Rt/me Smite Crawler Solo

[idontcare]

"Dahnel and all of SMS are not responsible for financial losses. " - Racthoh

You can download a video of this run Here (http://files.filefront.com/smiteswmv/;5427207;;/fileinfo.html)

Note: If you have never used the Vengeful Ritualist build before i suggest reading my thread on that to get the basics -
Edit by bellissima: No linking to competing fansites allowed, replaced with local threads discussing the VwK solo build
http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=403883
http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=401227

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Setup
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Skills:
Vengeful Was Khanhei [E]
Arcane Echo
Ancestors Visage
Sympathetic Visage
Vengeful Weapon
Illusion Of Haste
Physical Resistance
Soothing Memories

Attributes:
Illusion Magic 10
Inspiration Magic 8
Restoration Magic 16 (12 +3 +1)

Equipment:
For armor i use the +10 AL whilst holding an item set since you'll be holding the Khanhei ashes most the time (well, whilst in actual combat), as for weapons a Flame Spitter of Enchanting (20% is desirable) and the 20/20 restoration focus from Vasburg Armory.
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The Run
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Start of by running forward and taking the quest "clearing the chamber" from the ghost directly infront of you as you enter, making sure you dont agro the wandering Aatxes close by. This should spawn some Grasping Darkness groups that patrol close to the steps of the starting area. The idea is to pull the Graspings alone and kill them, however its somewhat impossible to pull them without the Aatxes, so instead we take advantage of their inherent boost in movement speed.

When a group of Graspings comes close to the steps throw up one of your visages then illusion of haste and agro the group, run back into the starting area to break off any Aatxes that might be chasing (since they move so slow they give up easily). Ok now you should have a single group of Graspings pounding on you, however DO NOT attempt to cast anything for a few seconds...just let visage work its magic for about 3-4 seconds, then echo and khanhei, remembering to keep a visage up at all times. Graspings go down fairly easy if you keep that visage up.

After pulling the 3 groups at the starting area, there should be a single group remaining on the right (they get stuck behind the aatxe on the steps alot). This part can be tricky, as you have to Illusion of haste up the right set of stairs, past the 2 stationary Aatxes and get as far right as possible to the little safe spot (the doors that lead to the smite crawlers) be careful here as the 2 stationary Aatxes have a habbit of pinning you against the wall if you are'nt quick enough. From here do the same again to pull the last group of Graspings and kill them, this should open all the doors in the starting area.

From here its plain sailing, simply wait for the group of Graspings patrolling behind the now unlocked door to go away up onto the bridge, then IoH round the corner left to the smite Crawlers. The Crawlers themselves are very easy to take down, same method as vermin, however i would'nt advise taking on mixed groups of smites and coldfires, you CAN kill coldfires with this build but they are harder and not worth the time in my opinion, and should be left as a challenge once you have cleared the smites out.

Once you get used to pulling the Grasping Darknesses at the begining this run becomes very fast (as smites go down so quickly, and you can tank alot of them) and has already proved its worth to me.

[thorax the impaler]

you are my god. i knew ritualists would be good for something. didnt know it would go this far though

[comestelumi]

This really is a very nice guide and a very nice run as well. After the first few tries (where I died before seeing any smites) I thought to myself "I've just wasted 4k," but that changed when I got a little into using this build in UW. Two runs later and I stood next to a bunch of dead Smites with a few purples, a handful of smite droppings, and 2 ecto's. I made about 15k (which obviously is going to my mesmer's 15k kurzick) this night.

Anyway, thank you for sharing this effective build.

[Massacre]

How do you deal with the dying nightmares? Don't they pop your IoH and visage and pooch the whole deal?

[idontcare]

since Nightmares pop out of the ground when they spawn they have a delay between appearing and casting rend, a delay in which you could be 100 miles away by the time they get around to rending you.

If you ARE rended ... well thank god for the 5 sec recharge on IoH

[Vandree]

Rt/Me ftw! Thx fer posting the strat! use my Rt/Me to farm ALOT however usally used her to farm Oniage and Whispering Ritual Lord Runs solo.... Now I have a whole new play ground:cool:


Good Hunting

[TofuMan]

thanks for sharing the build. im about to try it but the video doesn't work. it says it is missing or something. could you please re-upload it? thanks!

[bellissima]

I finally got a chance to try this and was surprised at how easy it is to get past the aatxes with IoH. My first run netted 3 gold drops and 1 ecto drop. Thanks for sharing!

[Massacre]

I've been trying this in 5 minute windows each day where the US has favor. One embarrasing thing that got me killed once; I forget to target myself after starting the quest and wind up casting my first visage on the LOST SOUL, and then I don't notice til the grasps have me at 0.

I've done the run successfully 4 times and gotten 5 ectos, 5 golds (2 swords and THREE identical +5 armor healing ankhs (wth?)) and a black dye but this is the weird part;

I keep getting keys and no chests. My last 3 runs have all yielded a net gain of +1 key. Anyone else finding that?

[TofuMan]

dont need the video anymore, ive got this run down =D have netted 3 ectos and a lot of golds in just a few runs.

@Massacre lol same thing happened with me and lost soul, and about the key thing, i have only gotten 1 key so far and have found about 4 chests. =O

[Shulkor]

Very sweet indeed =D
Good work!

[Lawl Tastic]

nice...but seriously whats with all the videos with british rap...it's reallllly annoying lol

[Archlich Necrosaro]

I've tried this and killing the graspings its very reasonable to do. Just my problem lies right now is the aataxes. They have gotton in the way and the spawns now are different than normal. This makes the run alot more difficult as i found out the hard way. Unless someone can find a better way how to do this then i'de like to know. I'm also currently trying to work on the solo ice imp build. i think just mantra of frost would work nicely.

[Shulkor]

Hmmm rt solo ice imps? show me the build.
Anyway, u are using illusion of haste to break aatxe agro? They give up way too easy. No matter what the spawn i havent had any problems. Maybe u can exlain more...

[LordArthas]

I wasted so much moeny on this build, form the armor to the enchanting mod. Now ivbe wasted 10k on the runs. I got to smites ONCE. Other than that i walways ahve the nightmares suck up my IoH when im running past the aataxe, and i die in 3 hits. getting mad, but i still try

[requinox]

I wasted so much moeny on this build, form the armor to the enchanting mod. Now ivbe wasted 10k on the runs. I got to smites ONCE. Other than that i walways ahve the nightmares suck up my IoH when im running past the aataxe, and i die in 3 hits. getting mad, but i still try

Here are my tips for running past the aatxes:

1) I go with 12 illusion and only 3 inspiration in my build. I generally find that phys. resist lasts plenty at level 3 and the extra duration for IoH is quite useful.

2) If the Dying Nightmare has already shown itself, try aggroing it alone and luring it away from the Aatxes. Then kill it with two vengeful weapons.

3) When you run past the aaxtes in the beginning chamber after clearing out the grasping darknesses, make sure to check out the area near the stairs in the back first (using the control key). There's one Aaxtes in that area that will patrol up and down the stairs. Only run past when it has moved up the stairs.

4) If the dying nightmare is still hidden, cast IoH, then cover it with one of the visages (I'm not sure about the power of the rend enchantments, so if you want to be on the safe side, cover with both visages so you won't be stripped of IoH too early. When you get safetly away from the Aaxtes, the nightmare should still be on your tail. Kill it with Vengeful weapon.

5) Don't be skimpy when it comes to recasting IoH, if you just made it out of the range of the Aaxtes and IoH runs out, immediately recast it and run away further since the Aaxtes will pursue you until you get off to a fair distance.

6) In the second large chamber, I've noticed that the grasping darknesses and the aaxtes seem to have 2 run patterns to them:

a) The graspings come close to the opened gate and then move away. BUT at the same time two Aaxtes rush towards the entrance. If this happens, back off immediately and watch your aggro zone on the radar. Wait for the second run through:

b) The graspings come close to the opened gate and then move away. The aaxtes will wait a little this time before moving slowly towards you.

You'll want to run across this room when situation b occurs (obviously). Take care not to aggro the graspings since they will be a nuisance. If they do rush towards you, it may be a good idea to recast IoH immediately and attempt to outrun them. If you don't do so immediately, they'll interrupt you when you try to recast IoH later on and you'll be crippled and defenseless.

7) When you get up the stairs after this area, don't get too confident since sometimes the two Aaxtes below will still attempt to follow you, keep IoH up and run deeper into the icy tunnel to be safe.

[requinox]

Uhh.. yeah.. just realized covering won't work since rend enchantments is more powerful than it thought. I would edit my last post, but the edit button is missing O.o

[bellissima]

Uhh.. yeah.. just realized covering won't work since rend enchantments is more powerful than it thought. I would edit my last post, but the edit button is missing O.o
You can only edit posts up to an hour after it was originally posted.

[MetasynMan]

Anyone tried this since the new mob AI "run away" changes?

[Hella Good]

There no way to kill the Aataxes? I don't believe it. You can certainly Wep of Shadow or Shadowsong/Epidemic them but that will simply disable them, not kill them.

And also SV/AV might not work as well after the recent update.

[fire magic wins]

I wasted so much moeny on this build, form the armor to the enchanting mod. Now ivbe wasted 10k on the runs. I got to smites ONCE. Other than that i walways ahve the nightmares suck up my IoH when im running past the aataxe, and i die in 3 hits. getting mad, but i still try

i can show you how to do it if you got time...IGN eva en wilma
its still easy even after the AI nerf..btw i can also solo the coldfires as rit with this build :wink: i can also show you how to do that..:grin:

[UnexistNL]

Coldfires aren't that hard, just run from maelstroms and let them attack you.. Normally i always ruin it before even getting to the smites(e.g. doing SV on that quest giver instead of myself...)

[call of water]

Thanks for sharing this build. awesome...i got 3 ectos from the first few runs and 1-2 gold drops. but now....im getting nothing! 5 runs in a row without any dingle ectos! [and im not doing that ill go down, farm, then asgin etc, ill stop and play pvp hoping that itll stop the anti-farm code, but it doesnt works...wot shall i do? :( ]

[call of water]

everything is okay now. im getting ectos+gold drops^^ just have to do a quest between 2 farms...

[Morgwath]

Does this build still work? kinda like to know before I spend all the money getting geared up for it.

[Krashan]

Does this build still work? kinda like to know before I spend all the money getting geared up for it.

It may not in near future. Depend if they nerf SV/AV like they did on testing weekend.

:-(

[JustStuit]

I was still able to do it on the test weekend, although I failed more often. If you cast physical resistance, illusion of haste, then visage and run, you should have enough time to lower their (grasping darkness, the smite crawlers are still simple) energy enough to cast the next visage. Then, you cast echo. You are probably below half health by then, but you don't die. It does go slower though because you don't have much energy for vengeful weapon.

[Shinjinbukai]

It is still possible but takes like 10 more minutes because you have to take it slower, now not worth the time.

[JustStuit]

I replaced soothing memories with channeling and it actually worked well. I'm doing the runs just as fast as before. I also have all energy armor and 3 attunement runes.

[VersionX]

I replaced soothing memories with channeling and it actually worked well. I'm doing the runs just as fast as before. I also have all energy armor and 3 attunement runes.

Bah! You stole my idea a day before I thought of it! :P Except I took out Distortion and chucked in Channeling.

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/5959/ritsoloyv6.jpg

[Geishe]

The old build still works pretty well... Ive got it back up to speed now, and theres definetely no problem ^.^

[Mr Savior]

no problem, 9 sec visage is fine. using 20% longer enchaments weapon it helps with running too.

doing smites now with W/Rt just becose dont like illusion of haste :P

i have been thinking Rt/R build serpent quickness, take some evade skill for vwk and wilderness running skills.

i'll try something today

*edit*
dosent work becose of fear me

[KiddieCake]

Yes yes another vwk thread, believe me i searched but the result was 0
I was farming the UW a while ago and noticed that the duration of SV/AV got shortened, and i cant seem to manage it out alive past those grasps, i dont know if it still works good but i keep dieng because of that, maybe anyone has got tips or new ways to do it?

oh and i did look into the Rt/Me smite solo thread, but i already have one of those 20% ench weapons on me, but i still cant make it out alive there

[Lawl Tastic]

rits can still solo uw with the rt/me vwk av/sv build. i did it last night. yes it was definitely harder because of the shorter duration, but if you know when to activate the skills and have right timing, you can make it to the smites and get the ectos :D

[Aksharack]

I've switched over to this since the update:

VwK
Arcane Echo
Vengeful Weapon
AV
SV
Channeling
IllusionofHaste
Physical Resistance

Channeling fixes the energy problems of having to cast visages. Also, you can spam vengeful pretty much for free. Kiting in very tiny circles can also help you out, if you do make a mistake. Keeps the graspings from building up adrenaline and zapping your energy as bad as they might otherwise. It is harder then before. I find it much easier to make a mistake because you have more skills to deal with during that important opening combo.

a 15/-5 axe to help hide energy also helps. makes it possible, combined with a staff, to get a quick energy boost to cast a visage.

[Straegaard]

Well, when 3+ mobs started to run from stuff like VwK it got a bit harder. (especially with 5 or more smites) and now it's been made a bit harder again, but it's still very doable. Most of the time I don't even bother using visages against graspings. If you put it up before you aggro it'll be down when you've pulled them to the center and there's a chance of it getting interrupted. If I can I'll use one after pulling them and then echo VwK and hope that they won't interrupt it.
If they do it's not really a problem either. They only hit for 15-20 damage so spamming vengeful weapon will keep you alive untill VwK is recharged.


oh, and I also use channeling

[vader]

I tried this build last night (talk about an expensive learning curve) and although I haven't gotten to the smites yet (tried 5 times) I am finally getting the hang of it. I haven't used channelling yet but that's definately going to be on my skillbar next time I try. Do you get energy back with Channelling even when a skill gets interrupted? Thanks for build. I'm glad I can dust off my Rit now.

[Shinjinbukai]

So I am confused, are the people running with channeling now using 9 second AV/SV and reducing inspiration to 3, or they sticking with 8seconds av/sv and 20% enchantment item?

[speedy]

So I am confused, are the people running with channeling now using 9 second AV/SV and reducing inspiration to 3, or they sticking with 8seconds av/sv and 20% enchantment item?

Look to be honest, you don't need a 20% enchatment item.
I managed to pull this run off on the 3rd try without any fancy weapons and got most of the smites (until i got blocked and the coldfires...slowly...came...towards me... /die)

I can't say whether the reduced time on AV/SV hurts a lot because I never had the chance to try this run before the changes. But with enough practise it is definitely doable.

I switched out soothing memories with channeling which greatly helped... and coincidently was the first time I completed a run.


The only real area where the changes to AV/SV hurt is ONI farming. That's real hell.

[vader]

Where else can this build be used (in all 3 chapters). Since it seems the US never has favor when I'm on, I'd like to use this somewhere else. I've been farming Vermin with it pretty easily but I'd like slightly better drops (Vermin don't really drop any max weapons and no armor). Since you can really only use this build on melee only mobs, I'm having problems finding good places to go. Someone suggested Ettins outside Bettleturn so I'm going to try that. Any other good places?

[AscalonWarrior]

Where else can this build be used (in all 3 chapters). Since it seems the US never has favor when I'm on, I'd like to use this somewhere else. I've been farming Vermin with it pretty easily but I'd like slightly better drops (Vermin don't really drop any max weapons and no armor). Since you can really only use this build on melee only mobs, I'm having problems finding good places to go. Someone suggested Ettins outside Bettleturn so I'm going to try that. Any other good places?
I like to kill Hekets outside that big sunspear city (forgot the name :huh:)
Easy to kill and fun :blush:

[vader]

Anyone else having problems with this build today? Since UW is free this weekend I decided to give it another go. It seems like I can't aggro any of the Darkness without pulling at least one Ataxe with them. I'm making sure the Ataxes don't get into my aggro bubble and one is always coming with the Darkness. Its almost like they attached the Ataxes to the Darkness groups.

[Bronze Serpent]

Anyone else having problems with this build today? Since UW is free this weekend I decided to give it another go. It seems like I can't aggro any of the Darkness without pulling at least one Ataxe with them. I'm making sure the Ataxes don't get into my aggro bubble and one is always coming with the Darkness. Its almost like they attached the Ataxes to the Darkness groups.

I've just got out of spending the last 3 hours down there (free weekends FTW!) and I didn't pull a single Aataxe for longer than a couple of seconds.

In fact, the problem I was having was keeping the Darknesses chasing me to the middle of the chamber. They kept turning back after I aggroed them.

Kindest regards,

Bronze

[VersionX]

The build is still working fine for me. What combo are you using before you agro the squiddies?

I typically go:

Physical Resistance, Channeling, Illusion of Haste.

I then run up the steps to either the edge of the Aatxes, or the edge of the squids, depending on which is closer, agro, hit the letter 'X' key and then charge back down to the corner of the chamber. (Next to the second Hunter or further.) 9 seconds worth of Illusion of Haste is usually more than enough for me to succeed in this.

The times I've found Aatxe to continue following me are a) when a Nightmare spawns and strips Illusion of Haste, or b) I don't run far enough back before I start taking on the squids. Other than these two reasons, I have never had a problem with agro in the initial chamber.

Honestly, all my troubles come from the run to the Smites. That one can be a real pain if you aren't on your toes / you get unlucky with a Nightmare.

[vader]

Of course, as usual, it was my fault. Turns out I forgot to put Illusion Of Haste back in after farming Vermin.

[selfmadelegend]

this is still quite easy, but mistakes are easier to do aswell, but that might be because i havent done it in a long time. gotta love free weekends

[Coifmeister]

i'm having big problems with this build. i seem to be the only one aswel after reading the other replies:embarassed:

i do just like the guide says but VwK and arcane echo just get interrupted leaving me defenseless.

anyone else getting this? i'm like 20k down.

[Aksharack]

Yeah, that is a common grasping problem. Probably the hardest part of the run to learn.. but there are tricks.

First off, watch your aggro when taking the quest, and then check the stairs for obvious Nightmares. Take care of them...

Then pull the graspings. Take note of the number of graspings before you do so. Try to not run to far in when you pul lthem.. you mghit trigger nightmaresthat way. Just as soon as you aggro, turn around.

Then watch the Grasspings carefully. Each time they use distract, they have a distinctive yellow attack animation and make a certain sound, a falling note. You can count these as they come in. If there are 4 graspings, wait until all 4 trigger. Then you can safely cast interrupt free. If one doesn't spam it right away., try an lure it out with Illusion. Typically they will waste one- two interrupts while you run from the cows, so watch carefully. Don't hurry to cast ,you can tank them for a while without dying.

Once you master counting their use of the interrupts, deaths are fairly rare.

[Silent Mayhem]

For the graspings..forget channeling, forget visages. Just bring mantra of resolve. Before aggro, cast resolve then illusion of haste, pull them to center, cast arcane echo then VwK. After doing this, the graspings will take your energy down to 0. The key to getting the second (and third) VwK off is to use it as soon as the other one drops (aka, as soon as you regain the energy lost from holding the item). Since mantra of resolve is up, and you should be using a +20 energy staff such as Alem's Remedy, you will have enough energy to get VwK off and fend off any interrupts. The beauty of this is it is foolproof, and works each time you switch from one vengeful to the next.

Using this method instead of channeling/visages (post "nerf"), I went from the occasional mistake due to e-management, to 100% success. Also, remember to bring physical resistance for the smites.

[Celtor Dunough]

Very well done... combines my new favorite class with my old favorite class.

[vader]

I tried this build to farm Vermin in hard mode and it actually worked fairly well ... until I got to Sharptongue and he just tears me up. He does way too much damage in one hit in hard mode for me to kill him. Anyone have any suggestions for him in hard mode?

[Silicon Based]

since Nightmares pop out of the ground when they spawn they have a delay between appearing and casting rend, a delay in which you could be 100 miles away by the time they get around to rending you.

If you ARE rended ... well thank god for the 5 sec recharge on IoH

I didn´t manage yet to get to the smites nor pass the aatxes before IoH runs out and have to cast IoH again. Problem is you have to stand still to cast IoH a second time, long enough for the aatxes to catch up and end your misery in one blow

[liljay]

map the turn around key to somewhere easy to reach, trick is to use the turn around key, map it somewhere easy to get too, get almost to the aggro zone, hit IoH, then press R to auto run and as soon as the grasps start moving hit that turn around key and run back.
it saves loads of time instead of moving your mouse a lot to turn around ;)

[rangerjon]

which is faster? this or terra tank?

[Juiced]

VwK on a warrior.