Curse

greaterlych · Apr 09, 2006, 09:53 AM // 09:53

Alright, here it is. Weighing in at 5,797 words this guide should contain every bit of information you could ever want on the underworld solo build. Enjoy!

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The Massive Solo Necro UW Guide by Greater Lych

Index

1.) Introduction

2.) Theory

3.) Skills

i.Kcp’s build
ii.my build

4.) Equipment and Attribute Points

5.) Practice

i.griffins
ii.minotaurs
iii.trolls

6.) How to…

i.kill two or three bladed aatxe
ii.kill a single bladed aatxe
iii.avoid rend enchantments from dying nightmares
iv.kill grasping darkness groups
vi.kill coldfire night groups

7.) Specific Scenarios

i.two dying nightmares in a fight
ii.dying nightmare agros

8.) Walkthrough of a Smite Run

9.) FAQ

10.) Outro

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1.) Introduction

I am hoping this guide can finally stop the torrent of “55 Necro Help!” threads that have been flooding the boards for the last month. I am going to do my best to carefully detail every aspect of the 55 necromancer solo underworld smite run. I’m putting every scrap of knowledge I have of this build and the run into this guide so I hope someone can find something of value in it. Although I’m writing this guide from my own experience in the underworld, the original build was created by Kcp and he deserves credit for his excellent work. Thank you very much Kcp.

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2.) Theory

First off, what does 55 mean? 55 is a reference to the amount of health someone using the basic invinci-monk skills has. These skills are as follows:

Protective Spirit
Healing Breeze
Mending
Balthazar’s Spirit
Essence Bond

With only 55 health, Protective Spirit lowers all damage against you (except vampiric skills, but I will get to that later) to 5 health per hit. With Healing Breeze and Mending on you, that 5 health points you lose will regenerate instantly. However, with Protective Spirit and Healing Breeze costing 10 energy points every time you cast them, you will need more than the 3 energy regeneration you have after Mending is cast. Balthazar’s Spirit and Essence Bond take care of your energy problems. Every time you are hit with a physical attack you receive 2 energy. While this doesn’t seem like much, with two pissed off aatxe going at you, your energy will go up very quickly.

Spiteful Spirit is the damage dealer in this build. At 16 Curses, Spiteful Spirit does 37 damage per shot and lasts for 21 seconds. SS is triggered when the hexed enemy uses a skill or attacks. You’ll notice the damage SS does is also shadow damage. Shadow damage ignores armor and does its full damage potential on every hit. The real advantage of SS is that it damages enemies in a fairly large radius around the hexed foe but isn’t considered AoE by the AI, so enemies don’t flee.

With SS damaging your enemies and the 55 system keeping you alive, you become very powerful. But, this build is not infallible as you will realize very quickly in your first Underworld runs.

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3.) Skills

i. Kcp’s build

Kcp is the creator of the original Underworld solo necro build. His skill set up is:

Protective Spirit
Healing Breeze
Guardian
Spiteful Spirit
Shadow of Fear
Mending
Balthazar’s Spirit
Essence Bond

As you can see the five basic 55 skills are there, along with SS. Guardian is used to avoid interrupts from enemies while casting SS. Guardian provides a 40% block chance and can give you the extra time you need to avoid an interrupt. Although the 40% chance to avoid an attack based interrupt, Guardian also reduces your energy recovery while it is active. When you’re fighting a single aatxe this can be a very big problem. Also, there are better skills to keep your health up. Shadow of Fear is included in the list as a cover hex, but I’ll get into its use later.

ii. my build

My build is exactly the same as Kcp’s, with one very minor change.

Protective Spirit
Healing Breeze
Vigorous Spirit
Spiteful Spirit
Shadow of Fear
Mending
Balthazar’s Spirit
Essence Bond

I have substituted Vigorous Spirit for Guardian for several reason. First off, Vigorous Spirit doesn’t cause any energy management problems. Guardian also does nothing for healing. The 40% dodge chance sure reduces the damage you’re receiving which is great when you’re taking a real beating and don’t have any worries about your energy reserves, but against a single aatxe VS is far superior. It can keep your health up with no need for HB. Plus, it will only cost you 5 energy every 30 seconds and doesn’t reduce your energy intake. Now wait, I know what you’re thinking. “This guide is too long, I’m going to find a shorter one.” What I really wish you are thinking is “But how can I cast SS without being interrupted if I’m not using Guardian?” Good question. Timing. With good timing and a little game I like to call “use savage slash you bastard”, you can go through an entire run without being interrupted once. Aatxe like to interrupt every skill you use, so a combination of casting HB and then VS will usually cause one of them to use Savage Slash. If both don’t use the interrupt, casting Mending afterwards will certainly force them to. Once both have used their interrupts on the wrong skills you’re free to cast away. Aatxe use Savage Slash very liberally so drawing them to use it doesn’t take a whole lot.

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4.) Equipment and Attribute Points

The attribute point setup is exactly the same for both Kcp’s and my build:

Blood Magic: 5
Soul Reaping: 4
Curses: 16
Healing Prayers: 8
Protection Prayers: 10

To achieve the previous attribute setup and the required total health points of 55, you need to stock up on superior runes and scar pattern armor. Buying the armor from Droknar’s Forge is really unnecessary as PS eliminates the need for armor with high protection. Your AC can be 30 or 60, you will still take 5 damage. Your shopping list should include:

4 scar pattern armor pieces at 150 gold a piece
1 curses +1 facial scar at 150 gold
32 rolls of parchment, if you’re thrifty, 70 gold a piece
1 superior curses rune, 1200 gold
1 superior blood magic rune, 1200 gold
3 superior soul reaping runes, 900 gold (we need 5 superiors, and soul reaping is the cheapest)

If my math serves me right, the equipment setup will run you around 6290 gold. You can splurge and get the full set of 1.5k armor and a superior death magic rune, but it seems silly as most people will be using this build to make money.

I’ve got 105 health. What’s wrong? The key to getting 55 health is the -50 HP grim cesta found in the Cities of Ascalon quest offered by Symon the Scribe in Ascalon City. Yes, the item is still available. Anyone that says otherwise can shove it. There are 2 wands that you can use in the underworld. The first is a collector’s curses truncheon you can pick up from Uderit Ignis in the crystal desert. The 20% fast recharge is nice for spamming SS, but I prefer the next weapon. Villnar’s Claw is in my opinion the best weapon for soloing in the underworld because of its 20% fast cast when using SS. The occasional fast cast can help you avoid an interrupt or give you an extra couple seconds to think about what to do next. Villnar’s Claw is relatively cheap, a guildmate just bought one for 15k recently. You will need to customize the wand to do enough damage to take care of nightmares however, so you might want to stick to the collector’s truncheon if you don’t like the idea of customizing green weapons.

You will need to do the two 15 attribute point quests to get the required attribute levels. Curses is at 16 so you can do the maximum damage with SS. Healing is at 8 so Mending will give you 3 health regeneration. The rest of the points are placed in protection and soul reaping to give you a good PS duration and a bit of energy when your foes perish.

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5.) Practice

Just like everything else in life, practice makes perfect when soloing. I recommend trying the following before wasting all your money in the underworld. For all of these fights, I recommend swapping Shadow of Fear out with Insidious Parasite. Insidious Parasite is great for dealing damage as well as healing yourself. It has saved my life in a lot of situations.

i.griffins

Griffins are in my opinion the easiest high level enemies to take down with this build. They come in small groups and don’t have interrupt skills. All in all, easy kills. Several groups of griffins can still be found East of Destiny’s Gorge in the Crystal Desert. There aren’t any other enemies in the way, so throw on your enchantments and head for the first group.

Once you have Mending, Balthazar’s Spirit, and Essence Bbond on yourself, wait for your energy to regenerate to a decent amount and then track down your prey. Sit outside of the griffin’s agro range and cast SS on the closest one. As they hurry towards you, cast PS and then HB to keep your health up. Once that is done, wait until SS has recharged and hit the other griffin. Always make sure PS is on you. If it runs out, you are dead. No ifs ands or buts. HB is just as aid in keeping up your health, Mending does a decent job on its own and you’ll find in a lot of fights that you don’t even need it. If you feel the need, cast VS to give you that extra bit of healing. Like I mentioned earlier, sometimes all you need is VS to handle your healing. I try to stay away from HB unless I really need it. The extra energy in reserve for a PS emergency or an extra shot of SS is more useful in my book. Keep the rhythm going until all the griffins are dead. As long as you remember to keep up PS, you should do fine. Once you go through enough grouPS of griffins that you feel confident, try some minotaurs.

ii. minotaurs

The best minotaur group can be found in the very beginning of the ascension mission Elona Reach. Head into the mission, cast your three permanent enchants and then talk to the ghost directly in front of you. I am probably going to save a lot of you some trouble in saying, remember to target yourself after talking to the ghost! It took me quite a few runs to figure out why my character always started running back to the ghost when I tried to cast PS. Once the door has been opened and your character is once again selected, head to the right of the splinter mine and down towards the group of minotaurs congregating near the skeleton in the sand. This is where Insidious Parasite really shines. As you near the group, cast PS and then HB. Before casting SS and “bringing on the hurt” cast IS on the nearest minotaur to help keep up your health. Then target the next closest and cast SS. Keep up PS and HB while SS is recharging and then cast it on a third minotaur when it is ready. As soon as IS is ready again cast it on a minotaur with a relatively high amount of health. Casting IS and SS on the same minotaur or minotaurs with low health will only cause the hexes to run out faster and end up being a waste of energy. Cast VS whenever you can to give yourself that extra bit of healing and ensure you aren’t going to be ripped to shreds. Always remember to keep up PS and HB and cast IS and SS whenever they recharge. Keep this up for long enough and you’ll have a big ol’ pile of dead minotaurs littering the ground around you. Then, rinse and repeat. The next fight is pretty tricky.

iii. trolls

Trolls can be a huge pain in the ass if you get interrupted. Honestly, I’m not very good at fighting them myself. Using Guardian instead of VS can really increase your chances of staying alive though. Casting Guardian before any of your other skills is the key in avoiding interrupts. Use the same strategy as the minotaurs, keep up your core skills and make sure IS is up as well. Cast Guardian before any other skills and go for SS whenever you can. In case you don’t know where the infamous troll cave is, head out of Drok’s towards the first avicara group and then to the left into a large cave. Inside you will find the trolls.

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6.) How To…

i. kill two or three bladed aatxe

Taking down aatxe is a lot easier than most people think. As long as you keep up your enchantments you will do fine. I’m going to go over the fight itself in this section, I will go over the approach later on. The first thing to do in any fight is cast PS. The aatxe will hit you with Sever Artery pretty quickly, so getting HB up after PS is important. The bleeding caused by Sever Artery will negate Mending, so HB will be your only source of health regeneration. After casting PS and HB, cast VS to give you a little more healing. By now the aatxe will probably have used their interrupt skill, Savage Slash. You should be ok to cast SS on one of the attacking aatxe, but make sure you’ve been hit by Savage Slash twice or three times (depending on the number of attacking aatxe) in the last 10 seconds so you won’t be interrupted. If you are interrupted however, it isn’t a big deal. Using skills will often trigger the aatxe to attempt an interrupt, especially with skills that have long cast times. If you want to ensure the aatxe will waste their Savage Slash attacks, cast Mending a second time. With its 2 second cast time and the fact that having it interrupted will not affect you in the least, using Mending as a diversion works very well. Following this routine of enchants, waiting for Savage Slash, and then SS will keep you alive and the aatxe dying. Always watch your energy and your enchantment times. Never let PS run out and try to keep HB on at all times. VS will help keep you alive and help draw Savage Slash but it isn’t necessary. Each barrage of SS will do drain 1/3 of an aatxe’s health, so casting it 3 times will drop the aatxe.

ii. kill a single bladed aatxe

Killing a single aatxe is actually a little more tricky than killing two. Because there is only one enemy you won’t have as much energy. Luckily, HB isn’t required when you’re fighting one on one. VS will keep you alive as long as you’re attacking the aatxe. In the beginning of the fight, cast PS and then VS and begin attacking. If the aatxe doesn’t use Savage Slash, wait a little while until you’re comfortable with your energy level and then recast PS and VS. Usually casting VS will cause the aatxe to use Savage Slash, so you shouldn’t run into this problem very often. Keep up the PS, VS, and SS rhythm and the aatxe won’t be standing much longer.

iii. avoid rend enchantments from dying nightmares

Dying Nightmares are the biggest problem in the underworld. Why? Rend Enchantments. This skill will render you completely helpless to any attackers. There’s nothing quite as tough as taking on two Bladed Aatxe without a single enchantment on. The easiest way to deal with these pesky nightmares is to take that customized truncheon you picked up earlier and wand the hell out of them. Most of the time two hits with a max damage customized wand will kill a nightmare. I say “most” because there is the occasional time when it will take 3 hits. The trouble with most people new to the underworld is that they use SS to agro aatxe and begin the fight far away from where a nightmare will spawn. Before every fight, I cast VS and then PS. Then, I will run up to the aatxe and get nice and comfy with them. Staying back will increase the distance between you and any nightmare that might pop up, and in turn will increase the time it takes you to start attacking the nightmare. Speed is everything when it comes to killing nightmares. As soon as they pop up they will start casting Rend Enchantments. If you don’t kill the nightmare in time your enchantments are stripped and you’re most likely dead. The other tricky bit about nightmares is that they don’t appear until you have gotten close enough to agro them, or an enemy they are grouped with. This means that until you are in range they will be completely hidden from you. Like I said earlier, your best chance is to get VS and PS on, run up close to the aatxe, and then wait for a nightmare to pop up. If 5 seconds goes by and you don’t see a nightmare, you’re in the clear. Cast HB and get on with the fight. If one does pop up, attack is ASAP and pray to whatever god suits your fancy. With any luck you’ll take it down and can then deal with the aatxe.

iv. kill grasping darkness groups

Grasping Darknesses are your next challenge in the underworld. Unlike aatxe I always agro them with SS. Because they use “Fear Me!” energy management during a fight can be difficult. I always follow this pattern:

1.) Cast PS on myself
2.) Get close enough to cast SS on the nearest Grasping Darkness, but not close enough that they will agro
3.) Cast SS and wait for them to approach
4.) Sit through the first wave of knock downs
5.) Cast HB
6.) Wait until PS starts blinking, then recast
7.) Wand any enemies still alive after SS runs out

I keep wand attacks going through all of these steps, as it takes a little more than one 21 spout of SS to kill them. Following these steps, the darknesses shouldn’t pose much of a threat.

v. kill smite groups

Smite Crawlers hit hard, they remove SS using Smite Hex, and Shield of Judgement makes attacking them a very bad idea, but once you get a good rhythm going they drop quickly. Smites can quickly kill you with their plethora of attacks but Mending, HB, and VS will keep you alive against many of them. I don’t recommend fighting more than one group at a time as anything above 6 smites can overwhelm your healing ability. The trick to fighting them is using Shadow of Fear as a cover hex to prevent them from removing SS. What this means is that after casting SS, cast SoF and they will remove the latter instead. When I begin a fight I get PS, HB, and VS going and then cast SoF on the group. I then start cycling through the smites by hitting tab until I find one that had recently used Smite Hex. I cast SS on this one, and then immediately cast SoF again to cover SS. I then recast PS, HB, and VS and then find the next smite that uses Smite Hex. Sometimes when they get really aggressive spamming your healing skills will give you that +8 health from VS and help keep you alive. As always, make defense your top priority. Cast SS and SoF whenever you can, but don’t sacrifice your time or energy on one an offensive skill when you should be recasting HB. After 2 or 3 good bouts of SS, the smites should be dead. If one remains, I usually wand it and hope it doesn’t put SoJ up. If it does cast SoJ, I’ll let my energy regenerate for a bit and then hit it with the SoF and SS combo.

vi. kill coldfire night grouPS

I have to admit, if there’s one thing I hate more than nightmares in the underworld, it’s the Coldfire Nights. These bloated spellcasters love to shut down soloists with a combination of Shard Storm and Maelstrom. What happens when you’re stuck in the middle of an AoE interrupt spell with your speed reduced by 66%? Nothing good. The trick with coldfires is to keep moving. Cast SS whenever you can, and try to keep them grouped up for the full effect. As for healing, I try to stick to PS and VS only so I can have a little more energy for emergencies and SS. Watch out for maelstrom and you should come out fine. If you are interrupted while casting PS, get the hell out of there and try again. There’s no point in sticking around and getting interrupted a second time. I try to avoid colfires as they are a pain in the arse and don’t drop ectos anyway. I’ll go over the groups you have to kill in the underworld run overview later on.

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7.) Specific Scenarios

i. two dying nightmares in a fight

This doesn’t happen very often, and you’ll survive it even less but it’s worth mentioning because it’s something to brag about if you live. Having one nightmare jump up in a fight is irritating, having two pop up just proves the internet really does hate you. My recommendation is hit each nightmare with your wand once and then run like you stole something. At least one nightmare will die because of your wand hit and then Rend Enchantments. If you manage to get away fast enough the aatxe will break off and you can come back and deal with them later. If you can’t get away, hit PS, HB, and then wand the remaining nightmare. Unfortunately without Essence Bond and Balthazar’s Spirit up you will have energy problems. I suggest getting them up as fast as possible. Of course, make PS and HB your priorities. If you manage to get all your enchantments back up, kudos. Just finish the fight like you normally would. I’ve only encountered this dual nightmare situation around 5 times, and managed to survive using the above method only once. However, I really think it was dumb luck that got me through. The other times I was quickly dispatched by a group of particularly vicious aatxe.

ii. dying nightmare agros

A dying nightmare agro is my name for what happens when a nightmare is agro’d before a group of aatxe and the whole group joins in. Sometimes a nightmare you can’t see yet will detect you and the aatxe grouped with it will come running while you’re still out of range. On top of being confusing, your instinct is to run away and that will only lead to death. In this situation, casting PS and then running up to the group to find the nightmare is your best chance of survival. With the small area inside the underworld running doesn’t work too often and dealing with a nightmare once it is above ground can be tougher than killing it as it pops up. There is a small delay in the time it takes a character to stop moving and starting attacking. If the nightmare notices you as you’re getting close it might be able to cast rend enchantments before you can take it down. Your best bet if aatxe start running at you is to charge in right back at them. At least when this happens you absolutely know a nightmare is bound to pop up. Being in range when it comes up is a lot better than having your back turned and a couple of aatxe in tow.

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8.) Walkthrough of a Smite Run

For those of you that really don’t know what you’re doing, the way to get into the underworld is to kneel in front of Grenth’s statue in the Temple of the Ages and give 1 platinum to Grenth’s Avatar. You’ll be teleported into the middle of a small area covered in Bladed Aatxe. First things first, throw on your three basic enchantments and wait for your energy to recover. Waiting for your energy to completely recover between casting each spell can speed this process up. I’m assuming you’ve read all the previous sections and know how to deal with the fights I will be discussing now. I will not be going over any fight specifics in this walkthrough. I’ll just be saying when and where to start your next battle. Attack the group of aatxe to your left to start. If there aren’t 3 aatxe standing in a tight group, wait for the single aatxe patrolling to get near enough that you can fight all 3 at once. Once they are all down, head left down the path towards the door to check to see if any nightmares show up. Doing this gives you a good idea of how many to expect later on in this area. If one pops up it’s most likely one less nightmare you will encounter later on. After you’ve done your sweep do a 180 and head back towards the staircase you ran up first, but take a left and head towards the next group. Move slowly towards them making sure you don’t miss a nightmare and have it come up behind you. Like the first group, if there is an aatxe patrolling near by try and agro it along with the two that are stationary. Once those three are toast do a quick check of the area for nightmares and then head up the stairs towards the next two. This is the only time I advise using SS before agroing the aatxe. There are never nightmares near these two. You may encounter the occasional nightmare on the staircase but should have already picked it off with your sweep anyway. Take these two out and you’re ready for the last big group. Head back down the stairs and take out the two aatxe waiting for you. Again, if there is another aatxe patrolling here these two try to agro it to speed up your run. Once this group is down head to the left and up the stairs. Depending on how the aatxe spawned you may have two singular aatxe waiting for you. Take them on one at a time as nightmares spawn often at the top of the staircase and running by a nightmare is a very bad idea. Once the first aatxe is dead take the second and then keep going past him to see if there any nightmares hiding towards the tip of the small ledge. Once all the aatxe in this area are dead head back towards where you started. Talk to the ghost directly in front of the spawning platform to initiate a quest. The doors originally locking you in this room will open and three groups of Grasping Darknesses will enter. Take out the group to the left first. By the time they are down another group should be approaching you from the right, take them out and then head back down the stairs and onto the platform. If you have worked quickly the third group should be approaching the top of the staircase to the right of the platform. Take them out and then head right towards the door. Wait until two aatxe run in through the door. Agro them and then drag them back into the original room so you don’t have to fight in the cramped doorway. Once they are dead head back to the doorway and watch for the group of darknesses slowly patrolling in a triangular pattern in the next room. Wait until they approach and then begin moving away. Sneak behind them and then head left around the corner into the next room. There should be another two aatxe waiting to die here. If they were patrolling between the two rooms, just use PS and then pull them into the second room to avoid the grasping darkness patrol. Once this final group of aatxe is dead, head past them and up the stairs towards your first group of smites. Destroy them and then find your way into the large cavern filled with smites and coldfires. This is where my walkthrough ends, the coldfires usually have the same patrols every time you enter here but the smite groups vary in size and location so you’re on your own. Work your way through the coldfires (sneaking by if you can) and take out the smite groups. Remember to lure them to a safe area away from the coldfires and you will do fine. You may find the occasional nightmare but they are never tied to the smites or coldfires so they aren’t very threatening. I usally head right and then turn around and go in the opposite direction until I hit a large throne room with a massive door on one end. If you find this door, you are done your smite run. There is more to do in the underworld after the run but your inventory will probably be full so there it’s best to get out and sell your wares.

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9.) FAQ

Thank you to Cygnus Zero, novawhiz, chrislee149, Francis Crawford, and Valkyries for these questions.

Q: What order should I cast my spells in? How should they be stacked?
A: I try to cast my spells in order of descending importance. I cast PS, HB, and then VS. This way even if two enchantments are removed I still have PS keeping me alive.

Q: What enemies does this build not work against?
A: Large grouPS of mesmer are a real problem. Having your enchantments stripped regularly will cause a lot of problems. But, these are not your biggest concern. Necromancer’s health stealing skills are not actually considered damage so PS does not reduce their effectiveness at all. This does not apply to health stealing spells that cause health degeneration but instant health steals like Vampiric Gaze will one hit kill you.

Q: When do I renew skills during battle? When they start flashing?
A: This depends on how many enemies you are fighting. When you are being assaulted by a large group, spamming spells to trigger VS can keep you alive. But this also drains your energy very quickly. My suggestion is to use your skills as much as possible but try not to drop below 10 energy in case PS starts to flash. Without PS, you’re dead.

Q: Where is the best place to farm besides UW and FoW with a 55 necro?
A: When not in the underworld I farm the minotaurs in elona reach and the trolls in the cave outside of drok’s. Occasionally I farm the griffins west of destiny’s gorge.

Q: Are hydras good to farm? I never seem get any good drops.
A: Although this may just be speculation on my part it has been my experience that hydras rarely drop gold items, but when they do the items are often very good. I find farming hydras to be rather boring because of the slow fights so I don’t often farm them. I usually take on one or two groups at a time when fighting hydras but I have successfully take 9 hydras at once several times before. I cast PS and HB and then wait out their initial waves of meteor. After casting it they run in and begin melee attacks and fire spells that don’t cause knock downs.

Q: Why aren’t the minotaurs dropping anything good?
A: Minotaurs hardly ever drop anything of real value. With these fights it’s quantity over quality. It is possible to make a fair amount of gold off of the minotaurs if you maximize your time and go as fast as possible.

Q: How do I deal with dying nightmares in the underworld?
A: I have gone over nightmares in sections 6 and 7. Check them out to find the answer.

Q: How do I deal with constantly being knocked down?
A: There are two things to do that will really help you out in a fight against hammer warriors spamming knockdowns. First off, kill your attackers. Hit the warriors with SS and watch them die. Next, be pre-emptive with your enchantments casts. Try to cast PS and HB as much as possible to ensure that you have enough time to recast before they run out, even if you are knocked down trying to cast them the first time.

Q: Is there any point in fighting mixed grouPS?
A: Fighting mixed groups can be more of a challenge and more entertaining. Just watch the mesmers. Make sure you know what you are hexed with, and ensure that PS is covered by another enchantment.

Q: Where does this build not work?
A: Any area with a high concentration of mesmers will ensure death. Also, any area with necromancers using health stealing skills will be impossible to solo in.

Q: Where can I capture SS?
A: SS is one of the easiest to capture elites in the game. You can capture the skill right outside of Camp Rankor, to the South East. The boss is name Nhy Spinechill. The best part is that you can see the group from the entrance to rankor, just run straight out of the portal until you hit the wall in front of you and then cycle through your nearest targets. If you don’t see him, rezone and try again. The fight isn’t very difficult, just load up on henchies and bring skills that don’t need corpses.

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10.) Outro

Thank you for checking out my guide. I’m hoping at least a couple people will find the information in here useful. If you have any further questions post them in this thread or whisper me in game. My in game name is Greater Lych. Happy farming!

Despondency · Apr 09, 2006, 10:06 AM // 10:06

Nice job, good for the newbies

.

Opeth11 · Apr 09, 2006, 10:11 AM // 10:11

And the love begins to flow for Greaterlych

The Fenixxor · Apr 09, 2006, 10:28 AM // 10:28

A video may be nice of this, as while it sounds good on paper it will more than likely by ineffective in practise.

Cygnus_Zero · Apr 09, 2006, 02:03 PM // 14:03

^ I don't know what that guy is talking about, I learned a lot from this. Thanks Greater! Very well written and organized too. Sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders. Much respect.

Valkyries · Apr 09, 2006, 02:05 PM // 14:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Fenixxor

A video may be nice of this, as while it sounds good on paper it will more than likely by ineffective in practise.

Ahhhh no.. this has proven a nice few times by people posting and in videos.

If you want a video, do a search. There a PLENTY around for people using a 55 Necro for Soloing.

Apart from that EXCELLENT job, really enjoyed the article and it answered a lot of questions.

One last thing. STICKY this! PLEASE!!

Megla Zero · Apr 09, 2006, 02:32 PM // 14:32

Nice job man... that covers some of the issues I've been having in UW

Wouldn't a faster casting hex be a better idea to cover it up? I know that personally... when I go on 2-man SS/SV+55 runs... I use Suffering to cover it up since it goes on top of all of them to make them burn their smite hexes (if I hadn't SV'd them already, of course) but if I haven't SV'd them... then they seem to smite off SS just as Suffering is about to get on. So... wouldn't IP be a better idea since its a bit expensive, but a 1 second cast time. Other than that, nice guide... and I know I'll be using it next time I feel like soloing the UW ^^

Francis Crawford · Apr 09, 2006, 04:00 PM // 16:00

Good job! Nice level of detail! Clearly written!

Bravo!!!

greaterlych · Apr 09, 2006, 05:17 PM // 17:17

When you're fighting smites the cast times don't really matter. Suffering and Insidious Parasite both cost 15 and have longer recharge times than Shadow of Fear. The 10 second recharge and only 10 energy cost make SoF really good for a cover hex. IS has a couple more problems. It only targets one enemy, so the smites won't use Smite Hex as much AND it damages the target you cast it on which will probably also be the smite you are casting SS on. You do not want to damage a target with SS on them because it will only reduce SS's duration.

mint · Apr 09, 2006, 05:23 PM // 17:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Fenixxor

A video may be nice of this, as while it sounds good on paper it will more than likely by ineffective in practise.

look for Kcp's posts...he has a whole compendium of videos for necro's soloing uw and fow hosted on filefront

greaterlych · Apr 09, 2006, 05:46 PM // 17:46

There was a thread featuring the videos on the first page...

http://hosted.filefront.com/GodlikeSatan

Ecksor · Apr 09, 2006, 07:17 PM // 19:17

I would just like to say THANK YOU, send me a tell in game Eck Sor X

greaterlych · Apr 09, 2006, 09:38 PM // 21:38

Thanks for all the replies, I'm glad I could help. I just really wish people would read this or the other ten thousand threads outlining this build. New threads are still being made by people looking for the build. It's right here! GWGuru is going to have to rename the necromancer board to the solo necro board. I wish people would learn how to search so we can get back to discussing other necromancer topics.

MentalMidgit · Apr 10, 2006, 02:03 AM // 02:03

I am very suprised but almost every UW build ive seen never does thsi for nightmares

1. Run around the Wall and pop all nightmares.

2 Run like hell to behind the ghost

3. wand em

4. recast enchants

greaterlych · Apr 10, 2006, 02:29 AM // 02:29

ANet changed the location of the ghosts used in that trick a little while ago. I've heard some people can still do it, but I have yet to see it for myself. Honestly, If you're careful you don't need the ghosts. You can take the nightmares on without them.

Undead Preacher · Apr 10, 2006, 06:29 AM // 06:29

very nice....alot of work, but looks like it would help anyone new to the 55 build! I started out as a Necro... he was my first character... when I made my 55 I thought it was so awesome.... but then I made my other 3 characters, 1 of which is a monk.... when I started to 55 with my monk.. I realized that they are the superior 55 profession(its easiest as monk)...however it is much more challenging as a necro... I know you can run a 55 necro very well.. but seeing I run both builds... i do believe monk>necro....

I love the dmg from SS.... but the skills used by 55 monks just makes the build so much more efficient.... for example..

Blessed Aura +20% enchantment mod.... Enchantments such as Healing Breeze and Protective spirit last SOOOO much longer... Healing breeze last for over 15 seconds on my Monk 55.... I can also take on twice as many enemies with my monk 55 due to Bonnetti's... I know 55 necro's can tank with the best of them... I used to solo uw and fow.. but if you have the money.... make a 55 monk.... you can do it with much greater ease!

Very Nice Guide, I imagine this will help alot of people!

Also theres one very important skill your leaving out, and KCP will agree with me on this especially for FOW..... Incidious Parasite... I believe his words was "IP is your LIFELINE"

Kcp · Apr 10, 2006, 11:22 AM // 11:22

Lych, do you really have a problem with staying alive that you need vig spirit for uw? There should be only 1 aatxe left at the top of the stairs by the time you clear out the aatxe. Clearing them in this amount, 3 aatxe at left stairs, 3 aatxe directly above ghost, 2 aatxe at top of right stairs, nab the patroling aatxe at the bottom of the stairs and take it to the remaining 2 aatxe at top of staircase leading to the shortest path to the terrorwebs. This leaves 1 aatxe remaining that is at the top of the longer of the 2 staircases leading to the terrorwebs, which IMO is a waste of time. ( May sound confusing, but it's the exact method seen in my vids for those that havent watched.)

If you really feel the need to kill this lone aatxe you would be smart to just kill the squids first so the door opens up and combine this last aatxe with the 2 patroling cows in the room to the left at the top of the stairs that leads to the terrorwebs

.

The last 4 aatxe in the chamber before smites can be combined and killed all at once. If you feel froggy and confident you can handle DN's in the first room you can tank 5-6 aatxe at a time easily if you are good at the art of body blocking your enemies.

5 second duration, 40% block rate guardian causes you problems energy wise

Are you constantly casting skills when the cows have already used their savage slashes trying to lure out non-recharged interrupts from them? This is the #1 problem, people get over excited and cast way to much and run out of energy and blame it on guardian. I've seen it more times then I care to count. Savage slash has the same exact recharge as Spiteful, so w/e your spiteful is recharged the odds are the interrupts on the cows are too ( not counting chance of skill recharge.) This is when you lure out the savage slash, cast guardian, then SS.

Guardian allows for mass amount of health regen vs smites. You will gain more health back while guardian is up against smites then you will off vig spirit even if you could spam every skill on your bar as fast as possible.

Megla, you cant use a single target hex to cover SS. Do the smites only cast spells on themselves? Or are they monks that will take care of one another? They will smite hexes off one another. That's what monks do right?

Preacher, 55hp monks were fun when you could solo upper-end areas fast and effeciently. Yes they have the advantage of being able to switch secondaries and make use of some important skills. As far as speed and effeciency soloing in UW and FoW, sorry gotta drop the necro bomb......Necro > Monk, no contest. When you are getting pounded by multiple enemies @ 2 energy regen per hit who needs blessed aura or enchantment length boosts. You shouldn't have any energy problems maintaining necessary enchants unless you go overboard casting spells while facing a small amount of enemies.

I have a monk that I used to solo with when they were impressive. Now the monk is just used to help out friends, and chest run areas that most other classes cant due to some major spell flinging. Ya divine favor is nice on a solo monk, but other 55 hp build creator's and myself have proven that you don't need divine favor to survive. Bonetti's is great but as noted above, proven that it's not needed. Ya it's great if you're doing the 2 man deal and just trying to survive while someone else kills everything for ya, you may find that get's old really quick.

I'd give the shameless plug on my guide but after 20+ pages of the same old questions, na. I'll happily let someone else answer the same questions for a change.

Good job on the guide lych, it should help people unfamiliar with the build.

One last note, please guys if you have questions directed at me and for some strange reason feel the need to P.M. Godlike-satan in game after watching the videos, please don't. For giving this build out all I ask is that you respect my playing time by not barraging me with Pm's while I am online. I have a life too and more then likely while I am online I'm busy playing just like you. However feel free to send me a private message on the forum. I will reply whenever i get a chance, thanks.

Niosisw · Apr 10, 2006, 02:42 PM // 14:42

Just to prove how easy it is to cap SS, I got it at level 14 with henchmen.

Cygnus_Zero · Apr 10, 2006, 03:04 PM // 15:04

I got it at 15 with henchment. It's one of the easier ones actually. There was other elites much more difficult.

B Ephekt · Apr 10, 2006, 04:35 PM // 16:35

To cap SS you can basically call the target once for the henchmen then just stand there while they kill him. It's that easy, and yes, I've done that before.