Iris Online Gun Rogue/Hunter Build Guide

Iris Online Gun Rogue/Hunter Build Guide by lloonnee2

Let me first clarify: I’m by no means a pro in Iris. Heck, I’m not even of an intermediate level. All I know, is that there’s a distinct lack of guides for the Gun Rogue in this forum section, and I intend to do something about it.

Thus, I made this thread

This guide is open to criticism, and I’m aware that many more players out there are more experienced Hunters, so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. At least, a known mistake is much better than a bunch of gun rogues screwing up their skill builds later on.

PvE build for Gun Rogue, which assumes you WILL be reskilling later at 30.

Essential

Dexterous Shot/Instant Fire/SlingShot: Dexterous Shot has a critical chance, while Instant Fire has a fairly high base damage. Both of which are better choices of attack skills compared to SlingShot, which has a lower base attack, and critical value depends on your critical value. However, SlingShot translates to TWICE the chances of critical hitting the enemy. It’s your call, but maxing out all three takes a fairly large amount of skillpoints.

Armour Penetration: Your super high crit chance skill. A good one.

Manticore Sting: Useful for dungeon runs to debuff the boss, and it’s quite a hefty debuff indeed. Worth the long wait.

Bolstered aggression: More Critical Chance is always good.

Shadow Protection: Your evade goes up, which means more Misses on you.

Ursine Fortitude: Not a very useful skill in itself, but necessary for the next skill, which is…

Feline Instincts: Increases your Agility, which translates to increased hit chance, critical chance, and evade.

Emergency Cure: Heals a decent amount of hp, which means savings in terms of pots.

Optional Skills

Breach Fire: Damage isn’t anything special, debuff is a joke. -26 all protection stats?

Silencing Shot: More suited for PvP against mages. This is because most monsters don’t use magic attacks at low level, AND the fact that it’s rather long cooldown prevents it from being used frequently. As this build is meant for a PvE build, it’s up to you, but most mages can shrug it off.

Penetrating Shot: An AoE, but one that is hard to aim. I’ve yet to see a gun rogue gather a bunch of monsters, and AoE them with this skill. This is because 1. Rogues aren’t tanks. and 2. It’s more efficient to kill one by one, in 3~4 hits, than it is to shoot 3 mobs and line them up before using this skill ONCE. However, it has a nice base damage, so you might want to take advantage of this skill for high damage potential.

Timed Bomb: It’s an interesting skill, as it allows for a close-ranged AoE that’s easier to aim than Penetrating Shot. However, it’s damage is a tad low. I found it useful for covering my tracks in PvP, especially in Flag Matches. Having said that, you won’t be using it that often in 1v1, so some might choose to skip it.

Weapon Check: A buff that adds a bit more damage.

Brief Alacrity: It’s good when you have the flag in Flag Matches, since you can’t use your mount then. Also comes in handy when you need to make a quick escape. However, I can’t think of other situations when you’d use it on a constant basis, since it lasts fairly short. Up to you if you want to add it.

Beastial Instincts: A shorter version of Brief Alacrity, but much better in my opinion. It increases your evade by a crapload, so although it lasts 5 seconds shorter, you’ve got a really, really high chance of not being hit during that time. I’ve got both this skill and Brief Alacrity, and I do use it more often than Brief Alacrity for escaping. In addition to being super-hard to hit when using it, you aren’t affected when you take damage, unlike Brief Alacrity, which is rendered null when you take damage.

Enriched Psyhique: If you rest to recover HP, good. If not, you might want to skip it.

Indomitable Movement: Not many mobs have attacks which prevent you from moving, and those that have, usually have the attack at a high level.

Conceal: I heartily recommend you skip this skill, simply because it has a cooldown almost as long as Manticore Sting (a way more useful skill), it only targets ONE mob, and it doesn’t seem to work. I tried it on an aggro monster, and the aggro monster attacked me -.-
Update on Conceal: The aggro status in Iris works as such: if you dealt the most damage to a monster, that monster will attack you. So in a party, if your total damage on Mob X is 300 and the Fighter in the party whacked 700 in total, Mob X will attack the Fighter instead of you. Even so, Conceal is useless as -insert word here- for Solo players, since you’re the only person that hit a monster. Even if you are in a party, the gun rogue isn’t the tanker, so you should hardly find a need for this skill.

Toughness: Adds a bit more hp. Not really useful if you have Usine Fortitude anyway.

Mail armour upgrades: If you wear mail armour usually, improved mail armour is probably the one you’d want to max first. The other three aren’t that good, and the points can be better spent elsewhere.

Gun Expert and Wild Nature: Both increase your damage dealt.

Gun Scope and Ranged Fire: Alright, here’s my stand on ranged skills that increase your range. Most of the mobs in Iris are not too far apart, and you don’t really need a super long range to kill them. Indeed, later on, many of them are aggros and I often have to carefully thread my way around them. Having said that, I’m not saying you shouldn’t add them. I’ll just say this: It’s of no use having a super-long range, but horrible damage. If you’ve got extra points and you’re confident that you’ve achieved your maximum damage possible for your level and later levels, then go crazy. But having a long range is better for PvP games, where people are far apart, and this isn’t a PvP build.

~Hunter build~

Since the game decrees that you have to spend at least 40 skillpoints on your first job, I’ll run through the essential skills you’ll want to get from your first job as a rogue, by explaining from the Hunter skills.

There are five skill paths you can take as a Hunter, and most of the Hunter skills fall into one of these paths.

1. Debuff path
The debuff path has skills which…debuff. These skills make the target weaker in some manner or another, and the target either deals less damage or is easier to kill. Skills which debuff are as follows: Breach Fire 2 (Small defense debuff), Hazy Strike (Small attack debuff), Magic Block (Single buff debuff), Adhering Terrain (Small movement speed debuff) and Manticore Sting 2 (Large defense debuff).

Manticore Sting 2 is pretty much the only useful debuff for PvE, although Magic Block will definitely be useful in PvP situations, and on mobs that buff themselves (not sure if there are any o.o). Regardless, the requirements for Manticore Sting 2 is Lvl 4 Manticore Sting 1.

2. AoE path: These skills allow you to hit more than one mob. AoE Skills are: Conflagrated Barrage (Fire AoE on up to 4 targets that are beside/close to the target), Penetrating Shot 2 (Shoots through up to 4 targets that are in a straight line from where you are located), Timed Bomb 2 (Bombs 4 targets that are in the area of the bomb explosion), and Bomb Throw (Just like Timed Bomb 2, but without having to put the bomb on the floor manually, the bomb is thrown at the target.)

Of these skills, Conflagrated Barrage seems pretty interesting, as it’s possible for a Hunter to AoE using three skills. First, shoot 4 mobs, and then use bomb throw as it has the longest cooldown. Then Timed Bomb 2 on the ground, and finally Conflagrated Barrage to finish off the mobs. Only problem would be if the mobs are still not dead, there’s a fairly long cooldown before any AoE skill can be used again.

Apart from the AoE scenario, Conflagrated Barrage has a nice DOT effect of -80 HP for 5 seconds per mob, for a total of 400 HP at the end of the DOT. 400 HP isn’t alot, but you wouldn’t really rely on that DOT effect anyway.

Penetrating Shot 2 is hardly an AoE skill, but it IS a requirement for a skill down the Critical Path, namely Barbed Shot. So it has to be added in order for the player to add Barbed Shot. The requirements for Penetrating Shot 2 are Penetrating Shot 1 Lvl 3, and Lvl 1 Hazy Strike, which has its own requirement of Lvl 1 Breach Fire 2. Breach Fire 2, has a requirement of Lvl 9 Breach Fire 1. Thus, the skills required for Penetrating Shot 2, which itself is a requirement for Barbed Shot, are Lvl 3 Penetrating Shot 1, Lvl 9 Breach Fire 1, Lvl 1 Hazy Strike, and Lvl 1 Breach Fire 2. A considerable amount of skillpoints indeed.

As for the bomb AoE’s, I’ll go through that in the Bomb path.

3. Bomb path: This is a rather lonely path with only two skills, namely Bomb Throw and Timed Bomb 2. Timed Bomb 1, from my experience, didn’t really have high damage until I lvl’d it to level 2. At 750 HP per mob hit by the bomb, it was equal to a Penetrating Shot 1 Critical to that mob in terms of damage. I assume that Timed Bomb 2 will be as useful in terms of damage, however the issue that has to be addressed for both Timed Bombs 1 and 2, is that you have to manually drop the bomb down.

This isn’t a problem when soloing, but in dungeons, running in towards the boss, could result in getting hit by the boss’s attack, and might irritate the healer that’s trying to keep both the tanker and the *&#!@ running Hunter alive.

Bomb Throw looks good as a remedy for this minor problem, but it can only be obtained at Lvl 50, a long journey from Lvl 30. Thus, I recommend either going the full Bomb path, or skipping it entirely.

4. Critical path: These are the skills that you should concentrate on, as it comprises most of your damage. They are: Focused Fire (Gives you a 20-second critical buff when used in addition to firing off a crit shot), Armour Penetration 2, Barbed Shot, Dexterous Shot 2, and Focused Sight (Buff that increases Crit Change).

You should max out this path, as it’s definitely one of the best paths avaliable for the Hunter. Condensing all of the requirements for the 5 skills above…

Maxed Dexterous Shot 1 (Dexterous Shot 2)

Maxed Armour Penetration 1 (Armour Penetration 2)

Maxed SlingShot 1 for SlingShot 2, (which leads to Dexterous Shot and Focused Fire)

Maxed Breach Fire 1 (For Breach Fire 2)
Lvl 3 Silencing Shot (For Penetrating Shot 1)
Lvl 3 Penetrating Shot 1 (For Penetrating Shot 2)
Lvl 1 Breach Fire 2 (For Hazy Strike)
Lvl 1 Hazy Strike (For Penetrating Shot 2)
Lvl 1 Penetrating Shot 2 (For Barbed Shot)

Lvl 1 Magical Resistance (For Ranged Fire 2)
Lvl 4 Weapon Check (For Ranged Fire 1)
Lvl 4 Ranged Fire 1 (For Ranged Fire 2)
Lvl 1 Ranged Fire 2 (For Focused Sight)

5. Range path: These skills increase your range, and most of them are improvements of the first job skills. They are Hawk Eye, Gun Scope 2, and Ranged Fire 2. Hawk Eye has a huge range boost, but it’s only avaliable at lvl 55, so Gun Scope 2 and Ranged Fire 2 will be your main range increases until then.

I took the Critical path, and added Manticore Sting from the Debuff path, while skipping the Bomb path for a lack of skillpoints. In case you’re wondering about the other skills, here’s a quick description of them.

Coceal 2: Skipped it like I skipped Conceal 1, hardly useful.
Brief Alacrity 2: I prefer Beastial Instincts compared to this, as the difference in movement speeds doesn’t compensate for the fact that the skill is cancelled if you are hit once.
Toughness 2/Wild Nature 2: Skipped it as well, I prefer to put those points into attacking skills.
Gun Expert 2: Skipped it, and I doubt my damage will suffer horribly.
Mail armour upgrades: Skipped them too.
Marksmanship and Improved Guns: I may add extra points into these skills, as I don’t really have accuracy problems in PvE. But in PvP, it’s good for hitting other characters with high evade, such as Rangers.
Adhering Terrain: Clearly intended for PvP, since a slower attack speed wouldn’t help to kill a monster quicker.
Shadowy Marksman: A high debuff on yourself for a low attack buff. Interesting skill, but I think I’ll skip it.

My current skillbuild thus looks as such:

I added Protection Aura, because it’s useful for panic situations, when you get too close to a boss while hunting. It lasts for 15 seconds, and blocks the first 2 attacks within that time frame. A major plus is that it can also be casted on the run, so combine that with Bestial Instincts, and it’s easy to travel through aggro mobs.

I decided to hold off from maxing Breach Fire 1 so that I can add Breach Fire 2, as the path to Barbed Shot is a long way indeed. So saving points for adding Dexterous Shot 2 and Focused Fire would be a wiser move than spending those points instantly.

Someone requested that I list which skills are essential, and which are optional like I did for the Rogue build. This, however, depends greatly on which path you want to take as a Hunter. Naturally, the critical path are of skills which have the ability to critical the target, and so on, and so forth. However, there are of course other skills which do not fall under any of the paths. Thus, the skill build I am posting below is one that follows the Critical Path.

Recommended PvE Skill build for Hunter. This build ensures that your main skills will be critical skills, thus you’ll be firing off a volley of critical shots before resorting to attacks that have no critical bonus.

Essential skills (Attacking)
-Armour Penetration 2: Your sure-fire crit skill, assuming it doesn’t miss.
-Barbed Shot: Crit Skill.
-Focused Fire: Crit Skill, with chance for a 20-second buff to be given to you.
-Dexterous Shot 2: Another Crit skill.

Essential Skills (Buffs)
-Focused Sight: Increases your Crit %.

Essential Skills (Etc.)
-Manticore Sting 2: Heavy debuff to target. Use this first, then fire off Armour Penetration 1/2 and you’re quite likely to do 1k+ damage.

Optional Skills (By this, I mean not maxing them out. You’ll definitely have to put some points in some of these skills to get the Essential Skills, but how much points you want to put into these skills is up to you.)

-SlingShot 2: Twice the shots done, twice the chance for a critical. It has a fairly low mp cost too, but the damage isn’t anything special.

-Conflagrated Barrage: I’m still divided over as to how useful this skill would be. Hunters generally aren’t meant to be an AoE class after all, but it’s good for occasions when there are several aggros trailing you. You might want plonk one point in here for the AoE effect.

-Breach Fire 2: Tiny debuff still, and damage isn’t great.

-Hazy Strike: Tiny debuff like Breach Fire, I wouldn’t recommend maxing this.

-Magic Block: Pretty good for PvP, and for monsters that buff themselves (especially bosses in dungeons). Outside of what was mentioned above though, hard to see much practical use. But you might want to put a point here for fun.

-Penetrating Shot 2: Good damage, still crappy range. Up to you if you want to max this out, but I prefer critical skills more than a higher base damage.

-Coceal 2: 2nd version of the first skill Conceal, and still as useless. For those that missed my explanation above as to why Conceal is useless, it’s becuase it reduces the Aggro rating of a monster, which translates to a lower probability of the monster attacking you. When you solo quests, you will still be targeted by the monster even if you reduce his aggro using Conceal. And if you go into a dungeon, you’re not the main tanker anyway, Hunters are DPS characters, so you should hardly find a situation when the monsters attack you instead of attacking the tanker (assuming the tanker does his normal job. If you do more damage than the aggro he adds, you WILL be targeted. Then again, I doubt Conceal will reduce the monster’s aggro rating towads you sufficiently so that you won’t be targeted.) Long story short: Skip this.

-Adhering Terrain: This skill seems more suited for PvP than PvE, as by reducing a monster’s movement speed, it only helps when you’re escaping from that monster, in which you have other skills (Protection Aura/Beastial Instincts) which are more capable of saving your exp compared to a skill that reduces the monster’s speed. I’d say skip it.

-Magicial Resistance: Less magic damage is always good :D. But it depends on how often you fight monsters that do magic attacks, if you frequently do so, you might want to max it out.

-Bomb Path (Timed Bomb 2 and Bomb Throw): This are your main AoE Skills. Some may choose to forego them like I did, but I’m planning to add skillpoints into them in the future if I have excess. They do good damage for an AoE Skill, and can help in AoE parties where there’s a main AoE’er (Usually a zerker). But single-target crit skills are much more useful for dungeon bosses, and like I said earlier, Hunters generally aren’t meant to be an AoE class. These two skills will probably be somewhere in the middle of your skills you want to add.

-Brief Alacrity 2: I’d say skip this and get got Beastial Instincts, as this skill is also cancelled once you are hit, unlike Beastial Instincts. So that decreases the usefullness of this skill, while Beastial Instincts is a skill that can also be used anywhere, due to the increased evasion it grants.

-Wild Nature 2 and Toughness 2: Increases aren’t that great, and can easily be covered with buffs or some green armour/guns. I say skip.

-Range Path (Hawk Eye, Gun Scope 2, Ranged Fire 2): Like I said earlier, don’t increase your range skills at the expense of your attack skills. Hunters are a ranged DPS class, and having a long range will help a bit, but having a high attack is what MAKES Hunters a DPS class.

-Mail Armour Passives (Strengthened Armour 2, Fortified Armour 2): These are really optional skills, you might want to increase your defence at the cost of some SP, or you could spend a bit of money for better armour, and put the SP in a more useful skill. Your call, but I picked the latter, as we have Emergency Cure anyway, and I figured that little extra damage I take probably won’t kill me, and I don’t need super-high defence as I’m not a tank.

-Shadowy Marksman: I’m really trying hard to think of a use for this skill, that justifies the tremendous debuff. It’s not as if we Hunters have that much Magic Defence to play with, as it is, we’re second best compared to Mages in terms of Magic Defence. Bosses? Well…that little attack boost might help, but I know that the huge magic debuff could be my demise if the boss decides to AoE or target me. Soloing? 1 SP seems rather expensive for a small attack buff…I’d recommend skipping.

-Gun Expert 2: Small attack buff. Would be more useful if it added critical %, but sadly it doesn’t. I skipped to save skillpoints, but you might want to add it.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *