Pure fighter Kensai Arcane Archer

[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.