16 Jun 2008 at 20:41 - 7
I've always liked using Sliver armor for Raptor farming, especially when working up Asuran rank, since killing the boss nets you a pretty good bonus. This is what I'm using now. Note that you should probably have rank 10 in Asuran, however, both for Mindbender and for the Energy Channel bonus which automatically kicks in when you kill 25 Raptors -- otherwise, you'll probably run out of energy. It's also good to have more than 4 or so Ebon Vanguard ranks and a fairly high Sunspear rank.
[build prof=E/A name="Sliver Raptor Farm" earth=12+3+1 shadow=12 energy=3+1 desc="Must have Asuran rank 10"][Shadow Form][Glyph of Elemental Power][Sliver Armor][Ebon Battle Standard of Honor][Crystal Wave][Intensity][Teinai's Crystals][Mindbender][/build]
To run the build, activate Mindbender then aggro as much of the cave as possible. Stay on the move and as far away from the Raptors as possible. When you're in the clear and Mindbender is winding down, hit Shadow Form.
Incidentally, Mindbender works like Storm Djinn's Haste and Deadly Paradox put together, assuming you have a high enough Asuran rank, which saves a skill slot. I have to admit, I find that I still get interrupted fairly regularly when I go to hit Shadow Form, but enough people got by with Flame Djinn's Haste+Deadly Paradox to make me think that either my computer or my reflexes are running slow. If you want something rock-solid, I would suggest throwing in Glyph of Sacrifice somewhere in the mix, i.e. hit your running skill then Glyph of Sacrifice, aggro, then hit Shadow Form as the Glyph is running out. Although with the recent buff to Shadow Form, it might be possible to activate Shadow Form, aggro, and kill the boss and be protected all the while.
Anyway, once you receive the message "Defeat Rekoff Broodmother", immediately stop running and start into your damage skills (you should already be in Shadow Form by this time). Don't worry about pulling the Raptors to a choke point or blocking off their left sides. Although these are valuable techniques, you're simply going to be putting down too much damage too quickly for them to escape.
So, as you might have guessed, you activate the skills in order: Glyph of Elemental Power, Sliver Armor, Ebon Battle Standard of Honor, Crystal Wave, and Intensity. Then stop. Crystal Wave/Teinai's Crystals won't scatter, provided you cast them *before* Intensity. Save the second AoE for later.
I've always liked putting in some AoE into my Sliver Armor builds, although I haven't necessarily convinced a lot of people to follow suit. My thinking goes that the killing will go quicker if the creatures have fewer hit points to start with and that when Sliver Armor starts to wind down, as fewer and fewer creatures remain, AoE helps to "mop up" the stragglers.
With all this damage, there shouldn't be any difficulty killing the boss within five seconds or so, even if she's not the first one hit by Sliver Armor. You may want to target Rekoff, for safety's sake, and attack her if she starts running off. Things tend to work better if the boss lives longer, however, since then you can get a free recharge on Intensity, as well (generally Rekoff will be dead before you can cast Intensity).
Re-cast Sliver Armor, then Intensity (if possible) and Ebon Battle Standard of Honor. Of course, you'll need to re-cast Shadow Form when it begins to wind down as well. When there are about 6-7 Raptors remaining, hit Crystal Wave then Teinai's Crystals in quick succession. When done correctly, this should essentially finish off the rest of the group. I haven't managed to finish a run in under a minute, but 65 seconds is doable, and 70-75 seconds about average.
