19 réponses à ce sujet

[expiredrascals]

So I have been thinking of an arcane warrior archer as my next playthrough.  I know that it won't be anywhere near the best thatan arcane warior or an archer has to offer, but I want to try it anyway.  Any suggestions or tips on the build and gear?

[Mr_Raider]

I know you'll need good dex to equip the best bows, 34 modified at least. what I don't know is if combat magic works the same way for bows. I.e. is damage 50% dex, 50% magic?



You may also want to look in to having haste in your party. Finally, you may be disappointed to realize that a max magic AW with staff mastery, a tier 7 staff, and vulnerability hex will do more damage.

[expiredrascals]

Mr_Raider wrote...

I know you'll need good dex to equip the best bows, 34 modified at least. what I don't know is if combat magic works the same way for bows. I.e. is damage 50% dex, 50% magic?

You may also want to look in to having haste in your party. Finally, you may be disappointed to realize that a max magic AW with staff mastery, a tier 7 staff, and vulnerability hex will do more damage.

I know that it will be sub-optimal, but it is still something worth trying.

I assume that the bow of choice would be the Far Song? or is there a more magicky bow that I'm forgetting?
I was thinking either reaper's vestments or some drakeskin armor (unsure whether Wade's Superior or a cobbled together set of uniques would be better there)

any other suggestions?

[Nauthiz84]

aw only lets you use magic instead of str for weapon damage calculation and gives an attack bonus (Attack Bonus: 5.0 + (Spellpower / 5.0)), bow weapon damage is dex based so you really gimp yourself there.

I think if you want a ranged weapon you are better of with staffs as an aw for damage, not to mention they obviously have better suited bonus stats.

[beancounter501]

Nah, bow damage is based off strength and dex. Or in this case magic and dex. To hit may be a problem since people usually have higher defense against missiles then melee.

[Nachoman Randy]

Playing an arcane warrior archer would be like playing a twohander warrior with all his skills in archery and no bow.



Is your game, you can gimp yourself if you want, but is plain stupid.

[mosspit]

Dont wear heavy or massive amour as they will slow atk rate without master archery. OP wants an AW archer for novelty reasons. I say go ahead with it.

[expiredrascals]

mosspit wrote...

Dont wear heavy or massive amour as they will slow atk rate without master archery. OP wants an AW archer for novelty reasons. I say go ahead with it.

yeah, I want to do it for kicks rather than projected effectivity, but I still am at a loss for many of the finer points of the build.

So to clarify, here are some main questions:
what skills should I focus on getting? Do I focus on sustainables or stuns?
how much into willpower, magic and dex?
is there a bow other than the farsong that I should consider?
And what are the best choices on gear? (see above for my current concepts)

[mosspit]

Skills? Arcane Shield, Rock Armour, Whole AW line + your choice of mage spells. But be prepared for the spell effectiveness here.... strength of spells depend on spellpower(magic). You will want as much def as possible as you do not have melee archer. Meaning atks will disrupt your bow atks IF they land.

Stats: Not set in stone. Have at least a high enuff mag score to get the best mage talents. Do not go over 30 willpower.

Items: Nothing different from a regular AW. Maybe reaper's vestment (survivability) or felon's coat(dmg).

[Mr_Raider]

I would go heavy on crowd control, debuffs and sustainables.



Rock armor, AW line at the least. Maybe have someone like wynne pick up haste, and set her tactics to cast heroic offense on you. Give someone bard spec and someone champion spec to help your attack rate.



Miasma is useless since it's not a long range buff. All the weapon buffs are useless. I would look at sleep line, blood wound line, maybe earthquake and the glyphs.



Stats will be a balance between magic and dex. For a melee Aw 30 dex is enough, I suspect you may need to go higher for archer. You won't have enough to throw in to willpower, maybe 20-25 but you'll need to rely on items. The biggest problem is that the bow eats up 2 weapon slots, and none of them give any useful stat boosts.



Far song has the +10 attack. I would also wear the DLC helmet that gives +6 attack, and the legion gloves give +4

[Caslovesme]

I think a better bow than Far Song would be Mage's Eye.

[Mr_Raider]

Caslovesme wrote...

I think a better bow than Far Song would be Mage's Eye.

how so? The both give +3 to critical, but far song gives +10 to attack.

[expiredrascals]

So I've been thinking on my gear, and here's what I have come up with:

Bow: Far Song, or maybe Falon Din's Reach--Mage's Eye is out (despite the appropriate name)

Armor: Reaper's Vestments or Felon's Coat--edging towards felon's, but the lower aggro of Reaper is nice

Rings: Definitely the Key to the City, as for the other, I am unsure as to whether Lifegiver or ring of ages is better for the second ring however, I am also looking carefully at Morrigan's and Ring of the Warrior

Gloves: edging towards the repeater gloves, but the gloves of guile and Wade's superior drakeskin gloves are still competing; at this point, the elementalist's grasp seems out of the running. Also in consideration are the Ancient elven gloves and superior dragonskin gloves (but these are lower in the running because they are med. gloves)

Helm: Armsman's Tensioner, The Long sight, The Long Runner's Cap, Camenae's Barbute, or maybe First Enchanter's Cowl

Boots: Cadash Stompers (unsure as + hostility could be bad), Bard's Dancing shoes, Silverhammer's Taskmasters, Wade's Superior drakeskin, wade's superior dragonskin

Belt: Andruil's Blessing

Amulet: Spellward

[expiredrascals]

I was planning on doing a human mage, but upon further evaluation, more stat points will be wasted there, so here is my planned distribution:

Elf Mage:

Strength:
base: 10
Fade: 4
invested 0
Total: 14

Dexterity:
Base: 10
Fade: 4
Invested: 36
Total: 50

Willpower:
Base: 16
Fade: 4
invested: 10
total: 30

Magic:
Base: 17
Fade: 2
Invested: 31
Total: 50

Cunning:
Base: 11
Fade: 5
Invested: 0
Total: 16 (enough for full coercion)

Constitution:
Base: 10
Fade: 2
Invested: 0
Total: 12


Any comments, criticisms (within the scope of an archer mage), and suggestions on the build and gear would be very much appreciated.

Modifié par expiredrascals, 23 février 2010 - 02:18 .

[mosspit]

Hmm I see. How do you plan on playing your AW Archer?

[expiredrascals]

I'm thinking about opening with earthquake as it doesn't sheath weapons and that will nullify most targets, end party will be Leliana (archer/locksmith/ranger spec), morrigan (Damage focus, spirit healer spec), and wynne (Blood mage spec, healer focus with player micro for damage and blood spells).

Lel's pet will be the only close range member, the opening earthquake and petrify (if needed) will give me enough time to to get some good damage in. the paralysis explosion thing (glyph combo) will also be ****d like no other.

combat magic will be always on along with rock armor, spell wisp, and arcane shield


My current unfinished skill plan is looking like:
full arcane tree (4 points): the arcane shield and arcane mastery are the two goals here as this mage will be short on spellpower
full arcane warrior tree (4 points): combat magic with its two passive buffs, nuff said. I don't think that I'll have the spare resources to keep the shield up
Spirit healer through lifeward (3 points): survivability
Full primal earth tree (4 points): petrify, earthquake, and rock armor are beautiful and all can be cast with unsheathed weapons
Glyph tree through repulsion (3 points): more of just keeping enemies off of me, the combo in here for the AoE paralysis is very nice, also all can be cast with weapons drawn
first skill of the summoning tree: spellwisp--any spellpower is helpful

This only brings me to 19 skill points (including pre-allocated points), so I still need help there

EDIT: Also, I am still debating mind blast, I have used it on every mage that I have ever built, but it requires sheathing...

Modifié par expiredrascals, 23 février 2010 - 02:27 .

[mosspit]

Ok. Ranged party with no dedicated tank. I can maybe suggest manaclash (with spell might).

With GoRepulsion, it seems feasible... I dont think you need shimmering... chances are that enemies are not gonna focus on your AW exclusively anywayz.

[Forest03]

1) You will need to use the crossbows, which have STR requirements instead of DEX, since the AW's use of MAG only replaces STR. Don't bother with the bows and high dex. It will be a waste of attribute points. Put the majority into MAG, and everything you can spare into STA.

2) Set your AW's AI to ranged, even if it is your main character and you plan to control it most of the time. Equip set 2 with the Spell Weaver (or some other sword of your choice) and the heaviest shield you can find or afford. Then, set one of the Tactics slots to switch to Melee when he/she is being attacked in Melee.

3) Wear medium armor. Not only will this reduce your fatigue penalties, it will also keep mobs from attacking your AW hybrid. This is especially important if your party does not constantly have a real Warrior, like Alistair or Shale. Remember that mob AI automatically attack the most heavily armored characters in your party, unless Taunted or hit with an attack that increases hostility.

4) Do not bother increasing your Dex with points from gear. Get gear with pure Dodge stats, plus elemental and mental resistances.

5.1) Put your spell points into buffs like heroic offense, as well as crowd control like glyph of repulsion, glyph of paralysis, and sleep. Other viable options include life drain and miasma, but only if you have enough points leftover. Do not bother puting points into healing spells until much later, unless you are already high enough to have a second specialization point for Spirit Healer.

5.2) Optional. Wear medium-heavy gear (like Chain, but nothing more), and choose blood mage as your second specialization, while maintaining strictly crowd control skills. You're not going to have much mana with all the maintained buffs and auras anyway, and your fatigue penalty will be high. If you need to cast offensive spells, it will drain your health instead. Nothing should even get near you in any case, and you can just keep happily firing bolts. You'll also get access to blood control, which is extremely useful (when it works).

I hope my advice works for you, or at least gives you ideas. These are my spur-of-the-moment tactics that I've rehashed from my own experience using an AW. I've gone through the game 3 times. However, I soon moved on to Arena mods, where the AI has been scripted to really chew up the player and make you work on your party Tactics.

Extra gear notes:

Use a crossbow *cough*

* Helms and gloves with rapid aim

* Felon's coat is a nice one. Don't worry about hostility. As long as you're in medium armor, and you have a Tank, your ranged damage will be too small for mobs to even notice.

* Lifegiver and Ring of Ages. You'll have the combination of extra health, regeneration, plus resistances. Don't bother with Key to the City - it's overrated and generally useless - unless you've somehow missed out on stat requirements for something.

Modifié par Forest03, 23 février 2010 - 02:34 .

[expiredrascals]

@ forest:

I am avoiding medium armor due to the RoF penalties associated with it (in addition to the aggro it generates).

as to your point about crossbows: I still need dex to be able to hit anything with my shots, so a bow still seems better as the seem to have better high-end options

as to your gear suggestions: if you look at my post concerning gear, I have multiple items with rapid aim, but multiple instances don't stack so I need direction as to where I lose the least by including it. I need the Ring of ages mostly for the attack and dam boosts that those stats will generate.



Try to read everything first so that you know where I'm coming from

[expiredrascals]

I have been evaluating my skill point options, and I think I remember atleast two bonus points available through tomes and whatnot, so unless I hear a strong argument for Survival, my plan is the following:

Coercion: 4

Trap-Making: 4

Combat Training: 2 (further levels only grant better interrupt resistance while spellcasting, level 2 grants mana regen)