Blue in the Face W/Mo Axe Build

I know this has probably been talked about til "Blue in the Face" but here it goes again.

I have a 20th W/Mo Axe Warrior and I solo in mountain trolls north of the Forge. Just lookin fer suggestions on improving the build.

Healing 9
Smiting 5
Axe 12 (11+1)
Str 10 (9+1)
Tactics 1 (Rune only)

3:1 Vamp Axe of Fortitude +29
Max Dam 14>50

Shadow Shield 16 Armor
-1 Rec Dam in Stance

Forge Platemail with one piece of Knights
Major Vigor
Major Absorb

Sprint
Battle Rage
Bonetti's (5 seconds)
Cyclone Axe
Vigorous Spirit (+9 Health I believe)
Zealot's Fire
Mending (+3 Health Regen)
Healing Breeze (+7 Health Regen)

Here's the scenario.

Throw Mending on. Sprint past the Avicara blocking the way to the troll cave. Aggro trolls and throw on Zealot's and Vigor Spirit.

Cyclone Axe. Battle Rage. Bonetti's. Healing Breeze. Battle Rage. Cyclone Axe. Bonetti's. Vigor Spirit. Cyclone Axe. Battle Rage. Bonetti's. Healing Breeze. Zealot's Fire. Rinse/Repeat.

I can usually kill all the trolls in the cave in about 5-7 minutes at this pace, with the healing taking priority. Not super quick, but very effective. Trolls can disrupt which causes a pain, but since I usually am ahead on my times for Zealot's and Vigorous Spirit the only two that really affect me badly are Healing Breeze and Cyclone Axe.

Any tweaking? And no, I will not use Cleave/Eviserate as Battle Rage feeds the high adrenaline need for Bonetti's very nice. I also don't have them.

And I haven't done the attribute quests yet and don't want to use any sup runes cept for Vigor and Absorb, which I haven't wanted to dish out the money for.

I don't know how much money I get per run, since the items vary, but in 5 runs last night I picked up one gold item ... req 8 war axe 14% in stance ... and mostly crap which I salvaged to merchanted. One time, every single one of the trolls gave me troll tusks. Oh well.

Leucistic of Yenemi

I believe Battle Rage with Bonetti's is somewhat counter-productive, since they can't stack, so you'd have to build up for Rage, the Bonetti's. Wouldn't it be better just to cast Bonetti's in the first place?

Balthazar's Spirit is used by almost every farmer.

I use Battle Rage to build adrenaline just for Bonetti's. I know they don't stack but it makes getting the Bonetti's rolling easier when I am only fighting 2-3 opponents and cyclone axe doesn't get enough adrenaline in one shot to run Bonetti's. Since Bonetti's is the key to the build because of the high energy needs of healing breeze and zealots fire (10 is high haha) the quicker I get Bonetti's rolling the better.

Plus with Zealot's Fire, Battle Rage does damage to surrounding creatures and doesn't take energy, which is a small bonus, but a bonus none-the-less.

Balthazar's Spirit costs 25 energy doesn't it? If so, then I have no way to cast as I am stuck at 20 energy and have no real desire to switch between shield and foci or using gladiator's armor. I guess if it makes that big a difference I can try it, will need a decent healing ankh to play with it I guess.

L

Balthazar's Spirit costs 10 energy and is an "enchantment". So many confuse Balthazar's Spirit with Balthazar's Aura, Balthzar's Aura costs 25 energy and is a smite spell.

Now I use a pretty different build that is more effective:

Balthazar's Spirit (enchantment)
Livinging Vicarously (enchantment)
Balthazar's Aura
Shield of Judgement
Bonetti's Defense
Cyclone Axe
Vigorous Spirit
Healing Breeze

Attributes:
8 Healing
6 Smite
11 Strength
11 Axe
3 Tactics

Am only using Minor Runes for Strength, Axe and Tactics atm.

I prefer SoJ over Zealots fire because it doesn't require me to spam healing breeze for 13 seconds and does more damage than Zealots fire in that first 13 seconds. To each his own I suppose, I rarely need to use healing breeze anymore. Balthzars Spirit increases Energy AND Adrinilin everytime you get hit, with lots of mobs hitting you at once as in the Troll cave Bonettis Defense comes up pretty fast. I use a Gladiator build for the most part with Knights gauntlets and Wyvern Helm (for the strength). I also use a focus item I got in the eastern fronteir desert +6 energy (I get 1/2 of this), +5 Armor w/enchanted and +45 hps w/enchanted. My weapon isn't even a max dmg max % Axe only 6-27 +12% w/enchanted (customized +20%) +5 Armor vs physical (looking for a +5 pommel of defense ) I start out with 29 energy, cast Balthzars Spirit wait till regen to 29 again then cast Living Vicarously and have 19 energy as I charge in the Trolls or Griffons. Just before radar contact I cast Vigorous Spirit and when I get hit once I cast Shield of Judgement. Cyclone Axe next then bonettis is up by then, use it and if I'm lucky can get 25 energy on first use, cast Balthazar's Aura and then Cyclone Axe waiting on Bonettis once again. In the Battle I usually get three casts of Shield of Judgement and three casts of Balthazars Aura and it doesn't last 5 to 7 minutes, more like 3 or 4. Once in a blue moon on the Trolls I need to use Healing breeze. The Vigorous Spirit and Living Vicarously gives me +16hps everytime I hit so saves me from having to use Healing breeze as often. Of course Cyclone Axe gives me lotsa hit points everytime I use it. (wonder when they will nerf this lol). I keep Vigorous Spirit up of course throughout the battle and of course being interupted from time to time screws up things and have to use Healing breeze in place of. For the Griffons this is not a problem.

I can do the Avicara Birds better with this build than I could before with Zealots Fire, the key is Shield of Judgement in that first 13 seconds taking out the Wise and then the Fierce, let the Braves hit you for the energy. Here I have to use Healing Breeze often, but, it's effective taking out the Avicara Birds at any rate. Those damn Fierce are a pain in the butt with their fire damage arse arrows. So after killing the Wise, usually before SOJ runs out then the Fierce isn't much of an issue, unless there are a bunch of them. I've found (5) Fierce are more deadly than most anything else, mainly because they practically nullify bonettis defense for energy gain. Kinda suks arrows don't give energy like melee attacks do when they miss and they don't seem to miss as often as a melee strike either from my observations. I encountered them 3 times getting my SHield of Judgement skill, the first two times were a wipe, but, after I got my SOJ, I went to the 3rd group of them and slaughtered them and my group (henchies) didn't die nor I.

An lemme tell yah that romp to get Shield of Judgement was some adventure especially with henchies. And they placed Shield of Judgement at the very fricking end of the travel path; it's like a fish hook, you start at the eye of it and travel the whole map in a long line and sweep back towards where you started and at the very end there is the guy with the skill.

For you guys with those 20pt energy builds, just go get yourself a Piece of Gladiator Chest piece for the +3 energy or Legs for +2 Energy (add runes that you also have in your other chestpiece or legs and go get that focus item in the eastern frontier) (only need 3 Fetid Carapaces and the collector is very near the start) Then you will have 25 energy (legs) or 26 (chest) energy and can use Balthzar's Aura then.

Can your build solo both krogg smush and whuup bumbull with ease? Their drops usually suck ass every time I kill them but it's still fun to kill them by yourself, the 400exp is a nice way to get back refund points. That's the only way I can suggest improving your build though.. to make the bosses die quickly. I can kill them both relatively quickly with my w/n build but w/mo seems tough.

Krogg Smush isn't that bad but whuup will use an evasion stance and troll unguent so he can get really annoying. You can time disrupting chops everytime he unguents but then there are times where he stances + unguents at the same time so you can't rely on chop. I just outdamage the unguent with mark of pain myself so it doesn't bother me but I'm not sure if zealots can output the same dps as mark. Maybe just thinking you should swap a skill out for chop and anytime he stance + unguents at the same time just try to keep his hp steady or outdamage the regen a bit with zealots spam.

For the most part when farming I stay away from Bosses or caster groups. Mine is mainly a pure melee farm build. I go get what I can get with it, then zone and rince and repeat. I did do the Griffon Boss with this build in the desert just outside of Augury Rock and it was pretty easy. Balthzar's Aura really makes all the difference in the world and recharges pretty fast 15 seconds. Cyclone Axe alone isn't worth diddly without some more powerful dps to go along with it or you'll be fighing large groups for a long time, to me 7 or 8 minutes is a long time. heh

I can solo Krogg, but he takes awhile. I can't kill Whuup cause his Unguent outraces my DoT capabilities.

I will have to get Balthazar's Spirit (if I don't already have it) and use it. Just in case I don't, where do I get it from?

Shield of Judgement might work better and it knocks them down, but the lower time frame and higher energy cost will have to be accounted for.

Thanx and keep it comin.

L

Jake - what's your build for W/N. I have no problem taking out the trolls But find the bosses very difficult. Also, how do you manage the birdmen (besides running)

Aalric

5-7mins is quite some time to kill the trolls, usually should be before zealot's fire can run out. You don't have much offensive with just zealots, instead of battle rage have gladiators defense or shield of judgement or balthazar's if you have the energy.

Let me be more specific on the 5-7 minutes part.

I start the time from when I leave the Forge til when I map back to start over. So 30 seconds to 1 minute in travel time past the birds into the cave. I then take on the big group in the middle of the cave, then the two smaller groups (one boss) at the other entrance. All the while getting chests, drops, and regenin my energy.

Its not 5-7 minutes from when I start slashing until they all fall down, I can kill about 75% of the trolls in the large group before the Zealot's Fire shuts down and it usually takes me about 2 minutes to kill the boss.

Sorry for any confusion. Still a little long for a run, but it does me well as I probably pull about 500g in non-rare materials alone. If I pick up a gold/purple items then better for me.

L

Quote:

My Solo Farming build:

Healing: 8
Smiting: 9
Swordsmanship: 11 (10+1)
Tactics: 9 (7+2)

Balthazaar's Spirit
Mending
Healing Breeze
Balthazaar's Aura
Zealot's Fire
Gladiator's Defense (E)
Bonetti's Defense
Watch yourself!

I have enough Gladiator's to provide +6 energy, and I have a Collector's Healing Ankh with +10 energy, +5 armor enchanted, +45 health enchanted.

Why sprint past what you can kill? Gladiator's Defense is so very nice, because I can go after the Tengu archers and just let the Braves beat themselves to death. It's like having Riposte nonstop for 9 seconds. And you can use other skills while it's active, unlike Bonetti's. Watch Yourself is a terribly underrated skill, considering it provides 20 armor against physical and elemental. With BZ's Spirit, it usually recharges in 3 swings instead of 4, so I spam the hell out of it. I beeline to the Fierce, then wait for the Braves to close in before I hit Gladiator's Defense, then in those 9 seconds I hit BZ's Aura, spam Watch Yourself as many times as I can (doing Zealot's damage the whole time, of course), and have Healing Breeze activated just before Gladiator's ends. I wait until BZ's Aura is almost recharged before I hit Bonetti's, and I'll have my energy back up to 36 in 2 or 3 seconds. Then I hit it again, IF necessary. Usually the Braves are dead before I have to recast Aura, but sometimes they might have a little health left. The groups closest to the caves almost always spawn in packs of 2 Braves and 2 Fierce. Usually the packs en route to the Iron Mines have the Wise or Ardents.

After I drop those silly chickens, it's troll time! The more the merrier, since they're helping me by building up my energy and adrenaline faster. I try to get at least 8 at at a time. I've killed as many as 11 at once. And it usually doesn't take more than 2 casts of BZ's Aura. The key is just being quick on the casts. One successful interrupt usually won't be costly (unless a recast of Zealot's Fire was interrupted ), but pretty much as long as I cast something, ANYTHING, I'm doing damage. And the Mountain Trolls are nice enough to not use Unguent, so they all die at the same time. How nice of them.

Now as far as drops go... those goddamn Raven Staffs. Man, oh man.

http://www.coldblackeyes.com/forum/v...asc&start =15

I tried this last night, w/mo axe build:

healing 10
strength 8+1+1 (helm+rune)
axe mastery 10+2
tactics 8+1
leftover points:4 (both attrib quests completed)

Collector's Battle Axe: dmg +15% while enchanted, +22 health upgrade

Collector's Crimson Carapace Shield: armor 12, +45 health and received dmg -2 while
enchanted (from nw corner of Mamnoon Lagoon, 5 ancient eyes)

Plate mail armor with Knight's boots (from Droknar's)
Major Vigor + Major Absorption

Skills:
Cyclone Axe
Penetrating Blow
Bonetti's Defence
Gladiator's Defense {E}
Vigorous Spirit
Mending
Live Vicariously
Healing Breeze

This build is based on LV+VS -> every hit heals +20..and with cyclone axe when surrounded 8-9 trolls -> and with 2 stances, you are all the time pretty safe. Just use GD whenever you can and Bonetti's to recover energy. Cyclone Axe gives you the Adrealine you need.

The Avicara mob outside cave entrance (2 brave+2 fierce) is no problem, just attack the Fierce first.

On the first run, i didn't need Healing Breeze so i'm going to try something else on that slot. I took 9 trolls mob down without breaking a sweat and i was half way through killing the Warrior Boss when i got disconnected, so i don't know can i kill the other Boss.

This is pretty good universal farm+quest+mission build but it has flaws as every build has -> blindness and enchantment killers are also build killers try to kill a mob with 3 Skeleton Sorcerers and you are boned..

Now the replacement for Healing Breeze..i'm going to try this:
Healing Prayers to 8 -> with leftover points i can have 7 at Smiting Prayers and take Symbol of Wrath. I have still +3 health regen from Mending and i have just spent all attrib points

Hope this helps.

Quote: