Flatbow in my case.
The hammer Warrior uses whatever hammer I got available (customized Vera at the moment).
Well, I'm always open for suggestions, so drop me a line if you got some comments, improvements or questions.
-Lexx
