ANB Build: Furious Flaming Axes

[Nhat]

Disclaimer: Most on the forum would know that I'm a long-term casual player, with relatively low/moderate aim for ANB. So while I haven't been among the high rankings, I have recently been able to consistently reached TL 90 for the Celestial Transform, so thought I just post my template for doing so. Things are likely to change in the future, and if this no longer works, I'll archive/delete it...


Preface:

In general, I've found that 3 things determine the outcome of your ANB run:

1. Knowing your class: which gear, abilities & stats to focus on
2. Knowing your path: how to level, when to upgrade what, etc.
3. Luck: gear drops, crafting, trial maps

1. Knowing your class

Obviously, I'm running a Warrior, and while it may not be optimal, the "end goal gear" are - still streamlining the stats a bit...

• 6x Fury => Ephemeral Epics: Experience, Ability Rate, Movement Speed/Power
• Integralas Mantle => Legendary: Experience, Gold, Ability Rate, Power
• Ephemeral Jewelries: Experience, Gold, Ability Rate, Vitality
• Bladestorm Armaments => Legendary: Experience, Gold, Haste, Power
• normal Bracers & Belt of the Whirling Storm => Legendary: Experience, Gold, +Physical, Life on Hit
• Trinkets: Fire Lily, Talisman of Power => Legendary: Experience, +Physical, Life on Hit, Ability Rate

Abilities

• Frenzy, Cleave
• Charge, Leap, Whirlwind
• Fleet Footed, Celerity, Power Infusion

As you can see, these gear are very lacking to be called proper Push gear, or even Farming gear for that matter. But they served me well (aside from the ongoing tweaking of Ability Rate vs Vitality...) and they also remove the stress of trying to get a complete Legendary set...

Also, please note that the build requires you to have the following unlocked:

• Fire Lily - 100 Glory
• Vial of the Wind Spirit
• Talisman of Power
• Belt of the Whirling Storm
• Integralas Mantle recipe
• Bladestorm Armaments recipes

Fury set you're going to use the Epic Ephemeral boxes for, so you don't need to unlock any of them - alternatively, you could unlock 1 and craft that and use the box for the Mantle, do NOT use the Epic boxes for the weapons, craft Legendary for higher damage. The key to the build is Fire Lily, since that is what gives you the constant damage boost. Still kinda works without it, but things will obviously take longer... make sure you understand and follow (with minor tweaks if you want) the path described below...

Without Recipes
If you don't have any of the above unlocked, then TL 90 is technically still possible, provided you follow the proper strategy for leveling below.





2. Knowing your path

I reckon this is the most important point, while the above are the end goal for the gear, working your way there in the proper order is important. To follow the steps below, you're looking at needing roughly 2,000 Gems - can be a bit less if you

a) Gold conversion: For the initial ability levels boost, and crafting.
I just convert as I need, via the lower 5 Gems => 2,500 Gold one... Actual Gold needed will depends on how long you wait for abilities to upgrade before playing... I just tend to play whenever I have time, so don't actually wait on purpose...

b) Unlocking: I always unlock everything, except the 3rd upgrade slot - can't really justify the 900 Gems for it, but highly recommend the 400 for the 2nd slot.
This will cost you a total of 645 Gems.

c) Gemming initial Ability levels: I boost all abilities to level 4 as soon as there's an empty upgrade slot, then focus back on the main abilities.
Initial boost from Synergy helps to survive and obviously the increased damage helps to clear quicker. If you're patient, and have the real time for it, then you can obviously wait to save the gems...
Boosting to level 4 costs 18 Gems per Ability, so for Warrior, that's a total of 378 Gems.
Can go to level 5 for extra initial boost, but will cost you another 525 Gems, so depends on your budget...

d) Initial Crafting, as soon as you get to Hometown:

• Buy Crafter's Crates: 450 Gems total
  • All 3 Apprentices (3x 50 Gems)
  • 1 Expert (100 Gems)
  • 1 Master (200 Gems)
• Craft level 1/2 Legendary Fire Lily and Vial of the Wind Spirit
  • I stick to the stats above, but they're going to be so small that what you choose won't actually matter, purely using for the special abilities. I keep these all the way to level 70, switching them out last, see below...
  • While a lower grade/quality may cost less, you'll get lower boost from them, and you should have enough mats from the above crates anyway.
  • If not unlocked, just craft Epic normal ones with Exp, +Physical & Life On Hit
• Craft normal Epic gear for everything else, don't waste your mats on Legendary/Set/Unique, you'll be switching these out too often for the cost to be worth the boost...
  • Bracer/Belt: Experience, +Physical, Life on Hit
  • Others: Experience, Power, Haste/Movement Speed - doesn't matter which weapons you craft...
• Use Gems to craft Experience Uncommon Jewelries
• Repeat the above 2 crafting roughly every 15 levels
  • So that's the Epic normal gear and Uncommon Jewelries; craft the weapons first, just in case you're low on mats... Include the normal Trinkets, if you didn't craft the unique ones
  • the Jewelries will end up costing you about 265 Gems, 153 of it for the Exp/Gold pieces at level 70, give or take depending on which specific level you craft them at...
• If you have the mats, you could also consider crafting new Weapon as soon as they "turn grey" - ie. 10+ levels lower than your char. This will help keep your damage up as you level...

e) Levelling to 70
Once Whirlwind unlocks, keep upgrading it until it get to level 10. I upgrade Frenzy in the other slot, but you can upgrade what ever you want, I purely use Charge & Leap to trigger Storm of Swords, so their level doesn't really matter to me...


I like to get Robin first, and still sticking to full map clears, just because...
Also, running without boosters, not even the free ones <= while boosters definitely help, I've found that I tend to out level my gears too quickly with them, and end up with not enough mats to craft the next set; plus the boosts are low until you get to level 70, so it's probably more economical to save the boosters until then. If you have the Gems, then use boosters to speed things up...

Run Misty Island whenever you have keys... no point saving them up, the exp boost and potential Books of Learning drops are helpful.

Once I got Robin, I switch to Trials - only move up the trial if you're within 10 levels of it. Initial trial mobs level is TL x 10 - Fire Lily will boost your damage so you can end up in a situation where you're level 40 and have cleared TL 5 unlocking TL 6, for example. Repeat TL 5 until you're around level 50, then go to TL 6 - in my opinion, the added difficulty of facing mobs 10+ levels than you is not worth the potential experience gain...

Once I get to Trial 7, I continue moving up if I cleared the trial in less than 2 minutes, continue this until level 70. The 60-90 seconds guideline comes into play AFTER reaching level 70, which then allows you to skip trials based on your clear time.

I simply salvage all picked up gear whenever my inventory fills up, or before crafting the next set... For the treasure chests, open whenever you don't have enough mats for crafting, when you reach level 70, open and salvage any that are left.


f) Exp farming:
At 70, craft Rare Exp/Gold jewelries (I do 2 exp + 1 gold uncommon for each fuse)
Activate your +200% Gold & +100% Exp boosters
Then slowly fill out the rest of your items as you get enough mats, just craft normal version of the items if you don't have the recipe unlocked:

• Craft Normal Legendary Bracers: Exp, Gold, Physical & Life on Hit
• Switch to Fury Epic (Exp, AR, MS/P) & Legendary Jewelries (Exp, Gold, AR, V) Ephemerals as they come.
• Craft initial Axes: Exp, Gold, Haste & Power
• IM: Exp, Gold, AR, P
• Belt Whrling Storm: Exp, Physical, Life on Hit, Gold - if you got a level 75+ for your +Gold weapon, put AR here instead
• Trinkets: Exp, Physical, Life on Hit, AR
• If you're not trying to craft anything for your main, then recraft weapons to try for 75+ (Exp, AR, Haste, Power)

Here I usually jump to the highest unlocked Kara-trial, those ending with 0 or 5, unless that's the highest one unlocked - eg. if TL 25 is the highest, I go up to TL 20; but if TL 26 is unlocked, then I go to 25. The first goal is to get all the Ephemeral gears, which is at TL70, and I've found that the boosts I get from each new piece is usually enough to keep going. (For reference, usually can do this within 1 hour of game time)

Then switch back to farming mode: only moving up 5 trials when cleared in less than 60 seconds... And I just keep doing this until the end of the event - if close enough to next milestone then I do it near the end...

I also like to get my other abilities to level 6, for more Synergy boosts, and since level 6 takes 3 hours, it works well for an instant upgrade with the Greater Book of Learning once whatever I'm currently upgrading completes.


End Notes

The above steps have consistently got me to TL 90 in the last few ANBs very quickly (2 hours or so of game time), with an average Gems spending of almost 2,000 - sometimes I spent more on socketing in the past. I tend to stop there, and just continue every now and then when I get time, so my experience above that is limited...

Bronze run without Recipes
Latest Silver run


There are a few things that you can do to improve your ranking:

• Craft a separate +Gold gear and do dedicated Gold farming runs
• Craft full Legendary Exp gear
• Craft proper push gear for the final push
• use more Gems: boosters, crates, etc...

I just find those extra planning adds too much stress, and repeated farming runs numb the whole gaming experience for me... I'm happy with the 1 CT, anything else is a bonus...


Hope that helps some of the new players get a better idea of the "ANB process" - I think the steps can be translated over to other classes/builds easily enough, this is just what worked/simplest for me.

[MightyPen]

Wow, you play a very similar strategy to me, (same gear, same abilities) with some fascinating differences. It never occurred to me to level up the abilities I don't use, just to get the synergy. I'll have to try that. Also, I usually open the chests right away to get junk gear to use or salvage, but it hasn't been very helpful, so I think I'll take that onboard, too.
Some of the things I may do differently: I forge Fury Boots and Pants early (level 30 or so) to get the SoS and also Movement Speed, and fill out the set when I get to Level 70. I do a Rare or Epic Integralas Mantle and Fire Lily around 30 to 50, too. Epic Bladestorm Arms can wait for L70, since SoS and Tornadoes are doing all of the work, and MoT scarcity has been limiting my crafting opportunities.
I usually get easily to CL90, but hit the wall around 110 to 120 or so. A question, because I always go for zero CT, CR & Topaz in anticipation of my first Fire Lily: do the damage stats of CT & CR have any effect on base damage for a Fire Lily Warrior? Wondering because the items with CT & CR claim more damage, but I'm assuming that's invalid.
Anyway, thanks for the insights.

[Nhat]

Since Fire Lily removes Critical hits, both Critical Rating and Damage are useless stats - the damage display calculation do not change though... and thus the confusion

Edit
I play the "extreme lazy" method, so minimal cost crafting to level up, then single craft for "final gear".. Clear cut with which type of gear to use. If you craft set gear early, then you tend to hang on to them for longer, and end up with lower +exp, for example. But I suppose the trade off can mean quicker clear...

[Ozymandius]

Nice summary! I especially agree that the first priority for a newer player is to select a class that you are familiar with. That allows you to create a strategy to guide your decision making. The biggest difference between my ANB play today versus when I first started is that I go into the ANB these days with a clear strategy that guides what my XP farming gear will be (e.g., generally an Epic Fire Lily power first build) and what my push gear will be when that time comes. Each player will make lots of decisions during an ANB about gear sets, which abilities to prioritize, to socket or not to socket, etc., and a clear strategy will help to make those decisions. You really need to know which abilities get a big boost from hitting level 10 and which ones do not.

I would add that even if you cut corners on some pieces of gear, do not cut corners on crafting weapons! Often the only difference between a successful ANB and a poor one is the damage value of your weapons. Now that AR has been nerfed, I would add that the same goes for your Integralas Mantle.

When I first started playing, the experienced players talked about the "under 4 minute rule" for XP farming. Through experimenting, we have now cut that rule down to the "90 seconds or less rule." Newer players (including me when I was first getting started) tend to push trial progression too fast. They believe that they should farm the most difficult trial that they can complete in the 10 minute trial timer because higher trials give better gear drops and more XP than lower trials. But if you are running trials that take 9 minutes to complete, and I am running trials that take 90 seconds, at the end of 9 minutes you will have completed one trial and I will have completed 6 trials. That gives me six times more gear to salvage, plus more gemstones, more books of learning, and more gold for the exact same time investment. And, instead of being frustrated and dying multiple times, I will be enjoying overpowering mobs and bosses.

Finally, I have found that even level 2 Rares for Fire Lily and Vial of Wind Spirits can still give you the special abilities that are tied to those trinkets. I have pushed both Warrior and BH easily through TL60 just using rare ones that I crafted at the end of the first story map. I have not tested this using Uncommons level trinkets, but it would be an interesting experiment.

[MightyPen]

First, thanks Ozymandius for linking your study. I wonder how it would work out now with the reduced drops and tougher minions.
Second, Nhat, I'm running the 90 second guideline now, which bumps me back down to TL80. I thought the drops would be poor, but although they are almost all Epic quality, there seem to be* more Set gear items, which is actually better for farming MoT. Yay!
*first impression: may not hold up in the long run, but I'm hopeful.

[Nhat]

Ozymandius all unique trinkets, except for Charm of QoL obviously, claim (as per their description) to have reduced boosts for lower grade/quality, I've only confirmed Fire Lily and Talisman of Power so far...

[Ozymandius]

Nhat Thanks so much for sharing that information! I never had the materials to try to craft anything better so soon into the ANB, but I will give it a try in the next event.

[Joel Noval]

Kindly help, I want to follow this guide as I'm totally new to this game ? . I have passed level 30 on my main character and ANB is available. I made my event hero as a warrior and reached level 70 by completing Acts 1 to 4, now focusing on clearing Trials, I just pass Trial lvl 32 and want to passed all trials but my warrior is weak, easily die after Trials 32,

and now I read this guide, obviously I can follow the abilities guide, but the Dire of Lily is not possible because it needs 100 glory, I only have 45 from the season pass, any alternative to the fire lily? My character set is the free sets from completing the quest in Acts 4 or world 4.

[Stusmith50]

Warrior doesn't need lily. Follow the crit build XP, CD, on all, Power, AR, vit, haste, physical and movement speed.
End game for warrior doesn't use lily.
For warrior the BOM is more important, but only needed for higher trials.

[Nhat]

Fire Lily is the key for boosting your damage with this build, I'm about 20 to 25 trial levels behind without it...

The other point is on using proper exp gear, so craft a replacement for anything that doesn't have exp at the moment, then replace with the Fury set (you don't need to unlock it) once you get the Epic Ephemeral boxes - Storm of Swords will boost your damage a lot. Make separate +Gold uncommon gear for Gold farming.

Stick to the "90 seconds 5 trials advancement" strategy. It's a lot easier simply fighting the same boss, and I always found Kara the simplest to just tank.

When you can afford it, craft Legendary level 70 weapons, for more damage.

Another thing to remember is that this is your first ANB, so just learning the proper path is important... see how you go and do better next time. Good luck

[Joel Noval]

Thank you for all the tips and advice. This game has a very good community.

[Chairmannone]

I am struggling whether for XP farming it should be 6 fury lily build or 2 fury 4 warlord crit build. Any suggestion?

For reference, my 6 fury lily build clears TL105 within 2 minutes

[Peter Clough]

I still have a load of epic farming gear Experience, Power, Vitality 4 Fury 2 Warlord. I unlocked the Fire Lily Woahhh!!!

Should I go to 6 Fury?

[Nhat]

Peter Clough It's up to you really, there are people using both... it all depends on how you play... 6 Fury works for me (plus I like the idea of wearing a complete set, rather than mix-and-match)... Since you already have 4 Fury & 2 Warlord, stick to it, and you can test out 6 Furies next ANB and see, or wait for next Bronze, when you have more time...

[Peter Clough]

Nhat my gear was still party epic I upgraded to legendary and switched, it's actually quite an enjoyable way to play thanks.

[Ozymandius]

Nhat Thanks for sharing your experience. Can you add a section on what attributes you craft on your ephemeral jewelry? Trying to figure out how many of the three jewelry pieces, if any, should have XP on them. Plus, new players would benefit from reminder not to add CR/CD to FireLily build jewelry. I have been using mostly Power & Haste on all three and balancing with Vitality & Ability Rate and usually one piece with XP.

Also, are you using Physical Damage on your bracer, belt, and trinkets?

[Nhat]

Under 1. Knowing your class - all stats listed already

Ephemeral Jewelries: Experience, Gold, Ability Rate, Vitality

And yes, +Physical for all 4 items

[Ozymandius]

Nhat Thanks for clarifying! I missed that information since I was looking for it further down after the leveling up to level 70.

Nice guide! I tend to use a bit more Power, since I am a damage junkie, but with your XG stats, I can imagine being able to skip the dull 30 minutes of gold farming. I have had good success using a Fire Lily 6pc Fury Warrior for grinding XP, and I consistently make it to the second CT at TL110. I tend to craft a full legendary gear set, but I look forward to trying the Epic e-box gear for armor in the next ANB to see how far I can push that build. It would definitely save on the gems to purchase the Legendary Crafter's crate needed to make the set of legendary gear.

[Nhat]

Yeah, I only run trials, no separate gold farming, can't stand the repetition, have enough of that with trials, haha

If you do, then that free up one slot of those 7 pieces & jewelries, so will help more with push

[Edd]

I find that the Fire Lily build is very good for grinding xp, you can even get away with only using the ephemeral epic gear because two of the main stats, crit rating and crit damage, are obsolete by the Fire Lily.

However, if you want to try to "push" for higher TL, I think dropping the Fire Lily for Templar Belt + Talisman of Storms is the way to go.

[DanielZloteSerce]

Kiedy będzie następną rozgrywka?

[tinytitan]

Nhat Doing slow but fine without the Fire Lily and Integralas Mantel, one question though, u only used fire lily + Tas of Power until level 70 right? then swap out Fire Lily for Tas of Wind Power?

[Nhat]

The other way around: lvl 1/2 Legendary Lily + Vial of Wind Spirit to level up to 70, and until I get all other gear crafted.
Final craft of lvl 71 Legendary Lily & Talisman of Power to finish off and continue Exp farming.

[tinytitan]

i Screwed up and put a few critical dmg/rating onto 1/2 items, and dont have enough glory to unlock Fire Lily anyway (used some to unlock Tas of wind spirit and Tas of Power), any suggestion for a decent trinket in replacement of Lily please?

[Nhat]

i Screwed up and put a few critical dmg/rating onto 1/2 items, and dont have enough glory to unlock Fire Lily anyway (used some to unlock Tas of wind spirit and Tas of Power), any suggestion for a decent trinket in replacement of Lily please?

Without Fire Lily, having Crit on some items is fine and will help, the build detailed here is VERY reliant on Fire Lily for the damage boost, and thus avoided Crit stats.

Since you have those two unlocked already, you can simply use both of them, since one is a "Talisman" and the other is a "Vial", they won't interfere with each other and will help boost damage.


My test run is currently just using normal trinkets... hopefully can reach TL 90

https://forum.makingfun.com/forum/eternium/general-discussion-ab/200187-how-s-everyone-with-this-bronze-anb-thing-ehh?p=200253#post200253

[tinytitan]

Took me 3 hours to get to lv70 (showed how important Fire Lily is), 1 more hour to get to TL 70 (6xfury is awesome), now at TL87 and should be able to get to TL90. Still 6h40min on the event clock
P/S: I got lucky and looted a Legendary Elban Mace early, now Im dragging a legion of summonned skeleton everywhere LOL, a bit confusing sometimes with the regular mobs though, not sure if they did much help or just good for a show xD

[Nhat]

Remember to not push trials too high too early. Since you have time, stay at the lower trial levels that you can clear in under 2 minutes, including boss - for exp and salvage for crafting. Do your push closer to the end of your gameplay time...

I'm currently running TL 65, at CL 573 and have 9h20m left...

[tinytitan]

Hit the brick wall after TL105, reforged all i could but couldnt get through 107/8/9, only 15min left on the clock, gonna try to wait out some passive skills to complete then do my last attempt, but that wont be much of a difference I assume
Guess if I started the event earlier, had a few more recipes and pick easier TL levels (i tend to stick to the 120-150seconds) then TL110 would be achievable for sure

[tinytitan]

Soooo I waited out 2 passive skills upgraded, used the CT on weapon, farm another 4 mins, used 8 min to get through TL109 and pump all the tavern boosts, down to 9k gold and 2min left on the clock before starting the last push for TL110.
GOT IT THROUGH and achieved my second CT, what a successful first ANB! Thanks Nhat for the guide, I managed to grab the main idea, got through without Fire Lily, BoM, minimum spending of 850ish gems and very happy with TL 110 and 2 CT

[Nhat]

Congrats, and good luck with future ANBs