Light Crossbow Group PvE Build

Overview

Weapon: Crossbow

Focus: Range DPS

Mode: Group Dungeon, Avalonian Dungeon and Hardcore Expedition

Strengths

• Very high DPS
• No Mana Issues

Weaknesses

• High Skill Ceiling

This build is up to date for the September 18, 2024, Paths to Glory Patch #4 .

Overview

This Elder's Light Crossbow build remains one of the top DPS builds in the game, capable of dealing high damage in group PVE content of all kinds like Avalonian Dungeons, Hardcore Expeditions, Statics or Group Dungeons. While it isn't easy to pull off and some practice is required, the build shines brightly once mastered and is capable of doing great damage.

Equipment

Main Hand Weapon

Elder's Light Crossbow

Off Hand Weapon

Elder's Cryptcandle

Head

Elder's Royal Cowl

Cape

Elder's Demon Cape

Armor

Elder's Druid Robe

Shoes

Elder's Shoes of Tenacity

Potion

Major Poison Potion

Food

Beef Stew

Keep in mind: Gear shown in this build is meant as a reference. Choosing the correct tier of gear is very tricky as there are many variables. Some of them being your budget, your spec and minimum Item Power requirements of your guild if used for ZvZ.

You should always check prices based on IP of the items. For example, a masterpiece quality 4.3 Elder's Cryptcandle could be cheaper while providing roughly the same IP as an 8.0.

Usage

Elder's Light Crossbow

Explosive Bolt — This is one of your main damaging abilities with a nice medium range that delivers high AOE damage to all mobs hit by it. Through the use of Well-Prepared, it is constantly reset every 4th time you use this or another ability. Make sure to use Explosive Bolt as your 4th ability so it resets its own cooldown and you can use it twice in a row to deliver a nice burst damage.

Caltrops — Use this ability to slow down mobs but also deal damage, always pop it under their feet so they cannot dodge or in the path where your tank is taking the mobs. You can also use this to build 2 stacks of Well-Prepared.

Exploding Shot — This is your main burst damage, planting an explosive bomb onto a target that blows up after a few seconds and does high AOE damage to the target and all mobs around it. This is your priority whenever its available!

Well-Prepared — Due to the low cooldowns on Explosive Bolt and Caltrops, you get to use abilities often which procs this passive very often and makes it an obvious choice for the build.

Elder's Druid Robe

Obsessive Burst — This ability allows you to do extra damage and greatly increases your damage. You should use this as part of your combo and usually as the third ability to cast part of Well-Prepared stacking so you can follow up by using another Explosive Bolt to trigger the passive. Keep in mind that the damage boost you get from Obsessive Burst comes from casting abilities but each stack gives you a bit of extra damage anyway.

Aggression — This is your only good choice as it increases your flat damage and is perfect for the build.

Elder's Royal Cowl

Perpetual Energy — This is the ability that helps a lot with your mana sustain. Because of its relative low cooldown and long duration, it means you can keep using this ability to cut the mana use to 0 while its active, allowing your mana to regenerate as well and sustain your DPS.

Aggression — This passive offers you extra damage which is great to have!

Elder's Shoes of Tenacity

Blind Spot — This ability will turn you invisible to players every time you cast it. However, the main use is that it deals extra damage the first time you do damage after activating it.

Balanced Mind — Yet another damage increasing passive.

Elder's Demon Cape

Opening to Hell — This ability will create a pool of lava under the feet of whatever mob you hit with your auto-attack whenever the cape isn't on cooldown. This lava pool will deal high AOE damage to all mobs caught in it and its great to have, helping a lot with DPS.

Rotations

Long PVE Rotation ↴

• The main idea of the rotation is to make use of Well-Prepared. The best way of looking at it is that you want to always start DPSing a pull once you have 2 stacks of the passive before using another longer cooldown then using Explosive Bolt to reset its own cooldown so you can cast it again quickly afterwards.

You can use both Explosive Bolt and Caltrops to start your stack at 2, then use any longer cooldown like Exploding Shot followed by a double Explosive Bolt to finish the combo.

Consumables

Major Poison Potion — The poison has many uses but most important use would be onto bosses in order to both do damage and also decrease their defenses. Try to use a t6 version if you are tackling tier 7+ content. You can get away with using a t4 otherwise.

Beef Stew — This is the best food to use as it improves your overall damage. Try to use an 8.2 version if you plan on tackling higher tier content.