Curse

Arnack · Feb 19, 2008, 03:38 AM // 03:38

Hello, Arnack here.
I've played Guild Wars for a good 2 years and I've never seen such a horrible drought in my 30 months of play-time. Ectos at a record low, drop rates are now laughable, and no one wants to buy anything... There is one farm that has been overlooked like it almost wasn't even there: The Solo IDS Run. Yes yes, I know.. it's old- but how else did I get my Silver Eagle Armor in a weekend... with about 2 hours of farming time. I slaughtered those imps who held the IDS! I told a couple of my friends and guildies, showed them the run, and they now have a new set of armor. So, I decided to show you guys at Guru. So, on with the builds:

I'm going to update this thread as much as possible if people like it. I'm going to add more builds and whatnot. For now I will only add one build, which was posted a couple pages down.

----------------
E/Me
----------------
Equipment:
Galigord's Stone Staff or something equivalent.
Armor
Geomancer's Armor
Attributes
Air Magic: 11+1
Earth Magic: 12+1+3
Energy Storage: 6+1
Template Code:
OgVDgbysNSftBP8ruVNAaVVH
Skills:
[skill]Glyph of Swiftness[/skill][skill]Obsidian Flesh[/skill][skill]Sliver Armor[/skill][skill]Stoneflesh Aura[/skill][skill]Stone Striker[/skill][skill]Mantra of Earth[/skill][skill]Storm Djinn's Haste[/skill][skill]Ward of Stability[/skill]

Now, once you have all that setup, let's head down to (or up to, depending where you are :P) The Granite Citadel.
Now, before we start, let's talk about the run a small bit. Always keep up Stoneflesh Aura, Stone Striker, Mantra of Earth and Storm Djinn's Haste. The first part is Tasca's Demise which is full of Stone Summit. It can be considered the hardest part of the run.

TASCA'S DEMISE
When you enter Tasca's Demise, head over to the right. A group of Stone Summits spawn behind the gathering of rocks, and if you hug the right wall they will not fall in your agro circle. Next, along this valley, a group of 3-4 Summits walk back and forth. Cast up your 4 main skills and run past them. After you lose agro, you will come to an even bigger group. Do the same thing and keep running until you lose agro.
At this point you will notice that your either bleeding or hexed with life siphon (or both). If your health is above 400 HP you will be able to tough it out.
Keep running and you will notice a split in the road. One path will go up and on path will stay flat. Stay on the flat path and you will notice a bridge. A group of Summit will patrol over this bridge. You must wait for them to pass by. A picture follows below on where you should stay.

Once the group has passed, walk over the bridge and you you will see the road splits again (to the left and forward). A group with an Ice Golem should come towards you, and go to the left path. Wait for them to go by:

The next group is a bit harder and matters how lucky you are on your spawns. Sometimes you have to die, and sometimes you can walk clean. Sometimes you can also wait for the Avicara to come through Mineral Spring's spawn zone and attack the Summit. They will be pre-occupied with them and you can quickly pass to Mineral Springs. Other times you will have to die and spawn at the nearest Rez Shrine, and then you would be able to get to Mineral Springs. You can still do this run with a 30% DP.

MINERAL SPRINGS
The easiest part of the run. It's a little straightforward: always keep up your enchants and follow this map I have made below. The Avicara cannot do any damage to you. The warriors can only interupt, so don't cast enchants until your out of agro...

I have marked several points on the map above. I will speak about each point below:

POINT A: Pinesoul. Watch out for their traps: bleeding and crippling. You can still tank it through, but just be careful not to agro Avicara.

POINT B: This area's Avicara generaly have Guile's which have enchant removers. Never fear: cast Silver Armor over your running skill, so they only remove that.

POINT C: Safe place: this place is right be the Rez shrine and from what I have seen: no enemies patrol around that area.

POINT D: Uh-oh. Knock downs. These Giants have a series of knock downs that can lead you back to point C, if you know what I mean. Sometimes you can get pass the Giants without an agro, but if you can't you will need to agro them, cast WoS and wait until they use their knockdowns, and run north into the valley.

POINT E: In this area there is a boss spawn as well as a enchant remover. Just do the usual and run by.

POINT F: Entrance to the cave. Good luck and continue the tutorial below.

So now we are in front of the imp's cave. Sometimes the imps are in front of the cave, or stashed way inside the cave. They are sometimes also paired with ice golems or trolls. If you see a troll, you want to kill it FIRST! I usually ignore the golems, though. So, I'm guessing you probably know what to do:
before you maintain agro, cast your 3 running skills (besides Djinn). Use the glyph and use OF. Get into agro and get close to an imp or troll and use Silver Armor. Rinse and repeat. ALWAYS Keep up OS! Maelstrom will interrupt your enchants leading to a quick death.

Get any IDS? Great! You can usually sell them for 12-15k. Once you kill all the imps in the cave, you can zone back to town and do it again.
Have fun, and if you need any help, don't hesitate to PM me in game and what not.
IGN: Arnack The Warrior.

I will be adding more to this guide. I will also be adding different secondary profession runs or add in Title Track skills. If you have any suggestions, questions, comments and feedback, please supply. Good luck in your farming adventures!

-More pictures tomorrow.

JimmyNeutron · Feb 19, 2008, 03:52 AM // 03:52

Since you're playing as an El/Me and IF you have EoTN, drop Ward of Stability for

"I Am Unstoppable!"

Arnack · Feb 19, 2008, 11:55 AM // 11:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimmyNeutron

Since you're playing as an El/Me and IF you have EoTN, drop Ward of Stability for

"I Am Unstoppable!"

Yeah, that is a good title track skill to use. Some people don't even need a anti knock down skill- it depend how lucky you are in your spawns.

Also, like I said, I will be adding more pictures, etc into this thread as I think IDS farming is the most profitable farm.

Abedeus · Feb 19, 2008, 01:56 PM // 13:56

Imo take 7 heroes/henches and flag them away. Gold is divided, of course, but you are there for gold items, which are not assigned to heroes.

Arnack · Feb 19, 2008, 09:16 PM // 21:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abedeus

Imo take 7 heroes/henches and flag them away. Gold is divided, of course, but you are there for gold items, which are not assigned to heroes.

Reason I wouldn't do this is because the run itself is easy, and if an IDS doesn't drop, you usually get about 1k in other drops, mostly including the gold. I never like I wasted run

Smokin elementalist · Feb 20, 2008, 04:28 PM // 16:28

i am having trouble when i get to the ice beast and the azure shadows they can still damage me through all of my buffs what should i do?
also is this done in NM or HM?

Abedeus · Feb 20, 2008, 05:10 PM // 17:10

Ice Beast is hard to kill. Azure Shadows use signets, that's why you need anti-kd.

This is rather done in NM, easier and IDSes drop the same.

Smokin elementalist · Feb 20, 2008, 10:49 PM // 22:49

i just cant live long enought throught the combo of frozen burst and signet of judgement and my sliver wont target the ice beast....

Arnack · Feb 20, 2008, 11:28 PM // 23:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smokin elementalist

i am having trouble when i get to the ice beast and the azure shadows they can still damage me through all of my buffs what should i do?
also is this done in NM or HM?

You do not generally fight the Ice Beast. The ice imps beyond the beast do not yield any IDS.

Same with Smokin elementalist, after you kill them all in the cave, it's best to just start over.

Crippie its Tom · Feb 21, 2008, 11:27 PM // 23:27

NM.

also, a build quite similar was posted like, last week. not quite as complete, but-

it used the same principle, and most skills (exept ward of stability) are identical.

so please, give that guy some credit.

Also, the northern run has no knockdowns but is slightly harder IMO

also, IMO /mo is better for this run, with balthzar's spirit and healing breeze.

1k stuff a run? excluding the IDS, that's pretty darned lucky :/

Arnack · Feb 21, 2008, 11:43 PM // 23:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crippie its Tom

NM.

also, a build quite similar was posted like, last week. not quite as complete, but-

it used the same principle, and most skills (exept ward of stability) are identical.

so please, give that guy some credit.

Also, the northern run has no knockdowns but is slightly harder IMO

also, IMO /mo is better for this run, with balthzar's spirit and healing breeze.

1k stuff a run? excluding the IDS, that's pretty darned lucky :/

I did, either way thats the standard IDS build.
And I maintain about a 1k yield w/o IDS all the time- not that lucky, I guess.

Fire The Nutter · Feb 22, 2008, 02:32 PM // 14:32

Cheers for the build Arnack, got an IDS on my 1st full run (bad spawns on runs 1-4 before I got "I am Unstopppable")

N E D M · Feb 23, 2008, 05:48 AM // 05:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abedeus

Imo take 7 heroes/henches and flag them away. Gold is divided, of course, but you are there for gold items, which are not assigned to heroes.

heroes and henchman take their share of gold items.
loot scaling applies to parties that are not full only.

Dragnmn · Feb 23, 2008, 09:06 PM // 21:06

Not if you flag them off-screen (grayed out names in party panel). Then they only take gold, no drops (according to guildwiki that is, I never bother with flagging, very bad at h/h control).

ll Evil ll · Feb 25, 2008, 08:21 PM // 20:21

Great guide I just farmed the whole cave
and the run was easy cause you explained it ^^

I was kinda sad taht I didn't get any IDS but guess what ?
look at what hte last Ice Imp in the cave droped

I am happy player thanks to you

EDIT : I got 1136g profit too

Sypherious · Feb 26, 2008, 08:10 PM // 20:10

I'm going to put this on Pvx if it's ok with you.

Lyssa Apate · Feb 27, 2008, 12:20 AM // 00:20

Can be done Me/E. But do mind the .5-1 second gap between your OF's.

Attributes were:
FC: 2+1
Inspiration: 6+4
Earth: 12
Air: 11

Click for show off: (I got lucky)

Henchies all died outside of the portal. I was the lucky one to escape.

Also: You'll be continually low on energy during the run, so find a safe spot and renew the enchantments once your energy is up at a decent level again.

Sypherious · Feb 27, 2008, 01:26 AM // 01:26

OK i made the build on PvX

. Here it is: http://www.pvxwiki.com/wiki/Build:E/Me_Solo_IDS_Farmer

Full credit goes to Arnack.

apocalypse_xx · Feb 27, 2008, 03:01 AM // 03:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arnack

You do not generally fight the Ice Beast. The ice imps beyond the beast do not yield any IDS.

The imps behind the cave MOST certainly DO drop IDS', as do the ones that sometimes spawn in front of the cave.

JimmyNeutron · Feb 29, 2008, 07:00 AM // 07:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by apocalypse_xx

The imps behind the cave MOST certainly DO drop IDS', as do the ones that sometimes spawn in front of the cave.

Yeap they do! I got one from them before.

Here's mine using my own custom build.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10247670

IDS can be farmed with El/Ra, El/Mo, El/De, or El/Mes. Each secondary prof has it's own pros and cons. Just have to know when to use the right secondary build for the situation.

I've been too busy with some other work to write up the article.