Curse

untitled2005 · Jun 02, 2011, 04:02 PM // 16:02

I have been farming Luxon faction through vanquishing Silent Surf for my Savior title. If you are not in a MQSC guild, silent surf is a good alternative. This area has about 250 foes, and will give you about 18.5k luxon points (~32k during vanquishing bonus weekend last week). With my herobuild, I can finish it around 20~22 min consistently without any con, which will give you 50k plus luxon points per hour. And the vista in silent surf is beautiful and I like the music a lot, so it's not as boring as MQSC :-)

One good thing about silent surf is that many foes fight each other so you don't have to kill everyone to vanquish the area. I usually vanquish 180~195 out of the 250 or so foes in the area, so as many as 70 foes die by fighting each other. Since the 50 point per foe of luxon points that you gain at then end of vanquishing is based on the total foes died, not total foes you killed, so you are getting a huge discount vanquishing Silent Surf. The area also has 9 easy bosses, so that's 2250 factions by themselves.

Comparing MQSC split FFF with Silent Surf heroway:
Silent Surf: Total foes: 250, foes you kill: 190, bosses: 9 = 250X50+190X20+9X250=18550 points, so that's 883 points/min for 21 min runs.
MQSC: Total foes: 140, foes you kill: 140, bosses: 5 = 140X50+140X20+5X250=11050 points, so that's 1105 points/min for 10 min runs.

So all in all not that far off a source for farming luxon points if you don't want to wait to form groups. Usually you'll see 5~6 chests which drops jellyfish wand, plagueborn weapons, outcast weapons and lots of jade sword/wand/staff/bow. The foes include afflicted, jellyfish, dragons, outcasts so there is chance to drop all kinds of desirable loots. I got r9 15% dual vamp longsword and r10 15% energy regen Jade sword during the double-factions and double-vanq weekends last month.

Here is the build. It's a standard mesway with tweaks to suit this area. To get constant speed boost without con, I ditched minions, minimized spirits and put 3 copies of fall back. Its a large map so you will need the speed boost. Since I use endurance dagger myself, so 2 copies of splinter weapon are a must. You'll also need IAU since turtles KD and for armor boost. I have max ETON titles and working on drunk title so Drunken Master is perfect. Buffed Shatter Hex is nice for constant AOE damge. Mend condition is for blinding since afflicted rangers always throw dirt on you. Hard rez is OK in this area since there are 9 bosses to recharge it every 2 min, and you don't die often. You basically just death charge in any group on recharge and kill everything. Pulling is not required except the 2 groups together with mes boss when you leave unwaking waters (luxon).

For heroes, they all have 20/20 wand and offhand, superior runes on headpieces and radiant insignias.

New Build:

Old build is here:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...emplate1.jpg/]

Here is the route for the run. I was testing endurance axe last night, but like daggers better.

jensyea · Jun 02, 2011, 04:21 PM // 16:21

Looks very good. Shame I don't have merc heroes.
How do you prevent them from fleeing the chaos storm AoE?

Spiritz · Jun 02, 2011, 04:24 PM // 16:24

MQ doesnt need to be sc - my alliance has times from 16 mins to 20 mins avg and we dont use any set team builds - we just make sure we have at least 1 healer and rest is mish mash of everything.We even managed 18 mins when i got stitched up by the 2 healers and they sort of didnt heal me so parts of it were 7 man lol ( we had a gd lol about it after tho ).
Only thing i can see which is a bit weird - why 2 splinter weapons and only 1 melee as heros tend to cast splinter weapon on anything but the melee ( times ive had splinter on build ive had it cast on me maybe 3x in whole zone and the rest get it instead ).

Olle · Jun 02, 2011, 04:53 PM // 16:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spiritz

Only thing i can see which is a bit weird - why 2 splinter weapons and only 1 melee as heros tend to cast splinter weapon on anything but the melee ( times ive had splinter on build ive had it cast on me maybe 3x in whole zone and the rest get it instead ).

He said before that he used W/e with daggerattack, which pretty much has the best attack speed(combine with Drunken master*drool*, therefor he needs 2 splinter.
Your heroes probably cast it on the other heroes in your team because they got an martial wep equipped(spear,sword,etc)

All in all, good build
though id run 2 Fall Back and 2 SYG instead, just my input.
(also, Esurge is armor ignoring, therefor WA maybe isnt the best, but sure, it helps u as an war !)

untitled2005 · Jun 02, 2011, 05:10 PM // 17:10

jensyea: Chaos storm is for the jelly fish who spams spirits. It helps kill pain and disenchant which can be deadly if unchecked. It's a 5e skill with long recharge so the mes heroes can afford it energy wise. You can also replace them with shatter hex for conditional AOE dmg.

Spiritz: MQSC is different from MQ vanq. Many build can vanq MQ sub-15min, including this one. But MQ has much less foes and bosses than silent surf. And foes in MQ don't fight each other automatically so you basically have to kill every foe yourself. In silent surf, you only need to kill 70% foes to vanquish the area.

kajusbonus: You are right that 2 splinters are necessary for daggers melee :-) With 5 hits and 53 dmg at 16 channeling, it is deadly. For fall back, I have 3 copies with 7sec, 7sec and 6sec, so that's 20 sec for 20 sec recharge. And the heroes chain them very well. Another SYG would be nice when the SY is down.

Olle · Jun 02, 2011, 05:31 PM // 17:31

An question though, how does heroes use Feast of Souls?
Good skill but never thought they would use it any good ..

untitled2005 · Jun 02, 2011, 06:33 PM // 18:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by kajusbonus

An question though, how does heroes use Feast of Souls?
Good skill but never thought they would use it any good ..

It works pretty well for emergency situations when fighting groups composed of kirins and saltspray dragons. With AoE hexes and spells, they can quickly bring down the HP of whole team. The SoS hero uses the skill pretty well. He doesn't spam it on recharge and only use it when there are spirits around. And with 3 spirits from SoS, it heals a lot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jensyea

Looks very good. Shame I don't have merc heroes.

I also tried Invoke Lightening Eles before I got the merc. It didn't work out very well due to 1) a lot of enchant strip: Chilblains from outcast, Expunge enchant from carp, disenchant spirit from jelly fish, Order of Apostasy from afflicted nec and drain enchant from kirins. 2) slow casting of chain lightening even with 40/40 wand/focus. 3) heroes don't cast invoke lightening on recharge.

ROJway may work if you can wait and let the foes ball up before charging in. Another choice is to replace 3 ES mes with 1 AoD and 2 AoB Derv. Those enchant strips actually help the derv tear down. I tried 3 Derv/2 mes/2 rit before and got ~23 min, which is still decent. But dervs are skill heavy, and it's difficult to squeeze in rez skills.

Morte66 · Jun 02, 2011, 07:09 PM // 19:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by untitled2005

And the vista in silent surf is beautiful and I like the music a lot, so it's not as boring as MQSC :-)

In the past few months I've ground up from r2 to r9 on Mt Q, so your promise of beautiful landscapes and pleasant music intrigues me.

A couple of questions:
1. What do you micro?
2. Is this ball and nuke, all aggro on the warrior then bring healing/damage? If so I notice that you don't really have any prot, how much does he die to the Silent Surf mobs?
3. Have you tried Mark of Pain, given the attack speed on those daggers?
4. Do you see Esurge as plain damage, or is it meant as energy shutdown too?
5. I, too, am interested in how heroes use Feast of Souls.

Spiritz · Jun 02, 2011, 07:19 PM // 19:19

none of my heros have/use a spear/sword etc they only use staves/wands which means im the only melee in the team.The splinter weapon problem has actually been discussed in other threads before

untitled2005 · Jun 02, 2011, 07:36 PM // 19:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morte66

In the past few months I've ground up from r2 to r9 on Mt Q, so your promise of beautiful landscapes and pleasant music intrigues me.

A couple of questions:
1. What do you micro?
2. Is this ball and nuke, all aggro on the warrior then bring healing/damage? If so I notice that you don't really have any prot, how much does he die to the Silent Surf mobs?
3. Have you tried Mark of Pain, given the attack speed on those daggers?
4. Do you see Esurge as plain damage, or is it meant as energy shutdown too?
5. I, too, am interested in how heroes use Feast of Souls.

I went from r9 to r11 during the double faction weekend and double vanq weekend in the last month by vanquishing silent surf (almost 9mil points now). So it's a decent area. MQSC (not regular vanquishing) is faster but it takes time to form groups so in the end it evens out.

1. I don't micro anything

All heroes are on auto-pilot. I don't call targets since most dmg are AoE dmg. I really hate ctrl-click, which makes my index fingers sore.

That's why I don't like AP caller and discord builds in general. I also don't flag heroes as well. They do whatever they like.

2. I don't wait for foes to ball up. When I see a group, I just death charge into the center of the group and start attacking. With IAU up and the +20 vs. ele dmg insignia, I can sustain a lot of dmg. I usually die once every 2 or 3 vanq runs. Usually at the Southeast corner when 3 jellyfish patrol groups converge with the Rit boss. I usually aggro all of them and stay alive if the heroes don't aggro the kirin and saltspray dragon group nearby. That's the only area that you could die if you don't watch the bubble. Team wipe is very rare. Another place that needs caution is the mes boss outside the outpost. It's 2 groups actually with lots of kirins and saltspray dragons. Only here you need to pull them apart with a bow.

3. I tried Mark of Pain, but didn't use it coz: 1) foes die very quickly with 4 ES, so you can get MoP off maybe a couple of times at most. MoP has 20s recharge, which is pretty long for a single target hex. 2) MoP needs adjacent range, but foes in silent surf don't ball up very well. 3) Splinter weapon basically does the same job for 5sec recharge. Would love to use it if MoP is AoE hex.

4. I use it for armor-ignoring dmg. With fast casting and 40/40 gear, it has a decent recharge. I guess E-denial doesn't hurt either.

5. SoS rit uses it petty well esp under pressure. Since I never micro-manage anything, I didn't pay that much attention. I'll keep SoS's skill pane open next time when I vanq.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spiritz

none of my heros have/use a spear/sword etc they only use staves/wands which means im the only melee in the team.The splinter weapon problem has actually been discussed in other threads before

In my experience, if splinter weapon is the only weapon spell in your team build, heroes use it only on me, the one with martial weapon. I never saw heroes cast splinter on any other char.

Jeydra · Jun 04, 2011, 03:20 PM // 15:20

This looks like a good way to test the hypothesis that spirits and minions really do slow you down.

I'll test your times vs. mine. Some questions though: do you pick up all your drops, and do you open all locked chests?

_Deals_ · Jun 04, 2011, 03:31 PM // 15:31

I 6hero this for people with discord + spirits in 25 minutes, and i pick up all my drops + all locked chests..and i have 20million luxon on my account already...

untitled2005 · Jun 04, 2011, 04:26 PM // 16:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeydra

This looks like a good way to test the hypothesis that spirits and minions really do slow you down.

I'll test your times vs. mine. Some questions though: do you pick up all your drops, and do you open all locked chests?

I guess non-bomber minions should be OK, but I don't know if minions can kill faster than ES bots. I open all chests but only pick up purple/gold drops and stackables (black pearl, bone charm, azure crest, soulstone, etc).

Bright Star Shine · Jun 04, 2011, 08:10 PM // 20:10

Not gonna read through the thread, so don't know if it's been suggested, but I did this with a guildy to test if it can be farmed: take 1 friend along if you can and have him run around the map pulling every mob into each other, the entire north side of the map can be reduced to 2 outcasts if you do it right. Also half the plagueborn can be wiped etc...

Jeydra · Jun 05, 2011, 03:58 PM // 15:58

I haven't been able to clear all monsters using that route yet (only VQ'ed Silent Surf twice, not familiar with which mobs to kill and which to leave for later) but it seems I get times of about 22-23 minutes while picking up every drop, which means:

1. Spirits and minions slow you down
2. Invoke Eles < ESurge Mesmers
3. Primary Warriors clear this faster than primary Eles

One of the above. I'll keep vanquishing the area when I find the motivation to, see what happens. I suppose though if I want to be really fast, I can, just by running to the next mob and leave spirits / minions to wipe the remaining stragglers. Won't be picking up any drops then, though.

Mike Jack · Jun 05, 2011, 05:28 PM // 17:28

Why can't it be all of the above?

untitled2005 · Jun 05, 2011, 06:45 PM // 18:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeydra

I haven't been able to clear all monsters using that route yet (only VQ'ed Silent Surf twice, not familiar with which mobs to kill and which to leave for later) but it seems I get times of about 22-23 minutes while picking up every drop, which means:

1. Spirits and minions slow you down
2. Invoke Eles < ESurge Mesmers
3. Primary Warriors clear this faster than primary Eles

One of the above. I'll keep vanquishing the area when I find the motivation to, see what happens. I suppose though if I want to be really fast, I can, just by running to the next mob and leave spirits / minions to wipe the remaining stragglers. Won't be picking up any drops then, though.

I think if you know the pattern of patrol, you can improve your time. Having vanq this area on double-faction/vanq weekends during the last few months, I know most patrol routes pretty well. It definitely helps. Silent surf is a medium pressure vanq area so many teambuilds should do it within decent time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bright Star Shine

Not gonna read through the thread, so don't know if it's been suggested, but I did this with a guildy to test if it can be farmed: take 1 friend along if you can and have him run around the map pulling every mob into each other, the entire north side of the map can be reduced to 2 outcasts if you do it right. Also half the plagueborn can be wiped etc...

Yes. I noticed that. If you have a friend with you and let him run clockwise to aggro all groups and you start vanq counter-clockwise, you can save a lot of time finish the vanq. I think outcasts, jellyfishs and afflicted fight each other whenever they are in each others' aggro bubble.

Morte66 · Jun 05, 2011, 08:48 PM // 20:48

Well, I thought I'd make you all feel good by saying that it took me half an hour with a comedy Spirit Spammer + SF/Discord/FD-Fragility team, whilst:
- picking up loot, identifying it, selling it to the merchants at the shrines
- taking the wrong route about five times
- peering at the map wondering where the hell I was
- forgetting to bring a res
- going back looking for the two groups I missed

Gotta say, I'm not sold on the music. Drops were nice though. I think this is definitely worth pursuing instead of MQ heroway, even at 25-30 mins, and I'm sure I can get it down a lot.

mage767 · Jun 06, 2011, 07:48 AM // 07:48

I don't know what profession your primary is, but IF it is SIN, then:

1. Flag heroes at start of map (any build will do)
2. Run SF in a circle around the map, aggroing enemies, and making different groups fight each other
3. Then vq map with heroes

Best done with a friend/ally (who can do the SF running part), while you VQ w/heroes. Note that the friend can also chest-run while he is at it.

untitled2005 · Jun 06, 2011, 02:35 PM // 14:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by mage767

I don't know what profession your primary is, but IF it is SIN, then:

1. Flag heroes at start of map (any build will do)
2. Run SF in a circle around the map, aggroing enemies, and making different groups fight each other
3. Then vq map with heroes

Best done with a friend/ally (who can do the SF running part), while you VQ w/heroes. Note that the friend can also chest-run while he is at it.

Make sure both you and your friend to drop the dragon egg quest, otherwise there would be about 30 foes missing from silent surf.