Curse

talisk3 · Nov 01, 2008, 02:53 AM // 02:53

I can't beat this on my dervish. Any ideas of what build to use? Wiki didn't help me at all.

ac1inferno · Nov 01, 2008, 03:29 AM // 03:29

[build prof=any/Rt Channeling=12 Communing=12][Pain][Vampirism][Bloodsong][Shadowsong][Dissonance][Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support][Painful Bond]["You Move like a Dwarf!"][/build]

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wind fire and ice · Nov 01, 2008, 04:34 AM // 04:34

Bone Minions,Blood of the Master,Grenths Balance,any thing else.

Or

Apply Poison,Toxity,running stance,whatever

Zen1331 · Nov 01, 2008, 05:10 AM // 05:10

ac1inferno's reply is one of the best sure-fire ways to beat the glacial-griffon. I used that exact skill bar w/ my dervish. Now you're going to be lacking a bit on the energy side, so it's best to use a staff w/ +15 energy like Kersh's staff is a good one.

At the start of the match, walk a bit forward and start laying your spirits. When the glacial griffon appears cast painful bond on him and YMLAD to interrupt his spirit spells. It might take some practice but I was able to do that with my 3 main chars. My rit was able to take him down fast since he has a big energy pool.

BTW you can use that same skill set to fight Mano-o-Norn and Bear club for men/women.

Hamfast · Nov 29, 2008, 04:14 AM // 04:14

DEFEATING THE GLACIAL GRIFFON ("Cold As Ice" Master difficulty Solo Quest)

I have found all sorts of suggestions online for defeating the Glacial Griffon, many of which say "Works every time! Easy!" But they fail to understand that not all characters are built equal. The Warrior and Paragon (in my opinion), are the most likely Professions to get some good use out of "I Am Unstoppable!" (the skill you get as a reward for winning.) And yet they have lower energy and lower energy regeneration than most other Professions, making the "Works every time!" and "Easy!" methods impractical for them to use effectively. So I have "perfected" a skill bar and a set of tactics that seem to work well with those energy-deficient Professions. I have used these tactics with great success for Rangers, Paragons, Warriors, and Dervishes. The faster the Energy regeneration, the easier to beat. After the first couple successes, I was able to do this very quickly on my other characters.

I hope you can succeed in defeating the Glacial Griffon using these Step-By-Step Instructions in clear English with no mystic abbreviations. (Why don't people write clearly when they're trying to help out? You're not helping at all if you assume everyone knows your secret shorthand. SPELL IT OUT, guys!) Anyway, (rant over) here's the method...

Read and understand this entire article before you face the Griffon. Don't just look at the skills I suggest and get angry when they don't seem to work for you.

To beat the Glacial Griffon (Reward: 500 Norn Points, "I am Unstoppable", Perfect Salvage Kit) you only need a couple of fairly easy-to-get skills, and understand the basic strategy and tactics involved in using your special skill bar effectively. Just knowing the basic technique is sufficient for even a Warrior primary, with low energy and slow energy regeneration, to win the battle with little effort in a short time.

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PROFESSIONS

- Primary Profession: ANY

- Secondary Profession: NECROMANCER (if you are not Necro Primary). Profession Changer NPCs are found in the Great Temple of Balthazar (when you click the boat on your [M]ap), Heroes' Audience (Prophecies), Senji's Corner (Factions), the Command Post (Nightfall).

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SKILLS

The four main Necromancer skills you will need are:

- ANIMATE BONE MINIONS (Death Magic)

- BLOOD OF THE MASTER (Death Magic)

- SIGNET OF AGONY (Blood Magic)

- GRENTH'S BALANCE (No Attribute - Elite skill obtained with a Signet of Capture)

All of these skills except SIGNET OF AGONY are available in all 3 campaigns (Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall.) If you only own Nightfall, then you cannot get Signet of Agony, but there are some workarounds you can try. It is not an absolutely essential skill.

REMEMBER: You will need to change your Secondary Profession to Necromancer before you can use Signet of Capture to get Grenth's Balance from a Boss.

USE WIKI SEARCH! - To find out where you can get these skills, press your F-10 key from within the game to bring up the WIKI search engine. Type NECROMANCER SKILLS into the search field, then click the "Search WIKI" button. (Note: Depending on your computer setup, you might need to have your web browser open ahead of time.)

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ABILITY SCORES

Crank your DEATH MAGIC up to its maximum (12 at least). Don't worry right now if you need to lower any of your other Abilities to do this, no matter how essential you think they are.

The rest of your Abilities can be whatever works out for you. After you finish reading this article, you should have some idea of what other Ability Scores might help. (Mostly whatever gives you some sort of DEGENERATION attack - Mesmer or Necromancer draining, Bleeding, Poison, Burning - or other high-damage output). It will vary based on what your other Profession is, or what skills are available to you.

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STRATEGY

The main strategy is to keep the Griffon rooted to his starting spot using undead Minions (instead of letting him run around, summoning Spirits), and then take his Health down as quickly as possible before he breaks free of the Minions.

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TACTICS

The FIRST thing you want to do is stop the Griffon from running around loose putting up Spirits. To do this, we use ANIMATE BONE MINIONS and make sure we're standing in the right spot when he arrives.

Cast ANIMATE BONE MINIONS immediately when you appear in the Mission. (There are 6 corpses lying nearby that you can exploit throughout the battle.) Take note of the first corpse that you used, and run to its charred remains. THIS is where I've had the most luck in "trapping" the Griffon. You want to be standing there when the Griffon arrives.

Re-cast Animate Bone Minions again as soon as you can. You will need at least 3 GROUPS MINIMUM as quickly as possible. You can equip a weapon, item, or Runes that add to your maximum Energy if needed.

While waiting for Animate Bone Minions to recharge, (or for your energy to recover) feel free to cast SIGNET OF AGONY if you have it. It takes no energy. It will drain your Health and start you BLEEDING, but don't worry about that right now. We WANT that to happen! (I'll explain why in a moment).

ALL THIS TIME while you are creating Minions and using Signet of Agony, you need to STAND STILL in the spot of your first exploited corpse. DO NOT ATTACK THE GRIFFON! Try to cast ANIMATE BONE MINIONS at least 3 times before you start doing anything else (other than using Signet of Agony).

By now, you should be able to see if the Griffon is going to stay put, or if he's on the move running around making Spirits. If he's loose, you may as well exit back to Sifhalla and start over. If he's "trapped", you can continue.

Using GRENTH'S BALANCE is the most important tactic for taking down the Griffon's Health. THE LOWER YOUR HEALTH, THE BETTER GRENTH'S BALANCE WORKS!

Grenth's Balance sort of "Equalizes" your Health and the Griffon's Health. If his Health is greater than yours (and it almost ALWAYS is!), then the spell will LOWER the Griffon's Health and RAISE your Health. The greater the difference in your Health, the more the Griffon loses, and the more you gain. So you want to use Grenth's Balance whenever your own Health is as low as you dare to let it go.

Knowing this, I like to use SIGNET OF AGONY to reduce my own Health. As a Signet-type skill, it costs NO energy. It immediately lowers your Health by 10%, and then starts you bleeding for 25 seconds. Very handy for self-draining. You can also hold a VAMPIRIC weapon to drain your Health if you don't have Signet of Agony, or if you want to increase your drain rate.

After you have at least 3 groups of Minions blocking, it is time to act. You can target and ATTACK the Griffon directly now, and even move from your starting spot if necessary.

When your Health gets low, BOOM! Hit GRENTH'S BALANCE and watch your Health go up and the Griffon's go down!

That is your primary weapon. Drain yourself. Use Grenth's Balance. Drain yourself. Use Grenth's Balance. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

BLOOD OF THE MASTER is a great support skill for this tactic. It heals your Minions (allowing them to stay alive and block longer) while simultaneously draining 5% of your Health. And it only costs 5 energy. Use it as often as energy allows.

If you are lucky, and if your timing is extroardinary, you might be able to beat the Griffon with just those skills. But I find it usually takes a little extra nudge from ADDITIONAL support skills to take the Griffon over the brink.

These additional skills can be almost anything that causes Health drain, or other fast damage. I would probably avoid Elementalist skills such as Fire Storm or Meteor Storm or anything else that says it does damage to all enemies in and area over a certain length of time. Those sort of spells make monsters RUN AWAY from the area of effect. You do NOT want to force the Griffon to escape the Minions.

For the low-Energy Professions like Warrior and Paragon, I suggest using ADRENALINE-based skills. Especially ones that add BLEEDING or POISON or BURNING. The Deldrimor skill "Ear Bite" works nice. But it all depends on your remaining 4 skill slots, and what skills your character wants to bring. Just try your best to balance energy use with damage output. VANGUARD SNIPER SUPPORT can be worth the 1-in-10 chance of a good damage spike. And I have no data to back it up, but I would THINK that a Fiery weapon would be good against something called a "Glacial" Griffon. You are safe to run up to the Griffon and use Melee weapons against him while he is being held back by your Minions.

And remember, don't move, and don't attack the Griffon yourself until you have at least 3 sets of Minions blocking him.

Good luck!

Crystal Lake · Dec 04, 2008, 02:34 PM // 14:34

Yes, go with the necro skills regardless of what your primary profession is. The minions block in the griffon - if he escapes just start over. It might take a few times but Hamfest has given you some very good instructions - follow those and it's pretty easy. I have used this skill with my monk & other toons...it can be very useful in some places.

knobby · Jul 30, 2009, 10:02 AM // 10:02

Hi I know this is a bit old but I just did it with my warrior, I might be able to help peeps.
Big thanks to Hamfast you helped me alot with your walkthrough, I have tried many times over before seeing this and failed.

I basically did it with his/her build and method and added a few skills to help with energy and damage.
First I used a 20 energy staff(same as ghostly)

W/N Build
no energy runes or insignias.
12 Blood
12 Death
used these skills:

- ANIMATE BONE MINIONS (Death Magic)
- BLOOD OF THE MASTER (Death Magic)
- SIGNET OF AGONY (Blood Magic)
- GRENTH'S BALANCE (No Attribute - Elite skill obtained with a Signet of Capture)
- ANGORODON'S GAZE (Blood Magic)
- YOU MOVE LIKE A DWARF (Norn Title track)
- EBON VANGUARD ASSASIN SUPPORT (The Ebon Vanguard Title track)

Used same walkthrough as Hamfast, but I spammed Angorodon's Gaze as much as possible, this gave me heaps of energy all the time.
Then when the Griffons health was low I used Ebon Vanguard Assasin Support, then You Move like a dwarf to finish him off.
He dies within 5 mins this way as long as you trap him at the start.
turned out quite easy and effective.
Anyhow I hope this helps other people, and thanks again Hamfast

Coleture · Aug 25, 2009, 08:16 PM // 20:16

Hamfast, Big up, much respect. This is how a walkthru should be done. Your explanation of how, why, where, and when to use each skill is priceless. TY VM.

Snograt · Aug 25, 2009, 10:03 PM // 22:03

Ah, but it's so last year ^_^

The buff to Aura of the Lich makes that the most viable skill vs. the Grif now. Exploits all the corpses at once +1, just bung Barbs and whatnot on him - 20 seconds or so.

Laraja · Oct 19, 2009, 06:59 PM // 18:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snograt

Ah, but it's so last year ^_^

The buff to Aura of the Lich makes that the most viable skill vs. the Grif now. Exploits all the corpses at once +1, just bung Barbs and whatnot on him - 20 seconds or so.

This finally worked for me. My toon is a 'sin and I got a necro secondary on her for this.

I took:

Aura of the Lich.... had to buy a tome for this... meh... 8k later....
Animate Bone Minions
Barbs
Blood of the Master
Parasitic Bond
Ebon Vanguard Sniper Support

12 curses, 12 death magic

Yakslapper (not great but all I had) to bring my energy up to 47. I did have energy issues, but not too bad.

Ran in to where the griffon spawns and cast Aura of the Lich which animated 5 minions. Animate bone minions got 2 more from a nearby wolf body. Griffon is red at this point and my minions attack. Cast barbs. Got two more minions off another wolf body. The griffon is surrounded and can't move. From here on in I spammed blood of the master and applied barbs and parasitic bond when needed and the trapped griffon died in about 30 seconds.