2025 New Items Drop Locations

OgSjcsrKrS0kcXfbrXZiWCaXNXA

I have been running +2 earth, +2 mysticism - probably not optimal though

Recommended: +5e scythe. I found this dramatically reduced my energy woes at kill time.

This is loosely based on the Raptors bar. Like raptors, you need a run hero. Unlike raptors, you can't use more than one mark of pain (Berserking Aurochs have Deny Hexes and will just remove it) and really benefit from bringing more heroes along. Shield of Force KDs the aurochs, and they're then too slow to remove MoP before you land eremite's attack. Turns out, a single copy of MoP is enough to kill Asterius if you manage to pull his group.

Run hero:

OQijEqmMKOD7dsJ+GTvrx9YWMA

The only things you require on this bar are Vocal was Sogolon, Enduring Harmony and Make Haste, the rest is just trying to be useful.

Can't Touch This is only there because this exact bar was what I used for raptors (unlike the PvX hero bar, this one gives you bladeturn refrain for a little extra blocking for the cost of clicking more skills).

Additional heroes: I would recommend bringing three heroes (any profession) with 12 command and both Fall Back and Incoming. You're going to need to micro most of these skills unfortunately.

Boring step by step writeup:

• (the hopefully obvious) Start at Olafstead. Turn on HM and norn title.
• Have run para use ashes and FB
• Start running down the hill. When FB wears off, start microing the three copies of incoming+fb off heroes so your party has full coverage of both shouts active at once. (This is to make the minotaurs you're about to run through want to drop aggro, even though doing this doesn't make you actually go any faster)
• Run straight through the group of minotaurs on the right hand side of the cliff, towards Inga Caveborn's shrine. Ideally, avoid aggroing the bison group on the right and the popup vaettirs too. Put all heroes on avoid combat mode, otherwise they will try to fight the minos and be stupid.
• Once near the shrine, stop using the party speed shouts. Take the bounty from Inga Caveborn at second shrine if you care about it (taking it from the first shrine requires you to actively walk backwards)
• Flag heroes by the shrine. They might still be getting chased and ultimately end up getting wiped, this doesn't matter as long as the important stuff goes up first.
• Have run para use Enduring Harmony -> Make Haste -> Stake your ground -> they're on fire -> Bladeturn
• Do any other hero buffing here (see below for ideas and stuff I tried)
• Run down the path to the "right" of the shrine (I think this is slightly north?), aggro as much as possible.
• If any Minotaurs or Bison get close enough to start a melee attack on you, use IAU or you risk getting KDed/crippled and dying. Even if there is none of this happening, make sure you use it at some point before enduring harmony wears off. (The rare single scourge vaettir also needs you to use it to avoid being KDed by signet of judgment, see below for more on that)
• Far down the path is a little raised plateau on the right hand side. I tend to run onto that, aggro all the groups on the western edge of the map and try not to lose the first ones, ball up on the edge of the plateau, and hope for the best.
• Once in position, use mirage cloak; when plenty are around you, use sanctity and VoS. When all the aurochs are around you (others can still be running in, just all the aurochs need to get KDed or they can remove MoP): shield of force -> MoP -> staggering -> eremite's.
• Unless you have a truly exceptional pull, whatever you put mark of pain on will survive, but everything else explodes. This bar tanks a lone Minotaur while grabbing loot much much better than a Wendigo, but a Wendigo might be more likely to die to a large pull thanks to lower AR. Decisions decisions. Aurochs have Contemplation and while I haven't tested it. might be able to remove MoP from themselves fast enough. Bison or Asterius definitely won't be close to dying if you put MoP on them.
• If you didn't get Asterius in the ball, he tends to patrol in and aggro soon after. When the anniversary was active there was often not enough time to grab everything before I got slaughted by his group.

Sometimes, there is a single "wildlife" type enemy at the bottom of the hill - this doesn't spawn most of the time. If it is, most often it is a single hidden Vaettir popup, of which the only really threatening type is Scourge (KD is death if you don't have IAU up) and it can be balled and killed with the berserks. If it's a Frozen Elemental you must either not aggro it at all, or you can run up to it and spike whatever cows are chasing you but trying to run through it will almost certainly lead to it snaring and killing you. This is thankfully quite rare (guessing ~2% chance).

Most likely nonessential hero optimisations:

• Use of low level/max hp heroes. The paragon is the one party member you cannot complete a run without, the more noncritical heroes you bring with low hp should make the AI want them dead more and help reduce the odds of the minotaurs killing the one hero that is absolutely essential.
• Energy boon (max ES with of enchanting) - max HP boost is nice for survival and should potentially reduce the amount of spike damage packets affected by bisons' intimidating aura.
• Watchful intervention (max mysticism with of enchanting) - some backup healing.
• Mending refrain with some feeder shouts to renew it (the set on the paragon bar above last too long) - can heal off some damage caused by single hits or Zealous Renewal while running.
• Unyielding aura and lowish cost 1/4 cast time heals/prots on heroes that can take them (eg: shielding hands, imbue health) - don't disable them and they might get used if the minotaur group on the way bullies someone. Unyielding in particular requires no micro and has let me res the paragon enough times that it's been worth the time to drag onto a bar, even if they're not Monk primary.
• (untested) max DF, blessed aura + spell breaker - this may let you run normally even if the rare frozen elemental spawned. Probably not worth the bother to have to micro every run though. This hero could also bring healing breeze or even supportive spirit which could help too.
• (untested) 16 communing, 15 spawning, ritual lord -> vital weapon. On paper this lasts long enough to be significant and helps for the same reasons as Energy Boon.

Avenues for more optimisation:

• I feel like someone out there reading this is screaming at me "What's with MoP? Why the heck are you not using EBSoH!?". Sure, it kills the regular enemies fine, but I can't seem to reliably get kills of Bison/Asterius with it. But, if you can, it will be marginally faster (can cast EBSoH before all are balled, unlike MoP) and won't leave one enemy alive every run.
• Someone who understands enemy aggro better can probably ball more enemies than I do (I get 25-30 most runs). I don't know if running straight for the little cliffy plateau is actually the best route, or if there are reasonable ways to get more groups into the explosion before Make Haste wears off. Doing this might also bring more enemies together and make EBSoH more workable?
  • The second res shrine may not be the most optimal place to leave the heroes behind. It's just sort of convenient, and the odds of the critical hero surviving to make it there is really pretty high.