Best hunting bow for ranger?

[Loren Tyr]

True, it does suffer from the rather steep default bounce damage multiplier (-50%). I can also now confirm that it doesn't do anything for Bounding Missiles. But even with the penalty, the Driving Flight does serve as a reasonable damage bonus. I mean, get some Concussive Missiles bouncing around in a cluster of enemies, it'll still pack a punch. And there is something deeply satisfying about seeing a Penetrating Shot-ed, Vicious Aim-ed, Driving Flight-ed Barrage of Missiles pouring into a pack of enemies. 

 

So it does make for a fun little build I think. Go Driving Flight, Vicious Aim, Penetrating Shot, some Prestidigitator's Missiles for added flavour. The main thing'll be the Ranger's natural accuracy plus Vicious Aim +10 and Penetrating Shot DR reduction, Driving Flight is just an added perk (and more importantly, it looks cool!).

 

Edit: And keep in mind that the high accuracy, including the +10 from Vicious Aim, is going to net you some very nice Crackling Bolts and Fireballs and what have you as well. And as I've also just discovered, you get bouncing Twin Stones if you have Driving Flight . The direction the new stones go in seems a bit random though (and it doesn't appear to have the Pierce damage component when bouncing). But still, having twice as many stones flying about: good times!

Edited August 17, 2016 by Loren Tyr

[Loren Tyr]

Stalker's Link works with scrolls as well by the way, just tested it. Didn't do Stalker's Torc, but looking at the prefab files that gives a generic +20% damage bonus so that should apply to anything, including scrolls. I think it works with AOE effects as well (it does for the Concussive Missile AOE, anyway), though of course it will be mostyly useful for the single target stuff.

 

And Marked Prey will work as well, of course.

Edited August 17, 2016 by Loren Tyr

[bescheid]

Does the first target get stunned as well if u have stunning shots and use a missiler spell?

[bescheid]

And Thanks so much for testning this! ur gold

[Loren Tyr]

Stunning Shots works only on weapons, unfortunately.

[Boeroer]

Stunning Shots & Interrupting Blows are very nice with the Golden Gaze, too. Sadly, Wounding Shots still doesn't seem to work correctly with those two projectiles.

If you use a Cloak of Missiles and Prestidigitator's Missiles as well as Missile Scrolls you profit a lot from the procs of Expose Vulnerabilities though. With Ryona's Vembraces and Penetrating Shot you'll get 13 DR bypass for the two projectiles of the implement and all the missile spells (as well as for other ranged spells like Rolling Flame and such). It's also helpful for your Interrupts because Exp. Vulnerabilities also lowers concentration.

Edited August 18, 2016 by Boeroer

[Loren Tyr]

So the big question now is: what animal companion familiar is most appropriate for the ranger-mage? I'm slightly leaning towards Antilope myself, just feels like a good fit somehow. 

[bigwillystyle]

That would be an amazing Missile Barrage.  This is actually a fun build idea.

 

I would love to see this with a Stag personally.

[Caeyrii]

Why do you guys make me feel so inadequate with my Celebrant Gloves + Stormcaller Swift Aim Sagani?

[Boeroer]

Because it's an odd combination I'd say...

 

You can build that wizard-ranger like my Sorcerer's Apprentice build. Just switch rogue for ranger.

[Loren Tyr]

It is starting to look like a rather fun build, I must say. Maybe I'll put my current playthrough on hold for a bit and give this one a whirl.

 

Pondering the implement choices, does Combusting Wounds trigger Predator's Sense again these days?

[Boeroer]

It should. It's a DoT after all. But I didn't test it. You are thinking about Curoc's Brand or Ring of Combusting Wounds? Combusting Wounds is really nice with Missile Barrage against fat foes by the way.

[Boeroer]

Ring of Combusting Wounds is also good with Golden Gaze + Driving Flight, generating four hits per shot. Sadly a ranger can't have blast.

[Loren Tyr]

Yeah, Brand primarily (with Driving Flight). Though I'd have to see whether I'd be auto-attacking enough at that point to make Predator's Sense worth taking, not sure yet.

[Boeroer]

Well, you can always use Wounding Shot and Envenomed Strike for that. Or even a scroll of Insect Swarm.

[Loren Tyr]

True. Though I'm not sure it fits the character as I have conceived of her, a bubbly, curious and slightly clumsy scholar with a keen interest in the arcane and a burning desire to become a mage someday. A desire as well that led to a minor case of burning to the ground of the local mage's arcane laboratory when she may or may not have been snooping around for a bit, which is why she is now on a walking tour of the Dyrwood with her pet cat (it's a rather large cat, to be sure). Anyway, not really the type for venom .

 

I noticed something interesting as well: Marked Prey + Prestidigitator's Missiles was doing a bit more damage than I expected, and as it turns out the +20% lash thing from Marked Prey with the missiles is stacking. That is to say, you get the regular +20% on the first missile, but +40% and +60% on the second and third. It's quite specific to the Prestidigitator's Missiles though, doesn't seem to work with other Missiles or Blunderbuss. Exception is Concussive Missiles, that did tend to get nice, big lashes (up to 100%), though not always. I guess they have to really hit at the same time for it to work. With the Concussive Missiles it actually seemed to work only if there wasn't another enemy in the missile AOE. Anyway, I'll probably swap out Marked Prey for Wounding Shot for now (was already planning to), but still... nice to know.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Loren Tyr

[rheingold]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I have enough issues with endless restarting without you guys posting cool builds!

[Boeroer]

 

Missile Barrage doesn't work that way with Marked Prey? Too bad... Imagine that damage stacking with 9 missiles!

[L4wlight]

Good Stuff!

The interaction between Driving Flight and (some of the) scrolls is nothing new btw. Boeroer discovered it while he (and I) was testing melee ranger with Badgradr's Barricade back in 2015.

It also used to work with Thrust of Tattered Veils (most likely still does). However the damage of the second hit is really whimpy most of the time.

It still does. Yeah the damage of the second hit gets penalized, but with a crit build the damage is still okay. Keep in mind that Stunning Shots works with melee weapons now and Driving Flight (from melee attacks), so the secondary targets gets most of the time stunned too. I have good results with my current party.

 

In case somebody is interested: The upcoming build of mine ("Minoletta's Stable Master" ^^) - which I'm currently testing - is a melee ranger build that uses a lot of scrolls. Remember the big bad black wolf on Bagradr's Barricade? It screams "ranger item"! Now that Stunning Shots works with melee weapons, it's very easy to turn a melee ranger into a walking crit machine (melee rangers and their pets can flank very easy --> stun + flank = -40 deflection; Stalker's Link + 10 ACC => profit), resulting in many Thrust of Tattered Veils procs from Bagradr's Barricade on the main and (thanks to Driving Flight) one secondary target. The procs are - thanks to high PER, good base ACC of the class, Stalker's Link, Vicious Aim and the inherent +10 ACC bonus of the spell - most of the time critical hits. Also, Penetrating Shot does not hinder melee attack speed but affects Thrust of Tattered Veil, so I stacked as much DR penetration as possible. Pretty devastating with all those missile scrolls. It's definitely not the strongest ranger build of all time, but it's both fun and effective. Maybe I'll write a guide after my run, because the backstory I have in mind is pretty funny and the char is pretty stylish. ^^

 

Some things I can add:

- (Stunning Shots work with melee weapons now)

- Stunning Shots from melee weapon hits get affected by Vicious Aim (+ ACC)

- Driving Flight works with Stunning Shots from melee weapon hits

- Driving Flight still does nothing for melee hits as such (besides the above mentioned stuff)

- there are some more spells that work with Vicious Aim (if I remember right) - scroll of Paralysis for example

 

I noticed something interesting as well: Marked Prey + Prestidigitator's Missiles was doing a bit more damage than I expected, and as it turns out the +20% lash thing from Marked Prey with the missiles is stacking.

That sounds pretty cool, but I can't reproduce this. Edited September 9, 2016 by L4wlight

[Dr <3]

Driving flight works for melee weapon to????

Wow never even tryed, since i was so sure was useless

[Loren Tyr]

I noticed something interesting as well: Marked Prey + Prestidigitator's Missiles was doing a bit more damage than I expected, and as it turns out the +20% lash thing from Marked Prey with the missiles is stacking.

That sounds pretty cool, but I can't reproduce this.

 

I've attached an example, highlighting the second hit doing 40% damage. The target has 12 Crush DR, so 3 DR for the Marked Prey effect. The rolled damage values are 34.7, 27.3 and 31.1, with corresponding Marked Prey damage of 3.9, 7.9 and 15.7. Thus we get (3.9+3) / 34.7 = 0.2, (7.9+3) / 27.3 = 0.4, and (15.7+3) / 31.1 = 0.6, so an additional +20% added to the Marked Prey damage percentage every hit.

[L4wlight]

Driving flight works for melee weapon to????

Wow never even tryed, since i was so sure was useless

So also the reanger have his little form of massacre now

No Driving Flight does not work for melee weapons.

Driving Flight transfers Stunning Shot with melee weapons to a secondary target (and works with the proc of Badgradr's Barricade).

Edited September 8, 2016 by L4wlight

[L4wlight]

I created a fresh game (to be sure that it's not a corrupted save game or something like that) and I got the following values: 21,8, 21,3, and 18,6 against 0 DR with corresponding Marked Prey damage of 4,4, 4,3 and 3,7.

4,4 / 21,8 = 0,2

4,3 / 21,3 = 0,2

3,7 / 18,6 = 0,2

 

Edit: Oh sorry, forgot to switch the language. ^^

Edited September 8, 2016 by L4wlight

[Loren Tyr]

Hmm, very strange. I just tried in a freshly started game, but I still get the same thing. Attacking a caravan guard (6 Crush DR), I get (after accounting for the 1.5 DR reduction) 2.3 / 11.4 = 0.2, 10 / 25.1 = 0.4 and 7.8 / 13 = 0.6. 

 

Could you load up my save (https://www.sendspace.com/file/48m326) and see what happens if you attack one of the Caravan Guards? Now I'm getting curious.

 

Who did you attack anyway, by the way? When I attack any of the regular Caravan members they die on the first missile.

[L4wlight]

I used the /nodam command.

Same target/ your save game: 1) hit 2,4 / 12,1 = 0,2 2) 6,3 / 15,7 = 0,4 !!! 3) miss -> (your savegame works)

Then I tested it on a normal Carvaner with 0 DR with your savegame: 1) 5/ 25,2 = 0,2 2) 7 / 17,5 = 0,4 3) 6,1 / 10,1 = 0,6 -> (it has nothing to do with the DR value)

Now only the third hit (I'm a bit tired ^^) in my savegame at level 2 against 0 DR: 3) 10,6 / 17,7 = 0,6 -> (it works without Driving Flight)

My savegame at level 7 with Driving Flight (third target): 3) 3,8 / 19,2 = 0,2

 

Conclusion: It works only without Driving Flight (that must be the reason why it didn't worked in my previous tests) or at least without a second target getting damaged through Driving Flight (I'm to tired for that last test run).

Edited September 9, 2016 by L4wlight