User:Ellison.dean/Urgoz Trappers

The contribution history for this build is on the discussion tab.

The Urgoz Trapping team is a build designed to clear the way to, and destroy Urgoz inside Urgoz's Warren as quickly as possible while keeping the odds of party failure to a minimum. The core of the build is trapping which is used to damage the large groups of enemies in the warren as well as to keep them off balance. The build relies on Edge of Extinction (or EoE) to destroy Urgoz when the party reaches his inner sanctum.

Build Concept
While there are different tactics for different situations (explained below, in the tactics section), the general outline of how this team works is as follows:
 * The team will set its traps and spirits at a good tactical position that does not expose it to moving patrols and allows for retreat. Using line of sight to protect against ranged attacks is always a good strategy if available.
 * A sweeper will go scout and pull the target enemy group back to the traps (usually the trapper with the most experience in the Warren).
 * As the enemy hits the traps. the party will finish them off with nuking and more trapping.
 * During fights, the monks and ritualist try to keep all party members alive.

Build Details
Urgoz's Warren allows for a party of 12 members. However, at its core, this build is composed of 9 members:
 * Three trappers
 * Two nukers
 * Two healers
 * One BiP necromancer
 * One Ritual Lord ritualist

Typically, the final three spots are filled with a backup trapper, a backup nuker and a backup monk. Such redundancy can protect the party from failing due to a team member leaving or getting disconnected.

The Trappers
The core three trappers should serve do three different roles, the fourth one can be a duplicate of either of the last two:

The EoE Trapper
This trapper specializes in bringing the skill Edge of Extinction at the highest possible level (16 Beast Mastery). This means that his/her Wilderness Survival traps (the bulk of the traps) will not be as potent. However, the presence of this trapper makes defeating many of the large groups in the warren much easier, as well as making the defeat of Urgoz himself a walk-in-the-park.

Note: Because of the lower than usual Expertise rank, it's better if this trapper not carry Dust Trap.

Usage:
 * Place EoE and EW (Energizing Wind) at a safe spot that will be within comfortable range of where the traps will be. Using line of sight to protect it from rangers is always a good approach.
 * Trap with the other trappers using Viper's Nest primarily as well as other traps.
 * When enemies are pulled into range use Oath Shot as soon as you can, do not wait till EoE has been killed to recharge it with Oath Shot. This will cause you to have to wait until Oath Shot is recharged to be able to use it again. Instead, adapt the approach of using Oath Shot as soon as you can, not when you have to.
 * During the fight, keep trapping as your energy allows (with Whirling Defenses on), while keeping an eye on EoE and making sure it is always up. It is not recommended that you keep EW up during the fight as it tampers with the recharge time of the skills of other party members.
 * For tips on the final confrontation with Urgoz, see the tactics section below.

Equipment:
 * Druid's Armor is recommended for maximum energy. Tamer's Mask is required to achieve maximum EoE.
 * Carrying a Traveler's Mask with a superior Wilderness Survival rune on it and swapping it with the Tamer's Mask while laying the trappers can help the potency of your traps. Remember to switch back to the Tamer's Mask when laying down the spirits.
 * Any Insightful staff will serve as a good trapping weapon. A staff wrapping of Fortitude is a nice bonus.
 * Any bow to use with Oath Shot to recharge your skills. The best for purposes of accuracy would be a Recurve Bow.

The Pure Trapper
The pure trapper has 16 Wilderness Survival and as such, his/her traps carry maximum potency. He/she is also in charge of laying down Quickening Zephyr (QZ).

Usage:
 * Place QZ at a safe spot that will be withing comfortable range of where the traps will be. Using line of sight to protect it from rangers is always a good approach.
 * Trap with the other trappers using all of your traps. Make sure Dust Traps are especially well spaced to protect your back line from melee attackers.
 * During the fight, keep trapping as your energy allows (with Whirling Defenses on). It is not recommended that you keep QZ up during the fight as it tampers with the energy cost of the skills of other party members.

Equipment:
 * Druid's Armor is recommended for maximum energy. Traveler's Mask is required to achieve maximum trap potency.
 * Any Insightful staff will serve as a good trapping weapon. A staff wrapping of Fortitude is a nice bonus.
 * A bow for pulling is optional.

Variations:
 * This trapper can also bring Healing Spring for to heal himself and his fellow trappers when trapping in health degeneration rooms.

The Hybrid Trapper
The Hybrid trapper has high Wilderness Survival and Beast Mastery to act as a support trapper for the Pure trapper as well as a backup in case the EoE trapper leaves or is disconnected. This is mainly because EoE is such an important component of defeating Urgoz.

Usage & Equipment:
 * Exactly like the Pure Trapper. In addition, a Tamer's Mask in case this trapper is forced to use his/her EoE instead of the main EoE trapper.

The Nukers
The two nukers will have the exact same build and their main focus should be Fire Magic. The build could be any build, but for Urgoz, the following basic build seems to work best:

Usage:
 * The main function of the two elementalists is to finish off enemy groups. They must be patient and allow the enemy to fall into the traps. While the ensuing chaos may spoil a perfect nuke, it serves the party better to have enemies scurrying about blinded, burning, and crippled.
 * It's best to time the cast of nukes with traps triggering. If enemies are pummeled by Meteor Shower just as they trigger a trap, they will be damaged fully by the trap before they can run off. After a little time and experience the nukers will get the hang of it.
 * Use Breath of Fire wisely. Its primary usage should be to break away melee attackes who wander past the trappers or who arrive late and are not affected by the traps.
 * Glyph of Energy is extremely useful in fighting in areas where the party will be under the effects of Sheer Exhaustion.

Equipment:
 * Battlemage's Armor may provide an extra defensive boost, but any armor works fine.
 * A staff or (Wand and Focus Item combination) that provides +5 Energy and +30 Health as well as faster casting time and skill recharge for Fire Magic would be optimal.

The Healers
The monks in the party should all specialize in Healing Prayers primarily. While other healing builds (such as boon prot) can be just as useful, the heavy presence of mesmers in the final few rooms of the Warren makes builds that rely on Protection Prayers less effective. Such builds tend to rely on enchantments which will be consistently removed by Greater Blood Drinkers and Maddened Mind Wardens. All monks should run a build along these lines:

Usage:
 * Word of Healing is the primary healing skill for other party members and healing touch is the primary healing skill for self-healing.
 * Protective Spirit is mandatory in at least one of the monks in case the Rituliast drops out. Facing the Thorn Wolves without some way to control their spike damage is ill-advised.
 * Heal Party is mandatory for many scenarios in the warren. There are at least two rooms with -15 health degeneration and Heal Party makes operating in those much easier, especially in the presence of the BiP necromancer.
 * Extinguish is extremely useful on the Fire Flower bridge.
 * Use Holy Veil (or any other Hex removal skill) to remove critical hexes from your party, such as Icy Veins and Shroud of Silence.

Equipment:
 * Ascetic's Armor is recommended for energy.
 * Any staff (or wand and focus item combination) that provides +5 Energy, +30 Health and fast recharge and cast time for Healing Prayers is optimal.

Variations: There can be many variations for the monk builds as the only essential skills are Heal Party and Protective Spirit. All other skills can be replaced with others in a very flexible manner...
 * Word of Healing can be replaced with Blessed Light or Healing Light.
 * Extinguish can be replaced with Aegis.

The Bipper
The BiP necromancer is the energy source of the party. Without him/her, the run can take an hour longer. The presence of the necro allows the trappers to trap faster, the monks to heal more frequently and the whole party to simply take on bigger groups of enemies. The build is no different that with the addition of a traversal skill for room 3.

Usage:
 * Keep Blood Renewal on at all times.
 * Use Blood is Power on any party member you wish to give Energy to.
 * A good Bipper never waits for people to call their Energy. Instead, the bipper should have a plan:
 * While trapping and setting up for enemies, the bipper should focus on feeding the trappers.
 * During a fight, the bipper should bip the monks, then elementalists, then trappers in that order of priority.
 * Use wells as Energy and circumstances permit.
 * Use Consume Corpse (or Necrotic Traversal) to get on the bridge in room 3.
 * Having as little maximum health as possible allows the bipper to be extremely effective in doing his/her job, however, this should only be done if the bipper is very good at staying alive. Dying does not really harm the bipper, but having to do without the bipper in the middle of an intense fight is not a good thing for the other party members.

Equipment:
 * Scar Pattern Armor is recommended for energy. Adding Superior Runes to reduce health is an option.
 * Any staff (or wand and focus item combination) that provides +5 Energy and fast recharge and cast time for Blood Magic is optimal. An item which reduces health or one that lengthens enchantments (for Blood Renewal and BiP) can help also.

The Ritual Lord
The Ritual Lord ritualist is a Communing-specialized ritualist who maintains 3 very imporant defensive Binding Spirits up. The main objective is to create a spike-free zone for the party to operate in.

Usage:
 * Make sure Boon of Creation and Ritual Lord are on at all time.
 * Extend Spike Trap and Meteor Shower knock down time to 3 seconds with Earthbind.
 * When the rangers are almost done with their traps, the ritualist should setup the spirits. A good spot would be near where the trappers setup EoE.
 * As the spirits die, the ritualist should be constantly replacing them. Beware of interrupts.
 * In any room in which there are Thorn Wolves, it is imperative that the spirits be up and ready when the Wolves approach the party.

Equipment:
 * Halcyon's Armor is recommended for energy.
 * Any staff (or wand and focus item combination) that provides +5 Energy, +30 Health, and fast recharge and cast time for Communing is optimal.

Tactics
The build primarily follows the mission walkthrough in the article Urgoz's Warren, the following are tactics specific to this build:

Room 1:
 * The trappers should set the traps where the party spawns; all non-trappers should move back a little bit (to the open gate behind the party). The trappers should make the traps in multiple layers as the Thought Stealers usually precede the Hopping Vampires. When ready, a trapper should move forward to trigger the pop-ups.
 * The party should then bunker down in the corridor. Traps should be set at the end of the corridor while spirits should be placed just around the bend where the party spawned.
 * Pull one or more (if the party is proficient) of the Dredge groups. Trappers should keep their focus on the Maddened Dredge and the Maddened Dredge Savages while the nukers should try and take out the Dredge Gardeners and the Maddened Dredge Seers.
 * For this pull and all future pull, the puller should be a veteran trapper. It is poor pulling to get the enemy group trickling one by one. Instead, the trapper should try and bunch them up (using Whirling Defense to stay alive) so that they approach the traps together. It renders the traps useless (and puts a lot of strain on the monks) to have one enemy come first and set off all the traps and then have the rest of that enemy's group arrive unmolested.
 * After the Dredge patrols are destroyed, kill the Twisted Bark and then set up near the top of the flight of stairs. Pull the Dredge group there.
 * After destroying that group, set the traps at the open gate (without stepping in) and then when ready, step in to bring the two running patrols (one will come from each side). Pull them through the traps and then finish them off. Proceed to kill the Guardian Serpent.

Room 2:
 * Non-trappers should stay outside of the health degeneration effect (roughly where the dark shadow ends). The trappers place their spirits out of degeneration and then setup around the corner. They should proceed to pull the two large Dredge groups and the one Greater Blood Drinker pop up group.
 * The Bipper needs to focus mainly on the monks in this room. They will be spamming Heal Party.
 * The nukers should step in to the degeneration area to nuke and then step out.
 * When the path to the Twisted Bark is clear, the nukers should go in and kill it quickly.
 * Trappers are extremely effective at neutralizing the Greater Blood Drinker in an open battle. Depending on how proficient the party is, they can pop out one or more of the Blood Drinker groups hidden in the room and just take them head on. Using Whirling Defense, exploiting the face that the Blood Drinker use mostly slow casting necromancer skills, and because they like to target softer targets in the back, the trappers will be able to trap almost unmolested under their feet. This will keep the Blood Drinkers off-balance (getting knocked down by Spike Trap, running from AoE trap effects) and will actually make the job of the monks much easier. At this stage of the fight, the Bipper should keep the monks and nukers well-fed.

Room 3:
 * The trappers should trap heavily (and in mutiple layers) at the gate and then just pull both plant groups (the Burning Brushes, Brooding Thorns, and Uprooted Malices). Fire nuking and Flame Trap are extremely effective in wiping out these groups.
 * The party should then proceed to all hide under the bridge. Traps will work under the bridge and damage those above it. EoE is very important in quickly taking out the Dredge who are not on the bridge.
 * The bipper should use Consume Corpse to get up on the bridge and open the two locks.

Room 4:
 * Trappers should set their traps at the start of the bridge. The ritualist should set up his/her spirits as closely as possible to the beginning of the bridge to provide protection to the puller as far as possible.
 * A puller should pop the first group of Thorn Wolves (about 1/4 of the way throughthe bridge) and finish them off.
 * Re-stablish traps and spirits then get the second group of wolves. The second group (at the center of the bridge, where the two lamps are) is the hardest to pull, because the puller would be so far from the healers and because the pulling distance is so long that they sometimes do not follow all the way back to the traps. The party should just be patient. Using Recall in this situation greatly helps (see Variations below).
 * After this group is cleared, the party should move up to the two lamps and setup traps and spirits there. The puller should then proceed to pull the third group of wolves (once again, Recall being very useful).
 * Finally, the party should re-establish traps (in two layers) and then the puller should proceed to the end of the bridge where the Vampires and Thought Stealers will pop up. Recall would work perfectly as they will run to the party anyway even if the puller is gone.

Room 5:
 * This area is filled with Thorn Wolf pop-ups and a veteran in the party needs to let them know where to pause for traps at each juncture.
 * At each point, traps should be set up (special emphasis should be made on a few Dust Traps near the casters) and the ritualist spirits have to be up to prevent disaster.
 * Monks should use Hex Breaker (see Variations below) when possible to prevent themselves from getting shrouded. Preventing this hex is much better than trying to remove it while being unable to cast for several seconds.
 * The party will proceed past the left bridge then go right, then straight to the green area, then right and cross a long bridge. At that point they should turn right sharply (passing under the bridge they last crossed) and head straight till they get to the Guardian Serpent. All along this path there are Thorn Wolf pop-ups that need experience to tell where they will appear.

Room 6:
 * One member should wait while the rest of the party should go in, destroy the Twisted Bark (a couple of players staying behind it will prevent it from running the wrong way out of AoE). The bipper can give a little extra boost of energy if needed.
 * After this, the party should destroy the Guardian Serpent, cross the bridge, then signal to the waiting member to catch up to them.

Room 7:
 * The trappers should set traps just before the gate and then pull the large group of plants and take them out.
 * Trap at the gate now and then pull the other group of plants that is near the Guardian Serpent.
 * If the elementalists can damage a Brooding Thorn enough (not a Burning Brush because they will run away and around the back to try and attack) that the Twisted Bark comes to heal it with Healing Touch, then the party can have a shot at killing it without having to fight the Wardens.
 * If this does not work, the trappers should setup past the gate and around the corner to the left (so that the casters are outside of Sheer Exhaustion) and then they should proceed to pull the Warden groups.
 * When fighting the Wardens, it's important to be conscious of spacing and movement. The casters should not stand next to each other (making themselves vulnerable to group interrupttion via Cry of Frustration). The nukers should focus on the Maddened Song Wardens and Maddened Mind Wardens while the trappers should take out the melee wardens.
 * After the Wardens and plants are destroyed, the party should kill the Twisted Bark to be exhaustion-free in the next area.

Room 8:
 * Traps should be laid at the gate (the top of the stairs) and the spirits should be placed around the corner and away from where the party members will be standing, this is to prevent Churning Earth from destroying them.
 * The presence of EoE is extremely useful in wiping out large numbers of Wardens quickly.
 * All party members should be ready to kite to avoid damage from Churning Earth that is cast by Maddened Earth Wardens.
 * After the first few group are pulled to the gate and destroyed, the party can go in and clear the stationary plants. The final two Warden groups will require the same scheme of trapping and pulling.

Room 9:
 * The party should name one party member who will stay behind the gate no matter what transpires. This is to prevent the entire party from stepping past the door during the heat of battle and getting locked in with a few pop-ups of Thorn Wolves. the ideal candidate for this should be the ritualist who will be laying his/her spirits just behind the gate at all times.
 * The trappers should generally use the gate as their trapping point and pull back to it. Occasionally, a few monsters will be stuck or refuse to follow all the way back in which case they can move the traps a little bit ahead (but staying within the range of the protective Binding Spirits).
 * When the door finally opens on the other end, then the full party can advance.

Room 10: Urgoz's Inner Chamber
 * The nukers and trappers should quickly go in and kill the Twisted Bark causing the life degeneration. Monks should spam Heal Party.
 * As Urgoz begins his monologue, trappers should setup in the middle of the bridge and then pull enemies to it.
 * It is advisable to not only destroy the Guardian Serpent in the way, but the one to the left which will be near where EoE will be placed to kill Urgoz.
 * The EoE trapper should go in and to the left away from Urgoz. With experience he/she will know exactly where to place EoE so that Urgoz is in its range. If EoE is placed too close, then Explosive Growths will spawn next to it and destroy it. To check that EoE is in the right place, a party member (preferably armed with Hex Breaker) should run in and stand next to Urgoz and see if EoE is showing up in the Effects Monitor.
 * Once EoE is set up and Urgoz is clearly in its range, the nukers and trappers (other than the EoE trapper) should go in and start attacking him, being mindful not to stand in one spot for more than one skill usage. As soon as his health is down to 90%, EoE will start damaging him with the death of the growths.
 * Once EoE starts kicking in, the nukers and trappers should just run around Urgoz in circles and let the death of the Explosive Growths destroy him. The bipper and the healers should stay on the ramp and spam heal party if needed. In less than a minute, Urgoz will kill himself.

Variations

 * All the party roles above have been listed in a flexible manner without a secondary profession. However, when possible, party members should consider either going with monk as a secondary profession to bring Rebirth for crisis recovery, or to go with mesmer as a secondary profession and bring Hex Breaker which makes surviving in the final battle against Urgoz extremely easy.
 * Monks could experiment with elementalist as a secondary profession to be able to use Glyph of Energy in areas where they are under the influence of Sheer Exhaustion.
 * One of the trappers could bring assassin as a secondary profession and use Recall on a party member before pulling enemies. This is especially useful on the Fire Flower bridge where many pullers die under the pressure of the Fire Flowers and the Thorn Wolves. By canceling Recall, they will be teleported instantly to safety and can then proceed to pull the Wolves (which would then be popped) using a bow.