Post by Shapey on Apr 8, 2023 19:46:35 GMT -5
Hello Champions! Today I bring you another Archetype review, this time delving into Archery with the Marksman! Heroes with a bow often show amazing precision and dexterity, making shots on the move and dodging things on the fly, but did that translate to the Marksman? Let's find out.
The Marksman comes as follows;
Super Stats
○ Dexterity (Primary, Level 6)
○ Intelligence (Level 10)
○ Ego (Level 15)
○ The Marksman Innate Trait (+10 Dex/Int/Ego, +8 End)
Powers
Energy Builder: Strafe (Innate)
Power 2: Straight Shot (Innate)
Power 3: Sonic Arrow or Desperate Shot (Level 6)
Power 4: Quarry (Level 8)
Power 5: Torrent of Arrows (Level 11)
Power 6: Precision (Level 14)
Power 7: Rapid Shots (Level 17)
Power 8: Parry (Level 21)
Power 9: Hunter's Instinct (Level 25)
Power 10: Storm of Arrows or Gas Arrow (Level 30)
Power 11: Evasive Maneuvers or Fair Game (Level 35)
Power 12: Explosive Arrow or Focused Shot (Level 40)
Specializations
○ Dexterity (Level 10)
○ Avenger (Level 20)
○ Guardian (Level 30)
○ Dexterity (Primary, Level 6)
○ Intelligence (Level 10)
○ Ego (Level 15)
○ The Marksman Innate Trait (+10 Dex/Int/Ego, +8 End)
Powers
Energy Builder: Strafe (Innate)
Power 2: Straight Shot (Innate)
Power 3: Sonic Arrow or Desperate Shot (Level 6)
Power 4: Quarry (Level 8)
Power 5: Torrent of Arrows (Level 11)
Power 6: Precision (Level 14)
Power 7: Rapid Shots (Level 17)
Power 8: Parry (Level 21)
Power 9: Hunter's Instinct (Level 25)
Power 10: Storm of Arrows or Gas Arrow (Level 30)
Power 11: Evasive Maneuvers or Fair Game (Level 35)
Power 12: Explosive Arrow or Focused Shot (Level 40)
Specializations
○ Dexterity (Level 10)
○ Avenger (Level 20)
○ Guardian (Level 30)
Shots and arrows all around, you definitely won't have a hard time identifying that you're an archer. Interestingly there's not a lot of choices to make until you're at the last 10 levels, but let's dive in to what each of these powers means for the Marksman.
Strafe is your energy builder. Basic stuff, not much worth noting.
Straight Shot is your Blast. Single target piercing damage charge that has a chance (guaranteed on full charge) to Root the target. There isn't a lot that takes advantage of having a Blast in this set, but the classification is important for how Marksman plays at max level. If nothing else, this power serves as a de/buff applicator.
Sonic Arrow or Desperate Shot is your first choice. Sonic Arrow is a crowd control effect, a stun when not fully charged, a paralyze when fully charged, affecting a small sphere of targets, dealing Sonic damage as well. As previously established, being a Damage role causes crowd control effects to be diminished, so it'd likely result in only a second of breathing room. Desperate Shot is a single target piercing damage tap power, dealing double damage on critical strikes, and an additional double on targets with 50% or less HP, as well as stunning them briefly. All these benefits make up for the fact it's a lengthy wind up, taking a whole 1.67 seconds to come out, during which you're rooted. It also is host to the exclusive Frail Armor debuff, so this makes the choice easier.
Quarry is your Passive. It increases Physical damage by a percentage and non-Physical damage by half that, as well as granting you increased Dodge, and the unique buff Audacity whenever you use a non-energy builder attack. Audacity grants you additional Avoidance, Ego, and Intelligence for 15 seconds, stacking up to 3 times. While the Marksman doesn't have to worry about it, interestingly enough, you gain significantly more Ego and Intelligence if those two are super-stats, but not having one or the other heavily decreases how much you receive.
Torrent of Arrows is your built-in AoE. A 30ft charged cone piercing damage aoe with a 100ft range, complete with a chance (guarantee on full charge) to knock down all affected targets. A pretty good aoe, though it has a hefty energy cost and needs proper positioning. With advantages, it can even apply Armor Piercing, one of your main debuffs.
Precision is your toggle form. Gives a stacking buff that increases your damage by a percentage every time you score a critical strike with an Archery power. Lasts 20 seconds, new stacks refresh it and gives energy, can only gain a stack every 4 seconds, and stacks up to 8. The damage buff and energy you gain from every stack scales with your Intelligence.
Rapid Shots is your main single target damage. A straight-forward power, you hold the button, it deals piercing damage, the best damage you'll consistent get from Marksman. Though it's mobile innately, you'll likely want to get the Concentrated Shots advantage as it'll feel a lot weaker otherwise.
Parry is your block upgrade. It increases the amount of damage mitigated by your block, increasing per rank, and also causes you to reflects a portion of the first attack dealt to you within the first 2 seconds of holding block. The reflect portion of the power can only be activated every 5 seconds.
Hunter's Instinct is your energy unlock. This grants you a buff every time you score a critical strike with an Archery power that gives you energy every 3 seconds for 6 seconds. Any extra critical strikes during the buff will refresh the duration, but energy will only be generated every 3 seconds. The amount of energy scales with your Intelligence.
Storm of Arrows or Gas Arrow is your second choice. Storm of Arrows is another aoe option, working as a 15ft sphere maintain of piercing damage around your main target. In terms of usability, this is the better aoe between this and Torrent of Arrows with some ok advantages, but Gas Arrow is the only damage-over-time the Marksman has access to. Gas Arrow is a tap power that leaves a gas cloud at your target, dealing Toxic damage to up to 5 targets within the cloud. The cloud lingers for 12 seconds. While there's no particularly useful advantage to this, it is also the only DoT you get. To not take it would sacrifice a chunk of DPS.
Evasive Maneuvers or Fair Game is your third choice. Evasive Maneuvers is a tap that launches you back a short distance from your target and increases your dodge for 6 seconds. Fair Game grants you a buff that causes killing blows on enemies to recover your HP. The choice here is essentially whether you're going to play mostly by yourself or with others, as Evasive Maneuvers is your only access to a Threat Wipe via advantage, while if you're playing primarily by yourself, Fair Game can sustain you if you're defeating targets quick and consistently.
Explosive Arrow or Focused Shot is your final choice. Explosive Arrow is a charge power that deals Fire damage, or Piercing and Fire (or all Crushing) in a 10ft sphere and has a chance to knock all targets upward, increasing based on charge. Focused Shot is a long charge power that deals high piercing damage, but needs to be fully charged and is interrupted by damage. Successful shots grant you a buff that lasts 10 seconds, stacks 3 times, and refreshes on new stacks, decreasing the charge time required for subsequent Focused Shots. The buff is dropped when you take damage. Neither of these are particularly desirable powers, Explosive Arrow's damage type making it weak due to your passive and low AoE range, while any random AoE thrown out by enemies or DoTs will interrupt and remove the buff of Focused Shot, even if it's tiny damage. Focused can at least serve as a decent opening attack due to extremely high range, but most likely won't be a regular part of the rotation.
The main damage here is Piercing, but this kit likes to dip into a lot of different damage types. Despite this, you don't have any debuffs aside from Piercing and Crushing. Personally, I think the weirdest thing of this archetype is how many buttons it has in contrast to how much damage it actually does. That being said, how would I build the Marksman?
Talents
Take all your superstat talents. (Dex/Int/Ego)
Powers
Energy Builder: Strafe
Power 2: Straight Shot (Rank 2, Split the Arrow, USB Arrow)
Power 3: Desperate Shot (Frail Armor, Stim Pack)
Power 4: Quarry (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 5: Torrent of Arrows (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 6: Precision
Power 7: Rapid Shots (Rank 2, Concentrated Shots, Accelerated Metabolism)
Power 8: Parry (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 9: Hunter's Instinct
Power 10: Gas Arrow (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 11: Evasive Maneuvers (Sleight of Mind)
Power 12: Focused Shot (Rank 2)
Energy Builder: Strafe
Power 2: Straight Shot (Rank 2, Split the Arrow, USB Arrow)
Power 3: Desperate Shot (Frail Armor, Stim Pack)
Power 4: Quarry (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 5: Torrent of Arrows (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 6: Precision
Power 7: Rapid Shots (Rank 2, Concentrated Shots, Accelerated Metabolism)
Power 8: Parry (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 9: Hunter's Instinct
Power 10: Gas Arrow (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 11: Evasive Maneuvers (Sleight of Mind)
Power 12: Focused Shot (Rank 2)
Specializations
Dexterity
○ Gear Utilization (3/3)
○ Power Swell (2/2)
○ Deadly Aim (3/3)
○ Expose Weakness (2/2)
Avenger
○ Ruthless (2/2)
○ Round 'em Up (3/3)
○ Surprise Attack (2/2)
○ Relentless Assault (3/3)
Guardian
○ Fortified Gear (3/3)
○ Ruthless (2/2)
○ Find the Mark (3/3)
○ The Best Defense (2/3)
Avenger Mastery
Travel Power
Any. Athletics tends to work well for the archer themes. Make sure to rank one up to 3.
Gear
Starting
○ Critical Severity Primary Offense with Intelligence mods and a Gambler's Lucky Gem
○ Greater Health Primary Defense with Intelligence mods and a Growth Amulet
○ Efficiency Primary Utility with Intelligence mods and a Gambler's Lucky Gem
○ Ego/Dex Secondaries (Clever)
Ending
○ Distinguished Offense Gloves with Intelligence mods, a Gambler's Lucky Gem, and a Soviet Guard's Resolution
○ Distinguished Freedom Armor with Intelligence mods, a Growth Amulet, and an Impact Prism
○ Distinguished Efficiency Helm with Intelligence mods, a Pinpoint Precision, and any other mod.
○ Critical Belt of Determination with a Dex/Int mod
○ Onslaught Fitness Tights with a Dex/Int mod (Bolstering Determination works as well)
○ Bolstering Eyepiece of Determination with a Dex/Ego mod (or pure Dex)
Gameplan
For single target engagements, you can open with a Focused Shot, then Gas Arrow, Desperation Shot, full charged Straight Shot, then fully maintain Rapid Shots. This should trigger Avenger Mastery, so fully charge Straight Shot after the full maintain, then do another full maintain of Rapid Shots, fully charge Straight Shot, then use Gas Arrow and Desperation Shot, repeat the full maintain Rapid, full charge Straight, full maintain Rapid, full charge Straight, repeat from Gas Arrow. In AoE situations, position yourself for Torrent of Arrows to hit as many targets as you can and leave a Gas Arrow cloud in any mob-dense areas where they won't move much. In either situation, use Evasive Maneuvers to wipe threat if you start getting damaged too much, Desperation Shot should help sustain you a bit.
Other Notes
The timing with Desperation Shot to keep up Frail Armor can be finicky, you may miss the re-application even with Straight Shot as a buffer in between. You can wait about 1 second before using Desperation Shot to make sure it goes back on after your second Straight Shot if you're uncertain.
Overall, my opinion of the Marksman is that it's a bit disappointing in the damage department. There are things that'd help it, like having Intelligence primary and less wasteful power choices (having Snap Shot would make it a lot easier), but it is what it is with what it has. There are better Archetypes, but if you want to try an archer-themed hero, here it is.
As before and always, thank you for reading.