Solo Monk and Eternal Darkness'

I took the plunge last night to solo the UW with my 55hp monk / warrior.

I didn't accept any quests.

My understanding was that Eternal Darknesses only appear if you do accept a quest, however, I had them pop up in two locations right at the start, preventing much progress.

I managed to kill 7 attaxes and then they block all routes from the start location.

Maybe Anet have put more in in another attempt to stop solo monks.

I have 5 enchantments when I go for a group of attaxes, Mending, live vicariously, essence bond, balthazars spirit and the 10% max dmg one.

I ran into 2 scenarios.

1. I eternal darkness pops up, takes out all enchantments, it dies immediately, then the nearby attaxes kill me.

2. 2 eternal darknesses pop up, take out all my enchantments, the first darkness dies, the second has half its life left and kills me.

I thought about using spell breaker, but haven't had a chance to try it yet, though I know you would have to pre-empt the locations where they appear.

This gives me 2 questions that I'd like to ask.

1. Will spell breaker work. i.e., will a darkness still lose its life when it attempts to remove the enchantments, or will it stay alive and not lose any health at all.

2. Is there any other way for a monk to beat eternal darknesses, especially where 2 pop up together.

Yes Anet did pump up the underworld, they say so in their news/updates section of their site.

Eternal Darkness?
You're speaking about the dying nightmares aren't you? Well, observe them. They cast rend enchantments and that basically is what kills them as they swallow up your monk enchantments.
Spellbreaker will simply prevent them from casting that. And you don't need to know where those will spawn. Just remember to fire up spellbreaker once you hear the familiar sound.

Spellbreaker Casting Time: 1 s
Rend Enchantment Casting Time: 3 s

And killing them is as easy as to wand them. They don't have any armor on them at all and will die in like 2 or 3 wand attacks.

So you are running essence bond and protective spirit?

hell i am still trying to get the timing right for my 55 monk but for some reason the first group of aatxs keep getting me. Weird, i can take on a dozen griffons and some centaurs at the same time but hit me with 3 aatx's and i am done for.

I can sometimes do 4 axes, but 3 is the number I shoot for. You might want to try practicing on minotaurs or trolls instead of griffons as the previous two will interrupt you like the axes do. I use healing breeze and try to always hit breeze when Bonetti's is up. When doing prot spirit though try to time the cast when they fewest are actually attacking, it can get interrupted and you are toast if it is. Watch the attacks and when the most things attacking you are retreating from the attack, hit prot spirit then.

I haven't tried the UW since the update, been too busy playing sorrow's furnace...

I haven't had any major trouble with the ataxes, just the nightmares. I haven't had a spell interrupted by the attaxes yet, though I have only tried a couple of times. Basically until realising thatthes enightmares were screwing up the system, I was precasting Mending, essence bond, live vicariously and balthazars spirit, then castint protective spirit just as i'm about to attack.

I also used balthazars aura, shield of judgement and bonettis defence.

This seems to work well with the ataxes, as I am always on about 40 energy, more than enough to continually spam spirit and the aura. ANd of course i hit bonettis whenever its charged.

I guess from the second reply, I need to swap the shield of judgement to the spell breaker, and hope to God that I can get enough hits in on the nightmares before it runs out, at least enough to kill one, cus the second will kill itself, even though it takes off the enchantments.

The only two drawbacks are, if the ataxes are close enough that they get sucked in, and of course, I lose 1 of the 2 smite skills, meaning it takes longer to kill the ataxes.

But I guess taking longer to kill them is better than dying to the nightmares.

Maybe I have too many energy gain skills running.

Possibly drop bonettis for wrath or zealots fire?

I can feel a few thousand being wasted trying a couple of these modified builds out.

Especially if I'm not quick enough hitting the spell breaker.

If anyone has a better build, please let me know.

PS, another thought based on the prot spirit getting interrupted, My build means it lasts 18 seconds, but I always attempt to recast after 10 seconds as an added bit of comfort. With my build I have enough energy to hit it all the time if neccessary. It means I'm counting all the time, but hey, again, its better than dying.

indeed, let me know how it works out for you. I will probably try a few things again tonight to see how it goes. I dont mind wasting a few plat to see if something changes but I will also try out the troll's just to see how they do.