Non Meta: First attempt at an archery build

DocFrost72 · November 2016

Reread the title before responding, please. I of course welcome suggestions and criticism, but "This will never be #1 trial leaderboard" is just redundant.

Moving on!

Premise: create for stamina a semblance of what magicka has in terms of ranged dps.

Strengths: high range (At 28 meters away and all abilities WILL hit, 33 all bow abilities hit), decently forgiving, sets are super easy to come by.

Weaknesses: squishy 17k+ health, far less effective at close range, not "meta" max DPS output (though potentially fair).

Preface: I have yet to test this build, as I am at work. Still in the theory stage at present, and any input is welcome.

Race: I'm a bosmer, but redguard/imperial/orc etc will be fine.

Class: Nightblade (synergies well)

Stone: Thief

Gear: Five pieces hundings rage (4 body, bow and greatsword), 5 pieces archer's mind (3 accessories, 2 armor) and 1 kena/Velidreth (ideally med divines, but medium anything works).

Skills:

Bow- Focused Aim, Poison Injection, Arrow Barrage, Relentless Focus, Expert Hunter (either morph). Ultimate: Ballista.

Greatsword- Lightweight Trap, Siphoning Strikes, Brawler, Resolving Vigor, Rally. Ultimate: Dawnbreaker of Smiting.

Quick buffed stats: (keep in mind, my gear is all purple and my weapons are all gold. Rings and neck are blue.)

Weapon damage 3200
Stam regen 1000
Critical chance 79.7%
Critical modifier (excluding CP) 15%

This build focuses on the two passives in the bow tree to give it effectiveness. Long shots gives us up to twelve percent additional damage dealt if we are at range. Hawk eye increases our damage done with bow attacks by 5 percent with every light and heavy attack that lands. This effect lasts 4 seconds, and stacks up to 3 times. That is a full 27% additional damage, making up for bows having characteristically less weapon damage.

How to: Rally, Siphoning attacks, lightweight trap, bar swap, Relentless Focus, snipe-light attack, poison inject-light attack, arrow barrage-light attack, snipe light attack, snipe light attack etc etc.

Thoughts, suggestions, tips, anyone doing anything similar?

lolo_01b16_ESO · November 2016

If you want to make a strong archer build, I'd recomment to use msa bow on one bar and dsa bow on the other bar. Msa would be main bar with snipe, endless hail and a lot of fighters guild skills for the weapon damage passive, dsa bar would contain poison injection, ballista and some other helpful stuff. So something like this.

Stannum · November 2016

DocFrost72 wrote: »

Thoughts, suggestions, tips, anyone doing anything similar?

I use another main bow DPS config based on crit focus.
Race: Khajiit
Class: NB
blue CP: 100 mighty, else to crit dmg and few (until < 0.4% bonus) to taumaturg

Armor full med divines, sets 5 briarheart + 5 Hunding or NM (both are good) + 1 Velidret or Kena
Mundus - Shadow
main bar (bow): PI, hunter, voley, acid spray, relentles focus ulti: bow turret
buff\support bar (2H): R caltrops, light trap, shadow silk, mark, f momentum ulti: F dawnbreaker

So i have about 80% crit chance without thief mundus on main bar, highly buffed crit damage, lots of DoTs and briarheart proc almost on CD.

SodanTok · November 2016

While I see your reasoning for archers mind (using jewelry, because craft sets like hunding cant be there) it feels so wasteful using set that gives you +5% crit dmg and like +7% crit chance when simple TBS gives you +18% crit dmg (or +16% crit chance)

DocFrost72 · November 2016

sodantokb16_ESO wrote: »

While I see your reasoning for archers mind (using jewelry, because craft sets like hunding cant be there) it feels so wasteful using set that gives you +5% crit dmg and like +7% crit chance when simple TBS gives you +18% crit dmg (or +16% crit chance)

I considered TBS, actually. Issue being that I'd have to dump hundings. Maybe if I took TBS, archer's mind? Of course the eventual setup would include VO too, but need a set first.

Also, thanks for the ideas guys.

SodanTok · November 2016

Maybe, but then I feel like

DocFrost72 wrote: »

sodantokb16_ESO wrote: »

While I see your reasoning for archers mind (using jewelry, because craft sets like hunding cant be there) it feels so wasteful using set that gives you +5% crit dmg and like +7% crit chance when simple TBS gives you +18% crit dmg (or +16% crit chance)

I considered TBS, actually. Issue being that I'd have to dump hundings. Maybe if I took TBS, archer's mind? Of course the eventual setup would include VO too, but need a set first.

Also, thanks for the ideas guys.

I would still drop archers mind, but maybe math wouldnt support that anymore. (Basically what I run is 5TBS, 3AGI, VMA bow, Kragh monster mask, Flex spot shoulder). VO is obv. better

SkylarkX · November 2016

One thing you'll need to consider in the design of your build/group play is your positioning relative to the healer since you'll want to be at or near max range to the most damage out of your rotation. You may need to consider equipping some self heals or mitigation if it turns out to be an issue.

DocFrost72 · November 2016

SkylarkX wrote: »

One thing you'll need to consider in the design of your build/group play is your positioning relative to the healer since you'll want to be at or near max range to the most damage out of your rotation. You may need to consider equipping some self heals or mitigation if it turns out to be an issue.

Was exactly my thoughts. That's why I have rally and vigor. Luckily for me, at range very little does actually make it to me. What does has to also overcome 2k rally ticks and 4k vigor ticks (on crit). Some extra mitigation might be a good idea, and I thought about having the healer positioned between me and the tank, when possible.

hedna123b14_ESO · November 2016

Pure bow build in my signature...does 38-43k in vMoL