Ranged Astral Shadow Warrior Questions

[Trespass 0]

Hey everyone. I'm planning on making a Ranged Shadow Warrior but I'm still not sure how some things work. There are posts out there that have the answers to some of these questions, but some of them posts are from over a year ago and may be outdated after patches. Having all the info in one post will be nice too.

 

Lots of questions incoming in 5..4..3..2..

 

 

First lets start with the mods that I'm not 100% sure about.

 

[Demonic Blow]

a) Vehemence - Allows Demonic Blow to inflict area damage on nearby opponents. (745 + 5 per CA level area(?))

This has no effect on ranged weapons, right? I tested it on my melee SW and it doesn't appear to, but I want to make sure.

 

 

[scything Sweep]

a) Knockback - Increases the chance to knock opponents back. If they tumble against additional opponents they will inflict damage upon impact. (12.5% + 0.2% per CA level chance / +50% from base value)

I don't have this on my melee SW so I haven't tested it. Looks like it would be a fun mod for a ranged SW, I'd be disappointed if it didn't work.

 

c) Rage - Each hit will store additional energy. This energy will discharge with the first successful hit after the Scything Sweep. (14.9% + 0.1% per CA level (?))

From what I've read this doesn't work with ranged weapons. I'm just making sure this hasn't changed in a patch, hopefully it has!

 

 

[Frenzied Rampage]

a & b) Double Attack/Strike

I tested it on my melee SW and I'm pretty sure it works. I'd still like someone to confirm it though.

 

 

I think the rest of the mods are pretty clear in their descriptions. If there's something I should know about though, feel free to tell me.

 

 

Now for the skills. Here's what I'm planning on, in no particular order:

 

1. Astral Lord Focus

2. Tactics Lore

3. Ranged Weapons

4. Armor Lore

5. Constitution

6. Concentration

7. Death Warrior Focus

8. Malevolent Champion Focus

 

The last two picks I'm not sure about. Here are my thoughts:

 

Toughness (or a different defensive skill if recommended) - I'm going to make Shadow Veil a buff so I don't know if any more defensive skills are necessary.

 

Astral Lord Lore - From what I've read this doesn't effect the damage from your summoned skellies. Most of my damage will be coming from them and my ranged attacks, so I'm not sure how important this is. I will probably use Skeletal Fortification on bosses and the extra mod points could be nice, but is that worth a skill slot?

 

Combat Discipline - If one of the other 2 skills isn't worth it, I'll pick this.

 

 

And finally.. one last question. I've read that you'll occasionally become unveiled (even with a properly modded Shadow Veil) when you shoot your ranged weapon. Does anyone know the mechanics behind this?

 

 

That's a lot of questions, I know. If you answer any or all of them I'll send a truck load of cookies your way.

[ka243 3]

[Demonic Blow]

a) Vehemence - Allows Demonic Blow to inflict area damage on nearby opponents. (745 + 5 per CA level area(?))

This has no effect on ranged weapons, right? I tested it on my melee SW and it doesn't appear to, but I want to make sure.

 

Dunno but I doubt it works.

[scything Sweep]

a) Knockback - Increases the chance to knock opponents back. If they tumble against additional opponents they will inflict damage upon impact. (12.5% + 0.2% per CA level chance / +50% from base value)

I don't have this on my melee SW so I haven't tested it. Looks like it would be a fun mod for a ranged SW, I'd be disappointed if it didn't work.

 

c) Rage - Each hit will store additional energy. This energy will discharge with the first successful hit after the Scything Sweep. (14.9% + 0.1% per CA level (?))

From what I've read this doesn't work with ranged weapons. I'm just making sure this hasn't changed in a patch, hopefully it has!

 

Dunno but I doubt it works.

 

[Frenzied Rampage]

a & b) Double Attack/Strike

I tested it on my melee SW and I'm pretty sure it works. I'd still like someone to confirm it though.

 

 

I think the rest of the mods are pretty clear in their descriptions. If there's something I should know about though, feel free to tell me.

 

 

Now for the skills. Here's what I'm planning on, in no particular order:

 

1. Astral Lord Focus

2. Tactics Lore

3. Ranged Weapons

4. Armor Lore

5. Constitution

6. Concentration

7. Death Warrior Focus

8. Malevolent Champion Focus

 

The last two picks I'm not sure about. Here are my thoughts:

 

Toughness (or a different defensive skill if recommended) - I'm going to make Shadow Veil a buff so I don't know if any more defensive skills are necessary.

 

Toughness needed only if you plan to not be perma-invis. My trials with ranged shadow warrior tended to indicate that using ranged attacks and cas like demonic blow did uncloak me but I did not get it to 20 runes read.

Astral Lord Lore - From what I've read this doesn't effect the damage from your summoned skellies. Most of my damage will be coming from them and my ranged attacks, so I'm not sure how important this is. I will probably use Skeletal Fortification on bosses and the extra mod points could be nice, but is that worth a skill slot?

 

Does not effect damage of summond skellies. Does effect skeletal fortification. Does effect casting speed and damage of astral lord spells. I think that includes time/speed of recasting your invis buff but I'm not sure about that. Does effect your chance to be detected from shadow veil buff. More lore = less chance to be detected.

 

Combat Discipline - If one of the other 2 skills isn't worth it, I'll pick this.

CD will not increase skelleton damage, it will not increase left-click damage, it will decrease regen times for your combos and increase damage of cas (not skelletons).

 

And finally.. one last question. I've read that you'll occasionally become unveiled (even with a properly modded Shadow Veil) when you shoot your ranged weapon. Does anyone know the mechanics behind this?

 

 

That's a lot of questions, I know. If you answer any or all of them I'll send a truck load of cookies your way.

 

Globally, I found this type of invisible necromancer build very boring to play because the skelletons killed so darn slow especially at lower levels. I found myself just not caring about the invisible buff and attacking most of the time. But if you do this, the buff part of shadow veil becomes much less attractive.

 

Try it for yourself though and let me know what you think - I think you might find playing a melee champion/death warrior shadow warrior more fun.

 

Gimme cookies .

Edited October 7, 2009 by ka243

[gogoblender 3,069]

Hi Trespass, welcome to DarkMatters!

 

I did some work with a ranged SW till about level 75 a few times...The Demonic Blow did have a kind of damage Area of Effect esque... but not anywhere near (at least at that level ) as effective as what I was getting with Scything Sweep. I'd get the main hit on the first enemy and then a kind of "splash" effect on the surrounding enemies.

 

Not seksi at all, and so I redid the toon, focused on the Demonic Blow for a true hard hit for bosses, and kept all the Area of Effect strickly with Scything. Now, you've got me curious to see whether anyone has gotten more splash damage out of the Demonic Blow from ranged...maybe they improved it for Ice and Blood?

 

 

gogo

[DunJuan 0]

I use an energy weapon with my Shadow Warrior. It almost never misses.

 

Demonic Blow, great for a huge blow to a boss from a distance.

 

Scything Sweep, at a moderate range it can fire (and I have a picture somewhere) 9 shots at enemies. or it may only fire one if their is only one attacker.

 

Frenzied Rampage, had up to atleast 5 rounds pumped into one creature, and if it kills an enemy one shot it hits another, then another..

 

Astral Lord Focus, cos skellies are handy for fodder and doing damage on big bosses.

 

Tactics Lore for the mods.

 

Astral Lord Lore, if you throw a skeletal fortification under an enemy it does serious damage. and by the time it finishes I can throw another out..anyone know if you can have two at a time:)

[x Zeus x 0]

Now for the skills. Here's what I'm planning on, in no particular order:

 

1. Astral Lord Focus

2. Tactics Lore

3. Ranged Weapons

4. Armor Lore

5. Constitution

6. Concentration

7. Death Warrior Focus

8. Malevolent Champion Focus

 

The last two picks I'm not sure about. Here are my thoughts:

 

Toughness (or a different defensive skill if recommended) - I'm going to make Shadow Veil a buff so I don't know if any more defensive skills are necessary.

 

Astral Lord Lore - From what I've read this doesn't effect the damage from your summoned skellies. Most of my damage will be coming from them and my ranged attacks, so I'm not sure how important this is. I will probably use Skeletal Fortification on bosses and the extra mod points could be nice, but is that worth a skill slot?

 

Combat Discipline - If one of the other 2 skills isn't worth it, I'll pick this.

 

 

And finally.. one last question. I've read that you'll occasionally become unveiled (even with a properly modded Shadow Veil) when you shoot your ranged weapon. Does anyone know the mechanics behind this?

 

 

That's a lot of questions, I know. If you answer any or all of them I'll send a truck load of cookies your way.

 

I have made the same build for xbox 360, since I already have a pure summoner. The final two skills I have picked were devine Devotion and EP.

 

As far as becoming unveiled it can happen only two ways if you have it modded correctly as a buff and 100% undetected: 1st being you hit a Combat Art before it has fully regenerated and 2nd if in the shadows (somethinking like that) is below 1800. It must be 1800 or higher you can tell this by looking at the Combat Art.

 

I dont use skellies since I use 3 buffs already. Instead for fodder I use RS and have it modded so they can infect others they kill.

 

Your going to use DB to kill bosses and the rest of the time I use FR just make sure to keep the regen time low, mine is at 1 second and dont have a problem coming unveiled.