Pure fighter Kensai Arcane Archer

[Asymetric_War]

*edit* Actually, I was wrong. even though the sorc past life says it gives sp's and fills the mental toughness requirement for AA's it only gives those sp's if yo ualready have sps. so you'd have to splash 2 of a spellcasting class of your choice. sadness.

Original post follows:

what's that you say? pure fighters can't be arcane archers because they're not arcane enough? Au Contrair mon amis! They can if they were a sorc in a past life and I just happen to have a 20 sorc sitting around that I don't play much any more.

this toon would be fully raid geared at 20 so +6 items for all the relevant stats and +3 exceptional (+1 from tod rings and +2 from greensteels) to strength and dex. currently the biggest drawback I'm seeing is that I can't wear both the kensai and AA necklaces since, alas, my poor toon she has only 1 head and 1 neck to hold it up! That small imperfection aside, I'm thinking this looks like a pretty solid build that should be able to easily out-dps a ranger-based arcane archer thanks to the kensai's larger crit range and improved damage multiplier.

but then perhaps i'm missing something obvious, such things do happen from time to time and it is well past 3am and my bed time.

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.34
DDO Character Planner Home Page

Level 20 Lawful Good Elf Female
(20 Fighter) 
Hit Points: 362
Spell Points: 145 
BAB: 20\20\25\30\30
Fortitude: 15
Reflex: 14
Will: 5

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(34 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 20)
Strength             16                    20
Dexterity            18                    27
Constitution         14                    16
Intelligence         12                    12
Wisdom                8                     8
Charisma              8                     8

Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 7
+2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 7
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7

Level 1 (Fighter)
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Sorcerer
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Two Weapon Fighting


Level 2 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Weapon Finesse


Level 3 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Weapon Focus: Ranged Weapons


Level 4 (Fighter)
Ability Raise: DEX
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Point Blank Shot


Level 5 (Fighter)


Level 6 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Past Life: Arcane Prodigy
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Rapid Shot


Level 7 (Fighter)


Level 8 (Fighter)
Ability Raise: DEX
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Weapon Specialization: Ranged Weapons


Level 9 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Ranged Weapons


Level 10 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Bow Strength


Level 11 (Fighter)


Level 12 (Fighter)
Ability Raise: DEX
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Greater Weapon Focus: Ranged Weapons
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Weapon Fighting


Level 13 (Fighter)


Level 14 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Greater Weapon Specialization: Ranged Weapons


Level 15 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Manyshot


Level 16 (Fighter)
Ability Raise: DEX
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Precise Shot


Level 17 (Fighter)


Level 18 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Precise Shot
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Superior Weapon Focus: Ranged Weapons


Level 19 (Fighter)


Level 20 (Fighter)
Ability Raise: DEX
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Greater Two Weapon Fighting
Enhancement: Fighter Attack Boost I
Enhancement: Fighter Attack Boost II
Enhancement: Fighter Attack Boost III
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Acid Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Explosive Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Force Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Force Burst Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Slaying Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Terror Arrows
Enhancement: Fighter Weapon Alacrity
Enhancement: Elven Dexterity I
Enhancement: Elven Dexterity II
Enhancement: Elven Ranged Attack I
Enhancement: Elven Ranged Attack II
Enhancement: Elven Ranged Damage I
Enhancement: Elven Ranged Damage II
Enhancement: Kensei Longbow Mastery I
Enhancement: Kensei Longbow Mastery II
Enhancement: Kensei Longbow Mastery III
Enhancement: Fighter Critical Accuracy I
Enhancement: Fighter Critical Accuracy II
Enhancement: Fighter Critical Accuracy III
Enhancement: Fighter Kensei I
Enhancement: Fighter Kensei II
Enhancement: Fighter Kensei III
Enhancement: Fighter Longbow Specialization I
Enhancement: Fighter Longbow Specialization II
Enhancement: Fighter Item Defense I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +2 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +3 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +4 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +5 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer I
Enhancement: Fighter Strength I
Enhancement: Fighter Strength II
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness I
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness II
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness III
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness IV

your thoughts, ideas, flaming rants, and even useful ideas would all be greatly appreciated. thanks!

[Aesop]

just so you know Eladrin confirmed that you won't gain the SP from the Sorcerer Past Life Feat and thus can't use any or the AA Imbues that are the major drawing point of AA

Which is why I went 2 Bard (that and for maxed UMD and Diplomacy)


Aesop

[Asymetric_War]

just so you know Eladrin confirmed that you won't gain the SP from the Sorcerer Past Life Feat and thus can't use any or the AA Imbues that are the major drawing point of AA

Which is why I went 2 Bard (that and for maxed UMD and Diplomacy)


Aesop

ah, well that's sucktastic. thanks for letting me know!

[Aesop]

ah, well that's sucktastic. thanks for letting me know!

No problem... it was something I had originally considered also.


but like I said other than the loss of the fighter capstone 2 Bard seems to be a really nice way to go. bard at 1st and 8th level or so

Aesop

[Antheal]

I'm doing something similar except with 2 Cleric levels to be able to use all the Divine wands.

[Mythal]

lol, aesop beat me to it but the first thing i thought of when i saw your enhancements was....wait a second, those imbues cost mana....and fighter isnt gonna get any. sucks ;(

just go ranger. 25% archer alacrity far outweighs 10%. plus you get all those cool spells - resists, rams might, FoM, runspeed, blah blah blah blah, blah...

i see no reason to be an archer if you arent a ranger. you still get full GTWF as a ranger archer anyway, so this build concept is basically just a gimped form of what a ranger would be.

well, the kensai dmg is nice ofc so i take that back, it wont be as fast hitting but it will hit harder.
maybe it works out to be more dps but i think the amount of more dps itll give compared to that ranger archer alacrity is so small that its not so noticeable. and you lose all the ranger abilities (evasion, better saves, and those spells).
not to mention - favored enemy damage of +12 with 5 picks of favored enemies is pretty **** near impossible to beat even with kensai and all those weapon spec feats.
so no. i repeat what i said before. only a ranger arcane archer is even worth building. 5 FE's is plenty that you'll always be hitting FE mobs when it counts.

[Chai]

The single best thing about Everquest was that you could go anywhere and attack anything. Make your own decisions, deal with the consequences.

I know, I fail for quoting your sig.

EQ was so camptastic on items and it failed to instance even one dungeon. Arguements about camping and /rage trains sucked. I loved that game and people still play it and I liked the fact that dying was real detrimental and cost you almost an entire level of xp.

Also read: 1 spawn of every world boss per week in NON instanced zones = fail for keeping players interested in higher level content.

[AylinIsAwesome]

Outside of going Fighter 18/Bard 1/(Ranger of Barbarian) 1, I'd take a level of Rogue for the last one (obviously at first level).

Tons of skill points, some sneak attack damage and Skill Boost 1 (for UMD).


In the end though, I chose the Ranger splash since I really needed the extra feat...and could still use more. =\

[Logic]

My opinion is if you are going ranged AA then just go 20 ranger. You get so much and do comperable dps to any other AA build that sacrifices a lot.

I know people like to make unique builds... but honestly a pure 20 ranger is the best overall AA spec in my opinion.

[Asymetric_War]

I know, I fail for quoting your sig.

EQ was so camptastic on items and it failed to instance even one dungeon. Arguements about camping and /rage trains sucked. I loved that game and people still play it and I liked the fact that dying was real detrimental and cost you almost an entire level of xp.

Also read: 1 spawn of every world boss per week in NON instanced zones = fail for keeping players interested in higher level content.

way to derail the thread! lol

I disliked lots of things about eq, including many of the things you mentioned but the freedom to walk into a city where I wasn't supposed to be and either invis or sneak or kill the guards when they attacked in order to get through was pretty **** cool and added a level of realism that I appreciated. I set that as my sig line back in 2006 but have mostly ignored the forums for the last 4 years and now for whatever reason it won't let me change my sig line so I seem to be stuck with it.

as for the build, I was thinking that if pure fighter wouldn't work 18 fighter / 2 fvs on the silver flame path would be cool for the extra little ranged attack bonus and for the access to scrolls and wands and a couple basic spells that would give.

also, i was thinking about it, and is it a 100% for-sure thing that fighters don't get the sp's from past life sorc? I seem to remember someone who reincarnated from sorc to monk a while back mentioning that they had sp's which were completely useless since they had no spells.

[pyntsized]

This is probably a necro, but with Epic Destinies, this build is viable again. Just have to wait until 20 to get the sp's from Shiradi champion or primal avatar (why would you go any other way?)

[karl_k0ch]

This is probably a necro, but with Epic Destinies, this build is viable again. Just have to wait until 20 to get the sp's from Shiradi champion or primal avatar (why would you go any other way?)

Actually, having an item which grants you some SP should suffice.

Imho, there is one question which nearly every recent AA build is faced with: What sets this build apart from Monkcher which have 10k Stars?
10kS offers 60 additional seconds of great ranged dps within the 120s timeframe of the manyshot cooldown.

How do the dps bonuses of Kensai III and the capstone compare to 10kS?
What do you do when manyshot is on timer?

[Dieterstrife]

I was asked this question before on a thread I made for exactly this kind of build. Here was my feat list (bit different, actually)

Bow feats: 8
Point Blank shot
Rapid Shot
Bow Strength
Manyshot
Precise Shot
Improved Precise Shot
Arcane Prodigy
IC: Ranged

Kensai Feats: 5
Weapon Focus Ranged
Weapon Specialization
Greater Weapon Focus
Greater Weapon Specialization
Superior Weapon Focus

Melee Feats:7
Power Attack
Cleave
Great Cleave
IC: Slash
Overwhelming Critical
Toughness
Power Critical

What you have to think, is instead of the extra 60 seconds you get from 10k stars, what would the difference be between 20 seconds of Manyshot, 60 seconds of 10k, and 40 seconds of melee vs 20 seconds of Manyshot and 100 seconds of cleaving with something like an EAGA (use this, not the esos for obvious reasons.)

Then you have to sit and compare a Shiradi 10k build to what I just proposed as a Dreadnought build, and ignore twists.

This doesn't factor in one major problem though: Most people (and literally most, this isn't even an exaggeration) will not put their bow down. So going from a 10k build who doesn't put the bow down vs this (more helves angels like) and switching to melee then it's completely obvious who will win.

The 10k builds are not the end all everyone must be them. They are great if you want pure ranged abilities, but I'd rather make an AA/Arti build with Manyshot and Fullisade if I were doing that.

[sephiroth1084]

What you have to ask is, "Why are you spending 40% of your feats on a style that you plan on using only about 20% of the time?"

The goal, I think, for an archer, is to, you know, be an archer. If that means you're doing a little less damage than the melees, that's okay, especially considering that you aren't losing DPS when monsters move, and are losing much less DPS when you move. If you're doing much less DPS than the melees, then you need to rework your character, abandon your character, or shelve your character until the devs grace you with some realistic buffs.

In my experience, a 10K Stars/AA can do enough DPS to be worthwhile in a group of strong melees in most content, although they start to noticeably lag behind in some EE stuff. That's on a Monk 12/Ranger 6/Arti 2. I suspect that Fighter 12/Monk 6/Arti or Ranger 2 (or...something else) can deal more damage. A pure Kensei, though? I doubt it, but someone who's better at it can run the numbers.

Don't ignore twists, though. You can probably reasonably assume that someone has at least a tier 3 and a tier 1 twist (say, Haste Boost and Enlightenment, or some other equivalent stuff). I can't imagine a pure kensei out-performing that--they don't get many more damage bonuses at that point, and I don't think an expansion to threat range will meet 10K Stars.