8 min Duo UW Guide (Aatxes AND Smites)

I'll put up some screenies later.

The killing speed of some of the builds has almost been perfected, yet most runs are capped at only about 11 min avg for aatxes and smites duo, or 11 min avg for smites only solo, even prenerf. This is because the time is spent on 3 things: killing, walking, and waiting. The speed of killing has been lowered to just a few secs per mob, even with the nerf, yet rarely anyone touched on the other two more time consuming parts of the run.

This adds a unique twist to speed up more than just the killing speed, and that is why this build is able to do a 8 min duo run on average.

Here is the underlying theory:
- This duo utilizes the fastest killing of smites I have ever seen: the E/Me smite only solo build takes down all smites in a matter of seconds. Added to that the power of a retribution/holy wrath smiter. This is the fastest mob killing yet to be seen.
- The waiting for the coldfire patrols is ELIMINATED! This is explained later in the guide.
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The Build:
E/Me (Inspired by [Basically copied from] Koning)

Sandstorm
Earthquake / Dragon Stomp
Aftershock
Sympathetic Visage
Ancestor's Visage
Mantra of Earth
Stone Striker
Stone Flesh Aura

Attributes:
Earth - 12+3+1
Energy Storage - 10+3
Illusion - 6
Inspiration - 6

Armor: Geomancer's with max AL. (Have the max HP be around 300-350, with runes and weapon)
Weapons: A staff with +20% Enchanting (and +30 HP)
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Mo/A

Recall
Shield of Absorption
Protective Spirit
Spellbreaker (Assassin's Promise)
Balthazar's Aura
Symbol of Wrath / Kirin's Wrath
Blessed Aura
Essence Bond

Attributes:
Protection - 11+3
Divine Favor - 10+3+1
Smiting - 10 + 3

Armor: Ascetic's Shing Jea Monastary Armor with 5 Superior Runes (no vigor of course, final max HP is 105).
Weapon: Kepket's Refuge
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Might seem like a weird setup, but the true power of the build comes from the usage.

First, go to this thread, and memorize the first 3 chokepoints (aka all the ones before smites).
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10085901

Now, instead of the Mo/Me, the tank is E/Me, and instead of N/Me, we have Mo/A.

So for the initial 2 chambers, Mo/A first scout the area like a 55, making all the DNMs pop up, and try to take out the DNMs before they rend, and Recall back to the beginning after all DNMs are taken out. The Mo/A cast recall on Benton, then pulls the the groups of monsters to the position of the N/Me in the screenshots (the E/Me is out of all aggros right now). Then the E/Me moves to where the Mo/Me is in the screenshots. The Mo/A cast PS on E/Me, and cancel the Recall, and just cast PS at the right times, while using the smiting skills to kill the Aatxes.

Here is the trick to tank the Aatxes: E/Me CALLS when he/she uses Stoneflesh Aura, and the Mo/A cast the Protective Spirit RIGHT BEFORE the E/Me finishes casting, this will make the PS the older enchantment, and therefore take effect BEFORE SFA (yet, if cast PS, then start SFA, there is a 2 sec gap where the aatxes would do 50-60 dmg per shot). Then immediately use SoA, then HW on E/Me (btw, the monk should have switched all the BS and EB onto the E/Me by now). Anyways, with BS, SoW, SS, EQ, and AS, everything should be dead within 30 secs, including the Aatxes (they are trapped in the chokepoints by the E/Me, so they can't run away).

With 5 aggros the first two chambers should be cleared. The initial clearing of DNMs should take about 1 min, setting up and killing each of the aggros should take about 45 secs (15 setting up into position and 30 killing). Smoothing it out, the first two chambers should be done within 5 min, about the same with a normal duo monk build.

However, this is where this build really shines, the smites. This build eliminates the waiting of the coldfire patrols: The Mo/A aggros as the coldfires in the way of smites (as a normal SoA tank, but with SB to prevent the slowdown), so that the colds focus on the monk. The E/Me then runs past the coldfires, to the smites and kills them like in a solo. Then the E/Me moves on, clear of the colds, and the Mo/A Recalls to break the colds aggro, and moves onto the next set.

With this coldfire-distracting strategy, smite run only takes about 3-4 mins. Add onto that the 5 min from the initial 2 chambers, we have a 8-9 min avg run!

All credits with respect to the E/Me build goes to Koning (or if he isn't the creator, the creator of the build).

hey if you play it on Europe servers we can try it some times so i can see how good does this buil work.

The only downside that I see to this is that the e/me solo only takes 10mins or so apparently, and you don't have to share your ectos.

build is wonderful but have few questions about the working of HW and PS:

- you said that if you make PS an older enchant than SFA, it will work before the dmg reduction, so:
- HW will still take place, as game will think the dmg dealt to tank is around 10% of his hp, so it'll trigger HW to deal dmg BUT tank won't get dmg cause of SFA on him?? if that's true i think i got a wonderful idea and you rock

grats for build, now grinding is grinding in full meaning ^^

Just wondering, have you actually tried this out or have you only thought of it as a concept?

Also, perhaps recall could be used over return? that way the monk can tele really far out of coldfire aggro if they so desire (more than spellcasting range, anyway).

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omg you are sooooo right speedy!
I just got accidentally stripped, and i teled right back, whew!

Ye it looks very nice, but I, like speedy, also wanna know if you already tested it Those coldfire patrols really start to annoy me...

Ye it looks very nice, but I, like speedy, also wanna know if you already tested it Those coldfire patrols really start to annoy me...

lag

@ aB-: and you are paying 500g less for entry.

@ speedy: yeah i have tested this, but not with holy wrath yet, i used SB there, still getting used to the timing.

@ Koning: all thanks to you man =D, have been looking for something like this for ages!

Just thinking out loud; it might be possible to take on other critters (I'm thinking mindblades). For mindblades, the monk could SB the ele, and then the ele just tanks, putting up SV and cycling it with AV (swap out storm djinn's) to drain energy. I just dont know if the combo would do enough damage to mindblades to kill them (they are level 28 right?) outright. Maybe retribution can help with that lol.

Hell, maybe you could clear out those massive mindblade spawns in the chaos planes. Of course, all of this is more of for fun than for profit (although I hear that ecto droprate improves the further you go in UW?)

Another thought: stoneflesh at 16 earth only reduces damage by 33, while the ele probably has 400+ max hp. Thus, unless the ele switches a few armor pieces to lower health, aatxes will still hit for some damage (I think).

Also, while storm djinn's helps with running faster, if you are aggroing aatxes and graspings together, you might want to bring in AV anyway because it takes awhile to position, and you dont want to get caught with interrupts after getting into position. (I wouldn't want to use glyph of concentration because graspings could catch it with distracting blow).

just tested rigth now after we got favor, works wonders.

not sure about mindblades, might be possible. then again, if the goal is to go as deeply as you can, prolly duo monk with IW is the better choice, as that can theoretically clear the entire UW (i did till bone pits, then i gtg after the first few dead collectors, didn't get to threshers, and spawning pool should be doable since it's just terrorwebs, and the build can take on ice king quest, so....)

At first, i did PS, Soa, and sb. so that when sb runs out after 10 atks, soa reduces the dmg to 0. but now with this run, i find it's easier with the ele having 300-350 hp.

well, using the glyph is all about timing. since only the graspings can get it, and they use it at the beginning, and then whenever they are charged (unlike the aatxes which don't use them blindly.

Another option, is to use mantra of concentration(yet to be tested, but the ele gains 3 energy per hit, so it shouldn't be much of a problem, plus it's the same attrib as MoE) instead of earth for that part, since the ele will have PS up anyways, armor doesn't matter there.

I guess teh hardest part of the run is the beginning. the monk needs to be able to take out all DNMs with wands, and know when to tele back using recall (and don't bleed to death...), and the ele need to learn to pull the group. after getting to the smites, it's a breeze from there.

now the problems... this isn't the easiest build to get used to for new ppl, esp with the timing in the first 2 chambers. and 2, how f-ing hard is it to find a freakin ele with SS in ToA?!

Mantra of concentration won't work, it cancels out mantra of earth.

IW is still pretty slow, which is reason I was thinking about using this for mindblades. I dont think this could work on dead collectors/threshers (unless they are melee attackers)

I suppose glyph is workable, but I find graspings still manage to interrupt me at god awful times. I like SV for its ease of use. Anyway, I think the real time shaver for your build is in not needing to worry about coldfires, so you can afford to drop storm djinn's imo.

As for eles with SS in ToA, im one of them (unfortunately, I was greedy and switched to europe so I could do UW more often, and I know you said you are on american servers).

And about the monk taking out dying nightmares: now that wands/staves can have 15>50 mods, i'm pretty sure any nightmare will die in 2 hits, if you customize one of those weapons.

I'm curious as to how you (or the ele you play with) pull(s) your aggros. I'm very used to pulling all 10 graspings at the same time in the solo E/Me build, but somehow I don't think that is such a great idea when there are aatxes to kill too

you know? you are absolutely right... except for that there is still baltz spirit for energy gain, and PS for dmg reduction, plus you only need it for the first 2 chambers, and you can go back to MoE for the smites. the reason why i suggest GoC or MoC is because the pulling is different. and so sv would run out before you can kill the aatxes. unless you can have sv/av up... which would be ideal

storm dijinnis can be dropped u suppose, but it does make things a bit faster lol. plus it's pretty safe. any suggestions tho? maybe drop that and put on av so we have both sv/av?

yeah, that is exactly teh purpose of the monk there, wand the NMS to death, and if SB runs out, or something really weird happens, just cancel recall to go back.

as for teh pulls, look in the thread link i posted at the top. the ele does the samething the tank monk does, and pulls the same mobs to the same spot. and the mo/a should be in the necro spot, but instead of SSing, he is PSing :P

If you just want to use balthazar's for energy gain (which is feasible, I think, since you also have 4 energy regen pips anyway on an ele), and you are considering GoC/MoC, why not just use Mantra of Resolve? The only possible problem I can see with MoR is that it causes huge energy drain; however MoC also has a problem, in that it only prevents one interrupt (I believe).

I just love SV and AV so much that I'd probably bring both And there is a version of the E/Me solo that runs arcane echo + SS + SV + AV, so you could still keep storm djinn's if you really wanted to.

I just remembered you mentioned something about the monk bleeding to death; if the ele brings SV/AV or both, then s/he can enchant the monk with that before s/he goes to clear the NMs out of the room; it prevents all adrenaline gain as well as providing e-drain.

Now, if only there was a way to pull the whole first room in one aggro...might have to play around with that sometime, but I'm almost certain it would have to involve using both SV and AV and a very long Prot Spirit (although 20% enchant + blessed aura = 30+ second prot spirit). It probably isn't possible anyway because the aatxes won't follow far enough.

One final thought before I go to bed: If the monk puts spellbreaker on the ele and that really long prot spirit, couldn't the ele just aggro from the start? Especially if the ele uses SV/AV, any popped up NMs will simply BiP themselves to death (which I love to watch )

bah, MoR is what i actually meant to say, since with i believe with 6 inspiration it is either -7 or -6 per interrupt? with the huge energy reserve, tha'ts nothing.

as for pulling the entire first chamber, i personally don't really think that is really feasable anymore, but if someone finds a way, please do share.

I suppose the ele could just do that, but since i'm the monk and i'm used to do that, i just did it my way, it's definately open to change. i mean, the build is a day and a half old =P

as for the IW duo monk build, IW is slow no doubt, but it is only support, the real dmg comes for the smiter monk of the duo, holywrath and retribution. IW is just a touch on it that makes it a tiddy bit faster (well, a lot faster for obsidians)

Maybe im missing something (probably am because a few people have done it) but after you kill the first chamber, how does the monk regain energy? Or does it not need to?

to tell the truth, i have never succeeded once with holy wrath... but other than than monk can gain energy from essence bond on the ele.

a video explaining the run here would be very apreciated

i couldn't ever get a video working, so i give up on that... but if anyone can make a video, please do =D

anotehr thing, it seems that if you mass aggro like that in the first chamber, sometimes the aatxes will still run away from the SS, and if that happens, it take AGES to kill them. so instead we tried this, which haven't failed yet: monk aggros, and lures them to the inside of the chokepoints, and cancel recall to tele out to the ele, who then goes and blocks the mob INSIDE the chokepoint (in otherwords, switch the mob and player positions in the screenies. that way, the aatxes have no where to run.

also, what i didn't realize, was before, i was keeping the ele alive w/o him using SFA, but instead me using PS and SoA. so that's why retrib did work. however, with SFA, retrib does only 1 dmg. the way to fix that, is to use balths aura and sympbol of wrath instead. since they are trapped in the chokepoints anyways, it si safe to use that (and it works pretty well).

I just can't believe how fast the smites dies... why is ele so overpowered?

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Symbol of Wrath
For 5 seconds, foes adjacent to the location in which the spell was cast take 8...27 holy damage each second.

So the monk can do 2 things, he has to cast in near the enemies b4 teleporting out or walk back to the ele, after the recall, and than cast it. The second might be best, because of the 2 sec cast you would be interrupted like crazy (im talking about the aatxes+graspings now). Take kirin's wrath too if you decide to bring this, the factions replica.2 times this spell might kick some ass!

Also I don't really know if Holy wrath is a good thing. Since only 3 enemies attack you (again I haven't run this build yet, so it might be different but judging from general behavior this seems logical), it wouldn't do too much damage in total and you're better of keeping you energy to cast the balthazar's aura like you suggested, which inflicts damage on all the enemies even if not attacking.

I really need to try this out soon (haven't had time yet, and very curious how to lure everything as a mo/a to 1 spot) cause the potential is skyhigh!

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that is what i meant to say, recall on the ghost.

what happens is, after the chamber is cleared of DNMs, monk is then set as a 105 Soa monk, and cast return on benton or ghost. then after that, the monk lures the right side groups like the ones shown in the screenshots into the cokepoint, aka to where the necro in the pics are. then the ele comes, and be at where the monk in the pic is, then monk recall out, with ele now in aggro of the mob, but trapping the mob in the place of the "monk tank" in the pics. get it?

the monk can bring baltz aura, symbol of wtah, and kirin's wrath, and can leave out baltz spirit, since it's not needed. oh, and ofcourse the monk before recalling out and let the ele tank does NOT use any dmg skills, neither does the ele. that keeps the aggro under control.

with this setup, it is MANDATORY for the ele to ditch storm dijinnni's haste and mantra of resolve for SV and AV. with that, the monk can tank the graspings with just essence bond for energy.

i'll do a little more testing before i change the front page.

sry to bother again but can some1 make a video of the secound version?' the one that we trap the bad guys in those key points?'

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as for people who are interested in actually using this build, to save some bucks, test the tanking with trolls, or the beginning of tascalas demise.

the killing is easy, make sure the monk get used to the healing with divine favor due to the bleeding, and the coordination of the ele and the monk with SFA and PS. if you get the tanking down, it's just a matter of a run or two before you'll get the aggros and teleport and such.

and incase the monk gets stuck in the first chamber while trying to clear the NMS or pulling, have the ele come just inside the casting range, and cast recall on him, and have the ele move away. cancel the recall and ur unstuck!

p.s. don't be as stupid as me... teled back with bleeding and just bled to death cuz i was too stupid to use my skills to heal... and don't cast on the ghost with all ur enchants!

Does the original author mind if I put the dual build on wiki?

i think you should wait for the finalized build before you post it on wiki, bcause there are a LOT of changes to the build/strategy now.

and @speedy: the thing about using the ele to aggro, it might save sometime if youa re expereinced enough. still looks kinda hard IMO unless you got the run down.

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well this actualy works very well

I have 1 question while the ele is tanking the aatxe's if PS runs out you wont be able to re apply it will you as SFA will be active? or should they all be dead by then? thanks i cant wait to try this, just a bit hard getting my head round it all.