Shadow of Mordor - Fire Arrow build with permanent focus and infinite arrows

If you're looking to build a strong Ranger, then this is the guide for you. With permanent focus and infinite arrows, you'll be almost invincible. You will be clearing massive groups of Uruks in a matter of seconds. It's time to bring out your inner Neo and enter the Matrix because it's slow-mo time!

Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome to my guide. This is going to be my first Steam guide but not my first overall. I hope you can excuse me for not using any Steam related standards to guide writing.

I will be talking about the necessary runes that are required to make this build highly efficient as well as adding any complimentary runes that may not be necessary for the build but will further enhance it's capabilities. This guide assumes that you already have experience playing the game and have unlocked most abilities and rune slots. Let's begin!

Abilities and Attributes

The most important abilities you will need to unlock for the build are:

RANGER ABILITIES:
Tier 1:
Execution - An execute target action become available when the Hit-Streak is charged.
Tier 2:
Critical Strike - By pressing the strike button when an attack connects, the hit counter is increased by one.
Throwing Daggers - Tap the ranged mode button to throw a spectral dagger, dealing light damage and knocking the enemy back.
Tier 3:
Vault Stun - Vaulting now stuns the vaulted enemy, allowing for a flurry attack.
Brace of Daggers - Upgrades the Throwing Daggers attack to three daggers instead of one.
Tier 4:
Blade Master - The threshold for a hit-streak is reduced by three.
Resilience - A single hit can be taken without losing your hit counter.
Tier 5:
Critical Strike 2 - By pressing the strike button when an attack connects the hit counter is increased by two.
Double Charge - When Hit-Streak is charged, Talion can now perform two executions, wraith flashes, or other special abilities instead of one.

WRAITH ABILITIES:
Tier 1:
Elven Swiftness - A well-timed button press after landing a vault gives a short speed boost and an additional hit to the hit counter.
Detonate - You can shoot barrels or fires to cause them to explode. Talion takes no damage from these explosions.
Wraith Stun - Pressing the wraith power button stuns an enemy. Pressing the strike button right after starts a flurry combo.
Tier 2:
Shadow Strike - While in ranged mode, tap the sprint button to teleport to the target and strike, knocking the target down. (Gained during The One Truth main mission.)
Stealth Drain - Tap the wraith power button while sneaking to instantly drain enemies, regenerating Elf-shot and terrifying the target.
Tier 3:
Combat Drain - When Hit-Streak is charged, Talion can instantly drain the target, even in the middle of combat.
Tier 4:
Fire Arrow - When Hit-Streak is charged Talion can unleash a fire arrow, causing massive explosions if used to detonate fires or grog barrels.
Brand - All drain moves now also brand your target. (Gained during the Queen of the Shore main mission.)
Tier 5:
Quick Draw - Bow attacks now take significantly less time to charge.



ATTRIBUTES:
- Flame of Azkar
- 1 Sword rune slot or more
- 4 Bow rune slots or more
- 2 Dagger rune slots or more
- maximize Focus capacity
- at least 3 upgrades to Elf-shot capacity

Runes

Now the more interesting part; runes.

IMPORTANT RUNES:

SWORD:
Evenstar (Epic) - Recover full Focus when Hit-Streak becomes charged
Tower of Defense (Epic) - Increases Hit-Streak Reset Time +10 seconds
BOW:
Ascendant (Epic) - Reduces the Focus depletion rate by 50%
Fire Storm (Epic) - Adds a powerful blast to Fire Arrow
Fell Handed (Epic) - A headshot kill recharges the Flame of Azkar at double the normal rate
Wrath of the Eldar (Epic) - Increases the duration of the Flame of Azkar by +10 seconds
DAGGER:
Reckless Hate (Epic) - Recover +4 Elf-shot for Combat Brand
Forge of War (Epic) - Recover +4 Elf-shot for each Drain or Brand



The optional runes will add even more freedom and power to the build.
OPTIONAL RUNES:

SWORD:
Elven Grace (Epic) - 50% Chance to reduce melee damage received by 50%
Blade of Gondolin (Epic) - Combat finishers recharge the Storm of Urfael at double the normal rate
Ruination (Epic) - Increases the Storm of Urfael duration by +10 seconds
BOW:
Bow Master (Epic) - Increases bow damage by 50%
Sylvan Arrow (Blue) - 25-55% Chance to recover +30 Focus for a headshot kill
Wind Rider (White) - Recover 25-55% Focus on any Shadow Strike move.
Deadly Archer (Pre-order Exclusive) - Increases headshot damage by 25%
DAGGER:
Favor of the Lady (White) - Recover 10-40% Health when completing a Drain or Brand


The optional sword runes that enhance Storm of Urfael are not necessary but will help kill Captains/Warchiefs that have the Ranged Invulnerability strength. While Fire Arrow may seem more of an explosive ability, it's still considered a ranged ability in the game.

Gameplay

(DEMONSTRATION) Fire Arrow build VS 5 Captains & 1 Warchief (ranks 15~),
3 of the Captains and the Warchief with Ranged Invulnerability

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoL7UNxviO0

Now that we have all the necessary abilities and runes, we can finally talk about gameplay. The gameplay is quite simple so I'm going to make this as short as I can. Note that this build is for fighting larger groups of Uruks, for example inside Strongholds and especially during Alerts.


Enter combat and wait for all the Uruks to gather together, this way it will be easier to charge the Flame of Azkar. Aim your bow at the Uruks heads and charge your shot before you release. This should instantly kill an Uruk. You will need to kill about 7 Uruks with headshots before your Flame of Azkar is fully charged. Once it's charged, activate it and keep firing Fire Arrows at Uruks until it runs out. During Flame of Azkar you will have infinite focus and arrows. Once the Flame of Azkar runs out, simply start charging your shots and aim for the Uruks heads to quickly recharge Flame of Azkar again. Keep repeating this process until you run out of Uruks. Once you run out of Uruks, you have about 12seconds before your hit-streak ends. Find another Uruk and throw daggers at him or if he is too far, use Shadow Strike. Note that Elven Swiftness also increases your hit-streak, making it easier to maintain when moving to different areas.

MAINTAINING FOCUS
You will need to be quick with your headshots to keep your focus active 100% of the time. If this is too difficult for you, one of the optional runes for the bow I mentioned is Sylvan Arrow which has a 25-55% chance to recover 30 focus per headshot. The higher the level of the rune, the higher the chance of recovery. Another optional rune for the bow that will guarantee focus recovery is Wind Rider (White) which recovers 25-55% focus every time you use Shadow Strike. Also make sure to spend your hit-streak charge by using Combat Drain or Execution(on Ranged Invulnerable only) before using your bow, otherwise Evenstar (Epic) won't replenish your focus.

ELF-SHOT RECOVERY
Should you run out of Elf-Shot, quickly charge your hit-streak by hitting enemies with throwing daggers followed with Combat Drain. A single Combat Drain will return 8 arrows to you. Performing two in a row will fully replenish your Elf-Shot as well as your health if you are using a high level Favor of the Lady rune.

RANGED INVULNERABILITY
Ranged Invulnerable Captains or Warchiefs should be ignored until all other Uruks are dead, but do try to detonate any fires and other explosives with Fire Arrow as it will severely damage even Ranged Invulnerable Captains as seen in the video. A singled out Ranged Invulnerable Captain/Warchief should be easy to take out after a couple of explosives and combat Executions, even if you don't have Storm of Urfael. Though I advise learning Storm of Urfael and keeping it charged for those absolutely worst moments when 2 or more captains have Ranged Invulnerability with no explosives near by.

TL;DR: Spend your hit-streak charge, charge Flame of Azkar with charged headshots, spam Fire Arrow during Flame of Azkar, repeat.


I hope you enjoyed this guide and didn't find it too difficult to follow. Please leave a rating for the guide so I know if it was actually helpful. Thank you for reading and have fun with the build.

[Nyxia]

This was a pretty nice guide. Thanks!

[The Octopus]

Rate and comment haha did you do this to help people or to gain recognition? haha

[Zero The Hero]

who needs a build? dudes essentialy a god.

[SALACGRIVA]

Thank You

[.VM8RA]

thanks. I think you can pretty much unlock all the skills anyway, I'd just need the rune slots and runes for the build. I have not took fire arrow or quick draw yet, but probably going for those next.

[Peter™]

It's been a long time since I played the game so excuse me for any miss-information.

The abilities and rune slots are strict since you need specific unlocks to make this work. As for the runes, as long as you have all of the important Bow ones, you should be fine. It will just take longer to recharge your arrows & focus without the others. For gameplay, just follow the TL;DR i wrote to get the general idea of how this build plays.

Since you just started, I recommend you have fun with the game and play around with different runes and playstyles. There are quite a few builds you can make, including a build that lets you spam teleport and instantly assassinate almost everything. :)

I can't remember if there is a "respec" option in the game, but at the end you can unlock everything. I don't think you can gimp yourself to the point that you cannot progress, but if you're just starting, I suggest you unlock Storm of Urfael(Attributes) first because it's an all around great skill to have.

[.VM8RA]

is this a sort of "strict follow" thing or is it cool to deviate from the skill tree a little? it;s my first playthrough and have already picked some skills.. Just really looking for some advise so I don't g1mp myself with any pointless investments.. I take it theres no respec!? thanks.

[Darryl Picker]

THIS Helped me alot thx for making guide and i reccomend it to anyone else

[<Font face-`E`[vo]]

good job bro

[BrotherToX]

Very nice....going to have to give this a try!