Beginners Guide On Farming

Firan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2005

Darkest Nights

W/R

How To Farm

Well guys, my thread is quite old but I'm back in Guild Wars and am adding to it once again! Hope you enjoy it!

Monk/Warrior

Tattoo armor
Collectors Monk Wand with 11-22 damage (You won't be using this much)
OR
Henge of Denravi Craftable Sword with +5 Energy and 20% Longer Enchantments (This is the best farming weapon a monk can get but I haven't seen anyone else use one)

EDIT: Now people use them.. But it got removed from game. No more complaining in this thread PLEASE.

+27 Energy +30 Health Energy Regeneration -1 Collectors Perfect Focus (Acquired at the Desert for 5 Dessicated Hydra Claws)
You may think that -1 regeneration is bad but farming battles typically last 20 seconds and 4 regen arrows instead of 3 isnt going to help more than +27 more energy. For those newbies, - regen doesnt mean you lose it constantly since you always have at least 2 regen arrows. If you want more enchantments then go with the +12 Energy 20% Faster Healing Recharge and Casting Speed. +20% Chance of Faster Smiting Recharge is also good (Droknars Forge for 3 Summit Badges.) If you have dp when using the prot bond/spirit build then use 20% chance of +1 Prot +30 Health focus.


Collectors: For most casters, the collectors are the best weapons to be used, as opposed to warrior who's collectors weapons which suck.

12 Smite (9+3) 1 Superior Rune
12 Heal (11+1) 1 Minor Rune
11 Protect (10+1) 1 Minor Rune
7 Divine Favor (6+1) 1 Minor Rune

1 Balthazars Spirit (This and Essence Bond give you 3 energy per hit)
2 Essence Bond
3 Zealots Fire (Area of Effect damage whenever you cast a spell)
4 Balthazars Aura (Aoe Damage, Casts fast but costs 25 energy)
5 Symbol of Wrath (Area of Effect damage)
6 Healing Hands (Elite) (Perdition Rock) (Time)
7 Reversal of Fortune (Self Heal)
8 Orison of Healing (Self Heal)


Alright, you have all the tools here set out for you, now how to use them
Lets take Twin Snakes as a example location
Turn on Balthazars Spirit and Essence bond. With these two you will never ever run out of energy as long as you are constantly attacked. Run past the skales and mergoyle blockade and on your left a group of Tengu Elite will run out at you. The next part is very important in your timing. As soon as you see the group turn on Zealots Fire then Balthazars Aura as they start to surround you. In quick succession healing hands and symbol of wrath. From then you should be able to spam reversal of fortune and orison of healing till they slump to the ground
Now a important thing to note is that reversal of fortune and orison of healing have slow recharge times (relatively). So if you just pound them back and forth as fast as you can, it doesn't help at all. Also if you hit the spells to fast, sometimes they dont castYou have to find a steady rhythm, anticipating right when they recharge and hitting it at the exact same moment. Dont worry about watching the enemies too much, if you must, make a video (www.fraps.com) and watch the enemies then.
Now you will want to try it out first before you murder your pride in the underworld/tough farming spot.
So a great place to go practise (and early in the game) is Nolani Academy. When you enter mission, it will ask you if you want to go alone for sure. Now farming is only good when you are alone so say yes. Not that you cant show off to your friends but if you are serious about getting good stuff, go alone. Set up your enchantments (1 and 2) as soon as you appear and run straight ahead till the end of the wall and then on your left a lever will appear. Pull it and run down the ramp as fast as you can and up to the gate. Now once you reach the enemy, again, same plan. Zealots fire when they approach, Balthazars Aura, Healing Hands, Symbol of Wrath (this spell takes a while to cast but healing hands will keep you alive) then OoH and Rof. These enemies (charr)are VERY easy but you have to pretend they are lvl 20 and take it seriously. They usually only drop minors.



Bad Drops

Farming Beetletun, this is about the same difficulty as Twin Snakes. You may want a partner for this. If you solo this it, make sure you bring sprint.
Exit the east side. Sprint past the mergoyles and dodge the tengu if you can. At the end of the path are the ettins. These ettins are tough for 3 reasons
- They hit slowly and therefore deny you much energy
- They hit harder making your constant small heals less effective
- They have healing signet and can actually outlast your spells

Solution
- Don't use the above build, use prot spirit build.

They can be beaten with the normal skills solo but some people may find them too difficult. Once you deal with the main group, continue on forward and a bit to the left. You will see a group of two ettins and one boss, farm them and capture the skill (Capture signet while near by dead body) if he has any elites.







Thats me

Soloing the Undead Hordes Quest (Beetletun) can be quite fun as it will undoubtably as this will be the most enemies you will ever farm at once. You will be facing like 100 undead (super weak against holy) with the only downside being that half of them are ranged attackers. Leave the casters alive if you can because they will raise minions for you to kill. Dont kill the skeleton dragon that comes near the end, run inside if you want to do it again. If you do then quest is over.

Buying the Equipment

This is the cheapest and fastest way to do it

Just buy the wand and focus for about 1 platinum each to save trouble.
Don't buy for more because they are collectors items.
If you get the sword, its at the Henge of Denravi (Maguuma jungle city) and costs about 500G and iron and steel
The minor runes are around 100G-300G.
Superiors range from 1-3K but if unidentified up to 6K
The armor should be from Droknars Forge and are 800G (Not 1.5K, Tattoo is cheaper) per piece
Materials are a bit harder to get. Buy wood (common crafting item) from merchant and take it to outside Fort Ranik. Along the right, in a little tent is a materials person. He will take your wood and gold and make you parchment. I think its 2 wood and 20G per parchment. By farming in Twin Snakes you should have enough feathers but buying from merchants is fine too. Glittering dust you can just buy from any person for about 20G each

Build Modifications

There are a few things you can do make the build more suited for your farming location. If you have to run a part, become a Mo/W and put sprint instead of Essence Bond. You can use all superior runes (protections, heal, divine favor, and healing) and put protective spirit instead of essence bond. This works by only allowing 10% health to be taken per hit of your already unbelievably low health, but beware, if you do that you must always have protective spirit on. 10% of 50 = 5 damage Healing Touch instead of Orison is possible too but its slow recharge doesnt quite balance its strong healing. Shield of Judgement instead of symbol of wrath is a great change but its a hard to get that elite as its in mineral springs and its hard to find good PuGs there. Get your guild together and do it. Mark of Protection can replace healing hands as they are pretty much the same thing except your protection skills are disabled for Mark of Protection. Then you can spam divine boon (weak heal but instant recharge and cast time, kills your energy so the monsters have to die really fast or you do). Smite hex is useful against Flesh Golems and their hexes. Retribution if the enemies are hard hitters but Retrib is not very commonly and doesnt seem that effective. Guardian and Aegis arent long lasting enough to be effective. If you are a elementalist or elementalist secondary you can bring Ward against Melee (Greater chance of them missing), Mist Form (Water magic, no one can hit you with melee attack). More on elementalists spells below

What To Do With Your Drops

How do you know the value? What if you get scammed? Whats this Superior Vigor thing? The first and most important rule is dont be too hasty to sell something till you are absolutely 100% sure and have consulted friends or guild members.

Runes (Come from salvage items with colored text)

Use a expert salvage kit to remove rune to tell class and type.

Gold text usually means superior if the armor class is around 50+
Superior runes look like scrolls with big curled edges. Sell unidentified but identify if needed for your characters. Unidentified can range from 2k (mesmer, ranger, the classes where superiors are inpractical) to 4-9K (monk, elementalist, necromancer) and up to 75-85K, warrior absorbtion and superior vigors.

Purple text yield minors and majors. Minors are tiny little things with small symbols. If its not needed for your character, then just give it away identified. Majors are the same thing except bigger symbols. Give them away unidentified so people might have the smallest inclination to take them

Blue text is always minors.

Check rune merchant to see prices but remember merchants prices are always unidentified

Dyes

Dyes should be sold cheaper then merchant.
The price ive given are not concrete since market prices change on demand

Yellow, Orange, Blue, Green, and Purple are 100-500G
Red is 600G
Silver is 900G
Black is now 8K trader price

Weapons

Post as auction on www.rpgtraders.net to get amazing bids and where you can get 120K for a 80K weapon (if you are lucky)

Gold (Huge buying appeal)
Purple (Not too bad)
Blue (Better than plain)
Plain (Bad unless maxed AND a popular weapon)

Max damage for weapons
- Swords 15-22
- Shields 16 (Armor Class)
- Bows 15-28
- Staves and Wands 11-22
- Axes 6-28

Requirements
8-10 Good
11-12 Ok
13 and Over Very Very Bad

Popular Weapons (Only valuable if maxed)
- Chaos Axes (Colors changed by dying opposite color you want)
- Storm Bows (Not sure if anymore)

Best mods
- +14% and 15% more damage when health over 50% (Built-in Mod)
- +30 health (Fortitude Mod)
- 4-5 Health Stolen Per Hit and -1 Health Regeneration (Vampiric)
- +1 Attribute Chance 20%
- Armor Penetration 10% with 10% Chance
- 20% Longer Enchantments
- 20% Chance to Faster Recharge
- 20% Chance to Faster Cast Time

Advertising Your Items And Getting Tons of Buyers

Never spam in all caps, Use caps at beginning of words only unless you really want to stress something e.g. GOLD or MAX.
Give just enough info, you dont want to give a full description only want to lure customers in. Abbreviations: WTS = Want to Sell, WTB = Want to Buy, WTT = Want to Trade, PM = Private Message PST= Please Send Tell

Good: WTS Max GOLD Storm Bow with +15%>Mod PM me

Bad: WTS MAX GOLDEN STORM BOW WITH WITH TONS OF MODS 15%ABOVE LIEF 50% 100K B/O 200K

Group Farming

Take a friend (or a couple) and get them to either tank or heal.

Tank Job Build

1 Balthazars Spirit
2 Mending
3 Zealots Fire (AE Dmg whenever you cast a spell)
4 Balthazars Aura (Aoe Damage)
5 Symbol of Wrath (Area of Effect damage)
6 Healing Hands (Elite) (Perdition Rock) (Time)
7 Reversal of Fortune (Self Heal)
8 Protective Spirit

This time use Balthazars Spirit and Mending as your main job will be to deal the damage (Unless your friend is a elementalist and only needs very little help) and stay alive. Use Zealots Fire and Protective Spirit as soon as they start to surround you (Protective Spirit greatly helps the job of your poor friend). Healing Hands, Balthazars Aura, Symbol of Wrath, then spam Reversal of Fortune.

Heal Job Build

All healing and protection spells

Healing Breeze (Really fast health recharge)
Orison of Healing
Reversal of Fortune
Heal Other (Massive heal, pretty much best in the game for non elite)
Shield of Regeneration ( Do this when your friends health is maxed and it wont budge an inch)
Healing Seed (Every hit target is healed (after hit dmg))
Vigorous Spirit (More healing per spell)
Infuse Health (Hmm...)
Life Bond (Very Important, you take reduced portion of damage)

Combinations

Tank Damage

W/Mo (Use Axe for Cyclone Axe) and E/Mo (Fire)
Mo/W and E/Mo (Fire)
Mo/E (Earth and Smite) and E/Mo (Fire)
E/Mo (Earth/Smite and Fire) and Mo/E

Pretty much anything can work, with the exception of w/m and w/m
Secondary doesnt matter very much
Earth is for AE PB (Crystal Wave, Earthquake, Aftershock)
Fire is for ranged Aoe (Meteor Storm, Lava Font, Inferno, Rodgarts Invocation, Fire Storm, Fireball, Spam Flare)

Organize a team where each two people or each person has a specific role e.g.
3 Man: Tank, Smite, Nuke
2 Man: Nuker, Tank

FARMING LOCATIONS

Ettins outside Bergen Hot Springs and Beetletun
Undead and Ghouls outside Hotsprings
Soloing the Undead Hordes quest outside of Beetletun (Don't expect too much in the way of items but by the end your exp bar should be full)
Tengu Elite outside Riverside Province (Runes)
Drakes in Divinity or Gates of Kryta (Non max gold and purple items)
Undead from Gates of Kryta (Runes and gold)
Flesh Golems at Perdition Rock (Gold and items)
Hydras at Perdition Rock (Gold and Items)
Charr in Nolani Academy (Useless minor runes but great area for farming practise)
Restless Spirits in Nolani Academy
Everything in Lornars Pass (Everything imaginable)
Underworld (Good because holy does extra damage)
Griffons in the Desert, west of Augury rock

UW

The Underworld. There are a great many choices.

Smiting Wand 20% Chance of faster recharge
-50 Health Item

Pure Tank!

Mending
Watchful Spirit
Balthazars Spirit
Essence Bond
Protective Spirit
Healing Breeze
Blessed Signet
Bonettis

Hybrid

Mending
Balth Spirit
Essence
Prot Spirit
Balth Aura
Symbol of Wrath
Healing Breeze
Bonettis

Tengu Farming Build:

Balthazars Spirit
Healing Touch
Zealots Fire
Symbol of Wrath
Balthazars Aura
Healing Breeze
Healing Hands
Bonettis

Go outside and die.
Once you respawn, immediately cast Balthazars Spirit, then Zealots Fire. Engage enemies and cast symbol of wrath, healing hands. Then cast the rest of your spells while using Bonettis to keep your energy up. I used this with a w/mo.

Griffon Farming

Yet again another w/mo farming build.

Cyclone Axe
Bonettis
Healing Hands {ELITE}
Symbol of Wrath
Healing Breeze
Balthazars Aura
Live Vicariously
Mending

Cast mending, recharge energy,then live vicariously. Start your run, aggroing the griffins and trying to lose the devourers. When ready, turn and attack closest enemy (c+space). Cast symbol of wrath, then healing hands. For the moment you are invincible because of the elite. Cast Balthazars Aura, then cyclone and bonettis immediately. Wait till Cyclone axe is 3/4 recharged, then cast any spells which are ready, cyclone, bonettis. When you have cast all your smiting spells basically you are just holding out till healing hands is ready again.

Lets Try Mo/W Griffon Farming!

Balthazars Aura
Essence Bond
Mending
Protective Spirit
Shield of Judgement
Balthazars Aura
Healing Breeze
Bonettis.

Get your health to 80. Then die. You will be at 8 health. Now you a practically invicible if you have protective spirit and mending on. When enemies are gathered (Lose Devourer Aggro), start Healing Breeze. Shield of Judgement, then prot spirit or healing breeze if needed. Balthazars Aura. When shield of judgement is over click bonettis and hang on till your smiting spells are ready again.

Firan Sorakis W/Mo Lvl 20
Tasari Nrio E/Mo Lvl 20 (Terminated)
Aeid Nomais Mo/W level 20

Cheers

Tuna

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jun 2005

Dark Horizons

Nice Job! I suggest this thing gets sticked and have everyone put their farming questions in here so the forum doesn't get clogged with all these farming threads.

Tevash Szat

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2005

None

You should have mentioned the minotours/griffons in the desert along with the sand drakes.

Zilm

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

This is nice info. And for those reading this thread there is always more than one way to skin a cat. It's all in the skill mix. I can farm a lot of these areas with a smiting monk with 45 energy. The key, Shield of Judgement : ) >

Farming has become my form of entertainment until the next big update.

carnivore

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2005

W/

what about sand drakes? i means seriously there so far apart it makes me wonder is it worth the effort to go thru and kill 1-2 maybe 4 at a time. and you have to deal with the hassle of so many rockshots poping up.

as for the topic, i like the guide. i'll have to look into that sword and i'll be interested in ur e/mo build. right now i use a smiting/ether renewal build and its nice, i can farm about 3 groups of griffs at a time and as many minotuars as there are but i cant take on the whole lot of them like w/mo and mo/w can. but using smiting isnt so exciting and not very elemental, i'd rather have a build for fire/earth or fire/water farming.

also some other decent farming spots are
trolls outside droknars
and minotuars in the begining of the elona reach mission(raw gold farming)

Firan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2005

Darkest Nights

W/R

bump.

Riplox

Riplox

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Apr 2005

North Carolina

Shrophire Protectors [Lion]

W/

How do you guys manage to farm the higher level stuff without getting owned (like Droks and whatnot)? Is it possible to do with a W/Mo? I also have a healer monk, but I guess I can transform her into a smiter....

carnivore

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2005

W/

a undying monk is probably the only thing that can farm perdition rock and do UW runs. w/mo might be able to handle hydras but im not sure, but they could easily handle mountain trolls outside droks

ibex333

ibex333

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jun 2005

Brooklyn, NY

[EYE]

Rt/A

Dood... You're the best. I knew all this already, but you did a great job. This is a lot of help to noobs and even experienced players. Lots of helpful info.

P.S: dont listen to ppl who say not to disclose the farming locations and info. Anet has nurfed and double nurfed just about everything that can be. and eventually they'll nurf even more. At that point ppl like me will QUIT. I dont like my freedoms restrained even for the sake of fixing the economy, even though it is not being fixed by nurfing farming. It is only getting worse. Again, congrats on a job well done. There is no reason why some ppl must have millions of gold and others having like 1k tops. THIS IS NOT DIABLO 2.



PPS: The crafter in Henge of Denravi doesnt make a sword u speak of. She makes a sword with 5 energy.. but no 20% enchant.

carnivore

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2005

W/

he means add the enchant urself

ibex333

ibex333

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jun 2005

Brooklyn, NY

[EYE]

Rt/A

oh.... i see

Jeddak

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2005

Blood Feud

E/Mo

Where is the desert collector with the focus item?

Firan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2005

Darkest Nights

W/R

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeddak
Where is the desert collector with the focus item? Trader: Kraviec the Cursed
Items Needed: 5 Iridescent Griffin Wings
Item Recieved: Healing Ankh +12 Energy +15 Energy +30 Health -1 Energy Regeneration
Locations: Desert. Vultures Drift.

Exit from Dune of Despair
Go around the cliff thing up to higher land
Head north east to a teleporter between two big rocks.
Go across teleporter.
He is on the right

NoseJob

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2005

Me/E

Wow! I'm just starting to farm and this is the most complete story I've seen so far. Thanks!

Freddeh

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2005

Furies

Me/

I'm working on a E/Mo farmer/soloer that DOES NOT USE PROT BOND!!!!! omg teh hax.

My current build:

Earth 11+3 (sup rune)
Energy Storage 8+2 (i'll change it from a major rune to a minor + hat once i buya new hat...i have a water one currently because i was using armor of mist...and having 50 more hp would help, i just needed the 4 per enchantment on ether renewal)
Smite 11

skillz:
1 Zealots Fire
2 Divine Boon (ive been searching for something else thats spammable to replace it but i found a second use to it as an enchantment removal counter...i was able to take on groups of bog skales letting them strip this skill most of the time and just recasting it to keep it on top)
3 Balths Aura
4 Ether Renewal (pretty much the bread and butter of a E/Mo solo build)
5 Armor of Earth
6 Kinetic Armor
7 Aura of Restoration (thinking of replacing with ward against melee.)
8 Balths Spirit *ninja edit* (the other candidate for replacement)

As you can see the emphasis is on armor to reduce damage, the pro to this is that you're dealt little damage and you still have quite a bit of health to take and dish damage. And when ether is up you're pretty much invincible...aura of rest and balths aura is just to keep yourself alive until then.

Right now i need to find a longer enchantment length staff wrap and need to tweak the skills a bit.

Anyway very nice post and i was wondering if the OP or anyone had any suggestions for my build. Also it doesn't seem to me that the OP's build would be able to solo the UW w/o prot spirit...or maybe its not supposed to

Firan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2005

Darkest Nights

W/R

1. There are two balthazars auras, i think you meant spirit for one of them
2. I dont know exactly how well this e/mo w/ ether renewal works but I would suggest that you either go all Elementalist or all monk. Elementalists you can go fire/water. Use mist form for your defense and nuke. Or Earth/fire, tank with armor of earth and such defensive spells which i see you are using some of. And nuke.
3. If you want to keep most of your build, then you should know that your build doesnt have enough firepower. You should be mostly invincible.
Until Ether Renewal runs out. It is a 10 second skill with a 20 second recharge. So you will have to wait 10 seconds. During then you wont have enough energy. No Balthazars Spirit will not give you enough energy to keep you running divine boon constantly against heavy hitting slow attackign enemies. Balthazars Aura will take them down maybe 1/3-1/2. But you will slugging through the rest with only zealots fire. As i have said before I have never used Ether Renewal but those are my thoughts. Remove armor of earth and put symbol of wrath.

Edit: Just remembered protective spirit is in Modifications. Unless you meant protective

Freddeh

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2005

Furies

Me/

Well first off, some peoplearen't beginners to the game and yet are beginners to farming

the whole thing with dualing up with smiting over fire is to keep you alive, fire has long casting times, and don't have the self enchant abilities while divine boon/zealots fire and balths aura are high damage for high mana, which is where ether comes in. Ether lasts 10 seconds with no enchant incs and has a 30 sec downtime, so the whole thing is to stay alive with your 70 energy you have in that 20 secs, basically casting a balths aura and using but not spamming boon to keep kinetic up.

Ether renewal basically is the restore all and gives you 10 secs of boon spam/free restoration aura renew/free zealots fire renew, and you are able to get a balths aura up as well.

The main trouble i have is in UW though...but i haven't tried out this latest build here yet, i was using armor of mist instead of kinetic and it just doens't last long enough and takes too long to cast/recast...only benefit was run speed for running to farm locs

I meant spirit because you mentioned spirit in one of your modifications

Also id like to point out that im trying to try out a non-cookie cutter build...i just like those types of things :P

edit: i ninja edited my first post...meant to say spirit not aura again :P

carnivore

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2005

W/

i run a ether renewal build with my ele and it works pretty well

symbol of wrath
balths aura
ether renewal
ward agaisnt melee
armor of earth
aura of restoration
zealots fire
divine boon

it has some quirks to it but it works well. i'd say drop kinetic armor as a 50% chance to block is much better and aura of restoration combined with the 25 energy cost of balths aura can get you out of tight spot. as for the ether renewal thing, i dont see the 20 sec recharge as much of a problem. with a 20% enchant it last 12 secs and with a energy storage artifact(outside port sledge) you have a chance to shorten the recharge. and when i do cast it, by the time it ends i have max energy. i use this energy to recast armor of earth, the ward, and balths aura. but you just gotta remember, you MUST remove divine boon when ether renewal ends. since the build doesnt carry balths spirit, you'll need the extra arrow of regen. thats the way i do it anyway. i've tried a mistform/fire build and it worked pretty well actually, after casting meteor shower/firestorm/1-2 lava fonts, griffs/minos usually drop. the problem was energy problems and actually being able to last a second wave, because usually 1 out of every 3-4 griffons just stand back and watch then come in once you killed the other griffs. this makes it hard to stay alive and i couldnt get the hang of it.

edit:
stats are:
Smiting-12
Energy Storage-8+1(minor)
Earth-9(+1 hat +3 sup)
+Major Vigor

Kyle

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jun 2005

Legends Of Teh Industry [XXX]

I run an ether renewal build and its ok. Havnt tried anything past kryta. Workin on getting a whole drake run done. I can for sure do behind the house 100% of the time.

The build:

Energy Storage: 9+4 (sup and hat)
Healing: 8
Smite: 11
Protection: 8

The Skills:

Boon
Zealots Fire
Mending
Protective Spirit (replaceable with spirit of wrath depending on dmg taken)
Ether Renewal
Essence bond
Balthazars Spirit
balthazars Aura


Works pretty nice. If energy gets low and/or health. Throw up aura for the extra enchant then ether then spam the crap out of boon and whatever else. Works like a charm.

MentalMidgit

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2005

I WOuLD JUST LIKE TO SAY THANK YOU FOR GETTING ALL THOSE SPOTS NERFED!!!!!!!!!!!

YOU ******* NOOB!!!!!!!

Artemis89

Artemis89

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2005

^^ What he said


After Arena Net reads this and see all the good loot drop, you will possibly see Nerfs coming up in the next update. Oh well, they would end up nerfing it anyhow probably.

lord_shar

lord_shar

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jul 2005

near SF, CA

I'm currently farming with my necro/mesmer all over the place (yes, it can be done!), and from what I've seen, overfarming specific locations does cause an auto-drop-nerf to kick in. When you go to a completely new location, the drops return to normal again. If you rotate between 6-10 farm spots, then you tend to get more golds/purples. Not exactly new information, but not everyone knows about this either...

Firan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2005

Darkest Nights

W/R

Farming is fun so try it out.
You will get lots of superiors and great weapon mods, but its no longer a guarenteed thing per run. You cant run in there, mow them down and rake in 5 golds.
Freddeh i dont understand what you are saying about "i put spirit because you did in modifications". Balthazars or protective spirit? If protective spirit, yes i did. I thought you might have meant protective bond because you said both during your post

I need my meds

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2005

Awesome guide. You need a life, no offense (or maybe cus its summer its okay), but this is great.

I learned nothing except for the cool sword, but still...impressive.

A+

Freddeh

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2005

Furies

Me/

Sorry, that sentance wasn't very clear :|...i had to type that out fast and it got garbled lol

And now i don't even remember why i mentioned it...something about your 'modifications' list having it...i dunno why though lol...ah well

And i don't seem to be finding this nice sword in the henge of denravi...it just so happens that it would be perfect for my build if i could only find it...i checked like 10 collecters as well as all around the henge and the weapons crafter there :|

Firan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2005

Darkest Nights

W/R

Freddeh, for your question. The sword gives you +5 energy. Get a longer enchantments pommel, 20% is not required but is recommended. 17-19 will also do the job very well. It will be pricy but you will find you will have alot more success. Sword vs Wand: Wand = Small chance of 1 maybe 2 more Orisons.
Sword = One more orison for sure, all your enchantments last 20% longer,
Symbol of Wrath 12 Seconds
Balthazars Aura 12 Seconds
Healing Breeze 12 Seconds
Healing Hands, Protective Spirit, Shield of Protection (Not sure about name, elite protection enchantment, works like overpowered Healing breeze), Zealots Fire, etc.

Those two more seconds = 22+37+27+(If using Elite )41= 127 to all enemies around you.

Firan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2005

Darkest Nights

W/R

/bump

GreatJustice

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Aug 2005

Space Rangers

W/N

I can't find this Desert Collector's Item. I look where that one guys said (up the little cliff to the tele, then to the right) But he was not there! Any help on this?

Howling Wind

Howling Wind

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: May 2005

Down The Road

R/Mo

Outside of dunes of despair travel up north past the griffins and you should notice a teleporter with not much enemies surrounding it, there should be a ghost npc collector on the other side.

Firan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2005

Darkest Nights

W/R

Deleted

Firan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2005

Darkest Nights

W/R

Deleted

Firan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2005

Darkest Nights

W/R

Bump because i added a new part and want to show it.

Firan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2005

Darkest Nights

W/R

Added more stuff yet again.

Laetitia of Yenemi

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jul 2005

R/Me

Just my build for griffin/mino farming outside Augury.

W/Mo

Healing 9
Smiting 11
Str 7
Axe 8
Tactics 3

Balthazar's Aura
Bonetti's Defense
Cyclone Axe
Vigorous Spirit
Zealot's Fire
Live Vicarously
Mending
Shield of Judgement (E)

I use a 3:1 Vamp Axe and almost full set of glad armor for 26 energy with wyvern helm to get my 7 in str. I have a -1 rec dam enchanted req 7 shadow shield and major absorb plus knights gauntlets for dam reduction.

As stated in first post, Mending and Live Vicarously with 16 energy leftover (10 energy minimum with no pips) then run and aggro the minos/griffins. When I have the full set on me I throw on Vigorous Spirit and then throw out a cyclone axe, immediately followed my a bonetti's. The Vigorous Spirit and Live Vicarously plus Vamp Axe give me 21 health per hit, so I max out each swing. When cyclone recharges I throw on Zealots then cyclone/bonetti's again. When cyclone recharges I throw on Shield of Judgement then cyclone/bonetti's again. When cyclone recharges I put out Balthazar's Aura, then cyclone/bonetti's again.

By the end of Aura most of the griffins and all of the minotaurs should be dead, except for the ones hanging back. At this point Vigorous Spirit should be wearing off, but be careful, this is also when the griffins start their second round of Final Thrust and if you use Vigorous Spirit it will end your Bonetti's and 10 Final Thrusts will end you. I usually don't put Vigorous Spirit back on since their aren't enough leftover monsters to make the 9 health that much better.

When SoJ and Aura recharge, throw them back into the mix. I can usually clear the area of all enemies, including featherfist, before the zealots fire runs out, so right around a minute. All my healing is taking place through Live Vicarously, Vigorous Spirit, and the Vamp Axe, plus the 2 pips of Mending (3 - 1 for vamp axe).

I am working on a video with Fraps, but dont want to dish out the money to get more then 30 seconds of video. Any questions, find me here as Laetitia of Yenemi, which is also my IGN.

L

Sol Faithman

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

WOLF

W/Mo

I posted this elsewhere in the a Talus Chute farming thread, but it also applies to the griffins (and it seemed more appropriate here anyway):

I do something similar with a w/mo farming build.

Attributes are:

Healing 10
Smiting 12
Strength 1
Axe 9
Tactics 7 (coz of the nice +43 health -2 dmg shield I have)

Skills are:

Cyclone Axe
Bonetti's
Vig Spirit
Symbol of Wrath <- can sub Balth Aura in here if you want
Zealots
Healing Breeze
Sprint
Live Vicariously

I use sprint as I need to run past a couple of mobs to reach the area I farm but it can also be used to fire Zealots.

So, first cast Live Vicariously, then as you approach the first mob, cast Zealots, then as I engage, cast Vig Spirit and hit cyclone axe. This gives me instantly +20 health per foe and usually this is about 10 - 15 foes in one go so that's 200+ health per swing. In addition, casting vig spirit fire zealot for upwards of 22+ damage per foe.

As soon as the cyclone is finished, Bonetti's is ready so I cast this, firing Zealots again. Soon as energy bar is full (after about about 1 second lol) I fire SoW and cyclone again.

Basically, just keep alternating between cyclone and bonetti with other skills inbetween, even if you don't need em (healing breeze, sprint etc) just to fire Zealots and the occassional SoW.

I timed a run this morning and in just over 30 seconds (one cycle of Vig Spirit) I killed 17 lvl 24 foes

Edit:

I've since subbed Balth Aura in for SoW and it's ace - I killed a mob of griffins in around 20 seconds!! For some reason, if you cast Balth Aura just as Bonnetti starts to time out, you use the 25 energy for BA, but Bonetti still seems to be active so the energy bar goes up fast so you can cast sprint etc again to fire Zealots. Doesn't happen every time, but more often than not.

NOTE - I don't take them all on in one go although I can't see why it wouldn't be possible. I do the area in 2 halves. This build will do the bosses but not as quickly as some people say they can do it.

BTW - uses 1.5k glads armor with Sup Vig and Abs, minor strength and major axe (if memory serves me right - typing this at work )

Rich
IGN Sol Faithman

Sol Faithman

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

WOLF

W/Mo

Duplicate message doh!!

Laetitia of Yenemi

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jul 2005

R/Me

Definitely use Balthazar's Aura instead of SoW. Alot of times when I tried SoW the aftercast killed my ensuing cyclone axe and I died. I even tried (before SoJ) both Balth's Aura and SoW and the same problem happened, always on SoW.

L

Yukito Kunisaki

Yukito Kunisaki

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2005

Chicago, IL

W/N

Couldn't you set up farming with only 3 rules?

Survive [through healing]
Tank [through effecient dmg reduction]
PBAoE Damage

If you can do all 3, I'm sure you can tank with any combo in this game.

Kamel-o-mat

Kamel-o-mat

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Sep 2005

One question ...

The henge of denravi craftable sword has just 15%dmg+ while HP> 50% ... and not the bonus you mentioned. o_O ...

carnivore

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2005

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kamel-o-mat
One question ...

The henge of denravi craftable sword has just 15%dmg+ while HP> 50% ... and not the bonus you mentioned. o_O ... thats not a question