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Ice Archery build. Needs tweaks?

highjusticarhighjusticar Posts: 139 Arc User
edited February 2014 in Builds and Roles
I am playing with a friend and it looks like he is going to change his mind on what type of character he is going to level up. He has made a female Thor type of character with heavy weapons and lightning. I decided to make another character to run with him if he indeed does switch characters.

I made an archery/ice character after looking over Norse gods. I chose Skadi, Goddess of hunting and winter.

This is the build I have come up with. I plan on using archery for single target attacks and a combo of storm of arrows and snowstorm for my AoEs.

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Skadi

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Ego (Primary)
Level 10: Intelligence (Secondary)
Level 15: Constitution (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Invincible
Level 6: Impresario
Level 9: Wordly
Level 12: Amazing Stamina
Level 15: Quick Recovery
Level 18: Negotiator
Level 21: Field Ops Training

Powers:
Level 1: Strafe
Level 1: Straight Shot
Level 6: Concentration
Level 8: Aura of Ebon Destruction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Storm of Arrows (Rank 2, Achilles' Heel)
Level 14: Snow Storm (Rank 2, Eye of the Storm)
Level 17: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Focused Shot (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Arctic Beast (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 26: Ice Sheath (Rank 2, Supercooled)
Level 29: Hunter's Instinct
Level 32: Ice Shield (Frigid Air)
Level 35: Resurgence (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 38: Lock N Load

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Ice Slide (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35:

Specializations:
Ego: Force of Will (2/2)
Ego: Insight (3/3)
Ego: Follow Through (2/3)
Ego: Sixth Sense (3/3)
Avenger: Ruthless (2/2)
Avenger: Anguish (2/2)
Avenger: Round 'em Up (1/3)
Avenger: Relentless Assault (3/3)
Avenger: Offensive Expertise (2/2)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Offensive Expertise (2/2)
Mastery: Ego Mastery (1/1)

Is there anything I need to do to make it better? The later part of the build was mostly, 'Oh yeah I forgot that', and then put in.

I am not too sure about AoED over Quarry and using Hunters Instinct vs Overdrive.

Anyways, make of it what you will or what you can.

I appreciate any help.
Thanks
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • alexandrafreyaalexandrafreya Posts: 90 Arc User
    edited December 2013
    Take Quarry, AoED will just hit DR right off the bat and give you a tiny increase to damage.
    Take MSA as your Energy unlock, Storm of Arrows will trigger it so easy, also Torrent of Arrows works really well in that case, both have very short cooldowns and will find MSA triggering alot.
    Plus while one is on cooldown you have the other to use. (the Adv on Torrent can be quite useful in some ways aswell.)

    I would look over Ice Blast as your main Single target attack really. Archery has very bad Single target damage, however ice Blast with the hard frost Adv can cause very high single target damage, This can cost abit of energy but it is easy enough to work around really...also most say Ice breath with the Adv will apply Chill at the greatest speed really..but I find Ice Blast alone to be a enough really.

    I would also look over Masterful Dodge in replace of resurgence, MD works really well with Ice Barrier (Ice Barrier allows you to hold onto your MD for bigger attacks or if your Barriers are taken down).
  • aiqaaiqa Posts: 2,617 Arc User
    edited December 2013
    This is the build I have come up with. I plan on using archery for single target attacks and a combo of storm of arrows and snowstorm for my AoEs.

    Well if you really want to it will not make things unplayable, the game is too easy for that. But single target attacks on archery are not great.
    Using ice for single target attacks will more or less double your single target damage. The disadvantage being that you'd need to constantly tap ice blast.

    That would mean something like this.
  • highjusticarhighjusticar Posts: 139 Arc User
    edited December 2013
    Thanks for the advice.

    What about Vapor Form instead of Ice Barrier? It gives a base of 100% damage resist at Rank 1 and has a shorter cooldown.

    I looked at Focused Shot on the Wiki and it is rated at 1243 damage at R3, though it does seem to have a heinous charge time I missed. Ice Blast w/adv at R2 is rated to do around 1014 damage with a 1.5 second charge time. I would also have to do Frost Breath at 5 seconds for 2340 damage at R2 for a total of 3354 damage and over 6.5 seconds counting activation time. That would allow for two FS attacks for 2486. So it does look like the devs dropped the arrow on archery attacks.

    BTW the wiki listed FS recharge as 3 sec (3 min). What does that last part mean?
  • aiqaaiqa Posts: 2,617 Arc User
    edited December 2013
    What about Vapor Form instead of Ice Barrier? It gives a base of 100% damage resist at Rank 1 and has a shorter cooldown.

    No no, don't do that. Just try it in the PH, and then just try to forget it exists.
    So it does look like the devs dropped the arrow on archery attacks.

    *nods*
    BTW the wiki listed FS recharge as 3 sec (3 min). What does that last part mean?

    It needs to be fully charged to do anything.
    Also take note of the "any damage taken will interrupt the charge" thing on FS.
  • edited December 2013
    This content has been removed.
  • highjusticarhighjusticar Posts: 139 Arc User
    edited December 2013
    OK, if I am going to use ice as my main single target damage, would it be better to go with ice form or stormbringer as my passive?
  • aiqaaiqa Posts: 2,617 Arc User
    edited December 2013
    That wouldn't matter much.
    But quarry would work better there.
  • highjusticarhighjusticar Posts: 139 Arc User
    edited December 2013
    aiqa wrote: »
    That wouldn't matter much.
    But quarry would work better there.

    I was looking at ice form giving a 40% damage boost to a full charge ice blast if under the effect of cold snap. That would rely of a lot of crits and using ice sheath. It would also boost ice barrier (cold snap) if I took it and give a 25% damage boost for my ice attacks vs quarry's 10%, though ice form would do nothing for my archery attacks.

    I have read that quarry is getting a nerf of some sort when dodge gets a smackdown. I am trying to find out exactly what.

    EDIT: Found it.
    Quarry: This power now grants 10% base dodge and +5% base Avoidance per stack (down from 15% and 7.5% respectively). Additionally, the maximum bonus per stack of this power has been reduced to 20 per stack (down from 30).



    This is the advantage and disadvantage of freeform builds. It gives me the ability to make anything I want, but I am obsessively compelled to eek out every little advantage and cover every possible angle I can in making a build that tends to drive me nuts. :biggrin:
  • edited December 2013
    This content has been removed.
  • aiqaaiqa Posts: 2,617 Arc User
    edited December 2013
    I was looking at ice form giving a 40% damage boost to a full charge ice blast if under the effect of cold snap. That would rely of a lot of crits and using ice sheath. It would also boost ice barrier (cold snap) if I took it and give a 25% damage boost for my ice attacks vs quarry's 10%, though ice form would do nothing for my archery attacks.

    True, but the highest dps you get out of ice blast is from tapping it. The 60 stat bonus to ego and int will do a lot to make up for the higher damage bonus you get out of ice form. The ice barrier synergy is still nice, but you can use ice sheat for that too.
    I have read that quarry is getting a nerf of some sort when dodge gets a smackdown. I am trying to find out exactly what.

    This says more about how overpowered it was in the past. It is still a really nice passive, and works great on builds that mix different damage types.
  • highjusticarhighjusticar Posts: 139 Arc User
    edited December 2013
    So far I have played the character up to level 11 and a full charge ice blast will one shot a minion. Since I will be running in a group with a least one other person, I have mostly been doing a half charge up to get the stacks of concentration as even super villains at this level doing last long.

    I was hoping the buff to ego and int would make a difference. I have been noticing that stacks go to three even with one attack right now.

    Right now I am looking at shuffling some of the powers around and changing a few. I know frost breath with the advantage is one of the easiest ways to apply chill, but I am not sure I want the character to have a breath weapon. I moved ice shield to its spot since I figure that in a group the only time I will really need it is if the boss is attacking me and then I can block and apply chill that way, otherwise I have time to do a full charge blast. I will give it a trial run and if I really need to I can do a retcon at 20 or so.

    My friend left for the holidays, so it will be a week or so before I get around to playing this character again.


    EDIT: I logged in to grad a few presents to work on the Christmas event and noticed that I hadn't bought my level 11 power. The game will not let me get Storm of Arrows even though I have strafe, quarry and concentration.
  • stjobestjobe Posts: 81 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    EDIT: I logged in to grad a few presents to work on the Christmas event and noticed that I hadn't bought my level 11 power. The game will not let me get Storm of Arrows even though I have strafe, quarry and concentration.
    I know this post is pretty old and you probably have moved past level 11 by now, but I still thought I'd give you the reason that happened; it's because Concentration is a Technology power, not an Archery power, so it doesn't count for how many Archery powers you have.
    ________________________________
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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