Mineral Springs Marauder

First off this Warrior is designed to take on the Bands of Avicava (Brave and fierce), Pine souls and Giants in Mineral Springs.
It is centred around Balthazar’s Spirit which is not only great for gaining energy but also Adrenalin.

Difficulty = easy to fair.
Drops = ok.
Fun = high

Att: Smiting 8 (8)
Strength 10+1+1 (12)
Axe 10+3 (13)
Tactics 8+1 (9)

Note: The break points for adren gain with Balthazar’s Spirit are 3,8,13 so if you require more defence drop smiting to 3 and boost Str (for Dolyak) to 13 and axe to 14.

Equipment: Any Max Axe with +5 armour
I use a Furious (10%) Summit Axe (15% Enchanted) of Defence (+5)

For a Shield any that has Damage reduction while enchanted is preferred.
I use Malinons +45hp (enchanted) -2 Damage (enchanted)

One piece of Ascalon/Knights armour for more damage reduction

Skills:

1. Sprint
2. Eviscerate [e]
3. Executioners strike
4. Power attack
5. Watch Yourself
6. Dolyak Signet
7. Healing Signet
8. Balthazar’s Spirit

There are lots of variations so you can play about a lot.
I’ve tried all kinds of combos of attack skills and these seem to time/recharge nicely for me with the best damage output.
For a bit of a laugh you can take out Eviscerate and Executioners strike and replace with Cleave and Strength of Honour. This is hilarious because as soon as you hit Cleave it is recharged for another hit

Summary:

To get to Mineral springs you must go east out of The Granite Citadel and run through Tasca's Demise. I will not go into detail of the run (ask an IDS farmer in Citadel if you need advice).
Basically go out of the gate and run south past the group hiding behind the rocks .Then run south east run through the large group of Stone summit and carry on south east until you reach a bridge going north. Cross this Bridge and sprint past the Herders. Right after the herders maybe a patrol containing a Siege Golem do not agrro this group. When the patrol has moved west leaving the north route open go through and to the portal in the north east.


Upon entering Springs cast Balthazar’s Spirit (I wanted to abbreviate this but decided not to) and aggro the large group of Avicara. At first I suggest using the terrain to your left to Block the arrows of the Fierce. Put up your defence buffs and attack the Brave. The Brave are your only concern as while their normal attacks should deal 0 damage they will use seeking blade then flourish and seeking blade again which can hit for about 20 damage each ( nothing that your heal sig cant handle).

Once the Brave are dead go and hunt some Fierce. These should be very easy and lots of fun to fight if you have got your damage reduction right. They use Ignite arrows and dual shot which mean that they will just be fuelling your energy and adrenalin while hitting you for 0 damage.
They will be 2 groups of Fierce to the north with about 5-6 in each. If you had no probs with the first group you can try to take them all at once.
From the constant Adrenaline boosts from Balthazar’s Spirit you will be able to spam your 3 attacks constantly , this makes short work of the level 24's.

After this group you will find 4 -5 more groups of avicara if you go back south and travel the east road including Soul pines which are easy. Those familiar with the area will know there are giants which also easy. Be warned! only to fight groups containing Avicara Ardents/wise and guile with this build at your own risk!

rewards: The xp is very good and most of the items salvage well so don’t forget to bring a few sup salvage kits. You get between 9-15 common for each item. Wood, Tanned hide sq, feathers. iron galore as well as your fair share of Steel and Leather squares.
The Avicara seem to drop a good amount of Shiverpeak keys too, but the chests are ok at best.

Rares do not drop much in this area, although I have had a few rare bows including feathered longbow skins even one fellblade. I have had rare gaintslayers hammers from the gaints.

For speed farming just kill the first few groups near to the portal rezone and repeat.


Final note: If you are still reading congrats and thanks, cos this is my first post of a PvE build and guide hope you like. its a bit long I know and its not aimed at veteran farmers. I just wanted to stay away from the normal griffs/trolls/ettins areas cos they have been posted to death.


Credit goes to Racthoh for his spider hunter as this is the core of the defence and Ensign for his post on the workings of Balthazars Spirit.
The build is nothing new so credit also goes to previous posters if any.

Avicara Ardents aren't all that difficult - just outdamage their Healing Touches and switch targets when you see Shield of Judgment. Since you won't be knocked down by SoJ, the best indicator for it is the little yellow arrow on your target's health bar, stop attacking as soon as you see it.

Avicara Wise, now there's a challenge...

Yeah Ardents are not hard to kill but for me there always seems to be a Wise backing him up.

That seems like a pretty good build. I think it's also possible with a war/mes using physical resistance, but it's probably slower because you don't have unlimited energy like this Bath. Spirit build.

Don't forget that the Avicara Fierce use Ignite Arrows, which turns their damage into elemental.

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As soon as the Dolyak/watchyourself combo comes up in a build someone always shouts physical resistance.
The problem here with physical resistance as mentioned by a few ppl is that you will taking elemental damage as well as physical damage. An even bigger problem is that as far as I know War/mes cannot use the godly skill Balthazars spirit which is at the core of this build.
The point to this build is that with 8 points in smiting Balthazars will gain you adrenalin so fast while you are being pounded by countless enermies causing 0 damage that you can spam Eviscerate then Executioners then power attack then Eviscerate then Executioners then power attack ect continuosly

As I mentioned in the original post, so long as you have +5 armour weapon and a max armour sheild with -2 damage when enchanted, piece of Ascalon/knights armour and you have the required stats in strength for and effective Dolyak you will take 0 damage from the Avicara Fierce. The fierce out number the Brave normally so you should have no problems at all.

no offense but this build does not work.... once u get past teh bridge its easy but when 5 mesmers spam -10degen and crippling anguish and body block u dont have a chance to even make it to zone and not to mention the invisible wall that almost always appears on teh bridge and blocks u anyway

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speaking of racthoh's spider farmer, heres the avicara version of the wammo frenzy version of the spider farmer *edit* its based of his frenzy 16 swordmanship spider farmer, specilized for mineral springs avicara like you said

16 Swordmanship
9 Strength
9 Tactics
8 Healing Prayers

Frenzy
"Watch Yourself!"
Standing Slash
Final Thrust
Dolyak Signet
Healing Hands
Live Vicariously
Sprint

the 16 weapon mastery + frenzy really goes a long way in speed, and the HH reduces time being healed, you just hit dolyak, when dolyak ends, hh , then when hh ends, dolyak should be charged, and after dolyak is done hh shuold be recharged into constant cycle, try this build out, and you might enjoy this run a lil more it goes SUPER SUPER FAST compared to 13ish weapon mastery and no increase attack speed stance, just like how the old spider farmer build is compared to the new wammo one, frenzy and 16 sword ftw!