Arcane Archer Soloist

[Qezuzu]

I was thinking of making a Pure lvl20 Ranger with Arcane Archer, almost exclusively for solo play (to collect Base Ingrids for my Rogue, when there's no good LFM's up, etc).

I want to get some great healing Amp, to augment CSW and make soloing easier. So Human.

Should I include a Monk Splash for additional Healing amp? That would lower my ranged DPS by 25% due to lose of capstone.

Any tips?

[Glenalth]

I have a character along those lines.

With the 30% human healing amp, Ranger devotion line, and Superior Ardor potions you can get some respectable healing before dedicating any gear of feats to it. Add in Maximize and/or Empowered Healing for some really good numbers. 10% & 20% healing amplification show up on a few items if you need more. Invest points into concentration since you'll be self healing, you don't want to lose that SP on failed spells.

Since you are soloing, that dungeon scaling will be your friend. Get a few points of DR from an item (Bloodrage Symbiont, Golden Greaves, Festival Cloak, Ring of Mire, etc..) and the incoming damage will be tiny most of the time. Add some good sp regen guards like the Torc or Concordant Opposition item and your SP will stay full under most circumstances. I also enjoy a good lifeshield bow (Lifeshield + Greater Bane, add icy burst ) or bodyfeeder weapon while meleeing as it gives another nice buffer of regenerating HP so you don't have to heal as often.


As far as splashing, the capstone lies, it's only around 12.5% increase in speed.
If you are going strictly for solo play a level of rogue and/or monk can give you excellent benefits. You lose 1-2 to hit, 1 favored enemy, 2pt dmg to your remaining enemies, the capstone, and some spell slots. I wouldn't splash more than 2 levels into other classes though, you lose too much past that point.

[Qezuzu]

Thanks. I think I'll take 18rng/2mnk for Fire Stance and Jidz.

Since I would need Zen Archery, should I get like 16 starting WIS? And what should then be done with DEX then?

I suppose Monk 3, with Curse of Healing, the Light finishers and 10% AMP wouldn't outweigh losing Slayer Arrows, would it.

[Glenalth]

25pts of damage per shot vs 10% amp, finishers that you can't use with your chosen weapon style, and healing curse that does nothing for your chosen weapon style...

Not a tough call on that one.



You're going to have +3 dex from ranger enhancements and +1 wis from monk on top of the 2 floating points from human so you do have some options. I would focus on dex instead of wisdom since it will be cheaper to get high. The Zen Archery would just be to keep you in stance while using a bow. If you can get both your dexterity and wisdom high, you can get a decent AC bonus going and increase your SP pool for healing.

[Arsont]

If you take Zen Archery on a build like this (18/2 rng/mnk) you'd only take it to remain centered with bows. Meaning, you could still keep a low wis, use dex for to-hit. This would also be beneficial in that it would keep your reflex saves higher to make use of Evasion.

Personally, for a solo build, I'd go with 18/1/1 rng/mnk/rog. Still take Zen to make use of Jidz Tet'ka in fire stance, and the rogue level would give you better UMD as well as opening up Disable and Open lock. I can't roll a build up to see how it all looks, as I'm not at home ATM, but it seems perfectly viable.

Anyhow, hope this helps.

[Qezuzu]

I'll do 18rng/1monk/1rog. The rogue splash is for UMD, which is incredibly useful of course (I just looted a +8 AC bracers with RR: Dwarf, UMD 22, too. Not to mention TELEPORT and HEAL).

[Crazyfruit]

Should I include a Monk Splash for additional Healing amp?

If you go half elf you could take the monky dilly.

+20% heal amp from it (in a few days), and 20% from racial enhancements

[unbongwah]

Since I would need Zen Archery, should I get like 16 starting WIS? And what should then be done with DEX then?

Not unless you want a high AC build too. And even then, I would stick with focusing on DEX: you'll have an easier time of boosting it than WIS as a mostly-ranger build; and you'll want to use Wind stance most of the time for the attack speed boost, I think, only switching to Fire when being healed.

I suppose Monk 3, with Curse of Healing, the Light finishers and 10% AMP wouldn't outweigh losing Slayer Arrows, would it.

No. But if you did HE instead of human, you could take the racial AA PrE and still get most of the benefits of being human (except extra feat & skill pts). Maybe something like HE rgr 11 / monk 8 / rogue 1 using longbows & handwraps? [With, say, barb dilly for extra CON & HPs.] I posted a similar build recently (only wiz splash instead of rogue).

[Qezuzu]

I'm not going HElf because I'm not VIP and I'd rather not buy them.

I think I'll go with 18rgr/1mnk/1rog. I'm not looking for huge healing amp, just a lot of it (30% human 25% Jidz 10% and 20% DT etc).

Even when using Elven race for its racial AA, less than 14 ranger and I would lose CWS and FoM.

[Qezuzu]

Since I'll be kiting most things I shouldn't worry about AC too much, but I can get an AC of 58 against favored enemies (55 without).

10 Base
10 DEX MOD
7 WIS MOD
1 Centered bonus
5 Barkskin
5 Protection Item
6 Armor bonus (Jidz will make it harder to fit in a +8. This is from DT Vestments)
4 Insight (DT Soverign)
1 Dodge Feat
1 Dodge Ritual
5 Combat Expertise
3 Favored Defense

These were the common gear/buffs (except maybe exceptional +2 DEX and WIS. So 56/53 common gear). Is it worth going any higher? Like

61 Chattering Ring
63 Epic Jidz
67 Raiments (Insight to GS wep but I'd lose healing amp and Acid Blast (Earthgrab bow) so probably not this. It's also pretty rare.)


So, up to what content is ~55 AC actually useful?

Also, if anyone is interested, I propose, to fix the AC system, to give enemies a higher variance on their attack rolls. Like Epic Lailat, whose to-hit is 100 or so, that would be lowered to 65ish but she could roll d50 to overcome AC. More powerful monsters get a larger die, but everything's attack bonus would be lowered.

[Niktoo]

So, up to what content is ~55 AC actually useful?

at 55 AC you will be the Lebron James of the vale

In Amrath it will mitigate some orthon damage but not devil damage.

[Glenalth]

If you can manage the UMD, you can get another short term 4pts from wands of Shield.

[Qezuzu]

If you can manage the UMD, you can get another short term 4pts from wands of Shield.

Oh joy, like 30 sec haste pots but without the switchability.

"Lebron James" of Vale is good for me because I'll mostly farm base mats with this character.

[Glenalth]

Oh joy, like 30 sec haste pots but without the switchability.

"Lebron James" of Vale is good for me because I'll mostly farm base mats with this character.

Ick, don't use the level 1 wands.