Curse

MadHamish · Jan 10, 2007, 04:24 PM // 16:24

Hi!

First of all: This involves henching your way to the acolyte, killing all things around her and then sending your henchies away. Don't be afraid, that she's killed in the process by your henchies. She's really durable

.

As the thread I wanted to post this build in is called "Mes/any Acolyte Farmer" (or somthing like that) I decided to create this new thread as I'm going to show you how to kill Dwayna's Acolyte with my W/Mo.

Thinking about what was said in the original thread about her efficient way of survival using her many selfheals i realized, that there are other bosses with whom i had a similar problem (Wing and Aahrashh (spelling?)).

The only way I could beat those guys was with either disrupting/disabling their HS or punishing them for using it. As the acolyte does not have a signet i could disable AND has many selfheals, the only way i could think of was to punish her for healing herself… The build may seem familiar, perhaps someone else posted somthing like this for the referred bosses, but the usage is a little… different.

So i came to this:

Skills:

Vigorous Spirit (your selfheal)
Scourge Healing (the punishment for her annoying selfhealing)
Riposte
Deadly Riposte (Prerequisite for Gash and superb dmg)
Gash (give her a Deep Wound so her heals are even less effective)
Flail
Dolyak
Lions Comfort (another selfheal, i barely use it)

Attributes:
Tactics as high as you can (I have 14 or 15)
Sword 9 (more would be ok)
Strength 8? (makes your Dolyak last longer)
Smiting 8?
Healing a litte bit (3? won't need much healing because she will barely hit you if you do it right)

Weaponry & Armor:
Any max sword with Req. 9 should do, it is much easier if you use a zealous sword because you will use a lot of energy.
Any max Shield should be ok.
Max armor recommended, perhaps use one with radiant insignias for the energy, but you can do it without it.

How to:
Leave with your full party from Kodonur Crossing, then fight your way to her location. (A good thing which really speeds up the run is when you have favor, you can pay balthasar right in front of the door for the warrior enhancements.)

I suggest going over the two bridges, up the stairs then right to the next rez-shrine. Kill all the soldiers around and in the fort (there are two other bosses there, too: Osric and Luluh).

When done with the soldiers send your henchies away. I pin them near the Melandru-rez-shrine. You can now start fighting the acolyte. If she is in form just use every skill on the bar except for the hex. Keep Flail up all the time and try to keep VS up. Chain your ripostes in a way so she can't hit you (do not spam, watch if it was already triggered or not). Use VS when you have a Ripose active and use Rispostes to cover your Dolyak downtime. If she is near 50% when she changes back to non-form she's as good as dead. Watch her closely. The moment she changes back hex her with Scourge Healing and rip and hack the hell out of her. Count 25 seconds from when you activated Scourge, the hex her again. If she manages to NOT die, just repeat the process… next time you'll get her.

Got her scythe on the 7th or 8th kill. Man, this truly looks beautiful on my dervish.

Hope this brings the Dwayna's Grace-prices down a bit… it's IMHO the best scythe for most dervish-builds.

Have fun!
MH.

P.S.: Perhaps someone could test if the hex "Scourge Enchantment" will optimize this build even more.

irishone · Jan 10, 2007, 10:49 PM // 22:49

is Dolyak a must ?

powercozmic · Jan 11, 2007, 05:18 AM // 05:18

How abt 55 with scourge healing and SOJ ? or 55 with spoil victor and scourge healing ?

MadHamish · Jan 11, 2007, 06:03 AM // 06:03

Hi!

@powercosmic: You could try it with Spoil Victor, but I think it won't do enough damage in the time she's out of her form. Somehow she can switch to her form again earlier then a player and because when she's hurt she will rather heal then attack you... As you would have a higher Smiting Attribute as a monk it could work... The moment she switches to form though and uses a skill Spoil and/or Scourge are removed...
When you have max tactics you will do between 80 (rip) and 170 (rip&d.rip) damage to her when she swings at you and you'll give her a deep wound when you use gash, which makes her heal for less.
I don't think SOJ will work because of her rather low attack rate. Perhaps you could use a 55 Mo/W using Ripostes and Scourge, but then Energy will become and issue. D.Rip costs 5e and should be spammed when she's out of form, Scourge:10e has to be renewed one time, all your maintained enchantments and the fact, that she does not swing too often...

@irishone: Perhaps you can do it without Dolyak, instead use Watch Yourself but why would one NOT use Dolyak (Ripostes are Phrophecies only, too). She does some damage you know...

Have fun!
MH.

irishone · Jan 12, 2007, 01:52 AM // 01:52

i understand that she does damage and lots of it, its you were talking about using another skill (scorge enchantment) what skill would u replace ?

MadHamish · Jan 12, 2007, 06:03 AM // 06:03

As I don't use Lion's Comfort, I'd use that slot. But be careful that you chain the ripostes the right way then. If she hit's you, your only way to selfheal is VS. Perhaps also use a vampiric sword hilt but watch your energy.

I will continue to use the build I posted above... When you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy to use. If you fail to kill her, at least you won't die either.

Have fun!

VitisVinifera · Jan 12, 2007, 06:32 AM // 06:32

she can't block can she? if so tiger stance is the same as flail right. None of the skills listed under her in wiki mentions blocking

anyways yeah hitting myself over the head for not thinking of scourge healing when that's what I used to kill Incetol

MadHamish · Jan 15, 2007, 06:53 PM // 18:53

Well she can't block, but Flail is an adrenalin-skill and you can just spam it. Tigerstance has a recharge time and costs energy. You will use most of your energy for Scourge and D.Riposte, so Flail is better. It's the best IAS to combine with Dolyak IMHO.

Hope this helps...

MH.

Vexed Arcanist · Jan 16, 2007, 04:50 PM // 16:50

You do realize Scourge Healing is gone the second Acolyte of Dwayna uses ANY skill right? Read: Avatar of Dwayna

The form allows her to remove 1 hex every time she uses a skill.

Melisande · Jan 16, 2007, 06:44 PM // 18:44

Thank you MadHamish for this build! I acutally got a Dwayna's Grace on my first run.

I actually died first time I fought her, couldn't get the timing of the various skills right, but I still managed to do it with 11dp, so that just shows you how good the build is

Vexed: you're only supposed to use scourge healing after her avatar wears off (read the how-to!).

bored-.-bored · Jan 16, 2007, 07:12 PM // 19:12

nice 1 sounds good..

MadHamish · Jan 17, 2007, 06:07 AM // 06:07

Hi!
Nice to hear that other people use this with success too!

@Vexed: You're absolutely right that the moment she uses a skill while in her form she loses one hex. This is why i wrote:

Quote:

The moment she changes back hex her with Scourge Healing and rip and hack the hell out of her,

Like Melisande said, that means your supposed to hex her while she is out of form...
@Melisande: I died a lot in the beginning, too. When you chain the Rips right, it shouldn't be a problem to do it with 30 or 45% DP, though.

Man, you guys and gals are just really lucky. I have 40 greens or so and only one of those dropped the first time i killed a boss (Razorfin's Axe). I wish i had so much luck, too! Ghial took me 40+ times the first time i tried (when Factions was new) i didn't even get his staff. I tried again recently and he dropped it for a different build and a different char (as the original one involved killing every Jade solo on the way and I couldn't make it any more...)

Have fun and get this scythe... she's a beauty.

MH.

Freneticweasel · Jan 19, 2007, 06:14 AM // 06:14

Could you do a sliver armor run with an elementalist with all the soldiers in it still? Or would the seers tear you apart?

Luigi Br · Jan 19, 2007, 03:35 PM // 15:35

I brought my warrior from Tyria with a zealous sword only for this run, I´m playing Nightfall with a dervish. I´ve tried the build and killed the Acolyte a few times already, but sometimes it takes too long. I can´t activate the ripostes in the right manner and sometimes she changes back to Avatar of Dwayna before I kill her and I have to start it again. But I believe I´ll get better with some training.

I´ve tried to bring Scourge Enchantment too, but the global damage seens to be the same, because she keeps healing most of time and doesn´t activate the ripostes like before and as soons the avatar skill recharges she looses the hexes. For me it sounded like it´s better to bring only scourge healing and keep the ripostes in the way you say. I´m with 14 on tactics.

I`ve exchanged Lion´s Confort with "Victory Is Mine". She´ll be with 2 conditions all the time (bleeding and deep wound), so I can get 128HP of healing and 14 energy with it.

And inspired by your build (ripostes and health degen), I´ve tried another build with a W/R. I bring Apply Poison in the place of Scourge Healing. With bleeading and poison she has 7 pips of health degeneration (-14hp per second) and 3 conditions all the time (Bleeding, Poison and Deep Wound), sometimes even a 4th condition because I bring Desperation Blow (+38 damage) in the place of Vigorous Spirit and use it when Dolyak Signet is up. The Build helps to get her health down when she is in the Avatar form, since she can´t get ride off the conditions, and Victory Is Mine works even better with 3 or 4 conditions (192...256 HP and 21...28 Energy) so I don´t need another healing skill and can keep Apply Poison Up all the times.

But in the end, it´s all about the ripostes, if you can´t get them in the right chain you can´t kill her. Maybe I´ll change my helm for a Tactician´s Helm for one more point for Tactics (right now I use a Strength one).

Anyway, thanks for the build MadHamish! And sorry for any grammar errors, english isn´t my first language.

MadHamish · Jan 22, 2007, 06:03 AM // 06:03

@Freneticweasel: I don't know, but please test this out, i'd like to see it working.

@Luigi Br: Yes, for me she changes back to Avatar-Form sometimes too, before I can kill her but at least she won't get over 60% of life when you keep riposting her. Thanks for the hint with the conditions. I can kill her with 14 in tactics aswell, but it is a lot faster if you pump it to the max AND get the blessing from the shrine (if you have the favor, that is...) with 17 in tactics you'll do a LOT of damage. Thanks for testing "Scourge Enchantment". Well, the good thing is we now know that it doesn't work.

Perhaps we could use gladiators defense for additional damage? Anyways. I've got me scythe and I go to other places to do my farming now... Just startet a new pre-character.

Have fun!

MH.

melaina · Jan 23, 2007, 05:56 AM // 05:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freneticweasel

Could you do a sliver armor run with an elementalist with all the soldiers in it still? Or would the seers tear you apart?

I tried it two times with my ele but shadowform ends too early and the acolyte of dwayna heals herself too much. Perhaps a A/Me could manage it.

Emik · Jan 23, 2007, 11:48 AM // 11:48

I do it the same way but the thing is with both Dolyak and Lion's Comfort you have to consider casting routines.
I take Auspicious Parry instead of Flail and it seems to be doing the job a bit better for me.
Record is under 5 minutes (yeah i was lucky

)

This is my exact build.

[skill]Auspicious Parry[/skill][skill]Riposte[/skill][skill]Deadly Riposte[/skill][skill]Gash[/skill][skill]Vigorous Spirit[/skill][skill]Scourge Healing[/skill][skill]Healing Signet[/skill][skill]Dolyak Signet[/skill]

Attributes:
Tactics: 14
Swordsmanship: 9
Strength: 7
Smiting Prayers: 8

I don't use any points in Healing Prayers so basically Vigorous Spirit can be left out of the build (I don't even remember why i left it there

)
Also: i tend to start from Pogahn Passage making my way round the Hekets for the Balthazar Shrine towards the Grenth on to get all the blessings and i use a Vampiric Sword so for 20 minutes i get +6 health while attacking.

Melisande · Jan 23, 2007, 06:43 PM // 18:43

Emik: with healing sig, don't you also have to consider casting routines? a 2s cast time for healing sig is still a fair amount of time. I actually just use a vamp sword like you do, stick on vigorous spirit and that's pretty much all the healing I need if you add in flail. For the extra slot, I actually use silverwing slash for a bit of extra dmg.

Melaina: I've actually tried it on a A/E before I found this thread. I can't seem to get the sliver armor to actually target HER. It either targets one of the guards or one of the casters she's next to. I'm not that experienced with the A/E build yet (I've only done Ghial and Monk's Construct a few times) so if you could tell me how to target the sliver armor, I could try it out.

MadHamish · Jan 23, 2007, 09:26 PM // 21:26

@Melisande: I've done a little slivering myself before. The thing is, you can't target it. It does what it wants. At least when i do it. When farming insects luckyly it targets the monks first, then the paragons. When going against the Warrior Construct it targetted the afficted warriors first. I thought, that it perhaps targets monsters by name in alphabethical order, but when i went and killed Woespreader it would go for him first (some times at least). I don't know if anyone can tell you how this works.

@Emik: Are you talking about killing the acolyte in 5 minutes or does it take you 5 minutes to get to her AND kill her? My complete run takes 10-12 minutes for me.
Nice usage of auspicious parry. I use Flail mainly because i wanted to help my henchteam to kill the buggers around the acolyte and so it would increase my selfhealing with vigorous/vampiric-mod. For Lions-Comfort - which I don't like aswell because of it's disabling Dolyak - you should just use it when you just activated Dolyak.

Mr Emu · Jan 29, 2007, 01:39 AM // 01:39

i find sliver often targets the enemy i am targeting