FoW Blitz

[FoxBat]

Seeing there is open access to FoW/UW this weekend (and the alliance is planning something for saturday)... I wanted to discuss a team build for a speedy full-clear of FoW. As in charging into most groups rather the slow and boring bonded-tank-pulls-aggro variety, so we have a chance on completing every quest in a timely fashion.

KingOfPain already tried this with Warblade? One of the keys was to bring a Minon Master, whose power is hailed in most PvE but aggro is feared in more difficult/sensitive places like FoW. Seems they nailed 7 of the 9 quests, so I'm curious what builds you guys were using, and where things went awry. Also curious to know which are the hard monsters to plan for as I've never seen about half of FoW.

If you *dont* post anything, you guys may have my own ideas inflicted upon you soon. Which are something like:

Orders/barbs on an MM
1-2 Paragons with GftE/Anthem of Flame, and maybe Crippling Anthem. Also Watch Yourself, Stand Your Ground. Add a few spear skills and agressive refrain.
1-2 Ranger(s), either utility with apply poison/broadhead, or the barrage variety with savage and maybe concussion shot. Bring pets for extra minion corpses if nothing else.
2-3 melee guys. Axe warriors with cyclone, moebius-blossom assassin, lyssa dervish, as long as it deals physical-type damage and a lot of it. Think offense, not stance-tanks.
2 Monk backline PvP-style heavy on the prot prayers, no bonders which just get thrashed by NR in the forest. Maybe a LoD and ZB combo. Need good hex removal to clean off spiteful spirit, possibly pre-veiling of melee, along with purge signet and a low-energy set for backup.

[Seijin]

Well it was Urgoz they were going to tackle, but now I guess its UW or FoW. I'm really tempted to call in sick this weekend because I rarely get to venture into those areas with a full team of allies or guildies, and PuGs can be a real hassle to deal with in time consuming areas like those.

I know I'll have time on Friday seeing as I switched shifts with someone at work, but that's our GvG night as well. Decisions, decisions do I want to work and earn money or play a game? 8)

What are the requirements for access to those areas? Is it just ascension (or its equivalent in Factions and NF)? If so I can take any profession with most of their primaries fully unlocked. The only question is then where we'll meet. If we do ToA, I have to move some of my characters there. Chantry is the only place all my characters have access to. ToA and that place in Factions I'd need to do some moving to get to.

[KingOfPain]

We pretty well steamrolled FoW with a 2+6 team, 2 human and 6 heroes - 2 monks, Rit, Para, Dev, Rng, Me and Nec.

Ugh, not a team make up you will likely see in ToA.

The MM was one of the key addition that made a notable difference, tho not the only key to the success we had (We brought the same MM down with an alliance team the next day with different results). The MM makes the pace faster as one would have guessed, as well as more hectic (in a fun way). You and I have discussed how boring it is do THE standard bond/bow pull/hold aggro/4 monsters at a time can be. Nothing's wrong with that, but certainly not necessary with a good team, and when the team knows what to expect and can deal with "situations". Anyone who enjoys a little controlled chaos will have fun with a MM in FoW.

We didn't spend too much time to spec everyone (human and heroes) so I am guessing the individual builds we used were all standard (in the RB sense) build with little tweaks at the most.

We used 2 monks. I am not sure how WB spec'd his Dunky, but my Dunky was my normal healer with my favorite elite Empathic Removal. I might switch him to LoD later. Cautery Signet and Remedy Signet combo seems a good choice for party wide condition removal. The two monks were able to keep this team alive and healthy. IIRC, we had only a couple of instances where we had 3-4 dead heroes at once, and only one death for the only tank, Melons. A Well of Blood here and there would make the 2 hero monks more-than-enough for FoW.

The 2 mass heroes deaths, and the only times we had to run and and string out the mobs:
Just outside the Tower after accepting the quests, where you would turn to the cave. There are 2 converging mobs with 2 monks in each group. Aggroing both group at the same time ensured a tough fight. The MM was a noob and didnt stand back enough (at least that's my story).
The Lake of Fire is a bit tricky for AI to not aggro more than you want with its twisted paths.

I think we had an easy time because the team was built the way I am trying to work into a 1+3 FoW team. I don't worry about direct damage so much (as you can see from the professions) damage skills are almost secondary. Shut down and Conditions did a good job.
Jin Used BHA to daze the casters and helped with poison.
I am not sure which hero WB fitted Blind/Weakness to to shut down meleers.
Ugo kept Anthem of Flame up and used Fevered Dream to spread the good will around.
Even Melons had Epidemic to help condition spreading.

Admittedly, we split the heores just right - Any more semi micro management would have detracted the fun.

I think it will be fun if we farm FoW with a RB team similar to the build above. We can also try the same in UW. It is easy to throw together - Just bring some key conditions, ways to spread them, a mm to change the pace. Some of the skills I would like to see here are:

- Virulence - Weaken, poison, disease
- Fevered Dream - makes all conditions on target foe AoE
- Epidemic - spread conditions to adjacent foes
- Board Head Arrow - or other forms of easy to apply (reliable as in not having to meet other requirements, tho there are some conditions you can count on in this build such as on-fire) daze
- Blind - I like to see an ele (prime/sec) using Steam for blind. It's cheap, and does decent damage if pumped.

These are by no mean the only skills that are viable, but they are a potent combo. Fit any of your characters with one or more of these or similar skills, then fill the rest of the skill bar with your own preferences - and you are ready for the team. Hopefully, everyone will have more than one character who can join up.

For the most part, I will bring Ugo, my Para. His main contribution will be, Anthem of Flame, bleed, deep wound, Epidemic or Fevered Dream. Otherwise, if someone else is bringing Fevered Dream, Ugo can switch in Cautery Signet to deal with party wide condition removal.

Other skills to consider if you can fit them in comfortably:
Fragility - Could be an overkill. Often enough you don't want to kill off the target too fast if its used to spread conditions.
Winter - might be nice to negate the light dmg from the shepherds in the forest, since they use Iron Mist
Some hex removal, tho I am not too concerned about SS especially with a RB team.

Hope to see lots of FoW and UW runs with you guys this weekend and remember to clear inventory space to pick things up


KoP

[WarBlade]

The central part of the build was just my MM steamroller, but with the paired MMs that time instead of just the first one with Paragon support.

Ritualist - player
Life, Recuperation, one energy elite (I used Spirit Channeling)

MM 1 - hero
Animate Bone Minions, Jagged Bones

MM 2 - hero
Animate Bone Fiends, Flesh Golem

It's really simple. The MM's build an army and the Ritualist keeps it intact with those two spirits. Recuperation offsets the initial stages of degeneration and the Life spirit pulses everything back up to periodically do away with the scratches.

Weak points:
- The plain littered with undead offers minimal corpses and the Berserkers have a habit of nailing the existing supply, so that's one area that can be hard work to get through as the party falls back on non-MM tactics.
- Other party members pausing for energy creates a minion degeneration problem.

[Kafziel]

The FoW weekend was over a long time ago, but here's a build I wound up having a lot of success with (cleared all of FoW and completed all quests in ~3.5 hrs):

1 W/E: Shock/Axe Warrior with Triple Chop (hero)
1 R/W: Barrage/Interrupt Ranger with "Shields Up!" and "Watch Yourself!" (hero)
1 P: Incoming/"They're on Fire!"/"Stand Your Ground!"/"Never Surrender!" Paragon (human)
2 E/Me: Searing Flame Elementalists with Power Drain and Leech Signet (heroes)
1 Me/(E?): Domination Mesmer with Energy Surge (human)
1 Mo/(E?): Glimmer of Light monk (hero)
1 Mo/(E?): Light of Deliverance monk with Prot Spirit and Shielding Hands (hero)

It was pretty straightfoward: aggro every single group on your compass, rush in blindly, and annihilate the enemy before they can annilhilate you. Our goal was, quite obviously, to do the run as quickly as possible with little to no regard for safety. We had quite a bit of offensive/defensive synergy, and a decent mix of offensive damage sources (3 attack-based, 3 spell-based) to hedge against enemy shutdown, so we took a lot of risks. Only had trouble with Maelstrom and Energy Surge when we aggro'ed 4 groups at once in the Great Battlefield. Frantic micromanagement fixed that problem though. About 6-7 deaths in total throughout the whole run. Pretty much just exploited the raw power level gap of the NF skills vs the Prophecies environment here.