Arcane Archers

[woundead85]

What's up with lack of these characters in the game? I think they can be very cool to have in some raid where they draw lots of aggro on casters while them (casters) being pounded to dust..
Just some sketch of Arcane Archer pre-defined character path. The real deal is enhancements.
Taking all of the Ranger Arcane Archer enhancements along with all Favored Enemy Attack, Defense, and Resistance Enahncements. Couple of Dex Enhancements and Sprint Boost II.
As for Feats - Arcane Archer Feats (Mental Toughness, Point Blank Shot and WF: Ranged) It leaves me with two Toughness Feats.
If anyone has something to suggest - I'm open to ideas. Be warned, 28pt build!

Edit: For feats, what's your take on precision and manyshot? I think I'm able to make mod8 Arcane Archer who will kill almost any target before melee guys will be able to close on him. About Enhancements, I think I will drop Favored Attack, cause I will have virtually unlimited True Strike shots with +20 to hit.

[Mandinga]

What's up with lack of these characters in the game?

You may start to see more Arcane Archers once the new enhancements come out, I had one up until Quivers came out, it seemed useless to spend the feats and enhancements when I can carry around 3000 arrows in my quiver and some of them being returning.


Mandinga

[krud]

I'd wait to see what the future enhancements are before building one. In the meantime, I keep building ranged wizards. More arcane than archer, but it's still fun to be able to shoot and cast. If the AA enhancements aren't any good, at least I end up with a fully functional wizard.

[Angelus_dead]

What's up with lack of these characters in the game?

They're lacking because the Arcane Archer enhancement doesn't provide much of anything useful.

If a character has Arcane Archer, it's a sign of weakness.

[Uska]

They're lacking because the Arcane Archer enhancement doesn't provide much of anything useful.

If a character has Arcane Archer, it's a sign of weakness.

SAYS YOU

[barecm]

I had deepwood sniper, I liked it, but scrapped it. I went Arcane archer and have +4 arrows (instead of +3 house D) and +1 ghost touched force arrows on demand; which are the ranged equivalent of the ethereal bracers... only better (no item slot used and force damage). Additionally, there has been talk by the developers to develop this line further with cooler affect arrows (maybe fireball arrows?). So, all in all, I will take the consistent +1 to hit and damage over the increased crit range every for 1 shot every 10 seconds. Additionally, I have a lot more spell points (616 to be exact vs the 400ish I had before) to cast barkskin, resists, FoM and spot heal myself (I crit cure serious to about 150 hps).

However, depending on how the each line is developed (or not developed) in the next mod, I may switch back to deepwood.

[maddmatt70]

Ranged characters lack dps hence they are pretty dead in ddo. I have an arcane archer (my 14 fighter 1 ranger 1 bard character), but he has all the twf feats and ranges for the most part only on manyshot. Oh I rarely use the arcane archer prestige enhancements and really they are there just for flavor..

Edit: I am hoping that they add another tier of arcane archer this mod, but it looks unlikely they will..

[WeiQuinn]

I actually rolled up a Ranger/Cleric and took the Elven Arcane Archer enhancement line. VaConMorte will be a Ranger 12/Cleric 8 -or- Ranger 12/Cleric 7/Monk 1 build.

He's more of a concept build. I gave him a Silverbow and took the Follower of the Silver Flame Cleric enhancement. Since he's part Cleric, I have him melee with light maces/hammers with Weapon Finesse, of course!

I picked up all of the Elven Ranged Attack/Damage enhancements too. He's quite fun to play, especially in a group with a few melee types where I can hang back and range.

[ArealLeroy]

I just made a arcane archer and i really enjoy the build, I dont have Super duper items but some fairly nice ones at the time (only lvl6 ATM) but I can hang out in the back and just mess people up! 2 monsters cant get to me before i kill them both and if i use many shot well they really dont stand a chance, now i can swich to my melee and do awesome damage too, but then i get hit. I do see the lack of good enchament for them, the force arrow are very nice but the arcane archers arrow +4 arnt that great. by the time im lvl16 i will be using a +5 bow so for me i am going to stick with the force arrow since they make my bow ghost touch and do force damage which hits everything, i do believe. I wish they would atleast make arcane archer enchament add +1 to hit on ur bow but for the cost of 5 enchament points i see the arrows worth it.

[hu-flung-pu]

Focus on STR over DEX, put all your level ups in STR.

You'll have the +5 bow and +4 returning arrows to help you hit, and the High STR to wade in and out of melee combat, with out going down for the count.

It's like the end line in Quigley down under after he kills the bad guy in a pistol quick draw duel, after using a Sniper rifle the whole movie, he says:

"I said I di'n't prefer'em [the pistol], not that I di'n't know how to use'em."

Oh wait that's a total spoiler to the movie! I hope no one was looking forward to watching it this weekend. Anyway's, moving on...

I've got a STR based arcane archer build going this route, his end result is dual wielding Khopesh, while he fires off those crazy arrows to significantly weaken the monsters before they can get in range and cut'em down to size.

And in a few instances, ranged weapons trump everything.

[negative]

+5 bow and +4 arrows don't stack.

And I hate "examples" of how ranged combat isn't broken that start with "I TWF really well"

[hu-flung-pu]

Isn't it like for like that doesn't stack? So +5 bows, and +5 arrows don't stack?

And who said anything about ranged combat not being broken?

[riexau]

Isn't it like for like that doesn't stack? So +5 bows, and +5 arrows don't stack?

And who said anything about ranged combat not being broken?

+'s don't stack, extra dmg mods do.

a +1 greater construct bane bow with +5 construct bane arrows would be +9 +5d6 vs constructs.