Ranged Combat Guide

I was asked for a video on how I make Ranged Combat work. I am not much of a content creator but figured I would post a basic guide.

 

Very nice guide. Makes me want to work harder to get my skills up

 

Might get double XP again soon... Might be a good time.

 

I have not seen any problems from the great armor nerfs of R53 with this build.

 

I think in R53 you will be pretty deadly in PVP if you will up piercing shot to the same level as rapid. Good video.

 

I have not done much PvP so Piercing Shot has not been that important. I am working on getting Aim Shot to 130 since that is my bread and butter. I will get Piercing up though and try it out, though it sad that 130 Piercing Shot is what it would take to be deadly.

 

Good job @Diab Blackbow

 

Thanks man.

 

Thanks for the guide, Diab. I've been playing for about 3 weeks now, and found it extremely useful as I wanted a primarily ranged character.

While your guide was useful in determining what skills are better than others, I was wondering what your (or any other expert ranged) thoughts would be on the most effective order to build the ranged skills. I can currently kill most of the regular Tier 5 monsters I run into, as long as I only get one or two at a time. However, it does to take a little bit of time to kite each one down, as my DPS isn't that great. And if I get three or more (or a couple wizards), I'll be running for the exit. As of right now, I am AL 55 with about 700 pts in Ranged (I've also got 600 or so in Light Armor, maybe 200 in Earth/Life/Air/Subterfuge/Tactics, and some other low level random stuff I was trying out ). My highest skill is the base ranged skill (83), with aimed shot (70) and disabling shot (65) not far behind. I still only have 55 in Range, so I haven't unlocked specialization yet. But I have all other Ranged skills to at least 40.

Would unlocking specialization give me a decent DPS boost? Or possibly upgrading to a better weapon (I currently have a +4 maple longbow)? Or upgrading from basic leather armor (with no bonuses)? Just want to maximize my efficiency, as most T4 area mobs give negative pool XP when I have 3 or more skills turned on at this point.

Also, I have yet to find any good information on Base weapon Damage vs. Crit chance/damage. My current bow has 12.5% to crit chance, but I've noticed a lot of the ones I see selling have more +Weapon Damage % than crit. Is base damage really more effective?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

There are XP tables out there that tell you how much skills cost. You are supposed to get the most bang for your XP at level 80. I like to get my skills to around 40 and then prioritize lower XP cost skills like Ranged, Aim Shot, and Rapid Fire and get them to 80.

I like to look for lower XP mobs like undead archer and mages and then do a charged shot+Aim Shot/Rapid Fire combo. Doing this, you have a good chance of killing them faster.

I don't think the specialization skills will give a good damage boost unless you can get it to 80. A maple longbow +4 doesn't really say much since the + number isnt that important. The MW/EN that are on it are more important. I like Hard Maple the most. Upgrading from basic leather will always help. You can find some cheap armor out there with some good stats.

They nerfed crit chance on weapons a while back. I value weapon damage above it now. I think they recently changed the crit formula so it might be good to do some more experiments. Basically the old formula gave crit chance from gear/skills a low value and dex a higher value. This made weapon damage more valuable.

Hope I was helpful

 

Thanks, mate. Very helpful. I'll be working on all the ranged skills, and focus on the ones you pointed out (aimed, rapid fire). In the meantime, I did indulge and upgraded to a hard maple crossbow with +20% weap damage and bonuses to Dex/Aimed/Rapid/atk speed. It made an immediate impact on offense. And still got enough left to shop around for armor.

 

Very nice guide and thank you!
But i have a question
At Air Magic Specialization LV80, the Air's Embrace get cri chance 10% (LV 100)
we know the cri chance math is : (BaseWeaponCritChance + VitalPointsBonus+ArmorWeakPointsBonus+DexterityCritBonus) * (100%+EquipmentCriticalBonus)
than Air's Embrace cri chance 10%?
how did it work?

ps:sorry for english is no good

 

I honestly don't know the new crit math but I would assume that it would go here with Armor Weak Points.

 

Pretty sure it's just a crit chance and not a crit modifier so very meh. @Cryodacry tested it and it wasn't straight crit like armor weak points, vital points, or dex/x. I've seen archers stunning with gust which seems pretty awesome.

 

That is good to know. I was thinking about picking it up to test when specialization first came out but I have never been comfortable with Air magic fizzle chance.

 

Thanks for the video.

On your main deck.
Does it only draw the two cards in each of the first three slots as shown on the ST Heal deck you showed at the end?

I noticed there were several Ranged glyps in the deck builder that would not be drawn.
Is there any advantage/disadvantage to having them there but not drawing?

 

Stun with gust is my friend atm...

 

The first three slots are unlocked but only set to draw Rapid Fire and Aim Shot. I use three slots to allow me stack those two skills. In order to have those three slots unlocked I believe that I need to have 16 cards but I only have 12 cards to use for Aim Shot and Rapid Fire. If I only put those cards in the deck then I would draw slugs. I sometimes use other cards depending on the fight so I will will throw a couple extra cards in the deck that I might use. The key here is to make sure you have the bare minimum cards to draw from. I am required to have 14 so I only put 14 in. The fewer the cards, the more predictable your deck is.

All of my locked cards are also subject to change. I hardly use Fireflies in The Mage room so I will put something else in the slot to change stuff up. Right now I have sprint there since Fleet Flute was broke.

Edit: Need 16 cards in the deck not 14.

 

I found piercing to be pretty decent against bosses that have heavy damage mitigation. I mainly use it to fill in those last few glyphs for a slugless deck.

 

It can definitely used as a filler. I liked Blinding Shot or maybe Disabling Shot for that role. Whatever works for you and the fight.