Curse

doYouWantFriesWitThat · Dec 26, 2005, 11:16 PM // 23:16

can someoen show me the path to ice caves? and can u guys help me with this aeromancer avicara boss? he just uses this crippling move and then the rest of the avicara purely OWN ME

silent333x2 · Dec 26, 2005, 11:40 PM // 23:40

I wanted to mess around so I came up with a monk running build that isn't 55. I was able to run all the way to the ice caves next to the statue fairly easy. I was also able to run becons, but couldnt get passed the halfway mark. I kept getting killed by the mountain giants that throw the big rocks

. I think I might be able to run the whole thing if I get a low req tactics sheild w/ +45 -2 dmg.

I don't wana release this running build just yet. Still trying to get my 55 monk started. Then I'll buy some Judges armor, tactics sheild w/ health, sword w/ +30 hp. Then I'm sure I can do the whole run to drocs

mookster · Dec 27, 2005, 01:16 AM // 01:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by doYouWantFriesWitThat

can someoen show me the path to ice caves? and can u guys help me with this aeromancer avicara boss? he just uses this crippling move and then the rest of the avicara purely OWN ME

The path is pretty straightforward. It's a giant loop, but I took a SS of it for you anyways. As for the Ele boss - If he spawns in your path, it's pretty much a 50/50 chance you'll make it. What I've done is cast Ele Resistance before going in, then Charge! ... Hopefully I get past the mob, then can Sprint by the time the hexes wear off. If not, head back to Citadel and try again.

Here's an image of the southerly route that I prefer.

agent of ascalon · Dec 27, 2005, 01:22 AM // 01:22

hay that imp build is what Mr Happycakes uses ^^

Rufio Lostboy · Dec 27, 2005, 07:15 AM // 07:15

elemental resistance + dolyak + watch yourself FTW!
got mine in 4 runs
tip: take candy canes for losing DP, and shiverpeak keys (got me a 15>50 req 9 fellblade there)
the hardes part are the ice golems in tasca's demise .. i HATE deep freeze

eifiji20 · Dec 27, 2005, 09:54 AM // 09:54

I've done like 6 or 7 solo runs, and 3 or 4 with groups, and no IDS to show for it

exodite · Dec 27, 2005, 11:43 AM // 11:43

ive tried this build a few times but i keep dying im going to try doing it with another person as it should make it alot easier + we each free up a slot as only one need charge and the other takes whatch

kvndoom · Dec 27, 2005, 12:26 PM // 12:26

Hmmm...

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=99310

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kapper

Title pretty much says it all. I made a video tutorial explaining and showing how to solo to obtain an Icy Dragon Sword. It's a little large at 150MB but I wanted to show everything from start to finish to make it as easy as possible.

A few notes:

1) The spawn locations of the enemies in Mineral Springs in particular vary a bit. Some runs are harder than others and require different tactics.

2) In my video I didn't encounter any trolls in the cave but if you do, take them out first. Their disrupting attack on your healing signet can be annoying so wait for them to use their disrupt (they often try to use it vs desperation blow), before using your signet, if possible.

3) Since making the video I have found it much easier and faster to simply alternate Sprint and Charge! through all of Tasca's Demise rather than wait for the bridge patrols as I do in the video. Sometimes the spawns require you to wait, but often you can just race through the whole area.

Comments are most welcome as are donations of candy canes or frigid hearts. =)

I hope this helps a lot of people in the community get their GW Holiday present!

http://www.filefactory.com/get/v3/f2...a8d242451637fa

- Shinobu Shinrei (Kapper)

********************************

Overview (Recommended the video be watched to best understand how it works):

Warrior/ Mesmer

Attribs:
Swords: 11+1
Tactics: 11+1
Strength: 8+1
Inspiration: 3

Skill Bar:
Sever Arterty, Desperation Blow, Sprint, Charge{Elite}, Healing Signet, Watch Yourself!, Dolyak Signet, Elemental Resistance

Armor: Gladiator with Knight's Boots and Denravi Hex Helmet Recommended

Sword: +5 Defense Recommended
Shield: +45 Health -2 Damage in Stance or Similar Recommended

Somehow sounds familiar, eh?

Can't imagine why he didn't post it in the Builds section, eh?

kvndoom · Dec 27, 2005, 01:38 PM // 13:38

There are some things I should clarify, since browsing the forums I see a lot of repetitive questions and comments. I use specific skills / stats / items for a reason.

Gladiator's Armor: I have a set of Gladiator's, but I never use it in this run (except for my arm piece, which I just haven't gotten around to replacing yet). Why? Gladiator's: base 80AL. Wyvern: base 85AL. The base AL is your elemental defense. When you enter the cave and get bombarded by Imps, you can possibly take 3-5 more damage per attack spell wearing Gladiator's. That adds up fast, obviously. The net result is you have to heal more often. If you bring Watch Yourself that's negated, but some people choose not to bring WY. Fine, just keep healing when you should be killing. Don't complain to me about how long it takes or how the imps keep kicking your ass.

Sprint + Charge: Ok I abandoned Charge for a while, but went back to it. Why? Two reasons. 1) Obviously I want to get to the cave as fast as possible. With both skills, you're at 125% speed 100% of the time. With just Sprint at 12 strength, it's 65% of the time. In Tasca's, if you're using both you can actually beat that Dolyak / Ranger patrol to the bridge and not have to wait for them to cross, and even beat the Golem / Heretic patrol to the last part of the map. I get lucky sometimes and make it to the warp before the Heretic patrol who guards it, and them I'm home free. 2) I do just fine with only Sever Artery and Desperation Blow. 20 seconds or less per Imp. Don't underestimate bleeding. -3 health regen adds up faster than you realize. I have no use for an elite attack skill. Those of you who load up on axe attack skills, I have a feeling you're still not killing them much or any faster. I didn't see any noticable improvement in kill time when I came stacked with Eviscerate, Executioner's Strike, and Penetrating Attack. You're looking at the big numbers in the skill description and letting them deceive you, especially since they all use adrenaline.

Tundra Giants: You're kidding, right? These guys kill you? With Dolyak and Watch Yourself up, their stones do 0-1 damage and don't knock you down. Giant Stomp does 25 damage and doesn't knock you down. How can that possibly kill you? Stroll up to one, start him bleeding, spam Desperation Blow when it recharges, watch him fall dead, stroll up to the next one. Sheesh, I took on 6 or 7 of them at once and never even came close to dying. And you shouldn't take the back way anyway, which I'm going to explain in a bit.

Helms: I have a Lieutenent's Helm with a minor strength rune, and a Wyvern Helm with a Superior Strength. When I get to the cave, I switch. At 15 Strength Dolyak lasts 20 seconds, so it's never down. If you don't understand the usefulness of a Lt's Helm, you haven't used it. Every hex lasts half as long as usual. I can now survive Thunderwing's Iron Mist almost every time. I just hit Healing Signet repeatedly until the spell wears off, then immediately Sprint away. Here's where 2 running spells makes a hell of a difference. If you only have Sprint and it's not recharged when IM wears off, you're screwed. And health degen hexes, well, wouldn't it be nice to cut those -3's in half, time-wise? You'd sure last a lot longer, especially if the next mob is too close for you to stop to heal up and recover.

North route vs. south route, and spawns: I strongly recommend never taking the longer south route. There are numerous reasons for this. The biggest is protection against a bad spawn (too many chickens mixed with the imps at the caves, for example, or Thunderwing at a choke point and you don't think you can get past) and respawning after clearing the cave. When you take the north route, if you die, you go all the way back to the rez shrine near the Tasca's exit. That's a GOOD thing. Just run out and rezone. Voila'! Whole new spawn, one which could be better for your purposes. Killed all the imps in the cave? No problem? Run out to the closest group of birds, let them kill you, and boom, you're back at the beginning of the zone. Death Penalty? Who cares about DP?!? All those frigid hearts you have collected and you don't have ANY candy canes? You don't deserve an IDS, sorry. Go back to farming skeletons or something. The kicker is, there IS another rez shrine in Mineral Springs, but you only pass it if you take the south route. And it's not even remotely close to the rezone point. So if you go that way and hit a bad spawn, or die, or clear the cave and want to start over, you die and STILL have to trudge your way back to the Tasca zone point. For this reason alone, it's never worth going that way. Never mind that it takes almost twice as long to get to the cave if you go that way.

I read on this forum, and even get PM's in game from people who make this a heck of a lot harder than it really is. There are only 2 circumstances that MIGHT kill me in Mineral Springs: 1) I hit 2 or more Trolls at the same time in the cave, and 2) Thunderwing's bunch gets the better of me. I've made dozens of runs, and looted a total of 12 swords, so it's not like I'm offering any advice that isn't already proven to work.

Gift_of_darkness · Dec 27, 2005, 07:15 PM // 19:15

AHHH i hate the mesmer boss :'(

Gift_of_darkness · Dec 27, 2005, 08:12 PM // 20:12

A big thankyou to kvndoom who just helped me getting to the ice cave and clearing it and also taught me a few other tricks along the way

thanks, time to get rich

aZaaaad · Dec 28, 2005, 12:30 AM // 00:30

hey
im havin only 1 problem

the ice imps kill me
i can run there
but the ice imps keep killing me

Witchblade · Dec 28, 2005, 12:32 AM // 00:32

Watch yourself+Dolyak Signet+Elemental Resistance u can hold +- 7 of em easily

badd · Dec 28, 2005, 12:50 AM // 00:50

u can hold all of them easily

dunky_g · Dec 28, 2005, 01:06 AM // 01:06

how do i get to the cave? i am using the exact same build as everyone else, but dont seem to get very far, im desperate for one of these swords!

i have got one now, on 1st run, other party members werent happy lol

aZaaaad · Dec 28, 2005, 02:49 AM // 02:49

yes
its a pice of cake

eifiji20 · Dec 28, 2005, 03:09 AM // 03:09

finally got one, me and a guildie two manned and each got one on the run

our build works perfect..

with swords.

Working on one, using Illisionar Weaponry.

only tried once, had limited success, just need to tweak things i think...it keeps they dmg up and constant. and also helps those with out stace shields, but have enchant ones. still use dolyak, watchyourself...and if you 2 man, have room for rez. work in progress though. HAve the other build pretty much perfected, but like to try new things

kaya · Dec 28, 2005, 07:22 AM // 07:22

in the little time i had today i went 4 out of 12. pretty good odds.

stool_cannon · Dec 28, 2005, 07:25 AM // 07:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by mookster

As for the Ele boss - If he spawns in your path, it's pretty much a 50/50 chance you'll make it.

I don't know why everyone is having such a hard time with this guy?

I have run right by him with no issues every time. I even made it by him and the necro boss standing on the same bridge on my last run.

My build is the same skill point setup as the standard axe build from this thread and I bring

Heal Sig
Dolyak Sig
Elem Resist
Desperation Blow
Power Attack
Watch Yourself
Sprint
Charge

It takes just under 30 seconds per imp with this build. You can speed it up by 5-8 seconds per imp by bringing another attack instead of Watch Yourself or Charge but what's the point? Overall it might be a 3 min different on the entire run and this more defensive version is WAY easier. With "Watch Yourself" constantly running there are never any issues with defense even for the 2 seconds that Dolyak is down every cast.

I take 1-2 total damage for every 10-12 hits from imps and I need to cast heal sig every 30 seconds or so vs the Shadows.

Now for the bad news, no IDS for me yet.

Thanks for creating the build [insert name here because I forgot it]. This is great fun and very easy.

Dwimmerlaik · Dec 28, 2005, 07:39 AM // 07:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by stool_cannon

I don't know why everyone is having such a hard time with this guy?

I have run right by him with no issues every time. I even made it by him and the necro boss standing on the same bridge on my last run.

Perhaps because he Iron Mists you to a 10% speed crawl, all the while his hex buddies are leeching you to death and he's tossing lightning balls that hit very hard.

Personally i took what someone said earlier to heart and make it by him now with much issue: wait for the group to clump (they always clump up), sprint past, when you get Misted hit Doly and Ele Resist, spam Healing Signet, and when Iron Mist is up nail Sprint and get out of there.