Curse

cooljelly · Jul 31, 2006, 05:48 AM // 05:48

First, Video : http://files.filefront.com/Gw+Zarnas.../fileinfo.html

Hello everyone,

This is a build to kill the boss Zarnas Stonewrath. I have searched the forum and tried some builds. It seems there isn't a very efficient build to kill this boss. I came up with this build after a few deaths.

First, about Zarnas Stonewrath, his green item, and how to find him:

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Zarnas_Stonewrath

With this build, soloing Zarnas Stonewrath is quite simple once you get used to it.

Profession: Monk/Mesmer

Skills and attributes:

Protective Spirit, Spell breaker[E], Empathy, Mend Ailment, Backfire, Mending, Essense Bond, Balthazar's Spirit.

Domination magic : 11
Healing prayer: 9 + 4 = 13
Protection prayer: 9 + 3 = 12
The rest into Divine favor

You need to have a 55 Monk with Mesmer as scondary profession. If you are not familiar with it, please do some research on how to make one.

The equipments are just standard 55 Hp monk equipments. I used totem axe in the video.

Similar to all other boss farming builds, this build also kills the boss by beating its AI.

=================
The Process
=================

The whole run takes about 4-7 minutes.

You start in Altrumm Ruins, and go north in Arborstone according to the map in the previous link.
You will need to run past:
1. a group of wardens 2. Craw Stonereap

Cast mending(4 arrow reg rate at 13 healing prayer), Essense Bond, Balthazar's spirit on you at the beginning. Cast protective spirit before you aggro the group of wardens, and use Mend Ailment when you step on their trap, or knocked down to remove cripple/bleeding, and to heal yourself.
You might have a little trouble on this part, but it gets easy after a few tries.

After you run past the group, you will encouter Craw Stonereap, while some wardens are still bashing, and shooting you(which is good, since it keeps your energy up). Right before you aggro Craw Stonereap, cast protective spirit and spell breaker. Now, you aggro him, and he will not be able to cast any spells on your. But be careful still! Do not get too close to him, since he will cast Chilblains which will stripe your enchantment(protective spirit & spell breaker) if you are too close. With that in mind, run past him, and you will see Zarnas Stonewrath.
Cast protective spirit again, and aggro Zarnas. But do not stop running till you get rid off Craw Stonereap and the wardens following you.

Now to kill Zarnas:
You can first relax... for just a little bit. Zarnas does not have any dereg or enchantment removal skills.

What you do first is to keep protective spirit on you. Your essense bond, and balthazar's spirit will keep your energy up. Cast protective spirit as soon as your energy reaches the max, and DO NOT WAIT TILL THE ICON IS BLINKING. The reason for that is Zarnas likes to cast Gale a lot, which will knock you down for 3 seconds. If you are unlucky, you will get knocked down and unable to cast protective spirit in time.

Other than that, mending will keep you alive, so you are pretty safe.

So, you just wait there and till Zarnas casts 4-5 Gale and acculmulated enough exhaustion. Now he will cast Gale a lot less frequent. You can start casting backfire on Zarnas.

Keep doing it, until his HP gets really low, and here comes the tricky part.
Obviously, the AI is not too stupid. Zarnas will stop casting spells with backfire on him once his HP is really low, so you cannot kill him by bringing only backfire.

What you do is cast backfire, and when his HP gets low, cast Empathy, since he will attack you when he stops casting.
At the same time, cast spell breaker after you cast empathy!!!
This is important, since he will again cast spells once backfire is gone, and your backfire is not charged yet. He will again heal himself with the aura of resotration on.

So you cast spell breaker, and he has empathy, he cannot cast spell. Keep empathy on him when you have your spell breaker on, he will keep attacking you till he dies.

(I have tried to bring shatter enchantment, and some other combination, but they do not do enough damage to kill him at the end. Empathy + spell breaker are quite reliable to give the final push.)

That's it. I have tried with Mesmer as main, but it is a little bit tricker to run past the wardens since now you do not have the healing from divine favor. You can try bringing healing breeze as a mesmer/monk to replace mend ailment, but it makes the run slower since you will have to wait till the cripple condition is gone.

Oh by the way, Comments, suggestions are good.

Steaming Iron · Jul 31, 2006, 09:07 AM // 09:07

I farm the random groups there never tried the bosses solo
normaly I take a nekro with me to kill them all.

will have a try on do it solo...

Video link is broaken

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thanks for sharing this.....

cooljelly · Jul 31, 2006, 04:36 PM // 16:36

Hmm, I just tried to download the file again, and the link worked.
Are you still having trouble downloading the file?
Anyone else experiencing the same problem?

Tinweasel · Jul 31, 2006, 07:11 PM // 19:11

Thanks for the guide, Cooljelly. After some trial and error (and using your post as inspiration), I came up with my own Mo/Me build for soloing Stonereap, Stonewrath and Stoneweaver in one go. Here's my setup:

Protective Spirit
Healing Breeze
Illusion of Haste
Backfire
Empathy
Spirit Shackles
Spirit of Failure
Mind Wrack

Domination 12
Inspiration 7
Protection 7+1+1
Healing 6+1
Divine Favor 6+1
Illusion 2+1

Gear I Used: A set of 55 armor and a set of normal armor. Any weapon/offhand.

Running Past The Wardens
I put on my 55 armor, cast PS and HB on myself and start running accross the group of wardens, refreshing PS/HB as needed. When I'm sure there arn't any more traps that will cripple me I activate Illusion of Haste to shake off the wardens.

Killing Stonereap

I switch to normal armor, put PS on myself, then aggro Stonereap. The simple trick to killing all these bosses is just a matter of hiding behind a wall and spelling them to death. Very very easy this way.

So I just aggro Stonereap, pull it far enough for me to hide behind a real wall (the little wall that forms the arch is a fake wall) and start casting spells.

Empathy's the main damage source, while Spirit of Failure's the energy engine and Mind Wrack does a bit of damage for very little energy. Spirit Shackles drains enough of Stonereap's energy such that it limits itself to casting Parasitic Bond and Suffering, thus allowing me to cast HB anytime without having it Chillblained. With spare energy I cast Backfire just before Stonereap is about to reapply Suffering/Parasitic Bond for a bit of extra damage.

Killing Stonewrath

With Stonereap gone, I can pull Stonewrath to a safe position (where I can hide behind a wall corner) and kill with Backfire and Empathy as described by OP.

Killing Stoneweaver

Stoneweaver's just the little further down from Stonewrath down a set of stairs. Again, I just pull and hide behind a wall. I then cast a cheap hex (Mind Wrack) to make Stoneweaver use Smite Hex, then cast Empathy, Spirit Shackles, Spirit of Failure and Mind Wrack.

Spirit of Failure gives enough energy to reapply these frequently. Spirit Shackles eventually lowers Stoneweaver's energy enough to shut down both Smite Hex and (more importantly) Shield of Regeneration. It also slows down the Reversal of Fortune spamming.

Happy hunting~

cooljelly · Jul 31, 2006, 07:41 PM // 19:41

Oh interesting. I also have tried different combinations to kill the other two boss on the way, but found them kinda dangerous and time consuming.

I find it extremely difficult to kill Zarnas without spell breaker + empathy at the end.

I am not sure in your build how good the timing needs to be to kill him at the end without spell breaker since backfire has 25 second recharge time.

As I pointed out, he will immediately continue to cast spells (and heals himself with aura of restoration) once backfire is off, and that will make empathy useless. So spell breaker is there to keep him attacking you, as well as stop him from healing himself. And I believe you cannot drain his energy with Spirit Shackles, can you? Zarnas never attacks you until his hp is really really low( at about 1/20 I guess ).

How about your energy facing Zarnas? You will be able to keep up protective spirit, healing breeze, and at the same time, backfire + empathy?

Just some general wondering.

Tinweasel · Jul 31, 2006, 08:24 PM // 20:24

I think your build works much better for killing Zarnas alone. Killing all three bosses is much more time consuming than just targetting one (although it's very safe).

Lack of Spellbreaker: It would definitely be quicker and easier with Spellbreaker, but I just couldn't free up a slot for that skill so far.

Zarnas's health will eventually drop low enough so he will start attacking you only 3-4 seconds after Backfire's cast. The remaining duration of Backfire should be enough to force him to kill himself with Empathy most of the time.

Spirit Shackles and other spells: You're right about Spirit Shackles. I only use 4 skills against Zarnas: PS/HB for pulling him and Backfire/Empathy to kill. All other spells on my skillbar are useless against him.

Energy Management: With Stonereaper out of the way, the wall corner closest to the pond is the perfect place to cast spells against Zarnas from in perfect safety. Zarnas is usually hanging around by the pillars as you know so he has to be pulled. Stone Daggers get stopped cold by the wall so the only thing he can do against you is Gale you. So other than when you're pulling, you'll never have to cast Protective Spirit or Healing Breeze.

cooljelly · Jul 31, 2006, 09:42 PM // 21:42

Ahh, what I missed out is that stone daggers can be blocked by walls. Now the energy shouldn't be a big problem.

Thank you for the reply.