13 Druid 6 Ranger 1 fighter AA build question

[CrackedIce]

Looking to refine my idea of a AA druid build as well as general constructive comments.
The Class split would look like this:

13 druid / 6 Ranger / 1 fighter

Purpose of the build.( i.e. what is the point?)

I wanted to create a build that could support first life, newbie builds on their journey in DDO.
For that I wanted a caster base which comes with heals and beneficial utility spells.
I wanted to play in the back to give space to the newbies to shine and play the fore. This means, that I want to go ranged/caster in one manner or another.
I do not like the grind of a pure caster or the playstyle, so bow needed to be a must as I am not familiar or care for the monk throwers or repeater builds.
Plus, I really like the benefits of AA and the support it brings to a party.

The synergies with druid and AA:
Beguile – (Whenever you attack or cast a spell on an enemy, there is a 50% chance to Beguile an affected enemy [1/0-2/0-3] times for [3/0-6/0-9] seconds.
Beguile: -2% attack speed, -2 Spellpower. Beguile stacks up to 25 times, and one stack fades every few seconds.
Up to one enemy affected each second (by up to [1/2/3] stacks)
Fatal Harrier – bow animation gets more benefit from speed increases
Elemental Wild shape for immunities and freezing spray (Targets with this vulnerability will take 25% extra damage from all sources of cold damage) combined with tier five improved elemental arrows and druid ice spells such as creeping cold

The problem is AP costs. Do I give up the elven AA for its multiplier and tier five benefits and take tier 5 in Deepwood as this would get me to tier 4 AA, Beguile and fatal harrier or do I go as a fury shotter in tier 5 AA with elven AA and just have enough ap to obtain Killer in Deepwood.

(Obviously, leveling up I (without fury) would want to be in Deepwood tier 5.)

I would take enchantment focus feats as well as obvious ranged and caster feats and use paralyze imbue in epics and level up using terror to conserve ap in AA to be used in the other trees.

The question really is two-fold and it only has to do with epic play (I think):
One: Fury of the wild with elven AA capstone or Divine Crusader as Deepwood and be losing out on +1 crit multiplier to pick up Fatal harrier and Beguile.
Two: I know I can use Arcane Warrior feat to great effect, and pick up double shot, but what else? Which caster epic feats would be good with this build? What about legendary fets? Feywild? Arborea?

Thanks.

[unbongwah]

Do I give up the elven AA for its multiplier
AFAIK, this is still bugged (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/478575-Public-Notice-Board): "The Shadow Arrows bonus to critical damage multiplier is not triggering correctly for the Elven Arcane Archer." You still get +25% Doubleshot from the last two cores; but until crit multiplier is fixed, racial AA is not providing as much DPS as it should.

It's not intended to be newbie-friendly, but my Shake `n Quake build (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/468073-Adventures-in-Theorycrafting-Shake-n-Quake-%28druid-AA%29) seeks to combine ranged DPS, CC (Earthquake+Paralyzing AA+Nerve Venom), and decent healing (Regen, Heal, MGV, Cocoon, Healing Spring). Originally the idea was to use racial AA tree, but now I'm wondering if human druid 15 / rgr 5 might be better: T5 DWS, T4 AA, remaining APs go into druid trees. I may well be trying to do too much on one build, but...well, that's what makes it interesting. :)

[CrackedIce]

AFAIK, this is still bugged (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/478575-Public-Notice-Board): "The Shadow Arrows bonus to critical damage multiplier is not triggering correctly for the Elven Arcane Archer." You still get +25% Doubleshot from the last two cores; but until crit multiplier is fixed, racial AA is not providing as much DPS as it should.

It's not intended to be newbie-friendly, but my Shake `n Quake build (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/468073-Adventures-in-Theorycrafting-Shake-n-Quake-%28druid-AA%29) seeks to combine ranged DPS, CC (Earthquake+Paralyzing AA+Nerve Venom), and decent healing (Regen, Heal, MGV, Cocoon, Healing Spring). Originally the idea was to use racial AA tree, but now I'm wondering if human druid 15 / rgr 5 might be better: T5 DWS, T4 AA, remaining APs go into druid trees. I may well be trying to do too much on one build, but...well, that's what makes it interesting. :)

I deliberately did not consider an earthquake druid due to a few things: splitting DC for enchantment and evocation is not something I personally see as possible, especially when trying to obtain good ranged DPS. I do see the ability to obtain good enchantment DC without leveling up all in wisdom. Plus sniper shot is fun and free manyshot saves a feat. I do like the druid no save spells to augment Arcane Warrior, stay frosty, sleetstorm, icestorm, and add some extra (over-time, free damage) with creeping cold.

Let's consider the Deepwood Ranger option with human AA in tier 4. How would Divine Crusader, Druid spells, AA, and caster general feats and epic feats with epic twists get along with one another. Is ruin and greater ruin a good idea? etc....

[CrackedIce]

AFAIK, this is still bugged (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/478575-Public-Notice-Board): "The Shadow Arrows bonus to critical damage multiplier is not triggering correctly for the Elven Arcane Archer." You still get +25% Doubleshot from the last two cores; but until crit multiplier is fixed, racial AA is not providing as much DPS as it should.

It's not intended to be newbie-friendly, but my Shake `n Quake build (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/468073-Adventures-in-Theorycrafting-Shake-n-Quake-%28druid-AA%29) seeks to combine ranged DPS, CC (Earthquake+Paralyzing AA+Nerve Venom), and decent healing (Regen, Heal, MGV, Cocoon, Healing Spring). Originally the idea was to use racial AA tree, but now I'm wondering if human druid 15 / rgr 5 might be better: T5 DWS, T4 AA, remaining APs go into druid trees. I may well be trying to do too much on one build, but...well, that's what makes it interesting. :)

I also think you may be overdoing the CC. Paralyze/terror arrows with beguile, pin, sleetstorm, icestorm, stay frosty, leg shot, improved deception, crippling, and tendon slice on gear should be enough.

[unbongwah]

Paralyze/terror arrows with beguile, pin, sleetstorm, icestorm, stay frosty, leg shot, improved deception, crippling, and tendon slice on gear should be enough.
The counter-arguments: Beguile & Ice Storm are slow debuffs, not "real" CC. Sleet Storm has a low inherent DC, so the KD effect is routinely resisted / ignored. If I'm in Shiradi, I'd be using Prism / Rainbow, which locks out Stay Frosty. Deception, Crippling, and Tendon Slice are nice, but I've no idea where & how I'd slot all of them.

The advantage of Earthquake is it's an AoE DoT you can kite mobs thru (like Ice / Sleet Storm) which knocks them down regularly (unlike Ice / Sleet Storm) and can proc Shiradi effects over time (IIRC, Ice / Sleet Storm only proc on initial cast not each tic). Building for Evocation DCs can be challenging, but I'm also thinking of adding Burst of Glacial Wrath if I can figure out how to squeeze it in. Like I said, though, it's really all just theorycrafting so far.

[CrackedIce]

The counter-arguments: Beguile & Ice Storm are slow debuffs, not "real" CC. Sleet Storm has a low inherent DC, so the KD effect is routinely resisted / ignored. If I'm in Shiradi, I'd be using Prism / Rainbow, which locks out Stay Frosty. Deception, Crippling, and Tendon Slice are nice, but I've no idea where & how I'd slot all of them.

The advantage of Earthquake is it's an AoE DoT you can kite mobs thru (like Ice / Sleet Storm) which knocks them down regularly (unlike Ice / Sleet Storm) and can proc Shiradi effects over time (IIRC, Ice / Sleet Storm only proc on initial cast not each tic). Building for Evocation DCs can be challenging, but I'm also thinking of adding Burst of Glacial Wrath if I can figure out how to squeeze it in. Like I said, though, it's really all just theorycrafting so far.

I guess the way I am looking at it is that you get paralyze arrows for your CC. But, depending on your DC, it could take more than the first shot to go off. The other items on that lists ensures that you can lockdown the mobs with paralyze as the combination of those things really slow them down immensely. Have you ever stacked all of these before? It is incredibly effective. Once you have them locked down with paralyze all lined up, you pin them in place with pin. and let loose with all your array of firepower.

[CrackedIce]

The counter-arguments: Beguile & Ice Storm are slow debuffs, not "real" CC. Sleet Storm has a low inherent DC, so the KD effect is routinely resisted / ignored. If I'm in Shiradi, I'd be using Prism / Rainbow, which locks out Stay Frosty. Deception, Crippling, and Tendon Slice are nice, but I've no idea where & how I'd slot all of them.

The advantage of Earthquake is it's an AoE DoT you can kite mobs thru (like Ice / Sleet Storm) which knocks them down regularly (unlike Ice / Sleet Storm) and can proc Shiradi effects over time (IIRC, Ice / Sleet Storm only proc on initial cast not each tic). Building for Evocation DCs can be challenging, but I'm also thinking of adding Burst of Glacial Wrath if I can figure out how to squeeze it in. Like I said, though, it's really all just theorycrafting so far.

In any case, it seems to me from what you suggest and from what I am suggesting is that it comes down to epic destiny choice. If you choose Sharadi, then focusing more on the caster aspect of Druid spells makes more sense with meaty side-order of ranged utility.

Want to focus on DPS ranged, with an assist from druid, go into Divine crusader as a 6 Ranger rather then 5 Ranger.

[savingsoul]

Any effort to boost dmg from arrows resulted in too much of a compromise on casting, so I built an evoker w/ merely paralyze and terror arrows. It's currently at level 24 on a first-lifer and doing well.

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/477576-Healstorm-Druid-Evoker-amp-AA-w-Paralyzing-amp-Terror-Arrows