Solo Farming How Do You Do It?!?!?

I can not seriously see how someone can solo farm an area now adays I am a level 20 fire ele / heal monk and I cant farm worth a darn, my setup is as follows.

14 fire
12 energy
10 healing

healing breeze, orison of healing, pheonix, inferno, lava font, fire storm, flame burst, and a spell that lights them on fire for 3 secs.

I have max armor and i just can not seem to farm i usually run into battle with breeze on, then start with pheonix, and then cast spells in order of highest dmg to lowest dmg. using orison and breeze when i can i just can not solo any spot that is worth it. and doing it with henchies sumhow cuts down on waht drops and this irritates me because i see people saying well i let about 12 (monsters name here) swarm around me and I blah blah blah and they die. i cant see this i try to take on 3 ettins and die horribly can someone suggest a different build to farm with that has a higher survivabilitie rate Ide like to try a warrior/mo or a minion master but dont want to be disapointed when i try to take on 3 ettins and get my head cramed so far down i can tie my shoes with my teeth but wow can someone suggest a *new to farming build* that has a basic do this then that strategie and an area (which u can pm me) that is worth doing?

Ok, well. This seems to be a rather common question. For the most part, you should check other related threads. Everyone has a different strategy. From what i've seen, most people farm only with their war/mo combos cause of the high armor rating and smite/self heal properties of the monk(at least that's why I switched over to my Warmo, its soooooo much easier now). If you're going to try and stick it out with your Ele/Mo, you're definately going to need to switch some things out.

Energy storage is semi-important really. Monk should take care of your self-healing(so no auro for that) and you should already have a good chunk of Energy.

Ward against Mellee, is your friend. Become lovers if you have to.

PBAO is the primary of what you need. Since good farming happens solo, you are the target. Which means, don't fight long range targets because they become hard to group with all the running, chasing, etc.

And that's about it. It then all boils down to what skills you have, how well you balance it, and the rating of your armor. (armor really is a big thing going solo) Some people say its hard to farm in either Ascalon, but you really can make some good money there. It just takes longer. I'd advise mage class farmers not to go any further then Shiverpeaks since enemies seem to be more anti-mage at that point and you really need your enchantments to farm. If you have a way around it, kudos to you. ^^ anyway, I hope this helps.

I farm with my E/Mo without too much of a problem and I am the exact opposite of Elric:

Fire:12
Healing:10
Energy storage:10

Aura of Restoration
Flare
Fireball
Mark of Rodgort
Fire Attunement
Healing Breezes
Mending
Heal Area

I try to find mobs that cast at me (since they seam to be easier to find, however if you find the mobs keep coming right up to you swich Heal area with Orison of Healing, since Heal Area will also heal the enemy. Before going into battle fully buff up and work on one mob at a time (which is where fireball comes in handy, doesnt take too long to cast and has splash damage).

The best way to do it, is pick an area and keep going back switching skills till you find a set up that works for you.

My friend is an amazing E/Mo. He sent me these pics of him farming...like 20 lv 24 flesh gargoyles around him dead. His secret? Mist form.

Fire: 12
Energy Storage 10
Water: 10

Mist Form=no damage. Other than that, just blast away with fire magic that hit the things around you (inferno, pheonix, lava front, etc). That lv 24 farmin, takin on 15-20 at once, that deserves some mad props, even if he is destroying the game economy.

Make sure you know what enemies are there and what they can do. You can't just run around ANYWHERE and expect to kill everything solo. Solo farming builds are very limited because they are tailored specifically to deal with one or two types of monsters.

I guess that typical zealot fire + balthazar's aura + symbol of wrath damage output combo has been destroyed for farming? Because I tried those same places as in farming videos but enemies eliminate all my enchanments and leave me taking damage until I die. In videos all enchaments were enabled all the time.

Disenchanters remove the most recently placed enchantments, sooo... get some cheap, fast recharge enchants and... *gets hit in the face with the Anet nerf bat*

I'm an E/Mo farmer, I CAN solo most everything with this combo (except the really nasty things like GROUPS of disenchanters... ew):

Ether Renewal
Reveral of Fortune
Guardian
Balthazar's Aura
Protective Spirit/Symbol of Wrath (depending on the enemies' strength)
Aura of Restoration
Zealot's Fire
Balthazar's Aura

How I actually do it is a strategy you can learn on your own. With this setup I can take on up to three Mahgo Hydras at once, as well as Storm Riders/Watchers (whatever they're called), Gryphons, Siege Wurms, etc etc etc.

Good stuff

With my E/Mo, when i want to solo, i will use the following build :

Energy Storage: 12 points (+ i don't know which rune I got + 1 for the third eye)
Smithing : 10
Healing : 10

Balthazar's Aura
Symbol Of Wrath
Divine Boon
Healing Breeze
Ether Renewal
Zealot's Fire
Balthazar's Spirit
Mending

Having Balthazar's Spirit, Mending, Zealot's fire, Balthazar's Aura, Divine Boon and Healing breeze as "enchantment", the ether renewal is .. unbelievable. I can solo 6 ethin, enough Charr to not see myself when surrended, solo the Undead Hordes, Vilainy i can go up to the mountain without dying, in solo. The white mantle are so easy... and if you want to go in kryta, the undead are a joke! I also soloed 2 warriors in pvp with this build... the only thing in pvp.. I hate mesmer

But I will look at the post just before mine.. it seems really nice too.

Maybe you could replace Balthazar's Spirit with Retribution for extra damage output in some cases so farming is a bit faster? Just make sure that you kill all in 10 seconds plus few seconds more. Ether Renewal keeps your energy at reasonable level with that amount of enchantments.

EDIT:

I tried your skill setup but at least against minotaurs it wasn't that good than protection based skills. I got slained by 7-8 minotaurs. Although with this combo I survived and killed all:

Divine boon
Guardian
Balzahar's Aura
Zealot Fire
Protective Spirit
Ether Renewal
Retribution
Aura of Restoration

Energy Storage 10
Smiting Prayers 12
Protection Prayers 10
Healing Prayers 2

My warrior farmer has the following skills: Cyclone axe, b-spirit, gladiators defence or soj depending on the area, mending, vigorous spirit, and random smiting skills of my choice. I only do giants for the sup runes though, so i wouldn't know how to take down, say, flesh golemns.

Worth a try, in fact, I never really tried soloing in the desert. I take note of this build and try it tonight !

Ether renewal is one of my best friend when in smithing I did vilainy with a guildmate few weeks ago and at one point, you meet with lots of trees and kind of minotaur (right after the forest/marshes) before the hill where the boss is. The guildmate and henchies died in the few first second, and I wiped out all the monsters alone... and the amazing thing, my energy and hp was full.

I'll let you know how I love your build later

My warrior is the best farmer out of the characters I have. It's a W/E20. I equip some warrior skills along with two elementalist skills; firestorm and lesser energy glyph. In about 10mins, I could farm about 1 plat. I won't tell you where I always go farming

But this farming is very tedious so I only farm up to about 4 plat before giving up. And I don't farm a lot either. Just occasionally when I'm running out of gold. I don't know how some people can farm for hours.

I farm usually to get my attributes refund points I don't plan to buy much weapons or items.. so my money is almost worthless.. i have 27plat right now.. and I just spend the money on armor

(And no, I won't give my money away, I'm too greedy )

Necro/Ranger

Animate Bone Minions
Blood of the Master
Well of Blood
Dark Bond
Vampiric Gaze
Life Siphon
Charm Animal
Comfort Animal

E farmers are much more efficient (l00t/XP earned per unit time spent).

My setup is:

E/Me20

Fire: 16
Water: 11
E Storage: 10
Staff +18% Enchantment duration

Lava Font
Flame Burst
Inferno
Firestorm
Arcane Echo
MistForm***most important***
Fire Attunement
Armor of Mist (useful if you want to run past some crap to get to your farming zone) / Mantra of Concentration (if you are farming things that disrupt).

This build works mad props against melee mobs. When I get further in the game, I will pick up Obsidian Flesh, then I should be able to farm spellcasters.

With this setup I can solo packs of mobs:
7+ ettin
The troll cave (12+ trolls at once)
10+ Desert Griffons and minotaurs
Packs of White Mantle Justicar
etc
I've not gotten far enough to find Flesh Golems. I'll try them out when I get to them.

Strategy:
Fire Attunement
Mantra of Concentration <if getting ready to fight a mob with disrupting chop like trolls>
<wait for E to recharge>
Arcane Echo <not nec. on Ettin...only nec. on mobs with LOTS of hitpoints>
<wait for E to recharge somewhat>
Charge in and aggro as much as I possibly can...I lose about 50% of my health here while running around.
Mistform
Lava Font
Firestorm
Lava Font < if you do not have the +18% Enchantments, and you Echo'd your Mistform, then you need to SKIP this cast otherwise the timing of your next mistform will not be to your liking >
Inferno
Flame Burst
Mistform <if you used Arcane Echo earlier...your armor will be expiring right about now>
Lava Font
Inferno
etc...til they die.

If you are fighting mobs with disrupting chop, then keep a close eye on your mantra of concentraion status. If it drops, then recast it immediately. It is 0-casting time and can be cast while you are casting other stuff. It is important that the 2nd Mist Form does not get interrupted.

Thanks from the information, Dazzler. Looks very effective farming build.

Making damage via smiting prayers is a bit weak and often my character is about to die because Ether Renewal goes away. Your fire line spells surely produce much more area damage and makes farming more safe and faster. I might try that build later on.

How you protect against monsters which remove enchantments? If they manage to drop mistform...well...

My fire spells are doing ~100 dmg a pop for the instants, depending on the resistances of the mob. The Lava Font and Firestorm do approx. 20-30 dmg per second each.

2 methods:

1 - (Preferred) Don't farm disenchanters. This build cannot handle more than one at a time.
2 - if they are using Shatter Enchantment, it only removes the newest enchantment on you, so put up a decoy enchantment after mistform---i use armor of mist for this purpose..and sometimes fire attunement as well.

Whenever I get Obsidian Flesh, I should be able to solo spellcasters, including disenchanters, b/c in theory they cannot disenchant my Obsidian Flesh since that requires targetting me with a spell. But I won't know til I get it and try it. Downside to that is I could only solo spellcasters and could not handle melee mobs.

Oh, and I typo'd (and just corrected) my above casting order...I accidentally typed Armor of Mist when I meant to type Mistform.

Have fun.

I just tried the build using protective players, you're right, it's great! I can solo things harder now. I just have to practice to cast the spells at the good time...

When i tried it, I soloed 4 minotaur without problems.. 3 desert griphon, even 3 hydras ! I also noticed the collector at the exit of Port Sledge, I killed grawls until I got the 5 incrated (or something like that) grawl necklaces.

Definitively a great build. I will try the build using the fire and the water, but I need more water spell, i will have to get them and I have to do the mesmer path.

Thanks for the builds

.... 1... 1 plat?! I make 10 plat on average 5 minute run, and if i find a sup absorb or vigor thats 50 plat. (havn't played for a week so i'm not sure if the price has varied).

Where are you going to earn 10 plat in a 5 minute run? (PM me if you feel the need...) I usually only earn about 10 plat per hour.