Curse

ORomero · Jun 13, 2005, 08:24 AM // 08:24

All the solo/farming builds that are currently around rely on 1 thing and im guessing by now you all know from the title. The key to success is enchatments. So what does anet do? They add some type of enchantment removal spell to the monsters most areas. The only other option that I could think of is to make a build that can deal massive aoe damage quickly, without using any type of enchantment spells. This way you do not need to heal at all because you would kill them so fast OR if you do need to heal, mabye just some non enchantment healing spells. Is this possible? I know there are many different skill combos out there, so I was wondering if somone could give me some advice as to where or how to start. Any help appretiacted.

Samra · Jun 13, 2005, 08:26 AM // 08:26

A E/Mo can spit out a lot of damage and can self heal. I'd probably focus on fire, and maybe put some points in earth for protective spells.

john little · Jun 13, 2005, 09:11 AM // 09:11

My 'death from above' build:

Meteor Storm
Fire Storm
Meteor
Rodgort's Invocation (used sparingly)
Ward Against Melee
Orison of Healing
Healing Breeze
Remove Hex

the only thing you need be fearful of are enemies with interrupts (though if you hit them quickly enough with the two meteor spells it's irrelevant). A wand with a chance of fast casting helps...

ORomero · Jun 13, 2005, 02:08 PM // 14:08

From my conclusions it seems fire is going to be the way to go.

Falconer · Jun 14, 2005, 02:04 AM // 02:04

Very good catch there ORomero... notice how few people farm where mesmers are present. Or they do their best to avoid them. This is one of the reasons the wilds got so much flak as 'hard'. People had breezed through the game up to that point relying on enchants... and suddenly they were faced with centaur warriors/rangers, with protectors healing them, and those jellyfish thingies disenchanting them in the same fight if they weren't carefull.

As far as people who can farm without relying on enchantments... there are only two classes. The ranger and the warrior.

A ranger build can farm like a pro so long as it's not getting absolute knockdowns all the time. It relies on it's ability to be a 'swashbuckler' and evade/dodge 75% of the attacks or more that are going to hit him. (a blinded melee target trying to hit a ranger using whirling defense is in real trouble... 1 in 10 * 1 in 4 == 1 in 40... translation 2.5% hit rate. The 25% hit rate from ranged attackers and wands is a bigger problem to the ranger. As others have stated though... a trapper can farm almost anything... but it isn't a fast rapid kill. (enchants might kill in 30s what will take you 60s to do.). The other big strength here is that you have access to skills like distracting shot which will importantly stop the target from healing.

A warrior based on stances and/or his signets can also tank like a pro. Though healing signet can work against them. I've managed to solo farm with a build based on victory is mine... with good results. If you have to deal with knockdowns a lot, then balanced stance is a huge help also (can't do anything when you're on your back). Again if you have an axe... distracting blow is an option for that critical target heal disabling. (works well since cyclone axe is decent PB AoE also).

Also I have to wonder what is that el/mo using to heal himself?
Orison... maybe healing touch... but you're going to be healing a lot.. and if you run out of energy you're in big trouble. Heal area is self-defeating. Healing touch is poor unless you have DF to push it up... You are going to have a very hard time getting enough damage out before your energy runs out to kill the lvl 24+ critters you'll want to be killing to farm them.

So based on the above criterion... I'd hae to say a Mo/El specced in earth would also do decently as a farmer (lots of PB AoE's). And the self-heals can be non-enchant and very strong. Orison/Healing touch/signet of Devotion...
Since you're not running conditions... crystal wave, aftershock, immediatley come to mind. Even earthquake works well with GoE*. Though just like the el/mo your energy effectively puts you on a timer. You're not setup for the 'infinite' sustainable fight.

To john:
no cookie for you, healing breeze is an enchantment... in fact I love watching desperate people cast it on themselves thinking it will save them. Only to shatter it and turn their enchant against them.