Curse

- Tain - · Mar 15, 2007, 06:22 PM // 18:22

This build utilizes the Paragon's shouts and spear attacks to more effectively farm the beach and cave areas of FoW. Shouts provide unstrippable boosts to movement, armor, health regeneration, and attack speed. The use of spears allows for ranged attacks, increasing versatility in the confines of the area. My original goal was just to make a pure-para build that worked, but the end result was incredibly effective (rivaling that of a warrior, imo).

Skills:

Blazing Spear
Merciless Spear
Leader's Comfort
"Stand Your Ground!"
"Never Surrender!"
"Lead the Way!"
Enduring Harmony
Soldier's Fury [E]

Attributes (combat):

Command: 15 (11+3+1)
Leadership: 10
Spear Mastery: 13 (10+3)

Attributes (running):

Command: 11
Leadership: 14 (10+3+1)
Spear Mastery: 10

Armor:

5x Centurion's Insignia
Command Crest with a Superior Command; use while fighting
Leadership Crest with a Superior Leadership; use while running
Duplicate armor piece (hands or feet are cheapest) one Superior Spear Mastery and one with Vitae
Rune of Superior Vigor
2x Rune of Vitae

Weapons:

Set 1 - Spear of Warding (+5 energy, +7 armor vs. elemental), Shield of Valor (+10 armor vs. fire, +60 hp while hexed)
Set 2 - Fiery Spear of Shelter (15^50, +7 armor vs. physical), Shield of Fortitude (+10 armor vs. slashing, +30 hp)
Set 3 - Zealous Spear of Shelter (15^50, +7 armor vs. physical), Shield of Fortitude (+10 armor vs. piercing, +30 hp)
Set 4 - Flatbow

Note: Mods on the Flatbow and the prefix of Spear 1 are not important, though preferably not zealous or vampiric

Key Points:

Enduring Harmony allows you to maintain "Stand Your Ground!", providing a +24 armor bonus and another +10 due to Centurion's Insignia. This skill also makes it possible to use "Lead the Way!" for running, granting a near-constant 25% movement boost (7.5 second duration, 8 second recharge), and extends the +5 health regeneration from "Never Surrender!" to 15 seconds (20 second recharge).

Soldier's Fury increases your attack speed by 33% while under the effect of a shout or chant, which is a constant in this build. This IAS allows you to easily build the adrenaline to spam Blazing Spear and finish them off with a Deep Wound from Merciless Spear.

Usage:

If you are not familiar with farming the beach and cave of FoW, it is recommended that you try a warrior build first. Once you know the area and the general idea of the farm, adjusting to this build is simple. To run to the beach, equip Set 1 and your armor piece without the Spear rune. Run with "Lead the Way!", using Enduring Harmony first to provide a near-constant 25% movement boost. Once at the top of the hill overlooking the beach, engage the first group of Snarling Driftwood (using Weapon Set 4 to pull if necessary). Switch to Set 2; the Driftwood are weak against fire damage, while your spear and shield will provide extra damage against their attacks, which are slashing damage. Activate Enduring Harmony, "Stand Your Ground!", and Soldier's Fury. Auto-attack, spamming Blazing Spear as often as adrenaline allows (frequently, with 33% IAS). When your target dips below 50% health use Merciless Spear to inflict a Deep Wound, allowing you to finish it off easily. Whenever you have less than 75% health use "Never Surrender!" for +5 health regeneration - use Leader's Comfort for a stronger heal if necessary. Continue to eliminate the Snarling Driftwood and Doubter's Dryders, using your flatbow in Set 4 to pull any groups near Ancient Skales, who you must avoid entirely. If you do aggro a group of Skales, use "Lead the Way!" and run until you lose all aggro so you can regenerate before proceeding.

When you reach the mouth of the cave, switch to Set 3. Pull the Dryders away from the cave (one at a time, if you are not comfortable with fighting multiple) and kill them - they deal a very small amount of damage with their regular attacks, so save your skills to activate when they cast Wastrel's Worry on you. Once you kill the Dryders, a large mob of Armored Cave Spiders will begin spawning inside the cave entrance. Back away while they spawn, and wait until they have settled down. Then, use your flatbow to pull groups of Spiders (each group consists of 3) - start off with one group at a time, until you feel comfortable enough to take on more. To kill spiders, try to get them to spread out; they use Healing Spring, which will out-heal your damage if they are all together. Make sure you have Set 3 equipped, as it gives armor against the Spiders' piercing damage. Maintain "Stand Your Ground!" and Soldier's Fury like before, using "Never Surrender!" to counter the poison degeneration and Leader's Comfort whenever your health gets to around 50%. Cave Spiders use Melandru's Resilience so don't use your Merciless Spear until they are around 25% health, or you will just be healing them. Once all of the orignal Spiders are dead, continue into the cave. Pull and kill the Dryders - each one will trigger 6 more Spiders - until the cave is cleared.

Note that this is also a good time to open a few chests if you have keys with you. Enduring Harmony, "Lead the Way!", and "Never Surrender!" provide enough of a boost to run through many areas of FoW to find chests.

Enjoy!

-Tain

Crazyvietguy · Mar 15, 2007, 09:53 PM // 21:53

Hmm.. I really like the build that includes Blazing spear, however, I will give this a shot

- Tain - · Mar 15, 2007, 10:19 PM // 22:19

Blazing Spear can replace Spear of Lightning if you want.
The spiders use Melandru's Resilience at the first sign of a condition, though, so I stick with Deep Wound and only at the end to knock off the last quarter of their health.

Crazyvietguy · Mar 15, 2007, 11:04 PM // 23:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by - Tain -

Blazing Spear can replace Spear of Lightning if you want.
The spiders use Melandru's Resilience at the first sign of a condition, though, so I stick with Deep Wound and only at the end to knock off the last quarter of their health.

I see, I dont think the spiders respond to burning actually, but i could be mistaken. Deep wound is always a good idea however. (BTW it isnt .25 of their health its .20, just a correction)

- Tain - · Mar 16, 2007, 12:17 AM // 00:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazyvietguy

(BTW it isnt .25 of their health its .20, just a correction)

I know, but I throw on the Deep Wound at 25% and then its 1-2 hits to kill. If you throw it on early, they use Resilience. If you throw it on late, you lose effeciency.

Marverick · Mar 16, 2007, 01:17 AM // 01:17

Are you using Focused Anger or Soldier's Fury? You say Soldier's in the description but FA in the skill list.

Leader's Comfort is kind of a bad heal... I think the last one with GftE and Finale of Restoration would be better. Command 15 is enough to keep SYG up all the time (well maybe .2 seconds due to lag) so you can put some into Motivation.

Maybe Wild Throw could be taken to knock off Melandru's Resilence? Then bleeding / burning could be brought to make the process quicker.

- Tain - · Mar 16, 2007, 01:29 AM // 01:29

Soldier's Fury, ty for catching that.

Leader's Comfort works just fine - 2 sec cast time is the same as Heal Sig, which is what most W/x take. The heal amount is plenty when combined with the +5 regen from "Never Surrender".

I'll try with Blazing or Barbed Spear and Wild Throw, but I'm pretty sure the current attacks will work out better. Bleeding isn't great degen, and Barbed has no +dmg to compliment it. Blazing is much more appealing, but it's only a 2 second burning duration. I don't believe either would out-damage Deep Wound, but if Crazyvietguy is right and they don't use Resilience for short burning, then Blazing and Merciless would be the way to go.

- Tain - · Mar 16, 2007, 02:31 PM // 14:31

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone - made a couple of changes.

First of all, dropped Command from 12 base to 11. With the +4 crest while fighting, this still allows you to keep "Stand Your Ground!" up all the time and also keeps "Never Surrender!" at +5 regen. This of course freed up a lot more attribute points, allowing a boost to Spear Mastery for increased damage.

Secondly, I tried out Blazing Spear, Barbed Spear, and Wild Throw. Barbed and Wild are definitely not worth it, but Blazing has replaced Spear of Lightning. With the extra attributes in Spear Mastery, Blazing is serious damage as well as -7 degen for 3 seconds of burning. Having only adrenaline attacks also makes it easier for your energy to keep up. The adrenaline cost is no problem; with 33% IAS you can spam it more often than Spear of Lightning's 6 second recharge. If the spiders do use Melandru's Resilience because of the burning (happens occasionally), they're still at -4 degen. Throw the Deep Wound on at 25% with Merciless, toss a Blazing, and they're done.

clawofcrimson · Mar 16, 2007, 05:59 PM // 17:59

not too bad...but its soooo much easier as a w/rit

- Tain - · Mar 16, 2007, 06:12 PM // 18:12

Meh, I find warriors dull

Besides, we need something for all those PvE Paras sitting around doing nothing.

Milan-V · Mar 16, 2007, 06:13 PM // 18:13

First time I am happy with some fierce competition

Gj on this mate, command version made to work (I never made it to work better than the motivation)
Although I would skip Merciless spear for Spear of Lightning.

Go go go! Help me make more paragon farming builds!

Latest on my solo UW adventures: after ages of saying it would come: it is there. Though SoJ is pissing me off HUGE and smites are hitting a lil to hard.
It is P/W btw

Vahn Roi · Mar 21, 2007, 03:41 AM // 03:41

Leader's Comfort isn't that great when you're not in a full party. 2 second cast for 76 health....eh

Barghest · Mar 21, 2007, 10:42 AM // 10:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by - Tain -

If you are not familiar with farming the beach and cave of FoW, it is recommended that you try a warrior build first.

For the ones who don't have the time/patience to bring a warrior to fow but love to play a paragon instead, can you please give an advice how to run there?

Thanks

Barghest

- Tain - · Mar 21, 2007, 05:59 PM // 17:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vahn Roi

Leader's Comfort isn't that great when you're not in a full party. 2 second cast for 76 health....eh

No, it's not a great heal, but you also don't need to use it much and when you do, it does its job. I'm guessing you haven't actually tried this, or you'd know that. In any case, offer something better to use or your comment is pretty worthless

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barghest

For the ones who don't have the time/patience to bring a warrior to fow but love to play a paragon instead, can you please give an advice how to run there?

Thanks

Barghest

I'd be more than happy to spend some time showing you how it goes

I'm in Europe servers atm and if you aren't, this weekend's event is arriving at the perfect time - if that doesn't work out, I can write out an explanation.