DEX vs STR for bow users

[crazycaren]

Hi
The two most popular builds on this Ranger forum for bow users both focus on Dex. I have an archer toon I'm about to TR after getting some racial past lives.

Generally I find strength a better main stat for my rangers since you get Bow Strength for free and there's lots of ways to get more strength in the game.

Before I TR'd her, her stats (standing around on the ship at lvl 30) were:
Str 65 (higher than the Dex stat = 60 in White feather)
Dex 55 (decent)
Con 48 (obviously this will need to be higher for reaper)
Wis 51 (I don't remember why this was so high. probably paralyzing arrows)

HP: 910 (obviously this will need to be higher for reaper)
PRR: 98
MRR: 58
Fort: 205%

Usually she's in Fury


Since then I've picked up some nice legendary str gear.

So my question is, why the focus on Dex?

reflex? balance? dodge?

Any reason to not come back as str?

thanks

[Loromir]

Hi
The two most popular builds on this Ranger forum for bow users both focus on Dex. I have an archer toon I'm about to TR after getting some racial past lives.

Generally I find strength a better main stat for my rangers since you get Bow Strength for free and there's lots of ways to get more strength in the game.

Before I TR'd her, her stats (standing around on the ship at lvl 30) were:
Str 65 (higher than the Dex stat = 60 in White feather)
Dex 55 (decent)
Con 48 (obviously this will need to be higher for reaper)
Wis 51 (I don't remember why this was so high. probably paralyzing arrows)

HP: 910 (obviously this will need to be higher for reaper)
PRR: 98
MRR: 58
Fort: 205%

Usually she's in Fury


Since then I've picked up some nice legendary str gear.

So my question is, why the focus on Dex?

reflex? balance? dodge?

Any reason to not come back as str?

thanks

You stated the reason in your post. Reflex / Dodge.

You might sacrifice some DPS for extra survivability going dex based.
You might sacrifice some survivability for DPS if you go Str based.

So it really boils down to preference.

[Enoach]

You are correct there are lots of ways to increase your strength. As a Ranger with Bow-Strength for free there is no reason not to have strength.

Dexterity for Bows is the To-Hit Attribute, so even if you are strength based for an archer you don't want to sacrifice this too much.

Obvious aspects of Dexterity are in its Defense contributions for Dexterity bonus, Dodge and Reflex saves.

It is also needed to qualify for some feats that are very helpful to those that don't get them automatically such as with Ranger Levels

---
As a note I have a Ftr/Wiz AA/EK build that uses Elven Grace (Traded the need for Bow Strength with Racial Tree Enhancements) but I focus on Dexterity and Wisdom since the AA tree uses Wisdom for DCs. So this is more a consolidation thing.

[unbongwah]

You need base DEX 21 for Combat Archery epic feat, so it's not like you can just dump-stat DEX; also to-hit is more relevant than ever in tougher content, IMO. With Terror / Paralyzing Arrow DCs being based on WIS, archer builds are more MAD than they used to be. Plus if you're pure ranger you get +4 DEX from AA or DWS capstone, which helps close the DEX-vs-STR stat gap; more so if you're playing a DEX race like elf or halfling. So using DEX instead of STR as your dmg mod means you only worry about 3 stats (DEX/CON/WIS) instead of four.

[barecm]

The reason to go Dex based is so that you can only use 1 stat for to hit and damage. You do not necessarily need to start with max dex, but as a minimum 16 (or 18 as an elf variant) and then use the rest into wisdom. Wisdom (along with enchantment focus) is what is needed to get your fear/paralyze up to a point where it hits in elite level Epic/legendary content. I would suggest getting it over 70 to do a reasonably good job with fear/paralyze.