Mountain Troll Farming

I know most people say it isn't worth it, but I'm new to farming and just got a build I thought would be nice to mess around with. I have a standard, old 55 SS Monk build using

Prot. Spirit, Spiteful Spirit, Healing Breeze, Mending, Watchful Spirit, Balthazar's Spirit and a couple odd spells that i don't really use.

Problem is, even though I read these were completely farmable with a 55/SS, I'm getting interrupted to hell. They've even managed to interrupt Prot. Spirit which has a .25s cast time. Their interrupt disables my spell for an additional 20 seconds so once they do that, I'm screwed.

Am I doing something wrong? Has this build been nerfed and/or have mountain trolls been beefed?

Also, just in general fighting around Drok's like the avicara, I get killed almost immediately. I cast Mending, Balth & Watchful, hit Prot as I aggro and cast Healing Breeze soon after and I still die. My attributes are:

Curses 12
Healing 7+3
Protection 9+3
Divine 2+3
Smiting 1+3

55 Health using a Totem Axe and a -50 cesta and max armor (I realized afterwards that I didn't need it) that I got from Boreal Station

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Probably bad luck I guess? Mountain trolls are still cake for me.

waste of time in my opinion, just kill undead in Gates of Kryta.

Farming trolls?

You'd have more luck here.

HARRRRGGGGG....!!!!! YOU KILLED ME!!!!

... well i don't have HM yet so I'm trying to do a little NM farming...

well as for trolls there seems to be a few in this thread.

my suggestion is not to use spells 1 after the other, for example dont queue up prot spirit directly after healing breeze, as an interrupt aimed for the healing breeze is likely to hit the spell cast right after it. instead wait a few seconds.

as an alternative to mountain trolls, try the minotaurs in elona reach (mission) as you dont need to run past arrow shooting birds and they dont interrupt.

hope this helps

Check out Fuzzy Taco's N/Mo farming thread - there are many better alternatives than Drok's trolls.

Here's the link.

if you're going for NM farming spots in Tyria, the desert is your friend - NM Hydras and NM Diviner's Ascent baddies aren't bad in the cashflow department. However, i'd make getting HM a priority - there are so many excellent HM farms in Tyria, esp. for a 55.

I completely agree that HM is a priority... I'm working on getting it for EotN at the moment...

I have a new development, as well. Apparently, the freakin' trolls have some sort of remove enchantment now too. I got a good build going using Spirit Bond+Prot. Spirit and all is good since they're .25s cast time (they are still somehow interrupting it) but it just disappears from my bar. I cast it and a second later, its gone. I'm not sure why or how, but the friggin trolls are removing my enchantments.

Read the description of [skill=text]Spirit Bond[/skill]

Ok, I read it. I must be missing something... are you referring to the bug?

There is something seriously going on here... I just tried solo-ing Johon & his Stonewolves... According to the Wiki, neither he nor his wolves have enchant removal, but somehow both my Prot. Spirit and my Spirit Bond are simply disappearing halfway through their duration... This is getting really annoying...

They're also figuring out how to interrupt Prot. Spirit... WTF!? How are they interrupting a spell that only takes a quarter of a second to cast when Savage Slash takes a half second to cast!?

Too bad there's no necro or monk version of Glyph of Concentration... I'm starting to feel like I should have gone Mo/E for Glyph of Concentration and Sliver Armor

There's no bug, the skill acts as intended.

Back in 'the good old days', you could keep up Spirit Bond ad infinitum. They nerfed it so the skill ends after 10 hits...this is pretty quick vs a cave full of trolls.

The key to Spirit Bond is to observe it carefully and refresh as soon as it drops.

I still like farming trolls

ok, so I read a little and figured out a good skill combo/timing to farm trolls and other baddies w/ interrupts. I use Shield of Judgement and cast my healing stuff while that is active. What I learned is that trolls and other critters w/ interrupts will not usually cast that first. The first thing the AI casts is an attack skill. Since Shield of Judgement causes them to be knocked down, it sort of "resets" them to start off with an attack skill. This causes them to just keep doing standard attacks and then falling. I cast my Prot. Spirit, Healing Breeze and Shield of Judgement, then run into the crowd. Keep Healing Breeze & Prot. Spirit up while the Shield is up. Just before (and I mean JUST before) Shield of Judgement ends, I cast Prot. Spirit and Healing Breeze (even if they've got several seconds left). This will last me until I can cast Shield of Judgement again and get them back up. Seems to work well on Stonewolves outside EotN, Mountain Trolls & Avicara outside Droknar's Forge.

They interrupt you with Disrupting Chop, which requires 6 strikes of adrenaline. 6 strikes is charged with 6 hits, so you know that once one of them has hit you 6 times, he has enough adren for D-Chop. Now I'm not sure if it takes one or two SS to get a group down, but if it's just one, then make sure you cast it before any of them can charge 6 adren.

However, one important aspect of the i-monk is adapting. You face lots of interrupts here, so perhaps Mo/N is not the best way to go. You could try Mo/Me with Mantra of Resolve, Shield of Judgement and Blessed Aura. With max Smiting and high enough DF (13+ I believe magic number was), they should all die in one round of SoJ. Plus, with Resolve you don't have to worry about interrupts, so Trolls should be a walk in the park.

What does DF stand for?

Quote:

... not sure how I didn't pick up on that one...

Is there a Smiting +1 scalp design w/ only 15 armor? I've found one that is 30 armor but not 15...

Ascalonian I think?