Sacred Guide: Seraphim Mounted Archer Build

[KnightoftheRose 1]

The Seraphim Mounted Archer Guide

 

First off, this is not the strongest brute force build for a Seraphim. She is somewhat fragile and requires a lot of patience. However, I have to say that this is the funnest seraphim build that I have ever done, and could end up being the most powerful. Offensively, it is based upon heavy Fire Elemental damage at a distance. Defensively, it is based on not allowing the enemy to engage you, or allowing limited melee engagements against mobs with one (or at the most 2) bosses.

 

Basic justification: The Seraphim and horse were made for each other. Her basic attacks (spell, bow, and melee) are greatly speeded up while mounted. And with the Mystdale warsteed, she is the fastest thing in the game (except for a cavefish in charge mode, but even then she often kills it before it can finally catch up to her). She has access to all spells (except EB) while mounted, and access to the HH CA (though it is still a bit bugged). And this build can be modified for the first 10 levels to work for ALL new Seraphim (more on that at the end, so check it out even if you have a different build). The Seraphim by nature is a hybrid, and this build tries to bring the best of all of them together

 

Strategy: The main build is all about the Dexterity Attribute. This is the highest starting attribute that the seraphim has, and she gains 5 more points every 2 levels (2-3-2-3 progression),the most of any attribute. Dex is sweet because it boosts Attack Rating (AR), Defense, and Ranged Damage (directly, and also indirectly through many common mods).

 

It is also about elemental fire damage. The most dangerous monsters (undead, dark/ice elves, spiders, dragons) are weak against fire (and strong against Physical and magic damage). And normally this is where the Seraphim falls short. She has no spells that are fire based, so she can normally have a hard time against these creatures. Monsters that are strong against fire (the lava realm monsters, orcs, and goblins) she can deal with easily with spells. So a fire based ranged attack will supplement her magic.

 

Gear: The Seraphim already has fantastic Set Gear for this build: Abdiel’s Revenge. Individual stats hone in on dex, Weapon lore, speed and excellent fire damage. Set bonuses give boosts for AR and AS – and Critical Hit when melee is forced. Kara’s gloves are the ultimate compliment for this set, granting Crit hit and 3 extra sockets. You will mainly be socketing Attack and “Fire Damage” rings and amulets. You may want some leech (3-6%) and some Defense items to socket, but it is not necessary on your body armour. They can be socketed into your sword and Shield, however, for when they are needed. Until you get your Abdiels gear, look for similar pieces (plusses to dex, fire damage, AR, AS)

 

Weapons: Your primary weapon will be a bow that deals fire damage. If you cannot find one, then find a bow with 3 sockets and socket it with fire rings. Your secondary weapon is a sword/shield (Abdiels, or similar if you do not have them yet). Tertiary weapon is a small bow that has high speed/high AR (and usually a lower damage rating) for tough bosses. The remaining slots can be for whatever – MF, spell regen, magic damage/poison damage bows, etc (see below).

 

Magic: You will be using many CAs here, so make sure that you have plenty of runes

General note – you want to over-pump your magic CAs, so that the regen time is about 1.5x times the duration. Yes, you are exchanging dead time for extra power, and this is because magic is mostly done in melee situations (see below). Individual melee skirmishes while mounted should not be taking that long. And afoot, 1x combos will be used in conjunction with CAs.

*SoF: (ranged) used mostly for bosses and champions. It actually gets used a lot in this build.

*CL: (melee, ranged) gives you more bang for you buck than RBoL and it is ranged.

*RBoL: (melee) is portable, and is a very popular mod on seraphim gear.

*Light: (melee) when over-pumped (regen 1.5x times greater than duration) this spell is a wicked undead slayer superior to CL and RBoL.

*Lightning: (ranged) used to pick out individuals from a mob to lure to you. Pretty much put any and all excess runes here.

*Combos: 1x CL, 1x RBoL, 1x Light

 

Tactics -- Ranged: You are a long range damage specialist – death from a distance. You should not be in melee contact with the enemy unless it is by your choosing. The advantage of mounted bow is this – you can shoot and move AT THE SAME TIME. You cannot do this afoot. How you do this is to target the enemy, and wait until the arrow is mid-flight (after release and before it hits the target), and then CLICK AND HOLD the left mouse button. The horse will begin to move to where the pointer is, and you will continue to fire at the target regardless of where you are moving. If one-on-one, then you can move slowly back away from the enemy as it runs straight at you and your volley of arrows. If it is a mob, then you literally ride circles around the mob, and pick new targets as the old ones die If you want to get tricky, then cast a CL, and then herd the mob in to the light and circle them there

 

Mobs with immobilizers (entangle, petrify): focus on the boss/shaman first. If possible, lightning strike it from a distance to try to pull it out of the mob and deal with it one on one. If you can not, then target it with your bow and try to kill it first. If you get entangled a few times it is usually ok – it lasts for only a few seconds and then you are on the move again. If they are really strong, or if there is more than one entangler, then you can just decide to ride away, or melee (see below).

 

Some mobs have nothing BUT entanglers (groups of priests). In this case it is no real big deal. They all are entangling you, but with no damage. So you just stay pat and pick them off one by one

 

Tactics – Melee Mounted: It is something you must do from time to time, especially if you are getting hammered by multiple entanglers. Your sword shield should have decent leech and defensive capabilities (or if you have leech on your body gear then socket CL/RBoL runes instead of defense and leech). You will also be looking at serious magic backup with Light (undead), CL, or RBoL (see magic above). Basically STAY MOUNTED, fire off your Light/CL/RBoL, and hammer away with your sword. If you have been pumping HH, then this is a good time to use it. Red pot when you or you horse need healing. When you have regained control of the situation, then get moving again and resume Ranged Combat.

 

Tactics – Melee afoot: This is when you are at your most vulnerable. Make sure that this is a planned excursion, and that you have plenty of red pots and a few yellow pots. If it is a short run (like a small quest cave with undead) then you can fire off a 1x RBoL, a Light CA, and with this double whammy you can charge in. If it is a long run, then fire off a 1x RBOL (or Light) and keep the CA for reserve for when the combo runs out or for an emergency CL if you are really getting hammered. Use your slot 1 bow until the enemy closes, the switch to slot 2 sword/shield. Use a combat CA of your choice (Attack, WH and MH are popular) and use regular melee strikes in the dead time (your Combat regen times will suck, but oh well ). Basically if the guys are green or below, then you’ll have no issues. If they are yellow or orange, then do what you need to do and get back out. If they are red, then plan on a lot of running or potting

 

Horses: This is a major topic in and of itself -- but we will keep it simple. Level 1, grab the horse at Bellevue. Between level 4-8, get Adelina’s mount from Silver Creek. Between level 12-17, get the Khorad Nur’him Warsteed (and NOT the Orcish Warsteed) from Khorad Nur (2 points in riding). Between level 20-30, get the Mystdale Heavy Warhorse from Mystdale Castle (9 points in riding). If you are in SP, or are in MP and can get portals, then you may be able to step through the sequence sooner.

 

The actual build:

*Atributes: 100% dex

 

*Skills

Level 1: Magic lore: 25% - 50% of level

Level 1: Weapon lore: max to 100

Level 3: Heavenly magic: 10% - 25% of level

Level 6: Riding – 9 points total

Level 12: Constitution: 25% - 50% of level

Level 20: Ranged Combat: add as needed to maintain AS=220, or for access to special bows. Max to 50 when Agility hits 50; max to 100 when Agility hits 100.

Level 30: Agility: max to 50; max to 100 when Ranged combat hits 50.

Level 50: Armour: excess points

 

Explanations:

Ranged vs. Magic: This could very easily turn into a mounted magic / ranged combat hybrid, or a mounted magic build with ranged backup. It all depends on how much you decide to invest in magic. If you want agility maxed right away, then you need to have 29 points in queue (unused) when Agility becomes available at level 30. If you want the bow to be your primary mode of attack, then this is what you will do. If you want to rely more on magic, then you will invest those points in Magic Lore and Heavenly Magic instead of keeping then queued.

 

Heavenly Magic vs. Meditation: HM speeds up spell casting animation, and operates independently of Regen Spell mod.

 

Agility vs. Parry: Seems insane, but it makes perfect sense for this build. AR is at a premium here, because you are not using a Combat CA for an automatic AR boost. Agility gives you the AR boost that Parry lacks. And defense is not that important because you are not in melee very often; and when you are, then you will use red pots. The defense boosts from dex and agility will suffice, as will the speed of your mount. Bottom line is that creatures should not be touching you, and you need to be landing arrows as often as possible. If you skip agility here, then the build will be broken and you will be very disappointed.

 

Final socketing strategies. You will need to socket often, and look for good rings. If you are really suffering on health or defense, then slip in a defense ring and a few leech runes. But the main thing is to balance AR and damage. AR is needd to land the blow, so you need enough land 80- 90% of the arrows. But too much AR is overkill – there is no real benefit in 99% to hit vs 100% (except that 1%), and none at all for 100% vs. 150%.

 

So the idea is to keep AR pretty high, but to use the rest of the sockets for fire damage modifiers and critical hit mods (and use SoF for champions/bosses). The two easiest places to change things are the ring/amulet portion of the gear, and swapping the slot 1 (high damage) and slot 3 (high AR) bows . But AR rings are harder to find that Fire damage rings, so when you have to sacrifice rings at the blacksmith, save the Attack rings and let the damage rings go. Overall you will find that most of your sockets are getting filled with Attack mods, and only a few will get the Damage rings.

 

Final thoughts overall. I have a level 100 seraphim and a Level 64 seraphim with this build, so it works at least to platinum. I tested my level 100 seraphim against level 127 monsters and she did just fine, So I have no doubts she will go deep into plat and make it to 140 and niobium. My typical base damage is about 60 points per level: My plat seraphim is dealing out 220 AS arrows at just over 6K base each (15% Critical) and my level 64 seraphim is doing about 3.5K base (6% Critical).

 

And the key is that the damage is at a distance – threats to me are extremely small, lag is no longer a real worry, spiders and dragons are completely helpless, and my overland speed means that I nearly ALWAYS choose my own battles.

 

So this makes that build even more attractive at lower levels. Give a level 1 seraphim a horse and bow, and she can deal with most level 4 monsters with total ease. Get her to level 5, and she can handle Silver creek (level 7-9 baddies) without a worry. Get her to level 10 and she can handle anything west to Mascarell and south to Urkenburg.

 

I will go one step further. Given ANY seraphim build; give her a horse, melee weapon and bow, one CL and one RBoL rune, and she can go from 1 to 20 without ever dying. And I know that it can be done because I have done it with NO runes, and have gone to level 20 without allocating any Skill or Attribute points along the way (my ironman entries )

 

So this is a unique build that relies on a lot of finesse and subtleties, but it is one that can totally rock. And I can guarantee that once you get the hang of it, you will have a lot of fun with it.