Curse

Melody Cross · Jan 28, 2008, 07:04 PM // 19:04

As to the OPs question: solo farming is plenty profitable and many people still do it. duo farming adds a touch of redundancy, a level of safety...and some company.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marverick

It's not.

During the free UW/FoW weekend, I did 34 smite runs with my E/Me. I got 2 ectos.

Now if it were not free UW/FoW weekend, I would've spent 34k and maybe have made 10-15k.

Never went to UW again.

Thats why, if you wish to farm an area, you wait until there is a weekend that does not double its drops, etc. Go elsewhere, farm a whole other continent if you can. During most of these special weekend events you can usually find me as far away from the bandwagon as possible. Loot drop ratios are spread across groups (theres just too much evidence supporting this for anyone--including Anet--to deny it), but the first people hit are those in the same area as all the other farmers, farming for the same thing.

if they double the amount of ecto that drop, but 20 times the normal amount of people are farming them, do you truly expect that you will get more per run? or don't you think you will get less?

On the other hand, if everyone and their aged grandma is farming ectos and you are one of a small handful of farmers doing CoF runs, you are competing with fewer groups for the drops in that area.

I hope this helps you.

GGs

N1ghtstalker · Jan 28, 2008, 07:08 PM // 19:08

i farm with a friend and at the end we split 50/50 of out ecto drops
if not we sell the ecto we got (if only one or un-even number of ectos) en 50/50 that amount of gold

kel77 · Jan 30, 2008, 01:32 PM // 13:32

W/Rt is by far the easiest way to solo UW imo.

dont feel no pain · Jan 30, 2008, 03:39 PM // 15:39

I still get average 1 ecto per run tbh (w/me)

But i dont overfarm

jon0592 · Jan 30, 2008, 07:23 PM // 19:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by [riVen]

W/Rt may be slower, but sure nets you more ectos per hour (my personal experience, but also that of many other people). You can fairly easily get the W/Rt run time down to 15 minutes, and -personally- I average around 5 ectos per hour. YMMV, but generally speaking, W/Rt seems more effective than E/Me and is also a lot safer (if you fail a run you're just bad :]).

W/Me and Rt/Mo (Hard Mode) are even more efficient. Pro: Like W/Rt, enemies don't die all at the same time so better for drop rate, Con: much less safe than W/Rt.

I use the terra tank a lot and what I do personally is do NOT chain the 3 attack skills. Let Sandstorm hit twice, and on the 3rd hit use dragon stomp and aftershock.

This way smites will stop even if it's just for 1/4 second to cast say reveral of fortune, zealot's fire or shield of judgement. Then they resume attacking causing Sandstorm to hit only 1/2 the damage - because they're not attacking. Therefore, once you D. Stomp and A.shock, they will have died at different times. Some might even live through the SS - but they will die in 1-2 more seconds from the last few waves of sandstorm.

Memphis Rain · Jan 30, 2008, 07:36 PM // 19:36

I'd forget about UW altogether.
Assuming you are going after Ectos, I've found the solo E/A build at first area of the Tomb to be a lot more efficient. There are 6 dryders and 3 dream riders there and with about 3-4 Shadow of Haste runs you can kill all the dryders and 1-2 out of the 3 riders since the riders tend to run away more often. My best run was killing 8 out of the 9 in less than 4 mins, where I was able to aggro the group on the bridge and also had the dryders bunched up nicely. The kill/time ratio can be higher than UW and best of all you don't have to pay the 1k.

Yukyu · Jan 30, 2008, 10:25 PM // 22:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marverick

It's not.

During the free UW/FoW weekend, I did 34 smite runs with my E/Me. I got 2 ectos.

Now if it were not free UW/FoW weekend, I would've spent 34k and maybe have made 10-15k.

Never went to UW again.

I'm doing the SmiteRun with W/Rt and i always get at least 1k with bydrop (white crap, blue crap, etc.); so, even if i don't get an ecto (what happened alot these days) i can at least pay the next run from the collected drops.

So in fact, you would've made 44-49k and spending 34k as entrance-fee.

I still hope, that i'll get one lucky rare drop thats really worth the effort (though, W/Rt is'nt really any effort at all).

sttyx · Jan 31, 2008, 11:53 AM // 11:53

What is the best build for UW to get best amout of ectos pls?

i go there with A/E and get about ecto in 1-2runs.Never 2ectos in one run.Then i go there with E/Mo and get ecto every 3-4runs.And finely i go there with RT/Mo 330hp on HM and get ecto in 2-5runs.So i am realy confusied if its only fortune or there is mechanizm on this.Can you help me with it ?And sorry for my english.

Bukaj · Jan 31, 2008, 12:34 PM // 12:34

Who knows... Dot'n know if is there any mechanism, but my last 11 smite runs give me only 1 ecto. And must say I do this runs with unequal(?) characters. Try W/Me, D/Me, Rt/Me, A/E, E/Me, Me/Rt but nothing. Mass kill at one time do only with E/Me, but don't lure big groups, max 2. Paradox is, that ecto drop to this character...
At better time avarage one ecto drop to any of my character by run, so don't know if is there any mechanism.

Nemo the Capitalist · Jan 31, 2008, 03:19 PM // 15:19

i prefer duo smiting really easy

Amazing Stroopwafel · Jan 31, 2008, 09:38 PM // 21:38

I preffer dualing, faster, able to kill more foes and much more fun.
I'm only wondering, which is better? 55/SS or 600/smite, they can both farm the UW pretty efficiently only the 55/ss seems riskier to me since the necro has to be in casting range and might therefore break aggro.

CE Devilman · Feb 02, 2008, 10:49 PM // 22:49

cerb · Feb 02, 2008, 11:47 PM // 23:47

If you want better drops do some different things. I mean even back in Prophecies when people were still doing Griffon Runs in Prophet's Path (before Kephket), your drops were getting worse if you did the same run too many times.

Last week me and a friend got 6 ectos out of a run, by doing the first quests (Escort of Souls, Ice King, Unwanted Guests, which are very easy). And I'm pretty sure we got none (maybe 1) ecto from smites. Now of course 6 ectos might've been a bit lucky but we usually get at least 3 doing that run, which is quite easy (Mo/Me with Resolve = gg) and quick (avg. 40 minutes)

britnie31 · Feb 15, 2008, 07:04 AM // 07:04

PERSONAL Pref ... ss/ 55

doragon · Feb 18, 2008, 08:40 PM // 20:40

I think that drop rate isn't affected by theway you kill them. In my opion soloing uw is the best way to make money. The drops are random and ypu have a bigger oportinity to get ectos if you kill as much foes as possible. Best= aaxteet+ smites. You get almost everytime atleast one ecto. And if you don't get any you'll get your1k back anyway!