So now that I've hit 70 and played at that level for a bit

discorice

What I like: Spinward Rise is a really impressive area. Great looking, interesting enemies, and I love the tome of the air quests. That jumping mechanic is fun.

What I don't:

The nerfs to defense and deflect at 70 are immense. I'm a stormwarden archery build, and I went from 40% resist and 38% (before lone wolf) deflect to 16% resist and 18% deflect. Life steal is all but gone and I can only heal with potions every 18 or so seconds. The fact that with level 70 blue gear, it's extremely problematic for me to try to beat a single, let alone a pair of level 69 cloud giants is baffling. They hit for a minimum of 10k, not to mention what the skirmishers or hurricanes or Archons are doing to me while I'm dancing out of the way of the big hammer swings (which connect when they couldn't possibly, but I suspect that might be a lag issue), and I can't fight them without having to burn 4-6 potions after every little mob. I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to do about that. I can't get better gear without farming for more black ice, which I can't do because a single troll runt is a threat and a group of 5 is a death sentence. I spent a lot of time and money getting this character to a point where I could do most things by myself and still run into challenges in the lairs of WoD and Tiamat, and epic skirmishes and dungeons only to end up the equivalent of a green-geared new lvl 60.

Now, I can't do a good portion of content above lvl 67 alone with this character, some of which is stuff I used to run every day. I'm sure my GF will be fine solo, which is good, because paladins... well, you know... but I'm a little lost with what I'm supposed to do with my HR (who has been my main until now).


I don't know enough people here or have time to form teams for everything. I play solo most of the time because my real life requires me to be able to go AFK or log off without notice. I know not everyone is in the same boat, but there isn't a lot of fun left for me in mod 6 with these defensive changes.

lirithiel

Yes the new content is a challenge for us Archers, who also have to beat the lag in Spinward Rise especially. You mentioned blue gear, is that from seals/T1 dungeons? I wore the Eternal set until 70 and in the process of replacing/upgrading it. Could also be the playstyle and/or powers you are using. Maybe the companion even, change things up.

I drank a lot of potions on the way to lvl 70 and it was a challenge. I do feel that our tree needs a form of CC or survivability - we're too bloody squishy! I'm waiting to see what April 23 patch holds before I decide where I go with this game.

discorice

What I meant by blue gear is non-crafted gear from drops. I was running tier 3 corrupted black ice up to level 70 where it became useless. The dropped blue gear gets me another 30k in hit points, but it doesn't matter at all when the trash mobs can take half of my HP in one hit. Forget about boss fights in Spinward Rise lairs, or really anything that isn't trash mobs. I'm also using an epic ranked Lathander's cloak, so i have a total armor class of 25. if I take it off it drops my damage resist down to 12% from the already pathetic 16%. How is anyone that doesn't already have good gear supposed to handle this stuff? I'm not discounting the fact that I just might not be very good. That might totally be the case. I don't think it is, but who knows?

Honestly I'm not complaining about the archery tree's damage. It can be impressive. I get very positive damage results with my full archery build. Cordon of Arrows hits hard, as does its melee counterpart. I also use rain of arrows and split the sky, with rapid shot and electric shot for my at-wills. It's all about stacking them DoT's and AoE's and spiking with CoA while dodging like a monkey on meth. The unfortunate thing is it is literally impossible to dodge enough to avoid enough damage to stay upright against large mobs or tier 2 enemies.

The new Hasty Retreat feat is great, and frankly without that and the improvement to stamina we seem to have acquired class-wide this class would be completely unplayable now.

I'm gonna wait until after the next big patch to use my respec, but I'd be really bummed if i couldn't still keep an all archery offensive build viable.

blazious11

Well, I still find trapper path very useful. Still do good damage, and the new aoe encounter hits hard with trapper path too. Longstriders melee part is very good at bosses. I can buff the party with fox in every 5-6 sec, which is a wonderful utility in mod 6.
Overall damage is good, not the best, but amongst the better damage dealers, very good control, utility and buffs, so I think trapper is mostly well balanced, and useful path.

ofnieslaf

discorice wrote: »

You're thinking Pathfinder, and they're the more hearty paragon path. Stormwardens function differently, and are generally not pvp builds unless they're spec'd for melee.

What it breaks down to is this: Where once we could make well rounded, versatile HR's, they seem to have sheared off our defense without adding anything to our offense, while cranking up the PvE difficulty level to a frankly unmanageable point.



Also I think I forgot to answer this earlier - I use an Ioun stone of allure companion with lesser bonding runestones, personalized ring and neck pieces, and an epic icon I don't remember the name of. It is only at rare (blue) quality, but I haven't looked into or figured out if ranking it up is worth it yet.

archery isnt that complicated to play. You stay at distance and let the melees/tank go forward, and make sure to stay near the DC.. but far enough not to get harmed. archery crits a lot so your DPS is excellent

regards

cyberdin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3UCEmCwOxA

discorice

ofnieslaf wrote: »

archery isnt that complicated to play. You stay at distance and let the melees/tank go forward, and make sure to stay near the DC.. but far enough not to get harmed. archery crits a lot so your DPS is excellent

regards

Playing a stormwarden archer in a team is simple as long as you're not taking aggro. I'm talking about playing solo, where you have all of the aggro. That gets complicated.

...and it's not that i don't enjoy a challenge. I had a 19.6k gear score pre mod 6. I fought for most of that. Now it just feels like I can't even fight to improve the position I was put in when this mod dropped.

khaymanbb

I hear you. I was 23.6k GS before the mod. I'm still pretty squishy, but so far I've kept my HR Stormwarden. I haven't made it to Spinward yet, and when I just turned 70 IWD giants tore me up super quick. But, I still remember the first time I went in to Icewind Dale. It was the exact same....I got smoked. Then, after grinding for new gear, upgrading enchants, etc, I walked through IWD like it was child's play. We'll all be there again, just have patience.

discorice

At 23.6 prior to mod 6 you have some advantages that I don't for sure. I imagine if I maxed out all of my enchants and artifacts it might get at least a little bit more manageable. Honestly I don't have a reason to go back into sharandar or the dread ring. I have all of those boons. I have all but the last two boons in WoD as well. IWD is a big concern though, since I need it to get out of this gear void I'm in. Maybe I should just focus artifacts and enchants in the meantime... I really have no idea what else to do.

vadimt83

As a sw archer, the first lair at spinward rise was the point I said "k enough. f***k it". Two ranged bosses with spawning adds. Dancing around, drinking potions as soon as they go off cooldown and spamming forest ghost and fox cunning. None of that stopped me from dying. So I tried swapping my DT set with eternal, thought I lacked HP - still nope. I'll just keep doing the easier vigilance quests till i get my artifact weapon and call it a day.

marnival

Guess its time to share some info for my fellow stuggling Hrs.

First of all soloing being Archery is not a very good idea unless you like to run ALOT.

Trapper you will avoid most damage mainly by keeping mobs dazed and rooted together with extremely fast AP gain and the dailys forest+secsmic that helps you get the breathing time from hard hitting mobs.

Now here comes the trick get lifesteal up and I 18%+ this will change your survival from poor to immortal where only being cced or 1 shots can kill you.

Do not get fooled by those saying life steal was nerfed once you get it high it gives tons more back.

Get first dragon born boon 3% life steal get second 10 % in incomming heal.
Pick the 2 boons with 400 life steal pick dread rings end boon 3 times lifesteal get heal on deflect.
Pick 5% more life steal from melee path rest in trapper.
Use dark in defence and azur in attack stack life steal and crit.
Use vorpal unless you can make yourself a transc feytouch and in armor bloodtheft or frostburn(alot better then most know).

Encounters cordon+hindering+fox get used to switch stance fast and dodge in and out you be supriced how fast you burn down mobs.
Class feat lonly+daze at will hunters+rapid(best melee version).

If you can afford use armor reinfoce for another 800 life steal.

You can reach me ingame @marnival if you have any further questions.

Hope this will help some of you to have more fun ingame.

Best