Curse

linkid · Jan 25, 2006, 11:00 PM // 23:00

Profession: Mo/Me (obviously)
First off, this is not a very effective (fast) build... but soloing UW is usually very slow (of course 55 + SS/SV nec duo is pretty good).
Second, this is very similar to the Me/Mo version. In fact, the skills are exactly the same.

Equipment:
Anyways, this is a 55 monk build, so you'll want 5 superior runes (healing, divine favor, and protection, plus two cheapest monk superiors) and the -50hp icon. A +% enchanting axe or sword would be nice, but a regular sword/axe will do (I didn't have the enchant mod for a while and it worked fine, although slower). You want a illusion or divine favor wand to kill the nightmares from range (so you don't spawn another), and a longbow for pulling would be nice.

Attributes:
12 Illusion
9 + 3 (+1) Healing
8 + 3 Protection
5 + 3 Divine Favor
2 inspiration

+1 could be from head piece or a 20% offhand, it's there to give you the +4 mending
After you cast mending you can swap the headpiece to protection/DF. Remember if you don't have healing superior on the headpiece, you can just swap a healing headpiece (that you use in groups maybe) to still take advantage of the +1 attribute, then swap back to the superior-runed piece.

Skills:
Mending
Essence Bond
Balthazar's Spirit
Protective Spirit
Healing Breeze
Power Drain (or some interrupt)
Sympathetic Visage
Illusionary Weaponry {elite}

Beginning:
Cast Mending, Essence Bond, and Balthazar's Spirit when you enter. Have the wand ready, cast protective spirit, and aggro some aatxe(s). If you ever see a nightmare spawn, target it and wand it, using power drain to interrupt if it casts rend (most likely it will). While the aatxes come at you, cast Illusionary Weaponry and swing away. (Note: if you can make the aatxes block the others so you only have to fight one, do so). If there are multiple aatxes attacking you, you want to have Sympathetic Visage and Healing Breeze up as much as possible. Doing so will interrupt your weapon swing and slow down your damage dealing. If you are only facing one aataxe, then Divine Favor healing from protective spirit (+21 with deep wound) and +1 pip from mending should be enough. Cast either essence bond or balthazar's spirit before IW to make them waste savage slash, then recast IW. Once you get the hang of it, it's not that hard. Make one whole circle around the spawn area to make sure there are no more dying nightmares when you aggro the graspings.

Graspings:
After taking the quest, there will be groups of 4/3/3 graspings. The group of 4 is by far the hardest. Cast PS IW HB and aggro the group of 4. I recommend pulling them down the stairs so the group of 3 won't join and make it a group of 7. Just cut them down one by one, keeping up HB and SV. You can drop HB when there are only 2 left and SV when there is one, although it won't hurt to keep them up. SV may actually save you energy (because of Fear Me!). If you just cannot get IW off without getting interrupted (happens), just wand them to death. If you killed the group of 4, you should easily be able to handle the other groups of 3 (make sure they don't join and make a group of 6).

Go towards the smite area, fighting aatxes and graspings ifyou need to (pull aatxes/graspings away from each other with wand or bow so you won't be facing too many enemies, being careful of any nightmare pop ups).

Fighting smites are pretty easy, as they have no interrupts. Just don't get your enchants removed by nightmares and keep both PS and HB up. HB is not necessary against the last two smites. IW and SV as often as possible, as Reversal of Fortune is pretty good at negating damage, especially if there are many smites casting them.
You can fight a group of coldfires if you want, interrupting/moving away from maelstrom. I was successful in killing 2 coldfires while being attacked by 4 smites. I recommend killing coldfires before smites when that happens.

Some notes:
Compared to Me/Mo, this build is less offensive and more (too much?) defensive. The mesmer primary will deal 8 more dmg per swing and its SV will last longer, while this has +4 mending and +8 breeze (which is wasted against non-bleeding smites and graspings, as +3 and +7 will hit the cap at +10). The +4 mending allows this build to kill an aataxe, or 2 smites, or 2 graspings without breeze. Fast Cast vs Heal from Divine Favor. I do not have a Primary mesmer so I can't really test the Me/Mo. Of course for Monk there's always SoJ, but I think this build is more fun and possibly even quicker against aatxes (but not for the others). After you get used to it, this should be an easy build to solo UW with.

Comments, criticisms, corrections, etc will be appreciated

onilink · Jan 25, 2006, 11:04 PM // 23:04

This is almost exactly the same as I use when solo-ing. Only problem is that it can take a while.

Gildor Took · Jan 26, 2006, 03:09 AM // 03:09

if ur going to do this its more effective going me/mo so u have 16 illusion

sno · Jan 27, 2006, 08:12 AM // 08:12

Me/mo or mo/me using this concept is DREADFULLY slow... you're looking at >1min per monster, which is... horrible. Great to say you're able to do it (I've done it once) but beyond that, it's not good for farming.

400th post! ^_^

Avarre · Jan 27, 2006, 08:22 AM // 08:22

Would be kinda slow as Monk... probably taking 2 rounds of IW per kill

But the advantage of playing this build as Mes/Monk is that compared to finding a competent nonguild group that will take you in, the killing speed is like lightspeed, vrooooooooom!

cerb · Jan 27, 2006, 03:02 PM // 15:02

I have no idea why you guys keep trying to solo UW. It is so much more effective with a necromancer and just so much faster...

I got the last 45 ectos I needed for my FoW armor in 3 days, I have yet to see an Underworld soloist find that many in the same timespan.

xcutioner · Jan 27, 2006, 07:46 PM // 19:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by cerb

I got the last 45 ectos I needed for my FoW armor in 3 days, I have yet to see an Underworld soloist find that many in the same timespan.

Pre-nerf I think I got that covered. I even have a screenshot of me with 3 ecto drops from one group. I'd come out with on average 3 ectos per run, 15 runs would net me 45 ectos, I could do that in a single day(pre-nerf).

To be honest running solo is boring, better to bring guildies along for fun.

Also how would u see a soloist get that many?
If they were solo you wouldn't have seen them.

sno · Jan 27, 2006, 08:54 PM // 20:54

You're talking about pre-nerf... If you go back to before any of it was nerfed you could run as a straight up smite monk (no worries about nightmares, aoe etc...) and pull in tons of ectos... Back then solo was fast, but still, 2man with a necro was MUCH faster. Necros could use mark of pain, and other aoe's, and when combined with a fast solo monk's smite skills, would clear things insanely fast.

We're clearly referring to now though, not pre-nerf.