5/4/2015 EDIT: AS OF DRAGONSLAYER DLC, ZITHER! IS NOW PREFERABLE TO DOOGIE HOWSER FOR THIS TEAM BUILD. GET ALL MANA REGENERATION-RELATED PASSIVES, ALL BARRIER-RELATED PASSIVES, AND USE BARRIER, TEAM ATTACK SPEED BONUS, TEAM RUNSPEED BONUS, AND, WHEN NECESSARY, TEAM HOK/HOH BONUS. NEGLECT THE UGLY KEEPER!
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PROFIT!!!
Special thanks to IxxaPlays for the awesome Doogie Howser photoshop.
This team build uses a keeper and three archers. It is designed to take into consideration level-by-level ability selection, as its purpose is to get lots of promotions fast, and most importantly, it is designed for minimal effort. It is recommended that people do not solely play keeper, but switch up to archer occasionally, because cunning is a stronger attribute than willpower. This build relies upon the use of a cheesy exploit at wave 5 to be at level 9 or above which won't be described here but which is known by most perilous players now.
Please understand, I do not claim to have come up with either of the builds used here, and anyway I have seen pugs dominate using the same or similar builds and teams during the first few weeks of the game coming out. Simply put, this guide just gets a little in-depth about a common sense all-ranged build and team combo which sure fits the motto of minimal effort for maximum gain. Imo this build is even easier than arcane warrior stacking, so I find it to be too cheesy to use. But my rationale for posting this is to make the game even more trivialized in hopes that bioware will eventually take their game seriously and fix it. Biower, pls, have your employees stack archers like described in this guide and tell me the game is still fun. Until biower does something right, follow this guide if you want to really trivialize perilous and rack up your cunning.
Keeper will obtain abilities in this order:
Barrier upgrade, beeline for upgraded static cage by level 9, knight protector, strength of spirits, guardian spirit, chain lightning upgrade, clean burn, fade cloak (OR fade step if your team moves fast), mana surge, reinforced barrier, straight down second tree until promotion time. Knight protector may be obtained before the upgrade for static cage if desired to have stronger Barrier at level 9. If you want very fast ability cool-down at the expense of some important first tree abilities, you can beeline for gathering storm at the second tree early. However, i f you do so, I highly recommend only doing it AFTER obtaining knight protector as described above before going for gathering storm, and if you skip enough abilities you could grab it by about level 12-15, but I leave this up to you.
Keeper ideal equipment:
Ugliest armor to go wih Doogie Howser sexytime face
Fury of the veil staff
Hp belt
Cooldown amulet
Static cage ring, but don't get two they don't stack (Extremely important. Extremely. U need it, if don't have, left someone else play Doogie)
Heal on kill ring. If they ever fix barrier ring, that could be very good substitute.
Keeper strategy:
1. In between combat, your team should run with you leading the way or at least with the three archers waiting ahead of you when it is time to Barrier the team. Exit combat a few seconds before the rest of the team finishes the last mobs to begin walking that long and winding Chateau road you've been down so many times before. This will let you be ahead of them and they will see you do the Barrier prep animation and gather around properly to let you Barrier the team with minimal wait time, preferably with them continuing running and you not missing Barrier on them. Alternatively, the archers can lead, engage the enemies, and you Barrier them before they take damage, at the expense of not having full or near full mana when you engage the enemy (for static cage+chain lightning combo). After Barriering the team, follow the archers as they walk to an open area at which to stand and fight the next group of enemies. Try to stand still and move around as little as possible to maximize Winter Stillness, but make sure you move forward to the archers as they continue walking forward killing things so that you can Barrier them on time. Your rejuvenating barrier helps their stamina despite the lazily written description. Never forget: You are a Barrier bot.
2. Do your best Doogie Howser impression and yell at the team if they don't all gather for Barrier, don't stay in the area you are Barriering during a fight where there is still risk of taking damage, don't return to the Barrier area after using leaping shot when there is still risk of taking damage, aren't standing between you and enemies when your Barrier is much lower than theirs, or, most importantly, if they don't fire at high priority targets within static cage.
3. Static cage the enemies to give the team a large damage and cool-down benefit, AND PRIORITIZE THE BOSS, followed by high risk enemies, followed by the largest number of enemies. Try to position it between your team and the enemies if they are running towards you. Enemies immune to the pullback effect can still have static cage cast on them for boosting team damage but make sure you cast it such that it will affect them where they plan on running to (usually your team). Invisible assassins, especially templar ones, should have highest priority for static cage. Most of the time you will be using Barrier and Static cage, and must always have mana available for them, with Barrier always having priority with a very few circumstantial exceptions.
4. Fade cloak to avoid or remove debilitating effects such that you can get back to spamming Barrier on the team, and to ensure you stay safe when your Barrier is just about to end but you have Barrier still on cool-down (Only cast Barrier on yourself after fade cloak ends, or it just won't apply to you). When fighting the demon commander, it is best to save it for after you are hit by the fear attack, so that you can Barrier your team up asap. If using fade step instead, use it frequently to move yourself forward on the map, and you can more quickly cancel the fade step animation with basic attacks. Fade step can also be used to dodge some attacks such as avoiding demon commander scream, walking through red templar commander whirlwind, etc., but naturally requires use before being affected by debilitating effects whereas fade cloak can be used after such.
5. Chain lightning can be used for the lulz, and should ideally be used on mobs within the static cage in order to double the damage and sometimes trigger the static cage paralyze. It is a good split-second aoe stagger. It and fade cloak can also be wasted for proccing Clean Burn if you really have an excess of mana, but again, Barrier and static cage have priority.
6. At wave 5, everyone gather at a corner in the room, such that enemies will walk to the door and line up for your firing squad's volleys. You plant the flag at wave 5 because you have the highest survivability. Barrier after planting and run back to the archers to Barrier spam them and static cage enemies where they show up at the door. The archers just longshot everything to death and if any enemies or the boss gets close they will die very fast to the mark of death and leaping shot spam from archers that are backed up against the wall.
7. ALTERNATIVE WAVE 5 STRATEGY: If it is desired to maximize xp on wave 5, one archer will have to kite the boss around and run back to the team at the corner to grab Barrier every now and then. Someone should have spirit tonic for demon commander and fire tonic for venatori commander if such is desired. If kiting the templar commander, don't damage him, because he uses special abilities as his HP goes down.
Archer skills:
Upgraded longshot, beeline for opportunity knocks, second tree beeline for dance of death by level 10, looked like it hurt, leaping shot without upgrade, beeline for And take them down, beeline for mark of death without upgrade, pincushion, throatcutter, leaping shot or explosive shot upgrade or whatever, promote. If wanting higher DPS for self instead of team, beeline for Gaps in the armor before And take them down. If better boss damage is desired at the expense of team crits, mark of death and pincushion can be gotten before explosive shot upgrade and/or before And take them down. If leaping shot is used often, the upgrade may be gotten if it is desired to have the 200% weapon damage (up to 600% with three griffon bow arrows) and knockdown effect on next basic attack. Unlikely, but if you find yourself using explosive shot a lot on grouped up enemies, it might be worth getting the upgrade as your last or second to last ability.
Archer ideal equipment:
Griffon bow, or alternatively (but jmo a bit worse) punched by the maker which will help the team cooldown a lot, or bow of cruel redemption (level 22 blue). All three work and I won't really argue one way or another, use whichever suits you. Use lightning rune, it helps mobs go to sleep so sleepy you so sleepy.
Hp belt
Cooldown or stamina amulet
Longshot ring, don't use two at once it won't stack.
Heal on kill ring if you think you could benefit from self-healing, crit damage if you have very high crit chance, or crit chance if you want more crit, but all three are great or just use whatever you have. You can replace longshot ring with one of these if you don't have it or your crit chance is high enough and you like to spam leaping shot and explosive shot a lot in addition to longshot.
Archer strategy:
1. Follow Doogie Howser in between fights so that he can prepare Barrier and cast it on you and the other archers with minimal wait time. Always get Barrier from her before attacking the next group if only for the stamina regeneration. After receiving Barrier, walk with the other archers to a location where you all will be able to see and be seen by most if not all of the enemies or will attract enemies to the firing squad. It is good to position yourself in front of a wall if planning on spamming leaping shot, i.e. walk through door, move left to have wall behind you, then attack. As you fight, continue to walk forward while firing in order to reach more enemies and/or to continue along the corridor, while the Keeper will follow you guys in time to Barrier you. Don't run ahead of the keeper too far during combat, and if you know there is an assassin (especially templar ones) that will try to gank the keeper, make sure the keeper knows or there is at least one archer staying near her listening for and watching out for the assassin with explosive shot or other ability.
2. Longshot enemies, FOCUS YOUR ATTACKS ON ENEMIES IN THE STATIC CAGE. Might not be the ability to use if enemies are close in, in which case spamming leaping shot and/or explosive shot may be preferable. Alternate with Explosive shot if longshot is off cool-down, you have spare stamina, and it will not interfere with using longshot.
3. Leaping shot enemies at close-range but if using without a wall behind you make sure you time it such that you don't miss any Barriers unless you are sure you don't need it, and get back to the team for Barrier if necessary. It can reduce cool-down and increase stamina very fast but if it causes you to move backward and possibly miss barrier then just avoid using it unnecessarily. Great damage on enemies within static cage if most of the arrows hit.
3. Explosive shot enemies getting too close and which need to be stunned. Namely assassins. Useful whenever you aren't getting enough crits to spam longshot. It is also good for building up stamina and reducing cool-down. If you find yourself spamming explosive shot a lot, it may be worthwhile to upgrade it. If upgraded and used often, make sure it doesn't interfere with longshot.
4. Mark of death the boss, giants, and other high HP enemies. If for some reason you have to solo a mob, use it on the mob, take down at least 50% of his current hp, and press the mark of death button again to kill the critter.
5. Stand in front of the keeper if you see her Barrier going down much faster than yours. Hide behind other teammates if your Barrier is much lower than theirs. The keeper cannot spare to move around too much because she must maximize Winter Stillness.
6. Mighty tonic vs boss if you want lulz.
7. Read strategies for keeper points 6 and 7 above for wave 5 strategy if you haven't already.
Go forth and be cheesy.
And biower, pls. Your game suffers from an increasingly huge favoritism for ranged classes, with the exception of the arcane warrior. Right now there are so many melee enemies and enemies that proc special abilities when players are nearby or at medium range, such as enemy archers doing their one hit kill headshots, so why even play melee and suffer significantly less survivability (legionnaire the only exception out of 6 melee classes)? Melees are rarely played on higher difficulties and become useless with enough ranged damage. As time goes on, more and more people will realize that all they need to do is stack archers, and if desired throw in an arcane warrior tank or keeper or elementalist barrier bot to make the firing squad near immortal, and just press two buttons, "w" and "1", in order to beat the game. For this game, I rank imbalance as the second-most fun-reducing factor after the dumb loot system. So fix ur game and bring back the damn challenge.
Edit: This is a very important macro if you want to be lazy on PC and don't have a gamepad. It will allow you to toggle right mouse button hold. I usually hover the mouse directly over my head before toggling, and never deviate from such, because dropping AoE's can become based upon memory muscle and lets you drop AoE's extremely fast. Sometimes you will suffer inaccuracy but imo it is well-worth not getting arthritis because bioware doesn't know how to make games.
http://forum.bioware...t-for-pc-users/
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the guide is now complete.
