Recommendations/tips for Shav solo for ingredient grinding?

[RS-Makk]

I am finding myself with 'time' while waiting for raid timers.. dont have a lot of alts (and dont feel like doing the XP grind right now - waiting a couple of months to get some +3 tomes from raiding and then will TR and do on my main).. and am thinking I want to do some of the Shav quests on solo to grind for ingredients.

Which do you recommend as good ones to solo (with a healer hireling perhaps) with an exploiter build, and any tips on how to best solo them effectively and as quickly as possible? (as well as on what levels).

Thanks

[stoopid_cowboy]

All of them.

[Hokonoso]

just farm em on casual, the ingredients drop plenty on casual, it's just the signet stone that gets the nasty 50% chance of not dropping, and that only matters if you are flagging, if you are solely ingredient farming casual is the way to go as you can do each quest 8 times in an afternoon on casual and get tons of each ingredient.

[vVAnjilaVv]

just farm em on casual, the ingredients drop plenty on casual, it's just the signet stone that gets the nasty 50% chance of not dropping, and that only matters if you are flagging, if you are solely ingredient farming casual is the way to go as you can do each quest 8 times in an afternoon on casual and get tons of each ingredient.

Shavarath quests Hoko...not Vale quests.

They are all pretty solo-able on casual........quite a bit more difficult on normal depending on your build. I spend a ton of time solo'ing these....don't expect a ton of ingredients tho...the drop rates are really not that great.

All that said, if I can solo these with a 32 point drow spellsinger bard with only 12 base CON, you should be able to easily solo them with capped toons. Well...solo'ing with a cleric hireling anyways. One tip, make sure you have Deathward for Sins...Cinderspawns spam neg levels......and bring something for golems in A New Invasions. Make sure you object draw is up really high for Genesis point or u won't be able to solo the maze.

The end fight in Bastion if pretty nasty, make sure you have ur balance up and try and get ur hireling some kind of acid resist...even a 3 clicky of acid resist 10 will help.

[Crazyfruit]

The only ones worth doing for ingredients are New Invasion & Sins. Hit all the sidechests, that's where most of the goodies are.

Bastion can be too, but only great players can solo there... one of those "If you have to ask, don't" things.

[vVAnjilaVv]

Personally my favorite one to solo is Genesis Point.....for some reason I love that quest....btw you wanna know something else really cool......

Sins has 6 different endings with 2 chests in each of the six boss rooms....they are all unique.......you ransack a total 54 chests just from the boss fight rooms alone in Sins.

GP has 4 different endings so you can ransack 28 chests there and GP has I think 6 maybe 7 chests before the end fight chests.

[Mercureal]

Wrath of the Flame is an easy solo, but not much in the way of chests. If you do it you can fight your way through, but even easier is to use stealth to get by most of the Silver Flame guys, until near the end when you expose the boss. Much quicker, and then the Silver Flame people will help you against the devils.

[Nyvn]

You might want to consider making Greensteel blanks and trading them for ingredients.

[Nyvn]

Double post

[ballsz]

The only ones worth doing for ingredients are New Invasion & Sins. Hit all the sidechests, that's where most of the goodies are.

Bastion can be too, but only great players can solo there... one of those "If you have to ask, don't" things.

/signed

Oh, and using a hireling... is not soloing.

[LazyTigerLily]

/signed

Oh, and using a hireling... is not soloing.

You like spending more plat on pots and scrolls than a hireling costs?

I generally use hirelings first since a level 20 hireling base cost is 1,000 PP VS a stack of 100 cure critical wounds pots at 7,500 PP or a single stack of heal scrolls at 16,500 PP. So you do the math, if you go through half of a stack of heal scrolls or a whole stack of pots it will cost you FAR more over time not to use a hireling.

Personally I would rather use a hireling and save the plat to buy other things.

If you are looking at the hireling as an automaton who adds extra damage, you might want to think again. A lot of people park hirelings elsewhere and call them when needed simply because they are stupid and die super quick.

On a completely different suggestion though OP you might want to look at running Devil Assault in the marketplace. It gives ingredients and drops materials and it is pretty quick.

[ballsz]

You like spending more plat on pots and scrolls than a hireling costs?

I don't use either when soloing, the only need I ever have for those are in raids when the group is not up to par.

[Acehole31]

Outside of the main quests in Amrath, there's the two sidequests (Weapons Shipment, Wrath of the Flame). Both are quite easy to solo and both give boot ingredients/Crafting ingredients.

[sirgog]

If your AC holds up there, Sins of Attrition normal is the only way to go.

If your AC doesn't hold up in Sins it will be a nightmare to solo, and A New Invasion (sans end boss) might be the way to go. Those chests don't scale up ingredient drop rates above normal, so stay normal.

[RS-Makk]

Thanks. Regarding sins:

how much ac would you say I need?
My build is an exploiter ranger - should I go with or without hireling?
Any good tips or good sins guides to take most advantage of it?

Thanks again

[Pallol_One-Eye]

Not that this will necessarily help you, but depending on your times of play, I'd be more than happy to duo this with you on my 20 cleric.

I know you are asking about solo, but I can always use more loot/boot ingredients. I'm generally on Tuesday and Friday nights after 8 pm EST. Sometimes Wed/Thurs after 10 pm.

Look me up if I'm on and I'll glady throw some CC/BB/heals and generally pike behind you ;)

[Zombiekenny]

Thanks. Regarding sins:

how much ac would you say I need?
My build is an exploiter ranger - should I go with or without hireling?
Any good tips or good sins guides to take most advantage of it?

Thanks again

~60-70 should mitigate a fairly large percentage of the damage, enough so you should be able to kill each group before you die, and then heal up.

[Delt]

Wrath of the Flame is an easy solo, but not much in the way of chests. If you do it you can fight your way through, but even easier is to use stealth to get by most of the Silver Flame guys, until near the end when you expose the boss. Much quicker, and then the Silver Flame people will help you against the devils.

Last I checked, only the SF guys in the last hallway fight on your side after exposing her...the rest will remain aggro.

[mws2970]

Quick question (apologies to the OP for thread hijacking), does the Devotion VIII belt (Amara's?) drop in the side chests in New Invasion, or just out of the end chest?

[Crazyfruit]

Quick question (apologies to the OP for thread hijacking), does the Devotion VIII belt (Amara's?) drop in the side chests in New Invasion, or just out of the end chest?

Both, just not on the first floor.

[mws2970]

both, Just Not On The First Floor.

Tyvm!

[grodon9999]

Thanks. Regarding sins:

how much ac would you say I need?
My build is an exploiter ranger - should I go with or without hireling?
Any good tips or good sins guides to take most advantage of it?

Thanks again

I run in there at 67 (that's 70 with FE bonus) Power-attack is on. keep yourself blurred with wands and pop a displacement scroll right before running into a bunch of them. I'll sometimes use a recitation wand before a big right.

I advise against the hireling if you can heal-scroll yourself. They are too stupid, are just gonna die.

Bring

- Stack of haste pots
- Stack of heal scrolls (I typically don't even use them anymore, but still good to have if you're low on blue-bar)
- Stack of Displacement scrolls (cheaper than heals)
- Blur wand (for when the Displacement wears off).
- Deathward clickie
- Restore Scrolls for when you forget your Deathward Clickie :)
- Shield/Nightshield clickie for dealing with the Tiefling magic missile (or ignore, don't do a lot of damage with scaling).
- Amrath Superior Ador belt-clickie to get your blue-bar heals much more powerful.

Typically I buff myself up with the Axer-package and clear the part up until the drop down. I then run back to the shrine most before jumping down the shoot to the dinner table. I want the shrine to get my deathward clicke back (i'll need it for the second Cinderspawn) and it lets me use haste/damage boots freely to kill stuff faster.

After shrining I'll buff the hell out of myself again, this time including blur and Recitation wands if I remember. Pop a haste off my air-guard clickie, displacement scroll, pick up the badge (see below why the badge). I can usually kill all the trash in the room before displacement wears off. If I get the Orthon I don't bother with another displacement, if I get devil I'll re-displace and beat him down. HV damage boost and rogue haste-boost will usually be enough damage with dual lightning khopeshes. Pop off a Suprior Ador clickie and heal off of blue-bar.

Regarding weaponry, I'm not sure about vorpals or not. I'll always keep the lightning II insight weapon in my off-hand, but I switch between a +3 Vorpal Khopesh of PG and my Holy/shock/shock in the main hand and I'm not sure what kills faster. The Vorpal is still a decent DPS weapon and the mobs still have about 1100 HP soloed on normal. I'm thinking a 20 insta-kill is more useful than dual-lightnings, but it's debatable.

for the rest of the quest it's pretty much run towards a bunch of mobs, haste pot, displace scroll, kill 'em all before the buffs wear out. Displace scrolls are cheaper than heals and this is a loot run, popping one of these before running into 10 devills will save you more healing than you'll get off a heal-scroll so it'll save you money.

I check the side optional, hell larges drop here. I pick up the badge because if the chest is in that side and you don't have the badge, you can't open it.

Save second shrine until after the second Cinderspawn is killed. You'll need your Deathward clickie for this fight and again for the final fight.

[vVAnjilaVv]

The hirelings are extremely easy to use if u know how to use them.

All u need to do is park the hireling at the beginning of the hall you're about to go down... invis, command only, and stand still.

Run down the hall drag all aggro to within healing range of hireling and fight. This enables you to clickly clear each fight without need of any AC at all.....tho displacement is always nice if you can.

Occasionally a barbazu or two will momentarily agrro on the hireling, just set a hot key to target the hireling and command it to heal themself.

If the hireling is low on SP, just click the passive mode really quick, they will usually drink a mnemonic or two and put right back on command only.

Of course this only works if the hireling has Heal in their hotbar. I like bringing Heystack.......he has Mass DW too which is nice for fighting the Cinderspawns.

Setting the + key on the number pad as the hirelings Heal hotkey is nice....it's big and close to the mouse.