What is Farming? A Guide for Beginners.

[Triplexx]

Credits goes to Silly Warrior of Guild wars Guru ;)

What Is Farming? A Guide for Beginners.
-Created by Silly Warrior



In an effort to make this forum as useful as possible, I have decided to create a Beginner’s farming thread. Inside are any/all questions that may be asked by a newcomer, and will be updated as often as possible. Your feedback as Guild Wars Guru members will help make this thread as useful to a newcomer as possible. If you have additional FAQ you would like to add, and feel it would help out the thread even more, send me a message via Guru. This thread will help get rid of farming thread questions that pop up on a weekly basis.

People who already know what farming is will find most of this thread to be filled with already known information. But keep in mind for new players there is much information to be learned, leave only helpful comments.

So without further adue, let’s start straight from the top. I will assume you know nothing about farming at all.

I. Introduction to Farming
II. Farming Parties and Solo Play
III. Choosing the Best Farming Locations
IV. Ideal Builds for Solo Farming
V. Other Farming
VI. Threads for Additional Information
VII. Conclusion to Farming
If you don’t want to read all of the areas, press Ctrl-F and type in what section you want.

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I. Introduction to Farming

If you’re new to MMO’s, or a hardcore veteran, lets get something straight. Farming is not plowing potatoes or harvesting crops. Farming can be summed up in just one simple paragraph and although builds can be complicated, it is a very easy concept to grasp.

Quote:
Originally Posted by GuildWiki
Farming is the killing of monsters for the purpose of gathering items, experience, gold, Faction, or promotion points and is considered to be one of the quickest and easiest ways to amass wealth. Often you will find parties (especially in the harder areas of the game) searching for people to go farming with them.


Sounds easy enough right, killing monsters in the game for your own personal gain. Now the question is, how can you do this effectively?

The first way to do this, if you’re a beginner is to read through this entire thread, and learn HOW farming works, and how you can become a pro, and in turn get as much of what your trying to do as possible.

Now, there are many types of farming, as explained in the Guildwiki quote. You as a player have to decide what you personally want, or what your trying to get. The easiest way to find a build to do this is through Guru, where hundreds of builds are shared daily, and you read others builds, and get easy explanations of how they work. Another great option is PvXWiki.com ([Only registered and activated users can see links. ]) which contains purely builds. PvX Wiki is just starting out, but regardless still contains builds for the beginning farmer.

Anything that’s an enemy in PvE can be considered farming. It does not matter if the enemies involved include mission, quests, or special events. How you use your skills as a player, and which monsters you choose to kill overall determines how well you will do.
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II. Farming Parties and Solo Play

Now that you’ve gotten a grip on exactly what farming is, the question remains, who should I do it with? In many cases, being solo is best choice, but in many more there are cases where having just yourself would be simply impossible for the enemies you are about to encounter.

Your going to ask, why is going in solo better in some situations. And the answer is simple: Loot scaling.

Quote:
Originally Posted by GuildWiki
As of the April 19th, 2007 update, with the introduction of the hard mode, Money making from farming was decreased in parties with less than the maximum party size, as loot is now scaled according to the amount of players in a party. When farming solo or having party members, you get less items than you normally would, and that amount is now comparable to that of full group farming. Shortly after the release of the hard mode, loot scaling has been slightly adjusted by causing tomes, scrolls, dye, rare materials, Domain of Anguish gemstones, gold level rarity items, unique items, and Special Event items to be excluded from the new system.

Note: Unique items INCLUDES Green Items (Victos Axe, Victos Blade…etc)

After reading this, you will assume that unless your in a party of max people you will get no more than if you were solo. Of course this is case except for the items listed at the end of the quote. The items listed at the end of the quote are the most frequently farmed items BECAUSE they are excluded from the scaling system set into place in April 07.

Before April 19th, 2007 the amount of loot you got was determined purely by how many players were in your party when you began whatever you were doing. Because of this many players farmed areas over and over again solo, and got many white items, which they would sell to the merchant for quick cash. After the April 19th update, the Anti-Farming code was lifted, but a new set of rules was set into place (see GuildWiki quote). Many players were outraged, but as players we must adjust to the new gameplay.

12 Man Farming:
For example if one is trying to do a set of quests in the DoA (Domain of Anguish), usually they will partner up with 12 people to go and do it. Since DoA is an elite mission area, and is considered very hard most players have not attempted to solo farm it, although it is possible with a few farming builds. The items that drop in DoA are usually very rare, and one can make a lot of money by farming DoA with a group of 12 people. The same goes for Urgoz Warren and The Deep (both elite missions) although DoA is considered to be the hardest, and drops the most expensive items usually. This is an example of a 12 person farming type of run.

5 Man Farming:
Going from 12 to 5 people in a party, 5 man farming runs for Tomb of the Primeval Kings is quite popular. The run is made to go very fast, and the chances of rare materials like Ectoplasm drop open. For more information on this, check out the Wiki page. [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. There are a few more examples of this type of run, but I will allow you to find these yourself on Guru!

2 Man Farming:
Another great example is the classic 55/SS. This abbreviations stands for Fifty Five (A 55 Health Monk) and Spiteful Spirit (A usually 55 Necro that focus’ solely on dealing damage, and perhaps giving a BR to his 55 buddy).
55/SS is most commonly found in Underworld runs (although it can be done in many, many places). The 55 takes the aggro, while the SS stays back and usually casts Spiteful Spirit on whatever they are attacking. For a more detailed explanation of this, check out PvX’s written up article [Only registered and activated users can see links. ].

The Solo:
And of course the most common of all farms, the solo. The benefits of solo farming are many. For one, since many more special items that drop are excluded, you can get these to the greatest potential. Green farming ( farming for green texted items) is the most popular for soloing as you get 100% of the drops of greens. Keep in mind the chances of green items is around 10%ish, so it WILL not drop everytime, if it does drop everytime, you’re the luckiest person on the earth. The solo farm is the most common also because it requires no work besides your own for builds to be setup, and you can play online with yourself without having others leave. Rare items are also excluded from loot scaling, so if your good enough to solo high level areas with rare items, you can amass larges amount of gold quickly. Keep in mind PLEASE that whites and nonrare items don’t drop as frequently in solo’s, so farming solo for whites would be a complete waste of time, at least since the update.

Please note there are many, many variations to farming groups. But always remember, if its rare items that are excluded from the April 07 update that you are looking to get, the smaller group you can get to obtain that item the better!--------------------------------------------------------------------------
III. Choosing the Best Farming Locations

When starting out on your epic voyage to get lots of “leet” and “uber” weapons and items, you most choose something before you choose ANYTHING else. Where am I going to farm?

That’s right…farming locations. Some areas are easy to assume that they will have poor drops (Ascalon in general). All areas in Normal Mode are very easy to figure out where the best place is to farm. Areas in the beginning of all Campaigns have BAD farming spots and BAD loot drops. Areas towards the end of games (DoA, Fire Islands, Kurzick and Luxon areas) have GOOD drops because the creatures that inhabit those areas are stronger, and are higher level. In normal mode, ALWAYS choose farming based on the levels of the creatures that are there. This is especially true for Tyria, where most of the areas before the Desert have worse drops than that of areas after. If your two low of a level to do farming, a good idea is to max your character to 20 before attempting to make farming doable without dying constantly.

However since the release of Hard Mode, the rules above do not apply. All areas of the game have creatures that are level 20+, so EVERYWHERE is a potential farming location. Since Hard Mode was just recently released, many areas have been found that have good drops. If your doing Hard Mode remember that is supposed to be HARDER than normal mode. Don’t get discouraged, there is almost always a way to farm something, the question is finding the right skills to do it.

In conclusion, choose areas that have high level monsters, and are doable Solo or with a small group, depending on what exactly your doing.--------------------------------------------------------------------------
IV. Ideal Builds for Solo Farming

This section of the thread is much smaller, but just as important. When choosing what builds to use, consider the following.

Offence: Since your going in alone, your build must be able to do damage to the enemies in order to kill them. Simple enough, although finding the right skills to kill can be tough to choose.

Defence: Since your going in alone, your build must be able to defend from the enemies long enough to kill them. If you can’t you either need a better build or are in an area that is too challenging to do alone. Choosing the right defensive skills makes ALL the difference, as choosing unwisely will result in your DEATH!!!

Balance: You must have a balance between both offence and defence, obviously. Choosing exactly which takes a lot of tweaking, and that’s why these forums exist, to help players make the best builds possible to do what they want!

There are also a few builds that work in many situations, like the 55 monk, or other 55’s across the game.

Being a 55 means you have 55 health. You choose skills that can regenerate fast, and protective spirit makes it so no matter how hard an enemy hits it only causes 5 dmg. That, along with the massive regen from skills like Healing Breeze or Mystic Regeneration make 55ing a very versatile way to farm! There are many counters to this, so it will NOT work in all locations across the game, but it’s a great place to begin.
Link: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
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V: Other Farming

Besides simply killing enemies in a way to gain more loot, there are other things that are considered farming in the game that people may refer to.
One of the most common is FF (Faction Farming). In the game Guild Wars: Factions, alliances have the choice of trying to gain faction to try to gain territories. When you faction farm, the most traditional method is Alliance Battles. People who Faction Farm repeat faction quests, alliance battles, and challenge missions to gain either Kurzick or Luxon faction. This sort of farming is usually then donated to the guild, and also counts towards the title.

Another group of farming is Lightbringer and Sunspear title farming. People farm LB and SS points for the title. When someone says they are SS or LB farming, it almost always means they are getting blessing from priests when they zone, and are killing things that go along with that blessing. Lightbringer and Sunspear titles are now maxable, because of the large April 07 update, and many people farm these titles to go along with maxing them for KoaBD (Kind of a Big Deal). The current most popular location for both farms is the The Sulfurous Wastes. For more information on this particular farm, here is the link. [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Although this is the PvE section of the Forum, you will often hear of people farming Balthazar faction. As most of you should know, Balthazar faction is earned by killing other players (PvP) and pleasing Balthazar (lol). This can be done easily at Zaishen Challenge, although the cap is 2k Faction per day.

Another thing you may hear if your into PvP is fame farming. A group that is very good at Hero’s Ascent (HA) will hold halls and earn a large amount of fame for any amount of time. Doing fame farming and doing well usually requires a good rank.

And finally another form of farming is chest running. Chest running is simply you running across a map, by yourself or with a party, to open rare chests and get uber leet stuff from them. There are many chest running guides, and threads to tell you exactly what you can do to find the best places to do it. Chest running is costly, but often pays for itself in rare drops, and is the easiest way to obtain gold items (besides buying them)
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VI: Threads for Additional Information


While my post will not nearly enough detailed information, here are a few threads that will be more informative:

1. Quests- A Listing of Those Best Kept For Farming- [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
2. The Chestrunners Thread- [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
3. Witte Was HM Solo Farming- [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
4. Witte Was Full Tyrian Solo Tour- [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
5 List of Solo Builds-
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

There are many more threads I will add! Please PM me if you have any more you would like to suggest!--------------------------------------------------------------------------
VII: Conclusion for Farming

In conclusion, you are the one to decide how good you will become at this sometimes complex activity in Guild Wars. My best advice, practice the builds you use, find new ones via Guru and Wiki, and most importantly CREATE YOUR OWN. All builds were created by someone, and making the next new cool build is totally in your reach. All you have to do is experiment, and the more you learn about how to do farming, the better you will become.


Thanks for reading!