so lol

Chahbek Village came back up as the zaishen mission, so I went and re-re-re-re-re-did it in HM on all my characters.  Pocketed the 740 Copper Zaishen Coins, which I converted up through Silver to Gold to get up to my sixth ever Gold Zaishen Coin.  Man, this Heavy Equipment Pack is never going to happen.

Especially because I spent two of them on an Elite Ritualist Tome so I could get Signet of Spirits on my ritualist.  Talked to my local Kurzick Bureaucrat and got Summon Spirits, and put myself together a spirit spammer.  Basically, what you do is, you use Signet of Spirits to get three attack spirits, then you add in Vampirism, Bloodsong, and Pain to go up to six.  Then right after that you have Painful Bond, an area-effect hex that increases the damage your spirits do to the hexed foes, and Summon Spirits, which makes all your spirits shadow step to you, and heals them.  The remaining two skills can change depending on whether or not you're soloing, but that's the gist of the build.

I'd seen people discussing spirit spammers and mentioning them as a viable solo build, but I had my doubts.  The spirits have low health and low armor, deal fairly low damage (high teens, low twenties), and have to be moved manually (i.e. using Summon Spirits to move them all in one cast).  After seeing them rip through enemies courtesy of Painful Bond, all doubt was gone.  That fairly low damage is first multiplied by the number of spirits you have (in this case six), and then Painful Bond just about doubles that.  It's pretty awesome.