Welcome to the wonderful world of farming wurms
There is a pretty safe (not 100% but better than most I know about) and easy way to do survivor farming that I'm going to share with everyone. Any class can do it, but you need GWEN (has to be beaten so you can use HM) at the least and Factions/NF if you want the method I used. One word of warning, this run is slow in terms of XP farming speed and there aren't that great drops so unless you are very patient or have a bad connection and are desperate I'd suggest you try something else. I'll talk about the skills you need first and the run second.
I heard about this run while working on survivor with my rit, I knew it was pretty safe so I built around 2 spirits and nightmare weapon (caster wand kept me at a safe distance) and I found out that method worked from the get-go even if it was time-inefficient compared to dwarven boxing. However the reason I used it from time to time is because I put my survivor rit on the back-burner for awhile and didn't want to reset my char's BD (it's all about the presents). After I had a super close call trying to cap a GWEN el boss, the safety of this build became appealling. I think I was more than half done at the time, had some spare time, and choose to do things a little more safely the rest of the way. This guide is intended to show you the basics of the run using spirits but they aren't necessary as long as you have a reliable way of doing damage from a distance. If you can do ranged damage and are new to GWEN, you can ignore all the parts about /rits and spirits and glance over my discussion of the run.
Again, let me make it clear that this run will not win any speed records nor make you rich. It'll get you survivor in a safe manner and enough money to buy the scrolls of adventurers insight you need to speed it up some. You'll get a few lock picks here and there but that's the best loot you'll see (sell 'em or use them, your choice). My implementation is also safe enough that you can multitask a little and read a book or work around the house a little just so long as you check back on it often. It's also okay if your connection goes yellow, you are experiencing occasional lag spikes, etc. and you want to move to a safer farming spot for a few runs while things smooth out. However I want to stress multitasking while farming on a survivor is not recommended for most people, so don't blame me if your dog or little brother gets you killed while you were AFK.
The Skills
In theory and in practice all you need is attacks or skills that can hurt mobs outside of melee range. If you meet that requirement, you can skip this section. However some people may want a build of X, Y, Z and since I did this run first as a ritualist, I'm going to show you one implementation of the theory. That's what the /rit style part of the title is about.
Oddly enough, for my build only 3 skills are really required for this run and everything else is optional:
[Painful bond][Bloodsong][vampirism]
Put 12 points in channeling, and farm as many ranks in the sunspear title as you safely can, zero ranks is fine though if you are too scared/unlucky to farm sunspear points.
Here's the trick, since BS and Vamp steal health instead of make normal attacks, they can attack foes that go back underground. In actuality though, they won't do this all the time, but it helps. On rare occasions if two spirits are attacking two different foes and one dies, they'll both go after the same one underground. They are also good because they ignore armor. Painful bond helps when the foes are above ground.
After those three skills, here are some optional ones that you can use:
For energy management there is [siphon spirit] and [essence strike], not that important for caster classes but for paragons and warriors it can help a little. There's no elite skill required so [signet of spirits] is okay for warrior and paragon primaries as well if you can safely get it.
If you have a ranged weapon of any kind on hand, use [nightmare weapon] to speed up things from safety. It does armor ignoring damage so I'd highly recommend you use it from a distance.
For added damage [spirit burn] is a cheap way to add damage. [spirit rift] is okay damage, but you can only expect to hit one foe at a time so you should consider other skills first. If you have a long lasting weapon spell available, [wielders boon] can add a little damage. [Gaze from beyond] has potential since the main spirts can heal themselves, but watch your positioning if you bring others.
From communing, [pain] and [anguish] are your best choices, anyone can use the first, the second will be more in the domain of casters.
If you have any ranged damage options from your primary class or PvE skills, feel free to add them into the mix. If you are an el for example, just use rogort's invo, glowing gaze, and mind blast they are safe and good DPS. You can even have an attunement and GoLE. In fact, you don't even need the spirits, but I'm assuming that if you have read this far that you've gotten pretty desperate by now (that hasn't worked for you for some reason) and are willing to try anything or you read that part about multi-tasking and are trying to tweak your speed a little.
Note some people may ask why VwK isn't suggested in this guide here's why: you need to get up close to use it so if you lag or disconnect, you will lag or disconnect in melee range, which defeats the purpose of this guide.
Equipment
A ranged weapon of some kind is required if you plan to attack at all as nightmare weapon can help your DPS, a channeling wand if nothing else is available will do, however it isn't needed. For rits, a minor channeling rune helps. Aside from that, you can be butt naked if your character doesn't mind the cold because we are heading north to farm.
The Run
Next stop boreal station; we're doin' some wurm farmin'!
The little frost wurms that pop up just outside the station are the ideal choice for safe survivor farming. They are melee only and they don't move from their spot. The run requires you to kill 10 of them so if you have a scroll of adventurer's insight and are in HM you can get about 6k a run. It isn't great, but it is safe. It's so safe that as long as you don't stand too close to one of them you can do this run in the background while you do other things.
Basically you sit back and let the spirits auto attack, while you pitch in from a safe distance. Even if you disconnect for a minute, if you can log back in, the spirits finished that foe off for you and you don't have to worry about your title. Got laundry to fold? Put down some spirits, fold, and come back to tell them to attack something else. Having one of those days when you are being distracted a lot but don't want to completely stop, this allows you to be a little more passive. You are completely unlucky? There are only two ways to screw up this run and die and neither of them are lag related and luck isn't really a factor.
The run is pretty simple. Exit boreal station and talk to the norn guy just outside to get the blessing making sure you've talked to him before in NM and fought him then with a full party. You aren't going to get a lot of norn points on this run to survivorhood, but it'll give you a small start.
Next head north/north west until the path splits into a high road and a low road that are next to each other. This is where the wurms are. There are three groups of them and how we'll deal with them):
*Low (left path)
*High (right path)
*Back (just after the two paths rejoin)
The procedure will be the same for all groups, find a favorable position, put down your spirits, and attack. If you have ranged attacks and don't use spirits, you need need to worry so much about the procedure. Just stay out of the range of the wurms and you'll be fine.
Low group (wurm positions)
Code:
3 4
2
1
A Safer Survivor Farming Guide (/Rit style)
Winterclaw
You have two options for dealing with the low group, you can either go close to 1 who will be the first you run across, kill him, and move on to near number 2, and put your spirits there. You can also bypass 1 and move near to 2 to begin with and put your spirits there, as all 4 wurms are within range so this works as well. However I suggest you put your spirits near 1 and use a scroll. Once the spirits are active, use painful bond to speed things up and add whichever ****RANGED**** damage you can to make this go faster.
You see that bold part about ranged? If you missed the point the first time, let me repeat it because this is why the run is very safe. The mobs are melee and permanently rooted to one spot. They can't get close enough to attack you as long as you keep a little distance from them. That means you can lag out, disconnect, whatever, and they won't be able to kill you as long as you weren't close enough for them to attack. Ever. That's why this run really doesn't have a luck factor to it and is the safest one I know of.
Okay, after you kill 1, move near to 2 but not close enough for him to attack and put down your spirits again and use painful bond as needed. From this spot you are able to finish off this group. Now you can move here initially, however I feel this is a bad option because the spirits might choose different wurms after the first is dead and that'll make things seem like they've slowed down. Anyways, finish them off, grab any loot and go back so you can take on the high group.
High group (wurm positions)
Code:
7
6
5
This group is similar to the first group. The only difference here is that because you are going up and around an incline, you might not have line of sight to the second wurm depending on where you placed your spirits initially. So you can either put down your spirits, deal with 6 and then move between 6 and 7, move a teensy bit past 5 so you have LoS to 6 and still have the spirits attack them while you push forward, or put your spirits near 6 to begin with. Otherwise it's a rinse and repeat of the low group.
Kill them, grab loot, move on.
Back group (wurm positions)
Code:
10
9 8
The positions look a little different this time but putting your spirits near 8 or 9 gives your spirits the ability to attack all three. 8 is the closest so you can try to start with him, but I notice that spirits like attacking 9 a lot because he is positioned lower. Try to find a position that works best for you, I like to start near 8, hope they stay focused, and then do 9 and 10 in that order.
The Screw Ups
As I mentioned earlier, there are only 2 real ways to screw this run up besides general buffoonery.
1. Standing too close to the wurms. Stay away and you will be fine. You might want to just test out what the safety distance is (you can do that with another character), but aside from that, as long as you stay outside the danger zone, you'll be fine.
2. Getting greedy. After the back group, there is another group of 4 wurms. The only problem is there is a large group of angry tree rangers that can get mixed in with the farthest wurm group. If you go after the farthest wurms and accidently agro them, you are trusting your luck/bad connection to hold out. Since your luck/connection hasn't held out long enough that you've read this far, maybe you should just leaf the wurms near the angry trees alone.
Anyways, take your time, try to enjoy, and you'll eventually get that survivor title you've been waiting for.
Note if you don't have GWEN, HFFF in farming in Factions can also be safe assuming you can get there without problems, however it requires a tad bit more up front risk because you have to play through NF enough to get both ranger heroes and Zenmai. You can also leech, but that gets expensive. Do a search on the forums if you are interested in in that form of farming. In spirit the idea works the same as this thread, find a place where you can get repeated XP and you don't have to expose yourself to much or any danger.
upier
Sweet!
I had no idea that BS/V attack while the guys go under.
The few times I tested it - I used hexes. But I have no idea if they continue doing damage when the wurms go under or not.
So something like [conjure nightmare] and the recently buffed [wastrel's worry] are very sweet options. Even when not going mesmer primary but rather as a supplement to the channeling options since the damage while the wurms are outside is quite decent and you can spread the love a bit.
I had no idea that BS/V attack while the guys go under.
The few times I tested it - I used hexes. But I have no idea if they continue doing damage when the wurms go under or not.
So something like [conjure nightmare] and the recently buffed [wastrel's worry] are very sweet options. Even when not going mesmer primary but rather as a supplement to the channeling options since the damage while the wurms are outside is quite decent and you can spread the love a bit.
Winterclaw
I don't think hexes last, and even if they do, you'd need something long lasting. However those two suggestions would work great.
And yes BS/V do attack guys that go under however in practice they don't always do it. And will stop at times. My hunch is it has to do with their attack cycle and there's a certain point in it that if a foe goes under, they cancel the attack.
And yes BS/V do attack guys that go under however in practice they don't always do it. And will stop at times. My hunch is it has to do with their attack cycle and there's a certain point in it that if a foe goes under, they cancel the attack.
MercenaryKnight
I am pretty sure hexes and conditions last on them until duration is up, even if they aren't around. Because I have seen wurms die with degen on them as they burrow down.