Archive:A/E Perma Sliver Farmer

The PvXwiki community finds this to be an excellent build. If you disagree with this rating, please discuss it on the build's talk page. This build has been designed for the following use: PvE farming

This build is part of the current PvE meta. Remove this tag if it is no longer used in the current PvE meta.

This build uses the power of Sliver Armor combined with permanent Shadow Form to farm foes while being almost invulnerable.

Attributes and Skills

<pvxbig> [build prof=A/E Shadow_arts=12+1+3 earth_magic=12 deadly=3][glyph of swiftness@0][deadly paradox][Shadow Form][Glyph of Lesser Energy][Sliver armor]["By Ural's Hammer!"][Ebon Battle Standard of Honor][optional][/build] </pvxbig>

Optional Skills

• Air of Superiority (see note below for more information)
• Intensity
• "I Am Unstoppable!" (in areas with non-targeted/signet knockdowns)
• Feigned Neutrality
• Shadow Refuge
• Death's Charge (useful for boss farming, body-block-breaking, and minor healing)
• Shock
• Dash/Dark Escape (run to farming area)

Equipment

• Radiant Insignia and Runes of Attunement.
• Any 20% of Enchanting, preferably with extra energy. A Totem Axe or Rajazan's Fervor is ideal.
• 20/20 Earth focus. Droknar's Focus or Joffs' Focus is ideal. Also try an earth focus from Bariel Darkroot in Mineral Springs.
• Zealous scythe or other weapon for e-management; switch to this weapon and Auto-attack. Switch Deadly Arts for Dagger Mastery if using daggers.
• A Vampiric Weapon (optional: used to keep your health low to lengthen "By Ural's Hammer!" and prevent scatter).

Usage

• Auto-attack with zealous daggers (or a scythe) whenever not casting--you would normally just stand there waiting on recharge, so might as well get energy instead. Dagger mastery increases the chance of a double-strike.
• Cast Glyph of Swiftness followed by Deadly Paradox and Shadow Form. This will reduce Shadow Form's recharge to 23 seconds, which allow you to keep it up all the time.
• "By Ural's Hammer!" and Ebon Battle Standard of Honor are used to buff Sliver Armor with additional damage.
• To prevent scatter, allow Shadow Form to expire once, so that your health drops. Then, keep your health low by periodically switching to a vampiric weapon. Keeping health below 50% will also lengthen the duration of "By Ural's Hammer!"
• If taking, Air of Superiority, have it up whenever Sliver Armor is active, Asura rank allowing.
• Death's Charge can both be used to jump to a groups boss, in order to kill him first, and it can also be used to heal up damage you might experience from non-targeting sources eg. Giant Stomp

Counters

• Non-targeting/non-spell enchantment removal (Soulrending Shriek, Signet of Disenchantment)
• Non-targeting/non-spell damage (Twisting Jaws). However, an optional self-heal can counter this counter.
• Non-targeting knockdown. An optional anti-knockdown skill can counter this counter (see Optional Skills).

Variants

Variants of this build often replace "By Ural's Hammer!" & Ebon Battle Standard of Honor with other options. The Shadow Arts attribute can be changed as long as it is 13 or higher (with a 20% enchanting weapon; without an "of enchanting" weapon it must be 16). Using Essence of Celerity allows Glyph of Swiftness to be replaced with another skill.

List of Farming Locations

Please add any you know of with special tips on how to complete them if needed. Assume Hard Mode unless otherwise stated

• Riven Earth
  • Rekoff Broodmother + Raptors : Run in with the Shadow Form combo up and aggro everything, including the boss. You need at least 300 health for this run, since the boss can still hit you with Twisting Jaws. Air of Superiority will remove the conditions and damage done and the boss will be dead before it can hit you with twisting jaws again. An ideal variant is bringing Viper's Defense and Radiation Field and use GoLE to counter its energy cost. After the boss dies, cast Radiation Field and wait 5 seconds for Disease to appear. When the hatchlings are diseased, cast Viper's Defense. (Note: Use Asuran title for the extra energy)

• The Sulfurous Wastes
  • Dupek the Mighty, Hauseh the Defiler, Tanmahk the Arcane + Monoliths
    • Take a full group of henchmen, take the bounty and get in a Junudu. You can either go on the south route and run by only one mob to where Alem the Unclean is (South West corner of the map) or you can follow the normal SS/LB Farm Route to get points from this as well. Once you are in front of the temple and you killed the popups, send your heros, which should be out of the wurms, into the wastes north of you. Once they are all dead, go inside the temple with shadow form up and start activating all the shrines (Leave one off so you can repeat this quest easier). If you are being blocked, put up sliver armor early, as it will also remove all of your DP quickly. Then simple maintain sliver armor and kill them all. Note: You must have Air of Superiority with you and active during the entire temple.

• Depths of Madness
  • Ravager of Dreams : Leave from Abaddon's Gate and head to where the end of Gate of Madness was completed. Take Shadow Refuge instead of Intensity to reduce the risk of the Necromancers there killing you with Well of Silence Also, be aware of Shadow Warriors as they damage you during the run with Hundred Blades.

• The Eternal Grove (explorable area)
  • Jayne Forestlight, The Scar Eater, The Time Eater, Wiseroot Shatterstone, Bramble Everthorn
    • Take Shadow Refuge instead of Intensity. This whole list of bosses can be completed in one straight run. Start with The Scar Eater, which is very easy (Aggro three mobs). Then head east to Wiseroot Shatterstone (Aggro all mobs possible) Wiseroot Shatterstone can be hard to target with sliver armor so it may not be worth trying. Head back west towards The Time Eater and don't aggro the Warden (As few as possible from the mob you run by). The Ritualists put Splinter Weapon on them, and if you kill the Minion masters, they start to attack the masterless minions and you will take about 60 damage each hit. Jayne Forestlight is the hardest of this, so if you want to skip her, head up to Bramble Everthorn. If you do go for Jayne, make sure you don't have too many Wardens of the Tree on you (hammer melee) because sliver armor will target them over anything else, and Jayne will protect them, causing you to take lots of damage from Zealot's Fire. If only she is targeted, shadow refuge can keep you alive through it. For Bramble Everthorn, simply use the sliver combo and kill him. If you want The Ugly Stick, head west until you see Tembarr Treefall. Run to him and after 1 or 2 sliver uses against him he will die.
    • Note: Flower Spiritgarden and Spiritroot Mossbeard are not possible. Spiritgarden heals over all of your damage and Spiritroot kills you with explosive growth after sliver armor targets the spirits and kills them (Spiritroot may still be possible with Dark escape or some pulling away from the spirits).

• Forum Highlands
  • Churahm, Spirit Warrior
  • Grabthar the Overbearing
  • Bolten Largebelly
  • Korshek the Immolated

• The Underworld

• The Labyrinth: Boring. Take GoLE to counter "Fear Me!"
• The Ice Wastes: Smites are difficult, but possible--take Glyph of Lesser Energy and Shadow Refuge. Aggro as many smites and coldfires as possible. Be sure to stay out of range of the coldfires' pbaoe--note that the range of sliver armor is greater than it. Once aggroed, spam Shadow Refuge and be sure to wand the coldfires (NOT the smites because of their Shield of Judgment) as it is ending to get the extra health.
• Chaos Planes: Easily cleared with mass aggros in HM, though it is excruciatingly slow due to the massive HP of the mobs.
• Bone Pits: Kill the minions before their masters, as once masterless the minions will be targeted by AoE spells which will "splash" onto you through Shadow Form.

• Archipelagos
  • Ssyn Coiled Grasp : Run through the enemies with the build on. When you reach the boss, be wary of Destruction spirits from the boss and the other ritualists. Also it is advised to bring a source of healing just in case to deal with the damage Ancestor's Rage inflicts although Death's Charge by itself is sufficient enough.

• Ice Cliff Chasms
  • Elsnil Frigidheart + Frozen Elementals

• Magus Stones
  • Bredyss Longstride : Medium/Hard. Use the Intensity variant build. Make the run past the Wind Rider groups with SF up. There will be 2 groups of Krait + Bredyss group where you will find a Krait Devouss. Aggro one of the groups and approach Bredyss. Sliver Armor sometimes don't target the boss. If you're lucky and a second Devouss doesn't spawn you should be able to overwhelm the Devouss healing ability. In some cases it's possible you are killed by Death Nova.
  • Veturni Mindsquall : Easy. No particular tips. Sometimes when it's under 25% life he runs away making necessary to cast Sliver Armor another time.
  • Byndliss Flamecrown : Medium. Aggro at least one group of Krait.
  • Skomay Bonehewer : Hard. Sliver Armor doesn't always target him. Healing Signet plus Hylek Nahualli healing abilities can make him survive your damage.

• Mount Qinkai
  • Tomton Spiriteater : Make sure to aggro the second group to speed up killing.
  • Hukhrah Earthslove : Aggro as many groups as possible. You might need to cast Sliver multiple times.

• Glint's Challenge : First wave - NM or HM

• Maishang Hills
  • Sessk, Woe Spreader : Run out of Eredon Terrace and go straight south. May have to cast Sliver multiple times to target the boss. Drops Woe Spreader quite often. You can manage 3-4 within maybe 30 minutes. This weapon is an excellent staff for a Minion master. Also good for farming Monstrous Fangs as you can get near as many as you can the Unique Weapon.

• Sunward Marches
  • Eshim Mindclouder
  • Birneh Skybringer : Aggro as many groups as possible and he goes down in a matter of seconds.

• Domain of Fear
  • Flame of Fervor : You might want to take Shadow Refuge to counter Reversal of Damage. Also doable on HM, but if there is Scythe of Chaos in his group, just rezone and come back. You may have to cast Sliver multiple times. Also, if you have energy problems, you can take Lightbringer Signet. This boss drops a perfect staff for this build.
  • Storm of Anguish Just aggro all the groups which don't have Scythe of Chaos, and he will go down in a matterr of seconds. Make sure to cast Shadow Form outside of the range of Quickening Zephyr. Since you will in most cases be fightning in the range of QZ, you won't be able to reapply Shadow Form. If he drops anything worth picking up, just come and collect drops after you have respawned.
  • Shrieker of Dread

• The Mirror of Lyss
  • Yammiron, Ether Lord : Leave from Kodash Bazaar and aggro the beetle group on the way. Note: Roaring Ethers resurrect Yammiron after he is killed, but he doesn't drop any loot after the first time you kill him.
  • Riktund the Vicious : Aggro the beetle groups on both sides of the boss group to speed up things.

• The Ruptured Heart
  • Rual, Stealer of Hope : You only need to aggro the boss group. Be aware that sometimes there is Arm of Insanity that cast QZ. Just put SF up at out of QZs range. If there is Margonite Reaper in his group, wait for him to hit you with Mystic Twister, and use Death's Charge after that to get healed.

• Gate of Pain (Mission)
  • This whole mission can be completed (inc. master reward) in HM. Drop "By Ural's Hammer!" and replace the two optional skill slots with Lightbringer Signet and Heart of Shadow. Important note: Terrorweb Dryders are NOT demonic servants of Abaddon, so Lightbringer Signet cannot be used to gain energy. However, Tortureweb Dryders ARE affected by Lightbringer Signet. A video guide can be seen here.

• The Fissure of Woe
  • Priest of Menzies can be farmed for Elite Monk tomes. Drop By Urals Hammer and bring Finish Him and Death's Charge instead. Run to te area you get the Army of Darkness quest from and kill the Shadow Priest, 3 Shadow Rangers and Shadow Beast. The ghosts will pop, take the Army of Darkness quest. Don't worry about the Skeletons aggroing the ghosts, - they no longer kill them. Run to the Priest of Menzies getting as much aggro as possible. Pull the Skeleton casters so they are just below the priest of menzies, but make sure the priest of menzies doesn't start running round. Deaths Charge up to Menzies. The warriors will start running round but the casters will keep wanding, so sliver armor can kill Menzies before any warriors steal Sliver's target. Once Menzies is dead, recast SF and pick up your drops. Be careful of any traps laid by Skeleton Rangers.

• Yatendi Canyons
  • Corporal Suli Bring Shadow Refuge to counter the dervish Twister and replace " By Ural's Hammer" with Light of Deldrimor. You will wand to attack him too (to try to beat the priest's healing). However, if there are more than one priests in the groups you pull, you might want to rezone.
  • Makdeh the Aggravating
  • Hajok Earthguardian
  • Tain the Corrupter is also doable (mix with harpies for a faster take-down).

It would be a good idea to try to pull the dervish boss to the next boss (usually the Elementalist), so that there will be less kournan healers.

• Alcazia Tangle
  • Pywatt the Swift Take Shadow Refuge in the optional. Run south from Rata Sum (either through the spiders - with the risk of being stripped of the stance before casting SF - or around them). There's a second group of raptors near Pywatt which will prove useful in taking the boss down quicker, but also some ceratadons that WILL make short work of you. If the raptor didn't drop its talons, rezone and try again. If taking the short route (through the spiders) and getting killed more then halfway through, you'll be res-ed near the Alcazia portal. Don't worry about the DP, it will be lifted after slaying the boss and 3 of its mobs.

• Varajar Fells
  • Asterius the Mighty Drop "By Ural's Hammer!" and take Death's Charge and Shadow Refuge in the optional Slot. It would be faster if, on you'r route to the boss you won't aggro any healers. Going west from Olafstead there's a res shrine. Go west from there, up to the corner of the right hand rocky formation. Wait for the boss there. If you aggroed bisons on the way, you'll have to use DC every now and then (preferably after all of them have their Renewals cast). When the boss comes, it would be good if DC is already recharged so that you can counter its (and his gang's) renewals.

• The Undercity
  • BauBao Wavewrath Aggro all Kappa's around him to speed up the killing.

• Dasha Vestibule (explorable area) - NM
  • Shakor Firespear
  • Leilon, Tranquil Water
  • Yammirvu, Ether Guardian Avoid aggroing Behemoth Gravebanes or they will kill you.

Bring Death's Charge with you. Be careful not to aggro too many Sapphire Djinns, they might kill you with Heart of Holy Flame. Haven't tested HM too much, since Sapphire Djinns hurt almost as twice as in NM.

Notes

• A Zealous Scythe is used to gain up to 3 energy per attack (1 energy per foe hit) with Critical Strikes set to 0 (or more with Critical Strikes at 3). If Zealous Daggers are used instead, assign 3 Dagger Mastery to increase the chance of a double strike which will gain up to 2 energy per attack (1 energy per hit).
• If using a scythe instead of daggers, drop the points in Dagger Mastery and move them to Critical Strikes.

Air of Superiority effects

The benefits gained are recognized by the different dialogue bubbles above the characters head:

• "You're No Match for My Brains!" Gain 5 energy 20% chance.
• "Knowledge is Power!" Healed for 50 health 20% chance.
• "Kneel Before Your Master" Double XP gained 20% chance.
• "Is There Anything I Can't Do?" Recharge all skills 10% chance.
• "Buwahahaha!" All conditions removed from self 30% chance.

See also

• Build:A/E Perma Daggers Farmer
• Build:A/D Perma Shadow Scythe
• Build:E/A Shadow Raptor
• Build:Team - Underworld Speed Clear

Videos

• Instructional video On Raptor farming in Hard Mode (uses slightly modified build)
• HD video - farming Sunreach's Shield in Normal Mode (Sunreach Warmaker)
• See Discussion page for additional videos
• BogusDudeGW Assassin Playlist I have too many perma videos to keep listing here so they're all in this playlist. Includes FoW, DoA, IDS, ToPK, Grenths, Hidden City, Lots of boss farms and more, always adding to the list.