Angelic Sniper - Discontinued

Having tested it for 73 levels now, and referencing @Precaria's guide (adding some actual experience with her), here is the optimized Angelic Sniper build, for current level cap.

Overview:
Angelic Snipers (Support Type) utilizes 2 main skills, Sanctuary and Snipe. With the improved combos, Angelic Snipes are agile, so we can position ourself in the perfect spot to lay down the Sanctuary to protect our party / mostly the tank, and do damage at the same time. From my experience, I can either keep the current aggro holder save to finish the battle, or step in and be the tank myself when needed.

With the improved version, Angelic Snipers gained agility and enhanced damage output due to shorter and faster combos. We also increased versatility as we can now focus on 1 buff, 1 role, to support the tank. With more people realizing the importance of a healer role now, we can focus on Sanctuary so the healers can stay further out and focus on healing. This versatility will be appreciated by both tanks and healers, bridging the gap in between.

Stats: DEX (will worry about future growth later)

Combo:
Damage combo: Impact > Snipe (Smite) > Mobea Shot (Consec)
MP Saver Combo: Mobea Shot > Sanctuary (Save) > Impact (Consec) > Snipe (Smite)

Damage combo is used sparingly when you see that sweet moment where you can do heavy Snipe damage. You can use Smash to make the animation shorter, I do not have the SP for it.

MP Saver combo is what sets Angelic Snipers aside from the others. Sanctuary reduces fractional damage by 95%. With this combo you also bring out 110% of Snipe damage compared with Impact (Save) > Snipe (Smite) type, which brings out 90%.

Core skills:
Mobea shot lvl 1
Impact lvl 7
Snipe lvl 10
Sanctuary lvl 10

Other skills to include:
Quick Draw lvl 10
Crit-Up lvl 10
HP Boost lvl 10
MP Charge lvl 1

Useful skill that comes with this build, that you need to know you have:
Mini heal lvl 5
Recover lvl 5

Equipment
Main: WBG-Boss
Sub: Elemental arrow (for you to gain elemental bonus on attacks)
Armour: Oracle Robe (Roga)
Add: War helm-Boss (Warmonger)
Spec: DEX II (Ooze)

With my gears, my damage is decent, but would be optimal if you can lay hands on player-crafted versions.



The old Angelic Sniper build is here saved for future use. It won't be too useful until we max 2 stats so we will revisit this idea in future.

Spoiler

This is a new build that came to mind today, I haven't even started the character, but will do so tonight and update if it works well.

Now that save and impact are not a secret anymore, and that people are starting to look at the possibilities with second stat, most Snipers are probably thinking on how to further enhance their Snipe damage. This is not it. not exactly. This does take advantage of a new phenomenon called proration to increase your Snipe damage, but that is not the main purpose of this build. If you are still interested, read on ^^

Stat: Max DEX, then INT as secondary.

Weapon: Bow gun
Sub weapon: Magic device (Proration Type), Elemental arrow (Support type)
-15% atk, but with 4atk, per DEX, your atk is still considerable higher than 2h and Bows, it's expendable for the purpose of this build.

General Equipment tips:
The general rule of thumb for this build is to maximize Snipe damage (crit rate) and Cspd. With 1k Cspd, you shave a second off every spell you cast, shortening overall combo duration, allowing for more mobility. However, you also need decent Crit rate to pull off a good Snipe. I picture the third stat for this build will naturally VIT, so we will not have any points left for CRT. I don't have a lot of Spina for player crafted gears, but I'd strongly recommend C-gears + Cspd xtals to optimize this build. Once the slow cast is outta the way, this build will be more effective.

Cast speed:
Reaching 1k Cspd on this build makes a world of a difference for this build. The cast time for all support and magic are reduced, allowing shorter intervals in between Snipes. This increases overall DPS.

Support Type
Combo: Sanctuary
Bless > Sanctuary (Save) > Snipe (Smite) > Gloria
Combo: Sanctuary (Long)
Bless > Sanctuary (Save) > Gloria (Consec) > Impact (Consec) > Snipe (Snipe)
Combo: Boss farm (short)
Bless > Impact (Save) > Snipe (Smite) > Gloria (Consec)
Proration Type
Combo: Boss farm (adjusted thanks to BK's pointer)
Bless > Magic Lance (Save) > Magic Javalin (Consec) > Impact (Consec) > Snipe (Smite) > Gloria (Swift)
Combo: Boss farm (Pretty version, my personal choice out of the 3)
Bless > Magic Lance (Save) > Impact (Consec) > Snipe (Smite) > Gloria (Swift)

Combo: Mob / Mat farm
Bless > Storm (Save) > Impact (Consec) > Arrow rain (Smite)

Skills:
Javalin 10 (5 if you opt for short version)
Lance 10 (5 if you opt for short version)
Impact 10
Storm 5 (just for gathering mobs during farming for arrow rain to kill, 10 it if you have the SP)
Bless 10
Gloria 10
Snipe 10
Rain 10
HP boost 10

Quick draw should be priority as soon as SP is available.

As you can see, this build is to utilize Priest & Magic to build down boss' defense against physical skills. With the proper elemental Bowgun, and taking advantage of proration, damage will still be decent. Also, this will allow Snipers to contribute to the party when they wait patiently for the right moment to Snipe again. Healthier tank = Safer Sniper ^^

*ps: if you have trouble chaining combo with Bless as a starting skill, a normal hit before the combo will do the trick.
*pps: if you have a farm Mage and do not intend to use this for farming, the SP saved from not getting arrow rain and storm will be more than enough for Quick draw, making this build instantly useful ^^
*ppps: this build has a girlie name, but picturing the graphics when this build is in action, I think it fits in the bill.

 

Angelic sniper, this build idea is like a dps buffer and healer, it will make the other snipers hit higher damage because of the proration caused by its magic skills and will always get supporter rank and frequent tank rank due to the accumulated aggro by bless and gloria.

 

DAYUMMMMM DIS BUILD LOOKS AMAZINGGGG

 

I had tried a build similar to this.
It's the same concept with my fairy brawler where you max Arrow Jav Lance and get Insta Cast Impact.
my combo is Arrow Lance Save Impact Storm Charge

I didn't go as planned. but this might do some trick

 

You might wanna consider getting War Cry as support

 

So I started it, but it's still at too early of a stage to comment on its usefulness yet.

However, a recent thread in this section led to an interesting comparison, and to me the obvious choice is Snipers should go for short combos to maximize their output.

Having said that, I feel that my combo listed here is too long to a Sniper's benefit.

Adding a short version of the combo:
Boss: Bless > Impact (save) > Snipe (Smite) > Gloria (Consec)

If opting for the short version, then Javalin & Lance will not needed to be lvl 10.

This also frees up the option of using shield as a sub versus MD, taking further advantage of Bless and Gloria. However, it is less 'pretty' ^^

 

does Bless as an opener really work? I tried to do Bless > Impact > Storm before, but I always lose target-lock after Bless.

 

If you did a normal hit so you have a target, it will combo. If you didn't, bless will activate and combo stops after.

That's how I remember it when I had bless, will test and confirm as soon as I can.

 

So I need more Magic that actually hits to count? Might need to go back to the long version of the combo. But I think @Mugami has a dual sword that has Storm and all that (a 6-hit AOE dual sword), maybe he can lend a hand here ^^

 

Thanks, BK!

I've adjusted the long combo so it uses the 2 magics before Snipe. However, this goes back to a question I've asked before in Mage section, what are the status ailment Javalin causes?

The answers I got from that thread were somewhat iffy.

After field test: Javalin does 2 things:
1. Flinch
2. Add status ailment based on element

It's 3 hits at lvl 10, so it's 3 flinches. I only have it at lvl 5 due to lack of SP. The downside to this is the cast-time. Even with full DEX, the cast time is horrible, well 2 secs, but slow enough to get beaten by most red-zones.

 

Thank you, Kariin ^^

 

So at level 65/66, my highest snipe against Roga was 23k, average 11-16k.

I don't know if these numbers are bad, but from what battle results show, I'm on par when it comes to attacker rank. The first combo works the best as far as damage is concerned. Only the short version worked against DG. The pretty version is balanced. It requires user to adjust combo prior to entering battle, which is fun for me.

My bless gives 37 per tick which is terrible. Mage in party has bless that gives 107 per. However, bless stack now, instead of override like they used to. So with our combined effort, we are recovering 144 per tick to entire party. However, I'm only DEX right now, when we max 2 stats, this will work nicely alongside a Mage.

I think right now, this build is viable for a support type archer. It makes me happy. I'm keeping it ^^

 

Nice and fun build
btw, bless doesnt stack IIRC.

 

In the party I was in last night, the Mage and I both used Bless. I see 2 green bubbles with numbers 107 and 37. I assumed 107 was his Bleas and 37 was mine. I can't see my bless double proc. He and I were neck to neck in Support rank, so both our blesses should be active?

Or it could be that his cancelled mine then I recast to cancel his?