"Strimtom's Acid Arrow", Maximum Bow DPS, F2P/new player Friendly

[Sunnie]

just thought that maybe yhou meant an enhancement from AA t ree

That's exactly what he meant. At level 3 you start putting AP into the AA tree, and get the imbue Elemental Arrows: Acid.

[rlarge]

ty. I thought it had to be so reset all enhancements and got it. ty

[Strimtom]

on this build you say t hat at level 3 I can add acid to my bow. I am "assuming", not good for me to do that, that you mean find a bow that has acid on it. Checked AH and there was none. Is t here a certain quest that will have one in loot? Or just in loot sometimes in any quest? At level 3 I am doing level 2/3 quests atm and not found one yet.
edit: just thought that maybe yhou meant an enhancement from AA t ree but you said take all 39 in other tree first..I think. sigh. probably have it wrong.

#1. By acid arrow I mean the arcane archer enhancement from the arcane archer tree. Weapons that have acid damage don't add too much damage to the build because your magical ability (spellpower) only affects the acid you add to the arrows from your enchantments.
#2. For enhancements, you spend your first 6 points getting improved weapon finesse from deepwood stalker, then you spend the rest of your points in arcane archer until you have all of the acid arrow enhancements.

[jb111]

Trying this build - now at level 19. I have the sinew bow. What bow would be best when I get to level 20+?

[Strimtom]

Trying this build - now at level 19. I have the sinew bow. What bow would be best when I get to level 20+?

I personally used the Silver Longbow until I was high enough level to use Thunder-Forged Longbow. Getting a longbow with acid spellpower on it only takes 80 Thunder-forged ingots, which is maybe 2 hours of farming, but so far I haven't found a better weapon. Thunderforged bow is level 23, tier 1 is level 24. I haven't tried new legendary greensteel yet.

[jb111]

I personally used the Silver Longbow until I was high enough level to use Thunder-Forged Longbow. Getting a longbow with acid spellpower on it only takes 80 Thunder-forged ingots, which is maybe 2 hours of farming, but so far I haven't found a better weapon. Thunderforged bow is level 23, tier 1 is level 24. I haven't tried new legendary greensteel yet.

Thank you

[Loromir]

So...I Epic TR'd my tempest into one of these...and while my Tempest DPS as well as my Barb, Pally and Swashbuckler Past lives had better DPS, and over all just better builds...I am having fun. It is nice to change things up somewhat. I got a little bored with just hacking and slashing...and I'm really tired of the resource hog caster builds. So.... this is a nice change of pace.

[Strimtom]

So...I Epic TR'd my tempest into one of these...and while my Tempest DPS as well as my Barb, Pally and Swashbuckler Past lives had better DPS, and over all just better builds...I am having fun. It is nice to change things up somewhat. I got a little bored with just hacking and slashing...and I'm really tired of the resource hog caster builds. So.... this is a nice change of pace.

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I love this build. In Draconic Incarnation using Burst/Vortex on cooldown I can't run out of mana because soul magic procs so often. Completely resource less. It's just hard to be tankier with this type of build since Arcane Archer (which almost all of the points go into) provides no PRR, life, dodge, or saves, espeicially since Barbs, pallys, swashbucklers etc get all those things for free.

[Ligraph]

Built something similar and had a few questions:

1. Why acid arrows? Pit Fiends are resistant, and Lightning seems just as good
2. Why not just use IPS situationally and take Improved AF and Aimed shot? 75 ranged power from AF is a lot.
3. Why not scion of Earth? 40 extra spellpower and another 2d20 acid damage on hit.

Also, Arcane Warrior seemed like a very good level 29 epic feat to me, with stacks it's another 20 Spellpower. Same with Epic Spell Power: Acid.

[Strimtom]

Built something similar and had a few questions:

Why acid arrows? Pit Fiends are resistant, and Lightning seems just as good

There aren't any pit fiends in the leveling from 1-20, and there are more lightning immune creatures in general. Lightning is better for endgame, but this guide wasn't designed for endgame.

Why not just use IPS situationally and take Improved AF and Aimed shot? 75 ranged power from AF is a lot.

AF is really screwy. Sometimes when it is on it can take 15 seconds for it to start counting. When running most content, even epic elite content, you don't stand still for that long unless you are fighting bosses (on epic elite).

Why not scion of Earth? 40 extra spellpower and another 2d20 acid damage on hit.

Physical Damage beats out the acid damage after level 28, so that is the big reason why I haven't. Didn't get to test scion of earth, but it doesn't feel better.

Also, Arcane Warrior seemed like a very good level 29 epic feat to me, with stacks it's another 20 Spellpower. Same with Epic Spell Power: Acid.

Arcane Warrior is really good since it also gives force and healing spellpower. Highly recommend it if you have the destinies unlocked.

[the_one_dwarfforged]

Disclaimer:[*]Fury of the Wild - Bad.

no...its really good. fury shot is still insane burst damage.

guildy did 30 odd thousand damage with a single arrow on a highly suboptimal (not capped, 8 cleric levels) monkcher build the day after the manyshot change.

[dunklezhan]

Finally, it has an augment slot so that you can keep it updated with the best acid spellpower augment and keep ontop of your acid damage. Eventually, you will construct a hilarious tooltip like this.

What? When did this happen? You mean I need to farm myself another one? That took me about 10 runs with groups back in 2010 when you could find groups! /groan.

[Eskelle]

Fairly new player here, clocking casual playtime. Rolled one of these up as an alt and have it almost to level 6. Been working on skilling up Cannith Crafting (which seems to be a mess since the new autogen loot does not deconstruct well) and fortunately pulled a Silver Longbow on my main, so that's covered.

I'm waffling back and forth over the Dodge > Mobility > Shot on the Run chain, since I'm not sure how big of an impact that -4 is going to have in the long run, but is there really anything worth taking (as an elf) over it? The only thing I can eyeball is taking Weapon Focus early and grabbing Power Critical at 12, with Quicken at 15, but then I'm not sure what to grab at 18. I'm also not sure the damage off Power Critical would be worth it, even w/ Silver Longbow + Improved Crit.

Also, the OP mentions this build is new player/F2P friendly - how do you see it performing from a soloing perspective, at least through 20 (and is there anything you'd change to better support it being run solo versus the spec in the OP)? I am dual boxing a cleric (w/ the mandatory 2 rogue for trapfinding) and runs seem totally fun through 5, even through Elite. I just keep the bot close by (hate the fact that trash respawns in some quests, esp. w/ no auto-follow command) and seem to be murdering everything, but is there anywhere you can foresee this build struggling solo (w/ a Cleric hireling for emergency healing + Wis rune use)? I'm honestly not sure how solo-friendly DDO ends up being (I've played my main w/ two coworkers and through level 9 it seems trapfinding was the only deficiency, which the dual boxer covers). I know there are some quests I will likely need to write off (any extreme challenges are likely a no go since the bot will get mauled, as are quests with fast trash respawns). I should note I have nearly all of the 'recommended' adventure packs on both my main and the bot account, and picked up both expansions when they were on dirt cheap, so I have a fair bit of content to choose from.

I may end up playing it w/ my friends if they want to play different characters anyway, but I figured I'd ask. I appreciate any insight you can share.

[the_one_dwarfforged]

Fairly new player here, clocking casual playtime. Rolled one of these up as an alt and have it almost to level 6. Been working on skilling up Cannith Crafting (which seems to be a mess since the new autogen loot does not deconstruct well) and fortunately pulled a Silver Longbow on my main, so that's covered.

I'm waffling back and forth over the Dodge > Mobility > Shot on the Run chain, since I'm not sure how big of an impact that -4 is going to have in the long run, but is there really anything worth taking (as an elf) over it? The only thing I can eyeball is taking Weapon Focus early and grabbing Power Critical at 12, with Quicken at 15, but then I'm not sure what to grab at 18. I'm also not sure the damage off Power Critical would be worth it, even w/ Silver Longbow + Improved Crit.

Also, the OP mentions this build is new player/F2P friendly - how do you see it performing from a soloing perspective, at least through 20 (and is there anything you'd change to better support it being run solo versus the spec in the OP)? I am dual boxing a cleric (w/ the mandatory 2 rogue for trapfinding) and runs seem totally fun through 5, even through Elite. I just keep the bot close by (hate the fact that trash respawns in some quests, esp. w/ no auto-follow command) and seem to be murdering everything, but is there anywhere you can foresee this build struggling solo (w/ a Cleric hireling for emergency healing + Wis rune use)? I'm honestly not sure how solo-friendly DDO ends up being (I've played my main w/ two coworkers and through level 9 it seems trapfinding was the only deficiency, which the dual boxer covers). I know there are some quests I will likely need to write off (any extreme challenges are likely a no go since the bot will get mauled, as are quests with fast trash respawns). I should note I have nearly all of the 'recommended' adventure packs on both my main and the bot account, and picked up both expansions when they were on dirt cheap, so I have a fair bit of content to choose from.

I may end up playing it w/ my friends if they want to play different characters anyway, but I figured I'd ask. I appreciate any insight you can share.

4 mp is a lot more valuable when your flat dmg mod is above 100. id say comparing the dodge chain against the feats you listed is roughly the same dmg in heroics (just eyeballing it), and the real decision is whether you want more dodge or quicken.

its been a while since ive seen things from a very casual new player perspective, but i would always trust quests marked as extreme challenges as extreme challenges, and there are probably some quests which are sort of extreme challenges but are not marked as such.

for the most part the quests you may end up writing off will be quests which require you to have x amount of people to do various things, or require your character to have certain stats that you will be unable to achieve with your build/gear. im thinking along the lines of xorian cipher here.

as far as a build like this struggling, id say if you are really dependent on your hireling then any quest where you will be taking a high amount of sustained damage will be an issue. also possibly quests where you need to sustain very high dps for more than 20 seconds. example that comes to mind is enter the kobold.

most quests are defeatable with patience and/or ingenuity even if you are having trouble on them with an ungeared character. game mechanics and tricks/tips such as bluff pulling (not sure if that specifically is still a thing...but pulling only what you can handle is the point here), using line of sight to reduce damage, slotting a hamstring item, slotting a imp/deception item, finding/carrying ways to heal yourself other than your blue bar go a long way.

[Alisonique]

I am running my ranger in acid in epics and he still is great fun, this is a seriously fun way to play a ranger, and makes a huge change from playing as a tempest. Playing in epic wildernesses is a blast with lots of space to run around and shoot at a great distance. Pulling the bad guys with arrows rather than bluff works so well. Thanks for the idea, mid 20s now

[Strimtom]

I'm waffling back and forth over the Dodge > Mobility > Shot on the Run chain, since I'm not sure how big of an impact that -4 is going to have in the long run, but is there really anything worth taking (as an elf) over it? The only thing I can eyeball is taking Weapon Focus early and grabbing Power Critical at 12, with Quicken at 15, but then I'm not sure what to grab at 18. I'm also not sure the damage off Power Critical would be worth it, even w/ Silver Longbow + Improved Crit.

My feat choice was pretty pointless, since as long as I had point blank shot, quicken, and improved crit the rest didn't matter. Shot on the run is noticeable in Epic Elite, but in every other difficulty it doesn't matter.

Also, the OP mentions this build is new player/F2P friendly - how do you see it performing from a soloing perspective, at least through 20 (and is there anything you'd change to better support it being run solo versus the spec in the OP)?

I solo'd pretty much from level 1-20 with mediocre lootgen gear. The only named items I had were Silver longbow, Voice of the Master, and Mantle of the Worldshaper. This build can solo every single quest in the game since you ignore damage reduction of almost every monster in the game, are ranged, and have an extremely high burst with manyshot. Now, I technically didn't solo since my style is to pick a quest, put up an LFM, and then go do it regardless as to whether people join me or not. I like playing with others but this build is 100% solo friendly. I can't think of any quests I had trouble with, as even the archon chain/devils gambit were easy to solo with Good/Cold Iron damage. You can ignore traps thanks to super high reflex saves and evasion at level 9. Just bring a hireling for whatever INT/WIS/CHA Rune happens to be in a quest.

I may end up playing it w/ my friends if they want to play different characters anyway, but I figured I'd ask. I appreciate any insight you can share.

I'm glad you are enjoying it I had a lot of fun with it too.

Now, a few other things.

no...its really good. fury shot is still insane burst damage.

guildy did 30 odd thousand damage with a single arrow on a highly suboptimal (not capped, 8 cleric levels) monkcher build the day after the manyshot change.

I should clarify (I will clarify) that I meant that it is bad for leveling. It feels clunky and less effective for EN and EH, and in EE it's really only good on bosses. Shiradi has better clearing in EN, Draconic Incarnation has the best clearing in EN/EH, and Legendary Dreadnought feels the best in EE since it gives you some survivability and consistant damage over packs. I have no doubt that Furyshot is really good at level 30 EE, but I was mostly talking about level. I will update the thread to reflect this.

It is also important that in LD you can keep the haste boost up for 180s, which is huge for the elemental damage of this build since it applies on every shot.

[Loromir]

I should clarify (I will clarify) that I meant that it is bad for leveling. It feels clunky and less effective for EN and EH, and in EE it's really only good on bosses. Shiradi has better clearing in EN, Draconic Incarnation has the best clearing in EN/EH, and Legendary Dreadnought feels the best in EE since it gives you some survivability and consistant damage over packs. I have no doubt that Furyshot is really good at level 30 EE, but I was mostly talking about level. I will update the thread to reflect this.

It is also important that in LD you can keep the haste boost up for 180s, which is huge for the elemental damage of this build since it applies on every shot.

I've run this with both Legendary Dreadnaught and Fury. LD is good for sustained DPS....but over all I feel fury is much more useful. I've been farming dragon scales from TOR the past few days (On EH - solo) and Fury is definitely the way to go. Unbridled Fury and improved precise shot make it a cake walk. Even the Black Dragon poses little threat. I just switch for Force and he still goes down fast.

FOTW is absolutely a valid destiny to level up fro 20-30 with. I twist pin and whistler from Shiradi.

[unbongwah]

For FotW, I would probably swap T5 DWS for Slaying Arrow; FotW is all about burst DPS and it doesn't get much burst-ier than Adrenaline+Manyshot+Slaying Arrow.

[Wipey]

Fury is the destiny for an archer. LD is alright but if you want sustained ranged damage, roll a Blitzer mechanic instead.
No archer should ever run in Shiradi. It's useless destiny.

[Grailhawk]

Fury is the destiny for an archer. LD is alright but if you want sustained ranged damage, roll a Blitzer mechanic instead.
No archer should ever run in Shiradi. It's useless destiny.

This isn't the build for this discussion but, people on the forums at least are starting to look at/talk about CC archers Shiradi adds a lot to that wisdom, nerve venom, Pin and Whistle (yes everyone twistes them ...).

Might be that this Shiradi comes back round as an option for a certain kind of build Archer build.