Curse

Lord Cooper · Apr 03, 2006, 07:54 AM // 07:54

everyone runs geomancer builds because you need the armour buffs. with 15 points in earth (11 + hat + sup) kinetic armour gets you an extra 80 armour and armour of earth gives you another 60! put 11 points in energy storage and 11 in tactics ( for balanced stance - you really dont want be getting knocked down all the time)

heres my build

stone daggers - cheap spammable spell for use with ether renewal
kinetic armour - mainstay of this build +80 armour
armour of earth - another vital skill +60 armour
obsidian flame - ignores armour 112dmg
crystal wave - also ignores armour 100dmg to all adjacent targets
earth attunement - minor energy management and another enchantment for ether renewal to work with
balanced stance - stops the knockdowns from the meteors
ether renewal - very effective self heal and energy management. you will have 4 enchantments up with this build getting you +64 health and + 11 energy for each spell... use stone daggers its cheap and spammable

with this build i can comfortably take on 3 hydras using only stone daggers to deal damage as you will take virtually no damage. what damage you do take is negated when you use ether renewal

i can take on 6 or 7 hydras but i have to use the big dmg spells to take them down a bit quicker mind you im fairly new with this build so im still practising.. stick to 3 at a time and its eeeasy!

a pyro build simply isnt viable here as they are resistant to fire to start with and they will deal over 100dmg to you with each fireball or meteor without the earth armour buffs

LightningHell · Apr 03, 2006, 09:52 AM // 09:52

I'm surprised there aren't any Geo/Hydro builds out there.

Svovler · Apr 03, 2006, 10:48 AM // 10:48

I have tried this build:
Stone Daggers
Aura Of Restoration
Armor of Earth
Kinetic Armor
Earth Elemental
Crystal Wave
Aftershock
Obsidian Flesh

But not a good build, i can only take 3 hydra as one time, if the 4 come i die!

LightningHell · Apr 03, 2006, 10:50 AM // 10:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Svovler

Earth Elemental

No. I need to get this skill. I need to get this skill...NOW!

Lord Cooper · Apr 03, 2006, 11:07 AM // 11:07

i think he means earth attunement?

swap out aftershock for obsidian flame
swap out aura of restoration for ether renewal
swap out obsidian flesh for balanced stance (warrior secondary)

try and time balanced stance so that its up when they are dropping meteors on you

cast earth attunement before the fight.. it lasts 60 seconds and it will help with energy management while you set up your other enchantments

cast kinetic armour just before you initiate aggro then armour of earth.

fling a few stone daggers to get their attention

obsidian flame and daggers until they are all in melee range..

then crystal wave

cast ether renewal and spam stone daggers to fill your health and mana pool

then just spam away on daggers flame and crystal wave until they drop.

cast ether renewal whenever necessary

NEVER NEVER NEVER let your armour buffs drop!

Lord Cooper · Apr 03, 2006, 11:16 AM // 11:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by LightningHell

I'm surprised there aren't any Geo/Hydro builds out there.

hmm thats an interesting proposition... ive never played with water ill give it some time tonight and see what i can cook up

pegasux · Apr 03, 2006, 12:25 PM // 12:25

The build I use is this...works great and you shouldn't ever die.
Balthazars Spirit
Obsidian Flesh
Aura of Restoration
Kinetic Armor
Armor of Earth
Crystal Wave
Aftershock
Stone Daggers

I also use a -2dmg shield and an axe with a 20% mod on it. I've been using this setup vs. the Galigords Stone Staff for about 2 months now and it does make a huge difference. Instead of using thorgalls shield which is one of the worst in the game go get the collectors shield in the wilds. -2DMG(enchnted) +45Health(Enchanted). You will need 5 ancient eyes for it...good luck buying it in town though since nobody is ever sellling them. Only drawback with this shield is that it's ugly! Crimson Carapace Shield. Energy becomes a problem only if you go 1 on 1 with a hydra after a long fight...instead just run off and aggro another group.

torquemada · Apr 04, 2006, 09:07 AM // 09:07

Geo's primarily for tanking, mind you. Domination works miracles on hydras (since OP mentioned /Me).

LightningHell · Apr 04, 2006, 09:14 AM // 09:14

Of course. But I'm not freaking bothered to kill them one by one.

mastar · Apr 17, 2006, 02:13 AM // 02:13

Just wondering, where do you go hydra farming? and how do you use the build? Im using this one:

stone daggers
aftershock
crystal wave
armor of earth
kinetic armor
aura of restoration
earth attunement
balthazars spirit

How would I go about farming?

Francis Crawford · Apr 17, 2006, 02:19 AM // 02:19

The traditional place is outside Augury Rock (Skyward Reach exit, if I don't have them mixed up -- anyhow, the more northerly one).

If you want to try with that build -- well, you'd probably cast your enchantments in the order Earth Attunement/Kinetic Armor/Armor of Earth, with Aura going anywhere in the sequence. Do NOT let Kinetic Armor run out, which means you have to keep casting early and often (since you can get knocked down). And if you're knocked down while recasting Armor of Earth, there could be a problem ...

mastar · Apr 17, 2006, 02:43 AM // 02:43

also, what is the point of hydra farming? I know ettins=runes and SF,Oro and UW are greens, but what do hydras drop?

Francis Crawford · Apr 17, 2006, 03:19 AM // 03:19

Hydras drop cash and little else noteworthy.

But like most desert monsters, they drop collectible body parts, which can be helpful in outfitting a character (e.g., you can get an air something -- I think it's an air wand -- for them).

Hydra farming is popular because you can waddle right outside a city and kill a few of them. Virtually every single-profession, conveniently-located, high-end mob is a popular farming target, and they're no exception.

mastar · Apr 17, 2006, 04:07 AM // 04:07

so hydra farming isnt great for making money... whee else can u use similar builds?

LightningHell · Apr 17, 2006, 07:39 AM // 07:39

Well, anything without any Mesmers or enchant-stripping Necros.

If you do farm in the UW, you could go Obsidian Flesh.

torquemada · Apr 19, 2006, 07:50 AM // 07:50

Why I farm hydras? To punsih em for using fire magic, of course!!

S_Serpent · Apr 19, 2006, 09:15 AM // 09:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rhunex

There's a lovely E/Mo build in this sites archive stuffs. Essentially, its like this.
Stone Daggers
Obsidian Flame
Crystal Wave
Armor of Earth
Kinetic Armor
Aura of Restoration
Earth Attunement
Balthazars Spirit

Cast balthazar's spirit right when you enter the map, its an enchantment that stays with you at all times, taking away one regen, so getting it up asap means you can go right into battle with full energy.

Right before battle, cast Earth Attunement, armor of earth, kinetic armor, and aura of restoration(make sure the attunement is up before the armor buffs, gives you more energy).

In order to make this build work, you NEED stone daggers. Kinetic armor gives you some 70+ armor for 8 seconds, and the time is reset if you cast a spell. Stone daggers allows you to keep it up.

Now, with all your buffs up(watch them, Armor of Earth dies after 30 seconds, relatively quickly, and you don't want to go too long without the attunement) you shouldn't take much damage at all. And each time you're attacked, you get energy(via balthazars).

I've tested this build, and it does work, and if you read the article of the original creator, it says it works better with more hydra. And it does. I fought 9 hydra at the same time, because thats as much as i could aggro and still keep kinetic up. Killing the first hydras was easy, I hardly lost any health(it was noticeable, but I healed so quickly that it really didn't cause any problem).

Keeping up your enchantments, you also need to deal out damage. While you CAN kill 9 hydra with stone daggers...I would not advise such a plan of action. Rather, use crystal wave as soon as it recharges. It'll attack all hydras, and by the time you've killed 8 hydras, the last is on its last legs(metaphorically).

And while Obsidian Flame is a good spell, doing 100 or so dmg and ignoring armor, it does cause exhaustion, and I wouldn't recommend spamming it too much. I found that healthy substitutes for this skill include:
Earthquake-also causes exhaustion, but does AoE dmg
Aftershock-you won't get the second set of damage, but it does a healthy load as it is, and it's to all the hydras that are attacking you melee style, just like crystal wave.

Just so you know. I killed the 9 hydras with level 12 earth magic, level 12 energy storage. I'm waiting to use a sup earth rune on my first piece of geomancer armor(im getting all 4 15k sets) and so I had lvl 12 earth magic(no earth helm, saving money for 15k armor)

However, attribute wise, I would think that having level 16 earth(sup rune + helm) and level 15 energy storage(sup rune) would make this build immensly more easy to work with. Just so you know, at level 15, Aura of Restoration gives exactly %400 energy cost of your spells to your hp. if you use stone daggers, you're healed 20 hp.

As for weapons, same thing. I didn't have earthy wands or artifacts, so I used my fire things. As you might guess, my fiery weapons didn't help earth spells one bit, but it worked for me all the same. In short, though, it doesn't matter what you have for a weapon/artifact, it will work.

Yeah this build is nice, I switched the obsidian flame from obsidian flesh so I'm not knockdown anymore and can easily round up 11 hydra's and survive then too wipe them all out, you feel mighty good afterwards

Lucian · Apr 20, 2006, 07:16 AM // 07:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by mastar

so hydra farming isnt great for making money... whee else can u use similar builds?

Depends on what you consider "great." Hydra gold drops are in the 80-100 gp range. The weapons they drop are worth around 50 gp ea. at the merchant. Also, if you ID all unidentified weapons before selling them to a merchant, they often go up in value quite a bit. Some will turn to "precious" and can triple in value. Hydra claws are 25 ea, unless you hold onto them to sell to other players. Then they can bring up to 100g ea.

Depending on how fast you are, and how many you kill, it's not unreasonable to get around 1500g in a 15-20 minute Hydra run.... just by selling everything to a merchant.

pegasux · Apr 20, 2006, 02:20 PM // 14:20

I don't understand why people say that hydras are not profittable...a full run all the way around takes me about 25-30 min at 5k-6k per run. thats 10-12k an hour. For me that's good money.
I beats soloing SF in the hopes of getting a decent green! Or doing FoW and hoping for a shard or 2. Ettins are nice but how often do you get a Sup Abs or Vigor now? Don't get me wrong ettins are good esp. when the Luxon quest was there but not now IMO. The Hydras will typically give 1-3 gold drops per run unless you over farm them. Unless they changed the drops in the last month it should still be very viable.

Sora of the Flame · Apr 25, 2006, 06:03 AM // 06:03

A really Good Build IMo is

E/Me

Stone daggers
Aftershock
Crystal Wave
Channeling
Kinetic Armor
Armor of Earth
Obsidian Flesh {E}
Aura of Restoration