[5.0 Class Build] "Ghost Sniper" - Scout (Rogue/Ranger)

[Adexrekt]

Here is another build I am using in my current playthrough, as a custom companion.

Tested in Veteran difficulty with upscaling, in Turn Based mode. I'd like some constructive feedback on what I can improve. I want to turn this into a proper build, since there are so few 5.0 Turn Based builds out there.

 

Rogue/Ranger (Scout)
Subclasses: No Subclass Rogue/Ghost Heart
Race: Human
Background: Deadfire Archipelago, Hunter
Weapon Proficiency: Arquebus, War Bow, the rest does not matter
Attributes: 10 Mig - 10 Con - 19 Dex - 14 Per - 18 Int - 7 Res
Skills: Explosives, Survival

Level ups:

1: Marked Prey, Escape, Wolf Companion
2: Vicious Companion
3: Crippling Strike
4: Two-Handed Style, Blinding Strike
5: Marksman
6: Dirty Fighting
7: Marked for the Hunt, Confounding Blind
8: Finishing Blow
9: Predator's Sense
10: Concussive Shot, Debilitating Strike
11: Gunner
12: Bull's Will
13: Driving Flight, Deep Wounds
14: Devastating Blow
15: Uncanny Luck
16: Survival of the Fittest, Improved Critical
17: Concussive Tranquilizer
18: Evasive Roll
19: Evasive Fire, Deathblows
20: Tough

Gear:

Head: Acina's Tricorn
Neck: Precognition
Armor: Miscreant's Leathers
Feet: Boots of Speed
Cape: Cloak of Greater Protection or Ruata's Walking Cloak or Mirrorback
Hands: Gauntlets of Ogre Might
Waist: Upright Captain's Belt
Rings: Ring of the Marksman, Ring of Minor Protection
Pet: Cutthroat Cosmo
Weapon 1: Dragon's Dowry
Weapon 2: Saint Omaku's Mercy (only used when facing enemies immune to pierce dmg, scales with Survival skill)

 

I will edit this post as I (hopefully) get feedback and corrections. Thanks in advance!

Edited August 23, 2020 by Adexrekt

[thelee]

4 hours ago, Adexrekt said:

Wounding Shot

IMO wounding shot is a bit of a trap pick. The total damage is so low that i'd much rather pick something else and use that for the 1 bond, like concussive tranquilizier (which you get). have you considered some pet talents (even though you're ghost heart you can make your pet rather annoying to enemies and helpful to you).

[Adexrekt]

Just now, thelee said:

IMO wounding shot is a bit of a trap pick. The total damage is so low that i'd much rather pick something else and use that for the 1 bond, like concussive tranquilizier (which you get). have you considered some pet talents (even though you're ghost heart you can make your pet rather annoying to enemies and helpful to you).

Does Concussive Tranquilizer do about the same damage for the same cost, while interrupting? I only used it to interrupt and never really compared the damage. Well, then it makes sense that I'll use that to damage, too.

I can put the 2 freed up points to pet talents, which ones do you recommend? I am thinking Vicious Companion and Predator's Sense maybe. I don't see the point in taking any of the survivability perks, since the ghost pet disappears anyway if it manages to survive.

[thelee]

17 minutes ago, Adexrekt said:

Does Concussive Tranquilizer do about the same damage for the same cost, while interrupting? I only used it to interrupt and never really compared the damage. Well, then it makes sense that I'll use that to damage, too.

concussive damage does less damage (far less, if you are dual-wielding ranged weapons). however, the damage on wounding shot tends to be so low that i would generally much rather spend the 1 bond interrupting someone (and stripping them of any buffs) than doing like a few bits of extra damage. (iirc wounding shot is an applyovertime effect, which means instead of doing 20% per tick--which might be competent--it does a fraction of that, more like 10% per tick)

[Adexrekt]

3 minutes ago, thelee said:

concussive damage does less damage (far less, if you are dual-wielding ranged weapons). however, the damage on wounding shot tends to be so low that i would generally much rather spend the 1 bond interrupting someone (and stripping them of any buffs) than doing like a few bits of extra damage. (iirc wounding shot is an applyovertime effect, which means instead of doing 20% per tick--which might be competent--it does a fraction of that, more like 10% per tick)

I see. So if I'm not blinding or hobbling with Rogue skills or interrupting with Concussive Tranq., would auto attacking be good enough? Oh and also, are Vicious Companion and Predator's Sense good replacements for the freed up ability points?

Edited August 21, 2020 by Adexrekt

[thelee]

predator's sense is a great pick, i would combine with deep wounds on rogue so you basically have 100% uptime on having a DoT for your ghost to decimate foes with. vicious is also a good pick. and you're right, you don't need to worry about survivability for your pet. you could be a caster-slaying machine - start attacking a wizard/priest/druid in the back (using concussive tranquilizer to wipe out any buffs and interrupting any awful spells) and send in your ghost wolf as a dive bomb attack to attack them at +2 PEN/+65% damage

Edited August 21, 2020 by thelee

[Adexrekt]

1 minute ago, thelee said:

predator's sense is a great pick, i would combine with deep wounds on rogue so you basically have 100% uptime on having a DoT for your ghost to decimate foes with. vicious is also a good pick. and you're right, you don't need to worry about survivability. you could be a caster-slaying machine - start attacking a wizard/priest/druid in the back (using concussive tranquilizer to wipe out any buffs) and send in your ghost wolf as a dive bomb attack to attack them at +2 PEN/+65% damage

Sounds great! So, with this, the abilities look good to me. I am confident in the attributes and weapon choices, too. 

What could be improved is the rest of the gear, especially the rings, waist and maybe hands. Any good upgrades?

[Lampros]

Is summoning the pet for Ghost Heart also not free action? If so, is it worth even summing the pet?

[thelee]

17 hours ago, Lampros said:

Is summoning the pet for Ghost Heart also not free action? If so, is it worth even summing the pet?

sorry i can't answer the tb-question, but it is always worth summoning the pet. it's a significant amount of DPS that the ranger needs to have, because that's how the ranger is balanced. (much like a rogue is balanced around having sneak attack damage, a ranger is balanced around having a persistent friend doing damage.) the cost of summoning the pet is meant to balance out the fact that you no longer suffer from bonded grief.

[Lampros]

Just now, thelee said:

sorry i can't answer the tb-question, but it is always worth summoning the pet. it's a significant amount of DPS that the ranger needs to have, because that's how the ranger is balanced. (much like a rogue is balanced around having sneak attack damage, a ranger is balanced around having a persistent friend doing damage.) the cost of summoning the pet is meant to balance out the fact that you no longer suffer from bonded grief.

Hmm, I haven't started my turn-based game yet, but I've never summoned the pet as a Ghost Heart before! You can tell how much I hate to micro-manage.

So, if you don't use the pet at all, would you be better off with something like Fighter/Rogue as an archer? Or would Driving Flight still make the Ranger/Rogue worth it?

[Boeroer]

With certain setups Driving Flight can be reason enough to pick a Ranger. I would still summon the Animal Companion though. It's cheap and a powerful summon.

Edited October 14, 2020 by Boeroer

[Lampros]

13 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

With certain setups Driving Flight can be reason enough to pick a Ranger. I would still summon the Animal Companion though. It's cheap and a powerful summon.

Oops; I created a thread before noticing this answer!

What do you mean by "certain setups"? For me, I will use this guy as the main ranged DPS. So warbow likely but arquebus or arbalest is possible since turn-based.

[Boeroer]

Warbow is a good example: With Veilpiercer and St. Omaku's Mercy there are two war bows that have an enchantment that has a 50% chance to skip Recovery on a crit. 

With a Ranger you not only have high ranged ACC and thus can crit with a war bow more often than most other classes, you also have Driving Flight (crits of Driving Flight count as well!) which increases your chance to trigger a recover-skip significantly. 

So you could do a Devoted/Ranger for example and try to land as many crits with those war bows as possible, skipping recovery often enough and thus raising dps significantly. This is an example for RTwP mostly because skipping recovery is very benefical there. No idea if it's any good on TB mode.

Another setuo would be to use Watershaper's Focus with Ondra's Wrath. A Ranger with Driving Flight and that weapon has 3 AoE attacks with one shot (initial attack+blast, 1st jump + blast, 2nd jump + blast). ALl those attack rolls can proc Ondra's Wrath which is a powerful AoE dmg effect. It can trigger multiple times. Very powerful combo from stealth.

A Monk/Ranger with dual mortar increases his chances to get a refund for Stunning Surge because his AoE shots will jump, doing more attack rolls which might crit.

A Fighter/Ranger with Driving Flight, Clear Out and Fire in the Hole can produce a lot more hit rolls because his Clear Out is not only producing AoE*AoE*2 attack rolls but instead AoE*AoE*3 attack rolls.

Stuff like that.

[Lampros]

On 10/14/2020 at 2:54 PM, Boeroer said:

With certain setups Driving Flight can be reason enough to pick a Ranger. I would still summon the Animal Companion though. It's cheap and a powerful summon.

It turns out that summoning the pet IS a free action. I am good now!