Why Stone Arrow?

Honestly, Primeval and Tricksters are all fun and good in large pvp groups where you're not gonna be focussed.
But sadly, in reality they know you're squishy as fuck and they will nuke you down in a matter of seconds.
However Stone Arrows are far different from this.

What do you give up?
You're gonna lose your insane melee shadowsmite. No more dual wield. No more 2h axe.
You're gonna be walking around with a 1h Sword + Shield for more survivability.
You're gonna miss out on some CC's, and teleports.

Where Tricksters & Primevals work very good against mages. They're quite shitty against anything that manages to get in melee range to fuck you up.
See Stone Arrow as the all-rounder that does insane damage. Works well against mages. And works insanely good against melee.

What am I gonna gain?
A great, high damage, stunning and locking down melee combo.
A huge increase in your HP
A huge increase in your block rate
A huge increase in your physical defense

Stone Arrows are often misunderstood. You. Do. NOT. Lose your burst!
If you master this build. And play well. You will win every 1v1.
From Defilers, to Paladins, to Darkunners.. All are no match for a good Stone Arrow!

Honestly, people will drop like flies. Everywhere!


Note: Shadow Step works nice aswell. You could possibly swap stealth for it.

Important note: Knowing your build makes you a good player. Knowing other builds even better makes you a great player.
Spend time reading other builds so you know how you can counter them!

Rotations

CC's
-> - Trip
- Stun
- Stun to Trip
- Shackle
- Snare
- Slow

Breakouts / Anti CC
- Removes Shackle
- Fear immunity

Prefight


Engage
()

Ranged Combo


Stun 1


Stun 2


Melee Full DPS


Explanation

As A Stone Arrow, there are multiple ways to open a fight.
Traditionally you pop and .

After this you proceed with Ranged Combo while you are straving sideways. (NEVER GO BACKWARDS. IT'S SLOW).
If an enemy comes too close, and there's no way to get out of his distance (Ex. Primeval/Darkrunner Drop Backs & Teleports in) you pop and either go for Stun 1, Stun 2, Or full melee rotation.

After pulling this off you , pop and if they happen to be off CD and repeat ranged combo.

This is only a traditional way to play a fight. Please know that during PvP you play against people. People are (generally) not stupid.
Using the same rotation over and over again does not work. Mix it up. Give it your own spice.

People assume you're an archer, so do the unexpected, pop , in, do a full melee combo, make enough distance, and follow up with a ranged combo.

Note: Bullrush -> Shadowsmite fully locks out the opponents skills.[/color]

A good build is a great basis. Adapting to situations and not be doing the expected is what makes you a good player.
PS. Please don't start battles with stealth. Enemy detects you first = game over. It's a bad opener, and it's hella annoying.

Keybinds

Snare (CC/CC Break)
5

Ranged Combo
1-2-3-4

Melee Combo
Q-E-R-T- U(U= Second button on the side of my mouse.)

Stealth + In-Fight Buffs
Shift Q - Shift Q -Shift W - Shift E

Escape
Middle Mouse Button

Long Time Buffs
0 & -

Food / Pots
7-8-9


Don't have a mouse with buttons?
Buy one! It's really nice to have in skill-heavy games.
If you really can't, use some button that's nearby.
Ex; 5 for
Ex; Y for

Gear

Armor


Get a crafted set up to Epherium/Delphinad. Gale stat roll.
Till Conqueror you have a 100% to get the typhoon set.
Then you get to Illustrious which has a chance to get 4 different rolls.;
Desert, Lightning, Squall, Typhoon. ONLY TYPHOON IS UPGRADEABLE
You can salvage illustrious for upgrade pieces. You can make 3 salvaged pieces into one typhoon for a 100% chance on typhoon.
So just calculate that you will need 9x Conqueror for 1x Magnificent.



After this I'd go for Greater Howling Abyss, it can be a grind but it's a good upgrade. It's a bit better than full magnificent so you'll wear and regrade this to full unique untill you switch it out for full ephe. later in the game.

GHA Drops:
First Boss: Helm. (Kite around room & Kill adds when spawned)
Second Boss: Legs. (Kite around room & Let yourself get hit by adds when boss goes in flame)
Third boss: Shoes. (Stand on edges, mage tank on fireplace and spam dps)
Fourth Boss: Hands. (Kite back to second bosses room & dps down)
Fifth Boss: Chest. (Kite around the room, let one guy pick up shield & hug him)
Trash Mobs: Waist/Vambraces. (Just kill everything)

Set bonusses:


Once Auroria unlocks there will be some new aurorian items that boost specific skills.
You will want to swap your gear for the following pieces:

-Auroria Promise Fists - +10% endless arrows damage
-Auroria Wildborn Boots - Decrease Charged Shot Cooldown by 2sec
-Auroria Wildborn Belt - Increase Snare Duration by 2 sec
-Auroria Wildborn Breeches - Charged Bolt damage increased by 10%
Use the remaining items from the GHA set for the +20% crit boost.


Amor in short:
Level 0-50 = Questing Gear
Level 0-50 = Slowly work on set and get full Conqueror/Illustrious Tyhpoon
Early 50's = Find a solid group & spam GHA dungeon and get Auroria set. (Upgrade to unique)
Late 50's = Full Ephi/Delphi Gale Rare (Upgrade till whatever you want)

Armor in Arena
General Armor use: The main gear from above
But, if you're against stun-heavy classes (Nightblades, Blighters..) or any annoying melee class without magic damage you can consider switching to plate. Just grind plate sets while you're looking for leather in GHA.

Set bonus example:



Weapons
Grind Hasla man! The gear is beast! Smack some tempering brushes on them to make them more awesome.
Go to south hasla. Kill mobs in a raid/party and farm 150 tokens you need.
When Tier 2 & Tier 3 of these are unlocked.. Go grind more!



You want to end up with Ephi/Delphi GALE bow, all reforged out.
A Korean Dagger from Library (+90 agi)

Title
Grind Honor points and don't buy any of those worthless 45 day weapons. Grind for the title, upgrade the title whenever you can.
This adds up to +25 of all stats eventually.

Necklace
Do Halcyona war whenever it's up. You get 4 tokens a war.
1 by talking to your factions leader at your base.
3 by killing the enemies artifect and 'looting' it.
This is an upgradable necklace that greatly reduces damage taken.

Cloak
Google - Archeage Jury Duty
Quee up for jury. Sit in the jury 5 times. You get a cloak that gives +7 to all stats.

Lunagems / Lunastones

First off, this is where most people start to get confused.. so be clear;
LunaDROP/LunaFROST/LunaSTONE are all enchants you can only use one per item.
LunaGEMS are the sockets for your gear.

This is how you fill your gear:

(Formatted: Slot Name - Item Name - Item Effect - How to obtain)

LunaStones - Enchants
Bow - Honorbold Sniper's Lunafrost - +2% Ranged DMG. 4k Honor.
Sword - Honorbold Ruker's Lunafrost - +3% melee DMG. 4k Honor.
Shield - Honorhewn Patience Lunafrost - -10 of all damage. 3k Honor.
Helm - Honorbound Tranquil Lunafrost - +20% Stealth Detection. 800 honor.
Chest - Honorbold Warrior's Lunafrost - -3% Damage taken. 2.5k Honor
Legs - +Agility
Gloves - Honorbold Agility Lunafrost - +24% Ranged Critical Damage Increase. 2.5k honor.
Boots - Flawless Assassin Lunafrost - +5% Movement Speed. Alchemy.
Waist - +Agility
Sleeves - +Agility

LunaGems - Sockets
Bow - Vivid Fire Lunagem - Sharpshot - +3 Ranged Attack. Handicraft.
Sword - Vivid Fire Lunagem- Sharpshot - +3 Ranged Attack. Handicraft.
Shield - Vivid Wave Lunagem - Defense/Magic Defense. +50 M.Def / P.Def. Handicraft
Instrument - Vivid Fire Lunagem- Sharpshot - +3 Ranged Attack. Handicraft.
Helm - Vivid Wave Lunagem - Defense/Magic Defense. +50 M.Def / P.Def. Handicraft.
Chest - Lucid Gale Lunagem - Flexibility - +320 Resilience. 500 honor each.
Legs - Lucid Earth Lunagem - Mastery - +235 Toughness. 500 Honor each.
Gloves - Vivid Earth Lunagem: Finesse - +1.5% evasion. Handicraft.
Boots - Vivid Earth Lunagem: Celerity - +2% movement speed. Handicraft.
Waist - Vivid Wave Lunagem - Defense/Magic Defense. +50 M.Def / P.Def. Handicraft.
Sleeves - Vivid Wave Lunagem - Defense/Magic Defense. +50 M.Def / P.Def. Handicraft.

Build Variations

for

No more stealth. But a huge movement speed boost & gap closer.

for

If you're dead set on maxing your ranged DPS.
Will lose a valuable CC / CC Break for that though.

+

for

+

Brings you back to the old build

Level 55

Level 55 will have some different viable builds. The bare minimum is;



In my eyes our defense & sustain skills are still lacking at this point.
At this point you want to ask yourself.. What do I really want? You can add some more useful skills, but will you be able to manage all those buttons?

Something I do want to say - A lot of level 55 builds have combined with .
Even though increases toughens effect by 33%, the skill still is useless.

At level 50 heals you 15 HP/Second. Increase it with 33% will give you 19.5 hp per second. That's fucking useless!
Any hit will hit you for so much more. It'll take at least a minute to recover from a hit.

Don't take toughen! The only way it's remotely viable is in combination with because it gives double mettle generation and you'll be able to pop both and in a fight. Which also only gives a measly 2k HP back in total.

Also, totally not worth the skill points.
Besides, if you manage to get your mettle up so much during fights... you're not playing well.

Anyways. The main build for level 55 will be:



CC's
-> - Trip
- Stun
- Stun to Trip
- Shackle
- Snare
- Slow
- AoE Shackle
- AoE Slow + Attack Slow (Also a bloodthirst builder)

Breakouts / Anti CC
- Removes Shackle
- Fear immunity

Prefight


Opener


Engage
()

Ranged Combo


Stun 1


Stun 2


Melee Full DPS

How do I kill..

-There will be videos in addition later-

Daggerspells
Daggerspells generally all play the same. It's pretty much the most played class. And the most easy to counter aswell.

Easy way - Just do your pre-combat buffs and do ur ranged rotation. He'll be dead.
Real Fight way - Close in on him as fast as you can. Have up. This makes you immune to fear.
99 out of the 100 daggerspells will try to Fear -> Bubble -> Meteor you. Immune to fear? Shit.
They'll try to bubble you but you'll interrupt this by doing a stun combo, go back to ranged and finish him off with your ranged combo.

You happened to get caught in the bubble? Turn your back towards the Daggerspell and start mashing backdrop.
You WILL do backdrop before hitting the ground so you won't receive falling damage and you'll also close in on the Daggerspell.
Do your stun rotation, back to ranged and finish it off with a ranged combo.

Video's

-Freedich PvP - 1v1 - 5v5-

Sorta bad video. Will get some better footage, just wanted a vid up asap.

Update Notes

23/10/2014 - Started writing down updates.
26/10/2014 - Updated equipment
5/11/2014 - Spelling errors