Curse

extra bacon · Jan 14, 2006, 03:59 AM // 03:59

so, has anyone heard of the fiery flame spitter (FFS)??

i've heard of it off and on, just ppl trying to find the pre-nerfed version which had 15% recharge to all skills instead of the nerfed 10% one.

anyway, i finally made the effort to actually go get one to see if it would benefit this build. up until now, i've been using the "fake crystalline" long sword quest reward modded with furious and enchanting pictured below (was my solo monk's weapon before my solo mesmer made her obsolete, hence the furious mod on it), cause just like the sword, i'm a fake poser and just want to be seen with something of value. which is actually pretty damn hilarious as no one sees you when you're soloing UW. but anyway ...

so i've just gotten myself a FFS, nerfed 10% recharge version of course, and modded it with a 20% enchanting grip:

and it works like a charm! since it's only a 10% recharge on all skills, you don't benefit outrageously, but there are occasions when IW & SV recharge before they wear out, allowing it to be used/run continuously.

i guess to me, using the FFS is much better than a weapon that has no intrinsic bonus that aids the build.

info on where to find the FFS can be found here. good luck ladies!

(oh and btw, i do have a genuine crystalline now.

but honestly, i'm already bored with it ...)

Officer Stone · Jan 14, 2006, 04:53 AM // 04:53

I got my character ascended but he is lvl 14 and I cant solo anything, my health is at 60 with everything on the skill list except IW since Im not that far yet so I subbed with zealots or Empathy I even tried retribution. I need a low level farming area to build up some money so I can buy a set of armor without the runes on it. I know I could just buy ascalon armor but Im very shortchanged... IDK if I could do the UW yet, I just dont have 1k to go and see if im going to die. any help would be great

IGN: Colonel Stone

Big, evil and yellow · Jan 14, 2006, 07:02 PM // 19:02

I used this build a lil time now on hydra´s, griffons and minotaurs from lvl 12and on till im ascended, and i think you shouldnt get rid mending because with around 50 hp you dont have to put on HB when fighting 1 beast/creature. Usually, the beasts I hunt are in groups of 3: PS on, interrupt 1 of the 3 meteors (yes, hydra´s

), then put on HB and the IW will finish em, but if i keep HB on while fighting only 1 remaining hydra, I wont have enuf energy left for my PS with deadly results

. So i tried some skills and such to keep enuf energy and found out that you can use mending instead of hb if there is only 1 left, which saves you enuf energy for PS (mending heals 6 per sec, hydra does 5 dmg per 1.33 sec). No need for HB when fighting only 1 creature!

BTW: great build and song

Avarre · Jan 15, 2006, 05:56 AM // 05:56

Ok I'm back from my school camp...

Bacon, I do know about the FFS and it's probably the best weapon for the build. However, like you, I like shiny weapons, so I'll stick with my IDS

Thanks for putting up information here though.

Stone : most of the mesmers created for the purpose seem to be killing griffons etc using IW... if you can get your hands on the skill, then do so. Otherwise, you'd be far better off developing cash with a finished character (unless you have some other 'farming' elites like Shield of Judgement).

Yellow : you're correct in that, you don't need breeze to fight any solo monster except those that cause bleeding (Aatxes!).

R_Frost · Jan 15, 2006, 11:26 PM // 23:26

first thaks for posting the build. i have a LVL 20 monk but didnt have the money for the rune's to build a solo monk. i was building a warrior for money making and farming. it only a LVL 16 right now. anyways i stumbled upon this website and forums and saw the solo mesmer build. well i had a LVL 20 Me/E and had already done the monk secondary change quest so i bought the skills, a second set of enchanters and the superior runes. ive been having fun with this for almost 2 weeks now. i havent tried any changes yet. ive been playing mostly in the desert with my mesmer killing griffons, minotaurs, rockshots and recently found giants, sand wurms, and scarabs can be taken down pretty easy with the build. ive gone into the underworld 3 times. 1st trip i died fast, 2nd trip was just about done killing the 4th aatxe when i hit breeze instead of protective spirit. end result another death. my 3rd trip last night i got an ecto in the first group of 3 aatxe, an ecto in the second group and was finishing off my 3rd group when a nightmare popped up and stripped my enchantments and i was killed fast. anyways im having a good time with the build.

im curious if anyone thinks this build can go into the southern shiverpeaks and do a solo IDS run. ive done the run solo with my Ranger, its kind of a pain but can be done. got one on my first try but considering the skills this build uses, drop one and add in mantra of frost it should be possible. the avicara should pose the only threat i would think and that might be from the necros or mesmers. i cant remember the skills they use but if they dont have any enchantment stripping skills then it should be very easy. any input gang?

hazmat · Jan 16, 2006, 01:07 AM // 01:07

im curious if anyone thinks this build can go into the southern shiverpeaks and do a solo IDS run.

It may be possible but it would be hard to do.. the imps cast malstorm which would interrupt both protective spirit and illusionary weaponry. Also it'd be a trial of boredom to actually get there. I tried an illusionary weaponry w/me for ids farming and it worked relatively well but not as well a non-iw w/me. I just had to try that first as everyone else was soloing with normally with their warrior.

mortaja · Jan 16, 2006, 01:40 AM // 01:40

Necro Avicaras strip enchantments, tested on my own dead body Frost.

Excuse my ignorance, but what's that IDS run? Maelstroms can be avoided, but it makes the killing quite slow/unefficient. Oh, about Southern Shiverpeaks I've found that siege golems r the most generous mob on this world, the ones in Lornar Pass dropped some golden every little visit I've paid them.

Thx 4 the info Bacon, I'll get 1 of those and then the +19% enchantment thingie and test it.

Though I've been into UW a good amount of times I still die to a double nightmare spawn + aatxes, Coldfires sometimes, or to my own lack of brains casting prot spirit on the lost soul right b4 engaging grasps. :P Yesterday I did my 1st full cleaning of Ice Wastes (except 2 groups of 3 Coldfires who walked together all the time) and so proceeded to Behemoths just to check u can't wand them down. So test made Avarre. :P A way could be, if u r patient enough (and Me/mo must be patient soloing down there), wand them during around 90 seconds or so. U usually disrupt their traps and during that time u can be more or less sure previous traps will have faded so u'll know how many active traps there r in front of that Behemoth. Thus I think u can engage it with IW if it has been able to lay just 1 trap. Or maybe go in with 105hp instead of 55, dunno if u can stand 2 traps blowing that way, and pair your melee weapon with the jeweled chalice u get in desert from Arliss Vaughn (+20% recharge, +20% speed illusion) 4 a faster killing. Just theory, I'm working right now and got time to think about this stuff, but I'll check it tomorrow as soon as favor comes to Europe.

About my runs in FoW, they've been disastrous. I've tried to use mantra of resolve (could be mantra of concentration too, less energy spent) to cover the important spells, as it's useful and has a recharge time lower than shatter enchantments, but though I have the feeling I could do it degen always catches me. Possible solution could be same as b4, going in with 105hp and try casters to suffer SV asap. The drop rate of shards compared to ectos is awesome, much more than 3x, so in a relative way, I've got a lot more coinage from my short visits to FoW than to my long ones to UW.

Bleh, longer post than I expected, not much work today here. :P

BlackRecluse · Jan 16, 2006, 01:58 AM // 01:58

great build, works well etc etc. ive gone to UW a bunch of times, ive cleared the aatxes several times, and had some problems w/ grasping that are easily solved. but ive gotten nothing from anything. out of the 10 runs ive gotten zero globs, and 9/10 drops are dust. even the nightmares dont drop anything. and out of every aatxes maybe one doesnt drop anything at all...arg

update: killed 7 aatxs, 2 nightmares, got 2 drops total.

Banebow · Jan 16, 2006, 05:21 AM // 05:21

I tried this a while ago (back when ectos were at 17k and solo farming down there would have made me filthy rich) but found it easier to go two-man, and so stopped trying to get by the darknesses.

I do use something almost the same for farming hydras however, not superbly fast (about 2 hydras per IW cast if they are near you) but it gets the job done.

Avarre · Jan 16, 2006, 08:33 AM // 08:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by mortaja

Excuse my ignorance, but what's that IDS run? etc

The IDS run can be defined as the trip to reach the cave, and the killing of the imps.

I solorun IDS with my ranger, and I'm gonna say its impossible to do as mesmer for now. The only speedboost we have is Illusion of Haste, which wears off too fast (requiring recast) to easily break aggro. I doubt a mesmer would even reach the cave, and nothing would happen if we did. Having to melee, there are a HOJILLION imps inside, and we'd be forced to engage too many at once to survive.

The mantras you listed are stances, so they don't actually cover anything at all. But in any case, you'd be hard pressed to bring down shadow eles (burning hurts, especially with spiteful spirit) or shadow mesmers (empathy and shatter enchant, argh), or even shadow warriors (healing signet spammage). I have tried killing stuff in FoW, but not with enough success to warrant using 1k to enter. Not saying it's impossible though, just exasperatingly difficult (too many other mesmer mobs ftw).

Mystic Angelkin · Jan 18, 2006, 07:00 AM // 07:00

is it still possible without the enchant mod? i cant find it anywhere and they are way too pricey these days.

Avarre · Jan 18, 2006, 08:13 AM // 08:13

I believe the build can still work without an enchant mod, but from what I've heard from others trying it without the same gear as me it is MUCH harder and slower. A 15% enchant mod is good enough to give you a decent bonus, and such things are often thrown away.

I personally wouldn't try the run without one, in times when you have low energy having the extra 2+ seconds on your enchants can make or break the run.

Cyrinn · Jan 19, 2006, 12:59 AM // 00:59

First off....Stellar post!

Second, I have been running this build with a mesmer I almost deleted and have had some fun soloing griffons, drakes, hydras, mino's etc. UW is still ending my trip early with a double nightmare spawn. I can handle one easy enough now, but can't knockout the 2 in time. I have run the aatxe protion a few times and have received one gold drop and plenty of dust, remains, and cestas. Anyone find a failsafe for that? Run and get lucky??? Thanks.

mortaja · Jan 19, 2006, 01:29 AM // 01:29

As I've already read the whole post once I won't do it again, but some1 explained it b4. U can kill both nightmares as long as u don't have aatxes aggroing at u too. Just as they spawn cast prot spirit and breeze,target 1 nightmare, interrupt it, switch to your illusion staff/wand and kill it. Meanwhile the 2nd nightmare will strip off your enchantments and kill itself doing so. If u do it well u'll kill 1st nightmare more or less at same time than 2nd suicides. Recast prot spirit if u think u need it, but u shouldn't.

I'm not a mantra user so I had never noticed they r stances... And sounds quite weird that a stance makes u suffer less from cold, fire, etc., but they r and u r right, they do nothing in FoW. I've been trying with vigorous spirit, but burning is still too much. The idea is surviving the initial burning/meteors and then get inmidst of the group with SV on so u render casters useless quite fast. I'll post it if I manage to do it in a stable way.

The fiery flame spitter is nice, though I'm almost sure recharge success ratio is less than 10%, but maybe it's only matter of my perception. Even so, when skills recharge b4 they fade I feel like winning lotto or something like that.

How much would a pre-nerfed 1 be worth now?

Avarre · Jan 19, 2006, 11:36 AM // 11:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyrinn

First off....Stellar post!

Second, I have been running this build with a mesmer I almost deleted and have had some fun soloing griffons, drakes, hydras, mino's etc. UW is still ending my trip early with a double nightmare spawn. I can handle one easy enough now, but can't knockout the 2 in time. I have run the aatxe protion a few times and have received one gold drop and plenty of dust, remains, and cestas. Anyone find a failsafe for that? Run and get lucky??? Thanks.

Use a long/storm/eternal bow to pull the center aatxes, so long as your aggro ring doesn't touch the nightmares they don't spawn (much like how you kill the dryders in Racthoh's spider run). Then if two do spawn, you can easily kill them without aatxe interference. If single nightmares appear, always always use a wand or other ranged weapon to kill it. That way you won't trigger another when you run up to IW it.

Prenerf FFS... no idea, but I wouldn't be suprised if it cost something around the price of a HoD sword.

lambchop9428 · Jan 24, 2006, 04:11 PM // 16:11

I was wondering something, I've seen low lvl bows with something like +33% attack speed -25% dmg(or vice versa) on them. I was wondering if there was a sword that had a bonus to Attack speed somewhere. Probaly not but someone might know.
p.s. Love this build.

Avarre · Jan 25, 2006, 08:17 AM // 08:17

As far as I know, there isn't. Of course, if anyone wants to prove that wrong, we could all use the knowledge

And *RAGE* at assassin weps being 2 handed... ruined my dreams of IW55hpninja

Cyrinn · Jan 27, 2006, 08:34 PM // 20:34

Heh, excuse my noobish post. But after running UW with this build a dozen times now and getting a "feel" for it I no longer encounter the double NM spawn along aatxes. I can lure and clear the aatxes on either staircase easily with a sinlge NM spawn only once in awhile. As often as not, I clear all three aatxe mobs before getting a NM spawn and then dealing with them is easy.

Wow, 2 drops in 3 or so mobs is awful. I have never had such a bad time in UW. My best drop series in those first 3 mobs was 2 ectos, one black dye, and one gold shield. Nm's always drop necro items for me.

One thing I have noticed (this is probably common knowledge) is that I get better drops everywhere I farm after I run a mission. I have several farming spots for 2 of my chars and places I consistently would get golds would decrease to purples then blues until I ran a mission then low and behold, golds once again. Just a thought.

Good luck all.

Avarre · Jan 27, 2006, 09:27 PM // 21:27

2 drops in 3 or so mobs is quite normal, regardless of the build/group you have in UW. The majority of the drops come from smite crawlers and chests in the Frozen Wastes. Nm's always, and just about only, drop necro items, usually not max.

Finding better drops after running a mission is because the game reduces your drops if you continually farm a single location. By running a mission, and hence not farming, your drops are returned to a normal level.

Miss Persephone · Jan 28, 2006, 03:33 AM // 03:33

I've been trying this buid out, and loving it, but I'd really like to get my hands on one of those 38% enchant axes - I'm having some serious energy issues as I can't afford the higher end enchant mods right now, and my 11% isn't really up to the job. I looked up the quest reward for the scavengers of ascalon quest, and it doesn't seem to give you an axe with any enchantment mods. Could anyone confirm where to get one of these? I can only take on two hydras at once - three just take me out.