Curse

Radiuju · Apr 25, 2007, 11:30 AM // 11:30

Hi. I'm having some difficulty vanquishing areas of Shing Jea Island with my current team.

I am fairly familiar with Cantha as I have 100% cartographer and Protector, but i'm getting frustrated and could use some team building help.

Mainly, Kinya Province, and Painjang. I use:

1 Barrage/Interrupt (me)
2 MM Hero
3 Sf Hero
4 WOH Monk

As good as the heroes may look, the monk build could probably use some ajustments.

It goes pretty well until we get to Naga Ritualists. They Spirit rift spike the hell out of my casters, which DP's them, which weakens them. Then they're Dp'ed so much 2 naga warriors can almost or fully wipe my team out. And as for the Crimson Skull....I don't want to talk about it.

I am wondering if there are any suggestions for a team build for vanquishing the early parts of Shing Jea Island with a human Ranger.

Note that: Skills are not a problem.

I am also aware I have no tank, but I am not a great person with hero builds.

Cebe · Apr 25, 2007, 11:51 AM // 11:51

Earth ele with Wards is nice. Ward against Elements vs Spirit Rift helps to reduce the damage a little. Maybe make the MM hero N/Mo and give him Reversal of Fortune and Protective SPirit? Dunno how well that would work. Personally I find MMs to not be of much use in Hard Mode, the minions are killed off way too fast. Personally I'd take a second ele instead of a MM...

Sophitia Leafblade · Apr 25, 2007, 12:37 PM // 12:37

Id Swap out ur SF ele for something else, Sf works best when in numbers or u could change Barrage for Burning shot so SF does more damage.

Personally i change the build on the ele such as an Earth one with Wards or such like, possibly swap out a WoH monk for a ZB monk and replace Barrage with broad head arrow and add in Read the Wind.

Benster · Apr 25, 2007, 12:41 PM // 12:41

Since you are a ranger, drop barrage and take Broad Head Arrow instead. You can combine it with Apply Poison, and if you take Tiger's Fury or some other skill that increases your attack speed (particularly when using a short bow) then your interrupting will be better. Broad Head will daze, which means that essentially any damage will interrupt for a given period of time. Shuts down casters very effectively, and is useful in hard mode where fast casting enemies are harder to interrupt.

Barrage, as a rule, is only a good elite to take if you know you will be in an area with enemies that gather together. Other elites can be more helpful. As a ranger myself, I can tell you that once i decided to stop using barrage, I had a much easier time playing the game.

Should help with the rits at least....

Good luck!

Benster · Apr 25, 2007, 12:46 PM // 12:46

Oh, also, if you have no tank then consider bringing a pet to take some of the beating.... if you are investing some points in beast mastery to improve Tiger's fury, as I mentioned in the above post, then Call of Protection will help mitigate some of that damage....

it will, however, take up a few of your skill slots, so it isn't necessarily the best move.... An alternative, then, would be to try to mitigate damage with Throw Dirt to clause blindness.

SnipiousMax · Apr 25, 2007, 01:53 PM // 13:53

SF is pretty poor in four man areas... and in all honesty it doesn't work well without a second. So I would bring something else in that slot. You really need some sort of meat head (warrior or dervish or even the tanking Paragon build of zinger's).

For the monk, WoH is severly outclassed with the newest nightfall skills. And straight healing build in general is not as effective as a healing/protection hybrid. I would work out either a Light of Delieverance Build or a Zealous Benediction build. Both of which a hero monk uses really well.

Barrage is another skill that isn't going to get you very far in a four man area. You would be much better off bringing something like Broad Head Arrow so you can completely shutdown the fast casting annoyances. With those changes you should breeze through shing jea.

Trx · May 06, 2007, 02:48 AM // 02:48

For me two monks and 2 damage dealers worked well for the 4man areas on Shing Jea Island (me as a SS necro, warrior hero and two monks heroes). One of the monks as full protection (Mo/E for lesser energy glyph) and Shield of Regeneration as elite. Give the hero a 20% enchant weapon and use Blessed Aura for a nice duration SoR which can be constant on every team member if needed, providing no enchant stripping. SoR cuts dmg from the nasty spirit rifts in half plus gives +10 health regen, not bad. Dont use too many spammable prot skills tho or it will drain the heroes mana and it cant cast SoR. The other monk was using a WoH build.

Maybe not as fast killing as 3 damage dealers but i had no deaths once i got the hang of it which saves time in the end.

Evilsod · May 06, 2007, 03:01 AM // 03:01

You see... your running Barrage (no surprises there) when the mobs you're facing aren't even big enough to warrent it. And more to the point, the casters that you generally need to interrupt cast too fast thanks to the HM buff to interrupt anyway.

I did fine as a standard BHA/Apply Ranger using Norgu - MoR Domination, Olias - SS/Reckless/BR and Tahlkora - ZB Prot. Using a prot is a very bad idea though if you're running an MM. They love to waste 10e on a ZB or PS just to counter BotM.

Hex Nexus · May 06, 2007, 03:27 AM // 03:27

Savannah Heat > Searing Flames

Rockby Quickfoot · May 06, 2007, 04:08 PM // 16:08

I've been vanquishing Shing Jea myself lately and I've only had problems with Haiju Lagoon. For the areas I used Dunkoro on my heal build (OwYS0YIP5kf3GJjUXRGV63J), General Morgahn on Party Support (OQGlUdloZcyo4EjVxrbOsGmr8Wk3), and Koss with swords (OQATETKXzYr+FoAuvBOACAA). I play a Domination Mesmer, using stuff such as Empathy and so on, and I'm sure you have a good ranger build that can take care of business.

My question for you, is how did you vanquish Haiju Lagoon (assuming you have)? I managed to clear the whole thing except for the Ritualist boss Tao Din Kaineng on the small island and the giant Crimson Skull aggro that are near the Captured Son quest location. I've tried multiple times with several different builds and I just can't seem to do it without racking up massive DP.

Trx · May 06, 2007, 04:37 PM // 16:37

That boss is tough, took me a few tries too. I used talkhora as a bonder and flagged her behind a bit so she wouldnt be in the battle (this worked well for me in later areas too when fighting Am Fah / Jade Brotherhood since neither enchant strip). I focused on taking down the boss first because of the extremely nasty spirit rift, after a few tries i got it. There are a few mobs on that island you can lure before the boss comes so that helps too (a warrior and some others i think, they sometimes wander from the main group).

Same thing with the Crimson zerg, if i remember correctly they dont have enchant stripping so a bonding hero works really well there, and you can take alot of dmg with them on (double bonds on the squishies if needed).

And can't you have a 6 people sized party in that area? Since you only mention using 4

.

Rockby Quickfoot · May 06, 2007, 04:55 PM // 16:55

I was mentioning four because the original poster was asking about areas where you could only use four. I have been taking 6 out of course on my attempts

I'll have to try a bonder, thanks for the help.