Overview
A detailed guide on how to become a great Farseer in The Last Stand. Includes builds, tactics, and strategies for winning every single game you join. Also explains how to be able to solo The Last Stand as a Farseer and win even if your allies dropped out of the game. Proves that the Farseer is capable of anything and everything, and is NOT just a boring support character like so many people seem to think she is. Read the guide and you will see how much of a power house the Farseer truly is.
Intro
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———-Intro———-
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Ever wanted to have a character that can easily win every last stand you join
with no deaths, every game? Ever wanted to have a character that doesn’t rely
on allies for anything at all? Ever wanted to have a character that has a
better kill/death ratio than any other character you have ever seen? Or have
you ever wanted a character that can solo the last stand? You said yes to one
of those, I know you did. This guide will show you how I have created an
invincible Farseer, and how you can create one too.
I’ve been asked numerous times by many people to write a guide on Farseers.
For a long time I didn’t want to, simply because I usually like to keep my
tactics to myself and let other people come up with their own. However, I’ve
joined a few forums and almost all the posts I see about Farseers are
about how all they can do is fill a support role and that all the other
characters are so much better. I see posts all the time where people talk
about how unstoppable the Tau Commander and Hive Tyrant are, and how they
can dominate everything with ease. I saw one post in particular that was from a
very talented Tau player where he talked about Tau being the greatest class
ever and how his Tau has a whopping ~800:1 kill death ratio. Now that’s
pretty good, no doubt, and that’s the best ratio I’ve seen from another player.
However, it seems far less impressive when you consider that my Farseer has
a kill/death ratio of over 5000:1. Yes that’s correct, over 5000:1, and
constantly rising. So since I am tired of hearing how great other classes are
and how bad the Farseer is in comparison, I’m writing this guide to open up
people’s eyes and show everyone that the Farseer is capable of absolutely
anything. The Farseer is as good as the player using her, and can perform any
role on any team.
I’ll split this guide up into 4 main parts: my build, the tactics I use with
my build, strategies for winning both maps, and some possible variations to my
build. So let’s get started on getting you an insane amount of wins and a
crazy high kill/death ratio. First thing, the Wargear.
My Build (Part 1)
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———-My Build———-
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So here is a quick glance at the Wargear I use on my Farseer followed by more detailed notes and explanations for those of you interested in learning why I use specific items:
Weapon – Pistol of the Doomseer, Witchblade of Isha
Armor – Armor of Idranel
Accessories – Runes of Warp/Deception/Harlequin
Commander Item – Spirit Stone of Vigor
—”Pistol of the Doomseer”— (starter item)
One-handed ranged weapon, 2.6 dps
Grants Ability: Eldritch Bolt (15 energy cost, Fire a rolling blast of psychic
energy at the enemy)
-Explanation: This pistol isn’t very common among Farseers, but personally I
love it. This is the item that allows me to out kill almost anyone that’s on
my team. If you learn the spawn points of the lesser enemies (which I will be
discussing shortly) then you can destroy all of the mobs from each wave before
anyone else has a chance. If you’re fast and smart with this weapon, you will
get a lot of kills. More often than not I usually have the most kills thanks
to this weapon, and will typically get 400-500+ kills a game with it,
regardless of allied builds.
-Note: A recommendation I make for new players or players that really don’t
care about kills at all is to use the Pistol of the Warseer. Since it makes
you 25% faster it can help get you out of some bad situations if you find
yourself lacking in survivability. Also for solo runs, I use the Pistol of the
Warseer frequently. In a solo run I think it edges out the Pistol of the
Doomseer since you save on some energy that you’ll be needing on later
waves (for confuse/conceal/teleport), and also the slight boost to damage
can help with some heavier infantry.
—”Witchblade of Isha”— (required level 9)
One-handed melee weapon, 10.2 dps
+0.3 Energy Regeneration
+25 Energy
-Explanation: This is arguably the best caster weapon for a Farseer. The
damage is low, but I don’t use this sword for damage at all. The only time I
ever even go into melee range is to finish off some weak enemies or to tie up
ranged enemies in melee. This weapon will contribute to you being able to spam
your skills, which will help you to get more kills and also avoid any deaths.
-Note: A lot of people mention the Laughing Stave to me and wonder why I
don’t use it. The Laughing Stave is indeed a good weapon, and most of the
seers I see use it. There are two reasons why I don’t use it. 1) It’s two
handed. This means I lose out on bringing my Pistol of the Doomseer, and
therefore miss out on a ton of kills. 2) On a build with 1.6 energy
regeneration (like mine) there is virtually no difference in energy efficiency
between the Witchblade of Isha and the Laughing Stave. On a build with more
than 1.6 energy regeneration the Laughing Stave does become slightly more
energy efficient since it is percentage based but the difference is still
pretty small so the one handed weapon is still usually the better choice.
However, if you don’t have the Armor of Idranel then I would use the
Laughing Stave since it has the hidden unshakable trait (immunity to
knockdown). Laughing Stave is also viable for solo runs as well.
—”Armor of Idranel”— (DLC item)
Armor Rating: 165
+100 Health
Grants Trait: Unshakable (Immunity to knockback)
Grants Trait: Foresight (Reduces incoming melee damage by 50%)
-Explanation: This armor is amazing. The great 165 armor rating gives you 52%
damage mitigation, the +100 health more than doubles your survivability,
unshakable makes it so you will never get knockback spammed, and the foresight
trait gives you even more survivability in melee. This is about as effective
as an armor can get. This plays a huge role in your goal to never die.
-Note: If you don’t have this armor, you’ll still be okay. You can use the
Mantle of Malan’tai as a solid replacement (or even the Armor of Vaul if you
don’t have that), but if you do so then you will need to use the Laughing
Stave as well for the unshakable trait, but this will bring down your kills by
a lot.
—”Runes of the Warp”— (required level 11)
Accessory
Grants Ability: Group Teleport (15 energy cost, Teleport all nearby allies to
targeted location)
-Explanation: Once you get this you can win every game and possibly start to
solo (if you can solo before getting teleport then you’re a much better
player than I). When you’re with a team it makes everything incredibly simple
since you teleport fallen comrades with you, so anytime someone falls just
stand relatively close to them and teleport somewhere safe. In solo runs this
is great because of the ability’s incredible range. One teleport can get you
almost across the entire map, and completely out of harm’s way. Whether you
are going to be teaming with other people or doing things yourself, this skill
is excellent.
—”Runes of Deception”— (required level 7)
Accessory
Grants Ability: Conceal (15 energy cost, Create a field at a fixed location
that temporarily conceals all allies within its radius)
-Explanation: I’ve noticed there are many people that don’t seem to see the
use in conceal. I’ve seen multiple people say that if you use it you’re
basically “delaying the inevitable”, and that it’s not going to help you
win at all. Maybe for some builds that’s true, and another factor in that
common belief could be that people aren’t sure on how to use it effectively,
or maybe it just doesn’t fit their play style. However, conceal combined with
group teleport is a great combo. If you’re ever low on health, you can teleport
across the map and regain a little health while the enemy walks over to you,
and once they get close use conceal and you just bought yourself more time
to regain additional health. Conceal also works great with confuse. Ordinarily
if the entire wave is attacking you and you confuse an enemy, that enemy will
switch targets but the rest of the wave is still chasing you. If you confuse
someone while in conceal however, the enemy won’t target you, and the entire
wave will turn to destroy the target you confused. This makes killing the
hardest enemies in the last stand pretty easy. This is also required for doing
solo games, since you need to have the waves of enemies kill units like the
Avatar on wave 17 of Anvil or the Chaos Lord on wave 20 of the coliseum. So
if you don’t take this solo runs will probably become nearly impossible for
both maps.
My Build (Part 2)
—”Runes of the Harlequin”— (starter item)
Accessory
Grants Ability: Confuse (15 energy cost, Confuse the target squad, causing it
to recklessly attack anything nearby for a short period)
-Explanation: I love this item so much. It plays a very large part in making
solo runs possible, it turns the toughest enemies in the game into your
mindless zombie slaves, and it’s great for getting units off of your back.
Confusing your clones on wave 20 of coliseum to prevent an enemy revive is
always a good feeling, and so is confusing Gabe on wave 20 of anvil
(especially in conceal) and watching him ruin the terminators with his overhead
hammer attack. I <3 confuse.
-Note: Many people debate whether to take Runes of Harlequin for single target
confuse or Spirit Stone of Illusion commander item for mass confuse. You can
honestly solo with both, but luck plays a much larger role if you use Spirit
Stone of Illusion. Simply because you’re not always going to confuse that one
big target that you really want. For example, if you’re on wave 20 of coliseum
by yourself and you see one of the clones about to revive someone, if you have
Runes of the Harlequin then no problem, just confuse the clone. But if you’re
using Spirit Stone of Illusion, you better hope that the 50 energy you just
used confused the right target, otherwise you could be in a bad situation.
Also, it’s harder to get a single unit killed with mass confuse since enemies
will target different units. This makes solo runs on anvil (wave 17 in
particular with Avatar) a lot more challenging, in fact you will often times
reach a stalemate if you use Spirit Stone of Illusion.
—”Spirit Stone of Vigor”— (required level 20)
Commander Item
Grants Trait: Invigorating Leadership (Increases energy regeneration by 0.3
for self and all nearby allies)
-Explanation: I think this item is great. Many people think that the 0.3
energy regeneration is nearly useless, but there is no doubt that 0.3 helps,
especially if you’re using the Witchblade of Isha for a total of +0.6 energy
regeneration. This skill for me also wins simply because out of the three
Farseer commander items, this is the only one that doesn’t give you an
ability that costs more energy. So this is by far the most energy efficient
commander item we have. I already explained why I don’t have Spirit Stone of
Illusion (because of Runes of the Harlequin), and although Eldritch Storm can
do some insane damage and kill many strong units with 1 well placed hit (like
Swarmlord on Anvil or some clones/bosses on coliseum), Eldritch Bolt is going
to get you a lot more kills overall.
-Note: Eldritch Storm can be used here if you really like it or are really
good with it, since it does make a lot of solo situations much easier (like if
you ever run into a situation where you only have 1 strong boss type enemy
left). But if you use any item other than the Spirit Stone of Vigor then I
strongly recommend using the Runes of Vigor as well since 1.6 total energy
regeneration is very important.
So that is the setup I have been using for a long time. It works best for me
and my play style and all the items complement each other very well. I will
say though, this build (or almost any Farseer build for that matter) does
require at least a decent amount of skill to play effectively. Some of my
friends who are less experienced with the Farseer have tried using this build
after seeing me use it, but they couldn’t do anywhere near as well. I’m going
to discuss some tactics and strategies to hopefully give you some knowledge
on using this build, but if you’re used to using a Hive Tyrant/Tau
Commander/Space Marine build where you pretty much just sit there and attack
things until you or the enemy dies, then you may have some problems at first
(not saying all ofthose classes builds are like that, just saying that I’ve
seen a few that definitely are). This build is largely effective thanks to the
abilities that you can use, so you need to have adequate skills in using all of
your abilities. Other than skill you’re probably also going to want patience.
Lots and lots of patience. So with that being said, let’s look at some tactics
you can use while wearing this Wargear.
Tactics Using My Build – Kill Tactics (Part 1)
Tactics and strategy are the most important factors in dominating the last
stand with the Farseer. First I’ll go over the tactics I use to score as many
kills as I can, and then I’ll switch focus and discuss some tactics involving
the survivability of yourself and any allies you may have.
Getting kills as a Farseer is very challenging for most people. So difficult
in fact that many players simply don’t even try to get kills with her, and
instead opt to use a more support oriented build to help their allies. That
doesn’t really fit my style though. If all you do is support allies then that
means in many ways you rely on your allies for your own success or failure. I
hate relying on other players for anything (as I’m sure many of you reading
this do as well) so I always make sure that my builds don’t rely on anyone
for anything.
So then how does a Farseer beat out other classes in kills, especially if your
main tool for kills is just Eldritch Bolt? The key to getting high kills with
Eldritch Bolt lies in both your speed, and knowledge of the map you’re
playing, specifically where certain enemies will spawn. For high kills you
want to be playing on the anvil map (since there are a lot more kills on that
map), so that’s the map I’m going to focus on for now. I usually prepare for
the start of each wave near the center of the map so that I can maximize the
range of Eldritch Bolt to hit any of the 4 spawn points with minimal down
time. So let’s get started on learning the spawn points a bit so you know where
you need to be to get the maximum number of kills with Eldritch Bolt (this
will be assuming you have the maximum number of allies, since getting
kills in solo is obviously very easy).
———-Kill Tactics———-
”–Wave 1–” Two of the four spawn points will have a large number of
Cultists appear in them. You want to bolt both mobs as soon as you possibly
can. After you bolt them, don’t leave to go fight the other Chaos soldiers.
Instead you want to camp at the same two spawn points that you just cleared,
because in one of them there will be another large mob of Cultists coming. So
for example, if Cultists spawned in the bottom left and bottom right spawn
points, the second mob of Cultists will also spawn in either the bottom left
or bottom right. Make sure you are close enough to hit both of the cultist
spawn points. Usually I’ll have about 40 kills on this first wave.
”–Wave 2–” Personally I just sit near the middle and bolt any bunched
up Banshee squads as soon as I see them. Banshees at some point will come out
of each spawn point, so you will be looking at all of them for this wave. Try
to hit them when they bunch up, like when they’re waiting for the spawn gates
to come down.
”–Wave 3–” There really aren’t too many enemies to kill this wave.
Typically I try to just clear out one of the spawn points alone. I’ll usually
confuse an assault squad and join them in melee against the heavy weapon
squad, bolting occasionally when they’re on low health. Pay attention to
which spawn points the heavy weapons teams come out of, it will be
important for the next wave!
”–Wave 4–” On this wave your focus is on the small melee Tyranid
units. 10 of them spawn in each corner. Based on where the heavy
weapons teams were on wave 3, in one of those spawn points is where
the first batch of lesser enemies will spawn. So if the heavy weapon
teams spawned at bottom right and left, one of those two points is
where you want to look first on wave 4. Find which spawn point
summons the first batch of lesser enemies and kill them. Then look
for the spawn point that released just one squad of Raveners, this
will be where the next group spawns. After that, go to the spawn point
that released a squad of Raveners with a Lictor and wait for the lesser
enemies to spawn there as well. Finally go to the one spawn point you
didn’t kill anything at yet to mop up the last of the lesser enemies.
”–Wave 5–” For wave 5 you don’t have to pay a lot of attention. One
of the four spawn points will have some Ork Shootas as well as some Nobs,
while the other three spawn points will just have Shootas. I usually go pick
two of the spawns with just Shootas to cover. I wait for the group to clump
up a bit and then bolt them (two bolts will kill all the Shootas from a spawn
point), then proceed to the second group. Once they’re gone you can do
the same thing to the small mobs of melee Orks that spawn shortly after
them.
”–Wave 6–” Love this wave. At the start, two spawn points will have
Ogryn squads and two points will have big mobs of standard imperial guard
troops. Obviously you want to go for the big mobs. Let them clump up a bit and
then bolt them fast. You can usually clear almost all of them out before the
next spawns arrive. So kill them, and whichever two spawn points had Ogryn at
the beginning will later spawn with more large blobs of imperial guard troops.
So if at first you killed guards that spawned at the bottom left and bottom
right, the next guards will be coming at the top left and top right.
”–Wave 7–” Here you’re going to want to start off by staying near any
two spawn points that have only a Tyrant Guard in them. There will be three
spawn points that have only Tyrant Guards, and of those three, two of them
will spawn a few lesser Tyranids for you to bolt. One point will spawn with
two squads of them, and another will spawn with only one. After you bolt all
of them, quickly run to the one spawn point that had the Tyrant Guard paired
with two squads of Tyranid Warriors. That is where another two squads of
lesser Tyranids will appear for you to bolt. After that, there will be one
more squad of lesser Tyranids running around, so find them and bolt them too.
”–Wave 8–” Here you want to lead the two dreads that spawn into the
mobs of space marines, and then confuse the dread. The dread will often smash
the ground with an area of effect attack that kills a lot of space marines at
once. That will be your main source of kills for this wave.
”–Wave 9–” Two of the four spawn points will start out by releasing 3
squads of Storm Troopers each. Pick one of those groups and bolt them twice to
kill them all. After that, go to one of the spawn points that released heavy
weapon squads. You can usually kill the heavy weapon squads in one hit by
targeting one of the three soldiers that accompanies the gunner with your
bolt. Do so, and once the Catachans spawn behind them you can either confuse
a squad of Catachans and have them kill their allies with grenades or you can
just bolt them all twice. I usually do a little of both.
”–Wave 10–” At the start, only two spawn points will have any enemies.
One point will have two squads of Shootas, while another has a huge mob of
Shootas. Usually you want to go after the larger mob of Shootas obviously with
your bolt, but if you see any of your allies about to clear them all out with
a big area of effect attack, just go to the spawn point that had two squads. If
that happens, after you kill the two squads stay at that spawn point, because
more squads will be appearing soon for you to bolt there as well.
”–Wave 11–” First there will be one spawn gate to open with two squads
of enemies. Bolt them quickly. Shortly after, two different spawn points will
release squads of Warp Spiders. Try to bolt both squads as soon as you can.
Finally, the last spawn point will release a few more Warp Spiders along with
a Seer Council. I usually bolt the Spiders and confuse the Council right away.
Afterwards I then bolt any groups of Banshees that are running around.
Tactics Using My Build – Kill Tactics (Part 2)
”–Wave 12–” This is my favorite wave for kills. Two spawn points will
release large squads of Cultists, you can easily kill each of those two spawn
points with one bolt each. Then, go to the two points that didn’t spawn
anything at first. Very soon they will both release even bigger mobs of
Cultists. Again, bolt both mobs for loads of kills. Also pay attention to
where the Chaos tank spawns in this wave – it will help you on the next wave.
”–Wave 13–” Wherever the Chaos tank spawned on the last wave is where
the Swarmlord will spawn on this wave at the very start. Shortly after he
spawns, three squads of lesser melee Tyranids will also spawn. Also, in one of
the other spawn points three more squads of lesser units will appear. I
usually don’t try to kill the Tyranids that spawn with the Swarmlord until
after I kill the other group of three since all of your allies are usually
going to go at the Swarmlord right away, and they usually cause the enemy
units to spread out a little. Either way, once those mobs are dead keep looking
at the same spawn points they came out of for more lesser Tyranids to appear.
Also, the Swarmlord can get a decent amount of kills for you. Try to confuse
him when he’s near some Warriors or Zoanthropes so that he kills units that
you usually don’t kill at first, while you bolt everything else.
”–Wave 14–” Two points will spawn with a couple of Space Marine
Scouts. Bolt them while they’re bunched up and continue looking at the spawn
points they came out of. A Dread will spawn from one of them with some Assault
Marines, followed by a large number of Scouts again. Go after that group of
scouts first and then turn towards the other original spawn point that
released Scouts. There will be another couple of Scout squads there as well.
After the Scouts are dead, there will be a tank spawning on the map. Confuse
it and it will usually kill a decent amount of Space Marines for you.
”–Wave 15–” This is usually a relatively low kill wave for me. At some
point pretty early, each point will spawn a heavy weapon squad. Kill those
squads with your bolts. After they’re dead, I usually just go melee the
sentinels, and when the tanks spawn confuse them so they can kill a few Ogryns
for you.
”–Wave 16–” At the start, one of the four spawn points will release
two squads of Orks with jump packs. I usually bolt them twice, wait a few
seconds, and then conceal somewhere near the middle of the map. Soon, loads of
those jump pack Orks are going to be jumping out. When they all land in a big
mob, bolt them all. You can also confuse the Battlewagon to get a couple extra
kills as well. Also, pay attention to where the Battlewagon spawns – it will
help you on the next wave.
”–Wave 17–” There will be two spawn points that start off the wave by
releasing some Banshees. One of the spawn points will be where the Battlewagon
was last wave (this will also be where the Avatar spawns at the end of the
wave). So take those Banshees out first, then take out the ones from the other
spawn point. After those Banshees are gone, wait at the same two spawn points
for even larger mobs of Banshees to bolt. After you’ve dealt with them, the
Avatar will spawn where the Battlewagon did last wave. Confuse him to get some
extra kills.
”–Wave 18–” For this wave I usually just confuse some of the
Bloodletters and get them to kill each other, and I’ll also confuse some
tanks or the Great Unclean One for a few extra kills as well. Pay attention to
where the Great Unclean One spawns – it will help you on the next wave.
”–Wave 19–” On wave 19 you can either rack up loads of kills, or just
get a few. It basically depends on how much you have to teleport/conceal
throughout the wave. There are quite a few different ways to do this wave.
First off I will say, more often than not, your allies are going to go
directly at the Baneblade right from the very start. I don’t know why exactly
everyone does this. The Baneblade to me seems to actually be really weak and
can’t do much damage. I actually worry about the Leman Russ tanks more than
the Baneblade. But the Baneblade looks intimidating I suppose, so I can
understand that. Anyways, the tactic I’ve been doing lately is just to
teleport to any spawn point that doesn’t have the Baneblade in it at the very
beginning. I’ll usually confuse one unit in the spawn point and melee any
others just to allow time for the other mobs to start gathering towards me.
Storm Troopers will gather up in large mobs outside of the spawn point you’re
in, so they’re your main source of kills. Bolt mobs of Storm Troopers whenever
possible, but if you start taking a bit of damage then teleport away and wait
for them to form a blob again. Also, confusing the Leman Russ tanks can get
you some extra kills. Also, if you’re one of the people that loves going
directly after the Baneblade, go for it. Just teleport right behind it and
confuse it. It’s not usually what I do, but it still works.
”–Wave 20–” Many people seem to have a hard time with this wave. I
always see people talking about ‘making it’ to wave 20, but they usually say
beating it is another story. Well with my build, wave 20 (on both maps) is
easy. There are quite a few strong enemies that usually destroy players.
Thankfully though, with confuse (and conceal), strong enemies become your best
friends. So to start off this wave I’ll usually wait just a second or two for
Gabe and his Terminators to get within confuse range. Then I’ll use conceal
and confuse Gabe. All the Terminators will turn and gather around him. A lot
of times, Gabe will own them all with his overhead hammer strike, leaving them
all severely weakened. Once that confuse is about to wear off, I’ll proceed to
confuse the Terminator squads with the most health left, one squad at a time.
Tie up any Space Marines that spawn on top of you in melee (also note, if two
squads of Space Marines spawn on you, and then nothing else spawns for quite
a few moments, then the Land Raider is going to be spawning on you as well).
Once your spawn point starts getting overrun, teleport to safety and if
possible teleport to a spot where you’ll be able to confuse the Land Raider
from within conceal. The Land Raider is your main source of kills, as well as
some of the melee Dreads (or tanks as well) when they’re close to enemy
infantry. So I primarily just confuse those units and watch the wave kill
itself.
The faster and better you get at doing these things, the more kills you will
get. You will be able to learn pretty quickly exactly how much damage your
bolt can do and when to use it on different enemies to get some kills that you
ordinarily wouldn’t expect (like killing the Land Raider with Eldritch Bolt
is always funny lol). Just remember to try and target the one unit at the
center of the mob you’re trying to kill so you hit the mob in the center
rather than taking out a few units along the edges. But now let’s look at a
few things I frequently do to ensure my survival in every game I play.
Tactics Using My Build – Survival Tactics
———-Survival Tactics———-
”Teleport/Conceal combo” – Pretty much the best basic tactic there is
for survival, and pretty obvious. This is the most important combo you will
use to have no deaths in every game. Teleport is the biggest factor. Like I
mentioned when going over the Wargear, its range is massive and is capable
of completely getting you out of harm’s way. So if you draw all the enemies to
one side of the map, and then teleport to the opposite side of the map, you’re
going to get a good amount of down time to recover. Then when enemies are
starting to get close to you, use conceal and continue to regenerate health
as needed. This also allows you to pick up a fallen comrade with teleport,
and then revive them within the safety of conceal. This tactic has gotten
me literally thousands of revives, and makes the Farseers revive
achievement very easy if you haven’t already gotten it.
-Note: Multiple people don’t seem to realize how conceal works. I always
thought that it was pretty obvious but if in the heat of battle you never
quite noticed it then no problem. Basically when you’re standing in conceal,
your character is hidden from the enemy ‘only’ once you stop blinking red. If
you’re blinking red at all then you are not concealed at all. You will blink
red and be revealed for a few different reasons: attacking, using any
abilities, allowing the enemy to get too close to you, and there’s also a
short period when conceal first goes up where you are revealed. So if you’re
in melee range with a ton of enemies and are thinking, “uh oh, these melee
units are starting to tear me up”, don’t cast conceal at your feet and
expect the enemy to leave you alone. You need to create some distance
between yourself and the enemy first. Which leads back to the other part
of the combo involving conceal/teleport.
”Line of Sight” – Some newer players don’t realize that line of sight
in this game is important (through no fault of their own, they’re new), but as
many veteran players will tell you, it can be very, very important. Some
people will even say that good use of line of sight is the best defense that
any character can have, and I agree with that at least to some extent. So how
can you take advantage of line of sight? Usually the easiest way to do this is
to use the two buildings on the Coliseum, and the two destroyed tanks on
Anvil. Basically you just run behind the objects, and no ranged units can hit
you unless they run around the object themselves, and since the enemy AI is
so incredibly smart, many enemy units will just blob up right next to you
giving you the chance to destroy them with an area of effect attack. Even enemy
ranged units will come stand right next to you so this is also a good way of
getting to melee range with ranged units without running through enemy fire.
Also, breaking line of sight and then concealing, followed by confusing any
enemy I want dead is another tactic I frequently use almost every game. It
sounds simple, but it can actually be quite the game changer if you can take
advantage of it well. Taking cover behind the buildings/tanks at the
beginning of a wave is also a good way to avoid damage during the early
parts of each wave.
“Herding” – This is something that seems to be very common on the Coliseum
map, and probably a little less common on Anvil. In a general sense, this is
where you and your allies (if any) are at one fixed location on the map and
allow the entire enemy wave to ‘herd’ together into one large group. Now, my
play style is to stay mobile at all times so this isn’t a tactic I use
directly, however the principles that it gives you can be exploited to great
effect (for survival and kills). Obviously, if you have any allies with
powerful area of effect attacks, you can wipe out huge numbers of enemies
quickly by herding (this is also a good way to maximize the number of enemies
you can hit with Eldritch Bolt). This also gives you a wide open window for
survival. Let’s say you are camping in the top right corner of a map in an
attempt to herd the entire wave together. So the whole wave closes in on you,
forming one large “super blob” in front of you. Well if all the enemies are
right in front of you, then you have numerous places you can teleport to for
safety. So if you’re at the top right corner of the map with all the enemies,
then just teleport to the bottom left and regenerate any health as needed,
followed by a conceal if you really need it. Herding not only works well with
teleport and conceal, but also with confuse. If the enemy is in one giant
super blob, and you confuse the biggest, toughest enemy in the group, and then
teleport away and possibly conceal if needed, then every enemy unit in that
super blob will turn and obliterate that formerly scary enemy. This is used a
lot for solo runs on the Coliseum.
”Teleport safe spots/times” – This ties in quite a bit with the
teleport/conceal combo, as well as with the principle of “herding”.
Basically on each wave of both maps, the enemy units will all come almost
directly at you or your allies. This will inevitably open up parts of the map
where no enemies are located, and those gaps are your safe spots. Even on
wave 19 of Anvil (which can get really crowded) safe spots will open up.
Now, safe spots will change depending how your game is going but I’ve
been asked a few times where I usually find myself teleporting to. On
Coliseum, getting to a safe spot is very easy since the map is big, and
so Coliseum is usually really easy to survive since you more often than
not have multiple safe spots at a time. Anvil is much smaller, so it’s
slightly harder but still very easy. In general though, I have six spots
that are good guidelines for teleport destinations. Four of the six spots
are simply the spawn points. I’ll herd the enemy to one point, and then
teleport to another. The other two safe spots I frequent tie in to line of
sight. So my final safe spots are behind the buildings on Coliseum, or
behind the destroyed tanks on Anvil. Like I said, these spots will change
a little depending on how your game is going, but those are the general
places you want to look first. As for timing, it’s all about learning the
spawn points of enemies you don’t want to get close to. If you know
that at the end of wave 17 Anvil, the Avatar will spawn where the
Battlewagon was on the previous wave, then don’t teleport to that
spawn point if the Avatar’s about to show up.
”Tank Strafing (for Anvil map)” – Swarmlord or Avatar relentlessly
chasing you and ignoring your allies? Good, you’re going to want any and all
super units (or basically any large unit) chasing you once you read this
little paragraph. Anytime you’re being chased by something that you typically
want to stay away from, if you strafe in front of the destroyed tank at the top
left of the map, the larger unit chasing you will be forced to walk all the way
around the back side of the tank to reach you. This is one of the many things
you can do to take advantage of the way the AI works in this game, and one
way you can utilize obstacles. Right in front of the tank is a fracture in the
ground. The tank and fracture are both impassable terrain, but small units
(such as the hero you’re controlling) can fit between them. So if you’re in the
middle of the map being chased by the Avatar, run between the tank and
that fracture (so that you’re only slightly to the left of the tank) and sit
there. The Avatar will be forced to go around the back of the tank since he’s
too big to fit between the tank and the fracture. As soon as he gets close to
you, simply run back in front of the tank so you end up on the right side of
it, forcing the Avatar to again go all the way behind and around the tank to
reach you. Then just keep doing this, giving your allies all the time they
want to kill the unit chasing you.
Strategies for Winning Both Maps
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———-Strategies for Winning both Maps———-
——————————————————————————-
Now assuming you’re using something even closely related to my build (or one
of the builds in the next section) and also using at least some tactics, then
making it to 20 and beating it should be very easy. But too many people asked
me to give some advice on this, so I can’t ignore them. So here’s how I beat
wave 20 on both maps:
———-Beating Bloodied Coliseum———-
This wave is very intimidating to a lot of players. People will always talk
about how you have to plan things out and really have a well balanced team,
and that nobody is allowed to use builds that are considered “overpowered”
because they think their clones will demolish you. With my Farseer however,
the more “OP” an allied build is, the better. This is because of (once again)
confuse, conceal, and teleport. Most people say that using a Super Ravener
Tyrant build is suicide, but with my Farseer it makes Coliseum a breeze. If
you’re doing a duo run with a Ravener Tyrant, then when you confuse his
clone, you’ll be on a team with two Ravener Tyrants and the enemy will have
none. So it does not matter what your allies use. And if you’re doing a solo
run (you will still have to kill the clones of your allies that dropped out
by the way) then having at least one really strong ally is good so that your
mind slave can tear things up before the entire wave kills him for you. But
anyways, here’s what I usually do for Coliseum. At the end of wave 19, when
all enemies are gone and you’re waiting to be teleported somewhere, if you
keep continuously clicking the ground to move, you will sometimes not
teleport. Use this to your advantage. You can start near one of your allies,
or start at a good range from the clones/Chaos Lord at the start. I usually
try to stay in the top spawn point, just to the right of the upper building.
Then as soon as wave 20 starts use conceal, and confuse any of your
clones that try to revive someone. If possible, you want to try and stay
within confuse range of your clones at all times, and only abandon confuse
range if you have to go on the defensive to stay alive. If you can keep the
clones confused, no other enemy commanders will be revived, making this
wave incredibly simple. If you can’t do so, don’t worry. If all enemy
commanders are up, then the match turns into a small teleport contest
between you and your clone. If you get into this situation, watch her very
closely. When you see her starting to teleport, then you teleport away.
Once you have enough energy, conceal wherever you can and try to get
into confuse range, and confuse your clone so that you don’t have to worry
about teleport anymore. From there, just conceal/confuse any target that
you want to die next. It may sound a little complicated, but after you do it
once or twice the Bloodied Coliseum becomes easy.
———-Beating Anvil of Khorne———-
A lot of people say this map is easy in comparison, and yet when you look at
their stats it is very apparent that they die very frequently in their games.
I don’t know if by “easy” they mean that they can occasionally win, but if
you only win on occasion or “with the right team” then that doesn’t sound too
reliable. I think you can consider it easy when you can beat it with any team,
or without a team, virtually every single time. But I think both maps are
about equal in their simplicity with my build, and your strategy won’t really
change much here when compared to Coliseum. So to start off wave 20, I
wait a few seconds for Gabe and his terminators to get within confuse range.
Then I’ll conceal, and confuse Gabe. As I mentioned previously, many times
he will do huge damage to the terminators with his overhand strike which is
always fun to see. Once confuse is about to wear off I confuse the terminator
squads with the most health one at a time until they’re either completely all
gone or almost all gone. I then sit in the starting corner for as long as I can
before I start taking damage (usually until a tank or Land Raider spawn near
me), and once I feel a good amount of threat I teleport to the top of the map
right in between the two buildings that can be garrisoned, and conceal. That
spot is pretty much always open. While in conceal I confuse the strongest
units I can (one at a time). Once conceal is about to go down, I’ll teleport to
the safest corner I see (usually top or bottom left). There may be a dread
near you once you teleport this time if you had to get there quickly, but if
there is then just confuse it and watch it walk away. At this point just use
those safe teleport spots I talked about in unison with the teleport/conceal
combo until all the enemies destroy themselves. Primary targets for confuse
are the Land Raider and dreads/tanks. Again, after you do this once or twice,
it should become very easy for you.
Over time, both maps become easier and easier. It has literally gotten to the
point where I hate teaming with high level people since it is so incredibly
easy. I’ve made almost all of my friends prestige over and over again so that
I can team with low level people because that’s really the only way it
becomes exciting whatsoever. Duo’s are also still fun, regardless of ally
level, and solo runs are fun but they can take a really long time so I only
do them on very rare occasions. But my point is, once you get some experience
in doing some of the things I’ve mentioned (and also using some of your own
tactics/strategies as well) then you will dominate the last stand. I’ll say
it again, your Farseer will perform as good as you can make her. Your skills
are the primary determining factor in you becoming either another squishy
little Farseer that people hate teaming with, or a great Farseer that shocks
everyone with win, after win, after win.
——————————————————————————-
A few people have also asked me to add one more subject to this section…
”Soloing Wave 20 of Bloodied Coliseum” – Many people ask how I manage to
solo certain units/waves in the game, and wave 20 of the Coliseum is the wave
that people ask about the most. Honestly, wave 20 of the Coliseum isn’t too
difficult, it’s just time consuming and requires good planning. You need to
get the strongest enemies killed first, and make sure that the last enemy left
alive is someone that you can kill by yourself. I usually do this by making
sure that 1 of my allies that drops at the beginning of the game is a strong
ranged class that can’t hold up in melee (so a Tau Commander with relatively
weak armor, dual wielding plasma rifles, and no armor piercing missiles is my
most ideal choice, but there are many options). So I will have the entire wave
kill the enemies that I can’t take out on my own, and leave the units that I
can kill by myself for last. A Tau Commander is perfect for this, since they
have really strong ranged attacks but can’t do anything in melee. Planning is
the absolute most important factor for soloing the Bloodied Coliseum. If you
mess up and get the wrong enemies killed, then you will almost always end up in
a stalemate since nobody can kill you and you can’t kill them. The majority of
solo runs are going to end as stalemates for you until you get very good about
methodically confusing enemies. So as a general rule of thumb you should kill
the toughest units first, and keep ranged enemies alive since they will more
often than not turn out to be useful allies. Follow those two rules until you
become more experienced and can decide for yourself which units you want
to confuse and when.
Build Variations
——————————————————————————-
———-Build Variations———-
——————————————————————————-
If you’re a Farseer that disagrees with some of my gear choices or some of my
tactics/strategies, then that’s not a bad thing at all. Opinions on different
aspects of the last stand are what make it so much fun. People all the time
say “this is the BEST/WORST class/item/tactic”, but the fact of the matter is
that best and worst are purely opinion based. I will never say something is
best or worst, and I only loosely use the terms better or worse. I can say in
my opinion something is better or worse, but again, all of that is completely
opinion based. So if you ever join a game and someone says that something
about your Wargear sucks or something else is better, ignore them. In my
opinion, the best gear for you is the gear that you think is best. If you
think I’m a moron for not taking Eldritch Storm, then by all means take
Eldritch Storm. You will perform better with a build that you make for
yourself, as opposed to one that some random person makes for you. You can
take some info from what other people say and use it to help sculpt your own
build, but in the end it’s usually best to use the items you’re comfortable
with.
If you’re comfortable with my build, great! If not, no problem! Here are some
variations of my build that I have used before, and that some of my friends
use to strong effect. Maybe one of these will fit you better than my standard
build. I’ll options for those of you that have all DLC/achievement
gear, options for those of you who don’t have the DLC gear, and
options for those of you that don’t have any of that fancy stuff.
———-(Builds with all DLC/achievement gear)
”Option #1”
Weapon(s): Pistol of Warseer/Doomseer and Witchblade of Isha
Armor: Armor of Idranel
Accessories: Group Teleport, Conceal, Runes of Vigor
Commander Item: Spirit Stone of Illusion
-Explanation: This build is basically a direct copy of my standard, but with
mass confuse instead of single target confuse. This is the build I used a long
time ago to great effect, and also the build I usually recommend for Farseers
between levels 15 and 19. Virtually all the tactics are the same as my
standard build, but you will have to save some more energy to use mass
confuse a lot. So if you’re not quite level 20, or prefer mass confuse over
single target confuse, this is my first recommendation.
-Note: Mass confuse is arguably better than single target confuse if your more
worried about your allies, since mass confuse takes some pressure off of
everyone. I usually don’t worry about my allies and let them do whatever they
want, and I support them by winning the game. But if you prefer to help your
allies with more than just winning, mass confuse can be a good pick.
”Option #2”
Weapon(s): Pistol of Warseer and Witchblade of Isha
Armor: Armor of Idranel
Accessories: Group Teleport, Conceal, Runes of Vigor
Commander Item: Eldritch Storm
-Explanation: Another very closely related build to my standard, aimed at
those of you who love Eldritch Storm. Very similar tactics as well. Rather than
bolting enemies constantly like you do with my standard, you will herd
enemies as best you can into “super blobs” and storm them all. This build
can do what others struggle to do: kill heavy units without the use of a
confuse. Eldritch Storm is very strong if used right. Many people think it’s
the weakest of the massive area of effect attacks, but it’s actually the
weakest and the strongest at the same time. Over its entire area that it
attacks, most of it is very weak and only used for crowd disruption, but the
units right at the very center will get obliterated. This is the only area of
effect I’ve seen that can one shot Gabe and his terminators on wave 20 anvil.
———-(Builds with achievement gear, but without DLC gear)
”Option #1”
Weapon(s): Laughing Stave
Armor: Mantle of Malan’tai
Accessories: Group Teleport, Conceal, (pick one)
Commander Item: (pick one)
-Explanation: This build is primarily just a winning machine, but can slightly
fill some other roles depending on what accessory/commander item you pick. It
can win every game for you, but chances are it’s not going to get you loads
of kills or anything fancy. This is a good build for those of you who want to
focus on winning games for your allies, while you let them get the fun of
killing everything (not my style, but if it fits you then great!). I’d
recommend getting either Spirit Stone of Vigor or Runes of Vigor (only need
one) though so that you have a very nice 1.8 energy regeneration. Laughing
Stave is needed for unshakable.
”Option #2”
Weapon(s): Laughing Stave or Pistol of Warseer and Witchblade of Isha
Armor: Mantle of Malan’tai
Accessories: Runes of Fleetness, Runes of Vigor, Conceal
Commander Item: Eldritch Storm
-Explanation: This is not a build I use personally but a friend of mine uses
it and does pretty well, and other friends have also tried it and enjoy it a
lot (it definitely looks fun to use). This build focuses on running around the
map, gathering all possible melee units on top of you, and then casting
Eldritch Storm right on top of yourself to destroy them all. When you get a
huge blob of melee units around you the carnage is spectacular! For survival
this build relies on casting conceal at a safe spot and quickly running into
it with Runes of Fleetness. Again the Laughing Stave is required for
unshakable so if you go with the pistol/sword combo you can get knocked
back (which can be really dangerous) but you will be incredibly and
outrageously fast (which works better with conceal) and your storm will
also do increased damage thanks to Pistol of the Warseer.
-Note: Relying on the speed/conceal combo can work for some people, but a lot
of people may find it a bit harder to pull off when compared to a
teleport/conceal build. This build mostly aims to give the user the
satisfaction of wreaking havoc with Eldritch Storm.
———-(Builds without any DLC/achievement gear)
”Option #1”
Weapon(s): Singing Spear
Armor: Armor of Vaul
Accessories: Group Teleport, Conceal, Runes of Vigor
Commander Item: Spirit Stone of Vigor
-Explanation: This is the build I used before any DLC/achievement gear came
out to win every game. It’s not going to do well on kills, but it still gives
you very good survivability. You can stand toe to toe with many units in
melee, but the focus with this build is purely to win and that’s it. Pretty
much the same tactics as my standard build, minus anything dealing with
confuse. So this build can win with any team, but you’re not truly even a
support character. You don’t support your allies much in combat, you
basically just keep reviving them when they fall. So this is a revival/winning
machine. If you’re on a team that can’t deal much damage, you can still win,
but it will probably take a while. Singing Spear required for unshakable.
”Option #2”
Weapon(s): Pistol of the Warseer and Witchblade of Crone
Armor: Armor of Vaul
Accessories: Runes of Fleetness, Conceal, Runes of War
Commander Item: (pick one)
-Explanation: This is primarily a low level build that follows a similar idea
to that of one of the previously posted builds. Spirit Stone of Vigor is
arguably the best commander item for this build, but assuming you’re not
level 20 while you’re using this, you don’t have access to that. In which case,
your commander item doesn’t really matter. All of your energy is going to be
going to fleet of foot and conceal when you need them. This build does have
great single target dps though, while still maintaining a pretty reliable
survival strategy. You’re like a ninja, you use stealth while waiting for a
good time to strike, then you hit the enemy hard and fast, and then disappear
again.
Closing + My Farseers Stats!!!
There are plenty of different builds out there, and I encourage everyone to
share whatever it is that may work for you and how you have succeeded with
your builds. I want to open up everyone’s eyes to the capabilities of the
Farseer, and it’s hard to do with just one build. So everyone, share your
builds and tactics/strategies so that we can get some more great Farseers
playing this game! Also, everyone feel free to message me through steam (my
account is Paychak) if you have any questions or need any help with anything.
Finally, I just wanted to post my Farseers stats (as of January 21, 2013) to show some hard evidence of exactly what kind of stats you can achieve if you follow the advice I give throughout my guide. It has been at least about 2 years since I’ve died while playing my Farseer, and honestly might be even longer then that but I just literally cannot remember the last time I died.
If you still need even more proof, I’d be happy to team with anyone who send’s me a friend request!
So hopefully I’ve proven that Farseers are NOT just some boring support class that needs to focus/rely on allies. Farseers don’t even need allies to win! I’m seriously tired of reading dozens of Farseer guides that say “if you play Farseer, you play support” or “the best way to play Farseer is to support/protect your allies”. That isn’t true. AT ALL. So if you really want to be a great Farseer, then break away from that outdated stereotype.