This guide will tell you on how to solo the Forest of the wailing Lord, within the Fissure of Woe. If you still have the stamina for it you can go and farm the spiders aswell with this build.
The Forest(1):
The Forest is densly populated by Spirit Woods, Spirit Shepherds, Armored Cave Spiders and Rock Borer Worms. In addition, there is a contingent of Skeleton Army units guarding the bridge leading to the Wailing Lord.
Spirit Woods: Edge of Extinction, Nature's Renewal, Primal Echoes,
Troll Unguent
Spirit Shepherds: Aura of Restoration, Chain Lightning, Iron Mist Iron
Mist,Lightning Strike, Lightning Touch
Armored Cave Spiders: Apply Poison, Called Shot, Healing Spring, Melandru’s
Resilience, Savage Shot
Rock Borer Worms: Choking gas, Lightning Reflexes, Pin Down, Throw Dirt
The Set-up:
Armor:
Personally I use platemail with knight boots, seeing as you’ll be taking plenty of elemental damage. Runes of superior vigor and absorption are a must. A Lieutenant's Helm for the times when you have Iron Mist on you.
Weapons / Shield:
Fiery Dragon Sword of Warding:
15-22
+15% damage while health is above 50%
Customized
+7 armor vs elemental attacks
Zealous Long Sword of Defense
15-22
+15% damage while health is above 50%
Energy gain on hit: 1
Energy regeneration: -1
Customized
Armor +5
Crimson Carapace Shield
16
-2 damage while in stance
+45 health while in stance
A Long Bow for pulling the Spirit Shepherds out of Primal Echo range.
Attribute Points:
This is what I’m using at the moment, I’m tweaking it around daily, yet sofar I have found this to be optimal:
Inspiration 8
Swordmanship 12
Tactics 9 (8+1)
Strenght 9 (8+1)
Note that I’m not using any superior runes other than vigor and absorption, you might want to add a weapon rune, but that’s entirely up to you. I like having more life against the Spikes delivered by the Spirit Shepherds.
Skills:
Hundred Blades
Final Thrust
Sprint
Watch Yourself
Healing Signet
Ether Feast
Mantra of Lightning
Mantra of Resolve
Now, you might be wondering about Ether Feast and Mantra of Resolve. There will be times that you won’t be able to use Healing Signet because of Primal Echoes, and while you are healing you don’t want to get interrupted. Surviving the spikes the Spirit Shephards inflict depends on timing these two healing spells after eachother. It is VITAL when fightning Spirit Shepherds that you are NOT effected by Primal Echoes.
Getting to the Forest:
The first picture shows your first stop point Rastigan and the Shadow monk and two Warriors are highlighted. Once you got rid of any damage taken or when some spells / hexes have worn off you proceed north-west untill you hit picture two, where you see a group of 4 Shadow monks to the right and a patrol to the left. Once the patrol walked by proceed to stop point number 3. Here you see 2 Shadow Elementals and 1 Shadow Mesmer wait untill any ‘negatives’ have worn off, run past them till you get to point 4.
Here is the tricky part.
On the 4th image you’ll see the 2 Shadow Elementals and the Shadow Mesmer below you and above you a group of Skeletons.
Two things can happen:
1)The shadows stop chasing you and you can regen and run past the skeletons without aggroing them, yes, you can aggro them and live, but I recommend that you don’t. So wait for them to bunch up and then run past.
2)The Shadows don’t stop chasing you. Lure them into the skeletons and let them fight while you run to the final stop.
The last image shows the final group of skeletons that you need to dodge. Once you get passed them you are at the entrance of the Forest.
There are some patrols between image 4 and 5, they have never given me any problems running to the Forest and I’m expecting that they won’t be a problem for others.
The Forest(2):
Now that you have reached the forest you will see a patrol of 3 Spirit Shepherds, lure these with your Long Bow away from any spirits, I.E. Pirmal Echoes. Immediately switch on Mantra of Lightning and start attacking the Shepherds, use Watch Yourself when charged and heal as needed. Here is where having two healing spells comes in handy. While one recharges use the other one. Personally I use the Dragon Sword on the Shepherds.
After these three you will encounter 2 Spirit Woods, usually accompanied by 6/7 Rock Borer Worms. Mantra of Resolve + Ether Feast + the Zealous weapon will dispatch thse quickly. Blind and Crippled inflicted by the Worms don’t pose much of a challenge. Choking Gas isn’t something that will stop you either.
Do watch out for patrolling Shepherds.
This is just to get you started. Spiders will popup / drop down from time to time, but usually no more than 2/3 at a time. I could write an entire guide on how to completely do it, but I won’t. I will give you some points that you need to be carefull of:
1) Don’t fight Shepherds when effected by Primal Echoes.
2) Watch your stances.
3) Pick the fights on your terms, study the patrols, study where you
are not effected by any spirits.
4) Know when to run!
So you make it to the bridge with the Skeletons and the Banshees. I usually turn around and go for some spider farming instead, yes, you can do it with this skill setup altho it isn’t as easy as with a full spider setup. Why I don’t take out the Skeletons, the traps layed down by them can tear you apart. Usually they will aswell.
How hard is it and is it even worth it?
I’m not going to lie, it’s hard. It’s very, very hard. To give you an indication: I rate spider farming on a scale from 1-10 a 3, UW Solo farming a 10. This I’d give about a 7, maybe an 8. The spikes, the spirits, the way to lure and all of that make this rather difficult.
Now the spoils of war from this trip is usally greater than that of Spider farming. Atleast in my case it has been.
So if it’s that hard, why should I even bother?
Well why not?
It offers a challenge, rewards are high, and I think of it as rather fun.
Conclusion:
If you are looking for another FoW enriching experience and like a challenge, this might be for you. If you are still finding farming Spiders hard to do, this won’t be for you just yet.
Thanks go out to:
My guildies and friends for having faith in me that I would find a way to do it.
Racthoh Demini, Ubermancer, Striderkaaru and many other guide writers, for giving me inspiration for writing my own guide. An extra thanks to Racthoh for helping me out with the skills and setup.
PM me ingame or here for thoughts, suggestions, flames, rants or funny stuff.
