T3Build:OgcTc588ZSn5A6uU4gmEBC3pzB
If you're experienced/confident, you can bring
Dash instead of
Recall - it's faster, but slightly riskier because enemies won't break immediately, and you don't get extra damage reduction from Shadow Form.
Equipment:Blessed Insignias on all armour pieces
Expertise headpiece with
Rune of Superior ExpertiseRune of Superior Vigor3x
Rune of AttunementIf you're being superpro, you can have a spare armour set with
Stormbound Insignias - those
Spirit Shepherds really hurt! It's only an extra 5 armour though, and it's useless against other groups.
Swift Staff of Enchanting with "Don't Think Twice" inscription
one-handed weapon of Enchanting with "Don't Think Twice" inscription (for your shield set)
Shield of Devotion with "Riders on the Storm" inscription
long/flatbow for pulling
You may also want a slashing shield (for
Skeletal Berserkers and
Shadow Warriors), and other shields for covering other terras, but lightning is all you really need for your job.
Required pcons: Candy Corn, Golden Egg, Birthday Cupcake
Recommended pcons: Candy Apples and Pumpkin Pie are excellent - War Supplies and Lunar Fortunes will also make your job easier - if you have money to burn, rainbow rocks make a big difference with
Nature's RenewalTactics:
Run straight forward at the start, and
DC up the cliff to the Shadow Monks and Shadow Beasts. You don't need to waste time casting
SF, but make sure you wield your staff here; the Beasts will cast
SS on you if you have a martial weapon. Continue running east, but avoid aggroing any of the Shadow Rangers or Abyssals around
ToC. If there's not a VoS balling them up then you can run through, but it's not a good habit, so run around them to the right. More importantly, don't aggro the Shadows on the right - the MT needs to ball these up, so if you pull them away, it'll waste time and even potentially fail the run.
At the point where ToC meets the
Great Battle Field, there are a group of Shadows and a group of Skeletals. They're all casters, so cast SF before you aggro them, and then pull the Shadows into the Skeletals so that they start fighting each other. Then run to the Forest of the Wailing Lord, and switch to your shield set. Stop when you see a patrol of
3 Spirit Shepherds. Target one of these guys and run past them, popping up
Rock Borer Worms as you go. Beware that the Worms have
Choking Gas, so their attacks will interrupt your spells, and they have a very long range. Also watch out for
Armored Cave Spiders, which have
Savage Shot, so don't cast important spells while standing too near them.
Whirling and
Shroud give you a good chance of blocking, but it's not guaranteed, so beware.
Spirit Woods can safely be ignored, but bear in mind that they use
Nature's Renewal, which increases the cast time on your enchantments, making them even more prone to being interrupted. Without going so far that you lose aggro of the 3 Spirit Shepherds, look around for 4 more groups of them (3 in each group, 12 altogether) patrolling around here - aggro all of them and ball all 5 groups up by pulling them around the cliff to the west of the Rock Borer Worms. The Shepherds should ball up neatly - hold them at maximum range so that they don't run up to
Lightning Touch you, and when you're ready, DC into the ball and whirl them all down at once. Use IaU to keep yourself alive - if you get so low that you think you need to
HoS to survive, try to choose a target that won't move you out of the ball, or they might not die evenly. All 15 Shepherds need to die, so if any are left over, you can either use your remaining aggro to kill them, or have the V3 help you kill them.
Once those Shepherds are all dead, you can safely drop SF, and whirl the southern group of 3 Worms - if the V3 has arrived, you can do it together or just let them do it, but if you have time to spare you should do it yourself. You can then run off to the north, and DC up the cliff where you see more Shepherds and Woods. Don't try to DC from too far east, or you'll fail; you can only shadow step up a cliff if the entire path you would have to walk around is in party range (i.e. visible on the compass). Up there, you should find a
Shard Wolf: kill it with Whirling - grab as much aggro as you need to kill it.
If the V3 is dead or has still not arrived, you should now go west until you see a group of Skeletals on a bridge. On the far side of the bridge, there should be a
Wailing Lord (do not kill him, or you'll fail!) and 5 patrolling
Banshees. Pull all the Banshees with a long/flatbow - you should be able to get them without actually crossing the bridge. If you go too far, all the Skeletals on the other side will run at you, so you'll have to tank them as well. Take all the Banshees back off the bridge, taking care not to stand in any traps, and then head north along the river until the Skeletals break aggro. Walk sideways or backwards, or the Banshees will break too. Aggro several groups of Shepherds to fuel Whirling, right wall block the Banshees, and kill them. The reason you need to break the Skeletals is because the Berserkers have
Wild Blow, which strips Whirling, thereby making it risky to tank too many of them, and almost impossible to whirl them. It's also a good idea to not bring Shepherds with you to the bridge, or the damage will overwhelm you.
After the Banshees are dead, if the V3
still hasn't arrived, go round to their house, get them out of bed, pour them some coughy, and carry them on your back to the Forest. Cast
Recall on them, and when they're ready, talk to the Wailing Lord and take the quest
A Gift of Griffons. End Recall immediately, and wait a moment to regen some energy before casting it on the V3 again. Run east towards the group of Skeletals that just ran into the Forest, and pull them to the north so the V3 can sneak past with the
Forest Griffons. Do not aggro any remaining Rock Borer Worms, or they will interrupt you with Choking Gas. Wait until the Griffons are well clear of aggro, and end Recall. You can do this with all the groups on the way to ToC, although for some it will generally be faster for you to ball them up and let the V3 kill them. The other VoSs should have arrived from the forge, so they can spike the balls while the V3 holds the Griffons, but if they're still doing Defend, you must make sure you make a very tight ball, because they need to die quickly, before the Griffons run in and get killed.
When the quest is done, find the Shard Wolf just to the south of ToC, and pull it with a flat/longbow to bring it away from the nearby Shadow Monk, which would heal it. Help the V3 kill the Wolf, and your job is complete! You can now go and cover either of the terras if they're not finished, or just go to the forge and wait for the chest to spawn.
