Farming

Farming is the killing of monsters for the purpose of gathering items, experience, gold, Faction, or promotion points and is considered to be one of the quickest and easiest ways to amass wealth. Often you will find parties (especially in the harder areas of the game) searching for people to go farming with them.

Farming groups utilize strategies and techniques optimized for farming effectiveness. These strategies revolve around two seemingly contradicting principles:
 * Reducing the number of party members: Smaller party size equals an increased chance for each member to get quality items. It similarly means fewer people to split the gold with. (Note this has been changed significantly since the April 19th Update. See below.)
 * Increasing the number of party members: Increased DPS, expedites the deaths of enemies killed within a given time frame.

As such, dedicated farming groups experiment with builds in high-experience zones. Repeatedly dying or retreating is unfavorable for farming. Seek an effective party structure that clears out an area quickly and has less than a full party size.

As of the April 19th, 2007 update, with the introduction of the hard mode, Money making from farming was decreased in parties with less than the maximum party size, as loot is now scaled according to the amount of players in a party. When farming solo or having party members, you get fewer items than you normally would; the amount being comparable to that of full group farming. Shortly after the release of the hard mode, loot scaling has been slightly adjusted by causing tomes, scrolls, dye, rare materials, Domain of Anguish gemstones, gold level rarity items, unique items, and Special Event items to be excluded from the new system.

Recommended Locations
Farming is the quickest and easiest way to get money. Common farming targets in Tyria (Prophecies) include Mountain Trolls in a cave to the north of Droknar's Forge, Mahgo Hydras in the Ring of Fire Islands, Undead outside of Bergen Hot Springs in hard mode and Minotaurs in Elona Reach. Pre-searing is a popular place to farm for dye, as they are reported to drop more frequently there. The most popular Pre-Searing farming location is currently The Catacombs. Another popular place to farm in Tyria is Sorrow's Furnace (SF) because of its great number of greens. A good location in hard mode is just outside Ascalon City in Old Ascalon. There are Hulking Stone Elementals and/or Gargoyles there that are reasonably easy and they have a reasonable drop rate. Also, just into the Gates of Kryta Mission behind the house by Oink, this spot is also good for grinding, be warned, there are level 15 Zombie Warlocks, which raise Bone Minions.

In Cantha (Factions), Vermin, Shiro'ken, Wardens, and Kirin are popular farming targets. Also in Seijun Woods and Kinya Province you can find a substantial number of creatures with a very high probability of dropping items, and since these Mantid, Kappa and Naga pose little threat, you may perform a solo hunt. Drops here are small in value, but abundant. Raiyan Cave, located in Panjiang Peninsula, is also a good farming spot, with lots of Naga. Killing 35-40 Mantid Drones and Monitors in Sunqua Vale in Hard Mode can yield between 2 and 5 platinum in 20-30 minutes.

In Elona (Nightfall), Remains of Sahlahja can be farmed by using very specific builds. The Hidden City of Ahdashim is also very popular among the Spirit Bond monks, farming Djinns and Rain Beetles. The Shattered Ravines can be easily farmed with Junundu. In Hard Mode it is possible to farm Insects and Plants in the Plains of Jarin outside the Sunspear Great Hall. Outside Yohlon Haven, Tusked Howlers and Tusked Hunters can be farmed. Another Area in Elona to farm is in the Sulfurous Wastes.

The Domain of Anguish is an extremly good way to make money, and can be 3 man farmed, in Hard Mode. However, it requires 2 monks and a ranger, all with very specific armor runes/insignias, and a precise build. Also, the overall skill and reactions of the players are needed to be very good. If properly done, you can make anywhere from 30k - 60k in around an hour and a half, more if you are extremely lucky and receive a large number of Tomes and/or Gemstones. As with all farming, it was far easier to make money before the party scaling update, yielding between 80k - 120k.

Sunspear and Lightbringer farming

 * Sunspear Promotion Points are easily farmed with heroes and henchmen while progressing through the campaign.
 * Restarting A Land of Heroes a few times before completing the quest is an effective farming method but will only obtain a maximum rank of Sunspear Commander.
 * Lightbringer promotion points are often farmed early on in The Mirror of Lyss, and later in the Realm of Torment with Lightbringer's Gaze.

Click here for Lightbringer Point Farming strategies.

Click here for Sunspear Point Farming strategies.

Reputation Farming
In the GW:EN expansion, farming for reputation points of the Asura, Norn, Deldrimor and Ebon Vanguard is popular. Typically, this involves attaining a blessing (such as Norn Hunting Party or Asuran Bodyguard) and eliminating all creatures in a select area. Since blessing increase in rank (and give more reputation points per kill) as you kill more foes, large areas are preferred, as it allows reputation to be gathered more efficiently, and re-zoning will remove all blessings. A typical farming mission will also include frequent stops to the guards of resurrection shrines, as they will often grant bonus reputation according to how much you have killed.

Norn Reputation Farming

 * The most common form of farming Norn points is to enter Varajar Fells in Hard Mode with Ursanway, and repeatedly killing the bosses spawned by the quest, The Path to Revelations.

Asuran Reputation Farming

 * Asuran points are commonly farmed by either hiring a Shadow Form farmer to kill Raptor Nestlings outside of Rata Sum, or repeatedly clearing Magus Stones.

Deldrimor Reputation Farming

 * A common place to farm Deldrimor reputation points is to join a 600/Smite group doing Temple of the Damned.


 * The Secret Lair of the Snowmen dungeon, accessed with the repeatable quest Lost Treasure of King Hundar can be done with henchmen or heroes for quick deldrimor points. The quest is given by Koris Deeprunner in Umbral Grotto and becomes available after completion by zoning out and back in. This mode of farming Deldrimor Reputation points is by far faster than Temple of the Damned.

Ebon Vanguard Reputation Farming

 * Of the four EotN factions, the Ebon Vanguard are by far the hardest to gain reputation with, as there are only three explorable areas associated with the faction. To make matters worse, these three areas are among the hardest in the game due to large balanced parties of Charr.  Nevertheless, the fastest way to gain reputation is by repeatedly clearing Sacnoth Valley, saving the four bosses in the large Charr base for last to maximize point gain.