Cheap Mod 15 Buff-Build.

jonkoca

Basically, as a buffer, forget damage min-maxing. You want to have Longstrider's shot up as much as possible. Hawkeye is the next priority, then the third buff is optional, I go for foxdodge, because the melee side doesn't need a target so you cam spam it in place, for trash mobs - and on bosses thornward for max damage buffs. After that, you just want to stay alive, and be quick on your feet.

Initial stats. Int and con.

Just put all your points into these. Hitpoints and recovery speed. You don't need dex or wis anymore.

Feats. (I'm human btw. So +3) basic.

Toughness 3
1 point in the others
Swift foot 4
Battlewise 3
Lucky skirm. 3
Natures 4
Extra act. 5

Feats. Paths.
Trapper. Fleet stance 5, readied stance 5, slashers 5, swiftness of fox 5.
Archery. Ghostwalker 5, keen eye 5, hasty retreat 5, bottomless quiver 5.
Combat. Bloodletting 1.

This combo gives you zero cooldowns, esp. on ranged, and amazing runspeed. Also lessens aggro a bit.

Powers. Go pathfinder.

Aspect of Pack (offhand feated)/Primal instinct.

Hawkeye. Foxshift. Lonstriders.

Careful attack. Aimed shot/splitshot/whatever.

Gear. Doesn't really matter. Optional, Chest with 14+ AC, arm/legs/head with recovery defense and or deflect.

I use the borivan/omu gear: Ras mancas hat, puppets chest, enduring boots, and that 1 star borovian hunt spiders gloves, forgot the name. But to be honest the extra recovery doesn't really do more than shave a split second off cooldowns and give you a bit more AP.

Rotation. Spam everything. Don't forget slashers every now and again if you can be bothered.

Artifacts - whatever you already have, Thirst is cheapish atm. and a great debuff.

Enchants - whatever you already have. Recovery and defence or hp if you like. Lesser soul, and a debuff weapon if you like. Not critical unless you are rich and insane.

Pets - whatever you already have. Sellsword, tiger etc. from your dps build have a debuff too. If you don't main an HR, an augument is fine, again because we're not worrying about crit, arpen, or power.

Mounts - whatever you already have, swift golden lion bis, but don't buy one unless you already have one.

Mount bonuses - shepherd's, and champion's return etc. recommended, but whatever you like really.

And that's it.

thefiresidecat

+1 ty for posting very helpful

clericalist

This is useful, thanks. I am definitely going to try this since the nerfing of the ranger makes this the only way to go for me in parties. I do have to ask however, how well received this role is for parties? In PUGS are there a lot of kicking because of the low paingiver, in non PUG groups such as guild/alliances are people accepting the buffer ranger as a viable option for the hardest content?

wdj40

jonkoca said:

Basically, as a buffer, forget damage min-maxing. You want to have Longstrider's shot up as much as possible. Hawkeye is the next priority, then the third buff is optional, I go for foxdodge, because the melee side doesn't need a target so you cam spam it in place. After that, you just want to stay alive, and be quick on your feet.

Initial stats. Int and con.

Just put all your points into these. Hitpoints and recovery speed. You don't need dex or wis anymore.

Feats. (I'm human btw. So +3) basic.

Toughness 3
1 point in the others
Swift foot 4
Battlewise 3
Lucky skirm. 3
Natures 4
Extra act. 5

Feats. Paths.
Trapper. Fleet stance 5, readied stance 5, slashers 5, swiftness of fox 5.
Archery. Ghostwalker 5, keen eye 5, hasty retreat 5, bottomless quiver 5.
Combat. Bloodletting 1.

This combo gives you zero cooldowns, esp. on ranged, and amazing runspeed. Also lessens aggro a bit.

Powers. Go pathfinder.

Aspect of Pack (offhand feated)/Primal instinct.

Hawkeye. Foxshift. Lonstriders.

Careful attack. Aimed shot/splitshot/whatever.

Gear. Doesn't really matter. Optional, Chest with 14+ AC, arm/legs/head with recovery defense and or deflect.

I use the borivan/omu gear: Ras mancas hat, puppets chest, enduring boots, and that 1 star borovian hunt spiders gloves, forgot the name. But to be honest the extra recovery doesn't really do more than shave a split second off cooldowns and give you a bit more AP.

Rotation. Spam everything. Don't forget slashers every now and again if you can be bothered.

Artifacts - whatever you already have, Thirst is cheapish atm. and a great debuff.

Enchants - whatever you already have. Recovery and defence or hp if you like. Lesser soul, and a debuff weapon if you like. Not critical unless you are rich and insane.

Pets - whatever you already have. Sellsword, tiger etc. from your dps build have a debuff too. If you don't main an HR, an augument is fine, again because we're not worrying about crit, arpen, or power.

Mounts - whatever you already have, swift golden lion bis, but don't buy one unless you already have one.

Mount bonuses - shepherd's, and champion's return etc. recommended, but whatever you like really.

And that's it.

lol.... can tell you really cannot be bothered with this build

Dont blame you... it does not interest me in the slightest but well done for posting something

typo

Here is a similar build. I will be comparing your version to mine, which I have been developing with a fellow HR (Niszdog) from the Discord group. I think that the fact you and us are doing this is a kind of validation that the concept is a good one. Of course, still testing and trying different powers in the rotation in place of Fox's Cunning. So it is still an experimental build at this stage. I am also running 20K-ish recovery and 115% recharge speed. That's a lot, I know, but just wanting to test that it works first of all and so far it has. Focus has also been on achieving 100% uptime on buffs or as close to that as possible. It's kind of funny to see Longstrider's Shot splashing across the screen repeatedly. What sort of testing and results have you seen so far?

http://bit.ly/Buff-HR-Build

As for my next steps, I seem to have some runs ready for this weekend to go thru T9, maybe MSP, and Cradle using the build. I've already done T9 and it was a good run up until a guy got disconnected and did not log back in. But very smooth up that point, then I switched to DPS after that because we had to reorganize. We still completed the dungeon, but it was not the test I was hoping for. This weekend should hopefully be better.

jonkoca

I have been invited to CR with this build, smooth run, experienced players.

Typo, I'm sure your build will be better tbh. I spent zero AD on this build, just using the stuff I have already for my pvp archer and pve combat loadouts. I hunted 2 of the barovian critters to get the rest. However, I don't think 20k recovery will make much difference. As long as LsS is back up in under 4 seconds... You don't need any better than that. The trapper feat and the archer feat for cooldowns makes rotations very easy, I think my build has about 8 or 9k recovery giving 55% recharge speed.

It's not worth investing in tbh. hopefully next mod they will fix us to be more competitive dps-wise. Then buffing can become a thing of the past. If we'd wanted to be buffers, we'd have rolled another class.

aerhythia

jonkoca said:

Pets - whatever you already have. Sellsword, tiger etc. from your dps build have a debuff too. If you don't main an HR, an augument is fine, again because we're not worrying about crit, arpen, or power.

Dancing shield for debuff if no one else uses it, doesn't even need to be rare or epic.

clericalist said:

This is useful, thanks. I am definitely going to try this since the nerfing of the ranger makes this the only way to go for me in parties. I do have to ask however, how well received this role is for parties? In PUGS are there a lot of kicking because of the low paingiver, in non PUG groups such as guild/alliances are people accepting the buffer ranger as a viable option for the hardest content?

Never heard of Templock being kicked and they have a similar role since Mod 14.

typo

jonkoca said:

I have been invited to CR with this build, smooth run, experienced players.

Typo, I'm sure your build will be better tbh. I spent zero AD on this build, just using the stuff I have already for my pvp archer and pve combat loadouts. I hunted 2 of the barovian critters to get the rest. However, I don't think 20k recovery will make much difference. As long as LsS is back up in under 4 seconds... You don't need any better than that. The trapper feat and the archer feat for cooldowns makes rotations very easy, I think my build has about 8 or 9k recovery giving 55% recharge speed.

It's not worth investing in tbh. hopefully next mod they will fix us to be more competitive dps-wise. Then buffing can become a thing of the past. If we'd wanted to be buffers, we'd have rolled another class.

Jonkoca, I hear what you are saying. These days I'm mostly running Combat for single target / small mobs and then Hybrid Archery for AoE on large mobs, for example Stronghold Marauders and Barovia hunts with lots of aggro. I've not been playing Trapper quite as much, but agree with you that it would be nice to see Trappers being more competitive again. I am itching to experience the new archer feats first hand, but will have to wait for mod 15 on console. I also really do like the buff HR concept as a different kind of experience. Ultimately, Niszdog and I want to make our version of the buff build completely viable for any 12K HR to be able to get some runs with more advanced players. Right now, it is kind of like a crazy concept car and one day we hope release it to production for the masses.

thefiresidecat

typo#6563 said:

Here is a similar build. I will be comparing your version to mine, which I have been developing with a fellow HR (Niszdog) from the Discord group. I think that the fact you and us are doing this is a kind of validation that the concept is a good one. Of course, still testing and trying different powers in the rotation in place of Fox's Cunning. So it is still an experimental build at this stage. I am also running 20K-ish recovery and 115% recharge speed. That's a lot, I know, but just wanting to test that it works first of all and so far it has. Focus has also been on achieving 100% uptime on buffs or as close to that as possible. It's kind of funny to see Longstrider's Shot splashing across the screen repeatedly. What sort of testing and results have you seen so far?

http://bit.ly/Buff-HR-Build

As for my next steps, I seem to have some runs ready for this weekend to go thru T9, maybe MSP, and Cradle using the build. I've already done T9 and it was a good run up until a guy got disconnected and did not log back in. But very smooth up that point, then I switched to DPS after that because we had to reorganize. We still completed the dungeon, but it was not the test I was hoping for. This weekend should hopefully be better.

ty for posting!

Unknown

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jonkoca

I know right. I suspect it will get old verrrrrry quickly.

Been on 2 runs with this build in CR and a couple of codgs, after 4 years of dps, kinda fun to just sit back, spam buffs and pick people up. The runspeed is insane, if there's a GF around with itf, you literally daren't move because you'll just run straight off the platform at lightspeed. With the feat for aggro reduction, and your movement, nothing really hassles you, just run out of the red, hop in and out to buff with LSS and hawkeye. Gwfs are sloooow by comparison.

feanor70118

Thanks for posting. I may as well respec my trapper or pvp build (since they frakked up SotF, no point in pvping at all anymore) to it if I can stomach it. I'm so disgusted with Cryptic ignoring every longstanding valid complaint that HRs have and then putting someone on charge of the class who obviously has never played it that I doubt I can. I have no interest in playing a support class and never did. There's a special place in hell for for people whose best ideas are, "OK....but what happens if we make trappers use their pointless, weak at-wills?" and "Wouldn't it be awesome if archers just stood still?"

At this point I'm just waiting to see if the design of the bank heist is as awful as the TONG, CODG and CR boss encounters.

typo

Historically, many PVE Archers have stood still. It is not uncommon to see them just stand there spamming Aimed Shot. Not all Archery Players do that. I personally prefer a little more action myself. My original HR was a Trapper and I've always enjoyed lots of action and it reflects in how I tend to play Combat and Archer too.

Any HR can actually buff and do secondary DPS at the same time. Of course on this post we're talking more about a buff-only HR, but even then, I've found playing this kind of support only role can be enjoyable. I have no expectation of course about being at the top of the pain giver chart while doing this. But in it's own way, it's pretty cool to be able to say in some situations, "So we need an extra buffer? Well then, I happen to have a loadout for that! Let's go!" or "We have a newer guildie who needs some help getting thru a dungeon? Sure thing, I'll tag along to lend a hand!"

It's really not so bad and I'd say doing it is kind of anti-elitist too. It may even help newer HRs to develop their DPS loadouts, since they might be able to get runs as a support to collect top end gear and stuff. It pays to be humble!

artifleur

Hey guys. I've been interested in finding a worthwhile HR buff build for a very long time and I must admit I'm still skeptical about it. Lately, when somebody asks me if I can buff I tell them "yes" so as not to enter into a fruitless argument with them and just go with my usual combat DPS build.

Here are a few remarks :

1. We seem to all agree the number one goal is permanent longstrider. But this also means that you'll have to stay away from your targets and therefor from your team at all time which makes Aspect of the Pack ineffective. Unless you are in team with a GF or your team is perfectly coordinated for getting positional combat advantage (which never happens, let's be honest), this can be a significant loss of damage. There are other ways of getting CA, but not as reliable as AotP.

2. @typo#6563 Why do you want so much crit? Is it for "Trapper's Cunning" only?

3. @jonkoca When you say "spam everything" what do you mean? I suppose you dont mean to use "Hawk Shot", which takes way too long, or "Gushing Wounds", since there's no target in front of me. That leaves only 2 melee and ranged encounters, which isn't enough to reset everything with "Swiftness of the Fox" unless i'm doing something wrong. I like @typo#6563's idea of adding "Disruptive Shot" to each rotation to reset everything. I'm struggling with AP gain for the moment but that seems doable.

4. For the third encounter, "Constricting Shot" seems like a logical choice to me together with "Forestbond" for some extra cooldown reduction, although very little if you only hit one target. It also makes "Crushing Roots" a somewhat interesting choice for the second class feature after "Primal Instincts".

5. The lantern has a rather short range and losing longstrider just to use it decidedly isn't worth it. A dragon artifact aimed at the sky may be more useful just to spam Artificer's Persuasion.

jonkoca

Rotation.

(Get to range), LSS, disruptive, fox dodge. (Go in close or use slashers if up) Hawkeye, foxshift, apply CA (if not on). Go back ranged, repeat.

You don't stay ranged all the time. If you do, hawkeye sometimes misses teamates. The whole rotation, and the movement involved takes less than 4 seconds, so LSS is always up.

That's all. With the archer and trapper cd feats, and some recovery, LSS is always off cooldown, and at most you might wait a second or two for the melee enc.s once in a blue moon.

Your runspeed is so fast you are zipping in and out like lightning, and you'll be in range of someone to keep up aotp.

Artifleur, this is purposely a CHEAP build, meant as a loadout you can equip without buying and refining a bunch of HAMSTER we might never use again after this mod. All I've done is refine one new artifact, thirst, and I only did that because it dropped out of a CR chest for free.

artifleur

I've tried it in FBI (RAQ) yesterday and it went well.

I didn't change any piece of equipment, don't worry. I only swapped soul crystal and heart of the blue dragon which is very nice for some extra recovery and speed. I'd say it's better than the short-lived and weak DR debuff from lantern or thirst but it's hard to say.

You didn't mention Disruptive Shot in your first post, but that's the most important part. AP wasn't a problem at all for spamming it with only boons set to AP gain (my cloak doesn't give AP).

I used LSS -> constricting -> steel breeze -> hawkeye -> disruptive shot and had no problem with cooldowns.

I had primal instincts and crushing roots but I'm doubtful about daze being really useful and I see what you mean about AotP, we do move really fast so might as well try moving in and out of the pack for a few seconds of combat advantage.

I was worried about hawkeye having a range limit, I'll keep an eye on it.

jonkoca

Yeah, artifacts are a puzzle, I was planning to get a vanguards banner from pvp, but the thirst arti dropped first.

This build doesn't take the trapper feat for extra cooldown reduction on the application of roots, so don't really need steel breeze, though the it is another one you can spam without a target. Fox just seems better for the constant dodges.

Primal and pack are the only choices of class feature, crushing isn't going to affect bosses anyway, and trashmobs... the party should melt them anyway.

The cliff in fbi is a special case, tbh. I'd just go straight combat dps on that phase and swap to buff on the following boss. Unless someone's only using a newbie HR toon specifically as a buffer I suppose. Even then, split the sky and cordons probably would be better choices there for support.

typo

@artifleur The crit in my version of the build is not really for DPS. It just helps to proc certain crit-based boons and feats. It is probably not super crucial, but it does help some. I had considered Constricting Arrow for the 3rd power in the rotation, but there are some attractive buffs to also consider, like Fox's Cunning, Commanding Shot / Stag Heart, and Thorn Ward. Potentially Constricting Arrow could be a good option though for players who can't quite get enough recovery. So in testing, this type of build does seem to help runs. I've been mostly trying it out in T9 and CN, but my co-author (Niszdog) also tried it in Cradle. We and some other players in those groups are noticing smoother runs and even faster times, as long as we can maintain the rotation without fumbling the stance changes. It takes a little getting used to, but it's a big damage boost when done right. LOL, the other night I used it in some Dragon Flights and had to stop. It was causing us to accidently kill the dragons due to how fast the Dragon life bar was dropping because of it. Probably if it was a less powerful group, the DF would have been ok, but adding these buffs to the group that night was like using nitro when you already have a Ferrari. Too much!

jonkoca

Hmm, yeah, temp hitpoints is prolly better than dodge. I'll try it. Might have problems with melee cooldown as commanding shot is too long to cast.

We just did a superfast tong and CR with buff build and a good party. Buff HR is better than I thought it would be I admit.

artifleur

typo#6563 said:

It just helps to proc certain crit-based boons and feats.

The reason I asked is I don't see any meaningful feat or boon you could proc with a crit except a stamina regen boost and Forestbond, but that's not very useful. So sacrificing hasty retreat for 5% crit chance seems like a really bad idea.

For the same reason, putting points in intelligence and constitution like @jonkoca suggested makes more sense than INT/WIS.

Stag Heart is out of the question for me. With only one ranged encounter, there's no way I could reset my melee cooldowns. Besides, the dodge is way better than 22.5% temp HP in most cases.

I'll try using Fox's Cunning next time I use this build. I always thought it was a deflect, but it really is a dodge except it doesn't prevent control effects.

Unknown

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artifleur

I've tried it again in castle ravenloft this time with OP, DC, CW and GWF.

I struggled a lot with Fox Shift randomly teleporting me, often with a delay probably due to server lag. It's perfectly doable but I'm just not good enough at it. It's so much easier with constricting shot.

I switched back to Fox for Strahd in hope of preventing some of the area damage but most of it simply ignores dodges.

After failing twice, I went back to my combat loadout and we finished it easily.

Next time I'll try Thorn Ward.

ibemin0x said:

the sinergy between off action and combatants maneuver is nice too.

I don't see what you mean.

I have 105% crit chance in buff mode cause i'm using my DPS gear but that's unrelevant when I'm not doing any damage.

jonkoca

Yeah, I have no idea what to slot as encounter 3 either, fox does seem pretty much ineffectual tbh. Just spammable for cooldown resets. Dodges can cause problems for some OPs though apparantly.

Commanding is too long, binding might be okay, but needs a target on ranged, whereas fox doesn't. Fox did however kill me on the fbi turtle.... It's melee cooldowns that are the problem tbh. Need a spammable ranged.

Decisions decisions.

wdj40

I think something broke in Fox's Shift a long time ago but no-one has really picked up on it as no-one uses it.

But I have noticed that if you keep moving and press the button for Fox's Shift, it will not work but will still go on cool-down. You quite literally need to press the button and then no touch anything on the pad until the animation is finished. I was playing around with it in PvP not long ago and came across this problem.

So I dropped it and just dont use it again as it is too unreliable

leonidrex

use :
debuff enchant, ( dread,plague,frost) 9/12/12% debuff
dancing shield 20% debuff
drow 5% debuff
mw weapon set 2% buff
hawkeye 12,5% encounter buff ( 19%? with class feature )
LSS 40% buff
thorn ward 20% debuff
trex for debuff or lion for buff 10% debuff or delayed """ 6% """ buff
chromatic storm/thirst/banner for debuff or wheel to buff main dps if supports dont have it ( big yikes )
this build is actually very very good, and smart players that know how other classes work will be really content with inviting those that use it to groups.
important thing : dont use fox shift if you have protection paladin in your group ( if he is tanking ) it reduces the power he generates.

jonkoca

Yeah, an OP asked me to turn off the dodges yesterday.

Thornward is a bit clunky tbh. And not sure a good party would need anymore debuffs. But yeah, worth doing in average parties.

leonidrex

jonkoca said:

Yeah, an OP asked me to turn off the dodges yesterday.

Thornward is a bit clunky tbh. And not sure a good party would need anymore debuffs. But yeah, worth doing in average parties.

it was me my dude i used to do something similar with my HR before it was meta, but HR dodge annoyed me so much i quit playing HR altogether.
just throwing it out there for peeps that dont know how other classes work. there is alot of those " small " things that can affect comp, like DC using cleanse while having GF as dps can ruin the run.

jonkoca

Aha, should have recognized the handwriting...

artifleur

I've been using this more and more, the word is spreading that HR's can buff for real.

Thorn Ward is too clunky and situational, I'll stick to constricting shot.

I checked the max range of hawkeye and it's huge so no need to be close to the team when using it.

typo

@artifleur Thanks for the feedback. I may take your advice. I am currently using the Stamina boon. I don't say a lot about Stamina, but I did build that up to enhance survivability. But you do make a fair point and I have looked at Hasty Retreat. I will look at that again.

Also, I would caution using Fox's Cunning at the second boss in CR. I'm sure you both know what I mean, LOL. I suspect it would cause the boss to go into that spinning attack. Tank needs to take the big sword hit. Not dodge it!

As far as Commanding Shot, I do agree it is a slow cast time, but one thing I have been playing around with is doing a double-cast: Commanding Shot and then, before the animation is over, Disruptive Shot. It is a lot like an animation cancel, but I'm not sure if both effects are actually occurring or if Commanding Shot might literally be getting cancelled. The animation does still fire both, but just not sure on the effect. This would be great to verify in an ACT log.

typo

Hey @jonkoca and @artifleur! Here is an updated version of the Buff HR build from me and Niszdog. It is now two pages. At the bottom of page 2, I include a link to this page (Jonkoca's build) and I mention both of you. This was a helpful discussion! Artifleur, I did also try out your recommendation to not worry so much about crit. But instead of Constricting Arrow, I used Binding Arrow so that I could get Oaken Skin as a third buff. I was getting plenty of stamina anyway. Your recommendation works quite well, but I decided to stick with crit to allow more flexibility in the choice of other potential third buffs, that don't inherently proc roots like Binding Arrow does. Either way, both approaches seem to get the job done on the damage buff.

I may follow-up to share some additional info tomorrow. I've got an HR on PC who is performing some tests to clarify the net effect of how HR buffs combine together. That should be interesting!

http://bit.ly/Buff-HR-Build