Solo FoW Forest Farming

[remmeh]

R/Me Solo FoW Forest Farming [video]
by Alana Stormwood aka The Preservationist

before I start... I would like to thank LAMS3K for his guide, which I relied heavily upon.
The reason that I am using R/Me is that I believe it can be done much more easily than LAMS3K's R/Mo build. but that's just me =) and i like to have 2 run skills just to make the run to the forest much easier.

relevant links:
LAMS3K's R/Mo guide - http://aag.dns1.us/fowforestv2.html

first things first.
video [13:48, WMV, ~130MB] is here: http://files.filefront.com/rangerfowwmv/;4913684;;/fileinfo.html

next things next. the build I use:
R/Me
7+2 Expertise
12+1 Wilderness Survival
8+1 Marksmanship
8 Inspiration

Kindle Arrows
Poison Arrow [e]
Savage Shot
Dodge
Storm Chaser
Troll Unguent
Mantra of Lightning
Physical Resistance

I am using full Druid's (Expertise Mask) with a Major Vigor rune.
Base HP: 521

weapons:
Drago's Flat Bow, 15-28; req.9; 15>50; AP 10/10; HP+30; Customized
Poisonous Longbow of Defense, 13-25; req.6; 10% in stance; -2 damage received in stance; Lengthens Poison duration on Foe by 33%; AL+5; Customized (Blankets for the Settlers quest: Captain Greywind, Ascalon Settlement)

note1: the video only covers the actual farming of the Forest area. it assums you know how to run to the Forest from the starting point. =)

spirit shepherds: stay out of spellcasting range with a flatbow. keep mantra of lightning on and you can spam savage shot all you want, and you'll never run out of energy. mantra of lightning also helps when one of them comes in spellcasting range, you take ~38 from lightning strike, ~66 from chain lightning.
skills: Lightning Strike, Iron Mist, Chain Lightning
gear: Flatbow, Mantra of Lightning

rock borer worms: they don't even shoot at you anymore. but their damage is lightning as well, so if they happen to shoot you, just keep mantra of lightning on and you can easily tank a group of 3. also you don't have any spells for choking gas to interrupt.
skills: Choking Gas, Pin Down
gear: Flatbow, Mantra of Lightning

spirit woods: these come in groups of 2, and they hit for a lot. anywhere from 20-50 regularly without physical resistance on. with physical resistance, they hit for anywhere from 5-20. use your -2 in stance longbow. interrupt troll unguent (it's got a 10sec timer, so you can learn to expect it)
skills: Primal Echoes, Edge of Extinction, Nature's Renewal, Troll Unguent
gear: -2 stance Longbow, Physical Resistance

armored cave spiders: these will be the hardest guys you face. make sure to take at most one at a time. the strategy you want to use is: keep it poisoned, keep troll unguent, physical resistance, and kindle arrows up, make sure to interrupt healing spring. and did i mention? only fight one at a time =)
skills: Apply Poison, Melandru's Resilience, Healing Spring, Called Shot
gear: -2 stance Longbow, Physical Resistance

spirit shepherds and spirit woods: same strategy as listed above. they come in groups of 3 spirit shepherds and 1 spirit wood. take out the spirit wood first, because the shepherds won't do any substantial damage to you.
gear: Flatbow, Mantra of Lightning

just be methodical and careful and you'll get it. i promise. :)

total run time: ~90 minutes, cleared forest

net total notable drops from that run: (typical)
3 Obsidian Shards
1 Gold (14% Stance) Chaos Axe req.10
~3k in gold and drops

note2: The video has me using 9+2 Expertise, 11+1 Wilderness, 8+1 Marks, 8 Inspiration. turns out you only really need 9 expertise for savage shot to cost 6e. the next relevant Expertise breakpoint is 13, but i like having the extra HP (especially for spiders)

note3: if your question has not been answered above or in the video, please contact me in game. :)

note4: music used:
Metric - Combat Baby
Of Montreal - Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games
Crossfade - Starless
Depeche Mode - Precious

enjoy :)

[jtchans]

ok iw atched but a lttle question, whered u get that -2 stance bow?
quest item i guess, but where
Poisonous Longbow of Defense, 13-25; req.6; 10% in stance; -2 damage received in stance; Lengthens Poison duration on Foe by 33%; AL+5; Customized (Blankets for the Settlers quest: Captain Greywind, Ascalon Settlement)

[Haradrim]

Heres the trick.

As soon as the wurms pop up, STOP DEAD. Just stop where you are and kill them. They shouldn't attack. Only move if you see a patrol coming.

To be honest, the hardest parts i found were running from rastigan to the forest and watching for spider spawns. I've been joining chest run groups as they pretty much secure the run to the forest for me and don't care much about what i'm doing. As for spiders, after i run past the skeles and kill the one patrol, i inch around little by little, when a spider drops, i kill it asap then inch around some more. I THINK (will confirm later) there are a total of 7 spiders in the forest (three at the start, 4 after the skeles). They're nasty critters when not alone.

As for a poisoner's bow, i spammed LA d1 for about 5 minutes then bought one for 500g. I then got the defensive grip off the same guy for 300g. :)

[remmeh]

EDIT: UPDATED WITH RUNNING MAP

http://www.remmeh.co.uk/fowrunmap.jpg

Notes:
location 1. run past the first group of Shadow Army and hide in the little nook in the wall to the right. You will just barely miss a patrol of 1 Mo, 2 W.
location 2. tricky part. you CANNOT aggro the skeletal icehands and expect to live 100% of the time, so this is how i handle the spawn:

1. if you can sneak past the skeletals without aggroing them, do that when they all come back to one point.
2. if you can't sneak past, you'll need to pull the skeletals into the shadow army group of 3. this is what i do:

- troll unguent first.
- run (normal speed) past the shadow army and shoot an arrow at the skeletals without being in spellcasting range of the skeletals.
- begin running back toward the indicated stop point.
- as soon as the skeletals engage the shadow army, hit storm chaser and run like hell toward the forest.

location 3. also make sure not to aggro the skeletals here. deep freeze = death.

:eek: if anyone has a better way to do this... you know where to post.

[KiddieCake]

i hosted the vid aswell , for the ones getting a slow download rate on filefront
not sure about this ones speed, but should be a difference with filefront i think
i had bout 20kbs there

http://80.61.194.162/File_hosting/yuri/rangerfow.wmv

[remmeh]

http://files.filefront.com/fowforestrunwmv/;4941324;;/fileinfo.html

VIDEO OF THE RUN :) i got a somewhat difficult spawn too.

[remmeh]

iunno... you can't really get a very detailed map of the forest... unless i make one... brb

http://www.remmeh.co.uk/fowforest.jpg
a consequence of having too much time on my hands.