Feersum Endjinn
Knight
*updated 15 December 2011*
So you're bored of plodding along behind your GD and reading the newspaper while he kills spiders for you. You're done losing candles because those damn RCs just won't go down fast enough. You've had enough of those sexy succubi questioning your manhood every time you have to run halfway around the dungeon to heal and invis. In that case, the Vamp Form Samurai is the 'toon you've been looking for all your life. He is the coolest kamikaze on the shard: if he stops moving, he dies; if he stops killing, he dies; if he runs away, he dies. His motto is "Give Me More!". More mobs. More mass murder. More mayhem. Why kill things one at a time when you can kill 100 with one swing? If he's not getting ganked by 5 LLs and 23 RCs he is not a happy vampire. Nothing can out-damage him. Nothing else human can take the kind of pummelling he does and survive. Take him down to Deceit and pull every single Rotting Corpse on the level on him at once. Pop over to the Bedlam Spawn and watch his DPS go over 5,000. Cream through all T1-3 spawn in ten seconds flat. If you like getting down and dirty with everything that so much as blinks at you - the Sampire is for you!
*drops the manic grin*
*wipes sweat from brow*
*waits for pulse to fall below 160*
Ok. Seriously...
Solo spawning is definitely one of the most satisfying (and hands down the most lucrative) pvm experiences ever, and the Sampire (Vampire Samurai) is without a doubt the most efficient solo spawner out there. He uses no skills for his primary healing method and so can basically put 720 points into attack and defence. To heal up and recover Mana and Stam, he uses the different Leeches available in-game: Vampiric Embrace for Life and Stam Leech and Hit Mana Leech on his weapon for Mana regen. He can augment these leeches with a tactical use of Curse Weapon and Divine Fury and heal up between battles with Confidence. This means that he is most comfortable when surrounded by monsters: by using the Whirlwind Special to attack everything around him, he will leech back more Life, Stam and Mana the more damage he does.
The biggest problem for solo spawners in general is that it takes them too long to kill stuff on their own: even a GD is slow on tier 4 (and ironically, even slower on T1). To give you an idea - 25 kills per minute are needed to get the first red candle, and 9 per minute to get the first T4 red candle (so 9 Succubi/Dragons/Rotting Corpses/etc per minute). This is where the Sampire excels: he will never be killing his opponents one by one, but rather all at once (literally ;>) on T1 and 5-20 at a time on T4. This means that although a competent Necro-Tamer can complete almost any Spawn except Neira alone (as Muscly Barbarian and others have demonstrated) unless he is very, very good he will almost always take significantly longer than a Sampire to do it.
How does a Sampire get such an extreme damage output? Basically by attacking up to eight mobs at once directly, and adding to that an Area Attack which hits everything in a ten tile radius multiple times.
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In this diagram, our Sampire is hitting 8 mobs directly using the Whirlwind Special and possibly a Hit Spell proc. But at the same time, he is hitting all 80 mobs multiple times with the Hit Area proc on his axe. Since each proc has a chance to go off every time it hits a monster, with 50% HFA for example, all the surrounding monsters will be getting hit with the Area Effect an average of 4 times for every swing (ie hitting 8 mobs, the Hit Area proc goes off 4 times). Below is the damage output per swing - the total DPS is over 3000 even in this simple four layer example:
28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28
28 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 28
28 32 36 36 36 36 36 32 28
28 32 36 99 99 99 36 32 28
28 32 36 99 @ 99 36 32 28
28 32 36 99 99 99 36 32 28
28 32 36 36 36 36 36 32 28
28 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 28
28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28
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Basic Template (720 Skill Points):
120 Swords
120 Bushido
120 Parry
100 Tactics
100 Necro
100 Resist
60 Chivalry
Optimal Template (730/740 Skill Points):
120 Swords
120 Bushido
120 Parry
100/105/110 Tactics
100 Necro
100 Resist
70/75 Chivalry
At 70 Chiv, you never fail Consecrate Weapon. At 75, you never fail Divine Fury. Both can save your life.
For the optimal temp, you will need to get at least +10 Skill from somewhere. The easiest option is to use Captain John's Hat, which gives you +20 Swds. If you have a nice jewel with +10 skill though, you can think about using a Totem for the extra 20 STR points.
Human, not Elf. The only advantage for an Elf is the extra 20 Mana, but this is countered by all the advantages of going Human: +3 innate MR; 20% Hide Chance (invaluable in Fel); ability to use Curse Weapon (and even Nature's Fury and Teleport in a pinch); Can carry more gold; etc; etc...
Minimum Derived Stats and Mods (in order of importance):
- 110 HP
- 163 Stamina (this is the minimum to keep you swinging at 1.5s even while cursed)
- 40 Mana
(You will want 125 Dex, enough Int to get your mana to 40 and the rest in Str - a +20 or +25 Stat Scroll is almost obligatory)
- Resists: 70 65 60 65 65 in Vamp Form
- HCI 45 (You NEED max HCI or you will have problems hitting even some T3 mobs with enough regularity to stay alive)
- DCI 20 (to offset Divine Fury)
- FC 1 (this is the absolute minimum to allow you to get spells off while being ganked by T4 mobs)
- DI 40 (on your axes)
- LMC 15 (break point for 2 point saving for Curse Weapon and 3 point saving for DF - only needs 2 LMC items. The less mana you have, the more LMC you want)
- MR 3 (you can get this by choosing to be Human)
- FCR 2
Optimal Derived Stats and Mods:
- 135-140 HP
- 165-170 Stamina
- 50-55 Mana
- Resists: 70/85/70/85/70 in Vamp Form (Being Corpse-proof is nice, but don't drop other mods to get it.)
- HCI 45
- DCI 24+ (the sweet spot for using Counter Strike during T4 without taking more damage than you can leech your way out of is around 23-27, depending on the Spawn [thanks to Evil Child for goading me into insisting with this tactic for long enough to finally suss it out])
- FC 2+
- DI 90 (DF gives you an extra 10DI to take you to the max 100%)
- LMC 21 (break point for the max possible 2 point saving on WW and CA [that's almost 50%], a 3 point saving for Consecrate, Confidence & Evasion and a 4 point saving for DF)
- MR 11 (3 pieces + Sash + Human innate MR. Again, more than this is almost impossible to get)
- FCR 3+
).
It is important to remember that you DON'T want to count any of these mods you happen to have on a weapon to reach the minimums - unless you have it on ALL your weapons.
*NEW!* Why Small Improvements Matter:
Basically, once you have practised just a little, the only thing that will stop you completing a spawn is dying too often on T4, so really it's all about staying alive for those last few candles. On T4, you will only die *between* swings (especially after a miss) - and your HP will be swinging wildly from full to redlined to full with almost every strike. Over 4 red candles there are going to be literally hundreds of "near-death" moments between swings to get through. When you begin to think of it like that, it is easy to see how every single extra HP or +1%Resist may well save your life at some point by leaving you at 1HP and able to hit back and leech up instead of 0HP and dead. The same is true for that extra +1HCI to make you hit instead of miss at some vital moment or an extra +1LMC which allows you to cast a life-saving, high-damage, high-leech CW+WW with low mana instead of just hitting one mob and leeching nothing. So, when it comes to upgrading your suit, don't ever be tempted not to buy a new piece because "it only gives me one more hit point" or whatever - that 1hp WILL save your life...
Gear:
DPH/CJHat/Totem/HoI/Damyo's for your noodle, Jacks/Gladiators around your neck, Banes for legs and Grips on your hands are all good options. The rest will be runic (preferably BRSK made), so play around with the arties depending on the quality of your runic pieces and jewels. Remember you will need at least +38 Dex/Stam, which is 5 pieces (or Jacks + 3 pieces) minimum. And you MUST get 45HCI. In the long run - with the exception of your headpiece and possibly Glad Collar if you have it - you will be aiming to drop the Artys in favour of BRSK-made 5-mod runics when you can. Nice additions are the Lieutenant of the Britannia Royal Guard Sash, Killer/Protection/Slayer Talismans, +4 Detective of the Royal Guard Boots, Quiver of Infinity and of course a CC if you can get hold of one.
Weapons:
Double Axes. Plural. Including a whole set of Super Slayers. They are the 2nd hardest hitting 2h Swds weapon with the Whirlwind Special in the game - and WW is what you will be using to kill with (and stay alive with) 95% of the time (Large Battle Axes hit harder, but they are too slow to reach the swing speed cap). You *can* complete all Spawns except Oaks without a Slayer weapon, but you will take longer and die more. (It is still good practice though... 
).
).The absolute minimum on any Axe you use is 30% Hit Mana Leech - and this includes Slayers. You have no other way to recover Mana, so without this mod you will die. The next most desired mod is SSI (ideally 25+) - The faster you hit, the faster you kill, the faster you leech back life and the less time between hits there is for a mana dump to kill you. For your third mod you will want either Hit Area (for T1-3) or Hit Stam leech (for T4) - Using Hit Area for the last level is not recommended for beginners because it often flags more mobs than you can take out at a time. Other useful mods if you happen to get lucky with a Gold Hammer are HLD, HLA, HLL, Hit Spell and FC1, more or less in that order of preference.
If you are crafting your own weapons, Agapite or Bronze (extra Cold or Fire damage) are the best metals to use for general purpose axes. Of course, if you are using Bronze and then get a Demon Slayer, you won't be very happy, so another option is to craft with Iron and then Enhance with the most advantageous metal afterwards.
General Purpose D-Axe:
- DI 40
- HML 30+
- Hit Area 30+
- SSI 20+
(I successfully used an axe with DI40 HML36 HFA32 SSI15 for the first year with this temp...)
Tier 4 D-Axe:
- DI 40
- HML 30+
- HSL 30+
- SSI 20+
Super Slayer D-Axe (one for each spawn you want to do):
- Super Slayer
- DI 40
- HML 30+
- SSI 20+ (in a perfect world...)
(My Demon Slayer has no DI at all and only has HML26 and SSI10. It isn't ideal, but it works)
Spawn Completion without Slayer - from easiest to hardest:
- 'Coon
- Mephitis
- Neira
- Semidar (v hard)
- Rikktor (v v hard)
- Oaks (impossible? or not?)
- Pestilence (yet to be soloed - T3 seems *very* tough)
- Twaulo (yet to be soloed - looks extremely hard)
This depends a lot on how often you die, how much insurance cash you have, how good you are at recovering your corpse in thick spawn and how often you get raided. I spent ages learning the ropes with NOTHING I couldn't insure in my pack - so no Curse Weapon (needs Pig Iron) and no Confusion Pots for example - and that certainly helped me get better faster and then made most spawns seem much easier when I did begin carrying regs later on. If you do decide to carry non-insurable items on you, it is always a good idea to keep back-ups on your rezzer too.
Here is a list of useful items to have with you (either on you or maybe on your rezzer):
- Pig Iron (for Curse Weapon)
- Greater Confusion Pots
- Teleport Scrolls (for T2A)
- A bunch of trash PSs and/or multiple piles of reagents and/or trapped pouches (makes you harder to loot or steal from and protects you from getting royally shafted by a random rummager)
- +Chiv jewels (in case you need to rez your rezzer)
- +LRC/LMC/MR items (to wear right after a rez so you can cast VE fast and get back to the spawn)
- Powder of Fortifying (for emergencies)
- Bag of Sending
- Spare PoT for the BoS
- House Placement Tool
Spells and Specials:
- Whirlwind Attack: this is what you will be using (almost) every single strike until you pop the Champ.
- Lightning Strike: for the Champ and to finish off runners.
- Consecrate Weapon: Keep this up at all times. It can often double your damage output
- Divine Fury: Use this the moment you drop below your max swing speed. Do not wait until you're Stam whacked, or you will get dumped on between swings.
- Evasion: Great for avoiding Mana dumps.
- Confidence: To heal up between fights.
- Counter Attack: Spam this during Evasion cool-downs. It is very important to have the correct DCI to make sure it fires with regularity, but not faster than you can spam it.
- Curse Weapon: Use this in tactical situations for a 6 second Life Leech burst. You will have to carry regs for it though.
- Enemy of One: Use tactically on each tier vs the toughest monster class. There are some situations when it is not advisable to use it at all (T4 Rikk for example).
- Remove Curse: Use when BOed and between battles vs high level casters to raise your stats again.
- Cleanse by Fire: If you have time to use this, you are doing something wrong. You are immune to most poisons anyway. Use only to cure the LP from the RCs before fighting Neira.
- Nature's Fury: For ledges you can't get to. Only useful in T2A
- Holy Light: Last resort vs non-teleporting mobs on ledges. Only useful in T2A.
- Teleport: to get on ledges. Only useful in T2A
- Vampiric Embrace: You'll be casting this every time you die. Requires regs or LRC.
- Noble Sacrifice: Just in case your rezer dies unexpectedly. Requires +Chiv jewels.
- Sacred Journey: for getting there and getting back...
You will want all these spells on hotkeys. You will also want a hotkey or even a Razor loop for "Target nearest unfriendly -> Attack Last Target" - without this, targeting fast enough while spamming your other spells is very hard.
*NEW!* Using Counter Attack Successfully:
The problem with CA is that it requires a successful Parry to trigger - and you can only Parry if an attack gets past your other defences (Weapon Skill + DCI). This means that it all comes down to triggering CA with sufficient regularity to be useful without lowering your DCI so much that you get hit too hard and too often and end up dying between swings. I never did the numbers because it is way too complex when you begin to think about it - I just used the old trial-and-error method over a long time at a lot of different spawns. Of course, if your stats/resists/gear/ping/play-style is very different from mine you may find that you need completely different numbers...
What you need to take into account:
- Your HP/Resists
- The number of mobs surrounding you
- The hit chance % of those mobs
- The damage each one does per hit
- The frequency with which you lower your DCI by 20% using Divine Fury (if you have a fast axe with HSL you don't need it often, whereas with a slow axe or one without HSL you will have to use it a lot)
- How fast you can *really* spam CA anyway considering you have to get off a lot of other spells & Specials as well - so even assuming mana isn't a problem, keeping a hotkey pressed down isn't really an option.
Virtues:
- Sacrifice: Great for instant auto-rez when you only have a few seconds to get that last white candle before the timer runs out. Also useful when raided.
- Valor: Allows you to control the spawn and decide when to pop the champ. Can also be used to get a T4 red candle if you are having time trouble.
- Honour: Extra damage (and Luck) from Perfection. Can also be used to kill the Champ while surrounded by spawn.
Karma:
Affects the duration and effectiveness of all your Chiv spells - so keep it as high as possible.
*NEW!* (Not) Using the "Protection" Spell:
A couple of people have told me they use Protection to spawn with, but to be honest, I can't see this working at all at any of the harder spawns. Apart from reducing your FC to zero and therefore drastically slowing down your cast times it also lowers your Physical Resists by 14% and your Resist Spells Skill by 34%: slower cast times means (among other things) more chance of not being able to get WW back on before your next swing, and that can be fatal on T4; -14% PhysR is hard to cover with such a tight temp and lowering Resist Spells to somewhere in the 60s means a lot more down-time from Paras and Mana Drains as well as a big drop in Stats whenever you are cursed (which is 90% of the time).
I may be missing something obvious here, since I didn't test it for long (too many deaths, not enough time... ) - so I am more than willing to be convinced if someone is really using it to complete spawns with (not counting Coon).
) - so I am more than willing to be convinced if someone is really using it to complete spawns with (not counting Coon).Getting Rezed:
Certainly at first, you are going to die a lot - more often than you can use Sacrifice. So you will want to park a rezer somewhere on the edge of the spawn. For a novice Sampire, dying is what is going to make you lose candles most often, so minimum down-time is vital. The key is to have enough MR to make sure you have the Mana to cast VE as soon as possible: otherwise you will have to sit there for 30 seconds waiting for mana. You will also need regs, LRC or Arcane clothing. The disadvantage to carrying regs, is that a) you have to worry about recovering your corpse after every death and b) rummagers can really screw you. Leaving the regs on your rezer is always an option, but it also takes time to get them from one char to the other and back (and you *will* forget to give them back and then die again on more than one occasion...). I carry Orny, HoM, Aof and an MR2/LMC6/LRC15 Spellbook in my pack for an extra 6MR, 16LMC and 85%LRC (with Sash) and use a Razor Dress Hotkey to equip them after a rez. *NEW!* One great new option (suggested by Mashu) is just to whack your rezzer a few times with your HML Axe - maxing your Mana in just a few seconds 
Insurance and Severely Damaged Equipment:
Very bad things can happen to you if you don't pay attention to your bank balance and equipment durability. Given the cash you will have spent on your gear, and the number of items in your pack - leave as much gold as possible in the bank at all times. Remember to check that auto-insure is ON, and to insure that new armour piece you just bought for 50m BEFORE you leave the house. PoF everything to 255 and repair it regularly. With the amount of spam on screen, you may well miss the "your equipment is severely damaged" msg during a Spawn. Fill up your pack with gold at the end of every spawn and you will more than cover all your insurance costs.
*NEW!* And *always* carry a House Placement tool with you so you can check your bank balance anywhere and any time...
Basic Strategy:
- Practice. A LOT. It will take time before you get comfortable with the template, so don't give up when you fail to complete your first few spawns.
- Don't run away from the fight! At first, you will be tempted to run and heal whenever you find yourself close to death. Don't do it! 90% of the time you will die anyway and even if you don't, you are wasting valuable seconds. Instead, practice the correct use of the spells at hand to get you out of tough situations. A well timed CA, DF or Curse Weap will save your life far more often than legging it will.
- Learn just how many of each type of opponent you can take on and survive. Once you know this, avoid flagging more than you can deal with, but also try never to have too few around you because you will leech less and die more - and it wastes time.
- *NEW!* If you find yourself in trouble, and nothing else is going to save you, try using a Greater Confusion potion (thx to Prohunter for this idea). It will give you around 5 seconds to heal up, refocus, regroup or even run away...
- Start every battle with Consecrate up and full Stam. Practice using Evasion and/or Curse Weap as you wade in to get through the first Mana dump from high-level casters. Follow up with Counter Attack or Confidence until you can use Evasion again.
- Learn the Spawn layouts. Choose a circuit and stick to it. That way there will always be fresh spawn for you to kill.
- Don't forget to use Honour when you can, and EoO whenever the other mob classes don't hit too hard
Advanced Strategy:
- Pace yourself. Learn the candle timers and stay aware of how long you have left to get the next Red. Keep in mind how many critters you have to kill for each white candle on T4. If you are doing ok, then go slow and steady to avoid an unnecessary death; if you are running out of time (or just going for a new Completion Time Record... ), a kamikaze attack may be your only option: flagging nine Succubi is generally suicidal, but if you can take five or six down with you then that heroic last stand may well be enough to get the next red candle... As a last resort, remember you can use Valor to advance one Red candle per Spawn.
- If you flag too many T4 mobs on you at once by mistake, cast Curse Weapon and Evasion immediately for the 6 second 50% guaranteed Life Leech and 60% Spell Evade chance. Move round the nearest corner without losing contact with the mobs you are already meleeing, so the casters heading your way temporarily lose LoS and can't dump on you all at once.
- If you die just before completing a Red and with very little time remaining before reset, remember you can always use Sacrifice for an immediate rez instead of wasting time running all the way to your Rezer.
- Learn to save pockets of lesser spawn to help get you "over the hump" at the beginning of T4. Every Champ location has convenient areas of spawn which you can choose to ignore until you need them. As you improve, you will need this tactic less and less.
- Remember to clear the altar area before you pop the Champ - you *can* take on most of them with other spawn around, and sometimes it can even be advantageous - but you may want to choose exactly which type of mob you want to use for extra leeching (NOT Succubi for example ).
- Unless you are sure you're alone (and you never are 100% sure...), don't hang about once you complete. You can check the PSs at home, and you can always come back for the gold. There is nothing worse than getting raided or robbed because you delayed leaving an extra 30 seconds just to loot the Champ...
Tactics for killing the Champion:
Always heal/cure, precast EoO and Honour the Champ before the battle.
- Coon: Whirlwind him to death with a Hit Area axe: you will always be surrounded by ratmen...
- Neira: Not affected by Slayer. Use 100% phys dam axe with LS and Evasion/Counter Attack
- Mephitis: High Resists and LP - the hardest Champion to kill with a d-axe. Either joust her or use a Spider Slayer Double Bladed Staff and AI
- Semidar: Goes down in about 20 seconds with a Demon axe. LS and Evasion - use Curse Weap for the whole fight.
- Rikktor: Lots of HP. Slow to die. Hits very hard. MUST use Consecrate or you'll only be doing about 4 points of damage per strike. Be ready to heal up fast if he hits you twice in a row.
- Oaks (2 man): Can't be killed alone...
- Serado: *Can* be soloed. Joust if you have to. He heals up very slowly, so you can actually run off-screen to cure/heal if you really have no other choice. Becomes impossible once anyone else comes along to "help".
- Ilhenir: No Slayer. Hits very hard - use Curse Weap. Be *VERY* careful of his acid blob attack - it can destroy your armour and weapons in seconds...
- Twaulo: No Slayer. Hits hard - can be soloed, but may get more difficult as his specials are added...
Dealing with Raids:
- Choose your time and location wisely. Contrary to popular belief, it really isn't hard to stay under the radar if you do this. Fel Dungeon Spawns are much easier and faster to run for a Sampire than T2A ones, but are also watched more by the big raiding guilds. If you just want to practice, then Bedlam (obviously) and T2A are your best options. Otherwise, from least to most checked: Deceit, Tera Keep, Destard, Fire, Coon.
- Don't bother getting into a head-to-head against more than one raider - on a Sampire kitted out for spawning you have no chance if they are half-way competent.
- Not all raiding guilds are the same - and not all raiders either. Some may beat you down and then spit on your corpse, but others might just kill you (on principle) and then allow you to finish or even offer to protect you. So don't burn any bridges before you know who you're dealing with.
- Park your rezer near the entrance to the spawn and keep an eye on him to give you a heads-up if a raid is on the way.
- Be clear whether the Scrolls or the Replica are most important to you - if the former, you will want to get rezzed and try to at least get a few hits on the Champ; if the latter, then you don't have to touch the Champ at all, just use a strategic rez (or Sacrifice) to make sure you are alive and in the area when it drops.
- If you can Exorcise - do so. Raiders may then mistime their attack, giving you more options to either complete before they arrive or watch them die like flies to the spawn while you wait on the sidelines with a big grin on your face: it is amazing how inept even good pvpers can be when it comes to spawning (don't bank on it though - there are others who will rape you, rape the spawn, pop the Champ and rape her too - all before you have even had time to rez and gear back up...)
- If raiders arrive early, Honour yourself and lead them into heavy spawn: they may die and give you a chance to kill the Champ.
- If you are Blue raided, curse them for cheap pussies and then ignore them. You will do most of the damage and get most of the scrolls anyway. Alternatively, call your Red friends (or even Red enemies tbh) and set up a tactical nuclear strike to wipe them off the map...
- Don't trash talk, and resist the temptation to boast on the forums when you pull off a spawn against all odds - you will just make those same guys you just got one over on pay much more attention to you in the future...
- And remember - IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU DIE! There will always be another day and another spawn...
Completion times to aim for:
- Coon: ~50m
- Neira: ~60m
- Mephitis: ~65m
- Semidar: ~65m
- Rikktor: ~70m
- Oaks (2 man): ~95m
- Pestilence: yet to be soloed
- Twaulo: yet to be soloed
And finally...
My personal records: (post when you beat them... )
)- Coon: 37m
- Neira: 48m
- Mephitis: 50m
- Semidar: 51m NEW!
- Rikktor: 56m
- Oaks 2 man (Partnerincrime: Muscly Barbarian): 85m
- Pestilence: work in progress...
- Twaulo: work in progress...
Enjoy.
FE (1069 soloed skulls and counting...)
Dedicated to Grey Goose.
20 June 2011
(*updated 15 December 2011*)
