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: Plague Idols
 * Found In: Wajjun Bazaar
 * Dropped by: Am Fahs

Getting to Nick
title=Nicholas the Traveler include=current

Farming for Plague Idols
There are a number of productive farming areas for Idols, which drop from the Am Fah. The first three are good places to try solo farming for the first time; the last one is much more fun for large groups (and will still be reasonably efficient in producing Idols).
 * Wajjun Bazaar, round-trip between The Marketplace and Nahpui Quarter.
 * Wajjun Bazaar, round-trip between The Marketplace and The Undercity.
 * Nahpui Quarter (explorable) and Shenzun Tunnels, start from Senji's Corner and romp through the groups of Am Fah in both areas.
 * The Undercity, from Wajjun Bazaar.
 * Sunjiang District round-trip between Zin Ku Corridor and the Pongmei Valley portal.
 * The Deactivating P.O.X. mini-mission (requires a version of the game that includes M.O.X.). Resign after Lou, of the Knives and his mob die.

If your character has started the quest Seek out Brother Tosai, the Am Fah in Wajjun Bazaar will be non-hostile until the character completes the quest Masters of Corruption. Simply abandoning the quests will not undo this effect, so characters in this situation must either complete Masters of Corruption or farm the alternate locations.

Threats & Recommended Skills

 * General notes: The Am Fah in Wajjun Bazaar and The Undercity usually appear in groups of 4. Watch out for patrol patterns that put 2-3 groups together. In the UC and often in the Bazaar, the groups will include a Monk, a Ranger, a Necromancer, and an Assassin. For most teams (and soloists), the Am Fah Healers will present the most serious obstacle; they are relatively efficient keeping their team alive (compared to how quickly the other 3 can hurt your team).


 * Tactics: Take out the Healers first, especially if there are two in the group. Flag heroes and henchmen away from each other, so that they don't get tagged by the same snares.


 * Threats: The Am Fah Rangers use crippling and poisonous traps, and shoot poison arrows. The Necromancers also apply several conditions and degen. However, the relative damage output from the groups of 4 is relatively low.


 * Recommended Skills: Any well balanced team of 2–4 L20 characters should be more than sufficient to handle anything the Am Fah can dish out. Although not required, it helps to bring condition removal and health regeneration skills. Successful teams can be based on snares + AoE damage, spikes + healing, tanking + AoE damage, and snares + point-blank area of effect damage.


 * POX: See the walkthrough for Deactivating P.O.X. for team suggestions.

Solo Farming

 * 600/Smite: Activate traps to avoid accidental death later on. Use Shield of Absorption against big groups. Bring an interrupt-preventer, e.g. Mantra of Resolve. Or use Frenzy with Mo/W builds.
 * Spirit spammers work well in Wajjun and Undercity. However, instead of the kiting away and shadow stepping the spirits, target the healer first and run around the groups. Once the healer is dead, the usual techniques work fine. Mend Body and Soul is a good choice for the optional skill slot to remove the conditions caused by traps.