Arcane Archer

I'm giving the Elven Arcane Archer a try. So far Olen has hit level 6 and gotten his first set of AA enhancements.

• The 100% returning +1 arrows are nice. no more buying normal arrows. This will be great once I get to the +4 and +5 modifiers.
  
• The true strike is kinda meaningless right now. I think it will be nice with greater slaying and power 5 bows to guarantee the first hit (not the save I know, but at least hitting the target gives the effect a chance).
  

You have to choose an arcane enhancement line (meaning you have to splash), or you can take mental toughness. I chose not to splash yet until they release the ranger capstones. If I decide to splash at that point I will switch out the feat.

Olen will be ranged first and sword and board second. Combat Expertise would have been nice, but my starting INT is to low. I may have to burn one stat upgrade at level 8,12, or 16 on INT and hope for a +3 tome in the reaver to get that feat eventually.

I will post stats at some point, but he is basically max dex, with wis, con, and a little strength. Cha and Int were dump stats. I would rather not splash since my dunp stats would impact the splash classes. If the capstones aren't good then maybe I would splash some fighter for feats, or monk for the Wis AC Bonus (assuming they don't change it.)

At level 6 the bows I am using are Silver Bow and a +1 Acid of Pure Good Long Bow.

I was thinking of making vorpalbunny an arcane archer.

Shootz is 12 lvls ranger and 1 lvl rogue. I took rogue at first lvl. I switched her from deepwood sniper to arcane archer and haven't looked back. Let me tell you a little about how I've done my ranger.

I set her up to be a bow shooting trap monkey. Therefore, outside of dex, all her scores are good not great. Dex is around 30. Int is around 20. Wis is around 14 to 16, something in that range. Str is 15, con is like 14. Cha is somewhere kinda high. My UMD is i think just short of 30. So far, I've been able to do all traps, even on elite, for every quest I've ran with her.

To get ready for arcane archer, I took mental toughness. With her wis and some other upgrades, including a magi item, I have 344 mana. Not bad for 12 lvls of ranger. Because of this, I NEVER use the 100% returners. I summon the ghost touch force arrows. They are ghost touch, cause force damage (no one seems to have a resistance to this) and if I can backstab with a bow that does more than one type of damage, I can get 4 or 5 red numbers!

Also, this allowed me to save APs for increased dex, ranged damage and attack. And to keep my trap monkey skills up. I can barkskin myself, energy resist and protect. This keeps me from spending APs on ranger resist energy. So much the better.

I currently mostly use a +2 wounding long bow of pure good, but I keep a ton of bows on me for "specialties." I have a silver bow, a +1 flaming long bow of destruction (lowers foe's ac), a cursespewer, a paralyzer, a banisher, a cold damage bow, a transmuter, a construct bane bow. I think that's all I carry that I actually use. Notice no ghost touch? Because I use those arrows! With my mana, I can summon 3400 ghost touch force arrows. Now, if I summon a couple hundred in a tavern or city, my mana regens. Then, I just summon when another stack for 10 mana when I notice that I've reloaded. So far, I haven't run out of arrows. And, having a couple of quivers, I seem to have reserves of arrows from looting to fill any gaps. Not that there are really ever any gaps.

That's how I built her and she's one of my fav toons to run. The downside? She sucks at soloing. Her melee weapons aren't good outside of duel wielding disruptors.

I'm looking forward to the GT Force Arrows... I don't have them yet....

Sorry Morrek, I didn't notice what level you get the GT force arrows. I changed from Deepwood Sniper to Arcane Archer somewhere around level 10 or 11 ranger, so I could get those already. I just assumed they were available at level 6. See, I tried to do deepwood sniper at level 6 and Elven Arcane Archer at level 9. At the time, I didn't know that you could not do both. I met every requirement for Arcane Archer but it would not let me select it. Because I had 75% returners from House D, I didn't bother to make the switch right away. Once I did however, I was super happy with the decision!