Curse

Tsunami Rain · Apr 29, 2006, 02:53 AM // 02:53

not done yet!

Table of Contents:

I. An Explanation / Disclaimer
II. GW:F 55 Monking Q & A
III. The GW:F 55 Monk
IV. The Anatomy of the 55 Monk
V. Helpful Tips
VI. GW:F 55ing Overview
VII. Starting Out
VIII. Various Farming Runs + Builds
IX. Conclusion

!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An Explanation And A Disclaimer; Among Other Stuff

Where To Begin? Hi, I’m Tsunami Rain. You may have remembered me from my last farming guide (Updated Solo-Monk Farming Guide). In this guide I will take you through a step-by-step process in the world of 55 monk farming in GW:F. I will start with the basics and will slowly take you through to the more advanced side of farming.

I’d like to that a bunch of people for helping me throughout this past year:

Sno, Cerb – Answering my various 55 monk questions.
Thrice – Being the best alliance/farm buddy ever and for contributing to this guide.
Racthoh – For reminding me that I should use all 200 attribute points.
Manic Smile – For being the best guild leader ever and taking me on UW runs.
Dralsipre – For reminding me how poor I am when I see one of his sell/auction threads.

And many more.

Disclaimer Time!:
I am in no way guaranteeing that you will be successful after reading this post and following my guide. This guide is exactly what it is…A Guide therefore please understand that it will not cover EVERYTHING. I am not also at fault for any losses you may receive due to farming and/or mistakes. This guide was exclusively made for Guildwars Guru and may not be copied to any other site without permission. This guide may not be sold for any monetary value (this includes in-game gold).

I hope you enjoy this guide! Please leave a comment at the bottom of the page if you have any questions, comments, concerns, praises, etc. Sit back, relax, grab a drink…because chances are you’re going to be here for awhile.

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GW:F 55 Monking Q & A

Q: What is a 55 monk?
A: A smiting monk that has dropped his/her life down to 55 hp via 5 superior runes and a -50 offhand.

Q: 5 superior runes?? Isn't that expensive?
A: Yes, making a 55 monk requires a large cash fund but can be easily made back within a few hours (not counting practice of course).

Q: I only have GW:F. Can I still make a 55 monk?
A: Yes you can, however, Shield of Judgment cannot be captured in GW:F. Since Shield of Judgment is the backbone of this build, I suggest you don’t make one.

Q: Can’t I substitute Spiteful Spirit for Shield of Judgement?
A: Yes you can. However, Spiteful Spirit cannot be captured in GW:F either.

Q: What do you do with a 55 monk?
A: The most popular answers would be: Farming and Running.

Q: What is this -50 offhand you speak of?
A:

Found in the Cities of Ascalon Quest

Q: I can't find the person who gives you the Cities of Ascalon quest.
A: Symon the Scribe can be found in Ascalon City and will give you the quest after you have completed the missions: The Great Northern Wall and Counting the Fallen.

Q: I have the Cities of Ascalon quest, however, the -50 cesta isn’t the reward item. What happened?
A: There’s a 50/50 chance that you will get the -50 cesta now. If you can’t get one through the Cities of Ascalon quest, I suggest you buy one. It only costs about 5-8k now.

Q: I've seen you in game before Tsunami. Why does every other 55 monk but you wear tattoos?
A: .....no comment. Tat's give you more energy....leave my judgement alone

Q: Wait... There are only 4 Superior Runes for the monk. Wheres the 5th that you speak of?
A: For your 5th rune, you just use any superior monk rune that is available (the -75 hp stacks but the +skills don't. therefore, just get the cheapest).

Q: Why do you use divine healing scalp
A: It's personal preference. And on a side note, I may use my divine healing scalp but I also use my Smiting Prayers scalp if I really need it. For those new to 55ing, I suggest that you buy the Smiting prayers scalp.

Q: Where do I get my set of tat armor?
A: Some may say Lions Arch others may say Droks...I say Droks.

Q: What weapon do you use for your 55 monk?
A: Some may say HoD (which is very expensive). Most people now agree that the Fiery Flame Spitter of Enchanting is the monk weapon of choice (which I agree with).

Q: Where do I get a -20 Ankh?
A: Talk to Namar in Ascalon City (presear) then go to where Devona is in the town of Ashford. Before you reach Devona you will come across Miller Upton. He will say the bee's are a distraction and will not talk to you untill you take the bees across the bridge. Pick up the honeycomb, gather the three groups of bees and bring it across the bridge then go talk to Miller Upton again.

Q: I only have GW:F, how can I get Shield of Judgement?
A: Shield of Judgement is a Guild Wars: Prophecies (aka original Guildwars) only skill. You can’t get it in GW:F.

Q: Has your monk changed any bit since your last guide?
A: Yes…A LOT. I wear 1.5k Kurzick Ascetic armor (aka GW:F Tats). I also have switched from my divine favor scalp to my superior smiting scalp and seem to be using that more now days.

Q: How can I get a hold of you if I’m having trouble?
A: Contact me in game @ Tsunami Rain or PM me on this forum or leave a question here in this thread.

!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The GW:F 55 Monk

As stated in the previous section, if you don’t have the original Guild Wars game (Prophecies campaign), you shouldn’t be making a 55 monk. SoJ (Shield of Judgement) and its counterpart SS (Spiteful Spirit) can only be captured in the Prophecies Campaign. SoJ is the main damage dealing spell of the 55 monk so it’s basically not wise to create a 55 monk without having it.

As I have stated in my last guide, TURN BACK NOW IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE WEAKSAUCE AND QUIT WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH. That said, lets take a look at what has changed since GW:F was released.

Changes:
- Increased Chance of Better Drops

WELL, it seems that things have changed for the better. *cough*.

That being said, lets continue shall we?

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The Anatomy of the 55 Monk:

There are many cookie-cutter 55 builds as they are called, but every build is based upon these skills:

Protective Spirit
Enchantment. For (Min: 5 - Max: 23) seconds, target ally cannot lose more than 10% max Health due to damage from a single attack or Spell.

Healing Breeze
Enchantment. For 10 seconds, target ally gains +(Min: 3 - Max: 9) Health regeneration.

Mending
Enchantment. While you maintain this Enchantment, target ally gains Health regeneration of +(Min: 1 - Max: 4).

These skills are CRITICAL for the 55 monk build.

Protective Spirit - Since you have 55 hp, if you use this skill monsters will do about 5 damage to you per hit.

Healing Breeze - If you are tanking a lot of enemies and they are starting to spike, use healing breeze as it will regenerate life WAY faster than the monsters will be hitting you

Mending - If you always keep this on, you always have life regeneration meaning that you dont have to rely solely on breeze.

ENERGY MANAGEMENT. I couldn't emphesize enough. If you run out of energy then you will surely die with the 55 build. Therefore, bringing energy management skills with you is also key to the 55 monk build.

For this I would suggest any of the following:

Balthazar's Spirit
Enchantment. While you maintain this Enchantment, target ally gains adrenaline and Energy after taking damage. (The amount of adrenaline gained increases depending on your rank in Smiting Prayers.)

Essence Bond
Enchantment. While you maintain this Enchantment, whenever target ally takes physical damage, you gain 1 Energy.

Blessed Signet
Signet. For each Enchantment you are maintaining, you gain 3 Energy, maximum (Min: 3 - Max: 24).

Bonetti's Defense
Stance. For (Min: 5 - Max: 11) seconds, you have a 75% chance to "block" incoming melee attacks and arrows. You gain 5 Energy for each successful melee attack blocked. Bonetti's Defense ends if you use a skill.

I would suggest that you use either essence bond OR balthazar's spirit and (for those new to 55 monking) bring along either bonetti's defense OR blessed signet.

As for dealing damage:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cerb

Shield of Judgment (Elite)
Elite Enchantment. For (Min: 8 - Max: 20) seconds, anyone striking target ally with an attack is knocked down and suffers (Min: 5 - Max: 50) damage.

Spiteful Spirit (Elite)
Elite Hex. For (Min: 8 - Max: 20) seconds, whenever target foe attacks or uses a skill, Spiteful Spirit deals (Min: 5 - Max: 35) shadow damage to that foe and all adjacent allies of that foes.

Some of you might think Balthazar’s Aura is a good idea, but it’s not. After the November 10 th, 2005 game update, monsters will flee from similar Area of Effect (AoE) spells, therefore making it a useless farming skill.

Thursday, November 10 th, 2005 – Game Update

Improved the character name and guild name entry dialogs.

Improved AI so that henchmen and monsters can now detect and flee from area-effect damage spells.

Improved AI so that monsters will eventually stop chasing fleeing players.

Slightly reduced the power of the Doppelganger creature.

Fixed a bug which could cause certain animated ground cover to not be animated.

Fixed a bug which could cause two copies of Gwen to appear in pre-searing Ascalon.

Fixed a bug with certain enemies not attacking players in the Gates of Kryta mission.

Fixed an exploit which could allow players to create PvP characters with invalid armor. Thanks to Derek Ravenclaw for reporting this.

If you are using Shield of Judgement, you may also consider Zealot’s Fire, since both skills are from the same attribute. The latter deals AoE damage and is triggered every time you cast a spell on an ally (you) once activated. If you trigger it too quickly (for instance, casting using two skills in a row, without delay), it will cause the monsters to flee for a few seconds. You can prevent this from taking your time, and giving yourself at least a two seconds delay after casting a skill before casting another.

Zealot's Fire
Enchantment. For 60 seconds, whenever you use a skill on an ally, all foes adjacent to your target are struck for (Min: 5 - Max: 35) fire damage.

Basicly what Cerb was saying is that you can pick between Shield of Judgement OR Spiteful Spirit (if you are necro secondary). For some builds and areas that you farm in it would also be a good idea to bring Zealot's Fire with you (I tend to bring this all over the place as it helps me kill faster).

There are other skills that you can take because you might have slots open depending on what you are farming and what builds you will run. Here are some of Cerb's suggestions:

Now you should be taking 6 to 8 skill slots, depending whether you are taking 3 skills for energy management or 2, and whether or not you are taking Zealot’s Fire. Here are a few skill suggestions you could fill your remaining slots with:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cerb

Elementalist

Aftershock
Spell. Adjacent foes are struck for (Min: 26 - Max: 100) damage. Knocked down foes are struck for (Min: 10 - Max: 68) additional damage.

Crystal Wave
Spell. Foes adjacent to you are struck for (Min: 10 - Max: 100) damage, but are cured of any negative "Conditions." This Spell ignores armor and magic resistance.

Mesmer

Power Drain
Spell. If target foe is casting a Spell, the Spell is interrupted and you gain (Min: 1 - Max: 31) Energy.

Mantra of Resolve
Stance. For (Min: 30 - Max: 90) seconds, You cannot be interrupted, but each time you would have been interrupted, you lose (Min: 7 - Max: 2) Energy or Mantra of Resolve ends.

Soothing Images
Hex. For (Min: 8 - Max: 20) seconds, target foe and all adjacent foes cannot gain Adrenaline.

Arcane Echo
Enchantment. If you cast a Spell in the next 20 seconds, Arcane Echo is replaced with that Spell for 20 seconds. Arcane Echo ends prematurely if you use a non-Spell skill.

Monk

Blessed Aura
Enchantment. While you maintain this Enchantment, Monk Enchantments you cast last (Min: 10% - Max: 35%) longer than normal.

Watchful Spirit
Enchantment. While you maintain this Enchantment, target ally gains +2 Health regeneration. That ally is healed for (Min: 30 - Max: 180) points when Watchful Spirit ends.

Guardian
Enchantment. For 5 seconds, target ally has a (Min: 20 - Max: 50)% chance to "block" attacks.

Mend Ailment
Spell. Remove one Condition (Poison, Disease, Blindness, Dazed, Bleeding, Crippled, or Deep Wound) from target ally. That ally is healed for (Min: 5 - Max: 70) points for each remaining Condition.

Smite Hex
Spell. Remove a Hex from target ally. If a Hex is removed, foes in the area suffer (Min: 10 - Max: 85) damage.

Necromancer

Awaken the Blood
Enchantment. For (Min: 20 - Max: 44) seconds, you gain +2 Blood Magic and +2 Curses, but whenever you sacrifice Health, you sacrifice 50% more than the normal amount.

Desecrate Enchantments
Spell. Target foe and all nearby foes take (Min: 6 - Max: 60) shadow damage and (Min: 4 - Max: 20) shadow damage for each "Enchantment" on them.

Suffering
Hex. For (Min: 6 - Max: 30) seconds, target foe and all nearby foes suffer Health degeneration of 2.

Ranger

Serpent's Quickness
Stance. For (Min: 15 - Max: 30) seconds, recharge times for your skills are reduced by 33%. Serpent's Quickness ends if your Health drops below 50%.

Edge of Extinction
Nature Ritual. Create a level (Min: 1 - Max: 10) Spirit. For creatures within its range, whenever any creature dies, Edge of Extinction deals (Min: 14 - Max: 50) damage to all nearby creatures of the same type. This Spirit dies after (Min: 30 - Max: 150) seconds.

Warrior

"For Great Justice!"
Shout. For 20 seconds, your adrenal skills charge twice as fast.

I highly suggest blessed aura, mantra of resolve, arcane echo, serpants quickness, after shock.

In addition to cerb's skills I would like to add: Balanced Stance. With balanced stance, you won’t get knocked down.

(expect Assassin and Ritualist skills in a future update…still working out the bugs)

…yes I know I copied and pasted that from my other guide…stfu ;p

!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Helpful Tips

Tip #1: Always have Protective Spirit on you
Tip #2: If you’re going into a large group, consider casting healing breeze before you go in.
Tip #3: If you talk to any NPC’s outside of town, remember to click on your name before casting spells so you don’t cast it on the NPC.
Tip #4: If you’re running a 55 build with Zealot’s Fire, don’t over cast or agro will spread everywhere. Likewise, if you’re about to die, over cast your skills and agro will spread everywhere giving you time to do whatever it is you need.
Tip #5: Switch to your -20 cesta after dying once. Your health will raise from 1 hp to 13 hp.

More tips later.

!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GW:F 55ing Overview

By this point in time, you should have already completed building your 55 monk. In this portion of the guide, I will explain about various topics and problems faced by you, the 55 monk.

The 55 monk is in no way a cheat, exploit, or hack. The 55 monk is completely LEGIT. You may ask, “What about the stacking superior runes?” This is also legit as it is part of the game and was made by the developers. Furthermore, the 55 monk is not extinct, dead, or gone. I have heard about many cases where people who owned 55 monks quit Guildwars when they added scarabs by the desert griffons. I have heard about how ANet hates farmers. This is all false. Recently in one of their updates, ANet increased the drop-rate of rare items and perfect mods. Although some people may say this is to slowly fade farming away and make farming worthless, it’s not. This just means the drops we get are even better! The 55 monk lives and will continue to live on in Factions. Due to recent changes in the Guildwars economy, prices for superior runes have lowered. It is now possible to make a 55 monk cheaply. I hope this has inspired you to get out there and farm. If anyone tells you that farming is wrong, get in their face and tell them that they are wrong and that you don’t care about their puny existence.

!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Starting Out

Well, normally I’d say you start off with trolls outside droks in tyria…however, I’ll assume you’ve read my last guide so that would be a bit boring. Let’s start out in Factions this time

Arborstone

There is a large area called Arborstone. The Arborstone area that you will be farming will be right outside Altrumm Ruins.

This is a relatively easy farming run. The only challenge in it is dealing with conditions caused by the skill brambles.

Here is my build:

Monk/Warrior

Healing: 9
Smite: 15
Divine: 13
Prot: 10

PS, SoJ, HB, Zealot's, Blessed Sig, Mend, Balthazar's Spirit, Blessed Aura

Note: I have found that when using bonetti's, you tend to run out of energy a lot since there are a lot of traps (brabed and the brambles spirit) set therefore I switched bonetti's with blessed sig. Some people may want to switch out Zealot's Fire with a condition remover to remove those conditions that the traps trigger but I still prefer Zealot's Fire.

Here’s a picture of the route you should take.

Here’s a video if you’re still uncertain:

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Various Runs Etc.

Nahpui Quarter
(Contributions By: "Thrice" of United Farmers Inc. aka my guild! <3)

Yes I didn't discover this spot but I figure it is worth mentioning. "Thrice" as he is known in the GWG IRC Channel (go bug him for his IGN as I won't give it out) has tipped me off on this nice farming spot. Here's the run down:

You enter the mission and there are FOUR different warps you can take. Go into the first one and clear it, skip the second one, clear the third and fourth ones.

NOTE: This is a real "Hit or Miss" run as you will find out in a few lines.

Heres the build:

Thrice's Build:

PS, SoJ, HB, Sprint, Bonetti's, Balthazar's Spirit, Mending, Blessed Aura

My Build:

PS, SoJ, HB, Zealot's, Bonetti's, Balthazar's Spirit, Mending, Blessed Aura

OR

PS, SoJ, HB, Disrupting Chop, Bonetti's, Balthazar's Spirit, Mending, Blessed Aura

OR (started using this one today to get rid of those star lights)

PS, SoJ, HB, Zealot's, Sprint, Balthazar's Spirit, Mending, Blessed Aura

Healing: 9
Smiting: 15
Prot: 10
Divine: 13
Tac: 3

If this isn’t working out for you, you may want to take this into consideration (props to Kiram again)

Quote:

Monk/Warrior

Divine Favor: 9 (6+3)
Healing Prayers: 12 (9+3)
Smiting Prayers: 16 (12+4)
Protection Prayers: 10 (7+3)
Tactics: 3

Balthazar's Spirit (Smiting Prayers)
Essence Bond (Monk other)
Mending (Healing Prayers)
Bonetti's Defense (Tactics)
Shield of Judgment [Elite] (Smiting Prayers)
Scourge Healing (Smiting Prayers)
Healing Breeze (Healing Prayers)
Protective Spirit (Protection Prayers)

vs. Star Light --> Scource Healing
But remember: 105 is the magic number!

It seems as if he uses a staff to keep his health at 105.

You will be farming the "star" tengu things.. (Star Blade, Star Light, Etc.) Like the avicara and the tengu in prophecies campaign, the Star Light (casts nightmare weapon) like to spike. They are strong enough that just two of them striking you along with one additional thing can kill you instantly. This is why I said that this farming spot is "hit or miss". Sometimes the Star Light's spawn near each other (in which case you just run to get rid of them or just quit the mission and try again). When they dont spawn near each other, you're lucky and you can just farm easily.

Another way that might work (I haven't tested it yet) is to disrupt the Star Light when they are using their skills to add on damage to their spikes. You would do this by using Disrupting Chop. By having this, it might be possible to keep the Star Light from spiking and you might be able to kill them off. If this doesn't work for you, just use my build with Zealot's Fire as it kills things off faster.

Anyway, the main thing is to just be aware of the Star Lights and you should be fine.

As drops go, Celestial weapons drop here (I wonder why

) and so do superior runes. IMO this farming run is much better than the first one that I posted. Maybe I'll get my GameCam working and I'll tape some runs and/or post up some maps.

NOTE: Star Light casts a spell called Nightmare Weapon. When two Star Light spike this attack on you, you will die.

Map:

^Props to Kiram for pic.

Note: Make sure you bring keys to open chests (celestial weapons).

!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jade Brotherhood Farming

Build:

Divine: 13
Healing: 9
Protection: 10
Tac: 3

Skills:
PS, SoJ, HB, Zealot's, Bonetti's, Mending, Balthazar's Spirit, Blessed Aura

NOTE: Nothing decent really drops from them, it’s basicly just the first major group that is actually farmable in Factions.

Simple. If you've been to Wajjun Bazzar you will have noticed there are A LOT of jade brotherhood people around. Start at Marketplace and enter the Bazzar.

Throw up your enchants and pass the first three jade brotherhood knights and aggro the next three (they are close together).

Kill those then proceed to the two large groups in the next area.

Now you can either choose to go up or down (doesnt matter at this point)

I suggest killing yourself as it would be a lot easier to tank the hits from these mobs.

Once you've killed yourself make your way back to that area and take on the top group (make sure you aggro everything up there).

After you kill the majority (only a ritualist and the boss should be remaining) proceed to killing the ones at the bottom (again ritualist remaining).

Proceed farther and you will come up against a smaller group (3 knights, a few mages, and a ritualist). Kill that group and proceed (if your inventory is full you can stop here) and keep killing until your inventory is full.

From what I've noticed, I've gotten at least 1 major rune per run and a few other purples (sometimes there are also chests). Every now and then I've gotten golds. (pic up in a couple mins).

^got this on my second run today

and it kinda looks nice too

Map: [none yet]

!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Conclusion

55 Monks Live! [insert better conclusion here]

-Tsunami Rain

--edit--
I give up, lets wait for nightfall.

ibex333 · Apr 29, 2006, 04:17 AM // 04:17

Have no fear! NERF is coming here!!

Thanx though (knew this place)... I was abusing these guys for a while now...

english_pride · Apr 29, 2006, 06:53 AM // 06:53

i dont no if this as been nerfed already but wen im doing it i get interupted alot.

XeNoGeArZ · Apr 29, 2006, 07:01 AM // 07:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by ibex333

Have no fear! NERF is coming here!!

Thanx though (knew this place)... I was abusing these guys for a while now...

I also knew about this one too; I posted about 55'ing them in the other thread. You can 55 most all but Ritualists won't die, and don't bother running into any Necromancers, unless you have a workaround.

Tsunami Rain · Apr 29, 2006, 07:52 AM // 07:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by english_pride

i dont no if this as been nerfed already but wen im doing it i get interupted alot.

I just time myself and cast SoJ before entering large groups

Warrior of Orange · Apr 30, 2006, 05:41 AM // 05:41

manta of resolve.

creed-shaman · Apr 30, 2006, 09:56 AM // 09:56

without bonettis youd be in a lot of trouble if you pulled more then 5 guys

Tsunami Rain · Apr 30, 2006, 10:11 AM // 10:11

lol idk I'm not having too much of a problem with it. As soon as I get my GameCam working again I'll post a video.

Also expect me to update with a new spot in a day or so (this ones very profitable).

Opeth11 · Apr 30, 2006, 10:17 AM // 10:17

God, I need Factions.

>.<

Fred Kiwi · Apr 30, 2006, 10:29 AM // 10:29

what interrupts do they use? might be possible with my ele farmer

Arkantos · Apr 30, 2006, 10:45 AM // 10:45

GREAT. I just deleted my 55 and sold runes like....2 weeks ago

Kidney Licker · Apr 30, 2006, 10:54 AM // 10:54

Thank goodness, those monk sup runes and parchments I have aren't a total loss after all. Everyone please keep making more invinci-monks. Post more locations like this. :P

creed-shaman · Apr 30, 2006, 11:46 AM // 11:46

ok i switch to mesmer secondary and used resolve + the crappy echo. It worked fairly well everytime no interupts just lazy casting. I only had to echo soj when there were ritualists around ...sometimes i would come close to dying while casting it though. Works though so go try it

Porphyre · Apr 30, 2006, 07:29 PM // 19:29

Can we have a map of where it is please, it would be very apreciated.

Tsunami Rain · Apr 30, 2006, 08:07 PM // 20:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred Kiwi

what interrupts do they use? might be possible with my ele farmer

don't know if your ele farmer will work because the interrupts are pretty persistant (usually at least 2 mesmers per group).

Slotter · Apr 30, 2006, 11:15 PM // 23:15

I just use Glyph of Concentration, I do just fine.

Age · May 01, 2006, 07:16 AM // 07:16

You are bad Tsunami.

Parn · May 01, 2006, 02:10 PM // 14:10

Just watchout for those necros in the market area....I war running (exploring)everywhere with my 55 and they have a spell that goes through SpellBreaker and kills ya instantly..

Another place that is good to farm if you can run there is UnderCity...All those Kappas...Great didn't think about Screenshots though....

Imaginos · May 01, 2006, 05:45 PM // 17:45

Don't the mesmers strip enchants?

Showa Goji · May 02, 2006, 01:36 AM // 01:36

No the Jade mesmers do not strip enchants. This works great I got a superior death and absorbtion in one run.