Sage (Hunting / Storm) Build Guide (Ragnarok Required)

Guide to making a Lightning themed elemental archer with the Sage class

Introduction

Jupiter, Best and Greatest
Mastery: Sage (Hunting / Storm)
Build: Lightning themed elemental archer


This a build for a lightning themed elemental archer. Throw down bolts of deadly lightning and convert your bow's damage to elemental. Basically a caster that uses bow to deal its elemental damage while Lightning Bolt is on cooldown. I suppose a throwing weapon could be used instead of a bow but you'll have minimal Strength so will have limited options with shield. Ragnarok is required for this build; items with the 'Weapon Base Damage becomes Elemental' stat introduced in the expansion are used to convert your base weapon damage to elemental damage instead.

Atlantis should not be required for this build. I used the extra mastery levels for extra stats but none of the additional skills are required for the build.

• Good spammable LMB
  
• Diverse damage
  
• Decent single target / AOE
  
• Decent amount of CC options

• Somewhat fragile
  
• Gear dependent
  
• Bow / elemental conversion cannot crit
  
• CC abilities can be a bit clunky to use outside of Squall

Run completed with the xMax (x3) mod
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=755731339

Required Skills

Storm Nimbus


An aura that buffs your attack damage with cold and lightning damage and applies a smaller buff to your pets. The Heart of Frost synergy increases Cold / Frostburn damage and slows enemies movement and attacks. The Static Charge synergy increases Lightning / Electrical Burn damage and gives you a chance to inflict Lightning Retaliation.

Both the base skill and Static Charge are worth maxxing. The extra damage will help make each of your attacks deadlier and Static Charge will help buff your Lightning spells damage in addition to your elemental bow attacks. Heart of Frost is also worth maxxing long term but not before your main skills are finished; as you are converting weapon damage to elemental, 1/3 of the damage will be cold based.


Wood Lore


A fantastic passive that boosts your defensive ability and attack speed. Max it early.


Markmanship


Your primary spammable attack. The base skill greatly increases projectile avoidance and adds piercing damage. The Puncture Shot Arrows synergy increases piercing and bleeding damage and adds a chance for arrows to pierce. The Scattershot synergy causes your attacks to fire fragments on impact that inflict bleeding damage with some pierce. Long term everything should be maxxed. Puncture Shot may be more useful to max early for chance to pierce through enemies, good for mowing down enemies coming at you.


Art of the Hunt


Increases pierce damage and bleeding damage in general and adds a bit of extra damage to beasts and beastmen. The Find Cover synergy adds a large amount of projectile avoidance and only adds a little bit extra to the skill's energy reservation. The Trail Blazing synergy adds 100% Reduced Entrapment Duration and more movement speed with each extra point spent.

In most archer builds the base skill is a great skill to max. However, converting damage to elemental is done before pierce conversion so the pierce conversion is applied to pretty non-existent physical damage and bleeding damage is pretty negligible. Drop one point into the base then and max Find Cover for extra survivability. Trail Blazing only requires one point for entrapment reduction, however, as you tend to be pretty squishy the extra movement speed can help with kiting. It's important to note that using the skill with all it's synergy skills reserves a rather large chunk of energy.


Squall


Generates a wind storm that does slight damage and applies useful debuffs. Max the base skill to increase the storm's radius and impair ranged attacks inside it. It's Obscured Visibility synergy skill applies an additional debuff, reducing damage and resistances by a percent. Both should be maxxed; Squall will serve as one your consistent CC sources and resistance debuff can help with enemies that have strong elemental resistances.


Lightning Bolt


Your primary lightning nuke, hits for a decent damage with a short stun. Easy to target and has a very good range. The skill's 12s cooldown means it can't be spammed. A bit of CDR can help make the skill available more often. The Chain Lightning synergy causes the bolt to arc from the target to hit other close by enemies.


Storm Surge


Fits into the Lightning theme and is a one point wonder for the chance to stun enemies after getting hit. You can put points into it late but it's a really low priority and shouldn't receive any extra points until you've pumped up the important skills.


Study Prey


Debuffs enemies in a small circle with large physical and pierce resistance while the Flush Out synergy skill also reduces defensive ability, bleeding resistance and elemental resistances. One point in the base skill and max the synergy to boost your elemental / bleed damage.


Summon Wisp


Wisp is a one point wonder. It has god tier dodge and avoid projectiles chance. This makes it pretty much unkillable except for AOEs. Wisp's primary role in the build is not to do damage itself but to instead buff you with it's synergy skill Eye of the Storm. Maxxed out, Eye of the Storm will give you a good boost to your cold and lightning resistance as well as a big bonus to your elemental damage. Even with only a single point in the base skill your wisp will survive fine in 99% of fights. Arc Discharge isn't needed but if you can drop a single point into it if you want.


Volley


Gives you a chance to do a triple attack. Absolutely max it out when you have free points.

Optional Skills

Ensnare


Ensnare provides a CC to lock opponents in place. It's an okay option for kiting through doesn't last too long and can be difficult to aim at times. The DA reduction provides no benefit to bows / throwing weapons. The Barbed Netting synergy skill adds a bit of bleeding damage to trapped enemies, I'd suggest skipping or putting at most one point into it, more important skills to invest in and the damage buff is kind of negligible.


Spell Breaker


Optional skill for countering magical enemies. Drains energy and negate enemies buffs. Spell shock with do damage based off energy drained and disrupt skills.


Thunderball


The base skill fires a ball of electrical energy that damages, reduces DA and stuns enemies in a small blast radius. The Concussive Blast synergy adds fragments that split apart with extra lighting damage and stun.

Thunderball fits into the Lightning theme nicely and has a really long stun. Sounds like a perfect fit for the build but unfortunately the targeting mechanic can make it a bit difficult to hit your target from ranged at times and I prefer Lightning Bolt over it. Probably better on a melee build.


Herbal Remedy


A nice buff that gives a very sizable boost to your poison resistance and some additional health regeneration. While it's not absolutely required, it frees you from having to worry about getting poison resistance from gear and allows you to concentrate on other needs instead. Lasts a decent amount of time and can be recast whenever you have mana.


Freezing Blast


Freezing Blast encases enemies in ice, immobilizing them but also making them more difficult to damage. Optional CC to get enemies off you in emergencies and give you a chance to run away.


Gouge


Gives you a chance to apply a bleed dot. It's kind of meh and not a priority. Drop a single point into it at most and boost with +skill items if you want.


Call of the Hunt


The base skill provides an useful short term buff to damage, attack speed and big boost against beasts and beastmen. The Exploit Weakness synergy skill increases pierce and bleeding damage while you the buff is active. Atlantis adds another synergy skill, Finesse, which adds a massive buff to your Offensive Ability. As bows / throwing weapons cannot crit or miss, OA is completely useless for them. Normally a skill I'd like to use on my archers but with elemental conversion it's pretty meh outside of a bit of a bit of the extra attack speed.


Monster Lure


Creates a dummy that is supposed to lure enemies to fight it. Personally don't really care for it and feel like it's a little wonky in practice. The Detonation skill makes it explode for damage when it dies and has full energy. If you like it as a distraction, you can invest in the base skill, Detonation is kind of meh even then through.


Energy Shield


Short term buff that will give you damage absorption for cold and lighting damage. It's Reflection synergy skill will give you a chance to have damage reflected. You'll need to refresh the buff a regular intervals and getting maxxed resist for cold / lightning isn't too difficult even in legendary so the base skill is probably on the low end of the priority list. You want to avoid taking damage as much as possible as you're fragile so Reflection isn't very useful either.

Final Skill Trees

This is my final skill allocation. Start off with activating my buffs and auras then summon Wisp for damage buff. When fighting enemies, I apply Study Prey and spam Markmanship. I use Lightning Bolt as a big nuke and CC while using Ensare, Squall and Thunderball for more CC. I have a decent amount of CDR so I can cast Lightning Bolt fairly often.

Stats

If you have Atlantis, the extra mastery points give you:

• Hunting mastery = +14 str, +20 dex, +280 health
  
• Storm mastery = +8 Dex, +24 Int, +168 health, +120 energy

Health: Build can be a bit fragile so you may want to pad your health pool a tad to make yourself a bit more tanky.

Energy: Build isn't crazy energy draining, don't bother with any points here, just buy potions or get energy cost reduction or more from gear instead.

Strength: Enough to equip your bow. If you're planning on going throwing + shield, you'll need enough to equip your shied as well.

Intellect: Your primary stat, used to increase your elemental and lightning damage.

Dexterity: Your secondary stat. You need enough to equip your bow at a minimum.

Equipment

This is my final equipment loadout. Using Gambanteinn and Golden Agris Helmet to get 100% elemental conversion. They also give me 50% CDR and +1 skill. Stonebinder's Cuffs gets me the other +3 skill to cap ultimate levels for skills.

For accessories, Occult Loop of Thunder gives me casting speed buff to help cast Lighting Bolt and spells easier and some more elemental damage. Plato's Engraved Ring of Immortality to boost my intelligence and pad out my health, socketed with good old Demon's Blood to fill in my Vitality resist. Myrmidon's Pendant remains my go-to necklace with good resistances, health and projectile avoidance.

Prowler's Cuirass provides a good source of resists and is Dex oriented. Using Belisama's Greaves but they can be swapped out for any number of caster oriented boots. For my bow, I decided on using a Bramblewood bow, socketed with Anubis' Wrath for some health sustain.



The most important gear you'll need for the build is the 100% elemental conversion. The Gambanteinn artifact with 50% conversion should be fairly easy to scrounge up. Golden Agris Helmet helm with 50% is one the best options available if you can find one.

There are a couple of drops in Epic difficulty with elemental conversion. For torso, Falcon Cape from Ragnarok and Fata Morganna from Atlantis also has 50% conversion but poor armour while The Wings of Isis bow from Altantis has 100% conversion by itself by poor damage as they are only epic difficulty level items.

Fortunately there is an excellent Legendary difficulty throwing weapon available, Blessing of the Moirae if you want to go throwing weapon + shield. It requires lvl 59 to equip, however, so will require lots of level grinding to actually use. It should be prefect for the build with 33% conversion, CDR, +elemental damage and given that it's a throwing weapon you should be finding multiples of them with ease (given throwing weapons insane drop rates lol). It's not enough to get to 100% conversion when comboed with one of the 50% conversion pieces but you can socket one of your accessories with an Eitr charm to convert an extra 20% damage to elemental to reach 100%.


After this you'll want to get +4 skill to cap your spells, good resistances, a bit of casting speed to use your spells easier, more elemental damage, a bit more health to pad out your pool, maybe some DA if it's low, etc.


Some random gear suggestions:
Weapon: Bramblewood, Trueshot Bow, Blessing of the Moirae
Torso: Prowler's Cuirass, Archmage's Mantle, Calypso's Cover, Cestus, Corslet of Freyja, Vestment of the Overlord, etc.
Boots: Leggings of the Defied, Demonskin Walkers, Boots of Freyja, Belisama's Greaves, etc.
Hands: Stonebinder's Cuffs, Archmage Clasp
Head: Golden Agris Helmet, Crest of Hypnos, Stheno's Wisdom, etc.
Rings: Occult, Plato, random ring with resists
Necklace: Myrimidon's Pendant, Shavo's Relic

Leveling

I started my character off as an Accomplished to skip the early game. If you're starting at level 1, I think you should start off with Hunting as your first mastery. You won't be able to use any of the Elemental conversion gear until you level up a lot so early on as an archer you'll want Strength and Dexterity instead.

At level 2, drop one point into the mastery to unlock it and one point into Ensnare for CC, one point into Wood Lore. Wood Lore is pretty nice so worth maxxing early, otherwise level up mastery and drop one point into Markmanship, Art of the Hunt and Herbal Remedy. Keep leveling up the mastery until you can unlock Study Prey and pump points into Find Cover and Puncture Shot arrows. Then level up mastery until you can get Flush Out, Volley and Scattershot.

You can switch over to Storm, grab Storm Nimbus and work your way up the mastery. One point into main skills and grab mastery levels for more stats. As you get free points level up Squall for CC, Eye of the Storm for DPS buff, Lightning Bolt to make your big nuke better and your aura.

As you start leveling up your Storm skills you'll want to start boosting up Intelligence as well, especially once get your elemental conversion going. You can use Eitr at lvl 30, Epic Eitr at lvl 45 and Legendary Eitr at lvl 60. You can get 53% conversion with a Pearled Cap and Eitr at lvl 35. You won't be able to use Gambanteinn until lvl 50, Golden Agris Helmet until lvl 52 and Blessing of the Moirae until lvl 59.

Q&A

If you have any queries about the build leave a comment and I will respond when I have time.

[mobmh2]

Tehdoktur, Part 2
Personally, i would lower my Int and add some extra Str just so i could wear (even lower grade) shields in order to spend the points i would otherwise have to sink into duel wield. Combining the lightning, the storm aura, storm surge, squall, and wisp with onslaught (your LMB primary) weapon training (good passive buff to melee damage) the stun effects of your doom horn, the buff (and defensive debuff) of your banner with its improvement, and ancestral horn as a boss nuke (who would also get the pet buff from your aura) would be very fun to run with. Though its a bit of a heresy to suggest anything other than Stonebinder cuffs, a bracers of the Tinker can slot two legendary Eltr for even more elemental conversion, just something to think about.

[mobmh2]

Tehdoktur:
If you want to try that, then you would have to hybridize and Sage may not be a great go to. Personally, i have a Storm+Rune throwing spec that is fun as heck, but i can see using Warfare+Storm would be fun also. To convert the marksman to Warfare, you would have to probably move from spears to knives and other small, fast blades. The reason being as their strength requirement is low, and spears cannot work with duel wield (which makes me sad.) As short swords and knives have a lower strength requirement, by going with them over a shield allows you to prioritize your Int for amplifying your spell damage. (Damn 1000 character limit, TBC)

[tehdoktur]

@chris.f

"I've mostly been playing Storm as more of caster"
To clarify, so with this build (as is above, not my spear question below), the bow isn't used as a weapon it's more of a 'stat stick'?

I've been trying to learn all the masteries not just the ones I was comfortable with but Storm has been a really awkward one to mix, with other caster masteries like Nature I get it but when it comes to ones like Warfare or Hunting, trying to mix Storm with them has been a bit more difficult than say Earth (which uses physical for some of it's spell damage) or Spirit (Deathchill Aura line, Dark Covenant line are so insanely compatible with melee)

I like Sage conceptually, bow and spear came to mind, I wanted spear because I suck at keeping my character out of melee anyway lol, but that synergy with Storm eludes me more than other mastery paths do.

[chris.ferrantegerard]

@tehdoktur I've mostly been playing Storm as more of caster but theoretically you probably can make a spear sage but likely won't be as optimal as some other melee combos. Won't have an attack replacer but with Atlantis you can get Lightning Dash which has a very short cooldown to charge stuff.

Likely easier to make it more of a traditional physical/pierce build. Elemental conversion builds would go Int / Dex but for a spear build you'd need enough Str to equip your spear and shield (unless you get some sort of -% Str requirement gear to equip with minimal Str). Non-rune elemental conversion builds are dependent on gear for getting their conversion.

[tehdoktur]

chris.f, Do you think this build could be tweaked to work as a Spear build? Or are the concepts just too far apart? I wanted to try Storm, I have tried your Paladin/Ice Shard concept, but I prefer melee build and I was curious if this might stack better with Hunting than it would with say Warfare or Rogue.

[chris.ferrantegerard]

@WIKI Yeah, mentioned Wings of Isis in the equipment section, nice bow for the build with the 100% conversion but it's only an Epic difficulty drop so you'd need to pass on Legendary bow drops to use it.

[WIKI]

very nice build
u can try wings of isis atlantis bow if u have
it gives u %100 elemental converiton