Old Character builds.

My bf used to be an APS archer so I asked him how he would build one, though he pretty much provided me with the standard APS build. There might be better builds or gear setups than what he's told me since he last played one several years ago. Do be aware you'll do less damage on some bosses with this build since they have a defense buff that reduces damage on auto-attacks.

First for stats, like the post above you want to have as much dex as you can. Just make sure to have enough strength to equip your claws/fists. Claws are recommended since they require less strength (146 str for claws, 150 str for fists). Strength doesn't stack with any masteries so you won't get much benefit from lots of it. Plus with the extra dex you'll still be effective with a bow. You'll still want to be able to equip one for various skills (like Blood Vow).

For gear, if you're not going the r9 path at all there's other options. For weapon as mentioned before claws are recommended as you'll need less strength to equip them. G16 Traceless Dimensions with -interval stat should do fine. For ornaments the TT99 gold pdef (heavy armor) necklace and belt are good since they have a -interval addon and you'll need the pdef. For armor, something like TT99 gold light armor wrists and boots, G15 light armor nirvana pants (doesn't matter whether you pick Lunar or TT), rank 8 top, and a Lunar Glade -interval cape. That build would get you to 3.33 APS or 5.0 APS with demon spark.

You can mix this up a bit as well like going for rank 8 recast pieces with -interval addons as they'll provide you with better defense but they can be a pain to reroll. If you do choose rank 8 recast stuff though that will be chest and boots I think.

I also recommend having a play around with pwi calc as well to tweak your build the way you want it.

datsang wrote: »

obielle wrote: »

First for stats, like the post above you want to have as much dex as you can. Just make sure to have enough strength to equip your claws/fists. Claws are recommended since they require less strength (146 str for claws, 150 str for fists). Strength doesn't stack with any masteries so you won't get much benefit from lots of it. Plus with the extra dex you'll still be effective with a bow. You'll still want to be able to equip one for various skills (like Blood Vow).

Dont really know what you mean by not stacking with mastery. How physical attack range works is [1(base multiplier) + (mastery) + x/150(x as in str/dex)] * weapon attack. If you got mastery or not, you get the same increase per each str as long as you got the same weapon attack. You would actually get better relative dmg increase w/o mastery from str but obviously having mastery you would do more dmg.

Eh, it's what my bf was telling me when I was asking him about it and I don't think he knows too much about the damage multipliers. Unfortunately I don't know a ton about them either xD maybe he was just referring to "str doesn't really help with your bow mastery because that's for ranged weapons and they use dex, and you don't have a fist mastery like a BM would" but that's me guessing.

APS Archer was always a bit strange to me since they never got Bloodpaint (at least from what I remembered).
That said, an APS Barb is pretty fun since you can get Bloodpaint and still do decent damage. Demon Poison Fang can make up for the lack of Fist Mastery to a degree, and you can gain extra burst Crit chance from Strength of Titans or Onslaught after sparking. You can also wear a full NV3 Heavy set for tanking/pulling stuff.
(Mine's not quite "finished" since I need an -int Tome like Pan Gu or w/e for true 5.0)

andadina1 wrote: »

you can take the barb build further since they can achieve 5 aps with 3 rrr9 items and they have the extra 100 str for dmg from the set.

Yeah, totally. Mine is just as such because I cant afford R9 as things are, so I guess it could be called a "budget" version.