Elite Forest Breach, AKA, Elite Ferrix, is a bread-and-butter run for most elite junkies. On this map, you are primarily farming for Architect Pylons, with the Brutality version being the most desirable, and Elite Golden Puzzleboxes (EGPs). Sometimes, if you are super lucky, you could get an Archon Ring from the purple Necromancers, but Overgrowth seems to be the main place where these high end rings are obtained.
There are four critical skills you need to have for success in these difficult maps.
- Know your weapon/skill range
- Know where the reset points are
- Use NoxBox strategy
- Have patience
Knowing your skill range is so important here to control how many mobs you aggro. If you don't have a good gauge on your attack range, you will attract too many mobs, and Shuyal maps will not be a pleasant experience for you.
Second, it is important to know where your reset points are. There are times, as I have discussed in other guides, where you want to separate ranged mobs from melee, or you simply aggroed too many and need a "do over."
Third, effective use of NoxBox tactics will really help with survivability towards the end of the map on the last pull.
Fourth, have patience. Sometimes, you just have to wait for mobs to reposition before you aggro them. If you are impatient and do not wait for optimal repositioning, you will attract too many mobs, and this run will become more difficult than you expect.
Basically, a successful solo run here means small, manageable pulls.
To start, you will notice that there are three mobs at the beginning of the map. Pull the three into the buff area, which will provide you with extra damage, so use it effectively. Do not extend too far beyond the buff area, as additional mobs will emerge from the ground.
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Once you have cleared out the first three mobs, inch forward just a bit to get the new mobs to spawn from the ground. Have some patience, and allow the mobs to walk around until they get to the point where there are only one or two standing by themselves. Once you have them isolated, fire off a bow shot or a skill and back up into the buff area once again. If you do not back up, you run the risk of an errant arrow gaining the attention of a much larger group than you expected.
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This is one of the reset points for the second wave of mobs. If you get yourself into trouble, retreat back to this point, most of the mobs will return, leaving you with one or two that were the closest to the starting point.
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My approach on continuing forward is to proceed to the far left edge of the map. This allows you to attack the one, or three as in this image, mobs that are ahead without spawning the vines. Spawning the vines while trying to deal with these remaining skeletons could mean trouble, so have patience, inch forward until you are just barely in skill range to attract aggro.
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Now you are at the point where you do want to spawn all the vines. Be ready to run, the intent here is a purposeful reset to create a smaller group.
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Once all the vines have been spawned, retreat back to the starting buff point and stand just inside the starting point. This will cause about half of the mobs to reset, leaving you with 3-5 mobs to handle.
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After you clear the first half of the mobs, you proceed to the next half. Be careful, you do not want the attention of the four skeletons...yet.
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Next, quickly, deal with the four skeletons. Make sure you stay well clear of the buff area, as there are additional mobs beyond that you could accidentally aggro. Now that the skeletons have been disposed of, stand just outside of the second buff area. You want to aggro just the two Necromancers here, so you may have to be patient and wait for optimal repositioning.
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Now that the two Necromancers are out of the way, look what we have, a skeleton standing all by himself. Take him out!
Interesting Note: This particular skeleton is one of three "normal class" mobs that are here in the elite map. In many cases, you can one hit this guy. If you cannot one-hit him, retreat back a few steps, because vines will spawn where he is standing, and you don't want their attention.
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Retreat back to the buff area and snipe any mobs standing by themselves. This approach should work for the two closest skeletons.
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Now we have a clear area to work with. Here, you will want to aggro two or three skeletons. The Necromancer may take notice of you if the positioning isn't great, but if you retreat back to the buff area and drop Shadow Veil, it shouldn't be too much to overcome. If the Necromancer does attack, be sure to focus on him first - he does the most damage and has snaring skills, so he is the primary target.
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If you were successful in attracting just the three skeletons, you will have the Necromancer standing more or less alone.
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From here, you want to clear out the last of the skeletons that remain up until the bridge. Be careful with positioning, and especially pay attention to your Noxious Bolt radius. If any of the mobs on the bridge are poisoned, you will get a dozen angry mobs barreling down on you. If this happens, just run back until they reset and try it again.
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Now that you have cleared up to the bridge, be prepared to run to the hut. It is a long run, so the best bet is to pot heavily while running, use a Dodge pet (Malison) or a Speed Pet (Shiloh, Abaddon, Kettle, etc.). This is where I typically swap out to daggers for the high stun rate of charged attacks.
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Round the corner and keep running!
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Proceed straight through the third buff area and directly into the hut.
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The purpose of running into the hut is that it gives you a break and chance to equip your preferred load out and pet, and
this serves as your respawn point going forward. This is the calm before the storm, because outside, you will have as many as 10-15 mobs waiting for you.
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My preferred strategy on handling the large number of mobs is to run forward into the buff area, firing off charged Nox and charged Aimed Shots. This is a twist on the classic NoxBox strategy, where you run around the perimeter of the buff area, leaving the mob trailing behind you. Nox poison is the primary damage dealer here, with charged Aimed also doing single target damage. It is super important to pot heavily here and always charge Nox for the increased radius, extended duration and increased damage. Don't be too afraid of this image, I had to stop briefly to take the screen shot and I took a lot of damage just standing while the screenie was taken.
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Now, we can proceed directly to where Ferrix is. My strategy here is to run to the back of the dead-end, which resets the vines that spawn and trail behind you. From here quickly deal with the two Necromancers. I prefer to deal with these two first before I spawn Ferrix because it just makes the run a bit easier.
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At this point, if Ferrix does not spawn, that typically means that one or two mobs reset by the third buff area. If this is the case, simply double back, killing the vines until Ferrix spawns.
My strategy for handling Ferrix is to kite him. Avoid the purple goo because it does more damage to you than Ferrix himself, so just kite around the goo, firing off Nox and Aimed.
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One approach I use a lot on Ferrix is to wait out his windup attacks. This will typically bring him outside of the goo and give you a chance to do complete skill rotations of Aimed, Nox, Pierce and drop Veil for a second or third round of buffed skill cycles.
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Be sure to equip your Leprechaun Pendant. I don't know about you, but the majority of my deaths come from being crushed while I am changing my load outs. A good approach is to wait for the red-cone warning you of a windup attack. When you see the warning area, that's when you change the load out. It will give you a couple of seconds where he will not attack, so hopefully, you won't die while swapping load outs.
Finish off Ferrix and collect the loot; hopefully your loot is better than this....
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Now, the pot usage during this guide is a bit high, since I was taking a lot of damage while trying to get screen shots. A reasonable estimate for soloing this map is 120-200 HP and Mana pots, depending on your build. I used about 250 each here, but as I said, this is high and not really representative of what you should expect.
Best of luck to you all, and I will certainly accept lv36 Architect Pylons of Brutality as a token of thanks ;-)
