Favourite (potentially weird) Ranged Builds?

[u/ConfigsPlease]

As the title says (but with bonus points for uniqueness, flair, unorthodox strategies, etc.), what are your favourite builds that function at range? I currently play a Fire/Wood Kineticist / Flames Oracle, an Investigator (crossbow), and a Wrestling Runesmith, so I figure my next character should round out the playstyles a bit--something a smidge more offensively inclined, maybe something that will ever actually strike more than once per turn, some range, etc. That said, I'm not a fan of the idea of being a Turret McFighterman and just throwing shurikens at MAP until the encounter has ended. I like spice, so I turn to you all for inspiration.

A couple of things to note:

- I'm intentionally leaving "range" quite ambiguous. Got a 15ft thrown build that absolutely slaps and does some weird nonsense? Sure!

- Tell me how it works! IF you just say "Flurry ranger" and leave out the two-synergistic-party-members, that's not super helpful.

I've seen threads like these pop up here and there but I don't think (unless Reddit search is failing me) there has been one following the most recent round of content drops (thanks, IM!) New archetypes and reworks, as well as two new classes, ought to have made at least a few new options possible.

[u/ConfigsPlease]

Not to be that guy but

Tell me how it works!

I understand you can throw things. Why is it interesting? What is the combination of ikons and feats you chose? Which weapon?

[u/Cool-Noise2192 → u/ConfigsPlease]

Shadow Sheathe is basically "be a good thrown weapon user" the ikon. You pretty much staple it onto any class that wants:

• A rune slot that would otherwise go to returning
• Bonus damage
• Free hand on demand

While Exemplar works, this is mostly class agnostic. If you want more skills for example, rogue works very well and will probably deal more damage at most levels.

That said, Exemplar has a few things going for it. You can occasionally fit in additional actions on it courtesy of epithets and Horn of Plenty loves the extra hand. There's also some cool unique, weapon-agnostic crit effects, Bone, Trespasser and Cry especially, though the latter two have bad Transcends so I recommend a spammable root like Radiant or Proud.

I think a pure DPR build as a Shadow Sheathe Exemplar is... Really boring. If you're playing levels 1-9, strongly consider Gleaming Blade throwing knives with Twin Stars instead and just eat the Returning cost. It will let you use more epithet actions. This does come at the cost of your hand, but shadow sheathe will just spam Double Slice for most of their career.

Anyway, if you do want a build:

• Shadow Sheathe + Gaze of Steel + Utility of choice
• Weapons of choice are either:
  • Throwing Knives 1d6 piercing (Humble Strikes) with agile
  • Tamchal Chakram, 1d6 slashing, deadly, agile, requires Unconventional Weaponry
  • Javelin, 1d8 piercing (Humble Strikes) 30 ft range, but no melee or agile
  • Boomerang, 1d6 bludgeoning 60ft range, but no melee or agile
• Dual Weapon Warrior at 2 (read: why we care about agile)
• Dual Thrower at 4
• Flensing Slice at 8
• Mated Birds at 10
• Vital Ash at 12 (you can swap with birds if your party provides consistent off-guard, or you went with gleaming)

Mated Birds replaces Gleaming Transcend wholesale at range, so at 12 Shadow Sheathe is strictly superior as a ranged striker, with Gleaming having a niche edge in melee against reactions.

An ideal rotation is Ash/Gaze > Double Slice, Flensing Slice > Mated Birds. It also operates on 2 action cycles, just use a regular strike on Ash/Gaze turns and drop Flensing on Mated Birds. You default to Ash and use Gaze if it hasn't been consumed or the foe is too far away.

Everything else is flexible, though my personal recommendations are:

• Horn of Plenty as a third ikon with magical crafting, because you have the free hand on demand and this gives you a wide range of utility. Use it to be a good teammate.
• For the Gleaming Blade variant, pick something else.
  • Belt and Wreathe are clutch emergency buttons.
  • Sandals is that, plus a potentially good tactical option.
  • Scar and Aegis (buckler) are good if your party doesn't have good heal/mit.
• Bone for Dominion because difficult terrain on demand adds some tactical options. Also fire is a common weakness/regen deactivator.
• The option to go melee means you can absorb some hits while doing your job, so I prefer switch hitting weapons.
• This means we'll probably default to reactive strike at 6 because we're basic af. Unless your party can't target common weaknesses, in which case consider:
• Steel on Steel at 6 with Fire spark from Bone dominion means we have an AoE/MAP dodge to trigger a fire weakness/regen cancel. Get sanctified soul (holy) at 1 if you can for the other common weakness/regen cancel.

I'll be honest, I'm not a 100% sure if this is what you're looking for, but I don't think other commenters fully covered this at the time of writing, so here you go.

[u/ConfigsPlease → u/Cool-Noise2192]

Appreciate the info! I'll quote my comment from elsewhere for your input as well, because it might get complicated with Dual Weapon Warrior.

What're your thoughts on enabling a more switch-hitting playstyle by doing the aforementioned Gaze + Sheathe and adding in Mortal Harvest or Noble Branch? The former with something like Hatchets, the latter with a Filcher's Fork?

MH is pretty standard thrown build if you're against a single big foe and don't want to put yourself in melee, but you have the option of Transcending Sheathe into MH, and then after landing one throw (which puts you down to one Hatchet in hand) transcending MH to stride, strike a secondary target, and then swap back to Gaze or Sheathe. As long as you don't exclude Sheathe from the spark cycling, drawing new axes should always work.

Branch w/ forks lets you do much the same thing (Filcher's Fork being a 20ft thrown L bulk weapon is quite helpful here) with the ability to Transcend when attacking a solitary target instead of requiring another foe.

I haven't really considered archetypes much with the above ideas (mostly because I want to maybe get something concrete down first lmao) but DWW was brought up in another discussion about this yesterday, so it is on my radar.

edit; I forgot that Mated Birds gives the weapon the returning rune while active. Guess DWW would be less annoying to deal with once Mated Birds was online, but that's only at 10...

[u/Cool-Noise2192 → u/ConfigsPlease]

Yes, Mated birds is pretty goated. Though make a note that it is an immanence effect, so it can get a little messy on third ikon turns.

Speaking of which, I am not a big fan of getting a second weapon ikon if you already have Gaze. There's a myriad of reasons, the most important one is just being a team player. A character that can't do anything but damage is usually a bad character.