Runefarmer wood-elfs

[Obsession 0]

Like the topic says.. this is all about Runefarming builds. And because there isn't any right or wrong way to do it, I'll cover few options for runefarmer.

 

Basic idea:

You all probably knew this, but the point is to read only one rune per CA/spell you need and boost it to insane level whit gear and store as few runes as possible so your rune drop rate will stay high all the time. Note that socketing runes and to Combat Arts/Spells may have affect on rune drops, but it's minor than whit reading runes.

In this "guide" I'll look into few ways to do it.

 

Option 1: Thorn Bush Wood-elf - if you like to do it using magic

 

Really a blast build to play. Not only it's a good runefarmer, it's allso powerfull and deadly. Only spell you need is 1 thorn bush rune.

 

Thorn bush is specially really good against Orcs that usually drops runes often as it provides pure poison damage. Also it has several good sides why I love it so much. First off, there isn't other CA or Spell that has a chance to double it's damage and triple (or even more) it's damage range. Yup, I'm talking about when you or foe shoots into thorn bush and it explodes into poison ring and deals twice as much damage to all foes nearby. So it can kill mobs whit one good throw even if it's low level one.

 

Second good thing in Thorn bush is that it has really really low regen time so you don't need to worry how much spell regen you can find from shops. Just that it stays under 1.5s.. better under 1s. Third thing is the way it moves. It moves slowly and lasts long and pierce all foes so if they are in line they will all get killed.

 

Skills for TB farmer

Magic lore - Maxed

Meditation - Use some random points here, helps regen bit

Moon magic - keep adding points till your regen is down to 1.5 or less

Trading - maxed. So you can buy best gear there is.

Constitution - When you get ML and trading maxed and regen down, you can add here points as much you like

Armor - Same like whit Const

Parry - Same like whit two skills before, not must have skill

Agility - For more free def, not must have skill.

 

Tactics

Look for mobs as killing single foes is boring and slow way to farm. Allways aim first to any arrows flying on the battlefield, that will increase your killing speed. You can even collect mobs if the first one lacks archers.

 

What to wear

Some LL, not needed much as you will be dealing so much damage that it would be pointless to have more than 4-8%, some Crit to make it even better killer, Some MF.. well why not, like you really would face any real danger , + to spells and + to TB, +% poison damage (+% weapon damage poison doesn't work whit spells), some split, Items whit lot of sockets and + to thorn bush and Spell regen.

 

Option 2: PA + MS wood-elf - if you like ranged fighting

 

Like TB woodie, this one too is powerfull and easy to play. You only need two runes: penetrating arrow and multi-shot.

 

First goal is to get as many arrows from MS as possible by socketing MS runes or + to all Combat Arts ammys and then creating a combo of MS. After that it's not must to keep MS runes socketed if you need room for PA runes as you allready have it on your combo. So this way you can keep using it all the time higher level than it is.

 

Skills for PA + MS farmer

Weapon lore - main damage source so keep it maxed till you get good boost from gear

Concentration - good in the early levels. Around 20-40 is enought as you will find RSM gear that works better.

Constitution - Good to keep atleast 1/2 of your level

Trading - Maxed so you can buy goodies

Ranged Combat - few points.. I think 10 is max I would ever spend on it

Agility - when you get the chance, invest here hard.. it will raise your defence nicely and boost your AR a bit.

Armor - not so important as your goal is to snipe the foes. 1/4 or 1/5 of your level. Depens how aggressive player are you.

Parry - For extra defence. Use free points every now and then. You are not using shield so it won't be as good as whit magic or melee toons.

 

Tactics

Cast MS combo when you enter near mob and shoot as many PA's you get a chance to. Same time try to avoid ranged foes arrows and splitting foes as your toon is mostly powerhouse, not ment to take a hit back.

 

What to wear

MS gear in the stash so you can use them when you want to create your MS combos, + Combat Arts and + PA, +Crit, Bit more LL than magic build needs so around 8-12% depens how good your toons is doing, lot of RSM, MF if you find free sockets.

 

Option 3: melee

 

Wood-elf is really good melee fighter even if it's not very popular way to build a WE. I have done many using different weapons. For this guide I'll choose sword WE, just because she deals damage really well. But when going melee, Critical hit becomes your best friend. If you have seen how fast WE is whit daggers, you know why Attack is the best choice for main CA. Whit sword that animation is bit slower, but that's okey as that means your attack regen time can be bit higher.. (something like 0.?s so it's not big difference). Still your Attack regen time should be around 1s-1.5s (if it's higher you need to use normal hits too). If you think starting is too hard, you can use Quick as a flash, but it's up to you.

 

It's not big suprise that melee build is slower killer than magic or ranged and lot more dangerous as you are allways in range of getting hits. Still, it's good choice if you have played melee or hybrid seraphim that uses more melee than magic. We is about as good as seraphim is in melee so when you get it working, you will be killing as fast as any other melee toon.

 

Skills

Weapon lore - your main damage source so keep it as high as possible

Concentration - really usefull at lower levels and later on as attack has pretty high reg time. Still no worth using more than 40points max as you will get boost to it later.

Agility - Most important skill as you need lot of AR and Def to survive. Use as much points as possible.. atleast 1/2 of your level

Trading* (if you got elf trader, you don't need this one) - for finding best gear possible. maxed.

Constitution - keep it atleast 1/2 of your level

Armor - if you can keep it atleast 1/3 of your level, it's should provide nice boost to your resistances

Sword lore - min 10 points but you can add more if having trouble of hitting things.

Parry - extra def is good to have so use what ever points you are free to spend

 

*if you allready have trading elf, you could chooce moon magic, if you want to use Qaaf.

 

Tactics

On lower levels you need to be more alert as you are not dealing too much damage, but when you get attack regen times lower, you start to deal mobs lot better. Still keep enought potions whit you as when mobbed too hard, you will get in trouble. When you get your build together, you can just run into mob and kill archers first, then the rest.

 

What to wear

Your goal is to get atleast 50% Crit hit chance (that is around +100 crit mod), Lot of RSM and gear that boost your Attack. Also Widd can be usefull and lot of WE items provides it easily, same thing whit MF. Small amount of Open wounds will also provide extra damage.

 

Stay tuned for two more options still to come.. Ranged Hybrid and Melee Hybrid. Gotta take a break at this point..

Edited June 9, 2007 by Obsession

[myles 2]

My personal favorite rune build for a WE is MS + MH. A few +all CA level items will make the build fly already. This combo is very spamable but without the lag PA generates.

 

I'm curious about how you will do it with a melee WE though, so don't wait to long. MH maybe? WE's MH is one of the best in melee, esp. with a staff, I imagine a few level in MH plus a good staff will take the build very far.

[gogoblender 3,066]

This is excellent Obsession. Beautiful formatting and organization on the guide. Definitely a keeper. And getting runes with ranged is always appealing. I had always heard that vamps were the best rune hunters. Are you proposing this build as a rune hunter because it's more fun? Or do you think it's comparable to Vamp or Dwarf builds for rune hunting?

Great how you set up options, Combat Arts and tactics.

Very nice work here.

 

gogo

[Schot 407]

Oh this is truly what the community needs. More runes! At what char level would you say the runes start to shower down at Obsession? My BM needs more runes quick!

[Obsession 0]

I'm curious about how you will do it with a melee WE though, so don't wait to long. MH maybe? WE's MH is one of the best in melee, esp. with a staff, I imagine a few level in MH plus a good staff will take the build very far.

First time ever even tried mh whit staff and it is pretty cool. Never knew she can do so many hits whit it, so I have to invest so time to this project too.

 

@Gogo, magic way rune farming is way more fun (atleast for me) than whit vamp or dwarf. And you would be amazed how powerfull and fast killer she is even whit low level thorn bush. Casting is allways lot more fun than transforming into vamp every 30s or so and wack away monsters whit attack.

 

@Schot, from level 1 to what ever level you want. At some point my magic farmer were at that cave you showed us earlier on the far sight thread and in about 10-15min my inv was too full to pick up more runes. I had about 1/4 pots and rings and such what I allways carry around. 1/4 rares and 2/4 runes She basicly gets 1-2 runes per orc mob allmost all the time. It's starts to slow down only if keep too much runes on my inv and on my stash.

 

added melee option to starting post.

Edited June 9, 2007 by Obsession

[gogoblender 3,066]

I've never done a pure ranged build before, Ob.

And I'll be honest. After seeing the range of Combat Arts the Dwarf has I don't know if I'm all that hot to try it Also, I found the idea of just using an attack over and over for a vamp a bit not my style. However...I can see how running a WE Rune Hunter could be VERY fun.

I've known for a long time that the WE approaches the seraphim in term of number of Combat Arts and different strategies available.

You may have convinced me here Ob.

Oh, and btw...Happy Birthday!

 

gogo