Most viable archer play

clericalist · July 2019

For those that have played this game for some time, every "improvement" to playing with range ends up being a nerf, this mod is no different. Long cooldowns, no real bonuses to help boost damage and terrible at wills make playing hunter path the worse that it has ever been.

Having said that, for those that want to play with a bow, what is the best of the worst options to play with range and not as a melee class? I have tried different approaches in the hunter path and the best could get is about half the damage than the rest of the dps players in PUGs, stats don't make a difference here its at best half and sometimes a third of their damage. I have started experimenting with warden now and I want to know what your best best archer setup you have found in warden.

aday · July 2019

That’s sad ☹️ I always wanted to play as a range HR, I have one as alt and still looking for a decent hunter-path DPS build, too. So following this thread 🔍

zerappus · July 2019

clericalist said:
For those that have played this game for some time, every "improvement" to playing with range ends up being a nerf, this mod is no different. Long cooldowns, no real bonuses to help boost damage and terrible at wills make playing hunter path the worse that it has ever been.

Having said that, for those that want to play with a bow, what is the best of the worst options to play with range and not as a melee class? I have tried different approaches in the hunter path and the best could get is about half the damage than the rest of the dps players in PUGs, stats don't make a difference here its at best half and sometimes a third of their damage. I have started experimenting with warden now and I want to know what your best best archer setup you have found in warden.

There is no Hunter path viable for pure Archery (literally the worst dps path in NW). There is a single build viable for Warden Archer. You MUST use high level Lightning Enchantment (rank 12+). You will still get easily dominated by equally skilled Thaum Wizard, Melee Combat Ranger, Rogues (both path) and Barbarians who all know what they are doing.

Since they are buffing the combat advantage range, use something cheap as a summon to activate combat advantage like an epic Swashbuckler (currently 95k in the auction house). Swashbucklers charge real fast unlike the Panther which are slow. But do use a good complement of companions in your bonus tabs. Zen store companions from the packs are very good (Hunting Hawk, Panther and even the Vicious Dire Wolf is also good, if not top notch). At 5% activation, they are rather good at solo since they interrupt and buys you time.

The other options like Scorpions and Pseudodragons are way, way too expensive now. My main do use Cantankerous Wizard when I'm not using the Stalwart Golden Lion, but they are rather one-dimensional at times and kinda expensive now (500k) too.

You can also use Grung, Moonshae Druid, Sylph as summons although they don't give combat advantage.

Another one is the Allosaur which is good for controlling mobs, although they are rather slow.

But probably the most underrated summon is the Water Archon. They normally sell at 140k AD on the AH. They also activate quickly and they root enemies giving you extra damage.

Just test which ones do suit your style.

clericalist · August 2019

I already made a comment on this in general discussion thread, so will quickly say that nothing is viable at this point. The best one can do is to do the solo content and the intermediate dungeons, anything more and the archer will be a burden to the party.

kydavi · August 2019

Full disclosure, this will not keep up with a melee warden, but it does enough damage that you won’t be a team sink if you run it;

Paragon- Hunter

Gear-
Head: Protégé hood
Chest: hags rags
Arms: fearbringers
Feet: boots of the willed
Weapon: any Undermountain set except mountaineer
Neck: baphomet talisman / jehsyria mantle
Waist: demo belt / Trobriand cable
Rings: shadowstalker +4/5 and ebonized raid ring
Shirt: ebonized shirt
Pant: protege trousers
Artifacts: decanter of atropal essence (main), shard or orcus / music box (for set), other 2 either used for stat caps or more power

Enchants-
Offensive: radiant
Defensive: whatever makes you happy (I use demonic)
Weapon: vorpal or lightning
Armor: barkshield

Companions-
Whatever you need to hit stat caps, then push power

Powers-
At-Will: split shot, rapid shot
Encounters (AOE): quick volley, cordon of arrows, rain of arrows
Encounters (ST): constricting arrow, longstrider shot, commanding shot
Daily: disruptive shot, forest ghost
Class Features: seekers vengeance, aspect of the falcon
Feats: long shot, critical action, predator, commander in chief, more than disruptive

Last thought-
I’m hesitant to mention this, but since archery needs all the help it can get here goes: use a warden build with the feat Focused, wait until you have the full 10 stacks then switch to the ranged hunter loadout and presto, you keep the ranged damage boost as long as you don’t switch stances

Again, this will not keep up with melee warden, but I have used in all the way into Lomm and it will work if you absolutely must run an archery build.

clericalist · August 2019

kydavi#1678 said:
Full disclosure, this will not keep up with a melee warden, but it does enough damage that you won’t be a team sink if you run it;

Paragon- Hunter

Gear-
Head: Protégé hood
Chest: hags rags
Arms: fearbringers
Feet: boots of the willed
Weapon: any Undermountain set except mountaineer
Neck: baphomet talisman / jehsyria mantle
Waist: demo belt / Trobriand cable
Rings: shadowstalker +4/5 and ebonized raid ring
Shirt: ebonized shirt
Pant: protege trousers
Artifacts: decanter of atropal essence (main), shard or orcus / music box (for set), other 2 either used for stat caps or more power

Enchants-
Offensive: radiant
Defensive: whatever makes you happy (I use demonic)
Weapon: vorpal or lightning
Armor: barkshield

Companions-
Whatever you need to hit stat caps, then push power

Powers-
At-Will: split shot, rapid shot
Encounters (AOE): quick volley, cordon of arrows, rain of arrows
Encounters (ST): constricting arrow, longstrider shot, commanding shot
Daily: disruptive shot, forest ghost
Class Features: seekers vengeance, aspect of the falcon
Feats: long shot, critical action, predator, commander in chief, more than disruptive

Last thought-
I’m hesitant to mention this, but since archery needs all the help it can get here goes: use a warden build with the feat Focused, wait until you have the full 10 stacks then switch to the ranged hunter loadout and presto, you keep the ranged damage boost as long as you don’t switch stances

Again, this will not keep up with melee warden, but I have used in all the way into Lomm and it will work if you absolutely must run an archery build.

Will try this out. What is your average paingiver ranking in relations to others, how much more damage do the others do normally?

kydavi · August 2019

It keeps in the range of most DPS builds I come across, to include trapper rangers, but a combat warden, thaumaturge wizard, or a skilled rouge will destroy it. There is nothing anyone can do to make an awesome archery ranger, but this was the best I could come up with so that it is at least playable for those who want to use actually use their bow.

silence1x · August 2019

kydavi#1678 said:
There is nothing anyone can do to make an awesome archery ranger, but this was the best I could come up with so that it is at least playable for those who want to use actually use their bow.

It has been this way for far too long, at least half of this game's existence if not longer.

adinosii · August 2019

Actually, the changes in Mod 17 will make a "pure" archer build less bad. What I mean is that extending the CA range from 20' to 85' will ensure that the ranger has CA more of the time than he does now, which should mean a significant DPS boost.

kangkeok · August 2019

silence1x said:

kydavi#1678 said:
There is nothing anyone can do to make an awesome archery ranger, but this was the best I could come up with so that it is at least playable for those who want to use actually use their bow.
It has been this way for far too long, at least half of this game's existence if not longer.

Since mod 6. Pure archery used to get their damage from critical attack. Only pure archery could get a 75% crit chance thanks to stillness of forest's +25% crit. Back then, crit is hard cap at 50% for everyone. Only archer could reach 75% crit. Mod 6 change that by removing the cap so everyone could get 100% crit. Mod16 is not much different except everyone including archer is cap at 50%. As long as archer does not have the +25% crit chance back, it will never have the same performance it used to had back before mod 6.

silence1x · August 2019

adinosii said:
Actually, the changes in Mod 17 will make a "pure" archer build less bad. What I mean is that extending the CA range from 20' to 85' will ensure that the ranger has CA more of the time than he does now, which should mean a significant DPS boost.

key words - 'less bad' ;(

typo · August 2019

Nice work @kydavi#1678. I've mostly played warden melee recently, but do have archery loadouts that I've been playing around with. Archery can be fun even if not ideal for top DPS.

gpfryguy · August 2019

Thanks everyone for this post. I have been struggling to figure out how to stick with HR, but have been unsuccessful. I love the HR skills and play, but ANY group issue the blame falls to me. It's one reason I left WoW, because of the hate in group content when you aren't producing top scores. I hope we don't end up that way in Neverwinter. The Recommended gear scores need to be a little higher to me, so you aren't going in with the expectation that my gear score allows me to enter this dungeon. I am forcing myself to deal with Warden and I still enjoy this class - I've tried all of them. Watching this post too and hopeful Range gets some love in the near future.

discorice · August 2019

I've been out for a couple of years, but never really had any issues doing strong damage as a pure archer. Well... The issue was that it came at the cost of any defense at all. Tricky to play, but definitely not impossible to get strong dps out of pure archery, at least a couple of years ago.

lordvonk · August 2019

please FIX the Hunter Path and incerase the Magnitude of ALL our ARCHERY skills. Im just tired of playing melee all day long. I HAVE A BOW but if i use it my damge will decerase by 50%!! WTF! its now mod 17 and still no changes!!! cant belive this situation while CLERICS and WIZARDS can do damage from far the Ranger is the weakest of thouse in long Ranged combat. Pleas hire a Classbalance Team wich actually can use Advanced Combat Tracker, its not hard! the Ranger has 2 Paths but only 1 Path(Warden) has exactly 1 usefull Melee Build atm. Rangers want to use the bow its so much more fun to play, but if we do we Loose 50% dps on a single target, (compared to the Melee Warden build) something is broken with archery.. just a guess but i think flurry boost melee at-will damage so much we need that for the Bow and we are OK archers

rubytrue · August 2019

I think there is a possibility for an interesting archery build in the Warden path if you build for high AP gain and use a lightning enchant. I've been messing around with a high AP gain build on preview for combat (works well), and tried a little archery, and it seemed to really fill up the AP bar a lot faster than melee. I was using thorn ward, split the sky, and cordon of arrows (I think rain of arrows might work even better), but Call of the Storm with a lightning enchant and music box set seemed like a lot of fun just the short time I was trying it out.

kohndre · August 2019

I'm sure I'm just echoing what everyone else is saying. I've spent a lot of time learning new ways for my HR to be better over the years since mod 5. Good gear combo's etc... I'll be honest. I don't feel confident at all on my character anymore. Attacking is clunky, and using an oddball rotation just to keep cool downs low.

I'm learning the mele the best I can. I no longer carry and put out insane amounts of DPS, and have been avoiding PUG's all together.
I definitely hope it gets better ya know

jonkoca · August 2019

Bow's quite handy in pvp as back up for full melee. You could try that.

schietindebux · August 2019

What about Blink Dog? About 50% CA uptime.... if not dead. Not that I ever tested it on my warlock having perme CA from a class feature.

discorice · August 2019

> @rubytrue said:
> I think there is a possibility for an interesting archery build in the Warden path if you build for high AP gain and use a lightning enchant. I've been messing around with a high AP gain build on preview for combat (works well), and tried a little archery, and it seemed to really fill up the AP bar a lot faster than melee. I was using thorn ward, split the sky, and cordon of arrows (I think rain of arrows might work even better), but Call of the Storm with a lightning enchant and music box set seemed like a lot of fun just the short time I was trying it out.

^^^This was exactly my build. Thorn ward, split the sky, rain of arrows. I ended up switching out split the sky for cordon of arrows, because the animation for split the sky took too long. This is a build where you have to constantly be dancing around, giving yourself just enough space and time to drop your circles without getting swamped. The damage is great, but it's hard mode for sure. This build works best when you have someone pulling threat off of you, and really shines against dragons. In the case of dragons I sometimes swap out CoA for Split the Sky, and rain in aimed shots between refreshing my circles of doom.

Most viable archer play

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