[Class Build] Commander Shepard (Ranger/Paladin Gun Build)

[ppscurry]

[CLASS BUILD] Commander Shepard

Sharpshooter/Bleak Walker

 

Description:

 

I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite gun build on the forums.

 

Word of warning, you will need to pull mobs carefully!

This is my attempt at creating a sniper arquebus build. What this build promises is an insane amount of accuracy (138 with passives), a cuddly meat tank you can lay your hands on and the ability to deal 200 dmg(around there, depending on immunities) per shot. To be honest, I just wanted to call it Commander Shepard and make stupid jokes. You can snipe squishy targets with this build though and it feels really good seeing the numbers pop.

 

Spoiler: Ranger is actually really useful here. Not even joking.

 

Race: 

 

No.1: Pale Elf (flame damage rating), Orlan for the crit (I used Elf for the resistance instead but the crit should be the best choice here)

No.2: Moon Godlike (AOE heals, your pet will need it, trust me.)

No.3: Wood Elf (for the resistance) 

 

Difficulty: POTD

Solo: Yes

Version: 1.02
Stats :

 

          18 Might 

          10 Con

          18 Dex

          18 Per

          10 Intelligence

          3 Resolve

 

Maxing might is obvious. Max Dex for action speed, Perception for accuracy. 3 Resolve because everything will hit you in PoTD anyway.

 

Companion:

Bear for tankiness.

 

Skills:

 

Go for hunter for the mechanics and flavor.

 

Boost mechanics till you reach 6 so that you can unlock most chests.

 

Dump the rest into stealth to breeze through the earlier levels and respec into Arcana right before tough boss fights for scroll usage.

 

Metaphysics if you plan on using Nemnok Quarterstaff. History if you plan on wearing the fampyr cloak. Split evenly if you plan on using both.

 

Proficiency:

 

Arquebus: Meat of this build. YOU MUST PICK THIS UP.

 

Rod: For AoE clears.

 

Quarterstaff: For crush damage.

 

The rest are up to you.

 

Blessing of Berath:

 

Highly Recommended: 50k gold +5k gold

Recommended: Double Skill bonus and bonus attributes, Stormwind Sails (makes farming money a lot easier)

Great if you have it: Unique Vendor (For the flame accuracy ring early on)

Whatever: The rest.

 

Gear:

 

I will split it up into early/mid/late game for those who are newer.

 

 

Early game:

 

Weapon: Dragon's Dowry (Neketaka, Brass Citadel Vendor, the gun smithy guy, 45k+). This is why I highly recommend the 50k start. Absolutely critical to this build. You must get it asap. Above everything else. Get. It. Now. Enchant it with Volatile Runelock and Blazing Fury asap as well.

 

Weapon 2: Watershaper's Focus, Tekehu's rod. Just pick him up from the Watershaper's guild in (Neketaka, Periki's Overlook). Note: This weapon is hard to upgrade but it's a pretty decent aoe weapon. Not too important but it's a backup weapon for those large crowds. Primal Water can be purchased from the vendors in periki overlook(sometimes) and you can loot 3 from the animancer quest in Sacred Stairs. You will need more but that's up to you to find. (I forgot where I got mine)

 

Armor: Devil of Caroc: The plus resource enchantment from this breastplate is crucial to this build. Get it. (Periki's Overlook, Vendor, Metalwork something something if I'm not mistaken.) 25k+ Once again, it costs a lot to gear up this character. You can grab a decent alternative from Fort Deadlight by killing Benweth but ultimately you want Devil of Caroc. 

 

Necklace: Whatever you can get your hands on, I suggest the necklace you grab in Port Maje or Charm the Bones(from Neketaka vendor, forgot which one) until you can get Orishia (Flamewalker Velassi???). You can get it from a bounty. I managed to defeat him at level 11 though it is probably possible earlier. (I didn't try it)

 

Gauntlets: Gatecrashers.  For the might+2, essentially anything with might +2 is fine. The unique vendor in port maje has one such glove or you can just buy the fancier version in Neketaka, Queen's Berth.

 

Burglar's gloves: for utility. +2mech

 

Cloak: Cloak of Greater Deflection or Protection. Vendor Neketaka or the unique vendor, easy find.

 

Rings: Anything to be honest. The flame accuracy ring from the unique vendor is pretty nifty for Flames of Devotion. I picked up a ring of regeneration for a bit of heal. Feel free to pick up anything else.

 

Belt: Some generic +2 con belt or just nothing if you want to be fancy.

 

Boots: Boots of the Stone for the affliction resistance. Alternatively, grab any boots with +stride.

 

Helmet: Thaos's helmet. Recruit Aloth to grab this. If anyone has a better suggestion, feel free to tell me. I just picked this for ACC. I'm sure there are better alternatives so feel free to use them.

 

Pet: I didn't bother with this too much but there was a pet that reduces recovery speed(Nalvi). Honestly, just pick a pet that boosts ACC. The name of the game is accuracy. With arquebus, you DO NOT want to miss a single shot.

 

Consumables: Anything with summons. Buy the adragan from dark cauldron and the siren from dunnage(radiant Court)

 

Late/Mid Game:

 

Helmet: Serpent Crown. Kill the Queen of Neketaka. Pretty nice helmet. If you are going to end the game, I suggest killing her just for funsies. Gets you a nice helmet as well. Aloth helmet still works well either way. 

 

Belt: Maker's Own Power. For the heal. It's the troll bounty in Dunnage(Lifter's Refuge). You need to pick up the bounty quest from the NPC(Dessiral, Radiant Court) before he turns up (Lifter's Refuge). Optional. Honestly, belt doesn't really matter. If you have a good suggestion, feel free to tell me.

 

Weapon Backup: If you can kill the guards leading to Nemnok's sanctuary, you can technically stealth your way to the treasure chest without fighting him and grab Veilpiercer and the quarterstaff(Not sure how you are going to lose aggro though). Alternative is to run a dual wield combination of the blunderbuss from Delver's Row and the pistol from Poko Kohora Ruins. They give a decent per use spell as well as a +25% dmg buff that causes your attacks to bounce.

 

Before heading to Ashen Maw, make sure to kill Nemnok and grab the Veilpiercer bow . Pick the free recovery enchantment for the bow. IMPORTANT or you can't kill a damn thing in Ashen Maw

 

Cloak: Giftbearer's Cloth. It's slightly south of Junvik and Nemnok. The area is called Fampyr's Crypt. Northwest corner of the map. You need to pull them one or two at a time. Alternatively, you can try stealing the cloak after clearing out the first two blocking off the passage. It's in a chest below. Honestly, it's pretty easy to kill them if you pull them properly.

 

Equipment Procurement Guide:

 

Gold/XP:

Once again, buy four imperial long guns, buy a slightly improved sails/hulls and stock up on repair supplies. Buy the cheapest food and etc. Hunt down every ship you find and turn in the bounties. You can easily hit lvl 10+ like this.

 

Fort Deadlight is a pretty easy quest to clear and you can stealth through most of it.

 

Hasongo is a pretty easy quest to clear with decent drops. Clear the initial few mob pulls and just sneak through the rest of the areas. There's a triple archer mob area which cannot be skipped. Once again, free money so just kill them.

 

Arkemyr's Mansion: No fighting involved. Just need mechanics 6 +2 from gloves, +2 from drugs or hylea blessing.

 

Robbing your companions.

 

Animancer's Tower: The first test is really easy to solo. The last boss can be kited easily. Gives primal water and spirit residue. Needed for Vailan faction quest so just do it. Double turn in.

 

Primal Flame:

 

Ori o Koiki Vendor. She sold me 5. Rathun fireships.

 

Black Pearl: Ori o Koiki, throne room chest

Pyrite: Radiant Court (the npc in the north, you have to enter another area)

 

Orishia:

 

Chances are your aoe still sucks so here's an easy way to grab this necklace. Stand as far away as possible from the first guard and use your ranger's mark to pull the naga. It will pull only two or so mobs in one go. You can easily snipe Flamewaker to death or just focus down the marauder. It should take 2-3 hits at most to kill the melee guy if you have Dragon's Dowry.

 

You should pick up the adragan summon from Dark Cauldron(the arkemyr vendor, name might not be accurate) (Neketaka, Periki's Overlook). Feel free to grab the mini drake summon item from Arkemyr's mansion as well.

 

Nemnok Fight:

 

Bring enough potions (I used 7 minor and 3 moderate) because he is tanky. Kill the brat. Clear one side first and slowly pull the mobs. Even though it says immunity o mind effects, the siren summon is still able to dominate it. Slowly whittle him down and always stay in melee range unless you have corrode resistance. His melee attack sucks. I did it at 15. You can try it slightly earlier if you are feeling adventurous. Swap tanking with your bear/pet to allow yourself some breathing space. I had some penetration problems so I just went close range in both cases. Turn on your arquebus modal.

 

Jaderferlas:

 

Make sure you have Devil of Caroc enchanted for resolve afflictions. Make sure you have Veil Piercer enchanted for free recovery on crit. Make sure you have a greater ring of regeneration equipped (Neketaka Vendor, I think. Some vendor sells it.).Get a cup of coffee. Start of the fight bring her to the choke point near the pillar. Throw on your marks and just slowly fire at her. Make sure your bear is somewhere far away.

 

Once she spawns a second wave of slime, pull her further into the choke point such that you are surrounded by slimes and she can't hit you. Her meteor shower hits targets near her so you can avoid it somewhat by being surrounded by slimes. With Pale Elf resistances, the slimes do 2-3 damage and your ring can easily heal through it. Turn on AI mode and wait for your character to kill her with Veil Piercer. Because there are slimes nearby, the additional attack from your ranger passive gives you an additional chance to crit and fire right away. Afk till she is dead.

 

Alternatively, just sneak past her...

 

If you do not wish to fight that warlord rathun guy, don't tell them you killed the dragon. He doesn't give much anyway...

 

Guardian of Ukaizo: 

 

Save your buffs for the second phase. Use your bear to kite the initial adra spawns while you use your arquebus to take them out. One Flame of Devotion can kill off one adra or severely injure it. Because of your bouncing attack, your next FoD will definitely kill one or two adra, saving you that zeal point. Because I ran a Pale Elf and had 167 reflex, I mostly tanked through his fire/corrode effects attacks. I saved my Hylea's blessing for that additional +10 reflex. You can pick up a passive to boost your defenses if you want.

 

I used my basic attacks to trigger his next phase. Just bring along like 3 major healing potions as insurance. You might end up using 1 or 2 to kill the boss, if you aren't careful.

 

For the second phase where the giant sentinels spawn. Make sure you are right at the entrance of the island and have your bear near those statues. Just use it to kite the sentinels around all day. 

 

Third Phase( The point where you can damage the boss). Turn on blazing fury and spam all the flames of devotion you can. Use your empower to recover resources here. Easy kill. Don't even bother using Lay on Hands to heal yourself, just drink a potion. Make sure to avoid his frost puddle, I think it knocks you down. Avoid the purple ball of somethingness because why not. He has flame breaths but they will miss you. Assuming you are at a lower level than me, you can avoid it if you want. It only hits in a straight line.

 

Ability Choices:  (There might be some error here since I wrote this after a retrain, I think there's a bug which eats up your level one point.)

 

Initial Abilities:

Sworn Enemy(P), Marked Prey®

 

1-3: Lay on Hands, Deep Faith

 

4-6: Zealous Aura, Marksman, Inspired Defense, Gunner

 

7-9:Revive Companion(Meh), Eternal Devotion, Two-handed Style, Retribution,

 

10-12:Wounding Shot, Exalted Focus, Scion of Flame, Accurate Wounding Shot

 

13-15:Sworn Rival, Driving Flight,Uncanny Luck

 

16-18: Improved Critical, Virtuous Triumph, Survival of the Fittest, Tough

 

19-20: Stoic Steel, Concussive Shot(Meh), Exalted Endurance(Meh).

 

Alternative: Dump wounding shot for Takedown Combo, great for the early stages, sort of. You can dump Exalted Endurance, Revive Companion, Concussive Shot for AoE defense passive and Will defense. Wounding Shot was taken because of the excess of ranger resource points, you can pick up more defensive abilities with this like the +armor rating on your bear but I feel that this build needs another activated offensive ability. 

Strategy:

 

Open up with marked prey, sworn enemy ->cast a summon (adragan), use Kitchen Stove buff( if necessary, turn on your arquebus buff (it's per encounter) and then Flame of Devotion (FoD) the casters/ranged/melee in that order. Once you reach level 12/13 or so, your attacks start to bounce so you can prioritize those who have less health. Use your bear to try and distract the enemies (block choke points or just throw him at them, you can live with the bonded grief). Lay on Hands as necessary. Most of the time, if you pulled correctly, you won't have to cast your per rest abilities.

 

Choices I Skipped:

 

Takedown Combo: 100% dmg buff. I tried it, wasn't great. The bear rarely hits too. Doesn't give the OMG crits.

 

Healing Pet spells: Lay on Hands is sufficient and that bear is kinda just a decoration except on rare occasions where you need it to buy extra time or block a choke point. 

 

Paladin buffs: Too short and too resource intensive.

 

Other pet revive options: Waste of points and honestly, you only need it for that initial window. Just revive it once and tuck him in a safe corner. Pets are for petting not fighting.

 

Why not XXX class?

 

Chanter: Well, it would end up as a summoner build wouldn't it? Honestly, chanter is just too op and I wanted to give Ranger abilities a try. Chanter would probably fare better lul.

 

Monk: Too op for my liking.

 

Fighter: Interesting choice to toy with. I considered picking this but I just wanted to call this build Commander Shepard...

 

If you were to pick fighter, I suggest picking up Charge for that delicious arquebus aoe spam. Discipline Barrage (the crit buff). Mob Stance/Cleave sort of doesn't work in generating additional hits but the recovery is nice. I don't suggest picking up Black Jacket. One arquebus is enough. Trust me.

 

Cipher: I considered Soul Blade but soul annihilation is melee. You can test out takedown combo and soul annihilation, it might just work. The focus generation with this build is actually pretty good so a better cipher player might find this useful but not me.

 

Wizard: No.

 

Priest: Buffs take too long.

 

Rogue: Sneak attacks do not pair too well but I can picture a melee range arquebus and perpetual distraction, deathblow build. You get more mobility.

 

Druid: Why?

 

Barbarian: Melee focused. This is a gun build.

 

Pure Ranger:...

 

Pure Paladin: You give up too many offensive passives.

 

Why Ranger:

 

Bouncing Attacks( Driving Flight): AoE for arquebus. Ranged passives and great accuracy options. (Gunner, Marksman, Marked Prey, Survival of the Fittest, Accurate Wounding Shot, Concussive Shot.) Yes, the active abilities are kinda crappy compared to other classes like rogue.

 

Why Paladin:

 

Obviously, the bear isn't going to survive long without heals. Lay on Hands is a great way to heal it and you (SYNERGY *thumbs up*). Flames of Devotion gives massive flame +corrode damage along with accuracy. Easily spammable too. Massive tankiness from passives. Nice aura.

 

Final Thoughts:

 

I just wanted a gun build to be honest. Ranger seemed pretty fun and the passives honestly aren't that bad. There were situations where I found myself really glad that I had driving flight to pair with Dragon's Dowry. My bear turned out to be really useful when I needed those precious 30 seconds. Keeping it alive wasn't hard with Lay on Hands, damage sucked though, but then it's the bear.

 

Honestly, the paladin side really carried but the ranger side really surprised me at times during the leveling journey. Dragon's Dowry is only possible because of ranger IMO unless you have someway to generate free aoe attacks (Monk's Swift Flurry or perhaps charge.) However, you lose the benefit of marked prey and a number of accuracy buffs. With marked prey, I never missed a single shot especially with the arquebus modal of +20 acc. Sharpshooter was useful for penetration and honestly the recovery penalty was nothing.

 

Pale Elf really surprised me as well. So many chickens used fire attacks to try and hit me. I guess that's why they are dragons.

 

Given the abundance of points, it's possible to finish the game at 17-18, I ended up fighting the boss at 20 to try out the passives. They weren't really needed.

 

Chanter would honestly be better here but chanter is better everywhere...nothing new there.

 

Yes, I know it's ShepHErd.

Edited May 20, 2018 by ppscurry

[Tosho]

I did something like this with Crusader, can't freaking die and insane accuracy.

Edited May 20, 2018 by Tosho

[ppscurry]

Yeah, the accuracy is really insane. If I optimized the build better, I think I can hit 150+ accuracy.

[Tosho]

Yeah, the accuracy is really insane. If I optimized the build better, I think I can hit 150+ accuracy.

 

I wonder if one were to add Assassin in the mix, he could potentially Snipe someone with FoD (and get assassin bonus - but not backstab due to melee range requirement) and if the target dies just hit smoke bomb to reset combat so you can do it again and again 1 enemy at a time for easy solo.   Like a true sniper would do lol.

Edited May 20, 2018 by Tosho

[ppscurry]

Hmm, it is possible. Guns do not trigger recovery so you can instantly teleport away or cast smoke bomb. I finished an assassin run with that kind of gameplay using swords so I wanted to avoid that in this run. However, it is an interesting idea. You give up ranger which kinda reduces your aoe abilities and accuracy. Hmm, I'm actually in love with Driving Flight right now so I think I would still pick Ranger knowing that suggestion. That bouncing attack with FoD and Dragon's Dowry is just sick. 

[Porcelyn]

I came for the name but I'm staying for the build.

[Cylion]

Can I ignore my Paladin's Order preferences? Or Do I need the def bonus? I am not playing him solo but in a full party. I just hate to limit my conversation options and prefer to be a diplomat.

[ppscurry]

Bleak walker does more damage with flames of devotion. You can change it, but just keep it mind that it will do less damage.

 

EDIT: Bleak Walker doesn't do much for the final boss in the game so it is actually better to dump Bleak Walker assuming you only plan around that boss fight.

Edited May 22, 2018 by ppscurry

[Cylion]

Bleak walker does more damage with flames of devotion. You can change it, but just keep it mind that it will do less damage.

 

EDIT: Bleak Walker doesn't do much for the final boss in the game so it is actually better to dump Bleak Walker assuming you only plan around that boss fight.

Good to know! What do you think should be the better choice? The Shieldbearers of St.Elcga Or Kind Wayfarers

[ppscurry]

 

Bleak walker does more damage with flames of devotion. You can change it, but just keep it mind that it will do less damage.

 

EDIT: Bleak Walker doesn't do much for the final boss in the game so it is actually better to dump Bleak Walker assuming you only plan around that boss fight.

Good to know! What do you think should be the better choice? The Shieldbearers of St.Elcga Or Kind Wayfarers

 

In a party? Shieldbearer, definitely. The arquebus allows you throw out Lay on Hands that prevent death, rapidly and on demand. Guns don't trigger recovery after all.

[Keldaur]

Obligatory

 

We'll BANG ok.

[Edolamberto]

you said chanter would be better, you mean chanter+paladin?