This is what happens if you make farming threads in the wrong forum

600 armor.. maybe 1 sup and no weapons are REQUIRED 20% enchant weapon is required.

55 has far more expensive armor

5 sup runes and offhand of about 5 k makes bout 8-10 k

600 armor.. maybe 1 sup and no weapons are REQUIRED
The sup runes are all cheap. Minor divine is more exspensive(or it was when I made both my armor sets). The offhand can't be counted into the price because it is a quest reward. Thus if you are to lazy to do the quest then thats your fualt. With the defualt of you don't own prophecies and have no prophecies chars to do it. 600 runs no sup and a 20% enchant is req for soa.

Edit:

If you are going to bother doing the ice king quest. Here is what you do. Run 55/ss take 2 rangers with you. Charge them 10-20k(thats range ive made off the run in past couple weeks) each. Go get the spider in the town and from the ice king quest. Thus netting you each some added gold. Make sure they both know they have to drop ectos/golds/anything else you want. Make sure they pay you right before they cap the spider(before you make the spider spawn). Do this in normal mode

If you don't want to do that(aren't skilled enough). Then run the 600/smite with a hero and clear out the smites for your ectos. You don't have to rely on the a partner and positioning on your hero is simple. You can figure out where to flag him exactly after 2-3 run. You can kill the coldfires if you really need to but they are all avoidable if you do it right. Do this in hard mode.

I find running mantra for anti rupt on the 600 optional slot is best choice.

long post Sorry cerb, you are responsible for some great hero builds being popular, and I respect that. But in this case, a lot of what you are saying is wrong.

Not sure why you brought up epeen or monkeys, but I pretty sure it has nothing to do with the topic.

The choice between 55 and 600 comes down to location, and whether I have a farming partner handy. Some locations _cannot_ be 55/whatevered compared to 600/smite. Some locations are more efficient with 600/smite. And for the record, I 55'ed before I played with a 600, and I farmed with a 600 long before it became popular via wiki etc. I still play both.

I said a 600 needs 3 skills to survive, but I also said a 55 needs just ps and regen / and / or dmg reduction. That is a fair comparison. That they both need energy is obvious. A 600 can tank one foe all day long. Spirit bond = 10 energy, but you get 20 energy returned from the 10 hits it heals you for.

And aggro management _is_ an issue in certain areas. I experimented with a build based on smite hex and smite condition and soj being used on a 600 tank in shards of orr, but the ai there has a bad habit of often switching agro from tank to the other monk when the monk approaches (and incidentally is still out of range).

On the topic of degen, can you list some counters? You can propose things like "energy deny the mesmers so they can't cast conjure phantasm", but that is just nit picking, and doesn't change the fact that 55's are susceptible to degen. The only reasonable counter I can think of was mystic regen, but that is no longer viable.

And it sounds like your answer to dealing with life steal is to make your life higher than 55. Which is kindov my original point.

As for expensiveness, agreed, setting up either build is cheap.

Like I said I have nothing at all against 55's. I use them all the time for farming. But imo there are some things a 55 can't do. There are some things a 55 can do with great difficulty that a 600 can do with ridiculous ease. And there is more to gw than UW. Prove me wrong and take me for a 55 run through shards of orr, and I will admit you can do things with a 55 I can only dream of. Otherwise just acknowledge that a 600 is just good for some things a 55 isn't.

Finally, you spend half the post trying to insult people who 600 (monkeys, epeen, new players, bad players who wanna look good, zombie brainless farming). It doesn't do you much credit.

It is up to personal preference whether to run 600/smite or 55/SS. Really.

If you want to lengthen your e-peen and play HM, pick 600.
If you wanna do something else meanwhile (i.e.: read a book, write a book, cook, do homework), pick 600. (also applies for your partner)
If you don't like to think, pick 600.
If your partner is new to GW, pick 600.
If you have a pet monkey, pick 600 and teach him to smite.
If you want to think you are good, pick 600.

@Arguments about expansiveness: Bullshit. Yes, you need a -50 cesta. But you can get one for free by doing the quest, which isn't too hard considering it's a lvl 8-10 area and you're level 20, and have heroes. Still, if you have problems completing it, I suggest dropping the 55 idea and play 600 instead. As for runes, during Prophecies, each of them costed 20K+ each, and starting to 55 could be quite an investment. But now that they're not even worth 1K anymore, it is quite pathetic to use that as an argument. And the 600 needs equipment too (weapon, runes, insignias). And no 55 doesn't have "far more expansive armor". You can buy the same armor a 600 would, as long as you put runes in it.

@Lifesteal: More bullshit. Yes, it goes through Protective Spirit. But guess what? There's this thing they called "adaptation" which is like, the reason why the human species survived, or so I have heard. "Adaptation" as in, when there's a problem you find a solution, you know? Bone Pits in UW is full of Life Steal and enchantment removal. Did that prevent me from clearing it with 55? Yes. I said goodbye to UW and never attempted it again.

NOT. I just thought "hey, i'll just use constant SB." And before that, I thought "hey, i'll just make my hp a little higher." You know?

In fact, most of what Asha Rai said is BS. If 600 "needs 3 skills to survive", then so does 55 (PS + HB + SoA). Both need Balt's Spirit and will take Blessed Aura. Now you could say "but the Smiter can take that". That is right. However, 600 requires a lot more energy (Spirit Bond = 10 mana and runs out very quickly), so they will take Essence Bond, whereas 55 doesn't need it. Against a large amount of foes, both builds will do good on energy with Balts Only. However, against smaller groups, 600 would run out and 55 could drop either Breeze or SoA (Breeze will last 22-23s anyways), or even just heal himself with Protective Spirit only. "The biggest advantage of 600 is that you can't mess up aggro"? Are you serious? Are you just trying to find arguments to put 55 down? Like I said earlier, 600 is zombie, brainless farming. You just press 3 buttons at intervals, you don't even have to look at the screen. A player with a minimal amount of skill and knowledge of the game will know how to position foes so that SS damages the whole mob.

There are counters to degen, just like there are counters to life steal or enchantment removal. And CoF is definately doable as 55 HP, but it was popularized as a 600 area because people like to be fed builds and not think of things themselves, and it turns out that 600 is the perfect build for that. I agree with you on this as I would say 600 are those who can't 55.I would go 600 only in a couple of places CoF comes to mind.My Monk isn't set up for 600 only 55,105 or 135.

The -50 cesta is easy to get get friend if you are from another campaign or just do the quest when you get to The Ruins of Surmia mission like I do if you don't have enough char slots and have PvP slot use it to get it.