As the thread title indicates after having lots of fun with a melee character I would now like to try a ranged attacker for a change. However there are so many options it seems very hard to pick.
For a weapon based approach the consensus best option seems to be dual pistols utilizing Fire Strike. The big decision then is merely what second mastery to pick besides Demolitionist. Occultist is often mentioned because of Curse of Frailty, however that one seems to be rather short ranged if I interpret the tooltips correctly. Is there no more far reaching - literally - alternative that will allow me to play my character as a ranged attacker all the time without having to dip in and out fo melee range for maximum efficiency?
For a pure casting approach I am even more lost. Is this even viable at all. If yes, what spells work best as ‘core’ attack? What masteries complement them the best?
Ranged cadence is probably the most beginner friendly since commandos are a tanky class. Ranged firestrike is fun and has higher dps but is much more squishy. I’m personally waiting for the expansion to be released to make a new ranged character because one of the classes has a lot of ranged skills.
The Explosive Strike (Demolitionist) skill is the best option for any gunner, and the entire Firestrike line works well with a lot of different subclasses: you can go with Soldier for more physical, Arcanist for more elemental, Occultist for more Chaos, or Shaman for more Lightning. The Nightblade won’t synergize very well.
Cadence (Soldier) takes practice to use with a ranged weapon properly, since you have to position yourself at the right time in order to hit the most targets with Fighting Form. With Explosive Strike you just shoot and things die. Extremely strong versus single targets and still has enough AoE to get by though.
Primal Strike (Shaman) allows you to make an amazing Lightning gunner, definitely give it a try.
You can alternatively use the Shaman’s Savagery skill with guns, but you’ll struggle to deal AoE damage so I wouldn’t recommend it.
Pure casting has a LOT of options for core attacks. I’d personally recommend Dreeg’s Evil Eye (Occultist) and Panetti’s Replicating Missile (Arcanist).
In my opinion i just don’t like hybrid builds. Because they are good examples of saying “Master of none, jack of all trades”… I can not satisfy myself with the one part of damage output because the damage is divided.
Fire Strike can be good with rifle too, if you have a good one. And Occultist is often the best choice for Fire Strike-based character, as he has great synergy with both elemental and chaos damage.
Sure, attack range is GD is a bit limited, to prevent abuses like offscreen kills, etc. It’s limited for ALL abilities, not just Fire Strike.
Sure, ranged is a bit overnerfed in GD, but still viable.
As for casters - most of them dont possess “lifesteal”, but if you like kiting playstyle, they’re great too.
Occultist or Sorcerer seem to me to be the best for the dual pistol ranged. I don’t find them all that nerfed, but i never played them before the nerf. Pick your two favorite Fire/Elemental/Poision/Chaos guns and boost up the Flame touch and Witchfire/Elemental Exchance and Firestrike. Most times that is enough to do as you say and stay out of melee range, but the bigger problem is what to do when they close in. A stun is handy, like stunjacks, or FlashFreeze, to let you reposisition to a distance. If you let the items guide you, Mauraders set will lead you to be a Fire/Cold Sorcerer, or maybe an Occulstist DualSlinger with plagueborn and slimebolter and transmuted dreegs…I think i will try this last one soon.
As for casters, Panettis is the most obvious choice, but item skills seem to come as an afterthought when talking builds. Those add on skills like Greater Fire/Ice-blast, Noxious bomb, Chaos Bolts, are suitable as core attacks. It just means your damage output is going to be dependent on items, devotions, % mainhand, and other passive buffs rather than skill points in the ability skill. They usually have a high cast speed and there are usually proc pieces that will give your core attack some extra oomph. You wont see that proc damage in the dps sheet, but you are still dealing it. You have to get a little creative with casters.
Just about any masteries can be a caster, in fact, all of them can. Forcewave is a great caster skill that draws hard from the main and offhand pulling all the effects and damages with it, and nightblade could make a physical caster with the phantasmal blades. Start with the offhand for a caster…for instance, Dementia gives Aether/Cold buffs, and the empowered gives skill boosts to Arcanist and Nightblade, then my caster is a spell breaker and Ill use either Blades or Greater Iceblast as my main damage, ill take elemental exchange even though the mainhand draw is inefficient, and maybe aether tendril and some arcane blaze items…and pierce/cold/aether aura…lots of ways to go just off that one item.