Beverly Helfbilly Ranged Contender

[tinyelvis]

I was trying to decide what type of ranged toon to TR my multi-lifed sorcerer into. A good ranged toon needs in my opinion a number of things to be a good toon.

* High rate of fire.
* High damage bonus (base item damage really impacts overall damage little)
* Consistent fast movement to kite.
* Self sufficient and healing.

I noticed while running rate of fire tests that a shuriken with rapid shot, Shuriken expertise, and quick draw will have a higher rate of fire than a rapid shot bow. Further, with brutal throw you only need super buff one stat, namely strength (though dex should be as high as possible too for more chances at multi shots). Shurikens are by far the best thrown weapons currently in game. With a high enough damage buff differental over a bow (through things like halfling throwing buffs and strength stat boosts) it was possible theoretically to outperform even a manyshot bow over any 2 minute and 20 second period, especially once 10Kstars was added. See this post below for some practical appliation,

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=274374

However, the more I studied this the more it occurred to me that most all buffs due to strength and what not available to thrown weapons were also available to bow weapons via feats like zen archery and bow strength. Furthermore, making strength your primary stat, like some ranged builds is a nice approach for many reasons. However, since you only net a handful more points of damage over someone else (i.e. 2.5 buff points from stat boost.... ) who makes either dex or wisdom their primary stat while still buffing strength as much as possible, it seemed to me a better idea to make either Dex or Wisdom my primary stat.

So, I decided to return to bow use as opposed to shurikens utilizing Zen Archery. Any bow user IMO would be foolish not to pick up manyshot, which I obviously planned to do. In addition, though, I wanted to implement 10Kstars. This meant wisdom need to be buffed. Dexterity is only needed as a prereq to high end ranged feats. A final Dex of 19 is all that is necessary to pick up manyshot as well as improved precise shot. However, with a good race choice, enhancement buffs, and tomes, a starting DEX of 13 or 14 was all that was needed (I ended up down grading this further as will be seen). And therefore, chose wisdom as my primary stat. A high wisdom (40+) really improves the number of extra 10Kstar shots. This can radically increase rate of fire which is more important than a handful of extra strength bonuses.

Ok, lastly, since I had settled on a bow, I decided to shoot for the moon and add Arcane Archer capability. This ranged toon is loaded down to capacity and bulging with ranged capability like the truck driven by the Beverly Hillbillies. Feats and enhancements are really lean on this build and some corners needed to be cut. So, it is impossible to have all of the other ranged bells and whistles.

Beverly Helfbilly
Race Half Elf with 3 past sorcerer lives.
12 FVS / 6 Monk/ 2 Ranger
rouge dili: For cheap dex buff and back stabs

Starting Stats
S 13
D 16 < - will be buffed to 19 with tomes.
C 13
I 10
W 16 <- spend level stat buffs here
C 12

Feats:
1) Point blank shot; Bow Strength (Ranger)
2) Rapid shot (R)
3) Weapon focus ranged, Zen Archery(Monk);
4) Toughness (M)
6) Arcane Initiate
8) Dodge or Stunning fist (M)
9) Manyshot
12) Maximize
15) Precise shot
18) Improved Precise shot

Enhancements include:
Arcane Archer
10 Kstar
Angel of VEngeance
Ninja Spy I
Ranger Dili enhancements
Stat boosts
Some Light buffs

It was impossible to fit in precise shot and improved precise shot. This is very very regrettable. Essentially the choice is Arcane Archer and rogue bonus sneak attacks vs. Improved precise shot and the human. I elected to go with better burst DPS potential over Trash killing AOE prowess. I am not completely married to the AA approach and might reconsider. I took Dodge for Ninja Spy I and to help hopefully with KI generation (an aspect of this build that I am weakest on). Would welcome any monk advice. As I anticipated, enhancement selection was very tight and confined mostly to offensive buffs. This toon is not a healer (I am sure that will be popular).

This build also benefits from the FVS spell offensive capability which includes blade barrier use, and great self healing. I have never used 10kstars and am not an expert on KI generation, some advice here would be welcome especially toward 6th level monk enhancement selection. I will TR into this build come the update.

*edit: modified the build to include level of wizard. Lost a DC and die of damage off of spells, lost improved crit, but gained improved precise shot and maximize spell. Also reduced starting wisdom from 18 to 16 so I could increase dex enough to take improved precise shot.

*edit: Changed main class to cleric, dropped wiz and added ranger.

*final edit: Returned to the FVS, yeah. Picked up ranger dili and dropped BOW str feat. Now have a divine PRE. Details of this build are shown below.

post final edit: Ranger with rogue dili now and full bow strength is back in.