UW farming efficiency?...2man vs solo smite run
Krazi Bastid
my guildie always does 600/smite to farm his ectos and i always do earth ele solo smite runs. he takes different ppl in the guild as his smiter but i never go. then ppl ask me why not? and i guess the reason is just cus i dont want to be someones bitch for an hour, which is how he plays, bip me bip me bip me bip me bip me bip me bip me while spamming spiritbond on recharge. anyways, just wanted to know on everyones experience, what do they find more effective for farming ectos? and if anyone can do some accurate math on the technical stuff for the 600/smite or 55/ss. like say for my earth ele runs, all 40ish smites dead in about 12minutes, so thats like 40ish % chance at an ecto drop per run, or around 1ecto per half hour. thanks.
I Will Heal You Ally
Terra Tank FTW... not a big far of duo nether... those days should be gone by now
kel77
Duo will always be faster, but ultimately solo wins out because you won't have to share ectos 
Happy farming
Happy farming
eiri yuki
Question, does the terratank build on PvXwiki still work? because now with lootscaling and all, i wonder if the AoE kills wont kill your drops
Hyprodimus Prime
I dont beleive in loot scaling, but I do beleive in the "flag theory" I cant find the original thread but Ive done a few tests myself and it seems to work.
ejp
flag theory? and what is best 2 man 600/smite? 55/ss?
eiri yuki
you mean the thread with the whole timed entry thing in fahranur? yeah it seems logical enoug. thanks for the heads up
Krazi Bastid
the terra tank does work still, i dont see a drop in my ecto rates. if there is its miniscule. but just in case, instead of pulling 20+ smites then killin in one shot and getting 100gold for my efforts, i just kill them each group. the skills recharge fast enough so i never have to wait for recharge. just kill a group and then walk on over kill next group at a safe spot. but if you prefer the 20+ smite pull, go for it, according to anet, lootscaling does not affect ectos so TECHNICALLY, ectos should drop same rate whether you kill in bulk or small packets.
![[Morkai]](/static/static/../Img/avatar144860_1.gif){kind=avatar}
[Morkai]
Loot scaling full stop doesn't apply in Core Area's..apparantly...but the drop rates have decreased...Anet lied to us IMO..scaling does apply in Core Areas.
Songbringer
Quote:
Originally Posted by ejp
flag theory? and what is best 2 man 600/smite? 55/ss?
600/smite is faster however 55/ss can do all the quests at the first grenth statue as well as the quest to get spider in the town and the spider quest in the icy vale area.
Sorry I don't know the names of the places. I stopped doing uw hardcore when i maxed account in gold
I however have done all the quests I talked about with a friend of mine who recently quit the game.
O and actually the reason I wanted to post was to say smite hero>person. I can get bip whenever I want and make them stand where I want and don't have to deal with someone screwing up aggro. If your leader plays like that maybe he should consider using a hero.
I don't mean to be rude but he doesn't sound like someone i would want "serving"(using that losely) under because if he tried to make me his bitch i would rage out. I can't stand people who are like ZOMG REDENGINEGOREDENGINEGOREDENGINEGORED.
I do the vwk solo and the duo 600/smite they both are bout the same money I've found and I like the 600/smite only because i am more comfortable with it.
600/smite is faster however 55/ss can do all the quests at the first grenth statue as well as the quest to get spider in the town and the spider quest in the icy vale area.
Sorry I don't know the names of the places. I stopped doing uw hardcore when i maxed account in gold
I however have done all the quests I talked about with a friend of mine who recently quit the game.
O and actually the reason I wanted to post was to say smite hero>person. I can get bip whenever I want and make them stand where I want and don't have to deal with someone screwing up aggro. If your leader plays like that maybe he should consider using a hero.
I don't mean to be rude but he doesn't sound like someone i would want "serving"(using that losely) under because if he tried to make me his bitch i would rage out. I can't stand people who are like ZOMG REDENGINEGOREDENGINEGOREDENGINEGORED.
I do the vwk solo and the duo 600/smite they both are bout the same money I've found and I like the 600/smite only because i am more comfortable with it.
Songbringer
Quote:
Originally Posted by kel77
Duo will always be faster, but ultimately solo wins out because you won't have to share ectos
Happy farming Can always do how they fall rather then 50/50. If your lucky they will all drop in your name. Thats how I always did 55/ss(back when only prophecies exsisted).
Happy farming Can always do how they fall rather then 50/50. If your lucky they will all drop in your name. Thats how I always did 55/ss(back when only prophecies exsisted).
zmano11
I think 55/SS is faster since with 600/smite the Smites get hit only when they attack and when your 55/SS the smites get hurt whenever they attack or use a skill.
Spets_Naz
and, with terratank, how do we get rid of the dying nightmares that spawn when we are making a run to the smites making the minotaurs kill?
VitisVinifera
as kel77 states it: the more people, the faster (whether that is 2 or 8), but the fewer drops that are reserved for you.
Rather than think of it as how fast you can complete a smite run, you should be more concerned with your ectos per hour rate. So solo wins out.
Rather than think of it as how fast you can complete a smite run, you should be more concerned with your ectos per hour rate. So solo wins out.
boogerboy72
Quote:
Originally Posted by VitisVinifera
as kel77 states it: the more people, the faster (whether that is 2 or 8), but the fewer drops that are reserved for you.
Rather than think of it as how fast you can complete a smite run, you should be more concerned with your ectos per hour rate. So solo wins out. true story, i can do "the run" with my sin way faster than with a 55/ss
Rather than think of it as how fast you can complete a smite run, you should be more concerned with your ectos per hour rate. So solo wins out. true story, i can do "the run" with my sin way faster than with a 55/ss
dont feel no pain
there are quite alot of good solo builds that can do a smite run <10mins
Wyat Hawke
While we are at it, is it even profitable these days to do UW?
You pay a platinum to enter, and then you might get a ecto every 3-5 runs in my experience. With the ecto prices in an historically all-time low, is it even worth it, unless you're going for FoW armor?
You pay a platinum to enter, and then you might get a ecto every 3-5 runs in my experience. With the ecto prices in an historically all-time low, is it even worth it, unless you're going for FoW armor?
Marverick
It's not.
During the free UW/FoW weekend, I did 34 smite runs with my E/Me. I got 2 ectos.
Now if it were not free UW/FoW weekend, I would've spent 34k and maybe have made 10-15k.
Never went to UW again.
During the free UW/FoW weekend, I did 34 smite runs with my E/Me. I got 2 ectos.
Now if it were not free UW/FoW weekend, I would've spent 34k and maybe have made 10-15k.
Never went to UW again.
Smokin elementalist
I used to be a relatively big fan of UW farming so i know quite a bit about it.
terra tank is the fastest platinum per hour. i can average about 1 ecto every run not sure if thats normal, but thats my average and the most ive ever gotten is 4 ecto in a run. i did 55/ss in my early days as a necro was my first lvl 20 but it is painfully slow. i did 600/smite which was quite fast for being a hard mode farm but not much wealth in is as the ecto nerf has steered most away from UW and even more so because you are splitting ectos. W/Rt works well. its not as fast as a terra tank but it is more reliable, and i seem to get the same droprate between it and the terra tank even thought the terra tank is killing 20 smites at once. and then there was trapping. i did 3 man trapping which was not nearly worth its time but its kinda fun to go with a couple of guildies and clear almost all of UW but trapping was nerfed when Anet nerfed energizing wind. there is supposedly another trapping build out there on wii but i haven't gotten around to trying it.
terra tank is the fastest platinum per hour. i can average about 1 ecto every run not sure if thats normal, but thats my average and the most ive ever gotten is 4 ecto in a run. i did 55/ss in my early days as a necro was my first lvl 20 but it is painfully slow. i did 600/smite which was quite fast for being a hard mode farm but not much wealth in is as the ecto nerf has steered most away from UW and even more so because you are splitting ectos. W/Rt works well. its not as fast as a terra tank but it is more reliable, and i seem to get the same droprate between it and the terra tank even thought the terra tank is killing 20 smites at once. and then there was trapping. i did 3 man trapping which was not nearly worth its time but its kinda fun to go with a couple of guildies and clear almost all of UW but trapping was nerfed when Anet nerfed energizing wind. there is supposedly another trapping build out there on wii but i haven't gotten around to trying it.
![[riVen]](/static/static/../Img/avatar84279_2.gif){kind=avatar}
[riVen]
W/Rt may be slower, but sure nets you more ectos per hour (my personal experience, but also that of many other people). You can fairly easily get the W/Rt run time down to 15 minutes, and -personally- I average around 5 ectos per hour. YMMV, but generally speaking, W/Rt seems more effective than E/Me and is also a lot safer (if you fail a run you're just bad :]).
W/Me and Rt/Mo (Hard Mode) are even more efficient. Pro: Like W/Rt, enemies don't die all at the same time so better for drop rate, Con: much less safe than W/Rt.
W/Me and Rt/Mo (Hard Mode) are even more efficient. Pro: Like W/Rt, enemies don't die all at the same time so better for drop rate, Con: much less safe than W/Rt.
Melody Cross
As to the OPs question: solo farming is plenty profitable and many people still do it. duo farming adds a touch of redundancy, a level of safety...and some company.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marverick
Quote:
It's not.
During the free UW/FoW weekend, I did 34 smite runs with my E/Me. I got 2 ectos.
Now if it were not free UW/FoW weekend, I would've spent 34k and maybe have made 10-15k.
Never went to UW again. Thats why, if you wish to farm an area, you wait until there is a weekend that does not double its drops, etc. Go elsewhere, farm a whole other continent if you can. During most of these special weekend events you can usually find me as far away from the bandwagon as possible. Loot drop ratios are spread across groups (theres just too much evidence supporting this for anyone--including Anet--to deny it), but the first people hit are those in the same area as all the other farmers, farming for the same thing.
if they double the amount of ecto that drop, but 20 times the normal amount of people are farming them, do you truly expect that you will get more per run? or don't you think you will get less?
On the other hand, if everyone and their aged grandma is farming ectos and you are one of a small handful of farmers doing CoF runs, you are competing with fewer groups for the drops in that area.
I hope this helps you.
GGs
During the free UW/FoW weekend, I did 34 smite runs with my E/Me. I got 2 ectos.
Now if it were not free UW/FoW weekend, I would've spent 34k and maybe have made 10-15k.
Never went to UW again. Thats why, if you wish to farm an area, you wait until there is a weekend that does not double its drops, etc. Go elsewhere, farm a whole other continent if you can. During most of these special weekend events you can usually find me as far away from the bandwagon as possible. Loot drop ratios are spread across groups (theres just too much evidence supporting this for anyone--including Anet--to deny it), but the first people hit are those in the same area as all the other farmers, farming for the same thing.
if they double the amount of ecto that drop, but 20 times the normal amount of people are farming them, do you truly expect that you will get more per run? or don't you think you will get less?
On the other hand, if everyone and their aged grandma is farming ectos and you are one of a small handful of farmers doing CoF runs, you are competing with fewer groups for the drops in that area.
I hope this helps you.
GGs
N1ghtstalker
i farm with a friend and at the end we split 50/50 of out ecto drops
if not we sell the ecto we got (if only one or un-even number of ectos) en 50/50 that amount of gold
if not we sell the ecto we got (if only one or un-even number of ectos) en 50/50 that amount of gold
kel77
W/Rt is by far the easiest way to solo UW imo.
dont feel no pain
I still get average 1 ecto per run tbh (w/me)
But i dont overfarm
But i dont overfarm
jon0592
Quote:
Originally Posted by [riVen]
W/Rt may be slower, but sure nets you more ectos per hour (my personal experience, but also that of many other people). You can fairly easily get the W/Rt run time down to 15 minutes, and -personally- I average around 5 ectos per hour. YMMV, but generally speaking, W/Rt seems more effective than E/Me and is also a lot safer (if you fail a run you're just bad :]).
W/Me and Rt/Mo (Hard Mode) are even more efficient. Pro: Like W/Rt, enemies don't die all at the same time so better for drop rate, Con: much less safe than W/Rt. I use the terra tank a lot and what I do personally is do NOT chain the 3 attack skills. Let Sandstorm hit twice, and on the 3rd hit use dragon stomp and aftershock.
This way smites will stop even if it's just for 1/4 second to cast say reveral of fortune, zealot's fire or shield of judgement. Then they resume attacking causing Sandstorm to hit only 1/2 the damage - because they're not attacking. Therefore, once you D. Stomp and A.shock, they will have died at different times. Some might even live through the SS - but they will die in 1-2 more seconds from the last few waves of sandstorm.
W/Me and Rt/Mo (Hard Mode) are even more efficient. Pro: Like W/Rt, enemies don't die all at the same time so better for drop rate, Con: much less safe than W/Rt. I use the terra tank a lot and what I do personally is do NOT chain the 3 attack skills. Let Sandstorm hit twice, and on the 3rd hit use dragon stomp and aftershock.
This way smites will stop even if it's just for 1/4 second to cast say reveral of fortune, zealot's fire or shield of judgement. Then they resume attacking causing Sandstorm to hit only 1/2 the damage - because they're not attacking. Therefore, once you D. Stomp and A.shock, they will have died at different times. Some might even live through the SS - but they will die in 1-2 more seconds from the last few waves of sandstorm.
Memphis Rain
I'd forget about UW altogether.
Assuming you are going after Ectos, I've found the solo E/A build at first area of the Tomb to be a lot more efficient. There are 6 dryders and 3 dream riders there and with about 3-4 Shadow of Haste runs you can kill all the dryders and 1-2 out of the 3 riders since the riders tend to run away more often. My best run was killing 8 out of the 9 in less than 4 mins, where I was able to aggro the group on the bridge and also had the dryders bunched up nicely. The kill/time ratio can be higher than UW and best of all you don't have to pay the 1k.
Assuming you are going after Ectos, I've found the solo E/A build at first area of the Tomb to be a lot more efficient. There are 6 dryders and 3 dream riders there and with about 3-4 Shadow of Haste runs you can kill all the dryders and 1-2 out of the 3 riders since the riders tend to run away more often. My best run was killing 8 out of the 9 in less than 4 mins, where I was able to aggro the group on the bridge and also had the dryders bunched up nicely. The kill/time ratio can be higher than UW and best of all you don't have to pay the 1k.
Yukyu
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marverick
It's not.
During the free UW/FoW weekend, I did 34 smite runs with my E/Me. I got 2 ectos.
Now if it were not free UW/FoW weekend, I would've spent 34k and maybe have made 10-15k.
Never went to UW again. I'm doing the SmiteRun with W/Rt and i always get at least 1k with bydrop (white crap, blue crap, etc.); so, even if i don't get an ecto (what happened alot these days) i can at least pay the next run from the collected drops.
So in fact, you would've made 44-49k and spending 34k as entrance-fee.
I still hope, that i'll get one lucky rare drop thats really worth the effort (though, W/Rt is'nt really any effort at all).
During the free UW/FoW weekend, I did 34 smite runs with my E/Me. I got 2 ectos.
Now if it were not free UW/FoW weekend, I would've spent 34k and maybe have made 10-15k.
Never went to UW again. I'm doing the SmiteRun with W/Rt and i always get at least 1k with bydrop (white crap, blue crap, etc.); so, even if i don't get an ecto (what happened alot these days) i can at least pay the next run from the collected drops.
So in fact, you would've made 44-49k and spending 34k as entrance-fee.
I still hope, that i'll get one lucky rare drop thats really worth the effort (though, W/Rt is'nt really any effort at all).
sttyx
What is the best build for UW to get best amout of ectos pls?
i go there with A/E and get about ecto in 1-2runs.Never 2ectos in one run.Then i go there with E/Mo and get ecto every 3-4runs.And finely i go there with RT/Mo 330hp on HM and get ecto in 2-5runs.So i am realy confusied if its only fortune or there is mechanizm on this.Can you help me with it ?And sorry for my english.
i go there with A/E and get about ecto in 1-2runs.Never 2ectos in one run.Then i go there with E/Mo and get ecto every 3-4runs.And finely i go there with RT/Mo 330hp on HM and get ecto in 2-5runs.So i am realy confusied if its only fortune or there is mechanizm on this.Can you help me with it ?And sorry for my english.
Bukaj
Who knows... Dot'n know if is there any mechanism, but my last 11 smite runs give me only 1 ecto. And must say I do this runs with unequal(?) characters. Try W/Me, D/Me, Rt/Me, A/E, E/Me, Me/Rt but nothing. Mass kill at one time do only with E/Me, but don't lure big groups, max 2. Paradox is, that ecto drop to this character...
At better time avarage one ecto drop to any of my character by run, so don't know if is there any mechanism.
At better time avarage one ecto drop to any of my character by run, so don't know if is there any mechanism.
Nemo the Capitalist
i prefer duo smiting really easy
Amazing Stroopwafel
I preffer dualing, faster, able to kill more foes and much more fun.
I'm only wondering, which is better? 55/SS or 600/smite, they can both farm the UW pretty efficiently only the 55/ss seems riskier to me since the necro has to be in casting range and might therefore break aggro.
I'm only wondering, which is better? 55/SS or 600/smite, they can both farm the UW pretty efficiently only the 55/ss seems riskier to me since the necro has to be in casting range and might therefore break aggro.
CE Devilman
72k+ on sunday
40K+ on 2 uhr last day
and a damm req 9 stormbow 15% enc.
solo win....
----------©----------
40K+ on 2 uhr last day
and a damm req 9 stormbow 15% enc.
solo win....
----------©----------
cerb
If you want better drops do some different things. I mean even back in Prophecies when people were still doing Griffon Runs in Prophet's Path (before Kephket), your drops were getting worse if you did the same run too many times.
Last week me and a friend got 6 ectos out of a run, by doing the first quests (Escort of Souls, Ice King, Unwanted Guests, which are very easy). And I'm pretty sure we got none (maybe 1) ecto from smites. Now of course 6 ectos might've been a bit lucky but we usually get at least 3 doing that run, which is quite easy (Mo/Me with Resolve = gg) and quick (avg. 40 minutes)
Last week me and a friend got 6 ectos out of a run, by doing the first quests (Escort of Souls, Ice King, Unwanted Guests, which are very easy). And I'm pretty sure we got none (maybe 1) ecto from smites. Now of course 6 ectos might've been a bit lucky but we usually get at least 3 doing that run, which is quite easy (Mo/Me with Resolve = gg) and quick (avg. 40 minutes)
britnie31
PERSONAL Pref ... ss/ 55
doragon
I think that drop rate isn't affected by theway you kill them. In my opion soloing uw is the best way to make money. The drops are random and ypu have a bigger oportinity to get ectos if you kill as much foes as possible. Best= aaxteet+ smites. You get almost everytime atleast one ecto. And if you don't get any you'll get your1k back anyway!