Bow Staff PVE Build Guide

Introduction

Welcome to our Bow Staff PVE build guide. In this guide, we’ll go over our recommended way to set-up the Bow Staff weapon combination for PVE group activities, such as the Dimensional Circle. This set-up is used to fill a “DPS” spot in a 6-player dungeon group.

Skills

Below is our Skill set-up for PVE group dungeon runs:

This Skill set-up provides a little bit of cleave for trash mobs between bosses, and a large focus on bossing damage in 6-player dungeons.

Skill Specializations

With 100 total points to play with once you hit Level 50, below is our recommended Specializations for the Bow Staff PVE build:

These particular Specializations unlock some of the best boss damage potential as a DPS player in a 6-player dungeon in Throne and Liberty. The build utilizes the power of the Staff and the Bow to deal consistent and large damage to bosses. See our Skill Specializations guide for more information.

Weapon Mastery

This guide assumes you are at least in the range of Level 13-16 Weapon Mastery. However, if you’re below this threshold, it’s not an issue. Simply spec into the mastery trees that provide the most damage first.

Stats

Stats once you reach Tier 1 Epic gear can vary frequently due to stats built into gear. As a result, try to push for at least 60 Perception and 50 Strength while participating in a dungeon run – gear depending. Below is our recommended baseline Stat allocation:

Dexterity – 3 Points
Perception – 23 Points
Strength – 20 Points

Gear & Equipment

The gear loadout largely, if not entirely, stays the same across all content once you reach Tier 1 Epic. Our Tier 1 Epic set assumes that most of the base content has been unlocked with the Milestones completed.

Early on, make use of your Rare gear you acquired through MSQ. It is totally fine and expected to be in Rare gear for quite a long time – so don’t worry too much!

Guardian

Guardians are a unique transformation on a 10 minute Cooldown that gives powerful bonuses to you for 30 seconds. Some Guardians work as an additional “Active” Skill, while others provide buffs. We recommend the following Guardians for group play dungeons:

Shade Revenant Stheno – Stheno is the most offense-heavy choice in PVE. This Guardian dishes out consistent damage dealing projectiles to multiple targets.
Lady Knight Kamarshea – This Guardian is a fantastic safety net, just incase you’re taking too much damage during pulls. You’ll also get a huge amount of Cooldown Speed too. However, we believe Shade Revenant Stheno to be the BiS choice for dungeon bosses.

How to Play The Bow Staff PVE Build

Our Bow Staff PVE build guide not only aims to teach you how to put it together, but also how to play it.

The main objective of playing Bow Staff in a PVE dungeon is simple. You’re a “DPS” slot in the group. As a result, you’ll have the task of dealing as much damage as possible to clear the trash mobs and bosses of a dungeon. Bow Staff is known for being one of the best DPS combinations in Throne and Liberty for PVE and even PVP. To play this combination efficiently against bosses, you’ll have to play at maximum range at all times.

Skill Rotations

As previously mentioned, to utilize your build and rotation effectively, make sure you’re at max range and stationary. Then Use the following opening rotation:

Use High Focus
Use Inner Peace (cancel it to gain the Mana Cost Efficiency buff)
Infernal Meteor (Hellfire Rain)
Ensnaring Arrow
Deadly Marker
Serial Fire Bombs (Charged)
Judgment Lightning
Ice Spear (Ice Spear Bombardment)
Judgment Lightning

After this opener, you can weave in other Bow Skills such as Strafing and Zephyr’s nock to deal burst damage with “Gale”. For example, you can use Deadly Marker, use a couple of Strafing procs, launch a Zephyr’s Nock (with gets reduced Cooldown), fire off the final Strafing proc and use the second Zephyr’s Nock.

Nature’s Blessing and Inner peace should be used whenever possible for sustain. Finally, standing still as previously mentioned in the opening rotation is important to get the most out of your DPS. This is due to Rapidfire Stance and Asceticism giving you boosts to your Attack Speed, Heavy Attack Chance and Mana Regen when standing still.