AA Elf or AA Ranger

[SpiderPig]

Hey guys,

Is there any benefit to taking Arcane Archer (ELF) over Arcane Archer (Ranger)?

[PermaBanned]

Only if you're trying to build a pure/mostly pure class non-Ranger; and even then the 14 AP to unlock is a hearty price to pay.

[Enoach]

I play an AA Elf 12/8 Fighter/Wizard

For me the advantages are based on my playstyle and what I'm looking at doing with an Archer.

1. Using Elven Grace - Aerenal Grace: You may use Dexterity to determine the damage you deal with Longswords, Rapiers, and Longbows.
This means I don't need Bow Strength

2. Access to Spell Focus Feats to use with AA imbues

3. Access to Spells like Hypnotism for use as a debuff

4. Access to defensive spells via EK (Improved Shield and Mage Armor)

5. Access to defensive spells like Displacement, or Offensive buffs like haste and rage - The temporary spell points of AA can help keep these going.

6. Access to a Cleave and Elemental imbue via EK. Cleave is useful when you have to use melee during the early levels

7. Still able to take up to the Capstone of AA on a multi-class character.

8. Ability to focus feat choices through choice - IE I like to use my bow exclusively and I don't feel like melee feats are wasted because I don't or barely use them.


For me it is more a playstyle choice. Going ranger is not a bad option. That 14 racial points is a "hearty price" if that is all you plan to pay for, but there is advantage in using more. Again Elven Grace precludes needing Bow Strength as a Feat for example. Another is using Dragon Marks as a means to access Displacement.

[goodspeed]

The elf version is for when you not pure or mostly pure ranger. Or when your not ranger at all when 6 monk 10k star builds were good before they nerfed manyshot and made 10k stars to go off monk level instead of wis. So basically if you want all the cores without being pure then you gotta invest in the elf/helf tree. And really back then the helf cleric dili was pretty awesome wipping heal scrolls and res scrolls at 9 when their was no self heals at all save a stupid pot. Heck just taking the dili itself let you whip those cure crit wands that could also be amped by wand mastery enhancement.

[SpiderPig]

Cheers guys,

I was thinking that was the case, but thought there was something I may have been missing.

[Wh070aa]

AA Elf gets you capstone as a multiclass character. Ranger does not.

Try 14 Cleric for Holy sword domain thing. Max wisdom means full cleric spell casting. And while 14 points are steep price, you get full AA stuns. Dunno how optimal, but it should be good, and worst comes to worst, you can still do caster cleric stuff.

[KingNite]

even then the 14 AP to unlock is a hearty price to pay.

Well, now with the extra racial AP is not that expensive anymore. With enough racial PL you can get up to 10 "free" racial AP. The stuff in elf tree isn't bad for archer so it's not completly wasted AP. With enough racial PL is well worth now if you are not pure ranger and want to get full access to AA tree for the extra multiplier and/or capstone.

[PravdaX]

Hey guys,

Is there any benefit to taking Arcane Archer (ELF) over Arcane Archer (Ranger)?

Yes, there is a big difference between elven AA & ranger AA on Final Strike

1. elven AA version gives you 20% doubleshot / but has no initial damage like ranger version / costs 1 AP / uses AA capstone icon

2. ranger AA version has initial damage like slaying arrow / but do not give 20% doubleshot / costs 2 AP / uses Aimed Shot icon

I have reported this bug a lot from AA pass, but no fix has done.

So, if you like to build up your bow build with better doubleshot, use elven AA.

If not, use ranger AA to use final strike as slaying arrow. (ex, fury shot)

[PermaBanned]

Well, now with the extra racial AP is not that expensive anymore. With enough racial PL you can get up to 10 "free" racial AP. The stuff in elf tree isn't bad for archer so it's not completly wasted AP. With enough racial PL is well worth now if you are not pure ranger and want to get full access to AA tree for the extra multiplier and/or capstone.

I realize some players already have all 30 Racial Lives tacked onto a character. For them, the effective cost of Elven AA is a mere 4 of their regular AP. I also realize there's plenty enough players not anywhere close to having that many Racial Reincarnations done, so I don't want to assume folks have them available

Totally agreed that the Elf, Helf & Morninglord Trees have worthwhile offerings for those 10 AP it takes as prerequs to qualify for spending 4 more to unlock Arcane Archer. Still, when looking at build possibilities chopping more than just a couple of regular AP out of Class Trees hurts - at least for me Being one of those players who hates the sensation of "this is such a grind..." that I'd get from chasing mass Racial APs ASAP, and seeing that the Racial AA build I'd like to play requires 9 Racial AP to make it happen... I answer from that perspective.

[goodspeed]

speaking of racial elf. Sometime... hell maybe a couple years back or so.. maybe more wern't all races supposed to be like that where they were assigned a tree to go off of for the core cap? I think back then their was talk about sentient weapons before it was all scrapped.

[Cantor]

speaking of racial elf. Sometime... hell maybe a couple years back or so.. maybe more wern't all races supposed to be like that where they were assigned a tree to go off of for the core cap? I think back then their was talk about sentient weapons before it was all scrapped.

There was talk of each race getting a prestige tree prior to racial trees being implemented. I think it was more player speculation than anything else though. You will still see posts pop up "we still don't have racial prestiges! we were 100% promised that these would happen!!!1!111"

I'd like to see them too, but I don't think devs ever gave indication it would happen. At most it was a we're considering doing this kinda thing.

[barecm]

FYI... rangers can choose enchantment focus and greater enchantment focus feats if you want them. My Deepwood/AA mix double shot based pure ranger uses them and is well over 70 DC for paralyze/fear arrows and 77% standing double shot. Even higher in reaper with the bonuses there. IMHO, and I have tried several different ranged bow using builds, pure ranger is over all the best. Lots of free bow feats, some useable spells like healing, fom, jump, resistances (until you get draconic augment use at lvl 24), insightful instincts (over looked spell). Even If elf is what a lot of max dex folks do, I would suggest human for the extra feat. You only need 16 dex and wis to wind up over 70 dex and 60 wisdom, which is plenty to achieve no fail paralyze and fear and still have enough dex to do reasonable damage (without blowing all those points to get it from the elf tree).

[EllisDee37]

There was talk of each race getting a prestige tree prior to racial trees being implemented. I think it was more player speculation than anything else though. You will still see posts pop up "we still don't have racial prestiges! we were 100% promised that these would happen!!!1!111"

I'd like to see them too, but I don't think devs ever gave indication it would happen. At most it was a we're considering doing this kinda thing.

The devs posted a preliminary list of which races would get which trees. (And humans would get to pick any racial class tree they wanted, but it would cost them more AP than other races.) I don't recall a ton of qualifiers in the post, but I'm pretty sure they didn't say anything like "this will definitely happen."

It's sort of like the original announcement for cannith crafting: "You'll be able to pull paralyzing off one weapon and put it on another!"

[dunklezhan]

There was talk of each race getting a prestige tree prior to racial trees being implemented. I think it was more player speculation than anything else though. You will still see posts pop up "we still don't have racial prestiges! we were 100% promised that these would happen!!!1!111"

I'd like to see them too, but I don't think devs ever gave indication it would happen. At most it was a we're considering doing this kinda thing.

I suspect what we got was iconics instead. Except they don't want to do more iconics I seem to recall them saying.

Bah. I think having a specific single class enhancement tree, accessible as a racial for most races makes a lot of sense. Elves get AA, Dwarves get Vanguard, Helves get Spellsinger sort of thing (I suppose they already get dilletente - perhaps their chosen tree changes based on the dilletente they take?).

But not for humans, hopefully for fairly obvious thematic reasons they should not have a racial 'class preference'.

I don't know that the game is really missing all that much by not having this mind you.

I also absolutely don't think that once you've unlocked a class enhancement tree by advancing through your racial AP that the tree should be in any way better than the actual class tree however. If anything it should be a touch worse. For sure the class AA tree should not be missing things that the racial gets. I don't have a problem if they get different things mind you, so long as those things make sense for the race in question, don't share a name or icon, and are offered instead of things in the same position in the full class enhancement tree. That sounds full of flavoursome choices.

[Cantor]

FYI... rangers can choose enchantment focus and greater enchantment focus feats if you want them. My Deepwood/AA mix double shot based pure ranger uses them and is well over 70 DC for paralyze/fear arrows and 77% standing double shot. Even higher in reaper with the bonuses there. IMHO, and I have tried several different ranged bow using builds, pure ranger is over all the best. Lots of free bow feats, some useable spells like healing, fom, jump, resistances (until you get draconic augment use at lvl 24), insightful instincts (over looked spell). Even If elf is what a lot of max dex folks do, I would suggest human for the extra feat. You only need 16 dex and wis to wind up over 70 de and 60 wisdom, which is plenty to achieve no fail paralyze and fear and still have enough dex to do reasonable damage (without blowing all those points to get it from the elf tree).

I've done pure rng as well as many monkcher variants. I agree that unless you are just min-maxxing burst damage pure is a more solid choice with all the other stuff it brings.

[barecm]

I've done pure rng as well as many monkcher variants. I agree that unless you are just min-maxxing burst damage pure is a more solid choice with all the other stuff it brings.

Agree with your assessment as well. I can see wisdom based variants being useful for maxing the enhancement DCs, but with dex to damage in the game, you can build up con and wis without needed anything into str... big plus for deepwood builds. All the bow using variants give up something major to accomplish what usually is a minor boost in damage or enhancement DC. I would not give up evasion to go fighter variant. Nor would I give up all the APs to get AA and dex to damage from Elf, all the feats, and the ranger spells to go pure monk. my opinion, too much to give up for very little gain.