Curse

Damonias · Feb 16, 2006, 10:03 PM // 22:03

Going to go through and explain three+ builds for Oro/FA that are all extremely effective, with the hopes that more people will use these types of builds and maybe these three class types will become a little more popular in the farming world.

Class:
Ranger / Monk - (Replaces Stance Warrior.)

Armor:
Druids Armor (For 32 Energy)

Weapon:
Low Req. Long Bow.

Skills:
Apply Poison, Distracting Shot, Escape (Elite), Whirling Defense, Lightning Reflexes, Throw Dirt, Healing Breeze, Rebirth

Attributes:
Healing Prayers: 9, Expertise: 16, Wilderness: X, Marksmanship: X.

For Marksmanship: Set this to whatever your Longbow requirment is. (Mine is 4), and the rest of your points put into Wilderness.

Comments:
Avoid using Whirling Defense whereever possible until you are into SF. The damage dealt by Whirling Defense can create a scatter effect, which you want to avoid at all costs until you have Keg/Gear in hand. You can time the other three, so that you always have something helping to protect yourself. Whirling Defense is great for added damage once you are carrying a keg/gear however.

Advantages:
Rangers are far more Energy efficient than Warriors. Just using the stances (which you can time and use endlessly), you never need to worry about energy issues. This means that you can back up heal with healing breeze. I heal Sacrificing necros all the time, so that the monk can concentrate on me, for example. The three stances all time perfectly, so that you can always have one running. Throw Dirt is just an added bonus in case you mess something up, and it's also very helpful for when you are trying to get into SF for creatures that aren't aggro to you, you can blind them to help out your team.
Apply Poison is great for taking out healers, and is a good damage bonus for when you are going into SF. Obviously you don't use this skill once you are inside, but for those of us who have done a lot of farms, you know getting there is 3/4 of the battle. Well, this makes it a lot easier. Makes healers waste a lot of energy just mending ailments. Distracting Shot, use it to take out Mark of Protection when going into SF.
This build, just seems FAR more affective than a Warrior Stance Tank. And everyone that has grouped with me while I'm using this build agrees. Rangers just make better Farming Stance Tanks than Warriors.
Because of the ranged attack, when you are going to SF, if something breaks away from the Ranger aggro, a ranger can attack it without chasing. No chasing, means that nothing else breaks aggro. A warrior chasing down something wrecks havoc.
This is a GREAT four man build, because the Ranger can take care of casting all the Healing Breeze.

Disadvantages:
Warriors have better Armor. Which really doesn't amount to much when you have a Bonder.

Next: Elementalist. There are two builds that I use the first I use more often, just because it's 'easier'.

Class:
Elementalist / Necro (Replaces SS Necro)

Armor:
Droks or better (Type is irrelavant)

Skills:
Elemental Attunement (Elite), Spinal Shivers, Flare (sometimes replaced with Blood Ritual), Ice Spikes, Incendiary Bonds, Fireball, Rodgort's Invocation, Meteor Shower

Attributes: (use Runes)
Curses: 8, Fire: 16, Water: 10, Energy Storage: 9

Comments:
Typical Casting Order: Ele Attune, Showers, Inc Bonds, Ice Spikes, Fireball, Rodgort's.
Inc Bonds must be followed by Ice Spikes or else the creatures will scatter. The 'slow' affect on Ice Spikes prevents the scatter. Of course, if you don't cast until Inc Bonds goes off, then you won't end up with scatter anyway. But I like to try and max out my damage, hense why there is actually a water spell in there. Also, as with using any Elementalist build, wait for the tank to try and gather monsters before you start using energy. And skip 'Showers' in the order its just a small group.

Advantages:
WAY more group damage. You can't possibly compare an Elementalist to an SS Necro when it comes to group damage. There is no comparison. A good Elementalist combined with a good tank is going to cut your Farming time by huge amounts of time. With the spells listed here, you can always be casting, therefore, you are always doing damage. (no losing time waiting for a spell to regen, which happens with those silly Echo Shower people)
If the elementalist is using Ele Attunement, they aren't going to have Energy problems. Ele Attunement allows me to cast pretty much endlessly, so long as it's running. This is a MUST have Elite skill for any Elementalist Farmer.
Shivers is used as an interrupt, so make sure you have a cold weapon for when you use this spell. This spell is what makes this build 'easier' to use than my next Elementalist build, but both are extremely effective.

Disadvantages:
Effected more by a tank that doesn't group monsters. As every attack is AOE (nothing scatters because its all single bang), a tank that doesn't group monsters is going to reduce damage by a lot. This is the case for an SS necro as well, but an SS necro can still do damage to multiple targets at once dispite whether or not there is grouping. An Elementalist can not. This makes this build more dependant on a good tank. However, if you have a good tank, an Ele will do better than an SS necro and cut down your farm time by a lot.
Also, if Elemental Attunement gets dispelled, you have to stick to just casting Fireball/Flare over and over until you can cast Elemental Attunement again. Do NOT waste energy by casting a bunch of spells without having Ele Attune on.

Class:
Elementalist / Mesmer (Replaces SS Necro)

Armor:
Droks or better (Type is irrelavant)

Skills:
Elemental Attunement (Elite), Cry Of Frustration, Diversion, Arcane Echo, Incendiary Bonds, Fireball, Rodgort's Invocation, Meteor Shower

Attributes: (use Runes)
Domination: 9, Fire: 16, Energy Storage: 10

Comments:
This build is harder to play than the Ele/N, however, if you happen to face off against multiple healers, this build is going to make that a piece of cake. This build has slightly less damage than the previous build, however, will still do more than an SS if the tank groups monsters. Do NOT - I repeat - DO NOT!! use Echo for meteor shower. This is the biggest waste that there is. Use Echo on Fireball (Or Diversion if you come across healers). If you use echo on Meteor Shower, you get two spells ... both of which can be moved out of, cast and then you now have 2 useless skill slots for a minute - severely reducing your damage output. Don't be a newbie!

Casting Order: Ele Attune, Arcane Echo, Fireball, Fireball(From Echo), Showers (If necessary), Fireball, Inc Bonds, Fireball, Rods, Fireball.... You get the picture, lots of fireballs. Typically, to start, this build will seem to do more damage than the previous one, but you are dependant on Arcane Echo. As soon as it wears off, damage is reduced by a considerable amount.

Advantages:
Aside from the above mentioned advantages for the previous build, this build has a healer shut down component added to it. If you come across a healer, cast diversion, if you happen to get their healing spell, that healer is now shut down for 38 seconds, no interruption necessary. Diversion is a hex that waits for their next spell, so it's easier to catch a heal spell with diversion then it is to catch a heal spell with an actual interruption. This is far more energy efficient than Shivers. If you come across multiple healers, echo diversion, and you are laughing. Use Cry of Frustration whenever a healer is trying to cast Mark of Protection or Resurection.

Disadvantages:
Other than Same as Above - Harder to use than Ele/N. You have to really be aware of your spells and more careful of your spell order. The healer shut down, while far more effective than Shivers, isn't as easy as casting one spell and sitting back just hitting them.

Class:
Mesmer / Necro (Replaces SS Necro)

Armor:
Enchanter's Attire (Droks or better) For more Energy.

SKills:
Energy Tap, Backfire, Shatter Hex, Cry of Frustration, Descrate Enchantments (Swap for Blood Ritual if your monks want), Diversion, Arcane Echo, Spiteful Spirit

Attributes: (Use Runes)
Fast Casting: 4, Domination Magic: 14, Inspiration Magic: 3, Curses: 12

Comments:
Easy - Echo, Spiteful Spirit, Tab, Spiteful Spirit, Tab, Spiteful Spirit... Energy Tap for Energy when needed for another Spiteful Spirit etc etc. Same reason SS Necros are popular, they are just really easy to play when it comes to dealing out damage. Descrate Enchantments is just an extra AOE damage spell.
There are MANY different Mesmer/Necro builds, all of which can be effective. I most prefer the this build because of Diversion, in my opinion, Echo Diversion with Cry of Frustration is far more effective than shivers. And I like the extra damage Shatter Hex and backfire provides. But you could chose to increase your damage with Spiteful Spirit by using Awaken The Blood, and would therefore want to put points into blood magic. You could chose to bring more interruption spells, rather than shatter hex or backfire. There is a lot you can do with Mesmer/Necro, this is just one build.

Advantages:
Caster Killers. This build can shut down healers using diversion/cry of frustration the same way the Ele/Me build can, only they do it even more effectively (53 second shut down), there is no need for shivers. Although, if you are worried about your skills and want the easy way out, take shivers along in place of something else. Monster Damage Casters, Backfire, nice 133 damage backfire, wipes them out. Help out your healers by removing hexes and at the same time deal out 114 damage to everything around the tank with Shatter Hex. Mesmer / Necro is a very versatile build. Of course, to take full advantage of everything it has to offer, you have to be really good at playing your class.

Disadvantages:
Energy - Although in my experience, I only run into energy problems in one spot (the stairs on the Oro farm), this build is much more difficult to manage energy wise than an SS Necro. If you use only Spiteful Spirit and Echo, you really won't see any problems at all. The recharge is long enough that you get your energy back in time. But to use the full advantages of the class, you have to use your spells wisely. This build requires the most skill to play out of all the builds I've listed here, that is, assuming you want to be better than the average SS Necro.

Hope this is of some use to some people, and as well, educates those using and not using these classes, that these class can be as effective if not more effective than the 'normally used' classes.

Best Regards,

Damonias (AKA Taran Stormbringer)

Damonias · Feb 17, 2006, 10:57 PM // 22:57

An update to Ranger Stance Tanks:

I did several four man runs last night with my Ranger, all of them successful. The build works great.

It was suggested to me to make one adjustment by the bonder/healer monk, which was to add Mending to my list of skills. Mending replaced Throw Dirt.

I wouldn't necessarily do this adjustment for a 5 man team (not that it wouldn't hurt), but for a 4 man, being able to help keep some Bonds on yourself to help out the one healer is beneficial for sure.
---

Anyway, I welcome responses to these builds as well as suggestions for these Class types for Farming Builds. More so interested in Mesmer and Elementalist builds.

Ranger builds - well, I'm going to stick with doing Stance Tanking, because I know I can't compete damage wise with an SS or Ele for group damage as a Ranger, (being that I also play an Ele and a SS) so not much point. So, I'm not really all that interested in Damage Dealing builds for the Ranger for farming purposes, but if you have a Stance Tank build that has worked for you, let me know. I was thinking of adding a pet to the stance tank build for extra damage. But I'm a little concerned about what would happen should the pet die somehow and I'm left without skills for a while.

Cheers,

Damon AKA Taran Stormbringer, AKA ... Bunch of other characters

Damonias · Feb 22, 2006, 01:16 PM // 13:16

For an Update on my Elementalist Build see this thread:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...d.php?t=125921

Cirian · Feb 24, 2006, 05:56 PM // 17:56

One piece of equipment you could add would be a -2 damage 'while in stance' longbow from this quest: blankets for the settlers.

It's a nice bit of warrior-like damage reduction, and while it's not max damage, it does let you have damage reduction while using Distracting Shot. Obviously it's useless if you have a cog, but until then, it's an easy little booster to have.