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Author: NecroRebel
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Ele/Ra Inexorable Farmer
Welcome to my second guide. This guide will teach you how to farm many things in many areas with an Elementalist primary character using Earth Magic, including both traditional farming targets, such as Hydras and Minotaurs, as well as less traditional farming targets, like Flesh Golems, Mahgo Hydras, Titans, and Djinni.
Why E/Ra?
Elementalists can become the most durable creatures in the game using Earth Magic. With the proper buildset, an Elementalist can push their armor level up over 200 and keep it there indefinitely. The Earth Magic line also has the Obsidian Flesh elite skill, which makes the caster immune to enemy spells. With proper application of Ranger skills such as Serpent's Quickness, Obsidian Flesh can be kept up indefinitely, allowing the user to survive enemies with heavy enchantment removal or spell interrupts that would easily slay other farmers.
Equipment
You will need a few things to use this build effectively. These include:
A max-armor Stone's Eye
A Rune of Superior Earth Magic
A weapon which lengthens Enchantment duration by 20%, ideally an Earth Staff such as Galigord's Stone Staff or equivalent.
Otherwise, you will need a max set of armor, though type doesn't matter. The largest Vigor rune you can afford and the largest Energy Storage rune you feel comfortable with are also helpful; I use a superior of both types.
Attributes
16 Earth Magic is essential (12+1+3)
10 Wilderness Survival
9-11 Energy Storage (8+1, 2, or 3)
If you have no yet gotten the final attribute points, drop Energy Storage down first as it is least important.
Skills
Serpent's Quickness
For 25 seconds, recharge times for your skills are reduced by 33%. Serpent's Quickness ends if your Health drops below 50%.
Obsidian Flesh
For 21 seconds, you gain +20 armor and cannot be the target of enemy spells, but move 50% slower.
Armor of Earth
For 30 seconds, you gain 62 armor, but move 12% slower.
Stoneflesh Aura
For 21 seconds, damage you receive is reduced by 33 and you are immune to critical attacks.
Stone Striker
For 32 seconds, whenever you take or deal elemental or physical damage, that damage is converted to earth damage.
Storm Chaser
For 16 seconds you move 25% faster, and you gain 4 energy whenever you take elemental damage.
Aura of Restoration
For 60 seconds, you are healed for 301-334% of the Energy cost each time you cast a Spell.
Sliver Armor
For 11 seconds, you have 52% chance to block attacks and whenever you are the target of a hostile spell or attack, one nearby foe is struck for 37 earth damage.
Tactics and Usage
Using the build is fairly straightforward, though does require attention to timing. The main purpose of the build is to maintain Obsidian Flesh all the time while keeping a high armor level and damage reduction to take little to no damage from any source.
In all cases, begin by approaching your farm target but not yet aggroing it. Ideally, you want the targets to be just brushing the edge of your aggro circle, but being a bit further away is fine as well. Now, you're going to cast your defensive enchantments.
I usually cast the enchantments by descending order of duration, that being Aura of Restoration, Stone Striker, Armor of Earth, and Stoneflesh Aura. Once Stoneflesh is cast, activate Serpent's Quickness and Obsidian Flesh and approach your foes.
At all times from when you aggro foes to when they're all dead, you MUST keep an eye on the recharges of Serpent's Quickness and Obsidian Flesh. The first time you renew Obsidian Flesh will be when Serpent's Quickness is exactly halfway recharged; if you do it too early, you'll have a small gap in your spell immunity, and if you do it too late you'll have a large gap in your spell immunity. Getting the timing down might take a bit of practice, but watching Serpent's Quickness' recharge is the surest way to get it right. The second time you renew Obsidian Flesh will be after both Obsidian Flesh and Serpent's Quickness have fully recharged, allowing you to activate both and repeat the cycle in its entirety.
Whenever Serpent's Quickness wears out, cast Storm Chaser. Not only will this speed up your movement, allowing you to aggro more enemies more easily, it also provides you with 4 energy whenever you are attacked. This will likely result in your energy bar filling within seconds of triggering Storm Chaser.
At this point, you'll be being attacked, but not taking much if any damage. Maintain your lesser enchantments as needed, casting Aura of Restoration if you need a heal. Aggro as many foes as you feel comfortable with, keeping in mind that it's unlikely that any of them will be able to significantly harm you and that the build actually works best when there are many enemies.
Once you've gotten a good group of foes together, move to be adjacent to any healers in the group, the largest threats in the group, or the smallest bunch of enemy ranged attackers in the group, and cast Sliver Armor. Depending on how many foes are attacking you, Sliver Armor will deal several hundred damage to enemies near you, probably killing one or more of them in seconds.
At this point, you probably have the tactics down, so simply repeat as necessary. Although it's unnecessary, try to activate Sliver Armor while Serpent's Quickness is up since it will allow you to use it more often then. Other than that, simply maintain your enchantments, use Storm Chaser when you need energy, and use Sliver Armor to kill things and you should have an easy time of things.
Possible Skill Replacements, and Why They Weren't Chosen
Kinetic Armor:
There isn't any particular reason why Kinetic Armor wasn't put in instead of Armor of Earth; either functions equally well. Armor of Earth does help heal you more if you have Aura of Restoration, but in either case if you want to add in Kinetic Armor instead, you'll find no difference in build functionality.
Troll Unguent:
Tests using Troll Unguent instead of Aura of Restoration for healing found it to be vastly inferior. Not only are you spending 12 times as long to cast it, you're forced to cast it more often, the regeneration doesn't heal as much, and it makes maintaining your more important enchantments significantly more difficult.
E/Me:
E/Me might seem to be a better choice using Arcane Echo to maintain Obsidian Flesh, but this is not the case. If you Arcane Echo Obsidian Flesh, you'd have to cast the Echoed Obsidian Flesh 19 seconds after the first Obsidian Flesh, and then the original Obsidian Flesh would be recast 25 seconds after that, for a total of 69 seconds of spell protection. At that point, though, you'd have a gaping 5-second hole in your spell protection, which is more than enough time for a 30-50 strong group to absolutely murder you. The E/Ra, on the other hand, by chaining Obsidian Flesh with Serpent's Quickness, would have no such holes ever and could thus slaughter the entire army singlehandedly. Note that groups 40 strong have actually been dealt with using this build successfully.
Some Images of Action
Hydras are one of the more traditional targets this build can farm.
Mahgo Hydras, on the other hand, are slightly less traditional. While farming Mahgos and Flesh Golems, try to move away from any Bone Minions if possible, as the Hydras will use Meteor Shower on any masterless Minions and knock you down.
Fissure of Woe: Burning Forest Farming
While somewhat less profitable than other farms, this build, with no changes, can be used to solo farm the Burning Forest in the Fissure of Woe. This is more for amusement than anything else since none of the enemies in the Burning Forest drop Obsidian Shards, but it is an interesting exercise.
Getting There:
First, your country must have Favor and your Elementalist must be Ascended/Weh no Su/otherwise capable of entering the Fissure. Kneel in front of the statue of Balthazar in the Temple of the Ages, Zin Ku Corridor, or Chantry of Secrets, talk to the Champion of Balthazar that emerges, and give it 1000 gold to be sent to the Fissure.
Directly south of you will be a group of Shadow Elementalists, Mesmers, Warriors, and Beasts, while to your north will be a group of Shadow Warriors, Beasts, and a Monk. Avoid the group to your north; Shadow Monks will easily outheal your damage indefinitely and it is nearly impossible to kill the Monks themselves due to how Sliver Armor's targeting works. Instead, kill the group to your south using normal methods.
Once that group is cleared, you'll apparently not have anywhere to go since the groups on all sides of you have one or more Shadow Monks with them. However, since none of the creatures around are actually capable of harming you while your enchantments are up, simply cast and maintain all of them and walk through the enemies as if you were drawing a group together, but without ever stopping to kill them. Follow the map below, avoiding the yellow circle which will be to your left, until you come to a steep hill going downwards, shortly before the second yellow circle.
At this point, there should be a group of 3 Shadow Mesmers and Elementals on you; everything else will have broken off by this point. If they haven't, move down the hill a bit more until they do. Kill the group of Mesmers and Elementals, then move down the hill.
The first thing you see will be a mob of 3 Skeletal Icehands and 2 Skeletal Ether Breakers. These things are easy to kill, so do so, starting with the Ether Breakers. Once they are dead, look to your north a short distance, where there will be a patrol of Skeletal Bonds, Berserkers, and an Icehand or two. AVOID THESE AT ALL COSTS! Skeletal Berserkers carry Wild Blow, which will remove Serpent's Quickness or Storm Chaser, which will prevent you from maintaining Obsidian Flesh full-time or prevent you from gaining energy, respectively. Either case is likely fatal.
This patrol will move eastward until almost within the second yellow circle before moving west again. When they're away to the west, move past them to the northeast, avoiding the circle if possible. If any Skeletal Impalers pop up, use Storm Chaser to break away from them.
Ahead of you a short distance will be a group of Abyssals and Shadow Warriors inside the third yellow circle. Do not aggro this group either; Abyssals will repeatedly knock you down and kill you. Instead, hook around them to the north and continue east; any patrols should move out of your way as you approach, so you should be able to get into the Burning Forest easily. There may be up to 3 Obsidian Chests on this route, so if you want to bring keys, do so.
Once into the Burning Forest, just work as normal. You should be able to get 2 mobs of 30 or so enemies, including Mahgo Hydras, Ancient Skales, and Smoke Walkers. Primary targets here are Smoke Walkers, which are Monks, but these fall fairly easily since their most powerful heal, Healing Seed, is unable to target the caster.
Watch out for a small group of Abyssals, Shadow Rangers, and Shadow Mesmers at the far end of the Burning Forest; they shouldn't be a problem, but if you go too far towards the windmill they can kill you.
Footnote: Group Variant?
A group variant of this build has been tested involving 3-man teams for various areas, including the Underworld, Fissure of Woe, and Domain of Anguish. These groups were largely unsuccessful in each area, though further testing and refinement may allow them to function.
Each build involved the following:
Ele/Der Tank: Similar to above, but replace Storm Chaser, Stone Striker, Aura of Restoration, Armor of Earth, and Serpent's Quickness with Mystic Regeneration, Kinetic Armor, Glyph of Concentration, Earth Attunement, and Stone Daggers, Lightbringer's Gaze, or Armor of Earth depending on area (Daggers for FoW, LbG for DoA, and AoE for UW). Move all points in Wilderness Survival to Earth Prayers.
Ran/Mon QZ Semibonder: Uses Serpent's Quickness to cause Quickening Zephyr to recharge within its duration, then keeps Quickening Zephyr up full-time, allowing the tank to keep Obsidian Flesh on perpetually. Also casts Balthazar's Spirit on the tank, providing the tank with the necessary energy, and Essence Bond on the tank, providing the Ranger with the necessary energy. Other skills include Energizing Wind to help with energy, Barrage for dealing with trappers, Choking Gas to assist in shutting down Monks, and Rebirth for recovery situations. 16 Wilderness Survival is necessary here.
?/Me Damage Dealer/Visager: Testing hasn't yet shown what is most effective here. Sympathtic Visage and Ancestor's Visage are both included for shutting down enemies who attack the tank; the rest of the skills are energy production and damage.
This variant didn't really work in any situation because of odd aggro behavior. Enemies, especially ranged attackers, would switch targets to the unprotected ones easily and for no readily apparent reason. With the soft targets being attacked and killed, the tank couldn't maintain energy or spell immunity and died itself. When the damage dealer stayed back enough that the foes wouldn't attack it, the tank was capable of dealing with many enemies at once; in the Domain of Anguish, roughly 40 (4 separate mobs) Margonite Anurs were tanked for well in excess of half an hour without any problems.
If anyone has any suggestions on methods to better control aggro behavior or otherwise fix the problems with the group variant, feel free to test anything you please.
Special Thanks
I'd like to thank Kanna and Brynden for helping me test the group variant, my guildmates for suggestions and early-stage tests, and the reader.
If you have any questions about the build, I'll try to watch comments here for the next week or so, or you can PM me onsite here or ingame at Sagary Azell.
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