Guide to Item of the Week Farming

Guide to Item of the Week Farming
Background: Every week, Nicholas the Traveler requests a different item in exchange for Gifts of the Traveler. These items of the week end up being very valuable for a short period, since the gifts can usually be sold for – (and opening the gifts yields valuable items). Veteran players usually have no trouble farming the item using advanced (although standard) builds and they have access to the ideal farming locations. This guide, however, is designed to help the relatively new player, who has fewer skills and might need to unlock the farming area.

Summary

 * Item: Guardian Mosses
 * Found In: Pongmei Valley, Boreas Seabed, and Maishang Hills.
 * Dropped by: Island Guardians

Getting to Nick
title=Nicholas the Traveler include=current You can reach Nick without combat if you approach carefully.

Farming for Guardian Moss
The Guardian Moss farm is much the same as the Rot Wallow Tusk farm, only more frustrating due to the very low drop rates of the run: the single guardian in each group of 7-8 wallows often fails to drop any item (let alone the desired moss). This might be one of the few Item-of-the-Week farms that is more productive in Hard mode, as the Guardians are perhaps more likely to drop something.

This week is a good time to farm faction (most likely Luxon, but possibly Kurzick); you'll easily earn back the cost of the blessing even during the shortest farm.


 * Suggested Farm #1a/1b: Leave from Boreas Seabed into Pongmei Valley. The map shows 4 groups of Rot Wallows that surround 3 Guardians. If you continue to Maatu Keep, you can find another two groups on the way. Some feel that it's faster to travel back and forth between the two outposts to farm all 5 guardians (Farm #1a); others prefer to tackle only the three closest to Boreas (Farm #1b) to avoid walking the long distance across the zone. Either way, take advantage of the terrain: place rangers and spirits on the tops of hills (spirits have an attack range equal to longbow range). If you set up carefully, your team will be out of aggro range of the guardians and you can fight just the wallows at first. You can then fight the guardians without worrying about their allies.

You can also pull the first group towards the resurrection shrine, taking advantage of the priest's healing and the guard's tanking abilities.


 * Suggested Farm #2: Travel between Eredon Terrace and Bai Paasu Reach. This route is significantly more difficult, as it crosses the path of two Elementalist bosses: Seacrash, a guardian, and Sarss, a naga. It's also a less tedious route than the first, since the foes and landscape vary more. Seacrash can easily be pulled from the surrounding allies; it's dangerous to tackle this guardian alongside the many wallows.


 * Suggested Farm #3: Start at Leviathan Pits and head into Silent Surf, taking on Scourgewind. The wallows run predictable patrols and some can be avoided. Bosses can drop as many as 3-4 items, making them good targets during farming (not to mention the increased likelihood of find a green weapon).

Threats & Recommended Skills

 * General tip: Rot Wallows tend to spam their skills on minions or spirits, ignoring the players.


 * Tactics: Always pull the wallows away from the Island Guardians. Spike and AoE damage helps since the wallows tend to mob a single target. If possible, start by killing the guardian quickly; if it doesn't drop moss, run from the wallows (they won't follow far) and head to the next group.


 * Threats: Both wallows and guardians can cause knockdown &mdash; the wallows with their critical hits and the guardians with Signet of Judgement &mdash; which the wallows will follow with Fetid Ground to inflict poison. The wallows' Vampiric Bite is a life stealing touch skill that bypasses most protections and is particularly dangerous to a number of standard builds. Weaken Knees causes health degeneration and damage-over-time while moving, making it almost as harmful to run away.


 * Recommended Skills: Knockdown prevention, hex removal, and condition removal/resistance. Alternatively, groups can take interrupts and general anti-caster skills; this might be more useful to those using the second farm.

Solo Farming

 * Typical Permanent Shadow Form builds work well here, with only minor danger from two skills: Signet of Judgement and Vampiric Bite. Neither will present much of a danger in normal mode.


 * Spirit Farmers work extremely well. Spam your spirits just out of range, then use a longbow or flatbow to pull the wallows away from the guardian (even solo novices should be able to handle 3-4 wallows). If you choose to take down the guardian, practice to find the optimal range allowing you to stay outside of aggro distance: with a long- or flatbow, you might need to step closer; with wands/or staves, you might need to step back.


 * A standard 600HP monk or elementalist with either hero or human smiter can also farm the groups easily, since wallows lack enchantment removal and interrupts. However, bring an anti-knockdown skill such as Fleeting Stability or Dwarven Stability because of the automatic knockdown from wallow critical hits; fighting groups without this protection can quickly lead to a knockdown chain and death.


 * An elementalist/dervish using Earth Magic and Earth Prayers can tank for a Spiteful Spirit necromancer. Either role can be managed by a hero. Alternatively, the elementalist can go it alone (although more slowly) by bringing more offensive Earth Magic spells.

Summary

 * Item: Forgotten Trinket Boxes
 * Found In: Minister Cho's Estate (explorable)
 * Dropped by: Sickened humans (Sickened animals do not)

Farming for Forgotten Trinket Boxes

 * Suggested Farm #1: Exit from Ran Musu Gardens into Minister Cho's Estate. Head east to the area where you finish the mission.  From there, follow the mission path backwards to the beginning, then backtrack a bit until you can head east.  The entire eastern area here is full of Sickened and a few Afflicted.
 * Note: The Sickened animals don't drop Trinket Boxes, so there's no point in clearing the western shore area. The Afflicted also don't drop the boxes, although they are often grouped with Sickened humans (most commonly an Afflicted Necromancer with two Sickened Guard rangers).

Threats & Recommended Skills

 * Tactics:


 * Threats:


 * Recommended Skills:

Summary

 * Item: Water Djinn Essences
 * Found In: Fahranur, Turai's Procession, ...
 * Dropped by: Water Djinni

Getting to Nick
Map to Nick's location in Turai

The least-combat path to Nick starts in Venta Cemetery and hugs the western wall as you head north. If you proceed cautiously, you can avoid combat. Otherwise, you might have to handle 2-3 encounters with the local denizens (easily won or avoided with any team that was able to farm for essences).

Farming for Water Djinn Essences

 * Suggested Farm #1: From either Jokanur or Blacktide, head towards the center of Fahranur. The djinni boss and 3 guards are located in the main hall, roughly in the same place as the Jokanur mission boss. To reach the farm, you have to pass through L10–15 plants and the occasional insect. The team should find approximately 1 essence per run.
 * Suggested Farm #2: From Gate of Desolation, head south towards either/both of two dead-end areas (marked in yellow on second map). Both spots have 2 djinni and a boss and are blocked by Kournans. It's faster to skip one of the groups if the Kournans present any serious resistance. The team should find approximately 1 essence per run. (Stronger parties can continue east to find an additional 10 or so djinni, increasing the time needed modestly for an extra 1-2 essences/run/party.)
 * Suggested Farm #3: Take the quest War Preparations (Wind and Water), do not accept the blessing of wind and water, and repeatedly farm the water djinn there. If you do not have a low-level Nightfall character, it should be easy to run one to this point in the primary quests/missions on Istan, or farm with someone who has the quest.

Threats & Recommended Skills

 * Tactics: Traveling to the farm turns out to take more time than dispatching the djinni themselves. In Fahranur, a few speed boosts plus some anti-hex skills should allow you to ignore the foes.

In Turai, any well-balanced team can knock off the Kournans quickly; offensively adept team should spike the scribe first (to prevent nuking) and others should start with the priest. Any team that can handle the Kournans should be able to manage the essence farm. The djinni can spawn with a Maelstrom-casting boss; keep moving to avoid its effects.


 * Threats: (included in Tactics)


 * Recommended Skills: Any anti-melee skills work fine against the djinni. In Fahranur, take running skills to reach the farm (and hex removal if you can). In Turai, a couple of anti-caster skills are useful to take out the scribe and the boss with the djinni (e.g. interrupts, Backfire, etc.)

Solo Farming
Fahranur

Concentrate on skills that help you reach the boss room with lots of health: running, regeneration, and hex-removal.
 * Avatar of Balthazar D/A with Dash among other builds.

Turai

Concentrate on skills to kill the Kournans: anti-melee, damage reduction, and some counters to degeneration.
 * Most general solo builds will do fine.

Summary

 * Item: Luminous Stone x1
 * Found In: Istan, Kourna, and The Desolation
 * Dropped by: Mandragors

Farming for Luminous Stones

 * Suggested Farm #1: Exit into Arkjok Ward from Yohlon Haven, heading north towards the Marga Coast portal. Say "hey" to the priest at the rez shrine, so you can get bounty. Follow the path on the map, which leads you to about 20 or so groups of 3 mandragors, including a boss. If you are careful, you can avoid any other foes. Move slowly: about half the mandragor are hidden beneath the surface and seemingly pop-up when you have aggro'd 2-3 other groups already.

Threats & Recommended Skills

 * Threats: The mandragor triplets are L22 and almost always composed of a Necromancer, a Warrior, and a Elementalist. The necros remove enchantments, steal health, and can transfer conditions; the elementalists can cause weakness and will knockdown weakened foes; the warriors interrupt, daze, and remove stances. In short, this is the anti-buff team of your nightmares. The good news is that they don't bring much else.

Any team that can succeed against the mandragor can also survive the plants, insects, and great beasts as long as you don't aggro too much at once.


 * Tactics: The mandragor can be reasonably handled in groups of 3; in larger numbers, they can easily overwhelm even strong parties. Move slowly through Arkjok, being careful to avoid aggro'ing the Iboga, Ntouka, and Beetles. If you get caught by multiple groups, run to fight another day unless you feel confident you can carry the day.


 * Recommended Skills: Because they mandragor are heavy on debuffing, they are vulnerable to parties that don't depend on buffs: hexes, degen, aoe damage, and wards. Shouts, chants, and spirits are also more useful than enchantments. As with any farming, a balanced group gives your best chances of success: some healing (and conditional removal), some area damage, and some spikes. Anti-caster skills such as interrupts are convenient, but not required. Spirit healing and buffing is very useful, but also not required.

Solo Farming

 * Anti-enchantments prevent the 55/Monk from being useful
 * Minion Masters and Spirit Spammers are sufficient for the careful farmer.