I'm almost done my playthrough with my Mage, and wanted to start a new one and was leaning on Archer or Stabby Rogue but I didn't notice any Archer specialization.
Is there one?
I'm almost done my playthrough with my Mage, and wanted to start a new one and was leaning on Archer or Stabby Rogue but I didn't notice any Archer specialization.
Is there one?
They all should work, but if i had to say if one leaned toward archer it'd be Artificer. Im planning on doing a Tempest archer myself though.
Artificer definitely comes across as the de facto archer specialization but I highly recommend Assassin. The entirety of the tree has surprising synergy with many archer abilities and builds, for example what I'm currently running at level 17 is this:
1. Long Shot
2. Full Draw
3. Leaping Shot
4. Focus Ability (Mark of the Rift or Cloak of Shadows)
5. Hidden Blades*
6. Mark of Death
7. Poisoned Weapons*
8. Stealth*
*denotes upgraded skill
I generally initiate a fight with a 1600% (Full Draw) or 1800% (Hidden Blades) auto-crit (due to Knife in the Shadows, an Assassin passive) on a single enemy. Other key passives for the build are Looked Like It Hurt and Cheap Shot from Sabotage, which are perfect for this very crit oriented build. For example, if you initiate with Hidden Blades and have Looked Like It Hurt, you get 60 stamina of the 65 stamina cost back because all of the six blows will crit. Cheap Shot is the icing on the cake, causing sunder with every crit.
In the next few levels I intend to upgrade Mark of Death for extra ArPen, and probably both Long Shot and Leaping Shot for a bit of extra damage. It's an extremely fun playstyle and you generally rip through any boss or high-health target due to frequent crits + Mark of Death.
I can attest Artificer is a GREAT choice for archer, although Assassin has its benefits as well. However do note the .5 cool down reduction and 10% damage and duration party bonuses in Artificer, that with another player (Sera for instance set up as a pot junkie with a high crit rate and lightning flask) you can almost spam longshot and full draw from the cool down reductions and that adds up a LOT.
If your archer picks up a few from blades for the flanking passives, you can very easily and very quickly have a 100% crit rate archer, even at lower levels, provided you take the time to flank. Worth looking at and apparently the elemental mine tosses are pretty tough, although I haven't even had to use them yet.
Until it is fixed the only option is Tempest. Upgrade your fire flask and then use thousand cuts. No cooldown + no focus used = unending death. Artificer has the focus ability Hail of Arrows so it was clearly designed to be a compliment to archer rogues.
I personally prefer assassin. I specced Cole as archer and Sera as dual daggers. Assassin makes for an amazing archer build.