The problem with trying to build a "tanky" dps build with a bow is that the two sets that you would want to use specific Melee damage i.e Advancing Yokeda and Ravanger. Now at one point Arms of Relequen was triggering these sets even when using a bow but I think that was bug fixed.

In PVP on my bow gankblade I am using Clever alchemist, as a crafted set you can make it in any weight and it has two hp bonuses combined with Bloodspawn for fast ulti gen and more resistances.

If you want to be a tank/DPS for normal dungeons, I'd suggest grabbing One Hand&Shield (taunt from Puncture and better blocking) and either dual wield or bow for your back bar. Bow has better DOTs, Dual Wield has better self-healing options if you dont have Vigor from PVP yet. In most normals, you should be okay in medium armor once you know the mechanics as long as you don't stand in stupid. Caltrops is great crowd control if you have done enough PVP to get it.

If one hand and shield doesn't appeal, you can use Inner Fire - the stam morph in the Undaunted line - but you'll miss out on a powerful debuff.

However, you'll be a tank - taunting the boss and dealing with aggro. Just with some extra DPS. When I ran mine, I found I was fine for normal dungeons and easy vets, but harder vet dungeons needed better damage mitigation and more active tanking than I could do on my DD/tank.


To second the above advice, PVP builds are different. For PVP, you'll want impenetrable trait armor. You'll also want to build for burst damage, the better to overwhelm your enemy, or if you can't, to keep up the pressure with DOTs like bleeds.

Narvuntien wrote: »

The problem with trying to build a "tanky" dps build with a bow is that the two sets that you would want to use specific Melee damage i.e Advancing Yokeda and Ravanger. Now at one point Arms of Relequen was triggering these sets even when using a bow but I think that was bug fixed.

In PVP on my bow gankblade I am using Clever alchemist, as a crafted set you can make it in any weight and it has two hp bonuses combined with Bloodspawn for fast ulti gen and more resistances.

Generally I've been thinking of running Bow for my DPS and Dual Wield when I need to tank. That's generally how I've been playing it already is swapping styles for the situation. Really the only, I would say, "superior" thing about tanking with a bow that I've personally experienced is having lots of stam to roll-dodge when aggro'd while others are free to spam damage. And I use "superior" quite loosely.

Striken7 wrote: »

thegreatme wrote: »

Any good suggestions?

Don't try to make one build that can both a real tank and real dps for PvE. It might seem like it's "fine" at first, but I think you will eventually resent that you're not really good at either as you get more experience.

For the record, you can build for pure dps and still be able to do some light "tanking", in the sense that you can hold your own in a fight, whether that's completing something solo like VMA, or off-tanking in Normal Dungeons/Trials.

If you are interested in being THE tank when your main tank is not around, then I recommend having a separate tank build (weapons, armor, jewelry, skills, mundus, food, etc.) and swapping between them. I use the Dressing Room addon which helps with this because it lets you swap all gear and skills with one button press.

Yeah, more or less why I was saying doing light-to-moderate off-tanking. Can't really have the best of both worlds, as nice as that'd be. Primarily I'm going to be running DPS whenever I get the chance, leave the heavy tanking for the builds and classes better suited to it. But in the cases where I have to end up tanking in some capacity (tank's unavailable, tank dies, etc), I want to be able to keep my group alive, or at least sustained enough that I/someone can get them Res-ed.

I'll definitely be looking into that addon.

Striken7 wrote: »

PvP is a different story, and running a stamblade dps build with more survivability, such as wearing heavy armor, is pretty popular. That's not my area of expertise though, so I won't say much more than that except to reiterate that you would not be... effective using such a build in PvE.

What I gather from this, if I gather correctly, is I can use heavy armor for better survivability, but I'd be loosing out on my medium armor bonuses/passives for running a Stamblade. Doable, but not ideal for a Stamblade build, and a sacrifice on buffs better suited to PvP rather than PvE?

Thanks for all the advice so far everyone.

Sorry to go offtopic on you, but if your idea is to build DD that can do okay DPS while being able to tank almost everything in dungeons (including dlc but usually not HM) the answer is stamsorc. Preferably 2H/bow (or well bow/2H)

Narvuntien wrote: »

thegreatme wrote: »

Really the only, I would say, "superior" thing about tanking with a bow that I've personally experienced is having lots of stam to roll-dodge when aggro'd while others are free to spam damage. And I use "superior" quite loosely.

Uh oh, this is pretty much the worst thing you could do. The job of the tank is to hold the boss still if you are roll dodging and running around the boss doesn't stand still and your dps cannot use their Area of effect skills. Endless hail and caltrops and wall of elements which are basically the highest dps skills in the game.

I generally try to stay in one spot when I can doing Dual-Wielding, and manage it I'd say a good 4/5 of the time on normal [Dungeon] 1's and barely scraped by on [Dungeon] 2's, but if I'm taking hard hits and hitting that red zone in health, I find it better to be alive than dead needing to be Res-ed lol especially doing bosses where you can't Res yourself. Since all my points are in Stam and I'm still working out my armor buffs for health, I have to watch my health bar closely and adjust for that until I can find a more survivable build. That's the big thing I'm trying to work out now is what to do for my gear set most of all for better survivability, and I don't want to invest a bunch of time into the wrong gear set and find out its no good for what I need.

Point being, if I'm running a dungeon, I want my group to be more focused on themselves than trying to Res me because I couldn't stay alive. With a proper tank build, less of an issue, but my health stats aren't built the same as a dedicated Tank. Even as a DPS role, it's better if I can stay alive and keep the fight flowing.

That's the problem I'm running into is having a medium armor set that gives me a good health stat boost to make up for having all my stats in Stam (most non-crafted medium sets give you stam boosts and more stam boosts). Someone told me that was the way to go for a Stamblade, pouring points into all Stam and covering health through armor, but now I wonder if they just assumed I was going with mainly a PvP build without actually asking what my focus would be and thinking that I'd be using Heavy armor.

Which, I'm fine with running heavy armor if I have to, but I'd like to be able to weigh the pros and cons of that accurately before dedicating to it. Especially since my build has gone around medium armor all this time, including my CP points, which I'll have to re-work for that.

Bladerunner1 wrote: »

Since the bow is on the front bar, does that mean you prefer fighting more from ranged? I'd say 90% of all possible ranged bow DPS comes from endless hail, caltrops, poison injection and snipe, then throw in a relentless focus proc where you can. That leaves plenty of room for whichever support skills you want to slot.

My preference is definitely ranged combat and I'm leagues better at it than close combat, but I'm working on both.

I play around with my bow bar a bit between different encounters depending on what I'm doing. My first skill alternates between Evasion, Endless Hail, or Arrow Spray (haven't decided on my morph yet) depending on my needs at the time. The rest of my skill bar stays pretty consistent with Poison Injection, Draining Shot, Lethal Arrow, and Shadowy Disguise (for those heavy damage-taking pinch situations), with Ballista as my Ultimate.

To my knowledge, Endless Hail is better damage-wise but I tend to prefer Arrow Spray as a spammable because most of the time my targets move out of the AoE + applying that movement debuff on most enemies lol. I'm also stuck on which morph I should choose because its a choice of either immobilizing enemies or doing better DOT, which both have their own sets of advantage and disadvantage over the other. Although most likely the immobilization debuff for 2 seconds isn't anywhere near as good as Talons for a DK, I know enemies that can't reach you / follow you around to attack makes for happier DPS's. But I'm not sure if that 2 second immobilization is worth it since enemies still get the movement speed penalty regardless.

Bladerunner1 wrote: »

There's a neat trick to becoming somewhat tankier with a bow while doing the easier pve content. Torugs pact body/jewelry with a glyph of hardening on an infused bow. Endless hail ensures you'll get a 5500 health damage shield every 3.5 seconds. Wear Iceheart and you become a shield stacking Stam build, and the best part is it's entirely passive shield stacking so you can just keep firing damage skills the whole time, or toss endless hail on a boss for both shield procs while you rez people. If you are supporting people in a group and you are already wearing torugs, you may as well slot an infused weapon with the crusher glyph on the other bar.

I'll have to look into that. The one thing I'm good at with running content is generally awareness of my surroundings during a fight and I'm usually the first to run for a Res when its needed and keep everyone on their feet (I've only just started playing another healer toon and its gone pretty well bc of that), but when I'm under fire or being mobbed by enemies like Clannfear or a dungeon boss that can take me down in a few hits, its a little hard to do that when I'm so squishy lol