The Helmos Guide to Ritualistic Mega-Farming

[Lord Helmos]

The Helmos Guide to Ritualistic Mega-Farming:

Hello all! I will start by saying im rich, yes very rich -and without an Ebay account. Now what is the secret to all this power and glory? To having 3 sets of black elite armor across all characters and all 14 heroes maxed with primevil armor + R9 golds on each one? Ahhhh yes... all thanks to those generous Corsairs, Margonites, and Little Buggies who have donated countless golds to my three spoiled princesses. However, they weren't so generous to start...

See Corsairs love treasure. Sometimes when you lay the lasers go pew pew zap zap pwnage down on them hard enough, they sometimes leave a little bit of that treasure behind. Most of the time its in the form of random golds such as:

~Ornate Scimitars
~Tattooed Scimitars
~Crude Scimitars
~Vabbian Scimitars
~Istani Shields
~Sun and Moon Shields
~Tall Shields
~Shields of the Lion
~Adamantine Shields
~Woven Shields
~Ungula Axes
~Hooked Axes
~Spiked Recurves
~Bladed Recurves
~Composite Shortbows
~Flatbows
~Longbows
~Dragon Hornbows
~Eternal Flame Wands
~Aurate Lamps

I have observed getting R9 inscribable golds of all the above weapons and shields while farming Corsairs. However, once in a blue moon sometimes you get this:

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/5167/vandrelscolossalky7.jpg

Which is your ultimate goal.

Margonites tend to keep a ton of runes in store for you, and little buggies also have some nice golds they might have vacuumed up with their little mandibles.

Now before we start the farm you will need several things. One of which is a Ritu. A pretty ritu works best, because everyone knows pretty ritus get more golds :grin:

Ex: Pretty Ritu

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/4642/prettyritutj9.jpg

Now the afore said pretty ritu will need the following arsenal of skills and equipment:

Rt/Me

Armor: All heralds armor with a +1 restoration headwrap

Weapon: Any good Restoration Staff like Alem's Remedy works well.

Runes: One Superior Restoration Rune, Superior or Major Vigor, and Attunement Runes

Skills:
~Vengeful Weapon
~Vengeful was Khanhei (elite)
~Arcane Echo
~Ancestral Visage
~Symapthetic Visage
~Physical Resistance
~Mantra of Resolve
~Channeling
~Soothing Memories
~Spirit Shackles

Attributes:
10 Illusion
8 Inspiration
16 Restoration
*These attributes don't change when you switch vwk builds.

For round 5, you will need a seperate set of equipment and skills:

Rt/R

Armor: Any insignias work, +1 channeling headwrap

Weapon: Zealous Long or Flatbow of Fortitude 15^50

Runes: One Superior Channeling Rune, Superior or Major Vigor, and Attunement Runes

Skills:
~Barrage (elite)
~Splinter Weapon
~Zojun's Haste
~Natural Stride
~Stormchaser
~Edge of Extinction

Attributes:
10 Marksmanship
16 Channeling
8 Wildness Survival

And you need access to hard mode, the destroy the ungrateful slaves quest from primevil king janus in the shattered ravines available, and the battle of turai's procession available from Mirza Veldrunner in turai's procession.

cxxxxxx[]=====================>

VwK Goldmining Round 1: Moddock Crevice Hard Mode

Now this area has the highest drop rates of Colossal Scimitars in the game. This is because Corsair Cutthroats are usually the ones with the highest Colossal drop rates and theres five of them just begging to die at the beginning of this mission.

To start this off slot your skill bar as follows:
~Vengeful Weapon
~Vengeful was Khanhei (elite)
~Arcane Echo
~Ancestral Visage
~Symapthetic Visage
~Physical Resistance
~Channeling
~Soothing Memories

Now add dunkoro and activate hard mode, go talk to Unlucky Simon and start the mission up. At the mission start, flag dunkoro all the way back at the wooden gate far within the cavern's starting area. This prevents him from stealing drops. Now approach the good captain Bothesda and wait till he has an exclaimation point over his head (I know the dialogue and waiting is a pain, but its endurable).

After the good captain offers you a choice, activate channeling, physical resistance, and arcane echo. After speaking to him, hit refuse and activate VwK immediately before he goes hostile on you. Once this happens run towards the five Corsair Cutthroats in order to grey Dunk off your party bar. Activate a visage in order to get the Captain to waste his disrupting throw on it and then spam vengeful weapon and reactivate the echoed VwK as needed. Even if the three VwKs don't kill the Corsair, you can finish off the stragglers with vengeful. Its not like they can kill you easily though Physical Resistance.

If you are lucky, you might get a Colossal. Repeat this FIVE TIMES, then move to round 2.

VwK Goldmining Round 2: Zehlon Reach Hard Mode

Now warp to the Astralarium and activate hard mode. Drop your party to solo and slot your bar as follows.

To start this off slot your skill bar as follows:
~Vengeful Weapon
~Vengeful was Khanhei (elite)
~Arcane Echo
~Ancestral Visage
~Symapthetic Visage
~Physical Resistance
~Channeling
~Spirit Shackles

Exit via Zehlon Reach. Your first mob north is either going to have a grub lance or a preying lance. Preying lances are signs of good fortune, they are easy cakes that you can farm normal with VwK. However, its the grub lances that are a pain due to their constant spamming of LoD. In order to deal with grub lances, activate VwK and then rush the lance so you are standing right next to it. Then use spirit shackles on the lance so that he drains his energy attacking you. Then use a visage so that the bladed termites attacking you die faster. When the visage ends, cast your echoed VwK then recast spirit shackles on the grub. Keep casting vengeful over and over and it will die soon.

After that annoying bug mob is out of the way, you can move on to 3-4 corsair mobs ahead. Farm them normal with VwK any enjoy the rain of golden goodness. Hopefully you get your Colossal this run. I also notice that this area has an extremely high gold drop rate. I've gotten seven golds in a single run and 2 Colossal Scimitars at the same time in a separate run.

Repeat this farm FIVE TIMES then move on to round 3.

VwK Goldmining Round 3: Plains of Jarin Hard Mode

Now this area is a cool off zone for rotating your crops and taking a break from Corsairs. You wont find any Colossals out here but Stalking Nephilias sometimes drop these:

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/7276/vandrelsfieryaxecb3.jpg

I think thats reason good enough to lay the smackdown on them. Anyway warp to Sunspear Grand Hall, and exit towards Plains of Jarin Hard Mode with this bar:

~Vengeful Weapon
~Vengeful was Khanhei (elite)
~Arcane Echo
~Ancestral Visage
~Symapthetic Visage
~Physical Resistance
~Channeling
~Soothing Memories

Start by obliterating the giant mob of Stalking Nephilia just north of you. Move along the ridge and VwK any solo enemies or annoying Iboga that might stand in your way as you move NW. Up ahead you will see Hassin Softshell's Boss Mob. Use VwK to kill as his friends and then finish him with vengeful weapon spamming. If you are lucky you might get an Elite Paragon Tome or a Fiery Blade Axe from him.

Aside from the Fiery Blade Axes, the mobs also drop:

~Inscribable Longswords
~Skull Shields
~Adamantine Shields
~Winged Axes
~Dual Winged Axes
~Inscribable Tall Shields

Repeat this farm THREE times and then move on to round 4.

VwK Goldmining Round 4: Shattered Ravines Dead Sword Farming in Normal Mode

Now this is the classic farm all VwKer's know. Warp to Bone Palace and set your bar up like this:

~Vengeful Weapon
~Vengeful was Khanhei (elite)
~Arcane Echo
~Ancestral Visage
~Symapthetic Visage
~Mantra of Resolve
~Channeling
~Soothing Memories

Also be sure you have NOT turned in the destroy the ungrateful slaves quest. You will not be able to do this round without it.

Turn off hard mode, because they will destroy you with it on. Now exit towards Joko's Domain and grab the wormie outside. Use the worm to rush past the northern mobs and sneak into the shattered ravines. As you portal, be careful because theres a Margonite mob right outside of the ravines gate. If you run too far into the new zone, they will snare you and you will probably eat invoke lightning and a scythe to the face, which may damage the effectiveness of the said pretty ritu.

Now to the left of the res shrine, which is nicely placed incase you die, is a collector and Primevil King Janus' group. Go talk to Janus and choose to destroy the ungrateful slaves. After taking the quest, back off towards the collecter NPC and let the ghostly murder Janus. Activate your mantra and then murder them with VwK. After the first mob goes down. You will have some time to recharge and two more mobs will rush from the left and right. You should be able to hold against them with VwK and farm them. After that two more mobs come again, just begging to be farmed.

After this quest is failed, leave it as it is, because now everytime you come back to this zone, the ghostly slaves will already be rushing at Janus to kill him so you can farm faster.

Repeat this farm THREE times, then move on to round 5.

Splinter-Barrage Farming Round 5: The Battle of Turai's Procession and Margonite Mayhem

Now for the final round of the farming cycle. Warp to Venta Cemetary and grab your best heroes. Grab a full party of henchies (and herta because she rocks) and activate hard mode. Armor change to your channeling set and grab your zealous bow. Bring this build:

~Barrage (elite)
~Splinter Weapon
~Zojun's Haste
~Natural Stride
~Stormchaser
~Edge of Extinction
~Optional
~Optional

Anything else you want to put in the 2 open slots is fluff and up to you, but the above skills outlined will be the only ones you really need. Now move up Northeast towards the grove that Mirza is staying at, assuming you have the battle of turai unlocked. Use your heroes to deal with any mobs you encounter on the way and when you get to Mirza you will notice a rez shrine to your left. Flag your heroes at the rez shrine so they dont interfere with the farm and your drops.

Now talk to Mirza and take the quest. Follow him out to the V line of defending centaurs and offer them a little help by planting EoE right next to their group. Use storm chaser to run and watch the margonite flood of terror destroy them all. After that you will notice that the margonites pack into one nice ball for you.

To the right of the massive margonite mob, there are a series of boulders. Place EoE right within those boulders and move back to face the balled mob. Splinter Weapon yourself and then barrage a Margonite Seer. Always target seers, since they have no self heal. Now after barrage use one of your run skills to flee away from them and break aggro. When they reset, go back and splinter-barrage again. Once a really good barrage kills more than 2-3 at the same time, the EoE will start a chain reaction that murders the whole mob.

Three massive two segment mobs will come from the top left and right after each group dies, so there are about 6 mobs with a final mob lead by a torment weaver boss. Be sure to replace EoE with each fresh mob and in the event that 2-3 are still left standing, call in your heroes to help kill them in order to trigger the next wave. If you are lucky tons of golds and runes will drop for you. Sometimes the weaver leaves you an elite necro tome as well.

When you are finished murdering all of the enemies, grab your loot and warp back to venta.

IMMEDIATELY ABANDON THE QUEST. Don't ever accidentally turn this one in!

Repeat this farm THREE times.

COMPLETION! Victory is yours!

By now all your drops are probably utter crap from all this farming, so now its time to take a break. Some good activities to pass time while your drop rate "recharges" are to do a long mission like THK or Hell's Precipice, AB, play in RA, or go to Fort Aspenwood. When you feel lucky, head back to Moddock Crevice and try your luck again.

Overall this farming cycle yields an insane amount of golds, chances for Colossal Scimitars and Fiery Blade Axes, mountains of runes, and lockpicks galore. In just 2-3 hours time I've made over 60k (guesstimation, noting that a R9 colossal will go for 100k+) + countless mods, runes, etc. doing this cycle. It really depends on your luck.

Hope this helps some ritus looking for cash. This is one of the best farming cycles in the game I've found. Enjoy!

[TheDivider]

This is a :censored: great guide Helmos! Yes I am one of many Rits looking for ways to earn that fat money cake. Love the details and humor that goes with it, 5 stars!

[Metafrank]

Great guide.
Too bad that 60k in 2 hours still is not enough to motivate me.
I was one of the first to use the now usual 3-man Foundry Farm build, back when it was very secret.
Back when Titan Gems were worth 50k each, THAT was what I call farming... about 150-200k in 2 hours.
I could not motivate myself to farm anymore since those times, as everything seems inferior compared to that.
But since I started playing a PvE Ritualist a short while ago I may change my mind.

Thanks anyway for another one of the Guides that I actually bookmark.

[Lord Helmos]

Actually the cash is one thing, but you also get so many high end R9 golds it really saves you alot from actually having to buy weapons/mods from other players. You might actually make much more than just 60k in the long run. Not to mention your wisdom title goes insane off this farm.

Most of the stuff that I have across my characters are all perfects I've self farmed. R9 gold tattooed scimitars on heroes, perfect skull shields and dead swords that I never had to mod because I just rip the mods off my own drops... stuff like that.

It really depends on what you get, but over the course of time if you get +30 sword mods, -5/20% shield mods, etc. It really boosts your income or prevents you from spending absurd amounts of money on players overpricing upgrades.

It also depends on how well you can market what you are selling. Personally, I sell things cheaper for a quick buy so I can get back to farming. Using this its easier for me to re-farm R9 weapons than to wait in town for 2 hours until someone bites on a 50k sell.

Also when you hit that R9 perfect colossal scimitar... its all worth it.

Over the course of about a week and a half farming I've bought:

~3 R9 motivation aureate aegis shields for each of my general morgahns (morgahn looks leet with aureates!).

~Buhon's, Kormab's, Hajok's, and Lushivahr's Prisms for my ele as an offhand set.

~Elite Kurzick Armor on my ele.

~Vabbian Jewel Armor on my war. (Woot for dual colossal drop!)

~Various perf mods for R9 weapons.

~+5 Energy Bramble Flatbow for a beastmaster Margrid.

~Some other stuff I can't remember.

Overall I've spent a ton of cash... alot of which I didn't have until I started doing this. I've pretty much gotten to the point of going... geez theres nothing else to buy but mini-pets and stuff like +30 mods when I have +29s on heroes. Now im just hoarding Diamonds and Mudbricks for EoTN. :grin:

Figured I would post a guide to show how I got there.

Even more so, to show that even after this crazy nerf, rits can still rock PvE.

[yuurei]

Great guide, this gets a vote to be permanently archived in the Rit Guide section.

[Marveric]

Just a note, Corsairs also drop Tower Shields. I got an R9 gold from them. Probably worth more than Colossals right now, I couldn't sell my r11 one with +30hp and 15^50 for any more than 25k.

[Lord Helmos]

Ah just got a R10 gold crude shield from them too :D

[TheAlchemist]

grrr, this makes me wanna start a ritualist again lol ^^

[Lord Helmos]

Just a note, Corsairs also drop Tower Shields. I got an R9 gold from them. Probably worth more than Colossals right now, I couldn't sell my r11 one with +30hp and 15^50 for any more than 25k.

With the exception of elemental swords, its very hard to sell high req. weapons, esp since req and the damage are the 2 non-changable aspects of a nightfall weapon. R10 and up weapons are considered "non perfect" so its hard to sell them for a high value.

However you will find that a good skinned weapon like a colossal scimitar (which are considered "exotic") will fetch over 100k easy if it was req. 9. In fact if it was R9 "perfect," people would probably be fighting over bids in trade for it.

Its funny that people put so much value on req., although no warrior really runs under 12 sword when using a swordsmanship build. :grin:

Tis' the price of perfection. Same deal goes with having a R9 purple weapon being worth less than an R9 gold weapon although the only difference is text color.

I have many R9 "perfect" purple weapons, and personally I love them, regardless of community value.

http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/9051/slongswordkn5.jpg

I don't know about everyone else, but that looks pretty perfect to me :wink:

It dropped from a Stalking Nephilia btw.

[Arutima]

god.. i need to take my new rit (deleted old one when i lost survivor title due to lag) and get VwK, again just for the fun. Havent farmed since the loot nerf and three of my 9 characters still need vabbian armor.

Gotta need a lot of willpower to do the whole kaineng city, thought ;)

[Divinity Archer]

Love it, thank you :smiley:

[Guildoholic]

Does anyone know if a primary mesmer variant for rounds 1-4 will work?

[TheDivider]

Does anyone know if a primary mesmer variant for rounds 1-4 will work?


It should - the only difference is lower damage since your Restoration can only reach 12 with VwK.

[Lord Helmos]

that might be a possibility if you can keep VwK up long enough. You might be able to use distortion in order to hold out while VwK recharges for a 4th casting, but I haven't tested this.

[Lord Helmos]

A warning to those attempting the farm.

Previously in older builds of guildwars there was an anti-farm mechanism that caused a warning message to appear when you only killed mobs outside of the starting point of a zone. It lessened the loot of mobs and told you that monsters are "out of loot."

A later update in the past said that this mechanism was removed, but hidden remnants of it still may exist in the game.

Now the threat of this is I'm not sure if farming the first mob of Moddock Crevice mission could possibly "trigger" this hidden feature and burn out your potential drop rate faster than it should be burned.

If you are attempting this farm and believe some kind of strange mechanism is killing your drops, a possible solution to the problem would be to.

~Do Zehlon Reach first.

~Only do Moddock two times before moving to another zone.

hopes this helps.

[liljay]

great guide! :D i didnt know about the jarin area :)

[Marveric]

Do you take the Corsair mobs in Zehlon Reach one at a time? I don't think Physical Resistance will save you when running there.. and they have a load of snares. Might want to try Rt/Mo instead.

12+3+1 Restoration
10 Healing
8 Protection
4 random superior runes

Vengeful Was Khanhei {e}
Shield of Absorption
Shielding Hands
Protective Spirit
Resilient Weapon
Healing Breeze
Mending
Balthazar's Spirit

Get 135hp to counter degen. I think Corsairs give 18 or 19 pips of degen (is their Reaper's Mark -5 or -6?) so you will have 4 or 5 pips. In 11 seconds that is 88 health loss at most so you should make it with 135. Then VmK will heal you back up. You can't AEcho VmK but you can kill all the groups together so it might be faster.

[Lord Helmos]

The low hp rit works too, you can also use that build in Moddock to possibly farm all of the corsair if you choose to trust the captain. However, sometimes the mandragor aggro and kill you with chillbians. I believe this can be done with a Mo/D also, who is the original Zehlon farmer.

I belive that low HP rit build is also capable of farming the entire city of Farahnur for sephis drops, dervish elite tomes, and warrior elite tomes. A guildie of mine runs it regularly.

[beldeti]

Another great guide from the master himself.

I have to get my ritu to cap that VWK....

[TaSTY]

WAIT YOU GUYS
i wanna know ONE thing before i start on this..

Will this be nerfed? Will it? hello..? :embarassed:
Whats the chance for this to be abused and used for botting? :sad:

EDIT:

Request:

Video!
Pleeeeease:tongue:

[Lord Helmos]

No worries, I doubt you can bot VwK. It requires a human player. Any bots will get stuck in an infinite heal cycle with the Grub Lance me thinks.

Hmm video, maybe ill D/L gamecam and mess with it.

[yuurei]

WAIT YOU GUYS
i wanna know ONE thing before i start on this..

Will this be nerfed? Will it? hello..?

Yes it will be nerfed, maybe it won't be, you won't know till you take the risk and try it yourself. :grin:

[TaSTY]

Hmm video, maybe ill D/L gamecam and mess with it.

I PAY BIIIG MONAYH
plzxcs :laugh:

[Lord Helmos]

I PAY BIIIG MONAYH
plzxcs :laugh:

hehe alright but I haven't toyed with gamecam yet, so it may take me awhile if anything to produce something.

Also to those farming, Colossals are pretty rare drops so it might take quite a few runs till they start popping up. Hopefully some people get some beginners luck.

Although even without the Colossals, the cashflow from Zehlon is pretty nice. Up to 56 diamonds now :cool: Come out faster EoTN!

[Toge]

It also depends on how well you can market what you are selling. Personally, I sell things cheaper for a quick buy so I can get back to farming. Using this its easier for me to re-farm R9 weapons than to wait in town for 2 hours until someone bites on a 50k sell.

- You realize what will happen when everyone knows how to solo-farm stuff effectively? That's right, prices will plummet and you'll be lucky if someone is going to give you 5K for anything you have to sell. Market is not reliable and it never was in this game. Sure it's good to get those gold items and mods for your own use, but I wouldn't advertise anything "you get 60K / hour"

But anyway, your's is a very nice and detailed guide. Thank you for your contribution.

[TaSTY]

hehe alright but I haven't toyed with gamecam yet, so it may take me awhile if anything to produce something.


I dont really think you need that much experience. I mean..Record from one place and then end the scene whereever you want the end to be. The file will be saved in /C: Programs/ Fraps (gamecam?)/recordings. From here, you can use the clip in Windows movie maker and then edit it by writing text over it. Like, writing notes etc :cloud9:

[Vana]

Great job, Lord Helmos. :P and thanks for posting it.

Now to get my rit through Nightfall >_<

[liljay]

over 2 weeks in zehlon for me and not a single colosal :/ i do ok and end up selling unid golds, up to 101k in the bank for gw:en

[Lord Helmos]

- You realize what will happen when everyone knows how to solo-farm stuff effectively? That's right, prices will plummet and you'll be lucky if someone is going to give you 5K for anything you have to sell. Market is not reliable and it never was in this game. Sure it's good to get those gold items and mods for your own use, but I wouldn't advertise anything "you get 60K / hour"

But anyway, your's is a very nice and detailed guide. Thank you for your contribution.

Np, in response however, I don't think that people knowing how to farm effectively is as big of a threat to some of the more recent activities that have been going on.

But there are many people out there struggling with no one to teach them how to do things like this. Its good to have a reference point for those interesting in trying for some of these rares.

[Fade Into Shadow]

Awesome guide, and im off to make a rit lol.

[Mehtis]

Maybe I should try this. Have to take my rit down in the lands of Elona, but maybe I'll be good enough with the Istani places. Have to try.

EDIT: BTW, is the round 5 possible now, that Splinter Weapon has longer recharge?

[WingspanTT]

w00t I am 2 missions away from beating Nightfall on my Rit and accessing this treasure trove! Thanks so much, I will get on it right away!

Abaddon, I am gunnin for you, punk.

[Marveric]

Awesome guide, and im off to make a rit lol.

Inspired me to keep my Rit instead of dumping him for a Necro lol.

[Arutima]

1-3-4 can also be done with a renewal sliver armor earth ele, but it take a lot more time then the VwK and 55 monk.

Also, you can do hard mode ungrateful slaves with said ele

[MrShoes]

Maybe I should try this. Have to take my rit down in the lands of Elona, but maybe I'll be good enough with the Istani places. Have to try.

EDIT: BTW, is the round 5 possible now, that Splinter Weapon has longer recharge?


Yes because it doesn't have a longer recharge. Only the DURATION was decreased, recharge was a mistype in the update.

[Eye of Nivawk]

For those of you who fear a nerf due to bots, most of the farming takes place in hard mode. bot accounts get banned too often to beat the game and then do some farming, so dont worry about that happening unless hard mode requirements change.

[ravskau]

do have a coupla questions.....
Particularlly on Jarin drops are s**t....has anyone else noticed? Or maybe I am in the wrong spot. Several places in your article you give directions like go to the northwest but Mr. Softshell and his group are to the southeast. and the hughe group of spiders Just before him have dropped spiderwebs a Few blue weapons and a bunch of high req low power weapons, that except for the 11-13 reqs would be appropriate for normal mode jarin drops.
Also,
how long should you stay away from an area after hitting it the 3-5 times AND
is this character based or account based (not sure I phrased it properly)
And, what do you do about the fire arrow degen???
At any rate thanks for a great guide and build set.

[Lord Helmos]

hehe yea my bad it is SE, anyway firearrows aren't really a big deal. The healing from VwK usually is good enough to handle them. However, you can always run a 130 rit to handle the degen.

[Lord Helmos]

Maybe I should try this. Have to take my rit down in the lands of Elona, but maybe I'll be good enough with the Istani places. Have to try.

EDIT: BTW, is the round 5 possible now, that Splinter Weapon has longer recharge?

The duration is shorter, but yea its still pretty easy

[Marveric]

Is the Battle of Turai's Procession farm really worth it? Took me ~20 minutes with my R/Rt (my Rit hasn't started NF yet) and I only made 2.5k...

[austra]

"Particularlly on Jarin drops are s**t....has anyone else noticed? Or maybe I am in the wrong spot."

I have to disagree, I have been farming the Plains of Jarin with my Rit and mesmer using a slight variation of the Op's build and have gotten 3 Icy Blade axes. 2 Fiery blade axes, 2 long swords, req 9 crude shield, over 20 lockpicks, more warrior and ranger tomes than I know what to do with. I recieved he seeker of wisdom title within 2 months of starting my Rit from identifying all of the gold items that dropped.

I agree with the OP about only farming an area a few times and then doing a couple of quests somewhere else before farming there again.

[Keron]

I have been farming 1/2 those spots for a while now. But, since I farm those areas, I seem to get less and less good drops or even at all, should I go somewhere else or do something else before trying again?

[davepesc]

Great guide. I haven't seen much cash yet, but i got a lot of runes/inscriptions for my own use.

Either way, it's a lot of fun. my biggest problem comes from Corsair Medics. I get hit with a lot of degen and the medics keep the Corsairs up long enough to take me out. They also have Smite Hex, which makes it tough to keep them Shackled. I can usually kill the mob in 2-3 tries, but is there a better way?

EDIT: It also seems that the farm code is still in full effect. After about 8 runs through Moddok getting 1-2 golds per run, it was nothing but Silver Bullion Coins as far as the eye could see!

[naganoth]

Very nicely written guide.

So being all excited, I took my Rt on a run to Droks -> Ember Light Camp, grab the said skills and off to Maddox I go.

Configured the Rt/Me - checked.
Armor was AL60 no haralds as I figured it is not critical.
Load up some gold weapons.
Stats - checked. Rest-16 Illusion-10 Inspiration-8.
Positioned Dunkoro - checked.

Fired of 3 spells, Channeling, Physical Resistance, Arcane Echo.
Talk to the Good Captain. Click No. Immediately activate VwK. Activate a Visage 1-2 secs later. Activate the Arcane Echo-ed VwK as I figured 2 x VwK will kill them faster. For about 20-30 secs things seems to be holding up well as I spam Vengeful. After that the build just seems to collapsed.

Can you give some tips on where I went wrong?

If I look at the sequence of event, here's how it looked like.

Sec 1 - Channeling
Sec 2 - Physical Resistance
Sec 3 - Arcane Echo
Sec 4-6 - Talking to Captain. Clicking No.
Sec 7 - VwK
Sec 8 - Sympathetic Visage
Sec 9 - Echo-ed VwK

So approx 10-12 secs into the fight, Channeling (duration 34s) will be expiring in 20-24s. The first VwK will be expiring in 7s. 2nd VwK will be expiring in 11s.

So this means if I can kill them all in the next 11s, both VwK will be down and i will be spamming Vengeful Weapon as my sole healing and dmg.

Is the above sequence right? Should all the mobs be dead by the time both VwK expires?

Once VwK is activated should I spam Vengeful Weapon and mix in Visage?

Help pls. Thank you.

[ravskau]

"Particularlly on Jarin drops are s**t....has anyone else noticed? Or maybe I am in the wrong spot."

I have to disagree, I have been farming the Plains of Jarin with my Rit and mesmer using a slight variation of the Op's build and have gotten 3 Icy Blade axes. 2 Fiery blade axes, 2 long swords, req 9 crude shield, over 20 lockpicks, more warrior and ranger tomes than I know what to do with. I recieved he seeker of wisdom title within 2 months of starting my Rit from identifying all of the gold items that dropped.

I agree with the OP about only farming an area a few times and then doing a couple of quests somewhere else before farming there again.

well they were for me (and turned out I was in fight place) but after supper they started picking upGot bunches of runes some good purples and a gold Fire Bladed axe and a gold Bramble Blade.
For reasons that will prolly never be know I just had a period of a few white drops only and almost no money.
Cheers everybody

[Lord Helmos]

Very nicely written guide.

So being all excited, I took my Rt on a run to Droks -> Ember Light Camp, grab the said skills and off to Maddox I go.

Configured the Rt/Me - checked.
Armor was AL60 no haralds as I figured it is not critical.
Load up some gold weapons.
Stats - checked. Rest-16 Illusion-10 Inspiration-8.
Positioned Dunkoro - checked.

Fired of 3 spells, Channeling, Physical Resistance, Arcane Echo.
Talk to the Good Captain. Click No. Immediately activate VwK. Activate a Visage 1-2 secs later. Activate the Arcane Echo-ed VwK as I figured 2 x VwK will kill them faster. For about 20-30 secs things seems to be holding up well as I spam Vengeful. After that the build just seems to collapsed.

Can you give some tips on where I went wrong?

If I look at the sequence of event, here's how it looked like.

Sec 1 - Channeling
Sec 2 - Physical Resistance
Sec 3 - Arcane Echo
Sec 4-6 - Talking to Captain. Clicking No.
Sec 7 - VwK
Sec 8 - Sympathetic Visage
Sec 9 - Echo-ed VwK

So approx 10-12 secs into the fight, Channeling (duration 34s) will be expiring in 20-24s. The first VwK will be expiring in 7s. 2nd VwK will be expiring in 11s.

So this means if I can kill them all in the next 11s, both VwK will be down and i will be spamming Vengeful Weapon as my sole healing and dmg.

Is the above sequence right? Should all the mobs be dead by the time both VwK expires?

Once VwK is activated should I spam Vengeful Weapon and mix in Visage?

Help pls. Thank you.

VwK doesnt stack, it works like this:

Use Arcane Echo then VwK 1. When VwK one expires hit Echoed Vwk (2). When that expires your normal VwK should recharged.

You should be chaining VwK 3 times. That will be more than enough to kill them, by then any leftover cutthroats should die in one vengeful spam.

And yes you want heralds, trust me that +10 AL goes a long way.

[Lord Helmos]

I have a gamecam video created, unfortunately youtube won't let me host it because its 26 mins. long anyway I'll try to work more on it.

[Lord Helmos]

Great guide. I haven't seen much cash yet, but i got a lot of runes/inscriptions for my own use.

Either way, it's a lot of fun. my biggest problem comes from Corsair Medics. I get hit with a lot of degen and the medics keep the Corsairs up long enough to take me out. They also have Smite Hex, which makes it tough to keep them Shackled. I can usually kill the mob in 2-3 tries, but is there a better way?

EDIT: It also seems that the farm code is still in full effect. After about 8 runs through Moddok getting 1-2 golds per run, it was nothing but Silver Bullion Coins as far as the eye could see!

I haven't had too much of a problem with the corsair bosuns and medics because they arent too great at self healing. You dont need to shackle them, only the grubs require shackles. They are quite easy to outlast just as long as you are extending VwK as long as possible. Spamming vengeful weapon is probably more important than having visages up for your health reasons. However, when facing both a corsair archer and a hexer you want to visage to minimize the degen. Fortunately the hexers die the quickest, which prevents them from overpowering you with reapers mark.

I've taken three groups at once without many problems. The visages do help but survival and vengeful is priority run. Just make sure that if you plan on rushing a big mob, have near max energy.

[Lord Helmos]

Is the Battle of Turai's Procession farm really worth it? Took me ~20 minutes with my R/Rt (my Rit hasn't started NF yet) and I only made 2.5k...

Battle of Turai is all luck, I've gotten 2 sup vigs there at once so at times its worth it. It's really a 50/50 and also the area has been overfarmed recently.

[woot im a warrior]

Just to let you know, the rt/r splinter barrage is the fastest build for dead sword farming, a run takes 6 minutes.

[Akirai Annuvil]

Took me ~20 minutes with my R/Rt (my Rit hasn't started NF yet) and I only made 2.5k...

It takes ~10 on a rit primary, and it's really dependant on the drop rate.

Nice guide, try adding in Predator's Season to the Margonite farm build though, it makes the kills come just a tad faster (-20% healing = yay).

[TaSTY]

I have a gamecam video created, unfortunately youtube won't let me host it because its 26 mins. long anyway I'll try to work more on it.

www.video.google.com
www.megaupload.com

..:laugh: !

[liljay]

google video is nice but takes too long for it to show up on the site, maybe 3 parts on youtube or use movie maker to cut some stuff out

[erkun]

wow, great guide! inspired me to take up my rit again after those channeling nerfs. wasn't really a fan of resto skills but if it would help me make enough money for my toons, i'll give it a try.

thanks helmos!

[The Night Whisper]

awesome guide Heloms!!

Thankyou. I'm gonna try it tonight. My Rit is always complaining that only my Mes and Sin get to farm...lol


~W

[WingspanTT]

Hey I have had a lot of success with this so far, except outside the astralarium. I can kill the grubs as described, but I have a lot of trouble vs the corsairs, who have healers and nasty nasty burning arrows! help!

[liljay]

if bugs are easy the corsairs should be no problem, i dont even use visage vs corsairs, just vwk and veng weap. should be over fairly fast :/

[iskam]

Hey I have had a lot of success with this so far, except outside the astralarium. I can kill the grubs as described, but I have a lot of trouble vs the corsairs, who have healers and nasty nasty burning arrows! help!

I have no problems whatsoever with the corsairs, but you could try bringing a minipet so their YAA doesn't work.

to helmos; thanks for the guide. :smiley:

[ShadowCreator]

Awesome guide. Here I got a Colossal Scimitar is req 11, but still got 1 :grin:
I did A few runs here and there and you can see the results.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p234/Shadow_719/Colossal.jpg

[shortythugsta]

nice guide helmos, even though i knew all that already but nice guide anyway

[Nite]

Nice guide. had been using my rit in NF at other places, but you had a couple nice spots I didnt know about.

You can also farm the Tusk Howlers outside Yohlon in HM with the build. They don't drop very good items, but tons of runes.

[WingspanTT]

Hey I got about 20 golds yesterday, nothing worth a ton (are Salient Sword r9 golds worth anything? Also a gold leaf shield, gold) and I got about 6 tomes and a lockpick, and a para elite tome! This rocks!

I do have a couple suggestions, mainly:

1. Do 5 runs outside of sunspear hall, this is where i got the most items due to the huge number of enemies
2. Bring Resist Lightning and inspired hex instead of the visages, for a couple reasons: They allow you to recover from cripp anguish sooner, AND REs Lightning will let you fight the ele boss, for the possibility of elite ele tomes, more exp, etc. The ele boss is on the other side of the oopen area, near the second res shrine. Also if you take out the illusion enchants you can spec 12 inspiration and be more effective with everything else. Just time your spells so you don't get interrrupted by the lightning KD!!
3. If you clear the whole area the enemies drop better loot farther in, almost guaranteed good drops!

[Nite]

yeah I had been doing the whole area outside of the sunspear great hall as well. Also make sure to talk to the sunspear scout at the res shrine there, you can get some decent promo points.

And for the whole weapon thing, You *could* do a lot better then Alem's Remedy. I've been using a Brightclaw and Straw Effigy combo for a long time with Rit farming. the 20% recharge and casting from the claw are much better. Along with 20% recharge from the effigy, thats 40% chance to halve the recharge on VwK. This allows me to keep it up sometimes 3-4 times after the normal 3 VwK's, going on long enough to re-echo it again.

[Zelphor Cholera]

Nice guide,thxs for posting btw i saw 3 gold req9s that dropped for me that werent on your list,hawkeye hammer,granite hammer,and spiked axe :/

[WingspanTT]

yeah I had been doing the whole area outside of the sunspear great hall as well. Also make sure to talk to the sunspear scout at the res shrine there, you can get some decent promo points.

And for the whole weapon thing, You *could* do a lot better then Alem's Remedy. I've been using a Brightclaw and Straw Effigy combo for a long time with Rit farming. the 20% recharge and casting from the claw are much better. Along with 20% recharge from the effigy, thats 40% chance to halve the recharge on VwK. This allows me to keep it up sometimes 3-4 times after the normal 3 VwK's, going on long enough to re-echo it again.

actually due to the GW math it's 36%, but still not bad!

were you killing the ele boss too?

[Nite]

Not that boss, but the others mobs in the area.

[WingspanTT]

kill the boss w/lightning resist, it's easy and he gives a lot of exp and tomes!

[Karmaniac]

Nicely written guide. Thank you very much.

I have been using a slight variation of the Splinter-Barrage build.

16 Channeling
10 Beast Mastery
9 Marksmanship
3 Wilderness Survival

I take (As suggested earlier) Predatory Season and Favorable Winds (Because a little extra power never hurts). And I go solo since I'm incredibly cheap. However this prevents me from killing the boss but with hero help your chances of getting anything decent are pretty low anyways.

I've been farming Zehlon Reach too but the golden showers you mentioned have been largely missing. According to my own experiences the most golds I've gotten have come from the bugs just outside.

Additional thanks to WingspanTT, I have to try that too.

[MrShoes]

cool guide, but so far with the locations I can get to with my rit I'm not having much luck (zhelon, plains, and moddock) zhelon in particalar, the corsairs have been dropping very little and it's rare for me to get a gold... weird

I wonder, if there more people farming these areas (maybe because of this guide :laugh: ) will GW decrease the drop rates for these particular areas?

[Nikhera]

Nice guide. ^^ I dusted off my Rit and although I have no Colossal Scimitars yet I have a couple of req. 9 gold weapons. =D

Likewise, Hassin Softskin hasn't dropped any tomes...did get his uber green twice in a row though. XD

[Lord Helmos]

Still having gamecam problems (mainly crashing GWs) but anyway, for most of the farm I have also been getting a large number of golds, mainly bows. 3 R9 gold bladed recurves dropped in Zehlon in one run. However, Colossals are still quite rare. I've seen maybe like 1-2 every week, and thats when im farming intensely.

[liljay]

try fraps?for free you can only shoot 30 seconds at a time i think.

but it works :)

[Zelphor Cholera]

Btw Helmos what color did you dye your vabbian war armor?it looks rlly nice.

[Lord Helmos]

Btw Helmos what color did you dye your vabbian war armor?it looks rlly nice.

Black :D tys

[Nite]

got my first colossal tonight off of a corsair cutthroat in zhelon... w00t new running sword. Was req 10, threw on I have the power (+5 energy) and 20% enchants.... god I love my runners too much (have the same mods on a tattooed scimitar and shadow axe :D )

[Val Roize Lionheart]

All in all great guide Lord Helmos.

Great build !

But it does need practice to master on how the build works. (Flow)

Still having problems with Grub Lances and Medics they seem to never run out of Energy even with Spirit Shackle then I ran out of VwK ( activated Already 3 times, 2 VwK + the AEchoed VwK)
But doing better now as I practice some Corsairs that spawns at the back of Sunspear Great Hall. I have not checked what Quests I have that activated 2 groups of Corsairs to spawned ashore.

Anyway, many thanks for the great guide. Now I have something to do with my Pretty Ritualist I named Miralana J. H.


PS. My best drops is a Purple Maxed req.10 Brute Sword and a matching shield a Gold Istani Shield req 10 Strenght based. (haha.. they Look Awsome.)

VRL :smiley:

[Nite]

All in all great guide Lord Helmos.

Great build !

But it does need practice to master on how the build works. (Flow)

Still having problems with Grub Lances and Medics they seem to never run out of Energy even with Spirit Shackle then I ran out of VwK ( activated Already 3 times, 2 VwK + the AEchoed VwK)
But doing better now as I practice some Corsairs that spawns at the back of Sunspear Great Hall. I have not checked what Quests I have that activated 2 groups of Corsairs to spawn a shore.

Anyway, many thanks for the great guide. Now I have something to do with my Pretty Ritualist I named Miralana J. H.

VRL :smiley:


You don't use spirit shackles on the medics. just wait for the cutthroat and ranger to die, then the medic will attack you alone. They don't heal the others at all.

As for the grub lance, they're easy. Cast Physical resist, arcane echo. Run up, VWK, cast a Visage NEXT to the grub lance, then spirit shackles. throw up another VWK and refresh the shackles again. throw in some vengeful weapons if you want. Very easy.

[Val Roize Lionheart]

You don't use spirit shackles on the medics. just wait for the cutthroat and ranger to die, then the medic will attack you alone. They don't heal the others at all.

As for the grub lance, they're easy. Cast Physical resist, arcane echo. Run up, VWK, cast a Visage NEXT to the grub lance, then spirit shackles. throw up another VWK and refresh the shackles again. throw in some vengeful weapons if you want. Very easy.

I'll keep that in mind.

Thank you.

VRL:smiley:

[Val Roize Lionheart]

You don't use spirit shackles on the medics. just wait for the cutthroat and ranger to die, then the medic will attack you alone. They don't heal the others at all.

As for the grub lance, they're easy. Cast Physical resist, arcane echo. Run up, VWK, cast a Visage NEXT to the grub lance, then spirit shackles. throw up another VWK and refresh the shackles again. throw in some vengeful weapons if you want. Very easy.

To Mr./Ms. Moderator, I am not able to use the edit option due to expiration.

To Nite and Lord Helmos,

Thanks for your tips, I'm doin' fine killing both Grub Lance and Medics without trouble. And thru practice, I'm getting the feel of the flow of this build.
The only thing left now is "Luck" and Love from Anet to get a Colossal Scimitar...lol... (Co'z I did get any GOLD drop yet....so far... lol)

Great Guide.

Best Regardz,
VRL :grin:

[Blackest Rose]

Great Guide - just trying it out....

Question - does it matter about the armor?

Should it be starter or max armor?

Other rit guides have starter armor for Rt/Mo builds but since AL is important here does that mean you need max armor?

Thanks!

[liljay]

starter armor is only needed for the 330 rit i do think. max armor is what you will be needing for the builds in this thread ;)

[MrShoes]

I've been having better luck with the Zhelon farm at least (decent number of golds) but still nothing good from Moddock or Plains. Haven't quite gotten far enough to do the other two yet.

My question is about the anti-farm code. How long do you typically wait between runs? I can see the value decreasing as I go, as my drops go from gold to purple to crap.. do you have to be ingame to reset the code? Or can you just quit the game and come back 2-3 hours later? Thanks for any help on this matter :)

[Val Roize Lionheart]

Great Guide - just trying it out....

Question - does it matter about the armor?

Should it be starter or max armor?

Other rit guides have starter armor for Rt/Mo builds but since AL is important here does that mean you need max armor?

Thanks!

I think I can answer this one.

AL 60 (Max Armor) is a must and so is the the Herald Rune (+10 AL while holding an item.) PLUS the Mesmer skill Physical Resistance. All of these.

Armor level and additional protection does make a big difference while dealing with Insects because their attack rate is really fast. (Zehlon Reach)

As mentioned by the OP with regards to this build.

PS. If you have Ssyn's Staff (with +30+30 Health staff) would be better too. To at least have more Health while you have Degens on you.
And don't worry about lesser energy, you'll find out you need not that much while in battle. I always switch to a Bow for pulling that leaves me 36 energy but I get along just fine with Mesmer Skill "Channeling".
Practice is all you need.

Hope this helps as the thread helped me.
VRL:smiley:

[Nite]

I've been having better luck with the Zhelon farm at least (decent number of golds) but still nothing good from Moddock or Plains. Haven't quite gotten far enough to do the other two yet.

My question is about the anti-farm code. How long do you typically wait between runs? I can see the value decreasing as I go, as my drops go from gold to purple to crap.. do you have to be ingame to reset the code? Or can you just quit the game and come back 2-3 hours later? Thanks for any help on this matter :)

For me, I typically do 5-6 runs in a row, then from there on I keep going until I get 2 runs in a row with bad drops. If that happens, it's time to switch it up. I normally head over to Arkjok ward and farm the couple of Tusked Howler groups for runes, go to the other spots mentioned, or hop on my derv and farm/run. Either way, I normally wait a day to go back to the spot so that it's completely fresh and the golds are in full stock :grin:

[FinnFerral]

This is a great guide, one of the better one's not just because of the decent farming tips, but also because it shows how mixing up what you farm and where you farm can improve the gold drop rate. I spent many hours over farming one area and watching my drops reduce down to the likes of Stolen Goods, but this guide does help keep the possibility of the golds dropping your way on a fairly regular occassion.

The only thing I would suggest as a change is that the Shattered Ravine stage (Round 4) could be changed with the same Splinter/Barrage tactics as Round 5, because that can be done in Hard Mode quite easily - three volleys easily wipe each group of spirits and as long as you avoid the incoming groups that follow, it keeps this whole guide within HM.

Nice work Helmos, and thanks for sharing this. I'm still waiting for my collosal, but I've had a tattooed scimmy q9, dead sword q9 and many other gold drops by following this series of hunts.

[Flynt Rock Weilder]

ive just started this build am getting use to rounds 1-3 but havnt got far enough with my ritu to do the others.

i have got alot of good gold drops but still havnt found that collosal,

nice one!! :grin:

[Magi Ulti]

Good Job on the guide! Seems to be working very well for many people. I havn't tried the last two stages yet, as I'm not that far yet.

Although I seem to be the unluckiest person here, I've only gotten 2 golds in the 4 sets I've done in the past 3 days O_o.

But I can't wait until I'm far enough to do the last stages, looks like this will go down in my "favourite farms" list!

[Kjentei]

Thanks Helmie. I've been playing since about 6 weeks after Prophecies release, and noobishly only decided I'd get into farming about a month ago (missing the original pre-Factions FoW/UW revolutions and never bothering to make a 55 or 505), which is a shame since I just got into it just when they nerf loot scaling.

Thanks for the info about how over-farming a certain area will decrease the chance of getting good drops there.

However, my farm pattern (with my VwK Rit) looks something like (per day): Zos Chivros about 5 times (HM), then Plains (including the insects and skales on the river near Champion's Dawn) about 3 times (HM), Zehlon Reach about 3 times (HM), then I might scrounge around in Fahranur or Mehtani or E/Mo farm Domain of Fear or N/A farm Zehhy spiders... but I seem to drag my bad drop chance around everywhere after the first two runs in Zos Chivros then stop for the day (or at least 18 hours). Is it meant to refresh when you go to a new area?/Is loot scaling different for each area?

Thanks for the info about the Turai's Processions farm and the Moddock farm - I've yet to try them but they sound fun.

[Flynt Rock Weilder]

oh yea, for round 5 it ses u have to unlock battle of turai, where do i do that??

[MrShoes]

it's a long quest chain. go talk to Mirza the centaur in Turai, she has about 6 quests for you to do before you get the Battle quest. If you finish one and she doesn't have another for you, rezone and she'll have the next one.

Also, you need to have done either the Koss or Melloni nightfall quests before you can access one of the quests before the Battle of Turai is available :P

The quest chain goes:

Mirza's Last Stand
A Bushel of Trouble
Troubled Lands
Ancestral Anguish
Total Corruption
Battle of Turai's Procession

[speedy]

This is a great guide.

Although I've been using a VwK build for awhile like most other rit farmers, I really wasn't aware of areas such as Zehlon which were good for farming.
Already snagged myself 2 perfect collosals.
Cheers.

[Archlich Necrosaro]

a couple of days here and I sadly don't have the quest for the barrage set i've been hitting Fow instead of it Zehlon, Jarin and Moddock. well today and about 50 tuns total(counting all) I have to say my drops basically included a couple rusty machetis, one icy blade axe no mods which sold for 8k.. horrible overall even though success rate of survival is quite well. I got ancient armor finally anyways but it took alot of sacrifice... like selling ectos and shards to pull it off.

[Lord Helmos]

Glad to see the farm is working out for most people across the board. I've been crammed with legal work from the office and college so I've been getting killed on trying to update things or even play like I was before. If I find anything new I'll be sure to post it on here.

Ooooo..

Also for those splinter barraging, another effective area for splinter barraging is Stygian Veil. During the first quest that spawns a ton of stygian horrors and other minion-like enemies, you can pretty much run there with some heroes and splinter them all for stygian gems. This might be a good area to expand your realm of farming.

You can also get the bounty to farm lightbringer points with this if you are bored with the SS/LB run in Remains of Sal.

[Lord Helmos]

Great Guide - just trying it out....

Question - does it matter about the armor?

Should it be starter or max armor?

Other rit guides have starter armor for Rt/Mo builds but since AL is important here does that mean you need max armor?

Thanks!

Max armor with heralds insigs is really the way to go for classic VwK. However if you use the 330 HP rit, those low HP/AL setups for spirit bonding also work.

[Flynt Rock Weilder]

dude i cant friggin kill the margonite executioners for round 5, they js keep using heling signet every time i hit em :(

[Zelphor Cholera]

thxs for posting the guide,i got my perfect req 10 fiery blade axe! wOOt

[Akkarin]

Sadly things aren't going that well for all of us... in my case, it started out.. ok, I'd say. Did a few runs in Moddock, got a decent amount of useless golds.. did a few runs to kill spiders in zehlon's and plains.. usually got zilch there.. rinse and repeat once or twice.

Day 1 was promising. Day 2 was a steady decline. Just the prescribed amount of runs yielded nothing but crap and more crap.. got better drops in normal mode.. .and that should say something.

Thinking I needed to 'give my crops a rest', I left the game alone for 2 days (had to study anyway). Came back yesterday, tried again... zero.. zilch.. nada.. 1 corsair dropped 78 gold.. another a silver coin.. the spiders left me a single bow, I think.. overall got nothing much.

Today I played another char through the desolation to the mouth of torment, then tried a farm again, figuring I'd killed a decent amount of other stuff.. well, still zilch, nothing, nada... =/

What am I missing? Is it the area that's being 'poorified' by the greater amount of golddiggers, or is my approach just wrong?

[TaSTY]

Requesting urgent help! :kiss:

I wanna farm Zehlon with my 55, but it seems quite impossible due to the MASSIVE spam of conditions. I can outheal it a little, but in the far run, they got the upperhand because they get me down to -1 regen (while Mystic Regn. gives me +10 regen).

My build: Owok4wPJUtiT9g9uSeIGE5x9AgA
Equipment: Max armor from Citadel (and to make it cooler..ITS BLACK! :cloud9: )

Anyway, any suggestions? :flowers:

[Lord Helmos]

Requesting urgent help! :kiss:

I wanna farm Zehlon with my 55, but it seems quite impossible due to the MASSIVE spam of conditions. I can outheal it a little, but in the far run, they got the upperhand because they get me down to -1 regen (while Mystic Regn. gives me +10 regen).

My build: Owok4wPJUtiT9g9uSeIGE5x9AgA
Equipment: Max armor from Citadel (and to make it cooler..ITS BLACK! :cloud9: )

Anyway, any suggestions? :flowers:


Hmmm... maybe try spirit bond or perhaps conviction. I know there is a workable Mo/D build for zehlon, but im not sure on the exact skills. It should be floating around the monk forum somewhere.

[Archlich Necrosaro]

I'm having the same problem, since I don't have barrage and didn't get ranger seccondary(lack of funds) I'm bouncing between Zehlon Jarin and moddock. I'll try again today. I kill all the insects in jarin not just the spiders. only one i miss is one juvie termite whats protected by damned mandragors. The imps are the only thing that really kill my run besides the necro skales. All the req9 golds i get are crap. Anyways I'll try hitting the spots again and see what it gives me.

[WingspanTT]

I'm having the same problem, since I don't have barrage and didn't get ranger seccondary(lack of funds) I'm bouncing between Zehlon Jarin and moddock. I'll try again today. I kill all the insects in jarin not just the spiders. only one i miss is one juvie termite whats protected by damned mandragors. The imps are the only thing that really kill my run besides the necro skales. All the req9 golds i get are crap. Anyways I'll try hitting the spots again and see what it gives me.

kill all the iboga too, including the boss. Bring lightning resistance instead of one of the enchantments, since you don't need it that bad anyway for this part.

[Archlich Necrosaro]

oh kill suneh too? hmm sounds like an idea. I'll look more into it thanks. If it gives me the money then I'm all for it. Mandragors suck... but killing the plants too should help as well.

[Archlich Necrosaro]

I wanted to ask what quests do I need to do in order to open up the quest to kill all those margonites? And where.what npcs do i go to get the quests. I almost have all the skills needed for the splinter barrage.

[WingspanTT]

yes kill all the plants, ignore the mandragors it's not worth it. There are several huge hordes of plants and as long as you use resist lightning and dont case important spells right before knockdown you can easily win.

[Archlich Necrosaro]

moddock crevace has gotton really really cheap. They interupt me when I never get interupted. and since WHEN do they use final blow? I mean seriously... I really don't NEED any of those weapons but they're nice to have. money I'm not too concerned about but its the fact of the matter I should be able to go in do some farming and not get shanked.

[Ryuko]

First of all, great guide, definitely one of the better runs out there especially since loot scaling.

I do the Battle of Turai's Procession farm occassionally with a R/Rt with the same build in NM, which goes fine. But the only ones I manage to take out with it in HM are the seers, the rest just doesn't go down, even with EoE.

Now I've seen a rit do this in HM easily on youtube and it should also be doable with a R/Rt, but I just don't see how they manage. Any tips?

[Archlich Necrosaro]

one colossal... not perfect but interesting stats

15-22 req 9
14% while enchant inscript
7 armor vs physical
and some other mod.

Basically i plan on getting max enchant inscription 20% enchant mod and the 5 energy one.. if there even is a 5 energy mod.

[FinnFerral]

First of all, great guide, definitely one of the better runs out there especially since loot scaling.

I do the Battle of Turai's Procession farm occassionally with a R/Rt with the same build in NM, which goes fine. But the only ones I manage to take out with it in HM are the seers, the rest just doesn't go down, even with EoE.

Now I've seen a rit do this in HM easily on youtube and it should also be doable with a R/Rt, but I just don't see how they manage. Any tips?

I play Rt/R when I do Turai, but my brother plays R/Rt and apparently Predatory Season can help keep the mobs health low for rangers. Worth a try I guess.

[Ryuko]

Thanks, I added the spirit this time in HM and I think it did help. But even more so I think that before, I didn't hit a run skill soon enough after firing which makes them follow you longer than usual. You lose valuable time with that and gives them more time to heal. I think that was my main fault, but Predatory Season does make it easier.

Though, I should probably do those required quests for my Rit as well, seems they're a tad more effective than Rangers because of +4 Channeling.

[Colpo Dorato]

I've tried the first step and the second one at least 20 time and nothing...
Only white and sometine purple object...:undecided:

[JAMESWMAW]

Lord Helmos, ... 3 CHEERS boss
I can't thank you enough for the build, I spent about a week bringing up my Rt and getting my Elite skill capped.
Since then i'm having no end of fun playing with this.
Also on a side note making huge chunks of cash to fund all of my other little pet projects.

1 last thing i've noticed is that the Mantra's in insperation(i.e. mantra of Flame,Lightning,etc.) work really well for the elemental damage and in alot of areas most ele damage is of one particular type.
Very versitile build! with minor adjustments on the mesmer skills I can run around almost everywhere I have tried out so far with very little issue throughout all three games, even in hard mode... very very cool.

p.s. pm me in game as I owe you several hundred K i think lol

[ProjectZephyr]

I've been trying to do Zehlon, but I don't see what Corsairs you're farming. I go north, squish the bugs easy, then there's a TON of more bugs and a TON of Skale Blighters. I don't think I'm in the right spot. Lol.

[matishalin]

Theyve nerfed it all the corsairs mash u with degen how are you supposed to counter reapers mark+burning arrows?

[gfb]

Theyve nerfed it all the corsairs mash u with degen how are you supposed to counter reapers mark+burning arrows?

So long as you engage them 3 at a time and don't over-agro I've had no problems (and I don't even have a vigor rune, couldn't afford it when I started).

Thanks for the farming locations, Helmos. These are great! The only challenge I am having is: how to know when it is "safe" to return, by which I mean when my "drop counter" has recharged?

[matishalin]

but the mob is 3 of them one bosun, a swordsman, a archer the sword guy gets you with the net and then the archer mashes you.

[gfb]

but the mob is 3 of them one bosun, a swordsman, a archer the sword guy gets you with the net and then the archer mashes you.

Personally I don't bother with Sympathetic/Ancestor for these guys. Get VwK up and keep it up (using the echoed one, then the original again). Spam Vengeful Weapon when you can. You'll outheal the degen.

Alternatively, bring Resilient Weapon, though the damage you do will go down dramatically.

Now if only someone could give me an educated guess as to how long I need to wait between runs. I KNOW the anti-farmer is on me right now.

[ProjectZephyr]

Personally I don't bother with Sympathetic/Ancestor for these guys. Get VwK up and keep it up (using the echoed one, then the original again). Spam Vengeful Weapon when you can. You'll outheal the degen.


Now if only someone could give me an educated guess as to how long I need to wait between runs. I KNOW the anti-farmer is on me right now.

Yup, I've effectively countered the massive degen with only VwK and Vengeful. So he's not just making this up. :wink:


And I'd like to know about the anti-farm thing too. I went on a week-long farming spree and every day saw a visible cut in drops. Now it's been about 4-5 days and I still have this "anti-farming" thing on me. :cry:

[gfb]

Yup, I've effectively countered the massive degen with only VwK and Vengeful. So he's not just making this up. :wink:


And I'd like to know about the anti-farm thing too. I went on a week-long farming spree and every day saw a visible cut in drops. Now it's been about 4-5 days and I still have this "anti-farming" thing on me. :cry:

Thanks for the confirmation on outhealing burning degen.

I'm in the same boat farming-wise. The maddening thing is that while I appreciate that the purpose is to kill the bots and mega-farmers and it would be very difficult to distinguish me from a mega-farmer (I can't imagine it would be hard to distinguish me from a bot given the number of times I screw up) all I want is to get some ca$h for some Prestige Armor. Papa's got 10 characters that are in 1k armor! :tongue:

[matishalin]

lol ill try it but

8+7=15 cap at 10 10*2=20

so with Physical resotance and every 2 seconduse of VW and every hit of VWK i should be able to outheal by 10points.

[Agnus]

I'm doing quiet well in Jarin, in Zehlo cant kill the corsair mobs yet, but I'm learning.
Been using this on Jarin, but cant kill the Ele boss.

Restoration 16
inspiration 8
Domination 10

Vengeful Wp
VWK
Arcane echo
Power Spike
Backfire
Mantra of Lightning
Physical Resistence
Channeling

Managed to get ele boss down to almost no HP, but it still killed me :cry:
Tryed Resilient weapon, but found it not that worth.
Got a +29 shield handle, and a fiery ax r11 with braws over brains and +29 Hp (selling it for 5k)

[Agnus]

managed to kill ele boss using the following:
:laugh:

Restoration 16
inspiration 12

Vengeful Wp
VWK
Arcane echo
Generous was Tsungrai
Ether Feast
Mantra of Lightning
Physical Resistence
Channeling

while VWK recharges after 3 initial shots, you use GWT to retain armor bonus from herald's insignias and recast echo, use ether feast if you have some degen on you.

[Psychotic]

Another GREAT place to farm corsair cutthroats, if you still can:
In the fissure under kamadan. 8 Cutthroats spawn in a first group, with nothing else. In a second group up a little ways, there will be 2 more. I've had no problems killing them, haven't done it too many times, but it should be very nice for going for collossal scimitars.

[Psychotic]

i hate double posting, but this drop almost made me want to cry.

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/1224/scimitarxh6.th.jpg (http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/1224/scimitarxh6.jpg)

[SamCain]

Here's my Rit farming haunts/builds.

Plains of Jarin run

Arcane Echo
VwK
Vengeful Weap
Channeling
Physical Resistance
Mantra of Lightning
Wielder's Boon
Resilient Weapon

12+1+3 Restoration
12 Inspiration

I've vanquished PoJ with this build. :grin:

I've gotten an almost complete collection of gold bramble bows (only need longbow) that were q9 or q10, 6 Fiery Blade Axes, 1 Icy blade, 1 Bramble sword, and an adamantine scim (chest drop)... not to mention 3 or 4 warrior tomes, about 10 ranger tomes, 2 mesmer tomes and a derv tome.
Doing a complete run (which means killing everything but the mandragors) usually grosses me 6-9k (about 5k in gold, plus purple and blue weapons with crap mods), 7-10 golds (about half of which are q9/q10) and a couple of decent mods.

The farm isn't hard, just have to time your VwKs/VWs against the jacandra, and when fighting the blighters, keep Resilient Weapon up and use Wielder's Boon when your health gets about half, until the Ridgeback dies, then boost your health up and spam VW until the Blighter drops.
Use the same idea for the Mandragor Imps (if you want to vanquish PoJ... but be prepared to get overwhelmed (unless you can aggro them into another group of insects)) once or twice).
If you need sunspear points, you can't go wrong with this farm... I went from General to Spearmarshal in about 8 days, farming PoJ 2 or 3xs a day. :smiley:

Zehlon Reach run

16 Rest
10 Insp
8 Dom

Same setup as above, but replacing mantra of lightning with Diversion for the grubs (kill off it's team mates, then let it take some damage, cast Diversion, recharge VwK (or VW) for a few hits, then cast Diversion again so you get both LoD and Orison... then it's only a few hits til it drops).

Because of the degen from the floggers and rangers, I setup PhysR, Chan, AE+VwK and immediately after aggro I use RW and keep health up using WB when necessary.

Shattered Ravines run

16 Rest
12 Insp

AE
VwK
Vw
Ch
Mantra of Resolve
Snow Storm
WB
RW

Because of the increased damage done in HM, I setup for this run by hiding i the little crevice behind the tree (next to the ghost collector) and wait for the first group to kill the NPCs.
After charging up MoR, Chan, and AE, I move to aggro, cast Vwk then immediately cast RW and go between recasting VwK and using WB when required.
It's important to note that once you are getting hit and waiting to recast VwK
that you target one of the warrior spirits close to you.
The reason for this is; you just can't count on VwK to be ready after the third casting... so when VwK is just about to start blinking (the last time), I cast Snow Storm on the closest enemies, which causes them to scatter after getting hit a couple of times (if you're lucky, it'll take a couple out)... buying you precious seconds to allow VwK to be cast again.
(This isn't down to an exact science, but it works well 90% of the time.)
It's also important to note that casting Snow Storm on one of the magic users will cause it to be interrupted 95% of the time... so don't target them.

After finishing off the initial group, go back to the crevice and wait for the group that comes by the res shrine to pass to the other side of the hill, go back down into the little crevice behind the palm tree, and wait for both groups to come together and then let them seperate into two groups.
You've got a much better chance against the smaller groups then both combined.

I'm open to suggestions as far as Snow Storm goes, but I didn't see much in the way of AoE damage available to Rit/Mes builds.

Skale/Fire Imp run

16 Rest
11 Channeling
6 Insp

AE
VwK
VW
Ancestor's Rage
RW
Elemental Resistance
Mantra of Resolve
Ether Signet (optional)

Outside Lion's Arch there are several Skale and Fire Imps in the surrounding area... I've collected 10+ Necro & Ele tomes farming here, a few decent golds & mods, and a possible Elite Necro or Ele tome from two of the Skale Bosses that reside in the area.
Basically, I take the forward path just outside Lion's Arch and follow it around the bog to take on several small groups of skale (usually 4-5 in each group) and (depending on Spawns) if lucky enough, either (or both) the necro or ele boss (one is in the bog, the other in the hills above the bog).
After clearing out the bog area, I head up the hills, check the dead end path to the left (almost at the top of the hill), and then go as close to the beach as I can without aggro-ing the ettins. With a good spawn, you can do up to 10 groups of skale in the first half of this run.
After this area, I head towards the res shrine (just down the road from LA's entrance) and farm the Fire imps that abound there.
This farm is good for making 3-4k and better for materials then gold weapons, tho ele weapon drops are better here than in the aforementioned runs.
It's also good for collecting lumps of charcoal (I've gotten as many as 15 per run... though not often)... and the imp hearts salvage into Granite Slabs (3-5 per heart).

When going after the skale;
Mantra, AE, VwK... let them chase you a bit until they get into a group, recast Vwk and move in close. Cast RW, then AR immediately after, which should set you up for the next recast of VwK. After AR recharges, recast and so on.
AR hits the group for 100+ damage, which really increases the farm time of skales (which is usually slow).
Maintaining RW while VwK recharges for round 2 will keep your health at max with little worries... and if for some reason you find yourself without energy, Ether signet will get you 11 pretty fast.
Unfortunately you can't use AR against the imps, because the slap you with Inferno when you're up close for some serious damage... but they attack 2xs as fast as the skale, and you'll likely find that you have a VwK left after killing a group of them.
Imps:
Elemental Resistance, AE, VwK, and cast RW immediately after your first VwK because the imps like to set you on fire. :shocked: Rinse and repeat until dead.
All in all, there are 60-70 (depending on spawns) total imps and skale in this run, and the drops die off after the second run anyway... but it's easy and a good material run (between salvaging whites, scales, imp hearts and charcoal).

[XDekt]

This entire thread is amazing. I really am looking forward to playing my Rit that I just made :)

[Math Person]

Lord Helmos, could you tell me what your pretty ritu is wearing so I can copy her outfit?

[Siriusbg]

ok first of all sry for getting an old thread back to life hehe, but i was just wondering over this

Great guide.
Too bad that 60k in 2 hours still is not enough to motivate me.
I was one of the first to use the now usual 3-man Foundry Farm build, back when it was very secret.
Back when Titan Gems were worth 50k each, THAT was what I call farming... about 150-200k in 2 hours.
I could not motivate myself to farm anymore since those times, as everything seems inferior compared to that.
But since I started playing a PvE Ritualist a short while ago I may change my mind.

Thanks anyway for another one of the Guides that I actually bookmark.

50k for titan gem, very secret? thats not quite right, when they was down to 50k it wasn't a secret everyone was farming them, it was when they was still around 90-100k each ;)

[HI I Be Leet]

When it comes to farming I am FTL :)

[Wraparound]

Are these farming builds still current or are they obselete? Just wondering before I spend the money getting the equipment and such.

Thanks.