Hawk Rush
Hawk Rush is a single target skill with no cast time or delay, and a 0.15s cooldown. The skill has a 500% ATK modifier that scales with base level and CON, and can crit. Hawk Rush has a 1% chance of proccing per autoattack for every 3 CON, and that chance doubles if Nature Friendly is maxed, requiring 150 CON for a 100% proc rate.
The addition of Hawk Rush has really changed the autoattack build by finally providing an autocast skill that scales with No Limits. Autoattack is no longer just a "for fun" build and even has Arrow Storm beat when it comes to single-target DPS. That said, there's very little distinction between an Autohawk build and a build that just spams Hawk Rush, and the latter can generate far better and more stable DPS. Autoattacks just don't deal enough damage, even with Fear Breeze and Warg Strike. This section will mainly focus on Hawk Rush as a standalone skill, but it'll function virtually identically as an Autohawk build, just with less DPS and fewer inputs.
Pros
Easy to execute and reach maximum damage potential.
Gear buildup is easy since there's no cast time, cooldown, or ACD to worry about.
Low reliance on SP except for self-buffing. Can switch from manual Hawk Rushing to Autohawking easily.
No input required while attacking, allowing you to dual-client if desired.
Autoattack range is actually larger than your own sight range, meaning it's actually possible to autoattack off-screen enemies in very specific situations (weird combination of movement + lag).
Can "hitlock" targets, preventing them from moving into melee range.
Largely crit-based.
Goes from 500% to 1,000% to 2,500% ATK multiplier in the next 2 patches.
You can pretty much swap out your boots with a +9 Noblesse Attack Boots to make a functioning FAS build with comparable DPS.
Cons
No AoE.
Build doesn't become relevant until 4th class, and getting to 4th class pretty much requires you to have an effective 3rd class build already.
Warg and Hawk are forced neutral property unless you have a Mild Wind equip.
Very arrow-intensive and RNG-dependent when autoattacking.
HP leech is a bit less effective due to smaller damage instances.
You can pretty much swap out your boots with a +9 Noblesse Attack Boots to make a functioning FAS build with comparable DPS. A Sniper (Mid) will pretty much make a flat-out better FAS build.
Spoiler Gear
Stats
AGI is huge for ASPD. LUK is nice for Autowarg chance and for most equip bonuses. DEX is still valuable for damage and VIT/STR still offer minor utility. INT is generally not valuable.
AGI: 90-120 for ASPD. It's nice to have 193 ASPD when autoattacking, but this can be supplied in good part by your equips.
LUK: 100-126. At least 100 will give 100% autowarg chance when Lucky Day procs. You don't really need more unless it's to hit equip thresholds.
DEX: 90-120. This is the only other stat that really matters for DPS, so feel free to pour a bunch of points into this.
VIT: 80-100 for some survivability and stun resistance.
STR: 30-70. This build uses up a ton of arrows so you may need a lot of weight capacity. Thankfully you have the stat points to spare.
INT: 1-60. Fairly useless for this build but it's cheap to invest in and self-buffs are costly.
POW: 100
CON: 97
Crescive Bolt
Crescive Bolt is a single-target skill with 1s FCT, 0.8s VCT, 0.15s CD, and 0.5s ACD. It has a 3,000% ATK multiplier that scales with base level and CON, and can crit. Using Crescive Bolt consecutively without moving increases the damage up to a 1.3x damage multiplier. When the Calamity Gale buff is active, Crescive Bolt does 20% more damage, and an additional 50% on Brute/Fish race monsters.
Crescive Bolt is effectively a FAS with a 1s FCT, a higher damage multiplier, and fewer equips that provide skill multiplier bonuses. At the moment, Crescive Bolt, Aimed Bolt, and FAS are neck and neck for highest single-target DPS, with CB potentially edging out the win with max stacks and Calamity Gale active. This build struggles with the same 1s FCT as Aimed Bolt, but doesn't have to worry as deeply about ACD and can instead focus on crit multipliers. Crescive Bolt doesn't have the same innate +50 crit rate as FAS, so you'll want a fair bit of crit. 70% ACD is still all that's necessary, same as FAS.
Pros:
One of the highest DPS builds.
Crits.
High FCT reduction allows for faster self-buffs.
Synergizes perfectly with FAS to clear mobs.
Not bow-locked.
Straightforward transition from FAS or Aimed Bolt build.
Will only get better with patches.
Cons:
1s FCT is a tough barrier of entry.
Very few skill-specific gear bonuses.
SP-intensive build.
Single-target makes for rough leveling if not using FAS.
Requires fast clicking or macro to reach max DPS output.
Calamity Gale only has a maximum 20% uptime at the moment.
Pitiful range.
Spoiler Gear Stats Pretty much identical to FAS. CON will generally be better than CRT unless running Ghost Fire for the FCT. DEX: 100-125, as per usual LUK: 90-126, for equip bonuses. The extra crit rate also helps AGI: 90-110, for ASPD VIT: 80-100, for a bit of survivability and stun resistance INT: 50+, for SP and cast time. CB is SP-intensive STR: 30+, just for weight. WH weight limit is fairly high, so this isn't too important POW: 100. No reason not to max this since each trait always costs 1 point CRT: 0 or 72, if running Ghost Fire. CON is just better for the skill formula CON: 97 or whatever's left. Second best option for damage. STA/WIS: A bit if you want a bit of survivability. Dying is always an option. Gale Storm Gale Storm is a skill with an 11x11 AoE, 0.5s FCT, 0.5s ACD, and 2s CD. It has a 2,500% ATK multiplier that scales with base level and CON. When the Calamity Gale buff is active, Gale Storm can crit. At base, Gale Storm is just a worse version of Arrow Storm. It has a lower multiplier, higher FCT, fewer specialized equips, and the 2s cooldown effectively invalidates the skill's efficacy. All this changes with a Moonflower Bow and Moon God Lapel. Which adds up to 110% skill multiplier, and a 1.5s CDR to bring the cooldown to a reasonable 0.5s. With those two, Gale Storm becomes a strong competitor to Arrow Storm that overtakes it with Calamity Gale active or with a few skill balance patches. If you gambled properly and picked up a Moonflower when they were cheap and useless, then this is a build that's strongly worth considering. I actually wrote the forum post that probably inspired this item, so there's a pretty good chance that I'm the reason this build exists at all. I'm also probably the reason why we got this build instead of a more general-purpose lower headgear that all build could utilize well, so oops sorry for that. Still, it's an exciting new build and all the other builds want Poenitentia Nervus anyway. I also think this might be the only source of GS CDR in the entire game across all servers, so look forward to those skill balance patches (patch 2 will eliminate the CD entirely with this and up the multiplier to 9,500%). Pros Huge AoE Best way to build up AP for Calamity Gale Very strong with Calamity Gale up, Great leveling build Will get even better with a few balance patches Cons Bow + Lower Headgear locked, and likely will be for a very long time. Bow is a 0.34% OCP drop and is kinda bad due to low ATK, multipliers, and 1 card slot. FCT/ACD easily managed, CD high enough that ASPD/ping don't really become limiting factors Swapping between crit and non-crit gears during Calamity Gale downtime is awkward Low single-target DPS. Possibly the worst other than traps (Virtual Bow Arrow Storm might be a bit worse) Mediocre without Calamity Gale Spoiler Gear
Stats
Nothing special to note here. CON is better than CRT.
DEX: 100-125, as per usual
LUK: 90-126, for equip bonuses. The extra crit rate also helps
AGI: 90-110, for ASPD
VIT: 80-100, for a bit of survivability and stun resistance
INT: 50+, for SP and cast time. CB is SP-intensive
STR: 30+, just for weight. WH weight limit is fairly high, so this isn't too important
POW: 100. No reason not to max this since each trait always costs 1 point
CON: 97 or whatever's left. Second best option for damage.
STA/WIS: A bit if you want a bit of survivability. Dying is always an option.
Trapper Build
According to iROWiki, Rotten Garden Knife gives a 4% Bomb Cluster multiplier per base level, for a total of 1,000% multiplier at level 250. Since it's melee damage, it's still worse than all Bow options due to No Limits and on top of that is really awkward to cast. My FAS does 100x the damage of my Bomb Cluster, so it's hard to see Bomb Cluster as being competitive even with fully dedicated gear. The main value is to easily kill mobs that normally only take 1 damage.
Hybridization
In general, Rangers have the flexibility in skills/stats to run 2 or 3 of these builds with proper equip swaps. For example, in an Instance you could run an Arrow Storm build for clearing mobs and switch to Aimed Bolt or autoattacks for dealing with the MVP. It can be awkward to have to carry so much different gear, and your DPS might end up a bit worse than dedicating all your resources into a single build, but it can be a good option when building up some gear or pivoting between builds.
Wind Hawk Builds
At the moment, the current iteration of Wind Hawk builds offers very little incentive to use them over current existing Ranger skills. The skills just aren't strong enough at base, and there aren't enough equips to boost them yet. You also have hilariously few options for skill point distribution.
Gale Storm
2,500% ATK multiplier, 0.5s FCT, 0.5s ACD, and 2s CD. At the moment it's pretty much just a strictly worse version of Arrow Storm and is only really useful for building AP. Becomes viable with Calamity Gale active, and the current 11x11 AOE is huge.Somewhat viable with the Moonflower combo, but is only being good for 60 seconds every 5 minutes is rather rough.
Patch Progression:
- 4th class balance patch 1: Increases influence of CON in formula
- 4th class balance patch 2: 2s -> 1.5s CD. 2,500% -> 9,500% ATK.
- 4th class balance patch 3: 1.5s -> 1.2s CD. 9,500% -> 10,000% ATK. 11x11 -> 9x9 AOE. Increases influence of CON in formula
Crescive Bolt
3,000% ATK multiplier, 1s FCT, 0.5s ACD, 0.15s CD, and has crit modifiers. It can be the highest single-target DPS skill with Calamity Gale active, but it's not so much better than Aimed Bolt or FAS that I think it's really worth a huge pivot into.
Patch Progression:
- 4th class balance patch 1: Nothing
- 4th class balance patch 2: 0.5s -> 0.3s ACD. 3,000% -> 3,400% ATK. 100 -> 65 SP
- 4th class balance patch 3: 0.15s -> 0.35s CD, 0.3s -> 0.7s ACD, 3,400% -> 9,400% ATK
Hawk Rush
500% ATK multiplier, no cast time or delay, 0.15s CD, and has crit modifiers. The autoproc chance is based on CON rather than LUK, so it's harder to ensure consistent procs. As a standalone skill, it's like a worse FAS/Crescive Bolt, although the 0 cast time/delay give it a slight niche. The problem is that it's already so easy to mitigate cast time/delay, so it's pretty hard to take this skill seriously. The one major use I have found for it, however, is to make use of its forced neutral property in Bio5, letting me avoid having to switch off Silvers against Margaretha/Randel. Does not get affected by Steel Crow.
Patch Progression
4th class balance patch 1: 500% ATK -> 1,000% ATK
4th class balance patch 2: 1,000% ATK -> 2,500% ATK
4th class balance patch 3: Nothing
Calamity Gale
Costs 200 AP and activates No Limits level 5 for 180s and Calamty Gale for 60s. The Calamity Gale buff is really strong, but the incredibly low uptime makes it not too great to plan around. Currently the main value is just to be another provider of No Limits, as alternating between this and No Limtis lets you maintain 100% uptime with no CDR. Getting up to 200 AP is a bit rough, though.
Patch Progression:
- 4th class balance patch 1: Nothing
- 4th class balance patch 2: Nothing
- 4th class balance patch 3: No Limits becomes undispellable. 60s -> 180s Duration. 300s -> 180s CD.
Everything Else
- Trapsare probably useless except maybe as a funny way to build AP.
- Hawk skillsaren't great, but giving access to Hunter Falcon skills again with a Warg out is nice. I like having Detect and autoblitz vs 1-damagers.
- Wind Signis not a good way of getting AP because it'll require an average of 500 autoattacks to get 200 AP.
- Autohawkis largely an improvement for Autowarg builds, actually making it slightly viable.
- Weight Limitis improved by 1000, which is very nice.
Traits
POW is the best, since the P.ATK multiplier is an entirely new multiplier, and the status ATK boost is really big too. Very little reason not to go 100 in this.
CON/CRT are a bit of a mixed bag. They're the next best choices for damage, but aren't quite as effective. A more focused DPS build should invest heavily in these, but it's perfectly reasonable to sacrifice some of these for WIS/STA for survivability.CON > CRT for every build except FAS (Even Crescive Bolt prefers CON), unless running Ghost Fire for the FCT.
WIS/STA for MRES/RES are the next best in my opinion. They effectively act as equip MDEF/DEF. WIS takes priority for me since equip MDEF options are so hard to come by, unless you're running Ghost Fire and want the ATK from STA.
Utility
The following are some gears that are nice to have on hand for buffs/utility but aren't necessarily good for hitting things.
Spoiler Gear Sustain The following are some gears that leech HP/SP on hit or give HP/SP on kill, which is super great for leveling and also just providing pseudo-tankiness. Spoiler Gear Cheaper Alternatives Spoiler Gear
Niche Picks
Some equips aren't particularly strong enough to recommend in the above sections, nor are they particularly cheap enough to suggest them as cheaper buildups. If you happen to have one of these, they can still be fit into a build, but for the most part they aren't worth going out of your way to get. Hand-me-downs from other class alts will also be in this section. Note that in rare situations, some of these options may even outperform the more standard options.
Spoiler Gear
Edited by Nagaame, 07 March 2024 - 06:02 PM.
