Curse

Nechtan Thaumaturge · Nov 04, 2006, 10:14 PM // 22:14

Profession: Elementalist/Warrior

Type: Solo farming, Vermin

Category: Geomancer

Attributes:

Earth Magic: 16 (12 + 3 + 1)
Fire Magic: 10; could easily go 11 (10 + 1)
Energy Storage: 3 (2 + 1)
Tactics: 8

Skills:

Healing Signet
Balanced Stance
Glyph of Lesser Energy
Bed of Coals
Unsteady Ground {E}
Aftershock
Sliver Armor
Armor of Earth

Equipment:

A shield or offhand with a -2 damage (while enchanted) modifier. Just about any one-handed weapon or wand will do, although a +20% enchantment duration bonus can be helpful.

Summary:

This build gets around the 10/25 AI tweaks by initially weakening the Vermin with DoT AoE then delivering a large packet of damage before they can flee; the burning inflicted by Bed of Coals finishes them off. The speed of this build is at least comparable to that of pre-10/25 builds -- in many cases, it's better.

Videos:

Single battle
Full run

Specifics:

Initially, you want to aggro as many Vermin as you can without actually subjecting yourself to any attacks. You can dodge the Vermin fairly well, as they only move as fast as you do (just don't put up Armor of Earth yet). If you get hit with a Jagged Strike, however, you may as well stop and enter battle because the knockdowns and degen will soon follow. Note that setting up the battle is critical, as you cannot tolerate late-arriving Vermin well. So try to make sure you've aggro'ed all the Vermin that might conceivably walk up to the battle within the next 20 seconds or so. Finally, you cannot comfortably kill Shreader Sharptongue with this build, so give him a wide berth.

Next, settle down somewhere and activate Armor of Earth and Glyph of Lesser Energy. Watch as the Vermin's attacks fall; when you see a Jagged Strike, hit Balanced Stance. Remember that you can activate Balanced Stance while you are moving or activating another skill.

When all the Vermin are reasonably close to you, hit Bed of Coals. You want to make sure they are all attacking when the initial batch of damage hits; otherwise, they tend to scramble off. So, don't hit it too early. At the same time, you only have so much longevity under the barrage of Vermin attacks; so, don't wait too long.

Now, wait for Bed of Coals to fire 3 or 4 times. Then, cast Unsteady Ground, remembering that you must have a target for it to work. Again, timing is important. If you hit it too early, the Vermin tend to live through the spike; if you wait too long, they'll run off. While Unsteady Ground is activating, queue Aftershock. This sets up an avalanche of damage which should kill off all the Vermin. I usually hit a Healing Signet at this point while I am waiting to see if any make it through alive. This can happen if they were standing when Aftershock hit.

If any do still live, then hit Sliver Armor and maybe another Healing Signet while you are waiting for Aftershock to recharge (incidentally, do not use Sliver Armor at the beginning of a battle! This will cause them to scatter and will generally ruin everything). One last Aftershock should finish off the remaining Vermin.

Use Healing Signet to stave off death, but don't worry about getting back up to full health. You'll generally heal about 100-250 HP naturally while setting up the next battle.

Notes and Concerns:

Battles last 12-15 seconds, assuming that you get a good, clean aggro and everything dies in the first assault. A run will take 5 1/2 to 6 minutes, and in an average hour of farming, you can expect to collect about 10k.

You might consider swapping Ward of Stability for Balanced Stance and switch Aura of Restoration for Healing Signet to make this a straight Elementalist build. I don't know that there is any advantage to that, though, since Balanced Stance is more flexible and Healing Signet is less energy-intensive. Of course, you might contemplate running a 55 hp version of this build, as well.

I haven't had the opportunity to try out any of the Nightfall skills with this build, but Savannah Heat and Sandstorm seem like they might work well against higher level monsters. Stoneflesh Aura could possibly replace Armor of Earth as well.

Variant:

Minotaurs/Mountain Trolls

Aura of Restoration
Lava Font
Glyph of Lesser Energy
Unsteady Ground {E}
Bed of Coals
Aftershock
Armor of Earth
Ward Against Melee

Earth Magic: 14 (10 + 3 + 1)
Fire Magic: 12; could easily go 13 (12 + 1)
Energy Storage: 9 (8 + 1)

Videos:

Minotaurs
Mountain Trolls

Specifics:

Minotaurs and Mountain Trolls present a different sort of challenge than Vermin. On the one hand, you no longer need to worry about getting knocked down or about having health-degenerating conditions put on you. On the other hand, they are significantly more resilient to damage and can easily outlast the spike that kills the Vermin.

So, a few changes are in order. Most importantly, Lava Font has been added to boost the damage output of the build. Ward Against Melee replaces Sliver Armor to reduce the damage taken, as well as the occurence of Mighty Blows and Disrupting Chops.

Playing this variant is somewhat different, as well. Cast Aura of Restoration before aggro and then Armor of Earth and Ward Against Melee as the creatures collapse on you.

Start the battle by casting Lava Font, then Glyph of Lesser Energy. Next, cast Unsteady Ground then Bed of Coals (note that the order is reversed here). Try to put these spells down as quickly as possible. Follow them with Aftershock, making sure to time it to coincide with the second knockdown from Unsteady Ground.

After this, the creatures will flee as they are burning, which is pretty amusing to watch in and of itself, but they will return. Since at that moment the spells you will need to finish them off won't have recharged, you'll have to temporize by doing what I call "juggling" the monsters using Lava Font. Essentially, we're taking advantage of the AI's fear of AoE spells to drive the creatures off, thus reducing the amount of damage they can do. Assuming their health is low enough, when they return they should promptly run off again, as if you are juggling them.

It will be necessary to reapply Ward Against Melee around this time, and maybe Armor of Earth also. When Aftershock recharges, let the creatures approach and hit as many as possible with it. It will generally take a couple of Lava Font/Aftershock cycles to kill them all.

As before, aggro'ing is critical. Mountain Trolls stack up nicely in the cave, so it's not too difficult to set up against them. However, Minotaurs tend to wander in and out of battle, which can be annoying. I like to make three circuits around the central crystal pond to ensure that I've aggro'ed all the Minotaurs in the area.

Minotaur battles take between 35 and 45 seconds, generally; troll battles are a bit longer, more like 45 to 55 seconds. Also, the Troll bosses will outlast you, so run off them once you've killed the rest of their group.

Credit:

This build uses the same core skills in a PvP context. Also, here is a loosely similar E/Mo build that uses Meteor Shower for knockdown.

Well, that should about do it. Good luck with the build!

EDIT: Ward of Stability has been fixed; so, the remark about that situation was removed.

dameros · Nov 05, 2006, 12:04 AM // 00:04

Very nice. Much quicker than w/mo.

Why_Me · Nov 05, 2006, 12:20 AM // 00:20

Awesome, I was wondering why you used balanced over ward of stability, then I saw how fast this was.

Riceboi · Nov 05, 2006, 06:35 AM // 06:35

Excellent build fellow farmer!

ultima desturcto · Nov 15, 2006, 09:21 PM // 21:21

One question: Do you kill shreader in any runs, and can that simply be done by using sliver armor

ekamdu · Nov 16, 2006, 02:07 AM // 02:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nechtan Thaumaturge

Finally, you cannot comfortably kill Shreader Sharptongue with this build, so give him a wide berth.

theres ur answer

Apple · Nov 16, 2006, 01:42 PM // 13:42

Have you tried doing this with "Sandstorm" instead of unsteady ground?

Why_Me · Nov 16, 2006, 10:19 PM // 22:19

^Its a nice idea, but I doubt it would work.^
The reason being this build is geared around a sudden damage spike including KD to prevent them from fleeing due to AoE. As soon as they get hit by sandstorm they are running and regening.

Zarfol · Nov 16, 2006, 11:34 PM // 23:34

Hi, I like your build and changed it around a little, (added in some nightfall skills), here's what I ended up with (still difficult to kill shreader, but the other vermin are a lot easier

)

Elementalist/Dervish
12 + 1 + 3 Earth Magic
10 Fire Magic
8 Earth Prayers
2 + 1 Energy Storage

Equipment : +20% longer enchantment weapon and Earth Offhand (+30 HP or -2 while enchanted preferably)

Skillbar:
Mystic Regeneration
Fleeting Stability
Glyph of Lesser Energy
Bed Of Coals
Unsteady Ground
Aftershock
Armor of Earth
Sliver Armor/Crystal Wave

Don't know how to make a video otherwise I would, Hopefully someone else can do this.

Aggro 1 group of vermin and lure them to another. Cast Armor of Earth with Fleeting Stability queued up. Hit Mystic regeneration for +9 health regen. Then do GOLE, Bed of coals, wait 3 hits, Unsteady Ground, Aftershock, like you say above.

EDIT: oh yeah, if you let fleeting stability run out, you get knocked down. But it has a 16 sec duration + 20%, which should be enough. You can always recast it (don't get knocked down if you recast before it runs out)

Nechtan Thaumaturge · Nov 17, 2006, 01:37 AM // 01:37

Nice touch, Zarfol.

Incidentally, if you want to try a video, I would suggest GameCam. The demo version is free and it's not restricted in a way that makes it unusable. Also, the quality vs. compression is good.

Also, [Apple], I haven't gotten around to capping Sandstorm or Searing Heat yet, but Why Me makes a good point. I was thinking along the lines of Searing Heat, wait a few seconds, then Whirlwind-Aftershock along with maybe a Mark of Rodgort in there somewhere, but it's going to require testing.

EDIT: added last paragraph

AscalonWarrior · Nov 17, 2006, 08:13 PM // 20:13

Wow, really fast and fun. Thanks for sharing

ume kurosaki · Nov 17, 2006, 08:42 PM // 20:42

Been doing this for a while now. It's really easy and fast. Good money too.

meshultis · Dec 07, 2006, 05:17 PM // 17:17

Great build 2.5-3k in about 10 min. if u haven't capped Unsteady Ground swap it for Dragon Stomp or Earthquake.

Francis Crawford · Dec 08, 2006, 04:10 AM // 04:10

I recently went out with a fairly classic Ether Renewal build (Stoneflesh Aura for Armor of Earth was the only change), including one wasted skill slot (Mantra of Resolve for the Jade Brotherhood). The only damage was Stone Daggers and Sliver Armor. The vermin died quickly.

It was kind of exciting, thought, because I did NOT bring any anti-knockdown skills ...

The ones who died slowwwwly were the Jade Brotherhood. I actually killed the rit boss faster than I killed the other rits, maybe because he had more friends with him.

How much difference does the speed of your build make, given that one has a bit of a hike to get to the big vermin battle in the first place?

Also, if you don't mind my taking the thread in a couple of different directions, what's the glitch with Ward of Stability? (I used to use Balanced Stance over it when farming too, before my recent GW hiatus.)

Nechtan Thaumaturge · Dec 08, 2006, 08:11 AM // 08:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Francis Crawford

Also, if you don't mind my taking the thread in a couple of different directions, what's the glitch with Ward of Stability? (I used to use Balanced Stance over it when farming too, before my recent GW hiatus.)

In the week or two after Nightfall came out, the combination of Ward of Stability and Jagged Strike would result in an interruption, which clearly made no sense. That's since been fixed, but thanks for reminding me so I can edit the original post.

I agree with you, though; even after the fix, I still favor Balanced Stance. Among Ward of Stability, Balanced Stance, and Fleeting Stability, I think that Balanced Stance is marginally better than Fleeting Stability which is marginally better than Ward of Stability, the reason being that you can invoke Balanced Stance in an instant and can continue moving around freely while it's up. With Fleeting Stability, you can continue to move around, but have a one-second cast time to mind, and with Ward of Stability, both penalties apply. Any of these are fine, though. Incidentally, Mystic Regeneration is probably the best healing option.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Francis Crawford

How much difference does the speed of your build make, given that one has a bit of a hike to get to the big vermin battle in the first place?

You know, this is one of those things I occasionally wonder about myself. Usually on the forum, more importance is ascribed to the speed of a build rather than to other metrics, such as ease-of-use and reliability. So, it's easy to get caught up in the novelty of 15-second battles.

Analytically speaking, however, it takes about two minutes to hike from the Senji's Corner warp to the last Vermin battle. You're also going to spend about another minute and a half dragging groups together and waiting for an opening in the "racetrack" to occur. Even picking up drops takes about a minute, in and of itself. Now, if each battle takes 15 seconds and a run consists of five of them, that's another 75 seconds. Add that all together and throw in a couple of two-second Healing Signet activations, and that makes your six-minute run, more or less.

So, let's reconstruct this with a 30-second battle. The time spent running around and picking up drops is fixed, regardless, at 4 1/2 minutes (note: different builds might be able to aggro more flexibly, thereby achieving quicker aggros or fewer battles, but this is already complex enough I'm thinking

). Five battles at 30 seconds a piece makes 2 1/2 minutes worth of battles and makes the total run time more like seven minutes, or 17% longer.

Finally, to report this in terms of gold per hour, we have to take the reciprocal, which yields a figure of 85.7%. So, if you take the 10k per hour number as gospel, you're missing out on about 1.4k per hour by taking an extra 15 seconds for each battle. Is this significant? I don't know, really; I expect it depends on each individual's own perspective. However, I can tell you that the effect is more pronounced on shorter, more profitable runs as opposed to longer, less profitables ones.

EDIT: typos