E/Mo For Survivor???

Is being and E/Mo a good profession combo choice for obtaining at least the 1st title of survivor? Also, if using that profession combination, what campaign would be recommended to get the title? Thanks!

The first level of survivor is just level 20, which is simple if you know what to do (more like, what not to do). Profession doesn't really matter; even if you want to go for rank 3 it doesn't matter as the safest way to do it is dwarven boxing, which makes your profession irrelevant and is incredibly hard to die in. As far as campaigns go, Factions would be good because you can get to level 20 in a few hours so if you stuff up you haven't wasted much time.

Ok, thanks. Factions is rather convenient for me actually, seeing as I already completed it with my Sin, and have experience with it. And, depending on how far I make it without dying, i may be daring enough to try for the 3rd and final rank. Thanks. If anyone has any other advice on what they think i should do for the profession choices, feel free to post.

Ok I bolded what I disagree with marty on...now to explain why.


Kath hammers are the safest way to do it...since after lvl 10 theres is almost no way to die. Since everything is getting run for you and all. If you see a mob comming to you just zone.

Boxing is the less expensive way.


Both of these require eotn which you can get to after level 10. My disagreement with factions is that odds are by the time you do all the primaries to get to mainland factions and thus the quest to get to eotn your already lvl 12ish.

With NF you can make a char. Get it to Kamadan. Get ferried to LA and KC. Get to lvl 7ish doing the D'Alessio Seaboard leveling. Then hop over to KC and have the henchmen do some of the easy high xp quests. In less then 2 hours you can be lvl 10.

edit: also...looking for just r1 without eotn...atm...wintersday quests. Specifically strength of snow is a good option in kamadan.

As said, any character can do it, either legitimately or with gimmicks. R1 is pretty easy for a player with even a moderate grasp on the game (my Proph E/Mo got R1, and I was an idiot at the time [which is why she only got R1]). And R3 is totally doable with a little more knowledge and/or gimmicks. Most popular gimmick is probably Kilroy Stonekin's thing, safest but most expensive is Kathandrax Hammers. Another option is Snow Wurms outside of Boreal Station (EotN) in HM. Safer than Kilroy, as a lag spike/DC won't mean the end of your run, and really cheap -- all you pay for is exp scrolls, which probably pay for themselves in drops -- but it can be really mind-numbingly slow (and you might have to go with a secondary that does armor-ignoring damage, or spirit-spam to make it less frustrating). Just do yourself a favor and poke around out there with a non-survivor first, so you know where the pop-ups and patrols are.

You can get the title with legitimate play, but you might have to farm a couple of storybooks, especially if you skip content to be on the safe side. A guildmate got it on his ele (can't remember what secondary he was using at the time, though I don't think the build used anything from it) by playing through Factions and North, most of Prophecies, and half of Nightfall with a Kinetic Armor earth build. Try to ascend in Prophecies if you can (50k exp), and mine the quests around Kaineng (plan your trip to Vizunah Square carefully, so you can ensure you skip the buggy Survivor-killing final cinematic) and in North. The rewards for some North quests give stupid amounts of exp for little work.

Read these guides.

Ok, thanks for all of the information i've recieved so far.

Also, since it doesnt really seem to matter what professions you are, would it still be safer to be a casting profession(to be able to attack from afar until enemy gets close)???

I would say playing Ele for survivor is probably a bad idea unless you are using Kath hammers or some other gimmick. You have paperthin armor (60) and long cast times (even attunements are 2 seconds). Forget about running fire magic AoEs, especially Meteor Shower (lol 5 seconds of standing there unless you use Glyph of Sacrifice).

A mesmer (fast casts, snares, shutdown, etc.), ritualist (lol Soul Twisting protter...) or monk (prot spirit can be shattered but other than that you're pretty home free) would be better on the caster side. Necros have many sac skills and the money skills like Orders, minions, and SS are all 2-3 second casts.

Easiest would most likely be ranger, since it even says "wily and agile survivor" in the description. It has the longest range (bow > spells) and highest elemental armor (100) plus stances to block physical damage. The problem is that in this meta all you can do is splinter barrage and be a bad version of Rt/R splinter barrage.

There's no doubt that ranged professions have an easier time of it, but that doesn't necessarily limit you to casters. With proper skills, an experienced player could probably melee through the game without dying, but would have some heart-pounding moments. Picking ranged builds even on typical melee classes is the safer choice, and it's what I'm doing with some of my characters as I push them through the games on their way to LS. My warrior uses a Defy Pain spear build, and my assassin is a critical Barrager. Dervish did a Balthazar form spear build, but didn't play through as legitimately as the others, so I can't say that it handles every situation perfectly, but it's adequate. Really, a lot of survivability comes down to your heroes. Properly outfitted, they can usually be counted on to cover what you lack.

You're doing it wrong and obviouly trying to get off of Shing Jea Island as fast as possible. Doing everything other than the pirate quests down in the southwest and the northeast of the Island (since they are VERY nasty and can very easily ruin a Survivor run for even the best players) should easily get you to L18 as long as you're not shy about exterminating all XP-giving life in your path (ie, not going out of your way to stealth - and also not going out of your way to farm the XP).

No the point is to not do all the extra shit and get to eotn asap...I guarentee you it's faster.

Seeing as nobody mentioned it, how easy do you think that it would be to get survivor with a Necromancer/Monk in Factions??? Because they can fight from a far with a variety of decent spells, steal health to heal, and also summon minions to use as meat shields for extra damage. Also, the monk secondary will allow more defense and heals. Nobody mentioned anything about necros for survivor, so how good could they do?? Thanks!

I searched "kath hammer" in the wiki and it seems to be the quest drop for the quest to kill Ilsundur, Lord of Fire.

At level 10? o.O

I remember the walk to his dungeon going through a terrifying, burning forest, with Searing Flames and Savannah Heat eles... and then the boss itself auto-nukes your henchies because they don't understand how the "drop the pot that just got conjured into my hands" mechanic works...

I remember Ilsundur being a scary, party wiping death machine. How can it be the safest way to level a survivor from lvl10 to rank 3?

Is there a secret metagame thing that I don't know about?

Buy them for 2-3K. Get run to the NPC that gives you quest reward. Accept quest reward. Repeatedly accept quest reward.

See wiki: You do NOT have to beat the dungeon to finish this quest. If you already have the Quest Item you can obtain the rewards directly. This is useful for Survivors.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Kathandrax%27s_Crusher

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/h...t10445882.html

Kath Hammers, are for the repeatable quest Kathandrax's Crusher. You dont need to earn the kath hammer to complete it, you can simply buy them and just rezone and turn them again one after another, you get 7.5k exp each time and 1.5k. you would need to buy 174 hammers and turn them in from level 10 to get rank 3 survivor.

Holy cow -- like Althea's Ashes, eh?

~400k gold = r3 title, lol. Are there that many of them for sale usually?

That's pretty expensive... but I guess if you're rich and want the title, then good game. This advice is really only for the super rich, though... while it seems the safest, it's not for beginners at all.



For what it's worth, I got my rank 3 survivor on a Ranger. My secondary changed a lot, because I got my exp from capturing elite skills. I captured tons and tons of useless elite skills, just for the XP. I'd find a zone with easy-to-killl enemies, figure out what bosses are there, and cap all their elites - switching my secondary as needed.

my e/r is my leg survivor...and I have a rit that made it to level 2 and another ele who almost made it to level 3 (e/me)....most of my newer kids were able to get to level 1 by just playing the game and not over aggroing......
another way to farm for xp is capping elite skills (best when done on double xp weekends for those) and other double xp weekends .....I also did a bit of wurm killing outside of boreal station---I brought along xp scrolls and since eles are ranged killed the wurms and they never fought back.....just dont do what my e/me did and aggro the oakhearts at the bottom of the hill---they cripple you =end survivor

Any character can do it, and nearly all professions have their "defensive builds" to help them survive better. Dark Bond would help a player MM greatly.
But you don't necessarily have to be a necro yourself to have a minion army -- heroes are great at it, and I almost always run with one on my survivors' teams.

At this point, I feel inclined to ask you why you're chasing this title -- is it for your Hall of Monuments, is it to build a foundation for a character that could chase more titles (in which case, you'll need R3)? Or is it just to say you did it?

In any case, you'll probably have the best chance of surviving with a character type that you know how to play and enjoy. If you know how to run a necro and like that playstyle, then do that. If you don't mind the hassle of keeping enchantments up and like elementalists, do that (it can be done). But if you just go for a class that's recommended to you, unless you know what you're doing, it really won't matter.

I know, when I first started playing, my friend said, "There's a title you can get if you reach a certain level without dying. You wanna try for it?" I was game, and had a lot of anxiety over which class to choose to give me the best chance at it. He talked me into Ranger, and so my first character was a ranger. I died. A lot. And I gave up trying to get the title on that character until I understood the game better. My next 2 characters, elementalist and ritualist, made R1. My elementalist died just after getting R1 because I made a stupid mistake. My ritualist got to 500k exp and died because of another stupid mistake. I have taken a Mesmer and Dervish to LS via snow wurms and very careful quest/mission play, because I knew the game better, where the dangers were, and what I (and my connection) was capable of. Knowing even more about the game, I'm now working a Paragon, Assassin, Monk, and Warrior through legitimately (all are currently over 1 mil exp). The only one I won't be working on LS with is my necro -- she's still stuck in Pre trying to get Legendary Defender.

*LOL* My rit died going after a chest across the bridge -- aloe pop-ups + knock-down = end survivor.

Ok, thanks. I think I am definitely going to go with a caster class, as I seem to keep my self alive much longer without trying than I do with a melee class like my Assassin. And I've had a good amount of experience with all of them in some way and like to play as most of them.

As for the reason I'm doing this, it is PRIMARILY for HoM, but it is also just because I kind of like doing these kinds of "challenges".

Or just play a Paragon. Almost have to actively try to NOT get Survivor on it. :P Just have to be able to put up with the boredom. (only realized my first Paragon had hit Survivor r1 when I checked to see if he'd hit r8 Sunspear - but I got so bored of him by the time I hit the Bone Palace that I deleted him. Except for the quick trip to the Eye of the North itself to get Gwen, and over to Factions just enough to open Vizunah Square, he was Nightfall-only, just playing through... Currently on a second Paragon attempt and actually having fun this time, though he's only L18 at the moment and about to do Blacktide Den)

I did it a little differently. It doesn't really follow the common ways to reach S3, and reaching level 20 took a bit of time, but it worked for me. Tip: I kept my guild hall tab open, and if it looked like I might die, I bailed to my hall. It was quicker than zoning to a town.

Since my main is an E/Me, I'm comfortable with playing that profession. I started her in NF. Several benefits to that, the most obvious is that you can get a ferry to the Consulate Docks (usually for around 500g), where you can purchase max armor right away. I also got a ferry to LA and KC (another 500g usually). I took the quest All For One and One For Justice from Dinas to acquire Olias as a hero. You can get a guildie or friend to run the quest for you while you stay back. Alternatively, pay for another run. I was lucky, in that the girl who ferried me to the docks included the Olias quest in the price, which at 2k was a great deal in my opinion. After accepting the quest reward, you've got a lvl 15 necro hero, and usually have leveled to 3 or 4. I made him a minion master/monk.

Then I took all of the quests in Kamadan. Ran out onto the Plains of Jarin, got the bounty for plants, escorted the armor guy (quest Armored Transport) and ran him to SS Great Hall. Ran in to unlock the outpost, then back out to get the bounty for bugs. Making sure that I kept the quest Material Girl in my quest log, I then proceeded to zone and kill everything (plants and insects) until I had reached 300 (the level needed for First Spear). The reason for keeping the quest is that it spawns a number of level 1 Killer Ibogas that help bring the SS points up. This was easy peasy with a MM and the AoE damage that an Ele deals.

Once I had reached 300, I accepted all of the quest rewards from Kamadan. Then I went into the SS Great Hall and picked up the quest Rising in the Ranks: Master Sergeant. Stood there until it updated, accepted the reward and took the quest Rising in the Ranks: First Spear. Again, waited for it to update, and viola...I had most of my attribute points.

I took all of the quests I needed on Istan to reach lvl 10, then ran to EoN to grab my level 20 heroes (Vekk, Ogden, and Gwen). Went back and finished most of the quests on Istan. I was about level 16 after finishing. Returned to EoN, and got a run to Gunnar's. From Gunnar's, it's easy to pick up an "EoN tour" which unlocks all of the towns. Handed Koris Deeprunner his map for a quick level.

When I reached level 20, I got the armor upgrades and weapon needed to farm the vaettirs in Jaga Morraine. I had to buy an elite tome to unlock Obsidian Flesh for the farm. Carefully ran up to the farming spot, and killed vaettirs in HM with triple XP scrolls for approximately 2 hours. I took cupcakes and merch stones so I wouldn't have to run up there again once I arrived. I've done the vaettir farm many times, so I was familiar with it. However, if it even remotely looked like I may die (it happened once or twice), I bailed to my guild hall.

It took me more time and care to reach level 20 than it did to finish the title with the farm.

I used this meathod to get it on an alt account so I could get it to 30/50. It's great fast and profitable. But requires the person to be VERY familiar with the build otherwise they'll just be going to the gh everyother run xD

Very true. I had done the farm many, many times on my main before attempting it on my survivor gal. And although the triple XP scrolls were expensive, I easily made that back (and more) with the farm.