Do you have to be a Monk to be a farmer?

I've seen a lot of builds people use to "farm", and what I've noticed is that all of those I've seen are partly/fully monks. I was just wondering if there are non-monk builds that can solo a gang of mobs.

You don't have to be a primary Monk to be a farmer. I know W/Mo and E/Mo can farm. Necromancers and Rangers can probably farm, although I don't think Mesmers can. You probably have to be a secondary Monk, at the least, to farm effectively. Unless you're going up against very low level mobs, you're taking on several monsters at once and you'll need a way to prevent them from damaging you.

Of course, some non-Monk is probably going to post and prove me wrong.

well, I farm (with henchies) pretty effectively by slaughtering everying at perdition rock except for the first 9 groups of mangho hydras

Are there any build combo out there that doesn't involve a monk that can take on a group of mobs on its own? I was wondering about how to keep your health up as you get pounded by a mob, and being part monk would pretty much solve that issue, but are there ways to do it w/o having to be part monk?

Well, a Ranger with Whirling Defense, Troll Unguent, and Healing Spring would stay alive pretty well in some situations. I don't know how efficient it would be. I'm sure someone can figure out a trapping build that works effectively.

I have a Necro/Ele that can take on some fairly large mobs (with henchies, have not really tried completely solo). I use Life Siphon and Vamp Gaze for my healing. I use Meteor Shower and Fire Storm to take down the mobs, for good measure I bring up a few Minions if it's a really big mob.

I have an axe-wielding R/N (yes, that's right) who uses Mark of Pain and Spiteful Spirit for AOE damage, whirling defense, lightning reflexes, and throw dirt for evasion, and Vampiric Touch for quick health + more damage. I can't do the insane farming a W/Mo does, but I still have good places to go solo.

It's difficult to farm solo without at least a monk secondary, because when you're solo, you're going to be taking the damage of all of your enemies, and no other class has nearly the healing capability that monk has. I've seen some people do fairly well with W/N builds, but generally not as good as their W/Mo counterparts.

Rangers and Necros have probably the best survival capabilities if you don't have a monk primary/secondary. Troll Unguent can be a great heal, especially when combined with evasion stances to reduce the damage you take. Necro's have the life stealing in the blood line, and even some healing(soul feast) in death. However, the survivability of a character without a monk primary/secondary is less than it would be with a part monk.

If you farm some place without enchantment removal or interruption, I could see an E/Me being a possibility through good use of earth enchantments and Ether Renewal too, if you bring along Arcane Echo to have Ether Renewal up for 2/3 the time. Of course, your damage output would probably suffer from the need to bring along a lot of enchantments to fuel Ether Renewal. Spamming stone daggers with maybe 1-2 other good earth damage spells might work, with Renewal, 3 other enchants, and Arcane Echo. Maybe Stone Daggers, Stoning, and Crystal Wave, and use Aura of Restoration, Armor of Earth, and Earth Attunement for the enchantments. You'll be taking reduced damage thanks to Armor of Earth, will have lots of energy thanks to ether renewal, and you'll be healed for a large amount of health whenever you cast a spell thanks to Renewal + Aura. However, this wouldn't be as effective as the Zealot's Fire/Boon spam that monks can do to farm- huge energy gain from Balthazar's Spirit and Essence Bond to fuel the spam, and about 70 AoE dps while healing themselves for a large amount.

to farm with henchies defeats the purpose of farming!

farming is used by most to get items to make a few plat here and there.

You'd have to hit healing spring before you run into battle. Seems to get intrupted everytime I try to cast during battle. Thats not quite enough dmg output though.

Honestly, I almost think monk has to be in there somewhere to be effective

Actually it doesn't matter no matter what your class is now, I don't know of any farming spots that haven't been nerfed anymore...I can't farm at all.

I farm with a R/E, works pretty damn nice using whirling defense/troll unguent/healing spring for healing/defense, and then all manner of AoE elementist skills to take them out. Energy isn't a problem with glyph of lesser energy and a nice +15 energy staff.

I haven't played Mesmer or Ranger (BUT I WANT TO GIMME MORE CHARACTERS!! ) so I cannot say. I am unsure about necro farming.. if you wanted to I think secondary monk might be necessary.

You either MUST be able to heal yourself quite efficiently and protect yourself from massive damage.

Look for ele skills that add more armor or allow you to not take any dmg altogether (ie mist form or obsidian flesh) and cast AoE spells that do massive dmg.. as well ensure you can keep yourself healed.

W/Mo seems to me to be the BEST and most versatile farmer simply because they can definitely take a beating and what not.

Monks or eles in my opinion are much more efficient but VERY vulnerable to interrupts and disenchants (War is too but not as much) although you can sort of bypass this by using skills that are quick to cast etc.

I believe with ANY build it is probably possible to farm quite well. However it does take a fair amount of practice with skills.

My final suggestion if you don't want to make a new character is really just to read through the skills listing and pick out skills that will protect you in some way. Mix and max to get the best buffs.

It's complicated but once you get a good build it works quite well Don't be too overzealous either.. take it slow until you get it figured out.

Good luck!

Mesmers can farm... Me/El is very lethal, at least I've seen one player's killing powers before.

Essentially an ele on steroids. And they don't need lots of energy too, just enough to round up a pack, launch everything, rest, and move on the the next pack.

I was just talking about this with some of my guildmates tonight. You don't have to "farm" to make money or find stuff. In playing today, I made about 5k and unlocked 5 weapon mods... all by just running missions and quests. So don't get down if you can't "farm", just play... the rewards will come.

Well it quite depends on your luck as well. Having played finished the game, I only have about 20K on that char, not enough to buy the 15k armor.

Some would say they found good drops and runes and manage to sell for high price. As for me, I've never gotten a good rune, mostly minor and major, cannot sell that much, and just recently I got my first superior, what happens, economy already going down, everywhere selling runes like its a fish market. Cheap stuff everywhere. So money aint easy to come across now...

Unless of course I play old style, keep on replaying the missions to get drops and money. Most of the farming spots getting nerfed pretty quickly.

Nonsense. There's still lots of places which have excellent drops, and even some of the nerfed ones are only nerfed in the sense that ANet's put in some monsters of a different type so the old builds don't work as well any more.

I seriously doubt this claim too... for a party of 6 you are taking about 30k of gold drops in a day?

Not likely.

Unless you suddenly add "oh, it was a party of 2..." then it is another matter altogether.

well. its pretty much random everytime you do missions with a group (hench or human) for farming/mish/quests.etc.

sometimes you just get all the good drops and sometimes you dont and sometimes everyone gets a piece of the prizes.

its pretty much "luck".

going back to farm build. it depends on the area you are trying to farm, generally the hard spots do need "monk" and if you want 100% of the drops, you should have prim or secondary. if you dont have any "monk" in you, then you either play the 50/50 chance of getting good drops w/ henchies(in hard spots) or farm in mid area spots where you can "own" the monsters (that youve experimented), that can give you comparably nice enuff drops.

again testing out all builds w/o monk, there should be ones that will be effective in hard spots, so it really depends on skill set/build.

GL.

I farm solo with my ranger. However i've only been able to farm lvl 14-17's without using my monk secondary. I farm areas with mobs that cast conditions on you(multiple) and use Melandrus Resiliance to keep my HP and energy regen up.

melandrus resiliance
ignite arrows
barb trap
dust trap
flame trap
throw dirt
healing spring
dodge or whirling defense


anything over lvl17 I need to use my monk secondary for mend/heal/purge condition

I've managed to do a little farming with my ranger bringing a pet as well. Mainly lvl 14-17 as well. Pretty much just bring apply poison, troll unguent, Edge of Extinction, and a bunch of pet skills (ever changing which ones). Poison everything, and let the pet pound em.

Can take groups of 5-10 depending on mob composition. Nothing spectacular, but I'm only lvl 17 myself, at the wilds, and don't have all the traps or armor yet.

The mod drops mostly came when I was doing The Wilds and Aurora Glade missions. I made most of the money while doing the profession change quests in the desert with a guildmate. I admit it was a lucky day for me, probably the single best day I've had in the game, but it is the truth.