Sniper build outside of Gunhawk

[Griffonheart]

I've been enjoying Maia and her guns, sniping from 14m+ away could kill totems without mobs noticing you (Dragon's Dowry). I'm wondering if there's any Sniper build that could match a Gunhawk, which we have no access to? (Range striker, if that's a more appropriate term)

[Exanos]

Arcane archer maxing arcana can be quite devastating at range. Either solo (death ring melt group) or mc with a bleakwalker (better vs single entity). Very versatile class good for cc, aoe damage or single damage.

Hellwalker/furyshaper can be nice too. Lot of lash, and barbaric smash is a very good execute. Hellwalker/assassin is deadly too from pointblank, but much more susceptible to damage. 

 

Edit: you can access to the gunhawk class with a mod. 

Edited March 15, 2021 by Exanos

[Boeroer]

There's several.

Imo a fantastic single target sniper build is a Troubadour/Streetfighter with an arquebus. 

Here the key isn't high accuracy but incredible reloading times and dmg per shot. If you have trouble hitting stuff you can enable the arquebus modal. You will be slower but still fast - compared to other gunners.

The trick is to summon Whisps that simply fire at your character. They do little shock dmg. But they also distract on hit which is what the Streetfighter needs to unlock his "heating up" bonus of -50% reloading time and high Sneak Attack. Once those shocking bolts lowered your health to bloodied you will become "On the Edge" and get higher crit dmg. At some point you should stop obviously.

I imagine the character as an animancer sniper who gets boosted up by his own essence batteries. You can also wear Deltro Cage Helmet to profit from a small shocking lash the whisps will give you. The "loading up myself with essence" thought really helped me to get over the cringe to fire at myself.  

In addition to the very strong recovery bonus you also profit from Sure-Handed Ila and Aefyllath Mith Fyr. Funny thing is that Ila applies both +20% attack speed AND -20% reload speed to the reloading process. On top of the Streetfighter passive this results in fantastically short loading times.

I personally used the Red Hand but any ranged weapon works. Non-reloading ones will only profit from +20% attack speed though. Pistol's and Hunting Bow's modal won't stack with Sure Handed Ila iirc. Also with reloading there's some hard cap - so it's not worth to stack too many reloading bonuses.

I guess against non-pierce immune foes Red Hand is best. The shorter range is not super "snipey" of course. 

Anyway: the single target dmg per shot and the shooting speed is nuts. 

Best used as human imo.

Needs several levels until you get to the Whisps.

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Arcane Archer + Bleak Walker with Spearcaster is not about speed but about high accuracy and overall usefulness. With Eternal Devotion + Ring of Focused Flames you'll have an elemental +20 ACC + Arcana-ACC attack which doesn't get the malus from Arcane Archer (because elemental) and which leaves you with a lash that you can use for your Imbue shots. Those will have twice the bonus from Arcana (on top of all the Ranger ACC bonuses and Zealous Focus of course). Besides that the char can heal very well (Lay on Hands) and push his Animal Companion (Exhortations). Works well right from the start and you can get Spearcaster very early. Due to the many high ACC attacks you can hit every enemy reliably. The arbalest can interrupt with modal who can be extremely helpful against bosses and casters. 
Race doesn't matter much.

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Streetfighter/Berserker with Essence Interrupter. Again this is about speed, not accuracy. Use Hunting Bow modal at all times. First Frenzy which will speed you up and gives you +2 PEN. It will also push you over the bloodied edge which will unlock "Heating Up". Don't Frenzy further (lest you die) but let Blooded (+25% dmg) and Heating Up take over. Bloodlust and Blood Thirst speed you up even more. Barbaric Smash is an awesome finisher. This build works very well on AI scripts as an automated turret.  The shooting speed is insane. Even if you miss from time to time it's not a big deal because you shoot so freakingly fast. Works like a charm from level one on - which is very cool. This one went through Gorecci Street and Digside (as hireling) like a hot knife through butter. Felt like story mode... Just don't draw focus fire on you.
Race: human is nice.

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Devoted/Sharpshooter with St. Omaku's Mercy or Veilpiercer. Here it's about crits. Driving Flight, ACC and crit conversions are key. You want to land crits as often as possible in order to trigger the recovery skip on crit. You should focus on low deflection enemies that stand together in order to increase the crit chance per shot. If you do that you will skip recovery very often, giving you great dps. The +2 PEN and crit dmg of the Devoted help. Also Disciplined Strikes of course. Penetrating Strike is a nice alternative to the Ranger's attacks. Also this guy works very well on AI. 
Race: Hearth Orlan would be best.

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Those are ones I played for some time. I'm sure there's more awesome stuff like Ranger/Cipher or Ranger/Helwalker crit builds with Frostseeker and so on - but those I only tested a bit with console or didn't even try them at all so others will have better insight on those.

PS: There's even a melee sniper with Monk + Instruments of Pain + reach weapons. It comes very late but the range is 11 meters with all the melee goodies. 

 

Edited March 15, 2021 by Boeroer

[dgray62]

Not So Clever Hound's Soul Sniper build (assassin/cipher) does insane ranged damage as well. It's a great build for a solo stealth sniper run.

[Griffonheart]

22 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Imo a fantastic single target sniper build is a Troubadour/Streetfighter with an arquebus. 

I remember there’s a build using Blunderbuss modal for consistent distract similar to the wisp trick you mentioned before. It’s not very “snipey” per se and hits your comrades though.

22 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Arcane Archer + Bleak Walker

I can’t believe I’ve never noticed Arcane Archer. O_O Is this a fire damage build? How much investment do I need for pet damage? Speak of which, I noticed many “melee” full attacks also work with range?

 

22 hours ago, Boeroer said:

...which leaves you with a lash that you can use for your Imbue shots.

? Not sure what this means.

Thx all for your suggestions! The versatility provided by Arcane Archer/Bleakwalker seems very fun to play, though I’d have to act aggressively during conversation?

 

EDIT: I heard there’s a Geomancer build that focuses on creating clones that fire with you? (Clones copy your gears right?)

Edited March 16, 2021 by Griffonheart

[Boeroer]

3 hours ago, Griffonheart said:

I remember there’s a build using Blunderbuss modal for consistent distract similar to the wisp trick you mentioned before. It’s not very “snipey” per se and hits your comrades though.

Yes, that's the common way to unlock a ranged Streetfighter's passive. But the one I mentioned works with every weapon and the Streetfighter passive stacks with Sure-Handed Ila what makes this shooter even faster. 

3 hours ago, Griffonheart said:

I can’t believe I’ve never noticed Arcane Archer. O_O Is this a fire damage build? How much investment do I need for pet damage? Speak of which, I noticed many “melee” full attacks also work with range?

It's not really a fire damage build. Flames of Devotion still does the normal weapon damage - it just adds +10 ACC (+20 with Ring of Focused Flames) and a burning lash that adds fire damage on top of the physical weapon damage. Yes, a lot of melee attacks also work with ranged weapons. Not all though. Usually it's mentioned with the ability description. If it says "Range: Melee" there it usually only works with a melee weapon.

I have to add that Arcane Archer has a serious flaw inthe vanilla game: its damaging imbue spells don't scale their penetration at all. That means that Imbue:Missile, Imbue:Fireball and Imbue:Death Ring will have serious penetration issues in the late game. The other imbue shots (Imbue:Web, Imbue:Eora) are not affected of course since they don't penetrate anything anyway. You can use the Community Patch. If fixes this issue. Or you mainly use Web and Pull of Eora at some point.

3 hours ago, Griffonheart said:

? Not sure what this means.

Eternal Devotion (the upgrade of Flames of Devotion) leaves you with an effect that adds additional burn damage (+10%) on top of all your further attacks. It doesn't matter if weapon attack or spell: all your dmg rolls will get +10% burn damage as lonig as the buff of Eternal Devotion lasts. That means that an Arcane Archer's Imbue shots also will get +10% burn damage. This incudes the shot damage itself (for example the pierce dmage of the arbalest) but also the spell effect that follows (for example the Missiles from Imbue:Missile will also get +10% burn damage).

3 hours ago, Griffonheart said:

The versatility provided by Arcane Archer/Bleakwalker seems very fun to play, though I’d have to act aggressively during conversation?

 If it's your MC then it would be best to pick cruel and aggressive conversation options, yes. BUT: since this is a ranged build that doesn't rely on its defenses that much you can also just break this pattern and play a "chastened" Bleak Walker who wants to become good. It will give you only a worse "Faith and Conviction"-defense buff. Which is really not a big deal with a ranged character. You could also just pick another Paladin subclass. You'd lose a bit of dmg for Flames of Devotion but could get something else what's useful. Kind Wayfarer for example could heal allies with his shots. 

3 hours ago, Griffonheart said:

I heard there’s a Geomancer build that focuses on creating clones that fire with you? (Clones copy your gears right?)

 Yes, you can use any class combination with Wizard and use Essential Phantom and Substancial Phantom. Both will get ALL your gear. But they won't get your abilites or passives. No matter what race/class combo you are - the Phantoms will always be the same generic Phantom (even though they will look like you). But their stats are not bad at all and they scale with level, so they make quite good summons. You can even summon a weapon for yourself and when you summon the Phantom it will have that summoned weapon, too. If you have the Red Hand then your Phantom will have the Red Hand, too. And so on. It will also use any passive effect that is on your items. For example it will gain a ranged ACC bonus from Acina's Tricorn. It can't use abilites on gear that you have to activate though - only ones that trigger passively. So for examples weapon modals won't work. And also you can't control the Phantom. It's controlled by AI. So it chooses its targets itself and docedes where to go itself. Still: it can be very helpful. A SC Wizard can even summon Caedebald's Blackbow and summon the Phantom --> two Caedebald Blackbows!

Edited March 16, 2021 by Boeroer

[Haplok]

Yep, passively scaring enemies trough a clone firing at them with the summoned scary bow with bouncing arrows, while you're raining death on cowering fools sounds pretty good

Edited March 16, 2021 by Haplok

[Kaylon]

If you want a pure ranged attacker with great dps you should try Helwalker/Arcane Archer or Helwalker/Ghost Heart with Frostseeker. Frostseeker with high accuracy is the weapon with the highest dps in the game (the proc doubles your single target damage, without even considering the AoE damage). The Arcane Archer has great CC but has to take care of his pet (however he can have 3 pets at the same time once he gets the Dichotomous Soul)...

Here are some of the bonuses coming with this combo:

• great single and AoE dps (high dmg, spd, accuracy, penetration, lash, good AoE radius) - and if you really want to wreak havoc then use scrolls of Avenging Storm
• great single target CC (perma stun by spamming Stunning Surge) and AoE CC (if Arcane Archer) with high accuracy and duration
• best interrupting machine in the game (equip Slayer's Claw to upgrade Thunderous Blows to Energized)
• high potential to apply unlimited AoE afflictions (equip the Ring of Clenched Muscle)

The only disadvantage of this build is his fragility - but if you never attack first and if you stay at max range you should be fine (and you can always dash out of range using Evasive Fire). If you don't mind micro-managing him you could also pick Shot on the Run (-50% recovery if you move between shots), which coupled with high running speed helps you deal easily with any melee attacker (or just shooting faster).

 

[Griffonheart]

2 hours ago, Boeroer said:

I have to add that Arcane Archer has a serious flaw inthe vanilla game: its damaging imbue spells don't scale their penetration at all. That means that Imbue:Missile, Imbue:Fireball and Imbue:Death Ring will have serious penetration issues in the late game.

Question: How serious will the issue be? Assuming PotD.

 

47 minutes ago, Kaylon said:

If you want a pure ranged attacker with great dps you should try Helwalker/Arcane Archer or Helwalker/Ghost Heart with Frostseeker. Frostseeker with high accuracy is the weapon with the highest dps in the game (the proc doubles your single target damage, without even considering the AoE damage). The Arcane Archer has great CC but has to take care of his pet (however he can have 3 pets at the same time once he gets the Dichotomous Soul)...

And because in playing range I'd be away from harm, therefore not punished for Helwalker's flaw. That's a wicked combo.

How strong are the Ghostheart/Dicho pets?

50 minutes ago, Kaylon said:

great single and AoE dps (high dmg, spd, accuracy, penetration, lash, good AoE radius) - and if you really want to wreak havoc then use scrolls of Avenging Storm

Boeroer mentioned that Arcane Archer imbues do not share character penetration, would that make Ghost Heart better by comparison?

 

57 minutes ago, Kaylon said:

great single target CC (perma stun by spamming Stunning Surge)

How does this work? Is there a way to refill Mortification?

 

59 minutes ago, Kaylon said:

best interrupting machine in the game (equip Slayer's Claw to upgrade Thunderous Blows to Energized)

So even without Soulbound a Ranger/Monk can use it. Interesting. So as long as I equip it, the effect triggers even if I'm shooting from range?

 

/bow

[Boeroer]

Stunning Surge refunds Mortification if you crit. With the three projectiles of Frostseeker + Driving Flight you'll have 6 chances to crit at least once. So it's very uncommon to NOT get the Mortification refund.

Ghost Heart cannot use his Animal Companion and Dichotomous Soul at the same time. Both are summons. The Arcane Archer can have Animal Companion + Dichotomous Soul at the same time.

Also Arcane Archer's Imbue:Eora and Imbue:Web are both very good to pull enemies together into one spot - then the AoE of Frostseeker works even better. You can start with an Imbue:Web from stealth and follow up with Eora directly after. This creates a field where enemies can't move AND get pulled to the centre. Driving Flight makes the effects proc twice per shot!

The Animal Companion can just be used as bodyguard (not much abilites besides maybe Resilient Companion needed) or be used to get more ACC via Stalker's Link. Then the risk of AC's knockout is a lot higher until you get Stunning Surge. Stunned enemies don't hit your animal companion most of times.

The PEN issue of Imbue:Fireball and Imbue:Missiles become serious on PotD. But as Helwalker/Arcane Archer I wouldn't use both anyway but only Web and Eora and then only Stunning Surge as main attack ability. It's very strong and you def. don't need Fireball or missiles for damage. Another issue with missiles and fireball is that with Frostseeker only the first projectile (of the three) will proc the effect and the other projectiles get omitted completely. This is a bit stupid and another reason why I wouldn't use both Missile and Fireball but only the CC imbues. They are perfect for this Frostseeker setup.

"The highest dps" is open to debate because there are so many ways to achieve high dps and it depends on the situation. For example a Monk with Whispers of the Wind and Resonant Touch and Hand Mortar (+Blinding Smoke) does tremendous dps because Blinding Smoke triggers Resonant Touch. He can create 40+ Resonant Touches to a group of several enemies with one use which means 1000 raw dmg to every one of them (if not dead already). It hasn't the same effect on single targets that stand alone though. So... depends (like most of times).

But the combo Arcane Archer/Helwalker with Frostseeker is no doubt really good and also fun (which is most important imo). Also because it's quite flexible and useful in more than just one way. Great CC, summons, damage, interrupts, nearly unlimited resources - all great stuff.

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Boeroer