Curse

Lord Cooper · Mar 20, 2006, 10:25 AM // 10:25

earth magic 14 (10 + hat + sup)
air magic 11
energy storage 11 (10 + minor)

weapons galigords rod

stone daggers
kinetic armour
armour of earth
ward against melee
crystal wave
lightning surge
lightning orb
earth attunement

primarily for farming high level monsters such as hydras

its not a bad start but i can currently only take on 2 hydras at a time

any ideas how i can tweak it?

torquemada · Mar 20, 2006, 11:27 AM // 11:27

hmmm....what about ward against elements? Hydras like to cast fire spells very very much (if you are a /Me secondary - you didn't specify - you can use nice interrupts and Power Block elite which basically shuts hydras down).

LightningHell · Mar 20, 2006, 11:56 AM // 11:56

Or you might want to use Serpent's Quicknesss + Obsidian Flesh combo.

Lord Cooper · Mar 20, 2006, 11:58 AM // 11:58

im a monk secondary. im already packing an elite in that build (lightning surge) so i cant take another elite anyway

lightning surge is excellent for spiking because it has a 3 second fuse. cast it and follow up with lightning orb for a mean damage spike. not too bothered about the hydras ele skills as im wearing pyro armour which gives me an armour buff against fire and once they cast their fireball and meteor they tend to attack in melee anyway. the biggest problem is the knockdowns from their meteors. thats just a case of timing my big spells though.

i may have a look through the mesmer skill set though see if there is anything good there i ca use although im not sure what to sub out?

crystal wave is cool just because i love doing over 100dmg to a lvl 22 hydra in 1 shot. lightning surge and orb make a great spike combo. stone daggers is a cheap spam spell to keep kinetic armour up and to finish the hydras off. the armour buffs are fairly self explanatory. and the earth attunement is a basic energy management and cover enchantment

LightningHell · Mar 20, 2006, 12:07 PM // 12:07

Well, I'm sort of telling you to drop that elite.

I do know Crystal Wave is cool. Lightning Surge is horrible in PvE, IMO. Just deal the damage, the Hydras aren't Monks.

You could really do with Channeling.

Lord Cooper · Mar 20, 2006, 12:24 PM // 12:24

hmm ok i may drop the air spells then. what would u recommend for decent damage dealing at low energy cost..the main reason i went for air is for the armour piercing and relatively low cost for the damage.

suppose i could go for the conventional earthquake + aftershock combo. that would leave me points to spend on a secondary attribute i guess

i dont have ranger secondary unlocked i have all the others though what would recommend?

LightningHell · Mar 20, 2006, 01:18 PM // 13:18

Troll Unguent, if you have Obs Flesh.

I'll make one for you right away. See you then.

Peewee · Mar 20, 2006, 01:24 PM // 13:24

make urself a E/Mes and pack mantra of flame, Thats a almost 50% reduction on fire dmg. I would imagine that meteor is your biggest enemy, so i would also pack a interupt or 2 in order to stop that occasionally, and then aoe is fine.

LightningHell · Mar 20, 2006, 01:50 PM // 13:50

You know, I'm using Obsidian Flesh for some reason.

Lord Cooper · Mar 20, 2006, 01:56 PM // 13:56

damage from the mereor isnt the problem its the knockdown thats causing grief. if it interrupts a big spell i got problems

LightningHell · Mar 20, 2006, 01:59 PM // 13:59

Energy Storage: 6 +1
Earth Magic: 12 +3 +1
Wilderness Survival: 11

Troll Unguent
Obsidian Flesh {E}
Serpent's Quickness
Crystal Wave
Stone Daggers
Armor of Earth
Kinetic Armor
Earth Attunement

You will have some trouble in getting energy, though. You can't fit a Prodigy in there, and there aren't any E-Steal skills in WS.

On the other hand...

Energy Storage: 8 +1
Earth Magic: 12 +3 +1
Inspiartion: 10

Echo {E}
Ward Against Melee
Crystal Wave
Channeling
Stone Daggers
Armor of Earth
Kinetic Armor
Earth Attunement

EDIT: Or maybe put a Cry of Frustration in there, in place of WaM.

Lord Cooper · Mar 20, 2006, 02:13 PM // 14:13

ill try the mesmer line tonight.. ill have to sub out echo for arcane echo though as i havent capped echo yet

LightningHell · Mar 20, 2006, 02:20 PM // 14:20

Arcane Echo is quite expensive, though...remember, it's for the skill you need most.

I gotta sleep soon.

oljomo · Mar 20, 2006, 02:52 PM // 14:52

Hi

Number 1 drop the air magic, you want aoe spells that affect lots of hydras at once, you also want to avouid having to split attribs between several ddifferent lines.

Number 2, max out earth magic, the extra armour reduces damage significantly.

NUmber 3, if you are having trouble with knockdowsns, switch to warrior and take balanced stance

Number 4 remermber that although dispatching enemies quickly is good, taking longer to kill one, yet being able to surviv e larger groups is normally a better payoff (even if its just for the fun of seeing 1 spell do over 2000 damage (easily done with crystal wave against hydras))

Number 5, you need some sort of energy management skill in there, mty favourite for geotank is ether renewal, as you should be using at least three enchantments on it anyway.

So after those here is my hydra build:

stone daggers

cheap spammable, mainly to keep kinetic up but can also be handy for damage if your only takign on one enemie for whatever reason)
aura of restoration (if your spamming stone daggers, dont underestimate the healing effect of this skill, plus it helps with energy management in this build))
earth attunement(makes skills cheaper to use, and is especially useful cos of the energy management skill)
armour of earth (well, this is one of the two core skills of any geo-tank build)
kinetic armour (the other core of any geo-tank)
ether renewal (voted most useless skill by many people, but is INCREDIBLY useful in geotank builds, should get it so you refill your energy bar form 0 in its duration)
crystal wave (the basic damage skill of this build, not sure whether aftershock would work better due to energy/recharge thoguh)
**balanced stance** (for hydra farming this is what ill use, but against non kd enemies other skills can be more useful, maybe mantra of resolve, or just another damage skill)

basic tactic is grab as many hydras as you can (im pretty sure ive had 20 at once) take their hits easily and use ether renewal whenever its up for regaining the energy, plus heling any excess damage, (but make sure balanced stance is up for this otherwise you might end up with 0 energy for 30 secs, and thats no t easy to recover from).

oljomo

torquemada · Mar 20, 2006, 04:02 PM // 16:02

Mezmer owns hydras, especially useful on Pedrition Rock where bastrads have meteor shower...if 4 of them gank you...

Anyway, talking about that, I posted an earth/domination build recently specifically designed for Pedrition (over half the skillbar is hydra-specific).

Francis Crawford · Mar 20, 2006, 07:06 PM // 19:06

Waddle out with Kinetic Armor, Armor of Earth, and Mantra of Flame and you can take on the hydras pretty straightforwardly in any of a variety of builds.

An alternative to going /R for Obsidian Flesh is Arcane Echoing it. You're out of protection after 70 seconds, but that can be enough time to kill off some hydras with the right build.

The problem I've always found is that I kill two or three hydras at once, and I need to spend over a minute regenning my energy.

Lord Cooper · Mar 20, 2006, 08:01 PM // 20:01

yea ive got my build sorted to the point i can take on 4 at a go if iget the timing right and manage to keep the enchantments up. then im totally out of energy and exhausted

still its not bad for a laugh

oljomo · Mar 20, 2006, 08:11 PM // 20:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Cooper

yea ive got my build sorted to the point i can take on 4 at a go if iget the timing right and manage to keep the enchantments up. then im totally out of energy and exhausted

still its not bad for a laugh

Hi

try my build, as i said in my post, i have managed to take on about 19 hydras and win, it just takes some getting used to (ie knowing when to use balanced stance adn ether renewal). Also note that my build doesnt use exhaustion at all, and cycles between low and full energy, so if you play it the right way you can finish with one group and instantly carry on to the next.

And to those of you suggesting obsidian flesh, i dont really see the point if your taking balanced stance, ether renewal for energy and healing seems much more important to me that stopping yourself ebing inturrupted, especially as the fireballs youll have cast against you will do rougly 11 damage per hit if you have both armours up at max earth dmaage (and les if you ahve some sort of shield with -2 while enchanted). Also note that it wont stop inferno, which the hydras like casting, so you need the other armours for that.

And 70 seconds is quite oftne not long enough to kill a complete group if you take enough on.

oljomo

oljomo

LightningHell · Mar 20, 2006, 11:57 PM // 23:57

70 seconds is meh. Such a short time.

pegasux · Mar 21, 2006, 04:01 PM // 16:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by oljomo

Hi

try my build, as i said in my post, i have managed to take on about 19 hydras and win
oljomo

I haven't tried your e/w build but where in the world can you aggro 19-20 hydras at the same time? I have never seen that many hydras in an area to aggro...ever. If there is one then please let me know cause i want to kill them...lol. The most that I have been able to aggro at one time is about 12...on occasion a patrol group of 3 will aggro me but the other groups are way to far away to aggro. Now on to what i use to kill them and without taking any damage from their mele attacks.

e/mo
earth 16
energy 13
5 remaining

Blathazar's Spirit
Ether Renewal if you are planning on fighting small mobs
or Obsidian Flesh for larger mobs
Aura of Restoration
Kinetic Armor
Armor of Earth
Crystal Wave
Aftershock
Stone Daggers

You can take on max size of any mob with this build as long as you can keep kinetic up and can aggro them. The most I have gotten to aggro at the same time is 12 and have come out on top with full energy and health. I used to use Galigords Stone Staff but now use the collectors Crimson Carapice Shield for the -2dmg and +45health and a sundering axe with a 20% enchant mod on it, the sundering part does me no good since my slashes only do 4 dmg. Dropping the staff for this combo makes life so much easier for a geotank! The normal mele attack will do zero damage...the fire attacks will do a little damage to you but aura or restoration will heal that up before you can notice.

Just cast Balthazars spirit for energy then kinetic then aggro away as many as you can then armor of earth before kinetic runs out. then aura of restoration...once they finish their first wave of meteor, hit them with crystal wave, aftershock then obsidian flesh. then just spam stone daggers till they recharge. you will have a 5 second gap when obsidian flesh is gone. in that 5 second gap you will get hit with meteors ..let that part pass then put it back on again or you can take your chances and tyr to put it back up asap. <note: cast armor of earth as soon as obsidian flesh starts to blink> timing might throw you off at first but there is a pattern there that you can figure out pretty quickly with the meteor. IGN me if you have and problems and i'll show you how to run it =).

You can also run this build with ether renewal which i also do for more of a challenge, the knockdows will keep coming but they are still managable and if you lose kinetic no biggie cause you can survive till kinetic is recharged so that you can put it back up again. With the shield you can still do a group of 3-4 without kinetic up and still survive. Anymore and your toast.

BTW did my first 2-3 person geo run this weekend and boy was it fast and hilarious to see the hydras drop like flies! Take Ether Renewal for 2-3 runs for energy. With your enchanments up each cycle of stone daggers gives you 15 energy, -5 from initial cost and you gain 10 energy per cycle. Baiscally it gives you 40 energy when it ends. Thanks S_Serpent for the comedic hydra runs.