Wich is the best class to play with sword and shield alternating with bow?

Hi,

Wich is the best class to play with sword and shield alternating with bow?

Thank you.

None. You'll want to have 2 seperate characters for that. Picking up a bunch of sword/shield nodes and bow nodes on the same character results in a seriously gimped build terrible at both tasks.

...and if I'd like to focus on sword and shield? Wich one would be better?

if you want to make such a build from a roleplay-perspective you could use one combo (sword/shield OR bow/quiver) just for the last shot on boss-mobs with a attackskill/culling strike/increased rarity combo as a finishing move.

so you would make a pure bow OR sword'n'board-build skill- and passive-wise and just switch weapons, when your enemy reaches the last 10% of his lifepool.

but that is the only semi-viable option i could imagine...

edit: for pure sword (physical-damage) and shield duelist could be the best starting area. on the other hand swords have the accuracy-bonus, so you should go for crit as well, which is usually better in elemental-builds. templar gives good stuff for ele-damage but has close to no dex. ranger could be a viable option maybe. hard to tell, we would need to know, what you want to do with your shield and sword (which skill do you want to use?).

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DarthBalrog wrote:

...and if I'd like to focus on sword and shield? Wich one would be better?

Duelist would be best for sword and shield. Ranger for bow.

Thank you for the replys m8s.
My main is a witch. I like her.

But, as Ed said, I'd like to play a melee character just for fun rpg perspective. :)
For what you said it looks like I should go for duellist. Because I prefer sword and shield, and used the bow sometimes for fun...

Just to know, which are the best weapons for templar?

Templar favours staffs, but you can easily go any heavy 2h weapon on a templar, or pure spells.

For sword and shield builds I prefer Duelist, Marauder or Templar. Which one is the better would depend which skillgems and passive keynodes you plan to go for.

I tried to do a hybrid bow + and sword/shield build with my first character ever (Duelist) and it failed spectacularly, so I don't recommend it like people have been saying.

That said, if all you want to do is be able to mess around in Normal in softcore for fun, then your best bet is probably Duelist. He has the easiest access to both sword and bow nodes, as well as Iron Grip which you'll want.

An alternative, however, if you want to try and make it work at higher level, may be to go with a DoT build. Use Poison Arrow for AoE and switch to Viper Strike for single target. In that case you'd probably want to start at Ranger to take advantage of the best access to the DoT / Chaos Damage nodes.

It is in my opinion quite possible to make a build that can be effective when using both sword & shield and a bow. Yes it'll be harder to play and it'd take more thought put into your choice of skills and build, but it is indeed possible.

It is however true that there is not really a best class for it since it depends on what you want to do (skill choices etc.). Iron grip below duelist is something to consider though since it makes strength give damage bonuses to ranged attacks too.

The most important thing is to not get discouraged if it doesn't go as well as hoped, and just try again after learning more about the game.