FoW Groups

I normally only do my FoW runs with a group of friends.. but the warrior we run (normally me) is a W/E with obsidian flesh {E}, armour of earth, dolyak sig and stances.

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Stances are useless on the plains.. Wild Blow ftw

I go flurry/galrath/final/watch yourself/dolyak signet/defy pain/for great justice/rebirth. 800hp and +80 armor is enough, this way I can also deal some damage (I don't carry books)

I believe you, OP, were JI/Barrager in my Fissure group last night ... I agree with you not needing but only one warrior, but in that set up, I had my reasons. One of our warriors wasn't that experienced, so I felt we'd be safer with another warrior, and the lesser experienced not being the main tank.

And if I've totally mistaken you for someone else, , ignore this.

(I was also using ranger, ign = Little Lost Child)

There really is no ideal FoW group. A battery nec is really not all that necessary. When i go to FoW i usually go as a monk and almost never need a BR. I will not post my build but only two of my skills are over 5 energy, and one of those two is a rez spell. The other things that stop most people from getting far is that there is almost no condition/hex removal whatsoever. I always incorporate it into my build no matter what, it always helps keep the group alive a lot longer.

Now while a stance tank is good for "Booking" it will not get you far at all in the Burning or Wailing Forest. It takes skill to make a good War for FoW that not only can "Book it" but can also just be a tank in the other areas as well and still live to tell about it.

The party makeup is completely flexible and there is no 'ideal' party formation. However, regardless of the mix of classes you have in your group you just to ensure you have the following covered:

1) Hex strips. You want more than 1 person stripping hexes and you should sort out a system of calling hexes to be removed, either in game or over voice comm. Mark of Pain, Iron Mists, Deep Freeze and Empathy, Mark of Rodgort are problem hexes. Alot of trigger happy, gungo fissure pick ups I have been in have also been especially good at destroying themselves by attacking with Spiteful Spirit on them.

Inspired Hex is a great spell to have along on any character because with very little inspiration magic, it pays for itself, removes a hex from an ally and allows you to cast that hex. Even better if you are a domination mesmer or curses necro.

2) Interrupt. You can use a migraine mesmer for this purpose. Or not. My W/Me fissure build is very mobile and has 4 interrupts with a bit of direct damage on the side. Power drain is also great because its cheap and pays for itself. And then some. You can use it in conjunction with other spells for energy management too.

Interrupt is pretty nice to have because alot of the big hitting creatures in fissure use spells with really slow cast times. Barrage, Firestorm, Fireball, Imolate, Spiteful Spirit, Mark of Pain, Empathy, Heal Area, Ressurect, Iron Mists, Mark of Rodgort, Meteor Shower, Healing Signet, Troll Unguent and all spirits are all really easy to interrupt. There are too many creatures in fissure whose damage dealing and self healing is reliant on slow casting spells.

3) Physical and Elemental protection. You need not have the mesmer skills physical and elemental resistance although, anything that increases your armour against these damage types is extremely helpful. Especially if you put yourself on the front line. Any armour increasing skills that dont adversely effect your movement are extremely helpful - such as Watch Yourself! and to some extent Armour of Earth (with high enough Earth Magic). Since alot of mobs are on patrol routes, and given that some people in your group may be a bit tardy and accidentally, you know, set one off - its nice to have the mobility to be able to retreat to a safe area and regroup. Knowing when to run is pretty important since I see too many groups accidentally take on 3 or 4 mobs in one go and stick around fighting when they KNOW they are going to die. Thats just silly.

If you use the book trick then you probably want some kind of tank that can soak up a hell load of damage but isnt too reliant on protective enchantments or stances. Since both can be killed fairly easily by certain fissure mobs.

Use 4 ranger/mesmers if you want. or 4 warrior/elementalists. It doesnt really matter so long as you can keep the hexes off you, stop the big spells from getting cast and can handle a fair bit of elemental damage whilst also having a few ways of shutting down some of the melee annoyances like shadow warriors, abyssals and skeles. Its pretty straight forward if you can at least manage that.

A W/Me build that I frequently use in fissure is:

Disrupting Chop
Executioner's Strike
Eviscerate
Flurry
Inspired Hex
Power Spike
Distracting Blow
Power Drain

Sometimes I sub out Elemental or Physical Resistance for Power Spike. It depends on whether there is someone else in the group on interrupt duty. Typically I can lock down a single target pretty easily and I typically like to call targets. I usually play this fairly aggressively and find alot of pick up groups are surprised that I generally dont stance tank in fissure. Energy isnt a problem on this build. And if a hex slips through the interrupt you can always remove it and gain more energy for another interrupt using inspired hex.

Truth be told, there are enough mobile, mixed mobs in fissure with a wide enough range of skills and damage sources to make stance tanking difficult at best without using the book trick. Controlling aggro in fissure is awkward because of this.

1 ss necro
1 shatter hex/surge mesmer
1 warrior
1 monk

can easily clear fow in a few hours, bring essence bond

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IMO.... FOW is very eazy.... if ur gonna run a 7-8 man team here is what I would suggest:

1 Warrior (Doylac, Armor Of Eart etc...)
2 Heal Monks (Healing Hands, WoH is crap is FoW or One Healer / One Bonder)
2 Barrage / Interrupt Rangers (one with Symbiosis)
1 Mesmer
1 SS Necro
1 Ele (Anything But AoE Firestorm Ele)

When I first started to run FoW with 8 man teams (now I run 4-5 man runs since guildies always want to go) I would always bring symbiosis not many people would really know the effectiveness of symbiosis tilll the warriors health would go up I think symbiosis with a bonder makes FoW a lot easier, gives more room for the warrior to run into agro solo to gain 100% agro.. pluss its just fun to bring symbiosis!


But in the end most any build with some heals and some dmg and a tank will clear FoW.... period... none of the quests are hard once u've done them 100x

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I'm a FOW noob and just got into it for the first time last night. I was using my necro as a SS/Battery. I also play a ranger, monk and warrior, but I decided to take necro into FOW though. I really didn't know what to expect so I just kinda tried to play it smart and "follow the leader" sort of thing. Unfortunately, 1 monk dropped very early and an elem went afk. We were doing ok for a little bit but got overran. The six of us left were:

1 warrior
1 monk healer
1 55 monk
1 elementalist
1 ranger
1 necro (me)

I've been reading some of the group types and stuff here and wanted to ask some questions. What is a JI barrager? I'm assuming its Judges Insight Barrager, but not sure. Since I play a necro, ranger, warrior and monk then what are the typical skill sets people take into FOW with these classes. Are enchantments good or bad here?

I've been playing the standard BP ranger in tombs and 5-man BP ranger in SF, but I was wondering if those BP groups work in FOW. I'm assuming not since it appears that a MM may not be too terribly effective there. Anyway, thanks for any advice for this poor ol' FOW newb.

I wonder what's the problem with 2 warriors.

In an 8 persons party there's no need to tank in any way, warriors can dedicate themselves to their true meaning, dealing damage while monks heal, nukers nuke and rangers interrupt.

There is no perfect build for FoW, simply because FoW is extremely easy to clear with any kind of build, the only thing needed is a little bit of skill. So without skill a warrior would be useless, but so would be the monk and the nuker...what's the point of this thread?

You do realize this thread was made a looong time ago, right?

Lol I saw hust the last post's date. Anyway the question remains unchanged: what was the point of this thread?

I don't get what you don't understand...
The creater of the thread was asking what the optimal fow team build was. Get it?

Now where is that screenshot...





We cleared everything.