Welcome to the Longbow / Dagger PvE Build Guide! This weapon combination resembles an archer rogue playstyle from other MMOs.
Longbow provides access to high single-target DPS skills including Strafing and Decisive Sniping. Your damage is boosted further with your Dagger passives: Assassin's Instincts, Destructive Fang, and Wrathful Edge.
Coupled with high single-target DPS, you have access to some AoE skills. Flash Wave is a great mass AoE skill to use for clearing mobs. You can reset this skill with Limit Break for even more AoE clearing potential.
End Game Longbow / Dagger PvE Build
If you're interested in PvP, check out our Longbow Dagger PvP Build Guide!
- Self-Sustain
- High Single-Target DPS
- Cooldown Speed Reliant
Skill Builds
Bossing Longbow / Dagger PvE Build
Active Skills
Damage Skills
- Ensnaring Arrow and Decisive Sniping are used together for big DPS.
- Strafing applies Gale and Target stacks, then you consume those stacks with Zephyr's Nock for extra damage.
- Thunderclouds Bombing is your highest Dagger DPS skill, consuming 20 Thundercloud stacks to do huge damage.
- Ankle Strike with the Off-Hand Weapon Activation Specialization is used before Thunderclouds Bombing to boost your off-hand proc chance.
Utility Skills
- Lightning Infusion is used to stack Thunderclouds. Cooldown ▼ is slotted in to make sure it's up before you do your damage combo.
- Shadow Escape gets you into Melee Range to cast Thunderclouds Bombing before going back to 15 m Range.
- Deadly Marker is a mandatory skill to help reduce the Cooldowns of your skills and your team's skills.
- Use Blitz to reset Decisive Sniping.
- Use Nature's Blessing to speed up the cast of Decisive Sniping and boost your party's Mana Regen.
- Camouflage Cloak makes your next skill a guaranteed Crit. You use it for Decisive Sniping.
Passive Skills
- Rapidfire Stance, Steady Aim, Sniper's Sense are your Longbow flat damage boosts.
- Assassin's Instincts, Destructive Fang, Wrathful Edge are your Dagger flat damage boosts.
- Roxie's Arrowhead is the last possible damage-oriented Passive you can add to your bar.
- Murderous Energy is here just to make sure it's easier to upkeep 20 Thundercloud stacks.
Support Alternative
- This build uses Flash Wave to help support your team and do damage.
Mobbing Longbow / Dagger PvE Build
Active Skills
Damage Skills
- Flash Wave is used as a mass AoE clear. Use Blitz right after for another AoE clear if mobs are still not dead.
- Decisive Bombardment is used to clear mobs in a line.
Utility Skills
- Healing Touch and Nature's Blessing are your self sustain skills when grinding solo.
Passives
- Assassin's Step is a great Passive for moving from mob to mob.
Alternatives
- If you're grinding in a group and you have sufficient healing, replace Healing Touch with Brutal Arrow or Tornado.
Skill Prioritization
- Use Quality Marind Ore to craft Quality Passive Skill Growth Book and Quality Active Skill Growth Book
- Use Rare Marind Ore to craft Rare Passive Skill Growth Book and Rare Active Skill Growth Book.
- Prioritize getting all these skills to blue first before getting them to purple. These are universal skills you always use.
- Upgrade the rest of your skills as you play the game.
PvE Gameplay and Skill Rotation
Oppressed Combo
- Nature's Blessing (Optional)
- Ensnaring Arrow
- Camouflage Cloak (Optional)
- Decisive Sniping
- Blitz
- Decisive Sniping
- Ensnaring Arrow should always be used before Decisive Sniping because of the Damage ▲ Skill Specialization.
- Nature's Blessing gives you a Whirlpool buff to speed up your cast of Decisive Sniping.
- Camouflage Cloak guarantees your next skill is a Crit.
- Use Blitz so that you can cast Decisive Sniping again.
Thunderclouds Combo
- Lightning Infusion
- Deadly Marker (Optional)
- Strafing x2
- Zephyr's Nock
- Strafing x1
- Shadow Escape
- Lightning Infusion (2nd cast)
- Ankle Strike (Optional)
- Thunderclouds Bombing
- Shadow Escape (2nd cast back to location)
- Zephyr's Nock
- Most of these skills line up to around the same Cooldown with the correct Specializations.
- Your initial Strafing combo with Zephyr's Nock should get you 13 additional Thundercloud stacks.
- Use the optional skills in your combo to reach 20 Thundercloud stacks if you aren't already at the maximum before using Thunderclouds Bombing.
- Use Shadow Escape afterward to return to your original position.
- With high Attack Speed, your Gale and Target stacks last long enough so that you can use Zephyr's Nock again after you've returned back to your original position.
- Cooldown ▼ for Lightning Infusion is incredibly important as it makes sure it's off Cooldown before the next Strafing use.
Tips
- You can't stay at maximum range due to you having to use Shadow Escape to cast Thunderclouds Bombing, but it should still be decently far.
- Shadow Escape won't break your Attack Speed buff from Rapidfire Stance.
- After using Shadow Escape, you have some downtime to walk further back for more damage from Sniper's Sense.
- Shadow Escape also procs Lequirus's Thorny Edge Passive.
- Deadly Marker should always be used whenever it's off cooldown because it reduces the cooldown of all your party's skills.
- Certain boss mechanics disrupts your Thunderclouds combo so you have to improvise the times at which you cast skills.
AoE Skills
- Flash Wave
- Decisive Bombardment
- Use Nature's Blessing before Decisive Bombardment to speed the cast up.
- Use Blitz to reset either skill.
- Use Ensnaring Arrow to proc Steady Aim on any target before your skills.
Single Target Combo
- Strafing 2x
- Zephyr's Nock
- Strafing 1x
- Zephyr's Nock
- Low HP targets are cleared with Strafing 2x and some more damage elsewhere.
- You need to use this combo for higher HP mobs.
Melee Combo
- Shadow Strike
- Cleaving Moonlight
- Thunderclouds Bombing
- This is your quick Melee combo clear for mobs.
- Cleaving Moonlight can be used without the rest of these skills.
Self-Sustain
- Healing Touch
- Nature's Blessing
- This is your self healing combo if you're solo grinding.
Stat Priorities
Use the following stat priorities when playing a Longbow / Dagger build in PvE:
- Primary Stat
- Wisdom and Strength
- Secondary Stat
- Perception and Dexterity
You have 49 Stat Points you can freely allocate to any of the 4 primary Stats. Once you put 20 points into an individual Stat, it takes 2 points to increase the Stat by 1. Do not put more than 20 points into a Stat unless you are trying to reach a certain breakpoint.
You get bonuses for every 10 Stat Points you invest from 30 to 60. You invest your points based on acquiring these bonuses.
Wisdom boosts your maximum Weapon Damage, Cooldown Speed, and Mana Regen. At 50 Wisdom, you gain an extra 5% Cooldown Speed. Strength similarly boosts your maximum Weapon Damage, and at 50 Strength, you gain 100 Heavy Attack Chance.
Mid Game
For PvE, you care mainly about maximum damage output, so put points into Dexterity and Wisdom. 40 Perception is important for the extra 5% Buff Duration. 50 Strength grants you a 100 Heavy Attack Chance bonus.
End Game
With enough Purple Gear, you can optimally hit 50 Wisdom and high Dexterity.
PvE Gear Progression
If you're interested in PvP Gear Progression, check out our Longbow/Dagger PvP Build Guide here!
Transition
Transition
Reaper's
Solo Self Found
Story Gear Longbow / Dagger PvE Build
Do not upgrade Special Resistance Ancient Dragon Armor. You should leave it at 0.
If you didn't read the Leveling Guide and have completely different gear, that's fine; your Story Gear doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. The only thing that matters here is that you upgraded your gear.
So let's go into what you can get easily as upgrades right as you hit Level 50.
The following gear that all be acquired from Lithograph Book completion.
- Elite Resistance Knife
- Sharp Blades that Cut Through Darkness
- Lethal Fortune Ring
- Rustic Mother Nature Rings
- Elite Sharpshooter's Cloak
- Cloaks that Wield Victory
- Elite Tracker's Belt
- Sources of Abdominal Strength!
Longbow / Dagger PvE Build
If you're following this guide from when the game launches, you can't acquire some Purple pieces due to Open World Dungeons being gated by Milestones. So this build assumes you're unable to get certain pieces for the first 30-40 days of server launch.
You don't have to worry about Traits too much. If you are looking to do more damage, fill out your weapon Traits and Skill Damage Boost traits for your accessories.
Dungeon Farming Priority
The Blue armor pieces that I recommend here are just for more damage and your own convenience.
- Cave of Destruction
- Furious Sniper's Longbow
- Lequirus's Thorny Edge
- Miracle of Mother Nature Clothing
- Archpriest's Devotion
- Beast King's Gilded Bracers
- Insightful Ring of Dimension
- Comes from Precious Epic Accessory Selection Chest
- Requires Dimensional Essence: Salvation to craft. You need 10 Tokens from each Co-Op Dungeon to craft.
- Death's Abyss
- Dark Worship Magic Gaiters
- Butcher's Canyon (for Dimensional Essence: Salvation)
- If you happen to get Scales of Time Necklace to drop, wear it, use it for Marienne's Recommended Necklace Collection Lithograph, or sell it.
- Temple of Slaughter
- If you get Grace of Mother Nature Linen Pants as you do this for Insightful Ring of Dimension, you can use it as your pants instead.
- Cursed Wasteland
- Flying Dragon Breath Mask
Pants Alternatives
- Dark Worship Magic Gaiters
- Grace of Mother Nature Linen Pants
- Impure Witch's Linen Pants
- Deadly Barrier Chain Gaiters
Longbow / Dagger PvE Build
As more Milestones unlock, you start farming Open World Dungeons (Abyss Dungeons) for gear.
Transcendent Magic Ring, Tycan's Bloodlust Belt, and Abyss Conqueror's Necklace are acquired from sources that unlock from Milestones, but it is possible to acquire them earlier by using Substance Transformation. Accessories are the easiest ones to acquire from Substance Transformation, whereas getting the armor piece you want is more difficult.
Dungeon Farming Priority
- Karnix's Hell Bow (Death's Abyss)
- Reaper's Footsteps
- Sanctum of Desire (Avolos Tracker, Avolos Umbramancer)
- Precious Epic Equipment Chest: Desire
- Ghost Wolf Incision Gloves
- Syleus's Abyss 5F-6F (Demonhoof Butcher, Demonhoof Head Shaman)
- Precious Epic Equipment Chest: Abyss
- Transcendent Magic Ring (Queen Bellandir, Substance Transformation)
- Tycan's Bloodlust Belt (Aridus, Substance Transformation)
- Abyss Conqueror's Necklace
- Substance Transformation
- Precious Epic Equipment Chest: Abyss
Reaper's Mask Longbow / Dagger PvE Build
With Trait Resonance (Recommended)
Reaper's Pants Longbow / Dagger PvE Build
With Trait Resonance
You transition to using Reaper's Black Mask or Reaper's Interring Pants to complete your Death Set 2 piece bonus. The mask build is stronger.
Mask Build Gear Sources
- Reaper's Black Mask (Adentus)
- Grim Judicator's Pants
- Shadowed Crypt (Abyssal Specter)
- Precious Epic Equipment Chest: Shadow
Pants Build Gear Sources
- Reaper's Interring Pants (Junobote)
- Ghost Wolf Alter Ego Mask (Talus)
- Heavenly Arbiter Mask (Butcher's Canyon)
- Alternate head piece
You can acquire all the pieces through Substance Transformation, but this works best for accessories. Most players sell spare accessories at the Auction House. But like other MMOs, early adopters may find it much more expensive. The prices decrease as the server goes on.
- Transcendent Magic Ring
- Queen Bellandir, Substance Transformation
- Tycan's Bloodlust Belt
- Aridus, Substance Transformation
Traits
- You focus on DPS Traits like Skill Damage Boost and Heavy Attack Chance.
- You focus on Max Health and Skill Damage Resistance for defensive Traits.
- Evasion traits are nice if you intend to solo farm Open World Dungeons or Events.
SSF End Game Longbow / Dagger PvE Build
- This setup allows you to acquire all the pieces yourself through grinding. You do not need to use the Auction House or Substance Transformation.
Gear Sources
- Unshakeable Gold Ring
- Syleus's Abyss 5F-6F (Demonhoof Tracker)
- Precious Epic Equipment Chest: Abyss
Guardians
Guardians are special transformations that add offensive or defensive buffs or attacks to your character for 30 seconds. These are the recommended Guardians for this class.
- Shade Revenant Stheno is THE DPS Guardian in PvE. No other explanation is required.
- Lady Knight Kamarshea is a useful Guardian while you learn new dungeons. It helps in dangerous situations as an emergency button to survive mechanics that deal a significant amount of damage. Not many other situations arise where this is necessary.
Summary
- Longbow provides high single-target DPS at range, while Dagger provides amazing Passives.
- Decisive Sniping is your highest DPS skill in your arsenal.
- Stay at range until you need to use Shadow Escape and Thunderclouds Bombing.
Credits
Written by Yaen
Reviewed by Tenkiei and Bloo