[Archery] stealth archer bow questions

[[JD]]

Hey all,

I'm looking to have some bows imbued/modified for my newbie stealth archer and wanted to run some properties by you... but I think bow properties depends on the way you intend to use the bows.

Is it best for a stealth archer to use their heavy xbow for ONE dismount shot, and then switch to a compound for Armor Ignore?

If so I’d envision the Heavy to be built for a single shot dismount with the heaviest damage possible, and it might look like this:

-Velocity
-Hit Fireball (interrupts I'm told)
-SSI in case I miss the dismount, or should I have Mana Leech?
-Damage Increase
-Hit Lower Defense (so your next shot will have better chance of hitting)

The compound bow for AI would be for SUSTAINED damage over time and might look like:

-Velocity
-Hit Fireball
-Mana Leech
-Swing Speed Increase
-Damage Increase

The Compound is even harder. I'd like Balanced here because I lag a LOT and it's hard for me to use pots in the heat of battle - and no I don't use 3rd party utils so I don't have an easy disarm, drink pot, re-arm solution. I'd also like to fit Hit Lower Defense here to make my shots land easier. I will have the healing skill though but I'm not sure if that'd be enough.

Please let me know what you think of bows like this or if I should change things around.

Appreciate the info,
Thanks

 

[Gellor]

I'd say the heavy xbow is dependent upon your other gear but also to a degree choice.

As an example, the hit lower D might be on a pair of mace a shield glasses. Better off to leave it off your weapons.

Hit lower D can also be argued because most people are running around 70dci+ so it won't do a damn thing. All my PvP chars run 70dci.

SSI on a heavy could also be argued. If you go by the assumption you are going to hit first shot, you don't need it.

For heavy, dual hit spells are a good idea.

Balanced on the otherhand could be argued. Again, the assumption is you are just going to use the heavy to dismount so you will be dropping it off in favor of some other bow that is balanced.

 

[Sir Morder]

I would have to agree with the HLD property. If you plan on any type of pvp at all and are goin to fight other faction members, they will definitely have the 70dci, makin the HLD useless. Better to put the property weight into something usefull like ssi or velocity or balance.

 

[[JD]]

Instead of HLD, would HLA be better? Or is that better suited to Duels/1v1, because you never know who and how many will be fighting you?

Is it worth getting Mace and Shield glasses for the HLD? I'm running Spirit of the Totem right now, and then I'm training STR down 20 pts, and adding 20 pts to Dex.

Thanks

 

[Gellor]

Hit lower attack might be a better shot... but keep in mind, not everyone on the field is dexers. So the HLA does nothing versus a "pure" mage.

As for Mace and shield vs spirit, the large issue with the spirit is the "horrid" resists. At the cost of 5 stat points, I'd rather have the m&s with 65 resists

 

[StarlaUO]

I would suggest to add a normal bow for mortal and to consider imbuing a yumi. It has double shots special (requires ninja/bushido + mounted) and great range.

 

[Taylor]

For a stealth/archer, I'd go with hit lightning over hit fireball. There is a delay with hit fireball that will reveal you if you use hide/smoke bomb too soon after shooting.

 

[[JD]]

Thanks for all the tips... I had intended the fireball to interrupt mages but I didn't realize it would also mess with my stealth.

So I'm a stealth archer and won't be mounted.

The resists are a valid point and I realized I have so many arties on, my resists are absolute crap.

Also, if my dex is 150, how much SSI do I need? I intend to open with Dismount and then use AI or other bows as needed.

Thanks for ideas/comments

 

[Gellor]

Personally, I'd swap your thoughts on ninja and stealth.

With 120 ninja, you can use stars and darts to their best effect. You also get better death strike numbers.

The RBC is kind of a nice piece but the resists are a bit hard... 3 mr, 15% lmc, and 10 mana bonus are hard to pass up.

The big thing to remember about stealth templates is this: They are a "cowards" template. By this, I mean you are not going to go toe to toe with a real PvPer. You are there to dismount and do quick damage. If you don't kill outright or VERY quickly, you need to get the heck out of Dodge

So with this thought in mind, you need to make sure you can do 2-3 quick hard hits. So the 100% damage increase from items is a must. Things like double shot from a Yumi that has two hit spells on it are nice.

I've played both stealth archers and stealth dexers in the past. So don't feel I'm trying to be insulting with my "cowards" template comment.

 

[[JD]]

I don't take offense at the cowards template comment. I'm in a small upstart guild on my server, competing against guilds that frequently come at us with two to FOUR times our numbers. Stealth lets me provide intel, be a dismounter, and generally pick and choose my battles. If I was rolling with a large crew all the time it'd make more sense to be an ABC archer.

Anyway so I take it from your comment the PVP cap on Damage Increase is 100%? Or there isn't one?

How would I use the double shot special on a Yumi as a stealther if it requires being mounted? Would I use a charger summon just to use the Yumi?

Lastly I heard damage from deathstrike using archery is crap because it halves the damage. Is that true, and what kind of damage could I expect from 120 Ninja as an archer?

I do have room to play around with my numbers here... quite a bit actually. So nothing is set in stone yet.



Thanks

 

[Connor_Graham]

Anyway so I take it from your comment the PVP cap on Damage Increase is 100%? Or there isn't one?

Correct, the DI cap for PvP is 100%. I can't help you with the rest of your questions.

 

[[JD]]

Thanks Connor

I think the main problem is all the popular arties for archers have crap for resists. What are some good ones for archers with acceptable resists? (one is mentioned in this thread)

I think I'm gonna ditch RBC. I don't know why anyone would use it. We can imbue 2 MR, +Mana, and 7 Low Mana Cost on any exceptionally crafted item. If I imbue those on any 2 items it'll beat the RBC and provide way better resists. I can toss on +Dex or whatevs my template needs too.

I'm tweaking the skill template thusly, but still have my doubts about deathstrike damage. With GM ninja I deathstriked a guildie with full resists last night and it only seemed to add 16 damage after the fact. But I couldn't do an AI so it removed damage that otherwise might have happened. Deathstrike appears to be of Questionable value. Perhaps the value in raising Ninja is in the stars/darts/reliable forms. Haven't used stars/darts, can't say...

I was happy with Llama form for speed but after I got access to Bake Kitsune last night I gotta say I am stoked to have that extra 20 HCI and 20 HP. I'll be using that form a lot I'm sure

120 Stealth/Archery/Tactics/Anatomy
100 hiding/healing
118 Ninja (?)

Human for Joat, use charges on runebooks for travel

I could drop healing 10-20 pts and use exceptional bandages, Drop ninja to GM and be happy. But I don't know what I'd bother to put 30-40 pts in, so this looks to be the best usage of pts.

I have massive +skills gains from some imbued jewelry and shadowdancer legs allowing me this spec.

Thanks all for ideas and comments. This is my first real dexxer I've ever attempted

 

[WalterRuether]

JD as a person that runs a stealth archer like you need. Go with ninja, and a Composite bow with high ssi, balance and velocity and lightning. You are not going to kill anyone if you have to hit them more than twice so HLD doesn't make sense. Max your HCI and DI you need balance to throw stars. Throw star, hit AI when they are low on HP and you will get alot of coward kills. PvP is a cowards game mostly anyway very few look for a str8 up fight. So don't let their cursing bother you, the person you killed would gladly hunt you down with 10 of their guildies so did they realy want a straight fight? Stealth is a great starting point for a new pvper it at least gets you used to getting in fights. Keep a dismount bow but remeber you will be dismounting so others can kill the person, so your mods aren't as important here, you just need to hit em.

If you want to take this whole thing one step further imbue some rings to get enough necro to go wraith. This makes you harder to track and keeps people from bumping into you. It takes away your animal forms but you can move in a crowd and have people run right through you so it makes up for the animal forms. Even more so if you are running recon. You can just stand in a crowd and they will never know you are there.

 

[[JD]]

walter,

wow that is an awesome idea, can you use weapon specials like ai/dismount while necroformed?

i'm a human with JOAT so technically I have 20 necro/SS already, a few fizzles and I should be able to recon. they might not be able to walk over and uncover me but what about those damn elves? hehe

also thank u for info on balanced+ Ninja stars. I did not know that, that makes balanced very useful for me, especially on the composite

I wonder if it would be worth dropping pts from some areas to gain poisoning skill, so my stars could do more dmg?

you dont think I could dismount, and then fight someone down with composite tho? even at 120 arch/tactic/anat with healing skill?

i would spend my pts on stealth/hiding, they would likely have bush/chiv (ABC archer PVPers are a dime a dozen on my server), what would allow their bush/chiv to own me so bad?

couldnt i just smoke bomb, heal up, and come back at them for round 2?

thanks for infos, lots of things to learn here.

 

[ZidjiN]

Are you going to run factions on this char?
If not you might get a HCI problem if your not running with Spirit/hunters.
30 HCI from jewels leaves 15 HCI untill the cap.
Where would you get the last HCI?
10 on Talisman
3 on the robe maybe
That still leaves 2 HCI from cap.

If your running factions... Ignore my post.

 

[[JD]]

Totally valid quesiton. The answer is probably not factions for a while. Some people are trying to get a new faction guild going but it hasn’t happened yet and I only really have 2 PVP usable toons, I’m not about to put him in and be unable to get healed/ressed/participate in other things with non faction members.

For now, this toon will be be more for spawn protection/scouting/dismounting/finishing targets/solo pvping/harassing rival guilds until we got enough to do factions often.

The Conjurer’s Trinket is expensive…….. I could get +20 Hit Chance from Bake Kitsune but I couldn’t use weapon specials. I could put it on my weapon but that’s a waste of a slot. And I’d need to do it on every weapon, which would get expensive.

It seems I’ll need to roll with a Spirit of Totem or Hunters’ until I can afford the Conj trinket, then I can swap to something like Mace and Shield glasses, or the DCI helmet.

DI seems pretty darn easy to get, I’m wondering if Stormgrip isn’t a waste of a slot also when I can easily have DI imbued…

So far it seems this is what I'd be planning:

Head: Totem of Spirit (+20 STR means I can train STR down and Dex up)
Neck: Jackal’s (currently Voice of the fallen king)
Arms: Exceptional crafted/GM arms lore/imbued
Chest: Exceptional crafted/GM arms lore/imbued
Legs: Shadow Dancer Legs (for +20 skill or I’d go imbued here also)
Hands: Exceptional crafted/GM arms lore/imbued
Ring: Imbued, currently: 13 Stealth/Ninja/Anatomy, 5 dex, 17 DI (will swap out for +hit chance, DCI, DI, enhance pot, etc- these were cheapo transitional rings)
Bracelet: Same as ring
Talisman: Primer of arms for now, Conjurer’s Trinket in the future
Robe: Either Shroud of Silence or the other nice one u mentioned
Quiver: Quiver of Infinity

I think I can make this work… somehow haha. I’ll have to build a spreadsheet and see whats possible.

On my suit I’ll want:

45 Hit Chance
? DCI (Wont be capped, probably closer to 30)
100 Damage Increase (Includes DI from weapon)
150 dex
Mana regen/low mana/etc
Stamina and HP regen would be great, maybe I can somehow keep voice of the fallen king and have 150 dex.

 

[ZidjiN]

Totally valid quesiton. The answer is probably not factions for a while. Some people are trying to get a new faction guild going but it hasn’t happened yet and I only really have 2 PVP usable toons, I’m not about to put him in and be unable to get healed/ressed/participate in other things with non faction members.

For now, this toon will be be more for spawn protection/scouting/dismounting/finishing targets/solo pvping/harassing rival guilds until we got enough to do factions often.

The Conjurer’s Trinket is expensive…….. I could get +20 Hit Chance from Bake Kitsune but I couldn’t use weapon specials. I could put it on my weapon but that’s a waste of a slot. And I’d need to do it on every weapon, which would get expensive.

It seems I’ll need to roll with a Spirit of Totem or Hunters’ until I can afford the Conj trinket, then I can swap to something like Mace and Shield glasses, or the DCI helmet.

DI seems pretty darn easy to get, I’m wondering if Stormgrip isn’t a waste of a slot also when I can easily have DI imbued…

So far it seems this is what I'd be planning:

Head: Totem of Spirit 1# (+20 STR means I can train STR down and Dex up)
Neck: 2# Jackal’s (currently Voice of the fallen king)
Arms: Exceptional crafted/GM arms lore/imbued
Chest: Exceptional crafted/GM arms lore/imbued
Legs: 3# Shadow Dancer Legs (for +20 skill or I’d go imbued here also)
Hands: Exceptional crafted/GM arms lore/imbued
Ring: Imbued, currently: 13 Stealth/Ninja/Anatomy, 5 dex, 17 DI (will swap out for +hit chance, DCI, DI, enhance pot, etc- these were cheapo transitional rings)
Bracelet: Same as ring
Talisman: Primer of arms for now, 4# Conjurer’s Trinket in the future
Robe: Either Shroud of Silence or the other nice one u mentioned
Quiver:5# Quiver of Infinity

I think I can make this work… somehow haha. I’ll have to build a spreadsheet and see whats possible.

On my suit I’ll want:

45 Hit Chance
? DCI (Wont be capped, probably closer to 30)
100 Damage Increase (Includes DI from weapon)
150 dex
Mana regen/low mana/etc
Stamina and HP regen would be great, maybe I can somehow keep voice of the fallen king and have 150 dex.

Ive bolded some parts to show you what im commenting on

1# Remember that you still cant have more then 125 reall dex. Allso remember that Hunters gives you 20 archery wich will leave room for other skills. Im not saying that you shouldnt use spirit of the totem im just telling you that hunters is a valid choise as well.
2# Jackalls isnt medable.
3# I would say drop those, they really only offer skill and two resists if im not misstaken. And you allready have more skills then you need if your still thinkingf of the above template.
4# Remeber that its a Undead slayer wich makes all the repon spawn hit your for double damage.
5# Im a bit out dated but i think your going for another quiver. Some one ellse have to fill in here

 

[[JD]]

Hi Zid,

I suppose I’d lose the 2MR from JOAT Meditation if I used non-mediable Jackals. Really I only wanted it for the big dex boost so I could get to 150 dex. Right now I have Voice of the fallen king, when I’m pretty happy for the regens, so maybe I’ll keep it – I think it’s mediable (looks like leather).

I checked on the Hunters vs. Totem, each has 39 resist pts exactly. Both have +15 Hit chance, so its really a question of do I want +20 Skill, night sight, and +8 dex, or +20 Stat and the bramble coat. Thinking about it, I think the Hunters might be more valuable because it frees me from needing the shadowdancer legs. Plus it brings me closer to 150 dex. But there isn’t a good priced one on our server currently.

If I stuck with the totem, I could train str to 70 (I’d have 90 with Spirit), 125 dex, 30 int. The reflective damage is nice also.

Good point I cannot count on having that talisman on 24/7 because someone with Repond slayer will pwn-dizzle me; I’ll have to stick with the Primer of Arms I suppose!

I can’t believe how intricate this stealthier build is – my skills and stats all rely on the gear, and the gear I can afford vs. what I really need is so different. Lol