Tear apart my archer! (gear wise)

[Hobgoblin]

So I have a helves angel (12 fighter/6 ranger/ 2 monk) recently capped. I tried taking her into epics and it was an epic fail!

While i think it is still a viable build, i think i need a lot of gear.

so tear it apart gear wise

head - minos - red dragon helm?
neck - alchemists pendant- kilus/gilvanors?
cloak - cha + 6/ res +4 - Envenomed/greensteel hp item?
ring 1 - stalker ring
boots - propulsion - ecorrosion boots?
gloves - fabricators - eclaw - e charged?
ring 2 - dex + 5 - gilvanors? kilus?
bracers - wind howlers
armor - frozen tunic
goggles - insight goggles - tharnes/ attack +4?
trinket - greater bold trinket
belt - gfl - gs hp item?
Weapons - assorted heavy picks - can make any dr breaker i choose, no gs on this guy yet. She does have a pair of death nips - which is a lot of fun on trash, but dont break most dr.

have pretty much every none gs bow in the game- with the exception of the ethornlord

gear is divided into what i have what i think i should be going for


thanks for your time

hob

[Hobgoblin]

cricket. criket?

anyone?

lol

[HalfORCastrator]

Get tier 2 on stalker ring.

Get fab bracers and unlock set.

Go khopeshes for melee. GO KHOPESHES FOR MELEE. Cannith water khopeshes for trash or crafted dr breakers for bosses are good.

Try out Cannith earth longbow.

Belt can be gfl/6con shav belt.

Some combo of dragontouched armor, I like amp.

Ravager/fb3/shintao sets also good. Lit 2 khopeshes, maxed out crafted dr breakers. I mean all the best stuff(right now) you know, so really just mentioned inbetween gear.

[ShadowFlash]

My wife is in the same boat as you, so I'm giving you a free bump for her benefit

Fabricator's set we like better than wind howler's...I actually can't see the fascination with wind howler's at high levels. Note, however, that the description is of course wrong, and it will NOT proc on ranged. IF it was WAI it would be best in slot for a STR based AA IMHO...Still, as the helve's style is mostly melee (and how my wife plays her non-helves) I'll agree with the Fab set.

Our personal goal, is to spec more for utility via Challenge Earth Bow and Elemental Rapier/Envenomed Blade.

Other than that, I'm curious as well

ShadowFlash

[blerkington]

Hi,

The Helves Angel seems like a very good build, so I don't think it's a problem with your character. And your gear doesn't look terrible either.

Can you be more specific about what happened when you ran these epics? Which quests were they? What specifically went wrong? Lots of dying or just underperforming compared to others in the group and/or your other toons? Was it an unusually weak or strong group? Sometimes it's just a problem with conflicting playstyles.

I'm interested because I play a melee/ranged hyrbrid and have been considering the Helves build. I really like my build, and it's served me well for two out of four of my ranger lives. It does well in all content including epics (except for epic LoB, MA, Wiz King and CoF, haven't done those yet) in that I'm keeping up with killing trash, contributing when killing bosses and not dying. But on paper my build is definitely weaker.

So if you have the time to explain in detail what went wrong, I'd like to hear.

Thanks.

[Hobgoblin]

Hi,

The Helves Angel seems like a very good build, so I don't think it's a problem with your character. And your gear doesn't look terrible either.

Can you be more specific about what happened when you ran these epics? Which quests were they? What specifically went wrong? Lots of dying or just underperforming compared to others in the group and/or your other toons? Was it an unusually weak or strong group?

I'm interested because I play a ranged/archer hyrbrid and have been considering the Helves build. I really like my build, and it's served me well for two out of four of my ranger lives. It does well in all content including epics (except for epic LoB, MA, Wiz King and CoF, haven't done those yet). But on paper my build is definitely weaker.

So if you have the time to explain in detail what went wrong, I'd like to hear.

Thanks.

The two quests in particular were echrono and e von 1

Echrono - i was missing a lot even shipped buffed/ bard buffed. low hp was the issue there as well
von 1 - perhaps it was saves - but the kobolds tore me up.

Echrono was a failure - von 1 was not, but i felt i didn't help the group much either.

hob

[blerkington]

Hi,

Thank you for the reply.

My character overcame his to-hit problems with enhancements from his rogue levels, a lot of SA gear (epic brawling gloves and the stacking bonus from the Tier 3 ring of the stalker) and always attacking from the flank. He also gets a racial to-hit bonus for being an elf. Most of this should be available to your character too.

For super-high AC targets, switching off PA and using a destruction weapon helps too, although I'm sure you've already thought of that. Aside from the very best eChrono groups I've been in, there has been a noticeable increase in melee DPS when improved destruction is being used on the bosses.

I would like to use the frozen tunic too, but I don't have room for it because my DT vestments contain some quite important effects that won't fit anywhere else without displacing something else important. If you equipped DT armour and had a destruction rune in the sovereign slot that could make a big difference with hitting.

The issue with saves against the kobolds could just be bad luck. But you may be able to jack up your reflex saves with an exceptional reflex item, good luck +2 in an epic slot, and the alchemical resistance ritual. GH clickies are handy too in case your caster doesnt do it or it gets dispelled.

Lastly, the difference between a first or second life toon with decent but not great gear and a fully geared-out fourth or fifth life toon can be pretty big. One thing I found with my character was that it took me quite a while before my build, playstyle and gear all came together nicely, and this may be an issue for you too.

I hope at least some of this helps. Let me know what you think.