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oles
22-08-2006, 05:11
This solo farm is quite difficult at first, is exilirating and a good test of your reflexes/hand-eye coordination.
It's by no means complete, but I've tested it and have been able to kill Sskai 4 times in a row after the first 3 failed attempts.
But before I get to the description of the build, first things first:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~pvp/files/sskai1.jpg
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~pvp/files/sskai2.jpg

Equipment:
Crippling Recurve Bow of Fortitude
Flatbow/Longbow (for the first pull)
Druid's Armor

Attributes: R/N
Death Magic - 12
Expertise - 13 (9+3+1)
Wilderness - 4 (3+1)
Marksmanship - 10 (9+1)

Skills:
Pin Down
Virulence(elite)
Lightning Reflexes
Whirling Defense
Savage Shot
Distracting Shot
Troll Unguent
Dodge

Strategy:
1) Getting to Sskai -
Refer to numerous W/N solo builds on how to get to the place. Once near Sskai, kill 2-3 nearby Kraken Spawns. Make sure to interrupt Illusion of Pain, Ether Feast, and preferably (but not necessary) Clumsiness. Remeber that if you have Clumsiness on you, the first shot will fail, and so will the interrupt if you were trying to use it.

Then run around the place until you trigger 1-2 nearby Oni spawns. Use dodge as soon as they appear to get away. The reason for Oni triggering is that you will need a lot of space to maneuver, and you don't want to run into Onis while fighting Sskai. Be also aware of 2 possible Naga patrols that come from the south. It's best to fight Sskai north of his spawn after clearing Kraken Spawns.

2) Killing Sskai -
The basic strategy is based on crippling Sskai, then using Virulence to degen him to death, while using Distracting Shot to shut down his Healing Signet.
Use a flat/longbow first to pull him away from his mob. This is quite easy since he likes to wonder off a bit away from the mob. Just hit him once and run away about 1.5-2 agro circles away, and wait. He will follow after a few seconds.

Pin Down at Marksmanship 10 with a crippling bow string will cripple Sskai for 15 sec, while both Virulence and Pin Down recharge also in 15 sec. Thus it's possible to keep him crippled/degened about 90% of the time.
The most difficult part is distracting the healing Signet. Missing just one will often result in the following cascade of more signets, and may simply regen most of his health. It's back to square one after that.

So keep him inside your agro circle, especially when he's about to use the signet, and always face him. Try to run backwards during those crucial moments right before the signet. It's ok to run away by facing in the opposite direction right after distrcting the signet, as you will have 20-25 seconds in which the next signet will be ready.
Sskai, when crippled, will slowly come toward you, but will turn away if you take 3-4 steps back. Come toward him (if outside agro cirle) or wait at that point, and he will come toward you again. You can keep pulling and pushing him like that indefinitely when he's crippled, but be sure to have him at the edge of the agro circle when using Pin Down/Virulence.

Distracting those Healing Signet is a difficult and quite exilirating task, becuse you have to keep him close enough but outside melee range. It's ok to let him hit you once or twice right after a cripple (use whirling/lightning and troll after running away), but be sure not to use your skills in melee range, because he himself will distract them.

The whole farm lasts about 20 min or so. I haven't gotten his sword yet.

P.S. If this build is obsolete, I apologize in advance.

Reikai
22-08-2006, 05:57
heres a tip to distracting Healing Signet.

After the first distract, distracting shot will take time to recharge.
When it recharges, fire it again, right away, even if its not going to interupt anything.

When it recharges after this second shot, fire it yet AGAIN, and chances are 90% of the time, your going to hit healing signet.

why?
Distracting shot distracts a skill for 20 seconds
Distracting shot has 10 second recharge.
If the target has low enough HP, the second healing signet recharges, he will use it. therefore, shooting distracting shot at that 20 second mark will almost gaurentee a distract.

oles
22-08-2006, 06:03
heres a tip to distracting Healing Signet.

After the first distract, distracting shot will take time to recharge.
When it recharges, fire it again, right away, even if its not going to interupt anything.

When it recharges after this second shot, fire it yet AGAIN, and chances are 90% of the time, your going to hit healing signet.

why?
Distracting shot distracts a skill for 20 seconds
Distracting shot has 10 second recharge.
If the target has low enough HP, the second healing signet recharges, he will use it. therefore, shooting distracting shot at that 20 second mark will almost gaurentee a distract.

Good idea. I, of course, have tried it already. Unfortunately it doesn't work very well. You must keep moving almost all the time. Not enought time to stop and shoot arrows at him except for Pin Down and Distracting Shot.

His healing signet activates in 1 sec. There's almost no margin for error. After the first 3-4 tries I learned to anticipate it, and it was smooth sailing after that.

oles
22-08-2006, 12:06
And after about 7-8 time of killing him, the ultimate:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~pvp/files/sskai3.jpg

After perfecting of the technique, I'd say it takes about 10-15 min max for this now. If he drops once in 8 times, like the rest of the bosses, it would take under 2 hours, depending on luck, to get the sword.

Tips:
Kraken: hit troll first, then open up w/ Pin Down. Immediately hit Virulence and Whirling Defence, and run in. Attack at melee range, and distract the first Ether Feast with Savage Shot. Distract the following Clumsiness with Distracting Shot. Then do Pin Down/Virulence combo. After that, there's another Savage Shot for Ether Feast, and possible Illusion of Pain. You end up with a dead Kraken Spawn and about 50% health.

Sskai: the most important signet is the first one. It comes at about 80% of Sskai's health. After that, use modified Reikai's technique, where you can hit the second, blank Distracting Shot right after the recharge for timing purposes. The next signet comes about 3-4 seconds after the second Distracting Shot recharge. So the sequence is like this:
Healing Signet<-Distracting Shot (10 sec recharge) -> Distracting Shot (10 sec recharge) -> 4sec - next signet.

It's important to hit those signets even if he gets in close. If he's getting way too close, and you need to hit Pin Down, use Dodge to run away just a bit.

I think the last 2 farms I did, I didn't miss a single signet this way. He stops using Healing Signets when his health drops below 20% or so. So, that's about 3 important Distracting Shots you need to hit, and then he's just there for the taking.

P.S. I also got about 7k worth of other drops while getting the sword. Krakens drop Monstrous Fangs fairly often, and those go for 1.1k at the rare material trader.

Ze Boulon
22-08-2006, 12:22
Nice guide, congratulations!

KiddieCake
22-08-2006, 13:00
class build, have to give it a go i guess ;)

oles
22-08-2006, 14:10
My record so far is 6.5 minutes for a sinle Sskai kill. That's from starting in the outpost, killing 2 Kraken Spawns, and Sskai himself.
Can anyone beat it? :)

oles
22-08-2006, 14:14
Props to Reikai for making me give another go the second distracting shot idea. It works quite well after all.

cranialexodus
22-08-2006, 14:26
btw you forgot to blank out your alliance members' names

oles
23-08-2006, 03:33
High quality video is up at:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~pvp/files/sskai.avi
Right click and save target as (148MB).
Video length 6:22 (from outpost to Sskai kill).

oles
23-08-2006, 17:19
There was an R/Me Sskai build posted at guru. It was based on Signet of Midnight and damage from things like Empathy, while stopping the signets with Primal Echoes.
Has anyone tried it? How much faster/slower is it compared to mine, which takes about 2.5 min to kill Sskai if you hit all the signets?

P.S. This might be a good fun alternative for FoW forest solo, since it's about 20-25k an hour (sold Sskai sword for 16k last night).
There is also a lot of canthan chests in the immediate vicinity of the farm (I saw three at one time). I'm sure they are nowhere near as good as FoW chests. But how good are they anyway?

andrewf
23-08-2006, 19:11
P.S. This might be a good fun alternative for FoW forest solo, since it's about 20-25k an hour (sold Sskai sword for 16k last night).
There is also a lot of canthan chests in the immediate vicinity of the farm (I saw three at one time). I'm sure they are nowhere near as good as FoW chests. But how good are they anyway?
Hmm..Killing Sskai is fun..and challenging as well, but in terms of the profit, it is still low compared to other greens..

If my luck is good..I earn about 40k in 30 minutes..If i'm lucky.. IF I'm lucky

oles
23-08-2006, 21:29
Hmm..Killing Sskai is fun..and challenging as well, but in terms of the profit, it is still low compared to other greens..

If my luck is good..I earn about 40k in 30 minutes..If i'm lucky.. IF I'm lucky

I think you just beat Reikai (with 50k an hour claim) :).
Forgive me for being sceptical, but anyone can get lucky. Like myself getting 2 perfect chaos axes in 2 days, which contributed to the third of my fissure.

But what I was talking about here was steady income. FoW forest is steady 15-20k an hour with a chance of getting a christmas present from a fow chest. If the Sskai sword stays at 15-20k price, I'm seeing this as an alternative, something different to try, though it will probably get old much faster than fow forest.

Raisu Palace chest running can also be considered fairly steady 20-30k an hour, because of the relatively low key costs vs. potential rewards.
But I'm not a huge fan of spamming WTS ads for hours on end.
What's your secret?

andrewf
23-08-2006, 22:01
I think you just beat Reikai (with 50k an hour claim) :).
Forgive me for being sceptical, but anyone can get lucky. Like myself getting 2 perfect chaos axes in 2 days, which contributed to the third of my fissure.

But what I was talking about here was steady income. FoW forest is steady 15-20k an hour with a chance of getting a christmas present from a fow chest. If the Sskai sword stays at 15-20k price, I'm seeing this as an alternative, something different to try, though it will probably get old much faster than fow forest.

Raisu Palace chest running can also be considered fairly steady 20-30k an hour, because of the relatively low key costs vs. potential rewards.
But I'm not a huge fan of spamming WTS ads for hours on end.
What's your secret?

Like I said IF I'm lucky

and I meant like this

I finish Rajazan runs in about 5 minutes MAX..

so lets pretend I got 2 of them in 2 consecutive run[happened to me once]

Since my guild is a Hong Kong guild, i give the 2 Rajazans to my guildie, they bring it to Taiwan district to sell them[they sell for around 30k there]..
so in total my guildies get 60k..and they will give me back 40k.

Hiero
23-08-2006, 22:43
You got one in 7-8 times? oO

I killed him somewhere between 50-60 times before it dropped.

andrewf
23-08-2006, 22:49
You got one in 7-8 times? oO

I killed him somewhere between 50-60 times before it dropped.


that was before the green nerf...which is before the Nightfall preview

oles
23-08-2006, 23:29
You got one in 7-8 times? oO

I killed him somewhere between 50-60 times before it dropped.

Yes, it dropped on 7th or 8th attempt.
I then did it 10 more times, and it hasn't dropped yet.
Not sure if having the sword in the inventory affects the probability of another one dropping, but I did have it. I've since gotten rid of it, and will try again later tonight.

Another issue is what's described in the W/N guide, which goes something like this "If he's not holding the sword, he will not drop it..." Now, in those 17-18 times I've killed him, I don't believe that I've seen him w/o one.
Can he hold two different weapons which look very similar?

oles
24-08-2006, 00:55
Just got a Sskai sword on the 6th farm. That's 16 total after the first one, but like I said above, not sure if having one in the inventory affects the chances of getting another one.

In addition, made 3.5k in other drops. That's about 22-23k an hour farm.

andrewf
24-08-2006, 01:02
Yes, it dropped on 7th or 8th attempt.
I then did it 10 more times, and it hasn't dropped yet.
Not sure if having the sword in the inventory affects the probability of another one dropping, but I did have it. I've since gotten rid of it, and will try again later tonight.

Another issue is what's described in the W/N guide, which goes something like this "If he's not holding the sword, he will not drop it..." Now, in those 17-18 times I've killed him, I don't believe that I've seen him w/o one.
Can he hold two different weapons which look very similar?

look @ his handle...if its bright red..then its sskai's sword

oles
24-08-2006, 01:58
look @ his handle...if its bright red..then its sskai's sword

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.
And also thank you very much for helping test damage stuff.

cranialexodus
24-08-2006, 12:43
even if he's not holding the sword it can drop - it's just a lot less likely.