Runes of Magic US / AU

Quoted from "cheex"

Pro's to scout

Scout, like other ranged classes, inherently comes with the ability to kite. Other than being "fun" (very subjective), not many other pros.

Quoted from "cheex"

Cons to scout

Well...erm...to put it bluntly, as of now, your dps will not be the best.

Quoted from "cheex"

Where to put your TP

For the most part, max the lvl 50 capped skills first(ranged weapon mastery, speed shooting mastery, etc).
The next order of priority depends highly upon combo, as the base scout skills all do approximately the same dps. You just end up using the ones modified by elites, or elite skills, more often than others. That being said, VA, piercing arrow, reflected shot, mana drain shot and combo shot are usually good to upgrade. snipe, shot, and wind arrows would come next depending on elite modification.

Swiftness is a great skill to start putting tp into for later levels. doesn't need to be maxed, but when you are min/maxing at later levels, you'll want a good chunk of tp in it. Eagle eyes, again, is dependent upon combo, level, and gear. At early levels it will most likely seem useless, especially for questing and such, when your only source of crit will be this skill. When you try to do serious dps, it's worth putting tp into it once u start accumulating crit on gear. The same goes for blood arrow. useless for questing, but as soon as you get a party and try to do some serious dps, having high blood arrow is a must. 30-40%+ dps boost is just too hard to pass up.

Last come CC skills such as joint blow and lasso. These are more of "if you use them, great, if not, then ignore them" skills. While i don't advise ignoring CC, they are really situational skills, and not critical for scout. Yes, they can be incredibly useful, but are not critical to scout dps. put as much tp as you see fit into them.

target area and concentration can be safely ignored on most scout combos. you shouldn't be having focus issues, or accuracy issues. the crit buff on target area is laughably small, even compared to eagle eyes. I throw extra tp into target area and put it up during boss fights just because it's better than nothing, and i don't have focus issues, but the dps increase is extremely minimal.

Quoted from "cheex"

Shot rotation Leveling (none elite):

wind arrows, VA, combo shot.

if there are multiples, mix in piercing arrow and reflected shot.

1-2(even 2-3) WA's should be enough to kill most quest mobs, but if not, use a full rotation starting with VA. Pretty much keep using whatever is off CD. like i outlined above, most scout skills are roughly the same dps, and we don't follow a true "rotation" like rogue or warrior. you may find yourself a bit focus starved during questing, but it regens in a matter of seconds, so it's not like waiting around for it.

Quoted from "cheex"

Shot Rotation (Instance and Boss)

for group pve:
open with whatever skills give you or your party some kind of buff. if it's a proc, spam the associated skill until it procs. then just keep all buffs from skills up while using whatever highest dps skill you have thats off CD. It's literally just hitting whats not on CD. if two things are off CD, you pick the highest dps one. rinse, repeat. if you need to refresh a buff/debuff, use the skill. other than that, you will be using your highest dps skills. you may even get down to "filler" skills such as shot and WA. in general, the high tp priority skills are also your highest dps skills. you may notice high priority skills also have longer(relatively) cooldowns than the low priority skills.

my "priority list" for s/d goes something like this(if you don't play s/d, it will be different):
SPA
VA
mana drain shot
reflected shot
piercing arrow
combo shot
shot
WA
snipe


for solo pve:
lead with snipe, then go into the same "hit whats not on CD" rotation. snipe may suck in terms of dps, but 2.5 seconds worth of damage while not being hit by the boss is nice. your HP will thank you. after opening, ignore snipe unless you have an elite that modifies it(s/p, s/wdn), and ONLY use it when the elite is applicable. also, get arrow shield skill from WA. 15 seconds is pretty much your burn phase. i normally use it right after i pull, or post burn, depending on how fast the boss is going down, and how much he hits me for.

USE AUTOSHOT!!! seriously. it's quite literally the free-est dps you can get. activate modus early(with first skill in group, or while casting snipe solo).

buffs:
generally, in order of importance, you are looking for pcrit/crit damage, pdam, attack speed, PA, dex, str. anything that modifies those should be up when instance dpsing. pop your buffs in order of duration and importance(longer and lower priority buffs first) to maximize the burn phase. make sure all your long term buffs are refreshed before popping your CD's. not only is it hurting your dps when u lose hero pot/pdam food in the middle of the boss, it's kinda embarrassing(so easy to avoid)...

get 2 housekeepers. one for PA/pcrit buff(maxed ideally), and keep one at low lvl for free caviar.

as for blood arrow. yes, it's a very good dps increasing skill. it also has a big price tag. in general, you will only be using this when you have a healer who knows that you are using it. don't be that guy that randomly pops it without telling healer. not only could it possible get you killed, it's just nice, as healer(i would know, i played one before scout), to know when somebody is gonna start taking damage randomly. usually a HoT(or 2) with a burst heal with the group is enough to cover it, but still, tell your healer. that being said, unless something is gonna die in like 5-7 seconds, not a good idea to pop this when soloing.

another note: wait until you are in range of the boss to pop archer's glory. it's a waste of archer's glory when you pop it early and have to cancel so you can run to range without using all your other buffs...if you are running into the boss, this may be putting archer's glory at the end of your buff sequence. thats fine.

Quoted from "cheex"

General PvE Tips:

wait until the tank gets aggro before dpsing. it's not rocket science, but u'd be surprised at how many ranged classes accidentally pull before the tank gets to the boss.

get a pair of pvp gloves. they won't work on everything, but any time not CC'd is more time either staying alive or dpsing...or both.

Quoted from "cheex"

Best opening Shot?

somewhat covered in rotation.

Quoted from "cheex"

When to kite?

when anything slow, clumsy, short ranged, and tanky is trying to kill you.

bosses that have a "nuke" melee skill.

also, when you pull aggro(shouldn't be happening, but maybe ur tank died or something, idk...improperly handled aggro wipe?).

really, anything melee is kitable.

Quoted from "cheex"

How to kite?

cike's quick guide to kiting:
1) run around in a circle larger than the range of your bow(may be limited by room size, but try and get as much range as you can in that case)
2) jump while running around in a circle
3) at the apex of each jump, fire a skill. this will prevent you from turning around and running backwards while moving, but still allowing you to shoot backwards.
4) ???
5) gather loots

if you accidentally corner yourself in pvp(heck, even i do that still sometimes), jump through the opponent instead of trying to slide around. some players will have their LoS(facing target) messed up by this, and you will save a second or 2 of incoming damage. again, it won't work on everybody, but better than nothing. (if you are rogue, you can use this to get an easy blind spot/SA in pvp without trying to chase around people from behind)

if need be, make use of slowing skills as well as speed buffs to keep the range comfortable. to make this work, you need to stay out of 150 range, as that is usually the max range of most melee classes/aoes. if they catch up, pop a quick joint blow/stun/lasso depending on combo, and then run out of range again. if you get a slow proc due to frost arrow or some elite, you usually have time to stop and turn around for a quick combo shot or rapid succession of skills.

also, keep autoshot modus active, as it will only shoot when you are able to hit the target(in range, facing, off CD, etc). it will not turn you automatically to hit, but when you turn to fire skills, autoshot will usually go off as well.

general pvp tips:

USE CC SKILLS!!! seriously, people underestimate the amount of leverage CC skills give you. rogue tries to melee you? pop neck strike. melee class gets in melee range? joint blow. need to kite 2 opponents? lasso one. have any stuns? use them! healer trying to cast? throat attack. mage trying to cast? throat attack...i think you get the idea...make use of your melee skills to control the range between you and your opponent. there is nothing wrong with running in to use a quick CC and running back out, our bows work just as well at point blank range. just don't get caught too long in melee. heck, against other ranged classes(unkitable), melee may be your best friend if you make use of your melee CC skills...



i guess i'll add macros and stuff sometime later...if any1 finds glaring errors, please point them out xD

cheers,
cike, your nub neighborhood scout

Just wondering: for (at least some) mages' skills, disabling 'click to move' also prevents from turning towards the opponent upon using an attacking skill.

If it works the same way for scouts and you know you'll have a long kiting session, changing this setting might be easier than jumping... And you might be able to fire skills more often (maybe, haven't tested).

I will take on this challenge.

Quoted from "cheex"

I'm under the impress that there is no current scout guide. So, I don't mind assisting in the building of a guide. With that said I will pose the questions below that are critical to making a guide and allow the more senior members to respond, I will gather the info and apply it to the OP. when complete it should be a rough guide that everyone had a hand in making. See how it goes.

Pro's to scout

1 Ranged Damage

2 Ranged DPS Support

3 Can kite monsters and players to slight effectiveness, certainly not for a long period of time

4 Reasonably good at PvP, on par I would say



Cons to scout

1 Ranged skills are sub-par to all Ranged and melee classes

2 Ranged skills range are sub-par to on par to all Ranged and melee classes

3 Weapons and weapon skills are sub-par to all classes

4 Elite skills are sub-par to most classes, especially 60 and 70 elite skills

5 Damage modification formula is sub-par to all % DPS classes

6 Damage reliability and survivability based on Focus is too great

Best Secondary Class for Scout?

1.) S/W - This class combination has the potential to achieve more dex than any other class combo in the game, likewise physical attack. Has significant PvP bonus' as well as damage. Also takes some of the focus requirements away and places them on rage, which is reasonably more manageable. And lastly still brings some extra DPS to boss fights for the group.

2.) S/Wdn - This class combination trades all support bonus' scouts generally receives for self-mods and self-increased damage. Has significant PvP bonus' as well as survivability. Also takes some of the focus requirements away and places them on mana, which is reasonably more manageable (generally much more manageable, except the mana skills used by S/wd are % based and not # based).

3.)S/R - This class combination runs a close 3rd for being a strong group support. This combination has few trade-off's but makes up for its now insignificant and unrepairable ability to do damage for the debuff's it brings to the boss fights. Takes away some focus requirements.

S/M - Why?

S/?? - Why?



Where to put your TP

The following are the skills you should be putting your points into.
For those attempting to deal damage
Priority 1 Combo Shot

Priority 2 Blood Arrow

Priority 3 Wind Arrow

Priority 4 Any elite skill that does more % DPS than Wind Arrow

Priority 5 Snipe

Priority 6 Shot
For support scouts or general scouts

Combo shot
Snipe
Wind Arrow
Shot
Vampire Arrow

Stat selection. What start are most important for scouts?
Dex
Physical Attack
Health
Only Physical Defense if you are focused on PvE
Magical Defense becomes viable if you are focused on PvP


Shot rotation Leveling (none elite):

What is a good leveling shot rotation for scouts in the following brackets (adjust brackets as needed)

Snipe -> engage auto shot -> vampire/wind arrows/shot -> combo shot -> if it's not dead it's probably an elite, in which case kite it with wind arrow and non-focus using skills.



Shot Rotation (Instance and Boss)

Snipe -> Activate Auto Shot -> Vampire Arrows -> Combo Shot -> Piercing Shot -> Wind Arrow -> Reflected Shot -> Wind Arrowx2 -> Shot(variable)

Rinse repeat cooldowns (don't use snipe past opener). Certain Elite skills -should- replace Piercing Shot's place and simply the rest move down the line.



General PvE Tips: Snipe is a great engage tool

Best opening Shot? ^

When to kite? Always, if you can avoid being hit, do it. Kiting is a good skill to have.

How to kite? Wind arrow, jump a or jump d, don't move backwards folks. Keep a good control over your right mouse button and learn how to move your character.



Those are all the things I can think of, I'm sure you vets will add a ton more. My goal to this thread is to get the ball rolling on a new scout guide for leveling PvE.

PvP: Please indicate if a suggestion is PvP oriented and would not apply to PvE. I will note that in the guide.



I will be following this thread in the days to come and be updating the sections with the info you guys provide.