P/any :: improved solo FoW beach + cave

This build utilizes the Paragon's shouts and spear attacks to more effectively farm the beach and cave areas of FoW. Shouts provide unstrippable boosts to movement, armor, health regeneration, and attack speed. The use of spears allows for ranged attacks, increasing versatility in the confines of the area. My original goal was just to make a pure-para build that worked, but the end result was incredibly effective (rivaling that of a warrior, imo).


Skills:

Blazing Spear
Merciless Spear
Leader's Comfort
"Stand Your Ground!"
"Never Surrender!"
"Lead the Way!"
Enduring Harmony
Soldier's Fury [E]


Attributes (combat):

Command: 15 (11+3+1)
Leadership: 10
Spear Mastery: 13 (10+3)


Attributes (running):

Command: 11
Leadership: 14 (10+3+1)
Spear Mastery: 10


Armor:

5x Centurion's Insignia
Command Crest with a Superior Command; use while fighting
Leadership Crest with a Superior Leadership; use while running
Duplicate armor piece (hands or feet are cheapest) one Superior Spear Mastery and one with Vitae
Rune of Superior Vigor
2x Rune of Vitae


Weapons:

Set 1 - Spear of Warding (+5 energy, +7 armor vs. elemental), Shield of Valor (+10 armor vs. fire, +60 hp while hexed)
Set 2 - Fiery Spear of Shelter (15^50, +7 armor vs. physical), Shield of Fortitude (+10 armor vs. slashing, +30 hp)
Set 3 - Zealous Spear of Shelter (15^50, +7 armor vs. physical), Shield of Fortitude (+10 armor vs. piercing, +30 hp)
Set 4 - Flatbow

Note: Mods on the Flatbow and the prefix of Spear 1 are not important, though preferably not zealous or vampiric


Key Points:

Enduring Harmony allows you to maintain "Stand Your Ground!", providing a +24 armor bonus and another +10 due to Centurion's Insignia. This skill also makes it possible to use "Lead the Way!" for running, granting a near-constant 25% movement boost (7.5 second duration, 8 second recharge), and extends the +5 health regeneration from "Never Surrender!" to 15 seconds (20 second recharge).

Soldier's Fury increases your attack speed by 33% while under the effect of a shout or chant, which is a constant in this build. This IAS allows you to easily build the adrenaline to spam Blazing Spear and finish them off with a Deep Wound from Merciless Spear.


Usage:

If you are not familiar with farming the beach and cave of FoW, it is recommended that you try a warrior build first. Once you know the area and the general idea of the farm, adjusting to this build is simple. To run to the beach, equip Set 1 and your armor piece without the Spear rune. Run with "Lead the Way!", using Enduring Harmony first to provide a near-constant 25% movement boost. Once at the top of the hill overlooking the beach, engage the first group of Snarling Driftwood (using Weapon Set 4 to pull if necessary). Switch to Set 2; the Driftwood are weak against fire damage, while your spear and shield will provide extra damage against their attacks, which are slashing damage. Activate Enduring Harmony, "Stand Your Ground!", and Soldier's Fury. Auto-attack, spamming Blazing Spear as often as adrenaline allows (frequently, with 33% IAS). When your target dips below 50% health use Merciless Spear to inflict a Deep Wound, allowing you to finish it off easily. Whenever you have less than 75% health use "Never Surrender!" for +5 health regeneration - use Leader's Comfort for a stronger heal if necessary. Continue to eliminate the Snarling Driftwood and Doubter's Dryders, using your flatbow in Set 4 to pull any groups near Ancient Skales, who you must avoid entirely. If you do aggro a group of Skales, use "Lead the Way!" and run until you lose all aggro so you can regenerate before proceeding.

When you reach the mouth of the cave, switch to Set 3. Pull the Dryders away from the cave (one at a time, if you are not comfortable with fighting multiple) and kill them - they deal a very small amount of damage with their regular attacks, so save your skills to activate when they cast Wastrel's Worry on you. Once you kill the Dryders, a large mob of Armored Cave Spiders will begin spawning inside the cave entrance. Back away while they spawn, and wait until they have settled down. Then, use your flatbow to pull groups of Spiders (each group consists of 3) - start off with one group at a time, until you feel comfortable enough to take on more. To kill spiders, try to get them to spread out; they use Healing Spring, which will out-heal your damage if they are all together. Make sure you have Set 3 equipped, as it gives armor against the Spiders' piercing damage. Maintain "Stand Your Ground!" and Soldier's Fury like before, using "Never Surrender!" to counter the poison degeneration and Leader's Comfort whenever your health gets to around 50%. Cave Spiders use Melandru's Resilience so don't use your Merciless Spear until they are around 25% health, or you will just be healing them. Once all of the orignal Spiders are dead, continue into the cave. Pull and kill the Dryders - each one will trigger 6 more Spiders - until the cave is cleared.

Note that this is also a good time to open a few chests if you have keys with you. Enduring Harmony, "Lead the Way!", and "Never Surrender!" provide enough of a boost to run through many areas of FoW to find chests.


Enjoy!