Crit AoE Arrow Mob Deleter - mahjerion/Craft-to-Exile-Dissonance GitHub Wiki

Updated for 2.16.3

Table of Contents

  1. Primer
  2. Stats
  3. Masteries
  4. Talent Tree
  5. Equipment
  6. What To Do After

Primer

Author: Mahj

This build takes advantage of the power of the Exert ability, which gives your Hunting spell arrows an AoE, and obliterates clusters of mobs. At level 90, you can unlock Critical Surge's synergy, which does the same thing as Exert but on critical hits.

You can use either a bow or crossbow in this build.

From Level 1-20

In general, archers have it pretty easy early game. You can use double shot for single-target DPS, Blast Trap + synergy for groups of enemies, and Summon Hunting Wolf to tank for you. Make sure to follow the quest book!

Primary Damage Source

  • Hunting Arrow Spells with Exert + Imbue Buff + Critical Surge Synergy
  • Powerful Critical Strikes

Defensive Mechanism

  • Primarily Health
  • Lots of Dodge
  • Spell Dodge + Resists

Stats

You want the following core stats:

  • Dexterity
  • Strength + Stamina

I usually do a ~4:1:1 ratio. You may need to adjust for equipment stat requirements. You may also find yourself lacking Energy often, in which case, allocate more points towards stamina.

Masteries

  • Primary: Hunting
  • Secondary: Storm

Hunting and Storm as a combo is critical strike heaven. However, we don't actually start allocating points into Storm until level 50. To start, you want to put a single point into Double Shot. You don't need the synergy for it as you're not going to be doing DoT damage. You'll want at least a point in: Craft Arrows, Blast Trap + Synergy, Summon Hunting Wolf, and Hunter's Potion.

The first spells you want to max out are Imbue and its synergy, the Hunter Instinct passive, and Arrow Barrage.

Once you can, max out Silent Wind and Exert. You can also grab Arrow Storm now - this will melt groups.

Start allocating points into Storm. Notable spells to learn are: Critical Surge + Voltaic Blast, Quick Charge. That's pretty much it. You could reset your points to regain some spell points (such as dropping Craft Arrows).

Level 40 Hunting Tree

40 trees

Level 90 Hunting + Storm Trees

90 trees

Talent Tree

  • As this is a crit + bow build, the right side is the obvious choice.
  • Go for the defensive nodes at the beginning, the damage nodes are not as valuable and you'll be grabbing some of them later anyway. You'll do enough damage already!
  • Stats to grab are basically Health, Dodge, Critical Hit/Damage, and some Lightning Damage.
  • Do NOT grab True Hit too early. You want at least ~40% Critical Hit before grabbing it.
  • It's up to you if you want to use a bow or crossbow.

Level 40 Talent Tree

40 talent tree

Level 90 Talent Tree

90 talent tree

Equipment

  • You basically just want to look for Health, Dodge, and Elemental Resists for defensive stats, and Physical Attack Damage, Critical Hit/Damage, Bow or Crossbow Damage, and to some extent, Lightning Spell Damage.
  • If you can find a good item base, Melody [Ber + Cen + Mos] is a decent Runeword that provides a bit of everything.

What To Do After

This build does really well in the late game because it excels against groups of monsters, but still does great single-target DPS. Try to get as close to 100% Critical Hit and get as much Critical Damage as possible.