55 Necro HM farms! (lots of pictures)

Hello there, everyone! I've noticed the increase of "plz help me need moneys" threads, and I figured I'd give some more areas to the community to farm away. I personally use a 55 Necro, whether SS or SV. I tried to add places that aren't on the forums or additional info on places I'm frequently asked about, like HM UW/FoW. Anyway, w/o further ado, I'd like you to meet my necro, Noodle:



I do almost all of my farming with him, and he's by far my favorite character. well, enough with my silly talking. on to the farming!

The build is a [[Spoil Victor] 55 build with [[Insidious Parasite] and [[Spirit Bond]. I use 15AL for Spirit Bond to be at its best. For the Fissure, I use a solo SS build with Spirit Bond and Insidious Parasite. For underworld, I use an SS build with [[Suffering] and Spirit Bond.

[FoW;OANFQiJH35nR9Ap/2Te0n8EJ] <-- wrong, when you load this up replace Vigorous Spirit with Spirit Bond)
[UW;OANFQiJH35nT9AkoFZD5B9h8QkA]
[SV/Parasite;OANFQsF314jT9AkoF3DqQ9h8QkA]

For areas with a lot of enemies (any areas in this guide, except FoW/UW, don't mess with those builds) you can run a 150hp necro, which works very well in HM.

Skills are: [Protective [email protected]][Shield of [email protected]][Shielding [email protected]][Spirit [email protected]] (for areas with degen) [Insidious [email protected]][Spiteful [email protected]][Balthazar's spirit][Watchful Spirit].

Using that build, it is very important that you aggro enough enemies to be safe energywise. In order to get 150hp, you need a weapon with no +hp mods (totem axe, spirit of the forgotten, razajan's fervor, etc.) and a focus/shield with +45hp while enchanted (I use the one from collector Tohsedi.) This build works very well for tanking a lot of enemies at once, and can even manage constant 10 degen. with this build. You can farm Colossal Scimitars at Zehlon Reach, and you can farm the Djinn in the Hidden City of Ahdashim. In the Hidden City, which is a relatively notorious spot for being difficult, you can tank ALL the djinn and Roaring Ethers in the first room, which no other build (as far as i know) can do:

Hidden City!



Once in the Hidden City, cast your maintained enchants and grab the blessing. If you have the correct equipment, your health will be 150:




Go ahead and tank everything in the left half of the room, using SoA/Shielding Hands to reduce all damage taken to 0, and use Spirit Bond to manage degen. (If you're new to the run and don't feel like micro managing spirit bond's expiration, bring dismiss condition instead and spam it. That will also help later with the behemoths.) Once you've grouped them all together, check for Roaring Ethers. There should only be 1 or 2, and if you're lucky, 0. If there's one, bring the Ruby Djinns and Sapphire Djinns to it, cast IP on it and SS on a Ruby. The ether will be dead in no time. (Note: Before casting anything offensive, make sure you do not have [[mistrust] on you. Your spell will fail, and you'll have to wait for the recharge and deal with the stolen energy.) Once you've killed the ethers, I like to kill the Diamond Djinns, because they reduce SS's damage with [[angelic bond] (which thankfully kills them faster), and they spam their self heal, [[leader's comfort]. Bring the melee to a diamond, cast SS on a sapphire, IP on a diamond. Dead pretty quick. Kill all diamonds this way, and then nuke rubies, sapphires last. Sapphires need to be killed by SS+IP, as their self heal enchantments outheal a single SS. Once you've cleared the left half of the first room, tank the second half, using the same tactics to kill. Entire first room clear:



You can keep going through the place: I prefer center and left, because the right way has hekets, which interrupt you like crazy and have a monk with [[purge signet], which is a nuisance. The left has some cobalts and behemoths, the center has loads of djinn and a boss. If you keep going up the left way, eventually there is a boss. Leilon, Tranquil Water. Nice green, easy kill if you do it right. There are rain and rock beetles you can kill, and lots of other enemies. Have fun in there until your inventory's full. (Tip: Salvage all essences / ether claws/hearts. These turn into gems occasionally, which have a nice price atm. I made 20k from one Hidden City run from a couple rare skins, 2 rubies, a sapphire and merch food.)

No screens of the colossal farm at zehlon, but for this run do NOT run 150hp. Weakness will cause you to take damage even with shielding hands up. I like to use 105hp and kephket's refuge. ALSO, replace IP with [[suffering], as all the corsair monks use [[smite hex]. Just step outside, aggro up the bugs, and keep running till all the corsairs are aggroed together. Just cycle SoA/SH and use Spirit Bond to manage health degeneration. Bring the warriors to the monks, cast suffering on all of them. Wait for it to be smited, SS a warrior, cover with suffering. Dead in no time. Kill off everything this way, then pick up your loot. (When you've killed all the monks, don't waste energy using suffering on stuff. It's pointless.)

As far as equipment goes, normal 55 equipment is fine. I use a spirit of the forgotten and a grim cesta. I also carry with me a 20/20 blood wand, a 20/20 curse wand, a flatbow for pulling and a -20 offhand for death penalty. To solo UW, you need a max damage customized curse wand, like villnar's claw or the truncheon from collector Uderit Ignis.

The attributes for all the Spoil Victor / Insidious Parasite builds you see are:
(With all necro sup runes)
16 Blood
10 Curses
8 Heal
8 Prot
4 Soul Reaping

The UW/FoW builds' attributes are:
16 Curses
9 Heal
9 Prot
5 Blood (for energy from offhand, I have 52 max energy when i 55)
5 Soul Reaping

NEW: for those of us who don't like copying and pasting, I decided to give a working format for make-your-own-build. A 55 necro used to be able to thrive on [[Mending] + [[Healing Breeze] alone. In Hard mode, which usually comes with some degen, that isn't so. For that reason, we need a secondary healing/protection spell to keep your health maxed out. This spell could be a lot of skills: [[Orison of Healing](an old favorite of mine), [[Vigorous spirit](great cover enchantment, heals you a lot when you spam your spells), [[Guardian](has fallen into disuse because of energy problems and lack of healing), or even [[Shield Guardian] (I experimented with it for a little bit, I thought it worked as a great full heal.) Of course you could use [[Spirit Bond], my personal favorite because it's easy to manage and you can live off of it alone if healing breeze is disabled. Also, aside from the usual elite damage hex (spiteful spirit or spoil victor), there is usually a support damage skill, which takes up your last slot. For me, this is almost always Insidious Parasite, but it does vary a lot. With Spoil Victor, this skill could be [[Vampiric Gaze], [[Vampiric Touch], [[Life siphon], [[Necrosis](by far the most spammable easiest to manage damage, 66 at sunspear rank 8). With SS, other than [[Insidious Parasite], I might use [[Suffering], [[Reckless haste] (even in Hard Mode, works very well vs. interrupts, is better than [[guardian] in almost every way) Desecrate/[[Defile Enchantments], or [[chilblains] (great for farming blessed griffons in HM, knocks [[spell breaker] right off.Outdated: Chiblains update) So, the final template is:

16 Curses or Blood magic, depending on whether SS or Spoil Victor is used
9 Heal
9 Prot, I find a 9/9 split works well for balance
5 Blood for energy from offhand, if you're using curses make sure to invest 5 in blood
5 soul reaping, which are leftovers.

[Prot spirit] <-- never ever changes, obviously.
[Healing Breeze] <-- again, never changes.
Secondary healing/prot skill <-- read options for this slot above
Additional support damage skill <-- again, options above
[Spiteful Spirit] or [spoil Victor]
[Essence Bond] <-- necessary
[Balthazar's spirit] <-- necessary
[Mending] <-- instant invincibility.

Well, now that you've got your build all set up, on to some areas!

The first area we'll look at is good ol' Skyward Reach, in Hard Mode. This is a run where you can continue on to go to many places and farm effectively.

Step outside of Augury Rock into Skyward Reach, and cast your maintained enchantments.

To farm the first desert griffons (yes, Dessert Griffons, HM style!), follow this path:



Kill all the griffons you see with SV and IP. They go down pretty fast. With quick reflexes, one can also kill wurms that spawn on you. If you manage to hit PS before they knock you down(You have to hit it immediately after hearing the "wurm noise"), then you can easily kill it with SV and IP without it going back into the ground.

Clear all the griffons in that area:



Now retrace your steps and hug the right wall. Kill any hydras you want. (easy to time for meteor, just let all of them use it in the beginning, then keep a timer in your head up to 15 seconds because of hard mode faster recharge.) When you begin to see Enchanted creatures, nuke them as well. Hide behind terrain to make sure that the bow doesn't hit you with his edenial and daze, and he'll kill himself. The swords and hammers drop like flies. After taking a left turn, you'll find yourself in Vulture Drifts. The route to get there is here:



If you don't want to go immediately to Vulture Drifts, you can finish clearing out hydras on this route:



If you do that, you can also hop into the scar and farm there (main The Scar farm coming later.) Then, backtrack and head into Vulture Drifts.

I like Vulture Drifts because it's incredibly easy to farm and you can do so much. First off, kill all the desert griffon mobs, they're easy. Then, you can choose to go this way:



If you go this way, you'll face sand elementals which knock you down with [[Shock]. It's easy to time for, just use [[Spoil Victor] before they get in touch range. There may be minotaurs with them, just SV and IP. Dead. When you get to where I am in the pic, you can enter Prophet's Path and rezone back into Vulture Drifts to respawn the enemies. You can't kill stuff in Prophet's Path, because one of the first enemies there is a Jade Scarab with [[Chilblains] and [[Feast of Corruption]. With insane luck and timing, you *may* be able to live, but I never bother. In Vulture Drifts, you can also go South and enter the Arid Sea to farm hydras down there. Whatever you do decide to do in Vulture Drifts, just rezone to respawn the enemies, and farm till your inventory's full.

Good core/proph golds here, Fellblades and Hand Axes are my favorite skins I've gotten as golds.

Well, onto our next area: The Scar.



This is a pretty straightforward farm. Head left, and kill all of the griffons you see:



If rockshots pop up, use Mending, Balth's Spirit and Essence Bond to draw out their interrupts:



Pick up drops quickly with Prot Spirit and Healing Breeze on, due to traps. Once you get to the two mesas connected by a bridge, there's nothing else to farm out there, just Sand Giants. The griffons are ON the bridge. How do we get there? Easy. Turn around and run all the way back to where the run started, near Destiny's Gorge. Keep going, and hug the left. Kill any odd hydras, DO NOT engage Losaru. They use [[shatter enchantment], Bleeding, and [[Diversion], which they spam. Activate the teleporter on the left, and you'll see a bunch of Losaru in front of you. Hug the left wall, and wait for the chance to run by them. Kill the dune burrower, then continue and kill the griffons. Once you've killed everything on the mesas, your run is done!

The route up to the teleporter:



Now, to a new area! Awaaay!

The next area we'll hit is Deldrimor Bowl, North of Beacon's Perch.



No screens of the run, but it's simple enough. Follow the refugees, kill the Shiverpeak Longbows first, Protectors second, warriors last:



If a protector won't wand you, kill a warrior, then it should. SV + IP will overpower all healing by the protectors. Continue killing things going northward, there will eventually be a large open area with two boss groups. The bosses can be any of the six core professions.Lots of elite tomes. You can kill everything on the map if you'd like. If you want to go to ettin cave, run back to where the first group was, then head west. You'll eventually see snow ettins. Kill them all with SV + IP. If you continue into Griffon's Mouth, you can kill all the ettins and the warrior and monk bosses. You can keep going in Griffons Mouth and kill Whiskar Featherstorm, ele boss. Then you can continue on zoning into our next area, Scoundrel's Rise.

No screens here, but run in (just north of the Gates of Kryta mission) and kill the Mergoyle Wavebreakers. Don't try regular Mergoyles ([[Power Block] domination Mesmers) or Bog Skale Blighters ([[Chilblains]). Mergoyle Wavebreakers and regular Bog Skales are easy to kill. Lots of dyes in here.

Another short but rewarding run is outside Serenity Temple, in Pockmark Flats:



As you can see, I use the SS/IP build for this run. It can be done with SV + IP if you like. The run is quick: kill any elementals you see, there are usually about 12. Not bad drops, too. Charcoal, rubies, and golds galore.


Another area that's fun to farm is just outside of Divinity Coast: Watchtower Coast:



Here, use the regular build but sub out [[Spirit Bond] for either [[Shield of Absorption] (pictured) or [[Shielding Hands]. Zone out into Watchtower Coast and cast your maintained enchantments, then run to the first group of 2 Oakhearts. Hit your enchantments, then aggro them. You'll notice two things: 1, they summon a spirit of [[energizing wind]:



This will make IP cost 10e, and make all your spells recharge slower. Be aware of this when trying to cycle SV on two enemies. Also, you'll notice a Spined Aloe pops up:



The only thing you need to worry about with those guys is [[Signet of Judgment], which knocks you down. You can easily overpower their healing with SV and IP. Occasionally, two Aloes will spawn, which means you need to time for 2 knockdowns. Once you have killed any Aloes that have spawned, go ahead and SV + IP the Oakhearts. Once they're dead, don't go in immediately for drops. Hit PS, get close, cast SoA, then grab them and run out. The traps will do 0 damage. Without SoA, you'll get spiked down by the dust traps. Continue along the road, and run past any Caromi Tengu:



The mesmers shatter enchantments and will kill you. Keep killing the oakhearts along the road until there are none left. Lots of good golds here, tons of plant fibers, a hundred or so per run.


Another area we'll hit is in Factions: Kinya Province.



Go ahead and kill any and all of these Mantids with SV + IP:



The boss is a sin that is killed easily by SV alone:



Once you're done with the Mantids, go ahead and kill the Kappa on Onghsang ISland. The whole route is here on my mini map:



Some nice drops here, including the rare-skinned canthan crude axe:



Iif that run isn't enough for you, you can farm this entire open area on my mini map:



That area is pretty fun and easy.

On to our final non-core area: Vehjin Mines. Start from Jennur's Horde, running the FoW solo build.



Run out and grab the monster hunt for some ss points:



Once you've got it, go back a bit and hug the right wall. Soon you'll see the enemies you're fighting, behemoths:



No screens of killing, but just use SS on one, IP on another, wand/spear the last one. [[mending] + [healing breeze] counters degen, [[Spirit Bond] and IP are the main health management skills. After the first two groups, there's a boss group with Marobeh Sharptail. Keep IP on him, SS on a behemoth gravebane, the necros. They are your worst enemies, they cause 6 degen all the time. he dertvishes only burn you for a short time, which is easily counterable. Once you've killed the necros, put SS on a dervish (scytheclaw behemoth) and IP on another scytheclaw. Once everything is dead except the boss, nuke him with SS + IP. After he's dead, go left and keep on killing behemoths.

Now, on to my 2 favorite areas in the game: UW and FoW. First off is Hard Mode UW. Load up the UW solo build mentioned in the beginning, and head off to the depths of grenth's refuge.



Not many screens here, but it's relatively simple. Cast your maintained enchants, then using a wand, pull the group on the left and hide behind Benton. The aatxes will get stuck, allowing you to kill any Dying Nightmares that may or may not have spawned. If one did spawn, let him rend you, then IMMEDIATELY cast prot spirit on you, SS on the Nightmare. Along with your wand attacks, he'll die in no time. After he's dead, reapply your maintained enchants, hit Prot Spirit and healing breeze, and aggro the aatxes. Use Mending to draw out their interrupts. Once you've drawn out all of them, recast PS + HB and cast SS and suffering on them. When SS recharges, draw out the interrupts, then cast PS, HB and SS on another aatxe. They'll be dead shortly. Once they're dead, check around for nightmares. If one spawns, again, let him rend you, PS, SS, wand, dead. Continue those steps for all 3 groups of aatxes. Once all aatxes are dead, and all of the area has been checked for Nightmares, take the Clear the Chamber quest. Step back a bit, and target the left group of 4 Grasping Darknesses. Pull them by casting SS on the closest one, then as they run at you, hit Prot Spirit. Tank the first wave of [[distracting blow]s (attacks that do no damage to you) then hit Healing Breeze and cast suffering. One will scatter away, and SS + suffering will kill 3 of them. For the last one, cast SS after he comes back and hits Distracting Blow. Maintain prot spirit only, and cast nothing else for fear of [[Skull crack]. Once he's dead, continue and kill the other groups of (3) Graspings without the scattering one. Once that's done, head off toward the Ice Wastes by heading right off the right path. Kill the two aatxes by the now-open door. Wait for the grasping darknesses to move out of the way, then hug the left wall. Kill the two aatxes in front of smiteland, and you're at the Ice Wastes.

Smite Crawlers are taken down in Hard Mode the same way as in Normal Mode: hit PS + HB, aggro up, then cast Suffering on them. Pause. Hard mode reminder time. Before you kill a group, count how many smites are in there. When you cast suffering and it gets smited off, wait until the second to last [[smite hex] before casting SS on a smite without suffering on it. (i. e., if there are 5 smites, wait for the fourth smite hex before casting.)Iimmediately cover your new SS with Suffering.
Reapply suffering when it recharges. When SS recharges, cast it on a hexlsess smite, then cover with suffering again. Keep this chain going until they're dead.

Kill all the smites you can find. If you want to go for coldfires, just stay out of [[maelstrom]s and group them up, then hit SS + Suffering. They'll SS themselves to death. Once you've cleared the smites, your smite run is over. Congratulations! Now, we'll go on to the Fissure of Woe. Load up the Fow solo build and hop in:



When you spawn in the FoW, step back a bit before you cast your maintained enchantmentts, just in case. You'll be totally safe at the back wall. Once your enchants are up, don't take the quest. Aggro the left group OUTSIDE of Rastigan's aggro circle. Hit PS, HB and vig spirit. Group up all the enemies, and cast IP on the monk, and SS on a warrior. The group will scatter, but cast SS on another war when it recharges and maintain IP on the monk:



Eventually, they'll die.once the monk is dead, the beasts will die, then cast SS + IP on a war and it'll die. Continue till all the wars are dead. Move on to the next little mobs of a beast and a monk. Group the two groups together and pull so the monks are right next to one another. Cast IP on a monk, SS on a beast. When SS recharges, cast it on the other beast. Maintain IP on one monk until it's dead. When it's gone, IP the other monk. Always keep at least one SS on a beast. Once that group is dead, we'll move on to the first group you'll face with a mesmer in it. Before you aggro, cast PS, HB and spirit bond, in that order.
The mesmer will shatter spirit bond. No worries. When he does, recast it. Keep IP on a warrior to deal with the damage and degen. When SS recharges, reapply it on the mes. Make sure when you recast your enchants, you always do it in this order: PS, HB , SB. Once the mesmer is dead, the war should be dead as well. Move on to the eles. Cast SS + IP on the one you want to kill, and spam spirit bond for total safety. Kill off both the eles and the beast, then retrace your steps back to rastigan. Hit PS, HB and SB and aggro the right group. The mez will shatter SB. put IP on the warrior to help your HP, then cast SS on the mesmer. Keep remembering to recast PS, HB, SB in that order. Recast SS on the mes when it recharges, then it'll die. Move on to kill the eles with the same tactics as the last group. Once the group is dead, there's a one monk, 2 warrior group. This is the easiest group with a monk in the FoW. Just cast SS on a war, IP on the monk, when SS recharges, put it on the other war. The group will be dead in no time. Next, we're heading to the toughest shadow army group in the FoW. The 2 monk , 1 mesmer group. There is a warrior and (surprise!) 2 monks and a mesmer. You will need to survive a lot of shatters with this group. Keep a count in your head up to 10 to tell when you will get shattered, and always recast in the correct order, which you should have memorized by now. I like to keep them in a tight ball. SS on the monks, and IP on the mesmer. Eventually, the mez will die, and then you'll SS the warrior and the monks will be under enough pressure from the SS'd warrior to not rez until the corpse disappears. Once the mes dies, cycle SS between a monk and a warrior. Put IP on the monk without SS. They'll go down. Now that that group is done, you can begin clearing the rangers and abyssals. abyssals have crazy knockdowns, so hit PS, pull with SS then hit IP while he's on his way to you. You CAN NOT take more than one abyssal at once. You'll be on your butt 90% of the time. Once you've killed the abyssal, nuke the rangers with SS + IP. Do this until you've cleared all the shadows, at which time Rastigan will come running. Once he gets there, he'll offer you a quest, The Tower of Courage, which you can complete by body blocking the abyssals to save Rastigan. Kill of the abyssals (with good timing, you can live off of PS ond SB) and kill em with SS + IP. The shadow lord is easy, nuke him too. Take the reward and open the chest that spawns. (crystalline swords, dwarven axes, and serpent axes drop from this chest.)Now that you've done that, you can run back to the beach and kill the Snarling Driftwoods:



Then, to kill dryders, swap to high health armor and use SS + IP on one:



It'll die easily:



You can keep your high health armor on and kill the group of three dryders, and then run to spider cave. You may get owned by the spiders, but by now, you should have made your entrance fee back, and a few shards. You can continue on to the skeletal groups, but that's up to you.

Well, i'm finally done. Enjoy the spots/tactics, and I hope you liked it!

tys to pariah hellfire, kcp, and my guild and friends.

to dos:
add UW/FoW pics
add more places as I see them
show SoA/SH build spots and tactics
accept and reply to all responses
sleep, for once. The FoW build is outdated. Please see Fuzzy Taco's new guide.