User:BlackHand/Team - Full Party UW clearing

The Team - 6 man UW Clearing group is intended to be a group of 6 players that can quickly and efficiently clear the Underworld and all of its quests.

Overview

This party consists of:

• 1 / Spirit Bond / 600 Monk

• 1 / Support Monk

• 1 / Feast of Corruption Necromancer

• 3 / Heavy Nukers

• 1 / Maintained Enchantment Smiter

• 1 / Spiteful Spirit Necromancer

The build is centered around a 600 monk tank, damage is dealt by a smiter, echo FoC necro, 3 Heavy nukers, and an SS necro.

Party Members

Mo/Me Spirit Bond / 600 Monk

Monk / Mesmer	Attribute Rank
Protection Prayers	12 + 1
Divine Favor	11 + 1
Illusion Magic	6

The 600 Monk is the tank of the build, it is based on the [Build:Mo/any Spirit Bonder] build. This player is usually the player with the most experience in the underworld, as they will generally be the one who will be doing all the aggroing and will therefore be leading the party on where to go next. The ideal weapon for this build is a +5 energy sword or axe with a +20% enchantment duration upgrade - Rajazan's Fervor or a Totem Axe both work nicely

Usage:

• Cast the three maintained enchantments on yourself
• Cast Protective Spirit and Spirit Bond and aggro the enemies, maintain them for the duration of battle
  • If in an area with Dying Nightmares, or casters, cast Spell Breaker before engaging the enemy as well

Mo/Any Support Monk

Monk / Any	Attribute Rank
Divine Favor	12 + 3 + 1
Healing Prayers	12 + 1
Protection Prayers	3 + 1

The support monks role is mostly to keep Spell Breaker up on on the 600 monk during prolonged battles against spellcaster groups. In addition this character provides spot healing and support to other party members when needed.

Usage:

• Immediately cast Essence Bond on the 600 for energy, Blessed Aura to extend SB duration
• When facing caster groups such as the Mindblade Spectres, Dead Threshers, Terrorweb Dryders, etc, the support monk should first cast Spell Breaker on the 600, so they can use their own SB when the support monk's begins to run out
• If the 600 is taking significant damage, use Dwayna's Kiss to heal
• Use Healing Seed on the 600 before running into the traps laid by the Obsidian Behemoths
• Use Divine Healing and Remove Hex liberally when needed, most notably in the Chaos Planes and Bone Pits

Alternatives:

• Replace Divine Healing with its duplicate skill Heaven's Delight

N/Me Feast of Corruption Necromancer

Necromancer / Mesmer	Attribute Rank
Curses	12 + 3 + 1
Soul Reaping	10 + 1
Blood Magic	6 + 1
Inspiration Magic	6

The FoC Necro is a curses damage dealer, based on the [N/Me FoC Spiker] build, they do a large amount of armor ignoring damage, as well as providing blood ritual for the other casters.

Usage:

• Pre-cast Awaken the Blood before battle
• Next cast Suffering on the mobbbed group of enemies
• Now cast Arcane Echo, Feast of Corruption, Auspicious Incantation, and finally the echo'd FoC
  • Auspicious Incantation used on the echo'd FoC will give about 21 energy back
• Use Desecrate Enchantments sparingly for more armor ignoring area of effect damage
• Use Blood Ritual on party member when needed (mainly the 600 and support monk)

Alternatives:

• May replace Desecrate Enchantments with its duplicate Defile Enchantments
• Replace Auspicious Incantation with Mantra of Resolve to combat the interrupts in the Chaos Planes
• Replace Auspicious Incantation with another energy management skill like Power Drain

E/Me Heavy Nuker

Elementalist / Mesmer	Attribute Rank
Fire Magic	12 + 3 + 1
Energy Storage	12 + 1

The Heavy Nuker is a fire elementalist, based on the [Build:E/any Renewal Nuker] build.

Usage:

• Constantly maintain both Elemental Attunement and Fire Attunement
• Do not Meteor Shower groups with Bladed Aatxes in general, to ensure aggro is not broken - use Rodgort's Invocation and Fireball
• Use Glyph of Concentration in the Chaos Planes to fend off interrupts

Alternatives:

• Replace Glyph of Concentration with Glyph of Sacrifice, and use on echo'd skills to gain fast casting benefit but not deal with extra recharge time of echo'd skill
• Replace Glyph of Concentration with Auspicious Incantation, and use on echo'd skills to gain energy benefit but not extra recharge time of echo'd skill
• Replace Elemental Attunement with either Echo or Glyph of Renewal

Mo/Me Maintained Enchantment Smiter

Monk / Mesmer	Attribute Rank
Smiting Prayers	12 + 3 + 1
Protection Prayers	12 + 1
Inspiration Magic	3

The Maintained Enchantment Smiter is a main damage dealer through the use of the maintained smiting enchantments Retribution and Holy Wrath, they will be constantly at zero energy, so use signets to provide support to the party aside from their maintained enchantments.

Usage:

• Place Retribution, Holy Wrath, Balthazar's Spirit, and Vital Blessing on the 600 monk
  • If available, switch to a +1 Protection Prayers headpiece with a superior Protection Prayers rune to cast Vital Blessing, then switch back
• Use Signet of Judgment to deal extra damage and interrupt
• Use Purge Signet and Hex Eater Signet to remove conditions and hexes (try to get people standing together to get the most benefit from hex eater signet)
• Stay far out of aggro range at all times

Alternatives:

• Replace Signet of Judgment with Keystone Signet, to provide more hex and condition removal support, with slightly less damage
• Replace Purge and Hex Eater Signets with Bane Signet and Signet of Rage to do more damage, at the expense of condition/hex removal (generally not recommended)

N/Me SS Necromancer

Necromancer / Mesmer	Attribute Rank
Curses	12 + 3 + 1
Soul Reaping	10 + 1
Blood Magic	6 + 1
Illusion Magic	6

Usage:

Alternatives:

Dealing with the enemies

Bladed Aatxe

The first type of enemy you will encounter, they inflict massive physical damage, so keeping aggro on the 600 is vital, they appear in the Labyrinth.

• 600 goes in alone (with spellbreaker and other enchants) to get aggro from as many as is comfortable
• Nukers should 'not' use meteor shower on these enemies, to ensure they do not break aggro - they will die very quickly from smiting, foc, ss, etc.

Dying Nightmare

Very weak enemies with the sole purpose of stripping enchantments, they appear in the Labyrinth primarily, with a few more scattered in other areas.

• Make sure spellbreaker is up on the 600 whenever they pop up or are aggro'd, they will then generally kill themself by attacking the 600

Grasping Darkness

These enemies are also encountered very early on, they dont do a lot of damage - but are quite annoying with their energy draining and interruption skills, they will be encountered in the Labyrinth and Forgotten Vale.

• The 600 will be taking damage from these enemies, as they will sometimes not deal enough damage to trigger Spirit Bond, so the support monk must be ready with Dwayna's Kiss
• The 600 should precast Sympathetic Visage or Ancestor's Visage and keep them up while fighting the darknesses to stop the energy drain caused by "Fear Me!"

Terrorweb Dryder

Strong fire elementalists, they usuaully travel in small groups of 3 , there are many mobs in the Spawning Pools, and they also appear during the quests Unwanted Guests, Imprisoned Spirits, Servants of Grenth, Clear the Chamber, and Restore the monuments of Grenth.

• Try to wait until they are relatively closely grouped and use Spell Breaker before aggroing
• Quickly nuke/curse/etc them

Coldfire Night and Stalking Night

Water and Earth elementalists, respectively - appear in the Forgotten Vale and to a lesser extent in the Ice Wastes.

• Use the same technique as with the dryders above

Smite Crawler

Smiting monks who appear in the Ice Wastes.

• The 600 need only maintain Protective Spirit and Spirit Bond to stay alive
• There are two Dying Nightmares in the Ice Wastes, watch for them and keep Spell Breaker ready
• The 600 should maintain Sympathetic > Ancestor's Visage to stop the Smites from using Smite Hex and heals

Obsidian Behemoth

Immobile rangers, be careful of their many traps, they appear in the Twin Serpent Mountains primarily, with one group in the Forgotten Vale.

• Nature's Renewal makes these enemies a hassle - the smite monk should drop Holy Wrath and Retribution, and the 600 should switch to normal (maxed AL) armor, and drop all maintained enchants.
• To kill simply nuke/etc from a distance - try to use the terrain to your advantage to be out of range of the Behemoth's attacks
• After (or before or during) killing, the support monk should cast healing seed on the 600 so they can go in to clear out the traps

Charged Blackness

The blackness' are strong air elementalists who patrol the Twin Serpent Mountains and Spawning Pools

• Like when facing the other elementalists, cast Spell Breaker first, the other party members should wait to attack until the blackness' are in melee range of the 600

Banished Dream Rider and Mindblade Spectre

These enemies can be found primarily in the Chaos Planes, they are mesmers who use many hexes to degen and interrupt. The Mindblades also appear during the quest Escort of Souls.

• To take out a group of mindblades, have the support monk first cast Spell Breaker on the 600, then run in, the rest of the party should wait to attack until a majority of the mindblades are in melee range of the 600
• Be sure to use anti-interruption skills against these enemies if they are equipped
• When encountering the Banished Dream Riders, be aware that after killing them, 3 mindblades will spawn, after killing them 6 will spawn, and likewise 9 more will spawn.
  • Since these groups will always spawn in the same location after the previous groups death, it is very helpful to know these locations so that the party can avoid being spawned on top of by a large group, which can very easily end in party death
  • Note to self, create map of popup locations
• There are also several popups of Mindblades throughout the Chaos Planes, generally located around the patrolling Wailing Lord groups
• The Smite monk and support monk should be using their hex removal skills regularly to remove the especially damaging hexes that are cast on the party - particularly Migraine
  • To increase the effectiveness of Hex Eater Signet the ranged damage of the party should stand close to one another

Dead Collector and Dead Thresher

These enemies are death and curses necromancers located in the Bone Pits.

• Similar to other caster groups, try to keep SB up for as long as possible while the rest of the party deals damage
• The bone pits provide a bit more of a challenge to keeping enchantments up, as the Chained Souls will regularly respawn and use Rend Enchantments
• Watch the patrols, many groups make very long patrols in this area, which makes it very easy to be caught from behind

Completing the Quests

Clear the Chamber

This quest is relatively straight-forward, defeat the Bladed Aatxes, Grasping Darknesses, and Dying Nightmares on the way to the statue of the Reaper of the Labyrinth, where you will face a group of 3 Terrorweb Dryders.

Restore the monuments of Grenth

This is the longest quest in the Underworld, requiring you to clear the statues in 5 varied areas of the underworld. After taking this quest a group of 3 Terrorweb Dryders will spawn at each of the 5 monuments needed for the quest.

• If the area has not been cleared of other enemies before taking this quest, the party should be aware that if the Dryders are killed before any other surrounding enemies, that the reaper will spawn and the other enemies will attack the reaper - ending the party's stay in the underworld. It is therefore advised to try to kill the other enemies before taking out the dryders
  • This is especially problematic in the Spawning Pools where there are many dryder groups patrolling around the statue, and somewhat problematic in the Forgotten Vale and Twin Serpent Mountains
• After clearing the statue, a Reaper will spawn that will provide two things:
  • The ability to teleport between the cleared statue and any other statue previously cleared
  • A single quest, that upon completion spawns a Black Widow spider and an unlocked chest that has the possibility of dropping some very rare items, these quests are indicated below by the area in which they are located