Curse

Lurid · Apr 11, 2006, 02:02 AM // 02:02

Is the -20 (?) offhand available through a quest or is an item that i'll need to search for via trades? Hopefully through a quest, since other than posting that I need one here finding specific, especially rare, items can be a very large pain. Also, if you don't mind could you tell the the inherent mods that a rod / wand can have? As I cannot seem to find a guide on this, checked wikipedia and what not already, as it would be helpful to me in finding exactly what I am looking for. Thanks,

.killjoy · Apr 11, 2006, 03:02 AM // 03:02

-50 off hand actaully

Quest: Cities of asclon from necromancer munne at asclon

Lurid · Apr 11, 2006, 03:18 AM // 03:18

No I mean, i've seen some build suggestions with a second -HP offhand. So that if you were to die, you wouldn't just instantly die again upon resurection. If it makes sense to have something like that to go along with your 55, say for instance if you were in a 2 man group or something then please tell me where I might obtain one of these. Unless of course its just something you have to buy, in which case i'll just post here or something saying that i'm looking for one.

Still searching on a list of rod / wand mods, if anyone has one please tell me. Thanks.

Tsunami Rain · Apr 11, 2006, 03:46 AM // 03:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lurid

Is the -20 (?) offhand available through a quest or is an item that i'll need to search for via trades? Hopefully through a quest, since other than posting that I need one here finding specific, especially rare, items can be a very large pain. Also, if you don't mind could you tell the the inherent mods that a rod / wand can have? As I cannot seem to find a guide on this, checked wikipedia and what not already, as it would be helpful to me in finding exactly what I am looking for. Thanks,

-20 can be obtained by the presear quest: Poor Tenant (its not very good but it is a -20 offhand). I would suggest buying a nicely modded -20 offhand instead of using the quest one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lurid

No I mean, i've seen some build suggestions with a second -HP offhand. So that if you were to die, you wouldn't just instantly die again upon resurection. If it makes sense to have something like that to go along with your 55, say for instance if you were in a 2 man group or something then please tell me where I might obtain one of these. Unless of course its just something you have to buy, in which case i'll just post here or something saying that i'm looking for one.

Still searching on a list of rod / wand mods, if anyone has one please tell me. Thanks.

Yes. The offhands that I use are -50 and -20.

sno · Apr 11, 2006, 03:50 AM // 03:50

@ Lurid: Here are a list of answers to your questions

Quote:

Is the -20 (?) offhand available through a quest

Though there is a -20hp offhand in a quest (the Cities of ascalon quest gives 2 rewards, one with -50hp and one with either -5energy or -20hp, it's random) I recommend buying a purple or gold max energy one. They're not terribly rare, and having one with max energy will definitely help you get quick-res'd if you should die and remain inside aggro. The point of this is to have it on a 3rd weapon set, and as soon as you get res'd (with res sig) you'll have 1 of 0 total hp. Switch immediately to the -20, which will give you not only 13hp, but also a boost in energy (hense needing a max one,) enough for you to get prot spirit up right away.

Quote:

Also, if you don't mind could you tell the the inherent mods that a rod / wand can have?

Rods and wands can have the following mods

Halves recharge time (either globally up to 10% or to a specific attribute up to 20%)
Halves casting time (either globally up to 10% or to a specific attribute up to 20%)
+energy

the + energy can be one of 2 ways. The most commonly sought-after are the +energy while hp is above 50%, or the +energy while enchanted (both allow for up to 5 energy.) In addition to these there are also +energy while hp is below 50%, and while hexed, also up to 5 energy.
The other way of having an energy mod on a rod is to have negative energy regen. Rods with -1 energy regen can have up to +15 energy. No rod can have more than one energy mod of any kind.

To recap, rods can have up to 2 modifiers, any 2 of the following, but never 2 of the same (ie. you cannot have global fast cast and attributed fast cast on the same rod):

+energy
halves recharge
halves casting time

Quality · Apr 11, 2006, 06:39 AM // 06:39

I posted earlier on this thread asking about what kind of alternative armor suggestions you guys had for non-55 situations. I'm sorry about the ambiguity...I was definately in a hurry at the time.

So here is a more detailed question:

I want to be prepared for every situation on my monk. With that said, I would also like to avoid unecessary repetiton. I guess what I'm asking is, what skill type out of the four monk ones is the one that I would be using all of the time?

What I want to do is have a few parts of the full tats stay constant for every situation and then be able to swtich out different parts should the situation arise.

Here's sort of what I was thinking:

- Make a full 55 set of tats (used +1 prot head)
- Make another set of tats with 3 heads for each of the 3 remaining monk specialties and leave the rest of the armor blank

I also plan to get each kind of green monk weapon and I already have a Firey long sword of enchant (20%) and a -50 offhand.

Xaero Gouki Kriegor · Apr 11, 2006, 06:55 AM // 06:55

its also safe to solo with a monk without the -20 or -50 offhand, heres my 55 monk soloing without one:

.killjoy · Apr 11, 2006, 03:45 PM // 15:45

^ This wouldn't be a 55 then and yes many other people can do this aswell.

Quality
Still don't really understand your question but what I think you are asking is what can you salvage from the 55 armor so you can use in healing or protection builds and such. And yes you could use the heads thats what I do usually I put sup. healing/ protection runes on my head tats. so I can use them for other builds.

sno · Apr 11, 2006, 06:20 PM // 18:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quality

Here's sort of what I was thinking:

- Make a full 55 set of tats (used +1 prot head)
- Make another set of tats with 3 heads for each of the 3 remaining monk specialties and leave the rest of the armor blank

Here's what I recommend:

get 2 full sets of ascetic (tatoo) armor. On each piece, put a minor and a superior of the same type on it, for example, have sup healing on your chest, and then minor healing on the other chest. Since there are 4 pieces (arm chest leg foot) you can do this for each of the 4 monk runes. The problem then arises with vigor. I usually run prot (when I'm not 55) So i have a sup prot rune on my +1 prot head tatoo, and run a sup prot also on my foot, which is replaced by a sup vigor instead of minor prot (why bother having minor and sup prot?) If you wanted to run healing, you could get a +1 healing scalp and run minor prot on that, and then use your sup healing chest.

Final outcome:

chest (sup healing)
chest (minor healing)
arms (sup divine)
arms (minor divine)
legs (sup smiting)
legs (minor smiting)
feet (sup protection)
feet (sup vigor)
head (+1 prot, sup prot)
head (+1 healing, minor prot)

This way you can have +4 prot with +1 everything else (with vigor) or +4 healing with +1 everything else, or even +1 everything and +2 healing (if you run all minors.) the only thing not covered with this would be +2 prot, so if you wanted to run all minors on a protect build you'd need a second +1 prot scalp and have minor prot on it. (same goes for smiting, if you ever wanted to run that.)

The Fenixxor · Apr 11, 2006, 06:56 PM // 18:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xaero Gouki Kriegor

its also safe to solo with a monk without the -20 or -50 offhand, heres my 55 monk soloing without one

And yet its painfully obvious from the picture that you dont, in fact have any where near 55 hp

Xaero Gouki Kriegor · Apr 12, 2006, 01:26 AM // 01:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quality

what is good alternate amror to have for non-55 situations? please include rune upgrade informaiton.

any armor, jstu max 60 al armor, with a lil help from enchantments and skills, you can reduce damage as low as a 55 monk can, sometimes even more lower then 5 damage, coudl even take up to 0 - 1 damage and tank even more then a 55 monk

Niosisw · Apr 12, 2006, 02:02 AM // 02:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xaero Gouki Kriegor

its also safe to solo with a monk without the -20 or -50 offhand, heres my 55 monk soloing without one:

Brag elsewhere?

If you aren't going to share the build, shut up...

Dude you looking for 55 questions and answers?

Here's my Warrior soloing them! Hope it helps!

Please if you aren't going to share the build, don't brag about it like some elementary school student.

And it's fairly obvious you have Balth's Aura and EB on, you hid those poorly.

Imaginos · Apr 12, 2006, 03:27 AM // 03:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Niosisw

Brag elsewhere?

If you aren't going to share the build, shut up...

Dude you looking for 55 questions and answers?

Here's my Warrior soloing them! Hope it helps!

Please if you aren't going to share the build, don't brag about it like some elementary school student.

And it's fairly obvious you have Balth's Aura and EB on, you hid those poorly.

I have to agree here. Why did you even waste time posting in an information thread when you are just hiding information. The game needs less people like you and more people like the people who are sharing information.

Now I'm new to 55ing and have some questions that i've not quite found answers to, though all the information i've asorbed in the last day or 2 is rather jumbled in my head right now

1) How do you deal with degens? I zoned out of amnoon just to test echo on a lone rockshot and of course I couldn't get all my spells off due to the interrupt shots but then along comes a lone jadebug and even though I had PS and mending (7 pips) between them they slapped so much degen that I died in mere seconds.

2) What are other good ways to manage energy besides blessed signet / enchants, if I'm using mesmer as secondary? I've tried Energy Tap but its too easy to interrupt (3 sec cast) and Power Drain but not much success with power drain, probably due to my inexperience with it

3) I was under the impression this build was proof against direct damage including spiked damage but as I was running past some Avicara in talus chute and even though I had PS and HB on they blasted me to dust. It was a few of the archers as I could hear that weird bow sound they make, like the charr archers did

4) I did a search for Hydra in this forum and the search returned no results, yet I could have sworn I saw some posts talking about hydras. What are some good skills to take besides the 55 base set for hydra farming outside of augery?

Thanks for the answers
Imaginos

Tsunami Rain · Apr 12, 2006, 03:45 AM // 03:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imaginos

1) How do you deal with degens? I zoned out of amnoon just to test echo on a lone rockshot and of course I couldn't get all my spells off due to the interrupt shots but then along comes a lone jadebug and even though I had PS and mending (7 pips) between them they slapped so much degen that I died in mere seconds.

use breeze. Always AVOID scarabs as much as possible. If your breeze isnt enough, always remember that if you keep casting ps you get the divine bonus.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imaginos

2) What are other good ways to manage energy besides blessed signet / enchants, if I'm using mesmer as secondary? I've tried Energy Tap but its too easy to interrupt (3 sec cast) and Power Drain but not much success with power drain, probably due to my inexperience with it

There are a few energy management spells, however, blessed signet and enchants like balthazar's spirt, essence bond, etc. are your best bet reguardless.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imaginos

3) I was under the impression this build was proof against direct damage including spiked damage but as I was running past some Avicara in talus chute and even though I had PS and HB on they blasted me to dust. It was a few of the archers as I could hear that weird bow sound they make, like the charr archers did

Avacara spike like crazy. The best way to combat this is to throw up healing breeze when the first arrow hits (because you know the next attack or so will be spiked). Again, remember that protective spirit is a fast way to get that divine bonus heal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imaginos

4) I did a search for Hydra in this forum and the search returned no results, yet I could have sworn I saw some posts talking about hydras. What are some good skills to take besides the 55 base set for hydra farming outside of augery?

I just take my normal setup and change out bonetti's for balanced stance (of course you can aways go with bonetti's but you would just have to be a bit more careful). I also take along zealot's fire so i can kill hydras faster.

sno · Apr 12, 2006, 05:48 AM // 05:48

Quote:

1) How do you deal with degens? I zoned out of amnoon just to test echo on a lone rockshot and of course I couldn't get all my spells off due to the interrupt shots but then along comes a lone jadebug and even though I had PS and mending (7 pips) between them they slapped so much degen that I died in mere seconds.

You should be running with at least 9 healing (13 if you're expecting degen.) 9 healing will yield a 7 pip breeze and 3 pip mending, giving you the maximum +10 hp regen. with 13 healing you'll have +4 and +8, giving you a total of +12 regen (2 is hidden unless you have some sort of degen.) The best advice I can give you is to simply not farm where theres heavy degen. In UW you will be facing bleeding (-3 pips) and sometimes burning (-8 I think) but both of those are easily combatable as long as you run with 13 healing, and can maintain breeze.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsunami Rain

There are a few energy management spells, however, blessed signet and enchants like balthazar's spirt, essence bond, etc. are your best bet reguardless.

What you use for energy management depends on what build you run, most importantly your secondary. For UW you'll want to be mo/w, which will allow you to take bonettis, a 55hp monk's best energy friend. For mo/n (or n/mo, which is more common) solo with SS, you'll just have essense bond, balths spirit, and sometimes blessed signet (although not usually.) For mo/me builds (usually using SoJ for damage) you'll likely still only have essense bond and balths spirit, but you have more options if you need, in the inspiration attribute.

Quote:

Avacara spike like crazy. The best way to combat this is to throw up healing breeze when the first arrow hits (because you know the next attack or so will be spiked). Again, remember that protective spirit is a fast way to get that divine bonus heal.

Avacara aren't really fast enough to spike through a 55hp setup if you have breeze on. You will lose a lot of health, but you should be able to survive, especially if you have evasion (usually bonettis.) The problem with avacara is the "wise" who are necros, and will strip your enchants.

Quote:

I just take my normal setup and change out bonetti's for balanced stance (of course you can aways go with bonetti's but you would just have to be a bit more careful). I also take along zealot's fire so i can kill hydras faster.

For easy things like hydras/griffons/minos, I recommend going mo/n or n/mo, and using Spiteful Spirit, since the damage is much faster, and you don't really need all the security of a mo/w or mo/me build.

Tsunami Rain · Apr 12, 2006, 06:59 AM // 06:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno

For easy things like hydras/griffons/minos, I recommend going mo/n or n/mo, and using Spiteful Spirit, since the damage is much faster, and you don't really need all the security of a mo/w or mo/me build.

that's also true. SS does work faster than SoJ but for people like me who tend to doze off after farming runs countless times I like the security of secondary warrior.

Imaginos · Apr 12, 2006, 09:13 AM // 09:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsunami Rain
use breeze. Always AVOID scarabs as much as possible. If your breeze isnt enough, always remember that if you keep casting ps you get the divine bonus.

Yeah I had breeze but got interrupted heh

I can see how the divine bonus would really help a 55 as thats like 3/4 of your life healed instantly just from the bonus.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sno
Avacara aren't really fast enough to spike through a 55hp setup if you have breeze on. You will lose a lot of health, but you should be able to survive, especially if you have evasion (usually bonettis.) The problem with avacara is the "wise" who are necros, and will strip your enchants.

Heh I had breeze on and they spiked me to death. It probably was a bad random that all the attacks hit at once or something. Didn't have boniti's charged as I had just exited the town and was heading to the trolls for more practice. There were no necros in this group fortunatly,

just 2 braves and 3 archers.

Thank you both for the answers. I'll have to check out the necro version and I'll try balanced for hydras soon

Still gotta figure out a good strat for not many foes and energy management.

One other question. How do you kill rockshots? They don't seem to take damage from SoJ that I noticed at all.

Imaginos

Bladed Aatxe · Apr 12, 2006, 05:11 PM // 17:11

hey i was just wondering if there are any 55 runners that can do copper to iron mines...I can do War camp to Citadel to Copper easy but im having alot of problems going to iron mines. any help or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanx

sno · Apr 12, 2006, 05:16 PM // 17:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bladed Aatxe

hey i was just wondering if there are any 55 runners that can do copper to iron mines...I can do War camp to Citadel to Copper easy but im having alot of problems going to iron mines. any help or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanx

The Iron Mines run is very difficult, but there are a few of us that can do it. Cerb posted a nice guide about that run I believe (I'm far too lazy to search, but then again so were you

.) To make it successfully you have to watch for the necros, and carefully time SB. When SB is not up, you have to cover PS with breeze at all times and when it gets stripped (and it will) you can recover, without dying. Good luck!

Bladed Aatxe · Apr 12, 2006, 05:28 PM // 17:28

Great! thanx a ton. I'll go search for that guide