Help with Archery/Trick Arrow Defender Build

[Ru1e42]

Hi Homecoming.

 

I know this build is out of favor, but I got to 50 somehow and picked up a bunch of incarnate powers.  With all that I'm still kind of squishy and my damage output is really sub-par.  I can debuff and hold, but it takes forever to get anywhere with him and I have to watch that I don't get more than 2-3 enemies at once or I have to start looking for a place to die.  

 

Can our community of wise and experienced players help me with a build? I have MIDS but I don't know enough about enhancements or the various powers to make it work for me.

 

Help?

 

[Projector]

I've attached the kind of build that helped me out when I was learning the game. It's going to be very forgiving for being poorly positioned or overextending yourself. As you get more used to the game, your powers, and how to play your AT effectively, you'll likely want to respec out of things like the Fighting Pool. You shouldn't need all the survivability from the toggles when you learn how to use positioning, line of sight, and inspirations to your advantage. 

I'm at a point now where I go full aggro on my builds and just carry a bunch of purple and blue inspirations with me if I need them lol.

Note that builds like this are expensive, but it has a lot of built-in survivability. You'll still want to pop a purple or some orange inspirations on occasion or if you're up against a lot of different damage types, but this will help you a lot more. Ageless Core Epiphany for the Destiny Incarnate slot will cover your endurance issues, but another option might be to go Barrier if you want more survivability in the moment and run Musculature Radial or Cardiac Core for your Alpha.

I will say, you're playing a Defender, which has low damage already, and you're playing archery, which is also low damage. So you're always going to feel low on damage here. The Corruptor route would have been the stronger option, for future reference.

I also gave you flight and Super Speed so you can explore a couple of different ways to travel. Personally, I always go Super Speed and Teleport, because you can always get a jetpack from the START Vendor, but the Flight will definitely help you keep enemies at range.

That being said, before you get Ageless built, I really don't have much of an idea on how this will treat your endurance, so pick up some Recovery Serums from the START Vendor to help as well!

The ideal opener on new mobs would be launch Rain of Arrows and immediately after activate it, use Explosive Arrow. The delay will ensure that Explosive Arrow keeps people in the full damage duration of Rain of Arrows. And you have Burnout to do it again immediately (though burnout has an 8-10 min CD). Rain of Arrows is the most important power in Archery and is the source of most of your damage. 

Learning how to use Acid Arrow and Disruption Arrow to maximize your damage output is massive, too. Try different combos of attack chains and see if there's a safe way for you to land both powers before even using Rain of Arrows, as it will REALLY hit hard once you have their resistance and regen debuffed to hell 😄

Ice Arrow is going to hit hard, but also has a good debuff element to it, as does Acid Arrow. Those two will help your damage output significantly. If you're soloing a lot, I would also recommend picking up Envenomed Daggers from the START Vendor as well. I take those on every single toon I make.

If you need some influence to get you started, email me in-game: @Project0r . I suck at checking forums, so I may not see your response here in a timely manner lol

Happy Day-saving!

Defender (Trick Arrow - Archery).mbd
 

[Carnifax]

Can't help with the Archery side, I've 4 Trick Arrow characters and none of them are Archery. In general with Defenders (and corruptors) split the ATO set which gives +10% recharge for 3 into two different powers. +20% recharge is very useful. 

 

Acid Arrow is a strange one now. It doesn't do -Resist or anything now (although it will take the Achilles Heel -Resist proc). Instead it now debuffs their resistance to some debuffs . So you can fire it off before End Drains or against an AV before you EMP them to debuff their regen. I use it as an AoE proc-bomb which is also useful vs AVs. 

 

Entangling now has the -20% resist so again I one slot it. Great vs +4 bosses and AVs (everything else melts too quickly). 

 

Ice Arrow is also a huge proc bomb. Also does -Dam and -Heal (on top of Acid) so it's useful against anything that tries to heal itself. Generally I use it as a hard hitting attack with benefits.

 

Against an AV I go Flash > Disruption > Entangling > Acid > Ice > EMP > Entangling (to keep them in place) > Poison Gas (because a bit of -Dam isn't a bad thing) then whale on them. Will probably throw in a Oil Slick and set it aflame just to tickle them with DoT. 

 

You can slot "Chance to Heal Self" into Poison Gad and Disruption Arrow. Both are no-slot-wonders anyway so it's a neat trick but nothing profound. 

 

Definitely slot up Flash Arrow to max out -ToHit. 4 Dark Watchers is how I slot it. It's a sizable debuff now and half of it is unresistable. It's your main method of keeping your team alive and it's aggro free so you fire it as the Tank is running at the spawn. 

 

I'll share my Trick Arrow / Elec & Water / Trick Arrows for reference though on the TA side. 

 

 

 

Defender - TrickArrow - Electrical - Mu.mbd Corruptor - Water - Trick Arrow.mbd

[MonteCarla]

My current main is a TA/A Defender!

For survivability, I've got:
- 4 pieces of Dark Watcher in Flash Arrow, giving me ED-capped -To Hit debuffs. Always open with that.

- Poison Gas Arrow does a big -Damage debuff

- Ice Arrow and my epic hold (Dominate) both have the Lockdown +2 Hold Mag proc in them, so they nearly always hold bosses.
- Ranged defence set bonuses to stack with the -To Hit from Flash Arrow and Hover to keep me out of melee. (She's a faerie archer)
 

For doing damage:

- Aim with Gaussian's Build up proc

- Rain of Arrows and Oil Slick Arrow, Judgement nuke for heavy AoE

- Ice Arrow and Dominate have lots of damage procs stuffed in them

- Blazing Arrow and the snipe make up my level 50 attack chain.
- Net Arrow and Disruption Arrow (with a targeting bind) for -Res

- Achilles Heel proc in Acid Arrow for a bit more -Res

 

She's like a 6/10 for effectiveness. The improvements to Flash Arrow have really helped the set since I last played.

[Ru1e42]

Thanks all, these help a lot. 

 

@Projector can you elaborate on what an end-game more experienced build would look like from your POV?  Inf isn't really the barrier here, just want to be the most effective I can be.  Because my toon is based on 'Speedy' from DC, I've gone with combat jumping and maneuvers. Flight just isn't thematic, but I'm open to anything else. 

 

Keep the ideas coming friends. 

 

 

[Uun]

This is what I'm running on my Archery/TA corruptor. You should be able to flip this to defender easily.

Uunfair - Corruptor (Archery).mbd

[Projector]

6 hours ago, Ru1e42 said:

Thanks all, these help a lot. 

 

@Projector can you elaborate on what an end-game more experienced build would look like from your POV?  Inf isn't really the barrier here, just want to be the most effective I can be.  Because my toon is based on 'Speedy' from DC, I've gone with combat jumping and maneuvers. Flight just isn't thematic, but I'm open to anything else. 

 

Keep the ideas coming friends. 

 

 

Oh! My bad, I just assumed flight would be more forgiving since I didn't know any context.  then in the build I gave you, swap out the Flight pool. Take Combat Jumping instead of Hover, Take the two slots from Flight and put them in SS so you can 3-slot the Thrust set in it for more movement speed, and then make sure you  set them all to minimal FX at the tailor for max realism 😄. Then instead of Evasive Maneuvers, you can take Maneuvers on it's own. 

I did make another build for you though that would be closer to what I would use with this toon. One thing that I thought would be a lot of fun to try, though not sure how effective it would be: Pop 2-3 purple inspirations and a break free (unless you don't expect any mezz protection), jump in between a couple mobs, pop Disruption Arrow and Glue Arrow down at your feet, then hit Fold Space > Rain of Arrows > Acid Arrow > Explosive Arrow. I imagine it would be super satisfying in something like a Kill Most ITF. Acid Arrow should land before RoA hits, so you should get the full benefit still, and Glue Arrow will ensure they can't get away from you in time.

I also use a number of binds to make TP way more usable. I'll share them here, but you can assign them to whatever key you want. Just change out the letter after "/bind" and replace it with whatever key you want to bind it to.

/bind z powexeclocation cursor teleport
/bind v powexeclocation target teleport
/bind g powexeclocation cursor combat teleport
/bind c powexeclocation self combat teleport
/bind b powexeclocation target combat teleport

The combat TP to self is super useful because Combat TP gives tohit with like 0 animation time, so you can quickly stack 3 combat TPs in place and boost your tohit even more, and the TP to cursor is super helpful to get through blocked doors or TP quickly down hallways. 

I know a lot of people use macros for location-based AoE powers, but I don't like using macros for them since I can't monitor their cooldowns like other powers, so for powers like Rain of Arrows, Glue Arrow, Oil Slick Arrow, etc, I will put them where I want them on my trays and then rebind the key to "powexeclocation target." That kind of bind will make location based AoE powers work the same way powers like Fire Ball or Ball Lightning do.  The only time to be careful of this is that it won't work while targeting through a teammate, so if I try to use a bind like that on Rain of Arrows while targeting through a teammate near me, I'll just fire Rain of Arrows on my teammate instead of the enemies.

Here are some examples:
I usually keep Rain of Arrows or whatever nuke I have in Tray 2 slot 1, which is alt+1. So, I would bind it as /bind alt+1 powexeclocation target Rain of Arrows
If done right, you'll see the number under that tray slot disappear since since a specific power is now bound to that key instead of that tray slot.

Disruption Arrow: /bind KEY powexeclocation target disruption arrow
Oil slick arrow: /bind KEY powexeclocation target oil slick arrow

Glue Arrow: /bind KEY powexeclocation target Glue Arrow

You can also use your cursor to still aim them, just change "target" in those binds to "cursor" and it will aim wherever your cursor is when you hit the bind. The downside to this method is that in fights I use a mix of clicking powers and using my keyboard, so often times my cursor is down at my power tray. That's why I use Target instead of Cursor for these powers.

To anyone else reading this who may ask--yes, you can use these binds for any location-based AoE -- Rain of Fire, Shield Charge, Blizzard, Lightning Rod, Ice Storm, Sleet, etc

 

Trick Arrow - Archery Defender (more aggro).mbd

[MonteCarla]

OMG that is such a good idea, rebinding the keys instead of using macros so I can still see the Recharge!

(I've been stashing the power icons in tray 4 so I could watch them, sort of off-center, which hasn't been working out great)
I also didn't know about powexeclocation target cursor as an option.

 

Thanks, Projector!
 

Edited April 14 by MonteCarla

[Ru1e42]

I use a similar tray tucked in the upper right corner.  Works ok for checking the status of my cooldowns while I keep the macros in a tray bottom center.  I use the big pointer mod so my old eyes can see. 

 

thanks for all the help

[Projector]

11 hours ago, MonteCarla said:

OMG that is such a good idea, rebinding the keys instead of using macros so I can still see the Recharge!

(I've been stashing the power icons in tray 4 so I could watch them, sort of off-center, which hasn't been working out great)
I also didn't know about powexeclocation target cursor as an option.

 

Thanks, Projector!
 

Just to clarify, if you want the bind to aim at your cursor, it should be "powexeclocation cursor" and if you want it to aim at your target, it should be "powexeclocation target" So, Cursor and Target should never be in the same bind.

[Psyonico]

I've been away from the game for a bit, so I don't remember my exact playstyle, but TA/A has been a favorite of mine for a long time (well before they buffed TA).

 

I've attached my current level 50 build, it has effectively capped defense to Ranged/AoE thanks to the unresistable portion of Flash Arrow (also note that as long as there isn't a proc in it, Flash Arrow doesn't aggro).  It's also got Rune of Protection for when things get really dicy.

 

I've also attached a Respec build I apparently planned but never got around to doing.  It adds Energize from the Mu Mastery APP for even MORE survivability.

 

As for damage, adding a bunch of recharge to get Oil Slick Arrow and Rain of Arrows up as often as possible is a strong goal to shoot for.

Pointed Sticks - Defender (Trick Arrow).mbd Pointed Sticks - Defender (Trick Arrow - Archery) - Revised.mbd

[Jacke]

@Psyonico is a very good TA/Archery Defender Player.  I have some differences from him.  Two examples: I always have stealth on every Toon.  And I feel Trick Arrow's Oil Slick Arrow's Base Recharge is just too long to work well versus other Powers and uses for the Extra Slots.

 

Flash Arrow is the key debuff of the build, especially when kitted out.  That big -ToHit provides so much protection.  When stealthed, can apply Flash Arrow a few times (60s duration of Effects with a short Recharge) ahead of combat as the Power doesn't notify the mobs.
https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=defender_buff.trick_arrow.flash_arrow&at=defender

 

On this Toon, the stealth is from Infiltration as well as the Celerity: Stealth IO slotted in it.  I have a keybind that will stop that Power as well as Sprint, etc.  I do that shortly after starting combat to cut out unnecessary Endurance use as all of its stealth and Defense is suppressed in combat.  I have another keybind to start them up so the Toon can quickly run at speed.

 

Here's my build from last year, which should be still good.  Has all the Extra Slots as I think they should be added while Levelling, with the final Enhancements slotted into the build.  Most non-PvP non-Purple non-Boosted IOs at Max Level should be Attuned.  Those at Min Level should be that Level (Pure Procs for earlier slotting, Pure Globals for better Exemplaring).

 

Defender TrickA-Archery.20240816.MuM Infil TT CJ Veng GI [i28p1] - Jacke Archer.mbd

 

 

Edited Friday at 07:28 AM by Jacke