Curse

TerminatorUK · Sep 21, 2006, 01:13 PM // 13:13

Hi guys,

My first post here and I thought I would share with you this build after some frustration trying lots of different ways and failing miserably to get solo an Icy Dragon Sword.

I finally came up with one this last night that seems works pretty well overall and is fairly easy to use.

Equipment

Armour - I used Dragon Armour for 90AL ele resistance, Sentinels would be even better from the 100AL ele resistance

Weapon/Shield - Totem Axe is esential because of the +5 enegy which is cruitical to make this build work (explained later). Any shield will do that is max AL and provides health either unconditionally or while hexed (as this build doesn't use stances for combat)

Attributes/Runes

Strength 12 + 2 + 1
Axe Mastery 6 + 3
Tactics 8 + 1
Healing Prayers 8
Smiting Prayers 3

(I think these were what I used last night)

Skills

Healing Signet
Defy Pain (Elite)
Dolyak Signet
Sprint
"Watch Yourself!"
Balthazar's Sprit
Mending
Watchful Sprit

(yes 3 maintained enchantments....explained later)

Getting to the Cave

I'm not going to go through how to get there and the route you should take because this is shown on loads of guides and videos, the only tip I will give is that I took the route north and then across as I entered Mineral Springs as this route bypasses the Mountain Giants that knock you down and can cause some additional problems. With 15 in Strength, you 14 seconds of +25% movement speed when using Sprint which should be suffient to pass any group and have it ready to use again in 6 seconds.

Preparing for Combat

Ok, here's the answer to the stange build and why you need a Totem Axe (or something else that provides energy like Gladiator's Armour although this reduces your elemental AL by 10).

Before you enter the cave, you need to patentially cast the following in the order:

1. Watchful Sprit (Cost 15) - important to cast this first as the second enchanment you cast will stop your energy regren and you want to have 15 energy left, not 10 (explained below)

2. Mending (Cost 10) - once cast, this will give you a constant +5 health regren when combined with Watchful Sprit. When used will the other skills explained later, this should be enough to 'break even' with the ammount of damage you are receiving from the horde of Ice Imps.

In addition, this combination is critical for at least some healing if there is an Ice Golem in the group as they cast Rust which will make your Healing Signet take 6 seconds to cast (which will get you killed very quickly).

3. Balthazar's Sprit (Cost 10) - cast this just before you charge off into combat, this will initially reduce your energy to 5 but critically give you a -1 energy degen so you must be quick to reach your oponent but this reduces to zero (which will strip your enchantments)

The advantage with using this skill is you receive 1 energy everytime you get damaged and as you are going to be absoutely bombared with Ice attacks, this will give you far more energy than you'll ever need and far outweigh the -1 energy degen. The other helpful factor is with just 3 ranks in Smiting Prayers, this skill will give you 3 adren points (not to be confused with adren strikes, see http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Adrenaline for details) each time you get hit which doesn't sound like much but builds up quickly due to the number of times you get hit. This aids you keeping Defy Pain and "Watch yourself!" up constantly.

Charge!

Once these three are cast, charge into combat quickly and get yourself in melee range (Maelstrom cast by the Imps will slow you slightly but don't be tempted to you Dolyak Signet quite yet).

When you have got into range and are striking one of the Imps (if Ice Golems or Mountain Trolls are present, attack these first), it's time to put up all your defenses and sit tight; you won't be moving until the imp is dead!

Start with Dolyak Signet; assuming we have 90AL armour + 16 AL shield, this will give us another 40AL for 20 seconds (which is why 15 in Strength is critical as you can keep Dolyak Signet on constantly) bringing the running total to 146.

Next, "Watch Yourself!" should be lit very quickly bringing your AL to 166 for 8 seconds (the low duration is ok as you will be gettings lots of adren and can re-apply it before it expires).

As soon as it is available, Defy Pain should be activated. This was a key skill to my success as it not only bring your total AL to 186, it will also give you +300HP that you can constantly maintain easily for the rest of the battle giving you a more respectible 700+ HP.

With this much armour, the Imps' regular attacks should do more than 1-2 damage at most and their Ice Spear attack (58 damage) is reduced to a mear 6-8 damage. With large quantities of small damage coming in, the +5 regen you have on yourself is vital to allow you to 'break even' without you having to constantly use your Healing Signet.

The Healing Signet should be used only when required (e.g. serveral spells hitting you at the same time) as it will reduce your AL by 40 (effectively doubling the damage against you), wastes time that could have been used to gain adren for your survival skills and of course whacking the imp in front of you!

Make sure you haven't got Rust on you before using Healing Signet, otherwise it will take 6 seconds to go though! (complete suicide)

Although you have just 9 in Axe Mastery and have absoutely no attack skills or stances, the Imps aren't all that tough and don't heal themselves so it is just a case a waiting for them to die whilst you keep yourself alive.

Conclusion

On my 2nd attempt with this build, I successfully got an Icy Dragon Sword after killing the 3rd Imp I encountered. The most important thing is not to die more than once en-route (even once will make your battle preps very hard) as if you are below 20 energy, you cannot keep your enchantments up before you run out of energy.

The whole reason this build has no spells that you use during combat is because you will be stationary and Maelstrom interrupts any spells you use every second (I even had a 1/4 second "Shielding hands" spell blocked before!). However, inside the cave, none of the creatures will disenchant you, allowing you to keep this up for the whole battle. All the other skills are either skills, shouts or signets which are not interrupted

With some practise, you'll find you are almost able to 'relax' when you are inside the cave as you'll be automatically stopping yourself for losing too much health overall....just make sure Dolyak Signet, "Watch Yourself!" and Defy Pain are up constantly; there should be not reason for these skills to be off are any point when you are in combat.

Anyway, good luck and I hope this helps if you were struggling with the W/Me build like I was!

Hand of Ruin · Sep 21, 2006, 01:25 PM // 13:25

This build is pretty terrible... Live Viscarioisty gives much better healing than wachful spirit and healing signet is utterly useless...

Guildwiki build > this one.

TerminatorUK · Sep 21, 2006, 01:35 PM // 13:35

Hmm didn't think of that.

Wouldn't say Healing sig is useless, it's a good backup for emergencies.

Build worked fine for me (it got the thing I wanted!) but each to their own I guess.

quynhbao03 · Sep 21, 2006, 04:15 PM // 16:15

The build is good. However, casting Live Vicar and Mending would offset a lof of damage. Since you gain about 10HP for every attack. If you use Cyclone or 100 Blade (sword), the more imps the faster you regain your HP. I usually use Live Vicar + Virgo Spirit. This way, the energy will regen enough for u to use 100 Blade /Cyclone and cast Virgo. Enchanting pommel or grip/halt will help a lot.

Ima Hob0 · Sep 21, 2006, 07:03 PM // 19:03

i like this build, but i have yet to try it. i tried the W/Me build and it did NOTHING for me. so hopefully using this one will help, now to get some armor and runes.............but first money..........