Hi!
I want to update this in the future once I get more time but first I’ll be adding some random things (hidden/not so known for who don’t play the class) as a list that people might want to know.
One of the changes from before -> after patch is:
-> All? SR skills now uses Pistol (sub-weapon - secondary physical attack) physical attack. (Before patch some used main weapon/xbow damage).
-> The second thing I want to give highlight is that Caracole is the new strongest skills for SR, basically our Burst skill.
And something I noticed but require more testing is that the higher the number of monsters the higher damage will Caracole be. This is caused by the spread attack. I’m not sure if there’s a cap or not for the number of monsters.
EDIT 1: More info. I’ll organize this later into a proper list.
-> The magic number 180 definitely isn’t the “attack speed cap” you can get for a SR. I need more testing, I’m now sitting at 200 DEX (total) and other animations such as with Barrage also seems faster than 180.
The ping isn’t such that a bad factor for reasonable attack speed values, it could be a trouble if you were trying to min-max it or something like that.
I made a video with Limacon on Siauliai Mission to show how well it works on a ~175ms avg. ping.
Notes: My gear isn’t all ready yet. I need to change one hat, gems, get 4 leather pieces, get more shards, find a sweet spot for DEX/ASPD/damage etc.
If you watch the video I think many of the questions asked in this thread will be answered but I want to highlight some other points here:
EDIT 2:
Glass Mole now seems to scale correctly. Main hand with main hand. Off hand with off hand. I’ll test one more time next time I edit this topic, just in case, It’s late and I only tested with current weapons, didn’t change to weak weapons to confirm but shouldn’t be needed.
EDIT 3:
I forgot to tell before, Time Bomb Arrow (Ranger builds) now applies AoE damage on explosion so it’s quite better than before.
I made another video of SR gameplay trying to show one way of playing solo:
Please don’t mind the run being not optimal and some missed skills and mobs left behind, I was sleepy >.<
I hope this clear the answers to why do I prefer Archer2Ranger3SR3 over other variants. It’s mostly in the AoE potential of the build as you can see in the video.
If someone wants a skill build with “why did I pick X skill”:
https://tos.neet.tv/skill-planner#314441aaa.1a244a5165.1f314f546575.2a3f4f75
Archer C2:
Multi Shot: Decent damage (10-13k crits per hit + crit attribute)
Full Draw: 4 (fast charging)
Oblique Shot: 1 (not really needed)
Swift Step: 10 (max buff duration)
Heavy Shot: 5 (damage w/ 50% against plate is good)(edited)
Kneeling Shot: 0 (mount)
Ranger C3:
Barrage: 15 (damage)
High Anchoring: 0 (bad skill, bad aoe, bad damage, debuff can be worth for bosses though but takes time to charge)
Critical Shot: 1 (guaranteed 30k crits, good filler for some stuff)
Steady Aim: 15 (max damage)
Time Bomb Arrow: 4 (damage)
Bounce Shot: 5 (damage + n of targets)
Spiral Arrow: 6* (gem, damage)
SR C3:
Concentrated Fire: 0 (hard to use, low damage)
Caracole: 11* (gem, max damage, need to test differences with higher AoE ratio)
Limacon: 15 (max damage, max duration)
Retreat Shot: 15 (max damage, max number of target)
Wild Shot: 0 (read Concentrated Fire)
Evasive Action: 0 (bad skill)
Marching Fire: 5 (max damage, max number of target)
Edit:
Since a lot of people have been confusing my Siauliai video showing attack speed and thinking it was a damage test or clear time I’ve decided to post proper gameplay clear times (still not optimized, I can manage Glass Mole cooldown better for doing it faster).
If you’re going to compare builds focused on only using Limacon then you’re talking about Appraiser/Rogue to maximize crits/gun damage for only Limacon.
If you’re going to compare SR variants that takes into consideration all skills you have for AoE and burst damage these two videos should be the ones you should have be comparing with.
Limacon isn’t everything in the class nor the character is SR 3 alone.
Gray Golem boss:
Three last bosses:
Again, for the last three bosses it could be optimized more to save Glass Mole cooldown for the Woodspirit.
Edit:
Just a note, if your ping is good you might want to try higher DEX values for attack speed depending on what you plan to do with the character, Monstrance is a great tool for checking higher DEX without messing up stats.