DevAAstator (30 AA / 9 Monk / 1 Wiz)

[Balduvard]

Some logs
Cania
Thanatos Part 3
Elysium

Suffice to say, if you aim to maximize the damage you do to achieve results like the above, you should be using the Play Guide for Arcane Archers in some capacity. The splashed Wizard level also allows this character an excellent party support role through the use of spell-casting rods and other consumables.

The design for this character draws heavily from ice's Defensive Strength Archer build, and in fact this character was using that build before I reincarnated it into what I have now. The goal of this was to push this class combination to its damage limit, picking up the power/superior critical feats and pushing the AB even higher, while keeping a decent amount of defense. Given the benefits and in some cases necessity of certain skills for survival (parry, discipline, concentration, tumble), I have increased the starting Intelligence to accommodate this, reducing the starting Wisdom in order to maintain a high dexterity for AB/AC.

That said, this character is extremely skill tight, as the only major skills that are class skills for Arcane Archers are Listen and Hide. In most cases, this means expending a 1st level feat in order to pick up LSA Tumble or Discipline at a later point. Devastating Critical focused AAs do not have such a critical requirement to take LSA Discipline due to their strength modifier. Even so, not having either of these skills (or many other key ones) as class skills drains a fair number of available skill points as characters must use the Able Learner ability of Elves to raise their ranks past 31. With the race and subrace decided, here's how the ability scores break down:

Elf - Erinyes
+6 Dex, +2 Con, +4 Wis, -2 Cha

Str: 16
Dex: 16 [22]
Con: 10 [12]
Int: 16
Wis: 8 [12]
Cha: 8 [6]

Feat Selection

For the feats, I focused on attaining most of the weapon related feats as well as pumping dexterity for AB. The remainder were chosen for defensive reasons.

Pre-Epic Feats (7):
Snake Blood
Power Attack
Great Cleave
GWF: Longbow
Improved Critical: Longbow
Power Critical: Longbow
Toughness

Epic Feats (7):
Armor Skin
ESF: Parry
Epic Fortitude
Epic Prowess
Overwhelming Critical: Longbow
Devastating Critical: Longbow
Superior Critical: Longbow

Arcane Archer Bonus Feats (5):
Great Dexterity 1-5

Legendary Feats (7):
Great Dexterity 6-10
LSA: Parry
LWF: Longbow

Skill Selection
Base Int modifier: 3
Monk: (4 + 3) * 4 + (4 + 3) * 8 = 84
Wizard: 2+3 = 5
Arcane Archer: (4 + 3) * 50 = 350
Total: 439

Class skills:
Listen - 63
Hide - 63
Parry - 63

Cross-class skills:
Concentration: 23 + 2*2 = 27 [25]
Discipline: 23 + 8*2 + 19*3 = 96 [50]
Tumble: 23 + 8*2 + 29 *3 = 126 [60]
=438

Summary

Ability Progression

Ability	Progression	Double Demi	w/ +14 gear|mod
Strength	16 + 10 Str = 26	30	44 | +17
Dexterity	22 + 10 Great Dex + 10 Dex = 42	46	60 | +25
Constitution	12	16	30 | +10
Intelligence	16	20	34 | +12
Wisdom	12 + 2 Artifact = 14	18	32 | +11
Charisma	6	10	24 | +7

Attack Bonus
Monk: 3/4 * 9 ~ 6
Wizard: 1/2 * 1 ~ 0
Arcane Archer 1 * 10 = 10
-----
BAB: 16
EBAB: 10
LBAB: 9
Ability: 25
WF: 1
GWF: 1
EWF: 2
EP: 1
LWF: 3
Arcane Archer: 15
Max AB: 20
=103

Armor Class (BUR and Artifact)
Base: 10
Armor: 15
Dexterity: 25
Wisdom: 11
Natural: 17
Dodge: 20
Deflect: 20
Tumble: 12
Other: 2
Monk: 1
=133

Saving Throws
Monk: Fortitude, Reflex, Will
Wizard: Will
Arcane Archer: Fortitude, Reflex

Ability	Pre-Epic	Epic	Legendary	Epic Fortitude	Ability	Equipment	Total
Fortitude	6 + 0 + 7	10	5	4	10	20	62
Reflex	6 + 0 + 7	10	5	0	25	20	74
Will	6 + 2 + 3	10	5	0	11	20 + 4	61

Equipment

From the above, you can see that this build relies on equipment to give you Epic Will (currently in the form of Robes of the Dim Mak Master). Rounding out the remainder of the gear is any combination of the following depending on what immunities need to be covered and what gear is available. My ego item is currently on a rare ring.

Helmet: Visor of Vigilance
Boots: Clockwork Boots/Cloven Hooves of the Goat/Mordenkainen's Mockery
Cloak: Titan's Wrap/Wrap of the Dark Prince
Gauntlets: Chaotic Devotion/Gauntlets of Transposed Energy/Reaching for Damnation/Claws of the Obyrith Lord
Amulet: Divine Intervention/Ygrette's Evanescent Locket/Heavenly Haunt's Necklace
Belt: The Serpent's Coil/Coil of Grabduk

In addition, I make use of the Chameleon's Jewel, Silks of the Iridescent, To Reign in Hell, and various spellcasting augments (L40 Freedom of Movement, L40 Death Ward, L55 Energy Buffer) to provide some defensive benefits should I not have them available otherwise.

Level Progression
1 Monk
- Snake Blood

2 Monk

3 Monk
- Power Attack

4 Monk (Strength +1)

5 Monk

6 Monk
- Great Cleave

7 Monk

8 Monk (Strength +1)

9 Wizard
- Greater Weapon Focus (longbow)

10 Arcane Archer

11 Arcane Archer

12 Arcane Archer (Strength +1)
- Improved Critical (longbow)

13 Arcane Archer

14 Arcane Archer

15 Arcane Archer
- Power Critical (longbow)

16 Arcane Archer (Strength +1)

17 Arcane Archer

18 Arcane Archer
- Toughness

19 Arcane Archer

20 Monk (Strength +1)
Concentration +23, Discipline +23, Parry +23, Tumble +23

21 Arcane Archer
- Armor Skin

22 Arcane Archer

23 Arcane Archer

24 Arcane Archer (Strength +1)
- Epic Fortitude
- Great Dexterity I

25 Arcane Archer

26 Arcane Archer

27 Arcane Archer
- Epic Skill Focus (Parry)

28 Arcane Archer (Strength +1)
- Overwhelming Critical (longbow)

29 Arcane Archer

30 Arcane Archer
- Great Dexterity II

31 Arcane Archer

32 Arcane Archer (Strength +1)
- Great Dexterity III

33 Arcane Archer
- Epic Prowess

34 Arcane Archer

35 Arcane Archer

36 Arcane Archer (Strength +1)
- Devastating Critical (longbow)
- Great Dexterity IV

37 Arcane Archer

38 Arcane Archer

39 Arcane Archer
- Superior Critical (longbow)

40 Arcane Archer (Strength +1)
Listen +43
- Great Dexterity V

Feats not associated with any level:
Great Dexterity IX
Great Dexterity VI
Great Dexterity VII
Great Dexterity VIII
Great Dexterity X
Legendary Skill Affinity (Parry)
Legendary Weapon Focus (longbow)

Artifact: Wisdom
Pandect: Sneak Attack

[Vichya]

I think your starting stats are wrong. You listed wisdom as 12 (+4 from Erinyes) but from both the screenshot and the progression table it looks like you started with 8 (+4 from Erinyes).

Your screenshot shows strength at 43 instead of 44 which however is no problem since the damage bonus of AA bows is capped at +16 anyway and you're still immune to Pit Fiend and Marilith KD checks.

[CataclysmicDeath]

Hmm !list ab command is showing your ab at 109, but your logs in the pic show max of 107, nothing to do with the build itse;f but it would seem the !list ab command is showing the incorrect ab now?

Cata

[Balduvard]

Jan 2, 2011 10:41:05 GMT Vichya said:

You listed wisdom as 12 (+4 from Erinyes) but from both the screenshot and the progression table it looks like you started with 8 (+4 from Erinyes).

Fixed; was 12 in the previous iteration I copied this from.

Jan 2, 2011 15:12:17 GMT CataclysmicDeath said:

Hmm !list ab command is showing your ab at 109, but your logs in the pic show max of 107

Active combat modes are not shown in !list ab; Rapid Shot applies a -2 AB penalty.

[CataclysmicDeath]

Oh yeah forgot about that heh.

Cata

[MightyKhan]

this is really similar to my own AA. I can therefore definitely recommend this build.

it is also very doable with kolyarut, if you don't have erinyes. in fact, perhaps you might even save one or two feats? no strider though.

[maljin]

Thanks for sharing. I just started a stargazer version of that build in -HC- (softcore actually since I think it will make a nice build even in normal mode). I managed to fit in epic dodge for some extra defense but it obviously came out with lower ab and ac; saves will cap just below 60 because your build includes demi good stat boni and +14 gear.

One question though: Why did you pick esf: parry and not disc? I presume disc is less important for an AA but parry can hit 127 even without the esf while disc doesn't (since you stop at 50 ranks and str mod isn't as high as dex mod). Granted hitting 127 parry requires some really decent gear but from a glance on your gear suggestions I think you've got quite a few pieces with parry. Wouldn't esf: disc be a wiser choice?

fyi with stargazer I got 14+4 int so I could max disc and parry as well as putting some points into craft weapon to make up for the (for AA standards) low ab of 96. But I'm thinking if I could drop lsa: parry, drop disc back to 50 or 45 ranks (no esf though) so I could max parry via able learner as well and pick up hardened soul and leg hardened soul instead of epic fort and will, so my saves would be just slightly better (at the cost of lower disc of course).

edit: and might I ask where all that physical damage on your arrows comes from? You've got 16 mighty + 15 AA bonus, missing 13 from the shown 44. I guess there's bard song and maybe warcry and prayer included...anything else like the bonus damage from pre-LL tags or weapon spec from a randomized item?

[Balduvard]

Jan 20, 2011 13:49:20 GMT maljin said:

One question though: Why did you pick esf: parry and not disc?

Parry gear is harder to fit in; only a few items out of my list of equipment have parry on them (and one of them is an Abyssal vestige), so I had to put a Duelist aug on my armor for the worst scenario (my armor is my only parry gear):

63 ranks + 25 ability + [15 items +5 bonus] + 13 feat - 10 layer penalties = 111

And to equip myself for surviving the most dangerous scenario:

63 ranks + 25 ability + 50 items + 13 feat - 10 layer - 21 enemy song = 120

With this same combination of items I have 44 discipline from items without even trying. Outside of the deepest layers of Hell, this (110+) is more than enough for most purposes. If you instead spend all of your time there, ESF: Discipline might seem more appealing (but you cannot be slagged, so the most prevalent type of high-end discipline check does not affect you).

Jan 20, 2011 13:49:20 GMT maljin said:

might I ask where all that physical damage on your arrows comes from? You've got 16 mighty + 15 AA bonus, missing 13 from the shown 44.

Enchant Arrow - 15
Mighty - 16
L55 Prayer - 3
Pre-LL Bonus - 2
Abyss Bonus - 8
= 44