Archive:A/E Perma Daggers Farmer

This build has been archived as of 02:44, February 26, 2010 (UTC), for the following reason:

Game update 20100225

This build had been designed for the following use:

PvE
farming

This build was in the category Good before being archived.

Compensates for the SF nerf with Asuran Scan and DB spam. As fast as the original with decent ranks, and manages energy even when fighting multiple Grasps of Insanity in hard mode.

Attributes and Skills

<pvxbig> [build prof=A/E dag=10+3 sha=12+1+3 crit=8+3][Glyph of Swiftness@0][Deadly Paradox@0][Shadow Form][Golden Fox Strike][Golden Fang Strike][Death Blossom][Asuran Scan][Critical Agility][/build] </pvxbig>

IMS, Critical Eye, or other utility for Asuran Scan.
Using Smooth Criminal in place of Asuran Scan makes it possible to solo farm some bosses in HM.
Wild Strike for Golden Fang Strike.
Note: If using Essence of Celerity, then Glyph of Swiftness may be dropped. Removing Glyph of Swiftness eliminates the need for the elementalist secondary and allows another secondary profession.

Equipment

All Radiant Insignias.
The Runes given above and two Runes of Attunement.
Zealous Daggers of Enchanting with "Guided by Fate" or "Strength of Honor" Inscriptions. Pywatt's Talons are ideal.
A high-energy set (Staff of Enchanting, optionally with "Have Faith" Inscription and preferably with an Insightful Staff Head). This is optional, but can help to compensate for mistakes or "Fear Me!"
When not using Zealous daggers, make sure you bring Golden Lotus Strike over Golden Fox Strike, and Critical Strike over Death Blossom. This will give you 2 energy per chain.
An Essence of Celerity, cupcake or IMS will be helpful in UW for pulling.

Usage

Maintain Shadow Form. This is accomplished by:

1. When starting off, use Glyph of Swiftness. Within about 13 seconds of using Glyph of Swiftness, activate Deadly Paradox, and cast Shadow Form. The two skills together reduce the recharge of Shadow Form to 30 seconds, well under its duration.

2. Precast Glyph of Swiftness when Shadow Form is roughly 3/4's of the way recharged. This is to split up the energy cost of the cycle into two separate packets, making it less vulnerable to disruption through "Fear Me!" and player errors.

3. With Glyph of Swiftness active, activate Deadly Paradox and recast Shadow Form on recharge. You should have roughly three seconds to spare. This requires 30 energy, which you MUST have.

4. Rinse and repeat.

Maintain Asuran Scan on your target and spam your attack skills, auto-attacking to regain energy through Critical Strikes. Note that you MUST have 30 energy to recast Deadly Paradox and Shadow Form, and that attack skills take time. With practice, you will be able to tell when it is possible to squeeze in one more attack chain before renewing Shadow Form, but it is ALWAYS better to do slightly less damage than to break the chain and die.
Do NOT cast Asuran Scan between Glyph of Swiftness and Shadow Form.

Counters

Failure to maintain Shadow Form (either through lag or player error).
Anything that can get through SF--PBAoE, Shouts, Riposte, Signets, Illusionary Weaponry, Touch Skills, etc. Sometimes these effects can be compensated for, sometimes not.
Mobs that can outheal your damage.

Farming Locations

The build can farm anywhere that the mobs cannot outheal your damage, cannot interfere with the SF cycle, and cannot kill you through SF. Notable locations include:

The Underworld, especially the Chaos Fields and Bone Pits. For the run, Dash, Escape or a cupcake or Essence of Celerity are helpful--Dash or Dark Escape should be brought instead of Asuran Scan, as the mobs use hexbreaker anyway.

Note that the Chaos Planes are actually easier in Hard Mode, as it is easier to pull the mobs together against the chasms so that death blossom can take them out.
Note that in the Bone Pits, the Dead Collectors summon minions. If the summoning mob is killed before the minion, the minion will become masterless, and the other mobs will target it with AoE spells whose splash damage can harm the player through Shadow Form. To avoid this, simply kill the minions first.

The Fissure of Woe, especially the beach and spider cave, and Shadow Army groups without a monk (Can't anymore with the Dec update to 100 blades. Warriors can now go throug SF and I died the moment I stopped to recast SF while running to beach).
The Tombs of the Primeval Kings. This build can solo-clear the entire area on hard mode (screenshot of dead Darknesses on discussion page), though in terms of plats-per-hour it is probably more profitable to repeatedly kill the ecto-dropping monsters on the first level, then /resign and repeat.
Ravenheart Gloom (normal mode only). By running past the initial onslaught, it is possible to range free in the surrounding areas and selectively engage certain groups--Heart Tormentors and Earth Tormentors both have AoE that can kill through SF, but mobs without those types can often be soloed.
The Secret Lair of the Snowmen.
Ice Imps for Icy Dragon Swords (switch out Critical Eye for Dark Escape and you can do it in Hard Mode).
Pongmei Valley- Hard Mode -This area can only be accomplished if you swap Asuran Scan for Way of Perfection in order to counter-act the poisoning from the Kirin. Always kill the Kirin in a group first, because they will immediatley create minions from the corpses if you don't. Also, be careful when fighting the Amfah, because death nova can penetrate Shadow Form.

Other Uses

Tanking, whether in elite missions or normal PvE.
Soloing bosses that don't use counters to this build.

Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jRaZF3iQDA, a previous version (pre-nerf, without Asuran Scan), in "Tomb of the Primeval Kings"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYjK8XQzUJU, note that this was with the original Arcane Echo build.
AE FoW Shadows Beach Cave Available in HD
AE FoW Cave Tower Battlefield Available in HD