Griffon Run

Well, it could work if you manage to fit in protective spirit, but thats impossible without spreading your attr. pts. thin.

Just perfected my run, man does it ever feel great to do. All those numbers...

Gladiators Defense
Watch Yourself
Healing Breeze
Balthazar's Spirit
Mending
Bonetti's Defense
Orison of Healing
Zealot's Fire

Healing - 9
Smiting - 9
Swordsmenship - 8 + 1
Tactics - 10 + 4

Set up Balthazar's and Mending ahead of time and take a bit of damage when gathering them all to recharge your energy. Once you start attacking, depending on how many enemies are surrounding you, throw up Zealot's Fire then Gladiators, followed by a Healing Breeze once you have enough energy. Spam Watch Yourself and Orison while you have Gladiator's up, and one you see the icon flash, throw up a new Healing Breeze then a Bonetti's. Once watch yourself starts to flash, you should be safe enough cast another Healing Breeze and hit Watch Yourself once the new Healing Breeze is in effect. Bonetti's will fill fast here if it isn't already, at which time throw it up. Gladiator's will refill soon, then repeat.

For equipment, I use a collector's sword with 15% damage while in stance, with a shocking hilt and +7 vs. physical shelter pommel. Shield is also collector's, with +45 health while in stance, and -2 damage while in stance.

Although I prefer to farm/xp outside of Port Sledge, this gives me a place to go once the drops become less impressive.

My first drop from the boss Featherfist was a scroll of Slayer's Insight.

Is your energy renegeration fast enough to fill out all those spells? Or is it just timed perfectly?

I have absolutely no energy problems until around the 2nd casting of Mist Form--since they are blinded, they are not hitting me and I am not gaining E.
Once blindness wears off my E climbs back to the top. Sometime here alot of mobs die and there are only a few left and then my E drops. When there are 1-2 mobs left, I find myself just using my wand to fight while I wait for E to charge to 10 so I can recast lava font

BEEEEYOOOUUUTTIIIPPPPHHHHAAAALLLL!!..heh..very nice

Im like ultra close to doing this with my fire E/mo Just need to tweak a bit and i should have it (nailbiting experience really lotta spamming) Edit :and running

I've got a build with my e/mo that can take on 3 groups of griffons at a time, but mist form runs out too quick for anything else; I need some enchanting staff wraps.

However, all I have to do is do 2 or three of these mini runs at once and I get them all. Just can't kill the boss.

<3 Dazzler you solved all my problems

the only bad thing is when they are blinded.. yeah, you dont get any energy.. and then if you get toooooooo many groups, theres just to much and they start piling up and not surrounding you.. so when you kill the first group.. they just rush in :/

i've been thinking about trying this with other physical attacking mobs ... i went to riverside and tried with white mantle. works well there, but they are weak and dont drop anything but badges/emblems. went to shiverpeakes and tried it on some avierca braves - they do a little more damage and aren't 100% physical attackers. best ones are mentioned before, those mountain trolls in talus chute. there are a bunch of them in that one cave, but i got owned pretty bad by them. over 15+ i think. although i haven't perfected it too well

i also went north of granite citadel and tried against those summit guys, but they dont all attack physical either. and ring ember light campe has been nerfed ; can't get those flesh golems because ANET put a mana draining squid next to them. i hope they dont do the same for augury rock

if anyone know a good place, let us know

Been working all day on this build,I can handle 2 groups of griffions and the minatours on the way atm heres what im using

16 fire 12+4
12 energy storage
6 protection

Fire storm
lava font
inferno
flame burst
searing heat
phoenix(playing with this slot really)
mark of protection (e) this is where i would put myst if i had it i might just go capture it today to see if it works better

i just pretty much haul ass till i get all the mins on the way then at the middle part i fire attune,take a few hits keep running, if timed right with some luck and 20/20 items you can get firestorm off at the first griffon to run up on you,what im trying to acomplish is to get as much firepower off as i can in 10 sec before mark of prot ends. and thats where im stuck with massive amounts of them...pretty much, guardian might help but with an ele's AC its kind of hard.Myst sounds nice but theres a time restriction on that too,using eruption kinda obsolete since im using fire attune i just burnt 25 energy,i could use elemental attune but then i lose mark of prot. pshhhh farm building=frustration
But in the end its well worth it

What?? Screw searing heat, take meteor shower.

meteor showers nice but cast time kills, you need big damage and fast with this, since you have 10 seconds until you're going to die with 1 round

I keep dying........

stupid Final Thrust >:[

Take Balthazar's Spirit instead of Fire Attunement. Your energy stays at max for most of the fight since each time one of them hits you, you get 1 energy per mob near you. With 10 of them hitting you, that's like +100 E per "round". And Eruption is the Ele's only available option to survive when Mist Form (or Mark of Protection) ends. Unless of course you can kill them all quick enough. With my 15 Water and my +18% enchantments, my Mist Form lasts approx. 23 seconds, which is not long enough for me to kill them.

Only other option I know of us E/Me, using Arcane Echo to let you cast Mist Form 3 times in a row. Only the Arcane Echo has a CT of 2, plus the Mist Form CT of 2 means you gotta stand there for 4 seconds casting before you get any protection. I was never able to live that long. I *barely* live the 2 seconds it takes to cast Mist Form right now. I just thought of something that would work if it weren't an Elite: Mantra of Recovery. you can cast it while running, then cast Mist Form and have it recharged before you need it again. Alas, not possible since it is Elite. Really, Eruption is your only viable option, and it only works if you can maintain high Energy.


I've recently replaced Inferno with Meteor Shower. Seems to work well and has the nice effect of knocking down all the mobs every 2 seconds or so.

My current casting order:

Mist form
lava font
firestorm
meteor shower
eruption
lava font
lava font
mist form
lava font
lava font
firestorm

something like that. The important order is up to eruption. So while Mist form is non-functioning, they are blinded and for a little bit they even get knocked down by Meteor Shower.

I am going to toy with getting rid of one of my health regen spells for another Fire dmg spell in the hopes that I can do more raw dmg output and maybe kill a boss.

Have you been able to kill a boss with that build? I find I can never overcome their natural healing before I run out of spells/energy.

yea that should help didnt think of that, balth's should help some

This works for me, except I can only take on about 8 griffons at a time at most.

Whoa, nice.. once my computer is fixed im gonna take my R/E there and test my trapper build on them.. i think it will work, and emass falmming things will be funny.

but kudos, kudos.. and for good mesaure.. KUDOS!

well done!

Hmm, my wording wasn't all that good. Probably why you can only take on 8 Zerox.

Once you engage, Healing Breeze and Gladiator's at the same time. Then when your energy is back to 10, Zealot's Fire. Again, Orison and Watch Yourself when able. Healing Breeze starts flashing around the same time as Gladiators, and that is when you cast a new one followed by Bonetti's. With this setup, Healing Breeze and Bonetti's end at roughly the same time. Do NOT use any skills while you are in this state. Once Healing Breeze is dying down, cast it followed by Bonetti's. Now this time when Healing Breeze is about to wear off, cast it again but this time throw up Gladiator's Defense instead of Bonetti's. At this point, a few Watch Yourself and Orisons later they should start to fall. By the time you have to recast Zealot's, there shouldn't be any danger left.

Note that I have a Gladiator's Helmet with Minor Swordsmanship, Knight's Armor with Major Vigor, Platemail Gauntlet's with Superior Tactics, Knight's Leggings with Minor Absorption, and Wyvern Boots with Minor Strength. With a Watch Yourself and a Stance in effect, I'm taking around 10 damage per hit that gets me. Also I think I have some leftover points, which I just threw into strength. But it probably didn't make that much of a difference.

I recorded one time that I did it and I watch as my life briefly hits 7 (but I still pulled through) . Depending on if a Distracting Shot hits a key skill, that kind of thing can happen.

Heres what i have figured out that lets me round all of them up.

Healing: 10
Axe: 12
Tactics: 12

First cut mending on, then wait for you energy to fill completely.
Then use Live Vicariously.
At this point you should have 10 energy with no regeneration.
Now you should be able to run around and make all the griffons chase you.
As soon as all of them are after you, hit Vigorous Spirit and Cyclone Axe immediately after.
As soon as Cyclone Axe goes, use Bonetti's Defense.
As soon as Cyclone axe refils, use it again.
Now, for timing purposes, use Gladiators Defense and reapply Vigorous Spirit.
As soon as cyclone axe fills up, use it again, followed immediately by bonetti's.

Now, Gladiators Defense will recharge just as Vigorous Spirit is dying off, apply both of them after a cyclone axe.

Now repeat that alot and you should be fine

Just a question, totally unimportant: why did you chose Knight's Armor instead of Platemail? As far as I know, damage reduction on one piece applies to the armor as a whole. And since you have Knight's Leggings, you could get an extra 5 AL by chosing Platemail Armor.

I was unaware of that when I purchased the entire set, and I didn't want to take the chance now of expert salvaging the armour and losing the Major Vigor Rune.

When doing these runs it would probably be better to run full gladiator's for not only the energy bonus (which would be a nice plus) but the +20 vs physical attacks.

I'm not sure if they've made this harder for us but...
I've been noticing more rockshot devourers in this area? Is anyone else noticing the same thing?

Unbeleivable. I salute thou. *runs off to try* EDIT: Btw whats that song

Did you use 2 superior runes?

And even with those, is 4 in Tactics enough for Bonetti's to be effective? (The description says it lasts 5-10 seconds, at 4 Tactics it is about 6-7 sec, right?)

Not really. I usually take the same path. Every 2nd or 3rd time, some rockshots popup that don't normally pop up. Sometimes I have 4-5 of them following me with the minos. I think it is just random placement that makes this happen. When that happens, I try to run around without aggro'ing any griffons until the rockshots fall off.

When you watch it closely he throws up Bonetti's for just a second for it to refill his energy. He keeps it up long enough for Cyclone Axe to refill which isn't very long.

I've watched the video an even though I hate farming with a passion, I have to throw a congrats. I was just laughing when I'd see that line of heals span the entire screen. Out of curiosity how many levels per hours can you farm with this build ?

If you wanted to use a sword could you switch Cyclone Axe for Hundred Blades, or would that ruin the build...?

Cyclone Axe strikes all opponents adjacent to you, Hundred Blades strikes the opponents adjacent to your target. Meaning when you end up surrounded, Hundred Blades won't strike those behind you and possibly to the side. Plus Hundred Blades' recharge time is twice as long.

I like this method a bit better. my stats are healing:8, axe: 12, strength: 12, and tactics: 9. Gladiators is nice for some breathing room if something random happens but, it's pretty much cyclone-->bonetti's.

Mission accomplised! with a fire ele
only thing i cant do is all of them at the same time since my al or regen is'nt high enough.plus i cant waste the points in healing =/

EDIT: frustration..............that dam eruption blindness wears off way to fast i get off meteor storm and a flame burst, and im toast.

u are casting in the wrong order if you are using meteor storm and flame burst AFTER the eruption.

Assuming you do not have a staff of enchanting.
Assuming you have a 15 Water
Assuming you are not using an item which makes your spells cast faster
Your Mist Form lasts 20 seconds.

Cast in this order after Mist Form. On the left I note the approximate time the spell STARTS casting - you cast as fast as you can, this is when it will really begin based on the numbers:

0s - Lava Font
~2.75s - Firestorm
~7.5s - Meteor Shower
~13.25s - Eruption
~16.25s Eruption starts
~17 - Lava Font
~19.75 - if you brought a 4th fire spell, now's a good time to cast it--I use Phoenix for ~200 dmg.
20 - Mist Form ends
~21.25s Blindness starts
<cast Lava Font only in this period and keep an eye on your E and your Mist Form and make sure you have 10E available the instant Mist Form is ready and make sure you are not busy casting something else at this time. I usually am low on E and so just hit the spacebar to attack with my staff while waiting on the meter.
30s - Mist Form

Have fun.

I don't know how long the blindness from Eruption lasts. I am thinking it lasts 8 seconds or so as I usually get banged on for the last 1-2 seconds before I get Mist Form back up. Plus without an Enchanting staff, your mist form will end before blindness kicks in for another 1.25 seconds of pain. I can see how it could be ugly. At least you'll get 8 seconds of healing before the blindness ends.

You can improve your odds if you have the collectors fire-staff and hope fire storm or meteor shower goes off faster. Or get an enchanting wrapping for your staff to extend Mist Form to ~23 seconds.

And yes I have the same problem: Once I get 8 or so griffons chasing me I have to stop and start the battle b/c they dmg me faster than I can heal while luring them and even then it is always a *very* near thing to get Mist Form up before I die. I usually mis-time it 1 in 4 runs and die. I'm learning to use bushes as blockers while running to get some distance between me and the griffons.

Use armor of mist instead of a 4th fire spell to cut down on the damage in the pull period. That could help if you keep them in range without having the griffs lose interest.

I will give that a try. It will take a little bit of finesse since AoM will only last 20 seconds and it takes 2 to cast - I will be near death when it is cast and might not live to run away and it will also require stop/starting to keep everyone interested in the chase. One way it might work would be to round up and kill all the mino's without AoM. Then take a second pass for the griffons, using AoM just before aggro'ing the first set of griffons.

Hmm. Maybe Armor of Frost would be better. That one should last ~35 seconds and gives more armor AND only takes 1s to cast. In theory, I could cast it once I get all the minotaurs interested and then heal up as I start luring griffons and maybe be able to get more of them before stopping--especially if I stop and start fighting before AoF wears out. Great thing is it should be ready to recast by the time Mist Form expires--and if you just refrain from casting Fire spells during that lull, you will take very little damage while waiting to recast Mist Form.

Thanks for the idea. I will try this later tonite and post the results.

First of all, thanks to Kalgareth for this amazing video. I have been doing this for a few days now and it has made me a good deal of money and skill points.

I highly suggest that all W/Mo give this a try. The skills Kalgareth listed work perfectly and the path he follows is very good for rounding up all the mobs.

If you have never tried it or aren’t able to get it to work here are some things I suggest.

Gear: You do not need any special gear to do this. I did this with a Forge knight set of armor with only minor runes in it, a blue shield and the collector axe (get the axe customized to do 20% more damage for 20g) from north of Dunes. I later changed out my torso and legs for Gladiator to give myself 25 mana. I personally find gladiator torso/legs to be the best for this type of farming. Having 25 mana lets me add a Cyclone right at the start of the fight. So, you start with Healing Hands and then Zealot's Fire and Vigorous Spirit, like Kalgareth suggest, but then follow it with a Cyclone before your Bonetti’s. For some reason, even after my Vigorous Spirit was cast Bonetti’s still wasn’t ready for me and the added Cyclone solved that, as well as added some free damage.

- Follow the instructions Kalgareth left and understand why you are using the skills when. My biggest mistake was reading the post and running over to try it without understanding why I was using some of the skills.

- If you die too fast, drop tactics to 2 and drop your axe/strength some to get healing to 11. This will make you heal a lot better with cyclone, which I think is better then doing more damage faster, but dying more often.

- Turn your graphics to low. I found that with high graphics on I would get a second of lag every now and then, which could be the difference between life or death. If you are really big in to good graphics ask yourself this: What looks better? The screen at low graphics with you surrounded by 30 dead mobs or you dead on the ground with higher graphics?

- Don’t give up. For my first 2 hours of trying I died every single time. The next day I tried again (after rereading the post) and only died about half the time. I realized then that I couldn’t take all the mobs, so I did about 2 less groups then in the video. It was still great money/exp and with all the money I made from doing it I was able to get a sup absorb/sup vigor and found a great shield as one of the drops. Now I can do the whole area with little trouble, but I do still die every now and then.

Either should work, but i can tell you have the right idea for approach which is probably the most important part for things like this. I didnt consider long term use of the mist suggestion, but i figured it would be long enough so that you would have the freedom to choose your engagement, rather than have the engagement choose you.

*Depending on distance from other enemies, you could use a wand/staff attack to get them interested in you again. It does require a bit of start and stopping though.

From all the gold I've earned doing this, I got a Superior Vigor and Absorbtion and opted for 4/5 of my armor as Wyverns for the 85 defense... it has become so easy to do this. I'm seeing damage from 0-10 and my life rarely drops below 400!

And it seems like every few runs I'm on RPGTraders posting a new item for sale.

I don't know how I could thank you enough Kalgareth. Hope to see another video someday.

Okay, as promised here are my results.

I had trepidations with Armor of Mist, so I used Armor of Frost. First attempt was a disaster but then I learned from my mistake and now it works like a champ. I round up the minotaurs, then cast Armor of Frost then gather up 16 or so Griffons and with the Armor on, I take much less damage pulling and while casting Mist Form. In the past, when I had this many creatures, I had trouble surviving after Mist Form ended, even with them blinded. But now I just put on Armor of Frost and wait for mist form to recharge and I have no problems living now.

Thanks for the suggestion.

The only thing preventing me from rounding them all up is that I can't kill the bosses and so I am better off not getting them in my net. But I got some guild-mates to come help me kill them and they don't seem to drop any better than the non-bosses so I see I am not missing anything by skipping them.

Has anyone found a Mo/W build that works? If so, I'd greatly appreciate seeing it posted here in cyber-print.