Frostyboy (Frostseeker Hunter)

[thundercleese]

Class: Hunter (Sharpshooter/Devoted)

 

Difficulty: PotD (turned on upscaling after getting Frostseeker)

 

Version: 1.2

 

Race: Hearth Orlan

 

Background: Deadfire or The White that Wends

 

Attributes: Max Per and Dex

 

My distribution (after Berath’s blessing and culture):

MIG: 15 (17)

CON: 8 (10)

DEX: 18 (21)

PER: 20 (22)

INT: 8 (10)

RES: 8 (10)

 

Main thing here is starting with as high DEX and PER as you can. MIG is your next priority, though I dislike having any of my starting stats below 10 which is why I didn’t max it. CON or RES would be my dump stats of choice if I were to though. Without blessings I would probably go 10/10/18/19/10/10.

 

Skills: Whatever you feel like really. I generally like all my characters to have at least a point or 2 in athletics for an emergency heal. Otherwise stealth is quite handy to have. Or alchemy if you like to use consumables. For passives you can max survival or history for the cloaks that scale off those, but again it’s up to personal preference.

 

Abilities:

I will list the important abilities for each PL, the rest are to preference. Generally, you want as many passives/buffs as possible, as the bulk of your damage comes from the frost explosion proc.

PL1:

Disciplined Barrage (!)

Marked Prey (!)

Resilient Companion ®

PL2:

Fighter Stances (!)

Protective Companion (!) (though this can be put off as we only take it for Stalker’s Link at PL4)

Confident Aim ®

Marksman ®

Two-Handed Style ®

PL3:

Disciplined Strikes (!)

Marked for the Hunt (!)

(I recommend getting Protective Companion here, at level 9.)

PL4:

Stalker’s Link (!)

Weapon Specialization ®

PL5:

Driving Flight (!!!)

Armored Grace (!) (only if you plan to use DoC BP)

Conqueror Stance (!)

Uncanny Luck ® (not great, but then we have so many free choices you may as well take it if/when you have nothing better to choose)

PL6:

Improved Critical ®

Survival of the Fittest ®

PL7:

Weapon Mastery ®

Superior Camouflage ®

 

So, as you can see, the build is pretty much complete at level 14 (second PL5 choice). There are also many level ups where we don’t have anything important to take. Therefore, just take whatever you like using. The pet heal/revive talents would seem like good choices, however the range on both is abysmal and therefore I can’t really recommend them. Takedown and Master’s Call are decent options for when enemies break through to your back line, otherwise just take defensive passives/skills, increase your stride, or buff your pet.

 

Important Gear:

Weapon: Frostseeker

Armour: Miscreant’s Leathers/Devil of Caroc Breastplate (DoC BP)/Any robe

Ring: Ring of the Marksman

Pet: Cutthroat Cosmo/Abraham (any other pet you like if wearing robes)

 

The rest of the gear isn’t that important, mainly just go for things that increase MIG/PER/DEX or defenses. I also quite like having high stride for easier repositioning/escaping when mobs break out of melee. I’ll list some good choices below.

 

Ring: Chameleon’s Touch

Boots: Boots of the Stone/Boots of Speed

Amulet: Strand of Favor (though honestly probably better on another character)

Helm: Blackblade’s Hood/Acina’s Tricorn (only if you don’t also have a gun user in party)

Gloves: Gauntlets of Ogre’s Might/Bracers of Accuracy. Firethrower if you don’t have a wizard who wants them. Burglar’s gloves if your mechanics bot doesn’t need them.

Belt: Whatever. Currently using Huana Charm Belt for the stride bonus.

Cloak: Again, doesn’t really matter. Currently using Cloak of Greater Protection. I suppose Magnificent Escape would be good for the disengagement bonus and near death Escape use. Or Ruata’s Walking Cloak for the stride.

 

Pros and Cons:

 

Pros:

Very high accuracy; you will almost never miss after leaving Port Maje

65% graze to hit conversion – for the odd time you get an unlucky hit roll

~42% hit to crit conversion at level 7, can go up to ~48% if you take Uncanny Luck and get Blackblade’s Hood

Animal companion can act as additional meat shield, help if you get closed in on in melee

Strong, consistent sustained AoE damage, while still doing respectable single target damage

 

Cons:

Sharpshooter penalty is kinda rough, especially in the early game

Animal companion can be hard to keep alive at times, and penalty when it dies is quite severe

Pretty much just an auto attack build, so you may find it boring

Feels bad if/when you get consecutive non-crits (more of an early game problem)

Your “highest single target damage” stat will likely remain some random crit you got on Port Maje with a regular/fine war bow for the entire game

"Veil-Touched", an ability that all the undead spirits possess, appears to grant a 100% crit to hit conversion. This means you will want to go cry in a corner any time you fight them

 

So the premise of the build is really simple: maximum possible crits to trigger frost explosions for very nice sustained DPS. We do this by taking ranger for all the accuracy boosts and driving flight, and fighter for disciplined strikes (25% hit to crit conversion, +5 per). Subclasses we take sharpshooter and devoted. Sharpshooter because we want to crit as much as possible, and while the 10% action speed penalty is harsh, a crit can triple our single target damage, not to mention what it does to well grouped packs. Devoted because neither of the other fighter subclasses offer anything to the build, we are a crit build so bonus crit damage is always nice, but most importantly for the +2 pen. Bows are dual damage so you won’t need to worry about weapon switching for immunities. Even against things that are immune to pierce and slash (sigils in undercity are only ones that come to mind) if you crit, you still trigger the frozen explosion which is where most of your damage comes from anyway. On that note, the proc benefits from all passive modifiers to your weapon, as shown in screenshot. Explosions triggered by the “bounce” from driving flight don’t suffer the -50% malus, which is nice.

 

Now for how to play the build, it’s really quite simple. Send your tank in to pick up the initial agro and get as many mobs grouped up as possible. Then mouse over the more central ones and find the one with the highest hit chance. Apply marked for the hunt, activate disciplined strikes, then auto attack and enjoy the carnage! I also recommend setting up a simple AI script to auto renew disciplined strikes when it falls off. Something else you can do is set a condition to attack an enemy that is being threatened (for minor threat) or affected by marked for the hunt (or even target of animal companion).

 

For gearing, I highly recommend going to Fort Deadlight as soon as you leave Port Maje to get the Miscreant’s Leathers from Brutal Ben. You can pick off a random low level Principi ship on your way to allow you to enter the front gates. Whole quest can be completed without a fight (other than taking out a ship for its flag), and the armour is really strong for us. Then go to Neketaka and if you’re confident you can go straight for the bow (forest to the south west of Neketaka's island), otherwise do some of the errand running quests for an easy level or two before getting it. I had no problem getting it at level 7-8. For the marksmans ring, you will need to start the feuding families quest, then speak to the Valera guy and get the quest to clear out the RDC sailors. You can either kill them and loot the ring off the leader, or if you don’t want to take the RDC rep hit you can pickpocket it from him. I was able to do so with Serafen with 5 in each of sleight of hand and stealth. Otherwise the rest of your gear isn’t terribly impactful, so no need to rush anything else. The Blessing of Berath merchant in Port Maje has some great items if you have him. DoC BP can be stolen from the middle chest in the vendors shop, providing you have the mechanics for it (save yourself ~30k copper).

 

Other things I would recommend are bringing a chanter along for Sure Handed Ila. A save where you sacrificed Sagani in PoE1 is nice but by no means essential. DoC would be my second choice. I don’t have a priest in my run but their buffs would certainly be nice (devotions especially).

 

This build could also be done with Wizard (probably stick with no subclass) instead of Devoted. You would have faster action speed (DAoM) but less hit to crit. You would also not want to use DoC BP as you need armored grace AND Cosmo/Abraham to counter the recovery penalty.

 

So I think that's everything. Build has been breezing through the game so far, my total number of crits is rapidly closing in on number of hits, which I expect to surpass by the end of the game.

 

Edit: Added "Veil-Touched" to the cons list.

Edit 2: Amended the hit conversion values stated as I had misunderstood how they stack.

Edited July 20, 2018 by thundercleese

[Waski]

"50% hit to crit conversion at level 7 (10% Hearth Orlan, 15% Sharpshooter, 25% disciplined strikes), can go up to 60% if/once you take Uncanny Luck and get Blackblade’s Hood (5% each)" - it doesn't work that way, even with Uncanny Luck and Blackblade’s Hood it's little bit below 50%

[Boeroer]

10%, 15%, 25%, 5% and 5% chances, rolled one after the other until it triggers (as done in PoE/Deadfire) results in an overall chance of 48.22%. Without Uncanny Luck and Blackblade's Hood you would be at 42.62%. I don't think a chance of 5.6% is worth an ability and an item slot. The rest piles up pretty well though, even if it's not simply added.

 

I also think that if you want to use Frostseeker only, Devoted/Sharpshooter is a nice pick.

[thundercleese]

Ah I see, thanks for the clarification. I will edit that out of the post

[Marigoldran]

I''m not even certain Frostseeker is the best weapon for this build.  Why not St. Omaku's for the "50% chance on crit to shoot again?" 

 

Also, we're talking about 15 (!) penetration with St. Omaku's.  16 when upgraded to Legendary.  Have a chanter in the front lines spamming out the armor debuff spell and you're looking at overpenetrating all the time.  

Edited July 20, 2018 by Marigoldran

[Manveru123]

But then he's not frosty boi

[thundercleese]

I''m not even certain Frostseeker is the best weapon for this build.  Why not St. Omaku's for the "50% chance on crit to shoot again?" 

 

Also, we're talking about 15 (!) penetration with St. Omaku's.  16 when upgraded to Legendary.  Have a chanter in the front lines spamming out the armor debuff spell and you're looking at overpenetrating all the time.  

 

I chose Frostseeker for the AoE. See the screenshot below of my opening shot into a pack of undead. That's 328 damage visible in the log, so total would probably be somewhere between 350-375. Granted you're not always going to get them grouped as good as that, but the point still stands.

 

St. Omaku could be good to have to swap for single target and Veil-Touched enemies though, will test it out.

[bigwillystyle]

I just wanted to say this build inspired me on my Ranger/Monk build.  Good stuff.  I tried Sharpshooter for mine, but ultimately couldn't stand squishy pet and went Ghost Heart.  Fine work here, sir.

 

As an aside, I didn't realize War Bows were Pierce / Slash (hello what?) until looking at your screenshot.  Good stuff.  That's one up on an Arquebus.

 

For the fella wandering the forums looking for a good bow build - this is your winner.

Edited August 7, 2018 by bigwillystyle

[thundercleese]

Thanks, glad I inspired you! My aim was strong consistent/sustained AoE damage that wasn't limited to expensive skills/spells. I ended up building it with too many passives though so it got boring. Very easy to throw in a few extra active abilities though - aim for ones that are cheap and have bonus accuracy. I agree about pet being squishy and often going down, especially in early game. However my aim was to max crit rate for the procs, so I just had to put up with it. With a non crit proc centered build Ghost Heart would certainly be the better pick. Also Boar is probably better than Bear, as later on the higher hp and regen are far more valuable. For Ghost Heart you can take a more damage oriented pet like Lion or Wolf.

 

I also agree that bows (yes hunting bow too) being slash/pierce doesn't make much logical sense, but I'm not complaining.

[jww]

I didn't notice this thread when it was first posted, but I just started playing a build like this a couple days ago (Devoted/Ghost Heart). Mostly because with my last character, I had given Frostseeker to Ydwin (as a single-class Rogue, AI-controlled, not even bothering with a custom AI script, just the default aggressive rogue script), and she was slowly catching up with my Watcher in terms of total damage done.  That's never happened before, and it was a pretty solid Watcher build too.

 

Rogue might be a better choice, but since I had just played Ydwin as a Rogue with the bow, I went Devoted/Ranger instead, to maximize crit chance and penetration.

 

The only major difference is that I pumped up INT to increase Frostseeker's AoE radius, but does anyone know if there's a way to see how big the AoE is? I can't tell if the extra INT is actually doing much. Since it's not the initial attack, it doesn't show the normal targeting circle.

[thundercleese]

Probably because I didn't tag it as a build and so didn't get added to the build list.

 

Unfortunately it is just like carnage and other AoE proc skills where it's not shown anywhere in game. You could test it on a group of tightly packed mobs with high/low int and see the difference in hits in the combat log. It is very good in the hands of a cipher; one proc will usually fill your focus.

[Lampros]

Does Frostseeker AoE do friendly damage?

[Haplok]

I don't think it does.

[Ophiuchus]

It only deals friendly damage if the wielder is Confused.

[Lampros]

I don't think it does.

 

It only deals friendly damage if the wielder is Confused.

 

Got it; thanks. I may use the weapon afterall then.