Curse

Mahanaxar · Dec 06, 2005, 07:19 PM // 19:19

Testing new farming builds/areas i came to Perdition Rock and tried this ultra-defensive war/ele tank.

Here are some screenies of the results:

Mahgo Hydras:

Flesh Golems (skills list inside):

Drakes (didn't killed the boss):

Now some comments...
I use armor of earth for hydras and drakes only, because flesh golems strip it immediately with lingering curse (and 65 hp from healing signet instead of 130 is no good). They cast it anyway, but a lot rarely when i dont use any form of enchantment.

Disrupting chop is there mainly to interrupt animate bone minions and prevent the subsequent combo taste of death+death nova. But is not really necessary. Probably I will replace it with a strong attack skill.

Against hydras and golems the bulk of my damage comes from glad's defense and aftershock (no energy problems at all with bonetti's and a zealous weapon).

Dark Flame Dryders are just too easy: they use shadow strike while my health is over 50%, but below 50% they dont cast it anymore. They simply keep using regular attacks, doing 0 damage.

Now the problems.
Number one, the damn phantoms with signet of midnight.
I'm blinded: no damage.
Phantom is blinded: no damage from glad's.
So i have to kill them with aftershock only. It's doable when i face a lone phantom (very slow, i have to time aftershock with his signet of mid to prevent interrupts), impossible when there are 2 or more of them, because they regularly interrupt me (0.75 sec) with cry of frustration or power leak.

Things get even worse when a random phantom spawns while fighting other monsters. This mean a very quick death.

Problem number two: mixed groups, golems+hydras. I need armor of earth for hydras but cannot use it while fighting golems.

My goal is to create a build to clear the whole area (well, bosses excluded maybe). Not really for profit, but for the satisfaction to kill everything where usually random pugs of 8 players fail miserably.

So, feel free to comment this build and suggets possible improvements (especially pro-warriors like Racthoh and Striderkaaru are welcome).

And sorry for my terrible english, look at my location and be patient.

Mahanaxar · Dec 06, 2005, 07:22 PM // 19:22

Two more screens (4 images per post max):

Golems again:

Dark Flame Dryders:

Dahnel · Dec 06, 2005, 07:51 PM // 19:51

oh oh i got a question ! ...find anything good ? lol

JMFD · Dec 06, 2005, 07:53 PM // 19:53

Have you considered substiuting Obsidian Flesh as your elite to prevent some of the nastier parts of the casters? You'd need something like crystal wave and/or eruption for damage though

striderkaaru · Dec 06, 2005, 08:34 PM // 20:34

nice build. my favorite combo. what is that, like 180+ armor?

i would have suggested obsidian flesh too, except that there would be a 10-12 sec downtime between when it runs out and when it finishes recharging. it would also hinder the damage output, since most of the damage comes from glad defense.

the only thing i can think of right now is maybe switching to swords and using savage slash instead of disrupting chop. that would be good for some extra damage. you seem to have everything well thought out. mixing mobs usually makes it tough coming up with a build that will deal with everything. if energy isn't an issue, try adding ward vs elements somewhere.

edit: don't worry about your english. it actually isn't bad.

Mahanaxar · Dec 07, 2005, 11:59 AM // 11:59

Thanks for the suggestions. In fact, savage slash is better than disrupting chop. But I've just realized that is pretty easy to kill 3/4 golems almost simultaneously with some practice, so they don't even have the time to start summoning anything.
Therefore, an interrupt is not necessary anymore (pointless on hydras anyway, 1 interrupted shower is nothing into the mess generated by 3 or 4 of them).
Nor is necessary to put points in axe/sword mastery. I simply use desperation blow now, wich is tactics-related(no kd with dolyak).

The build now is:

1-desperation blow
2-aftershock
3-dolyak
4-watch yourself
5-healing sig
6-bonetti's
7-glad's
9-armor of earth

10 earth magic
11+1+3 strenght (dolyak 24/7)
10+1 tactics

Now even phantoms die faster, because desperation blow is an energy attack (good luck building adrenaline while blinded), and is possible to hit them with desp blow+aftershock when blindness goes off and he's casting signet of midnight again. Impossible to kill 2 or more of them anyway.
And I still have to avoid mixed groups with phantoms (hydras+golems are doable because hydras stop chasing earlier).

@Dahnel: nothing special so far, just a black dye, but there is some potential out there (magma shields anyone?), and you can always take some chest keys.

edit: probably a shield with quick recovery from blindness helps a lot to fight phantoms, i'll try it

Racthoh · Dec 07, 2005, 12:24 PM // 12:24

Ooh, my name is mentioned... now I feel obligated to help.

That and you said it's more for the satisfaction and not for farming.

I know I've tried to farm just the opening area before, although I think I died to the first group of hydras with the typical Watch Yourself + Dolyak combo. The phantoms take forever, and the reason being blind. If you don't care about how long it takes then you can assume Gladiator's Defense will trigger everytime. Before you attempt an Aftershock with the current setup, fodder skills always work nicely, same strategy I'll use against Skeleton Etherbreaker in FoW. First, use Healing Signet to make it use Cry of Frustration. Then, cast an Armour of Earth to steal its Power Leak. Make sure however, that when you use Armour of Earth you have a weapon set with an item that can give you enough energy back to cast the Aftershock.

Glyph of Concentration is another option. I'm not sure if they would still attempt the Power Leak, and whether or not it will still drain the energy however. It wouldn't really matter but you would probably need a Zealous upgrade to regain the lost energy in 10 seconds to cast another Aftershock.

Also, Savage Slash at 0 sword = +1 damage. Not much faster IMO.

I'll have to give this a go with my UW soloing build since the Golems, Hydras, and Phantoms all attack physically. Replacing Enfeeble with Plague Touch so I'm not blind against the phantoms, then probably Deadly Riposte with Desperation Blow. The only problem would be less defense against Meteor Showers, but I could always just dance around those, hopefully...

If all else fails, when in doubt, spiteful necros are always there.

Edit: Well, using a slightly modified version of my UW solo build... things went very well. Plague Touch Blind back onto the Phantoms, along with Poison back onto the Golems. Just make sure that your health is high since Death Nova does hit for a fair amount. Against the hydras, just dance around Meteor Showers. I was hit for 42 with just Watch Yourself in effect, no need for Dolyak pretty much at all. Also, I didn't realize that a blind foe won't trigger Gladiator's Defense, but they will be hit by Riposte. Here is what I was using:

Gladiator's Defense {E}
Riposte
Desperation Blow
Watch Yourself!
Plague Touch
Bonetti's Defense (I didn't use it, replaceable)
Healing Signet
Dolyak Signet (uses were minimal, only when healing against Hydras and to prevent knockdown on Desperation)

Sword: 8 + 1
Tactics: 12 + 3 + 1
Strength: 10 + 1

Nice find, this adds another farming spot onto my list. I also didn't have a problem against 4 golems and 1 Phantom. Plague Touch makes a world of difference, not sure what you can do as an elementalist. Thought of something else, use Crystal Wave to cure the phantoms of blind to trigger Gladiator's Defense.

striderkaaru · Dec 07, 2005, 02:58 PM // 14:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Racthoh

Also, I didn't realize that a blind foe won't trigger Gladiator's Defense, but they will be hit by Riposte.

yeah, that's an interesting effect that i discovered when i tried illusionary weaponry as my elite when tweaking my w/me uw solo build. i figured that i wouldn't trigger the ripostes since i wasn't doing melee damage, but i found out that i was. let's just say that trip was cut very short.

it makes sense that a foe who isn't hitting because of blind isn't getting damaged from glad defense. after all, the damage occurs when an attack is blocked, but nothing can be blocked if the opponent misses. that's why a miss won't trigger glad defense. however, the ripostes are triggered whether an attack hits or not. i'm not sure if it is intended to be that way, or if the ripostes work differently.

anyway, as racthoh mentioned, plague touch is a good way to deal with the blinds and poisons. too bad elems have no condition removal. =/

Racthoh · Dec 07, 2005, 03:04 PM // 15:04

If you can get a Crystal Wave away it will at least allow the Phantom to trigger Gladiator's Defense and speed things up. Just a matter of finding a way to fit that skill in.

I'm assuming that Ripostes are counted before conditions are taking into consideration. I would assume that Shield Bash probably works in a similar fashion (if that skill ever sees the light of day). It does say that the next attack you is "blocked" never giving the game the option to check if the blinded foe had a chance to hit.

Much in the same way that even if you cast Rigor Mortis on an enemy, the damage from the Ripostes will still be dealt, but the attack goes through.

damkel · Dec 07, 2005, 08:21 PM // 20:21

Thank you for your thread Mahanaxar. Everyone loves armour of earth. Read your posts Striderkaaru and Racthoh, very nice comments. Here is my W/R contribution.

antidote signet (goodbye to poison and blindness every 8secs)
apply poison
dyolak signet
healing signet or troll unguent?
cyclone axe
glads defence or "Victory is mine" (for super healing)
bonettis or disruption chop or watch yourself
dryders defences

Wilderness survival: 8 or 9 (dunno)
Tactics: 12 + 3 + 1
Strength: 10 + 1
Axe mastery: 0

dryders defences: (Stance) For 5..10 [11] seconds, you gain a 75% chance to "Evade" attacks and +(34..55 [62]) Armor against elemental damage.

ideas? comments?

EDIT:

after some testing (very rough testing). decided that build is only good against flesh golems. crap against hydras. moderate against drakes.

screenies.

have another idea just to use against those hydras. Invinci warrior

replace smite skills with Racthoh's riposte, deadly riposte and glads defence. BOOM!!

Exile Of Heaven · Mar 13, 2006, 09:42 AM // 09:42

Youre Last Picture is Post nerf Balthazars Aura. Its not working anymore.

Rahl · Mar 13, 2006, 04:11 PM // 16:11

Well.. the thread IS almost 4 months old

Francis Crawford · Mar 14, 2006, 02:47 AM // 02:47

I tried Permanent Obsidian Flesh (E/R, so something different, but still perhaps worth talking about.)

Surviving hydras wasn't too hard.

Aggroing the hydras in the first place was a bit hard because an early Phantom would make me get Obsidian Flesh up, and then I waddled along too early to get their attention.

Having the Flesh Golems beat on me wasn't great, but would probably have been OK. I think. I did die at times without being poisoned.

The big problem was after I got my first couple of kills, and the minions showed up. And the Death Novas.

I didn't try Antidote Signet, but poison wasn't so much the problem as, I think, actual armor-ignoring damage from the Death Novas.

Exile Of Heaven · Mar 14, 2006, 12:09 PM // 12:09

kk i didnt see that i apologize

Exile Of Heaven · Mar 14, 2006, 12:10 PM // 12:10

btw thx for the build tip i tried it once but didnt sucseed. Now i did