Guild Wars Guru

The 2-man FoW Experiment: Mo/W and N/Me

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DV Morpheus
DV Morpheus
Banned
• #1
Using this particular setups for both characters, it is more than possible to solo more than 90% of Fissure of Woe, respectively. Me and my good friend (Who's name I shall not reveal) have been doing this for a long time (Whenever we have favor, that is), in which case we have it down to an exact science. This guide will be a work-in-progress, as I still need to take quite a few more screenshots (We got to the second group until a severe thunderstorm knocked my power out )

Know Your Monsters!:

If you haven't been down to the Fissure of Woe, here's what you will be facing in the shadows and their respective skills they use. Currently, only the Shadow Army is up, but soon, the Skeletal Army, Forest Monsters, etc. will be up

The Shadow Army


The Skill Setup With Attributes:

Monk skills (Mo/W)






Skill bar setup from left to right:Protective Spirit Healing Breeze Spellbreaker Vigorous Spirit Bonetti's Defense Mending Balthazar's Spirit Blessed Aura
I took a normal Fiery Flamespitter and replaced the Fiery Axe Haft with an Icy Axe Haft to interrupt the Shadow Monks. The reason I have a 17% Enchanting Grip is because I'm just too lazy to sit and spam for a 20%. If you do have one, though, please message me in-game

These are the staple skills for being a Monk. The only reason for Vigorous Spirit is for a cover enchantment. If, for some reason, Spellbreaker does not last long enough, cast Vigorous Spirit every ten seconds after you put on Protective Spirit when you're facing a Mesmer. It should go like this:

... 10 seconds passes ...

1. Protective Spirit
2. Healing Breeze
3. Vigorous Spirit

Every 15 second interval, Shadow Mesmers will use Shatter Enchantment nearly after they use Empathy. If you did this right, only Vigorous Spirit should get stripped, leaving Protective Spirit and Healing Breeze untouched. In the case with two Mesmers present, you will use something different. This will be discussed later on.


Necromancer (N/Me)






Skill bar setup from left to right:Spiteful Spirit Desecrate Enchantments Sympathetic Visage Arcane Echo Awaken the Blood Spinal Shivers Blood Ritual (Can be interchanged with Insidious Parasite) Resurrection Signet
Yes I know it's a PvP staff, but it's the same idea. My friend isn't on to screenshot his equipment, so bear with me.

Normal UW setup with one minor difference: Spinal Shivers. This is used to interrupt Shadow Monks and their healing. With 16 Curses, Spinal Shivers only takes five energy with a successful interrupt. You will only use Sympathetic Visage when you're faced with more than one Shadow Monk and you have several melee fighters on you.







My hand and arm have now cramped up - really bad. I need to take a break from working. I will post more tonight or tomorrow.
I
Ira Blinks
Banned
• #2
I'll keep my doubts about your monk surviving in either of two forests untill further explanation :\
k
kooldude
Academy Page
• #3
ya when u get to the forest i sugest rape the spirit at all costs, like leroy it man cus nature renewal will RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO ur monk up so badly
K
Kcp
Krytan Explorer
• #4
Nature's renewal isn't bad just take off an enchant. Why bonetti's if I may ask, you would be better off with balanced stance due to the abyssals and their inherent knockdown abilities not to mention irresistable blow spam that will keep you laying face down on the ground if you are using bonetti's. It would come in useful vs mahgo hydras as well.

The only thing that limits me w/e I try to clear Fow 2 man are the multi abyssal groups that cant be set up so only one can attack at a time. I run N/mo tank, and have trusty mo/mes sidekick for almost non-stop Sb and a few other skills that I will not mention that come in really handy We've cleared the majority of it with 2 people in sections due to time restraints in schedules. The only irritating parts are like I said the 2 + abyssal groups located in various spots around tower of strength area, throw a mesmer or 2 in with the abyssal groups and good luck
S
Solberg the Exiled
Lion's Arch Merchant
• #5
Me and my guildy has been doing 2 man FOW for sometimes now, it's really not that hard. Although I usually go with Necro/Monk for the infinite res with vengence + rebirth just in case the monk messes up or a mesmer just strangely not use shatter enchantment until prot spirit goes on and before the cover enchantment goes on. (Strange I know, but happens sometimes). Or for 2 mesmer groups which can be quite annoying as the shatter is harder to predict.

Arcane echo and SV is really not that necessary, SS is more than enough to kill them. And yeah, Spinal shiver is also very important in interrupting key skills. without SV though, I usually brings malaise for the monks to kill them faster.

As for weapon sets, I (as the necro) uses the vilnar's set, switch to HOD sword if I need more energy for a spell. Monk uses the HOD sword with 20% enchant and the -50 of course.

The monks skills we use are also a bit different, we usually do not use bonnetti or blssed aura (Although I can see how the aura can help). Instead we take essence bond and leave one ultility skill open to try out different skills each time. (Probably will aura to see if it works better) I have tried balenced stance and it does help against those multi abyssal chained knockdown groups. although I would imagine that a 75% evade chance would stop some of those chian knockdown.

Overall, almost anything in FoW can be taken down (Yes it does require some pulling to groups together for SS, but overall, it's really not hard... I can't see why people haven't been doing this, as I think this is much better and more profitable than UW)

I'll add some more stuff later if my guildy ever decide to get back on guild wars....

And DV morpheus, if you have an Invinci monk, I would love to try this with you sometimes to see how the difference in our buids plays out. And if you can take on the ancient skales... then my hats off to you, cus after we cleared most of the enemies, we always try those things, and they pwn us everytime....
DV Morpheus
DV Morpheus
Banned
• #6
Quote: Originally Posted by Kcp Nature's renewal isn't bad just take off an enchant. Why bonetti's if I may ask, you would be better off with balanced stance due to the abyssals and their inherent knockdown abilities not to mention irresistable blow spam that will keep you laying face down on the ground if you are using bonetti's. It would come in useful vs mahgo hydras as well. I use Bonetti's over Balanced Stance because it's a quick, rechargeable adrenal skill. Balanced Stance does prevent knockdowns, yes, but keep in mind that all of your Monk skills except for the maintains are 1 second cast or less. Abyssals are slow to attack when they aren't using Berserker's Stance, so it isn't hard to time your casts in-between knockdowns.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Solberg the Exiled
Me and my guildy has been doing 2 man FOW for sometimes now, it's really not that hard. Although I usually go with Necro/Monk for the infinite res with vengence + rebirth just in case the monk messes up or a mesmer just strangely not use shatter enchantment until prot spirit goes on and before the cover enchantment goes on. (Strange I know, but happens sometimes). Or for 2 mesmer groups which can be quite annoying as the shatter is harder to predict.

Arcane echo and SV is really not that necessary, SS is more than enough to kill them. And yeah, Spinal shiver is also very important in interrupting key skills. without SV though, I usually brings malaise for the monks to kill them faster.

As for weapon sets, I (as the necro) uses the vilnar's set, switch to HOD sword if I need more energy for a spell. Monk uses the HOD sword with 20% enchant and the -50 of course.

The monks skills we use are also a bit different, we usually do not use bonnetti or blssed aura (Although I can see how the aura can help). Instead we take essence bond and leave one ultility skill open to try out different skills each time. (Probably will aura to see if it works better) I have tried balenced stance and it does help against those multi abyssal chained knockdown groups. although I would imagine that a 75% evade chance would stop some of those chian knockdown.

Overall, almost anything in FoW can be taken down (Yes it does require some pulling to groups together for SS, but overall, it's really not hard... I can't see why people haven't been doing this, as I think this is much better and more profitable than UW)

I'll add some more stuff later if my guildy ever decide to get back on guild wars....

And DV morpheus, if you have an Invinci monk, I would love to try this with you sometimes to see how the difference in our buids plays out. And if you can take on the ancient skales... then my hats off to you, cus after we cleared most of the enemies, we always try those things, and they pwn us everytime.... Me and my friend nearly never die. The only probable cause of death is when I do something stupid and end up dying, causing the change in aggro and then him to die. This only happens maybe 1 in 40 runs.

Malaise? Good idea

Ancient Skales is where me and my partner get stopped cold. We've only went to them once, but looking back on how bad we lost to that group with three of them in there isn't fun. Once Spellbreaker goes off, you're going to be facing massive degen (9 from Life Transfer, 3 from Life Siphon). Times 12 degen each Skale with 3 Skales and you're up against a godly amount of 36 degen. There's not an icecube's chance in hell you'll ever survive.

While I'd love to 2-man FoW with you, it seems we almost never have favor.

But hey - if we ever do get favor and I'm not busy, I'd love to take a run with you.
S
Solberg the Exiled
Lion's Arch Merchant
• #7
Allow me to elaborate a bit more on that malaise skill there. While it certainly is useful for giving those nice energy degens, a true power of malaise is that with it, you can know exactly when the enemies energy hit zero, and that helps a lot in choosing target for spinal shiver and other things.

Now as for Ancient Skales... Allow me to bend your mind a bit DV morpheus and perhaps you'll see that it is not as you put it "an icecube's chance in hell" to kill it.

We were able to kill a group of ancient skales before the next group got us when I made a mistake and this is how to do it.

Here's the problem with ancient skales they have these skills...

Life siphon
Life Transfer
Grenth's balence
Rend Enchantment

Now if you were gonna tank that with a 55hp, then you're probably right in that there is no ice cube chance in hell that it'll work. But only if you're tanking as a 55hp.

Let's not forget something, and that is no matter how much degen that you actually have on you, only -10 will ever show up. (unless you try to counter with regen in which case the rest will come into effect...) Now -10 degen might sound a lot, but it's not impossible to heal over. In fact, I once tried to go to the skales with a warrior just spamming healing signet and I was able to survive.

what if we, for a second, stop thinking about tanking with a 55hp and let the necro tank, while the monk stays back and heal him with that godly divine favor. Here's how the scenario plays out...

1) Necro have 400 and something health so will not insta die
2) Necro has no enchantment so rend will do nothing
3) Necro has BR, which can keep the monk's energy up for a heal from time to time
4) Necro gets free malaise on skales since oh look I get 2 more degen... which doesn't show up since I'm not trying to cancel it with regen
5) with Malaise Necro knows exactly when skale have 0 energy
6) At that point, Necro puts Spinal shiver and SS on skale, while still using malaise to make his energy regen slow
7) skale attacks and necro attacks... skale slowly dies to SS, skale can't get a lifesiphon or transfer off since that'll just get interrupted by the Necro's cold dmg wand attack
8) No other skales can heal the one that's dying...
9) Skale dies... Repeat

It might sound complicated and it is, (takes some practice) but we were able to kill a group. Now it was slow and certainly would not be good farm, but it's about trying to obtain that 100% FoW clearing with 2 men.

btw DV morpheus, my IGN is : Solberg theexiled
and yeah, doing FoW 2 man is one of my favoirite things to do. (and yes, there is no space between "the" and "exiled" it's just me messing up during name creation)
S
S!carius
Lion's Arch Merchant
• #8
^^^ that is a great idea
X
X Firestorm
Ascalonian Squire
• #9
Are drops alot better in FoW or is UW still better?
S
S!carius
Lion's Arch Merchant
• #10
I find that I get better drops in FoW then I get in UW. UW is being way over farmed, well the smites atleast.

For example, if I complete the spider run with my wariror in FoW, I get around 4-5 shards per run (20k-25k) plus other odd drops such as nice chaos axes. If I do a two man smite run, I will get 1, maybe 2 ecto (6kk-12k) plus other drops, sometimes a rare will drop, but not very offten for me atleast. So personaly, I find FoW to be more profitable and I like the items that drop there more (Chaos Axes, Shadow Bows/Staffs/Blades).

-Sicarius
K
Kcp
Krytan Explorer
• #11
Skales shouldn't be causing you guys any problems. They die easy. Want to talk about problems with ancient skales try to kill the ones in the burning forest that have 1-2 smoke walker backup. This is the entire reason I don't run a monk tank.

A monk/mesmer support character works best while the necro tanks. It is a must that you can use Sb as often as possible in the burning forest area and beach against skales. WIth a 55 hp mo/w that is not going to happen, and a n/mes with 1 res isn't going to get you far. Things do go bad, the 55 hp does die regardless of how many seconds of Sb you can keep up

The only benefit that a mo/w has over a n/mo tanking in fow is balanced stance like I stated. Once you get deeper in you will understand.

P.S. the monk has offensive skills too that come in really handy
Carboplatin
Carboplatin
Jungle Guide
• #12
I did a run with a friend of mine last night. We were able to clear most of the single monk shadow army groups and all of the skeletals.

The key, imo is spellbreaker and dual covers. Having a ~30sec spellbreaker helps Alot. since the recharge of spell breaker is 45sec. IF you max divine + 20% enchant, your spellbreaker should last almost 30sec. 18sec x 157%

now with the 15 sec or so you are without spellbreaker heres what i did.
When SB start blinking, i cast PS, HB, VS in that order. from then on i keep casting HB as it runs out and cover it with VS everytime. Since PS lasts a good 30sec or so itself, you will not have to recast PS until the next time SB is on. Making the PS unshatterable even with two mesmers or ether breakers.

the spirit shepards are easy, the spirits doesn't effect me much since i just drop blessed aura and keep two enchants on. Just stay away from the worms as choking gas will kill you.

Tho i think UW is more profitable because at the speed that i can personally blow through a uw smite run. I can consistantly do uw runs in under 30min. Takes me much longer then that to do a fow run.

Comparing shards vs ecto, i must get 1.5 shards to account for 1 ecto. Last night's run we netted 5 shards, 2.5 for the each of us, but that took the time of 2-3 smite runs. Doing the math (inside my head), uw runs will give you more gold at the end. Not to mention the expensive obs keys for fow.

I need the shards for armor crafting, or else i would just stick to uw. Tho it is a welcomed change of pace compared to the boring uw runs.

I did have one problem, have you guys been able to take two monks at a time?
K
Kcp
Krytan Explorer
• #13
I've solo'd 5 shadow monks at once with n/mo

The group of 4 monks in the middle with the 3 shadow beast pop-ups, along with the shadow monk, 2 warriors, and 1 shadow beast, 2nd to last group from skeletons ( 11 enemies total ). No interrupts were brought just pure damage. Multi monk groups aren't hard. They are even easier if you're doing 2 man. A certain monk skill destroys the heal area spamming shadow monks. << hint

Of course with that many monks they arent going to drop in 30 seconds when you solo. Regardless of what some "veteran" gw's players claim about enemies having infinite energy....it's B.S., the monks will run out of energy if you keep constant pressure on them.

You will notice however that some of the shadow monks are buggy. They will not heal their shadow warrior , shadow beast counterparts. These monks require different tactics to dispatch instead of the usual run in and let SS hexed melee take them out.
Carboplatin
Carboplatin
Jungle Guide
• #14
Quote: Originally Posted by Kcp
I've solo'd 5 shadow monks at once with n/mo

The group of 4 monks in the middle with the 3 shadow beast pop-ups, along with the shadow monk, 2 warriors, and 1 shadow beast, 2nd to last group from skeletons ( 11 enemies total ). No interrupts were brought just pure damage. Multi monk groups aren't hard. They are even easier if you're doing 2 man. A certain monk skill destroys the heal area spamming shadow monks. << hint

Of course with that many monks they arent going to drop in 30 seconds when you solo. Regardless of what some "veteran" gw's players claim about enemies having infinite energy....it's B.S., the monks will run out of energy if you keep constant pressure on them.

You will notice however that some of the shadow monks are buggy. They will not heal their shadow warrior , shadow beast counterparts. These monks require different tactics to dispatch instead of the usual run in and let SS hexed melee take them out. thanks for the hint.. i am let me look around and see what i can come up with.
sh4ft3d
sh4ft3d
Wilds Pathfinder
• #15
That would be scourge healing.^
Exile Of Heaven
Exile Of Heaven
Lion's Arch Merchant
• #16
Great guide, im trying it soon maybe with some other tricks
r
rezha
Academy Page
• #17
Tried, not bad, but i have problems doing the groups with 2 monks. We did one, the second the monks kept ressing each other ... We tried shiver + diversion (on the monk) or shiver + scourge healing. Any advice?
purebad
purebad
Frost Gate Guardian
• #18
man I wish I knew someone I could just try all this kind of stuff out with
H
Holy Arch
Lion's Arch Merchant
• #19
its been done, and soloed with ease with 2 professions, and i dont mean warrior or ranger


congrats tho
N
Nater
Lion's Arch Merchant
• #20
I love how everyone comes out of the woodwork in these threads "Ya I've done it, but better"

I'll stick to my ACS. Never thought I'd see 1000 plat.