Some Thoughts on Ranged and Horizon Walker

[Greywolf]

I am doing an AoE Archer build, and I do like it, pretty fun. I have done a bunch of Horizon Walker and Inquisitive lives on my main char back on Orien some time ago (still there, started a new char on Thrane).

Scattershot: This has always been a useless ability since it shares a cooldown with Manyshot, which is essential for Bow, and too important to waste charges on anything else. I would not take this ability even if it only cost 1 AP and was available in Tier 1. It is one of the worst enhancements in the game, and at Tier 4, it is exceptionally bad. Can we get this to use it's own cooldown? Every single other AoE shot in the game is significantly better.

Level 22 Feats:
Melee gets: Perfect THF/TWF/SWF or Doublestrike to choose from, each of which is a solid choice.
Casters get: Choice of very nice spell power boost feats.
Ranged gets: I don't know, Holy Strike, I guess, meh and situational.

Doubleshot seems like an easy option to add. And a few interesting choices would be nice:
Perfect Improved Precise Shot, reduces the damage penalty of IPS by half.
Perfect Archers Focus: You always have a baseline 10x stacks of Archers Focus.

PIN Cooldown is way too long. Again, pretty much every other ranged strike in the other destinies is better than the Shiradi strike.

 

[Weaponalpha]

Ranged get: I can stand WAY over here and shoot that thing WAY over there and not get attacked most of the time. I love ranged and am currently on a ranged life, which I do every third on my main, they do not need any help.

 

[minamber]

I have to agree with weaponalpha, it seems a bit greedy to ask for buffs to what's the strongest archetype in the game currently.

Now archers and its enhancement trees (horizon walker and arcane archer) might need buffs to bring them up to par with the best ranged builds, but no to just giving better epic feats to ranged characters.

 

[Sarandra]

[...]
PIN Cooldown is way too long. Again, pretty much every other ranged strike in the other destinies is better than the Shiradi strike.

This one. Make it 9 seconds or something more reasonable. And a save isn't listed in Pin's descrîption though I sometimes get the impression mobs *do* get a save against the dancing/immobilized effect.

While you're at it, make Shadowstrike (Shadowdancer) suck less with repeaters.

 

[Greywolf]

I have to agree with weaponalpha, it seems a bit greedy to ask for buffs to what's the strongest archetype in the game currently.

Now archers and its enhancement trees (horizon walker and arcane archer) might need buffs to bring them up to par with the best ranged builds, but no to just giving better epic feats to ranged characters.

Well, I am on a 3rd Archer life, so I was thinking more about Bows than Inquisitive, Repeater, or Throwers. And it has been a while since I ran one of those, but the indications that I see are that they are doing pretty well right now. That brings up another Bow shortcoming versus the other ranged options, and it is always a problem for gear Tetris:

Bows do not allow anything offhand. It would be cool if somehow they allowed an Orb or something offhand to more easily solve for getting spell power on your gear set.

 

[woq]

Ranged get poor selection of feats at 22, but vastly better feats both in heroics and epics than any melee could ever hope for. Kinda skewed display.

22 ? Yeah, sucks. Guarded Actions is a bit underrated tho imo as is epic spell power (positive/repair) for those respective types.

Doubleshot = +10 vs doublestrike +5 ds
Trickshot for 40 rp (and works nice with defensive tumble for the double 0.5 cdr, if u had room...)
Eerie aim for 5 deflection bypass 10 hit 5 dodge bypass
Expanded Clip for 33 ds
Watchful Eye for 5 ds
Combat Archery for +1 W

...

So yeah, poor selection at 22. After that? They're so stacked u got way more to take than u got room for. They also utilize build agnostic feats like Sneak of Shadows better than melees due to being able to more consistently make use of most of it (you keep hitting even while repositioning, avoiding mechanics, etc)

...

Ranged don't need help at the moment. Shiradi is the best tree, their feats are the best and their builds are both easier to make and easier to execute than anything else.

Edit: I'd like to specify that they don't need help in later phases of the game. Their heroic life is notoriously crappy. Their endgame though.. Waowie are they strong.

 

[Cildar]

There are two nice aoes in Arti - just sayin...

 

[Sonoma]

Bows do not allow anything offhand. It would be cool if somehow they allowed an Orb or something offhand to more easily solve for getting spell power on your gear set.

I suggest quivers, with same functions as orbs or caster sticks. Only functions with bows. Make them craftable. Sell them like craftable trinkets.

 

[RangerOne]

I just can't get into Horizon Walker, primarily because Scattershot shares its cooldown with Manyshot. In a barbarian life right now and truly annoyed that I have to run up to the mob. After playing most every permutation of archer I finally settled into ranger with Dreadnaught (I think, the one with dire shot) and AA for paralyzing. Very happy with it as soon as I can stop being a drow for a while.

 

[Greywolf]

I just can't get into Horizon Walker, primarily because Scattershot shares its cooldown with Manyshot. In a barbarian life right now and truly annoyed that I have to run up to the mob. After playing most every permutation of archer I finally settled into ranger with Dreadnaught (I think, the one with dire shot) and AA for paralyzing. Very happy with it as soon as I can stop being a drow for a while.

Scattershot is useless, but I do like Horizon Walker simply because you can multiclass and still get the Capstone. I am Drow 15/3/2 Ranger/Paladin/Rogue right now. 41 AP in Horizon, 15 AA, 11 DWS, and 8 in KotC. Paladin AoE shot uses cleave cooldown, which is great. At level 24 now, main destiny is primal for the mantle and shared mantle + hire buffs because it is funny to have Tarlov Snowtrack adding mantle damage. I liked Dire Shot as well, but swapped to Fatesinger for it's strike. I will swap main destiny at 26 because the higher tier Primal stuff is not great.

Edit: 14 AP AA. I forgot that Arcane Archer's Soul Magic is broken with any Epic Destinies that auto grant Magical Training. Since you have it, you cannot take Magical Training in AA, which is required for Soul Magic, even though it lets you select and save it. It just resets your entire tree on every login, which is not acceptable, this is an old bug.

 

[Oliphant]

Ranged get: I can stand WAY over here and shoot that thing WAY over there and not get attacked most of the time. I love ranged and am currently on a ranged life, which I do every third on my main, they do not need any help.

Why so vague? Are you playing Horizon Walker or not?

 

[Greywolf]

Ranged get poor selection of feats at 22, but vastly better feats both in heroics and epics than any melee could ever hope for. Kinda skewed display.

22 ? Yeah, sucks. Guarded Actions is a bit underrated tho imo as is epic spell power (positive/repair) for those respective types.

Doubleshot = +10 vs doublestrike +5 ds
Trickshot for 40 rp (and works nice with defensive tumble for the double 0.5 cdr, if u had room...)
Eerie aim for 5 deflection bypass 10 hit 5 dodge bypass
Expanded Clip for 33 ds
Watchful Eye for 5 ds
Combat Archery for +1 W

Of these, I take Doubleshot, Eerie Aim, and Combat Archery. Expanded Clip is repeater only, I never find room to take Watchful Eye. Trick Shot does seem interesting, though I suppose it depends on how well you are able to employ it in combat situations, might be fun to try sometime.

I am not seeing how Heroic Melee feats are behind the ranged options, aside from the BAB requirements for half BAB classes like EK, which seems ridiculous, Wizard and Sorcerer EK should be able to take all of their chosen combat feats in heroics, in my opinion.

 

[Weaponalpha]

Nope, did that last ranged life as 12 DH 6 Pal 2 Monk and it was super fun as always. I used Scattershot on groups of mobs along with Exalted Shot and Elemental Inferno and they work as they should on small groups. Yes, you may need to herd them...I am currently a no points in Inq Arti life. Next ranged I will go Shuriken. Thanks for asking!

 

[Greywolf]

Nope, did that last ranged life as 12 DH 6 Pal 2 Monk and it was super fun as always. I used Scattershot on groups of mobs along with Exalted Shot and Elemental Inferno and they work as they should on small groups. Yes, you may need to herd them...I am currently a no points in Inq Arti life. Next ranged I will go Shuriken. Thanks for asking!

To each their own. I value the many shot charges to quickly deal with champs and reapers versus a 3rd Heroic AoE shot myself.

 

[Weaponalpha]

Good thing you can have both...Many Shot is auto granted for DH and you get 2 more when you go HW. Win/win

 

[OG DM]

Not having options at those levels actually makes ranged even stronger if you are willing to hybrid and work on something else using those slots.

It's the "I must put everything into the one button offense gimmick" builds that...suffer.

 

[seph1roth5]

Horizon walker/bows blow. I've done a few since HW came out and didn't like any of them lol. Only archer build I ever ran that didn't suck as a paralyzer on HC. But that didn't care about damage at all, just keeping everyone healthy and alive.

Ranged aoe ALSO blow. Artificer battle engineer just gets 3 shots at it w/ a repeater, so the fact that the aoes suck is less noticable. But the ranged aoes all still have a horribly small area, and don't hit mobs very well at all.

The only time I felt like my archers weren't complete crap, where vs an epic (raid) boss with a pile of HP. One where I could get all my stacks of archer's focus, get haste boost going, and spam all my manyshots as well. So maybe they make good raid dps? But for everything else....They fire too slowly, across all levels