I don’t see why you can’t realize your dream of a bowstamplar, lol. How you experiment with this depends a lot on the content you want to play. You’re right...such a build probably won’t shine in trials or pvp, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun in 99% of the content. I like bows on most of my stam characters.

Issue 1: major brutality

Getting the 20% boost to dps is pretty important, and unfortunately Templars have no class skills at all that offer this...d’oh. You have a couple of options. The best is probably to back bar a 2h and slot rally. You could also back bar dual wield and slot shrouded daggers. And the third option...if you really, really want a double bow bar (in which case, frankly, roll a Warden, which excels at double bow) you can get major brutality from potions. In this case you’ll be popping pots a lot, and could use Clever Alchemist. That’s a very valid stam dps strategy.

Issue 2: slightly odd bar setups

So, once you pick your option there you can play with the bar. On the attack bar I’m thinking poison inject and snipe. Power of the Light is a strong choice (it could also go on the back bar, but it’s pretty short to be flipping over so much). On a bow it’s also nice to have a “get off me” ability. This could be draining shot or javelin. For ultimates I suspect that flawless dawnbreaker’s dps boost will be best, but I sure like playing with ballista.

On the back bar you’d look at repentance. Vigor if you need an addl heal. Rally or shrouded daggers for the brutality. Caltrops and lightweight trap are possibilities. Restoring focus might not be bad.

On one of the other bars you should slot jabs. The major savagery is also pretty needed on a stamplar, plus having a close quarters AOE will really help. Where you slot it really depends on the rest of the build. Thenweakness to bow builds is mobs getting through. If your back bar is 2h, I’d try jabs up front to concentrate damage on the main bar. But I can see a dual wield back bar where the bow slams them down then when they get close you murder them with daggers.

Issue 3: sets

You’ll do fine with any run-of-the-mill stam set combo. I mean...not trash, obviously. Hundings + spriggans is a good start amd pretty easy to get so that you can refine the build. Twice fanged serpent is slightly better than spriggans. If you get a heck of a lot of your dps from bow abilities, something like hawks eye becomes more viable. The damage is less than like spriggans, but the cost reduction is nice.

You can accent with any stam dps monster helm set. Generally I like two 5 piece sets and one piece of Kragh...I think the 5th trait outperforms the monster set procs, But you can play with it. You could also go earn one of the trial bows then adjust your play style to suit thenone you get. I play a stamblade bow build and a warden build...I’m interested in the new Clockwork bow, which seemed the most powerful for how I use them, but people like the Maelstrom bow too.


Hopefully this gets you started. If you have specific questions, feel free to respond in this thread including @davey1107 in the response...the system will alert me, and I’m happy to help. In the meantime, good luck!