Invinciranger in snowmen's lair (farm NM, HM, chestrun)

After having tried different places to farm as ranger primary, and tried different builds, I have found a way to farm snowmen, in NM or HM. Because you will be using 3 norn skills, this build requieres a high rank in norn title. This build can be used to farm other places where there is no degen and only elemental damages. So far, I have used this build to farm :
- snowmen (NM or HM)
- Icy dragon swords (NM)
- Ice imps in southern shiverpeak

Here I will talk mainly about snowmen, for many reasons :
- They are packed in bigs groups (10-20) which is what you want when you use barrage
- There is no XP gain, very interesting as the build requires you to die
- 3-4 high end chests per run, this is good for chest runners
- Fair amount of gold items
- In HM, different tomes (Mo, P, D)

Ok, now let's look at the enemies we are facing ...
- No disenchant => maintened enchants are good here
- Interrupts, knockdown, daze => spells are not suited here, even 1/4 sec cast ones can fail.
- Cold damage => all snowmen deal cold damage, this is great for us .

Now the build ... First of all, we need to be invicible. Protective spirit may fail because of daze or kd, protective bond is a maintened enchant that is launch at the start, it cannot fail, it cannot be stripped, as long as you have energy. And it reduce dmg to 5% of your maximum hp, this means that if you have less than 40 hp, you take 1 dmg per hit !!! Take a noob armor with only sup runes => you have 105 hp. Add a survivor insigna on legs or arms => you have 110 hp. Now enter the dungeon and die => you have 38 hp. Of course, this assumes your bow do not have +life. Because you will not gain XP, you will always have 38 hp.

You have 38 hp, and lose 1 hp per hit, with 8 @protection, you lose 4 energy per hit. But as you are taking elemental damage, you can use storm chaser. At 16 @wild, it lasts 21 sec with 20 sec reloading, so it can be kept up indefinitely, and it gives you 5 energy per hit !!! It is a stance, it cannot be interrupted.

We have used so far 2 skills, but we need life regen and damage. We are at [email protected] and 16 @ wild, so we can only use one more attribute. We will use balthazar's spirit for even more energy, 2 energy back per hit is good, it allows to finish snowmen 1vs1. Watchfull spirit adds 2 pips of regen, and requieres no attribute points ; with only this you can tank 5-6 snowmens in HM. We need more life regen to tank more snowmen, "feel no pain" gives 5 pips and last 12 sec / 15 sec @10 norn title.

With 3 slots left for the damage, we will be using barrage, it works wonder as snowmen are packed, and it works even if you are dazed. Moreover, it do not kill all snowmen in the same shot => kills 1 per 1 = more drops. The only problem : it does not work if you are KD, so we will use "I am unstoppable". Finally we will add more damage to barrage with another shout : "I am the strongest".

Summary of the build (R/Mo):

Wildness survival : 12 + 1 + 3
Markmanship : 10 + 3
Expertise : 2 + 3
Protection : 8

- Storm chaser
- Barrage
- I am unstoppable
- I am the strongest
- Feel no pain
- Watchfull spirit
- Balthazar's spirit
- Protective bond

Short bow with +5 energy and without +life

Usage:

- Enter the dungeon and die
- Cast Protective bond and balthazar's spirit on yourself
- Aggro the first group with storm chaser
- regain energy and activate : "Feel no pain", "I am unstoppable", Watchfull spirit
- Kill the snowmen with barrage + "I am the strongest"

The run (10-15 min in NM, 15-20 min in HM):

- Kill the first 2 groups, except the glimmering snowman (you can kill him without using barrage, but it slows down the run and add only one kill)
- You can kill the 3 snowmen on the bridge just after the 2 giant snowballs
- You can kill the the first group near the map, only if the second group is far from the first one.
- Kill the 2 groups before the lock
- You can kill the angry snowman, this will give you 1-2 more chests. In NM, no problem, you can then clean the last snowmen group with freezie. In HM, you will gain XP if you kill the angry snowman, you will not be able to kill freezie, but it can still provide 1-2 more chests.

Advices:

- Storm chaser needs 8 energy, be carefull when it blinks.
- You should move during the 3 sec when you do not have "Feel no pain" to dodge some snowballs.

Screenshots :
As I play under linux, there are some glitches. Couldn't take screenshot in english (the game crashed), so these are in french .







Notes :

- I am not a native, my english is perfectible
- One run in HM gave 10-15 event items during lucky weekend
- You should carry a normal salvage kit for white items
- I believe you can drop req7 max inscribable golds in NM (see discussion in other threads, this is my point of view, don't post here if you want to flame this)

veeeeerry interesting, ill have to give it a go!

yeh sounds cool

Interesting Indeed. What is the minimum Norn Rank though? (you say it needs to be high, but how high exactly )

EDIT: Wont troll Ungent>Feel no Pain @ 16 WS? (10 regen vs. 5 regen and no need for High Norn Rank)

I think r7 is the minimum : Feel no pain lasts 11 sec and gives 4 pips of regen.

Feel no pain has no activation time, it cannot be interrupted by KD's. You cannot use troll onguent without "I m unstoppable", which is up only 2/3 of time.

Interesting.. might have a go at this

very interesting indeed
you could use armor of salvation (after being enchanted with protective bond) to reduce damage to 0, and would not need any regen skills, thus giving you more flexibility to util/dmg skills

edit : maybe with "Finish_Him!" or other norn skills you could work out to kill even freezie


edit : doh you're right ! too bad :x

I just tested with armor of salvation, when you use it the icon is bellow the one of protective bond, and it does not work . I think even if you use armor of salvation after protective bond, the damage reduction is applied before protective bond.

Whirling Defense for last boss?
Very good job anyhow - yes indeed.

Whirling defense cancel storm chaser, so you wont have energy and will lose protective bond. You can kill the last boss : take the closest rez point, die again, and take a little bit more life. You should be able to be within 30-40 hp with 27 % DP.

Nice build, very interesting skill set.

Have you tried Dwarven Stability instead of unstoppable, might allow you to drop the WS a bit, and up the Markmanship. While working on a drunkard title :-)

again, nice build.

Quote: Originally Posted by A Simple Farmer

Nice idea - well thought out, and you explained it well.

However, I've just been trying this and I keep dying at the first mob. After my first death I have 33 max health. I go back with all the enchantments up, and I am hitting Feel no Pain, Storm Chaser, and "I am Unstoppable!" as soon as they recharge. I am rank 10 Norn.

This goes OK for a while, I am barraging with "I am the Strongest!", I kill a few snowmen. But after a minute or so I die very suddenly.

What am I doing wrong? Maybe my energy is hitting zero and I am losing protective bond? (too slow hitting Storm Chaser one time?)

Also, even while I am alive, I am taking a long time to kill anything (hard mode). Barrage alone doesn't do that much damage... and "I am the strongest!" only gives me 8 shots of +dmg, which are almost all used in a single Barrage, then it's a 20sec recharge...

Edit:
Perhaps my problem is, I should pay attention to this:
Quote: Originally Posted by Titine Advices:
- Storm chaser needs 8 energy, be carefull when it blinks.
- You should move during the 3 sec when you do not have "Feel no pain" to dodge some snowballs. I'll try again later.

It took me a few hours to have the 20 sec timing in mind to activate storm chaser at the right time. I have died 20-30 times before being able to reach freezie in NM .

For barrage, it does a fair amount of damage (average 30-40 dmg per arrow without i am the strongest), and if you pack the snowmen right, you can clean a wave in 30 sec in NM and 1 min in HM. I like I am the strongest because it become really usefull with 1-2 snowmen left. You can activate it while running, by the time you reach the next snowmen wave, it should be reloaded.

You could replace this shout with the ebon ward (+15 dmg / shoot), however you are frequently dazed ...

Still haven't got the routine down yet, but I'm having better luck with Ebon Battle Standard of Honor and Ignite Arrows. Ignite Arrows hits all adjacent (like Splinter Weapon used to! Yay!)... and the AoE damage is boosted by the Battle Standard.

Maybe Barrage and "I am the Strongest!" is better, but until I get the Storm Chaser + Feel no pain + "I am unstoppable!" routine down... Ignite + Standard of Honor are buying me time to think (just use autoattacks, instead spamming Barrage). I think it's saving me energy too. And yeah, no Elite skill...!

I've got past the first few mobs at least, I'll keep trying.

Can the EotN skills be replaced? If yes, id like to hear with what.. Im one of the 11 players that love gw and doesnt have eotn.

tnx in advance

try bringing dwarven stability and using it before storm chaser, that would probably help alot..

Probably, but keep in mind that this build is only to farm dudes who do elemental damage If you want to farm enemies who do physiscal damage you might need to swap Barrage for Greater Conflagration
Though it obviously works best when u just farm guys who do ele dmg :P

Quote: Originally Posted by The Daemon Warrior

Quote: Originally Posted by XxSanctusxX Can the EotN skills be replaced? If yes, id like to hear with what.. Im one of the 11 players that love gw and doesnt have eotn.

tnx in advance If you want to farm enemies who do not interrupt and do not KD (ex : ice imps), you could bring troll onguent and other skills for damages (favorable winds ?)

Quote: Originally Posted by Oblivious Moose try bringing dwarven stability and using it before storm chaser, that would probably help alot. I have tried. It is a spell, and can be interrupted when you are dazed. You could use it while drinking to prevent KD and daze, but as I use feel no pain for life regen, I cannot drink (200 more HP = quick death). Anyway, with 16 @WS, you can keep storm chaser on indefinitelly.