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This method of farming drops which can then be broken down into mats is by no means new, nor did I discover it. I learned about it very recently, though, and thought I would share my experience.
With my trusty solo survival build these ice monsters go down fast, so it’s incredibly efficient for me. You can bet I’ll be returning here to grind AP/SP once I can start earning it again (hurray for Panoptic Core).
For those interested in the build, you can find it here. Enjoy the show.
Your build looks a lot like the :1 build to solo Transylvania” from the forums. I used to use it, but found a blade/shotgun build that I like a lot more. Using Run Rampant, 4 Horsemen, and CtP I found vs single targets I only got about 600 dps (I thought it was higher, but parse said nope). My current build still relies on CtP, but has a lot more damage coming from the passives so it does about 1000 dps single-target. And its AE is insane. Farming the NM mob swarms in KM Airport is literally 2 swings — 1 Bamboo Cutter to apply afflicted, then 1 CtP and it’s over. Well…. most of the time. Sometimes I have to do a 2nd round of it, but not often.
Oddly enough, since it is so fast vs the swarm mobs, it feels slow vs the single mobs, even though it parses so much higher than the burst build. Too weird, no? I’d link my chronicle, but currently I appear to be in my NM dps build, so that doesn’t help 😉
Just looked over your build again. I’m curious — why are you using Lick Your wounds over Circulation? Circ applies on any hit that applies with afflict (which when paired with Bloodsport is all of them) and is both a larger heal and it can crit, where LYW can’t.
Honestly, my soloing build was originally based on a Blue Mountain soloing build I came across very early on (about the time I was in that zone). Since then, I’ve tweaked it a bit but, since it’s always worked so well, I’ve never really revisited it to see if I could make improvements. However, your soloing build sounds pretty awesome. If you get a chance to log out in it, I’ll definitely check it out on Chronicle. In the mean time, I’ll also try replacing LYW with Circulation.
Thanks for the tips! 😀
My build is this, just put 4 utilities in your actives. I tend toward Art of War for the Impair/glance, Turn the Tables, Spiral of Death for a gap closer, and I think I usually have one of the Shotgun bombs in the final slow. For aux I use a chainsaw with Timber as the attack and Revved Up as the passive, though sometimes I toss on the Quantum Brace for a little bit of range instead.
Vs swarms I tend to only need Bamboo Cutter and CtP. I use both finishers plus the chainsaw vs single-targets, so theoretically an ST finisher for the SG would be better, but I like the AE of Riot Act just in case, ya know? Sometimes CtP doesn’t penetrate anymore, after all, so having more AE isn’t a bad thing. And since there are easily swappable active slots, could have an ST and an AE finisher and just use what the situation calls for. I just haven’t found I’ve really needed to worry about it.
The synergies are: Bamboo Cutter is a Frenzy, so Shoot ‘Em Up applies afflict. CtP exploits the afflict to penetrate most of the time. On a penetrating hit you get the additional hit from Sudden Return and Arterial Pulse tosses out from 1 to 25 extra hits as well (the number of mobs you penetrate squared). If a mob dies from that, then Hit and Run passive also sends out a chain pulse like Arterial Pulse did and makes the rest of the swarm blow up too. And of course every 6th hit procs From the Abyss for an additional 1600-ish damage at 2800 AR.
For survivability, Leeching Frenzy returns about 4% of the damage I do, and Circulation applies a HoT on myself every time I hit anything with Bamboo Cutter. Between the 2 of them it’s rare that it’s not enough unless I pull more mobs than I can hit at a time. Then the damage taken can overwhelm me. But anything up to 5… golden! I can even farm the Quarry in BM with this, though I take enough damage that I’ll eat a taco in between fights and it can get a little scary at times.
My preferred farming areas are the wolves and ghouls in NE Shadowy Forest in and south of the Dimir farm (where I always seem to be alone and you quite literally can’t run out of mobs), or the NM mobs in the KM Airport (assuming it’s not already being farmed). The NM ghouls near the church in Besieged Farmlands are decent too, but they’re also heavily farmed and respawn slow enough that you can clear them all out and need to wait, so I tend not to go there.
Cool. I’ll give this a whirl (pun intended :D). Thanks for posting it!
I just finished an 18’s run and remembered to swap back to my solo build. Chronicle is here, but I don’t know when it will update 😉