Dark Hunter might unintentionally be top-tier for Repeater Builds

[HailBlazR]

Disclaimer: Since Dark Hunter is obviously not released yet, I have decided to do red text for any areas where things might change, for better or worse. But even if these things are changed, I still think that Dark Hunter gives repeaters some interesting options.

TLDR: A never-before-possible combination of a DWS Repeater build a sizable amount of sneak attack (+Called Shot), +1 crit threat/multi, and Expanded Clip to stay relevant in Epics. Oh, and Ranged Assassinate, if it's not bugged

Intro:

Ever since the advent of Expanded Clip, I've been a bit disappointed that repeater builds became so limited. You'd need 12 levels of Artificer for Expanded Clip in epics, which instantly kills most multiclass prospects - unless you're doing a heroic-only build of course. Here's my reasoning and where I kept running into roadblocks:

• Repeaters do well with tons of on-hit effects. For this reason, sneak attack synergizes excellently with Repeaters.
• Deepwood Stalker's Core 3 attack, "Called Shot," is utterly fantastic to this end. It is the single most consistent way to maintain sneak attack damage.
• However, every build NEEDS to have that juicy +1 crit threat multiplier if it wants to be viable.
• There is no way for a 12 Arti + 6 Ranger + 2 whatever combo to get +1 critical multiplier. The easiest way to get +1 multi is by dipping 6 into Fighter. But that puts us at 24 levels total, which is impossible

Sure, you could go 12 Art/6 Fighter/2 Ranger, but then you'd lose out on the DWS goodies. Or you could go something like 8 Art/6 Ranger/6 Fighter, but then you're not really viable for epics because you don't have Expanded Clip.

Simply put: it is not currently possible for a repeater build to have Expanded Clip, Called Shot, and +1 Crit Multiplier/Threat Range. This pretty much kills the DWS dream for repeaters in epics.

This is where Dark Hunter comes into the picture. I have been theorycrafting the idea of a Gnome 12 Artificer + 6 Dark Hunter + 2 Rogue combination, because finally it allows me to get everything I want... well, not exactly everything, but you get the idea.

General outline:

• Gnome for +1 competence crit range (you need to use Light Repeaters though)
• 12 Arti for expanded clip, 3 free feats, runearms, repeater proficiency
• 6 Dark Hunter for +2 SA dice from level ups, +4 SA dice from enhancements, +3 SA dice from DWS, Called Shot, +1 competence crit multiplier from its T5
• 2 Rogue for +1 SA, potentially +2 SA from enhancements, up to +4 imbue dice and a 1d8 imbue

Specifics:

Chaotic [Neutral or Good, doesn't matter] Gnome 12 Artificer 6 Dark Hunter 2 Rogue
36 points, assuming at least a +6 tome for access to IPS at level 16
10 Str
13 Dex
16 Con
20 Int
9 Wis
8 Cha

All level ups into INT. You can adjust the Str/Wis values based on preference; I like starting with more Str because carrying capacity, especially on Gnome. 13 Dex is a must so that you'll have at least 19 by level 15 for IPS

Feats and level progression:
1 Artificer: Point Blank Shot, Rapid Reload (free)
2 Artificer: Runearm use (free)
3 Ranger: Precision
4 Ranger: Rapid Shot (free)
5 Ranger: Diehard (free)
6 Ranger: Dodge, Precise Shot (free)
7 Ranger
8 Ranger
9 Artificer: Improved Critical Range
10 Rogue
11 Rogue: Evasion (free)
12 Artificer: Mobility, Shot on the Run (bonus)
13 Artificer
14 Artificer
15 Artificer: Insightful Reflexes
16 Artificer: Improved Precise Shot (bonus)
17 Artificer
18 Artificer: Toughness
19 Artificer
20 Artificer: Weapon Focus Ranged (bonus)

If Improved Critical Piercing is required for weird stuff in Dark Hunter T5, then change things slightly (ultimately, you sacrifice 2 RP from Weapon Focus, for the IC Piercing):

• Mobility at 9
• Toughness and IC Ranged at level 12 (arti bonus)
• IC Piercing at level 18
• Shot on the Run at 20 (arti bonus)

21: Expanded Clip
22 (destiny): Guardian Angel or Tactician
24: Overwhelming Critical
25 (destiny): Crush Weakness
27: Combat Archery
28 (destiny): Harbinger of Chaos
30: Epic Toughness, Arborea or Ethereal

idk what people do for 31-32 because I never spend any time at endgame because I find DDO's endgame really boring lol

Enhancements:
12 Harper for Int to Hit/Damage, KTA
17 Gnome for +1 crit threat, +6 hit/damage to repeaters
36 Dark Hunter for 10% doubleshot, ranged Assassinate, +1 Crit multiplier
13 Deepwood Stalker for Called Shot and Aimed Shot
2 AP for 1d4 Imbue in Assassin tree

Now, if you have at least 9 racial AP (OR 8 racial AP + 1 universal for Harper), then the build gets a LOT better because you can spend your remaining AP on the Assassin tree for +2 SA dice and +3 imbue dice for 4d8 poison per bolt. Imbues can be especially good here because Arti gets Greater Elemental Weapons for +2 dice, and Harbinger of Chaos for +3 more. Thus, you can see how this build vastly improves if you have 9 AP. (you only need 9 more AP to get the full benefits of +2 SA, t3 venom imbue, and +3 imbue dice)

Alternately, you can choose to spend that extra AP on Merciful Shot and other goodies from the DWS tree. However, I feel that going for Imbues and SA from Assassin is more consistently useful. I love Merciful Shot, especially for bosses, but imbues + SA is always useful, whereas Merciful Shot has a 15s cooldown and does nothing if your enemy is at >50% HP.

Some Light Repeaters I like to use:

Hellfire Crossbow (ML4, Chronoscope) - Incineration go brrrr

Barovian (ML10, Ravenloft) - because these are still ridiculously overpowered for their level, even 5 years after Ravenloft's release

Syranian (ML15, Sharn) - it's a slight upgrade from Barovian; with augs, it's 3d6 more damage per bolt

Light Boltsinger (ML15, Strike Back from Tethymar) - Improved Vorpal is nuts when you have 3 bolts per volley. This is even good in epics, because you now have Expanded Clip for 4x bolts per volley, which translates to a ~18.5% chance of at least 1 vorpal per volley (1 - [0.95 ^4])

Epic Doublecross Bow (ML20, Spinner of Shadows) - Like I said, repeaters LOVE on hit effects. Nightshade Venom can be pretty fun, especially if you combine it with a Snowpeaks Freezing ruby. Still, I'd probably prefer the Light Boltsinger for the vorpal, unless you have a really good sentient gem that you can afford to move around and put on your Doublecross

Needle (ML23, CITW) - One look at the crit profile is all you need to know.

I'm sure there are some really good ones at 29+, but I don't bother with those because again, I don't like DDO endgame and always just ER + TR once I cap out.

Summary
So here's what you'd get with this build, which has a lot of combinations which were previous impossible:

• Expanded Clip for epics
• 16-20 x3 crit profile (this might be even better depending on whether the Dark Hunter T5 is working as intended)
• Called Shot for free sneak attacks
• Aimed Shot for easy Archer's Focus stax
• 10d6 SA per bolt, up to 12d6 if you have extra racial AP and can thus afford to dip into Assassin. Scales with 150% RP
• Also note that with Dark Hunter invisibility, you can occasionally double your SA dice, which is kind of insane(assuming that this enhancement doesn't get changed between now and live)
• Imbues: 6d4 without any racial/universal AP (1d4 assassin +2d4 greater elemental weapons +3d4 harbinger of chaos), up to 9d8 total if you have at least 9 AP. Scales with 200% RP
• Trapping and UMD of course
• Oh yea, you also get Evasion which is a nice bonus
• Ranged assassinate

This might not be the best repeater build out there - the 13 arti/6 ftr/1 rogue one with 41 pts in Horizon Walker still looks really strong - but I definitely feel this has potential. Depending on how ranged assassinate works out, it might become stronger, but I wouldn't assume anything just yet. Right now, I am operating under the assumption that Ranged Assassinate will be completely bugged and broken upon release, because that would fit with SSG's track record.

I wish this build had a way to stack Archer's Focus up to 25, but even so, the presence of lots Sneak Attack + imbues on a 4x bolt Repeater with x3 crit profile is very strong. So in this respect, this build does not optimize ranged power the way some others do, like the aforementioned 13 arti/6 ftr/1 rog. However, Sneak Attack + called shot is wicked fun, plus imbues, plus Dark Hunter shenanigans like Ranged Assassinate and Invisibility could be fun, assuming they work.

Tweak the build as you desire, or feel free to comment and say this is the worst build ever, idc. I never log into the forums and just posted this because I hope it gives some people ideas, and I hope some people can have fun with it.

[cru121]

Enhancements:
12 Harper for Int to Hit/Damage, KTA
17 Gnome for +1 crit threat, +6 hit/damage to repeaters
36 Dark Hunter for 10% doubleshot, ranged Assassinate, +1 Crit multiplier
13 Deepwood Stalker for Called Shot and Aimed Shot
2 AP for 1d4 Imbue in Assassin tree

Now, if you have at least 9 racial AP (OR 8 racial AP + 1 universal for Harper), then the build gets a LOT better because you can spend your remaining AP on the Assassin tree for +2 SA dice and +3 imbue dice for 4d8 poison per bolt. Imbues can be especially good here because Arti gets Greater Elemental Weapons for +2 dice, and Harbinger of Chaos for +3 more. Thus, you can see how this build vastly improves if you have 9 AP. (you only need 9 more AP to get the full benefits of +2 SA, t3 venom imbue, and +3 imbue dice)

You can save ~5 AP from Harper by taking Int-to-damage from the Artificer spell. Add some racial AP tomes (up to +3) and suddenly this becomes an option even for newer characters.

[unbongwah]

• 16-20 x3 crit profile (this might be even better depending on whether the Dark Hunter T5 is working as intended)
• Also note that with Dark Hunter invisibility, you can occasionally double your SA dice, which is kind of insane(assuming that this enhancement doesn't get changed between now and live)
• Ranged assassinate

Now that Dark Hunter is out and we know these things either don't exist (melee-only Assassinate) or require more than 6 DH levels (Escape Through the Dark is level 12 core Enhancement and probably less powerful than it originally was in preview), how do you feel about this build? AFAICT the core concept still works, but the DPS isn't as strong as it originally seemed it would be on Lama.

[unbongwah]

OP hasn't been back to update this so I went onto Lamannia to see what I could put together. It basically works as intended; namely you do get 16-20/x3 critical threat range with light repeaters from Gnomish Weapon Training + Dark Hunter's Blade Specialization. And Artificer 12 gives access to Expanded Clip at level 21.

The main issue is AP costs, since ideally you have something like:

• 35 APs Dark Hunter for +1 crit multiplier, +4d6 sneak attacks, +3 Imbue dice, +10% Doubleshot, and +25% HPs (the rare ranged build with a Competence bonus)
• 17 APs gnome racial for +1 crit range to light repeaters
• 13 APs Deepwood Stalker for +3d6 sneak attacks, Sniper Shot, and Aimed Shot
• 12 APs Battle Engineer for Thudershock Imbue (scales with Spellpower)
• 11 APs Assassin for +3 Imbue dice and +2d6 sneak attacks
• 8 Acrobat or Vistani Knife Fighter for Haste Boost
• 6-8 APs Harper Agent for INT to hit and Know the Angles (use Insightful Strikes for INT to damage)

That's 102 to 104 APs so obviously you have to drop stuff of your wishlist, especially on lowbie toons. Probably starting with Battle Engineer: Spellpower-based Imbues are more powerful than Ranged / Melee Power-based ones because you can really crank up your Spellpower in epics; but in this case, we're severely AP-constrained, especially without a ton of racial PLs, and it would mean gearing for Spellpower as well as Ranged Power, so...maybe not worth the hassle?

So anyway I wound up with a config like this:


Note: the Dark Hunter wolf line is maxed out to max the Imbue dice bonus from tier-3; then we take the Doubleshot bonus in tier-5. No doggos were harmed in the making of this toon.

The first four trees are what I consider essential to this build. The fifth (or possibly sixth) tree is up to you depending on how many APs you actually have left: e.g., Assassin for more Imbue / sneak attacks; Acrobat or Vistani for Haste Boost (VKF can also take extra Doubleshot). Or put more points into DWS for Killer (+20% Doubleshot when fully stacked).