Curse

Dzjudz · May 20, 2010, 10:34 PM // 22:34

With the upcoming Double Faction Weekend, I thought I'd share a method of quickly acquiring Kurzick faction.

The fastest way to gain allegiance faction is vanquishing. With the nerf of 600/smite, DTSC has become slower than before. I have never done DTSC myself, but I didn't like the idea of relying on 7 other people to gain faction (what if one is a noob, d/c's, etc), so I decided to vanquish areas myself using heroes/henchmen.

Why Ferndale? The enemies in Ferndale are pushovers. Ferndale doesn't have much AoE damage (only echovald area without Wardens of Earth), the foes have negligible enchantment, condition and hex removal and their healing is pretty weak too. With the right route and builds, you can vanquish Ferndale with a hero/henchman party without any consumables in around 30 minutes.

ENEMIES

Let's take a look at the main kinds of mobs you will encounter on a Ferndale vanquish:

Dredge: most of the groups in Ferndale are parties of four Dredge, sometimes including Fungal Wallows. If these groups don't include a Dredge Gardener, you can steamroll over them without a hitch. They deal mediocre damage and possess no significant healing (troll unguent, healing signet, shadow refuge). Dredge depend on a Dredge Gardener to stay alive. The Gardener does this through bonding and protting. Solution: enchantment removal and kill them first. After they are dead, the rest of the group follows quickly.

Wardens: these come in groups of around 6, usually but not always including a ritualist. These ritualist are to be taken out first, since they pose two threats: healing allies and casting splinter weapon on rangers and warriors. Luckily, their only real heal is Spirit Light, so they can be taken out fast with some pressure. If they manage to cast splinter weapon, Pain Inverter on the target with splinter weapon does wonders. The rest of the Wardens no self-healing and go down easily. The only (marginal) threat are mesmers with enchantment and hex removal, AoE interruption and Energy Surge. Sometimes, Stone Scale Kirins are part of a Warden group. They can summon a minion or two but offer no challenge.

Mantis: these are the most annoying foes you will encounter in Ferndale. They come in groups of three or four. The elementalists possess Maelstrom and Obsidian Flesh, posing a nuisance to your spellcasters. The monks don't have much healing (healing breeze, signet of rejuvenation, pretty terrible heals), but they can remove hexes and conditions with Empathic Removal. While the groups of Mantis are annoying, they don't do much damage and go down easily if you can kill the monk and interrupt maelstrom/obsidian flesh.

Luxons: personally, I don't vanquish Ferndale with the quests so I do not usually run into them. Sometimes they randomly spawn anyway. With their skill bars though, they would've been better off staying in the Jade Sea. If a monk spawns in their group, it has Word of Healing and should be the first priority. The ritualists have a hard res in the form of Flesh of my Flesh, but I have not encountered one yet (they probably only spawn if you actually have the quest).

With these enemies in mind, builds can or should include:
- plenty of enchantment removal
- only moderate protting/healing, you can focus on damage and utility
- minions are always good

BUILDS

I will give you the builds I use, but I'm not saying they are the optimal builds and other suitable builds will work of course. I'm still tweaking the builds as well.

Myself (ele): AP Caller
- I use 13 Fire Magic (superior rune) so Glyph of Immolation lasts 1 spell extra and the burning 1 second longer.
Hero 1: Curse Command Discord
- AoE weakness and decreased attack speeds against assassins and warriors.
- Enchantment removal that causes a condition.
- Fall Back (coupled with hero 2) speeds up the vanquish vastly.
Hero 2: Minion Bomber Command Discord
- Stand Your Ground is a nice armor boost for a full caster party.
- Fall Back, same as hero 1.
- Minions provide both offense and defense.
Hero 3: Air of Disenchantment Resto
- Air of Disenchantment destroys Dredge Gardeners.

Henchmen in Echovald Forest don't have great skill bars. However, the two monk henchmen coupled with the healing from my mesmer hero easily keep the party alive without a single death through vanquishes of Ferndale. To fill up the party, I use the remaining two slots for Sheena and Erys Vasburg. Sheena deals good damage and inflicts several hexes. Erys helps interrupt monks and Maelstrom/Obsidian Flesh and can knockdown while he's at it. Since hex removal is mostly lacking, backfire and empathy are of use as well.

ROUTE & TACTICS

On to the route I use to vanquish. I start my vanquish in Aspenwood Gate, because the first two bosses you encounter are also the hardest part of the entire vanquish. If you manage to cleanly beat the first two bosses a successful vanquish is practically guaranteed.

Here is a map of my route:

The large dots are bosses (profession corresponding to color). The medium orange dots are Oni spawns (always three Oni in a group).

The orange dots encircled with white are Oni spawns that can be avoided.

The assassin boss encircled with white is the Warden of Saprophytes who does not spawn if you have completed Temple of the Dredge. The accompanying group(s) of wardens will also not spawn, so you can take the shorter white dotted route. I suggest you do not finish that quest, since the boss kill awards 250 faction.

The first boss fight is definitely the hardest. Mungri Magicbox is an elite version of a Dredge Gardener with exactly the same skill set. The hard part is that you have to run from the first group you kill at the res shrine to catch up with him before he patrols away. During your fight with his group other patrols will come from the sides and from behind. It is imperative that you kill Mungri and/or the Gardeners first. With Air of Disenchantment or similar skills you can take him down quickly.

The second boss is a fire elementalist with high damage fireballs and teinai's heat. He seems to be alone, but once you come close to him the groups of two dredge close to him join him. If one of these has a Gardener, I suggest you kill that first. Minions and Pain Inverter help distract/kill Tarlok Evermind. If he manages to cast Teinai's Heat in your party, flag your party out of it.

After these two bosses, the route above is pretty self-explanatory. The other bosses are not difficult to take out. The groups of Mantis are only in the Northwest part of the map, between the yellow boss (warrior Tarnen the Bully) and the pink boss (assassin Urkal the Ambusher / Maximole).

I hope this thread/guide helps you max your Kurzick title. I know I will be putting my nose to the grindstone this weekend!

pvp joda · May 20, 2010, 11:06 PM // 23:06

nice work
something interresting would be how many points do you get per run

Dzjudz · May 20, 2010, 11:15 PM // 23:15

Well it depends mostly on quest influences. Obviously, if you have completed Temple of the Dredge you are going to miss out on points (sadly this is the case on my main with which I do this farm). Without that boss and his group, I get around 18k. If you have not completed the quest and also have not done the 'ferry' quests yet so more luxons spawn, you can get more than 20k faction.

madriel222 · May 20, 2010, 11:43 PM // 23:43

Having finished Savior of the Kurzicks with doing Arborstone and Ferndale vanqs pretty much exclusively, I can say with some confidence that Ferndale with quests and without doing Temple of the Dredge nets you about 27k points (including quest reward). By knowing the pop ups, adding both quests should only tack on 4-5 minutes to the vanq.

undead living · May 20, 2010, 11:48 PM // 23:48

this looks very nice. looks like im going to be doing this

thunder boy · May 20, 2010, 11:51 PM // 23:51

sweet guide gotta give this a try especially with the double weekend coming up. seems like i've been stuck on R10 Kurzick since forever lol thanks

skervy · May 21, 2010, 12:02 AM // 00:02

i was a fan of morostav trail personal 23k+ in 25 minutes with a 2 man 6 discord team and essence. very easy and straight forward run from unwaking waters always kurz bounty no matter how far luxon push in. theres a few tricks along the way to make it easier and maximize faction that are easy to figure out after a run or 2

prey monkie · May 21, 2010, 12:28 AM // 00:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by skervy

i was a fan of morostav trail personal 23k+ in 25 minutes with a 2 man 6 discord team and essence. very easy and straight forward run from unwaking waters always kurz bounty no matter how far luxon push in. theres a few tricks along the way to make it easier and maximize faction that are easy to figure out after a run or 2

Come play again bro. i need updated raven builds. and no topic seem slike a normal vq to me but ty anyway

byteme! · May 21, 2010, 12:58 AM // 00:58

If you people can do these areas in <30 minutes with Discord just imagine what you can do with better builds.

sthpaw · May 21, 2010, 02:08 AM // 02:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by byteme!

If you people can do these areas in <30 minutes with Discord just imagine what you can do with better builds.

what type of better H/H builds you have in mind, i thought discord owns all H/H setups in HM but its boring.
im such a pve noob nowadays but would like to do some vanquishing on this weekend.

headgear56 · May 21, 2010, 02:26 AM // 02:26

This looks very interesting. I'm going to try it this weekend.

pvp joda · May 21, 2010, 08:39 AM // 08:39

i think byteme means a full 8 man party with pve skills
but still ways slower than dtsc where 14 mins can be accomplished with a pug group ( ok the standarts are 20-25 mins )
with a guild member of mine we own dt on a 6 man discord basis with 1 ap caller and 1 roj nuker in 25 mins without any trouble ( could be faster but less saver ) with nearly 20k points/run but if youre sick of this arey i think its a great alternative

wetwillyhip · May 21, 2010, 09:17 AM // 09:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by madriel222

with quests and without doing Temple of the Dredge nets you about 27k points (including quest reward). By knowing the pop ups, adding both quests should only tack on 4-5 minutes to the vanq.

elaborate for us? please please? which quests.

Eragon Zarroc · May 21, 2010, 11:31 AM // 11:31

very nice guide ;-) just in time for double weekend

Dzjudz · May 21, 2010, 11:31 AM // 11:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by wetwillyhip

elaborate for us? please please? which quests.

Scouting Ferndale and Kurzick Supply Lines. I'm experimenting with a new route, but last night I did a 38min run the first time I did these quests during a vanquish, being unfamiliar with the spawns.

Edit: have done this 3 times now, 2 times starting from House Zu Heltzer, using the following route:

First I take the supply quest and take out the Mantis. After that, the route is pretty much the same as before but in reverse. In the southeast corner, you hand in the supply quest and take the scouting quest.

Also, you have to be careful in the southeast, because there is a possibility that both a Luxon and an Oni group will spawn inside a Warden group.

Without the assassin boss group, I get around 22.5k faction within 40 minutes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pvp joda

but still ways slower than dtsc where 14 mins can be accomplished with a pug group ( ok the standarts are 20-25 mins )

Requiring you to form a party with 7 other humans and trusting they won't fail. Sure, if you are in a DTSC guild or something, you are probably experienced and your group will make good times and with reliability. This guide is for people who do not have a monk or do not have the monk DTSC ready or who do not wish to DTSC. This is a reliable and steady way to farm faction that you can do on your own without any party formation wait time, leavers or d/c's (except your own of course

).

Quote:

with a guild member of mine we own dt on a 6 man discord basis with 1 ap caller and 1 roj nuker in 25 mins without any trouble ( could be faster but less saver ) with nearly 20k points/run but if youre sick of this arey i think its a great alternative

Obviously, you can speed up a Ferndale VQ too if you take another human and 3 heroes. Like I said above, echovald forest henchmen bars are not very good.

Jeydra · May 21, 2010, 04:10 PM // 16:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by sthpaw

what type of better H/H builds you have in mind, i thought discord owns all H/H setups in HM but its boring.
im such a pve noob nowadays but would like to do some vanquishing on this weekend.

Discord is actually decidedly average in the ranking of H/H builds. It's certainly good enough to get you through much of the game, but against the hardest areas (viz Slaver's HM) it struggles - and against easier areas like this one it's slower than other builds.

I'd try to beat 30 minutes if I didn't max my Kurzick title a few weeks ago ... I vaguely remember doing ~40 minute runs while I was maxing my title, but I never pushed really hard for maximum speed, and I just used standard builds I threw together without optimization. If I tried, I bet I can beat 30 minutes.

skervy · May 21, 2010, 05:15 PM // 17:15

here ya go a rough map from what i could remember. dont remember the very start though on the map so i went straight across but it should be easy to figure out and kill everything there before moving on. do not rush into the final ele boss pull him back a little or attack from range to not pop the rits. if you do it right you can kill him with pi instantly when he casts churning. the only part that could be considered "difficult" is the bottom right part with the earth/war/sin bosses if you dont do it right. use 2 a/p callers and drop finish him for pi+whatever you like on the 2nd sy is useful if its a war. heres some hero builds rag all you want but almost 1k faction a minute speaks for itself

[size=15]1 – N/Mo Unnamed paw·ned² character[/size]
Template code: OANDYYrFTxM+DbENgGNTfOg6E
[build prof=Necromancer/Monk SoulReaping=8 HealingPrayers=10 DeathMagic=12][Discord][Vigorous Spirit][Dwayna's Kiss][Patient Spirit][Dwayna's Sorrow][Cure Hex][Healing Ribbon][Restore Life][/build]

[size=15]2 – N/Mo Unnamed paw·ned² character[/size]
Template code: OANEYYpv24EzWJ31ZS9YTLQCj
[build prof=Necromancer/Monk SoulReaping=8 DeathMagic=10 ProtectionPrayers=10 HealingPrayers=8][Discord][Shielding Hands][Shield of Absorption][Reversal of Fortune][Protective Spirit][Dismiss Condition][Guardian][Gift of Health][/build]

[size=15]3 – N/Rt Unnamed paw·ned² character[/size]
Template code: OAhkEqFsBeITMb3FNJeZMpZ88iB
[build prof=Necromancer/Ritualist RestorationMagic=10 DeathMagic=12 SoulReaping=8 Curses=2][Discord][Rip Enchantment][Soothing Memories][Vengeful Weapon][Weapon of Warding][Mend Body and Soul][Wielder's Boon][Flesh of My Flesh][/build]

[size=15]4 – N/P Unnamed paw·ned² character[/size]
Template code: OAlkYqFsBeIUMTVgC4uDagP2O2WI
[build prof=Necromancer/Paragon Command=10 DeathMagic=12 SoulReaping=8 Curses=2][Discord][Animate Bone Minions][Putrid Bile][Rip Enchantment][Death Nova]["Never Surrender!"]["Fall Back!"][Masochism][/build]

[size=15]5 – N/P Unnamed paw·ned² character[/size]
Template code: OAlkYqFsBeIUMTVgC4uTSTN2O2WI
[build prof=Necromancer/Paragon Command=10 DeathMagic=12 SoulReaping=8 Curses=2][Discord][Animate Bone Minions][Putrid Bile][Rip Enchantment][Fetid Ground]["Stand Your Ground!"]["Fall Back!"][Masochism][/build]

[size=15]6 – N/Mo Unnamed paw·ned² character[/size]
Template code: OANEYIp1eGFzUF8JYHM0gI0JsFC
[build prof=Necromancer/Monk SoulReaping=8 BloodMagic=10 DeathMagic=11 Curses=6][Discord][Animate Bone Minions][Weaken Armor][Enfeebling Blood][Blood Bond][Shadow of Fear][Blood Ritual][Masochism][/build]

dont know why pawned is not just showing the builds does it not work on guru?

if lux own the towns you can agro and kill the shrine npcs for a little more faction

Dzjudz · May 21, 2010, 08:11 PM // 20:11

Just did Ferndale with a guildie who still had the assassin boss available. We did 34 minutes, 24.5k faction.

BLOODGOAT · May 23, 2010, 03:13 AM // 03:13

With cons we did Ferndale 24 minutes consistently, probably could be faster.

Dzjudz · May 23, 2010, 12:56 PM // 12:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by BLOODGOAT

With cons we did Ferndale 24 minutes consistently, probably could be faster.

Care to share builds/routes?

Without cons, we are getting consistent low 30's, but never below them. I don't see how an essence can knock off more than 6 minutes.

Oh, and to update the total faction you get from this vanquish including both quests and the assassin group: very close to 25k.