Advice how to improve my lightning arrow/ thunder shot warden?

[Smug]

I'll keep this short since I accidentally pressed the wrong key while tabbed and my text got deleted.

This is my build[imgur.com] I have been playing and trying to improve since ever I found out about chronicon. It started out as a frost warden but I swapped to lightning arrow and thunder shot after trying it out for some time. Lately I hit a wall and have no idea what to change and that's why I am posting this and asking for help.

A few things I had in mind :
- replace accessory (rahlence's resolution maybe?)
- augment amulet with burning lightning (rune will not drop, sadly)
- build up a new bow as it seems attack speed doesn't scale with my build
- augment boots
- it seems i forgot to put gems into my amulet, guess I should go for elemental damage?

Regarding the skill tree :
- get rid of points in biting cold once I greater augment enough crit chance to have max with my ulti

Besides the points I just mentioned I have no idea what I could change to clear better/more difficult mythic tiers. Currently my char is able to complete M8 instances but the clear speed struggles quite a bit in certain maps and just doesn't feel good to play.

[Amavanol]

I've made some test against dummies and I don't see static scaling with the set. It's a bit hard to see numbers, but with 200 stacks I should have seen a difference i guess^^.
Same goes for the hail synergy, it doesn't benefit from your stacks of lghtning rod.

You also need overpower, as lightning rod damage is based on your damage dealt (with your active skill).
Attack speed is still usefull, especially if you got some really low CD (at least it's a quality of life bonus, as you dont have to stop 1 second to cast your spell).

I would pick the mastery nod who allows wolves to taunt, it ads extra crowd control and most important pull ennemies when the taunt is cast. But it can be a bit tricky as you dont have a basic attack to make them focus your target soooo... I don't know. Maybe trading the explosion on your bow (which is flat damage if I'm not wrong, so base on your base damage and not on your dealt damage) for Grip, for extra crowd control?

There's also a little dilemma about the rune for your chest. you can put the archery chest who increase damage/CDR/mana cost reduction of your archery skills by 20%, or take the equilibrium armor who allows you to max out your res with only 2 minor and 2 major res enchants (or 4 minor if I remember well, but I guess you need a lot of CDR and mana cost reduction/reach for this build... And there is not a lot of things to put on major enchants for chest/boot).

[Smug]

Static should deal damage. It just doesn't feel like it does any because of the lack of damage numbers. I guess the majority of my damage comes from thunder shot actually hitting the mobs (which lines up with shown damage numbers) but reach is actually hindering that since TS does not have any target acquisition but just randomly strikes enemies in the area. I wonder how the chain lightning rune would affect the damage of static.

As for capping res.... 3 major augments at max and taking resist all in the mastery tree caps resistances and gives the freedom to pick the elven ranger augment for the chest which frees up cdr augments.

Which CC augment do you mean? I figured with max crit and the are multi hits from lightning arrow it wouldn't be too bad.

So attack speed increases the speed of the arrow being shot but the skills are not affected by double draw (afaik the last time I tested it)? That's a really weird interaction.

[Amavanol]

Yes static still deal some damage, but as it doesnt get the +20% stackable bonus from your set, it's kinda pointless to invest mastery points into it rather lightning rod who can easily reach x2 bonus in a few seconds (exept if you want to have a low mythic build, at wich point you dont even have the time to stack lightning rod).

Resistance malus increase with mythic, hiting a -50% (I dont know when lel), so this not enough. You need 130% resistance to max out. You got 10% basic resistance because ranged character, 25% from mastery so you stil need 95% resistance, not 60%. So it's 5 major enchants if you want to free minor enchants^^.

I'm talking about a weapon only augment, Grip, who pull nearby ennemies hit, so it can pull in every minions who are at the border of your lightning arrow, but yes if you think you got enough it's ok^^! It's just that it's I think better that this flat explosion proc, but you can get tons other things instead for sure.

Yes attack speed is basically animation speed, but it should still trigger double draw as it's still an archery skills (traps trigger it sooo...) (however it won't trigger lightning rod or any other on-hit effect, so it's ok to not have it).

[Smug]

Yes attack speed is basically animation speed, but it should still trigger double draw as it's still an archery skills (traps trigger it sooo...)

I tested it out just a second ago and yes, it does trigger but I thought it would work differently as in repeat the archery skill just with less damage.

Also lightning arrow and thunder shot are weird to play together... one benefits from reach while the other suffers with it but on the other hand they are a good fit since TS gives you the ability to one shot weaker packs and LA provides enough dps to deal with low density high hp mobs.

Even with 4 major augments it seems I can not hit res cap, it falls short by 5%.

[Amavanol]

Originally posted by Aztec God of Fitness:

Even with 4 major augments it seems I can not hit res cap, it falls short by 5%.

Well if you take cold snap and it's bonus resistance you can get easier to this cap and add a really nice CDR, it can help a lot for your build, and allow you to sacrifice some CDR on your gear to get some stuff. That can be a good change for your build, just have to wonder which skill will get out to make this change^^

[Smug]

O I totally forgot about but I would rather keep one of my skills since it is not survivability that that my character lacks but damage to clear higher mythic tiers. I guess 5% off cap is not too bad considering the inbuilt evasion and damage shields. Though I wouldn't know that for sure since this is my only char.

[Amavanol]

Cold snap also reduces by 2 seconds your active cooldown* If you want damage, you want it^^.

Also don't forget that your set get its full power from the number of hit dealt, so if you want to get the best build for this set you should change the base of this build, and rather go for a full Wisp balst storm orb, Harp archery or full skill with cooldown (with lightning arrow, the amulet who cast nimbus at the same time, and the other 2 cooldown skills or only one additionnal if you got enough CDR).

[Smug]

Can't say I am a big fan of cold snap. I would rather have a spamable skill by its own and not rely on a 4 second cooldown skill. At least that is the value I have with thunder shot at 1.1 second cooldown. You see the dilemma? Either I have to sacrifice cdr on equipment to get the cd of TS above 2 seconds to make full use of cold snap or just use it for a slight damage boost since there's also animation time to take into consideration which makes less appealing than the numbers suggest. Though increasing TS cooldown also means increasing cold snaps cooldown which entirely defeats the purpose of using cold snap.

Entirely building around new items did cross my mind. TS doesn't seem to work well with my current set. LA has a huge dps advantage over TS although you can hit way higher numbers with TS which also translates into huge bursts via lightning rod if you are able to stack them.

Idk replace the bow with harp + archery rune, multishot rune on arrow and use charged arrow? Pair this with a 60% chance for 2 additional arrows from double draw and also making use of the archery rune lul