W/E build, Condition Removal and Storm Bow Animations

Hi,

Two questions today, first a short one: Has anyone else noticed that their storm bows are not animated anymore? Or is it just me?

Secondly:

I was tired of being broke but I didn't want to farm with a 55 HP monk, its so mainstream so I eventually perfected my W/E for farming Hydras and Grawls and stuff, using Earth for protection.

Now I am one happy camper (literally) - I move at like 5% speed but the PvE enemies come to me, and I can sustain six hydras at once for indefinete time, or farm five-six Grawl outside Drognars at once having close to 200 armor at most times

My only problem: I tried farming for a Dragos Flatbow in SF (possibly with the addition of one healer hench) to use on my Ranger, and conditions are whats killing me. I need some way of removing poison and Conjure Phantasm type effects. I could be so much more flexible if I wouldn't have that weakness to conditions (which ignore armor). The two named the the most problematic ones as bleeding is not strong enough to bring my health down sufficiently, and burning is usually not lasting long.

I checked the skill list for W and E but can't find anything for those classes that works like an antidote signet or in fact works as any sort of condition remover. Did I overlook something?

Side note: I did an extensive write-up of this build on my own homepage for my Guildies to read, if anyone is interested you can read about it here: http://www.humanprototype.com/cms/ht...le.php?sid=185.

(Note to mods, I checked the forum guidelines and didn't see any prohibition of posting links, and its no advertisement, my personal home page is non-commercial).

Its not quite up-to-date, I tossed in some runes in the meantime and refined the attribute points a tiny bit, but you get the idea and it outlines the strategy, additional considerations and my experience with it.

I would also be very curious to hear how this build compares to the usual W/Mo builds. I never had or wanted a W/Mo, still I think that the W/E build is quite good for farming lots of areas (those where only elemental and physical damage is dealt but no conditions).

I think you may be out of luck with condition and hex removal in those two professions. Remember however, that while soloing is rewarding; if you can work out a two man team that gives you protection from health degen, and speeds up your farming you will gain from it (despite halving your drops ^^). This efficiency over pride is demonstrated in the dual UW runs, where a solo-monk can do it by themself, but two can do it so much better.

Go forth, and find a way.


I must also applaud you for actually being willing to post your build. I'm tired of seeing boasting soloist screenshots with 4 drago drops in the background and an entirely blacked-out skillbar.


Well played.

Hex Removal is tough but you can shorten the duration of hex's (no luck on conditions) if you buy the lieutenants helm from Henge of Denravi.

I didn't check the link so you might already have that.

Storm Bow animation works just fine for my Ranger.

I will, thanks. I think some form of Monk is the way to go (probably Mo/N comes to mind) and while my tiny guild only has four people, one of them happens to be a monk close to level 20.

I generally realize the value of farming faster vs. farming with fewer chars for more drops (thats why I often include a healer hench coz it makes things less tedious) but for some reason I didn't even consider coaching a guildie for teamed farming ... brainfart of some sort. Thanks for bringing this possibility to my attention

As for posting the build, well thanks for your nice comments.

I just want to make sure again that people realize this build is not designed for farming UW or FOW or such. Its in this regard maybe not as "l33t" as other builds, but it works exceptionally well for what I had in mind (i.e. all sizes of Hydra groups with fast killspeed).

And I think its interesting to the medium-level player because all skills are easy to aquire (the one elite can easily be changed for the Shield stance and in fact I have done just this recently).

Plus, its very easy to play. I dunno honestly about most other farm builds but I had many builds that worked well, but required constant attention - keeping up short-lasting enchantments, timing skills etc. This build however, with the long duration on Armor of Earth, the unconditional cast of Dolyak signet and any stance (essentially boiling down to: wherever its recharged) and the fact that you loose life so slowly plus the fact that you simply NEVER run out of energy (unless you chipped in Desperation Blow) makes it VERY easy to play. In fact, often I find myself farming Hydras and watching TV at the same time or chatting because of how easy the character handles

I will try to test it in different areas though over the coming days and see how it does.

I did test it in PvP yesterday once only because I was utterly bored and this totally confirmed my view that its probably the worst PvP build ever - I herewith wish to apologize to the pick-up group that had to watch a totally immobilized warrior being slowly (i.e. very slowly) shot and drained to pieces


Cheers,
Elfshade

Nope, don't have that. I will check it out, many thanks. In fact, I didn't even know about this one, and just having read that its seemingly reducing duration by 50% not 33% ( http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...d.php?t=109075 ) I will definetly get one of these tonight (and say a little prayer for ArenaNet not nerfing this item )

same with my bow it hasnt changed. How you made any changes to your bow that might effect it or done something to your graphics on your computer? I asked around to other rangers in my guild now of them have had a problem either. If it goes away or was just a one time thing It might be a glitch. as for condition remover yeah think you will have to change secondary professions. Ranger has the sig, monk has mend aligment, holy veil. purge condition is nice but is slow cast and slow recharge. I personally like to take holy veil with me slows their casting of it down. and mend alignment is a fast cast and like a 2 sec recharge, so i take it along too.

Nope, nothing. No driver updates, setting changes, no DirectX changes, absolutely nada. I restarted the game (and the machine) repeatedly but still no animation. Didn't modify the bow either - in fact I don't use it coz its far from max damage, but I want to buy a better one but naturally not without the animation

Well, in the worst case I reinstall the client (aka the game), that should fix it.

Thanks, that confirms it. I will try the HoD helmet tonight. I can't really change secondary because its all based on the insane protection Earth magic provides. I thought about trying same idea with a Mesmer primary, i.e. M/E. While I can maybe keep my killspeed with Illusionary Weaponry, I loose some class specific armor and I loose 20 armor AND knockdown protection from Dolyak signet, and I loose the stances, so that destroys the idea.

Hence, I will prrobably coach a monk friend of mine to join me and do the hex/condition removal for me, sounds like the best option.

Thanks,
Elfshade

i think your questions have pretty much been addressed already. w/e has no condition or hex removal at all. so, you will have to switch secondaries or get a partner.

anyway, i know that you didn't really ask for this, but i wanted to give a different suggestion. for grawl farming, remove armor of earth and replace it with "watch yourself!" this will let you pump all of your attributes into your weapon mastery, strength, and tactics. with glad's defense, bonetti's, dolyak, and wy, you should be able to tank close to 20 or so grawl at a time.

also, minor correction on your guide. your elite is glad's defense, not bonetti's. otherwise, good job.

Always appreciated. Will try this.

Yeah. You're certainly right. In my defense, it was really really late (or, more precisely, very early).

I also got the math wrong on armor at the time (corrected) and I hope my lack of sleep partially explains all the typos and occasional brainfarts in my English grammar, too

Thanks,
Elfshade

This conjures up the following question however: WY's description says:

"Party members near you gain +20 AL for 5-10 seconds."

Does that actually affect me when I solo? From the description, I never even considered it becuase it seems to affect only people near me, not myself?

Watch Yourself works on yourself. And that is the best sentance I have ever created.