[RC1] Bob III the rapid-shot skeleton archer (winner)

[lukep]

Character Dump

A very simple character, a normal battle was just me shooting away until the enemy died, sometimes with a disable or two thrown in. This character was very durable, had fairly good damage, and some mobility options.

TL;DR version: Slow Motion is amazing. I used saves, not immunities. Passive regen is good, as is Light. Lots of mobility, mostly unused. Rapid Shot, not Aim for more DPS. Temporal Form gives ~+50% damage.

For defense and survivability, I had high armour, multiple shields, decent mobility, decent disables, and enemies would often spend time dodging shots instead of attacking. Slow Motion was also very, very useful, making Corruptors and archers practically impotent.

For healing and status effects, I had good passive healing, the Light and Skeleton trees, and quite good saves. Resilient bones combined with the saves were usually enough to make effects either not apply, or else be short enough to not matter, but I also had Providence to help. Getting ~10 HP regen is very useful for skeletons, as it allows you to heal while you are shielded, without using a turn. Notably, I never had significant stun or confusion resists, and didn't really miss them.

For mobility, I used my starting PD rune through the entire game, no other one could match the 7 cooldown, and 10 range is enough. I also used Wanderer's Rest for the movement speed and TK leap ability, and had another CPD rune.

For damage, I mostly used normal attacks and some crowd control. Rapid Shot really helped here, I was doing 99% the damage (not counting crits) per hit, but it was taking about 2/3 the time. This gave me quite high DPS, and I could usually kill enemies before they could reach me.

For Prodigies, I chose Temporal Form (after spamming spells to qualify) for the damage-type diversity, increased all damage, and the AoE effect for Dreads (etc). At the last fight, I took Irresistable Sun for more damage that didn't depend on Accuracy. I was thinking of getting Roll With It, but never qualified.

Resource management was fairly easy, as a 30 capacity quiver is usually enough for a fight, and my stamina pool could hold up as well (along with Relaxed Shot). I got Unending Frenzy late so that I could run from fight to fight faster while using Steady Shot. There were a few times that I ran out of ammo, but reloading is quick, so it wasn't much of a problem.

If I was doing it over again, I would have unlocked the combat techniques tree, and maxed precise strikes, mostly for the crit rate. The +30% it would have gives would have boosted my damage per shot to nearly the same as with Aim, while still being much faster, and Perfect Strikes would have helped against Dreads (etc).

[jenx]

Congrats. Personally, I find archers not very exciting to play.

But they are satisfying to run after being nuked as a brawler, paradox mage, arcane blade fifty times in a row...