User:Fdarkness/Build Archive/Build:Dead Sword Farmer

This build is designed for farming Dead Swords (and other rare skinned weapons as well) in The Shattered Ravines while Destroy the Ungrateful Slaves quest is active. This is solo w/mo farming build.

Equipment

 * Armor - Glads armor for energy with all the runes of superior vigor (or major will suffice) and superior absorption. Knight's Armor can be used for the -3 damage reduction against physical attacks (recommended for beginners).
 * Weapons - An axe is required for this build. I use Victo's Battle Axe for added damage, but any max axe with 15^50 will do, just might take longer.  Have a max shield with +45/-2 while enchanted AND requires strength. Arrahhsh's Aegis may also work since it is a stance shield and fairly easy to farm.

Usage
First get to The Shattered Ravines from Bone Palace. Let the king die in order to repeat the quest. Cast Balthazar's Spirit on yourself and let the energy recharge to full before casting Live Vicariously. Once the king is dead, wait until the slave spirits settle, and then get close to aggro and cast Vigorous Spirit BEFORE aggro. Be sure to charge for the monks slave spirits first as they are the ones that can shoot you from a distance. Get within the mob so that your cyclone axe will be able to hit everything. Once positioned, hit Dolyak Signet to reduce melee damage. Start cycloning using both Cyclone Axe followed by Triple Chop. After the first cyclone axe, you should be able to use flail to increase attacking speed. Alternate Cyclone Axe and Triple Chop (by continuously spamming whichever becomes available first) and use executioner's strike whenever it becomes charged. With live vicariously and vigorous spirit up, you should be able to stay alive while causing massive AOE damage to all surrounding targets. Make sure flail stays up at all times to increase attack speed and to increase the rate you benefit from live vicariously and vigorous spirit. You will get interrupted by Savage Slash frequently when trying to cast vigorous spirit, but just keep trying and eventually they won't be able to interrupt. Use the same method for all 5 mobs. When finished, rezone and repeat.

Counters

 * The slave mobs consist of monks and warriors but their ratio is not fixed in proportion. The more monks, the more difficult it will be to kill and more Reversal of Damage's to worry about.


 * An unlucky streak of Savage Slash interrupting you whilst you cast Vigorous Spirit can, if on a bad day, result in your death.

Variants

 * Replace Executioner's Strike with Bonetti's Defense if you are having difficulty keeping vigorous spirit up. That is, have Bonetti's Defense active before you cancel it with Vigorous Spirit to prevent interrupts.
 * Healing Hands makes it a lot easier to stay alive. It also has a very short activation time and is therefore difficult to interrupt.
 * Swapping Executioner's Strike for Wild Blow will significantly decrease the time it takes to kill the warrior spirits.