Theory Crafting - Ideal Elite Farm Team - Jarl (Rewards Included!)

[kiitz]

Hello All,

I was bored at work today and wondered what would be the most ideal farm group in Arcane Legends, so I started theory crafting in my head what would be the most ideal elite farming group possible. If you could have any team of 4, specifically specced to farm elites with everyone working together perfectly, what would that team look like? What skills would they have? What would their str/agi/int distribution points be?

This is a team game, so with each class bringing their unique strengths and weaknesses, buffs, and debuffs, I personally believe the ideal group would have one of each class and then double up on 2 other class (either mage or rogue) to add DPS or more more healing.

To incentivize people to respond and make this a fun and active thread, I will include a reward for the individual who comes up with the "best" answer. Obviously, each person will have their own opinions on what is actually the best answer, so in order to judge this "contest" after everyone has submitted their thoughts, people can chime in and vote on who they think has the best answer. Ultimately, I'll choose 1 person to get the prize, but I'll look heavily at what people say in the thread to support their thoughts on who has the best submission.

I am still very new to AL and quite poor unfortunately. However, I have played PL for a very long time and through merching and quite a bit of farming, I have amassed a small fortune of gold. The prize for the best submission will be 3 million PL gold. I'll also give small runner up prizes to individuals who come up with what I believe to be great submissions, even if they do not ultimately win. I'll award those individuals no less than 300k PL gold at my discretion.

Again, my apologies for the reward for AL theory crafting being PL gold, but I've got plenty of that, and not enough AL gold to give out yet

To make this a bit more interesting, instead of having answers such as 4 pure dex rogues spamming aim shot, auto attack, razor shield and spamming hp and mana pots, I am going to say in this ideal farming group, NO HP or MANA pots will be used. Since we are theory crafting farming Jarl, this should not be a big issue. It will mainly just mean that tanking and healing will be critical as well as DPS. Also, it is naturally assumed that the group will not be running any elixirs.

We'll assume that the ideal group is all level 21 and in the best gear possible so we don't need to waste time/space talking about what kind of gear they will be wearing (unless you have an specific group that requires special gear for the farming strategy.)

Please create some kind of organized format. I'll throw something together to discuss what I think. Feel free to use my format, or make one of your own for additional flare Also, please include all the details and your reasoning for why you are picking the specific skills and how you choose points in 1 item over another. Also, include how the game play would work and what kind of synergy you are planning on utilizing.

I don't have enough time to come up with a full submission of my own, but I'll first just a few things down as examples and post this so anyone interested can get started on their own. I'll revise my post as I get more time to think things through. Please don't make fun of my crappy "ideal" group. I'm new to AL and don't understand the mechanics as much as you pros out there


Ideal Group:
1 warrior, 1 rogue, 2 mages

Warrior:

• Main duties: Speeding up run to Jarl, protecting others on the run, holding aggro of jarl and interrupting Jarl's AOE attack
• Full Strength (possibly including a little bit of int if not enough from gear so that the warrior has enough mana between 2x lifegiver mana regeneration to spam without going OOM)

Skills:
Chest Splitter (Staggering Blow) - 2 points

• I picked this skill because it interrupts Jarl and has high aggro-threat generation

Axe Throw (Denting Blow, Blacksmith's Touch, Chained Bait) - 4 points

• Again, another single target skill that has high aggro/threat generation.

Horn of Renew (Increased Ranged, Increased Duration, Challenge) - 4 points

• Healing and taunt. Pretty much necessary as well.

Rally Cry (Lungs of Might, Call to Arms, Forced March) - 4 points

• I think this is going to be a controversial pick. I am actually not quite sure about this one. I think a DPS skill may be better, but I picked it since it will help speed up the run to Jarl for the group and since there are no pots, the added damage mitigation could help. Again, I am not sure on this one and can definitely see a DPS skill being more worth it.

Might: 5 points - +25 STR

• This is a no-brainer

Durable: 1 point - +1% Armor

• Not sure about this point either.

Overall thoughts for the warrior and his role:

• The warrior is just going to be focused on maintaining aggro on Jarl and interrupting his attacks. If he loses aggro and taunt is on CD, he can at least continue to interrupt Jarl, dramatically reducing his overall damage output.
• Mana will not be an issue for the warrior, due to the fact that I will have 2 mages with empower and recharge mana. Thus, I did not pick vengeful blood.
• The warrior will also not be very important in clearing the pack of mobs before Jarl, so I felt like the AOE attacks were not super important.

Rogue:

• Main duties: Max dps on Jarl, putting up shadow veil, keeping up armor debuffs on Jarl
• Full Dex (possibly including a little bit of int if not enough from gear so that the rogue has enough mana between 2x lifegiver mana regeneration to spam without going OOM)
• Rogue will be spamming attacks with no charge and primarily auto attacking

Skills:
Aimed Shot (Accuracy, critical shot, deadly focus, shatter armor) - 5

• The rogue (and from what I've seen and read- all good rogues) will be spamming aimed shot on cooldown to build up the critical bonus and also keeping up the 15% armor debuff on Jarl for maximum party DPS.

Shadow Piercer (Gouging Rush, Rising Death) - 3

• I included this ability since it also reduces armor on Jarl

Razor Shield (Bleeding Cuts, Increased Duration) - 3

• Put up Razor shield on CD. Included Bleeding cuts for additional boss dps

Shadow Veil (Masked presence, shadow absorption, lingering fumes) - 4

• This ability is one of the main reasons the team absolutely has to have a rogue, besides the massive single target boss DPS.
• Huge increase in party DPS and survivability

Agility: 5 points

• This is pretty much a no brainer either I think.

Mage1:

• Main duties: clearing mobs with AOE DPS, healing, debuffing

Skills:
Fireball (Engulf, Ignite, Impact, Scorch) - 5 points

• Since this is mage will be more focused on clearing mobs, I picked up all the upgrades for fireball. The stun will help with the pack before Jarl. Also, the mage will be able to keep up the sorch debuff on Jarl as well. I figured I'd get ignite for extra DPS as long as I'm getting fireball, though I'm not 100% sure if its worth the point.

Lightning Strike (Empowered Bolt, Electrical Discharge, Positive Surge) - 4 points

• Since this is the "AOE" mage, I picked up electrical discharge. I can actually also see getting frost bolt instead, since lightning bolt may not be beneficial for mob clearing and frost bolt is better single target DPS, but hey -- I'll let you guys figure that out in your builds.
• Also, if getting lightning strike, I am not sure if the stun works on Jarl. If it does, I can definitely see picking up shock instead.

Curse (Words of Weakening, penetrating curse, lingering curse, sweeping curse) - 5 points

• Curse overall is huge for maximizing the entire party's DPS
• Picked up sweeping curse specifically for the group before Jarl, but I won't be getting it on the other mage since it won't be necessary

Lifegiver (Increased Range, Empower, Recharge Mana)- 4

• No pots allowed, so healing will be necessary
• This will give the rogue and warrior more than enough mana to spam like crazy
• I didn't pick up regrowth cuz I felt like the heals will be enough with 2 mages and the warrior heal, but it is debatable.

Knowledge: 2 points

• Would be great to max this out, and I can see builds where they take points away from some of the other skills to max it out. Unfortunately, I only have 2 points left here.

Overall thoughts for the "AOE" mage and his role:

• The AOE mage will be more beneficial to clearing the mobs before Jarl and also killing/stunning any adds that happen to come along with Jarl
• While killing the boss, main priority will be to heal on cool down and keep curse up on the boss
• DPS while he can

Mage 2:

• Main duties: healing, debuffing, single target DPS on boss

Skills:
Frost Bolt (Jagged Ice, Shiver) - 3 points

• I've heard this is the best single target DPS for mages. Jagged Ice for the dot, Shiver to increase duration of the dot.

Lightning Strike (Empowered Bolt, Positive Surge) - 3 points

• Again, focused on single target boss DPS

Curse (Words of Weakening, penetrating curse, lingering curse) - 4points

• Curse overall is huge for maximizing the entire party's DPS
• With 2 mages with curse, the curse debuff will be up for a majority of the fight
• No sweeping curse as its not necessary when just keeping it up on the boss. Save the point for elsewhere

Lifegiver (Increased Range, Empower, Recharge Mana)- 4

• Once again, no pots allowed, so healing will be necessary
• This will give the rogue and warrior more than enough mana to spam like crazy
• I didn't pick up regrowth cuz I felt like the heals will be enough with 2 mages and the warrior heal, but it is debatable.

Knowledge: 5 points

• Save points from other skills so this guy will hit harder, single target.

Damage: 1 point

• 1 point left, not sure where to put it. I guess its this or crit?

Overall thoughts for the single target dps mage and his role:

• This mage is focused on doing single target DPS to the boss, while also providing HP and Mana regen and keeping up curse.

Pets:

• People will be able to get really crazy with the pet selection as there are tons of pets that have group benefits - which really will be the most ideal.
• Unfortunately, being quite new to AL, I do not know the pets well at all and I only have a few of them.
• I'm going to skip this portion, but you pros out there, feel free to assign pets to each character and explain why you picked them. Where the synergies are, and if they have a group beneficial arcane ability, when the group would use it for maximum benefit.

The actual fight:

• The warrior uses a charged rally cry at the start and runs slightly ahead of the group to aggro mobs. He will taunt the 1st group of mobs he encounters with HOR as it will be coolddown by the time the group gets to the pack of mobs before Jarl.
• Mages will alternate charged heals along the way to keep the warrior healed and anyone who happened to take a few hits along the run.
• Upon getting to the pack before Jarl, warrior will Aoe taunt them, rogue will drop veil and mages will alternate curse until the group is dead. The AOE mage will be doing most of the work here to keep them stunned and DPS them down. Other 3 will also contribute with primarily strong single target DPS.

• Boss fight - the warrior will do his best to maintain aggro and at the very least interrupt all AOE attacks
• Everyone will obviously step out of the red zone just incase it is not interrupted
• Mages will alternate lifegiver and cast as soon as they see the recharge mana buff drop, or I guess cast it if someone needs immediate healing.

Thanks for reading! I know my "ideal" group has a lot of flaws, so I am looking forward to seeing what you guys can put together!

If this goes well, I will also do another one of these for the ideal farm team for elite tower and any other extremely popular maps!

[itsmagic]

What about:

4 rogues full dex. With aimed shot and the passives for dex crit and attack power full.
All 4 rogues use flap jack.
Just time flapjacks stuns, so he will be stunned most of time.
4 rogues hitting jarl non stop for 2000+ that wil be fun!

[Limsi]

Neat and a one of a kind contest, but I suggest you post it here: http://www.spacetimestudios.com/foru...17-AL-Contests then feel free to post the winner's theory crafted piece at the Guide Section

[primaeva]

Dear OP, I suggest a regulation be put in place like: No Pots allowed. That would bring in the necessity of classes other than rogues. xD

[Reggin]

Warrior, Mage, Two Rogues

Warrior - CS, AT, Jugg, Renew, all str with passive - Nexus

In charge of soaking damage and using all four taunts to maintain aggro. Nexus for mana for group.

Rogue 1 - AS, NB, SP, packs, all dex with passive - Nexus

Heavy single target dps with heals for the tank. Second Nexus for group mana.

Rogue 2 - AS, NB, SP, all dex with passive and passive crit - Ribbit

Pure single target dps.

Mage - Curse, Time, Heal, Lightning, all int with passive - Colton

Single target dps while maintaining dot with clock. Healing and keeping curse up. Colton for group crit. More than one curse not needed because he'll die before the first wears off.

[DeltaKain]

Ideal IMO - 2 full str War & 2 full dex Rog.

1 War and 1 Rog go Elite Jar and start timer, then the other 2 go to Elite Jar but they won't be in the same map since the previous 2 started the timer. End result is the MOST efficient way to farm Jar and twice at the same time.

How I know? I've done it - though I cannot be sure on exactly what skills the 2 Warriors had but myself and the other Rog had max AS, SV + 15%dmg + dur + explosion, SP + -10% armor, RS + dur + dodge (for me) + bleed.
The Warriors both had max Horn of Renew I'm sure and points in CS.

It works out to be better than 4 vs Jar because it decreases load + wait times. For a crude explanation say the max party of 4 kill jar in about 20 seconds then have to leave and come back lets say +10 seconds for entire party to regroup and then another 20 to kill Jar a second time. With my way you kill him in about 35 seconds which is longer BUT you just killed him twice effectively. Also please do this with FRIENDS because items that you may want will drop and your friend will give you as opposed to some dude getting something you want and you don't get it.

He tanks and I just DPS

[Wizard_Mike]

How about four warriors? Lol.

Each with Horn and Veng. Timed properly in a rotation, these buffs can be up on all four of them pretty much the whole fight.

At least one warrior needs CS for interrupts. The rest can pick up Smash and Windmill.

Everyone can just use Flap Jack and rotate using his arcane ability.

It wouldn't be the speed kill that an all rogue team could pull off, but I bet they wouldn't have to use a single pot! Hehe. You don't have to worry sbout aggro, because everyone is a tank! With a four-way Veng, I'm certain mana won't be an issue. If health does become a problem (not sure if a four-way Horn will do it or not), then just have all four run with Barney and put his heal on a rotation.

[Bless]

The rogue should definitely not have shadow piercer. It fails like crazy on jarl runs

[wvhills]

4 rogues will kill jarl faster than any other combination. With 4 smoke screens and 4 rogues spamming aim shot he'd be dead befor the smoke cleared.

[Raxin]

4 rogues will kill jarl faster than any other combination. With 4 smoke screens and 4 rogues spamming aim shot he'd be dead befor the smoke cleared.

This is winner. Ding ding ding

[Energizeric]

Jarl is probably a bad example because he's so easy. If you are farming a difficult elite dungeon like grounds or tower, then I think a warrior, rogue and 2 mages works well.

[Reggin]

SP is only a bad idea on jarl if charged. Tap it, and you have no problems and a nice extra skill for damage.

[Megabird56]

For killing Jarl only, yes i agree 4 rogues is prolly best. If you want absolute speed in any elite map, i dont see where warrior fits in. I dont use rogue or warrior, but when i farm i dont want warrior in my team. Just my opinion for now. Maybe it will change next update. You never know.

[Bless]

Solo. Possible with a rogue in under 50secs.

[kiitz]

Interesting discussion so far. You guys are right that Jarl is probably too easy for this to be a fun example. However, do not forget that no pot useage allowed. Would 4 rogues survive the group before Jarl? Would they survive his attacks? Could you run full dex and still do him successfully?

Also, does shadow veil stack, if all 4 rogues dropped them at the same time, or do they rotate them?

Finally, why does shadow piercer only fail if you charge it? (I don't actually have a high level rogue yet).

[Royce]

Would 4 rogues survive the group before Jarl? Would they survive his attacks? Could you run full dex and still do him successfully?

He would probably go down too fast to get many shots in anyway, but as someone mentioned above, it would be pretty simple with a quad-flap setup. I've done Jarl runs with 4 flaps, and Jarl barely get any shots off at all, and no charge shots.

Finally, why does shadow piercer only fail if you charge it? (I don't actually have a high level rogue yet).

Charged it goes through the first target and selects another, so you fly right past Jarl and pull the group behind him.

[Thegrimreaper]

The rogue should definitely not have shadow piercer. It fails like crazy on jarl runs

no it doesnt lol people just dont know to not charge the attack

[Destructible]

The ideal party for me would be : 1 Warrior and 3 Rogues

All it needs is a shadow veil (or two ) stacked up in the first group of mobs. The warrior tanks it all. Combo for the Warrior should be:
Charged Skyward Smash, Charged Vengeful Blood, Charged Horn Of Renew (Needs to have shield and taunt), half-charged windmill. Then follow up with auto, Charged Skyward Smash, then auto again until Windmill comes on. Do it half-charged again. By then the mobs there should be cleared.
(If you notice well enough, this combo allows the Vengeful Blood buffs to be used to its maximum potential. Every skill that you cast from the start to the end of this combo should be backed up by Vengeful Blood buffs. )

* Additional: The warrior could pull in Jarl when the first groups of mobs are at half their life bars. This enables the Rogue's AoE to at least hit the Jarl a bit. *

Warrior's Role: Tank, Hold Aggro, and shield when the red zoning is on(Normally rogues with no intention of dying would know to stand behind the Jarl, but this is in the worst-case-scenario).

Rogues' Role: Shadow Veil stack, Aimed Shot stack. Razor Wind to help the warrior clear the first group of mobs. No Charged Shadow Piercing.

Pet's Role(Yes! Pets too!): Any arcane ability that stuns or damages. Normally it would disrupt the Jarl's red-zoning if timed correctly.

That said, the Jarl should be down within 1 minute. That's my way of doing Jarl.

[Royce]

I'm honestly not sure why anyone would put a warrior in an ideal party of any kind. They can barely/never hold aggro, do next to no damage, and really serve no purpose whatsoever except for having some unique buffs/debuffs. Now in an "ideal" game that would not be the case, but as this game at this cap currently works, warriors are pointless and the ideal Jarl group is probably 4 rogues or 3 rogues and a sorcerer.

[Patricks]

I'm honestly not sure why anyone would put a warrior in an ideal party of any kind. They can barely/never hold aggro, do next to no damage, and really serve no purpose whatsoever except for having some unique buffs/debuffs. Now in an "ideal" game that would not be the case, but as this game at this cap currently works, warriors are pointless and the ideal Jarl group is probably 4 rogues or 3 rogues and a sorcerer.

Couldnt have said it better myself