Sharra Del'Armgo's Archery DPS/Cover Fire build

ikapamk

So, in the past Sharra was more a single-target "sniper" as I'd called her, but after running alongside a DPS-heavy archery build before ToD, I decided to shift gears a bit, resulting in the build I'm about to show you.

To start, let me give you a crash course on my build. I am built to deliver massive damage as suppression fire while also staying alive really effing well. Since I specialize in cover fire, I am NOT a PvP build. Pure and simple, I stick to PvE. As such, my key stats are:
- Power
- Crit & Armour Pen
- Recovery & Lifesteal

Those are the tiers of magnitude. the general goal for progression is:
- Get crit to ~35-40% and pen to ~24
- Start stacking power
- Get lifesteal to ~10%
- Start stacking rec

Recovery is important as most of my dmg comes from encounters.

Gear wise, I use Grand Warden with CN weapons. I would mix sets for 2-piece bonus, but there is yet no other set that covers these same main stats (Exception: I think DR T2 set might, but VT is still locked)
Weapon Enchant - Lesser Plague Fire
Armour Enchant - Lesser Soulforged
Sigil of the Hunter
Bloodcrystal Raven Skull
Lantern of Revelation

My current lineup is:
Seismic Shot
Disruptive Shot

Aspect of the Falcon
Twin-Blade Storm

Split the Sky - hits multiple targets, long cast time
Rain of Arrows - small area burst, high dps
Thorn Ward - hits 1 target at a time in area, lowers armour

Rapid Shot
Aimed Shot

Split Shot, in theory, should work better than Aimed Shot, but I'm a sucker for the latter.

As I said, I'm built around suppression, with the exception of my pet favourite Aimed Shot

Regardless, I've finished top in Paingiver on any run without a CW or similarly specced & better geared HR, with damage scores reaching as high as 17 mil (ToS is great for the ego).

As for my feats, well:

http://nwcalc.com/hr?b=cn4:13ydj4:13ydj4,1x6ii2i:1uu5zv:100000:100000&h=0&p=swd

Why not invest in Stormcaller's Arrow? Well, right now, Split the Sky lasts just shorter the the cooldown, so there's no real issue, which allows me to boost damage further.

My boons further contribute to large amounts of damage.


Pretty straightforward.


Two points:
- DR 1: Strength over Gambit. Power is constant; critical is a chance. Always choose the more basic option, which is power.
- DR 5: Consumption over Madness. Remember what I said about staying alive? Here's where it comes into play. I sacrifice potential damage to survive better and I'm glad I did. It allows me to solo mobs or more difficult areas. I just drop Rain of Arrows and burst damage becomes burst steal with chance of 3x steal


There's no really good IWD 5 boon for Archery, but Avalanche works, because mobs.


As you can tell, I'm not finished, but I can tell you what I'll pick:
- ToD 3: Armourbreaker
- ToD 4: Greed
- ToD 5: Fury (Thirst is an option, but I'm not sacking damage that much)

Any questions?

EDIT
After reviewing with Dangu, I've made the following changes:
Split Shot in for Aimed Shot (for the aforementioned reasons)
Stormstep Action in for Aspect of the Falcon (because, when DPS is on the line, cooldowns > range)

ximae

My rotation is pretty similar, only change is i use ghost instead of disruptive so i have an escape mechanism if **** starts hitting the fan.

Since i am more of a seismic spammer, it hits as hard as aimed bt with aoe, and i dont slot disruptive i use aspect of the pack instead of stormstep, i really recomend this one.

Its a pretty good party dps buff (15% dmg) as long as u mind ur positioning.

ps: battlewise is <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>, shoulda taken agile combatant as stanceswitching for the buff takes less than half a second. 2 quick taps on tab and u get extra dmg.

ikapamk

I've been eyeing the DL set, true, but I haven't had the opportunity to begin farming it until now. It's good to hear it works well with GW, though.

darkosiris1982

When I click on the Feats link, it shows as no points allocated on the feats. Just to let you know.

ikapamk

hmm... okay. Here's the feat info as an image:

linkingirl86

Hi ikapamk,

I really like your build, can i add it to mmominds.com????

gabrieldourden

ikapamk wrote: »

I've been eyeing the DL set, true, but I haven't had the opportunity to begin farming it until now. It's gotendenza mmmmmmmmo hear it works well with GW, though.

My build has a lot of similarities. I prefer the Royal Guard set tough. With Plaguefire I typically get one proc per rotation. I tend to use Rain/Thorn/Fox. Spamming Fox's Cunning is good in the new content where mobs hit like trucks, and Fox Shift is an emergency button.

malkavjan

Hi, I really like your build, and I m interested in your job. I missed your powers, can you show me the correct link of them?!
Thanks in advance

ikapamk

No prob. I had Seismic Shot and Disrupting Shot for dailies, Stormstep Action and Twin-blade storm for passives, Split the Sky, Rain of Arrows, and Thorn Ward for encounters, and Rapid Shot and Split Shot for at-wills.

I've since switched to trapper, because I wanted to mix around my playstyle, but I still fully endorse this layout for someone wanting an AoE archer.

ikapamk

linkingirl86 wrote: »

Hi ikapamk,

I really like your build, can i add it to mmominds.com????

By all means. just give credit where it's due. You can also find a more pictorial overview at my guild's site if it will let you.

ikapamk

gabrieldourden wrote: »

My build has a lot of similarities. I prefer the Royal Guard set tough. With Plaguefire I typically get one proc per rotation. I tend to use Rain/Thorn/Fox. Spamming Fox's Cunning is good in the new content where mobs hit like trucks, and Fox Shift is an emergency button.

I have yet to unlock eLoL or eSoT, so I can't offer any comparison (Just not a big fan of the grindfest). Though, what I have tried of fox cunning makes it ideal for pulling off a second aimed shot in a fight

archsinner81

i'm running a PF Archer spec.
basically RG set with plaguefire will cause it to proc alot.
I'm running the same rotation as gabrieldourden. Where i have almost able to spam encounter all day, specially on a non moving target like lastmouth. Even without the DC artifact, i can spam daily for like every 25 sec or so. slasher's mark, regen my stamina. so i can keep moving and dodge. prolly will see me moving like a monkey jumping around.
Fox's cunning is your best friend against latency. Specially when you are too slow to move out of a red zone

ikapamk

That's not a bad spec at all. I've been wondering how the PF sniper's been going.

The only beef I have with RG gear (cost aside) is the complete lack of crit. I would have to completely overhaul all my enchants were I to switch over, but, for someone starting out, it's not a bad idea at all.

Do you know what the proc % is for RG gear, though? I've recently switched to trapper and the DoTs + GrPF could make it worth it.

lirithiel

Don't know the % but for me using GPF the RG bonus procced a lot. Since switching over to CBI set with Vorpal my CDs take way way way longer. I need more Recovery I guess.

I had the same problem when I used RG in that once I used another set I sat with way too much ArP, which led to me refining away a lvl 76 Lantern of Revelation. With CBI set I needed ArP again so I had to grab another LoR and lvl it up again...oh the joy. Also I changed up my neck, 2 rings and belt, plus the gear on my stone.

ximae

lirithiel wrote: »

Don't know the % but for me using GPF the RG bonus procced a lot. Since switching over to CBI set with Vorpal my CDs take way way way longer. I need more Recovery I guess.

I had the same problem when I used RG in that once I used another set I sat with way too much ArP, which led to me refining away a lvl 76 Lantern of Revelation. With CBI set I needed ArP again so I had to grab another LoR and lvl it up again...oh the joy. Also I changed up my neck, 2 rings and belt, plus the gear on my stone.

how much recovery are u using? or whats ur rsi? u should be fine at around 50%. with that rsi sts and tw basically will be ready a split second after thety expire.... roa yeah, ull feel the difference there.

lirithiel

ximae wrote: »

how much recovery are u using? or whats ur rsi? u should be fine at around 50%. with that rsi sts and tw basically will be ready a split second after thety expire.... roa yeah, ull feel the difference there.

I think my Recovery rating is sitting at about the 1300-mark. However, I will be making changes to my gear set-up soon. I'm currently using the Ioun Stone of Radiance upgraded to blue, but since I finally got the Fallen Dragon Icon in VT this week, I will be switching back to Allure. I'll also be acquiring another Ancient Fugitive's neck to replace the belt slot that Radiance has. I was opposed to the defensive runestone slot that the ISoA has as well but didn't realise that an Eldritch Runestone worked for Ioun Stones so there's another change to make. Plus I'm contemplating just forking out the dosh to buy the Wisdom artifact belt for even more Recovery.

linkingirl86

ikapamk wrote: »

By all means. just give credit where it's due. You can also find a more pictorial overview at my guild's site if it will let you.

Hi Ikapamk,

Thanks for giving your guilds site

I already added your post on mmominds.com,

If you're register on our website please let me know, so we can give the proper author rights to you.

That way you can make any changes you wish to do to your post on there.

Linkin

greymarchten10

ikapamk wrote: »

So, in the past Sharra was more a single-target "sniper" as I'd called her, but after running alongside a DPS-heavy archery build before ToD, I decided to shift gears a bit, resulting in the build I'm about to show you.

Nice spec. I have been running a very similar spec for a while. I am curious, if you are soloing, how do you begin a solo combat? What abilities are using to start a solo combat, and to finish a solo combat?

ikapamk

Hmm... Well, with this build.

• Split Shot to pull
• Thorn ward in the space in front of me
• Rain of Arrows on me
• Split the Sky on me

Rain of arrows really is your damage/lifesteal power. Whenever I'm soloing, I usually just drop it on myself to cover whoever is closing. The only mobs I really had a hard time beating were the IWD ones. You need a good armour pen stat and good amounts of power. Even then, it'll take a while to clear even the smallest HE.

(I've since changed to trapper just for the fun of it, but this build's still very viable. It did more damage than I currently do.)

lirithiel

Necro much?

Check out the Archer HR thread. Nothing much has changed for us this Mod besides Cordon of Arrows which is the new awesomesauce.

discorice

And honestly, now that we have CoA, Split the Sky is fairly useless. Try standing still in a tough fight long enough to cast it. heh. Even if they shortened the cast time cordon hits harder and faster, while sucking enemies into the center of it making rain of arrows REALLY pop. You can spread the charges out or focus it all in one place, and its melee counterpart Plant Growth is an amazingly useful power, even with an archery build. Hit it and shift away from your enemies or stay right in the thick of them and spam Clear the Ground.

discorice

Try a Venn Diagram pattern with your three charges of CoA in an area you know a mob is about to spawn. Fire off rain of arrows into the part where they all intersect the second they materialize. Mob. Instantly. Vaporized.

I like to spam electric shot or split shot for good measure.