2 man underworld smite runs? will this work?

I've been doing 2 person smite runs with my partner in game.
Mo/W and E/Me.
The monk tanks while the ele nukes. We use roughly the same build (dependent on protective bond) but use some different skills. The major factor here is that although fire doesn't do much, burning will. Keeping incendiary chains, searing heat and immolate on the aatxes will kill them quickly.

As the ele, I've been both air and fire. I can tell you that fire kills things much quicker than air. Undeniably, air is much more useful with blinding flash and enervating charge.

The only problem with this, as with other builds using only mages, is that the grasping darknesses give us a little more trouble than we normally have. Originally we also did ele tank and prot monk healer, using distortion to prevent interrupts during cast. This was bad because we depended on the ele to deal damage and the squids sucked all energy. It ended as a slow staff firing to the death.

On the other hand, we've done 2 person smite runs (albeit much much slower) with W/Mo and Mo/E. The aatxes took long to kill (but bleeding them back eventually did it) but the squids weren't a problem at all. And the smites are fine as long as you switch targets when you see them cast shield of judgement. The monk should also attack them with wand/staff to clear away reversal so the warrior can land major hits.

Overall, I think 2 person smite runs are a great idea...more people should give it a try rather than sitting in temple waiting for a full party. Of course this way, you'd have to be prepared and coordinated. I think this is also true for fissure, although I believe you'd need more than 2 because of the monks. I've been in a fissure party of 4 that had made it to the forge (and completed all the quests to activate the crafting). The other 4 people dropped out around the tower quest with the first eternal.

Quote: Originally Posted by Interregnum

The monk is using divine boon and shield of regeneration for regain.
She has about 200 max hp and the heals from divine boon as well as the regen keep up with the damage.

I believe her full setup was:

10+4 protection (+1 protection tattoo)
8+3 divine
10 tactics
rest+3 smiting
0+2 healing (major rune just to get hp down)

Protective Bond
Balthazar's Spirit
Essence Bond
Divine Boon
Blessed Signet
Guardian
Shield of Regeneration
Bonetti's Defense

She's also using the collector's fire wand (outside Nolani academy for 3 charr carvings) which gives 5 energy (unconditional) and +10% increased attack speed.
The idea is to also attack while healing yourself with shield of regen and guardian (from divine favor). Once you gain enough adrenaline and you're low on energy, hit bonetti's defense to get filled up. Bonetti's is also a perfect counter to the squid's energy draining. The aatxes and squids sometimes interrupt shield of regen, so when they do just spam divine boon for heals and hit bonetti's to recover energy.

We're going to drop tactics to 9 since it doesn't seem to lower Bonetti's duration, and pump the extra points into smiting for faster adrenaline regain. On the same topic, we're thinking of dropping divine to 10 also and pumping the extras into smiting. Right now, one burst of any spell heals her for a little under half max hp.

The most problems we've been having is with coldfires...but generally just sidestepping their maelstroms is enough. Bonetti's doesn't work here so you have to get out of the way and regain energy with blessed signet. It takes a while but you can take down coldfires this way also.

And yes, signet is for regaining energy in between fights. Bonetti's is for regaining energy during fights. Everything else is geared towards survival.

The E/Me is much easier to figure out...just straight heavy fire AoE nuker with Echo.

12+4 fire (+1 fire headgear)
12+1 energy

Fire Attunement
Immolate
Searing Heat
Incendiary Bonds
Fire Storm
Echo
Meteor Shower
Glyph of Lesser Energy

Basically I cast in this order:
Fire Attunement
Echo
Meteor Shower
Incendiary Bonds
Fire Storm
Glyph of Lesser Energy
Meteor Shower
Searing Heat
Incendiary Bonds

Then follow with immolate on whichever aatxe is still alive.
The squids and smites die really fast, I rarely get to the second Meteor Shower or Searing Heat when fighting them. The monk can attack the smites but need to switch target when one of them uses shield of judgement.

I'm also thinking of adding a superior energy storage just for 6 more energy...I honestly don't think it'll make a difference so I haven't yet.

Whew what a long post, I think I covered everything. Please give me some feedback, I'd like to know what I'm doing that could be improved.

man, i gotta say, those are some of the most creative and thought-laden builds ive heard of yet.

good stuff

It's been posted a few times in other threads. But you need level 17 Protective Bond to make it perfect. You only lose 1 energy... Just get the wand/focus that has 20% chance of increasing skill and recast protective bond a couple times until it's level 17. IMO 2 monk would do it best since, you have to be monk based to get level 17 protection. Both monks use life bond on each other and constantly run Balthazars Spirit, and and Essence Bond. Whenever your hit you gain two energy and lose one, and your ally gains one energy. Infinite energy, nearly 0 damage. Also, using 5 superiors lowers your life some more, and don't use a vigor rune.

I'll definitely have to give that a try, have a staff wrapping of 17% lying around that could make up for my laziness to go find the collector's protective icon.

The reason we took out points from protection is because when the squids drain all your energy, it breaks protective bond which means the monk dies almost immediately.
Also, the reason we didn't just use 5 superior runes is because the bleeding from the aatxes hurts a lot when your max hp is low.

Anyways thanks for the tip, will try the 17 protection thing. Could refund and pump it to 16 to cast that, then refund it and put it back to where we took it from.

Me and a friend do 2 man smite runs all the time, he is a smiting tank warrior and Im a Mo/W I use life bond and sheild of regen. and just heal him while he kills

Im a regular necro and I farm UW and FoW by myself, I just bring someone with rebirth for the occasional time I die.

Quote: Originally Posted by Ikinsey

LOL

Hahah, I was just talking about this the other day. That is so great ! Right on, heh.. hardcore

I figured it had to be possible. Just need the right build.

Underworld was open for about 30 minutes this morning and we snuck in. Just two of us in for about an hour or so. Here what we got:

4 globs of Ecto = 28K
1 Ruby = 8K
2 Storm Bows (not Max Damage)
3 Fiery Dragon Swords (not Max)
4 Max Def Sheilds
1 Purple Max Axe
Bunch of other stuff

I'd say quite the productive trip, sure beats farming Kryta!!

We also completed the 5000 point quest easily including the Dryders, took on several mobs of 8-10 Ataxes+Grasping Darkness, cleaned out the entire Smite/Coldfire area, and wandered around for a while and killed a bunch of other stuff.

Problem Areas: Coldfires, we took on a mob of 6 once, the hardest part is that they charge around and sometimes find me. Plus with that many they kept Malestroms on the tank almost constantly making it hard for him to cast. Normal mobs of 3 are no problem.

We started doing the staue quests and killed some more dryders, and then accidently activated one in the ice area where a ton of Dryders started wandering around. We were doing fine but suddenly the mission failed and we were kicked out, not sure why.

Overall quite a productive trip, and all this with only 2 people. I think we each got 2 skill points while we were there, and one time when the tank died he went from 15 to 4% death penalty after only 1 mob!!

Does anybody know where I can find a collector with a Protection +1 item? I would really like to try the Protection lvl 17 thing, because I could start spamming Balthazar's on the tank and kill things twice as fast!! Having that extra energy is key for that....

I am wondering if it would work with this build:

W/Mo
Smiting: 11
Swords:12+4
Tactics:9 (I can add superior here)

Skills:
Sever Artery
Galrath's Slash
Zealots Fire
Divine Boon
Balthazar's Aura
Balthazar's Spirit
Bonneti's Defense
Gladiators Defense

Thought process is Zealot's fire, cast spirit, then DoT damage with the Aura, gain energy with spirit, spam boon on self during gladiators defense, bonetti's if energy gets too low. Maybe riposte instead of sever and galraths.


Partnered with N/Mo running the Protection + blood ritual

If not, how can I switch up the W/Mo build to work. I can add some random major/superior to decrease health more if needed.

Quote: Originally Posted by miteethor

We did the statue quest for the enemy tortured souls before escorting the new souls to the village. Made it so much easier. After clearing out all the aggro, we then escorted the new souls over.

Quote: Originally Posted by miteethor

Me and 2 guildies have been trying a 3 person team in the UW, with a monk/wa as our smiting-tank-herder, and 2 AoE nukers. It seems to work reasonably well for the early stages, not too sure about some of the "later" quests. The real problem with these small 2-3 person runs is the all-or-nothing aspect; if our tank/smiter goes down, it often means end of mission. Both the nukers are set up for damage and not defense or running....so if a group of foes gets through, we have to be real careful about attacking from just outside of aggro range, and being able to make a hasty exit from the area in the event of an surprise mishap.
It's quite "by the seat of your pants" stuff, which can be fun and exciting, but also disappointing if something goes wrong early.

FYI...my current tank build that Mitee and I are using is.

E/Mo

1-Divine Boon
2-Balthazras Aura
3-Symbol of Wrath
4-Crystal Wave
5-Zealots Fire
6-Ether Renewal
7-Balthazars Spirit
8-Essence Bond


I was thinking that if we got another member it would work well to have a M/W be the tank.

I would then switch to.

1-Osrison of Healing
2-Balthazars Aura
3-Zealots Fire
4-Ether Renewal
5-Life Bond
6-Essence Bond
7-Balthazras Spirit
8-Strength of Honor

The new M/W Tank would run.

1-Cyclone Axe
2-Zealots Fire
3-Balthazars Aura
4-Essence Bond
5-Symbol of Wrath
6-Strength of Honor
7-Judges Insight
8-Bonettis Defense

With 3 people, Mitee's character....(I Want Your Pants) could do his normal protections first. Then i would put on Life bond and Essence Bond. This is strictly so I can gain some energy with out haveing to depend on the sole use of Ether Renewal.

The Tank would have to co-ordinate with me when his Balthazars Aura runs out so I could cast mine on him. I would outherwise spend my time doing Osiron of Healing on tank to trigger my Zealots Fire Attacks. The tanks really only needs to Spam Cyclone Axe as much as possible...only stopping to renew zealots or kick off balthzars aura or symbol of wrath.

This seems like we would have alot more killing power. I would somehow like to work in Judges Insight into the support characters as well. This would insure that all damage from cyclone axe is Holy with 20% armor penetration. If mitee can get his energy down to 1 from protective spirit maybe he could carry Judges Insight.

Something else we may need to work in is Spell Breaker or if I am the tank..Obsidian Flesh for those pesky Enchantment Strippers.

I was just think about this, so I thought I would post. Remember to have the tank use enchantment mods on his/her weapons, +2 seconds for Aura(assuming 18-20% mod) would provide 44 extra dmg.

Quote: Originally Posted by miteethor

With the 17 protection thing, I've revised the build posted earlier.

6+3 divine favor
11+4 healing prayers
9+3 protection
9 tactics

Balthazar's Spirit
Protective Bond
Essence Bond
Mending
Vigorous Spirit
Blessed Signet
Bonetti's Defense
Healing Breeze

We pump protection up to 16 and use the +1 staff/focus to get the 1 energy loss protective bond (haven't verified this yet).
Then refund that protection and put it into healing.
With 13 healing, mending gives 4 pips of regen.
With 15 healing, vigorous spirit gives 13 life back each attack.

Peculiar to this new build is that we're not using any elites...who needs them.
We've also replaced the protection tattoo with a healing tattoo, upgraded the major healing to a superior healing, and bought another superior smiting for an additional -100 max hp bringing us to 105 max.
We also picked up a peculiar focus from post-searing old ascalon quests that gives -50 health so we equiped that. These are the items in our hands:



Final max health: 55.

The 4 pips from mending will continue to heal for a good deal even during bleeding from the aatxes. Without bleeding, the 4 pips will keep the monk completely healed from any damage. While bleeding, cast vigorous spirit to gain 13 health per attack, healing for over 20% of your max hp each hit.
You would still need Bonetti's to counter the massive energy drain from the squids though.

Since we're invested into healing now, can take out shield of regen which had a long recast and add in healing breeze. We also took out guardian for vigorous spirit because there wasn't much of a need to block attacks anymore.

In my eyes, this build would work better than the old one. The mending itself would keep the monk alive against smites so they don't have to attack to regain energy.

But still, coldfires are a challenge and take longer to kill.

Frankly since we're not using protection at all, the better way would be to refund more and pump into tactics and divine. But that's a waste of refund points as this way works fine as is.

What do you think?