Hi, IGN Bloodraven, from Smuggler's Paradise P2P server.
There aren't many things to be said about me, but since it is required, I will tell you some. I've been playing scout for the most part of my allods career, starting from CB1 up until 3.0 Game of the gods expansion on with I picked up playing my paladin reincarnation for a while up until the release of the P2P server back on NA.
Once P2P server went live, needless to say I went back to the class I played the most, scout.
A scout's role is a party is simple. DPS. That was the only role they gave us, and the only one we'll ever have, and if that wasn't clear enough already, that's the role that I will explain in this entry for you today.
Before starting my guide, I would like to briefly explain the new stat system, especialy the offensive stat points grid.
Vigor - A flat damage and healing increase stat. Can be increased by gear, glyphs, and from certain rubies.
Stamina - The counterpart of Vigor, Stamina is a flat increase in your hitpoints. Like Vigor, it can be increased by gear, glyphs and rubies.
Besides the two main stats, we have 8 new "secondary ones". Each of the following stats can be increased by upgrading gear, by certain rubies, or other items ( for example, alchemy pots, elixirs, stats recieved from leveling etc. )
Proficiency - Much like Vigor, it will increase your damage and healing done by a certain %. One of the two main stats that I recommend spending points in. The more you have, the more damage you'll do, pretty simple.
Determination - Determination will increase your damage output by a certain percent ( depending how mnay points you have invested in it ) as you get hit. Since as a scout your #2 job is to not get hit in PvE or PvP ( #1 being to DPS ), I would advise against stacking points in Determination, as it is only valuable to those who tend to get hit a lot ( FH's, tanks ).
Brutality - The second main stat that I reccomend spending points in along with Proficiency. Brutality will increase your damage done to a target as it's HP bar goes lower. For example, by stacking more Brutality, I will do more damage to my target if it's HP bar is at 30% compared to a target who has 100% HP. Highly usefull.
Vitality - A counterpart to Proficiency as Stamina is to Vigor, Vitality will increase your hitpoints by a percent determined by how many points you have spent into this. A defensive stat.
Willpower - In 5.0 a new change has come to this stat, before only being able to decrease the time one person can be under a crowd-controll ability, now it being able to nulify incoming cc's directed at you along with giving immunity to cc's for a certain duration. Increasing your Willpower will result in more time of immunity from crowd controll skills. Very usefull in PvP.
Bloodlust - The 3rd deffensive stat. that you can increase, Bloodlust will heal you for a part of the damage you deal ( more points into Bloodlust meaning more self-heal per each hit ). It's not bad, but it's not awesome either. No matter how much damage you deal, you won't be able to heal yourself through Bloodlust without the aid of a FH, so consider the healing from Bloodlust as an added bonus.
The new expansion didn't bring significant major changes to the scout class, but it did change a lot the stat system of the game itself. Nontheless, I will list here the few minor changes we recieved once 5.0 patch went live :
1) Scout's ability "
Smoke Cloud" (
) can no longer hide characters affected by warrior's ability battle frenzy - pretty much self-explanatory.
2) Scout's ruby "
Piercing Blows" (
) now increases critical chance of all abilities by 3% per ruby ( 15% with all 5 rubies ). - Before patch, each ruby gave a 20% increase in critical chance accumulating to a maximum of 100% increase in critical hit chances on all abilities. Following the new stat. point changes, luck atribute was removed from gear sets ( now only avaiable through relics ), making for a more balanced gear system.
Even if it seems like a nerf, it is actually pretty amazing. It means that while all the other classes have a base luck ( and crit chances ) that they can not pass, we get a flat 15% increase in our critical chances. Still definetly worth taking in every build you could think of.
3) Scout's ability "
Quickened Reflexes" (
) no longer increases chance to dodge. Now it reduces energy of Recoil, Somersault, Speed of the Damned & it's upgrade, Supernatural speed by 33/66/100%.
Before patch, this set of rubies used to increase your chance to doge attacks by 33/66/100% AND reduce the energy cost of the skills mentioned above. Along with 5.0 update and the removal of the dodge system inside the game however, these rubies lost one of their atributes, and that is an increased chance to dodge. Highly valued ( by some ) before patch in PvP, these rubies have lost some of their value now. I would consider them "spare" rubies at this point.
4 ) Scout's ruby "
Killer Instinct" (
) now decreases incoming critical damage by 5/10/15 % and increases your Determination by 1/2/3 depending on the number of rubies taken.
Before patch these 3 rubies used to give a flat 5 % increase in endurance and 1% increase in finese ( per ruby ), adding to a total of 15% increase in endurance and 3% in finese if all 3 were taken. Following the new patch, these rubies were modified to fit in the new stat. system. The extra reduction of critical damage and the increased determination make them of some use in PvP, though I wouldn't make them a priority in PvE.
5 ) Scout's ruby "
Master of Survival" (
) now increases magic, nature and divine resistances by 5%/10%.
A minor buff, before patch each ruby giving 4% ( 8% with both ).
6 ) Scout's ruby "
Fencing Master" (
) now increases parry chance by 5/10/15/20% . The increase to damage dealt by melee weapons will stay the same.
Same deal as the "Piercing blows" rubies, decreasing the extra parry chance from 25% per ruby ( total of 100% with all 4 rubies ) to 5% per ruby.
7 ) Stat. point rubies : Before 5.0, each of these following rubies increased a certain stat. point once taken. Following the latest update, everything remained the same, but instead of the old points, these rubies will now increase one of the new stats ( proficency, brutality etc. ).
Here we have the following rubies :
A ) "
Uncanny accuracy" (
) rubies with will increase your Proficency by 3/6/9%.
B ) "
Cruelty" (
http://i41.tinypic.com/11w36mf.jpg ) rubies with will increase your Anger by 4/8/12%.
C ) "
Athlete" (
) rubies with will increase your Vigor by 3/6/9%.
D ) "
Mental Resistance" (
) rubies with will increase your Willpower by 4/8/12% ( along with the reduction of fear/disorientation/blind effects by 8/16/25% )
With the changes that came with the new expansion out of the way, I'd like to present you the optimal PVE ranged dps spec you can have with the minimal ruby and talent points needed.
After each talent and ruby, I will explain it's usefulness in different situation and the rank you should have in a PVE ranged spec.
Due to the limited number of posts I can create for this event entry being 4 ( and limited charachters in a post being 10k ) I will not be able to write an in-deph Scout guide as I initialy wanted to, so I am forced to cut down a lot of info and limit myself to only explaining the PVE ranged spec Rubies and Talent Points.
After this event is done however, I will attach another few posts to this thread explaining everything I have missed in this original PMB entry, including a different section for melee builds and explanations for all the Talent Points/Rubies that come with it along with other useful information.
Talent Tree section :
Steady Shot and its upgrade
Intuitive Shot- Deals ranged damage to a single target. Increase in ranks will result in more damage. Has a 30% chance of reseting your Double Shot skill ( see below ).
Highly usefull in all ranged builds, both PvE and PvP. R3 recommended.
Tranquil Arrow - The third and last skill from the Talent Tree grid that you can't avoid having at least rank 1 in it by design ( besides Vicious Blow and Steady Shot ).
Puts a debuff that will decrease the movement speed of the target by 5% per stack ( Rank 1 applies 11 stacks /Rank 2 applies 13 stacks/Rank 3 applies 15 stacks ) lasting for 12 seconds.
Very useful skill in all aspects of the game as it helps a lot with kiting, especially while leveling One of our "trademark" skills that hasn't been changed much during the last years. What rank you decide to take into this skill depends on your preference and playstyle.