Best way to get obsidian shards?

geez..

Killing the spiders 1on1 isn't a problem, but it's the fact that they bunch up so easily and heal eachother. That's what makes em really hard to kill in HM..

So I usually just find it easier to do in NM since the only thing that changes is the fact that you might get more goldies.

I did two forest runs last night on ma ranger, and all i got was 1 shard each run, and it took me like 55 minutes to clear. Not very experienced, so i reckon i can cut it down to about 1/2 an hr if i practiced, but still not very efficient.

Also i havent seen any fow speed clears going.

Any chance of people posting their average run time, + drop rate of shards for their farms. Im gonna try that sin one when I can get on l8r today.

@ Torrent, follow the instructions given on the page, and its pretty easy. Storm chaser lets you deaggro most of the mobs pretty easily. The only bit is the entrance to the battlefield, coz sometimes the skeletals are too close to the entrance so you cant sneak past, and have to try and make them fight.

EDIT: Also whats the link for the FoW SC i cant find it on pvx, or through a search here.

The run I mentioned takes maybe around 20-30 mins.. not quite sure tbh.. been a while since I farmed there, but one time I got 6 shards in one run.. thought that was pretty good ^^

About the FoW speed clear, whats the current build. The one on pvx got written off after UA nerf, and apparently theres faster builds, yet I cant find them anywhere. Any Idea what these faster FoW clear builds are?

get a sin clear beach and spider cave get 5/6 a run and 1 chest

beach solo NM
pretty much able to be done by every profession.....ever
When a solo is doable with a para, you know it's for everything else too

A/E Perma Cave farm works best in my opinion

I'm told A/Me works in the spider cave also, but CBA trying it...

600/smiting it with ogden yields me a couple of golds and an average of 3 shards/half an hour...

uw sc is your best option, then you can always run a cry build and go farm Voltaic spear's takes like 10mins tops and might even be lucky enogh to get a voltaic spear /sell /buy shards ,i used to do a/e perma UW solo getting like 4 ectos per 40-50mins its too dam boring i would say VSfarming is your "good option" , just in case you find the UWsc a lil hard (speed clear takes more time finding the right people)

Can the 600/smite do a full FoW clear or is it only for certain areas (Beach/Spiders)?

Regardless the question that was asked was what is the best way to farm shards, not buy them. It goes without saying you can buy anything that can be farmed. However, some of us don't prefer to sit in trade chat all day (or even 5 minutes) spamming items for sale or buying items to re-sell them later.

In my opinion, the best way to solo farm shards (or ectos) is with an A/E Sliver Sin. I've gotten 40 shards (and 3 ectos tho I do way more FoW than UW hence only 3 ectos) in the last 2 days using this particular build. You will need:

Deadly Paradox, Glyph of Swiftness, Shadow Form, Lotus Strike, Golden Lotus Strike, Death Blossom, Dash, and Sliver Armor.

Shadow Arts - 14
Dagger Mastery - 9
Earth Magic - 12
Air Magic - 4

Set of daggers (preferably inscribable) with a +20% enchantment handle, zealous dagger tang, and "I Have the Power!" inscription. Since you're doing most of your dmg with Sliver Armor, req is not seriously important here though it will add to damage of your dag attacks and thus speed up the process a bit.

Want to do HM instead of NM in the Spider Cave but they "heal too fast"? Feel free. Once you get about 12 or 14 spiders and 3 or 4 dryders attacking you, they could have every spider in the world trying to heal the one spider you're slivering and they won't be able to out-heal the ass-whooping sliver is putting on that one spider (Until you get down to about 6-7 spiders, which by then they're easy to separate into two little groups and u can easily take them out anyways).

In fact, Hard Mode only makes the run easier (that goes for UW too as I've tested it), since Sliver's damage potential is directly proportionate to how often you're getting attacked, and enemies attack twice as fast in HM. The more, the better. It's shocking how fast Sliver will take the spiders out in HM no matter how fast they're trying to heal.

Best way is try to separate them (if they're clumping into one large mega-group) into groups of 3-4 by using dash and running away for a sec, as they will break rank and follow u single file to try to catch up. Then run directly back at them quickly and they will all stop and start attacking you again, but this time in convenient smaller groups (many will be sitting by themselves - easy prey).

Run right into the middle of a small group (or up to a single one), start attacking one and the other 2 (or 3) spiders in the smaller group will stop healing at that point. Do not kill any of the aggroed Dryders. They are helping you take the spiders out by adding to Sliver's damage. If Sliver starts to attack a Dryder instead of a spider, re-position yourself a bit to get it to attack the spider group you're focused on (this takes a little practice to do properly. Rekoff sliver farmers will know what I mean).

Clear the cave, take your shards (usually 3-5 per run), put them in the bank and do it again. I add this spider strategy because I saw a few posts saying that the spiders heal too fast on HM. With the above strategy, the whole cave is laughably easy and will take you 10-15 mins or so to complete.

The above strategy has netted me 30,000 in gold (after selling the countless weapon/shield drops), 40 shards, 3 ectos (from the few UW runs I did), two black dyes, one white dye, 3 red dyes, 2 silver dyes, a ruby, a sapphire, 40 steel ingots, three stacks of glittering dust, 2 necro tomes, 3 warrior tomes, 2Ranger tomes, and two stacks of wood planks in two days, which all equates to roughly 175-200k total. Not bad for 2-3 days' work and I am confident that clip keeps up with many of your "power traders" out there.

The word of the day here is persistence. Shards are a rare, expensive drop. You won't always get 5 or 6 on every single run, but stick with it. It doesn't take all that long and it's not like you're not getting paid in other ways for your time, with expensive weapons, tomes (in HM) and dyes being rather plentiful drops in FoW (as well as FoW passage scrolls which make many of your runs free anyways).

Besides, it's far cooler and more interesting being surrounded by a dozen or two giant spiders that all want to eat you for several hours rather than ripping other players off or spamming trade chat all day for your wealth. If I want to read I'll grab a book. If I want to kill I'll play GW. Hope this helps.

600hp with a smiter hero works pretty good (not the spiders but the the shadow army and the skeletons).
Doing it with a human smiter btw is more fun and half entrance costs.

Or do it with a perma sliver sin+ buffs for sliver like EBSOH or by urals hammer, intensety and GolE for energy manegement.

This way u can clear the whole cave (and snarlings of course) in 20 mins in HM if ur good.
Just pull the spiders into 2 big groups and dont kill the dryders since they dont drop obsis and give a dmg boost for sliver.

HM in this case is faster than NM since u can pull the spides better and they attack faster plus u get more goldies (useally 1-2 per run), lockpicks and warrior and ranger tomes.

If u want u can skip like the last 4 spiders in each of the 2 groups since they take much longer then the rest (sliver armor again).
I guess its more profitabel this way but i dont do it because i allway think this 4 remaining spiders would have 4 obsis for me