Frost Gunner Renegade

Frost Gunner Renegade

in Revenant

Posted by: Professor Sprout.1560

Professor Sprout.1560

Build
Frost Gun (plus any melee weapons)
any & Kalla
1st Corruption: (any, Abyssal Chill, any)
2nd Devastation: (any, any, any)
3rd Renegade: (any, Heartpiercer, Vindication)
Mad King Runes

Background
As some of you who play necromancers may remember, a certain bundle item enjoyed a brief period as an exceptionally powerful tool for necromancer players, only for the bundle to be subsequently and effectively nerfed by the developers to bring what they viewed as an “exploit” under control. The weapon was so powerful because its attacks could hit multiple targets very many times each second, and because each of those hits was capable of triggering the necromancer’s most powerful DPS trait. The weapon was nerfed by adjusting its skill 1 attack so that only 1 in 10 attacks could trigger this trait.

Theory
The reason why I’m bringing this up here and now is that I think the weapon could still be of some use to Renegade players, particularly those who (like me) are not enamoured of the new shortbow weapon. The high rate of fire on this weapon was never nerfed, and the build above has a lot of effects that trigger on (normal/critical) hits with no ICD. Per autoattack chain (assuming 100% crit chance and Soulcleave’s buff is active) you’re looking at:
10 stacks of might
10 Soulcleave hits
10 Focused Siphoning hits
5.33 torment stacks
and 3.33 vulnerability stacks
Most of these effects are per target (Soulcleave’s Summit is the only one that seems to hit just 1 target per AoE), and the weapon can cleave multiple targets in an easy-to-aim stream. Plus you’ll deal extra poison damage if using Venom Enhancement and extra lifedrain if using Assassin’s Annihilation.

What’s more since this is a bundle it has no energy costs, meaning you can actually afford to use skills 2-5. Skills 2, 3 and 5 all give great utility, and skill 4 should do very high damage – 15 bleeding hits to a single large target at range (20% of which will be projectile finishers), buffed for more damage when traiting Heartpiercer. Being at 400 or 1100 range from your target also means that you can keep old Soulcleave away from damage/CC (in the scenario where the devs have not capitulated and spirits will be vulnerable to such things at release).

TLDR
If you’re going to take a Renegade into the new maps grab some Mad King Runes and a Frost Gun. Cast Soulcleave’s Summit within 900 range of your target, stand in the area and use Frost Gun skill 4 followed by skill 1. Encourage your allies to do the same. Then watch everything in Path of Fire freeze to death.

Frost Gunner Renegade

in Revenant

Posted by: Drarnor Kunoram.5180

Drarnor Kunoram.5180

That seems pretty amusing, actually. Necros definitely can’t abuse fast attack rates like that anymore.

Dragonbrand |Drarnor Kunoram: Charr Necro
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Frost Gunner Renegade

in Revenant

Posted by: BlazeQ.1095

BlazeQ.1095

Didn’t frost gun get nerfed?

Cold Beerdrinker
PB Officer
NSP

Frost Gunner Renegade

in Revenant

Posted by: Fractured.3928

Fractured.3928

On a barely related note. I think a frost base rifle spec could be really fun in general for Revenant.

Frost Gunner Renegade

in Revenant

Posted by: Professor Sprout.1560

Professor Sprout.1560

@BlazeQ as discussed in the post, the gun was indeed nerfed with reference to what a necromancer can do with it – but my argument is that despite these nerfs the frost gun is still an effective weapon in the hands of a Renegade.

@Fractured it would indeed, shame we got an fire-themed shortbow instead.

And on that topic, has anyone else noticed that the elementalist Frost Bow was buffed recently in a way that really benefits Revenants? The conjure has had extra hits added to Frost Fan and extra duration to Deep Freeze for more Abyssal Chill procs; as well as extra hits to Ice Storm and extra damage to Frost Volley; and the new duration rules favour having a Revenant pick up the second bundle. Skill-for-skill the Frost Bow may be better DPS than our class shortbow, and the longer cast times & cooldowns across its skills are offset by the lack of energy costs. I find this quite amusing ::)

Oh and as an added bonus for Ventari/Kalla builds using this weapon now gives an extra +20% to outgoing healing, on top of the extra healing power and condition duration the weapon already provided. Or to put it another way this weapon is now amazing for every Revenant build and (since I’m not hearing much love in the Weaver forum for the new stances) we should try to persuade any Elementalists we play with to run this skill and let us pick up the dropped weapon.

Frost Gunner Renegade

in Revenant

Posted by: Crinn.7864

Crinn.7864

we should try to persuade any Elementalists we play with to run this skill and let us pick up the dropped weapon.

As a necromancer main, you’ll have to fight me for it.

Sanity is for the weak minded.
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