Curse

Tom Swift · Jul 07, 2008, 02:42 PM // 14:42

Ok, apparently finishing a four level 2hr area where you will get about 8k at most and some fairly cheep greens is now considered farming since 2 threads in the sin section were closed. So I will post this same information here in case anyone wants it.

I suppose most already know how to do it but because there were some A/E in ToPK a couple of days ago complaining about the difficulty after the nerf, here are some suggestions

This is still very doable with the sliver armor build (the dagger build seems to be rather rough however).

The whole thing takes about 2 hours (around ½ hour longer than it did before the nerf)

Hard mode is faster than Normal mode in my experience

Build I used is the standard sliver armor perma build: OwZTkY/8ZS6jHRnBZIXkHCHMgBA The last skill is optional. I used viper's defense to do a little faster kill on the last scythe in each area.

1: The grasps and "fear me": This is you main problem. Because kills are now a little slower grasps in hm will sometimes run away when taking sliver dmg just as they do from AoE. This means you may have 3-5 wounded grasp around you and wounded grasps have adrenaline to use "fear me." You can solve this by always targeting and attacking the grasp receiving sliver damage. As long as you are directly attacking, they will not run away and when sliver runs out you will only have one wounded grasp. With careful switching of weapon sets I was easily able to survive 8-10 or more grasps at a time.

2: The ranged attackers, especially the scythes, are your friends. Their attacks trigger sliver to take out worms and grasps. So get as large a group of ranged attackers following you as possible and take out the wurms and grasps first. a large group of scythes hitting you will make the wurms cry like little girls.

(There is one exception:. On level 1 there are 2 scythes and 2 grasps on top of the bridge and and another group of scythes and grasps that wander on to the bridge from the left - kill these 2 groups first. This is the ONLY time you want to kill scythes early. Once those 2 groups are dead, 2 groups with 4 grasps each spawn. 1 on the bridge and 1 to the side (you may have to move around a bit to make them spawn). You want to be able to kill them while you still have lots of things shooting at you to trigger sliver.)

3: If you don't know where pop-up grasps (all levels) and wurms (2nd level only - 2 in center area, 1 in southeast hall right alcove, 1 in north hall can be either alcove) are, take it slowly. Always make sure your sf chain is freshly cast before entering possible wurm areas. If one interrupts you by popping up while you are in the middle of the chain you will be dead real fast.

4: Leave a couple of scythes in the middle of the 2nd level while you clear the 3 hallways and their alcoves. Once you have cleared a the last hallway and its alcoves, you are safe there and as long as you have a scythe or 2 still alive in the middle area (they won't wander down the halls) the level timer won't start and you can take a break. Make a cup of coffee, order a pizza, or do some push-ups because your mother is right and you spend way too much time in front of the computer and don't get enough exercise.

5: The first 3 wurms on the 4th level can be tricky because you have killed everything behind you in order to make the bridge appear and you will need some enemies to hit you for sliver to work (the wurms will not hit you enough on their own for them to die). In the room ahead of you there are 4 scythes and a large number grasps. Kill the grasps if you want but treat those scythes as lovingly as your first car because they are the only thing that will help you take down those wurms. Lure them out to kill the wurms by the bridge then kill the one in the room.

6: When you get to the last section of the 4th level kill the wurms first, of course, and then kill the 3 darknesses next because they have a tremendous amount of health and if you leave them till the end it will take forever to kill them. If you are really rententive and insist on killing everything and keeping all the lost souls alive, you can save the 2 dryders that were with the darknesses until last. The timer won't start and the souls will not appear until those two dryders are dead, giving you time to kill everything else.

7: Have 3 sets of weapons.

a: zealous dagger of enchanting will be your main set. Hitting things with them is the fastest way to regen energy.

b:Have a second set for energy emergencies (such as being hit with a "fear me" spike just before having to cast your shadow form chain). This set should have the highest amount of energy you can find such as an off hand with +15/-1 energy and a caster modded sword or axe. Switch to them for emergencies but always switch back to your daggers immediately after casting shadow form. Fear Me will not take you below 0 energy and switching away from your high energy set keeps that energy in reserve for when you need it instead of having it drained by the grasps.

c: The third set should be something like an enchanting earth staff without any energy regen penalty. You can use this for those few times you need to hit something at range or to regain energy a little faster when there is nothing in the immediate area to hit.

8: kick the cat out of the room while you play because he will bump your elbow in the middle of your shadow form chain and you will accidentally hit shadow form before paradox and you will die an ugly death.

As I said, this is not new to most people, but obviously there were a few who did not know some of these things so I thought I would share.

As I said, this is not new to most people, but obviously there were a few who did not know some of these things so I thought I would share. If you are going to do it, though, I think you should do it soon. I expect SF to get changed again within the next week or two.

Damian979 · Jul 07, 2008, 04:14 PM // 16:14

ToPK was modestly profitable with a very low ecto rate and at best an elite tome or two from a chest, or a non inscr storm bow or fellblade. It is still "doable" with dagger or sliver but for the time it now takes, it's just not worth it imo.

Tom Swift · Jul 07, 2008, 05:20 PM // 17:20

I agree - if you are doing it for the profit, it is 100% not worth doing. Never got more than 2 ectos when I did the whole thing, the greens can't be sold for much, the golds that do drop are seldom worth much because they can't take inscriptions. You do get several mesmer/warrior/elemental tomes per run but the only bosses are the three darknesses and they hardly if ever drop an elite tome.

That's why I was very confused when the mods said this belongs in the farming section

There are people who like to do it just for the sake of having done it though, which is why I wanted to share these suggestions and, since this is where the mods said it goes, this is where I posted.