I was wondering why did you choose to roll 17 dex + race instead of 16 dex + race? For example your target roll as compared to a 16/15/13 before racial.
I have been using this build for the past few days. It is vastly superior to my guess fest during leveling, but I fear folks don't understand why my dps is really low (bottom,sometimes below the healer, lol). The upside however, is that the runs I've been going on seem to run much smoother.
Solo/pvp I used rapid shot but mostly have to go aimed shot for dungeons, but it gets hairy when I pull adds, I end up spamming split shot because I keep getting interrupted.
I'm still mostly t1 with a t2 mixed in here and there. I just want to know how often do I buff during a rotation. I can get 2 ranged rounds to 1 switch to buff oak skin and stag heart but think of going 3 rounds of ranged, then buff to see if I can up my dps. I don't mind being low, but I'm at the bottom consistently and that bothers me.
That's very much the thinking behind this build as well.
I'd love to hear the differences and the reasons why you picked those options.
Big difference is picking rain of arrows. For single target bosses that don't move much fire and forget with that on the boss helps up dps a bit. I'm a big fan of it for boss fights with semi-stationary bosses.
Any input for what a Human HR with 3 extra heroic points to spend should do?
-Still learning the "Neverwinter Ropes" and while I did not choose the "optimum" race, I am loving this build so far (level 30 as of this post).
Will be updating the first three posts to reflect some of my learnings as I've put more time into the class and some more detailed comments on the powers.
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin Obsidian Oath - Warlock A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Tweaked some comments on Feats/Powers and added to Post 3:
Defensive Buffs
Not my work, but a great analysis of some of our defensive buffs and how they work can be found here. The net summary is that by stacking defense and running the buffs you can set yourself up with a very high Damage Reduction making you very survivable with a Nature Build. To maximize this you do need to take Endurance of the Boar 5/5, and your bar would have Binding/Commanding/Boar's as encounters and Lone Wolf as a feature.
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin Obsidian Oath - Warlock A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
I actually run Boar's, Binding/Oak, Fox's for my build, since I like to flip flop range/melee for pvp. That is why I was unable to test Stag's Heart. If the others ignore ArPen, I would be fairly confident Stag's does as well. I could see a more range focused build using Stag/Commanding instead of Fox's.
Mindflayer - Exodus
Daria - Dwarf Sentinel GWF (mistaken for Halfling a lot)
Karia (aka "The Pug") - Human Combat HR
Kayd - Human Conqueror GF - Retired
Your data made me realise I had misunderstood how Boar's works, I'll be giving it another spin (even unfeated) to see how it goes, but it certainly had a place on my bar while leveling until I had Fox's.
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin Obsidian Oath - Warlock A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Well I will be leaving Boar's off my bar. Maybe feated it is worth the shot over Fox's but the effect of 5 stacks is wiped away too fast and is too small, at least for PvE, especially with a 17s cool down.
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin Obsidian Oath - Warlock A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Combined with the avoidance of a ranger, a 10 stack can last a while in pvp. However, with focused effort it can be wiped off pretty quickly and DoTs are hell on it.
Mindflayer - Exodus
Daria - Dwarf Sentinel GWF (mistaken for Halfling a lot)
Karia (aka "The Pug") - Human Combat HR
Kayd - Human Conqueror GF - Retired
My biggest issue with the feated Boar's Hide is that they require you to buff twice to get the full 10 stack. Given how quickly the buff can get eaten up in PvE and the pace PvP combat moves at, you can find yourself getting barely getting any extra stacks. But I am still getting my feat wet with Ragner pvp in general, so it will take some experimenting for to see if it is worth it.
Mindflayer - Exodus
Daria - Dwarf Sentinel GWF (mistaken for Halfling a lot)
Karia (aka "The Pug") - Human Combat HR
Kayd - Human Conqueror GF - Retired
My biggest issue with the feated Boar's Hide is that they require you to buff twice to get the full 10 stack. Given how quickly the buff can get eaten up in PvE and the pace PvP combat moves at, you can find yourself getting barely getting any extra stacks. But I am still getting my feat wet with Ragner pvp in general, so it will take some experimenting for to see if it is worth it.
That sounds like a bug.
Does the cool down start so you have to wait after the first stack is applied or can you just double tap to get 10 stacks?
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin Obsidian Oath - Warlock A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
You have wait for the full cooldown. Basically the way it works in practice, is it only gives you 5 stack, but allows it to stack past 5 up to 10. So if you have 2 stacks left when the cooldown is up, using it will raise you to 7 stacks. So yeah it requires you to buff twice without getting hit to get all 10.
In PvP, this means you and your team can have a full 10 stack by the time you reach the middle, but you won't see it again until hit a lull in the action for the most part. Honestly, it is really disappointing for a melee focused buff, since in melee you will get hit more often and it disappears so fast. I would look at other ways for building without it if not for Boar's Charge/Fox Shift combo being pretty brutal even as Nature.
Mindflayer - Exodus
Daria - Dwarf Sentinel GWF (mistaken for Halfling a lot)
Karia (aka "The Pug") - Human Combat HR
Kayd - Human Conqueror GF - Retired
I'm a relatively new Nature Ranger. You mentioned that Oak Skin is boosted by power. Would it then be better to stack Power Enchantments over Crit enchantments?
The heal from Oak Skin is so small, I wouldn't focus your build in any way to just boost that. Power isn't bad an generally comes in generous amounts on HR gear, but don't sacrifice other stats for it.
Mindflayer - Exodus
Daria - Dwarf Sentinel GWF (mistaken for Halfling a lot)
Karia (aka "The Pug") - Human Combat HR
Kayd - Human Conqueror GF - Retired
Power, Crit, Recovery, Defense and Deflect then become your priorities. If you have around 4K Power you can focus on pushing the others up to the 2500 mark, and then worry about more power if you need it.
(Note 3575 is "around 4k power", round up.. )
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin Obsidian Oath - Warlock A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
I'm geting back into neverwinter and looking at making a nature ranger and was looking at your build. I was wondering wouldnt it be better to take the three points out of forest ghost being a support ranger buffer and put them in electric shot to help the team out more. Was just curious on why you dont have that aoe shot in your build
Well, firstly you need to put at least 2 points in Ghost just to get to higher level powers. Secondly this build is focussed on shooting and for a shooting build Electric Shot is a bad power. I also explained the uses of Ghost in the second post as well.
As to Electric being an AoE, every time you want an AoE Split Shot > Electric Shot, so there is no point having it for that. If you want to fire off quick shots at 1 target then Rapid Shot > Electric Shot. Hence Electric Shot doesn't get a go. Its a different conversation if you are more melee focussed.
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin Obsidian Oath - Warlock A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
I have a very similar Nature spec build because frankly, going glass cannon on a HR seems to be a sure fire way to pull all the aggro and die fast.
I really like the build and I am now working on boons. One question I have (and I apologise if this has already been answered), is does the Oak Skin heal Proc Burning guidance, the last boon from Dread Ring.
I don't use Oak Skin much right now (though I have it at 3/3), but turning this small HOT into a small HOT with DOT seems like it would be a fantastic way to spend these points.
I will check it out on the test server either way before I spend the point, but I am weeks away from getting the boons and it would be good to know if this is something I can work towards.
After playing a Nature build in T2/CN I can confirm that it is a wasted slot space. The extra mitigation looks good on paper, especially if you're trying to stack the various mitigation buff's, but overall extra mitigation is training wheels that most groups who are going to successfully clear content don't need. (And isn't good enough to significantly aid clearing in groups without experience either.)
The damage Nature does is completely lackluster, you will be 4th in front of a Cleric or 3rd if you bring a DC and a GF. Sadly, Nature doesn't bring the healing/buff a DC brings or the add control/buff a GF brings.
So, in essence, Nature is a PvP build only. PvE it's a waste of space, with the various mitigation buffs disappearing almost as soon as you apply them. DoT's wear off Boar's Hide stacks, and the extra HP/mitigation off Stag is gone from one hit. Certainly with Royal Guard you can keep them up more often, but it will not save anyone that can't dodge.
Perhaps the worst part is the rotation you're pidgeonholed into using for a buff Nature HR. The flip side of most of the abilities are terrible. Binding Arrow, Commanding Shot, and Boar's Rush are all garbage for any serious player. Fox Shift's attack is useful, but the 'buff' is a joke. Good luck making sure that dodge kicks in on that big red AoE that kills people instead of one tick of a DoT or a random add attack.
Good luck meaning you're dead. The Fox buff is simply not reliable and does not significantly add to survival for the team but is the only decent attack a Nature HR can slot. (Meaning that you must use the far worse attacks in most situations, as there isn't room for Fox's on a buffer and either way the damage will be worse because of your feat selection.) The biggest kick in the teeth is that Fox Shift is just as useful as a team buff no matter what spec you are.
Nature only gets a CD reduction on the buff side, which is a joke considering it doesn't stack and gets eaten by DoT's and small attacks from add's. You could make the cooldown two seconds on Fox's buff and it would STILL be a joke. (And you can still wear Royal Guard as Archery/Combat to lower the cooldown, so another kick to the teeth.)
I wanted to love Nature HR, I really did. It's just bad though, and both Archery and Combat are far more useful in both PvP and PvE. At the end of the day, if you want to play a buff class, go and roll a DC.
I'm not saying all this to be rude or bash your build, it's literally an issue with Cryptic trolling the community with Nature HR. It is simply useless in general, and is part of the reason why HR are generally kicked from PUG queue. I mean this in all seriousness, the Nature HR spec is literally why HR get a bad rap. It's that bad.
(EDIT: Also, many of the feat selections you made don't make much logical sense. For instance, Forest Walk will only proc off of Boar's Hide at the moment. It doesn't proc on Fox, Oak, or Stag anyway which are all the buff's you're likely to use. So congrats, you pidgeonhole yourself into Boar's Hide in two feats within Nature. Make sense? Not at all. But that's how it works. Clearly Cryptic want's Nature to use Boar's Hide, but haven't bothered to fix Boar's to actually be useful yet. It's a very, very central ability to the build and feat path. 20% mitigation, after all, in theory. The DoT issue is the biggest thing holding it back atm.)
MoF/Thaum CWSS/Thaum CWIV/Protector GFSW/Combat HRSM/Destroyer GWFWK/Executioner TRDO/Faithful DC
Comments
Solo/pvp I used rapid shot but mostly have to go aimed shot for dungeons, but it gets hairy when I pull adds, I end up spamming split shot because I keep getting interrupted.
I'm still mostly t1 with a t2 mixed in here and there. I just want to know how often do I buff during a rotation. I can get 2 ranged rounds to 1 switch to buff oak skin and stag heart but think of going 3 rounds of ranged, then buff to see if I can up my dps. I don't mind being low, but I'm at the bottom consistently and that bothers me.
Any thoughts on that?
-Still learning the "Neverwinter Ropes" and while I did not choose the "optimum" race, I am loving this build so far (level 30 as of this post).
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Agreed with this, toughness and hp in general provide a little bit of an extra buffer if you screw up something or the blank hits the fan.
Will be updating the first three posts to reflect some of my learnings as I've put more time into the class and some more detailed comments on the powers.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
I really liked your guide, can I add it to mmominds.com??
Should have the front page updated soon as well now that I can link to nwncalc.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Defensive Buffs
Not my work, but a great analysis of some of our defensive buffs and how they work can be found here. The net summary is that by stacking defense and running the buffs you can set yourself up with a very high Damage Reduction making you very survivable with a Nature Build. To maximize this you do need to take Endurance of the Boar 5/5, and your bar would have Binding/Commanding/Boar's as encounters and Lone Wolf as a feature.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Daria - Dwarf Sentinel GWF (mistaken for Halfling a lot)
Karia (aka "The Pug") - Human Combat HR
Kayd - Human Conqueror GF - Retired
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Daria - Dwarf Sentinel GWF (mistaken for Halfling a lot)
Karia (aka "The Pug") - Human Combat HR
Kayd - Human Conqueror GF - Retired
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Daria - Dwarf Sentinel GWF (mistaken for Halfling a lot)
Karia (aka "The Pug") - Human Combat HR
Kayd - Human Conqueror GF - Retired
hi obsidiancran3, I already added your guide to mmominds.com, pls check it out.
Does the cool down start so you have to wait after the first stack is applied or can you just double tap to get 10 stacks?
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
In PvP, this means you and your team can have a full 10 stack by the time you reach the middle, but you won't see it again until hit a lull in the action for the most part. Honestly, it is really disappointing for a melee focused buff, since in melee you will get hit more often and it disappears so fast. I would look at other ways for building without it if not for Boar's Charge/Fox Shift combo being pretty brutal even as Nature.
Daria - Dwarf Sentinel GWF (mistaken for Halfling a lot)
Karia (aka "The Pug") - Human Combat HR
Kayd - Human Conqueror GF - Retired
Daria - Dwarf Sentinel GWF (mistaken for Halfling a lot)
Karia (aka "The Pug") - Human Combat HR
Kayd - Human Conqueror GF - Retired
Power, Crit, Recovery, Defense and Deflect then become your priorities. If you have around 4K Power you can focus on pushing the others up to the 2500 mark, and then worry about more power if you need it.
(Note 3575 is "around 4k power", round up..
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
As to Electric being an AoE, every time you want an AoE Split Shot > Electric Shot, so there is no point having it for that. If you want to fire off quick shots at 1 target then Rapid Shot > Electric Shot. Hence Electric Shot doesn't get a go. Its a different conversation if you are more melee focussed.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
I really like the build and I am now working on boons. One question I have (and I apologise if this has already been answered), is does the Oak Skin heal Proc Burning guidance, the last boon from Dread Ring.
I don't use Oak Skin much right now (though I have it at 3/3), but turning this small HOT into a small HOT with DOT seems like it would be a fantastic way to spend these points.
I will check it out on the test server either way before I spend the point, but I am weeks away from getting the boons and it would be good to know if this is something I can work towards.
The damage Nature does is completely lackluster, you will be 4th in front of a Cleric or 3rd if you bring a DC and a GF. Sadly, Nature doesn't bring the healing/buff a DC brings or the add control/buff a GF brings.
So, in essence, Nature is a PvP build only. PvE it's a waste of space, with the various mitigation buffs disappearing almost as soon as you apply them. DoT's wear off Boar's Hide stacks, and the extra HP/mitigation off Stag is gone from one hit. Certainly with Royal Guard you can keep them up more often, but it will not save anyone that can't dodge.
Perhaps the worst part is the rotation you're pidgeonholed into using for a buff Nature HR. The flip side of most of the abilities are terrible. Binding Arrow, Commanding Shot, and Boar's Rush are all garbage for any serious player. Fox Shift's attack is useful, but the 'buff' is a joke. Good luck making sure that dodge kicks in on that big red AoE that kills people instead of one tick of a DoT or a random add attack.
Good luck meaning you're dead. The Fox buff is simply not reliable and does not significantly add to survival for the team but is the only decent attack a Nature HR can slot. (Meaning that you must use the far worse attacks in most situations, as there isn't room for Fox's on a buffer and either way the damage will be worse because of your feat selection.) The biggest kick in the teeth is that Fox Shift is just as useful as a team buff no matter what spec you are.
Nature only gets a CD reduction on the buff side, which is a joke considering it doesn't stack and gets eaten by DoT's and small attacks from add's. You could make the cooldown two seconds on Fox's buff and it would STILL be a joke. (And you can still wear Royal Guard as Archery/Combat to lower the cooldown, so another kick to the teeth.)
I wanted to love Nature HR, I really did. It's just bad though, and both Archery and Combat are far more useful in both PvP and PvE. At the end of the day, if you want to play a buff class, go and roll a DC.
I'm not saying all this to be rude or bash your build, it's literally an issue with Cryptic trolling the community with Nature HR. It is simply useless in general, and is part of the reason why HR are generally kicked from PUG queue. I mean this in all seriousness, the Nature HR spec is literally why HR get a bad rap. It's that bad.
(EDIT: Also, many of the feat selections you made don't make much logical sense. For instance, Forest Walk will only proc off of Boar's Hide at the moment. It doesn't proc on Fox, Oak, or Stag anyway which are all the buff's you're likely to use. So congrats, you pidgeonhole yourself into Boar's Hide in two feats within Nature. Make sense? Not at all. But that's how it works. Clearly Cryptic want's Nature to use Boar's Hide, but haven't bothered to fix Boar's to actually be useful yet. It's a very, very central ability to the build and feat path. 20% mitigation, after all, in theory. The DoT issue is the biggest thing holding it back atm.)