The Starman - Coup de Grace Ranged Assassin

[autochthon]

DWS is for Aimed shot, which doubles your crit multiplier, giving you double damage Adrenaline attacks. So it makes a thrower synergize with FoTW and adds roughly 35% physical damage. It also adds a lot of smoothness to leveling, since at level 9 with aimed shot + sb + double crit shadowstar bug combined with sb bug you will have 3-20x4 attacks which can instakill mobs off raw damage. Also drow doesn't give dex to damage with thrown.

People think shuriken and think procs. Raw damage to the face works well too though. This is a shiradi Aimed Shot with shadowstar. A fury adrenaline one would hit 5x as hard. Even bugged without the SB crit multiplier, it still is a decent attack.



Ranger also gives unbridled wrath many snipershot combo.

Didn't really look too hard at aimed shot. I swear I saw Drow as the race. Man I really should sleep more.

[Gnarkh]

I swear I saw Drow as the race.

And you probably did. The build was Drow before the first revision, until someone kindly pointed out, that you need Halfling for the Dex-To-Damage.

[autochthon]

And you probably did. The build was Drow before the first revision, until someone kindly pointed out, that you need Halfling for the Dex-To-Damage.

Mmmmm... Well I'd probably end up doing an 18 Bard build myself if only because I like the level 18 cores :P

That full BAB.

Why does Aimed Shot double crit multiplier? wiki says +1 (shich would be +33%). Is wiki wrong or ingame bugged?

[Tilomere]

Mmmmm...

Why does Aimed Shot double crit multiplier? wiki says +1 (shich would be +33%). Is wiki wrong or ingame bugged?

Oh right, that's sniper shot that is +2. Aimed is only +1. Ingame is also bugged. SB crit multiplier thrown doesn't work.

[autochthon]

Oh right, that's sniper shot that is +2. Aimed is only +1. Ingame is also bugged. SB crit multiplier thrown doesn't work.

Yes well maybe they fix SB eventually. Too bad devs can't work on more than one thing at a time.

[Gnarkh]

Mmmmm... Well I'd probably end up doing an 18 Bard build myself if only because I like the level 18 cores :P That full BAB.

It's tempting. It also means investing 31 AP into Warchanter. What would you remove from my current enhancement list on top of the 25 AP spent in Rogue Assassin? (personally, I'd drop the halfling Guile line.)

Tenser also got 4 Dex on top of the full BaB. That's kinda huge. And the stuff in Rogue Assassin is quite strong, if purely DPS oriented.

But I'm open for suggestions, a high bard level has merits on its own, obviously.

As a variant I might even try to fit in some Spellsinger Cores to get more versatility with fascinate.

Fun build for a bard life.

Take that, oozes!

[autochthon]

Tenser's Dex bonus is alchemical, if you use potions it's essentially +1 dex (albeit permanently).

I don't actually know what I'd change, I just know I like high level bard :P

[giftie]

Love the Bard 18/Rogue 2 ide, but I could never get it to work very well myself. I'll definitely roll one up again.

As for your original (that is, the one that's posted when I write this) build however, how come you're going up the Assassin tree rather than the TA tree? I would've thought No Mercy (+30% damage to helpless) and especially Shadow Dodge (+6 DEX) would be more useful than anything in the Assassin tree.

[Gnarkh]

(...) How come you're going up the Assassin tree rather than the TA tree? I would've thought No Mercy (+30% damage to helpless) and especially Shadow Dodge (+6 DEX) would be more useful than anything in the Assassin tree.

That's an interesting idea as well.

One thing I wanted to change anyways, is peeling off a couple of AP in the Assassin Tree to get Damage Boost.

In TA I get:
Haste Boost - 30% Attack Speed (not sure if needed on this build, attack speed capped? Not sure.)
Shadow Dodge - 3% Dodge, 3 Dex (if I don't misread this, the other 3 are enhancement bonus and won't stack?)
No Mercy - 30% Damage to helpless

In Rogue Assassin I get:
Damage Boost - 30% damage
Sneak Attack - 4d6 Sneak Dice
Killer - 0-20% Doubleshot
some Venomed Blades as Filler Points, probably 1d4 Poison Damage

Unless I forget something essential?

Can someone clarify how haste boost would affect the build, please. At the back of my head I remember there have been some issues with hardcapping the throwing speed?

One consideration might be, stuff that's helpless is potentially stuff that's CDG'ed a second later.

However, 30% to helpless for a thrower is fantastic obviously, if you twist Pin/Whistler, which one probably should.

If you can stack Killer well in a given situation, it's also a strong option.

There's probably a lot of room to optimize my enhancement layout. It's a 'quick draft'

[giftie]

Shadow Dodge - 3% Dodge, 3 Dex (if I don't misread this, the other 3 are enhancement bonus and won't stack?)

I just tested it, and it stacks. It's probably a bug, but as of writing this you get the full +6 DEX.

[Gnarkh]

So it's 6 Dex...that's quite powerful indeed.

Quite some work to do on the enhancements, then.

[giftie]

Another (although admittedly very minor) advantage of TA tree is that you can grab the basic QS enhancements for DEX-to-damage, +15% attack speed and ~20% doublestrike with QS. That should be a better melee option against bosses whenever Manyshot in on CD. Especially if you plan on running in DC rather than Shiradi.

[Gnarkh]

Another (although admittedly very minor) advantage of TA tree is that you can grab the basic QS enhancements for DEX-to-damage, +15% attack speed and ~20% doublestrike with QS. That should be a better melee option against bosses whenever Manyshot in on CD. Especially if you plan on running in DC rather than Shiradi.

Melee option?

Manyshot?

*confused*

[Gnarkh]

Currently prepping my TR, might do one more Epic PL, though.

Made some gear:
- Greensteel Cloak (+6 Cha Skills, +3 Stacking Saves, etc.)
- Thunderforged DPS (Touch of Flames, Dragon's Edge, slotted Kinetic Ruby Eye)
- Thunderforged Bossbeater (1st Degree Burns, Dragon's Edge, slotted Good)
- Thunderforged Disabler (Blinding Fear, Paralyzing Fear, probably gonna slot Mabar, if I find one )

And I found a Ring of Deceit.

The damage shuriken will get Mortal Fear at one point.

The disable shuriken...Crippling Flames to debuff for CDG is one option. Anyone tried Mind Breaker? How often does it proc?

(getting stuff disabled with IPS will be a *huge* priority to prep CDG every 10 seconds.)

[giftie]

Melee option?

Manyshot?

*confused*

Melee for those pesky red-names or singleton undeads, where you get no benefit from IPS or CDG and throwers are a DPS loss. Not saying you need to melee, just that it'd be a nice option to have.

One of your earlier incarnations had Manyshot - you mention it halfway down the thread. Didn't notice that your updated build didn't have it anymore.

[Gnarkh]

Melee for those pesky red-names or singleton undeads, where you get no benefit from IPS or CDG and throwers are a DPS loss.

Not sure how the new build will play, switching to melee on my current thrower would be...weird. (currently a modified shuricannon with a fort debuff weapon, precision and celestia procs, so undead...pah! Also, no IPS...means wohoo, +30% damage stance)

Still, you're right, it's an option of course.

One of your earlier incarnations had Manyshot.

Oh yeah it did, sorry for the confusion then, still changing a lot.

[Gnarkh]

Good morning, Korthos!

So, I TRed and started leveling the toon with the new planned split.

As essential feats and hence shuriken damage will arrive late, I decided to level a melee / hybrid build until at least level 12.

For level 4 I farmed a Tiefling's Blade (dex-to-damage) which makes melee a blast and mitigates not having weapon line feats. Another option would be to roll with a Nat Gann's staff, probably taking rogue levels earlier to unlock quarterstaff enhancements.

As ranged weapons I got from my last life:
- Shadowstar from STK
- Snowstar from Sorrowdusk.
- A triple Pos GS shuriken

Also, some assorted crafted weapons...Holy, Ghosttouch, Everbright, the usual stuff.

While leveling I realized I should have planned the level order in more detail.

Quite hard to keep perform, UMD and trapping skills at an adequate level. So I mix and match classes to optimize skillpoints as nicely as possible. (and fix it even better with an Epic TR.

I very much recommend to run the levels through a planner with your chosen skills and INT tome.

Level order so far (1-11):
Rogue, Bard, Bard, Bard, Wiz, Wiz, Wiz, Wiz, Rogue, Wiz, Wiz

Leveling actually is smooth with nice DPS. For which I blame the Tiefling Blade which rocks on a Dex build without any investment in melee feats.

Necro II was terrible, tho.

[Gnarkh]

With the upcoming changes to Overwhelming Crit, I'm considering settling for a different split, one life ahead, after I farmed out EDs.

bard 10 / ranger 6 / rogue 4 (running in Divine Crusader)

See post #2.

Changed the original build from Rogue Assassin to Thief Acrobat as the +6 Dex is indeed to good to pass up.

[jakeelala]

10 Bard/ 6 Ranger /4 Rogue is easily the best split for throwers without Monk in my opinion, as I've mentioned in a few other threads variously. It would need to be halfling if using Shuriken. If not, whatever race you want.

[Gnarkh]

10 Bard/ 6 Ranger /4 Rogue is easily the best split for throwers without Monk in my opinion, as I've mentioned in a few other threads variously. It would need to be halfling if using Shuriken. If not, whatever race you want.

Yes, I agree, it's a very elegant split getting the best from all worlds I think. If you got full BaB from your ED.

I'm not in math mood enough to calculate shuriken vs. non shuriken. Gut feeling, the extra throw chance beats other options here. For me it's not an option anyways, I I just spent an awful lot of Thunderforged mats to make my precious endgame shuriken.

Comparing the two build ideas presented here. Fully scrolled, I'd expect the split without wizard to have more sheer throwing DPS obviously.

The build with the wizard split should be quite close, though. With the next update increasing the gap a bit.

It's got strong points, though, like epic reflexes (no need for blinding speed really) and the versatility 11 wizard gets you. Plus, you can always throw a nice juicy AoE on top of your thrower damage. (which probably is difficult to model and depends a little on what gear I'll manage to fit in). A lot better to farm through arcane sphere as well.