Curse

ak347 · Mar 16, 2006, 07:34 PM // 19:34

The deserts have always bored me, and I was intrigued by a previous post on farming imps. However, the poster didn't elaborate on it much, and I figured I could one up him.

The result: Imp, Golem, and Pinesoul farming.

Build: 55 hp mo/me
Blessed aura
mending
balthazars spirit
essence bond
mantra of resolve
protective spirit
healing breeze
shield of judgement

Gear: sup runes on 5 tats, -50 offhand, +3 energy over 50% hp + 10% chance of rapid skill recharge holy rod (quest reward), -20 hp divine focus (quest reward), 20/20 healing ankh.

Essentially different items and another set of armor to deal with varying degrees of dp (when you're just getting a hang of the fights).

Attributs: max smiting, enough points in healing so that you're one under the +4 mending, points into protection (enough for 17 second prot spirit), rest in divine favor (25% blessed aura) and the few points left into inspiration (9 energy drained for mantra of resolve)

Starting Up:
Leave the ice caves of sorrow, precast all four of your enchantments. Since you dont have blessed signet, make sure you let your energy regen after each cast (yes, its a bit tedious, but you can't swap skills out). Make sure to swap a headpiece with +1 healing in for the precast mending (so that you have the full +4, it really helps).

First fight - the imps (make sure not to aggro the ice golems if you're just beginning).
When fighting imps, your main reaction to maelstrom will be to run. Do not run, this build is specifically designed to tank out anything they can dish out. If you're so unfortunate as to aggro imps and golems, trying to run will trigger the golem's water tridents, keeping you nearly permanently knocked down. Imps and golems both will maintain deep freeze and mind freeze on you.
You might think the mantra of resolve is very energy heavy, and it is, but thats why we have both essence bond and balths spirit running. Maelstrom now becomes your energy engine.
Precast prot spirit before entering battle. You will be hit with mind freeze as soon as you aggro the imps. Once you get more experienced, try to aggro as many imps as possible (the fight takes the same time, but you kill more imps). Cast mantra of resolve, healing breeze, prot spirit again (the maelstrom should fall now). As an example of how mantra of resolve will drain your energy, if you cast healing breeze while under the mantra and are being interrupted by maelstrom, my energy dropped by about 20, then shot straight back up to full. Turn on SOJ and maintain breeze and prot spirit. Rinse and repeat (takes about 2 SOJs to finish off a crowd of imps). There will almost always be one imp that just casts ice spear and thus wont trigger soj. He will thus be the only one left. You can either just run away and he will leave you alone or you can maneuver yourself once a couople of the other imps are dead and he will begin to alternate between ice spear and his normal ranged attack.
Once you're very experienced, you can take on larger groups. Farther to the north, there are up to 20 imps. You can aggro them all. Ive managed to kill them, though it is quite risky with no dp.

Fight 2: The Siege Ice Golems
One of the easiest fights in the game. The golems are strewn all along the frozen river (just north of the exit from ice cave of sorrows). They come in groups of 5 to 12. Maintain breeze, prot spirit, and soj. Do NOT move around (trident will kd you). They dont fall down, so they trigger soj more often. But it still takes around 2 sojs to kill them. Strange thing is, they attack like griffons - most of the group will attack you, but a few will hang back only casting the occasional spells. Once some golems die, they will join in. This prolongs the fight, but theres not much you can do about it.

Fight 3: Siege Golems + Imps
Nothing special if you know what you're doing (as you should by now). Just don't move, maintain all the enchantments + mantra.

The Drops: Nothing exceptional, alot of blue staffs (lots of wood). Some purples. Haven't yet had a gold. But the run is different from other runs, and you have the chance to find 1-2 shiverpeak chests.

Different Area:
You can do this type of run in lornar's pass (exit from beacon's perch). Instead of following the normal drok runs route, go off to the left side (i think its east). There are pinesouls, imps, and lots of golems. Avoid the avicara. You can even kill the wurm further south (hardest fight due to suffering + FOC, since the extra foc damage when cursed ignores prot spirit, and it attacks slow so your energy regenerates slow). Again, drops are mediocre but theres the chances of chests.

Mostly, these are gold/crating material runs (just like most of the other spots now that farming has been nerfed).

Tsunami Rain · Mar 17, 2006, 02:27 AM // 02:27

*points to self* im guessing ive been one uped?

nice thread. I'll be working on this more i guess.