Give me your unhinged bow build ideas!

[Qrvar]

Background: I have a toon whose goal is to get heroic completionists using exclusively LONGbows. I've started this process back before MOTU then parked at various intervals but am interested in picking him back up. He currently has the following lives: Ranger, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, FvS, Bard + currently on Paladin (probably the best bow build I've tried by far, people be sleeping on it).

I need your unhinged ideas on how to make the other classes work with the bow. I'm willing to use other class mechanics, but the main weapon of choice has to be bow (for flavor reasons / fun). I know I could go 6 levels of ranger + HW tree, but that's no fun. I want the lives to have at least some flavor of the respective classes.

So - any advice on how to make this work, especially the more challenging classes? Monk is more or less a no-brainer; and I have a rough idea of how to do barbarian, cleric, sorcerer. But is it possible to make a playable alchemist, artificer, druid, warlock that use bows? Doesn't have to be endgame focus, just not too painful to level to 20 (and ideally 30).

All weird ideas welcome!

 

[Smokewolf]

If your using Inquisitive (cross-BOWS), then the Class itself is of little consequence really. Beyond that, the universal trees for "Bows" are not really strong enough to be stand-alone without a supporting class capable of using it to its fullest.

 

[magaiti]

Alchemist - Vile chemist can provide a bunch of Imbue dice for AA, but little synergy beyond that.
Artificer - maybe caster tree for dog and electric spellpower for AA.
Druid - add monk and go Wis-based
Warlock - ES tree should suffice for "not too painful to level"

 

[Seppi Pearlsmith]

... just not too painful to level to 20 (and ideally 30).

All weird ideas welcome!

Single target DPS with slow animation is painful imo.

 

[Qrvar]

If your using Inquisitive (cross-BOWS), then the Class itself is of little consequence really. Beyond that, the universal trees for "Bows" are not really strong enough to be stand-alone without a supporting class capable of using it to its fullest.

LONGbows. Edited OP for clarity. Little interest in making yet another inquisitor like every other toon on the server, and hate the plink-plink sound. I know it's suboptimal, but it's not intended to be an optimized endgame build, just something fun and different.

Alchemist - Vile chemist can provide a bunch of Imbue dice for AA, but little synergy beyond that.
Artificer - maybe caster tree for dog and electric spellpower for AA.
Druid - add monk and go Wis-based
Warlock - ES tree should suffice for "not too painful to level"

Alchemist - I wonder if this can be multiclassed with monk (ninja) for any sort of poison synergy.
Artificer - this is kinda how the spellsinged bard life went, yea. Makes sense: lightning vulnerability + AA Elemental Inferno. Will require 3~6 ranger levels
Druid - this is honestly the worst one for me so far. No imbues, very little synergy overall. Maybe just go falcon and tough it out? Is Blightcaster any better vs SH?
Warlock - makes sense. Was also thinking TS for the SLAs.

Single target DPS with slow animation is painful imo.

It's really not so bad with heroics provided you can do one of the following:
- Pump imbue dice / sneak attack / other to outpace mob HP
- Get access to ranged AoE attacks

It's not for everyone, but I like the bowman fantasy so I play it

 

[magaiti]

Druid - this is honestly the worst one for me so far. No imbues, very little synergy overall. Maybe just go falcon and tough it out? Is Blightcaster any better vs SH?

Druid elemental forms grant corresponding imbues (d6 fire/cold scaling with spellpower), but you'd have to wait until druid level 13.
Blightcaster gets acid/poison imbue at level 2, but the tricky part is, it only works in wolf or hive form. Since wolf can't use bows, you can only start using it at blc level 4, when hive form becomes available, but it's still earlier than regular druid.

 

[Qrvar]

Druid elemental forms grant corresponding imbues (d6 fire/cold scaling with spellpower), but you'd have to wait until druid level 13.
Blightcaster gets acid/poison imbue at level 2, but the tricky part is, it only works in wolf or hive form. Since wolf can't use bows, you can only start using it at blc level 4, when hive form becomes available, but it's still earlier than regular druid.

Oo, this is useful thanks. Blightcaster it is then, might even work as pure or with a minor fighter splash. Probably + Falconry for the synergy.

 

[saekee]

As magaiti above suggested, have you considered a different approach—using the bow as a spellcasting implement that supplements the caster primary role? For example, https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Bow_of_the_Elements_(Air) could be combined with artificer electric spells. Obviously none of this is optimal but thinking of the bow as an implement makes more class-specific sense for those that you listed—if instead, you shoehorn them as a plink plink means you are forcing them into pretending to be straight damage archers.

Many caster trees turn their weapons into implements but if not, there are augments that do this, eg ToEE elemental augments.

Sometimes the bow may help with the spell damage through vulnerability procs—so the Inferno Sniper out of WPM (easy farm) procs fire vulnerability; it is the only one that comes to mind for longbows (the old ToEE melee heroic weapons did this, not sure if ranged did, but moot
point).

 

[Qrvar]

Yea, I actually have an old upgraded TOEE fire bow and it does have vulnerability on it. I also do have a few of those implement augments, as well.

 

[saekee]

Yea, I actually have an old upgraded TOEE fire bow and it does have vulnerability on it. I also do have a few of those implement augments, as well.

I suspect it will not be as good as the Inferno Sniper—blinding embers, aligned—easy quick farm—but then again, to stack the vulnerability to a point that it makes a difference, will a heroic mob even last that long? You may be better off going with Bow of air—doing air set and hitting stuff with electric spell SLAs. Arcanitechnician; Season’s Herald has some; you would have to mess around.

 

[Deamon81]

Well Horizon Walker is always fun. I used it with my Wizard (Bow if Element Air) and also with my Rog/Rng (very good DPS)

 

[Qrvar]

I suspect it will not be as good as the Inferno Sniper—blinding embers, aligned—easy quick farm—but then again, to stack the vulnerability to a point that it makes a difference, will a heroic mob even last that long? You may be better off going with Bow of air—doing air set and hitting stuff with electric spell SLAs. Arcanitechnician; Season’s Herald has some; you would have to mess around.

Tbf for martial ranged builds, you want to be in a place where you 1-2 hit most mobs. Crits with the Silver Longbow go a long way.

From my experience with bard, I got most DPS from SLAs, with bow as a backup. FvS was painful, but that was pre-warsoul update.

 

[Qrvar]

Here's what I came up with for the Blightcaster idea...

New Build
17/3 Blightcaster/Monk
Lawful Neutral Wood Elf


Level Order

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


Stats
. . . . . . . .36pt . . Tome . . Level Up
. . . . . . . .---- . . ----. . .--------
Strength. . . . .8. . . .+3. . . .4: WIS
Dexterity . . . 14. . . .+5. . . .8: WIS
Constitution. . 16. . . .+4. . . 12: WIS
Intelligence. . 12. . . .+2. . . 16: WIS
Wisdom. . . . . 18. . . .+4. . . 20: WIS
Charisma. . . . .8. . . .+3. . . 24: WIS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28: WIS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32: WIS

Skills
. . . . . B. B. M .M. M .B .B .B .B .B .B .B .B .B .B .B .B .B .B .B
. . . . . 1. 2. 3 .4. 5 .6 .7 .8 .9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
Concent . 4. 1. 1 .1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .23
Spot. . . 2. 1. 1 .1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .2 .22
Heal. . . 4. 1. ½ .½. ½ .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .21½
Spellcr . 4. 1. ½ .½. ½ .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .21½
Diplo . . . .1 .1. 1 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 19
UMD . . . 2. ½. ½ .½. ½ .½ .½ .½ .½ .½ .½ .½ .½ .½ .½ .½ .½ .½ .½ . . 11
Tumble. . 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . .20. 6. 6 .6. 6 .6 .6 .6 .6 .6 .6 .6 .6 .6 .6 .6 .6 .6 .6 .6


Feats

.1. . . . : Point Blank Shot
.2 Blight : Biting Acid Imbue
.3. . . . : Rapid Shot
.3 Monk . : Zen Archery
.4 Monk . : Precision
.6. . . . : Precise Shot
.7 Blight : Hive Keeper
.9. . . . : Maximize Spell
11 Blight : Thorn Kin
12. . . . : Improved Critical: Ranged
14 Blight : Biting Poison Imbue
15. . . . : Empower Spell
16 Blight : Hive Master
18. . . . : Quicken Spell
20 Blight : Thorn Knight
21 Epic . :
22 Destiny:
24 Epic . :
25 Destiny:
27 Epic . :
28 Destiny:
30 Epic . :
30 Legend :
31 Destiny:
33 Epic . :
34 Destiny:

.5 Monk . : Path of Harmonious Balance


Enhancements (Spent: 80 +0r +0u / Max: 80 +0r +0u AP)

Horizon Walker (41 AP)

• Mark Target, Improved Marking, Greater Marking, Dauntless Marking, Dimension Door, Horizon
  1. Eye for Accuracy II, Opening Shot III, Planar Dodge III, Conjure Arrow
  2. Walker Training I, Take the Opening
  3. Two Places At Once, Hunter's Focus, Tenacious Hunter III, Wisdom
  4. Walker Training II, Corner the Quarry III, Scattershot, Wisdom
  5. Feywild Attunement, Banish the Quarry, Misty Step, Powershot, Improved Archer's Focus

Blightcaster (29 AP)

• The Cycle of Decay, Spread the Blight, Death Eater, Blight Upon Blight
  1. Prickly III, Acid Spray III, Sharp Edges
  2. Melf's Acid Arrow III, Sharp Edges II, Every Rose Has Its Thorn
  3. Enveloping Swarm III, Sharp Edges III, Wisdom
  4. Acid Rain III, Sharp Edges IV, Wisdom

Henshin Mystic (6 AP)

• Riddle of Fire, Ki Bolt
  1. Henshin Training, Animal Forms: Way of the Patient Tortoise

Shintao (4 AP)

• Bastion of Purity
  1. Fast Hands: Fast Hands: Ranged III

 

[Elfishski]

Druid - this is honestly the worst one for me so far. No imbues, very little synergy overall. Maybe just go falcon and tough it out? Is Blightcaster any better vs SH?

Honestly a longbow-based cleric that was T5 falconry, some AA (imbues and enchantment DC) and combined with law domain (more enchantment) was one of my favourite ever builds [long time ago before HW existed] and you could do something similar with falconry and druid with CC spells (likely with SH/HW instead of AA). Really fun, active, support build with great healing, CC everything, debuff tough things, and instakill scary champs etc.

Caveat - requires a friend or two *to* support.

Horizon Walker + whatever is fine too on any class...

 

[droid327]

Elf silver flame pure paladin dex based?

41 hw 14 elf 9 aa 16 kotc gets you a lot of pal buffs plus three AOE shots on short cd

 

[Qrvar]

Elf silver flame pure paladin dex based?

41 hw 14 elf 9 aa 16 kotc gets you a lot of pal buffs plus three AOE shots on short cd

That's what I am right now, getting ready to TR, but I'm 41 kotc with a splash in SD (survivability) and hw (arrows). It's probably one of my favorite lives so far. Kotc on its own is a very viable ranged tree.

 

[Qrvar]

Updating this thread on my progress - finally hit 20 on the bowcaster the other night. Overall, I'd give it a 6/10 for the leveling experience so far.

The early levels were pretty dreadful: Blightcaster doesn't really start being good / fun until you're at least 5~6 in druid, and taking monk levels early meant that for a stretch of time, I sucked at both casting and bow. By 20, it ended up being more of a caster than bowman, basically only use bow when manyshot is off cooldown, otherwise it's mostly meta-stacked SLAs + Spiked Growth. No reason to shoot the bow when you can spam quickened Thorn SLAs all day for a lot more damage.

Cannot emphasize enough, Druid makes for a bad, bad bowman experience, probably worse that bard or wizard in my memory. For this reason, Horizon Walker did nod add much - I don't think that tree works well on its own without innate class support for ranged playstyle. Went Falconry to Capstone, instead, it's a nice addition with its CC / fort stripping / damage vulnerability that druid lacks. Not very useful in group play but essential for soloing. Also a more reliable instakill vs Finger of Death without significant investment.

Early epic levels in Primal Avatar are also fun so far, the damage procs actually make bow more useful, surprisingly, and the extra SLAs change the playstyle up a bit. Thinking of going all in on PA + splash in Draconic and Shadowdancer.

Finally, I am enjoying Thorn more than Hive. Even though theoretically 50% Concealment should be a big deal, I feel like I'm a lot squishier / get hit a lot more in Hive - maybe mobs have a lot of bypass, I dunno. And I already have Evasion from Monk (eventually Improved from SD), so no need to rely on Hive for that. Hive also forces you into more of a DoT playstyle, while Thorn has some decent direct damage options and feels less mana-hungry.

P.S. Comment to suggest what class I should do next, lol.