After playing a bit more (enough to get 4 dom tasks done), it seems it's best to play it how you would normally play it and throw in the at-will.
It's hard to tell if it really helps, but by stacking both debuffs on someone, it seems to be pretty decent. Better than just quick shot anyway. And for rogues it seems careful attack + plaguefire is great.
My biggest challenge so far was trying to finish the Vault of the Nines mission solo. I died once, up until the Final Boss, and he pummeled me pretty fast. Not sure if this was meant to be soloable or not by the HR. Anyone solo it?
It's pretty easy to solo IMO. Although it was easier with my Rogue and CW. The boss battle was a cakewalk with the upgrade to Thorn Ward's damage.
Well, after try and more try i gotta tell, my HR was my main and became my sec char. I'm really angry cuz i bought the falcon in the HR starter pack to do more damage from far in pve and now its useless since i lost 50% of my damages (When i did CN earlier b4 mod3 i allways ended with more or less 30M damage, now i end up with 12-15M damage). HR are only good in pvp now even if they can be spec combat or support, kinda useless.
Well, after try and more try i gotta tell, my HR was my main and became my sec char. I'm really angry cuz i bought the falcon in the HR starter pack to do more damage from far in pve and now its useless since i lost 50% of my damages (When i did CN earlier b4 mod3 i allways ended with more or less 30M damage, now i end up with 12-15M damage). HR are only good in pvp now even if they can be spec combat or support, kinda useless.
See, stuff like this makes me think they nerfed split shot more than 25%, and more like the original 45%. Maybe by accident, who knows?
Whatever they did they give us some split shot goodness back. This is too much. We miss our split shot!!!
For me, my hardly scientific-but often repeated- tests of tapping split shot to gauge how a new spec was would always do about 4-5k crits on the dummies. Now they do 2.5k.
That just seems a lot closer to 45% then it does to 25% to me.
As for my continuing trials with the new set-up, I'm having success with thornward, boarrush, foxshift, and using split shot and the new at-will. Since it seems to work best in a rough and tumble in-your-face way, I think I'm going to respect combat again.
I think archery is generally underrated for the cooldown on crits (works on both your range and melee powers) and the self-correcting critical (again, works on both- I'm not sure some realize this when they think of archery spec), but the movement speed, deflect, and master of combat probably are worth switching to for the style I'm going with now. Plus on preview I was able to hit 50% movement speed with pathfinder's action, so I kind of want to try that out in PVP.
Careful attack actually does significant damage if you can keep a dot on the enemy or your team is hitting them constantly, and I don't know what the debuff is for hunter's teamwork (does anyone know?), but it can't hurt.
I think archery is generally underrated for the cooldown on crits (works on both your range and melee powers) and the self-correcting critical (again, works on both- I'm not sure some realize this when they think of archery spec), but the movement speed, deflect, and master of combat probably are worth switching to for the style I'm going with now. Plus on preview I was able to hit 50% movement speed with pathfinder's action, so I kind of want to try that out in PVP.
Careful attack actually does significant damage if you can keep a dot on the enemy or your team is hitting them constantly, and I don't know what the debuff is for hunter's teamwork (does anyone know?), but it can't hurt.
Having run full Archery (current), full Combat, and a Hybrid build I've come to the conclusion that neither capstone feat is worth it. MoA is too limited and the 17% proc rate on MoC means you pretty much have to run with Rapid Strike as one At-Will to get even moderate benefit from it.
I think the optimum build is going to be a full Hybrid with neither capstone TBH. More so in Mod 3 than previously.
Just got a respec token with the freepack offer, and am going to give my pvp HR a fine tune, and switch to pathfinder as stormstep got the nerf.
I played a lot of pvp on my combat spec HR, and was wildly successful in pug, with a lot of defence and recovery to complimemt stormstep, but the days of back to back encounter rotations are over I suspect, so now, I don't really know what to focus on - nerf my damage to give myself high hitpoints and deflect..? Go supertank..?
I don't care about pve, my CW takes care of that side of things, I want a strong pvp HR, to do the boon walk in the pvp campaign window, any new mod 3 builds out there..? Or is everyone still experimenting..?
Forest Ghost, Ambush, and Marauder's all allow you to generate either zero aggro or dump all your aggro onto someone else.
HR's survival isn't hinged on CC, it's hinged on anti-threat. (Or in PvP mobility)
So please, stop with the face tanking and try to remember to actually use those aggro dumps. If you play by yourself, try to remember that you're also the most mobile class in a dodge game.
Also, Hawkeye+Aimed Shot is huge single-target burst. As is Ambush+Aimed Shot. Or Ambush+Hawk Shot. There's a lot of single-target damage now, and if you have a brain you can still Split Shot spam / RoA for great damage if you understand how to keep things at max range with those aggro dumps.
Bonus points if you understand how to keep your Aspect of the Serpent stacks working in your favor.
<B Pathfinder Archery
EDIT:
I would like it if Hawkeye would provide it's 15% bonus damage to every hit on Split Shot instead of just one of it's five hits. I don't think a once-per-CD 15% to split shot is going to turn the tide, but it would at least be nice as an AoE finisher with 5 AotS ranged stacks.
That's really my only big complaint
MoF/Thaum CWSS/Thaum CWIV/Protector GFSW/Combat HRSM/Destroyer GWFWK/Executioner TRDO/Faithful DC
I am wondering what people have their power at and if maybe this is affecting damage. My power is a little over 4k and I am pretty happy with my standard sw damage. 4k power, arpen and crit over 3k. Arpen and crit seem to want to be really high regardless of how I beef other stats. Which is great but always has me re-thinking my gear set up to pull about a k each from both and putting another 1000 into power and about 2k more into health. I feel like I am actually hitting a lot harder, even split shot. About aspect of the serpent, I cant see how anyone rolls in pvp without syncing this with their stance shifts and rotations.
I am wondering what people have their power at and if maybe this is affecting damage. My power is a little over 4k and I am pretty happy with my standard sw damage. 4k power, arpen and crit over 3k. Arpen and crit seem to want to be really high regardless of how I beef other stats. Which is great but always has me re-thinking my gear set up to pull about a k each from both and putting another 1000 into power and about 2k more into health. I feel like I am actually hitting a lot harder, even split shot.
Well, that's encouraging at least. My power is at 3k, about 3k for arp and 2k for crit.
I'm not even sure how you get the stats you have if you have a full set since it's pretty much either apr/crit or power/deflect.
But it's good news that more power means harder hits, because I can add to it in the future, and there's some items in icewind dale with lots of power. I have heard the benefits of the power change are only seen when you get more.
About aspect of the serpent, I cant see how anyone rolls in pvp without syncing this with their stance shifts and rotations.
15% damage when full buffed never seemed worth it to me, although thinking about it now, I guess you do get 15%, then 12% then 9%, etc., so I guess it seems decent.
nerf my damage to give myself high hitpoints and deflect..? Go supertank..?
It seems to me with the nerf to splitshot, the game is sort of pushing us all towards supertank/mobility much like it pushes rogues towards perma. Which is disappointing, to me at least. If I wanted to be annoying in PVP, I'd play my TR. On my HR I want to kill people.
Having run full Archery (current), full Combat, and a Hybrid build I've come to the conclusion that neither capstone feat is worth it. MoA is too limited and the 17% proc rate on MoC means you pretty much have to run with Rapid Strike as one At-Will to get even moderate benefit from it.
I think the optimum build is going to be a full Hybrid with neither capstone TBH. More so in Mod 3 than previously.
The thing is, the best things for archery are pretty far in the tree (self-correcting aim, and the one that reduces cooldown by .5 seconds on all crits), and I think everyone agrees that the 20% incoming healing from nature is too good to pass up, so if you want the best stuff in archery you're not going to get much melee even if you don't take the capstone.
Agreed though that none are that great. Maybe I'll try something with self-correcting aim and use the melee feat for cooldown reduction. On the other hand, I myaswell just stick with archery (I'm full archery right now) and use the cooldown in the archery tree, since it works with both melee/range and the melee one only works on range attacks.
I dunno, the whole thing's got me going bonkers. I was a respec-aholic before and it's only worse now.
My Harem: Dawn HR, Erin CW, Piper TR, Zoe GWF
0
ghoulz66Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,748Arc User
edited May 2014
Oakskin buff and nature keystone? Health flies up pretty fast in PVE with that now.
The thing is, the best things for archery are pretty far in the tree (self-correcting aim, and the one that reduces cooldown by .5 seconds on all crits), and I think everyone agrees that the 20% incoming healing from nature is too good to pass up, so if you want the best stuff in archery you're not going to get much melee even if you don't take the capstone.
Agreed though that none are that great. Maybe I'll try something with self-correcting aim and use the melee feat for cooldown reduction. On the other hand, I myaswell just stick with archery (I'm full archery right now) and use the cooldown in the archery tree, since it works with both melee/range and the melee one only works on range attacks.
I dunno, the whole thing's got me going bonkers. I was a respec-aholic before and it's only worse now.
I put together a pretty half-baked Hybrid build and ran with it a couple of nights ago. Not great results TBH, but I think I'm trying to shoehorn in too many of the Pathfinder features without looking at the bigger picture. Also feat choice for a true hybrid is a nightmare as both Archery and Combat have so many crucial feats and of course 5 points in Nature for the heal buff is more or less mandatory for PvP.
I did get some good results with the new Melee at-will coupled with a Lesser Plaguefire (can't afford anything stronger ATM) but lacked burst to finish off the target. I was hoping Thorn Strike might work for that but it's still clunky against high mobility targets. The new Boar Rush is pretty excellent though.
Think my HR is going to be a 'work in progress' for a while yet.
Forest Ghost, Ambush, and Marauder's all allow you to generate either zero aggro or dump all your aggro onto someone else.
HR's survival isn't hinged on CC, it's hinged on anti-threat. (Or in PvP mobility)
So please, stop with the face tanking and try to remember to actually use those aggro dumps. If you play by yourself, try to remember that you're also the most mobile class in a dodge game.
Also, Hawkeye+Aimed Shot is huge single-target burst. As is Ambush+Aimed Shot. Or Ambush+Hawk Shot. There's a lot of single-target damage now, and if you have a brain you can still Split Shot spam / RoA for great damage if you understand how to keep things at max range with those aggro dumps.
Bonus points if you understand how to keep your Aspect of the Serpent stacks working in your favor.
<B Pathfinder Archery
My experience on Preview is that this kind of build is ace in PvE but hard to make work in PvP - Ambush doesn't really hide you in PvP and drops as soon as you start charging Aimed Shot. It's also difficult to maintain max range when you have to contest points.
Edit: That's in Domination. In open world PvP it might be viable.
My experience on Preview is that this kind of build is ace in PvE but hard to make work in PvP - Ambush doesn't really hide you in PvP and drops as soon as you start charging Aimed Shot. It's also difficult to maintain max range when you have to contest points.
Edit: That's in Domination. In open world PvP it might be viable.
In PvP I wouldn't know but I imagine you're right. Ambush's stealth does work as stealth; you can move around after using Ambush and remain stealthed you just lose it's damage. (And you can extend it's stealth window in the T2 Combat Tree.) So if you want to use Ambush as a damage ability in PvP I imagine you'd want to use it with Hawkshot or something that casts faster than Aimed Shot. You really only need to tap ambush then immediately hit the ability you want to proc it since it only takes a brief moment to gain it's damage. It's definitely a useful ability in PvE.
Another fun trick is exploiting Hunter's Teamwork for fun and profit along with it's melee counterpart. You can slap Hunter's Teamwork, Careful Attack, and Aimed Strike to apply two bleeds and two resistance debuffs (if you're spec'ced into Quarry) which automagically creates and updates Ranged stacks of Aspect of the Serpent. This maintains your 15% damage boost to ranged attacks for a little while while ensuring that one target takes a lot of damage. (Even if you don't hit them with Aimed Strike any damage that proc's Careful Attack will generate a ranged stack.)
Right now in PvE that's only really useful if you're on boss duty since it requires you to use two single-target At-Will's which is overall less useful than using Split Shot/Aimed Shot during the clear. Probably a lot more useful for some type of melee or hybrid DPS build instead of my archery specialization but it has it's place as a thing you can do. It also might be useful in PvP but I don't really have much to do with player combat.
MoF/Thaum CWSS/Thaum CWIV/Protector GFSW/Combat HRSM/Destroyer GWFWK/Executioner TRDO/Faithful DC
Well, that's encouraging at least. My power is at 3k, about 3k for arp and 2k for crit.
I'm not even sure how you get the stats you have if you have a full set since it's pretty much either apr/crit or power/deflect.
But it's good news that more power means harder hits, because I can add to it in the future, and there's some items in icewind dale with lots of power. I have heard the benefits of the power change are only seen when you get more.
15% damage when full buffed never seemed worth it to me, although thinking about it now, I guess you do get 15%, then 12% then 9%, etc., so I guess it seems decent.
I have 2 pieces grim combatants and 2 pieces profound archers. I keep pulling out arpen and crit enchants and plugging radiants in both offense and defense slots, and arpen and crit seem to just wanna be around 3k no matter what. Going full profound combatants will change that I think.
btw went up against a top tier hr recently in premades pvp and am finding that "tanky, pathfinder" really seems the way to go. Like really. I hate cookie cutter builds but it is what it is.
In PvP I wouldn't know but I imagine you're right. Ambush's stealth does work as stealth; you can move around after using Ambush and remain stealthed you just lose it's damage. (And you can extend it's stealth window in the T2 Combat Tree.) So if you want to use Ambush as a damage ability in PvP I imagine you'd want to use it with Hawkshot or something that casts faster than Aimed Shot. You really only need to tap ambush then immediately hit the ability you want to proc it since it only takes a brief moment to gain it's damage. It's definitely a useful ability in PvE.
Another fun trick is exploiting Hunter's Teamwork for fun and profit along with it's melee counterpart. You can slap Hunter's Teamwork, Careful Attack, and Aimed Strike to apply two bleeds and two resistance debuffs (if you're spec'ced into Quarry) which automagically creates and updates Ranged stacks of Aspect of the Serpent. This maintains your 15% damage boost to ranged attacks for a little while while ensuring that one target takes a lot of damage. (Even if you don't hit them with Aimed Strike any damage that proc's Careful Attack will generate a ranged stack.)
Right now in PvE that's only really useful if you're on boss duty since it requires you to use two single-target At-Will's which is overall less useful than using Split Shot/Aimed Shot during the clear. Probably a lot more useful for some type of melee or hybrid DPS build instead of my archery specialization but it has it's place as a thing you can do. It also might be useful in PvP but I don't really have much to do with player combat.
I decided to give it a go this evening. Full Archer tree plus the healing buff from Nature. Encounters were Ambush, Hawk Shot, Constricting Arrow. Works pretty well actually. The damage buffs from Hawkeye and Ambush seem to stack for some fairly serious damage from Hawk Shot or Aimed Shot. I don't run Serpent so I couldn't try your trick to create stacks, but combing Careful Attack and Aimed Strike in melee works pretty well anyway. Plus the Quarry buff is nice.
I like it. We'll see how it pans out over the next few nights.
I decided to give it a go this evening. Full Archer tree plus the healing buff from Nature. Encounters were Ambush, Hawk Shot, Constricting Arrow. Works pretty well actually. The damage buffs from Hawkeye and Ambush seem to stack for some fairly serious damage from Hawk Shot or Aimed Shot. I don't run Serpent so I couldn't try your trick to create stacks, but combing Careful Attack and Aimed Strike in melee works pretty well anyway. Plus the Quarry buff is nice.
I like it. We'll see how it pans out over the next few nights.
For Pathfinder Serpent is one of the only damage increasing passives you can put on yourself, but I would tend to agree that it's not a terribly noticible difference. It's the difference between a 20k Aimed Shot and a 23k Aimed Shot. *shrugs*
I'll say this though, Aspect of the Serpent does not work the way it should consistantly. Sometimes Aimed Shot eats 2 stacks, sometimes it eats all 5 stacks, and sometimes it eats one stack. There is no underlying logic to Serpent that I am able to deduce. (And no, it isn't Hawkeye or Ambush eating the stacks either from testing this with just Aimed Shot by itself)
Another interesting feature of Ambush that I just noticed last night is that it seems to proc Prime Critical...which I doubt it's supposed to do...for the entire length of time you're in stealth. This resulted in overlapping Rain of Arrows...working as intended or yet another glitch?
MoF/Thaum CWSS/Thaum CWIV/Protector GFSW/Combat HRSM/Destroyer GWFWK/Executioner TRDO/Faithful DC
For Pathfinder Serpent is one of the only damage increasing passives you can put on yourself, but I would tend to agree that it's not a terribly noticible difference. It's the difference between a 20k Aimed Shot and a 23k Aimed Shot. *shrugs*
I'll say this though, Aspect of the Serpent does not work the way it should consistantly. Sometimes Aimed Shot eats 2 stacks, sometimes it eats all 5 stacks, and sometimes it eats one stack. There is no underlying logic to Serpent that I am able to deduce. (And no, it isn't Hawkeye or Ambush eating the stacks either from testing this with just Aimed Shot by itself)
Another interesting feature of Ambush that I just noticed last night is that it seems to proc Prime Critical...which I doubt it's supposed to do...for the entire length of time you're in stealth. This resulted in overlapping Rain of Arrows...working as intended or yet another glitch?
All buffs can, and usually do, proc prime critical from what I've seen. That also includes boar skin and fox's cunning.
I'm not sure if it's intended but it's always been that way.
All buffs can, and usually do, proc prime critical from what I've seen. That also includes boar skin and fox's cunning.
I'm not sure if it's intended but it's always been that way.
What I mean is that Ambush constantly proc's it over and over again. Cast RoA, then hit Ambush and watch as RoA's CD rockets back to zero.
The closest comparision I can think of offhand is to compare it to how CW's Steal Time makes lots of checks for Nightmare Wizardry/Smolder over the length of it's cast. Ambush seems to behave in a somewhat similiar way in that regard.
MoF/Thaum CWSS/Thaum CWIV/Protector GFSW/Combat HRSM/Destroyer GWFWK/Executioner TRDO/Faithful DC
Personally The only thing i like about this new path is the new daily and the fact it has better synergy for combat and Nature rangers then storm warden dose i am however not loving any of the new at wills though and i absolutely love some of the new of the class feats also the daily for some odd reason probably because its not cold steel worthlessness.
Gang Busters PvP Guild Recruiting When Mod 6 goes live Pm Me for more Info If you have any Paladin question Message Me and i will get back to you ASAP
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
What I mean is that Ambush constantly proc's it over and over again. Cast RoA, then hit Ambush and watch as RoA's CD rockets back to zero.
The closest comparision I can think of offhand is to compare it to how CW's Steal Time makes lots of checks for Nightmare Wizardry/Smolder over the length of it's cast. Ambush seems to behave in a somewhat similiar way in that regard.
Hmm, that is odd.
With steal time it's actually a series of damaging attacks in quick succession (which is why it works to get rogues out of stealth).
With Ambush, I have no idea why it would behave this way. Probably another bug to put in the HR bug-bin along with the "swiftness" buff message popping randomly and how the nature movement speed buff used to work perpetually.
I hope the Devs are reading this, its ridiculous. Thinking about quitting the game after just 2 weeks of playing, wont level another class to 60 as i have now a 60 GF back from the release time and now this 60 HR and both are useless.
Because split shot don't face roll multiple enemies you are useless?
Shieldbash60 GF ~ Iron Vanguard19.0k Overpowered60 CW~ Thaumaturge14.5k ==========================================
~ GF Buffs were great we are much better, please fix the bugs now... Thank you!
With steal time it's actually a series of damaging attacks in quick succession (which is why it works to get rogues out of stealth).
With Ambush, I have no idea why it would behave this way. Probably another bug to put in the HR bug-bin along with the "swiftness" buff message popping randomly and how the nature movement speed buff used to work perpetually.
Steal Time's 'mini-attacks' do not actually deal damage, yet they can crit for no damage to proc effects. It doesn't make much sense.
Something inside Ambush is making attack checks and crit checks even though it isn't dealing damage, and this is likely the same thing that's causing Ambush to generate 5 near-instant stacks of melee Aspect of the Serpent.
I think the melee stacks must be intentional, but I'm not sure it's meant to rapid-fire proc Prime Critical for archers as well. *shrugs*
MoF/Thaum CWSS/Thaum CWIV/Protector GFSW/Combat HRSM/Destroyer GWFWK/Executioner TRDO/Faithful DC
Steal Time's 'mini-attacks' do not actually deal damage, yet they can crit for no damage to proc effects. It doesn't make much sense.
Something inside Ambush is making attack checks and crit checks even though it isn't dealing damage, and this is likely the same thing that's causing Ambush to generate 5 near-instant stacks of melee Aspect of the Serpent.
I think the melee stacks must be intentional, but I'm not sure it's meant to rapid-fire proc Prime Critical for archers as well. *shrugs*
I tried casting raining arrows and then ambush on a practice dummy and I didn't notice a cooldown rocketting down.
Personally The only thing i like about this new path is the new daily and the fact it has better synergy for combat and Nature rangers then storm warden dose i am however not loving any of the new at wills though and i absolutely love some of the new of the class feats also the daily for some odd reason probably because its not cold steel worthlessness.
Careful Attack with a PF slotted is kinda fun. Seems to extend the duration of the PF stacks as well as triggering the extra damage from CA. The downside is that the ticks from any dot will end Ambush if you're using it.
Still playing around trying to find the perfect loadout. Getting difficult to ignore the 'new' Thornward - seems to hit like a truck.
Comments
It's hard to tell if it really helps, but by stacking both debuffs on someone, it seems to be pretty decent. Better than just quick shot anyway. And for rogues it seems careful attack + plaguefire is great.
Think I'm going to respec to Pathfinder though.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
See, stuff like this makes me think they nerfed split shot more than 25%, and more like the original 45%. Maybe by accident, who knows?
Whatever they did they give us some split shot goodness back. This is too much. We miss our split shot!!!
For me, my hardly scientific-but often repeated- tests of tapping split shot to gauge how a new spec was would always do about 4-5k crits on the dummies. Now they do 2.5k.
That just seems a lot closer to 45% then it does to 25% to me.
As for my continuing trials with the new set-up, I'm having success with thornward, boarrush, foxshift, and using split shot and the new at-will. Since it seems to work best in a rough and tumble in-your-face way, I think I'm going to respect combat again.
I think archery is generally underrated for the cooldown on crits (works on both your range and melee powers) and the self-correcting critical (again, works on both- I'm not sure some realize this when they think of archery spec), but the movement speed, deflect, and master of combat probably are worth switching to for the style I'm going with now. Plus on preview I was able to hit 50% movement speed with pathfinder's action, so I kind of want to try that out in PVP.
Careful attack actually does significant damage if you can keep a dot on the enemy or your team is hitting them constantly, and I don't know what the debuff is for hunter's teamwork (does anyone know?), but it can't hurt.
I think the optimum build is going to be a full Hybrid with neither capstone TBH. More so in Mod 3 than previously.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
I played a lot of pvp on my combat spec HR, and was wildly successful in pug, with a lot of defence and recovery to complimemt stormstep, but the days of back to back encounter rotations are over I suspect, so now, I don't really know what to focus on - nerf my damage to give myself high hitpoints and deflect..? Go supertank..?
I don't care about pve, my CW takes care of that side of things, I want a strong pvp HR, to do the boon walk in the pvp campaign window, any new mod 3 builds out there..? Or is everyone still experimenting..?
HR's survival isn't hinged on CC, it's hinged on anti-threat. (Or in PvP mobility)
So please, stop with the face tanking and try to remember to actually use those aggro dumps. If you play by yourself, try to remember that you're also the most mobile class in a dodge game.
Also, Hawkeye+Aimed Shot is huge single-target burst. As is Ambush+Aimed Shot. Or Ambush+Hawk Shot. There's a lot of single-target damage now, and if you have a brain you can still Split Shot spam / RoA for great damage if you understand how to keep things at max range with those aggro dumps.
Bonus points if you understand how to keep your Aspect of the Serpent stacks working in your favor.
<B Pathfinder Archery
EDIT:
I would like it if Hawkeye would provide it's 15% bonus damage to every hit on Split Shot instead of just one of it's five hits. I don't think a once-per-CD 15% to split shot is going to turn the tide, but it would at least be nice as an AoE finisher with 5 AotS ranged stacks.
That's really my only big complaint
Jugger Conq GF
....
Well, that's encouraging at least. My power is at 3k, about 3k for arp and 2k for crit.
I'm not even sure how you get the stats you have if you have a full set since it's pretty much either apr/crit or power/deflect.
But it's good news that more power means harder hits, because I can add to it in the future, and there's some items in icewind dale with lots of power. I have heard the benefits of the power change are only seen when you get more.
15% damage when full buffed never seemed worth it to me, although thinking about it now, I guess you do get 15%, then 12% then 9%, etc., so I guess it seems decent.
It seems to me with the nerf to splitshot, the game is sort of pushing us all towards supertank/mobility much like it pushes rogues towards perma. Which is disappointing, to me at least. If I wanted to be annoying in PVP, I'd play my TR. On my HR I want to kill people.
The thing is, the best things for archery are pretty far in the tree (self-correcting aim, and the one that reduces cooldown by .5 seconds on all crits), and I think everyone agrees that the 20% incoming healing from nature is too good to pass up, so if you want the best stuff in archery you're not going to get much melee even if you don't take the capstone.
Agreed though that none are that great. Maybe I'll try something with self-correcting aim and use the melee feat for cooldown reduction. On the other hand, I myaswell just stick with archery (I'm full archery right now) and use the cooldown in the archery tree, since it works with both melee/range and the melee one only works on range attacks.
I dunno, the whole thing's got me going bonkers. I was a respec-aholic before and it's only worse now.
Does that work on you as well or is it just a 100% bonus to party members? If it works for you then yeah I think it's viable.
Well it's pretty potent on me now without any nature investment. Seems viable enough now for 100% benefit to teammates, except for pvp.
I did get some good results with the new Melee at-will coupled with a Lesser Plaguefire (can't afford anything stronger ATM) but lacked burst to finish off the target. I was hoping Thorn Strike might work for that but it's still clunky against high mobility targets. The new Boar Rush is pretty excellent though.
Think my HR is going to be a 'work in progress' for a while yet.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
Edit: That's in Domination. In open world PvP it might be viable.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
In PvP I wouldn't know but I imagine you're right. Ambush's stealth does work as stealth; you can move around after using Ambush and remain stealthed you just lose it's damage. (And you can extend it's stealth window in the T2 Combat Tree.) So if you want to use Ambush as a damage ability in PvP I imagine you'd want to use it with Hawkshot or something that casts faster than Aimed Shot. You really only need to tap ambush then immediately hit the ability you want to proc it since it only takes a brief moment to gain it's damage. It's definitely a useful ability in PvE.
Another fun trick is exploiting Hunter's Teamwork for fun and profit along with it's melee counterpart. You can slap Hunter's Teamwork, Careful Attack, and Aimed Strike to apply two bleeds and two resistance debuffs (if you're spec'ced into Quarry) which automagically creates and updates Ranged stacks of Aspect of the Serpent. This maintains your 15% damage boost to ranged attacks for a little while while ensuring that one target takes a lot of damage. (Even if you don't hit them with Aimed Strike any damage that proc's Careful Attack will generate a ranged stack.)
Right now in PvE that's only really useful if you're on boss duty since it requires you to use two single-target At-Will's which is overall less useful than using Split Shot/Aimed Shot during the clear. Probably a lot more useful for some type of melee or hybrid DPS build instead of my archery specialization but it has it's place as a thing you can do. It also might be useful in PvP but I don't really have much to do with player combat.
I have 2 pieces grim combatants and 2 pieces profound archers. I keep pulling out arpen and crit enchants and plugging radiants in both offense and defense slots, and arpen and crit seem to just wanna be around 3k no matter what. Going full profound combatants will change that I think.
btw went up against a top tier hr recently in premades pvp and am finding that "tanky, pathfinder" really seems the way to go. Like really. I hate cookie cutter builds but it is what it is.
Jugger Conq GF
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I like it. We'll see how it pans out over the next few nights.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
For Pathfinder Serpent is one of the only damage increasing passives you can put on yourself, but I would tend to agree that it's not a terribly noticible difference. It's the difference between a 20k Aimed Shot and a 23k Aimed Shot. *shrugs*
I'll say this though, Aspect of the Serpent does not work the way it should consistantly. Sometimes Aimed Shot eats 2 stacks, sometimes it eats all 5 stacks, and sometimes it eats one stack. There is no underlying logic to Serpent that I am able to deduce. (And no, it isn't Hawkeye or Ambush eating the stacks either from testing this with just Aimed Shot by itself)
Another interesting feature of Ambush that I just noticed last night is that it seems to proc Prime Critical...which I doubt it's supposed to do...for the entire length of time you're in stealth. This resulted in overlapping Rain of Arrows...working as intended or yet another glitch?
All buffs can, and usually do, proc prime critical from what I've seen. That also includes boar skin and fox's cunning.
I'm not sure if it's intended but it's always been that way.
What I mean is that Ambush constantly proc's it over and over again. Cast RoA, then hit Ambush and watch as RoA's CD rockets back to zero.
The closest comparision I can think of offhand is to compare it to how CW's Steal Time makes lots of checks for Nightmare Wizardry/Smolder over the length of it's cast. Ambush seems to behave in a somewhat similiar way in that regard.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Hmm, that is odd.
With steal time it's actually a series of damaging attacks in quick succession (which is why it works to get rogues out of stealth).
With Ambush, I have no idea why it would behave this way. Probably another bug to put in the HR bug-bin along with the "swiftness" buff message popping randomly and how the nature movement speed buff used to work perpetually.
Because split shot don't face roll multiple enemies you are useless?
Overpowered 60 CW ~ Thaumaturge 14.5k
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~ GF Buffs were great we are much better, please fix the bugs now... Thank you!
Steal Time's 'mini-attacks' do not actually deal damage, yet they can crit for no damage to proc effects. It doesn't make much sense.
Something inside Ambush is making attack checks and crit checks even though it isn't dealing damage, and this is likely the same thing that's causing Ambush to generate 5 near-instant stacks of melee Aspect of the Serpent.
I think the melee stacks must be intentional, but I'm not sure it's meant to rapid-fire proc Prime Critical for archers as well. *shrugs*
I tried casting raining arrows and then ambush on a practice dummy and I didn't notice a cooldown rocketting down.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
Still playing around trying to find the perfect loadout. Getting difficult to ignore the 'new' Thornward - seems to hit like a truck.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
Jugger Conq GF
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