Astral Lord Dilemma

[Teewrecks 0]

Anyone have any opinions about either of my choices? I'm making an AL with SV as a buff of course, and I hear ranged works well with SV, plus I played with a SW who was using a ranged weap and Frenzied and it was pretty sweet... So, any input?

Edited November 10, 2010 by gogoblender

[dreeft 9]

If you use a ranged weapon you won't ever unveil, even with left clicks. It also gives you a boost for LL% Shurikens, which are great for destroying bosses.

[gogoblender 3,070]

Hi Michael, welcome to DarkMatters. What's an AL?

 

 

gogo

[dreeft 9]

Astral Lord

[gogoblender 3,070]

Ahh, thank you ,I added that to title

 

gogo

[Stormwing 40]

Guess he's abbreving Astral Lore, Gogo. *Edit: You beat me in that, Dreeft. *

 

I'd opt for ranged goods too. You could use some melee weaps too, depending how you're going to play it. Though then normal attacks are bound to unveil you in some quite nasty instances. xD

Shurikens for LL% is indeed great for the bosses. The downside for the veiled one, IMHO, is that might get a bit boring after time. No adrenaline rushes for those "close call" situations and such, but it is

indeed a nice change of pace.

Edited November 10, 2010 by Stormwing

[cheesehead 0]

Keep in mind that Ranged Weapons is a second-tier choice for Shadow Warriors. You'll probably be looking at Tactics Lore also, whether you want it or not, but since you're considering Dual Wield also I'm guessing you realize that. I too would go for Ranged Weapons, though Dual does give you more sockets.

 

For my Astral Lord build I don't plan on doing any real attacking myself save Spectral Hand, so the addition of Tactics is a regrettable (but not tragic) decision. I chose to pump it a bit for useful mods on Rousing Command and Augmenting Guidon, which are useful to have up during boss fights for the extra hit chance. Worth it to be able to rake Ranged and have even better chance to hit, and therefore chance to +RPH and get more Skeletal Fortifications out.

[claudius 104]

Tactics has 2 advantages for an astral build....

 

1 it modifies both malevolent and death warrior... If you compare tactics and death warrior focus just with respect to grim resilence then 2 it turns out that tactics is superior for HP and regeneration. At least I assume this because a guy on the german forum reportedly mathematically demonstrated that Grand Invigoration provided more HP regeneration with just lore than just focus. Because even without focus you still get a fair combat art level and tactics (lore) multiplies the base by a huge factor.

 

Really the only thing an astral lord needs from the death warrior tree is Grim. Killing spree can substitute for rousing command. %LL and spectral hand are sufficient 1 on 1 killers and skeletal fortifications is a sufficient 'trash man' or mob killer.

[podgie_bear 184]

Also bear in mind that using a ranged weapon does not guarantee that you will not unveil!

 

I tried a ranged Shadow Warrior (bow) with Shadow Veil and if I used 'left click' I did end up unveiling sometimes and that was with SV at 87%. I don't know about at 100%, as I gave up and stuck to Skellie Fort before my SV reached 100%.

[Furian67 15]

With Shadow Veil at 100% left clicks from ranged weapons are safe. Also right clicks from melée weapons are good to but a bit more risk is involved as a slip could firebird amleft click attack that may unveil you.

 

I vote Ranged weapon for the win!