Curse

Riot Narita · Sep 22, 2009, 10:08 AM // 10:08

Tried this out. It works.

However, I find it somewhat "stressful" - you have to be pretty quick... lapses in concentration are punished by death... there seems to be little margin for error vs other methods... runs are fast, but so far the difference is not exactly huge vs my old method.

That probably just means I need more practice with this method. But there is one thing that bothers me, that I'm not sure whether practice will help: Once everything goes BOOM, you don't have much time to pick up drops before SF runs out (and after that, the boss will immediately crush you like a bug). You have even less time if you didn't get your Meteor Shower off before Mindbender ran out. And it's worse again if drops are not right at your feet (raptors were in the middle of scattering when they died).

Sometimes you get a BONANZA! and you get a ton of drops - in that case, will I actually be able to pick it all up? FirstFire, you've been running this a long time - presumably you've farmed event items... have you had any problems picking up large numbers of drops?

Dzjudz · Sep 22, 2009, 01:12 PM // 13:12

I was having a discussion about that with firstfire ingame. Yes, you really need Mindbender to last for Meteor Shower, and even then picking up all drops can be difficult. On the rare occasion that there are 12+ drops, you will likely die before picking them all up. Either you only pick up valuable items (leave common whites) or you res and go back to pick them up. A good trick is to spam semicolon (

and space after you kill them. This targets and picks up closest items.

Riot Narita · Sep 22, 2009, 02:33 PM // 14:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dzjudz

I was having a discussion about that with firstfire ingame. Yes, you really need Mindbender to last for Meteor Shower, and even then picking up all drops can be difficult. On the rare occasion that there are 12+ drops, you will likely die before picking them all up. Either you only pick up valuable items (leave common whites) or you res and go back to pick them up. A good trick is to spam semicolon (

and space after you kill them. This targets and picks up closest items.

Mmm. The thing is pickup is quite slow, even using semicolon-space (which I already do). There's the equivelent of a skill-aftercast for every pickup.

This is one of the things that closes the gap a little, between my old Sliver Armor method and this one... Sliver kills one at a time, so you're picking stuff up as it drops. Virtually no time is added to the run at the end for picking up loot.

I've been trying out the W/N concept of using a Paragon hero, on my old Ele build. I haven't got a paragon hero on my farming Ele yet, but I tried it with a Rt/P, and even with only 12 in Command... Vocal was Sogolon (12 in Resto) + Enduring Harmony + Make Haste was a long enough speed boost to last all the way to cave, and aggro the nestlings. With a P/Rt, I should end up with more time for aggro than using Mindbender.

If so, this would close the gap even further, and I'd have to look veeeery closely at whether this E/A method is really worth pursuing. Given that my old method feels a lot more forgiving and reliable, is more suited to my lazy and/or sucky nature, and might give more drops or at least more merch fodder (due to no AoE). And gold scrolls from killing the boss.

Dzjudz · Sep 22, 2009, 02:54 PM // 14:54

You can use any speedboost to aggro. The thing is that you really need Mindbender since it halves casting time.

Riot Narita · Sep 22, 2009, 03:20 PM // 15:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dzjudz

You can use any speedboost to aggro. The thing is that you really need Mindbender since it halves casting time.

Yes, in this build. But not in my old E/Me build.

firstfire · Sep 22, 2009, 05:09 PM // 17:09

Hi there Hissy, my viewpoint on this is that it is a more stressful build than some, but no more than W/N.

Regarding picking up drops, I certainly agree with semicolon/space but also when you get better at aggroing you will have mindbender for at least 2 maybe with of your damage spells.

The video isn't great due to screen recorder lag and I have got a good deal of practice in since then.

Picking up event drops is fine till u do something wrong and raptors spread, using deadly paradox recharges SF fast (a big advantage sometimes), so u can just run back and pick up drops. Generally I only go back if I have missed 2 or more big drops. (Grog+)

Voodoo Rage · Sep 22, 2009, 10:51 PM // 22:51

I actually liked this farm a lot last weekend. Since I'm not chasing Asuran, the lack of broodmother kill was a non issue. Once you get the rhythm down, it's very predictable. Probably the biggest "trick" is just watching the far group and timing your run into the cave just as they are crossing across the back and then you end up catching them as they run down the hill toward you. Having mindbender active for your Meteor Shower cast is huge.