Looking for Feedback - INT Color Spray Ranger

[Maelodic]

Ensure Color Spray is useable... and then figure out how to eek out the maximum dps.

So I really just want a really good weapon profile with hard hitting crits, Tempest T5s, and color spray to land. So maybe I do something more like this:

Color Spray Cleric
14/5/1 Cleric/Ranger/Artificer
Gnome


Level Order

1. Artificer . . . 6. Cleric. . . . .11. Ranger . . . . 16. Cleric
2. Ranger. . . . . 7. Cleric. . . . .12. Cleric. . . . .17. Cleric
3. Ranger. . . . . 8. Cleric. . . . .13. Cleric. . . . .18. Cleric
4. Cleric . . . . .9. Ranger. . . . .14. Cleric. . . . .19. Cleric
5. Cleric . . . . 10. Ranger. . . . .15. Cleric. . . . .20. Cleric


Stats
. . . . . . . .36pt . . Tome . . Level Up
. . . . . . . .---- . . ----. . .--------
Strength. . . . .8. . . .+6. . . .4: INT
Dexterity . . . 14. . . .+6. . . .8: INT
Constitution. . 16. . . .+6. . . 12: INT
Intelligence. . 20. . . .+6. . . 16: INT
Wisdom. . . . . 10. . . .+6. . . 20: INT
Charisma. . . . .8. . . .+6. . . 24: INT
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28: INT

Skills
. . . . . A .R. R .C .C .C .C .C .R. R .R. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C
. . . . . 1 .2. 3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
Heal. . . 2 .3. 1 . . . . . . . . 4 .3. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .23
Disable . 4 .1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1. 1 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
Open Lo . 4 .1. 1 .½ .½ .½ .½ .1 .2. 2 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
Search. . 4 .1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1. 1 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
Spot. . . 4 .1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1. 1 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
UMD . . . 4 .1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1. 1 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
Concent . 4 .1. 1 . . . . . . . . . .1. 5 . . . . . . .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .17
Tumble. . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . .30 12 10 .9 .9 .9 .9 10 14 14 14 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 12
. . . . .36 12 12 .9 .9 .9 .9 10 14 14 14 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 12


Feats

.1. . . . : Quicken Spell
.3. . . . : Precision
.6. . . . : Heighten Spell
.9. . . . : Improved Two Weapon Fighting
12. . . . : Improved Critical: Slashing
15. . . . : Greater Two Weapon Fighting
18. . . . : Insightful Reflexes
21 Epic . : Overwhelming Critical
24 Epic . : Spell Focus: Illusion
26 Destiny: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
27 Epic . : Epic Reflexes
28 Destiny: Elusive Target
29 Destiny: Dire Charge
30 Epic . : Epic Damage Reduction
30 Legend : Scion of: Arborea

.2 Ranger : Favored Enemy: Undead
11 Ranger : Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider

.5 Cleric : War Domain

.4 Deity. : Follower of: Olladra
12 Deity. : Luck of Olladra


Enhancements (80 AP)

Tempest (38 AP)
Shield of Whirling Steel, Tempest
Improved Reaction III, Improved Defense III, Whirling Blades
Improved Parry III, Whirling Blades, Sprint Boost III
Storm Dancer, Critical Mastery III, Whirling Blades
The Growing Storm III, Whirling Blades
Dual Perfection, Cuts: A Thousand Cuts III, Dance of Death III
Deepwood Stalker (17 AP)
Far Shot, Sneak Attack
Stealthy III, Increased Empathy III, Versatile Empathy II
Survivalist, Melee/Range Power Boost III
Survivalist
Gnome (13 AP)
Gnomish Perserverance, Intelligence, Gnomish Perserverance II, Intelligence II, Retain Scroll Essence
(none)
Color Spray III
Illusion Focus III
Harper Agent (12 AP)
Agent of Good I
Harper Enchantment, Strategic Combat
Versatile Adept II, Know the Angles III
Strategic Combat

Destiny (24 AP)

Shadowdancer
Technician III, Intelligence
Lithe III, Skill Mastery
Shrouding Strike III, Meld into Darkness III, Grim Precision III
Improved Invisibility I, Pierce the Gloom
Untouchable
Shadow Form
Twists of Fate (30 fate points)
Sense Weakness (Tier 4 Fury)
Balanced Attacks (Tier 3 Primal)
School Specialist: Illusion (Tier 2 Magister)
Extra Action Boost (Tier 1 Dreadnought)

-Artificer for traps, repeaters at low levels while waiting for TWF to get good, CLW SLA for low levels. This can be switched out if desired with a +1 heart after leveling, but paying called strike, 1d6 SA dice, 10 positive spellpower, and a feat for traps is probably worth it.
-Cleric in War Domain which provides the good crit profile as well as khopeshes without the need for a feat, melee power, dire charge DC, to-hit and damage. This has the side effect of enabling me to use my Foresters Brush Hooks starting at 15 when they're super awesome and sexy and pretty much just demolish the damage of almost everything else at that level.
-DWS adds a bit of everything, including 40 positive spellpower. I don't really spec at all into RaS for this reason, and playing party healer should be fine for this build if needed.
-Build would be using heavy armor throughout heroics and then evasion (via shadowdancer)+light armor in epics when PRR is easier to come by and magic starts hurting a lot more.
-Feats are a bit tighter but I think trading feat flexibility for AP flexibility is what was needed.
-I take Sprint Boost instead of haste boost because I love sprint boost.


Thoughts?

[Hjarki]

-Artificer for traps, repeaters at low levels while waiting for TWF to get good, CLW SLA for low levels. This can be switched out if desired with a +1 heart after leveling, but paying called strike, 1d6 SA dice, 10 positive spellpower, and a feat for traps is probably worth it.
-Cleric in War Domain which provides the good crit profile as well as khopeshes without the need for a feat, melee power, dire charge DC, to-hit and damage. This has the side effect of enabling me to use my Foresters Brush Hooks starting at 15 when they're super awesome and sexy and pretty much just demolish the damage of almost everything else at that level.
-DWS adds a bit of everything, including 40 positive spellpower. I don't really spec at all into RaS for this reason, and playing party healer should be fine for this build if needed.
-Build would be using heavy armor throughout heroics and then evasion (via shadowdancer)+light armor in epics when PRR is easier to come by and magic starts hurting a lot more.
-Feats are a bit tighter but I think trading feat flexibility for AP flexibility is what was needed.
-I take Sprint Boost instead of haste boost because I love sprint boost.

Well, contrast with the pure Ranger approach. With some modifications - Heighten, Spell Focus, Illusion Focus, etc. - your pure Ranger is going to have -3 DC over this multi-class version. But it would also have 100% off-hand chance, +25% Doublestrike, +10 MP from the Tempest cores.

I think the core problem is that the AP are extremely tight. You really want 13 in Gnome, 12 in Harper and 30+ in Ranger. That doesn't leave a lot of room for much else.

A single level of Monk can net you +10% off-hand chance and +12% Doublestrike (Grandmaster Wind), with the weapon/armor restrictions of the Monk. Otherwise, you're not going to get full off-hand attacks except with 18 levels of Ranger or Vistani Knife Fighter.

Forester's Brush Hook isn't particularly special without Swashbuckling - there are plenty of other comparable critical ranges on weapons in that range. Indeed, I think you may be overestimating the value of critical since it only applies to a portion of the damage and it's reduced by fortification. For TWF, I'd argue that the increase due to critical profile is roughly equivalent to the value of doublestrike (since doublestrike only applies to one of the two weapons). So a Khopesh will probably yield slightly less damage than a Dagger boosted by VKF's Rapid Attack. However, this depends a lot on what else is being added to the attack.

[Maelodic]

Longer post.

Hmm... So shortsword/light pick would probably be fine, and 18 Rgr 1 Mnk 1 Rog would probably be best for trapping, using wind stance to make up for the loss of capstone?

Does deft strike stack with all the tempest enhancements for offhand and add effective offhand doublestrike?

[Selvera]

So I really just want a really good weapon profile with hard hitting crits, Tempest T5s, and color spray to land. So maybe I do something more like this:

[code]Color Spray Cleric
14/5/1 Cleric/Ranger/Artificer
Gnome

...


Thoughts?

I've run a ranger/cleric tempest build; and the build is very much epic-level focused. It feels like a lackluster tempest for most of heroic levels (until you get the heal spell at level 17ish... ) if you go tempest levels first. If you go cleric levels first; then it lacks the damage needed to solo quickly. Meanwhile AP is quite tight in a build like this if it's aiming for tempest Tier-5s and want investment in either Warpriest or Deepwood Sniper (or vistanii). In my warpriest variant I wasn't able to fit in Amel until level 20ish.

I'm not a person who feels like mixing in traps to every build is a good idea; and I think delaying the power-points of both healing and damaging an extra level isn't going to make leveling any easier.

I can attest to this build (ranger/cleric tempest) being pretty kickass in epic levels. You've still got pretty good dps from being a tempest; and if the going gets rough; you have great healing that you can fall back on as a more supportive role. Also Ameliorating Strikes plays nicely with Dance of Death.

[Maelodic]

I've run a ranger/cleric tempest build; and the build is very much epic-level focused. It feels like a lackluster tempest for most of heroic levels (until you get the heal spell at level 17ish... ) if you go tempest levels first. If you go cleric levels first; then it lacks the damage needed to solo quickly. Meanwhile AP is quite tight in a build like this if it's aiming for tempest Tier-5s and want investment in either Warpriest or Deepwood Sniper (or vistanii). In my warpriest variant I wasn't able to fit in Amel until level 20ish.

I'm not a person who feels like mixing in traps to every build is a good idea; and I think delaying the power-points of both healing and damaging an extra level isn't going to make leveling any easier.

I can attest to this build (ranger/cleric tempest) being pretty kickass in epic levels. You've still got pretty good dps from being a tempest; and if the going gets rough; you have great healing that you can fall back on as a more supportive role. Also Ameliorating Strikes plays nicely with Dance of Death.

Thanks for the word of warning. I think best course of action on such a build might just to be level as a vistani?

I have a 15 Pal / 5 Ranger going right now and I'm feeling that lackluster that you're talking about. Nothing kicks in until level 19.

[Selvera]

In my build I did take some vistanii enhancements just to see how they feel; and I was simultaneously disappointed and impressed by it.

I had hoped that taking fan of knives could help out with the tempest's typical weakness of not having AoE damage before level 12; but I found this not to be a great solution since when I tried it; I was never impressed by it's damage. It doesn't seem to have enough damage to adequately take down a pack of 5-6 mobs much faster then by just single targeting them down, and the cooldown is too long to sit back or circle kite and spam it effectively. In higher levels; dance of death effectively rendered it moot for anything except the most dangerous situations where you don't even want to get close to the targets.

On the other hand I was quite impressed by how much value you can get out of a small investment in the tree even for a non-dagger user. Deflect arrows is a nice bonus that you lose from multiclassing tempest with deep splits like cleric or pali for holy sword; and vistanii can give it back (to be improved by tempest). The doublestrike works with all weapons and is quite nice, and extra prr/mrr is fairly efficient and always welcome. I also toyed with the idea of taking haste boost from vistanii instead of tempest; but never got the AP to work out correctly for that to be useful.

All in all; vistanii is an interesting/useful tree for a multiclassed tempest build as an alternative or in addition to deepwood or trees from the other class, but I don't think that focusing on it will really help level out the multiclassed tempest's low-points of power since the main focus of the builds are on tempest tier 5s.

[Hjarki]

Hmm... So shortsword/light pick would probably be fine, and 18 Rgr 1 Mnk 1 Rog would probably be best for trapping, using wind stance to make up for the loss of capstone?

Does deft strike stack with all the tempest enhancements for offhand and add effective offhand doublestrike?

Light Pick won't work with Monk. 18 Ranger already has 100%, so you wouldn't need Deft Strikes unless you were dropping back to 12 or so.

I'm not seeing many roads here. If you just go with 20 Ranger, Tempest capstone, 13 Gnome (for Illusion Focus), 12 Harper (for Strategic Combat), and then get to the 3rd core of Vistani, you've got a fairly solid build. You can use Dagger in the main hand, whatever in the off-hand (although probably a Rapier unless you want to take Improved Critical twice). Spell Focus + Heighten + School Specialization would give you +8 DC (so +11 DC from your original build with Illusion Focus). Alternatively, the VKF points could go into DWS, but you wouldn't be able to reach the 4th Core or Killer, so it would mostly just be some Sneak Attack dice.

So I'm really comparing all the variations to that model and I'm not seeing many options that optimize DC/damage as well - especially given that one of your criteria is that you want a useable character in heroic levels.