The Final Archer - Multiclass

[janave]

The Final Archer
(Barbarian Ranger)

Customizable (hybridable) Ranger Barbarian

Warning due to the inherent suckyness of Bows and low alacrity this will be pain to level up!!.

CLASS
6 Barbarian
12 Ranger
2 {Filler}

Recommended Fillers:

• 2 Bard (doubleshot boost, blow by blow)
• 2 Fighter Kensei ( haste boost and feats)
• 2 Favored Soul ( ranged smite, divine might, just reward)
• 2 Cleric ( divine healing while raged, divine might)
• +2 Barbarian ( defensive option for improved uncanny dodge)

RACE
(whatever you like)

With lots of Racial Action Points: Elf is a good choice. (Displacement Mark, Bow damage)

ENHANCEMENTS
(54 points for base)

• Barbarian T5 (+2 crit multiplier, auto healing)
• Ranger ( Advanced sneak attack +1 crit range, Sniper Shot +2/+2 crit% critX)

GEAR

• Light armor with the best dodge cap you can get.
• Ranged Alacrity / Speed (Boots)
• Accuracy/Insightful accuracy (Hats, Gloves)
• Armor piercing (fortification bypass)
• Doubleshot (Belts, Gloves)
• Seeker of insightful seeker (Goggles)
• Dodge
• Deadly in all flavors (bonus to damage)
• Dexterity
• Strength
• Healing amplification items
• Quivers

Absolutely required
!! Crit enhanced Bow that stacks with IC alias Keen !!

SKILLS

• UMD
• Jump (10-20 for leveling or if going other than STR based)
• Balance

(after INT tome)

• Listen
• Spot

FEATS

• Point Blank Shot
• Precision
• IC:Ranged
• Power Crit / WF:Ranged
• Dodge

Spells

• Ram's Might
• Tumble or anything you prefer
• Freedom of Movement
• Cures & restoratives

USEFUL PAST LIVES

• Enchant Weapon
• Doubleshot
• Ranger
• Monk
• Fighter

Leveling:

Order A) 1R-6B-5R-2F-R6 (Melee THF for leveling to 12)
Order B) 6R-6B-2F-R6 (Bow with imbues for leveling)

I recommend a greataxe, up until about level 12, don't worry too much about respeccing as you will get the bow feats from ranger levels.
6 barb / 6 ranger, bow & arrows from there. Alternatively you may level up in ranger first and use AA tree ( swinging the axe is better tbh).

Gameplay

Equip a bow and shoot at things.

Tips: you will be squishy so don't get into the melee crowd much, use uncanny dodge if fighting in narrow places (eg: cant kite well).

This is a hybrid, so while your melee dps will not break records, occasionally you may find it doable when you get bored shooting at things.

In heroics < 16 with the right gear/setup and boosts used, most things will drop in 2-3 crits. For upper heroics probably need some more time + kiting to get them.

FAQ

So what's the gig here?
Sniper shot with x7 crits is pretty cool (6s cd). The level 14 elastic bow can help push this further.

Is it new player friendly?
Absolutely not, in fact it is likely just not player friendly at all

Why no monk levels?
* Barbs cannot mix with monks
* 6 monk now only grants 30% doubleshot while stacking, that's too much extra to manage, ki regen is a bad tradeoff.

OMG, do I need 2 Stats?
Yes, Dex for actually hitting things (accuracy gear helps greatly), and STR for damage.
You can optionally spend your remaining points to get other WIS/DEX/INT as a single stat.

OMG! Do I need Arrows?

a) Ranger AA for a few points (Conjure Arrows)
b) Meticulous Fletching from falconry is an option. (8pts)
c) You may use returning ammo from the Deneith favor vendors
d) UMD(28) cast Flame Arrow scrolls-wands 500 per stack. (annoying so have backup in your quiver)


Is not Slayer Shot better?
Due to grazing hits and the 20s cooldown Arrow of Slaying is often very lossy. 20 seconds in DDO combat is a LONG time. With easy timing you will get 3 times the extra chance to crit for x7 ( x8 lucky with elastic bow, x9 with some mental damage risks)

Is this a Ranger or a Barbarian?
It is hard to tell to be honest.

Is not a Mechanic or Shuriken thrower much better?
Yes, they are.

If you have to summarize this build for someone in chat quickly?
Experimentally self inflicted pain.

Is it reaper ready?
The build itself does not provide anything special to make it work great in reaper, so it is up to you.

How much extra damage I need to make up for Slayer Shot Crits?
In heroics, if my slacker math is good, +84 damage including seeker and weapon dice should draw even(ish) if you succeed to crit on 3 sniper shots. If you get to 63 points the difference will be small most of the time.

Any suggestions for the absolutely crazy?
If you like playing a bad build at 50% hitpoints I recommend also taking Bond of Retribution from Occult slayer for another +1 crit multiplier on 19-20. You will probably want to tweak the build in this case and get another way of healing.

This is all for now,
Thank you

and let me know how you did or did not like it

EDITS: Thanks for the input, updated reflecting the ideas in comments.
EDIT2: Added leveling order and more gear, feat choices

[cdbd3rd]

....
Is it new player friendly?
-- Absolutely not, in fact it is likely just not player friendly at all ...

[Kenpai]

• 1 Fighter, 1 Favored Soul (haste boos, ranged smite, divine might)

This makes it sound like you are recommending 12/6/1/1 which is impossible (3 class limit to multiclassing)

RACE
(whatever you like)

With lots of Racial Action Points: Elf is a good choice. (AA + Displacement Mark)

regarding AA: 12 ranger gets everything in AA except for the last 2 cores, and I don't think it's possible to grab the capstone in elven AA with the AP you're spending, so all this would get is the level 18 core (and it might not even have enough AP for that)
though Displacement DM is still an argument for going Elf.

OMG! Do I need Arrows?
-- Yup, but there is ~16 points to get that for ya no-frustration methods, elven AA or Meticulous Fletching from falconry is an option.
-- I prefer the falconry returning ammo.( 8 points)
-- You may use returning ammo from the Deneith favor vendors
-- UMD(28) cast Flame Arrow scrolls-wands 500 per stack. (annoying so have backup in your quiver)

Conjure Arrows from Ranger AA is 3 AP total.

[janave]

This makes it sound like you are recommending 12/6/1/1 which is impossible (3 class limit to multiclassing)



regarding AA: 12 ranger gets everything in AA except for the last 2 cores, and I don't think it's possible to grab the capstone in elven AA with the AP you're spending, so all this would get is the level 18 core (and it might not even have enough AP for that)
though Displacement DM is still an argument for going Elf.


Conjure Arrows from Ranger AA is 3 AP total.

Perfect, thank you.

Fixing

[unbongwah]

Bowbarians ride again! Or uhh whatever they do in a game without mounts.

Props to Tilomere for this idea: you could also do a 2-level cleric splash and put 11 APs into Radiant Servant for Divine Healing, giving you an extra HoT that can used while Raged, IIRC. The duration is based on Heal skill, but the heal effect is only boosted by heal amp (not Positive Spellpower), AFAICT.

So that's 33 FB (Focused Wrath + Accelerated Metabolism) / 24 DWS (Killer + Adv Sneak Atk) / 11 RS (Divine Healing) / 4 WP (Divine Might), leaving 8 APs.

[janave]

Bowbarians ride again! Or uhh whatever they do in a game without mounts.

Props to Tilomere for this idea: you could also do a 2-level cleric splash and put 11 APs into Radiant Servant for Divine Healing, giving you an extra HoT that can used while Raged, IIRC. The duration is based on Heal skill, but the heal effect is only boosted by heal amp (not Positive Spellpower), AFAICT.

So that's 33 FB (Focused Wrath + Accelerated Metabolism) / 24 DWS (Killer + Adv Sneak Atk) / 11 RS (Divine Healing) / 4 WP (Divine Might), leaving 8 APs.

Thank you, helpful stuff, adding some more to opening post

[janave]

So far this is fun, some notes:

- Short rages are annoying, extended rage may be a good investment.
- Ended up taking 6(+2) barb for imp. uncanny.
- Taking Blood Tribute really helps, it was a life saver quite a few times between uncanny in tight spaces.
- Took Killer from DWS, as well as Aimed shot, once I get more APs I likely get both LegShot and Merciful as well.
- Sniper + Merciful combined is very strong.
- Need a lot of heal amp for the auto heals to worth it, it is getting alright at around 100 while the MP/RP boost going from DWS.

[Ausdoerrt]

Neat idea. Would like it more if it could be 10+ levels of barb, to justify running for past life. Any way to tweak the build?

[janave]

Neat idea. Would like it more if it could be 10+ levels of barb, to justify running for past life. Any way to tweak the build?

After about 70 different builds with Bow, this was my last attempt for a while to make an "out of the box" build that can have some funny moments. So it is not meant to be really that good, just something different to what we can play with.

I would recommend a melee THF Barb for past lives instead, this build lacks IPS until at least level 17 or 19 (Ranger auto grant). It can make leveling very difficult, a fun challenge though. As well as losing out on the 1 crit range in later heroics from DWS core, Ranger 12.

Theoretically, you could get some more melee out of this build if you fill out berserker better than I did, I just cherry picked T1 and T2s.

It should be really fun to play into epics however with the right tweaks.

Hmm, now how do I fit Quickdraw into this

[Blacksoft]

After about 70 different builds with Bow, this was my last attempt for a while to make an "out of the box" build that can have some funny moments. So it is not meant to be really that good, just something different to what we can play with.

I would recommend a melee THF Barb for past lives instead, this build lacks IPS until at least level 17 or 19 (Ranger auto grant). It can make leveling very difficult, a fun challenge though. As well as losing out on the 1 crit range in later heroics from DWS core, Ranger 12.

Theoretically, you could get some more melee out of this build if you fill out berserker better than I did, I just cherry picked T1 and T2s.

It should be really fun to play into epics however with the right tweaks.

Hmm, now how do I fit Quickdraw into this

Bowbearian!

I went to look up if anyone had similar crazy idea I had and lo-behold! I will be going 12 Ranger 5 barb 3 druid. Thinking of leveling in strength and primarily fighting as a bear and make use of manyshot with special crit bow such as bow of sinew. Am joining some friends on casual play. First three levels as druid to get natural fighting as early as possible. Then it's just a matter of going 1-12 ranger or 1-5 barbarian - and that will depend on which playstyle comes first.

Actually, could get Ranger 6 by level 12, pick up IPS and switch out feat just before reaching level Ranger 11.

At level 12, go tier 5 in deepwood, by level 5 barbarian tier 5 in OC, and finally, when get to Ranger level 12 and get expanded crit, tier 5 FB.

[janave]

Bowbearian!

I went to look up if anyone had similar crazy idea I had and lo-behold! I will be going 12 Ranger 5 barb 3 druid. Thinking of leveling in strength and primarily fighting as a bear and make use of manyshot with special crit bow such as bow of sinew. Am joining some friends on casual play. First three levels as druid to get natural fighting as early as possible. Then it's just a matter of going 1-12 ranger or 1-5 barbarian - and that will depend on which playstyle comes first.

Actually, could get Ranger 6 by level 12, pick up IPS and switch out feat just before reaching level Ranger 11.

At level 12, go tier 5 in deepwood, by level 5 barbarian tier 5 in OC, and finally, when get to Ranger level 12 and get expanded crit, tier 5 FB.

Friendly hints of warning, this build is the child of boredom, alcohol and bad copy-paste reflexes, that said: Good luck on your journey .

There were ups and downs in development for builds like this since i first copied it over here, so I cant tell if any of the info is still alright. Deepwood became a more complete kit, which is perhaps the biggest change, at the time of posting the DWS T5s were not so good.

[CrackedIce]

Friendly hints of warning, this build is the child of boredom, alcohol and bad copy-paste reflexes, that said: Good luck on your journey .

There were ups and downs in development for builds like this since i first copied it over here, so I cant tell if any of the info is still alright. Deepwood became a more complete kit, which is perhaps the biggest change, at the time of posting the DWS T5s were not so good.

Truthfully, making a THF Ranger is not crazy since the same theory applies as it had for Tempest rangers using dance of death - finding great utility and hard-hitting clicky attacks that will hit more than one enemy at a time.

Years ago, I had made a Tempest Barbarian utilizing earsmash/knockout to autostun and followed up with slaughter; it was quite powerful. Deepwood has great synergy with twohanded fighting mechanics - Killer, merciful strike and exposing strike.

The objective with said build is to use all of a Ranger's strengths. Tempest is too expensive and limits ranged use. Barbarian is mainly for melee, but the extra crit from FB or even OC will allow use for both.

So even without using druid:

34 FB, 26 DWS, 13 RAV, 7 OC - this gives you the broad AOE reach utilizing focus wide with these main clicky attacks - earsmash/knockout, slaughter, and merciful strike, reserving exposing shot and merciful shot for your manyshot attacks.

Being able to switch between AOE melee and IPS/manyshot is very powerful and underappreciated as far as I am aware.

[Vordax]

Hmm, now how do I fit Quickdraw into this

Topaz of Quick Movements May work.