Need BOWchantress info!

[JMDylan]

I have been playing a paladin from 40-45 with thoth. Want to try something new. Looking to go into Bowchantress. Here are my questions.

Will I do more dps than a Paladin?

What should my Attributes look like?

Any gear you recommend?

Ps: Was looking into buying thoth helm/armor and dex dps bow? Thoughts?


Thank you, Dylan.

[Skwerl]

well im not the professional on this, violent saint knows a lot more.
however i can try to give insight from what i have seen.

Bowchantress will do a lot more dps. no doubt about it, bows are insane. or even daggers wtih dex shields.
how you want to go is up to you.

if there isnt dex thoth gear, id go something like
150dex 120int.
(whatever the highest dex gear requires)
but you could do something more like
180 dex. 90 int.
if there is thoth gear, you might wanna go
180 dex 90 str

id personally do like 145 dex (whatever max is)
and then rest str.

i know they say str isnt that good, but you could get better armor that way.
maybe
127 str, (wear lvl 40 thoth gear)
and then 127(rest of points) in dex.
then wear the strongest bow you can.

truth is it really depends on you.
and im not the pro here.

[JMDylan]

Yeah, If I go pure Dex will I just get owned because of such low HP?

[Skwerl]

if the game works like most mmo's
then high dex has a negative, or rather its a waist.
yea dex = .5 hit.
but 150% hit is more than enough.
if your mobs are your lvl than you have like an = hit ratio (100=100)
but every level higher its a loss
(110=100) or (120=100) per lvl (get it?)
so having 150% hit is good if the mobs are like 5 lvls higher than you.
but a waist if everything is your lvl

as for str. it gives health, and damage protection...
and harder hits, so greater str means your dps is higher, but dex adds a lot of dps, as hit>dmg (to a degree)

ive never seen in depth scales on this game, and i wish some rich scrupulous person would do them lol

[Skwerl]

yes i have a bird, and he is pure dex, and leather armor doesnt have high health protection.
my 22 palli seems way more stabe than my 33 archer.
and i rarely ever use pots on my pali, but i pot all the time on the archer.

but on the bright side his dps is INSANE.
truthfully find a lvl 45 bird, and see what his stats are.
(if he has a bow)
find a couple, youll get a very very good insight to it.

[Skwerl]

lvl 35/40 str armor is probably really good still at lvl 45, and then a 45 auto-crossbow is probably really bad ***.
so check out if you can make 127 str, and then see what is left.
im assuming 135 dex...
see what pinnk bows are in that range...

[JMDylan]

This is a lot of good info. There are a lot of ways I could take this.

[Skwerl]

yea like i said im not the pro, im glad that you took the time to take this in.
the game is really how you want it. not just what everyone says to do. some pallis are 147 str, and 118 int, or 113 dex
my favorite way to learn is go to town, where there are like 40 dudes, and check out the high lvl characters, see what they are geared for.
if you need to know what there weapn or armor does, compare your gear to theirs, and see how different it is (click them and then click give, then choose an item. if your give item says -4 str) then there item has 4 more strength.
use screen shots to make it fast and then study on your own any time (home plus power buttons simultaneously)

[JMDylan]

Okay I am going to check things out and try and find some possibly builds and gear.

[Inching]

Point is u will get owned regardless of spec except for pallies in this game. It's armor dependent right now until the update of which I doubt it will change much. 200 hp regardless of ur dps ur dead. PvP ur also dead. Try to spec to wear the best armor possible and compromise starting there is wha I would do.

Currently I use pure Mage with 100% points in INT. Yes I die every 2 mins but it's fun for me as I like to use magic and not melée. Spec to how you will have fun and how playable it will be to you.

[Violentsaint]

put 142 points in dex (im pretty sure thats what you need to equip blaster)

put the rest in int and wear full dex thoth gear for high int and m/s

put point in debuffs, buffs, distance spells such as life drain and ice bullet. and aoe spells like fire, lighting and frost storm.

oh and deffinity make sure u put 5 points in mana sheild and heal, and atleast one point in rez

EDIT: ive seriously considered a bowchantress for a long time, but decided to make a pure archer instead

[jonboy]

I ran bowtress till lvl 40 and have now gone int/dex, not much to add to violentsaint's specs, I ran a few different skills, but meh it is personal preference once the key skills are at 5
learn to kite, get familiar with the range of your AOE's, gear is the key to survivability, otherwise it is a gold sink on mana pots.

[KingFu]

I was a bowtress for some time and I prefer bowtress at level 30-40 and then switch to paladin. I didn't like bowtress all that much after AO1 came out, since I could use Thoth. Also, the gear is so messed up that Str gear is cheaper ATM over the other classes, Talons are either 300K or use a green drop, or, you can farm FOREVER and hope one drops. Wands, forget about it lol, so impossible, I saw someone in town asking for D'Jinn wand for 1 million gold! So basically, if your dex, bow or not-so-great talon, as int, staff or mojo wand and eye. I prefer str not because of the prices, but because of the health also. With a dex base, you don't have very much health compared to str.

In my opinion, pally is a lot more fun then bowtress, more str, cooler gear (in my opinion) and you may have a LITTLE less DPS as pally, but you have more health, more damage, and more H/S and M/S.

Hope I helped! :D

[jonboy]

All excellent points Mystical. Interesting that you swapped builds at lvl 40 as well.

[JMDylan]

Okay so I decided to just have some fun and try out a spec. My process was to get 142 dex, get 11 int for the 1m/s, then dump 40 points into Str for some extra health and then put the rest into Dex.

My current gear setup is Thoth helm/armor with scarab dex bow. This works very well, as a ranged DPS I find my self not using as much mana as my paladin build. So the two pieces of Thoth seem to be sufficient enough. Also in PVP/hardcore PVE I can easily swap to my dex helm and armor to increase my overall dps while popping mana potions to replace the m/s I got from my Thoth gear.

Overall I would have to say this spec is a ton of fun! I can see a huge difference in my upgraded gear and overall dps. The one thing that I find with a bowchantress that my paladin build lacked was high single target dps. In ao2 there is a lot of aoe going on, but with no high single target dps getting the healers down and the rest of the mobs takes ages unless you have a really single target focused group. As of now I can easily take down healers and help clear trash mobs more easily. Also playing with lower health and armor is a fun challenge for me. I use my spells in more of a defensive style, using the knock backs and freezes to get some range from my targets.

Thank you for all of the feedback and I will update you guys with anything new I find.

-Dylan

[Relis]

I played a Bowtress from lvl 30-40 and I enjoyed it but with such low health it was just not fun to pvp with. I play this game so I can pvp so I switched to the pally and I enjoy alot more in pvp.

[QQQ]

Note that you don't need the 142 to to actually wear the best gear, you can build your gear up so you can add a weapon that adds dex so you can add a helm so you can switch the weapon to a better one and then add a shield. of course if you remove the wrong item it all falls apart.

[asterik]

Im not to pro at this game but my lv 29 bowtress owns in pvp. The bow is much nicer cause i dont need mana to attack like with a wand. I just kite and debuff warriors so they like never really hit me. Archers i can out heal and they die and mages are a weaker version of me. To me it seems to be the best setup for pvp. Although im still sort of new to the game.