Mano a Norn-o/Guide

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Overview[edit]

The biggest problem of this otherwise easy fight is Bear Form, which gives Knorr +250 Health and +25% damage.

You want to interrupt the skill (like all Norn, Knorr will use it as soon as the fight begins). If you don't, you can retreat (Knorr will follow you everywhere in the main room, but not past the entrance to Hall of Monuments) and wait until the buff runs out (it lasts 1min but takes 2 to recharge) or choose to deal with it regardless.

Knorr can also heal with Healing Signet, which can and should also be interrupted unless you have a way to outdamage him.

Knorr first wastes 30 seconds taunting before becoming hostile, which can be used against him by casting enchantment spells, setting traps or spirits, or building adrenaline with Signet of Aggression.

Knorr then uses Bear Form before attacking with his hammer at melee range. He has no way to deal with hexes or conditions, so blind will effectively shut him down, while weakness will cut his damage output by 66%. Hexes punishing attacks, such as Clumsiness, Wandering Eye or Ineptitude, or causing attacks to miss, such as Blurred Vision, are also very effective. Alternatively speed boost and snares (Crippling Anguish, Grasping Earth or skills inflicting the crippled condition such as "You Move Like a Dwarf!", Crippling Dagger, Maiming Spear or Pin Down) will prevent Knorr from ever reaching you, while you can chip away at his health.

Three of his attack skills can knockdown, two of which are conditional if you attack or block. Either avoid that or bring an adequate counterskill (Dolyak Signet or Balanced Stance for instance). His elite in particular can also cause weakness.

In order to win you need to take him down to 1/10 of his health, or maintain him below 50% health for 2min. Like the shrine-guarding Norn, he will recover health and turn friendly when defeated.

Warrior[edit]

Once he turns into an enemy, use Distracting Blow or Distracting Strike to interrupt Bear Form. Use Dolyak Signet, start attacking him (if you weren't already), and use Counter Blow when he is attacking. Use Crushing Blow when he is knocked down. Use Distracting Blow, Distracting Strike or Hammer Bash to interrupt Healing Signet, and Staggering Blow to maintain weakness on him.

Hammer Mastery: 12
Strength: 12

Optional skills:

Secondary elementalists can opt for Whirlwind to keep him knocked down, while secondary monks can use Strength of Honor for additional damage.
The elite skill Devastating Hammer is particularly effective as it both knocks Knorr down, and inflicts weakness.
Those with particular affinity to weapon swapping or ranger secondary can get Distracting Shot to interrupt and disable his Healing Signet.

Ranger[edit]

You can defeat him in about 10 seconds using common and easy to get skills.

Approach him during warm-up. Stop when he's about 2 dots inside your aggro bubble.
[optional] If you brought a trap (read the notes below) set it during warm-up on the spot where you stand.
When countdown reaches 5, cast Expert Focus. The preparation is mainly needed for Prepared Shot, but it also increases damage, helps with energy cost, and it uses Expertise points, not Wilderness Survival.
Immediately after that, cast Serpent's Quickness. It activates instantly and is effective even with zero points in Wilderness Survival.
It is critical to use Distracting Shot to interrupt his Bear Form as soon as he turns hostile.
Let him get close to you and use Throw Dirt. He is now mostly harmless for the next 10 or more seconds. He has also sprung the trap (if you set any) and has started taking damage.
Use the blindness duration to alternate a couple of bow attacks with Prepared Shot to regain energy. Pick bow attacks with high damage, low energy requirement (not higher than 10) and low recharge (3-4 seconds). Power Shot and Penetrating Attack are good choices. (You can capture Prepared Shot just outside the Eye from Johon the Oxflinger).
Watch for his Healing Signet and use Distracting Shot to interrupt and disable it, it will make things go much faster.
He should be defeated before the blindness wears off. If he is not, he will start dealing damage and knock-downs and it's probably best to try again. See below for suggestions about getting a few extra seconds or speed up his defeat.

Recommendations:

Take a recurve bow because it has the shortest flight time.
Do not get an IAS because you will spam attacks manually, not rely on bow fire rate.
There's no need to kite; focus on spamming attacks and interrupting.
Expertise 11 and Marksmanship 11 should be enough to do this. You can improve the ranks by +1 or +2 using runes.
Put any extra points in Wilderness Survival and bring Flame Trap.

Notes:

If you are under level 20 you will be under the effects of Journey to the North and will get rank 12 for Marksmanship and 9 for Expertise and Wilderness Survival. Be warned that this will reduce the blindness from Throw Dirt to 10 seconds and will make things slightly harder. In this case it might help to replace either Serpent's Quickness or Flame Trap with Troll Unguent or, if you have Assassin secondary, Shroud of Distress or Shadow Refuge. They will grant you a few extra seconds in which to finish him.

Build:

Expertise: 11 or higher
Marksmanship: 11 or higher
Wilderness Survival: any extra points

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Monk[edit]

Knorr can be easily defeated with a 55 Monk build wielding an Axe Of Enchanting. Keep your enchantments up and interrupt Healing Signet with Disrupting Chop or another interrupt skill. See the 55 Monk page for more information on this build's use.

Build:

Healing Prayer 6+3 (from superior rune)
Smiting Prayer 11+3+1 (from superior rune and headgear)
Protection Prayer 8+3 (from superior rune)
Divine Favor 10+3 (from superior rune)

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Alternate method: Take mesmer as your secondary profession and bring Cry of Pain or Cry of Frustration, Arcane Echo, and Ray of Judgment with preferably 16 Smiting Prayers. Interrupt his Bear Form, then cast Arcane Echo, Ray of Judgment, and then the echoed copy of Ray of Judgment as soon as he starts to attack you. He will die in seconds.

Alternate method: This is probably one of the few places in the game where Pacifism has a use. Bring it and a handful of health degeneration hexes such as Life Siphon, Defile Flesh, Parasitic Bond, Faintheartedness and Putrid Bile. Draw him in the vicinity of the entrance to the monument room and step over the dividing line to pull him back whenever he wants to leave. Use Pacifism to render him harmless then apply all the hexes. Repeat several times and try to bring him around 50%, it's enough to win if a couple minutes pass.

Note : you can use Life Attunement and Live Vicariously on Knorr before he turns hostile to reduce his damage, although the former will also increase the effectiveness of Healing Signet.

Necromancer[edit]

Stay outside of Knorr's aggro range until he becomes hostile, then cast Spiteful Spirit, Enfeeble, Soul Barbs, Price of Failure, and Reckless Haste. Use Signet of Lost Souls after a few seconds to regain energy and Insidious Parasite for life-stealing. Use Suffering for additional damage. He should be out in ~30 seconds. Additional energy from radiant armor or an energy-granting item is helpful.

Build:

Curses 12+1+3 (from headgear and superior rune)
Soul Reaping 12

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Mesmer[edit]

Interrupt Knorr's Bear Form with Cry of Frustration, and cast Imagined Burden so that you can keep your distance from him. Maintain Conjure Nightmare to slowly sap Knorr's health. Use Cry of Frustration to interrupt Healing Signet, or Leech Signet if you're low on energy Use Ether Signet once your energy dips below the level required for it to be effective.

Build:

Domination magic 10
Illusion magic 10
Inspiration magic 11

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Alternate method: Anti-melee skills like Ineptitude, Clumsiness, Empathy, Wandering Eye and even Shrinking Armor shine here, and Visions of Regret works if not shutting down Knorr's melee skills ("I Am Unstoppable!" or other anti-knockdown). Ignorance or Complicate may be used to interrupt Healing Signet. Anti-adrenaline skills like Soothing Images can shut down Knorr's guaranteed knockdowns that depend on adrenaline, and a mixed Illusion/Domination caster with a skill interrupt (for Bear From) and then Ignorance + alternating Sympathetic Visage and Ancestor's Visage can completely shut down Knorr's skillbar, allowing for you to spam Wastrel's Worry. Cry of Pain may also be used.

Build 2:

Fast Casting 8
Domination magic 10
Illusion magic 11
Inspiration magic 8

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This bar is pretty much set in order of use. Cast Crippling Anguish at the start, then quickly interrupt his Bear Form with Cry of Pain, and cover that with Conjure Phantasm and Wastrel's Worry. He will try to heal, but you have Leech Signet for that. Make sure CA doesn't wear off and throw in Accumulated Pain inbetween his attempting heal and more Wastrels.

Build 3:

Fast Casting 9
Domination Magic 10
Illusion Magic 9
Inspiration Magic 8

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Interrupt his Bear Form with Cry of Pain or Leech Signet. Then use Auspicious Incantation + Ignorance to make him unable to use his Healing Signet. While he runs to you, use Ether Nightmare. When he arrived you, hex him with Ineptitude + Empathy. Now you don't need to do anything else.

Elementalist[edit]

Cast Fire Attunement, Aura of Restoration, and then Glyph of Sacrifice after Knorr becomes hostile, but before entering aggro range. Use Gale to interrupt Bear Form. Use Blinding Flash to prevent him from attacking you. Then spam your Fire Magic skills to kill him. Glyph of Sacrifice is not necessarily needed, but it makes interrupting Bear Form much easier. Alternatively you can replace it with Shell Shock to reduce his high armor. Your Fire Magic skills should easily outdamage his Healing Signet.

Build:

Air magic 10
Fire Magic 16
Energy storage 10

Alternate method: Bring an Air/Water Magic hybrid elementalist build. Air Attunement and Glyph of Lesser Energy should allow you to use Blinding Flash often enough, while Lightning Orb, Lightning Javelin and Enervating Charge are your main damage dealing skills, Optionally you can take Blurred Vision as a shutdown, and Rust to counter his Healing Signet.

Assassin[edit]

Use Disrupting Stab as lead attack as soon as he turns hostile, to interrupt his Bear Form. Use Blinding Powder during the first combo to disable his melee attacks. Then just spam the lead/offhand/dual combo, it will be over in seconds. There's no need for any self-heal or any other skills.

Build:

Dagger Mastery 12
Shadow Arts 9

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Ritualist[edit]

Remain outside Knorr's aggro range and wait for the countdown timer to end. Then, cast Arcane Echo and then Vengeful Was Khanhei. Enter Knorr's aggro range and interrupt his Bear Form with Cry of Frustration. Use Physical Resistance to reduce the damage you take and then cast Auspicious Incantation and Ignorance to prevent him from healing. Cast the echoed Vengeful Was Khanhei when the first one has ended. If he interrupts your Vengeful Was Khanhei, spam Vengeful Weapon until Vengeful Was Khanhei has recharged. Knorr should drop in a matter of seconds.

Build:

Restoration magic 12+1 (from headgear)
Inspiration magic 10
Domination magic 10

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Alternate method: Use a spirit spammer build. Begin setting up your spirits when about 10 seconds remain on the countdown timer; he will start taking damage immediately. Make sure to note the spirits' casting times. Bringing Painful Bond will drop him even faster, and Shadowsong will blind him, generally long enough for you to take him out. Example template code: OACjAuhqoOfzyZ0Ozt5ObXzqJA

Paragon[edit]

Use Anthem of Flame and Signet of Aggression as soon as you enter the arena. Spam both on recharge until all of your adrenal attacks are charged. Interrupt Bear Form with Disrupting Throw then use skills 3-7 in succession. If he stops moving to use Healing Signet, use Cruel Spear then Spear of Lightning to take advantage of the reduced armor. It's possible to interrupt Healing Signet with Disrupting Throw, but not necessary.

Build:

Spear Mastery 12+1+3 (from headgear and superior rune)
Leadership 9
Command 9

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Dervish[edit]

This page contains information about an element of Guild Wars that has changed since the original writing, and may need to be updated to reflect the current state of the game.

Upon entering the arena, cast Faithful Intervention and Avatar of Balthazar. When the timer reaches 0 cast Heart of Fury and Eternal Aura. Hit Knorr with Zealous Sweep first and then spam your remaining attack skills. Use Mystic Regeneration if necessary, though Victorious Sweep should take care of any damage received.

Build: