[Sniper Guide]The Magical Sniper Dragon nest online

Lv60 Long Ranged PVE Build for Artillery
Note: Do not get misled by the title, this Guide is for Artilleries

Updates:
- Full Guide Revamped 7/11/13

Contents:
- Section 1: Introduction
- Section 2: Gears, Skill Build and Skill Elaboration
- Section 3: Playing as a Long Ranged Artillery
- Section 4: Frequently Asked Questions and Facts


Section 1: Introduction
It's me again, iDreamy with a major revision on my Guide and it's Path as an Artillery. The major change was focusing more on long-range natured skills such as Tracking Arrow, Arrow Shower and as well as Arrow Barrage. Further information on these skills will be explained later.

Again, what is an Artillery? Artillery at Lv60 Cap has become the Class which is able to dish-out the highest DPS on a Solo Test. Artilleries cannot be said that they are the best DPSer on Raids because there are too many factor when it comes to Team Setup, or rather, there is no best DPSer on Raids, it will all depend on some factors that greatly affect a certain class. Artilleries focuses on Magic even though we naturally have low INT growth but to compensate for this, as an Archer, we have high AGI growth giving us higher natural CRIT compared to other Magical classes. Artilleries are very versatile, they can move fast, dodge well, do DPS on any range and of course, dish out tons of damage due to the skills amplifiers.

Main Attraction: Arrow Shower

Note: This is from Lv50 Cap, Stats here were estimated to be at 10,400+ Matk with 600+ FD against a Lv50 Monster. Regarding it's insane damage, it will be explained later on.

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Section 2A: Gears
Gearing up as of now isn't really that hard. As a PVE Player who wants to do well on our main content which is GDN Hardcore, then better aim for gears which would easily give you 1000+ FD.

1. GDN Hardcore FD Setup
- 3 x Immortal Armors, Headband + Mittens + Booties
- 4 x Honourable Tribe Armors and Weapons, Crossbow/Longbow + Quiver + One Piece + Leggings
- Any FD Accessories, 2:2 Apocalypse / Full HT Accessories / Full Plague of the Immortal Accessories

2. Casual Setup
- 7 x Honourable Tribe
- Skill Accessories or Full HT Accessories

3. Easy Critical Cap for Lv60 Nests
- 4 x Honourable Tribe, Headband + One Piece + Leggings + Mittens
- 3 x GDN Legendary Grade, Crossbow/Longbow + Quiver + Booties
- Skill Accessories or Full HT Accessories

4. Heraldries: Priorities from Highest to Lowest
- Magician, Intellect, Fatal, Wind, Ultimate, Life Vitality, Shining, Tent, Health

These Setups can be changed depending on your budget or on how lucky you are on L Grades. For reference, I'm only using +8 HT Weapons but I'm pretty confident that my Artillery dishes out very good DPS on GDN HC, Rapid Shot EX does 180k-200k per hit while Arrow Shower does 200k+ on it's strong hits.

Things to take note when choosing between Skill Accessories or Honourable Tribe Accessories. First, Skill Accessories are better if you haven't hit about 1300+ FD so you would rely on Bull's Eye on increasing your DPS via Team DPS and Crossbow/Longbow Mastery or Magical Breeze on increasing your base damage.

Note: Following my Skill Build, I would demand that you get Tracking Arrow +1, Crossbow Mastery +1 and Bull's Eye +1 on Skill Accessories.

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Section 2B: Skill Build



Main DPS Skills:
- Lv16 Scope Arrow
- Lv11 Aerial Chain Shot
- Lv13 Rapid Shot
- Lv1 Arrow Shower
- Lv10+1 Tracking Arrow, needs Skill Necklace
- Lv2 Arrow Barrage

Plate Priorities: Highest to Lowest
- 20% DMG, Scope Arrow
- 20% DMG, Rapid Shot
- 20% DMG, Tracking Arrow
- 20% DMG, Aerial Chain Shot
- 20% DMG, Arrow Shower
- 20% DMG, Arrow Barrage
- 20% DMG, Twin Shot

I don't post Archer Skill Tree because it's too biased on every Artillery. I'm going for Lv20 Twin Shot though so I'm prepared if ever they do release a Costume with Twin Shot +1.

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Section 2C: Skill Elaboration
For now, I will only explain on how your Main DPS Skills work.

1. Lv16 Scope Arrow EX, your best spammable single target burst
Breaking down it's damage...
Projectile on hit = 50% of damage board
Explosion on Projectile hit = 30% of damage board
Splitting Arrows = 50% of damage board each, total of 6 Splitting Arrows
Visible cross-directional Splitting Arrow's explosions = 20% of damage board each

Total of 460% damage board or 4.6 total coefficient when landing a Full Hit
While 3.8 total coefficient if you didn't manage to land the 4 Splitting Arrow explosions

This is the Cross-Direction Pattern of Scope Arrow EX's Splitting Arrows

The green line represents the supposedly 4th splitting arrow but sadly, it exploded right away due to the non-flat terrain. The red line represents the 5th and 6th splitting arrow which is not visible but still manages to do hits but does not make further explosions.

Comment: Now that you know how skill coefficients works, I will proceed explanations w/ shortcuts.

2. Lv11 Aerial Chain Shot, it requires you to jump and will release arrows on 3 Bursts
A single arrow does 2 hits, an impact damage and explosion damage which has .5 coefficient each
A single burst is able to hit a single target with 4 arrows resulting to 8 hits due to impact and explosion

Landing a full 3 burst on a single target would result to 24 hits, thus 12 coefficient making it one of the best burst damaging skill of Bowmasters.

3. Lv13 Rapid Shot EX, one of the best mob clearer of Artilleries
Rapid Shot EX had one of the most noticeable changes from the EX. Although, landing a minimal 12 hits on a single target means you only get a 20% damage increase from this EX. Using it on the right range would result to it's best damage output even on medium sized targets.

Here is a Video of using Rapid Shot EX on a perfect range for optimal amount of hits,


Damage Breakdown, Rapid Shot EX basically does .5 coefficient per hit (Max of 12) but gets reduced to .05 coefficient per hit once reaching above 12 hits (13 and above). Does this mean that if I scatter too much Rapid Shot EX, it will only deal crappy damage against clump of mobs? No, the hit cap specifically applies only PER target, meaning to say, each target can recieve .5 coefficient damage per hit until 12 hits, any further hits will obviously result to .05 coefficient per hit.

Full 12 Hits = 6 coefficient
Example of 18 Hits = 6.3 coefficient

Note: There is a current bug for Rapid Shot EX that it still does huge damage beyond 12 hits due to Ice Stacks. Yup, OP.

4. Lv1 Arrow Shower, also known as MBed AS or Bugged Shower
What's so special about an Artillery using Lv1 Arrow Shower? It's taking advantage of this bug on Magical Breeze where it makes Arrow Shower deal 100% Matk per Arrow. How to trigger? Basically, you just cancel out the Skill halfway when casting it and arrows which haven't landed will eventually deal 10% Matk on hit and 90% Matk on explosion.

There are also instances where your full Arrow Shower becomes bugged and can deal huge amount which outdamages 2 casts of Aerial Chain Shot as seen on the Introduction Video.

Based from my whole experience using an Artillery, an Arrow Shower would do an average of 130+ hits (medium sized and above) when under Sylph's Aid and Spirit Boost but do not misunderstand, only some of these hits would deal .9 coefficient while others might be .33% (Lv1 Arrow Shower) or the .1 coefficient weak hits. Unless you managed to bug the whole arrow shower, it would obviously deal .9 coefficient on half of the total hits.

5. Lv10+1 Tracking Arrow, no-brainer skill
Securing that your Artillery still manages to do good amount of DPS while being unable to use Swift Shot from a far range, Tracking Arrow is the way to go. Lv10+1 Tracking Arrow will almost do the same damage as a 12-Hit Lv11 Rapid Shot EX so it's actually good. Basically, it releases 8 arrows that does an impact damage and explosion damage, both has .5 coefficient for a total of 8 coefficient.

6. Arrow Barrage, chosen over Revolution Ballista due to it's insane damage under SB+Sylph
Arrow Barrage is greatly affected by animation boosts, it further launches more arrows which would increase it's total co-efficient. I have tested it myself.

Normal Arrow Barrage w/o any AS boost = 15 coefficient, Lv2 Arrow Barrage = 1890%+29160
Under Sylph's Aid 30% AS boost = 24 coefficient (9 coefficient increase), Lv2 Arrow Barrage = 3024%+46656.

If 30% AS boost gives 9 coefficient increase, that means every 10% AS boost will give 3 coefficient increase THUS, with the help of Spirit Boost of Acrobats, would result to further 12 coefficient increase for a ridiculous 36 coefficient, totalling up to 4536%+69984. Yes, that's how crappy Lv2 Revolution Ballista is against Lv2 Arrow Barrage under huge AS boost.

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Section 3: Playing as a Long Ranged Artillery
To be updated...

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Section 4: Frequently Asked Questions and Facts
Here you might learn some stuff about playing a Bowmaster + Artillery

1. Animation Boost
It is very important for Artilleries especially if you are leaning towards Arrow Shower + Arrow Barrage Build like me. It significantly increases damage output of these skills and not to mention that under BT, huge damage boards + low cooldowns + fast casting time means you are becoming a Killing machine.

2. Longbow or Crossbow?
Longbow for more range on some skills as well as more CRIT stats. Crossbow is the way to maintain stable damage output that technically increases your overall DPS.

3. How old are you iDreamy?
...