U50 Comprehensive Guide to Bow DPS

[Oliphant]

**Preview** U51 Bow Guide based on the latest Lamannia.

Minor gear changes:
Legendary Red Dragonscale armor
Ruby of Good (Stay Good no longer provides Good bypass)
Listen and Spot augments for revamped Otto/Pin DCs
100% Fortification aug for 145% Fortification total (augment + Martial Fortification PLs x3 + Bladeforged PLs x3).

Also includes minor corrections provided by Codect.

Does this mean losing silver weapons? Is this just a hard sacrifice that is worth it compared to good? Hard to gear weapon swaps due to sentient items.

• Edit: I found it in the updated feats.
• Now it looks like having to choose between Harbinger of Chaos or Cold Iron.
• Which would folks choose? Go with Harbinger of Chaos and actively managing having Cold Iron arrows?

Curious what changed to make the Red Dragon armor edge out the Shadow Dragonhide. Edit: Thanks Tsutti.

Wondering if any Listen augments exist outside of random drops. They seem to be scarce (been looking recently).

[Tsutti]

Curious what changed to make the Red Dragon armor edge out the Shadow Dragonhide.

When U50 first launched, Dripping with Magma (on the Red Dragon armor) did not apply to ranged, but U50.4 changed the effect to also apply on ranged and spellcasts. The effect does 10d20 fire damage per stack--stacking 5 times--according to the wiki (if I'm reading it right); this puts it far ahead of 2d6 sneak attack damage from Shadow Dragonhide, at just 1 stack it's more than 2x as much damage on average even with ranged power scaling. While the effect doesn't apply every hit the way sneak attack does, it does have a very high proc rate and even vs trash you'll see it proccing a ton.

If I'm reading the wiki wrong, then it's 10d20 damage at 5 stacks, not per stack, in which case it IS still better for single target dps but the damage from either isn't super relevant vs trash anyway probably.

[Jaysun]

Im a returning ranged player and thank you for the detail post. I am curious what do you use to heal yourself mostly? Notice no cacoon in your twist and not doing aasimer.

Randomly because I know you have done your homework, if you were going to build a "ranged" healer what would that look like. I am looking to have the DC's for insta kills but would love some decent ranged damage in Reaper 1-5.

Thanks

[Oliphant]

Thanks Tsutti

[Oliphant]

...if you were going to build a "ranged" healer what would that look like. I am looking to have the DC's for insta kills but would love some decent ranged damage in Reaper 1-5.

Not sure what kind of dps you want but some kind of FVS INQ or Alchemist Thrower build would qualify (not sure about instakills though). Hard to do heals and dps and dc instakills. Alchemist seems more accepted in raid groups than INQ but not seeing a huge problem with either in normie raids.

[Oliphant]

Why Epic Dynamistic Quiver versus Epic Quiver of Alarcity?

https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Dynamistic_Quiver
https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Quiver_of_Alacrity

• They both have the +8% doubleshot, which stacks.
• Ranged power on Dynamistic Quiver is not stacking with the Ring of Prowess anyway.
• Alarcity has +15% stealth strike which frees up augment slot (and I don't have the augment yet).
• Alarcity provides movement speed boost which frees up an augment slot.
• Alarcity has -50 penalty to concentration; does it matter somehow that I'm missing?

[Oliphant]

Im a returning ranged player and thank you for the detail post. I am curious what do you use to heal yourself mostly? Notice no cacoon in your twist and not doing aasimer.

Randomly because I know you have done your homework, if you were going to build a "ranged" healer what would that look like. I am looking to have the DC's for insta kills but would love some decent ranged damage in Reaper 1-5.

Thanks

Only sharing because my suboptimal version experience is probably relevant. I'm not running with any static group so I feel completely alone without a self heal and cocoon and the temp HP is critical for me. I also lack all the fate points so I can't build out the twists exactly the same anyway. I don't use meld and not motivated to learn live version so just using ranged tactics, cocoon and grouping to stay alive. I do fine in VoD, a little sketchier in KT or LoB end trash.

I did:

• Martial Hymn
• FE: Constructs
• Technician (attack bonus and trap skills)
• Dance of Flowers
• Cocoon

I had already taken Watcher's Eye instead of Weapon Focus: Thrown and wanted to just run up trapping the stairs in Strahd raid asap so I wanted the skills from Technician. The preview doc makes the same change. Also, Carpone's advice in the doc says attack bonus helps (although not necessarily more of it). I'm probably a little lax on max rotating my action boosts anyway so I could give up Extra Action Boosts for Cocoon which I find necessary.

I'm curious how I'm going to heal myself after U51.

[Jaysun]

Only sharing because my suboptimal version experience is probably relevant. I'm not running with any static group so I feel completely alone without a self heal and cocoon and the temp HP is critical for me. I also lack all the fate points so I can't build out the twists exactly the same anyway. I don't use meld and not motivated to learn live version so just using ranged tactics, cocoon and grouping to stay alive. I do fine in VoD, a little sketchier in KT or LoB end trash.

I did:

• Martial Hymn
• FE: Constructs
• Technician (attack bonus and trap skills)
• Dance of Flowers
• Cocoon

I had already taken Watcher's Eye instead of Weapon Focus: Thrown and wanted to just run up trapping the stairs in Strahd raid asap so I wanted the skills from Technician. The preview doc makes the same change. Also, Carpone's advice in the doc says attack bonus helps (although not necessarily more of it). I'm probably a little lax on max rotating my action boosts anyway so I could give up Extra Action Boosts for Cocoon which I find necessary.

I'm curious how I'm going to heal myself after U51.

What is changing in U51 that effects healing. Is cocoon going to be gated now and not easy to obtain?

[Oliphant]

Cocoon is there but you only get three trees so you'd be giving up one of the trees in the build to go Primal. I should note, Cocoon is not recommended in Carpone's guide and deviations from his advice almost certainly means some kind of loss, guessing some DPS. Because it would required giving up a whole tree, I will have to do without Cocoon I think. I'd deviate a little from Carpone's build to suit my style but I'd rather not throw out a tree over it.

[Carpone]

For the group/raid build, you don't need self-healing.

Healing Spring can address solo self-healing until U51 when it becomes impotent. After U51, Heal scrolls are the solution since going Primal Avatar for Cocoon is not viable. 75% Wand and Scroll Mastery is available in Shadowdancer T2.

[Mindos]

those delta numbers don't look right at all.

napkin math would give me:
(216×2.2×(100+377)÷100+134×(100+1.5×377)÷100 )
+1 dmg (217×2.2×(100+377)÷100+134×(100+1.5×377)÷100 ) is a 0.33% dps increase
+1 sneak damage (216×2.2×(100+377)÷100+135×(100+1.5×377)÷100 ) is a 0.21% dps increase
+1 RP (216×2.2×(100+378)÷100+134×(100+1.5×378)÷100 ) is a 0.21% dps increase

it's a short napkin, so it assumes full fort bypass, 0 nonscaling damage and 0 seeker. But that can hardly account for such a huge difference particularly in sneak attack damage.

shall I check your calculations?

Is it plus one sneak damage or is it plus one sneak die of damage?

[Iaga]

If you have racial action points, then go up the Assassin tree and/or Halfling tree for more sneak attack dice.

For the solo build, assuming max racial APs, you can take core 3 of assassin for the fort debut and sneak attack bypass - is that worth taking or is the sneak attack die in the top of halfling worth more?

[Hobgoblin]

i admit im not the best player out there.


in the best gear set - what does the celestial insignia give you?

I just pulled a familys blessing and am super excited to use it.

but im missing most of the raid gear from the best list so its probably not a factor atm.

just curious as to the reasoning behind this.


thanks


hob

[jskinner937]

Possible suggestion for solo build.

13(12) Rogue/6 Ranger/1(2) Fighter

The 1 level of fighter allows access to Kensai for cheaper haste boost and an extra feat (unfortunately no weapon specialiszation). The net loss is -10% run speed from barb. I find the extra run speed not as useful for survivability considering you already get the 12% from rogue acrobat and mist step allows you quick escape when needed.
2 Fighter allows another feat and higher BAB than the rogue level for the loss of improved evasion (not really needed) and 1 SA die.

Also last thought, if human can pick up shot on the run again with human and 2 fighter levels with the 3 extra feats. I noticed you dropped in your u51 preview build. Alternatively, you could drop weapon focus and stay halfling. Net loss 1 SA die and two dex. That might be a stretch. But gain healing amp as well and if you add your action boost ability it’s only 1 dex loss when active. This might be worth it for a solo build.

[Rull]

Is it plus one sneak damage or is it plus one sneak die of damage?

Well, 1 sneak die would kinda fit the numbers, but he writes "1 SA damage".

I'm just making sure that not all decisions that led to choosing this build are based on miscalculating by a factor 3.5.

[Carpone]

U51 **preview** guide has been updated. It's still preview because some destiny points appear to be missing. Once this update has the bugs shaken out, I'll start a new thread.

> Possible suggestion for solo build.

Fighter is a net loss. You don't care about BAB because you get full BAB in Horizon Walker. Kensei Haste Boost means you are losing 5% dshot and Deflect Arrows in VKF.

[achaius]

Tooltip is 75%

But I see that the combat chat does list it as 225%

[Oliphant]

Edit: wrong thread

[ahpook]

Finally getting around to trying a HW build and I was hoping to learn from the best. Alas, the document on google drive is no longer accessible. Is this a rectifiable situation?

[Deros03]

Complete write up is available in Google Docs because it is too long for the forum software to handle. It includes three gear sets (good, better and best), different builds for solo vs. group/raid play, frequently asked questions, and a breakdown of all important stats.

This guide will be updated over the next few weeks as additional information is gathered such as the rare bonus for the new filigree, and Legendary Sands items are released.

I can not access Google to see build