Curse

Bill Clinton · Oct 29, 2010, 09:00 PM // 21:00

Essentially i'm trying to create a warrior build that can solo (run) the Prophecies missions, but it cant use any of the PvE only skills. I'm aware that i'll have to stop and kill stuff numerous times in the missions to complete them. I have 4 skill slots open for those occasions.

So, which 4 non-elite Warrior skills can pump out the most DPS in your opinion and why?

Edit:
Gah. Meant 4 skills, sorry. Can a mod edit?

Fixed - Marty

Ailina · Oct 29, 2010, 09:31 PM // 21:31

Could you post the rest of your build so we have an idea what your atts are like?
Also, which weapon would you be using?

Bill Clinton · Oct 29, 2010, 09:37 PM // 21:37

Can be any weapon at all. Whatever is best.

Attributes so far:
12 strength (boosted to 15/16, not sure which is worth it yet)
9 Tactics (can be lowered for more DPs)
Rest unspent, can go on whichever weapon.

Then my survival skills are:
Defy pain with 'to the limit' to charge it while running. Then soldiers speed for solid 30%ims. For healing I have healing signet, but honestly it doesnt seem too good. Degen is very dangerous, so i'm still considering other options like I will survive or something but who knows.

That leaves 4 slots for the damage whenever I come to a boss or a specific fighting section. I know that the optimum skills are largely circumstantial but none-the-less theres got to be an optimum combo out there.

I'm currently using Gash/Sever artery/ Final thrust / IAS, if you're curious.

**Marty Silverblade** · Oct 30, 2010, 12:09 AM // 00:09

So have you actually tried running it yet? If you can survive then whatever damage skills you want are fine. If not, then you'll either need to kill more quickly or take more survival skills.

Regarding Sever/Gash/Thrust, that might be a bit hazardous given you need adrenaline for Defy Pain. Having a spike is probably better than going for overall DPS though. Maybe Dismember/Executioner's/Agonizing Chop/IAS? That wouldn't be enough to get a kill though so unless your survival skills are good enough for you to be able to stand there and swing for a fair while you'll need to look at other options (don't think it'd be possible though).

Bill Clinton · Oct 30, 2010, 12:36 AM // 00:36

Oh yeah, I've done plenty of running with it! Survival is just fine, depending on the situation. Anything with a lot of physical damage is a piece of cake, but this build really suffers against heavy degeneration, in which case I figure i'll switch to a melandrus resliance setup or something. No one single build could clear the whole place, surely! Hehe.

Anyway the adrenaline costs of the skills isnt really a problem I find, Defy pain lasts a pretty long time anyways and as long as I just continue to use it in conjunction with 'to the limit!' they dont really interfere with one another much. In fact, from what I can see, using adrenaline attacks is far better because I dont have to stock up on energy runes/insginias and so can focus soley on defensive ones like absorption, vigor, purity/restoration etc...

Interesting combo with the axe! The interupt sure will come in handy for spiking out Monks or key skills like empathy. I'll check it out and see how it faires. Oh, and I think i'll use flail as the IAS. Does everything think thats a good option? Is an IAS even optimum? Just looking for the optimum DPS we can get, here.

**Marty Silverblade** · Oct 30, 2010, 12:40 AM // 00:40

Definitely run an IAS. Increasing your attack speed by 33% results in 50% more damage overall. Regarding Flail, it's your best option unless there are times when you need to cancel quickly and run away. Not including Drunken Master with alcohol, of course, because you don't have PvE skills.

Bill Clinton · Oct 30, 2010, 01:13 AM // 01:13

Yeah, you're right about the IAS. I was considering stuff like for great justice because the extra adrenaline would mean I could pump out high damaging attacks more often which might result in more damage but its probably not worth it.

Drunken master with alcohol is a very interesting idea!! Essentially what i'm going to be doing is making a new Warrior in prophecies and completing the campaign, but I'm making it into a challenge by never allowing myself to be in a party with any people, heroes or henchman (except leaving pre where its mandatory, ofcourse). So, for the most part, PvE skills are off the table considering that completing quests in eye of the north would be nigh impossible. Thats why I said no PvE skills. However you mention drunken master which wouldnt, in theory, be tough to get. Its just a matter of getting to the umbral grotto intact and giving him the map pieces. (easily bought or farmed from the worms outside boreal..).

Using that would then free up an extra skill slot... potentially giving acess much more damage/survivabilty? Got any ideas there? Choices, choices.

Anyway I just tested this axe chain and its far more impressive than the sword was, awesome stuff.

**Marty Silverblade** · Oct 30, 2010, 01:22 AM // 01:22

An interesting challenge. Drunken Master means you'll save a slot because you'll have the IAS and IMS combined in a single slot. You won't need to spend much energy or adrenaline either because it lasts a long time. 90 seconds at max rank... which you won't have due to soloing. I suppose if you really wanted to you could get a spirit spam build to kill some foes and get your rank up a bit (this would be a waste of time though, it'd take forever). 25% IAS is only worth 33% more damage and the IMS might not work for running. Maybe play around with it and see whether the extra slot will cover the DPS you lose. I suspect it won't, but I don't have much to make the judgement off. Furious Axe perhaps? You'll have more energy for it now.

Bill Clinton · Oct 30, 2010, 01:30 AM // 01:30

I couldnt do spirit spam since theres no ritualist secondary available. (Whatever I pick i'm stuck with till ascending in the desert, so its gotta be a good choice.) However, theres always killroys punchout which is designed for solo play and its not too hard to reach rank 5 or so in deldrimor there. Lets see.. that would be 29-30% increase. Not so bad. Though grinding really isnt my thing. If theres no massively compelling reason to do it, i'd give it a miss.

Furious is a nice idea... blocking isnt something i'd considered much. Nor blind, for that matter.

Retro8bitje · Nov 09, 2010, 02:15 PM // 14:15

So your Challange is to solo Prophs compleet without using h/h or other players?

My qeustion for you are you giong to use prophies only skills or do you add skills from other campaigns.

Terek Zelta · Nov 10, 2010, 06:23 PM // 18:23

I did something like this, but it was a long time ago, so I'm sorry in advance if I get anything wrong.

Use axes!

Marty's right. You want to focus on spiking, but you'll also want some AoE too, and because enemies will be surrounding you constantly, Cyclone Axe is the perfect skill to have here. I also used a furious axe when I did this, because if I remember right, I ended up having to sacrifice FGJ, and a furious mod combines very well with Cyclone Axe, Enraging Charge and Lion's Comfort, which was my heal.

You can't use only one build to solo all of Prophecies, you'll have to switch some skills out depending on where you are. Also, there'll be some missions (specifically in the desert, Thunderhead Keep and the Ring of Fire) where you might have to bite the bullet and bring henchmen. Some missions have certain time limits or other conditions that make having more than one person in the group almost mandatory. That said, it'd be cool if you proved me wrong and soloed all of Prophecies. I'm sure it can be done, just not sure it can be done on a solo warrior, even with any farming gimmicks I might not know about, and it's just a lot easier to have some extra help on important missions.

For example, it might be nearly impossible to rescue Evennia, no matter how little damage you take, because you probably won't kill fast enough to escape the Mursaat, and with only you in the group, Evennia is much more vulnerable to attack.

Keep in mind too, just because you're getting conditioned and hexed doesn't necessarily mean you need condition or hex removal in that area. A lot of stuff will be harmless to you because 3 seconds of -7 health degeneration will mean nothing when everything is doing 0's or single digits, and you're healing yourself for 100+ HP at a time. Sometimes it's more effective to kill what's hexing or conditioning you rather than waste a second or two casting Antidote Signet - but not always.

Also, be prepared to wait around a lot for your HP to regenerate. Guild Wars is a gorgeous game, and in this case, it's actually helpful to stop and enjoy the scenery after a particularly tough group of enemies. This is also why I say it'd be a good idea to bring henchmen on some of the more important and difficult missions.

You also need to think about your armor. Defy Pain works best if you use +armor on your shields versus whatever element you plan to go up against most. For example, fire imps will do nothing to you - literally - with Defy Pain, +armor vs. fire on your weapon and shield with full sentinel's insignias. I've made the Mursaat hit me for practically nothing too (get infused in Iron Mines of Moladune, I think the mission was!) I'd avoid conditional +HP shield mods if you go that route. +30 HP will be fine.

Oh, and don't forget a Stonefist insignia and Sup. Absorption rune. Sup. Absorption is essential when running Defy Pain. I think it was Sup. Absorption anyway. The one that reduces physical damage by 3!

The build I used was... /drumroll

Strength 12 + 1 + 1 (you'll be weakened a lot - you don't want your sentinel's insignias to become useless)
Axe Mastery 12 + 1

Dismember
Body Blow
Brawling Headbutt (any Deldrimor rank; it's good to KD key enemies)
Cyclone Axe
Defy Pain
Flail
Enraging Charge
Lion's Comfort

For a good number of areas, that's all you'll need. The right armor combination will do the rest. You'll still take some damage, but it won't be much, and you'll kill things reasonably well. The only downside is you'll end up waiting around for your health to regenerate after a tough fight.

That build becomes slightly (I said slightly!) less viable in the Southern Shiverpeaks/Droknar's Forge area, but consider condition removal, blocking skills, hex removal, "I Will Survive!", replacing Lion's Comfort with another heal that you can use outside of battle, and in general just be creative.

I've used this build in the Ring of Fire too, but I didn't solo the missions with it, I always opted to bring henchmen and/or heroes.

When you're soloing, sometimes you might want to go out of your way to use skills that make enemies scatter too, and you may not always need to use Defy Pain (think about your secondary profession).

It's been a long time since I did anything like this, and I didn't fully solo Prophecies when I did. I remember using a Healing Hands build in the explorable areas outside of Droknar's Forge and it doing really well too. It was a joke build, but if something works and you're alone, who cares how you do it as long as you're having fun and kickin' butt?

That said, I don't recommend Healing Hands. Defy Pain is a way~ better elite. Even Melandru's Resilience is probably better. I'm just throwing down ideas.

That's all, really. Have fun. Oh, and I'm assuming this is normal mode and you hit level 20 doing Kilroy's runs, since you mentioned Drunken Master was an option (it is!)

Edit: Typos.

Bill Clinton · Dec 13, 2010, 03:32 AM // 03:32

Wow Terek. Thanks SO much for the post. I feel sad to say that I never noticed it back when you posted it last month. That really sucks, it would have helped me so much!

Well... over the past month i've been doing it! I've come to learn a lot of what you've said myself, and while its been super tough, i'm still going strong! Today I finnaly completed the thirsty river completely solo - its the hardest mission i've come up against in the entire game and i'm so happy I finaly did it. It took a LOT of preparation, practice and digging around in old 2006 threads about w/mo running before shadow form existed - but I got it!

I've not been to eye of the north or used any PvE skills yet, and I dont plan on doing it for the rest of the game, either. I did end up having to use non-prophecies skills from skill tomes, though, on the thirsty river due to its difficulty.

Okay, so why am I posting in here again? I need everyones advice. I'm facing the dragons lair now, which could be a problem, and then the 6 hardest missions in prophecies. Thunderhead keep is not something I can see any way of completing - how can I POSSIBLY go about this? I'm determined not to let this challenge beat me, i've come so far, but I need your help.

In fact, if a mod reads this, can I please request a thread title change and perhaps moving to a different section? Thanks!

Thread renamed. Decided to leave it here because I figure the thread is mostly going to concern build changes - Marty

(PS, for anyone who maybe wants video proof that i've come this far entirely solo I've actually made this entire challenge into a 'lets play' on youtube, which you can catch here. Cheers)

S{R}Raptor · Dec 14, 2010, 06:52 AM // 06:52

Since you dont want to use henchies or heros, for Thunderhead keep id suggest you go to a ranger secondary and invest heavily in wilderness survival and use lots and lots of traps and make damn sure you got some good increased movement speed to hit the catapults as you will need their extra dmg along with some traps to not only slow them down but kill the mobs as well. Might find a good spirit to use to help you out like healing spring.

Bill Clinton · Dec 14, 2010, 05:10 PM // 17:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by S{R}Raptor

Since you dont want to use henchies or heros, for Thunderhead keep id suggest you go to a ranger secondary and invest heavily in wilderness survival and use lots and lots of traps and make damn sure you got some good increased movement speed to hit the catapults as you will need their extra dmg along with some traps to not only slow them down but kill the mobs as well. Might find a good spirit to use to help you out like healing spring.

Yeah traps was something i've been looking at. Its a great idea. At least for these last 6 missions I have the joy of any secondary profession I want (from prophecies). I found this thread the other day, where someone claimed to have solo'd THK back in '06.

Of course theres no proof, and i've so far never seen any proof this has been done, but that seems like a strong starting point. Just wondering though, would the fact I only have 2 energy regeneration rather than 3 make a big difference?

Oh and thanks to Marty for changing the thread title.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retro8bitje

So your Challange is to solo Prophs compleet without using h/h or other players?

My qeustion for you are you giong to use prophies only skills or do you add skills from other campaigns.

Sorry I missed this. I'm willing to use skills from other campaigns because I can get them from tomes. Professions from other campaigns are a no-go, though. So thats no Vow of Silence or Shadow form stuff or even spirit spamming.

MisterB · Dec 14, 2010, 07:27 PM // 19:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Clinton

Yeah traps was something i've been looking at. Its a great idea.
-snip-

Just wondering though, would the fact I only have 2 energy regeneration rather than 3 make a big difference?

No Expertise is going to make far more of a difference than a single pip of energy regeneration for trapping on a warrior. Rangers also have their secondary free to do things like Echo Dust Trap.

Bill Clinton · Dec 14, 2010, 08:42 PM // 20:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterB

No Expertise is going to make far more of a difference than a single pip of energy regeneration for trapping on a warrior. Rangers also have their secondary free to do things like Echo Dust Trap.

Hmm yeah, so maybe that ones a no-go. Anyone got any other ideas?

Terek Zelta · Dec 16, 2010, 06:37 PM // 18:37

No problemo! It's cool to see that you're doing well.

It goes against every fiber of my being to tell you this, because I think warriors should play like warriors and smash everything instead of emulating other classes, but Spirit spamming with full radiant/attunement armor might work with Armor of Unfeeling, but that's a blind guess. If it does work, you can set spirits up and run back with Evennia and let them do everything.

The reason I'm iffy on it is because spirits have no defense against Spectral Agony. I don't imagine them living for very long with that on them, but there may be ways of working around that with the right skill setup, and not stacking spirits right on top of one another (to avoid their lightning AoE), etc.

Again, that's a complete guess, so don't be surprised if I'm horribly wrong.

It's worth noting that the Mursaat and the bosses along that particular path can be killed with just a standard Defy Pain build and the right armor setup, but you'd need to do it before they killed Evennia. I'm not sure that's doable. Maybe with a snare while running Superior Runes to lower your HP by large amounts so that you can manipulate enemy AI into attacking you instead. I'm not sure. These are just ideas.

Edit: Whoops. I was thinking of a completely different mission. Sorry. Shows you how much I play this game anymore. :P

What I said above still applies to THK, though. THK is pretty easy as long as you're infused. The only time the normal mode Mursaat are a threat with Defy Pain is when I have to protect certain NPCs, but that dwarf guy shouldn't be an issue because he doesn't follow you around the map (at least I don't remember him doing that...)

I don't see THK being that big of an issue as long as you stay near the stairs, keep everything on you, and power your way through each wave of enemies, but I could be wrong.

Bill Clinton · Dec 16, 2010, 07:11 PM // 19:11

Hmmmm...
Which bit exactly are we worried about, here? I thought that once we freed Evennia we could just walk behind the mursaat along that path while they killed everything, and are eventually picked off by the catapults themselves? Surely i'm forgetting something.

That Rit idea is nice but even if it did work, I cant get any foreign professions so thats a dead end. But I like the idea of leaving something behind for them to fight - maybe a well placed shining blade warhorn? Perhaps a Gaki to heal her?

One thing that keeps me going at the moment is the fact I can use cons, they should help me quite a lot. Dragons lair probably would have been a REAL pain had I not used a summoning stone to help me kill the Facet of Life.

And ofcourse a full conset along with various other sweets could easily get me a lot of nice help. It sounds crazy but if I went all out on the various items we're talking:

* +2 Health Regeneration
* +300 Extra Health
* +20 Extra Energy
* +3 To all Attributes
* +10 Extra Armour (Does that work with defy pain, too?)
* 33% Faster movement and attack speeds, 25% faster activation, recharge times
* -5 Damage Reduction (With defy pain up and the correct equipment thats a whopping -20)
* 50% Critical Hit Immunity

Thats going to condense by bar wonderfully. No need for an IMS or IAS, extra energy and plenty of atributes - I could feasibly try healing her myself (even if only for a short time). Likewise, i'm relying on this kind of thing for King Jalis, too.

Edit:
Oh yeah, I think you can tell Jalis to wait where you want - kinda like the ghostly hero.

Terek Zelta · Dec 16, 2010, 09:58 PM // 21:58

Oh, right. It's been a month, I forgot about the Prophecies/EotN-only thing. Sorry. :P

It's not so much the Mursaat as it is everything else. The regular enemies and bosses will attack Evennia because she's so much weaker than you are, so you have to watch out for that.

The Mursaat don't always go down to catapults, though, I think because of a bug. There's only ever been one or two times where that's worked for me. Every time I do it, I just rush through all the bosses and run like crazy, just to be safe, but I'm apparently one of the only ones who does it that way, so I guess other people have much more success with it.

Bill Clinton · Dec 17, 2010, 10:05 PM // 22:05

I'm having real trouble with the stone summit heretics around the mission... with no way to block spells they just snare the hell out of me and put HUGE degeneration on me (negative 13)... got any ideas?

I've tried slugging it out with troll and melandrus reselience but then I just get knocked down with bulls strike and giants stomp, then interupted by the axe wielders. To top it off the mesmers shatter any enchantments I dare to put up. They seem to have gone all out to prevent people running this.. :S I cant even get to Evennia letalone see if I can save her!

Edit:
I have now also tried cancelling out the reduction to my movement speed by stacking other IMS's - but that doesnt seem to work. I have tried bringing hex removal skills but with such insanely fast recharges on both conjure phantasm and Crippling Anguish they re-hex me long before I've recharged myself. I've also tried fighting my way through them, which is slightly more effective but would takes hours and hours, even if it werent for the dolyak masters who I know I cant kill when faced.

Does anyone have an idea? Anything.

Edit2:
Well on a test character I cracked and tried what it would be like with shadow form. It all becomes remarkably easy! The initial stone summit are no problem, I can get in and out of them long before I lose enough energy to maintain shadowform. Everything after that involving the mantle is no problem, with a red rock candy I dont even need to use any more skills to get to saidra. Being mostly physcials, they just dont bother chasing me.

If I break the second gate before freeing saidra/evennia and then target her before triggering the cutscene, as soon as it ends I can simply press space to follow her and theres no threat.

The last little bit of the mission seems a bit tough, but I think I can pass it. After all the mursaat die there are a couple of stone summit groups I need to take out to get Evennia through safely. Thankfully there're no mesmers with them, but there IS a monk boss and a regular monk there at the same time. I'm not sure if I have enough firepower but I can try using a warhorn or whatever is the summon with the most firepower and hope for the best. Perhaps I can get lucky enough to use disrupting chop on both their Mark of Protection's and can kill them that way.