Hunting + Earth?

[Madnesis]

I used to play Hunting + Earth (Avenger) in vanilla game.
Is this still good choice to go for or any recommendation for ranged build (hunter + ...) in Anniversary Edition?

[ninetales]

All combinations are viable in TQ, but certain combinations are trickier to play than others because of lack of synergy.

This is the case of Hunting and Earth, since hunting favors piercing damage and earth favors physical/fire damage. In order to make this combination work you need to find a middle ground, like focusing more on physical/fire or piercing/fire. Once you figure out which works best for you, the Study Prey line, the Earth Enchantment line and Volativity should give you most of the damage bonus you need. From there it's mostly a matter of figuring out which LMB/RMB skills work best for you.

[Vio]

Have to disagree about the lack of synergies there. Piercing damage of weapons is created from their physical base, so all the buffs the Earth mastery received for physical characters in the AE also make bow users better.

Avenger as a phys/piercing (Str/Dex) archer was ok before but works even better now. Earth in this case gives you good defenses, the physical buffs, and since the AE made strength affect physical spells you also get to use those on top.

Fire focus is also possible, but then you should play this class as an Earth mage (pure Int), using Hunting not for bows but for mobility and resistance breaking. And for Earth Enchantment buffed exploding Lures. :)

Or indeed piercing/fire (Int/Dex) with bow. But that is a trickier build where you should really know what you are doing, because most of your damage will not come from the bow itself.

Physical with fire, OTOH, is a bad idea on the long run, because you almost never want to raise both Str and Int.

[ninetales]

There is a case for late game synergy, but by late game you can even create your own type of synergies.

I think the best approach is to simply focus on two types of damage at a time. Fire/burning is just too good to pass up because of EE (and Volativity, eventually) and you can complement that with bonus fire damage from items like relics, artifacts and even consumables like scrolls (you even get a burning skeleton mini-army in epic). You also get Study Prey/Flush Out while you work towards getting Volley and/or Scattershot. That leaves picking physical or piercing as your next main damage type.

Going physical/piercing is basically just picking hunting. That could work too, but not exactly a synergy when one mastery just dominates the other except for a buff or two. The earth nukes are also pretty unimpressive without proper +%physical damage support like from Onslaught or -resist stacking.

Stats shouldn't be an issue because of the masteries involved. You definitely don't want to split between Str/Int but all your +%fire needs are taken cared off by EE and Volativity (it's one of the perks of picking Earth). Maxed EE alone is 100% fire damage (aka 1000 bonus Int) not to mention Volativity is already 33% chance of 80% extra fire/physical/burn damage at level 1 alone.

[Mivo]

Originally posted by Vio:

Avenger as a phys/piercing (Str/Dex) archer was ok before but works even better now. Earth in this case gives you good defenses, the physical buffs, and since the AE made strength affect physical spells you also get to use those on top.

What STR/DEX ratio would you recommend for an Avenger? I had thought 1:1 may be a good rule of thumb, but reading your post I wonder if just enough DEX for the end game bow and the rest in STR may not be a better approach. What split would you advise?

[AH-1 Cobra]

With the nerfs to scatter shot arrows, they're doing bleed damage instead of pure flat physical. this build is actually worse in TQ:AE. Scatter shot was a big reason of why archers used to be good, and a nerf to that one ability lowers their overall effectiveness in spite of minor improvements in other areas.

[ninetales]

It's still a good trash clearing tool, it's just no longer so ridiculously effective that it kills off even bosses as long as they're surrounded by mobs. Even with the changes though it can still be a really powerful tool with Study Prey/Flush Out, high dex and creature type bonus damage affixes.

[AH-1 Cobra]

I'm considering making a mod to un-nerf some of these abilities they nerfed, as in use TQ:ITs data for those skills. I'm waiting on them to be finished with the game, first. Probably bring back the old ternion attack, as well.