Canthan New Year

[Lurker Wyrm]

The next big event is happening in Cantha. None of the festivities are open yet (will open Friday afternoon) but you can still see the redecorated versions of LA, Kamadan, and Shing Jea. It's not much compared to Wintersday and Halloween, just a lot of dragon heads and some lights strung up here and there. Also, in Shing Jea are 5 chefs who want various collectables. Here's a list of what they want, in case you want to gather your collectables:

Imperial Chef Jiong: Kappa shell soup
Archaic Kappa Shells, Mantis Pincers, Kraken Eyes, Naga Hides

Imperial Chef Tian: Dessert (umm... yeah...)
Truffles, Ebon Spider Webs, Half Eaten Blobs, Azure Remains, Icy Lodestones

Imperial Chef Ruen: Salad?
Alpine Seeds, Guardian Moss, Celestial Essence, Dragon Root

Imperial Chef Chen: Main Course
Igneous Spider Legs, Ebon Spider Legs, Bonesnap Shells, Azure Crests, Unctuous Remains

Imperial Chef Yan: Appetizer
Iridescent Griffon Wings, Tangled Seed, Fiery Crests, Smoking Remains

No idea on what any of this stuff will do yet. May be for the collector items, may be for something else entirely.

Edit: typos fixed.

[Seijin]

Imperial Chef Jion:
Ancient Kappa Shells - [Undercity] Kappas
Mantid Pincer - Any Mantids in Kurzick territory
Kraken Eyes - [Jade Sea] Phantoms
Naga Hides - [Shing Jea] low lvl Nagas

Imperial Chef Tian
Truffles - Fungul Wallows in Kurzick territory
Ebon Spider Webs - [Ring of Fire] Lava Spitters
Half Eaten Blobs - [Northern Kryta] any Bog Skales
Azure Remains - [Southern Shiverpeaks] Azure Shadows
Icy Lodestones - [Pre searing] Ice Elemental or [Northern Shiverpeaks] Ice Golem

Imperial Chef Ruen
Alpine Seed - [Shiverpeaks] Pinesoul, Juniper Bark, Succulent Juniper (quest only)
Guardian Moss - [Pongmei Valley, Mount Qinkai, Miashang Hills] Island Guardians
Celestial Essence - Nahpui Quarter mission Celestial Creatures
Dragon Root - [Pongmei Valley or Kurzick Territory] Dragon Moss and Undergrowths

Imperial Chef Chen
Igneous Spider Legs - [Ring of Fire] Lava Spitters
Ebon Spider Legs - [Maguuma] Maguuma Spiders
Bonesnap Shells - [Haiju Lagoon]
Azure Crests - [Jade Sea] Saltspray Dragon, Rockhide Dragon
Unctuous Remains - [Perdition Rock] Phantoms

Imperial Cheft Yan
Iridescent Griffon Wings - [Crystal Desert] Griffons
Tangled Seed - [Maguuma] any plants type enemies found in the area
Fiery Crests - [Perdition Rock and RoF] Drakes
Smoking Remains - {Ring of Fire] Nightmare

Icy Lodestones - Damadmoo farmed about 200 of these in pre sear and brought them over, so hit him up.

Dragon Root - I've got about 30 of these from farming Scar Eater to death, so if you need it, I've got it.

Some of the more out of the way things to get is from the Fire Chain Islands.

Perdition is the only place to find the phantoms. The phantom bosses sometimes drop more than 1 unctuous remain. And if you go past the Mursaat tower into the area where the wurm spawns, you can aggro a big group of phantoms (around 15 or so will suddenly appear). The eastern side of the island has a great number of drakes to farm for the fiery crest.

Ring of Fire mission is the only place to find Lava Spitters and Nightmares along with a small group of drakes. Wyrm, Vort, Fox, KoP and I went into the mission along with 3 heros which we used only to get past the first mursaat tower. The rest of the mission was pretty simple. It was two barrage rangers with FW and Winnow as well as the main tanking ranger with dust trap. A bonding monk, a Healing Rit, and a Mesmer. There are plenty of Lava Spitters to farm, the drakes number about 8, but only 4 Nightmares spawn.

Wyrm suggested soloing the Nightmares with a touch necro...I don't have a necro that has access to both touch skills and RoF mission, so I went with a touch ranger and it works without any problems.

1. Vampiric Bite
2. Vampiric Touch
3. Lightning Reflexes
4. Whirling Defenses
5. Troll Unguent
6. Strip Enchantment
7. Anything
8. Anything

Exp 12 + 1 + 3
Blood 12
WS 3 + 1

The Nightmares spawn in groups of two, so they're easy to tackle. Nightmares have plague touch, so no use taking throw dirt. But to minimize the melee dmg, I took two stances...I only really needed one and troll unguent just in case, but never used it. Basically make one group spawn and sit back and let them come to you. They'll both cast dark aura so I strip it off one of them to minimize dmg and just focus on him first. Meanwhile the other guy is pretty much killing himself. Touch one to death, then turn to the other and touch him to death (he should be at half health, if not less, already). Very simple. Take whatever heros/henchies you need to to get up to the tower and defeat the jade and tower. Remember to flag them somewhere else before aggroing the Nightmares.

[Lurker Wyrm]

For the toucher, you use Offering of Blood as your elite so you can keep using the touch skills. Even with all druid's (aka radiant) you'll still run low on energy.

[Seijin]

Yeah I saw that as the elite on the build, but against two Nightmares energy wasn't a problem at all when I faced them. Most of your energy gets used up on the first Nightmare, but by the time he's dead, the other one basically used up half its life using sacrifice skills.

EDIT: Oh yeah I had a staff with +15e too, so that helped.