W/Mo HM minotaur farming build

Hey guys, I was flicking through old builds on the list, and I noticed that the old Minotaur W/R farming build doesn’t work quite as well as it used to, as apply poison wasnt spread by Cyclone Axe anymore. But as I tried it out, I decided I was going to make a new one. Or new in my own eyes. I didn’t see it anywhere, so if anyone else made if first (as the probably have) full marks for them! Yay!

Anyways on to the info

Equipment:

Weapon
Any max dmg r9-11 axe, sundering (20%) helps as does fortitude (+30) or enchanting (20%).
A Vampyric Axe mod also does well here, thanks to zwei for reminding me they existedXD

Other mods that have bonuses while in stances are great too.

Shield
preferably-
Armor 16
damage reduction-2 (while in a stance)
+45 hitpoints (while in a stance)

Armor
The armor should be dyed pink or purple.
Any maxed amour with the +hp insignias (cant remember the name), runes of minor axe mastery, minor strength, minor tactics with a +strength helm. the final runes are one attunement and one of absorption, the level of which is up to you (pref superior)

Attributes
Strength 3 (1+1+1)
Healing Prayers 10
Tactics 12 (11+1)
Axe mastery 11 (10+1)


Skills
Suggested skills


1 Cyclone Axe (CA)
2 Tipple Chop [elite](TC)
3 Executioner's Strike (ES)
4 Flail (F)
5 “Watch Yourself “(WY)
6 Vigorous Spirit (VS)
7 Live vicariously (LV)
8 Balthzarr's Spirit (BS)

Required skills

1 Cyclone Axe
2 Tripple Chop [elite]
3 Watch yourself
4 Vigorous Spirit
5 Live vicariously
6 Balthzarr's Spirit


Skill Breakdown

Cyclone Axe
Cyclone Axe is great because it hits all the minotaurs surrounding you, and with VS and LV on you'll gain around 100 hp and adrenaline with four minotaurs attacking you. It also only costs 5 energy and has a four second recharge time, making it easily spammable.

Tripple chop [Elite]
Tripple Chop is great because it hits all the minotaurs surrounding you, and with VS and LV on you'll gain around 100 hp and adrenaline with four minotaurs attacking you. It costs only 5 energy but it has a 10 second recharge time after a recent nerf. However this is okay considering it hits quite hard. I

Watch Yourself
Watch Yourself is a great skill because at 12 tactics it adds +21 armor for 10 seconds, resulting in the minotaurs hitting around 7-10 damage on normal hits. It only needs 4 adrenhaline which builds up very quickly while using Balthy's spirit, flail, and your axe attack skills. It is also a shout meaning it has no activation time. It also won't block the minotaur's attacks, so you won't get a knockdown.

Vigorous Spirit
Vigorous Spirit is simple. attack or cast spells and you gain hitpoints. You just use a CA or TC and you gain lots of hitpoints. It only costs 5 energy and has a (10?) Second recharge while lasting for 30 seconds, so you can easily keep this up (pray that this does not get nerfed!)

Live Vicariously
Live Vicariously is a great skill. Same as Vigorous spirit except that it is a lasting enchantment. Don’t worry about the -1 energy regeneration, that’s why we have BA.

Balthazar’s Aura
Balthazar’s Aura is an amazing skill. While the hordes of minotar’s attack you you will bacically have unlimited energy and fast adrenaline skill recharging.






Optional Skills

Flail
I like flail because It helps you stay alive while you wait for CA and TC to recharge, deals out a little more damage, as well as 33% faster adrenalin gain. Also it is a stance that does not block attacks, helping your equipment if you chose to bring equipment that had mods requiring you to be in a stance.

Executioner’s Strike
Executioner’s Strike is good because it’s an adrenaline skill (something you certainly don’t lack), and it deals out additional damage, even if that is just for one minotaur. It is good for killing remaining minotaurs that do not die from your axe attacks.

Notes on Optional Skills
If you are going to change these skills out for something else, DO NOT put in a blocking skill, as you will find yourself on the ground ALLOT. Although you might think of putting in doylak signet as well as a block, you will find that doylak dosent make a difference with the damage you take, and that you also block allot of your energy and adrenaline flow. If you swich them out, try putting in high costing adrenhaline skills as this build can easily manipulate that. For people without nightfall, you can replace flail with tiger's stance or another attack skill, such as cruel chop to stick on a deep wound condition. Unfortunately without Tripple Chop this build really isnt good, sorry to all those prophecies only.

The Run

NOTE- I was not sure how long the run took when I took this pic. I’m still not. I think it takes quite a bit less than 25 minutes.
This my preferred run. I like it because it spends the least time running around looking for minotaurs than if you took a bigger one, as well it does not have any centaurs or frostfire dryders.


Using The Build

1. As soon as you come out of the outpost, cast BA and LV on yourself. You should have 9 energy remaining. Then proceed to the first group of minotaurs. If you are lucky, you will be able to aggro another group and get them both attacking you.
2. As soon as you aggro them cast VS on yourself. Wait for the first minotaur to hit you then give them a CA. With the adrehnaline this has given you use WY. Then use TC and keep putting up your adrenhaline skills, using ES whenever you have the chance. Keep WY up use CA and TC WHENEVER YOU CAN
3. Keep using WY. Keep using flail, and make sure VS isn’t out yet. If it is, well then just recast it. Keep spamming your first 5 skills until all the minotaurs are dead.

Notes-
-There is a level 27 minotaur boss wandering around. If you run into him either ignore him or kill all the surrounding minotars then run. It is possible to kill him, however it is not worth your time, unless you are a very lucky individual.
-If WY of VS runs out, don’t worry. You can easily survive a few seconds without these on, which isn’t to say be reckless with them, just try to keep them up as much as possible.
-Occasionally a group of centaurs will run into you while you are killing the minotaurs. If this happens resign after you finish your minotaurs and start the run over, it’s hard to beat their longbows and protectors.
-When fighting groups of minotaurs of 5+ a few will run away (many will run away if you are fighting a boss). If there are 3 or more minotaurs you are still fighting, ignore them until they come bouncing back at half health. if you are only fighting two minotars, then chase the running one down, and keep it in combat. after you move closer to them they won't run away again for awhile.




Loot
The loot here is good for a ridiculously easy farm. Compared to the time it takes to farm easy greens like Mindclouders (2k) and Chor’s axes (pretty well nothing, max ive seen is 1k), you’ll do quite a bit better too. I belive about 66% of the minotaurs drop something. Drops of 100-130 gold are the most common drop, with items you can sell to the merchant for 50-70g each quite common also. You will get lots of blues, limited purples, and atleast one gold every full run. These items are usually max dmg, the golds and purples max mods as well. Often they are Req 9 too. The chests in the area house golds, so keep a few keys on you too.


Please comment away, even if its just to tell me that my build sucks and to GTFO guild wars. If you say that, then I'd like to see some builds that you have come up with. If they're good then I'll be severely humbled.

Why does the armor need to be dyed pink or purple in order to do this farm?

it dosen't. Is just prettier for screenshots that way.

try whirling attack instead of Executioner's strike if you have a high sunspear rank

Quote:

I created pink by combining purple and red.
as shown in my avatar.

okay:

1) Vampiric axe > Sundering, ESPECIALLY for such farming endeavors. Armor would also help out much more than fort or enchanting (+hp wont help make farming easier, 5 or 7 armor would.)
2) Your rune placement sucks a bit. Using +1+1 for attribute you invested least into is not that smart.

your totals are:

Strength 3
Healing Prayers 10
Tactics 12
Axe mastery 11

Look how your totals would look if you have +1 tac helmet:

Str 2 (1+1)
Healing Prayers 10
Tactics 12 (10+1+1)
Axe mastery 11 (10+1)

Hoewerver, now you can push any of your "more important" attributes to 11(+runes) without any loss, or you can have even higher str:

Str 5 (4+1)
Healing Prayers 10
Tactics 12 (10+1+1)
Axe mastery 11 (10+1)

little change, more bang for buck. you even has points left to put to smiting to boost adren gain from balth. ponder about possibilities of +axe helmet. more damage means faster run

Also, while i don't advocate it for non-farming scenarios, you shouldn't use +hp equipment. Mostly because if your HP fluctuates don't bellow what +hp gives you, build is bad, and damage reduction is going to prevent that in first place.

i suggest:

full knights
+3 axe rune.
Sub Absorb, Sup vigor, (any tactics grade, sup is suggested), rune of you choice (vitae or attunement, makes little difference, )

Vamp axe of defense or of shelter
-2/-2 shield.


Also, Disrupting chop instead of executioners could make it much easier to farm boss (no healing for him, he goes down fast easily.)
Meditate over +10ar vs blunt shield +30 hp if you are too poor to afford old -2/-2

It would appear most of you didn't look at the difference between suggested and required. Zwei, you have good stuff. I didn't think of a vampyric axe at the time. However you don't understand that the reason I use high hitpoints in this build is so i can let down WY or VS for around 8 seconds, and not die because of it. It's for lazy people like myself. And 1 point in smiting won't make a difference.

Zwei, I'm gunna try everything you suggest. If it turns out to be better and I still live as long being lazy, then hey, I'll be happy and edit the guide, and give you credit.

@ spirit- Rangers are lucky, they can get a cheap pink from purple and yellow.
@Ghost. I don't like Doylack. I like chasing runners. Zealous axe wouldn't be as good because you'd get the same energy without the adrenhaline.
@king baen- I don't have a high sunspear rank.

Quote:

Been done before countless times, drops are poo.

I can't belive you claim this build as your own...which part of it did you think up exactly? These kind of builds have been around for donkeys years, just because you change a couple of skills (not even for better in this case) doesn't mean it's your own, new build.

Yeah I guess it works, build and run are pretty old. The drops are bad for the time taken, if you can go W/Rt then you can do a Smite run in faster than this (10-15 mins) and you get better drops (ecto) as well.
But thanks for posting it anyway.

~A Leprechaun~

Quote:

Quote:

Old run using a weak variant of the ancient W/Mo troll farmer.

I'd go with a zealous axe like [wiki]Wing's Axe[/wiki], -5 physical Str shield like [wiki]Exalted Aegis[/wiki], Knight's Insignia and one of these skillbars for a walk in the park -

Defensive

[skill]Enraging Charge[/skill][skill]Flail[/skill][skill]Triple Chop[/skill][skill]Cyclone Axe[/skill][skill]Dolyak Signet[/skill][skill]Vigorous Spirit[/skill][skill]Live Vicariously[/skill]

Atts: Str 15, Axe 12, Heal 8 for perma-Dolyak's.

The build has a run + adrenaline boost, increased attack speed, 3 x AoE attack chain that gains health/adrenaline/energy on every hit, a spammable AoE adrenal attack, no knockdowns, +40 armour...plenty of defense, adrenaline, healing and energy for an idiot-proof run. Swap to a non-zealous weapon and run between mobs to speed up the farm.

Offensive

[skill]Enraging Charge[/skill][skill]Flail[/skill][skill]Triple Chop[/skill][skill]Cyclone Axe[/skill][skill]Dolyak Signet[/skill][skill]Vigorous Spirit[/skill][skill]Strength of Honor[/skill]

Atts: Str 13, Axe 12, Heal 8, Smite 8.

Either VS or LV provides enough healing so take [skill=text]Judge's Insight[/skill] or [skill=text]Strength of Honor[/skill] instead. Judge's is annoying to recast, VS heals more than LV so take SoH for the easier skillbar to run.

As others have said, there are better places to farm and drops are ordinary, but it's a good place to practice noob W/Mo skillz or level a dire pet. If you've got EotN, use a W/Rt and farm the Raptor Nestlings outside Rata Sum for significantly better loot and a 1-2 min run.