Hey all. I'm looking to TR my main (no completionist, 36 point build) and I want to try something different (I mainly have experience with melee).

I'm looking for an arti past life and wanted to play with repeaters. Judging by the mechanic tier 5 abilities atleast 5 rogue is a must? Possibly 6 but i'm not sure if Rogue 6 adds more than arty 15.

Does anyone have race/feat recommendations? I'm looking for the following in the build:
-Ranged build, arti past life.
-Mostly solo play so self sufficient.
-Mostly built for fast heroic levelling.
-If at all possible able to do EE content for a quick EPL, does NOT have to be LE capable.
-Race other than warforged, because I do not have that. Construct essence would be an option.

Does anyone with more ranged experience have a build/suggestions I could use? Much appreciated.

Bushin wrote on Mar 5^th, 2016 at 7:36am:


[] wrote on Mar 5^th, 2016 at 9:46am:


Right.

crunch wrote on Mar 5^th, 2016 at 9:53am:


I stand by my previous statement, and all implications thereof.

Bushin wrote on Mar 5^th, 2016 at 11:20am:


Make sure you take (and spam) Assassin's Trick to remove sneak attack immunity.

As for feats:
RAARR RRRAA AAAAA AAAAA


1 Point Blank Shot
3(Arti autogrant)Rapid Reload
3 Rapid Shot
6 Precision
9 Skill Focus UMD (start scroll healing)
10a Precise Shot
12 Dodge
14a Imp Critical
15 Imp Precise Shot
18a Weapon Focus Ranged
18 Weapon Focus Thrown
21 OC
24 Combat Archery
26 Spellpower
27 Mobility
28 Doubleshot
29 Harbinger
30 Shot on the run

Max out Int, but you'll have a prereq of least 19 dex by level 15. Start with 15 if you have a +4 tome. (You'll want to hit 21 by level 24 if you linger into epics rather than TRing at 20.)

38 in mech for t5
25 in assassin for killer + sneak attack
17 in gnome for weapon training

Bushin wrote on Mar 5^th, 2016 at 4:19pm:


NP.

Let's keep hoping they add Mech as the 3rd Arti tree.

Bushin wrote on Mar 5^th, 2016 at 11:20am:

The current game won't show you much difference in rune arm dmg from 2 levels. Plus, using it slows you down. If you've been stationary, a fully charged blast can finish off an approaching mob, but it's pretty funny when you need to run and your rune arm's on auto-charge 

You'll notice 5FS didn't put any metamagic feats on his list. There's a reason for that. Treat your spells as buffs only. Turret is awesome in normal progression, but with a split, it will only serve as a floor button-pusher.

Mechanic sits on top of the ranged pyramid. The fewer rogue levels, the less dps, plain and simple. It's not really worth getting fancy.


5 Foot Step wrote on Mar 5^th, 2016 at 12:43pm:

Fuck no.

That's the only quibble I have, if you're set on 14 arti. Personally, I'd go to 15, or stop at 12.

Galadriel wrote on Mar 7^th, 2016 at 11:59pm:


At first I was thinking at least 12 arti for a capstone but since i'm not investing in arti trees at all maybe 11/9 would be better. It would give me some more sneak damage. Higher levels of arti do give me better scroll casting and some more spells. If I take 11 arti I only get up to level 4 spells but I suppose i'm not missing that much.

It seemed to me that more arti gave me some more self sufficiency.

After looking it over some more arti 12 does give another bonus feat. Though I guess this build isn't exactly feat starved.

Revaulting wrote on Mar 7^th, 2016 at 9:43pm:


I guess I should point out that you need gear/tomes to do it well at 9. Still, construct essence is a trap.

Level 9 UMD:

12 ranks
2 Gnome AP
3 Mech AP
2 Arti Knowledge
3 Charisma (8 base+6 item+2 tome)
3 Skill Tome
3 Skill Focus
3 Competence (Cartouche or persuasion item)
3 Guild (ship buff)
4 Morale (GH)
1 luck (Voice)
1 enhancement (Big Top)
1 profane (Spider mask)

=41 (39 needed for no fail)

Scrolls are boosted to CL 12 by artificing and amplified by 75% by scroll mastery enhancements (120x1.75=210)

Bushin wrote on Mar 8^th, 2016 at 12:07pm:


Skill focus was included in my gnome layout. If you went human, the feats would slide up and you'd end up taking something else at 30. (Epic DR maybe?)

I wouldn't go human though. I guess it is sufficient if TRing at 20 is the goal, but I'd rather 8 arti/7 bard/5 rogue swash or 9 arti/9 druid/2 ranger wolf to get a past life.

Another option you might want to consider is an 8/6/6 art/rog/rgr with light repeaters and elemental arrow imbues.

Go human for dual boosts, healing amp and bonus feat or gnome/deep gnome for synergy with Int-to-Hit/Dmg and short height for better IPS. 

You can double-dip on the runearm perks via the innate runearm imbue plus the relevant spell power bonus for the AA elemental imbue.  That frees up a non-runearm slot that you would normally need to devote to spellpower.

Enhancements would look something like this:
37 Mechanic -- Tier 5s (minus Time Bomb), lvl 6 core (Int-to-Hit and extended SA range)
25 DWS -- Lvl 6 core (Sniper Shot and extended SA range), Killer, and Merciful Shot
12 AA -- Elemental Arrows (tier 3)
03 Harper -- Int to Hit (if not dex-based)

5 points left over to use as desired for dual boosts, healing amp, etc.

Optionally, you could forgo Sniper in Mechanic and drop down to tier 2 Elemental Arrows in AA.  That would give you enough points to pickup Assassin's Trick and 2 SA die from the Assassin tree.  Splitting hairs at this point though.

This build is overpowered in heroics and does reasonably well in EE even if it's not top tier DPS in the end.  I ran something similar for a past life recently and the elemental imbue dmg was as much or more than the base bolt damage with level-appropriate spellpower.

The only weakness is self-healing.  It relies primarily on scrolls and potions until cocoon but if you play it intelligently, you rarely get hit anyway.

Insightful Reflexes is great if you are going the Int-to-Hit/Dmg route.  If you have a +5 tome, you only need 16 starting dex to hit 21 before epics.

5 Foot Step wrote on Mar 8^th, 2016 at 10:45am:

All this is true. My objection mainly stems from not needing to do it well at 9.

Bushin wrote on Mar 8^th, 2016 at 12:07pm:

It is.

5 Foot Step wrote on Mar 8^th, 2016 at 6:08pm:

I agree, if the build is only going to 20. At cap, the difference makes you regret that skill focus UMD feat, enough to swap it out. Do this, for the best of both worlds.

Not being where they hit helps a lot