Overview
This is a wargear guide to the Last Stand mode for DOW2 Retribution, covering all the wargear for every character, and some suggested builds for each of them. In this part, the Eldar Farseer will be covered.
Introduction
Welcome to the Wargear and Build guide for the Farseer.
Despite being the only female on the Last Stand team, the Farseer is one of the best heroes to play. She excels at supporting the other heroes, and making sure your teamates are always able to survive no matter how many times they charge bravely/stupidly into banshee packs.
Not only that, she can also hold her own in melee, and with the right build she can quite happily solo some of the bigger bad guys, as well as tearing through the regular masses.
Finally, these are my own opinions of the Farseer, and what I think works best. I am quite happy to adjust and change this guide to include other builds and ideas, so if you think you have a gosu/ninja/juggernaut build that i have ignored, please let me know and I may add it.
And before we move on, I would like to thank Chibi Assassin for giving me the idea for these guides, and the snazzy looking layout that comes with it.
So without further ado, here is her wargear, what it does and if/how it should be used:
Wargear of the Seer (Pt1)
Starting Equipment – One handed melee weapon, 20 dps.
This is simply the basic melee weapon for the Farseer, which does a solid amount of damage, and a lot more than most of her weapons.
Starting Equipment – One handed ranged weapon, 2.6 dps.
Grants Traits: Combat Expert (+30% ranged and melee damage), Swift (+25% movement speed)
This pistol pairs well with any one-handed weapon, as the bonus damage is always nice. The extra speed does come in handy when you’re in a spot of trouble.
Starting Equipment – One handed ranged weapon, 2.6dps
Grants Ability: Eldritch Bolt (15 energy: Fire a rolling blast of psychic energy at an enemy)
This pistol is great for crowd control, able to kill most unarmoured enemies in one or two bolts. The recharge time is pretty quick, and with enough energy regen you will find it easy to rain bolts upon your enemies.
Starting Equipment – Armour Rating: 184
Grants Ability: Fearless (Immune to Supression)
The starting armour is one of the best for the Farseer, having a high damage resistence and immunity to supression makes it easy for her to shrug off most damage while running around.
Starting Equipment – Grants Ability: Ward (25 energy: Grant a targeted ally temporary invulnerability
A very handy accessory to have, simply because it stops all damage from affecting any hero at any time. Unfortunately it doesn’t last too long, and the energy cost is a little steep to be able to have it permanently.
Starting Equipment – Grants Ability: Confuse (15 energy: Confuse the target squad, causing it to recklessly attack anything nearby for a short period)
One the best accessories the Farseer has, and you just get given it from the beginning! This allows you to pick any squad of enemies and force them to attack anything close to them, as well as drawing the agro from any enemies that aren’t already attacking you or your teammates.
Unlocked Level 2 – Grants Ability: Fleet of Foot (5 energy: Greatly increase movement speed at the cost of reduced damage output)
While the speed boost is nice, and the cheap cost is cheap, there are much better accessories to use. If you want to move faster, take the Pistol of the Warseer, which makes you permanently faster.
Unlocked Level 3 – Grants Trait: Combat Master (+40% Melee and Ranged damage.)
Another damage boosting item useful for the melee Seer, just boosts the damge that you do with weapons.
Unlocked Level 4 – Two handed melee weapon, 19 dps
Grants Trait: Unshakable (Makes the wearer immune to knockback)
A very powerful melee weapon, not only does it do a lot of damage, it also grants you unshakable, meaning you can’t be knocked down, which is something you always want.
Unlocked Level 5 – Commander Item. Grants Ability: Eldritch Storm (50 energy: Unleash a large psychic storm, disrupting and damaging enemies in a large radius. While channeling this powerful spell the caster will be immune to damage but not regenerate energy)
This is the Farseer’s massive AOE (area of effect) ability. With this, you can wipe out unarmoured emenies like they were paper and do some serious damage to anything heavier, if aimed right. Also, you don’t take damage while using it, which means you can’t kill yourself with it. (Always a plus)
Unlocked Level 6 – Armour rating 68, +50 energy
A weaker armour than Vaul, but gives you lots more energy to make up for that. Extra energy is always nice, but energy regen is better, which other armours give you.
Unlocked Level 7 – Grants Ability: Concel (20 energy: Create a field at a fixed location that temporarily conceals all allies within its radius)
This is a interesting accessory, which I see used incorrectly more often than not. When used it creates an area where you can’t be seen by enemies. However, if you already have enemies attacking you, melee or ranged, it won’t work. More on how to use this in the builds section.
Unlocked Level 8 – Grants Ability: Fortune (10 energy: Grants a defensive bonus to a targeted allied unit, greatly reducing damage received.
Like Ward before, this handy accessory stops most damage from affecting heroes, not all. But, it is cheaper than Ward and lasts longer, which means you are able to keep it on permanently, and achieve near invulnerability.
Unlocked Level 9 – One handed melee weapon, 10.2 dps, +0.3 Energy Regeneration, +25 Energy.
A must have for any energy focused Farseer. It increases not only you energy regen, but also the amount of energy capacity you have. While it does little damage, using this blade means you will focus more on your abilities than direct damage.
Unlocked Level 10 – Grants Trait: Second Strike (Delayed psychic strikes follow each time the Farseer strikes an enemy in close combat.
Similar to the Runes of War, this basically increases the damage done while in melee, by adding another ‘strike’ after you hit something. I don’t use this, but a purely melee focused Seer will find it useful for doing even more damage.
Wargear of the Seer (Pt2)
Unlocked Level 11 – Grants Ability: Group Teleport (15 energy: Teleport all nearby allied units to the targeted location)
One of the best abilities in the game, this lets you teleport anything allied around you to a new location, inculding downed heroes. It also has a massive range, basically map wide, and can be used to save yourself and your allies many times over.
Unlocked Level 12 – +0.3 Energy Regeneration
While being very simple, the extra energy regen goes a long way in helping you use your abilities more often, so useful in the right build.
Unlocked Level 13 – Armor Rating: 44, +1.0 Energy Regeneration
The weakest armour out of all them, this gives you a whole 1 point of energy regen. If you use this armour you want to avoid getting into fights with anything, as you won’t last long. But, with all that lovely regen, you can devestate the map with your psychic prowess.
Unlocked Level 14 – One-handed ranged weapon, 2.6 dps
Grants Ability: Levitation Field (35 energy: Lifts all nearby enemies into the air, temporarily incapacitating them. Enemies are then throwm, suffering knockback damage)
This accessory is great for dealing with large clumps of enemies, as anything apart from vehicles will be lifted up, rendering them unable to move or attack. However, this leaves the Farseer defenseless against any other attacks, and the high cost of 35 energy makes this hard to recommend.
Unlocked Level 15 – Commander Item. Grants Ability: Veil of Tears (50 energy: Temporarily confuse a large proportion of all enemy squads, causing them to attack anything nearby)
Just like Confuse, except on a larger scale, and a larger cost. It will confuse around 40-50% of all enemies on the screen, which is really helpful when trying to take some agro off you or your allies.
Unlocked Level 16 – Graints Trait: Evasive (Wearing this rune reduces the chance that enemy attacks will hit the Farseer)
A nice bonus for your defense, this accessory means that all attacks have a 30% chance to miss completely, doing no damage to your Farseer. Useful in any build.
Unlocked Level 17 – Grants Ability: Entangle (15 energy: Grants the ability to entangle foes preventing them from moving, but not attacking)
Despite the description, entangle doesn’t stop enemies from moving, it slows them so much that they barely move. However, this is only single target, and again, there are much better accessories to equip than this.
Unlocked Level 18 – Armor Rating: 132
Grants Ability: Psychic Shield (Raise a psychic shield which halves incoming damage and causes it to reduce Energy instead of Health.)
An average armour, good rating and the ability to raise a shield is great for defending. However, in most cases you will be wanting your energy for your abilities, and using it here just wastes it.
Unlocked Level 19 – Two-handed melee weapon. 12.2 dps
Grants ability: Warp Pull (5 energy: Pull enemies towards the Farseer), Grants trait: Pitiless (10% chance to do massive melee damage)
Another melee weapon, but with much less damage then most of the others. Most of the time enemies come to you anyway, and the 10% to do massive damage isn’t reliable enough to depend on it. So all in all, not the best choice.
Unlocks Level 20 – Commander Item. Grants Trait: Invigorating Leadership (+0.3 Energy Regeneration: Not only increases the bearer’s energy regenerative capabilities but will project an aura increasing those regenerative capabilities for all nearby allies)
And the final piece of wargear, that gives a WHOPPING…+0.3 energy regen. Despite the lack luster amount, it also gives that regen to all nearby allies, which will help them a lot. Also, more energy regen, because you can never have enough.
As with every character, there are 2 achievments that you can, well achieve, which will grant you some shiny new wargear for your Farseer to use/own with.
Unlocked by achievement “Advanced Multiplication” (Obtain a score multiplier as 275 as the Eldar Farseer) – Two-handed ranged staff, 11.1 dps
Grants Traits: Knockback (ranged attacks knock enemy back), Laughing Rune (-25% energy cost).
This staff is one of the more powerful of the Farseer’s weapons. It does a good deal of damage, reduces all your energy costs by 25%, and to top it all off, gives you an unlisted trait, Unshakable. So not only will you be blasting enemies off their feet, they can’t do the same back (except for the pain in the ass Seer Council).
Unlocked by achievement “Grab me the paddles” (Revive 75 allies as the Eldar Farseer) – Armor Rating: 165, +0.5 Energy Regeneration
An alternative to the Ghosthelm, this almost quadruples your armour rating, while only halving your energy regen. While I have always said more regen is better, also being able to survive more than 10 seconds in a fight is good as well, so I would suggest using this as soon as you unlock it.
Of course, if you really enjoy the Last Stand (and you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t), there is always the option of purshacing the DLC for the Farseer, which gives you another 2 shiny toys to play with.
One-handed melee weapon, 7.1 dps
Grants Traits: Sap (Reduces an enemy’s melee damage by 50% for 5 seconds), Energy Leech (When this witchblade strikes down an enemy it grants 10 energy to the wielder)
The first DLC wargear, a very weak sword that has a few nice features. Reducing the melee damage of anybody you hit, as well as regaining 10 energy every time you kill something would be great, if you didn’t so little damage that you hardly ever get those bonuses. But this isn’t why you buy the DLC pack.
Armor Rating: 165, +100 Health
Grants Traits: Unshakable (Makes the wearer immune to knockback), Foresight (Reduces incoming melee damage by 50%)
THIS is why you buy the DLC pack. One of the best armours in the Last Stand, it not only adds 100 health and gives you a lot of damage reduction, you can’t be knocked down while wearing it, AND it reduces all melee damage by half. Just like the armour of Vaul, but sooooo much better.
Ok, now that the list is all done, we can move onto what most of you are here for, the builds.
Farseer Builds
So, now you understand what each piece of Wargear does, now to find out the best ways they all work together to make your Farseer a force to be feared/reckoned with/ignored.
- Pistol of the Warseer/Witchblade of the Crone OR Laughing Stave
- Armour of Vaul OR Armour of Idranel
- Runes of War
- Runes of Evasion
- Runes of Fortune
- Any Commander Item
The basis of this build is to be as tanky and as damaging as possible, so you can get stuck in and kill your enemies face-to-face. If you don’t have the Armour of Idranel, I would suggest taking the Laughing Stave, just so you can have the unshakable trait to protect you from getting floored. Otherwise, take the Warseer/Crone combo, as it gives you more damage and that extra boost of speed.
Runes of War and Evasion are self explantory, more damage and more defense. You should also take the Runes of Fortune, just because the damage reduction it gives is very significant, and you can always use it help you allies out (ha ha ha).
Finally, take any commander item that you like. It doesn’t affect this build, as regen isn’t very important, and you won’t be able to use Storm or the Veil often.
Now, while this build makes the Farseer about as tanky as she can get, you can still get hurt. Unless you take Storm, you have no aoe damage, and that means you can get swarmed and killed if you are not careful. Pick your targets, don’t try to kill every enemy in sight, and don’t 1v1 a carnifex. It doesn’t end well.
- Pistol of the Doomseer/Witchblade of Isha OR Laughing Stave
- Ghosthelm OR Mantle of Malan’tai
- Runes of the Harlequin
- Runes of the Warp
- Runes of Deception
- Spirit Stone of Vigor
This build is the complete opposite of the previous one, and instead focuses on abilities that help your allies. Take the Doomseer/Isha combo if you are confident you can avoid being knocked down, otherwise stick with the Laughing Stave. Use the Ghosthelm until you unlock the Mantle of Malan’tai, then stick with that.
Use Confuse on any big enemies, or any enemies that might be a danger to you or your allies. The more you use it, the less enemies you have to worry about. Finally, when things start to get hot, simply warp away, and when the enemies start to get close again, use conceal at your feet to give you and your allies even more time to recover.
Of course, this build isn’t good for direct damage, so don’t go round trying to hit things. Let your allies take care of the enemies, your main focus is keeping everyone alive, including yourself.
- Pistol of the Doomseer/Witchblade of Isha
- Mantle of Malan’tai
- Runes of Vigor
- Runes of the Warp
- Runes of Fortune
- Spirit Stone of Eldritch Might
This is all about using your storm as often as possible. Use it on big clumps of enemies, use it on small clumps of enemies, and utterly obliterate everything. The best way to do this is to use Fortune on yourself, run into a big clump of enemies, and then call down the storm on yourself. The storm works by focusing the damage into the center for the first couple of shots, then spreading around doing less damage. So making sure the center is right where the toughest enemies are is essential. After the storm, either use your Eldritch Bolts to clear away the survivors, or use Warp to make your escape. Used well, this build can destroy pretty much anything in Last Stand.
Conclusion
So there you have it, a complete guide to the Farseer. As I said before, these are the builds I have found effective during my playtime, and I’m sure there are many others I haven’t tried.
Rate, comment and sub…oh wait, wrong platform. I’ll settle for a comment 🙂
Now go, and smite the younger races with your superior psychic powers.
