The Forge Runner

Sk8tborderx

Sk8tborderx

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Nov 2005

PA

Us Are Not [leet]

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If anyone reading this that wants to start running but doesn't have one of the shields mentioned PM me in- game and I can give you a free shield with +7 vs cold. IGN - Josh Ruchko.

Mistical miss

Mistical miss

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Netherlands - Hattem

[RR]

Or if you live in europe, the +45 health while in stance / -2 dmg while in stance shield is available for a small price too (discount for viewing this thread) just whisper me and hope I'm the one behind the computer ^_^ (me and my brother share the account)

Sk8tborderx

Sk8tborderx

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Nov 2005

PA

Us Are Not [leet]

W/

Tip for new runners:
Run the regular way and then do it again backwards. The run is harder going the opposite way so it will give you a little more experience.

Me NoFat

Me NoFat

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

USA

Crimson Explorers Worldwide {CrEw}; Lifetime graduate of [LBS]

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mistical miss
I think the droknar's forge run has changed again, today I got 2 totally new spawns, and more bad spawns versus good spawns (something like 11 bad versus 2 good) I ran it this morning just for something to do and had one of the worst spawns possible which I did manage to run but I would not like to do it again. There was 3 worms...one chaser after 1st tunnel with the normal Pines and Ice Golums. Right after them ( no way to avoid aggro) another group of 3 Ice Golums and 2 Pines coming down the hill. Couldn't go left to the normal resting area because it was filled. I had to run through the mob and up the troll hill before the last Worm stopped tagging. My edure ran out and there I stood with 1 health. What do you do? /breath

It was a close call and the hardest spawn I have ran in some time if not ever. I have ran the spawns you talk about though. My hope is that it increases in difficulty to weed some poor runners out all together until they get better.

BTW I did die on 3 attempts this morning while trying to set up some favorable conditions. Just testing a theory which turned out to be junk. Oh well back to the drawing board.

Sk8tborderx

Sk8tborderx

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Nov 2005

PA

Us Are Not [leet]

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It seems that after every update they have something changes with the Droks run and it is never in the game update notes.

Mistical miss

Mistical miss

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Netherlands - Hattem

[RR]

huh? It seems to be impossible to post the lornars pass guide here... it keeps loading for 15 minutes and doensn't stop then...

Lornars pass: First of all: put on mending and check whether your party members have the amount of gold you want for the run. At the start of lornars pass you will most likely encounter a couple of ice imps, combined with two pinesouls. Hold down your ctrl key to see whether there are any avicara beyond the imps.
If so, you better put up holy veil as well.
You will probably get past the first part without too much trouble.
Most of the times there are several imp-patrols between you and the worm cave. Wait for them to move, or go around them. Do not aggro them, for more imps may patrol into you while you are trying to get away.
When you got past the imp patrols, you will be at the point of the first radar in the Lornars pass map. This is where you will find the first worms. Normally there is only one of them.

Now starts the hard part.
Don’t turn on balanced stance right away. One or two worms will not kill you (and you can last pretty long on three worms too, if you have mending on)
Instead just jog on, and get knocked a few times. Make sure the ice imp patrol (they move pretty fast, so stick to the rocks on the right side) doesn’t hit you.
Most of the time you will encounter avicara in the worm cave, sometimes at the end, sometimes at the start.
When you come to the avicara, turn on balanced stance, and jog for a few seconds (5-8 seconds). The avicara will shatter your enchantments sometimes, but you cannot help that.

At the end of the worm cave (or maybe a little bit earlier, depends on the spawn) turn on “charge” and look for a healing spot (after the avicara, before the siege golems & pinesouls).
If there is such a spot, go there, and heal yourself, put back your enchantments while still in balanced stance
(Sometimes the worms won’t stop following).
Unfortunately a lot of the time, there is no healing spot, and you will have to run on.
Sometimes you can avoid the Siege golems and pinesouls, but most of the time you will have to run right through. Whatever you do, put on holy veil first. You will need it!

Now, for passing the Ice golems and pinesouls; Make sure you are in balanced stance when you enter them, for the first thing the ice golems do is throw a water trident at you (which can knock you down). Then they will proceed by casting rust (which takes them ages to cast if you have holy veil on you). You might hit a pinesoul trap as well, just use the purge conditions right away, if you run into a second trap, it is game over for you.

When your balanced stance wears off, start stepping sidewards to “dodge” any water tridents cast on you. When you get slowed by a slow hex, and you are in the middle of the pinesous + golems, then by all means don’t remove your holy veil, it will be of more use to slow the rust and other hexes of the other golems. Instead wait for the hex to wear off, and keep going.

At this point you will be on low hitpoints most of the times, and you will have no energy left over, so switch to your + energy wand/focus/staff to get energy for endure pain and sprint.
This will take some timing and training, but it will feel good if you made it past them and got to the healing spot at the left side. (Sometimes you will encounter grawls here, but they won’t do much dmg, you could jog past them before the endure pain is over).

So far the part where most people fail, I will proceed with the easier and longer part of lornars pass soon.

Many thanks to the other writers on this forum.

yay it worked (edited it to add the post)

Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jan 2006

Wisconsin

dth

grats on the sticky.

Mistical miss

Mistical miss

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Netherlands - Hattem

[RR]

whohooo we got the sticky lets start working on part II of lornars pass ^_^

Mistical miss

Mistical miss

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Netherlands - Hattem

[RR]

Lornars pass, part II

When you get past the siege golems and pinesouls, you will be at an empty spot at the left (most of the time empty).
Regain energy and health, put off your enchantments and put mending back on after you are full.

Now hold down ctrl and look if there are any golems in front of you. If there are, put holy veil on (after you regained energy ofcourse) and balanced stance + charge in! (you want to be past them as fast as you can, no jogging now, for that will give them more time to slow you)

At your left side you will see a small passage, most of the time there are no grawls here, and you can rest here to regain health and energy.
Ahead of you is the troll cave. When you have regained energy and health, charge in the troll cave (make sure not to get stuck, run back out of grawls are following u into the cave)

There is a troll free zone in the cave most of the time. Stand there and lure the trolls so you can run past them. Make sure you don't get sandwiched.

As you come out of the cave, over the bridge, new worms will pop up. Most of the time the trolls will have stopped chasing you, if they still chase, go balance right away. If they don't, then wait with balanced until the grawls come to you.

When the first grawl hits you, turn on balanced stance and jog a bit, at the end of the grawl group, turn on charge (this usually gets rid of the first worm too) as long as your balanced keep jogging and put mending back on if it was shattered. Use healing signet only when ur balanced. Keep jogging and falling until you see the next grawl group.

They will come run to you, so make sure your balanced stance is ready when they do, keep moving so the worms won't hex you.
As they come for you, turn on balanced stance and jog a few seconds, then charge away, to make sure they don't get a chance to destroy your mending.

Now at the left side will be an open spot, if not, keep running past grawls (if thats not possible, resort to putting up holy veil, endure pain, purge conditions if you are crippled etc.. just as in the first worm cave).

Heal when you are at the safe spot. If a lone worm follows you, keep moving and use healing signet when you are on the ground, wait for balanced stance and charge to recharge and run away from the worm.

Now at your right side you will see a horde of grawls and siege golems + pinesouls. It's not a hard choice if you have the chance, go past the grawls.
Grawls are easy and golems are not

Unfortunately most of the time some of the siege golems patrol in the grawl area as well...

In this case try to wait until the siege golems are all on one side (at least a bit on one side) , put on holy veil and balanced stance + charge past the pinesouls/grawls. If you are lucky, it takes the siege golems some time to get to you and they will not be able to slow you before you are gone.

If you are unlucky you hit a barbed trap and you will have to use purge conditions which will give them time to get to you. If you hit the trap at the start of the area filled with siege golems, let the holy veil stay on, if you hit the trap at the end of the area, remove the hex immediately before they have the chance to hex you again.

Now keep to the left, most of the time there are grawls there, they will poison you and hurt you a bit, but with endure pain you will probably make it to the collector on the left side without grawls chasing you.

When your energy and health is restored again, hold down ctrl to see if its a grawlish or a golemish spawn (pray for the grawl spawn).

In case of the grawl spawn: Dance, Jump, be excited and put mending on and start sprinting to dreadnoughts drift (be ready to get away quickly when you loaded into dreadnoughts for there will be no time to party there)

In case of the Golem spawn: holy veil + balanced + charge and go as fast as you can, don't remove holy veil until you are almost past them (this will mean you have to endure at least one hex) Keep your healing ank or wand/staff at the ready to get that small boost of endure pain.

In case of barbed traps, purge conditions right away, turn to your energy build and pray

pray for the best

pray to dwayna and you will make it

That was lornars pass, once you have done this, you can NOT relax, for dreadnoughts drift requires a quick startup.

good luck

Mistical miss

Mistical miss

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Netherlands - Hattem

[RR]

any volunteers for doing a detailed breakdown on snake dance & talus chute?

Me NoFat

Me NoFat

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

USA

Crimson Explorers Worldwide {CrEw}; Lifetime graduate of [LBS]

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mistical miss
any volunteers for doing a detailed breakdown on snake dance & talus chute? Someone new will step up Mistical. You have donated quited enough of you time and effort. I thank you and I am sure that the community does also.

Sk8tborderx

Sk8tborderx

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Nov 2005

PA

Us Are Not [leet]

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Does there need to be a breakdown on snake and talus? If they can even make it past lornars these 2 zones will be no problem.

Mistical miss

Mistical miss

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Netherlands - Hattem

[RR]

you got a good point there sk8borderx ^_^

I've been referring ppl to this thread since the day it was made ^_^ got a lot of good comments in game

one guy asked : Are there guides like this for other runs as well?

I said nope, because there are not many runs that are even near as hard as the forge run.
But as I said it, I started thinking about THK-marhans, Rankor-Deldrimor warcamp-granite citadel, Iron mines - copperhammer, Elona reach itself...
Oh man, is droks the hardest run? I highly doubt it... anyways, making a thread for all these would be silly ^_^

Me NoFat

Me NoFat

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

USA

Crimson Explorers Worldwide {CrEw}; Lifetime graduate of [LBS]

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mistical miss
you got a good point there sk8borderx ^_^

I've been referring ppl to this thread since the day it was made ^_^ got a lot of good comments in game

one guy asked : Are there guides like this for other runs as well?

I said nope, because there are not many runs that are even near as hard as the forge run.
But as I said it, I started thinking about THK-marhans, Rankor-Deldrimor warcamp-granite citadel, Iron mines - copperhammer, Elona reach itself...
Oh man, is droks the hardest run? I highly doubt it... anyways, making a thread for all these would be silly ^_^ I can say that I will not be making a guide for the other runs. I believe that once you can do this run (hardest IMO) then you can figure out how to do the ohter runs. You will have a good skill base and understand the importance of the aggro circle. Most other runs are about timing and understanding of spawn points/best route. I believe that if you can learn Droks you can learn them all. You will have to make modifications to your build but you will understand why you need these modifications.

Mistical miss

Mistical miss

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Netherlands - Hattem

[RR]

True

btw: wouldn't it be good to have HoD helmet, gladiator hauberk, PLATEMAIL/WYVERN gloves, gladiator leggings, ascalon boots? I mean the -2 reduction from the boots stacks, and you need only the leggings and hauberk of gladiators (25 energy or 26 doesnt matter all that much since all you have costs 5 energy...(important if you have mending + holy veil on)

mohh

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Me NoFat
... there is a +5 energy wand that a collector right outside Nolani Academy has. The wand has 0 req. for the energy to be useful. If you go this way you have just picked up 23 energy I think total….8 for the gladiators and 15 on the wpn set. I went to Nolani last night to try and get this wand, but sadly it has been removed

Sk8tborderx

Sk8tborderx

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Nov 2005

PA

Us Are Not [leet]

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If the wand has been removed then try to buy a wand with +5 energy while hexed. You can just spam in towns once and a while and eventually someone will sell it to you. You could get it really cheap because everyone thinks that would be worthless.

Mistical miss

Mistical miss

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Netherlands - Hattem

[RR]

wand removed? oh hell.. just sold 4 of them to guildies for 300 each...

Weeping Wind

Weeping Wind

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Dec 2005

Ordinis Draconis

W/Mo

Quote:
Shields
There are so many shields to choose from. Unlike armor there is not one perfect shield for this run. Many players have many different reasons for using a specific shield when running to the Forge. Personally I use a Summit Warlord Shield with -2 damage in stance and -3 damage when hexed for that rare chance that I am in a stance and hexed at the same time and get the -5 damage reduction. The possible shields are:
-2 stance, -3 hexed
-2 stance, -2 hexed
-2 damage +45 health while enchanted
-2 damage +45 health wile hexed (collectors)
-2 damage +45 health while in stance (collectors) Where can I find the -2 stance, -3 hexed sheild? Or the -2 damage +45 Health while Hexed one?

Cheers
Weeping

Mistical miss

Mistical miss

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Netherlands - Hattem

[RR]

-2 damage(hex) +45 health (hex)= outside camp rankor (snake dance exit) requires 5 frosted griffon wings, or south east in the arid sea (if i'm not mistaken) requires 5 giant jawbones (if i'm not mistaken)
-2 (stance) -3 (hex)= auctions ^_^ Lions Arch spamming ^_^ (this is no collectors shield)
-2 (stance) +45 health (stance)= above thirsty river (go with teleporter) requires 5 bleached shells

btw, it isnt a rare chance to be in stance and hexed at the same time, happens all the time when you go past siege golems (balanced stance + charge to avoid water trident)

Weeping Wind

Weeping Wind

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Dec 2005

Ordinis Draconis

W/Mo

Ok many thanks. Also where do I get this from..? Where is Maguuma Strade?

Quote:
req 8 healing - energy +10 healing ankh from Maguuma Strade that also gives a +1 to healing and +30 health Thanks again.

Me NoFat

Me NoFat

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

USA

Crimson Explorers Worldwide {CrEw}; Lifetime graduate of [LBS]

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Weeping Wind
Ok many thanks. Also where do I get this from..? Where is Maguuma Strade?



Thanks again. check the maps on this site. look SE of sanctum

koneko

Site Contributor

Join Date: Sep 2005

38??16′ N 140??52′ E

Mo/Me

Good thread.

I'm starting to not like the +45/-2 stance shield for running...it seems like whenever I've cleared an area with minimal health, *poof* goes the stance just as I'm using Healing Signet and then I die. Blah.

Sk8tborderx

Sk8tborderx

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Nov 2005

PA

Us Are Not [leet]

W/

Interesting fact: 90% of the Droks runners cannot make it 70% of the time.

I just recently saved up 30k and wanted to watch and see how successful these self proclaimed "pros" are. I spent 5 hours and gave each runner 3 tries. I only ended up paying for 4 completed runs.

I remember when I thought that making the run 90% of the time was considered bad. I can make it 95% of the time now. (Could be more but sometimes I lag real bad in the wurm cave because I am on dial up).

Nessaja

Banned

Join Date: May 2005

What I've found is that I make it 100% of the time after this first cave.

However, that first cave is giving me major difficulties. I've completed the run about 100-150 times now, the easiest way to get past the first cave is to bring everyone with you and let them distract the worms (better known as dying/suicide).

After that first cave and the enemies behind that there is no spawn that is impossible to run.

Something else - the Dreadnaught section seems a little large for my taste. The only thing I do there is IMMEDIATLY when you are loaded, charge, sprint, and run. The groups there cant kill you, and all you have to do is avoid the group that is comming for you with the mesmer in it.

I don't believe that you need any enchantments at all to get through these groups - so just run immediatly should work for everyone.

Me NoFat

Me NoFat

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

USA

Crimson Explorers Worldwide {CrEw}; Lifetime graduate of [LBS]

W/

The wand must have been put back

Weeping Wind

Weeping Wind

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Dec 2005

Ordinis Draconis

W/Mo

The wand has a Req of 5 fire magic? What use is that to a W/Mo? Or does the effects still work?

mohh

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Me NoFat
The wand must have been put back No I got that one, thanks for the letting us know the location btw. What I meant was that the 0 req one that you mentioned at the beginning was not there. I actually grabbed a few of those

Funny thing that I noticed though, was that there are 3 different versions of it. I took screenshots of them, but they are at home. I'll post them tonight when I get home. Also, I'm not sure if this has been confirmed or posted here before, but there is a healing offhand between the Wilds and Quarrel Falls, with the following stats:

Requires: 8 Healing Prayers
Energy: +10
Armor: +5 (while enchanted)
Health: +45 (while enchanted)

The collector wants Acient Eyes, I believe. I ran past there last night while taking someone from LA to the Falls, but from what I remember, getting to that collector is pretty tough, even with a full party of henchies. I'll see if I can gather up some guildies tonight and farm me some eyes

Weeping Wind

Weeping Wind

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Dec 2005

Ordinis Draconis

W/Mo

Quote:
Also, I'm not sure if this has been confirmed or posted here before, but there is a healing offhand between the Wilds and Quarrel Falls, with the following stats:

Requires: 8 Healing Prayers
Energy: +10
Armor: +5 (while enchanted)
Health: +45 (while enchanted) Wow. That is pretty good. I'll see if I can find the collector for that. Im going to get the one mentioned in the guide on first post aswell. I hope I can get the -2 stance +45 sheild rather cheap aswell.

Weeping

Me NoFat

Me NoFat

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

USA

Crimson Explorers Worldwide {CrEw}; Lifetime graduate of [LBS]

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Racthoh
You will also need the collector's wand outside of Nolani Academy. The one with 10% faster attack speed, however there are various versions of it. Just make sure you don't get the one with 10% chance to miss. Sorry for the confusion. I will edit the original post. The wand is not req 0. You do not need to meet the req to get the benifit of the wands +5 energy. So for our intended use it is a req 0.

Hope that helps

Mistical miss

Mistical miss

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Netherlands - Hattem

[RR]

I made the dreadnoughts drift section so large, for the possible bad spawns ^_^ sometimes the heretic is unavoidable... (if you haven't seen that spawn, you probably haven't run it alot)

As for the ank, I use one of those, farm the eyes at the portal between mamoon lagoon and the area before it (coming from the wilds) don't farm in mamoon lagoon, for it is very mesmer heavy there (the cry's of frustration are countless)

shadedcrusade

shadedcrusade

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Nov 2005

Dirty Jersey

Nightwolf Mercenaries [NWM]

W/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Weeping Wind
Wow. That is pretty good. I'll see if I can find the collector for that. Im going to get the one mentioned in the guide on first post aswell. I hope I can get the -2 stance +45 sheild rather cheap aswell.

Weeping I agree it is interesting. Anyone give me a reference where I can figure out how it compares to my Malinon's?

SC

Anarion Silverhand

Anarion Silverhand

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2005

Denmark

None

May I suggest that you cange your password on your TS server?

Mistical miss

Mistical miss

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Netherlands - Hattem

[RR]

There is a green like that too indeed (maybe malignons, im not very good with greens ^_^) but you could check it on the guildwiki ...

Me NoFat

Me NoFat

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

USA

Crimson Explorers Worldwide {CrEw}; Lifetime graduate of [LBS]

W/

Malinon's Shield:

Armor 16 (req 9 tactics)
Health +45 (while enchanted)
Recieved damage -2 (while enchanted)

Mistical miss

Mistical miss

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Netherlands - Hattem

[RR]

Ah the malignons shield works well with mending then ^_^ tough if your mending gets shattered...

I'll stick with my good old stance shield tough ^_^

Anarion Silverhand

Anarion Silverhand

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2005

Denmark

None

That's why I use 2 shields. The stance shield for Lornars Pass, because enchantments get stripped. Malion's for Snake Dance.

Me NoFat

Me NoFat

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

USA

Crimson Explorers Worldwide {CrEw}; Lifetime graduate of [LBS]

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anarion Silverhand
That's why I use 2 shields. The stance shield for Lornars Pass, because enchantments get stripped. Malion's for Snake Dance. Sound advise.

My personal combo is a -2 stance -3 hexed shield for lornars and Dreads' Drift.

Malinon's for the rest.

To do this on the cheap you can run it with the collectors stance shield. Cheapest option that works well.

Sk8tborderx

Sk8tborderx

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Nov 2005

PA

Us Are Not [leet]

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Why not use the -2 stance/-3 hexed for lornars/dreads then use a -2 stance/-2 enchanted for snake?

Me NoFat

Me NoFat

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

USA

Crimson Explorers Worldwide {CrEw}; Lifetime graduate of [LBS]

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sk8tborderx
Why not use the -2 stance/-3 hexed for lornars/dreads then use a -2 stance/-2 enchanted for snake? Remember that unlike some runners I like my mending. The extra +45 health that will not get stripped in Snake Dance does more IMO than the additional -2. I have not tested that I just hold it as an opinion. I would like to remind everyone that even though I am the OP I am not the end all be all word on Droks running. I am sure that many of you run this as good or better than I do. With that said I recomend that you never just take my opinion as the word on Droks running. Over time the additional -2 damage reduction may save you more than 45 health. Lord (and Sk8*) knows there is damage to be had in Snake Dance.