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Effective PvE SW/Combat Strategies
First off, everyone is wearing Royal Guard for PvE right? Good. The following rotation/strategy essentially relies on Royal Guard 4/4 set bonus but it is quite good once you have that set. I can't really say one way or the other if it will work without that set, but since everyone pretty much agree's it's the best PvE set I assume you either have it or are going to get it soon.
So here's how I've been using SW/Combat to be effective at PvE damage.
Random Facts Regarding Hunter Ranger, Royal Guard, and Storm Warden
1) Royal Guard. It provides a chance to reduce your cooldowns by 30% whenever you deal damage. It's not a great chance, but with speed attacks it proc's rather often. So, the goal is to make as many attacks as possible to proc the set bonus as often as you can.
2) Flurry capstone provides an extra double hit at 65% damage on the next at-will attack you make after an encounter power is used.
3) Rain of Swords, when lined up properly to hit as many targets as possible, will have a chance per tick on it's admittedly terrible bleed to proc flurry. This means that you don't need to spam encounter's to get flurry. One Rain of Swords will proc multiple flurry which feeds into your Clear the Ground or Rapid Strike. Those two at-will's attack very quickly, which when combined with multiple flurry proc's means that almost every strike of those at-will's will actually do three strikes per 'swing'.
4) Blade Storm does it's damage in an area of effect around your character and Piercing Blades applies it's damage in an area of effect through Clear the Ground. This means that each of your individual strikes will generate a Piercing Blade proc and a Blade Storm proc in an area of effect around you when using Clear the Ground. Again, this is per attack. (Some will point out Blade Storm is only a chance to proc. You are correct. However, using this setup makes it a virtual guarantee that it will go off at minimum once per second. It's technically possible that won't happen, but it is in the realm of certainty that it will.)
5) Flurry attacks, that being the triple hit on an at-will after an encounter or RoS tick, all count towards the chance to proc the two attacks in item #4. On top of that, each of Flurry's triple hits have a chance to proc Royal Guard's 30%.
How does this benefit SW/Combat?
Ok, so there are the facts. What is the upshot of all of this? If you open with Rain of Swords and hold down your Clear the Ground button you will virtually always be doing three at-will attacks for each one of your at-will attacks. This causes Royal Guard, Blade Storm, and Piercing Blades to proc on almost every swing and you are making almost 3 attacks per second before Flurry. After Flurry, you are making almost 9 attacks per second. This essentially guarantee's at least one proc of Royal Guard and Blade Storm per second. (Keep in mind these are very rough estimations of attacks per second. It is probably less than stated but it is quite definitely at least 3 attacks per second with flurry if not 6.)
Often times, you will receive multiple proc's of both which add's up very, very quickly. As a fun side effect, it also results in all of your cooldowns recharging in about three seconds even with absolutely no recovery whatsoever. So you can spam Rain of Swords, Fox Shift, and Hindering Strike as often as once every two or three seconds.
I fully admit that none of these attacks do any damage worth mentioning individually. However, if you're using a Plaguefire enchantment like almost every Hunter Ranger does it results in an instant max-stack of Plaguefire debuff that raises the damage of all these tiny damage proc's (that can't crit, by the way) and the rest of your party.
On top of the above, it also means you're healing for an insane amount with the buff's to lifesteal as you are making dozens of attacks every few seconds. This, combined with the fact that Fox Shift is going to be available as a ghetto-dodge every three seconds or so, means that you can now survive even in the midst of rampant red circles without much effort at all.
Now, one thing I absolutely do need to point out about this build is that when you are using Clear the Ground you are doing it wrong if you are not holding down the strafe button while attacking. Between each attack of CtG you will make a small sidestep which sounds like a really small thing but you will be very surprised at how many incoming attacks will miss you when doing this one simple thing. When the red starts to paint the ground, dodge or Fox Shift. It's that easy. If you know what circle strafing is that is exactly what you should be doing.
Downsides of This Strategy
Virtually no burst damage what-so-ever. It is almost entirely damage over time, which as many will point out isn't terribly useful at super high GS. However, since you already have Rain of Swords slotted you also have Rain of Arrows slotted. A RoS followed by a RoA on a stationary thing will do enough DoT to melt whatever it is you're hitting. It's almost enough DoT to count as spike damage in my book but it also assumes that the thing you're hitting isn't moving. This is one reason I prefer Hindering Strike as my 'off' attack. The change to Strong Grasping Roots gives that strike a two second immob which, with the layout I'm describing, will be enough to use it without the Trapper skills to keep things in your attack zone for at least a little longer than otherwise.
My Actual Loadout
At-Will Attacks
Rapid Strike / Clear the Ground
Encounters
Rain of Swords / Hindering Strike / Fox Shift
Dailies
Forest Ghost / ?
Class Skills
Blade Storm / Aspect of the Lone Wolf
(NOTE: I only ever use Forest Ghost. It's stealth component and speed boost are very useful for initiating combat before anyone else which gives me time to hit them with Rain of Swords + Hindering Strike then use Fox Shift as your stealth ends. You can use whatever you want, but FG seems best in basically every scenario I've done so far from a strict survival standpoint.)
So there you have it. How to make combat do something in PvE. I must say, I vastly prefer Combat over Archery for PvE after playing around with both. It's a solid rework of the feat tree in my opinion. Feel free to add thoughts or comments, I will try to respond if I know the answer.
I am completely uninterested in any PvP thoughts or concerns a person might have with the above. I don't PvP so I do not know, or care, about the answers or thoughts regarding this particular setup. It is entirely conceived with a massive PvE bias so please keep that in mind before replying to this post.
So here's how I've been using SW/Combat to be effective at PvE damage.
Random Facts Regarding Hunter Ranger, Royal Guard, and Storm Warden
1) Royal Guard. It provides a chance to reduce your cooldowns by 30% whenever you deal damage. It's not a great chance, but with speed attacks it proc's rather often. So, the goal is to make as many attacks as possible to proc the set bonus as often as you can.
2) Flurry capstone provides an extra double hit at 65% damage on the next at-will attack you make after an encounter power is used.
3) Rain of Swords, when lined up properly to hit as many targets as possible, will have a chance per tick on it's admittedly terrible bleed to proc flurry. This means that you don't need to spam encounter's to get flurry. One Rain of Swords will proc multiple flurry which feeds into your Clear the Ground or Rapid Strike. Those two at-will's attack very quickly, which when combined with multiple flurry proc's means that almost every strike of those at-will's will actually do three strikes per 'swing'.
4) Blade Storm does it's damage in an area of effect around your character and Piercing Blades applies it's damage in an area of effect through Clear the Ground. This means that each of your individual strikes will generate a Piercing Blade proc and a Blade Storm proc in an area of effect around you when using Clear the Ground. Again, this is per attack. (Some will point out Blade Storm is only a chance to proc. You are correct. However, using this setup makes it a virtual guarantee that it will go off at minimum once per second. It's technically possible that won't happen, but it is in the realm of certainty that it will.)
5) Flurry attacks, that being the triple hit on an at-will after an encounter or RoS tick, all count towards the chance to proc the two attacks in item #4. On top of that, each of Flurry's triple hits have a chance to proc Royal Guard's 30%.
How does this benefit SW/Combat?
Ok, so there are the facts. What is the upshot of all of this? If you open with Rain of Swords and hold down your Clear the Ground button you will virtually always be doing three at-will attacks for each one of your at-will attacks. This causes Royal Guard, Blade Storm, and Piercing Blades to proc on almost every swing and you are making almost 3 attacks per second before Flurry. After Flurry, you are making almost 9 attacks per second. This essentially guarantee's at least one proc of Royal Guard and Blade Storm per second. (Keep in mind these are very rough estimations of attacks per second. It is probably less than stated but it is quite definitely at least 3 attacks per second with flurry if not 6.)
Often times, you will receive multiple proc's of both which add's up very, very quickly. As a fun side effect, it also results in all of your cooldowns recharging in about three seconds even with absolutely no recovery whatsoever. So you can spam Rain of Swords, Fox Shift, and Hindering Strike as often as once every two or three seconds.
I fully admit that none of these attacks do any damage worth mentioning individually. However, if you're using a Plaguefire enchantment like almost every Hunter Ranger does it results in an instant max-stack of Plaguefire debuff that raises the damage of all these tiny damage proc's (that can't crit, by the way) and the rest of your party.
On top of the above, it also means you're healing for an insane amount with the buff's to lifesteal as you are making dozens of attacks every few seconds. This, combined with the fact that Fox Shift is going to be available as a ghetto-dodge every three seconds or so, means that you can now survive even in the midst of rampant red circles without much effort at all.
Now, one thing I absolutely do need to point out about this build is that when you are using Clear the Ground you are doing it wrong if you are not holding down the strafe button while attacking. Between each attack of CtG you will make a small sidestep which sounds like a really small thing but you will be very surprised at how many incoming attacks will miss you when doing this one simple thing. When the red starts to paint the ground, dodge or Fox Shift. It's that easy. If you know what circle strafing is that is exactly what you should be doing.
Downsides of This Strategy
Virtually no burst damage what-so-ever. It is almost entirely damage over time, which as many will point out isn't terribly useful at super high GS. However, since you already have Rain of Swords slotted you also have Rain of Arrows slotted. A RoS followed by a RoA on a stationary thing will do enough DoT to melt whatever it is you're hitting. It's almost enough DoT to count as spike damage in my book but it also assumes that the thing you're hitting isn't moving. This is one reason I prefer Hindering Strike as my 'off' attack. The change to Strong Grasping Roots gives that strike a two second immob which, with the layout I'm describing, will be enough to use it without the Trapper skills to keep things in your attack zone for at least a little longer than otherwise.
My Actual Loadout
At-Will Attacks
Rapid Strike / Clear the Ground
Encounters
Rain of Swords / Hindering Strike / Fox Shift
Dailies
Forest Ghost / ?
Class Skills
Blade Storm / Aspect of the Lone Wolf
(NOTE: I only ever use Forest Ghost. It's stealth component and speed boost are very useful for initiating combat before anyone else which gives me time to hit them with Rain of Swords + Hindering Strike then use Fox Shift as your stealth ends. You can use whatever you want, but FG seems best in basically every scenario I've done so far from a strict survival standpoint.)
So there you have it. How to make combat do something in PvE. I must say, I vastly prefer Combat over Archery for PvE after playing around with both. It's a solid rework of the feat tree in my opinion. Feel free to add thoughts or comments, I will try to respond if I know the answer.
I am completely uninterested in any PvP thoughts or concerns a person might have with the above. I don't PvP so I do not know, or care, about the answers or thoughts regarding this particular setup. It is entirely conceived with a massive PvE bias so please keep that in mind before replying to this post.
MoF/Thaum CW SS/Thaum CW IV/Protector GF SW/Combat HR SM/Destroyer GWF WK/Executioner TR DO/Faithful DC
Post edited by spacejew on
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Comments
It will not work without those two things in my opinion (But it's worth testing.) You could use Split Strike, I suppose, but it will attack slower. (Although as a trade off it does do more damage with each individual strike.)
To be honest I need to test more with Split Strike as opposed to CtG since I think it might perform well with a Vorpal but as of yet I'm unsure if Flurry attacks can actually crit on top of them doing, IIRC, 65% more damage as well. If so, it could be a strong option but without Blade Storm I have serious doubts. Pathfinder suffers from really, really bad PvE damage dealing class skills IMO which is ultimately why I switched back to Storm Warden.
It could, however, be an effective tank I suppose if such a thing was needed in PvE.
I have been testing many different combat spec based ideas for pve. I have noticed multiple flurry procs with RoS in my rotation, but didn't know each tick of RoS was the reason.
I have only been testing with the Pathfinder spec because I pvp alot. I hate not having clear the ground as a pathfinder and I think I'm going to try SW to gain that at will. Now that I think about it the only pathfinder specific power I'm using is the Pathfinder's action passive. I think I can live without that.
I have found a decent opener combo for single target that does pretty good damage (almost burst-like). It's Marauder's rush/aimed strike/RoS/aimed strike/fox/aimed strike/RoA....by that time encounters are off cooldown with the Royal Guard set. One thing I've been wondering is how the aimed strikes stack up with flurry and how aimed stacks on itself in general. I put an aimed strike in between each encounter to use the flurry benefit.
What you've described above seems like an awesome aoe solution. That's what I've been having the biggest trouble with as pathfinder with no access to clear the ground.
I'm going to give your method a try for sure. Thanks for the info!!
That is actually a really, really good question on Aimed Strike. The fact that the bleed doesn't stack leads me to believe it wouldn't do anything, but that is definately worth a look! I had not even considered that before in all honesty. (And I personally wouldn't put it past Cryptic to miss something like that too!) If the damage boost from Flurry counts towards the bleed damage it could be value added either way for boss fights.
As far as Pathfinder goes I did not, but should have, experimented with a pathfinder loadout before doing my Live respec but I could easily go back and play around with it on test. I discounted Pathfinder as an option simply because I felt the class skills did not synergize very well with what I wanted to do but it is possible I missed something by making that base assumption.
Both careful attack and aimed strike use flurry if it's active, though (just for 1 tick, I think).
Main problem in PVE is these are both single target.
But yeah when I'm farming a dragon, I rotate Careful attack/ROS/ROA/aimed strike (throwing in other stuff if they're on cooldown or the at-wills are currently active) and do tons of damage.
Btw, I've never seen a flurry crit, but I think it does benefit if the ability that's using it crits.
This sounds right for Careful Attack to me, as each 'tick' of careful attack will proc an individual stack of Aspect of the Serpent so I imagine each tick counts as a separate attack. Given that Careful Attack is limited in it's tick rate to 1.5 seconds, I think it's almost a given that it will not benefit much from Flurry. It is also possible, since Aimed Strike's initial strike does different damage than the bleed ticks, that it too would suffer from this same issue. Even then, an Aimed Strike that does 65% more damage sounds attractive for single-target fights where CtG would be unneccessary. In that instance I'd say Aimed Strike / Rapid Strike might be the superior option.
I should also note that Blade Storm will do it's area of effect off single-target damage such as Rapid Strike, although Piercing Blades will only do single-target in this scenario. This makes Blade Storm attractive even while doing single-target rotations whereas Twin-Blade does nothing in such a scenario. This was my main reasoning for testing Blade Storm in the first place, as I felt the bonus from Twin-Blade felt really weak with such small attacks.
The thing about seeing if Flurry crits or not is that Flurry doesn't seem to be marked in the combat log. This makes it really difficult to tell if it can or can't.
I had a feeling the multiple aimed strikes weren't stacking, but the damage seemed so good I thought they might be. I noticed the tooltip, but sometimes they aren't as accurate as they should be
I've been hoping to find a way to pvp and pve with the same spec and still be putting out effective results in both.
Good to know, I figured it would work with Aimed Strike but as for Careful Attack I strongly suspect that you do not want to use CA with Flurry as it will in effect consume your Flurry on a single target instead of it being used in an area of effect. (Or might, can't confirm this at the moment.) CA is actually a detriment to almost every PvE HR build that I've tested unless it is absolutely a single-target fight.
It just doesn't interact well with randomly proc'ced effects as you can never optimally time what consumes the proc. Ambush and Hawkeye specifically do weird things when you start using too many randomized DoT's like CA or Rain of Arrows. The change to Prey exacerbated that issue to the point where I didn't even want to fool with it anymore.
It isn't that you can't control those effects, it's that the pay off for doing so isn't high enough to warrant the extra headache involved in doing so. For single-target it's great, but I find that incredibly rare to take advantage of in given content. Most people who go archery end up being kite tanks that just <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> off the group. That isn't to say that everyone plays that way, but enough do to give the class a certain reputation.
I have 2 HRs - one is my PvP Pathfinder HR (was Stormwarden once) and then there's my PvE Stormwarden HR, which is an Archery spec. I actually find Archery does a lot more damage than Combat does, but you do have to be very careful in respect to threat and where you are. Stormwarden does not gain AP as fast as Pathfinder does; where I could spam Seismic Shot in 5-10 seconds as Pathfinder, Stormwarden probably takes around 20 seconds to gain full AP (haven't really touched that HR for a while though, correct me if I'm wrong). Seismic is very good DPS especially if it crits. However, it's good practice to keep Forest Ghost available so that if you get low on HP or you need to drop aggro desperately (note: the worst thing you can do here is to run AWAY from your group, that just screws up the mob bunching and doesn't help you drop aggro either).
In terms of Encounters and At-wills, I use Split the Sky, Rain of Arrows, and depending on the situation, either Hindering, Thorn Ward or Fox Shift. Hawkeye is too unreliable due to DoTs (RoA, StS, Plaguefire, etc.) and quite frankly it's never helped the party unless you're on TS and exceptionally good at timing skills with each other. Split the Sky does some crazy damage, Rain of Arrows is a given, and the rest are good DPS as well. However, StS will need to be swapped out if you have multiple CWs etc. that just permafreeze the mobs as that defeats the point of StS completely. At-wills are Split Shot + either Rapid or Clear the Ground (Electric). I use Twin-Blade Storm + Aspect of the Pack/Aspect of the Serpent/Blade Storm depending on my group and dungeon.
The problem with most Archery HRs is that they start running around like chickens when they get the aggro. Worst idea possible. Depending on your build you should be quite far from the mobs (Stillness of the Forest or w/e it's called), and if you start getting damaged, you need to make sure you keep the mobs together enough for your party to control. So what I'm saying, is that you may not necessarily need to run towards your teammates or the mobs, but you should probably be close enough to the mobs' original position and run around in small circles so that they're not moving too much. If a CW puts down something like Icy Terrain, direct the mobs onto it. Remember that you're in a party, not solo.
In terms of RG set, plaguefire or some other DoT enchant such as Lightning, Flaming or Bilethorn is a must. I actually rather want to test Lightning but I'm kinda more focused on getting more gear (while PvP HR is in r9s, PvE HR is in r6s because... yeah). RoA nearly always procs RG and by that time you'll have 2-3 Split the Skys up, which will do a ton of damage and also proc RG a lot. I actually like using Thorn Ward as it's another DoT-type attack. I'm rather sad that they nerfed it to only be one at a time.
In short, I actually really miss the stance switching playstyle from mod 2 and 3. I never considered HR DPS bad - it was just CWs that were over the top. A well played HR could possibly even outdps CWs depending on the mobs and other classes in your party. Right now I'm actually kind of stuck in ranged stance (or melee on my PvP HR), especially since the RG set refreshes your CDs so quickly that you're basically casting encounters one after the other. Which also makes Aspect of the Serpent rather useless, but that you can swap out.
Eh, don't see the point in monstrously high power for a combat HR. The at-wills and half the attacks are weaker than other classes so it all scales much more slowly. I'm fine being at 5k.
What that means for Pathfinder is that it's probably a bad choice to try Combat with Pathfinder. If it's your thing, great, go for it. I'd love to hear concrete thoughts on how it synergizes but for a damage dealing role I think it's right out the window. No blade storms, no class skills worth a darn for damage, and almost entirely survival-based class skills mean that you can live but the damage is going to be underwhelming compared to other options which frankly means you probably can't even tank effectively or hold aggro. Trapper, I think, would be a better option for melee minded Pathfinders overall.
Then play Trapper? Look, I'll be blunt, Pathfinder can do absolutely top notch archery damage. However, it's strong suit is single-target. You can debate that point if you want even though I doubt you'll change my mind. I played a lot of Archery Pathfinder. All it has going for AoE is Split Shot and Rain of Arrows which are indeed very nice but are also, as you point out, almost impossible to use without bad things happening and they still don't top the charts in damage.
Sure, you can take alpha and kite things everywhere. Your damage will be higher because everyone elses alpha strike will miss and then they need to chase down the add's. Even circle strafe dodging is tremendously annoying to the rest of the group. The one thing I can definitely say about combat is that it can take alpha without <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> the group and can somewhat damage tank through lifesteal/deflect/wilds medicine.
So far, teaming with both Trapper and Archery HR with comparable GS, the main factor in who wins in damage is simply this: Grouping. If they are spread all over the place, archery will win with very large Split Shot cones. If they are tightly grouped, Combat wins with DoT proc's. Trapper does comparable damage to both while actively keeping them wherever they want. (And yes, Trapper does incredible amounts of damage when comparing HR spec. So if you like stance switching, which I do not, then go for it. Teamed with a guy last night that was neck and neck with me up until the boss fight where I took the advantage.)
Who said crit isn't as important as it was in the past? Without knowing what your power is at I can't make any kind of determination on if switching enchants is going to help you or not. With a crit rating past 30% I would wager you are well past the de facto cutoff of 2000 critical rating, at which point power becomes much more attractive assuming you already have 24% resistance ignored.
The thing here is that power is still adding more damage, and is still a valued stat. Think about it like this, Flurry attacks are doing 65% more damage. Any more damage you can squeeze into that is still going to help both your actual damage and your lifesteal. Besides, where else are you going to put those points for a damage build? Deflect, maybe, but at 30-40% deflect I'm not so sure I even want or need any more defensive stats.
Bah I think I was wrong on this. Looks like one tick of either consumes flurry. I was confusing flurry with piercing blade.
They seem still decent to use on single-target with ROS because you can just refresh them, and you can just focus on rotating encounters.
I was actually doing a little bit of combat logging last night and it seems something called 'Blade Hurricane' is the effect generated from Flurry. I'm not absolutely positive that this is the only generated effect from Flurry but it does seem to be at least one of it's primary effects. I have not yet seen this 'Blade Hurricane' critically hit, but I need to do an actual parse of the data through ACT as there are way, way, way too many combat lines with this build to possibly find it any other way. (I do think that the on a critical hit this Blade Hurricane hits for more damage but I do not currently think it can critically strike on it's own. It functions very much like blade storm from what I can tell except it can be single-target whereas Blade Storm is always AoE.)
I really do suspect that Careful Attack/Aimed Strike are going to mess with flurry proc's but for Aimed Strike it might actually be worth it as it's bleed is actually pretty good damage and does, apparently, have a chance to proc Blade Storm. I was using Aimed Strike/Rapid Strike for boss fights last night and it was working well enough to let me stand in the PBAoE poison cloud in the last boss of Mad Dragon without my health budging an inch. No DC, just lifesteal/deflect/medicine off all those DoT's. It was an odd experience to play an HR that didn't actually need to dodge very often, but that was my goal after all.
Power 4937
Crit 3330
Armor Pen 25%
Anything else just let me know.
Eh, you're seriously in diminishing returns territory for that crit. Really anything over 2k helps very little.
I would swap them out for radiants if I were you.
What I'm wondering is how to weave in my encounters to maximum effectiveness. My encounters are off cooldown while I am getting all these procs on blade storm and flurry and I hate to break the chain.
I have been opening with Marauders Rush/Aimed strike/Fox/one swipe of CtG/RoS/spam CtG/RoA repeat. I'm not sure if that's the best, but it does some good damage.
The way the healing and the procs work off of RoS with CtG I feel like I should wait until the ticks for RoS are used up, but it's hard having Fox and RoA off cooldown and not use it.
I've been using this build for pvp too swapping out a few powers and I'm not missing Pathfinder too bad. I think this could be the most effective build for those who like to pve and pvp.
I'll be honest, I don't know if it matters. As long as you're keeping Rain of Swords on them the only times encounters seem to even matter are for situational combat events. What I mean by this, is that I generally save my Hindering Strike for when add's start moving away. Or Fox Shift when the ground turns red enough that I need to avoid it. So really, there isn't much of an answer I can give here. Encounters for HR are comparatively garbage in terms of damage, they are mostly for utility and class skill/feat proc's from what I can tell. With Royal Guard you can spam them if you want without much loss since these encounters will also proc your Blade Storm/Piercing Blades and give yet another Flurry. They also execute pretty fast and do more direct damage than CtG so it might be worthwhile but not a super noticeable difference.
What I've been doing is opening combat with Forest Ghost, running ahead, then using Rain of Swords before the rest of the team aggros, hitting Hindering Strike, then Fox Shift as they see me. Then I just spin in circles with CtG until RoS is up again. This changes a lot based on the rest of my team and what we're fighting, but it's generally what I've been doing. Once there's only one or two targets left I'll switch to Rapid Strike, and if there's a stronger thing like a Maw I'll hit it with RoA as well for good measure.
Another issue I've noticed that could be considered a downside is that the 5% added damage per enemy surrounding you is only really good for a few hits, so it might be wise to open with your biggest hit to really get any use out of that particular feat. So if Forest Ghost isn't up, I almost always open with Fox Shift.
Anywhere between 2000 and 2500 is pretty much the 'sweet spot' for critical rating. Past that, diminishing returns kick in hard.
I dont quite agree with this, archery has highest dps. I have been running trapper and even though its really nice (enjoy the playstyle cc and the dps is actually quite good) I went back to archery though coz dps is just pretty much better (and just hated the aspect of the serpent change) at least with my P vorpal, all the crit feats make it monster dps (+25% crit lol) comparable if not superior to CW unless its CN where the target caps limit HR dps in comparison.
I dont see how being grouped up makes combat better than archery either..... i mean its a godsend for me when everything is grouped up as it means more effective roa and bigger splitshot hits.....
Thing is playing archery is not the same as hybrid/melee where ur up close and relying on mobility/encounter spamming (trapper) and u can manage the agro through survivability without <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> ur dps, As archer (slower casts) u should actually not take the alpha strike in order to get a couple shots off before taking the agro through dps, that way by the time u take it everytjhing is basically dead or about to die and u can just tank it while u finish burning it so not to loose dps scambling around and <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> the rest of the group at the same time.
meh so? that can be an issue with a 13k gs toon...... once ur 16-17k+ u gota put stats somewhere anyways, power ofc but u can just get soo much of it without r10s. Im like 3.7k crit and not using a single azure in offense.... but i dont use royal guard ofc, dont like the stats it has, too much arp and too little crit.
Generally speaking Archery does more damage, I'd agree there. However, it is finicky damage. For instance, as soon as anything gets near you most of your critical rating is lost which divebombs your damage. Aggro control is also something most archers do not understand. Many archers get their damage by <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> up team pulls making it impossible for anyone else to actually attack. Archery is also mostly single-target with it's biggest hit's. Split Shot still hits ok on a crit, but it's nothing that special. Also, I'm using Rain of Arrows as well so that's a complete non-factor unless you've found a way to keep your crit rating up 100% of the time. (Doubtful.)
You lose the vast majority of your damage as soon as one enemy enters the '25 range. So basically you get one or two split shot crits before the CW nukes everything because you can't take alpha strike without <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> up the dungeon. *shrugs* I played Archery. It's good. It's just a lot more finicky than it was before and a lot more single-target than it was before.
Thanks for bumping the topic but you're a fool, a troll, or a PvP only player. No offense, but that high of a crit rating and not wearing Royal Guard is just stupid for PvE. I'm sure having a super high GS mitigates your lack of decent GS distribution but it's masking the really poor itemization you have going on. I'd be surprised if you weren't out-damaged by everyone with a comparable GS who itemized correctly.
3.7k Crit Rating means you've wasted 1700 of your gear score. End of story.
Or have a different point of view than u....... I dont find Royal guard to be that good for archery (I have it, grand warden and dread legion sets) it doesnt proc that much with slow attacks, and really the encounters i use already just have like 1-2 s cd with the feat and my recovery ( i play with roa, tw, sts) .
8.7k pow
1.8k arp
3.7k crit
2.3k recovery
1.8k def
1.2k ls
does that sound unbalanced?
that extra 1.7k crit means something like 4 extra crit chance, which means extra dps with P vorpal..... what should i put it on deflect? **** deflect for pve....more recovery? already hitting dim returns there too..... Power would be the best answer, but i cant get more power unless i get higher ranked enchants nad i wont bother going past r8s.
Ur the only one being a troll right now.... diminishing returns are not that important (and btw for me crit starts to diminish hard at 3.3k not 2k) with so many stats available with all these latest modules.
Short answer? Yes. Your ArP isn't capped out and your crit rating is too high. Royal Guard, by itself, gives exactly the amount of ArP you would normally want. I'm curious what set you are using instead of Royal Guard for PvE because your actual distribution of stats that you list here is marginally off in several places by at least a few thousand.
Diminishing returns are actually a pretty big deal if you want to min/max your character. Royal Guard proc's all the time off RoA/RoS and Split Shot, so I don't know why your experience is different from everyone else. I'm assuming all your base stat points are in DEX/WIS and you didn't stack STR past 12.
You admit yourself that your gear stats are wrong because of cost, and I understand that, but there is no pretending that it's ideal as they currently stand.
And Ximae, unless your strength rating is in the high 20's (which would be silly) I'm sorry to say that your ArP rating is woefully low for pve, you need 24% for highest dungeon bosses, marginally less depending on your strength.
The most important thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.
Im using 2 pc grand warden and 2 pc dread legion. Thing is im human and my initial stat rolls werent optimal (made him back when we were still figuring out hr) I have 24 dex 21 wis 15 str no camp buff. so 1.8k arp = 19% dri + 5 %dri from str = 24% more or less..... with campfire buff im slightly over 24% without it slightly under.
So which stats do u think are off by a few thousand? or what do you think would be the ideal stats?
im only talking pve btw
yes all points into dex cha. I know about diminishing trust me, been here since before mod1 pretty much know about the deimos spreadsheet and where the curves turn steep. Yes I would like more power, but that is an economic issue, and dont give that much about this game to go past r8s.... and well wont switch my defensive belt for the smiting nefariopus one i have in stash as i like those extra hp. But i do find the rest to be good, yes im aware im overboard on crit but i find it helps with dps more than dumping them elsewhere due to the P vorp.
I dont care that much for royal guard because the encounters i use cant be multistacked anymore (no more multi thorn wards and with out prime critical no more roa overlaps) not that many sings in game so i dont find having roa available that often as usefull as i tend to save it for when i can land a good one. with my recovery the ranged cdr feat and 14 int sts and the buff and thorn ward are already up almost permanently (1-2 sec cd). so once all the auto dps is setup its just at will spamming.
Then comes royal guards stats, they would **** my crit, recovery and ls and get me way beyond the arp cap (which is totally useless unlike crit/recovery which are just less good)
I also cast them almost back to back too without the set (really low cds between 1-2s on all except roa which has shorter duration thus i have something like 5s from when it finishes till next is ready) and i dont use plague but vorp, so it does proc less often.
mhh Am i getting something wrong with str arp? +6 dri from str + 19% from arp IS over the 24% cap.
My crit is just under 2500 with boons, artifact and 2 Pegasus rings. I do fine with Royal Guard set stat balance. I do need to drop HP for some defence though, don't feel I need it as much with 10% lifesteal.
The most important thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.
Nope my bad math is all, apologies. I thought 1800 ArP was way less than 19%.
The most important thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.
I will have my arp balanced though i will loose 450 arp from fallen dragon weapon set.... which will have to make up with belt and boon. crit will be a bit more exagerated though XD.
yes im a big fan of ls too, 9.5% but with the ls Dread ring boon that triples it. Huge survivability as long as im not stunned and without my auto dps encounters hitting stuff. I find that with that ls some 30% dr and 24k hp is enough for everything.... stamina regen for the rest.