Bow leveling early in league FnD VS TW

So lately I was thinking a lot about Bow Deadeye characters in the game, long forgotten leveling characters, starting strong as league starters may finally arrive and could rise in future, maybe finally leveling will be a lot smoother with new and reworked gems.

I am long time TS fan, and was doing it every league, and I played about like 7 leagues or something.

Everytime it would take me 4~ hours ti kill Act 5 Kitava, and I would see my friends hammering with casters, but that is the price you have to pay if you are a bow lover.

Now it felt different, I did kitava under 4hours, however I had Quill's rain 3hours in the league so that might helped me a lot. Once I got quill's going it was incredibly smooth with RoA, but I am in a high debate with my self right now so I had to share my thought with other fellow Bow Users

For Deadeye Ascendancy, we have lot of options, to be exact, 3 options are in play:

Rush Fast and Deadly - it really looks very good for projectiles based leveling build, it gives u incredibly 40% projectile dmg, 15% Attack sped, some accuracy, and top on that 100% cooldown blink arrow recovery speed. So this basically means, you can use constantly spam blink arrows which is OP in my opinion, considering the fact it's a new league and u wont have that much of Movement speed, and honestly those numbers for projectiles plus some accuracy look really incredible. (Take a note: Fast and Deadly isn't the best option later in the game when u want to maximize your mapping effeciency).

*Rush Gathering Winds - So second option's what most of us do is Tailwind buff from mention ascendancy. What tailwind do it does make u faster for 10%, and from what I know this 10% refer to everything, including movement speed and dmg (and it can be buffed through and it stacks with other stats). Tailwind always feel't good, but is it really the best option?

* Far Shot - Apparently, Far Shot looking like one decent option as well, up to 30% more damage with projectiles, and consider you will usually stay at distance, this might be one of the top options as well, but if you take far shot then you lose bunch of projectile dmg and aps from Fast and deadly, and you use Tailwind from Gatherin Winds.

So honestly I would highly appreciate to post your comment, if you are long time bow user and have a lot of experience with the Bow's, I would love to hear what you have to say, what would be most effecient way to go?

I was using TS for leveling.

In 3.4 I tried RoA and found smoother and faster than TS. I didnt need any single target setup.

If you dont play SSF I recommend to get Thiefs Torment ring. I have no idea how it would be without it.

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pphnx wrote:

I was using TS for leveling.

In 3.4 I tried RoA and found smoother and faster than TS. I didnt need any single target setup.

If you dont play SSF I recommend to get Thiefs Torment ring. I have no idea how it would be without it.

So you did it on SSF?

You managed to level it withou Stormcloud? You can usually find one stormcloud 1-2h in a league if u loot a chaos orb. Also was RoA ur option till the maps ? How was ur Bow progress till the maps, if you didnt go with StormC?

I Was leveling with TR just fine (Agony crawler is also a thing)

You can also use added cold / light gems with any fast bow.

I just checked PoB with deatils with rare iLvl 30~ gear (the gear when u get to choose ascendancy), and I come up with those results:

FnD definetly gives u tons of DPS. FnD gives u 100% more dmg than the Tailwind can provide you. And on top of that it gives you spammable Blink arrow button.

Tailwind - If you dont have any movement speed boots Tailwind active will provide you 9% more movement speed. On the other side if you do have 10% increased moevment speed boots, Tailwind will provide you with 12% more movement speed, and it stacks, Tailwind also stack with ONSLAUGHT which is very important if you manage to keep onslaught up all the time.

So at the the end of the day we come with with 9% more movement speed (take a note Tailwind does provide DMG numbers as well, especially the attack speed rate),

vs

100% Dmg increase + Spammable Blink arrow.

Tough choice I would say!

if Im a deadeye, I liked ice shot for clear in ssf

but overall, leveling bows in ssfhc is probably the toughest leveling process among build archetypes that are ok at low levels.

you're very bow-dependent, both base and mods.

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grepman wrote:

if Im a deadeye, I liked ice shot for clear in ssf

but overall, leveling bows in ssfhc is probably the toughest leveling process among build archetypes that are ok at low levels.

you're very bow-dependent, both base and mods.

SSF is another story TBH, I am talking about trade leagues.

For SSF idk If I would ever start bow character, but as I mentioned it is more possible now, much better than before.


Also there are reworked and new skill in game Toxic Rain and Caustic Arrow.

Anyone has experience with those as well? Like I know you would probably take a Pathfinder if you went one of those, but how was it as Pathfinder? Has anyone did this as a Deadeye and transition later ?

I used to use RoA exclusively, but this league I leveled with CA and now switched to TS with CA as secondary.

Seems to work really well to fire off one or two CA shots and then hammer with TS.

Still have trouble with bosses though, but I think that is more due to the current armor I have than anything else.

Leveled a Toxic Rain Pathfinder with a quill rain this league, and it was the fastest I've ever leveled. Mana was a bit sketchy until I got Thief's Torment, though.

The sad thing, though, for me, was getting a lot of uniques early on, so they were very low level, which doesn't help a lot later in the game. Thief's Torment has been elusive for me.