17/02/2011 Updated W/N raptor farm

Got the same tip from an alliance mate and it works pretty good. I don't even have to agro all of them to get rekoff to die

Another thing. This is a riskier run, but if you aggro the cave counterclockwise (instead of clockwise) you end up at the begining of the cave at the end, you can then aggro the raptors just outside. Takes 4-5 more sec, but you kill 1 more group and maybe thatll be enough dmg to kill Rekoff. I know I used to do this sometimes when BuH was still useable, will need to check.

Also, I never used finish him, never had to to kill the boss. Maybe I'll look at that as well.

If you take a Rit hero with 16/15 and cast Splinter with the paragon's shouts, it lasts long enough and can typically let you kill Rekoff after Finish Him(once in a while you don't even need that) and Pain Inverter is almost always enough even if you balled horribly. Splinter being armor-ignoring physical damage helps since a lot since it triggers MoP. I use the OP's build except with Wary Stance instead of Dolyak, since the Paragon's "Stand Your Ground!" works fine.

My whirling attack keeps on getting interrupted when i do this lol

okay so, i've been using the tactic of putting up a second MoP during wary stance, and it works, and kills the boss.

but sometimes( actually quite a lot...) when i use ww attack (i'm 100% sure it's charged) it just doesn't do anything, the skill recharges, and i lose all adrenaline, and die (obviously), does anyone know what i'm doing wrong?

this is my routine: (get IMS up from para hero and flag him back) MoP a raptor, round em all up then i hit: dolyak signet, endure pain, 100b, protector's defense, shield stance, wary stace immediately followed by MoP on another raptor, then WW attack once i can.

ign: digital mystikz, should you need it for whatever reason

I've just been getting into raptor farming and must say I haven't had the problem of getting interrupted while using whirling attack..

The bar I use: OQQUc2IR16RWCpFqM9F5F6F7g4FA

Basically you'll want to use mark of pain while under Wary Stance, then activate Shield Stance and use your Whirling attack.

My paragon already hast stand your ground, so dolyak signet is only in there to make it extra save.
Theres no need to get curses as high as 12 - at 9 you can still kill rekoff with as little as 25 raptors.
I got tactic at 10 to have a 5sec wary stance - no real need for that but it just felt saver and i dont need the attribute points anywhere else so why not.

The vanguard standart sounds like a good option since i sometimes run into the same problem you have.

Dolyaks is a totally wasted skill - I can run ranger/ele/assn/dervs with 100b, and they don't need it (x/W non-boss kill). It also makes it a real pain in the @$$ when you get that 1 run in 9 where the chest pops, and you have to gimp towards it. If you really want extra armor, I'd go with I Am Unstoppable - saves you 9 str and the gimp effect.

PS - why no incoming on your paragon runner? I guess you come close enough to the cave that it's not needed, but I like to zip the paragon into the nearest MOB to die... I've heard odd aggro stories about having multiple 33% speed boost shouts, but haven't noticed it in any runs ever.

PPS - so what's better to use on a shield - -2/stance, or +10/slashing?!? Prolly moot point, since if you're not above ~50-65% health after you WW, you're doing something seriously wrong. (16al tactics shield and +7al shelter sword mod)

@Huiboo: It's true that with a double mop the dmg dealt is so high that you dont need 12 curses, I'm not sure about that with the standart variant
If you have dolyak you dont need stand your ground because of the armor bonus capped at 25 or at the highest bonus that a single skill gives.
What I've noticed is that I can survive easily with stand your ground only (and if I have to move a bit to pick up loot I dont have to wait 10 seconds to reach it :P)

@Coney: Technically incoming is better than fall back because of its lower energy cost (but if the runner has a +15/20 energy staff (or an high asura rank) that wont be a problem).
If you have vocal was sogolon you dont need to bring both incoming and fall back, because if you reach the cave and have 2x 33% IMS on you, you will not be able to ball them up, they will lose aggro pretty fast. (that's not an odd story, it's true
What i usually do is: make paragon cast 1 2 3, run until fall back (or incoming, up to you ) is running out, then make him cast 4 5 6. With sogolon and enduring harmony you will have plenty of time to run safely without problems.
As a shield I prefer to use the -2 while in stance inscription.

I tested it and you are right, dolyak signet is not needed.
But i still think IAU can be a good option instead of Dolyak, since there is a bug that makes is so that the +AR from IAU do stack with the +AR from stand your ground so you gain a total of +48AR.

Sure, both are not nessesary but as i cant find any skill that would make the run faster id choose the one that makes it even saver and thats IAU.

Or you could combine mine and Coneys builds and put necroisis in the freed slot to make 100% sure you can kill the boss even you fail at balling them up.

@thread,

Thanks for all the work you do, this has been a great thread to read. I haven't done any raptor farming since the BUH change and am looking forward to getting back into it.

I was wondering about how you could compress/compact the build to an absolute minimum of hero micromanagement? Maybe keep it down to a maximum of 2 hero skills you have to manually activate?

My hands don't work as good as they used to, and heavy hero micro is hard for me to do.

@Huiboo:

Well I didn't know that there was such a bug, this makes things interesting.
I had no idea of what to put in the free slot, I tried with feel no pain but it's really not needed, probably IAU is the right choice.
The YMLAD + necrosis is another good option, but with a good balling it shouldn't be needed.

@Ghull Ka:

The hero skills that you absolutely need are Make haste! and cant touch this, and enduring harmony is highly recommended. (if you dont bring stand your ground, dolyak signet or iau will be a must)
without harmony you should get very close to the cave entrance before casting the others shouts and should kill everything in 20 seconds, and that's not easy if you are unlucky with the spawn.
What I suggest you is to assign hotkeys to the hero skills so that you can make him cast his skills with the keyboard easily.

Food for thought :
I basically only use FH instead of BuH, does the work for me (might need a high norn rank).

IAU > Dolyak when running stand your ground, because IAU bypasses the 25 AR limit from skills.

On my paragon hero, I run Shadow of haste + dash, so when I get to the cave I cast Make Haste, Cant Touch This, Stand Your Ground and Dash in 1 go, then I have some time to flag him whenever I want to. ( I also bind those 4 skills to 4 keys on my num pad, makes it faster).

Running a Necro instead of a warrior can make the dmg output better, but sacrifices some of the defense (tbh on my warrior I'm always at 90% + HP, doesnt matter much).

For the same reasons, I only run 5 tactics (break point to get 3 sec on wary stance)- only 8 AR lost-, 11 swords, 12 curses (rest in str).

I have never liked the idea of double casting MoP or using Honor, which is why I do those tweaks to get more dmg out of my initial spike. I have r3 Norn and almost always kill the boss. Some work on that title could help hehe

I have r5 Norn and tried it with same attributes you have and rekoff never died from Finisch him.
I even brought YmlaD but he still never died (i aggroed all 33 raptors).

Dont know if im doing something wrong or if your just lieing.