Help me with my Str Bow build, please? :)

[MilesFT]

Hello everyone, I'm fairly new to Silkroad and still trying to learn things best I can. I'm not new to MMORPG's but just to Silkroad itself.

When I started I wanted to play a bow user, because I usually do in most MMO's that I can. I asked around in game a little bit to see what exactly some skills were and how to play the game in general and got a good idea so far, but now i'm a little confused with some of the skills and guides I have been reading.

So far I am level 19 and pure Str. I have level 13 pacheon, level 12 cold and level 12 lightning, nothing else yet. The person I talked to told me to go with cold and lightning to be really good at higher levels, but all the guides I have been reading say to go with fire and lightning...

I know SP is valuable to get skills, but how come a lot of guides tell you to skip certain skills? I thought as long as you were able to get the right level of mastery you could get ALL the skills available as long as you had the SP for it... if thats the case why do people say to skip certain ones?

As far as im concerned though, I am just asking this: With the new "expansion" coming from europe to add new things to the game, what TREES should I get and at what levels for the "best" build. I know that every build is going to differ in some way, but I guess what I want is for experienced bowers to reply and explain to me some of the questions I asked.

I will reply and keep asking if I get some decent sounding answers, I just want to learn a little bit more about the bowers in Silkroad. Thanks for reading, I know it was kind of long...

[Xyzzzy]

alright, it sounds like your on the right track, but it is true you would be better off with fire instead of ice
To switch from ice to fire you can use the lvl 20+ cursed hearts quest, or you can start over, which shouldnt be such a big deal since your only lvl 19

As to why you shouldnt get all the skills under one mastery, not all skills are necessary, regardless of the fact you CAN get them doesnt mean you should
At later levels skills can cost over 1000 skill points each, and if its not something that is not imperative to your survival, most save themselves the grief and dont get it

got any more questions let me know

[MilesFT]

Well, so far I have been enjoying the Ice River Force skill, open with anti devil arrow, imbue right before it fires and sometimes it will freeze the target in its tracks and slow them as they are running to me. In most cases they are dead or very close before they even reach my feet. What is the plus side to the fire imbue exactly? Could you explain the most important skills from fire and cold if I were to go either way?

[Xyzzzy]

Well the biggest bonus of fire, is the imbue does the highest damage, wayyy more than ice
In a minute Ill post what I would do with the skills for you

[HertogJan]

First of all, good that you stayed pure str =D.

Second, you dont have to delete any of the skills you have right now, ice wont start to lose his effect until 50+ or so in pvp. 60+ and people are immune.

For grinding, ice is good. You waste almost no HP pots sinds mobs dont reach you.

I have ice leveled up to 60 mainly for the buff and the passive.

For the 80 I am going pacheon 80, fire 80, lighting 80 and ice 60.

Whatever you do, make sure it feels good for you.

[Xyzzzy]

http://bobtheveg.dyndns.org/SRO/Char_Bu ... file=33320
that is my build for up to lvl 52 ( I plan to farm at that lvl hence the 9 gap)
with that I chose to get almost all of the pacheon skills, but it is up to you what you want to do with it
I have never used ice, so I didnt include it in my build

if you were to continue with ice I say get the lvl 24 skill, the passive, and the buffs only

you dont need anything else IMO

[legendhavoc]

Seeing as your already Pacheon 13, ice 12 nd lightning 12 heres what ---I--- recommend.

You 1. Always wear garments.
2. choose either lightning or cold, the one you dont pick get only to lvl 20.
3. You raise pacheon as ur main mastery.

This will do 2. things, make u mor experienced with a certain type of force, prepare u for lvl 140 in about 2 years time.

Ice benfits PvE = Level way faster, PvP = Freezes. Frostbites.
Lightning = PvE, move to targets quicker, your like a rabbit with a bow, PvP, lightning imbune reduces parry, and the other spells increase parry.

So. over all

Ice = Physdef nd slow down.

Lightning = all about parry and INT AoE damage

[MilesFT]

First of all, good that you stayed pure str =D.

Second, you dont have to delete any of the skills you have right now, ice wont start to lose his effect until 50+ or so in pvp. 60+ and people are immune.

For grinding, ice is good. You waste almost no HP pots sinds mobs dont reach you.

I have ice leveled up to 60 mainly for the buff and the passive.

For the 80 I am going pacheon 80, fire 80, lighting 80 and ice 60.

Whatever you do, make sure it feels good for you.

I'm fairly interested in this build, can you go into a bit of detail? What skills do you miss out on with Ice only at level 60? Why MAX Lighting? One reason this seems more plausible to me is the fact I wont end up having to use curst hearts to delevel my skills... It would cost me A LOT of gold that I just don't have to do that right now... If I did do 80/80/80/60 am I missing out on anything from a different weapon type that I would be better off with using the cold points elsewhere?

[HertogJan]

If you only level up ice till level 60 you miss out the great phy. defense boost it gives when you max it. However youre are a pure str build, and if you get decent gear, you wont need that. If you level it up till level 60 you level it up just high enough to get a decent boost.
Ice is weak until level 60, then it suddenly doublse the phy.defence the buff and the passive give you.

I am maxing lighting basically for the speed buffs. All the other buffs are nice, but I cant live without grasswalk and pw. Pw is usefull for other builds, in my opion it is a must for a bower, its the only time you can get away from youre opponent and pot up during a fight.
Besides grasswalk and pw, lighting has buffs that increase youre parry ratio wich are usefull.

Its basically a choice you need to make, with ice you will take less damage, but if you dont max lighting you will be slower then a lot of youre enemies. And in my eyes, a bower always needs to be able to deal damage, even if they are running away ^^.

[{--}]

6gap al the way.
with cold, ice, fire,pacheon.
and use ice as your imbue so the monsters dont get alot of hits into u.
make sure that u wil NEVER lvl cold mastery above lvl 60.
it is useless and with only 300mastery u should choose fire lvl 80...the buffs and imbue lvl 80 are mostly immume so go for bigger damage.

pacheon lvl 80 stronger hits with your bow.

lightning lvl 80...max gras walk speed and panthom walk flow..and also the buffs of parry ratio and magical damage increase.

Have Fun being a bowman

[glavie]

Ok to answer a few of the questions in your original post.

The reason why people skip skills is because this game is all about the grind. Killing mobs over and over. It is the least fun part. If you want a lot of sp you have to kill more mobs, and level slower.

All skills have a use, but some are more essential then others. 1 skill that a lot of guides don't recommend that you will need when the update comes is strongbow. There will also be a new bow skill that allows you to hit multiple targets at once that will be very useful on trade runs.

Most guides will become outdated when the new update comes, we don't know what will work once euro is out.

Fire vs Ice. Since you are pure str you will have increased damage from the fire tree because of the passive and buff. The imbue by itself also does more damage. If you click on the link in my sig. You will see The difference in damage between ice and fire imbue for a pure str lvl 77 bow user named Tomiotar.
Also currently people can become immune to the freezing affect of ice at higher levels with a skill from the fire tree. This may not be possible after the update, we just don't know yet.

Most recommend light tree for grasswalk and piercing force. If you can't run away/chase people down when jobbing you will get frustrated. Piercing force increases your magic damage making your imbue stronger.

[MilesFT]

Thanks for the replies, I guess I'm going 80 Pacheon/80 Fire/80 Lightning/60 Cold then. Someone earlier was taking about a HP bonus from a different skill tree, with cold skills instead of this, am I going to be a lot weaker?

Overall I now know that I am going to max fire and lightning, but my question is would I better off with 60 points in something else OTHER than cold entirely?

[glavie]

It used to be a toss up between the Hp bonus from the hueksal tree, and the defense bonus +frost nova from ice. Once euro comes out however ice is supposed to get a new skill that will make it definitely superior to the extra hp from hueksal.
However the new skill might not work well with str builds.

If you do the fire/light/ice build you will be fully farmed with all masteries used.

However!!!!
Unless you farm roughly 300k sp you will have to level with a 6 or 7 gap to meet your sp requirements.
Most people would consider a 6 gap to be painfully large, and this game is supposed to be fun after all.

If this was my character I would not level ice at all, unless the new skill turns out to be really really good.

You also don't have to level light all the way, you could get away with taking it to around lvl 50, and dropping it at that point.

Anyway just some more things to think about. Who knows with euro coming out you might want to go rouge which uses a crossbow.

[caseyd4]

You Could Get the Hp Bonus in Heuskal I think it is I have it at the Moment in My HYB Str But Il be Dropping it back to 0 AS Its a Numbered Bonus ontop of your HP, Where as Your Cold HP thingy is a percentage bonus even if its only @5% it will have greater effect at higher levels.

[MilesFT]

Okay, so I guess its Fire/Light/Pacheon for now, and then ill try to wait on putting anything else into cold until I know more about the euro stuff.

You mentioned getting Light to only level 50? What skills do I miss out on max levels of if I did that? The max grasswalk and max phantom seem really nice.

[caseyd4]

Personally I love Light Because of The Imbue Transfer, and the Mag Increase Buff. Phantom Walk is Immerterial to me, Im a Hunter and I dont Need to Chase People I need to protect the Transport.. Light Imbue& Bezerker Arrow and all the mobs and NPC Thieves around the Transport are Dead Allowing me to Trail Behind out of Sight and letting the Thieves Jump in ... Fire imbue Will Be My Sacrifice Light is not much less Damage and if I could Find the Link here: http://www.silkroadforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=49138

So the added bonus of the transfer does it for me and With Cold to Freeze the mobs and Uniques and If im luck non Immune Thieves...

But as I said im building my Char as a Hunter not a PvP

[HertogJan]

I couldnt life with my lighting maxed, I need to run from or catch up with people.

If you leave lighting at 50, you will be very very slow if you compare it with the people that maxed it. And honestly caseyd4, I cant see how you are having fun without lighting maxed if youre a hunter. You never job war? And what if a thief comes along that is stronger you never run? Or never need to catch up with a thief that is faster then you?

[MilesFT]

A few more questions, I have been reading about a 90 cap in the expansion... does this mean that each mastery will be able to go to 90 but the 300/300 total limit will still exist? If thats the case, would it be best for me to completely drop cold all together until everything for the expansion has been confirmed? Also, Is it ok to get fire leveled up now since I know that I will be using it, or should I keep using cold for now and just not put points in it at all?

Another question (off topic) does silkroad allow dual boxing characters? If I wanted to make a healer on a different account to follow me around, is that against the rules to have multiple accounts?

[EllisD]

for a pure str lvl 77 bow user named Tomiotar

Ive seen you incorrectly quote his build a few times.

Hes a 1:1 Hybrid.

EDIT: omfg i typed a response that was a bit lengthy, hit submit, browser lost connection so i shut it down (instead of hitting reload...usually causing a double or triple post) and now...its gone Lets see if i can remember what i wrote, lol

A few more questions, I have been reading about a 90 cap in the expansion... does this mean that each mastery will be able to go to 90 but the 300/300 total limit will still exist? If thats the case, would it be best for me to completely drop cold all together until everything for the expansion has been confirmed? Also, Is it ok to get fire leveled up now since I know that I will be using it, or should I keep using cold for now and just not put points in it at all?

Another question (off topic) does silkroad allow dual boxing characters? If I wanted to make a healer on a different account to follow me around, is that against the rules to have multiple accounts?

90 cap is not coming with this update. We are only getting Euro, Skills to lvl 80, and a few other things that can be looked up on the official site, or in general discussion. You are correct that at lvl 90 the masteries will be able to go to lvl 90 (they can always be as high as your level, but not higher. You are also correct in saying that the 300 mastery limit will still exist.

For delevelling masteries, i really wouldnt worry about it right now. Its still early in the game for you and you are nowhere near your 300 masteries. If you dont have the money for it, then simply skip it until you feel you have the funds to do so.

About dual-boxing. Joymax lets you create 5 accounts per IP i believe, so yes, its possible. Most use 2 pc's to stall and make money (on one machine), while they are out grinding with their main character (on another machine). One thing that needs to be taken into consideration though, is the login situation. It is already painfully hard to login sometimes, so with 2 pc's, you gotta do it twice Honestly, i dont see too much of a benefit in a healer following you around. They wouldnt be grinding therefore not making money, but you would have to fully equip them with gear in order for them to survive while following you, therefore costing you almost double (cause you have to equip yourself also)

[MrFudge]

pure str bow 80 fire 80 light 80 pach 60 ice.

dont use fire imbue if you really like ice imbue, damage difference isnt anything to worry about, its only about 100-300 off at high lvls which is like nothing.

you can use protectors cuz int's are an easy kill with antidevil steel, but garms would be best just in case you dont crit.

get all skills under pacheon except for the atumn wind series cuz its barely stronger than antidevil and it has no crit increase so its pretty much useless.

i was gonna go 90 fire 90 light 90 pacheon, but i think 80 pach 80 fire 80 ight 60 ice would be better sacrificing a bit of attack for a bit more defense.

pure str bow owns right now, but you have to know how to play it. If you bot or whatever, theres no way you can be an effective bow. its all about experience, dont expect to automatically be good (if you want that choose the no brains build - pure str fire glaive).

good luck.

[MilesFT]

Okay, so for now I'm not going to put any more points into cold then. Just going to work on maxing Fire and Light. You said I should be using garments? The in game description says it reduces mp usage or something, does it? If a skill cost 80mp to use with protector, how much would it cost with garments on?

[IguanaRampage]

Well prot takes 10% of the cost, garms take 20%. So it would take roughly... 71 mp with garms? Something pretty close to that. Nah... the biggest bonus of garms is A) defense against mag atks--- even glaivers have a tough time against full int nukes even with extra hp, and bows don't even have that extra hp to help them survive and B) extra speed.

I personally would wear protector right now. Bows eat nukers alive for the most part, except for good hybrids, and they have a very tough time against str builds, at least until the new skills come. After that, we'll see.

[MrFudge]

Well prot takes 10% of the cost, garms take 20%. So it would take roughly... 71 mp with garms? Something pretty close to that. Nah... the biggest bonus of garms is A) defense against mag atks--- even glaivers have a tough time against full int nukes even with extra hp, and bows don't even have that extra hp to help them survive and B) extra speed.

I personally would wear protector right now. Bows eat nukers alive for the most part, except for good hybrids, and they have a very tough time against str builds, at least until the new skills come. After that, we'll see.

the hp passive is like barely anything when i can just antidevil crit my way out of that. glaivers are lucky they have that hp or theyd die quicker by my deathly blows.

[monkey289]

Personally, I like ice imbue, and I'm only getting fire for the buffs and passive. With a 5 or 6 gap (all the way, of course ), would I survive with pacheon, ice, fire and lightning (fire can lag, I don't mind)

[HertogJan]

Till level 52 or so you can do with a 4-5 gap. After that just focus on 2 main trees first and then put all the sp you have spare in the other threes.

Atleast that is how I did it, and at level 75 I got all the skills I want, now I am 0 gapping till 80 and then 7 or 9 gapping to farm.
Depending on wich book I can get with wich gap ^^.

[glavie]

for a pure str lvl 77 bow user named Tomiotar

Ive seen you incorrectly quote his build a few times.

Hes a 1:1 Hybrid.

Wow your right I just checked. That is a pretty big mistake I made.

So that means the difference in imbue damage between ice and fire should be less. Then tomiotar since imbue is powered by your int stats which you will have very few of.

[legendhavoc]

Fire imbue Will Be My Sacrifice Light is not much less Damage

Lightning lowers parry though.. and Pacheon skill raises Hit.ratio so..your gunna hti max over 5 times more often.. id say ur on the right track casey, nice combo with beserk :O

[caseyd4]

If you leave lighting at 50, you will be very very slow if you compare it with the people that maxed it. And honestly caseyd4, I cant see how you are having fun without lighting maxed if youre a hunter. You never job war? And what if a thief comes along that is stronger you never run? Or never need to catch up with a thief that is faster then you?

Well Firstly let me say my job is a hunter I dont need to stay alive to be succesful, just allow my trader to get away. Secondly with my Reach advantage a thief should never get near me, I know (Usually) Who and what im fighting. Thirdly Its a Bloody Game im not actually going to die if my char does and with all the dying I do Farming is easy no need to De-Level.. (Thats not dying to people my own or +4 my level tho )

[glavie]

Like you see in the post above no guide will be able to build you the perfect character. A guide is the authors personal opinion on what is best, that doesn't mean it will work for everyone.
For example pure int bow is considered the worst bow build by at least 90% of the people who play this game. Yet there are a few who enjoy there int bow characters, and wouldn't think of trying a different build.
The trick is to find what works best for you. I do suggest you watch a few job wars/ guild wars, you will get a feeling for what skills you will want and how your character might do at higher level.

[MilesFT]

Well, I just hit level 20, then I died... I had 100 Str after I used my stat points when I leveled, but then after I deleveled and then releveled back to level 20 I only have 98 Str.... Did I lose 2 str permanently? What happened?