Even at 106, You Can Still Learn Some Things....

So I'm back to my SharpShooter now, the Warlock has pretty much been shelved.  I didn't get to the 50-60% I had hoped for, although she currently sits at about 25%, I'm still satisfied.  With the Ascendence of Heroes Event finally winding down, it ends on March 31, I figured I may as well try to solidify my spot within the top 5 for Bijou's Archers.

 
So now that there's some new repeats, I figured I may as well take advantage right?  So the repeatable I'm currently undertaking is a 200 kill count, Fire Shella repeat.  It's not so bad, I can finish this quest in about 20 minutes or so, solo and uncookied, with just a full complement of T4 scrolls.  So from an expense perspective, it's extremely easy and worthwhile.  The quest reward is around 8 million EXP, but I gain an additional about 9 million EXP killing the level 110 Shellas that populate DarkLand; they're roughly 45k EXP each while using a 100% EXP boost card.  Netting about 17 million total EXP per turn in isn't so bad, but looking at the 1.4 billion EXP the 106-107 journey requires and it's still a tremendous undertaking.

To date, I've done this quest dozens of times already (I'm currently sitting at 65% 918m EXP), leveled my Fire Shella license twice already, but I decided to try something a bit different.  It's not necessarily monumental or the least bit groundbreaking, but more of an "A HA!" moment for myself.  First of all, I finally added Multi Blood Shot to my arsenal of AOEs.  I never had it readily hot-keyed before because the skill was really buggy causing lockup on anything that has a CD including town scrolls, potions, HP stones, skills, etc., and it used to cost about 900SP per cast.  My keys were pretty much laid out how I wanted them, so trying to squeeze MBS in was a bit of a chore and something I'm still getting used to.  Casting MBS isn't so bad, but I moved Bone Shot and Nature's Protection (which I don't use really) and have to get used to Bone Shot's new spot when I just do single-target striking.

If you don't already have MBS ready, I advise you to start implementing it.  The impact damage of the skill falls in-between Mist and a fully damage empowered Piercing Shot.  I would not advise empowering the damage for MBS, however, because the 5 pt empowerment only nets you about +200 damage.  If you absolutely have points to spare, go for it, but in my case,  I didn't.  MBS is still a bit buggy in that the DOT conflicts with Piercing Shot.  If you're a 75+ Archer, you're already well aware of the conflicts of Piercing and Bone Shot, so I won't go into more detail.

Piercing Shot with Malephar/Secret Lab Armors

So far I've been kiting with my normal gears, +0 Ashur Hat, +0 Lab Shirt, +0 Ashur Pants, +0 Ashur Boots, and +10 Ashur Bow.  These are stuff that most normal SharpShooters are unable to acquire, but I've actually found something that for the purposes of running this repeat goes, works a lot better:  the Advanced Concentration Set I acquired from Leviathan's Nest!

Piercing Shot with Advanced Concentration Set

My LN Set is pretty poor, I mean they're all +0, the hat and boots are the only pieces that are statted, 21 SPR and 50 INT respectively (lol), but yet they work wonders here.  Why would these be superior to my Malephar armors?  Well because for one, I rarely get hit even with the 400 or so Evasion difference, and mostly because of the full 4-piece set effect that the Concentration Set offers:  a 30% increase in Piercing Shot damage!  This 30% damage boost equates to about 400-500 more damage per critical as you can see in the screenshots above.  Okay, so that damage boost is nice, how's survivability?

Being that I use a T4 Speed scroll, along with T4 Evasion, Defense, M.Defense, and Vitality, it's rare that I get hit and when I do, unless I either lag hard or start dozing off, my chances of survival are pretty high.  If you were curious, here's the breakdown:

In DarkLand, you should be kiting about 12-14 level 110 Fire Shellas at a time, as long as you can stay ahead of the mobs, you're fairly safe.  Occasionally when you turn, have to backtrack for a drop, or just run through newly spawned mobs, you will get hit but the damage is survivable.  I think the max I got hit at one time was about 2k.

So now that I've improved Piercing Shot next on my agenda is to try and track down 2 pieces of the Strike Jewelry Set.  Sadly, I used to have 2 40 END rings from this set but sold them both about a year ago.  But as you can see the 2 piece effect increases the damage on Nature's Mist.  Hopefully I can find the necklace and 1 ring.  Using 2 Strike Rings instead of my 2 Paradise Rings might hurt, but I guess I'll see how that goes.  I guess I could also use a Point Jewelry Set, I think the 2 piece effect is the same, I don't have a screenie to verify though.

I'll keep you guys updated on my progress.  Repeatables are always mind-numbing experience, but at least it gives me a goal to shoot for and I feel like I'm progressing.  In the 4 days since I re-activated my SharpShooter, I've done just about 60% of 106, 15% a day is pretty significant.  Sadly, I only have one 106 quest aside from my repeat, left to do.