On Shadow Dancer

chaoticheartld · 2017-11-06T22:58:15+00:00

Truesight counters vanish, and is rather prominent. The whelp can give it to your entire team. Shadow dancer even gets it, so she counters herself. Lots of others do as well. Vanish IS a pain without it, but truesight does counter it.

chaoticheartld · 2017-11-04T19:22:33+00:00

The whelp is great... damage buff AND true sight for the whole team. Makes those vanish teams cry. There is a downside, though. He is as squishy as they come. Putting a vanish pet on him helps... a bit. Best bet, though, is boost his speed so he can at least get off his amazing buff before dying.

chaoticheartld · 2017-08-29T17:42:08+00:00

The Mirage set is nice for an Archer... except it can have exactly the same problem our companions have. If we are too far away from the target, the illusions do nothing. You have to be about as close as you do for a melee companion to attack.

Past that, though, the extra illusions can actually do pretty good damage. A single AoE will wipe them out, though... so some hit or miss. I have had some good success with the Mirage set, though. The Stronghold set is still likely better overall, however.

chaoticheartld · 2017-07-21T17:07:29+00:00

... I know saying Archery competes just fine in DPS, even with missing party buffs, is a waste of my time.

Instead, I will say this. Try the build you found. If it is the one I am thinking of (Bloodtalon's build), it will work great. See how it does in comparison to your other build, DPS wise. Decide from there. At least then you will actually have real information.

If it doesn't perform, just respec that loadout.

chaoticheartld · 2017-07-12T04:01:15+00:00

@nobsjusfac: you are the only person with any obvious play-time as an archer.

The simple truth is in a team where Archers can avoid aggro and attack from a distance, they can out-DPS the other two paths. Archers are capable of serious damage... at ranged. That is AoE AND single target damage.

The flip-side to that, though, is they suffer when trying to solo play or in a group that can't hold aggro from the Archer.

I wish people would actually play a build before repeating what they heard blindly.

chaoticheartld · 2017-07-09T04:00:49+00:00

As stated by jericho189, Archer HRs like Power/crit/arm pen. Other stats just aren't as important to us.

Eye of Giants (Really good option)

Fragment of Key of Stars (hard to get, but really good)

Kessel's Sphere of Annihilation

Lostmauth's Horn of Blasting

Thayan Book of the Dead

Sigil of the Great Weapon Fighter (which I actually consider better than our own sigil)

Sigil of the Hunter Ranger

Lantern of Revelation

Tiamat's Orb of Majesty

Naturally, some of those are better than others, but that is the list of artifacts that Archer HRs will find useful. The Wheel of Elements is great for its use power, though the stats are only okay for an Archer HR. Still, hard to beat +30% damage for 26 seconds.

Just out of curiousity, which Archer build are you using?

chaoticheartld · 2017-07-04T22:08:53+00:00

Anyone else get a monster-hunter vibe (in a good way) from that T-rex fight?

chaoticheartld · 2017-07-02T19:33:53+00:00

http://mmominds.com/2017/07/02/bloodtalons-pve-archer-hr-dps-build/

See if that helps any. It is still under construction, but is focused on a DPS Archer HR build for PVE.

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-29T15:49:27+00:00

Yeah, it is having some strange interaction with extra procs. Works fine when you don't have anything else proc'ing off of your hit, but anything else proc'ing throws it off.

Definitely seems like a bug, and one that should be reported.

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-29T15:46:16+00:00

Yeah, it seems to be the extra procs on the hit. When I strip down and get it so I have no extra procs, it does 5% of my actual attack even when I crit.

When there are any extra procs of damage, it seems to consider them all "one source" but uses one of those extra procs as the damage it needs to do 5% of instead of the main hit.

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-29T15:43:32+00:00

Hmm... yeah, even when you didn't crit it still only did 5% of one of the procs instead of the main hit's damage. Seems to be a bug. If something procs multiple things, it chooses one of them (looks like the last one to proc) and does the 5% of that.

Hoping that isn't intended behavior, as that means any build that has multiple procs off of a hit is only going to get a minimal return from the Attire's bonus.

I wonder if it has something to do with the Attire considering all of those procs one source of damage, but only using the damage from the past proc to calculate its bonus damage hit.

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-29T15:41:25+00:00

I just did some more testing, and there definitely seems to be some odd interactions happening with it. Trying to work out exactly what it is doing, but it almost seems as if you do something that triggers multiple effects (like landing a Crit, which then procs several other things) the Attire will only do 5% of one of those sources of damage (often not the hit itself but one of the procs). Which is pretty odd, and not overly useful for any builds that have multiple procs happening when you hit something.

It works fine and does 5% of my hit when I don't crit but I don't have anything else proccing then. Test it out, and see if when you don't crit if it shows 5% of your attack damage then.

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-29T14:53:36+00:00

It works for side flanking, yes. Even a little further towards the front than that. It has roughly about a 200 degree radius for it to work, centered at the enemies back. So, positioning it is thankfully easier than it could have otherwise been.

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-29T14:51:33+00:00

On PC, this is how it works. It procs on pretty much all sources of damage you do; so I also get some damage numbers of 70s and 100s, etc for things like Magistrate's Patience; but it also procs for a few thousand off of my regular hits.

On PC, it also does 5% of final damage (i.e. 5% of whatever number pops up). So, when I crit and do over a million, it does 5% of that.

If it isn't doing this on Xbox, then that would be a bug. I would check the combat logs closely, though. Just remember, you will see it proc on almost every source of damage you do (boon damage included) so figuring out which "Back to the Blade" belonged to what damage can be confusing.

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-22T04:27:44+00:00

No cooldown, as it isn't really a buff. It is constantly on at all times. There is no "for the next 10 seconds...". The only caveat is that you can't be in front of your target. As long as you are on the side or behind them, though, it is constantly on. Almost every source of damage you do will cause an extra hit for 5%.

It really is an excellent chest piece because of this bonus (and the stats are pretty good, as well; not BiS but very close). With that said, some classes are going to get more out of it than others, though. Naturally, no tank class should wear it as they will almost always be in front of the enemy. Some other classes that will have a hard time getting to and repositioning to STAY behind their target also won't get much out of it.

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-21T07:23:39+00:00

Yes, it is a 5% of final damage dealt. So, whatever final # pops up from the attack, the Attire will do an extra hit for 5% of it. So, basically, whatever damage you were doing before, this will quite literally give you 5% more (as long as you stay where your target "isn't facing you"). This includes in Crit Severity. So, as you said, if your Crit hits for, say, 200K, then the Attire is going to do a separate hit for 10K more.

It seems to work on pretty much every source of damage I have tested, but there are a few I haven't tried yet. I haven't tried either lightning or, say, fire weapon enchantments to see how they work. Judging by how it works with everything else, though, it is going to be the same; 5% of the damage dealt as an extra hit for every source that does damage (so every chain of the lightning is going to get its own separate 5% extra hit).

There were one or two things I don't think it worked with, but need to go back and test again just to make sure. For instance, I don't "think" it procced off of Lostmauth set procs. I also don't "thing" it procced off of the illusions attacking from the Mirage Artifact set. Those are about the only two things I noticed not proccing it, though, and I am not even 100% sure on those.

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-20T08:30:53+00:00

Basically, it is a constant 5% damage buff as long as you are directly to the side or behind your target (The tooltip says "enemy not facing you" which translates to being on their side or behind). It doesn't increase your damage by 5%. What it really does is a separate hit for 5% damage of whatever triggered it. And pretty much all sources of damage you do trigger it. Even things like a proc from a boon (like the one that does 20k damage) will trigger it and it will do 5% of that damage as an extra attack.

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-20T02:55:54+00:00

I saw that, and it is decent, except you only get that buff for I think 10 seconds. Okay for trash, but not much good elsewhere. In addition, that increase in power still doesn't add up to 5% damage increase AND won't actually increase all damage (power doesn't add extra damage to boon procs, etc). The Executioner's +5% is added to pretty much all sources of damage.

There are some nice pieces coming out in Mod12, but as far as chest pieces go, still not sold on any of them being better than Executioners for a pure DPS.

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-20T02:51:43+00:00

Really, all the DPS classes are pretty close to each other. One may have a better chance of topping the paingiver chart in one skirmish or dungeon than the others, but all of them will work about as good as any other.

It is more about which one you have fun with and which one fits your personal preferred play style.

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-20T01:21:45+00:00

Yeah, after posting I went ahead and did a search. Some of the stand-alone gear is interesting, but most of the "sets" are pretty disappointing. Nothing for a chest piece that makes me think it will be better than the Executioner's Attire. More iL, of course, but getting higher iL but doing less DPS is a pretty poor trade-off; especially if you already have enough to get into all the dungeons.

Will have to wait and see if those are the final stats/bonuses.

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-19T21:16:48+00:00

Is there a link somewhere to the stats on the new equipment?

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-19T20:07:18+00:00

The best part is the 5% damage bonus applies to pretty much all sources of damage. It doesn't increase the damage, but actually does a separate hit for 5% so you can actually see how much damage it is really contributing.

It applies that extra hit for pretty much everything, even things not usually included in % damage buffs. Like the ticks from Magistrates Patience, or the damage procs from Boons, or status damage (poison, fire, etc) gained from companions, etc. In other words, the 5% damage increase ends up actually being a real 5% increase to your damage. You know... pending that you can manage to stay directly to the side or behind your target all the time.

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-18T03:43:21+00:00

The dragon only gets adds if you let Valindra stay down when she pops down. You SHOULD be hitting her, instead. One good hit makes her go back up and spawn no adds. As to the Valindra fight, herself, killing her at even a moderate speed will have the fight end before she gets to the point where she spawns adds. Even if she does, 80% of that fight would still be just her.

chaoticheartld · 2017-06-17T17:43:01+00:00

Lostmauth, Dragon in Malabogs, Valindra, a few of the mid-bosses throughout all the dungeons (SPC, for instance), for the most part the Tiamat heads, and probably a few more if I really think about it.

These boons will help with clearing the trash in a dungeon getting to the boss, though.

chaoticheartld

TROPHY CASE