Voodu's easy Night Revels farmer

[Vooduspyce]

Updated for 2022!

I spend a lot of time farming Night Revels for gear and epic xp. Night Revels offers some of the best epic xp per minute so is a great time to knock out epic or iconic past lives. It's also great opportunity to focus on short and long term wealth building because ingredients and keys can be sold for plat and shards and the seasonally available augments can be stockpiled and sold for big shards during the off season.

This is a basic fire alchemist nuker (notes about acid spec below) with build choices that are focused solely for epic Night Revels speed farming. I'll be live streaming it nearly every day on my Twitch channel Vooduspyce. Please stop by if you have questions or want to see how it performs

Night Revels is easy. It's not reaper, it's not even elite. It's about equivalent to normal questing or slayers. So you don't need an uber or optimized build to wreck it on a fire alchemist. The ease of the content allows for a lot of build latitude, including some convenience feat choices as well as the flexibility to run any race or destiny in which past lives are needed. I discuss this build and many of the topics below in my Twitch highlight Voodu's easy Night Revels farmer.

Fire Alchemist vs. Fire Sorcerer

Fire sorc is an excellent choice for a Night Revels farmer. It's owns Night Revels and was my choice for years as a Night Revels farmer. 2020 was the first year that we had Night Revels in the age of Alchemist. So I tried it as a Night Revels farmer last year and was surprised that I not only like it better than sorc, but it is uniquely suited for NR speed farming for the following reasons:

1. Alchemist spell vials innately have a very long range, so great for hitting mobs far off in the graveyard and no need for Enlarge Spell.
2. Spell vials shoot in an arc, which makes them excellent for hitting targets in the hilly and tomb-littered terrain of the graveyard. This is the reason why Meteor Swarm works so well on a sorc for NR. No more spells shooting into he sides of hills and tombs with no effect on an Alchemist! The arc of your spell vials is so important for NR, that I do not recommend using Accelerate Spell (which reduces the arc) for NR farming, whereas I would normally use Accelerate for other Alchemist builds.
3. Alchemist spell vials never suffer from facing mechanics. As you're racing through the graveyard, you'll never have to worry about a mob moving to the side or even behind you. As long as you have it targeted, your spell vial will hit it's target even if it's off your screen.

If you already have a night revels farmer that you like, no need to change over, but if you haven't played fire or acid alchemist in Night Revels then consider trying it for future lives or events and see how you like it!


Acid vs. Fire
Toward the end of Night Revels 2022 I played through a few epic lives. This was the first NR since the updated epic destinies. Due to its acid support with Carrion Swarm and Shard Storm, Primal Avatar can be used if acid spec'd. This seemed even better than fire. If you choose acid, swap either Exalted Angel or Shadow Dancer for Primal Avatar but use Draconic mantle. I swapped Exalted Angel for Primal Avatar but missed the speed that wings give.


Ability Scores: max int and con, remaining points in dex. All level ups in intelligence.
Skills: max spellcraft, jump, concentration, balance, heal, spot, UMD, leftovers wherever
Feats: Quicken, Mental Toughness, Spell Focus Conjuration, Greater Spell Focus Conjuration, Improved Mental Toughness, Maximize. With any remaining feats you can take your favorites of Heighten or Arcane Initiate (wizard past life) if you have it. Note that you may not be able to afford the sp cost of having Maximize and Empower on right away.
Bonus Feats: Alchemical Studies: Pyrite, Insightful Courage, Liquid Luck, Advanced Alchemical Studies: Pyrite, Empower. Note that caster levels from Alchemical Studies: Orchidium do not stack with caster levels from Alchemical Studies Pyrite.
Epic Feats: Epic Mental Toughness, Epic Conjuration Focus and your favorites of Wellspring of Power, Embolden Spell or Intensify
Destiny Feats (fire): Epic Spell Spell Power: Fire, Electric, Positive (the +5% universal spell crit damage stacks with each)
Destiny Feats (acid): Epic Spell Power: Acid, Poison, Positive
Scion of Fire or Acid


Enhancements



This is how I had my enhancements for 2022. Same for acid except choosing acid options instead of fire in Bombardier tree. Any race is fine, Tiefling is best for fire spell power but you can do any race you want a past life for. From Levels 20-22 I invested more into Harper Agent for tier 4 Magic of Austerity for free Eschew Materials which is a nice convenience to not have to constantly buy spell components, which can be tedious when doing a lot of NR farming. At level 23 Eschew Materials is obtained from tier 2 core Draconic Incarnation, so I pull points out of Harper and invest more into Feydark Illusionist for crit chance. Note that you don't need tier 5 Weakening Mixture if all you are doing is Night Revels, because everything in NR can be damaged by fire.

In 2021 I was working on iconics, so was only 19 Alchemist. If you want to do iconics, don't worry about the loss of capstone because 19 Alchemist is plenty powerful enough to own Night Revels. For 15-19 I do my regular leveling routine. I only farm Night Revels in epics.


Spells



For challenge farming my main spell rotation is Molotov Cocktail, Fiery Oblitation (tier 5 SLA), Multivial of Flame, Cindersmoke, Elemental Combination and Multivial SLA.

I use Dragon Breath at level 20 then switch to Energy Burst when it becomes available at level 26. If you are doing iconics and doing regular questing for 15-19 use Vein Freeze for crowd control as part of your spell rotation.

For key farming I substitute Voltaic Burst for Cindersmoke because blinded mobs don't kite well and kiting mobs makes for more efficient key farming runs. If you are doing iconics and only 19 alchemist, substitute Caustic Overload for Multivial SLA. For Acid spec my spell rotation was Caustic Solvent, Caustic Obliteration (tier 5 SLA), Caustic Overload, Multivial of Acid, Carrion Swarm, Multivial SLA. Keeping Shard Storm active as often as possible and use Elemental Combination of others are on cooldown.


Epic Destiny



Fire: Draconic is my primary destiny, choose conjuration for tier 3 Draconic Spell Focus. I chose Shadowdancer for ddoor and 10% spell cooldown reduction, and Exalted Angel for wings and Evocation DC's that help Dragon Breath and Energy Burst.

Acid: If you choose acid, swap either Exalted Angel or Shadow Dancer for Primal Avatar but use Draconic mantle. I swapped Exalted Angel for Primal Avatar but missed the speed that wings give. Alternatively you can swap Shadow Dancer at the cost of Dimension Door SLA and 10% spell cooldown reduction from tier 3.


Epic Past Life Stances
Energy Criticals and Colors of the Queen. I also use Brace and Skill Mastery.


Iconic Past Life Stance
For fire, use whatever you like for iconic past life stance. For Acid use Deep Gnome past life stance


Gear
I'm using a 3-piece Esoteric Initiate set (Dusk Lenses, Aetherband and Orders Garb or Enigma Core for Warforged)
Weapon: Wild Flame (level 14), Epic Scepter of Combustion (level 20) with 4-piece Wreath of Flame of +50 fire spell power.
Pansophic Circlet and Legendary Pansophic Circlet for off spell power.
Flightfoot Greaves for Freedom of Movement.
Silver Flame Talisman to absorb level draining. Use a Deathward clicky if you prefer. I try to optimize my farming time by not buffing. If the talisman isn't convenient for you to get, you can also use Death's Locket to absorb level draining spells.
At level 29 I'll use Legendary Esoteric Initiate set and Legendary Wild Flame.
Don't stress about the rest of your gear. Just make sure you have a decent intelligence item, conjuration and transmutation focus items (or spell focus mastery is fine) and the basics covered like constitution, PRR, MRR, saves, etc. You don't need to be optimally geared to farm Night Revels.

Here's a highlight from my live stream showing a 19/1 variation soloing a few Night Revels challenges at level 20 on CR35.

If you are new to Alchemist and don't understand how the spell reactions work, you can check out my video Alchemist Reactions and How they Work.


2021 Night Revels challenges tutorial videos

Under New Ravagement and Kobolds Newest Ringleader

Snitch and the Lich and Hayweird Foundry

Gravework and Smashing Pumpkins

Haverdashed and Getting Ahead in Lordsmarch Palace

Eternity Unleashed

Night Revels 2021 overview and key farming run


Post questions or stop by my live stream to discuss

[Djjinni]

Didn't fully dive into this and I'm not the most experienced with Alchemist, but at a glance, the 19th level gives you very little and doesn't seem to actually change the spell slots at all - this makes 1 Barbarian a pretty solid choice for 18/1/1 and I'd find it hard to argue against 10% movement speed in any setting - let alone a lower difficulty farming char!

[thaddeus9]

Thanks for the guide Voodu.

[Vooduspyce]

Didn't fully dive into this and I'm not the most experienced with Alchemist, but at a glance, the 19th level gives you very little and doesn't seem to actually change the spell slots at all - this makes 1 Barbarian a pretty solid choice for 18/1/1 and I'd find it hard to argue against 10% movement speed in any setting - let alone a lower difficulty farming char!

ty for the tip! Going to try this my next life

[Vooduspyce]

Updated for 2022!

[Dmitrythewizzy]

Didn't fully dive into this and I'm not the most experienced with Alchemist, but at a glance, the 19th level gives you very little and doesn't seem to actually change the spell slots at all - this makes 1 Barbarian a pretty solid choice for 18/1/1 and I'd find it hard to argue against 10% movement speed in any setting - let alone a lower difficulty farming char!

This is probably wrong for everyone. You want 20 levels to get the SLA multivial which is not on the same timer as spell, thereby giving you 2X of one of the best aoe damage (if not the best) spells in the game.

This is a great build. You could tweak it a bit but it's super close to my farming Alchy.

[Djjinni]

This is probably wrong for everyone. You want 20 levels to get the SLA multivial which is not on the same timer as spell, thereby giving you 2X of one of the best aoe damage (if not the best) spells in the game.

This is a great build. You could tweak it a bit but it's super close to my farming Alchy.

The build as presented originally when I made this suggestion was a 19 Alch/1 Iconic and so the addition of a barb level at basically no cost to alch casting potential was 'free' movement speed at that time. Weighing up the movement vs SLA multivial is a different thing. (I'd still do it personally, but 10% speed is 10% speed and alch doesn't need the power to clear this event fast).


Any standard casting alch will farm this event well, and if you happen to have one then cool, the SLA is just totally not needed for clearing speed sticking purely to revels scaled enemies.

[Dmitrythewizzy]

The build as presented originally when I made this suggestion was a 19 Alch/1 Iconic and so the addition of a barb level at basically no cost to alch casting potential was 'free' movement speed at that time. Weighing up the movement vs SLA multivial is a different thing. (I'd still do it personally, but 10% speed is 10% speed and alch doesn't need the power to clear this event fast).


Any standard casting alch will farm this event well, and if you happen to have one then cool, the SLA is just totally not needed for clearing speed sticking purely to revels scaled enemies.

Looks like Voodou properly has the 20 Alch.... not seeing the 1 iconic anything. You absolutely want the two Multivials because of how long the recast is. Even with allll the spellcast speed buffs (and I stack em all) the recast is rough. I use the holy wings and the dragon wings to fly around they are on different timers.

[Djjinni]

Looks like Voodou properly has the 20 Alch.... not seeing the 1 iconic anything. You absolutely want the two Multivials because of how long the recast is. Even with allll the spellcast speed buffs (and I stack em all) the recast is rough. I use the holy wings and the dragon wings to fly around they are on different timers.

My suggestion was posted Oct '21 and specifically to do with it being an iconic 19/1, while the OP was updated Oct '22 into a pure version.

Voodu does cover this in the first post info.

In 2021 I was working on iconics, so was only 19 Alchemist. If you want to do iconics, don't worry about the loss of capstone because 19 Alchemist is plenty powerful enough to own Night Revels.

[Vooduspyce]

My suggestion was posted Oct '21 and specifically to do with it being an iconic 19/1, while the OP was updated Oct '22 into a pure version.

Voodu does cover this in the first post info.

Last year when I originally posted I was working on iconics so was just doing 19 alchemist +1 whatever iconic I happened to be working on. The point was that 19 alchemist was plenty powerful enough to wreck Night Revels, it being low difficulty content. 18/1/1 can be a fun option too. This year I'm working on a new toon that needs epic past lives so I'm doing pure and have updated the post. I am about to update it again because acid seems a better route to go than fire because of Primal Avatar's support for acid with Carrion Swarm and Shard Storm. I just finished my first epic past life using acid and was pretty happy with it.

This build is nothing special and I just posted because I've been using it on the livestream as my preferred NR farmer, folks are asking and it's an easy option for someone looking for a build to exclusively farm NR with.