Priest of Magran/Arcane Archer Itinerant

[Porkchopsandwiches247]

This is likely a suboptimal type of build, but one I think might be fun and interesting to try out. The logic is as follows:

-Dual Wield, in one hand Fire in the Hole with Chain Shot upgrade, for the eventual +2 bounces with Driving Flight. Or Kitchen Stove with Wild Barrage for +3 bounces if I stop being so stubborn about not resting. In the other hand, Magran's Favor for the +2 to Fire PL. Plus Otto Starcat for another +1 to Fire PL.

-Only using ranged attacks to pump out Imbue Fireball: As I understand it, it should launch a Fireball for each bounce, and with the +PL to Fire they should be pretty powerful. The Arcane Archer ACC bonus to Imbue Attacks + Fire PL bonuses should offset the Blunderbuss's low innate ACC too.

-Then you can cast spells after your opening barrage. Your pet will continue to wail on the enemy while you burn them to a crisp or buff/debuff as needed

-If you have some downtime, team up with your pet in melee range and chop down enemies with Magran's Favor. With Ranger's high ACC buffs and only attacking with that weapon at Dual Wield speed, you actually should be able to proc Enduring Flaming on crit pretty often, which should add up pretty well. Nothing says you cant switch off to another weapon set if there are piercing issues either or if you wanted to stay ranged. Maybe use summoned weapons for once? I have to assume Kitchen Stove's Frantic Reload + Gunner + Maia's Garb + possible Sure Handed Chant from a teammate would attack very quickly (albeit with the -5 ACC from Arcane Archer...)

 

Anything jump out that might be problematic? Or strong options I'm missing? I know other weapons like Watershaper's Focus would work with Arcane Archer, but I'd prefer to go the Dual Wield firearm+melee weapon route for thematic reasons. I'm making an assumption that Magran's Favor would be treated as Fire weapon, but actually who knows, those rules can be wonky. I also wonder if a Priest of Magran's summoned weapons would be counted as such...you'd think they would of any weapon, but again...things like that can get weird in this game lol

Edited February 11, 2022 by Porkchopsandwiches247

[Elric Galad]

How do you plan to overcome the fixed PEN issue (no PEN scaling) of Arcane Archer ?

Tons of fireballs are cool, but 7 PEN isn't enough for lategame.

Community Patch mod fixes that though.

[Porkchopsandwiches247]

20 minutes ago, Elric Galad said:

How do you plan to overcome the fixed PEN issue (no PEN scaling) of Arcane Archer ?

Tons of fireballs are cool, but 7 PEN isn't enough for lategame.

Community Patch mod fixes that though.

+Fire PL from equipment (unless that doesnt count either…), Champions Boon from Priest, high accuracy causing crits, +1 Fire Penetration from Priest passive. Hopefully all these could add up to overcome those penetration issues, and if I run into enemies with high fire resist, theres always other non-fire Ranger abilities and Priest spells and weapon sets.

But yeah thats a legitimate concern for sure that I was also considering.

[thelee]

if you're willing to consider a build not just in isolation, but as part of a party of five, many penetration problems get effectively solved by bringing any kind of chanter aboard. The Shield Cracks is an amazing invocation that basically permanently debuffs the enemies with -2 AR. Coupled with champion's boon and Scion of Flame (if it works correctly with arcane archer imbue) and even without crits I think most penetration issues disappear.

if you don't want a chanter, a single-classed cipher will eventually be able to bestow +8 penetration, which is frankly amazing for magic-type abilities, buggy PEN or not.

Edited February 11, 2022 by thelee

[Boeroer]

If you would bring a cipher with Driving Echoes this would be a non-issue. An alternative is indeed the Community Patch. It has nice unique passive icons, too.  

First time @theleedoing a ninja on me, damn!  

Edited February 11, 2022 by Boeroer

[Porkchopsandwiches247]

1 minute ago, thelee said:

if you're willing to consider a build not just in isolation, but as part of a party of five, many penetration problems get effectively solved by bringing any kind of chanter aboard. The Shield Cracks is an amazing invocation that basically permanently debuffs the enemies with -2 AR. Coupled with champion's boon and Scion of Flame (if it works correctly) and even without crits I think most penetration issues disappear.

if you don't want a chanter, a single-classed cipher will eventually be able to bestow +8 penetration, which is frankly amazing for magic-type abilities.

I never leave home without a Chanter so that would be no problem lol

Only issue I see is that it seems like The Shield Cracks would be somewhat hard to reliably hit all the enemies Id be targeting…the range isnt enormous. And then Id have to start worrying about friendly fire from the Fireballs because enemies are up in my face by then (thats still a concern with imbue fireball, right?). You could work around this though for sure.

My ‘opening barrage’ tactic for Imbue Fireball would kind of get lost in the mix if it takes too much setup to be viable, so was trying to set it up in a way that it was viable from the start of the fight and then I could get to the casting.

[Boeroer]

If you use mainly Imbue:Web and Imbue:Eora you won't have PEN issues and they are fantastic as opening barrage. They will pull most enemies together, render them helpless and perfectly positioned for your Magran nukes.  

Don't know if you knew it already but Driving Flight AND jumping weapons like Watershaper's Focus will stack their jumps. And imbue spells trigger with every jump. So that would be 3 Binding Web Instances + 3 Pull of Eora Instances - from stealth this will take only very few secs to apply.  

[Porkchopsandwiches247]

4 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

If you use mainly Imbue:Web and Imbue:Eora you won't have PEN issues and they are fantastic as opening barrage. They will pull most enemies together, render them helpless and perfectly positioned for your Magran nukes.  

Don't know if you knew it already but Driving Flight AND jumping weapons like Watershaper's Focus will stack their jumps. And imbue spells trigger with every jump. So that would be 3 Binding Web Instances + 3 Pull of Eora Instances - from stealth this will take only very few secs to apply.  

Oh yeah for sure, Eora/Web and then piling on Priest nukes/debuffs would definitely work. I just figured thematically itd be fun to try to incorporate Fireball in the mix, plus I was stacking Fire PL anyway and could make use of Scion of Flame from Priest. Never hurts to have options.

I did consider the bounce stacking, that was my logic for using Fire in the Hole and/or Kitchen Stove to have 3 or even 4 hits of Arcane Archer spells. And then I could use an offhand like Magrans Favor or Sun and Moon for the stats (or theyd even be decent in melee in a pinch or for variety).

[Elric Galad]

To answer your question : Fire PL from equipment doesn't count either for PEN or Accuracy. Champion's Boon and Fire Talent do work.

Edited February 11, 2022 by Elric Galad

[Porkchopsandwiches247]

6 minutes ago, Elric Galad said:

To answer your question : Fire PL from equipment doesn't count either for PEN or Accuracy. Champion's Boon and Fire Talent do work.

Thanks for the info. What a pain lol

Guess I could get someone to wear that Heavy Armor that has a -1 armor aura to compensate maybe. Or just never use imbue fireball unless I know it wont have PEN problems

[Porkchopsandwiches247]

For anyone curious, Magran’s holy fire summoned sword…does NOT count as a fire weapon. Seriously game lol

[Constentin Lévine]

1 minute ago, Porkchopsandwiches247 said:

For anyone curious, Magran’s holy fire summoned sword…does NOT count as a fire weapon. Seriously game lol

oh yes, there is just a fire lash, not a dual type damage for summoned weapons. 

[Boeroer]

All attacks from Firebrand count as burn attacks. Scion of Flame and Ring of Focused Flame both work with it. Maybe scrolls?

[dgray62]

If you want to go melee and don't want to rely on scrolls, you could wield Sun & Moon and Magran's Shield. The shield benefits from the Ring of Focused Flame, as does the fire head of Sun & Moon.