FoW Spider Farmer
Originally Published by Inde
*UPDATE*
http://files.filefront.com/The_Spide.../fileinfo.html to see it in action.
Filefront is currently not allowing downloads, alternate link: http://rapidshare.de/files/9134185/T...erRun.wmv.html
Do not kill the Ancient Skales under any circumstance unless you're looking for a challenge afterwards.
If you're confused about running to them, download this:
http://files.filefront.com/Runningwm.../fileinfo.html
There are far too many warrios in ToA that sit there endlessly spamming "LFG" so it's about time we put them to good use.
Sprint
Flurry
Hundred Blades
Watch Yourself!
Galrath Slash
Final Thrust
Healing Signet
Dolyak Signet
EDIT: My original attributes were 11 strength, 13 sword and 12 tactics. However using a Superior Swordsmanship Rune allows you to achieve 12 strength, 13 sword, and 12 tactics.
Strength: 11 + 1
Sword: 10 + 3
Tactics: 11 + 1
Zealous and of Defense/Shelter sword upgrades. You need the bonuses to defense because you will be taking a lot of hits. Any stance equipment is optimal since well, you won't be enchanted and your health will dip above and below 50% with some frequency.
You appear in FoW, Sprint to the group on the right and run past them up to where a group of 2 warriors and a monk will be coming down. Take a break, and healing if nothing is chasing if you got hit by a fireball or something along those lines. Once they get close enough, run up to the path to the beach. Make the three patrols that are in that valley come up. With where you are standing, there should be a tall mountain which you will need to circle around should anything be following you. Once you start your path down to the beach you're home free. Use Sprint to break off any patrols, if you're a droknar runner I'm sure this sort of tactic is probably familiar to you.
Now, you can opt to do one of two things. You can keep running and not stop till you reach the entrance to the tunnel on the beach, or stop and kill every Snarling Driftwood and Doubter's Dryder on the way. I kill everything I can simply because they can both drop shards and I've even scored a few rare shadow shields. If you choose this route, run down all the way to almost in front of the dryder and fight the group there. You need to go this far down because the patrols of shadows do come back and you need to be far enough down.
Once done, hug the left wall and stop about where the wall cuts off maybe a little before. Kill the doubters and snarlings that come by. I advise NOT using Dolyak Signet at all during this point because in case the skales decide to wander you could be in trouble. Run to the next little area running past the skales, if you aggro them no big deal they'll stop following as long as you're at 25% faster running speed.
The areas where you can stop safely are on the radar images here:
Examine the groups in the next little area to determine where it is safe to run to next. At this part, I would suggest clearing any doubters or snarlings.
Now, you're at the tunnel. Pull the two closest dryders back. Under no circumstance should your aggro bubble touch where they were standing otherwise you release the spiders. They tend to be relucant to move too far out, but a longbow works just fine in this situation. Once they're dead, do the same thing on the last one.
Once they're dead. Run into the tunnel until three spiders appear. Then, run back luring the spiders with you (if they don't follow no big deal). Pull them along the wall until you're a fair distance from the entrance but not too far that you're aggroing skales. While engaged with these first group, the rest of the spiders will emerge from the cave and come out onto the beach.
Now, the tricky part.
Fighting them can be annoying, and you need to use a lot of strategic movements to get them to position themselves just right. When you're pulling them back they will bunch up together and use Healing Spring every so often. You can't compete against 3 healing springs in terms of damage. As such, when you're pulling them back watch your radar closely. When one of them hangs back slightly (because it will be using Healing Spring or Apply Poison) it will separate from it's comrades. At that point, turn around and run to the group of two and start fighting IF the lone spider decides not to move. Since they have a long range with their shot it shouldn't be too difficult to achieve this result, so as long as you're in it's range it will not move.
When fighting two at once, here is what you have to do if you want to get things done quickly. Otherwise, stick with one until it dies. Choose your target and attack it until one of two things happens. A) It uses Healing Spring or B) The other one uses Healing Spring. You can tell because it's health will start to go up naturally
A) Switch to the other spider and attack it until it does Healing Spring. At which point use Healing Signet and switch back to your first target. Repeat.
B) Continue to attack your current target until it does Healing Spring. Once it uses Healing Spring, use Healing Signet and switch to the other spider. Repeat.
Now, this deals with the first group you pulled. When dealing with the next lot, simply pluck an arrow into one and it will pull three spiders towards you. It's really THAT easy.
Once you clear the beach, note that every dryder afterwards has 6 armoured spiders that will spawn. One group from behind once the dryder is in your aggro bubble, the other after a certain period of time has passed. Deal with these annoyances in the similar pattern as before.
Remember:
Use healing signet (I use it twice inbetween springs) when Dolyak Signet and Watch Yourself are up. If you need to, settle with one or the other, but using it while neither is up is foolish.
The run itself is profitable if shards and the like are actually dropping (similar to UW naturally). Clearing the beach and tunnel of all the pests takes me about 45 minutes. All and all, you could probably make just as much gold farming griffons or trolls, but the potential this area provides makes it worth the risk. In that same sense, I use this exact same build to farm Avicara Fierce and Brave in Mineral Springs.
I'd think of an axe variation, but I don't like axes. Have fun, and happy hunting.
In case there is anything I didn't cover, Ubermancer has provided another guide that is rather lengthy, but answers a lot of questions that you would have to sift through the numerous pages here to discover. http://p3.forumforfree.com/here-vp845-rfe.html#845
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=77852
http://files.filefront.com/The_Spide.../fileinfo.html to see it in action.
Filefront is currently not allowing downloads, alternate link: http://rapidshare.de/files/9134185/T...erRun.wmv.html
Do not kill the Ancient Skales under any circumstance unless you're looking for a challenge afterwards.
If you're confused about running to them, download this:
http://files.filefront.com/Runningwm.../fileinfo.html
There are far too many warrios in ToA that sit there endlessly spamming "LFG" so it's about time we put them to good use.
Sprint
Flurry
Hundred Blades
Watch Yourself!
Galrath Slash
Final Thrust
Healing Signet
Dolyak Signet
EDIT: My original attributes were 11 strength, 13 sword and 12 tactics. However using a Superior Swordsmanship Rune allows you to achieve 12 strength, 13 sword, and 12 tactics.
Strength: 11 + 1
Sword: 10 + 3
Tactics: 11 + 1
Zealous and of Defense/Shelter sword upgrades. You need the bonuses to defense because you will be taking a lot of hits. Any stance equipment is optimal since well, you won't be enchanted and your health will dip above and below 50% with some frequency.
You appear in FoW, Sprint to the group on the right and run past them up to where a group of 2 warriors and a monk will be coming down. Take a break, and healing if nothing is chasing if you got hit by a fireball or something along those lines. Once they get close enough, run up to the path to the beach. Make the three patrols that are in that valley come up. With where you are standing, there should be a tall mountain which you will need to circle around should anything be following you. Once you start your path down to the beach you're home free. Use Sprint to break off any patrols, if you're a droknar runner I'm sure this sort of tactic is probably familiar to you.
Now, you can opt to do one of two things. You can keep running and not stop till you reach the entrance to the tunnel on the beach, or stop and kill every Snarling Driftwood and Doubter's Dryder on the way. I kill everything I can simply because they can both drop shards and I've even scored a few rare shadow shields. If you choose this route, run down all the way to almost in front of the dryder and fight the group there. You need to go this far down because the patrols of shadows do come back and you need to be far enough down.
Once done, hug the left wall and stop about where the wall cuts off maybe a little before. Kill the doubters and snarlings that come by. I advise NOT using Dolyak Signet at all during this point because in case the skales decide to wander you could be in trouble. Run to the next little area running past the skales, if you aggro them no big deal they'll stop following as long as you're at 25% faster running speed.
The areas where you can stop safely are on the radar images here:
Examine the groups in the next little area to determine where it is safe to run to next. At this part, I would suggest clearing any doubters or snarlings.
Now, you're at the tunnel. Pull the two closest dryders back. Under no circumstance should your aggro bubble touch where they were standing otherwise you release the spiders. They tend to be relucant to move too far out, but a longbow works just fine in this situation. Once they're dead, do the same thing on the last one.
Once they're dead. Run into the tunnel until three spiders appear. Then, run back luring the spiders with you (if they don't follow no big deal). Pull them along the wall until you're a fair distance from the entrance but not too far that you're aggroing skales. While engaged with these first group, the rest of the spiders will emerge from the cave and come out onto the beach.
Now, the tricky part.
Fighting them can be annoying, and you need to use a lot of strategic movements to get them to position themselves just right. When you're pulling them back they will bunch up together and use Healing Spring every so often. You can't compete against 3 healing springs in terms of damage. As such, when you're pulling them back watch your radar closely. When one of them hangs back slightly (because it will be using Healing Spring or Apply Poison) it will separate from it's comrades. At that point, turn around and run to the group of two and start fighting IF the lone spider decides not to move. Since they have a long range with their shot it shouldn't be too difficult to achieve this result, so as long as you're in it's range it will not move.
When fighting two at once, here is what you have to do if you want to get things done quickly. Otherwise, stick with one until it dies. Choose your target and attack it until one of two things happens. A) It uses Healing Spring or B) The other one uses Healing Spring. You can tell because it's health will start to go up naturally
A) Switch to the other spider and attack it until it does Healing Spring. At which point use Healing Signet and switch back to your first target. Repeat.
B) Continue to attack your current target until it does Healing Spring. Once it uses Healing Spring, use Healing Signet and switch to the other spider. Repeat.
Now, this deals with the first group you pulled. When dealing with the next lot, simply pluck an arrow into one and it will pull three spiders towards you. It's really THAT easy.
Once you clear the beach, note that every dryder afterwards has 6 armoured spiders that will spawn. One group from behind once the dryder is in your aggro bubble, the other after a certain period of time has passed. Deal with these annoyances in the similar pattern as before.
Remember:
Use healing signet (I use it twice inbetween springs) when Dolyak Signet and Watch Yourself are up. If you need to, settle with one or the other, but using it while neither is up is foolish.
The run itself is profitable if shards and the like are actually dropping (similar to UW naturally). Clearing the beach and tunnel of all the pests takes me about 45 minutes. All and all, you could probably make just as much gold farming griffons or trolls, but the potential this area provides makes it worth the risk. In that same sense, I use this exact same build to farm Avicara Fierce and Brave in Mineral Springs.
I'd think of an axe variation, but I don't like axes. Have fun, and happy hunting.
In case there is anything I didn't cover, Ubermancer has provided another guide that is rather lengthy, but answers a lot of questions that you would have to sift through the numerous pages here to discover. http://p3.forumforfree.com/here-vp845-rfe.html#845
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=77852
MMO Guru Network
