I’ve had a little search on this topic but not turned up anything definitive.
I have enjoyed my 2H rifle build so much (Sorcerer, just finishing up Elite) I was thinking of what other ranged characters I can create.
I love the destructive feel of blasting enemies with a rifle, but would like to experience the classic archery feel of RPG games like D2 or Titan Quest (think Amazon or Ranger, respectively) with a Van Helsing style crossbowman.
My concept would be high pierce/poison damage, or possibly bleed too. I guess right now the most viable options for ranged are Fire Strike or Primal/Savagery in the Shaman tree.
I was interested in pairing Solider with Occultist for the pierce/poison or bleed potentials. But from what I’ve read so far, Cadence is pretty lousy for ranged (I see it has the pierce enemies effect, but only on every third strike) so this probably isn’t viable.
Perhaps we’ll have to wait and see if they bring in another ranged attack in the Inquisitor or Necromancer trees.
Cadence is just fine for Ranged. I’ve done it myself, it’s very fun. If you’re worried about the piercing aspect, then you may wish to consider Will Of Fate, or Vortex of Souls, as both cause every ranged attack to pierce, though both are rifles, sadly.
Pierce, AFAIK, doesn’t go wonderfully as ranged, but I’ve not tried it. It does have the Silverbolt going for it.
Poison has the Quillthrower of Dreeg, if you want to do that.
There’s also the Harbinger set, Raka’Jax and Northern Wyrm, if you aren’t super locked to pierce or poison. And those are just the legendaries. Empowered Sparkbolt Arbalest, Nar’s Arcane Destroyer, Empowered Stake Thrower…
Generally, not TOO many amazing crossbows out there compared to rifles. But enough that you’ve got good options. The issue here is less with crossbows and more with specifically pierce/poison crossbows. Not too many options there. I did make my own Harbinger build, ranged Cadence, and I enjoyed it, so I can recommend that.
My first HC build was a Primal Strike crossbow elementalist using Raka’Jax.
It went pretty well and he finished HC ultimate but got one shot by Fabius some time later due to a Nortched Bone crit with terrible DA.
I’ve created Van Helsing, and I’m gonna give Cadence a go.
I’ve already noticed an interesting property of Cadence.
With Fighting Form, which offers pass through enemy: if you are about to hit with the third strike, and you pierce an enemy, that powered strike will hit both the targeted enemy and the enemy hit by the pass through. Which has nice AoE potential!
I was already thinking about pairing it with Nightblade rather than Occultist - the pierce synergies seem most obvious. So it’s nice to see that build is viable!
