Guide:Nicholas the Traveler Farming/May 2009

Week of May 25th (Gloom Seeds)
Nicholas the Traveler is located in "The Falls". He takes 1 Gloom Seed per present, taking a total of 5 Gloom Seeds.

The Beach

 * A Perma Sliver, Perma Cryer, or Perma Daggers can run to the beach and kill the Snarling Driftwoods in about 3-6 minutes. This should yield about 2-3 Gloom Seeds.
 * Other builds that farm the Beach can be used as well e.g. D/Me FoW Beach Farmer.

The Forest
Any Barrage or Incendiary Arrows variation can be used to farm through the forest quickly e.g. Splinter FoW Forest Farmer.

Week of May 18th (Chromatic Scales)
Enter the Battledepths from the Central Transfer Chamber or through the entrance South West of Eye of the North.

You

 * Whatever character you wish, generally something that's going to deal a lot of damage.
 * Forms of 600/Smite and 55hp builds will generally work here, permaform however will not due to Lightning Touch and Crystal Wave.
 * A dervish equipped with a zealous scythe of enchanting using VoS, Elemental Resistance, YAAW!, Victorious Sweep and Chilling Victory can also be used to solo farm chromatic scales. This also leaves enough space for three nonspell self-healing skills. Remember to pull out of their 50% block wards.

Heroes

 * Any general H/H setup will work (RoJ/SoH, Discordway, Sabway etc). It would be beneficial to take extra hex removal due to the large amount of hexes used in the area (Expel Hexes, Remove Hex, Convert Hexes and Peace and Harmony are all easy to take forms of hex removal which will make your time farming easier.
 * Do not underestimate the Chromatic Drake's, even in NM they do a lot of damage, Protective Spirit/Spirit Bond/"Save Yourselves!" is a must.

Perma Sin

 * Farm them outside central transfer chamber and then go left to kill 3 groups. You can use different builds.
 * Use degeneration (Radiation Field + Viper`s Defense) and bring a bonder with you if you feel unsafe.

PUG

 * A group consisting for a Perma sin and a few RoJ nukers can easily farm the Battledepths. Once entered from CTC, go south and clear all the Cromatic Drakes untill you reached the entrance of the Heart of the Shiverpeaks. Here you can rezone and move back towards the CTC entrance.

Frostmaw's Burrows

 * One permashadowform sin runs to to dungeon and another player playing 600/smite/QZ (the partysetup of SoO run is perfect) kills the first 2 groups to farm the scales. When they are dead, rezone to Jaga Moraine and enter into the dungeon again. This will kill about 8-10 drakes in 2 minutes if done properly.

Week of May 11th (Mandragor Roots)
Farm at Arkjok Ward outside Yohlon Haven.

You

 * Any offensive bar for your class.
 * The area around Arkjok Ward is suitable for permanent Shadow Form solo farming, even in HM. However, it is recommended that you bring Dark Escape and a healing skill due Mandragor Slither use of Headbutt.  For some reason, Mandragor Imps in HM seem to only use Signet of Agony or Barbed Signet when you are low in health.

Henchmen

 * Devona
 * Gehraz
 * Cynn
 * Herta

Usage

 * Blow Mandragors up and hope for roots.
 * Keep moving, you took Devona for a reason ("Charge!")

Skillbars
Any/ You + 1x Hero

Two other heroes

Equipment

 * Vampiric weapons for the saccers is preferred but not totally needed.
 * Bloodstained insignias can help.
 * Nothing else matters.

Usage
This causes a flow of minions to become summoned and then wild which the drake will hopefully eat.
 * 1) Block Blood is Power and Unyielding Aura on your heroes.
 * 2) Pre-cast Unyielding Aura.
 * 3) Kill one necro by spamming BiP.
 * 4) Give the other necro some time to use Animate Bone Minions.
 * 5) Take the quest from Chuno.
 * 6) Cancel and recast one Unyielding Aura.
 * 7) Micro the necro with the minions to sac self to death.
 * 8) Have the other necro summon minions.
 * 9) Repeat from step 6 until quest completes.

Variants

 * Play around with the level of the minions. Too low level minions cause them to die too fast so they cant be eaten and too high level minions take too long to kill effectively.
 * A speed boost to run from and to the portal.

Counters

 * Elder Jonah

Video
A video walking through a similar build can be found here.