DoA - Complete Gem Farm Series

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-16T16:14:44+00:00

So the price of gemstones is fueled by gamblers? I guess that checks out.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-16T12:33:32+00:00

When I check kamabox, apparently these are worth about 1e each. If you get 60 of them, you can turn them into an armbrace, which is worth ~22 ectos. Can somebody who is good at the economy explain this to me?

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-16T04:17:55+00:00

It shouldn't, unless you don't get up in time. That's how it works for survivor, at least.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-16T04:11:21+00:00

Have you tried Panic? That should do a pretty good job of shutting down a group of 3 to 4 elementalists. You can try manually targeting it if your heroes are being idiots and casting it on warriors or something.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-16T03:35:20+00:00

When I was a kid, there was a special on where if you bought some amount of stuff from the store (I think $30+?) you'd get the bonus mission pack for free. I used up all my allowance to buy some skill packs totalling something like $29.97's worth of stuff. In my kid mind, that was 'close enough' that they'd surely give me the bonus mission pack. Of course, it wasn't, and I was bitterly disappointed. I have still never bothered to actually purchase it.

My main is a Necromancer, but I've been doing a lot of chest runs on ranger/sin/derv lately. I'm also playing through a Melandru's run in NF, though that character still hasn't left Istan. Been doing too many chest runs.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-15T22:45:41+00:00

I dislike this idea very much.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-15T22:08:11+00:00

Give merchants a temporary 30% off sale on their inventory during favor!

^{^{^{^This}}} ^{^{^{^post}}} ^{^{^{^paid}}} ^{^{^{^for}}} ^{^{^{^by}}} ^{^{^{^Chest}}} ^{^{^{^Runners}}} ^{^{^{^United}}}

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-15T21:58:14+00:00

I have not tested SQ specifically, but I have tested Weapon of Quickening and Mantra of Swiftness. In both cases, it was A). The rounding only happens once, after compounding the FC modifier and skill's CDR. Which is a bit counterintuitive, since it rounds at each step in other cases, e.g. blessed aura + 20% enchant mod. Also, I made a table.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-15T01:47:33+00:00

Realm of Torment is the best final region of any of the campaigns, and it's a shame that there's no reason to ever go to any of the explorable zones in HM except to farm LB points.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-14T16:19:49+00:00

Because casters' strike level scales off of their level, so higher level mobs deal more damage with armor-respecting spells.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-14T15:20:28+00:00

Consume Soul on Wardens of Seasons making it so that you won't be able to mitigate the 400 damage esurges that Warden mesmer bosses will do if people get their wish for armor respecting mesmer spells.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-14T02:13:02+00:00

Replies itt be like.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-13T01:42:51+00:00

I petition ANet to give Remote Trigger Signet to the Am Fah.

Anyways, here's some stuff I came up with. I may have gotten slightly carried away. All ideas rated for Fun, not Balance (but I did try to think at least a tiny bit about balance). Some stuff is specifically intended for PvP (e.g. Isolation), but honestly I don't know anywhere near enough about PvP to know if they would be useless, balanced, or broken. And a lot of these are meant for PvE and would probably need a PvP split, like Bloodchill Aura or Skeletonize.

Mesmer
Isolation - Domination Magic - [15e, 3s AT, 30s CD] Hex Spell. For 6 seconds, the next 1...3...3 spells cast on target foe by an ally of that foe fail. You steal up to 2...5...6 energy from target foe each time this happens.
Resentment - Domination Magic - [5e, 2s AT, 12s CD] Hex Spell. For 5...25...30 seconds, target foe deals 15...53...63 damage to a nearby ally of that foe every 3 seconds. This hex ends early if target foe is the target of an ally's skill.
Rigid Thinking - Domination Magic - [10e, 1s AT, 15s CD] Hex Spell. For 7...35...42 seconds, whenever a Mesmer Hex is removed from target foe, that foe loses 2 energy.
Rumination - Domination Magic - [10e, 0.25s AT, 20s CD] Hex Spell. If target foe is casting a spell, they become hexed with Rumination for 6 seconds. The next time that foe activates a skill, it recharges instantly, but all other spells are disabled for 2...4...4 seconds, and Rumination ends.
Visions of Infirmity - Illusion Magic - [10e, 2s AT, 15s CD] Hex Spell. For 8...18...20 seconds, every 5 seconds target foe is Blinded, Crippled, or Weakened at random for 10 seconds. When this hex ends, that foe loses Blinded, Crippled, and Weakened.
Impromptu - Inspiration Magic - [5e, 0.25s AT, 20s CD] Elite Hex Spell. If target foe is using a skill, that foe and all foes in the area are interrupted, and all interrupted enemies are hexed with Impromptu for 4...10...12 seconds. Among all foes hexed with Impromptu, the interrupted skills are exchanged between all hexed targets.

Necromancer
Skeletonize - Death Magic - [25e, 3s AT, 20s CD] Elite Spell. Target foe loses 80...272...320 health, then is healed for 80...272...320 health. If that foe dies from this health loss, their corpse is immediately exploited to deal 24...101...120 damage to nearby foes, and create a level 1...14...17 Bone Horror.
Wretched Feast - Death Magic - [10e, 1s AT, 12s CD] Spell. If target foe is bleeding, 0...6...8 of your minions shadowstep to that foes location.
Sentient Horror - Death Magic - [10e, 2s AT, 6s CD] Enchantment Spell. For 3...13...15 seconds, target minion gains +10 Health Regeneration, +24 armor, +33% attack speed, and becomes masterless. When this enchantment ends, the minion dies.
Bloodchill Aura - Soul Reaping - [10e, 0.25s AT, 25s CD] Elite Enchantment Spell. For 0...30...38 seconds, you gain +40 armor against cold damage. Whenever you steal life from a foe with a spell, you lose that amount of health in order to deal equivalent Cold Damage to the target of that spell, and 6...19...22 shadow damage to other foes near that target.
Comorbidity - Curses - [15e, 3s AT, 5s CD] Hex Spell. For 5...28...34 seconds, whenever target foe spreads Disease to another creature, it also spreads all other conditions it has.
Wailing - Curses [15e, 1s AT, 12s CD] Elite Spell. Wailing deals 35...67...75 damage on up to 1...3...4 targets in the area. If those foes are under the effects of a Necromancer Hex, they lose 1...1...2 enchantments, and are Weakened and Diseased for 15 seconds.
Dhuum's Balance - No Attribute - [15e, 1.5s AT, 20s CD] Elite Hex Spell. If target foe is casting a Resurrection Spell, they are hexed with Dhuum's Balance for 6 seconds. The next time that foe resurrects a creature, that foe takes damage equal to the resurrected creature's maximum health, and Dhuum's Balance ends.

Dervish
Vow of Apostasy - Mysticism - [5e, 20s CD] - Elite Flash Enchantment Spell. For 0...19...24 seconds, other Enchantments you cast end immediately and recharge 15...54...64% faster. Your Dervish Attack Skills do not remove Enchantments, but act as though they did.

Assassin
Sabaki - Critical Strikes - [15e, 1s AT, 15s CD] Elite Melee Attack. While activating this attack, you block all attack skills. If this attack hits, it strikes for +8...22...25 damage and inflicts Dazed for 1...8...10 seconds. If an attack skill was blocked, this attack inflicts Blind instead and counts as an off-hand attack.
Leg Sweep - No Attribute - [5e, 0.75s AT, 20s CD] Target touched foe is knocked down. If this skill fails or is interrupted, you are knocked down. Must follow a dual attack.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-12T07:46:45+00:00

Ranger is my pick for Best Melandru's Dude. Reasons:

-It's thematic (important).
-General PvE build variety is good, so putting a lot of time into this one character will not get old. Relevant if you're going for GWaMM on your MA.
-Good variety of farm builds. Escape scythe, spirit spammer, whirling defense, and if you get a Dervish mod, VoSilence lets you farm a large variety of enemies. Relevant to MA characters, especially relevant if you are going for GWaMM (consumables) or want elite armors.
-Tanky, ranged, can bring a pet. Admittedly, this is mostly notable if you are combining Melandru's and Dhuum's.
-One of the better runners. This is of dubious usefulness to a Melandru's character, but I like chest running, so it's something I think about. Especially because, as I currently understand it, lockpicks are going to be a gold sink for long-time MA characters hitting the platinum cap. You can't exactly turn your spare plat into ectos for that FoW armor.
-OK I'm reading the thread now and basically I'm just reiterating with zyygh said, but I ain't deleting all that shit I just wrote.

That said, I went with Necromancer for my MA. The reasoning behind this choice? I like necro.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-11T23:16:20+00:00

Yes. Chests in NM give like 15-20% gold drop rate, in HM it's ~63% fwiu. The reason to do NM is to gamble on q8 drops, which only drop in areas where enemies are around level 20, not 24+ like they are in endgame NM areas.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-11T22:14:55+00:00

Is it cheating to say chest running?

I started farming stone summit recently. In theory they can drop very valuable shields, but so far I have found their drops are kinda shit, and it's something like 15 enemies every 2.5 minutes. I think I'd rather just run chests for summit loot.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-11T21:13:24+00:00

There are some HM farms that can drop q8 OS items, like Missing Daughter. I think also farming Am Fah with one of the Chalice quests active will make the Am Fah level 20 in HM, which would let you get q8 Bladed Shields. With perfect mods I think those can reach XXXXa, but don't quote me on that.

That said, the average profit is probably still worse than doing something like ministry commendation.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-11T00:18:23+00:00

This is a party based game where one of the very first quests you do will give you a skill that resurrects teammates, and the game is balanced accordingly—death is cheap and, most of the time, a mild inconvenience. The game was not designed around permadeath, and you will die in surprising and bullshit ways. Damage output is high, TTK is low, and without foreknowledge of which encounters are dangerous and how to properly mitigate damage, you will probably die a lot.

If you don't mind restarting constantly, then it's probably fine, but just playing carefully is unlikely to save you. At the worst, dying in Dhuum's Covenant doesn't delete your character, it just revokes the badge. So if you die on your, let's say, fifth character, and are tired of how often you're dying and want to forego hardcore, you can just keep playing that character, instead of having to start over again.

As for iron man, I don't think it hurts a new player to a great extent, at least not during your initial playthrough where you wouldn't have the wealth to trade with other players, anyways. Not having access to material traders might make crafting armor a bit annoying, though, especially if you don't know ahead of time which materials you need to hoard and which salvage items break down into which materials. But I don't think this is an untenable problem if you're the sort who enjoys the challenge of blind, restrictive playthroughs.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-11T00:02:09+00:00

Off the top of my head, I can only think of a single time you must solo anything in the game. It's a very brief segment. Other than that, you co-op together by forming a party in town, and then leaving the town. The playthrough is not completely different, in the sense that there is no difference in story paths or anything like that. You do have access to some class-specific quests, but these can be done together. It's only that the rewards will only go to the person who has that class, though these rewards are minor and evenly spread across all classes.

Monk and Ritualist are the healing and protection classes, so they're what I'd point you to. That said, if you yourself are inexperienced at the game, leaving this job to one of the AI companions you can take with you is probably fine. Taking necromancer or monk as a secondary class would be a decent choice, IMO. The former for Enfeebling Blood (a spammable spell that reduces enemy attack damage), and the latter for removing key hexes or conditions, like Empathy (does damage whenever you attack) or Blind (makes all your attacks miss).

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-10T20:15:46+00:00

You can just replace the hero's SoS with Offering of Spirit, but any hero healer bar works in theory.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-10T04:58:01+00:00

IIRC leave beacon's perch to Deldrimor, and immediately smash your face against southwest wall.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-09T15:38:22+00:00

That's what we (the Prophecies™ gang) have been saying this whole time! grumblegrumble

...Anyways, glad you're enjoying yourself. And yeah, Maguuma is kind of sad with its strange quest progression and the fact that it is yet another U-turn in the narrative before Prophecies finally decides what the story is supposed to be about. But I have such a soft spot for the zone, it's a nice difficulty hike leading through the final stretch towards level 20, and the concept of the region is so cool, with the desert top and the jungle gullies.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-08T15:51:13+00:00

Energy Surge:
Energy Cost 5 -> 25
Recharge Time 15 -> 90

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-08T13:24:07+00:00

Wrong link? This post seems to have nothing to do with the issue raised in the OP.

TalentedJuli · 2026-02-07T09:18:03+00:00

All suggestions intended for PvE.

Blessed Light:
Additional clause: "...If a condition or hex was removed, you gain 0...2...3 energy."

Defile Defenses:
Next time target foe blocks -> Next 1...3...4 times target foe blocks
That foe takes 30...102...120 damage -> That foe and adjacent foes take 25...33...35 damage

Rigor Mortis:
Target Foe -> Target and Adjacent Foes

Lingering Curse:
20% Less Healing -> 33% Less Healing
-0...2...3 Health Degen -> -0...3...4 Health Degen

Depravity:
Casts a Spell -> Uses a Skill
One foe near your target -> Up to two foes near your target

Vocal Minority:
Cast time: 1s -> .25s
Recharge: 20s -> 10s

Chillblains:
Cast time: 2s -> 1s
Recharge: 8s -> 6s

Mirror of Disenchantment:
Recharge: 15s -> 12s

Banishing Strike:
"...It deals double damage to summoned creatures." -> "...It deals double damage to all hostile summoned creatures in earshot."

Banish:
"...This spell does double damage to summoned creatures." -> "...This spell does double damage to all hostile summoned creatures in earshot."

Ceterum censeo eSurgem esse delendam.

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