ABC Archer: How Many still use Hunter's Headress Vs Mace & Shield Glasses?

[Val-Tur]

So I have been revamping my much neglected ABC archer. I had everything worked out & everything purchased. Then I get to thinking about using a Hunter's Headress instead of Mace & Shield Glasses. Headress would allow me to bump bushido to 120. But I would lose 30 HLD completely. I have no room on any of my bows to add HLD. I think the Mace & Shield is the best option overall. Anyone have a different opinion?

 

[Pawain]

Headress and Despicable Quiver and choose a non Archery Mastery. Use the points somewhere else.

Or keep the HLD. Are all your Bows slayers?

One of my basic Bows.

 

[Val-Tur]

I use Velocity, Hit Lighting, Hit Mana Leech, DI, SSI on my non-slayer bows. On my slayers I have Hit Lighting, Hit Mana Leech, Slayer, DI, SSI. No cameo's yet. If we have another event like deceit, I probably can get enough gold to buy 3 or 4. All my bows were already setup for Mace & Shield build.

I am just curious what other people use as an alternative build to Mace & Shield. I wish the archery mastery was as good as swords mastery. The extra DCI / HCI / Str are nice though. The chivalry mastery rejuvinate could come in handy if the timer is not too long. Bushido mastery seems pretty strong.

 

[Pawain]

I use Velocity, Hit Lighting, Hit Mana Leech, DI, SSI on my non-slayer bows. On my slayers I have Hit Lighting, Hit Mana Leech, Slayer, DI, SSI. No cameo's yet. If we have another event like deceit, I probably can get enough gold to buy 3 or 4. All my bows were already setup for Mace & Shield build.

I am just curious what other people use as an alternative build to Mace & Shield. I wish the archery mastery was as good as swords mastery. The extra DCI / HCI / Str are nice though. The chivalry mastery rejuvinate could come in handy if the timer is not too long. Bushido mastery seems pretty strong.

My archers are tamer and Bard so I use those masteries. The archery one is pretty lame compared to the others.

 

[Merlin]

Hunter's Headdress is a decent artifact to use, as long as you're not short on another crucial stat somewhere else like Stamina, LMC or resists. I had one on my ABC Archer until I turned him into a Wraith Archer and went to a Bone Helm.

As Pawain noted, the Archery mastery really isn't that great in the first place. The passive Warrior's bonus is decent, but the Archery mastery abilities aren't great. If you're running 120 Bushido on the build, and don't need any of the stats from the passive Warrior's Gift, consider the Bushido mastery. Gives +15 mana as the passive and one of the abilities makes casting Confidence heals more effective.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

Mace & Shields is very powerful with the 30% HLD, you never need put HLD on your weps then. At 120 Archery/45% HCI, you'd have a 72% chance to hit (excluding Parry) an opponent with 120 Wrest/Wep Skill/0% DCI. With 120 Archery/45% HCI, you'd have a 96% (capped at 95%) chance to hit an opponent with 120 Wrest/Wep Skill/-25% DCI (HLD debuff).

Archery Mastery does have some use in parties. "Play the Odds" halves the Archer's attack range (from 10-5 with a Composite Bow), but at 120 Archery/GM Tact/Lvl 3 Primer it provides a +45% HCI/+30% SSI buff to everyone in party (including their pets) within 5 tiles for 60 seconds (90 second CD, so 2/3 uptime) when you use it. It's a great way to counteract the "Aura of Nausea" ability from Lady Mel, or the "Howl of Cacophany" ability from the Monstrous Interred Grizzle, Giant Turkey, or Blackthorn's Bard Captain. I also use it when training pets on other accounts, that +45% HCI is insane on pets.

 

[chester rockwell]

I'd keep the HLD on the helm. Free mods on wpns are invaluable.

 

[Val-Tur]

HLD is becoming more valuable imo. These events that are spawning these super paragons (whether they are flagged as paragon or not) are making me miss more than usual. I noticed this when I had my regular hat during the town invasions.

 

[Kelly Daze]

I always wear mace and shield on all dexers. The hunters headdress while it is good, the resist suck. imo

 

[Acid Rain]

I still use the headdress but my archer is PvP only & extremely niche with 860 skill points. She basically runs in a team n mainly does dismounts so where i’m lacking in HLD doesn’t matter much as HLD doesn’t factor in on the 1st dismount shot. Once footed, its the teams responsibility for HLD as my job is done. Then I just spam darts or stars on their mount or the target if mount is dead. Finally, w GM SS I follow ghosts to grief the crap outta them or find their res spot & call it out to the team

 

[Val-Tur]

I always wear mace and shield on all dexers. The hunters headdress while it is good, the resist suck. imo

2 or 3 pieces of legendary armor will take care of that. If not, you can always enhance them with the forged metal of artifacts. The suits I am building now with 3-4 pieces of legendary are in the 100's on many resists.