Build:R/Me Underworld Speed Trap Solo

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This build has been designed for the following use:

1 Attributes and Skills
2 Equipment
3 Usage
4 Counters
5 Variants
6 Notes
7 See also
8 External Links
9 Templates

This build is designed to farm the Underworld as a solo ranger trapper. The build uses the skill recharge bonus and energy given by the Nature Rituals and Serpent's Quickness to spam as many Dust Traps as much as possible.

[edit] Attributes and Skills

Ranger / Mesmer	Attribute Rank
Wilderness Survival	12 + 1 + 3
Expertise	12 + 3
Beast Mastery	3

[edit] Equipment

Full Druid's Armor or equivalent in function
Two Runes of Attunement
The best Rune of Vigor you can afford (but at least a major)
Any staff with 15 or 20 energy bonus with + 7 armor against physical damage
For extra protection when pulling you could take a replacement armor piece for one of those with a superior rune in it and a staff with +60hp. This will allow you to survive two hits from a Bladed Aatxe.

[edit] Usage

This build is for experienced trappers who want more challenge and get all the loot for themselves. It is hard at first but with practice, becomes pretty easy to handle. The idea of the build is to keep the mobs on the Dust Traps for their full activation time. This is difficult as AoE damage causes the enemy mobs to flee.

First, choose your trapping spot near an angle or any small confined space (e.g. in the Chamber, just under the stairs, close to the walls). You will want the mobs to be blocked by the walls when they try to flee the AoE damages. Once you've got the trapping spot, put down Energizing Wind and Quickening Zephyr just around the corner/angle, not too close to the wall (about the distance of activation of a trap).
Start Arcane Echo and during its activation use Serpent's Quickness so that you have the stance before the casting of Arcane Echo finishes. Then use Echo, Dust Trap, Echo (copied with Arcane Echo), Dust Trap (copied with Echo), and Dust Trap (copied with Echo copied with Arcane Echo).
Walk backwards a couple of steps, keeping clear from the wall(always about the distance of activation of a trap) and put down Barbed Trap. As soon as the Dust Traps have recharged, lay them down and keep SQ up (usually wears off at the end of the 5th Dust Trap, so recast) and spam Barbed Trap when possible.
After the 7th Dust Trap, the spirits will end. Wait a couple of seconds for EW to recharge, put down EW and renew SQ. Then use Echo, Dust Trap, and the echoed Dust Trap. Keep the Barbed Trap that has recharged unused for your own safety.
Now you can go pull the mobs. Hit Whirling Defense during aggro and run towards the spirit and stay put behind it. Usually Aaxtes will focus on it instead of you. Meanwhile they will take all the damage waves from the 9 Dust Traps as they try to flee through the walls.
The usage of the build can be summed up with the following sequences (skills numbered from 1 to 8 from left to right):

Laying down the spirits, the 3 Dust Traps and 1 Barbed Trap: 1, 2, 7, 4 + 3, 5, 6, 4, 5, 4 (3 is to be cast during activation time of 4)

Laying down 4 other Dust Traps and 2 Barbed Traps: 7, 6, 5, 4 + 3, 7, 6 (with good timing you can renew SQ when 4 starts)

Laying down a spirit and 2 Dust Traps and Barbed before pulling: 1 + 3, 7, 5, 6, 5

[edit] Counters

The main flaw of the build is lack of self healing. Surviving in emergency situations and during pulling is possible with Whirling Defense, Barbed Trap, and clever movement.
Whirling Defense will prevent most of the hits from foes. However Aatxes hit hard, so don't try to pull them from too far away or you'll have a greater risk to get hit and the traps set might start to go off on their own.
When the enemy mob survives the initial traps, run away, put down Barbed Trap, lure the surviving enemies into it, and run far away from them. They should lose aggro.
When Smites or Coldfire Nights survive, just run away from them until they break aggro.
Coldfire Nights are the hardest mob to kill with this build. Avoiding them is the best tactic. If you can't, lay down your spirits far behind the trapping spot, and trap in multiple spots. 3 Dust Traps, step back a bit, Barbed Trap, step back, Dust Traps, etc... This is to ensure that when the Coldfires run after you they will activate all the traps on the way. To keep them in the traps, you can hit Whirling Defense and come into aggro distance so that the survivors focus on you and stay in the traps.

[edit] Variants

You could replace Serpent's Quickness with Trapper's Speed. However, it seems that the benefit of SQ is much better as it can also be maintained during the whole trapping process.
Replacing Whirling Defense with Flame Trap allows for quicker takedowns, and results in health degeneration on the Aatxes. The only drawback is its harder to pull, so use this variant at your own risk.
Replacing Whirling Defense with Dryder's Defenses helps a lot when going against Terrorweb Dryders and Coldfire Nights. You can also echo it if you want to make a big pull.

[edit] Notes

This build is for experienced trappers and is hard to use.
Once you've got the trick, you can clear out the chamber, take out most of the smites, and come back and clear the mobs in the southern part of the chamber within 1 hour. It usually takes an average 2 minutes per mob. Once you've finished a group, your skills and energy should have fully recharged while moving to the next trapping place.
This is the most efficient trapping build for farming considering the fact that there are no other players getting drops.
You can replace Whirling Defense with Tripwire to farm the Stygian Veil.
watch out for corners because you sometimes will get blocked in and will almost surely die.

[edit] See also

[edit] External Links

Video of the build in action on a group of Aatxes can be found here.
Video of the build in action on a Terrorweb Dryder here.
Video of the build in action on Aatxes, Grasping Darknesses, Smite Crawlers, and Coldfire Nights. here
Picture of a good and safe trapping spot: Image:Trapping spots.jpg
You can even clear the Forgotten Village: Image:Soloing village.jpg