Name: Spiteful Monk Farmer
Type: PvE
Category: Solo-farmer
Attributes: Curses: 12 [max for spiteful spirit] Smiting: 12 (8+3+1) [as high as possible for Zealot's Fire] Healing: 9 (6+3) [for Healing Breeze] Prot: 9 (6+3) Divine: 9 (6+3)
Skills Set: Protective Spirit (>15s) Healing Breeze (+7) Guardian (~40%)
Summary:
My old builds are still working but their killing speed has been drastically reduced by the ping-pong running (read: AoE panic patch). New variants of old builds have been published here and there. They generally rely on Shield of Judgement (with A.Echo) or Gladiator's Defense to kill the enemy. I find both options really slower than old builds, so I've decided to use my favourite PvE curse: spiteful spirit. I've been using this build since the AI upgrade, and I like like this safe, smooth and efficient build.
Now that duo farming (monk + spiteful necro) is prevalent in the UW, it's no longer a secret build, and I expect Spiteful Spirit to be altered in the next upgrade.
Spiteful spirit has the following pros:
- 29 aoe damage per attack at 12 curses (~23dps per copy of this hex)
- doesn't trigger AoE panic from mobs
- 18s duration and 10s recharge (you can have 2 of them almost permanently)
- only 15e (as opposed to 25 for balth aura)
- it is triggered by attacks *and* spells *and* non-spell skills
It's not as powerful as the pre-patch skills because:
- it's a hex (removed quickly from bosses due to their special ability)
- if your target dies early, you must cast another hex to deal damage
- you need to pick the right target which makes it a bit more difficult to play than mind-numbing farming builds
- 2s casting time (somewhat dangerous against interruption)
- you need to herd your preys before killing them (as opposed to SoJ, which works well against devourers)
The core of the build is a 55hp monk. Pretty resilient against most of forms of damage (for instance, you can safely go through Avicara packs). You can be killed by only four things:
- severe DoT coupled with a lot of damage
- enchantment removal
- protective spirit locked (or interrupted three times in a row)
- breeze *and* your spam spell (I like to use guardian) both locked
We're talking of a Mo/N, so the energy source cannot be Bonetti. I'm using the classical Balthazar's Spirit + Essence Bond duo. I usually have more energy than I need (even against only one enemy).
The last slot is pretty flexible (you can use whatever favourite spell you want). Symbol of Wrath or Desecrate Enchantment are good candidates but I settled on the good ol' ZF. You can easily and safely deal 120+ dmg with zealot alone. As long as you use your monk spells slowly (read: 1 every 3/4 seconds) it doesn't trigger AoE panic. It's also perfect if you *need* AoE panic to flee or to cast a spiteful spirit safely when guardian is locked, or if you need a quick burst of AoE dmg to finish mobs off. In short, ZF is a good robust and flexible source of offensive/defensive AI control.
Note that you can also recast Mending or Essence Bond, as bait for interrupts (wait until disrupting chop/shot or savage slash is charged, use a slow spell, get it locked, then cast spiteful spirit).
This build is able to solo many places (Augury Griffons, Hydrae, Droknar trolls, and even the UW albeit dangerously) almost as fast as old builds. The only weakness is heavy interruption. Guardian is able to help, but it's far from perfect (40% vs. 75 for bonetti). Keep it up at all times against heavy interrupters, and always spam 1/2 quick skills before using a slow one (especially Spiteful Spirit) to make mobs miss their interruption and to cast your slow spells safely.
You can basically take:
- as many griffons/minotaurs as you want (even if 2 devourers are nearby, but you need a good timing to avoid their disrupting shot)
- 6/7 hydrae (spam your monk spells, synchronize with meteor waves, and cast spiteful spirit between 2 waves of meteors)
- huge groups of trolls (against 10+, you need practice and a good timing to avoid deadly skill locks)
- UW beasties (small groups of aatxes only)
Notes & Concerns:
Dying nightmares
They cast a rend enchantments as soon as they spawn and they die in the process. Unfortunately if they successfully cast their rend, you're dead in one hit. There are three solutions to this problem:
- to kill them very quickly as soon as they spawn (with 2 wand attacks or with a zealot burst). This technique requires some knowledge of spawn points, a good practice, and good reflexes.
- to use a longbow and to pull aatxes and to stay away from nightmare spawn points. It's quite a dangerous strategy since you'll often miss a nightmare spawn, and you don't have much time left to kill it.
- to use spellbreaker to gain an immunity long enough to wand 2/3 nightmares to deaths. Unfortunately, this solution is incompatible with the above build (you lose the elite slot).
Aatxes' Savage Slash
Contrary to the trolls' Disrupting Chop, Savage Slash doesn't lock your skill for 20s. So it's not as deadly as a well-timed chop on Prot.Spirit or Breeze. On the other hand, it's a bit hard to cast a long spell because S.Slash recharges in 10s (just like Spiteful Spirit), and because using bait spells (to trigger the savage slash) doesn't always work. Against 3 aatxes, it's not a big problem, but against 5+ it is hard to cast a spiteful spirit through a swarm of fast recharging savage slashes. Bonetti would be a precious protection but guardian is strong enough to help much. In short, solo-killing 3 aatxes is ok, but you'll need a lot of time to kill 5+ aatxes.
2 man farming
The fastest and the safest option is the popular 2-man squad able to slice through the UW beginning. The 55hp tank (Mo/W) can use spellbreaker for safety, at least until he's fast enough to insta-kill nightmares with a wand/zealot burst. During the fight, he'll concentrate on staying alive. Once he's fast enough to kill nightmares before the rend, he can use a damage dealing elite. SoJ is not the best option because the k/d reduces the efficiency of the necro's Spiteful Spirit.
His partner is a N/Mo with high curses and some protection. Awaken the Blood and Spiteful Spirit are his main source of damage (spamming SF every 10s would require all his energy), and he can use Protective Spirit and Rebirth if things go wrong. In terms of dmg output, a spiteful necro is able to reach 18+ curses for a spiteful spirit with 41dmg per attack, and you can have 2 curses active almost permanently (so we're talking of ~70 armor ignoring AoE damage per second). That's much faster than most popular options: Spiteful Spirit doesn't k/d like SoJ so the enemy can keep killing itself very swiftly.
Thanks for the tips, I'll have to see how this works!
