[Updated!] Drunken Fool's Guide to terra tanking UW

atributes on both bars are the same 16 earth
8+2 fire 5+2 energy storage 8 insperation. 4 air magic the only real absolute equpiment need is a 20% enchant mod. that is a MUST.
*UPDATE* it is VERY IMPORTANT that you use the right gear in your armour! i use geomancer insignia on the chest and blessed insignia on all the rest even the head piece.
TOO MANY TERRA TANKS RELY ON ARMOUR OF EARTH TO REDUCE THAT LAST LITTLE BIT OF DAMAGE!!!!!!!!!!!! and they wast a skill in thier bar when they could jsut siply have the right armour.

as for the shield... use either lke a rolling stone inscription OR the one that is armour while in stance


as you noticed, the only difference is ether nightmare instead of arcane echo, and ward for
The Spawning Pools. I will go over both versions in detail.

when I initialy made these bars I was looking at skills such as aftershock or crystal wave, etc. and though the damage was good the rechare was FAIL. even with celerity. FAIL. i wanted a way to create non stop damage.

When guild wars was first made, its intention was ultamitley to lead to pvp and the pve section in tryia was all desgned to prepare you for pvp by causeng each area to face different situations. this is most noticable in the desert missions where they include the elements of TOPK used to have in its maps leading to HoH. and inhereint in the monsters skill bars were clues on how to defeat them.
thats what turned me on to lava font. i seen low recharge and with a few points in fire... its damage is equivelent to sliver armour. and... it stacks.
yes thats right. and its not a bug. its made that way when echoed, lava font stacks. and because it ends so quickly,most mosters dont scatter (well not the ones that you need to kill)
the monsters that scater from it are: ataxes, grasping darknes, charged blackness, and dream raiders wil if you use it more than twice in a row, and smites.

that leaves mindblades and all the undead monsters in the pits. as well as the terrorwebs.
and these are just the things you want to kill fast.

now in some cases its smarter and faster to echo sliver armour to keep it up all the time. at other times its faster and smarter to echo lava font.

when fighting smites never use lava font at all. they will scater and it will take forever.
the more you agro the more the monsters will wand you. the more sliver armour triggers.. and the faster you kill. the bigger you agro the faster you are.in any map. now to kill cold fires, there is a sweetspot where sliver armour will hit them but frozen burst will not hit you. its a fine line but easy to find.

once again use only slliver armour to kill those, not lava font.not only will ward agains harm reduce thier damage to almost nothing but any non target aoe spell like frozen burst will damage you. now with 5 or 6 colds spaming that every 8 seconds... you wil die.
so find that sweetspot! *UPDATE* Positioning is critical in some parts of tera tanking. NEVEr alow smites within range of the coldfires as frozen burst is a non target aoe hex and smite hex will kill you.
a good general rule is stay out of thier ward while there are smites on you.
the next general rule in terra tank is only kill what you have to in order to achieve your task. you dont need to kill every monster in the ice wastes before you tell the group tour ready to do the quest. same with the bone pits but ill get into that later, we are still on smites.

there is a patrol of coldfires that has its route right along where the ice king spawns. this patrol is the first spot you will begin to actualy tank and kill.Ther are some things you need to keep in mind before you agro them though. first you need to rememebr what i said about how to get the most out of sliver armour, whch is the bigger the agro the faster you kill. so here is what i do. upon entering the wastes i run past the first 4 smites and go around the corner and agro those smites and the coldfires that patrol right by the bottom of the hill and keep my survival enchants up and make them folow me to the top of the hill where the patrol walks by. you will inevitably drag a few smites with oyu thats ok. echo sliver and maintin survival enchants till they die, then position yourselt so that sliver hits those two coldfires that are in that patrol, and kil only those two.
walk down to the botom of the hill.. let those other colfires ( the first ones you agro to use to help trigger sliver more) folow you. they will eventualy break off and return to their origonal patrol route. you continue to colect agro and maintain enchantments while walking ofer to where the terrorwebs are at the monument. brun all that agro, smites and all (yes they will folow you that far) and agro the terrowebs as well. distance yourself far enough away so that the smites dont get hit with frozien burst, echo sliver untill they are dead. then go to the seet sopt.. echo sliver.. untill all the colds are dead then to kill terrors echo lava font. pop the reaper double check the map to make sure you killed everything you need to, and if clear then your ready. during the ice king quest, each terra tank has thier own way.
i generaly echo sliver first.... and use it to kill the ones that are isolated from teh main ball of them. by the time the third group spawns you position yourself in such a way you echo lava font and hit the most possible, watch thier health and whey they are under 25% hit sliver and run off to kill the strays again.and plop! they all just strat to drop like flies.
remember you cant kill just 1 smite 1 on 1. you need to go borrow agro from somewhere and get sliver armour to trigger more often.

they say a picture is worth a thousand words so here are some screens that show what i am talking about
and here is one of teh sweetspot ]

*UPDATE* here is a video showing what I mean about "borrowing agro"

in this vid I deliberatley make a few mistakes and show what to do to deal with it. I take my time moving slow and methodical. get it right before you get it fast. i normaly go almost double this speed only because i know the area so well.
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v10881250...10146&rank= 1
i will skip the comon sens stuff on running up the moutnain you will figure out to avoid traps real fast on your own.
here is a short video of the correct route up the mountain and includes which group of charged to kill in order to alow acess to the Chaos Planes to anyone that enters it later on.
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=EL2KAVDO


the bone pits
upon entering the bone pits, most terra tanks begin killing right there and then.Bad idea.Too slow and not neded to achieve you task.you can farm later! and believe me you will have time. i always do esp with pugs that do hour 30 minute runs.There are 2 modes i enter into wen i do bone pits. one is easy mode one is boogy mode. the only real difference is easy mode i kill more stuff that i dont really need to.BUt either way, i walk past everything in the entrance.(maintaining survival enchants of course) andkeep walking down the hill around the cnrner under the bridge (cearful not to get stuck there)
all the while gathering more and more agro. dont kill leep walking. around the next corner untill you reach the crest of the bridge. in easy mode this is where i stop echo lava and go nuts killing. Here is a screenshot of where i stop if i an NOT in a hurry if some agro breaks off while i am walking to that spot its ok it dont matter anyways it wont efect the quest at all.once i have killed most or all of the monsters on me i then proceed deeper inside to the large open space just before the base of the last hill up to the monument. there is two patrolls coming down one from each fork in the path both of those patrols must die.so i agro one group and then drag them over to the second group. and i watch for the sneaky bone collectors that try to sneak off and i trap them on teh edge before they get any minions up. hit sliver armour and BAM tis almost like a spike! because you have accumulated big agro once i see a few minoins up and well sand stuff.. i let the little buggers get away and try to kill them last.Reason being if they own minins at the time they die, the threshers will get aoe hex on you and if agro is big(like in boogy mode) you get spiked. BAM FoCx8 or something because the masterless minion is hostile to the threshers and provides a target for them.
once they are all dead at the fork in the path. move on. and rememebr at the top of the hill kill the terrorwbs last.Pop the reaper, and double check and make sure your clear for quest( i have failed here a couple times being in a hurry i left one stupid guy alive that i didnt see) if your clear, make sure obby is off before you take quest or you wont get into position to interscept the terrors that will come. take quest, boogy down to the base of the bridge, and do your thing! if you have survived this far you dont neemd instructions on hwat to do from here when i am in boogy mode i jsut dont stop at the crest of the bridge to kill anything. i go straight to the fork in the path agro the patrols and echo lava font and hit sliver on recharge, killing at least two dead colectors first if i can. and i keep a minion targeted and watch to see if it gets a hex. thats my cue to get the hell away from him fast! or ima get spiked! because in boogy mode sometimes every monster exept the ones at the entrance tunnel will folow you. this means you have HUGE agro. about 30 to 40 of the dam things. this is where you learn REAL FAST to not ever ever ever let ob flesh and stoneflesh expire at the same time. with this much agro you will get wanded to death before you get stoneflesh up, OR you wil get FoC spiked before you get obby up.

here is a video demonstration of the bone pits wtih highlights form the four horsemen quest at the end.
Once again i only go half the speed i normaly go in order to demonstrate how to cucesssfuly clear the area. The tricks for speed come from practice and mastering this technique first.
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=PLEM1W7E

the chaos planes.
this is where i knwo right away if i gotta move it fast or go into easy mode.
this is hwere soo many groups kill stuff tey dont ned to kill. some noob always runs off and agros the first Dream Raider he sees and goes to town.
the first thing i think is ok.. i got all the time in the world. thse clowns have no leadership ro they jsut dont know. either wya they got a leeroy.Anyhow,back to terra tanking! my point here is the same a s the its dont kil stuff you dont need to. ever. an exp terra will know what has to die and what doesnt have to die. but this guiid is not for pros its for those that pm me all day wanting me to take them in and show them. now there are only a few dream raiders oyu need to kill. one is on the far left and another way far right, and all the others are with the wailing lord and all hanging around the terrorwebs.
the trick to preparing the way for horsemen with a terra tank is simple. once you kill the dream raiders and the initial first 3 mindblades that spawn far away form the terrors, the pop ups becin to centralize. so first i kil the far left dream raider. and the three that pop up i drag in with me and agro the wailing lord at the same time and distance myself from the terrowebs before i kill.

then i walk ofer to the other side kill that dream raider, grab the three that pop up.. walk over to the ohter side again, grab that group... and kill.remember against mindblades you arcane echo lava font. tehy wont run not even in HM.the actaul killing takes less that a minute per group. its alot of fun seeing 36 mindblades crowd around you and they all jsut drop at once
poof! grab ur ectos and get more mosters!

then they all start to pop up un agro range and you can start to kill all of it and clear both sides at once. double chack and watch the radar minimap.
make sure you never ever tank jsut one group. BIG agro. take the time to set yourself up right an in the end you will be faster.Remember.. dont agro and kill more tha what is inediatley around you and the group during horsemen quest. dont worry about drops you ar ethe only one that can solo that area so do it after the run when the group has left if you like.
here is a video of what needs to die in order to prep the monument or the horsemen quest.
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=2WFHEZMH

now as for the terra tank 2 bar that has ether nightmare in it... i use ether nightmare to aoe degen anything that is not in range of my aoe form lava font and sliver amrour. by th time the stuff close to me is dead the others are half dead and i walk up pop up sliver and lava font once, and watch then die even faster! however you gotta watch ot with that bar in smites.
smite hex will ter you apart if you hex the smites. so if you target a coldfire in that patrol you need to kill and the smites are close enough to them to catch teh hex...that could mean trouble.
both tera bars are very effective, and fster than crystal wave and all that stupid metoer shower bed of coals crap(personal opinon there) becase your damage is non stop and no waiting for recharge.However those are the two bars i personaly use ... there are other ways to skin a cat. its the player more than the bar. positioning is soooo important for a terra tank.

i havent been required to solo pools yet so even though im sure i could ... i dont have it down to a science like the other areas so i wont wriet about that area.

*UPDATE* this tera tank guide is not intended for solo stuff. it is made to play in a team
It was origonaly tewaked to this result due to the pressure of the speed of the main group
and that team build is foun here http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10277528

*UPDATE* This section will explain The Spawning Pools.

In the Spawning Pools, you will encounter these nasty little air eles that use shock. and they spam it.For those that dont already know, shock is listed as a skilll not a spell. Therefore it gos past ob flesh.Whirlwind like any other nn target AoE spell will hurt you.(inferno.. lava font.. flame burst...etc)
The knock down from shock will interupt you. and as shown in the screenshots below, with this much agro folowing you,you DO NOT wanna mess up ob flesh. or stoneflesh for that matter. or anything!

To deal with this little problem, i reset atributes so i have 4 in air, taken from energy storage.Do not set air magic to 3 and rely on cons to bring it to 4
the party may wipe somewhere and doesnt want to use cons ntill all are party members are up. in times ilike this you will be glad you didnt rely on a team member putting up cons as your glyhph will only work for 1 spell.
You can still do it all with only 1 spell for gpyph but your timing needs to be on the ball ad you need to watch it like a hawk.

The second thing is to take out Arcane Echo (or if yor using terra bar number 2 then ether nightmare) and put in Ward Of Stability.if you are rank 10 norn I'm Unstoppable is even easier to use.

You can go through the entire spawinin g pools wiht out ward of staility its just tricky in some places and is not recomended unless you are already very familiar with this are.
Upon entering the spawning pools, Walk past everything collecting agro as you go. keep the button down that show all enemies and watch like a hawk for the Charged Blackness. When you see the first two on the map.. double check your survival enchants make sure they are fresh when you agro them.
These are the only things you kill untill you pop the reaper.Kill all charged blackess as you go through. Do NOT kill any terrowebs.Let them folow you.
With freslyrenewd obflesh and stone glesh on.. and a charged glyph pull out your bow and agro one group to start with. as they approach you, lay down ward and then BAM hit sliver and be ready to hit glhp/ obby flesh.Let sliver armour do all the work. This is where sliver armour shines like gold.This is where you see the big agro and the power of holding big agro as a terra tank.
Here is two screens of what i mean.

and this one i took soconds later to sho w how fast tehy should die


notice in screen 1 i just dropped the ward. now i didnt really need it there but i did it to demonstrate how and later on you may need it.

notice in screen 2 see the damage, the exp screen and sliver still going off to kill the second one

ok no just around the corner for where secreen shot 2 was taken there are several patrols of those Charged Blackness.In total i coulnted 10 in that run jsut in the first half all in thier own groups.Thes patrols with charged blackness in them must die. as you have collected considerable agro already sliver armour has now becone like a spike.once again use ward, put up a fresh obby, then pull.Never take on more than4 to learn and more than 6 gets risky even for an exp terran 8 is the limit.I like to agron them as they patrol by so they come in at a steady pace and i dont have to move my ward
at all and jsut stay in that spot just outside the patrol and brin them in.
here is one that shows the patrols in the distance that im watching for


after you have killed those charged blackess (around 10 in total) you then push thre to where the Terroreb Queen will spawn leter on in the quest. here is a screen shot that shows how much agro you should have folowing you.


proceed using the same tactics in the second half of th area only this time the terrorwebs that camp in the spot that is close to where the queen will spawn, leave those. dont agro them to folow you need them for later on to kill the queen with sliver armour faster.
proceed to where the reaper will spawn and enter into that area just far enough to agro the remaining terrorwebs inside.
At this point you are almost ready to kill but not quite.agro everyhting near the monument and pull it all out well away from where the reaper will spawn as shown here


Look on my mini map radar .. see all those red dots just ahead of me? grab those and pull the out to this spot...and kill.


see how fast they die! the exp on the screen shows they die in about half a second in teh start of this grand finale.

remember dont kil until ALL in there are away from the monument! or you will fail!

Once all that is dead, talk to the reaper and take quest.
run out to the area with your long bow ready and pull all the terorwebs you dodnt t agro on the hill just left of you and "borrow" thier agro and pull the Queen out the door. the Queen wont folow too far.. But as long as she is the most formos predoninent monster. slver armour will trigger on to her first. This is where you drop your ward (just in ase the behemoths cause KD on you) and just let sliver take her out. Quest completed, you are done!
Special thanks to the Heros and Lord yesurian and his heros! dunkoro roxx!
Ok. make sure you pay close attention to the gear i use that is in the begining of this guide.
if i am playin a different class and i see my terra INSISTS on armour of earth.. that shows me a person that has no idea on how to set up his gear. that gets teh big F for FAIL and a kick in the ass out of the group because i have NEVER ONCE seen a terra that NEEDS that skill ever suceed.
nope not once. and they are just slower at failing cos they dont kill

Here is my longest vid. i recorded an entire run with a pug group.In it you will see:
The run up the mountain to avoid all the Charged Blackness,
An entire walk through the spawning pools demonstrating how to kill both WITH and WITHOUT the ward of stability.

Take special note how i pull the queen out of her wards before killing.

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v10677615jfx8SD5M
*NOTE*you will need to watch this in Veoh TV to see it in its entirety and get to the good stuff!

otherwise you will only see a 5 minute preview. click in the corner of the screen and then select watch in veoh tv.
if you dont already have it, it will take you to the download page and you can download it frim there. there is no spyware and crap in this plug in, exept one little trackng cookie. i have used this player for a long time now and it is safe to use.