Paralyzing arrows or Shock arrows ?

[Elindel22]

Hi.

Am torn between using paralyzing arrows or lightning arrows.

I always solo quests at hard or elite difficulty, with a few hirelings,
and am level 19 ranger now AA /DW. Am about to start epics.

Makes little sense to me to build up (enhancements, ability points, gear etc...)
for both.

If you did, that would mean you would use paralyzing arrows all the time
except against bosses, where you would switch to Shock arrows.

Personally, I would prefer a build to max DPS.

I would take leg shot and head shot for crowd control until
I could take pin and ottos whistler (then I would switch to FoTw or Divine crusader).

As well, I have read that you need to reach level 60-65 DC for paralyzing arrows
to work at 50% of the time at legendary.

I don’t see how I could reach that threshold without
seriously gimping myself.

The builds I saw start off with base 18 wisdom. I start off with
8 wisdom, use +7 tome to all abilities, and spend all my ability points
in dexterity and constitution.

To have 60 DC to to paralyzing, you need at least 55 wisdom, great wisdom gear (wisdom
is otherwise a useless stat, I don’t need the extra spell points), and an investment in many enchantment bonuses.

All that wisdom and enchantment gear could be used for better dps and survivality gear, it seems to me.

So, personally, I would prefer using the Cc abilities mentionned above, and build around shock arrows.

Please comment.

[Fedora1]

On my AA builds I typically go with acid arrows, with force arrows as a backup. The main reason is exactly what you stated, if you go with paralyzing arrows you have to really put all your effort/points/gear into building for it. This might be worth it on a support character, but for solo I find it takes a lot longer to kill, slowing you down. The up-side of course is you survive better when things are not hitting you back.

Going with elemental arrows, all you need is a good spell power item (that matches your element) and your dps is going to quickly take down mobs, which also means they won't be hitting you back.

[Elindel22]

On my AA builds I typically go with acid arrows, with force arrows as a backup. The main reason is exactly what you stated, if you go with paralyzing arrows you have to really put all your effort/points/gear into building for it. This might be worth it on a support character, but for solo I find it takes a lot longer to kill, slowing you down. The up-side of course is you survive better when things are not hitting you back.

Going with elemental arrows, all you need is a good spell power item (that matches your element) and your dps is going to quickly take down mobs, which also means they won't be hitting you back.

I have acid arrows, but I have been told that pit fiends in end game are resistant to acid.

And as far as crowd control goes, using head shot, leg shot, ottos Whistler and pin, with improved precise shot, should more then compensate for not using paralyzingly arrows. Am I correct ?

[Melkazar]

Fewer mobs are resistant to acid which is why many rangers go that route. I generally use acid and force myself but have seen successful paralyzing well into epic levels. Make sure you take enchantment enhancements (say that fast five times) since that effects the paralyzing. BTW, I'm gaining new respect for cold having set the dragon epic destiny on a wizard and seeing him take out mariliths and other creatures with one icy blast. The good thing about experimenting with the ranger is the easy changes (although changing enchantment feats would be a bigger headache than just changing the elemental arrow type.)

[bsquishwizzy]

I'm also for acid and force over shock arrows.

Part of paralyzing arrows for a ranger is a hefty WIS score, and enchantment gear / feats. But then you start running afoul of STR and DEX, which comes into play quite a bit as a Ranger. Though most of that depends on how you play your toon.

You know, this is slightly off-topic, but I'm in the process of leveling an Elf AA; but not as a Ranger - as a wizard. And I'm finding that is actually a VERY good balance. The key is the fact that paralyzing arrows are boosted by either WIS and / or Enchantment bonuses. So, you can spec an elf wizard, go (maybe) AM, and gear for spell power and enchantment. You maintain a modest WIS score. I have ZERO problems paralyzing stuff, in HE content, often times two-levels below quest scale.

Couple that with dipping into Conjuration for Web, and you have a pretty good, all-around ranged toon. Plus Elf bonuses to longbow, DEX boots, Grace, Arcane Fluidity. Thus far at lvl 16 I have 3 of the 4 essential metamagics, manyshot, point blank shot, precision, as well as boots for Enchantment and Conjuration. He is not a huge damage-dealer with the bow, but I two-man most quests with a guy who as a heavy damage spec-ed melee toon. Between Web, disco balls, paralyzing arrows, AoEs, and him with cleaves and base damage, stuff goes down blindingly fast.

The ONLY thing you don't get is self-healing. I try UMD for that, but by 20 my self-healing will still be pretty weak. If I can get wo CSW pots and wands, then alternate with a healing amp item, I should be good., Then again, you can tap Wand and Scroll Mastery in AM as well to boost that.

Now, you *may* be able to boost the effectiveness of your paralyzing arrows through enchantment modifiers, but having the wizzy bonuses is a huge bump.

And don't try mixing Wizzy and ranger. That was a fun combination in heroic, but in epic you get slaughtered.

[Zretch]

Fewer mobs are resistant to acid which is why many rangers go that route. I generally use acid and force myself but have seen successful paralyzing well into epic levels. Make sure you take enchantment enhancements (say that fast five times) since that effects the paralyzing. BTW, I'm gaining new respect for cold having set the dragon epic destiny on a wizard and seeing him take out mariliths and other creatures with one icy blast. The good thing about experimenting with the ranger is the easy changes (although changing enchantment feats would be a bigger headache than just changing the elemental arrow type.)

In addition to the enhancements that increase your enchantment DC, if you spend one feat on Spell Focus: Enchantment, you can then twist the Magistar tier 2 ability to give another +3 for a total of +4 for the price of one feat and one T2 twist. Gear for both Wis and Dex, pump Wis and Dex at character creation, but put level ups into Dex, select Dex in your enhancement trees, and Dex in your ED trees (if available). Find a +enchantment and +insightful enchantment item and you may be OK.

Para-arrows, Banishing arrows, Smiting arrows, and Terror arrows all give +1 to Enchantment, so +4 there.
+4 for spell focus + magistar twist.
If you can get Wis to 60 by the time you start doing legendaries (I can usually get my secondary stat to somewhere between 60 and 72), that's another +25.
Legendary Kindred Pendant gives +8 enchantment and +4 insightful enchantment, so that's +12.

So you'd have 20 + 25 (Wis) + 20 (Enchantment) for 65. Not sure if that requires too great a sacrifice, as I don't know what you're wearing in your neck slot. I'm also thinking there's not a ton of sources of insightful Wis, so it may be harder to get it into the 50+ range.

[barecm]

In my experience, it is more gear dependent to build a paralyze / fear build as you need to grab every bit of enhancement DC boost that you can. So, enchantment focus and greater EF from feats, combination of items to get enchantment focus, quality enchantment, and insightful enchantment focus, as well as a relatively high wis score. I have a build listed under "Kluege's ranged ranger" that can give you a good idea of what to build towards. Also, it is doubleshot maximized so you pretty much fire 2 arrows per shot (94.55% or something along those lines). Also, it is not updated past Ravenloft, but I am not sure I would change much off that.


https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/490249-Pure-Ranger-Kluege-s-Ranged-Ranger




My other experiment on Lamannia recently has been a pure damage ranged power build. I went with cold as my AA element to utilize some of the benefits of Void, and saw some pretty impressive numbers, but for reaper, I would still suggest paralyze. The damage was pretty sick though....

[barecm]

In addition to the enhancements that increase your enchantment DC, if you spend one feat on Spell Focus: Enchantment, you can then twist the Magistar tier 2 ability to give another +3 for a total of +4 for the price of one feat and one T2 twist. Gear for both Wis and Dex, pump Wis and Dex at character creation, but put level ups into Dex, select Dex in your enhancement trees, and Dex in your ED trees (if available). Find a +enchantment and +insightful enchantment item and you may be OK.

Para-arrows, Banishing arrows, Smiting arrows, and Terror arrows all give +1 to Enchantment, so +4 there.
+4 for spell focus + magistar twist.
If you can get Wis to 60 by the time you start doing legendaries (I can usually get my secondary stat to somewhere between 60 and 72), that's another +25.
Legendary Kindred Pendant gives +8 enchantment and +4 insightful enchantment, so that's +12.

So you'd have 20 + 25 (Wis) + 20 (Enchantment) for 65. Not sure if that requires too great a sacrifice, as I don't know what you're wearing in your neck slot. I'm also thinking there's not a ton of sources of insightful Wis, so it may be harder to get it into the 50+ range.

You need like 70+ to be viable at end game. You can use enchantment focus twist and feywild from epic destiny feats (or whatever it is you get that from), enchantment focus heroic feats... you really have to build with a plan to get the DC high enough, but it is very possible without sacrificing too much into wisdom. You actually can affect the DC more with enchantment focus as opposed to wisdom score. I think my wisdom on my paralyze build is only like 60-62 and still have a 76-78 dex. For wisdom, look at leg crafting goggles with insightful wis (+7) and use leg chieftain ring (+22 total). It won't be max wisdom, but you don't need max wisdom, you need max enchantment focus.