Can a case be made to run in SD or Shiradi?
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Can a case be made to run in SD or Shiradi?
Yes, but it's purely a QoL case, not a game mechanics case. The amount of ranged power in LD totally dwarfs every other destiny. Its worse than in melee, where they at least made several other destinies marginally competitive (SD, Fatesinger, Primal avatar get 60). But you're stuck with at most 24 with all the other destinies in ranged. The devs mistakenly thought improving the other destinies to a level still inferior to LD was 'melee love'. It wasn't. Improving somebody's 2nd or 3rd best option isn't really a buff, it's just promoting a bit more diversity in builds and playstyles. A similar 'buff' to ranged destinies is probably called for.
Personally I really don't like LD. It basically pushes you to zerg it up because of its mechanics. LD IMO is bad for the game.
look at divine as well......
dc is not bad
and fury is always fun
Shiradi benefits most from a super-high hit rate to max out those random procs. So it makes more sense for a shurimonk or repeater build, not great xbows or longbows, IMO.
Crusader is nice for Zeal of the Righteous, Celestial Champion (+1 crit range), and Crusade on the DPS side; plus Sacred Ground for AoE healing. I guess Blessed Blades can save an augment slot too?
FotW is all about the burst DPS, IMO, which is all about combining Adrenaline with special attacks that add either a big static damage bonus (e.g. Slaying Arrow) or a crit multiplier bonus (e.g., Sniper Shot). But all that a pure Mechanic gets is Leg Shot and Wracking Shot; plus Pin and Otto's Whistler if you Twist them in. It works, but there's a reason we talk about Furyshotting monkchers and not FotW Mechanics.
pure DPS dreadnaught is obviously the winner, but good secondary ED are shadowdancer, Shiradi, and Crusader. depending of your build or party composition, you can sacrifice sum damage for other benefits. be it a fusillade mechanic, or pure mechanic.
-Shiradi main appeal is the paralyzing venom and double rainbow, which makes it a CC tree really, great if you want to mix the great x-bow DPS with CC support, but you need a decent about of either doubleshot or attack speed for it to be useful enough.
-Shadowdancer is for convenience, the DD, the shadow stance, shadow manipulation/death, and various invis/dodge 100% makes you quite the slippery fish to deal with, plus shooting bolt while floating in style is awesome.
-Crusader is the best one that give enough DPS boost to get near Dreadnaught, but the main appeal of Crusader is the 10/60% extra doubleshot, on top of the trip on 19-20 (i also added a ruby of endless night to neg lvl on 19-20) along other goodies, like +1 threat range, consecration ground healing +10% damage party buff.
I tried both and fury won hands down IMO. Everthing is situational. Being able to pump out a potential double-shot of 20-30kx2 on command is a real handy-dandy clicky thingy.
I find that dps on a great xbow mechanic is decent regardless of destiny, so I tend to like fury best for those "I need to do a BOOM HEADSHOT! right now" moments & unbridled fury is just incredible.
Fury is the best ED for Great Xbows. With Vorpal on 19-20 you regen adrenaline charges very fast and can pretty much spam them, making the "burst" feel more "sustained" than burst.
I use Shadowdancer on my arti, although I'm debating working on a DPS set for going pure DPS mode in LD in high-skull reaper content. Consume is good on a high-int character up until around R3, then it just doesn't land any more and you're better off with more DPS focus. Shadow Manipulation is also very good for manufacturing a tank/distraction.
Depends a bit on if you solo or group and when in a group with whom you group.
Solo LD is nice, as well as in a group where you are the only one in LD.
But two or more in LD might run into problems, so you might want to change to fury or shiradi (works nicely with Endless Fusilage on GXBs).