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Extra short guide to pathfinder trapper (mod8-9)
contributors: @ralexinor, @jaegernl, @wdj40, @metalldjt, @xsayajinx1, @thefabricant
last update 29.04.2016
In case anybody hasn't yet seen Sume's vids here's the channel of Sume: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsKA8yap6wPGg-dboCG3Tmg.
We discussed it today with Sume and decided that it's a good idea to place this link here, as huge part of PVE stuff is covered in Sume's vids, so I encourage all people interested in PVE to check up that link.
Terms:
Str = Strength
ArP = Armor Penetration (stat)
RI/RE = Resistance Ignored (affected by ArP and Str)
Wis = Wisdom
Crit = Critical Strike (stat)
Crit chance = Critical Chance (affected by Crit and Wis)
Con = Constitution
HP = Hit points (affected by Con)
Cha = Charisma
CA = Combat Advantage Damage or Careful Attack (depends on context)
Int = Intelligence
CDR = Cooldowns reduction
AP = Action Points
Regen = Regeneration
CB and CR = Control Bonus and Control Resist respectively (can refer to stat or %, depending on context)
DoT = Damage over Time
HoT = Healing over Time
1. RACE ROLL AND STATS:
- halfling (for PVP: 10% chance to resist CC, +3% deflection chance, small size),
- dragonborn (for PVP and PVE: 3% power and crit stats increase, 5% healing),
- wood elf (for PVE: high dexterity roll and nice look, xD).
- drow (according to @jaegernl : "Drow. It's a solid HR race, with +2 Dex/+2 Wisdom, and more interestingly: Darkfire, which increases effectiveness - as measured by ACT - by 5%. I've tested it. It works and can proc multiple times - I've gotten it up to three by myself - from one person. Also, the increased effectiveness from Darkfire affects everyone hitting the mob, not just the HR.")
Strength vs Wisdom:
Stat wisely it's RI vs Crit chance. You need Crit chance for procs in PVP and for damage in PVE.
You get 1% RI for roughly 100-130 Armor Penetration (ArP curve is not linear, it gets high diminishing for high values) and 1% Crit chance for 400 Crit.
Therefore, it's more effective to invest into Wis.
Stamina bar on HR fills in about 36-36,5 sec (got 35 sec from testing with 14 Str, therefore
35*v*1,04 = 1; v = 0,02747 is the base speed of stamina regen; 1/0,02747~36,4 sec).
Having 20 points in Str provides 10% stamina regen speed, therefore, bar fills in 33,09 sec.
It is not bad, but not very helpful either, as it can be easily compensated by FEATS/BOONS/Elven Battle Enchantment etc.
CB is working with roots, as was pointed by @wdj40, but CB itself doesn't provide much benefit on HR as was pointed by @ralexinor (see discussion below).
I have no idea if DoT Damage Decrease from Str is working.
Constitution:
Base HP is 23540 on lvl70. Therefore 1 point in Con ~ 471 HP (2% increase).
Therefore stacking constitution is not effective by itself (check Toughness in FEATS for more details).
Charisma:
According to wiki Combat Adavantage is 15% damage bonus + CA Bonus modifiers (Cha and other sources). Kaelac also points on it in his guide http://laggygamerz.com/forum/index.php?/topic/382-kaelac’s-guide-to-damage-tenacity-reisistance-and-debuffs-in-neverwinter/#2
We need to determine whether to put spare points in Dex or in Cha. Let's calculate damage coeff from Dex and Cha both.
It will be D(X,Y) = (1.15+0.01*X)(1+0.01*Y), where X ~ Cha modifier (e.g. 3% from 13 cha), Y ~ Dex modifier (e.g. 3% from 13 dex).
X+Y = C = const for any stat roll.
Playing with numbers on excel or building a function you can come to the following idea: you will always prioritize Dex (Y) vs Cha (X) to maximize D(X,Y).
Intelligence is useless on pathfinder trapper, due to extra fast CDR and therefore huge AP gain.
2. FEATS
Main heroic feats:
Weapon Mastery for PVE-oriented build you need it. For PVP oriented build you can put 2/3 in it, if you are getting consistent procs without that 1% crit (easy, isn't it? :-)).
Toughness For PVP it's obviously always 3/3. For PVE it can be skipped, but for sure it makes things easier.
It applies ABOVE all HP that you have (including HP from gear and SH boon).
Tooltip is uncorrect: you get 3,093/6,382/9,889 % increase.
Swift Footwork check Str in STATS section above for details.
Agile Combatant 3% damage buff is multiplicative, applies above Dex and Power buffs.
So you can consider it plain 3% increase to outcoming damage.
Lucky Skirmisher You can achieve over 40% Deflection with Aspect of the Lone Wolf without investing into it.
If you are not using Aspect of the Lone Wolf and stacking Deflection with boons and gear, it can be useful.
Endless Assault i'm not sure that roots affected by this damage modifier.
Disciple of Dexterity: plain damage modifier the same as Dexterity modifier.
Other heroic feats:(spoiler)
Predatory Action is good, but no points to invest in it for PVP-oriented build.
PVE build can afford it, and it can be a small but convenient bonus for PVE pathfinder trapper especially for
tiamat/edemo/heralds runs, when you have your AP bar full most of the time due to Careful Attack.
Battlewise is absolutely useless in PVE, and moreover, I'm not sure if it's working.
If somebody had tested it, please provide the info.
Nature Enhancement is useless for PVE, no points to put into it for PVP (or you are going to extra cripple yourself on damage).
Extra Action is useless for pathfinder trapper in comparison to other skills.
Scoundrel Training can be very useful for PVE pathfinder trapper for tiamat/edemo/heralds runs due to Careful Attack multiprocs from other people (sources) damage, BUT I have no idea if it's working or not, and I met zero people who made in-depth testing of it.
some stat distributions:(spoiler)
Paragon feats:
in 95% situations it will look like this:
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/hr?b=23ci:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,1x63i2i:1000000:1000000:1uu5zzv&h=0&p=swd
The reason of that is pretty simple: this set of skills has great synergy with itself and provides the best survivability in PVP.
Fleet Stance 5/5 is a great speed buffer, regardless of if you have Dark r12 in utility or not.
Trapper's Cunning 5/5 and Forestbond 5/5 have nice synergy with each other and provide additional CC in PVP, when you are using
Crushing Roots.
Swiftness of the Fox 5/5 is the main reason why you pick this path in couple with Ancient 5/5 and Thorned 5/5 Roots:-)
Serpent's Bite 5/5 according to @ralexinor:
Aspect of the Serpent is 24% damage boost at max stacks without the feat, and 34% damage boost + 5% crit chance with the feat.
Other Paragon Feats:(spoiler)
Other paragon feats rolls:
You can read about Longshot meta here (also you can check discussion below in this topic):
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/563206/dps-pvp-trapper-with-longshot-build-module-6
NOTE by @ralexinor: longshot is a gimmick build, with transcendent elven battle being the meta nowadays it may be good for 1v1s but full trapper will always be better for teamplay.
last update 29.04.2016
In case anybody hasn't yet seen Sume's vids here's the channel of Sume: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsKA8yap6wPGg-dboCG3Tmg.
We discussed it today with Sume and decided that it's a good idea to place this link here, as huge part of PVE stuff is covered in Sume's vids, so I encourage all people interested in PVE to check up that link.
Terms:
Str = Strength
ArP = Armor Penetration (stat)
RI/RE = Resistance Ignored (affected by ArP and Str)
Wis = Wisdom
Crit = Critical Strike (stat)
Crit chance = Critical Chance (affected by Crit and Wis)
Con = Constitution
HP = Hit points (affected by Con)
Cha = Charisma
CA = Combat Advantage Damage or Careful Attack (depends on context)
Int = Intelligence
CDR = Cooldowns reduction
AP = Action Points
Regen = Regeneration
CB and CR = Control Bonus and Control Resist respectively (can refer to stat or %, depending on context)
DoT = Damage over Time
HoT = Healing over Time
1. RACE ROLL AND STATS:
- halfling (for PVP: 10% chance to resist CC, +3% deflection chance, small size),
- dragonborn (for PVP and PVE: 3% power and crit stats increase, 5% healing),
- wood elf (for PVE: high dexterity roll and nice look, xD).
- drow (according to @jaegernl : "Drow. It's a solid HR race, with +2 Dex/+2 Wisdom, and more interestingly: Darkfire, which increases effectiveness - as measured by ACT - by 5%. I've tested it. It works and can proc multiple times - I've gotten it up to three by myself - from one person. Also, the increased effectiveness from Darkfire affects everyone hitting the mob, not just the HR.")
Strength vs Wisdom:
Stat wisely it's RI vs Crit chance. You need Crit chance for procs in PVP and for damage in PVE.
You get 1% RI for roughly 100-130 Armor Penetration (ArP curve is not linear, it gets high diminishing for high values) and 1% Crit chance for 400 Crit.
Therefore, it's more effective to invest into Wis.
Stamina bar on HR fills in about 36-36,5 sec (got 35 sec from testing with 14 Str, therefore
35*v*1,04 = 1; v = 0,02747 is the base speed of stamina regen; 1/0,02747~36,4 sec).
Having 20 points in Str provides 10% stamina regen speed, therefore, bar fills in 33,09 sec.
It is not bad, but not very helpful either, as it can be easily compensated by FEATS/BOONS/Elven Battle Enchantment etc.
CB is working with roots, as was pointed by @wdj40, but CB itself doesn't provide much benefit on HR as was pointed by @ralexinor (see discussion below).
I have no idea if DoT Damage Decrease from Str is working.
Constitution:
Base HP is 23540 on lvl70. Therefore 1 point in Con ~ 471 HP (2% increase).
Therefore stacking constitution is not effective by itself (check Toughness in FEATS for more details).
Charisma:
According to wiki Combat Adavantage is 15% damage bonus + CA Bonus modifiers (Cha and other sources). Kaelac also points on it in his guide http://laggygamerz.com/forum/index.php?/topic/382-kaelac’s-guide-to-damage-tenacity-reisistance-and-debuffs-in-neverwinter/#2
We need to determine whether to put spare points in Dex or in Cha. Let's calculate damage coeff from Dex and Cha both.
It will be D(X,Y) = (1.15+0.01*X)(1+0.01*Y), where X ~ Cha modifier (e.g. 3% from 13 cha), Y ~ Dex modifier (e.g. 3% from 13 dex).
X+Y = C = const for any stat roll.
Playing with numbers on excel or building a function you can come to the following idea: you will always prioritize Dex (Y) vs Cha (X) to maximize D(X,Y).
Intelligence is useless on pathfinder trapper, due to extra fast CDR and therefore huge AP gain.
2. FEATS
Main heroic feats:
Weapon Mastery for PVE-oriented build you need it. For PVP oriented build you can put 2/3 in it, if you are getting consistent procs without that 1% crit (easy, isn't it? :-)).
Toughness For PVP it's obviously always 3/3. For PVE it can be skipped, but for sure it makes things easier.
It applies ABOVE all HP that you have (including HP from gear and SH boon).
Tooltip is uncorrect: you get 3,093/6,382/9,889 % increase.
Swift Footwork check Str in STATS section above for details.
Agile Combatant 3% damage buff is multiplicative, applies above Dex and Power buffs.
So you can consider it plain 3% increase to outcoming damage.
Lucky Skirmisher You can achieve over 40% Deflection with Aspect of the Lone Wolf without investing into it.
If you are not using Aspect of the Lone Wolf and stacking Deflection with boons and gear, it can be useful.
Endless Assault i'm not sure that roots affected by this damage modifier.
Disciple of Dexterity: plain damage modifier the same as Dexterity modifier.
Other heroic feats:(spoiler)
Predatory Action is good, but no points to invest in it for PVP-oriented build.
PVE build can afford it, and it can be a small but convenient bonus for PVE pathfinder trapper especially for
tiamat/edemo/heralds runs, when you have your AP bar full most of the time due to Careful Attack.
Battlewise is absolutely useless in PVE, and moreover, I'm not sure if it's working.
If somebody had tested it, please provide the info.
Nature Enhancement is useless for PVE, no points to put into it for PVP (or you are going to extra cripple yourself on damage).
Extra Action is useless for pathfinder trapper in comparison to other skills.
Scoundrel Training can be very useful for PVE pathfinder trapper for tiamat/edemo/heralds runs due to Careful Attack multiprocs from other people (sources) damage, BUT I have no idea if it's working or not, and I met zero people who made in-depth testing of it.
some stat distributions:(spoiler)
balanced setup(I think i first time saw this roll in @ralexinor guide for trapper with longshot, mod6):
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/hr?b=23ci:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,13k3iii:1000000:1000000:1000000&h=0&p=swd
setup for dps and dodges
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/hr?b=23ci:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,13n3i0i:1000000:1000000:1000000&h=0&p=swd
this one can be useful for lowbies, who want more survival:
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/hr?b=23ci:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,13n0iii:1000000:1000000:1000000&h=0&p=swd
this one is the most "tanky" roll, but greatly crippled in dps:
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/hr?b=23ci:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,12n05ic:1000000:1000000:1000000&h=0&p=swd
this one is the possible glass cannon roll for PVE:
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/hr?b=23ci:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,1x63i2i:1000000:1000000:1000000&h=0&p=swd
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/hr?b=23ci:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,13k3iii:1000000:1000000:1000000&h=0&p=swd
setup for dps and dodges
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/hr?b=23ci:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,13n3i0i:1000000:1000000:1000000&h=0&p=swd
this one can be useful for lowbies, who want more survival:
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/hr?b=23ci:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,13n0iii:1000000:1000000:1000000&h=0&p=swd
this one is the most "tanky" roll, but greatly crippled in dps:
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/hr?b=23ci:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,12n05ic:1000000:1000000:1000000&h=0&p=swd
this one is the possible glass cannon roll for PVE:
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/hr?b=23ci:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,1x63i2i:1000000:1000000:1000000&h=0&p=swd
Paragon feats:
in 95% situations it will look like this:
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/hr?b=23ci:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,1x63i2i:1000000:1000000:1uu5zzv&h=0&p=swd
The reason of that is pretty simple: this set of skills has great synergy with itself and provides the best survivability in PVP.
Fleet Stance 5/5 is a great speed buffer, regardless of if you have Dark r12 in utility or not.
Trapper's Cunning 5/5 and Forestbond 5/5 have nice synergy with each other and provide additional CC in PVP, when you are using
Crushing Roots.
Swiftness of the Fox 5/5 is the main reason why you pick this path in couple with Ancient 5/5 and Thorned 5/5 Roots:-)
Serpent's Bite 5/5 according to @ralexinor:
Aspect of the Serpent is 24% damage boost at max stacks without the feat, and 34% damage boost + 5% crit chance with the feat.
Other Paragon Feats:(spoiler)
Readied Stance is not so useful for pathfinder trapper in both PVP and PVE, the reasons are the same as they are for Extra Action heroic feat.
Slasher's Speed Can be useful for some situations in PVP.
Slasher's Speed Can be useful for some situations in PVP.
Other paragon feats rolls:
You can read about Longshot meta here (also you can check discussion below in this topic):
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/563206/dps-pvp-trapper-with-longshot-build-module-6
NOTE by @ralexinor: longshot is a gimmick build, with transcendent elven battle being the meta nowadays it may be good for 1v1s but full trapper will always be better for teamplay.
ABSOLUTE
Post edited by userutf8 on
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Here's the list of all non stat-affecting boons with description.
It won't be a full description for now, I'm going to post only info I have.
Any help in closing the gaps is appreciated.
Sharandar boons (spoiler):
T4 Elven Ferocity ~50-60 sec cooldown (the lest one i got was 40 seconds, but it happened only once), damage is not piercing. Affected by Combat Advantage, as pointed by @xsayajinx1. Only option to choose it for PVE. Weak, tho.
T5 Elven Resolve check Strength above for more info. Most common choice for PVP.
T5 Fey Thistle damage is non-piercing, tested it only on mobs: acts weirdly, possibly can still multiproc, but doesn't multiproc on Forest Meditation.
T5 Redcap Brew personally, I'd never swap Elven Resolve for it.
T5 Elvish Fury can be useful in endgame PVE in party with good debuffs, when you clear the trash fast.
Dread Ring boons (spoiler):
T4 Shadowtouch 1 min cooldown. Can proc on multiple targets simulteniuously. Damage is piercing and not affected by multipliers. Affected by Combat Advantage, as pointed by @xsayajinx1. Damage tooltip is not correct. Really deals 3750 damage any second for 4 seconds (15k damage total).
T5 Augmented Thayan Bastion No info on this boon, since the last "fix" in mod6 that removed multiproccing from Dreadtheft on SW.
T5 Rampaging Madness pretty straight buffer. You can get only 1 tick in 1 second, which means that you are affected by buff every 1 minute for 10 seconds.
T5 Endless Consumption obvious choice for PVP if you rely on life steal. Don't really remember the chance for it. As I recall it was something like 25%.
T5 Burning Guidance useless on pathfinder trapper for both PVP and PVE.
NOTE: I'd consider picking Rampaging Madness over Endless Consumption for PVP if you always have DC/OP near you. For 1v1s Endless Consumption brings great profit, if you have high lifesteal. I'd always pick Rampaging Madness for PVE regardless of gear and team comp.
Icewind Dale boons (spoiler):
T4 Cool Resolve I'd consider picking it for PVE, tho it's hard to get out of stamina in PVE.
T5 Avalanche Damage is non-piercing. You get 1 stack any 1 second, when you are damaged. According to @metalldjt, it doesn't affect the situations when you actually dodged the hit (including dodges from Fox Cunning/Shift). Therefore I consider this boon extremely weak in its current state.
T5 Rousing Warmth according to @metalldjt: damage is piercing and it procs every 30 seconds. It procs from any heals. Personally from myself: sometimes, instead of adding damage, it procs 3k heal on you. I think this happens when life steal procs. This healing is not affected by healing multipliers.
T5 Winter's Bounty useless on pathfinder trapper for both PVP and PVE.
T5 Shared Survival looks pretty much useless in most situations in PVP, the same as PVE.
PVP campaign boons (spoiler):
T3 Tactical redeployment works nicely. Can be good for some situations, but a matter of personal choice really.
4. STACKING STATS and GEAR.
PVE (spoiler)
Both Crit Chance and Power are important. Balancing Crit Chance and Power for PVE is a hard task though, because it depends on different factors, such as Crit severity, party comp, location, skill set, personal timing, etc.
If you need more info on companions and other PVE stuff, i recommend to check this guide, written by Sharpedge@thefabricant: http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1212976/sharpedges-almost-everything-cw-guide-mod-8/p1
Weapons: both Twisted and Stronghold sets are good. Twisted set is more universal.
PVE-wisely, dodges + <font color = #FFA500>Fox's Cunning are the best defence for HR. If you run with a good party, it doesn't matter much, what you have in defence slots.
PVP (spoiler)
Balancing Power and ArP should be covered by formula, which I don't have. HR has no burst in PVP atm, and no min/maxing can fix it without serious rework.
Speaking about defensive stats there are 3 metas which rely on prioritising one of the Stronghold boons:
(1) Lifesteal meta was giving nice survivability overall in prev mods (now I consider it obsolete, due to mounts Insignia bonuses HoTs).
(2) Defence meta gives somehow better survavibility against GF burst damage, but cripples you when you fight a TR.
(3) HP meta gives more benefit against TR or other HR.
I consider (3) being the best meta in module 9 due to HoT from mount Insignia bonuses (https://two30.github.io/neverwinter-insignia/?0), obvious choices being Survivor's Blessing, Vampire's Craving, Champion's Return and Opressor's Reprieve. Fifth can be either Barbarian's Revelry or Cavalry's Warning or Gladiator's Guile.
(2) and (3) both benefit from Savage Enchantments in defence slots, as HP is the most effective stat, due to Toughness feat, whereas Life Steal is still a nice source of healing. Vicious enchantments make more use of new Mount Insignias in case you do not use Aspect of the Lone Wolf. Dark Enchantments are a good choice, if you rely on Aspect of the Lone Wolf.
Lionsmane Executioner set is more stat effective than Duelist's set, but Duelist's set provides more versatility, as you can stack ~35% deflection without Aspect of the Lone Wolf.
Weapons: Drowned set coupled with mount insignias HoT and Artifact healing (Wheel/Waters) provides tons of healing, which really exceeds any normal limits. Twisted and SH sets provide more dps. Twisted set is more universal as it provides more power, therefore more healing from lifesteal.
Armor and Weapon Enchantments (spoiler):
Most common setup for PVP is Transcendent Feytouched and Transcendent Elven. It's obvious, I don't really want to expand this.
Transcendent Holy Avenger and Transcendent Negation give some benefits to people who are running the defence build. You can reach DR cap (80%) with either of those (20% from T.Holy + 20% from SH boon + 40% from gear (AC+defence) or 30% from T.Negation + 20% from SH boon + 30% from gear). However, I consider T.Negation absolutely unacceptable for HR due to the following reasons:
1) CW and HR do full damage on you, HR has enhanced control on you.
2) normal TR will wreck you 100% via smoke bomb + shocking if you occasionaly step into smoke bomb.
Though, if you fight other HR 1on1 you shan't lose with Negation vs Elven. (All you need to do is to switch forest ghost for forest meditation and switch HP boon to defence boon, if other HR is using ArP boon, and vise versa for Power boon.)
PVE-wisely you want P. Vorpal in offence for big groups (Tiamat, Edemo, Heralds, etc) and T.Dread for 5 men groups. Check this link http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1214005/dread-vs-vorpal. However, if T.Dread suddenly becomes WAI (roots must not work with T.Dread, it's not an encounter power) many people will get screwed. Budget version for PVE is still perfect (pure/trans) plague.
Artifact Sets (spoiler):
Brief check on VT set with maxed control (12% from Wis, 10% Tia boon, 10% maze boon, 7% control bonus, 15% VT set, 15% crushing roots off hand feat) shows that this set is absolutely useless both for PVP and PVE (regardless of the last Maze Engine boon). I don't know why they coded Elven this way, but you cannot get more than ONE root proc (with/without Master Trapper activated) on people heaving tenacity ~3.5k and wearing Elven.
You can get up to 13-14 root procs (with Master Trapper activated) on dummies. Which obviously means nothing, because all mobs that can be instantly rooted are not challenging at all (not to mention that they will wipe faster than you get use of those dots).
Brief check on Imperial Set shows that it's absolutely useless for PVP (damage is the same bad as elol set, but procs less often. You can get something like 0-300 damage on geared people, xD). However, set might have potential for PVE, as damage can crit and can also be buffed ( I got 7k crit max with longstrider multiproc), moreover it procs from seeker's off-hand feat, which can be good for certain rotations that involve gushing wound and seeker's vengeance. However, I'm lazy to test the set in PVE, so, I hope my friends do it and post numbers here, lol.
To cut it short, here's the idea:
Set bonus doesn't proc on t.plague, t.bile, t.lightning, t.dread, however dread recognizes set bonus as encounter, so, crits get additional 75% severity.
5. SKILLS SETUPS.
I'm not going to list tooltips here, just some facts, that are to be mentioned.
at-wills:
Careful Attack : triggers independently for all party members, which allows to achieve huge dps on any mass PVE events (tiamat, heralds, dragons in SH, edemo).
Rapid Shot : 3 shots combo, 3rd shot is empowered by 1,5x.
encounters:
Cordon of arrows AoE ??? targets cap. Cooldown is not affected by trapper's cooldown reductions. Same goes for Hindering shot. Cordon no longer pulls control immune targets.
Plant Growth roots from this skill have nothing in common with thorned roots :-).
Rain of Arrows/swords AoE ??? targets cap. Probably, no target cap at all. Needs checking.
Constricting Arrow (AoE) and Hindering Strike (AoE): apply thorned roots, 5 target cap on roots, roots stack. Roots from Constricting Arrow cannot be dodged (which pisses people off since trapper went alive).
Longstrider Shot single target, 40-50% damage buff on cast. Can be stacked multiple times (maximum 3 times that's what i got on dummies, in party it's insanely hard to get at least 2 stacks).
Gushing Wound when applied to target gives instant cooldown to ranged powers on any tick, if nobody else is damaging target . Either way applies short time burst of about 6-8 ticks and goes on cooldown. (you can spam ranged encounters, when target is affected by dot. Hard to use it in pve and even more hard to use it in pvp due to long cast animation.)
Thorned Ward single target, 2% damage buff on stack, max 10 stacks = 20% damage buff for team (ACT shows 19,(...)% for some reason). If refreshed before expires, 10 stacks can be kept permanently. Notice: I don't know how it interracts with other team buffs.
Oak Skin provides almost instant cooldown for ranged powers, when you are in 5+men party, which allows to spam ranged attacks (from Sume vid, posted by @thefabricant ). Works greatly on Orcus, if you don't have bubble-OP in party.
Boar Hide if unslotted from tray after cast still gives stacks of mitigation.
Hawk eye check this thread: http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1214171/hawk-shot-melee-stance
passives:
Aspect of the Serpent see above in feats serpent's bite feat description.
Seeker's Vengeance when feated via off-hand artifact weapon bonus procs fast ticking dot on flanked target. Dot is affected by party buffs, which allows to achieve insane bursts on gushing wound.
Aspect of the Pack provides somehow nice damage when being feated with off-hand feat increase (+8% damage).
rotations (spoiler)
for PVP it's pretty straight, in most situations you will use the following:
At-wills: Hunter's Teamwork/Careful Attack and Rapid shot/strike (or Aimed strike). Rapid or Aimed only depends on what you like more really. I used to play with Aimed strike in modules 5-6 (and obviously in mod 3-4). Now I'm playing with Rapid Shot/strike and about 25% of my kills I get from it. In terms of utility aimed strike is better tho (you proc it and forget about it, you can proc it on many people). But rapid strike can provide you some minor burst when it's needed.
Encounter powers: Fox Cunning/Shift, Constricting Arrow/Steel Breeze, Hindering Shot/Strike. Some people swap Fox for Marauder's Escape. I have no idea, if it's good against other classes, as I never use Marauder's, but, imo, in HR vs HR/TR it's not the best choice.
Dailies: Disruptive Shot Daily and Forest Ghost. You can swap Forest Ghost for Forest Meditation to facetank good SW in 1 on 1 (pointed by @jacooboo16, aka Wonder Ranger). Also Forest Meditation is good against other HR if you do not use Drowned Weapon set.
Passives: One of your passives will always be Crushing Roots. 2nd passive will be either Aspect of the Lone Wolf or Aspect of the Serpent. It greatly depends on what's going on in match: whom do you encounter and where.
Practically, any normal player swaps encounters, dailies and even passives during the match, adopting to current situation.
for PVE:
Regular trash-clearing loudout is fox/constricting/cordon with seismic shot as daily, careful attack as at will, passives being aspect of the serpent and seeker's vengeance or aspect of the pack (the last two depend on off-hand feat choice and current situation). Seeker or pack can be swapped for crushing roots, if you want to gain more control. Still fox/hindering/constricting + crushing roots remains the best control rotation for PVE tho, but that amount of control is really not needed in the most of situations.
For 5 men boss burning I consider the best rotation: rain of arrows(RoA)/constricting/longstrider, careful attack and seismic daily. if you have seeker's vengeance slotted and also have seeker's bonus from off-hand artifact weapon, you deal tons of damage with gushing wound as well as with RoA. Constricting is good for managing cooldowns. You proc careful attack on target, then rotate gushing/RoA/constricting periodically spamming seismic shot, trying to stay behind the target. If your party needs dodges, you can swap RoA for fox. I tried picking thorn ward instead of constricting, but constricting is way better for managing cooldowns. Speaking of thorn ward itself: yes it gives flat buff of 20% on 10 ticks, but it cripples your dps greatly by ruining your rotation in party of 5 (in normal party you'll be secondary or primary DD, whereas having 3 debuffs at least, those 20% given to primary DD, when you personally lose 50% of your damage may end up a waste in the end). As for tiamat/edemo, I'd consider using it.
Born of Black Wind: SW Level 80
You are better off using Radiants or Darks (or whatever those new power/arp dual enchants are called) than stacking crit chance, unless you have less than 30% crit chance. For PvE, you should be using vorpal + full crit stacking. Every 1% crit chance is roughly 1.5% damage increase.
Aspect of the Serpent is 24% damage boost at max stacks without the feat, and 34% damage boost + 5% crit chance with the feat.
Longshot is a gimmick build, with transcendent elven battle being the meta nowadays it may be good for 1v1s but full trapper will always be better for teamplay.
This was the meta build for PvP module 6 and probably what is right now: http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/hr?b=23ci:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,13k3iii:1000000:1000000:1000000&h=0&p=pfr
about crit: I absolutely agree. I didn't check numbers on tenacity vs crit myself, but that's what my exp proves. I personally sit on 33.3% crit now.
Arp/power dual enchants are called Vicious.
1) On your choices for Race, you didn't mention Drow. It's a solid HR race, with +2 Dex/+2 Wisdom, and more interestingly: Darkfire, which increases effectiveness - as measured by ACT - by 5%. I've tested it. It works and can proc multiple times - I've gotten it up to three by myself - from one person. Also, the increased effectiveness from Darkfire affects everyone hitting the mob, not just the HR.
2) Starting rolls: When speaking about PvE, I wouldn't push STR. I generally start with a 16 Dex/16 Wis roll, pumped to 18/18 through the racials, and then add Dex and Wis each level. The added Stamina Regen provided by STR won't be missed much, as most of us run Constricting Arrow/Steel Breeze in our rotation, with Slasher's Mark covering the rest in the real dodge-heavy boss fights.
Finally, can I assume you'll cover boons and gear in a later stage? For PvE, it's pretty straightforward: get Resistance Ignored to about 60% - if that is still the highest required - and start tossing in Power and Crit, assuming a Vorpal. But you know this,
I've been trying to work in Skirmisher's Gambit in my build myself, which requires a little more crit stacking to make up for the loss of 10% chance, while still keeping a solid rotation going. It'll have to have high crit and fast hits to proc Trapper's Cunning and Forestbond as much as possible, but the recent changes to the wards have made upgrading more - I'm running R9's Brutal in offense and R9 Savage in Defense - an expensive ordeal. Should possibly switch out some of those Brutals for Azure.
I will add info about Drow race.
Yes, I didn't add boons and stats stacking strategies yet. I'm working on it.
But I tend to play for support/dps rather than full dps (so I use Feytouched and not Vorpal and go for power more than crit).
Born of Black Wind: SW Level 80
Binding Arrow was used for all shots. I did not take into account Crits or non-Crits as it makes no difference and I un-equipped my Companion.
Non Master Trapper with 0 Control Bonus :
4817 damage with 7 ticks of 4074
5899 damage with 7 ticks of 4727
Master Trapper with 0 Control Bonus :
20800 damage with 11 ticks of 15722
9577 damage with 11 ticks of 6614
Non Master Trapper with 841 Control Bonus only :
12554 damage with 7 ticks of 8710
14629 damage with 7 ticks of 12311
Master Trapper with 841 Control Bonus only :
9143 damage with 12 ticks of 5869
9263 damage with 12 ticks of 5869
Non Master Trapper with 841 Control Bonus(Horn, Rod, Off-Hand), 15% from Cantankerous Mage, 15% from Crushing Roots Off-Hand Passive :
13572 damage with 8 ticks of 9294
12194 damage with 8 ticks of 10529
Master Trapper with 841 Control Bonus(Horn, Rod, Off-Hand), 15% from Cantankerous Mage, 15% from Crushing Roots Off-Hand Passive :
8601 damage with 13 ticks of 6704
21685 damage with 13 ticks of 16278
Alts :
Storm (SW70), Edge (TR70), AD Farm (CW70), Grunt (GF70), Rosa (DC70), AD AD AD (GWF70), Your Mum (OP70)
Member of Q-Snipe
That being said control bonus is a pretty HAMSTER stat for hr. I respect that every has their own playstyle, but stacking control bonus for pve no less is a waste of class potential and really, just gimping yourself. The run will be faster and smoother if you run dps, by stacking with companions and boons you are losing out on at least 20% damage which is a huge difference, for a minimal control duration boost. The base duration of roots daze if I remember correctly is something like 1s for strong roots, increasing that by 100% is a 1s control duration increase, and getting to 100% iirc is pretty hard if not impossible, on top of losing out on a HAMSTER ton of dps. Stacking for actual root duration is pointless, if you proc master trapper before laying down your roots which you should be, the duration is something like 5-10 seconds by which time you would have already applied another set of roots.
On that note some people prefer to run a rotation with one root in it, I.e. Fox shift, hindering and cordon for example but that's pretty stupid except in extreme conditions, because your dps is more from your roots than your encounters; it is better to reapply a non crit or refresh roots duration that have another dps encounter because the source of hr damage is your roots.
There is no such thing as a support hr except in pvp.
The only case where I see it is better to run with one root power only is when you are fighting a dragon in large groups, or a Tiamat's head. In that case a large part of your damage will come from Careful Attack and potentially Lostmauth's if you use it. So I typically run with Constrictive, Longstrider and Thorn Ward to maximize overall group dps. By the way this rotation has no charge-based powers so it is completely seamless and Constrictive is enough to keep roots and Master Trapper up all the time.
Otherwise it's pretty much better to run Constrictive, Cordon and Hindering.
Born of Black Wind: SW Level 80
Not to mention, in large scale battles, there's a good chance of having an OP around, in which case your encounters will repop faster than your dots will wear off, in which case just slotting 1 is sufficient.
Born of Black Wind: SW Level 80
When I still played/was geared I was BiS (more for pvp than pve, but the build worked either way and I did acquire some pve-specific gear). I'm not sure if you are or are not, but the maximum damage I remember my Careful Attack ever being was about 20% in Tiamat. Perhaps that has changed nowadays, but I used to top the DPS charts all the time in mod 5-6, even against BiS and good players of classes like CW and SW, and CA has never been more than 18% I think, with Lostmauth at 15%. Then again, I could be wrong as I didn't run ACT for everything, and I was doing different rotation testing in the dungeons. I think I ended up using Rain of Arrows, Hindering Shot and Thorn Ward in module 5 for a bit vs Tiamat, but I don't remember how that ended. I do like RoA for stationary targets, it's easily one of our highest DPS encounters and stacks unlike Thorn Ward (TW does more damage on a per-cast basis I think, but you can only ever have one out which is why RoA will beat it on stationary targets excluding the debuff).
As a concept, I dislike Careful Attack mostly because it's passive damage at its finest, but it is our best at-will and undeniably strong in group fights. Back in mod 6 with a HR/DC/CW/SW/GF guild comp, in eGWD, I was hitting 100k CA ticks (including lostmauth), 300k root ticks and 500k dailies (seismic shot, slasher's mark). Thorned Roots was still around 60% of my damage. Rotation for the dungeon run was Cordon of Arrows, Constricting Arrow and Hindering Shot, while for the boss I think I swapped out Cordon for Fox, not sure, I may have kept Cordon because it was a relatively high DPS party. I topped DPS as HR with 90mil, followed by SW with around 75mil and then the CW at 67mil or something. Probably could have run Longstrider's but wouldn't have mattered in the long run. Longstrider's is pretty good, but Thorn Ward isn't great when you have multiple targets as you can't choose which mob it targets, and usually you'd want it to target the boss. I'd still only use longstrider in specific boss fights, otherwise Fox Shift and Cordon are better for almost everything else. I will mention though, that in most parties, even pugs, I stopped using Crushing Roots in favour of Seeker's Vengeance. Dead mobs can't hurt you.
I couldn't care less about OPs, they're a broken class and shouldn't be in the game in the first place. You probably could ignore cooldown-related issues when you have one around you, yes, but I wouldn't really include that factor in an actual build because it's bugged and although we know Cryptic's policy on bugs ("Just leave it be, it'll fix itself one day!"), it's not going to be a consistent factor in a lot of things, and I'd rather not rely on the quirks of another person/class.
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/hr?b=23ci:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,1x63i2i:1000000:1u00000:1uu0zzv&h=0&p=pfr
This is probably the standard PvE build these days, although I'd be inclined to test whether Ancient Roots is really necessary; really, I think 2-3 points is enough in it and the rest can go into Archery's Quarry or Broadhead Arrows for the extra damage or crit chance. Could probably get away with 3/5 Swiftness of the Fox and maybe 2/5 Ancient Roots, then go 5/5 Ghostwalker and 5/5 Quarry or Broadhead Arrows (probably broadhead, but depends on your playstyle and rotation; if you rely on Thorned Roots and Cordon more, then broadhead is probably best). This is just theorycrafting of course, it's not like I'd bother testing this when I don't play the game anymore (better question is why I still lurk the forums, probably to read, laugh, and then proceed to ridicule all the idiots posting in the pvp forum section).
Just food for thought, my entire thought process got derailed through this post anyway lol.
I corrected info on control bonus.
I added some info on boons. (not complete tho).
Mobs break even Strong Roots very easy. But Strong Roots apply Thorn Roots and that makes weak Constructing Arrow a strong damage dealer (with Ancient Roots/Thorn Roots), compared with Thorn Wards or Plant Grow.
— (The unwritten rule)
I was going to derive the fomula for the duration of controls, but considering how poor CB is as a stat I never bothered.
Weak grasping roots role is to proc Forstbond (which reduces cooldowns) and to proc Biting Snares (capstone).
Dps from Cordon/Plant Growth is higher than dps from roots, that's why people use it for clearing trash, whereas weak roots help to keep capstone up.
Weak roots don't deal damage and have weak CC, if you are not using Crushing Roots passive.
I think it's a common state of people in this game who bothered, lol.
(Cannot make myself to test all this *** by myself, therefore leeching a bit, as you see, xD)
Ty for reply.:-)
Anyhoo if it increases the length of Ticks on powers etc, would it not extend Careful Attack and/or Gushing Wound?
Due to the way these 2 interact with roots, they speed up the ticks by a huge amount. If these ticks are sped up to hit very quickly then wouldn`t Control Bonus actually be useful by having more ticks overall?
Alts :
Storm (SW70), Edge (TR70), AD Farm (CW70), Grunt (GF70), Rosa (DC70), AD AD AD (GWF70), Your Mum (OP70)
Member of Q-Snipe
(Sin)cerely
Kain
I`ll have a mess around tonight but it is very hard to tell on the Xbox, as so much damage goes on the Combat Log and that scrolls extremely fast on screen.
Alts :
Storm (SW70), Edge (TR70), AD Farm (CW70), Grunt (GF70), Rosa (DC70), AD AD AD (GWF70), Your Mum (OP70)
Member of Q-Snipe
The only thing longer root duration can be useful for is against someone with trans elven battle (you're on xbox so your teb is still bugged, but on pc they fixed the interaction with thorned so now it only ticks once on the users) or against a tr in stealth if you're not good enough to consistently reapply ticks.
Also @thefabricant, I believe it's probably the formula for control bonus vs control resistance that's the reason why mobs aren't affected by control bonus so much, or well, more accurately, they have such high control resistance that any control bonus you have does not make a major difference.
For example, I suspect mobs probably have something like 300-400% control resistance, and so the difference in control bonus is rather negligible, but is never diminished to zero because the formula for control resist is divisive (it's the same as the formula for recovery iirc).
For example, if we take a base 4 second duration (pre control bonus), then at 300% control resist, you have something like 1 seconds of control (4 / (1+3)). At 50% control bonus, you're gaining 2 seconds of control to the base duration, and adding 0.5s to the post resist duration, so total of 1.5s cc duration. Adjusting the resistance value higher which is probably what mobs have (again I only suspect it's 300-400%, I'm not bothered to test), you probably see an even lesser increase from control bonus.
If there are changes, I will try to update. No changes on ptr so far.
Would love to hear some opinions on Fey vs Vorpal (does the extra dmg from vorp cause enough extra lifesteal to make it defensively worth it, or are you too squishy compared to other trans?). My lifesteal stat is still sub-par as I geared power/arpen first so I havent had a chance to test this. (Will update if nobody else comes forward with solid info)
Holy Avenger Seems to speak for itself, a dps loss but a substantial defensive increase. Do we have the deeps to support it as pure trapper when facing T-Elven or is the fight a lost cause at that point?