Curse

The Meth · May 18, 2008, 03:31 PM // 15:31

Note from writer:
URSAN IS SERIOUS BUISNESS!
Before you start making comments about how lame Ursanway is and why on earth people would need a guide to press 1, Don't waste your time, I have done it for you. Go ahead and quote this post in its entirety and you will win any Ursan debate. ANY-OMG-URSAN-IS-FOR-NOOBS replies will be agreed with.
Even so, I would encourage you to read this guide, as it is my belief that by reading about Ursanway you will be lowering your own intelligence to that of a turnip. By doing this you will be able to enjoy a much more relaxing and less stressful life, no longer bothered by the number of turnip's that surround you.

This guide is meant for the people that are totally new not only to Ursanway, but also keyboards and counting 1-2-3.
This guide will be posted at Guildwarsguru.com, but can be republished anywhere, as long as credit is given for it. In fact, republishing it is encouraged. Share the knowledge!
Apparently this guide was made half a year ago, but because PvE had not sufficiently degenerated yet it was deleted until the time had come to repost.

This guide is far from ever finished, I welcome any tips to make the Ursan-experience even easier. Also, although my native language is English, I suspect that since I have used Ursan my linguistic ability has deteriorated to that of an ADD-affected 9 year old.

This guide to Ursanway is based on the URSANWAY - The Ultimate Guide (recreated), edited to be true.

Table of Contents:

1. What is Ursanway
__1.1 Ursan Blessing
__1.2 How to get Ursan Blessing
__1.3 Ursan Blessing Skills (W.N.P)
__1.4 Grinding Norn Title

2. Equipment
__2.1 Armor
__2.2 Weapons and Offhands
__2.3 Consumables

3. Character Profession Analysis (W.N.P)

4. Recommended Backline Characters
__4.1 Healer's Boon Monk
__4.2 LoD Mimic Monk
__4.3 N/Rt Healing variants
__4.4 Paragon Motivator (W.N.P)

5. Walkthrough by area (W.N.P)
__5.1 Underworld
__5.2 Fissure of Woe
__5.3 The Deep
__5.4 Urgoz Warren
__5.5 Domain of Anguish

6. Useful Ursanway links and other threads: (W.N.P)

W.N.P = Work Not Progessing

The Meth · May 18, 2008, 03:32 PM // 15:32

1. What is Ursanway
Ursanway is a team set-up in which around 3/4 of the team play as "Ursans", using the skill Ursan Blessing (Eye of the North Elite Skill), while other players play as healers. It is a game-breakingly powerful combination because of the armor-ignoring damage, AoE knockdowns from Ursan Rage, and the innate armor and health increase from being able to push the numbers 1, 2, and 3 (maybe even 4 if you are pro, but lets not push it). Ursanway can help anyone who is still unable to complete areas such as Underworld, Fissure of Woe, or Hard Mode areas. Unfortunately, Ursan is still impossible to use in Pre-Searing, making Pre-Searing the hardest explorable area in the Guild Wars series as of May 2008.

Ursanway is not an invincible team setup, you can still get lose if more then half of your team has to take out the trash, gets called away by their mom to do their homework, or falls into a comatose state from the mind-numbing boredom. Ursan groups are just an invincible team setup with the unfortunate drawback of still requiring the keys "1", "2", "3", and "C" to be pushed with semi-regularity. Another advantage is that it is not profession-based and everyone can play it. Although some professions are slightly weaker in Ursanmode then others there is no reason not to take them, because even half of god-like power is still god-like power (there's a logical paradox for you)

In case you have been living under a rock for the past half year, this is what you can do with Ursan teams (assuming, again, that at no time does more then half the team leave):
-UW clear in 1.5 hrs
-FoW clear in 49 mins (Johny Bravo and team recordholder)
-DoA: City clear in 25 mins
-DoA: Gloom clear in 25 mins
-DoA: Stygian clear in 50 mins
-DoA: Foundry clear in 90 mins
-DoA: Full clear in 3 hours
-DoA: Mallyx kill in 20 mins
-Deep 90 mins
-Warren 90 mins
-Any HM areas or dungeons

Since the entire team revolves around a single skill that can be easily acquired early in the Eye of the North campaign, it is not hard to find teammates. However, this build is very reliant on not falling asleep during play, as once a character stops using skills they are useless.

The success of Ursanway was damaged by a game update which changed the range of Ursan Strike from Spell to Touch, because apparently Arenanet thought that bears shouldn't be able to kill enemies by merely looking at them, but instead should be forced to softly tap enemies to kill them. This change was supposedly done because a number of players had troubles figuring out how to use the #2 skill Ursan Rage, and so Ursan Strike was modified to automatically put the player in the adjacent rage, but this is just a coverup for the fact that Arenanet actually hates ursans and wants to see them burn in hell. They were prevented from completely nerfing Ursan when it was realized that sales for Guild Wars 2 would be limited to approximately 10 players if they did so.

As Ursan Blessing is a Eye of the North skill, it does not mean players who do not have access to this chapter cannot be in Ursanway teams, we will still need backline characters, mainly for dicking around and occasionally throwing out a heal whenever someone has managed to screw up and takes 10 damage.

1.1 Ursan Blessing
Elite Norn Title Track skill (Eye of the North), become stronger when you grind your Norn Title.
It is somewhat similar to using a Wurm Spore and also an Avatar skill from NF. However, do not expect to take a bear-form . Using this skill in areas will transform your skillbar to this (you cannot use any of your own skills):

And you will have this Blessing upon you:

Visit http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Ursan_Blessing for more information about Ursan Blessing and the skills.

1.2 How to get Ursan Blessing
Get GW:Eye of the North.
Go to Eye of the North through the quest What Lies Beneath, I Feel the Earth Move Under Cantha's Feet, or Hole of Istan.
These quests may be very difficult, if possible try to get a group of ursans to help you with it. All further notes will assume you have at least 4 R10 ursans and 3 monks in your group, otherwise success is far from assured. It is unknown how the first person to reach EoTN actually got there without the use of ursans, and it is widely believed hacking of some sort was involved. You will end up in Boreal Station.
Leave Boreal Station into the explorable area Ice Cliff Chasms. Go North (that is the direction marked with 'N' on your compass) and talk with Jora, who will give you the quest "Northern Allies". Continue North into Norrhart Domains, then Northwest into Drakkar Lake, then finally North to Sifhalla.
At Sifhalla, talk to Sif Shadowhunter, if you have trouble finding her look for a norn with a large green exclamation point over her head.
Finish the Curse of the Nornbear quest.
After this, you must do the Flames of the Bear Spirit quest, followed by the Blood Washes Blood quest.
When this is done go to the southwest corner of Drakkar Lake. There is a Norn by his hut giving Blessing quests named Hogni Truthseeker. Take A Hunters Pride. It is a pretty straight forward quest, also runnable if you are weary of the excessively hard combat you have faced so far. Take some run skills, exit from Sifhalla, get the honeycomb and lure the Polar bear to the marker. Go back to Hogni Truthseeker and recieve the Blessing.

However, if this method seems excessively difficult and time consuming there is another method of getting Ursan Blessing on your skillbar. Mesmers or characters being secondary mesmers can aquire Ursan Blessing by means of [skill=text]Arcane Mimicry[/skill], which copies any elite from another team member, thus also Ursan Blessing. The advantage is that you do not need the quest to get Ursan Blessing and you can have your original Elite Skill (but you cannot use it while in Ursan Mode). Not that anyone should ever leave Ursan Mode to use other skills anyway

1.3 Ursan Blessing Skills
When to use them and how:

When they recharge and on enemies.

1.4 Grinding Norn Title
Grinding the Norn Title will increase the damage your Ursan will do, as well as making him more durable. There are several options to increase your reputation points fast.
First of all, by using books of course. Filling in Hero's Handbooks partially is probably the fastest method. Some Quests just take too much time, but others, with some practice only have to take several minutes. 11-12 quests should be doable in 2-2.5 hrs time, which will net you 8-10k reputation points.
A full Master Dungeon Guide should only be turned in once, at 79k (or anything just below 80k) reputation points. It is a lot of trouble of getting one full, but should you have one, don't waste it too soon. After 80k rep points, you can only get more points by doing HM stuff. Using it at 79k jumps your character from R7 to R9 Norn. The rest could be maxed out by doing HM Hero's Handbooks, but the result might not be worth all the work, unless you are going for the title.

Another method to get Norn title points is by doing the 'The Path to Revelations'-Quest group farm. This can also be combined with the above book-method.
Often Ursanway groups for farming this particular quest are formed from Olafstead. Just enter the town and watch the chat-channel. The farm involves killing over 250 foes to get the maximum boost and then exploit the quest to kill 6 bosses in a small area for 450 points each. Added some random rank bonuses you can easily net over 6k reputation points. A very good group with the above-average of less then 4 AFK'ers can accomplish this in 30 mins, an average group with 4 AFK'ers would take around 60 mins. But that will still be 6k reputation points per hour.

2. Equipment
You will need to get rid of everything that you will not use in Ursanmode and maximize the potential. Since you will be at constant -2 energy degen, you might need to attack every once in a while. During combat you will gain energy by attacking, in which case Zealous mod doubles your energy recovery. The -1 on Zealous and on the +15 ene/-1 regen mods will NOT have any effect, since the regen of Ursans is FIXED at -2. This is why Blood is power and Blood Ritual doesnt have effect either... So any character should have at least 30 energy and as high health as possible. Not that its really needed.

2.1 Armor
Do not use any Superior, Major or even Minor runes (buy new armor without it). In Ursanmode, this will not have any positive effect, since your attributes do not count in Ursanmode, but they do lower your health. Instead use Vitae Runes if you already have 30+ energy or Attunement Runes to raise your energy towards 30 or more. This extra health can be critical for keeping you alive after all 3 of your monks have gone AFK and a W/mo is healing the party with mending.
For Necromancers and Paragons however, it might be useful to bring Soulreaping and Leadership runes to prepare for the often-occuring case in which the rest of the group decides its best to run around with their pants on their head for a few minutes between every group and waste everyone's energy. Beast Mastery Runes will also boost your Pet's attributes, but I don't recommend to sacrifice health for that.

As for the insignia's to be used on your armor: Radiant on all pieces. More energy = more ursan, duh. Everything else is for noob ursans.

2.2 Weaponsets
Having two (and if you feel like it 4) weaponsets is a good idea if you want to maximize your Ursan. However, this requires an incredibly skilled player and will often only lead to frustration for normal Ursan players. Because of this, only one weapon set will be covered by this guide.

The set you should use At all times while in Ursanmode:
Weapon: A Perfect Crystaline Sword with 15^50, +30 health and 20/20 sundering. The weapon skin is of the utmost priority, even greater then that of the mods, because it will ensure your dominance of the ursan group. Req 9 or lower is preferred
Offhand: A Perfect Tormented Shield with +30 health and -5/20% mods. Again, the shield skin is more important then stats.

2.3 Consumables
Using these is mandatory for all Ursan groups, otherwise you will fail.
Essence of Celerity, Armor of Salvation, Grail of Might, Birthday Cupcakes, Golden Eggs, Lunar Fortunes

The Meth · May 18, 2008, 03:34 PM // 15:34

(place holder space in case I ever get around to finishing this up)

Konig Des Todes · May 18, 2008, 03:44 PM // 15:44

I lol'd at this. "You will be lowering your own intelligence to that of a turnip." So true, except for me, as my intelligence will not lower! Without physical damage that is.

(+1 before this gets closed)

English Warrior · May 18, 2008, 03:48 PM // 15:48

lol niuce guide unfortunatly most mods hate ursan so will close this.

Kerwyn Nasilan · May 18, 2008, 03:54 PM // 15:54

Thank you, best lol I have had in a long while.

Sir Owns Alot EP · May 18, 2008, 04:06 PM // 16:06

Don't forget to mention that you need to insult everyone who doesn't have Ursan or doesn't want to use it, because they are obviously noobs. I mean seriosuly, why use your class when you can just claw everyone?!

natural_Causes · May 18, 2008, 04:12 PM // 16:12

Good guide from what I read

tezza151 · May 18, 2008, 04:12 PM // 16:12

wow fow in 49 mins, if any more proof of ursan killing pve is needed..........

miskav · May 18, 2008, 04:13 PM // 16:13

Hasn't this been posted before? o.O I lol'd.

matsif · May 18, 2008, 04:37 PM // 16:37

I lol'd...lets bet on how long until this gets closed why not?

Malice Black · May 18, 2008, 04:41 PM // 16:41

I heard if you combine Ursanway with Imbagon you get to enter Nightmare mode!

Gogogo!

The_Chim · May 18, 2008, 04:47 PM // 16:47

Are those 'records' accurate? I know for a fact that my guild can run full HM clears of UW and FoW in much less than 1.5 hours and 49 minutes respectively, and that is using a full Ursan team.

If we do our normal build for both areas, which only includes maybe 4 Ursan by the way, we clear in well under those times. Like 15-20 minutes faster.

The Meth · May 18, 2008, 04:53 PM // 16:53

Personally, my favourite part is this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Meth

Unfortunately, Ursan is still impossible to use in Pre-Searing, making Pre-Searing the hardest explorable area in the Guild Wars series as of May 2008.

Quote:

Originally Posted by matsif

I lol'd...lets bet on how long until this gets closed why not?

(hint: bet high, I got moderator approval before posting)

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Chim

Are those 'records' accurate? I know for a fact that my guild can run full HM clears of UW and FoW in much less than 1.5 hours and 49 minutes respectively, and that is using a full Ursan team.

If we do our normal build for both areas, which only includes maybe 4 Ursan by the way, we clear in well under those times. Like 15-20 minutes faster.

No, they aren't accurate. In fact I remember when I tried ursan a while ago with a guild group in DoA (back when gemstones were still worth the inventory space they took up) we were getting times a little over 2 hours. I just copied the numbers and didn't take the time to research speed records.

Thierry2 · May 18, 2008, 05:09 PM // 17:09

Quote:

Unfortunately, Ursan is still impossible to use in Pre-Searing, making Pre-Searing the hardest explorable area in the Guild Wars series as of May 2008.

I lol'ed.
321

Covah · May 18, 2008, 05:13 PM // 17:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Meth

Unfortunately, Ursan is still impossible to use in Pre-Searing, making Pre-Searing the hardest explorable area in the Guild Wars series as of May 2008.

Yeah, taking on all those lvl 2 skales needs the power and skill of Ursan.

BlackSephir · May 18, 2008, 05:21 PM // 17:21

Needs to be sticky'd imo

Valaric · May 18, 2008, 05:23 PM // 17:23

I have to say i enjoyed that guide! Very informative, and im going to make a W/mo healer that uses mending as its main healing skill. This guide has made me want to have a go at Ursan!

doudou_steve · May 18, 2008, 05:48 PM // 17:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Meth

2.2 Weaponsets

The set you should use At all times while in Ursanmode:
Weapon: A Perfect Crystaline Sword with 15^50, +30 health and 20/20 sundering. The weapon skin is of the utmost priority, even greater then that of the mods, because it will ensure your dominance of the ursan group. Req 9 or lower is preferred
Offhand: A Perfect Tormented Shield with +30 health and -5/20% mods. Again, the shield skin is more important then stats.

You just proved how stupid you are.

edit: Oh this was a joke? i just proved how stupid i am. damn lol

Squishy ftw · May 18, 2008, 05:53 PM // 17:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by doudou_steve

You just proved how stupid you are.

lolyou.

Thx for the lulz.