Curse

Racthoh · Apr 24, 2006, 08:00 AM // 08:00

Tired of my old build, tried something new and fun.

Tainted Flesh {E}
Frenzy
Riposte
Watch Yourself
Galrath Slash
Final Thrust
Healing Signet
Dolyak Signet

Death Magic: 2 (leftovers)
Strength: 10 + 1
Sword: 12 + 3 + 1
Tactics: 8 + 1

Grawls have either a resistance to slashing, or a weakness to lightning. In either case, using a shocking sword can net upwards of 156 damage with a 35% ideal sword's Final Thrust against the necromancers. Stance equipment, or enchanted is ideal, I've used both a +45/-2 stance shield and a -2/-2 and haven't noticed a difference in speed. Gladiator's gear, along with one piece of knight's/ascalon as always.

First thing you do is take down the hammer grawls with Tainted Flesh, and Dolyak Signet on (and Watch Yourself just in case). The -4 degen, along with the occasional 56 from Riposte, and 100+ damage from Galrath and Final drops them very quickly. Once they've all dropped, engage the necromancer grawls without Tainted Flesh in effect. They will remove it with Chilblains, and transfer the poison onto you if it is still enchanting you. And since they aren't affected by Tainted Flesh anyway (don't attack in melee) there is no point in having it on. Just don't try to engage too many at once if you're just learning it at first.

The necromancer and ranger bosses drop a lot faster than my previous tactics heavy build. Warrior boss is also faster, ele can't be done still, and I wouldn't bother with the monk.

Drops are nothing special, occasional gold but don't expect to make a lot of gold extremely fast. You can pretty much clear all the grawl in under 10 minutes, so using one of the 10 minutes scroll is an easy way to get some good experience as well. On average, I would say each go nets 2.5k-3k just by IDing and selling everything to the merchant, and exchaning the grawl necklaces to the collector. Each necklace is 8 gold, 5 gets you a collector item that sells for 125 gold. For some reason, I find that vigor and absorption runes drop with some frequency from any armours that may contain runes.

Have fun.

Tigers Anger · Apr 24, 2006, 09:03 AM // 09:03

Looks like a nice build, I used to farm there with a Troll farming W/Mo build, so 'id massacre all the melee grawls but leave all the spellcasters. Might be a night change of pace from FoW I guess.

Shadow-Hunter · Apr 24, 2006, 11:17 AM // 11:17

when do you use Frenzy? agains all or melee grawls only, or the casters only?
cant seem to find it in your post.. other than that then im gonna try this so much

~Shadow

Poison Ivy · Apr 24, 2006, 11:25 AM // 11:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Racthoh

Have fun.

Aye.

*Grabs SDS*

Splatter Mcnasty · Apr 24, 2006, 02:50 PM // 14:50

lose Frenzy, and switch in Necrotic traversal. As soon as the first grawl goes down, use Traversal to cause an additional -4 degen to all adjacent enemies, for a total of -8...works much faster in my opinion. I've been doing a build similar to this for a long time.

ibex333 · Apr 24, 2006, 03:07 PM // 15:07

You said Grawl are succeptable to lightning dmg, Racthoh. How do you know this?

Zephyr Jackson · Apr 24, 2006, 03:16 PM // 15:16

I am thinking Racthoh has enough money for every Sword for every Element.

Racthoh · Apr 24, 2006, 09:51 PM // 21:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by ibex333

You said Grawl are succeptable to lightning dmg, Racthoh. How do you know this?

Either they're weak against it, or strong against slashing. I have two swords, one that is zealous doing slashing damage the other that is shocking dealing lightning damage. It might be any element, I'm not sure. But using lightning damage as opposed to slashing is more effective.

Take a lightning sword and use Wild Blow. Take a slashing sword and use Wild Blow.

Quote:

when do you use Frenzy? agains all or melee grawls only, or the casters only?
cant seem to find it in your post.. other than that then im gonna try this so much

~Shadow

Always in Frenzy. With Dolyak + Watch Yourself, the damage is nothing scary. Try to wait until Frenzy isn't in effect for when you use Healing Signet. If you need to use it, make sure Dolyak + Watch Yourself are in effect so you don't have -40AL AND double damage.

Quote:

lose Frenzy, and switch in Necrotic traversal. As soon as the first grawl goes down, use Traversal to cause an additional -4 degen to all adjacent enemies, for a total of -8...works much faster in my opinion. I've been doing a build similar to this for a long time.

Prehaps against the hammer wielding grawls, however once you start wailing on the necromancers you've lost quite a bit of damage output. Frenzy provides a 50% increase to your damage output over time.

kvndoom · Apr 25, 2006, 03:00 AM // 03:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by ibex333

You said Grawl are succeptable to lightning dmg, Racthoh. How do you know this?

Armor rules in this game apply to monsters as well as player characters. In other words, warrior class enemies (Tengu Braves, Ettins, Grawl hammers) are going to have similar armor proportions as human characters. A P/C Warrior has, say, 80 AL vs elemental, 100 vs physical. Probably any elemental hilt will do extra damage to them, whereas a physical attack (Barbed, Zealous, Cruel, Sundering, etc) will do less because of higher resistance.

I noticed this some time back doing IDS runs. To get rid of DP, I would take on the chicken Rangers (Fierce). Switching from my FDS or IDS to my Zealous sword did considerably more damage. Why? All Ranger armor is +30 AL vs elemental, and some is an additional +15 vs a specific element. Just changing my weapon effectively dropped their defense by 30 points.

If you Troll or Ettin farm, you will see much the same- more damage using elemental weapons. And if an enemy is weak against a specific element, it will hurt them even more if you use that specific element.

Racthoh · Apr 25, 2006, 03:43 AM // 03:43

What necromancer armour gives +AL vs. slashing in that case?

Senator Tom · Apr 25, 2006, 05:42 AM // 05:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Racthoh

What necromancer armour gives +AL vs. slashing in that case?

heavens gate armor

kvndoom · Apr 25, 2006, 08:08 AM // 08:08

Lightning could be the Grawl's weak element. I've never played Necro, so I'm unfamiliar with their amors, and Guru's armor guide is woefully incomplete, and this is the only GW site that's not blocked from work, so I couldn't answer that if my life depended upon it.

But I would guess comparative damage testing with 15>50 ebon and firey and icy swords would give a more conclusive answer. It could be one of GW's many little quirks and Grawl have a naturally higher resistance to slashing (thick skin? dunno).

Ado · Apr 25, 2006, 08:25 AM // 08:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by ibex333

You said Grawl are succeptable to lightning dmg, Racthoh. How do you know this?

Avicara, Charr and Tengu are also weak against lightning-damage. All of them are "hairy" creatures, so there seems to be a link. I found out about this when I was farming Lornars Pass. At first I was using a fiery hilt on both the golems and the avicara. I decided to try every elemental sword on the avicara since I was hardly doing any damage with my fiery sword (I have the luck of having 6 +15% swords with all hilts except sundering) and I noticed that when I was using my shocking sword they went down a lot quicker.

On avarage I strike for +10 to +15 extra damage per hit on them, which is of course good to know when farming them. When to use fire and ice is obvious, but I haven't find any creatures yet where ebon does more damage. Anyone knows?

glountz · Apr 25, 2006, 08:35 AM // 08:35

You don't use deadly riposte to add bleeding to your disease?
However here's my build, I think it might come near your "tactic heavy build":
8+1+3 Sword
11+3 Strenght
11+3 Tactics

Note: 3 sup runes am I mad? No. The deal here is to keep balance between damage you take, damage you deal and your healing possibilities. Max health is not so central.

Max equipment (max armor: 80/100 against physical, -7 Damage reduction/stance).
I don't use the lightining sword as you said having a vampiric one. The damage difference is not so high IMO. Well I might be wrong, must buy a lightning hilt to test it out (used a flame one to test your resistances and the result was really inferior damage compared to vampiric against necro grawls).

Skills:
Frenzy
Gladiator defense
Shield stance
Dolyak signet
Healing signet
Riposte
Deadly riposte
Watch yourself.

I rush generally against the necros grawls and don't even bother with hammer ones. I let glads and my ripostes kill the hammer while I kill the necros. When hammer ones die I use frenzy to finish the necros. Damage I take while Dolyak+Watch yourself are up is near to... 0 or 10-12 when a hammer skill like Belly smash hit me (which is unlikely to happen with ripostes + stances)
You can still use frenzy when hammers are hitting you, if they are not too numerous (2-3) (so your ripostes will stop most of their attack).
This a generic build, it can be used in Perdition Rock to farm mahgo hydras, dridders and flesh golems (Switch frenzy for savage slash).

getchoo · May 14, 2006, 06:35 PM // 18:35

frenzy is trash flurry works better

Katari · May 14, 2006, 08:11 PM // 20:11

In controlled situations where you know you'll be taking little, if any damage per hit, Frenzy is a fine skill to use in PvE.

Racthoh · May 14, 2006, 11:15 PM // 23:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by getchoo

frenzy is trash flurry works better

Flurry requires the use of a Zealous hilt to maintain the upkeep required for it. Frenzy providing a 50% damage output, along with the extra damage provided by the Lightning damage drastically improves the speed of this run. In most situations in PvE, Flurry is probably a better choice but as Katari mentioned in a controlled environment there is no reason not to use Frenzy.

On that note, I've been using this as of recently:

For Great Justice!
Frenzy
Dragon Slash {E}
Watch Yourself
Standing Slash
Sun and Moon Slash
Healing Signet
Dolyak Signet

Same attributes, can drop every boss except the ele (because he will kill you everytime) in about the duration of For Great Justice!

chessyang · Jun 20, 2006, 11:45 PM // 23:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by getchoo

frenzy is trash flurry works better

not on this run. just take your time w/ the run. no need to tank the whole crowd. i do each mob at a time to avoid death and healing like crazy. find it better to take my time and not rush.

oh ya frenzy on Azure Shadow = instance death

ya i find at least 1 minor tac and str per run. strange.

oliver gould · Jun 26, 2006, 12:14 PM // 12:14

where do you get tainted flesh or dragon slash??? ;(

Knido · Jun 26, 2006, 05:28 PM // 17:28

tainted - Dosakaru Fevertouch-Perdition Rock
Konrru, Tainted Stone-Morostav Trail
Lukrker Foulfist-Gyala Hatchery

dragon slash - Seaguard Eli-Boreas Seabed
Sskai, Dragon's Birth-Boreas Seabed

and ever thought of using a sever/gash/epidemic build? would still have room for a warrior elite like glads defense or dragon slash, mabye even ViM, and the deepwound+bleeding would drop the grawls faster than only disease imo.