Scout - Longbow + Crossbow Small Scale PvP Build
- High Burst Damage
- Good Healing
- Squishy
- Low Mobility
- Off-meta
Overview
This Off-meta Longbow and Crossbow build is perfect for small-scale PvP perfect for both lone wolves and players that enjoy small scale PvP and are trying to play something different than what is considered the meta choices. This combination offers good DPS and kill potential while remaining at long range and capable of dealing good AOE burst damage thanks to Merciless Barrage. It excels in 1v1 encounters, capable of quickly bursting down targets with ease while controlling range and healing itself.
Attributes
To maximize your damage potential, focus primarily on Dexterity and Perception, prioritizing them as they significantly boost hit rate and critical hit rate. Since both Crossbows and Longbows are primarily DPS weapons, investing in Wisdom is unnecessary. However, Strength can still provide a solid increase in damage and a slight HP boost, which can be very helpful. You should definitely consider 30 points into Strength to help increase your survivability.
Skills
Prioritize upgrading Quick Fire, Zephyr's Nock, Decisive Sniping, and Ensnaring Arrow as they are your main DPS abilities and your main way of scoring kills. Strafing, is one of your earliest abilities and a powerful skill that gets used a lot and only gets better when upgraded so don't forget it either.
Selfless Diffusion is a fantastic skill for lowering your cooldowns and is often used as the first skill in a rotation, using it every chance you have to lower CDs. Your other buff is Mother Nature's Protest as it deals extra damage whenever you attack with your skills, acting as a fantastic addition to the kit.
This build's only healing comes from Healing Touch coupled with Earth's Blessing and you should always try to stack up the buffs throughout a fight or use it to get HP back before going back into a fight without having to wait for a healer.
As far as passives go, the main goal is to improve your defense potential with passives like Distorted Sanctuary and Devoted Shield as they offer some defensive capabilities, especially as Devoted Shield can be procced without a cooldown as long you are taking weaken damage. Sniper's Sense and Eagle Vision increases your damage based on how far away you are from your target while your off-hand attacks are boosted with Ambidexterity.
Equipment
These are the first items you should strive for through the leveling period as they are very easy to get and upgrade or trait as needed. However, you shouldn't try to trait these items too much as you won't be spending too much time playing with this setup before you start changing pieces into the Midgame. The green accessories however are very easy to trait as you can craft many of them quickly in order to get the correct traits so you should consider traiting them until you change into purples. The same goes for the blue ring as you keep it for a long time.
This is the gear you should transition to once you're leveled to 50 and start grinding gear. It is comprised of gear you can get either from dungeons or by completing Litographs, they are relatively easy to trait up and you will spend most of the time wearing this set before advancing into the late game so traiting these items is very important and should be your main focus.
This is the current endgame gear you should aim for, and while it isn't easy to acquire, it offers great power without the need of acquiring archboss gear pieces. However, items like Tevent's Fangs of Fury or other archboss weapons are superior but difficult to acquire for the majority of players. If you do manage to get the archboss weapons for your build, feel free to use them over the weapons shown here.
Weapon Masteries
Regen | Health Regen |
Magic Defense |
Dynamic Duo |
Max Health |
Magic Endurance |
Ultimate Healing |
Debuff Duration |
Cooldown Speed |
Refined Touch | ||||||||
Move | Ranged Hit Chance |
Mana Regen |
Calm Aim |
Weaken Chance |
Mana Cost Efficiency |
Cold Vision |
Magic Defense |
Ranged Crit Hit Chance |
Quick Steps | ||||||||
Chain Fire | Damage |
Skill Damage Boost |
Cold Rage |
Damage |
Buff Duration |
Rapid-Fire |
Cooldown Speed |
Mana Regen |
Brutal Wound |
Support | Max Health |
Magic Defense |
Vitality of Dew |
Movement Speed |
Buff Duration |
Anti-magic Arts |
Magic Evasion |
Perception |
Grace Song | ||||||||
Check | Ranged Hit Chance |
Move Speed |
Wedge of Oppression |
Max Mana |
Mana Regen |
Gale Arrowhead |
Movement Speed |
Mana Cost Efficiency |
Phantom Snare | ||||||||
Sniping | Ranged Hit Chance +20 |
Ranged Crit Hit Chance |
Pointy Throns |
Bonus Damage |
Damage |
Critical Nock |
Added Attack Speed |
Ranged Crit Hit Chance |
Brutal Shooter |
Crossbow: Allocate 9 points into Chain Fire to enhance your raw damage and increase your damage output. Invest the remaining 6 points into Move to boost your ranged heavy attack chance and Hit Chance.
Longbow: Spend 9 points into Sniping for higher overall DPS. Then, invest the remaining 6 points into Check for additional damage and cooldown speed which is very useful for this build.
Rotations
- This is your main burst rotation that can be used to take down enemies from range thanks to Ensnaring Arrow holding them down for you to help get the kill. Make sure to start the rotation with Selfless Diffusion to lower your cooldowns, however, you can also do the rotation without it.
- Once you've used Ensnaring Arrow and Mortal Mark, you should follow up with Strafing and Zephyr's Nock to lower its cooldown after hitting the same target you hit with Strafing. Transition into your crossbow rotation with Quick Fire and Nimble Leap before finishing off the rotation with your second cast of Zephyr's Nock.
Merciless Barrage: Your main AOE DPS ability, you should use this after you've activated Mother Nature's Protest to increase damage done through Gale explosions.
Flash Arrow: Use this to catch enemies out of stealth, casting it on top of a player that is in stealth will reveal and stun them and is currently one of the only ways to take someone out of stealth.
Comments
We are seeking an experienced Build Admin for Throne and Liberty with a deep understanding of the meta across most weapons and game modes. Get in touch with Galaxian on Discord if you're a good fit for the role or know someone else who is. This is a paid position.