[build] N/Me: Inspiration to the Living

Okay, so Aesir Odin (not sure if he's on these boards?) posted an "Undead Farmhand" N/Me build over on guildwiki about a week ago, and I've been trying - unsuccessfully - to use it for its posted purpose; namely, a short griffon/minotaur run out the west end of Augury Rock. I still have no idea how he claims to handle 3s and 2 + add, but I finally found a thing that works for me.

Understand this is (maybe the first in a series of?) "Baby Necro's First Farm". I haven't done any farming before, I have little cash, and am used to running missions with mostly-henchmen parties. So I'm by no means super-experienced in this stuff. The only hitch is this is done with the full 200 attribute points; if you're not (legitimately) to Droknor's Forge yet, do that, then come back.

Gear I'm using: a +10 energy, +22 Health staff; AL 60 head and chest scars; AL 60 Fanatic arm and legs; AL 45 (or something) Bloodstained Boots; +1 Blood rune, +1 Curses rune, +1 Soul Reaping rune, Minor Vigor

Gear I'd rather be using: a +12 focus, a max-damage wand, Necrotic chest + legs, arm + feet scars, Superior Vigor.


attributes
Blood Magic: 11 + 1
Curses: 11 + 1
Inspiration Magic: 8
Soul Reaping: 3 + 1 (leftovers)

skills
Spiteful Spirit { elite }
Insidious Parasite
Parasitic Bond
Spirit of Failure
Vampiric Gaze
Blood Renewal
Demonic Flesh
Physical Resistance

for Desert Griffons:

Pre-Fight:
[ within a couple of walking-seconds of aggro range ]
Physical Resistance
> wait a couple of seconds
Demonic Flesh
Blood Renewal

Fight:
1) use Parasitic Bond as your aggro-pull
2) use Spirit of Failure on target of #1
3) use Spiteful Spirit on target of #1
4) use Parasitic Bond on one of his buddies
5) use Insidious Parasite on target of #4
6+) At this point, a second Spiteful Spirit is a good choice, and a (re)new Insidious Parasite. Whenever Spirit of Failure gives you extra energy, use it on Vampiric Gaze.

Griffons usually attack in groups of 2, with their third companion hanging back (even if he's within the aggro range), and he'll run in as soon as one of his friends die. That's typically when I die; Griffons use Final Thrust, which just tears you to shreds. Generally, once I kill one, unless the second is -very close- to death, I back off, let them lose interest, heal, then go back in.

So what skills are used, and why?

Spirit of Failure keeps the energy coming in; there's a 25% chance, on any melee attack, that you'll take no damage from that attack AND get 3 energy (more if your Inspiration Magic is higher, obviously). That's awesome! It's also pretty much the only thing that'll keep you alive if for some reason you're trying to fight 3 at once; a weapon or focus with Decrease Inspiration Magic Recharge would help a lot.

Parasitic Bond is cheap, does a little bit of damage (-1 degen), AND is a delayed heal for 102. I don't think it stacks multiple times on the same enemy, so put this once on each target you're fighting. It'll take 20 seconds before you get the heal, but that's generally when you need it anyway.

Spiteful Spirit is basically non-fearful AOE damage, and stacks nicely with an Insidious Parasite; the latter will do damage and give you a little health. These two are how you kill things, plus any damage from your weapon.

Demonic Flesh and Physical Resistance are what allow you to do this at all. When Flesh drops, you'd best run unless your target is alone and very close to death. At the posted skill levels, it has a runtime of 54 seconds and is on a 60 second cycle, so you've got downtime there; in addition, it requires health sacrifice, so it's bad to do in battle with griffons (Final Thrust, remember).

I'm not -completely- sold on Blood Renewal. It takes care of the Demonic Flesh sacrifice (with its +5 regen + big heal) but honestly, I only use it in pre-fight setup, because it's too risky once you're in (Final Thrust again, sigh); if someone's got a suggestion for that, I'd be interested in trying it out. Something that increases miss chance would be pretty good..

If you die, consider fighting some of the Rockshot Devourers (open up with Insidious Parasite outside of their aggro range, then Parasitic Bond; Vampiric Gaze to eat the Disrupting Shot, then Spiteful Spirit) or minotaurs (fight them the same as the griffons) to work the debt down, rather than immediately bailing to the Rock and restarting. Death happens, it's not the end of the world.. once. You get a -30%, tho, and I'd restart.

Problems? A few. The +1 griffon adds are always a threat; fighting 3 off the bat is dicey, but if you're lucky with Spirit of Failure, it'll be okay. Also, this really isn't a very fast farm; if you want to avoid death penalty, sometimes you have to bail, wait to heal, try again.. Also, it's griffons outside Augury Rock. Not exactly the big-money-time, you know?

Still, for folks in the same boat, I think this can be, at the very least, a training-wheels farm build. You only need two Mesmer skills, so if you're not already /Me, you can just do The Mesmer's Path and buy the skills. The runes I'm using are all minor right now, so that's cheap, and the armor's no big stretch (except scars, due to parchment, but you can skimp on those I think).