Ok, so the typical Vale team is 1 A/N & two N/Me's - for a total of 3 peeps. My build allows 1 E/A to solo the Vale and frees up two other party members to complete other quests (e.g. another E/A could clear Plains for the reaper).
The build:
[Solo Vale;OgdTkY28ZiHRnxYgHKV8riVIVAA]
Have 16 Earth Magic, 12 Shadow Arts and the rest in Energy Storage
Also, I would use a caster spear and an Earth Magic offhand with +45 hp while enchanted and a +1 20% 'Master of My Domain' mod.
In addition, candy corns help too (more on this later).
Running the Build:
Clearing for the Reaper:
After the chamber sin clears the first part of the chamber (where the party spawns at the beginning of a UW run); immediately run towards Forgotten Vale and ignore the Aatxes on the way (you will have [Shadow Form] on you until you pop the reaper at Forgotten Vale).
Upon entering the Forgotten Vale, you will see a group of Grasping Darnkesses.
*** It is very important you do not aggro this group!!! ***
Why? For the Wrathful Spirits quest, you must protect a few NPC spirits from the 'Tortured Spirits' which spawn upon taking the quest. Some (all?) of the spirits you protect spawn when killing the Grasping Darknesses. If you leave alive the first group of Darnkesses until after you complete the quest, then some of the friendly Spirits won't spawn while the quest is active (and thus can't be killed by the Tortured Spirits). Thus you CANNOT fail the quest! And so this is why you want to leave the first group of Darnkesses alive until you complete the quest
Ok, so when you see that first group of Darknesses - they will approach the bridge, then move up to the left, and then down to the right and stop.
At first (until you get comfortable with how that group moves around) you'll probably want to wait until the group moves comes to a stop before making your way towards the reaper spawn-point (but with practice you'll be able to move around them sooner.)
On the way to the reaper-spawn, you will encounter a 2nd group of Graspings. Pull them to the spawn-point. Note: This group will de-aggro as you get close to the monument. To avoid this, use a longbow to pull the Darnkesses at the monument to you.
Once you have both groups of Darknesses aggro'd - activate [Glyph of Elemental Power] and cast [Sliver Armor] along with ["By Ural's Hammer!"]. Also, as the Graspings begin to flee; use your bow (or spear) to pull them back to you.
At some point while killing the Graspings, a group of 2 Coldfire Nights and 1 Stalking Night will patrol near you. Kill them. And later another group of 2 Coldfires and 1 Stalking will patrol behind the reaper monument. You should pull and kill them as well.
Note: as you kill off the Graspings, allied spirits will begin to spawn and attack the enemy monsters. You will need to make sure you are clear of these spirits - or else you may get caught in Meteor Showers or other AoE spells.
After killing the 3 Terrorwebs (last of course!) the reaper will spawn.
Completing the 'Wrathful Spirits' quest:
As you're probably aware, during the quest the enemy Tortured Spirits which spawn use [Illusionary [email protected]] (at 20 Illusion Magic!). This will do 51 armor ignoring damage each time they swipe their weapon at you.
This is where the combination of Grail of Might, [Glyph of Elemental Power], Candy Corn (if you have; you would consume right after taking the quest) & [Stoneflesh [email protected]] really shines. Using this combo, you will have 20 Earth Magic. [Stoneflesh [email protected]] at 20 Earth Magic reduces damage by 41.
In addition, using an Armor of Salvation will further reduce damage by 5; and so now damage is reduced by 46.
At this point, instead of taking 51 damage per swing, now you will only take 5! (51-46)
Further, using an earth offhand with 'Master of my Domain', you have a 20% chance of casting [Stoneflesh [email protected]] at 21 Earth Magic - and so you would only take 3 per swing! (51-48)
Now you can tank the Tortured Spirits despite their using [Illusionary [email protected]] AND you don't need to worry about stripping their enchantments.
Also, this quest is why I prefer ["By Ural's Hammer!"] to [Ebon Battle Standard of Honor]. Using ["By Ural's Hammer!"] you also gain +2 health regen - which helps counter the Tortured Spirit attacks (and you already have another +1 health regen from the Armor of Salvation). So in addition to the +25% damage you also get the health regen.
Plus - the Tortured Spirits are AL 60
. So the +25% damage from ["By Ural's Hammer!"] is very effective against the spirits.Note: When attacking the spirits, be sure to only attack 1 group of 3 at a time (there are 5 total). Otherwise the spirits will flee from Sliver Armor (i.e. they won't flee if you only attack one group at a time).
As you can guess, you would use [Glyph of Elemental Power] prior to casting [Sliver [email protected]] (which at 20 Earth Magic does 45 earth damage each time they attack; which might as well be armor ignoring damage - since the Spirits only have 60 armor). Add +25% damage to this and you'll be doing 56 damage.
After you take out one of the spirits with [Sliver [email protected]], watch which spirit [Sliver [email protected]] targets next. Then, use [Stone [email protected]] on the other spirit.
Why [Stone [email protected]]? At 20 Earth Magic each projectile (2 total) does 41 earth magic - or 82 damage to the spirit EACH SECOND. Add ["By Ural's Hammer!"] to this and now you do [B]102 damage each second[B]!
If you time it right, by the time [Sliver [email protected]] kills of the spirit it's targeting, the other spirit you are targeting with [Stone [email protected]] will be close to dead.
To kill the 5 groups, you will not need to be in [Shadow Form] (since the spirits still hit you through it with [Illusionary [email protected]]. So after you take the quest, let [Shadow Form] expire, get your health back (use ["By Ural's Hammer!"] for the +2 health regen) and then once back at full health you can begin taking out the groups.
It's best to take out the group on the hill behind the reaper first (since after you kill the last group, and the quest completes, you will be right next to that group of Darknesses you skipped upon entering the Vale.) After completing the quest, go back into [Shadow Form] and kill off those Darknesses - in preparation for the 'Escort of Souls' quest, which the Chamber Sin can help you complete once they finish 'Unwanted Guests.'
Other Considerations:
You've probably noticed that this build doesn't include [Glyph of Lesser Energy]. You can get by without it because you're using [Earth Attunement]. However, if you also use a Zealous Spear you can gain +1 energy each time you attack the enemies.
In addition, when attacking the Tortured Spirits a Vampiric mod (probably on a sword or axe - as you attack slightly faster with them as opposed to a spear) would help as you'd gain 3 health each time you attack the spirits (plus - due to the Armor of Salvation you wouldn't have the -1 health regen penalty from the Vampiric mod).
In general though, it's good to have high health and energy in order to use this build effectively.
Final Thoughts:
Using this build I've cleared for the reaper and completed the Wrathful Spirits quest in 12 minutes (from the time I left the Chamber reaper).
To complete the area even quicker, you could take along 1 [Spiteful Spirit] necro to help complete the quest (and ofc - this would allow minor modifications of my Vale build). This would still free up another party member to complete something like Plains.
The other great thing about my build is that you can do a UW SC with 6/8 (assuming you can't find 2 Vale necros).
That's it! Hope this helps
And comments appreciated...
