I read that a common problem with DW ranged, is that you are kinda forced into a stationary gunturret playstyle. This due to the speed and gap closers of mobs later on, but also due to DW ranged having long WPS animations. And for say INQ, the seal is not really made for kiting if you go that class. It is a bit disheartening reading that “every build is melee” later on due to this. But oh well, it is what it is.
One of my favorite builds thus far, has been a 2H ranged shieldbreaker. I just totally fell in love with the “I can tank to a good degree but I still need to kite”, leading to skating in and out of combat and using disengage as well. I loved this playstyle because it was very active.
I’m making a 2H ranged build again, this time poison based. My single target skill is decided, but my AOE/Clear skill is not. So as AOE damage, I was wondering, since I’m kiting anyway, if maybe poison guardians of empyrion could work. Because these would deal permanent - 100% uninterupted poison AOE damage while I’m kiting. I’ve also considered blight fiend (hybrid), for the necromancer WPS procs and flat life, as well as an exclusive there. Dreeg’s evil eye /w the transmuter could also work I guess, and blood of dreeg is awesome.
I’m just wondering what you guys would recommend, for poison AOE damage to a 2H ranged build which will kite. Could also maybe convert inquisitor censure aura to poison, but it hurts so much losing -35% fire resist as that would become useless.
Binding Tainted Erruption to Guardians is really fun (huge Poison explosion),
because then it’s not centered around the player but around Guardians.
It’s great defensively because it confuses a lot of monsters for a short period of time.
I just need something to deal heavy AOE near me or in an area near me to not get swarmed to death kinda. Hmm tained eruption only has 1.5s CD IIRC. So that does sound fun!
You could also use Amarasta Blade Burst for that with Ugdenbog Bilelauncher
or Judgment if you have lots of Physical to Acid conversion
even Corruption if using Putrid Necklace.
Also Tainted Corruption I mentioned bound to Curse of Frailty is an instant bomb that confuses and damages all monsters around you because CoF is a spell you cast first and has big AoE so it’s proccing instantly.
I have no useful feedback on acid gunning other than good luck, it’s had some items changes that may make it decent.
Regarding the above though, there are definitely different style gunners. Generally you have shotgun or railgun approaches which can make a difference in your positioning and how much you want to facetank for damage. Firestrike likes storm spread and jaxxon and other shotguns because each projectile creates brimstone procs that jack your damage up to the moon. With passthrough it’s not quite as important to be point blank to clear trash but you’ll still want to for big targets so the full shotgun hits. RF passthrough paladin would fall into this bucket as well.
What I’d call railgun setups are the cadence gunners, anything really pushing smite without inquisitor wps, or passthrough upheaval savagery or passthrough primal strike. These generally don’t gain anything by being in facetank range 24/7 unless you’ve got other important procs at close range. So for example smite based stuff you can do lots of positioning+proccing with vire. Shoot to draw aggro, vire away from the pack so the form a congo line, then pew pew away. On nemesis you’re generally VMing through the boss to get those vire procs and a brief period where you aren’t getting hit.
You’ll always have some mobs trying to rush your face, but even kiting casters have to deal with that.