Nice FoW trip

[Lago Mortis]

We finally got to FoW!!

I first started a group with Darius, yesterday. It took about an hour to gather and the mix was a bit from optimal. Very warrior heavy, 4 W, 1 R, 2 monks (not that experienced with FoW) and me as battery. At least we did it decently in the beginning, though we soon discovered I had the only hex removal (and Spiteful Spirit is a handicap for a warrior). I got disconnected already at the second mob. They others fought bravely on against the following mobs, but I guess the hexes took them in the end. After 10 minutes we were all back to square one.

Only I continued on the second team.

First we struggled with getting monks and I got my monk ran from Bergen Hot springs (shhh, do not tell Jane). Which was unnecessary since we got two nice monks in the end and I continued as monk challenging battery instead (but I only managed to out-sac them once). Four from the sisters, Aewith and 2 alliance members and an old mesmer friend, made a pretty strong team. The party consisted of 3 R, Ele, Me, 2 Mo and me (N).

We had three party members that had not visited much of FoW before so we made a short trip to some main attractions in FoW, opened up the Forge, went through the spider Cave and visited the Beach. Everyone seemed to have a great time, even though some complained about the price level at the shop. I think most of the members got some nice drops. For myself I was a bit unlucky this time, my last three longer FoW/UW trips have been out of shrads/ecotos. Lady Random hits hard!

Take care everyone, see you in July!
Lago Mortis

[Twisted Sister Jane]

Was indeed a nice trip! No shards for me, but I got a nice chest drop, a shadow bow with far too high marksmanship requirement but a string mod for 19% chance for 20% armor penetration! Almost max!

We didn't do very much of FOW this time, but wow was it easy. We didn't have any warriors to tank for us, but with at least two rangers laying traps (I don't know if Dana was doing any trapping as well) there was constant blinding and damaging all around. Abysmals and the shadows can be taken down quite well with a combination of traps. Although I could only see my own personal damage in yellow numbers, it does seem that our elementalist caused a significant amount of dead enemy production with her spells.

Once again I had my FOW build: flame, dust and barbed trap, distracting shot, rebirth, troll unguent, throw dirt and oath shot. The combo of oath shot and throw dirt lets me lay traps almost constantly mid-battle, causing all sorts of chaos on the battlefield. Here it should be noted that traps are not only useful in preparation for a battle. But also to be noted, I was most useful last night because Lago as battery supplied a lot of extra energy, letting me cast as many traps as I wanted.

Another thing I noted about our group last night, is that they nicely allowed us to pull back ranged enemies, such as monks and rangers, to where Aerwith and I set traps. This is something that a lot of groups don't think about or do not have the patience for, but is something that helps a lot when the enemy consists of only mesmers, monks and rangers.

Now, on to the deep?

[Dana Hawkeye]

Good trip last night into the Fissure. It did take a while to get the group together and i apoligise to anyone that was left out - eight is the maximum number and you do need a certain amount of the right professions within the group.

I was one of the lucky ones in getting 3 obsidian shard drops. I think there was probably about 10 shard drops in all and 2 silver dyes I think and one 'rare' sapphire.

As Jane said, the group took its time and there were minimal deaths amongst the group. On occasion we had to do a fighting withdrawal (no retreat, no surrender) till the mobs thinned out for us to continue onwards again.

On this occasion, I never went barrage but full interupter (no traps - I hate trapping) with apply poison and kindle flame also. Lago helped me a bit with the energy as I had some high recharge times on a couple of skills.

All in all, a good return to the Fissure of Woe ............ Home again!