Aura Kingdom Warbow Guide

Aura Kingdom Warbow Guide by azuryu_tennos

Hi everyone, I’m YasuriNanami, currently a Warbow/Bard in Hydra. Since most of the guide on warbow are already outdated and warbow is still a very underplayed/underrated class after their nerf, I made this guide to help players have a general idea on how to build a warbow that works. Im more of a PvP players so this guide will focus more on PvP as I believe it is not too hard to gear for PvE. I will briefly talk about how to gear and play PvE though. Excuse me for the lack of picture as I am pretty lazy.

My pvp stats as of the day i wrote the guide. Nothing impressive but not rly shabby either.

I’ll update SS once this PvP section over.

I/ Why pick warbow ?

Pros:

+/ Beautiful Skill Animation
+/ Highly challenging class (both pros and cons)
+/ Underrated and Underplayed. Basically you can be a warbow hipster
+/ Highest burst potential after Holy Sword if build well
+/ Great AoE in pvp and pve after Ravager and Wizard
+/ One of the strongest classed in Glorious Frost Crown
+/ One of the best party buffs for both pve and pvp
+/ Corrosive Shot is one of best defend shredding skill in pve if use oftenly
+/ High Movement Speed
+/ A lot of free Accuracy to deal with eva user

Cons:

-/ Very squishy, tankier than wizard and to a certain degree gunslinger, but fell short compared to other class
-/ Lack a reliable stun and reliable CC
-/ Charging mechanics – can be interrupted, limit the amount of shots you can do in most situation as other class can dish out more skills before you
-/ Require good timing, game knowledge, positioning to play well. Learning curve is a bit brutal compared to other classes and take time to get used to

II/ Subclass, what to choose ?

Warbow has a limited number of subclass choices as there are two subclasses that outweight all the other options.

Bard sub class:

+/ Provide self sustain in pvp with heal
+/ Give a lot of tankiness in pvp
+/ Give 12% detailed dmg against boss/elite/players from Tunes of March. Blue harp is one of the best subweapon for general boss.
+/ Ultimate combos with iFrame for sticky situations

Wizard sub class:

+/ Give a lot of free Crit dmg against player/bosses (45% with buff, 25% with no buff)
+/ Give 2 very reliable long range CCs and a Self Cleanse

Overall bard subclass is more balanced and offer many things that a warbow desire. However if you go for crit build or want to reach a certain threshold of crit dmg with the other build then wizard sub is a very great subclass to consider. It’s a very offensive subclass so beware of your positioning and HP bar because you won’t have anything to bail you out if you make a crucial mistake

III/ Skills Breakdown: Mechanics and Skill choice

Here are what you are generally going to use as a warbow:

Triple Shot: Your primary damage skills for chasing situation or long range snipe. Also your second best single target skill on boss. Triple Shot works a lot similar to Round and Round from Ravager however not so. Here’re some mechanics of it to grasp how it works:

+/ It’s considered as a two-part skills when charged. In your damage log it will show something like this when you fully charged it

Triple Shot 1 deals X damage
Triple Shot 2 deals Y damage
Triple Shot 3 deals Z damage
Triple Shot (Charged) deals (X+Y+Z) / 2 damage

Your 4th shot or the charged shot will always do 50% of the total dmg your first 3 shots do. So technically aside from the 120% dmg ratio boost from when you charged you get 50% more

+/ Any procs can be procced by the first 3 shots. What is procced in one of the 3 first shots will not proc on the other. For example if shot 1 proc Zeal, proc 2 and 3 won’t proc zeal and vice versa. However different procs can be procced throughout all 3 shots. For example shot 1 can proc Zeal, shot 2 proc Blessing of the Wind and shot 3 proc Bluster Gust

+/ The Charged Shot can proc anything as a separate skills and can proc the same proc as the first 3 shots. For example first shot can procs Zeal and the charged can proc Zeal at the same time too

+/ Any procs of the first 3 shots will deal their % bonus dmg base on the total damage of the 3 shots combined. For example if you proc Blessing of the Wind during the first 3 shots it will deal 50% x (X + Y + Z) damage

+/ Any procs of the Charged Shot will always do around half the damage of the Charged Shot alone, regardless of their % dmg multiplier.

+/ If Bluster Gust or Cruel Rush is procced during shot 1, 2 or 3, the next shot (short 2, 3, charged) will get the bonus.

So as you can see Triple Shot has a significant more chance to proc than any other skills of you and this is why it is one of the hardest hitting skill for single target purpose. Use it as much as you can if you are within safe distance.

Blessing of the Wind: One of the strongest self-buff skill in the game. Give you 10% more movement speed, -10% dmg taken from all source and a 30% chance to proc a 50% bonus dmg zeal-life effect. Always cast this skills whenever it is available

+/ Even if you take the +6s duration from your envoy, the dmg taken and movement speed bonus will only last 25 second. The zeal bonus is what will last 31 second after taking your envoy.

At capped speed it has a cooldown around 30-31 second. Be wary of when the dmg taken and MS buff is around to wear off (every 25s). You have 5s of much more vulnerability when you don’t have these two buffs

Corrosive Shot: Corrosive Shot used to be what make Warbow obscenely OP as you can sneak in one of this uncharged everytime you release a skill before the nerf. Nowadays Corrosive Shot is not so good in PvP anymore because of the GCD nerf.

+/ Each shot reduce a flat amount of defense from the target. At level 69 (skill level 77) each shot reduce around 1230 defense which mean when stacked it is a 3.6k defense debuff which is insanely strong against boss

Don’t use this skill in pvp unless against a very tanky opponent that keep being in your range and you can’t do much to him, then use this to make him more vulnerable (wouldnt recommended still). However do stack this skill in pve whenever you can on boss. Most of the time i don’t have this on skillbar for pvp.

Arrow of Light: Your bread and butter skill. A fully charged Arrow of Light with corresponding elemental boost is one of, if not, the highest damage skill in the game.

+/ Arrow of Light will miss if your opponent move sideway with good movement speed (not on a straight line from you)

+/ Arrow of Light will hit anything in its path regardless of the fact that your original target is dead or not. If you release the skill when the target is already dead the skill still come through and deal the damage in the fixed area that was target before your target is dead

This is your strongest skill on boss and player, however use it cautiously as it is very easy to miss. Use it on player with low movement speed like a spinning ravager with no Beebis, or use it on someone who is stunned, rooted or is moving straight to you. You can hit a ravager who is soaring toward you and it will hit him before he lands. If he die midway you won’t receive any damage. Most boss monsters are more or less stationary so you should use this skill and Triple Shot for bossing as it also gives a -10% dmg reduction which is very nice

Hail of Arrow: This is your biggest aoe skills. With Longbow envoy a charged Hail of Arrow has bigger aoe than a Meteor Shot with Secret Stone from a Wizard main.

+/ A dot like damage will still hurting whoever standing in the area that was shotted for a few second

+/ Because of bow choice and secret stone, this skill will most likely have more crit dmg than your other skills

Use this skill on a big pack of players, or on something tanky just to hit everything around that. In centurion because of how melee class have to stay on boss, using this skill on boss will hit them as well. For PvE this skill is most likely for mobbing.

The other skills included Dimensional Shot and Frost Arrow, please remove them from your skillbar. You won’t have time to use them nor any good reasons to do so save yourself two slot for other stuff.

IV/ Envoy Path:

The envoy path for Warbow is fairly straight forward. Always try to get Blessing of the Wind increased duration, Inherent Purity, Long Bow, Battlefield Motivator and Overdraw. If you are wizard sub the two ultimates are pretty neat to get. Domineering Thunder requires no target to cast so it is a very good safety net when you’re out of position. Just jump cast it while moving back to a safer location or lure your pursuer to your teammate. You can also cast it when there are red lines littering everywhere (ST 15th, Taloc, ST 20th) to avoid getting hit as well. Supersonic Arrow is not required since it need a target to cast making it quite bad but if you have point to spare and want more iframe then why not.

This is how a normal Warbow/Bard envoy would look like at level 75

If you are wiz sub simply remove the two combo skills and allocate it to either dmg 2% or crit 1.6%, your preference

Currently im at level 69 and use this for my crit build envoy

The reason for why i drop Longbow was because after a discussion with my friends it turned out 3m increase from Longbow is around a step of a character in AK which is not really that big (however it is highly recommended to keep this envoy in during Glorious Frost Crown day as it is a linear map). The crit rate increase is very usefull when it come to quick execute + mitigate people crit reduction.

Also Blessing of the Wind with 3s less is around 28s duration, so there are 2s gap between having it on and off and is not really that much of a big deal anyway. When Im 75 i might grab Fleet Footed and the Cdmg taken ones.

If you are confident in playing with 1 ulti then you can drop Supersonic Arrow and go for Speed of Life

V/ Gear choice:

Main Weapon: Holy element is always preferable although not obligatory. If you have money always try to get 130% + Holy for the two Yellow bows or 120%+ for the crafted bow

The Psionic Gaze: Have zeal-effect, HP bonus and bonus crit dmg to Hail of Arrow. More available and overall a stable, good choice for both pve and Pvp.

Bow of the Dwarven King: Quite underrated. 20% boost to triple shot is pretty huge and as a result this bow would do more single target dmg than Psionic. It’s quite rare to get a 130%, let alone Holy though so unless you get lucky or have lot of fund and want to be different, then don’t waste too much money on it

Valkyrie’s Composite Bow: Your best pve bow. 5% movement speed buff and 10% boss damage are quite nice. Core of choice are Deadly, Nocturnal, Destroyer, Protector. If you are PvE only and doesnt have much fund i suggest you to get a Nocturnal core for this bow so you will have a much easier time collecting Elemental Damage sub weapon later on.

Dreamer’s Long Bow: If you want less point into speed then this bow is a good alternative since it gives you 5% more speed and a speed increase proc similar to Duke’s Dulers

Elite’s Guardian Composite Bow: The best bow for PvP. Words cannot describe how powerful this weapon is, especially with proper element. It’s very hard to get a decent element nor % so if you got one of the other like a holy 101%, use it, or a Storm 120%, use it. It’s always better than the other bow for pvp exclusively.

Top set:

For PvE:

Ambusher offer the highest dps for pve. Since you are a ranged class you’d be safer than most melee to use it. However it is still a risky set to use unless you can +20 it because of how easy warbow can get aggro with a procced hit.

Devourer is the best for low funded players. +15 is fairly easy atm and a Devourer +15 set is more than enough for most of our current content.

For PvP: Element of choice for PvP is Violent > Holy > All. Reason why Holy armor is good is because if you have dmg against Holy target and you carry Holy armor your heal will heal you more.

Battlefield is my top choice for pvp top set simply because how much stats it offers.

Ironguard is a good alternative for those who want to build their bow a little bit tankier. The dmg difference between the two is noticeable however it all depends on your preference. This set also offer some speed which is always good for warbow

Bottom set:

Devourer bottom set is easily the best choice for pure PvE

Lion’s Roar is a good set for crit build. For PvP capping crit dmg is very important for crit build and this Lion’s Roar help tremendously with 55% more crit dmg. It also offer decent HP. The downside is that the attack speed proc of Lion is most of the time wasted. Even if you jump cast only one auto will comeout before you release your skill. Although if you jumpcast your combo skills you’ll get some auto out of it but overall it’s not a big difference. In PvE setting it’s ideal if you use a Zaahir with Lion’s Roar to make use of high crit rate + high crit dmg.

Lethal’s Beast is the best set for Proc’s build. It has good synergy with Malodnak Claw and Flokja set to provide high burst damage. The downside of Lethal’s Beast is that it offer no HP thus making the squishy warbow even more in danger.

Battlefield set bottom is purely for PvP purpose. It’s experimental and carry a lot of risk but the stats it gives are quite nice for pvp. Since the base def of the set is so low and capped at 120%, only use this set if you can +20 and get decent HP/def or you’ll be an 1 shot

Trophy:

A good choice if you use Arrow of Light a lot. It does gives speed and some crit.

Your best trophy for PvE + Proc build PvP. The 35% bonus goes to your detailed page for the next hit so it’s quite good against high dmg taken opponent.

Till this day there’s still no trophy better than Toto for PvP, even more so in this meta where people stack crit dmg taken. It gives everything a warbow want and needed.

This trophy is good for bossing only since the dmg increased proc only affect boss.

Ideally I would use Toto + Holy Trophy/Malodnak Green for pvp and Malodnak Green + Malodnak Orange / Toto for PvE

Accessory:

Your default accessory set. It’s perfect for warbow and the speed it gives are enormous. The procs synergize well with crit/proc build as well and fortify warbow’s power to oneshot people in pvp.

In PvP if someone give you a Mental Focus (Gunslinger Pty buff) + Unholy Frenzy (Necromancer Party buff) and your speed can cap without flokja, then use this set. I normally switch this set in when i get a 3k+ Mental Focus

However if you are willing to sacrifice your speed point for more dmg in PvE in elemental dungeon then you should get the 6 elemental sets for each respective elements. I am poor + lazy so this is out of the question for me.

VI/ Masteries:

There are not many choices you need to make when choosing Masteries. Here’s my most used Mastery bar

Triple Trouble gives you 9% more dmg depend on your base damage

Zeal for obvious reasons. You can’t call yourself a burst type character without having it

Blinding Arrow slots solely depend on your situation. Most of the time i use Arrow of Light a lot as it helps me kill katar/duelist/bard because of how much it hurts. However if you feel like you would use Hail of Arrow and Triple Shot more then you can use Rock n Roll ballad as it increase your defense quite a bit to facillitate your squishiness

Extreme Speed is arguably the best Defense Mastery for most DPS class, especially warbow who has to kite around and move a lot to get back shot. Although if you are a more conservative warbow you can either use Iron Wall or Courage for better survivability.

Best Defense is a must because it give a large amount of def point base on your high base dmg. In the future if you can get high or capped def without Best Defense then consider switching to Deep Blue as it gives you detailed dmg + reduce malice for PvE.

VII/ Secret Stone:

Warbow does need 3 primary stats in total which are Dmg Taken, Dmg and Crit Dmg (mostly for Crit build). Thus depend on your build you can get the combination between these stats.

CDMG 6 / DMG 2 for high damage, bursty all out offensive build

CDMG 6 / DMG TAKEN 2% for high crit dmg build with a degree of tankiness

DMG 2% / DMG taken 2% Works best for dmg build, proc build and a bit of tanky build

There are 3 stones that you must get:

8m Triple Shot should be your first and foremost stone to get as it helps with sniping opponent from afar. It’s one of the longest range in the game with this Secret stone so there’s absolutely no excuse for not having it for PvP.

For sub weapon stone and pve stone for main weapon you can use:

+/ Use Zephyr if you have decent HP (around 50k+ should be ok)

+/ Use Thunderous if you want more HP. Thunderous scale based on your base health so it’s actually not as much as most people make it out to be. 16% base HP is still very good

+/ Use Riptide if you have enough HP and want more dmg taken. Since warbow/bard have good dmg taken stacking this stats make you’re a lot tankier than your HP bar indicate.

Although not absolutely necessary, it’s still recommended that you use these stones depending on your sub class.

Holy Note stone helps a lot in arena as it’s an emergency heal + quick stacking Tunes of March tool. Corrosive Shot stone is mostly for PvE purpose while Ice Storm Stone is for wiz sub for more CC. 8m fireball give you a very long range single target stun so you can lockdown your target for a quick kill.

If you have money to roll then a Crimson Healing Harmony Stone for boot is better than Azure Healing Harmony stone as it scales better so you could heal more. The 10% CD reduction from Azure worths next to nothing when you’re at capped speed because once you finish casting the spell it is already cooled down.

VIII/ Stats allocation + Food/Drink Choice + Eidolon of choice + Eido coat of Arms

Now there are 3 approaches to build a warbow. Regardless of what build you are going for always get capped speed with food + Flokja + Warbow buff on because it reduces your charge time. Holy chest some speed weapon if you need and use +3 Burst of Speed accessory to get stronger buff as well.

For all three of the build you will have to get your defense to at least 19k with a Stardust Float + 10 stack of Chocolate. Ideally the defence cap against a level 75 is 21k points. If you can go further beyond it’s good as well as it help negating -def debuff from your opponent. For food there are no limit to what you should use. Personally I use Raisin Bread the most as it give me both speed + a zeal proc. You can use the Crit DMG 30% food, Macaron for speed, Surf n Turf line for dmg + zeal proc or Milkball for Dmg taken. It all depends on you

1/ Damage build:

The most straightforward one is damage build where after speed is capped you put the rest of your stats onto damage. The upside of this build is that it’s quite stable when it come to DPS, and it gives you more defense as well through The Best Defense, however your ability to blow people up is not as good as the other two build.

For this build Yarnaros is the best eidolon obviously because of the 24% dmg buff. Alessa is not a bad choice either, although it fits more to the proc build.

Recommended SS and eido coat of arm are Holy skill dmg, dmg % detail, dmg taken

2/ Crit/Crit dmg build:

The build I am currently using and i find it to be the most stable in term of DPS and very effective against multiple kind of opponent. For this build you want your general crit rate against a level 75 at around 40-50% then you can use the rest on dmg. Warbow envoy gives you 20% more crit rate when you full charged + you’d gain more crit from pvp gears against players.

This build works best with Uzuriel in PvP because of her insane 60% cdmg buff. Stacking cdmg will help you bypass Maro’s user cdmg taken with ease and with her insanely high crit rate it’s almost guaranteed most of your target will take 3x Crit hit in their face everytime you charge.

For PvE if you already cap crit dmg without Uzuriel helps then use Zaahir as you don’t get as much crit dmg against boss/elites in your pve gear.

Recommended SS and eido coat of arm are crit dmg , dmg % detail and dmg taken

3/ Proc build:

Perhaps the most bipolar but most fun build out of the 3. This build you stack all the possible procs possible. Ever feel like playing russian roulette ? This build is for people who like to see people HP bar exploded in just 1 shot but 4 procs. Malodnak + Lethal + Flokja + Alessa 3 star are the choice for this build. Your stats allocation should be similar to Crit build. However you don’t have to stack crit dmg to make this build effective since you’re relying on your proc. Because zeal effect are multiplicative when stacked, it’s very unstable in term of DPS and not really that efficient but still very strong in its own right. Not recommended for new warbow player.

Recommended SS and eido coat of arm are dmg %, dmg taken and/or crit

VIII/ Enchantment Card + Costume Enchantment:

Head: The stats should always be HP 2%. For PvP use “Dmg against player” or “Dmg taken against player” card depend on your choice. For PvE use “Dmg Against Boss/Elemental Target/Elites” depend on your situation

Face: Stats should be DMG 2% or Dmg taken 2%. Use Ballad +5 level for sub bard and Arrow of Light +5 level for sub Wizard. “Ballad +5 Level” around 300 more HP per tick (dmg on harp does not affect ballad face value heal, only the level of it and Heal % matter).

Body: Again stats are either dmg 2% or dmg taken 2%. For pvp use “Crit dmg against player” for crit build and “crit dmg taken from player” if you want some tankiness. For pve use “Crit dmg against Boss”

Back: Either HP or Dmg for stats. Use the “Extreme Speed Mastery” card for 5% more Movement Speed

Weapon: 5% Crit dmg for crit build and dmg 2% for dmg build. Use “Hail of Arrow +5 level” or “Rejuvenation Prayer +5 level” depend on you.

IX/ General Rotation + Some tips:

+/ Your PvE rotation on boss should be Triple Shot -> Arrow of Light -> Ballad -> Repeat. On mobs replace your Triple Shot with Hail of Arrow. This is the “simple” rotation that you should be at least be able to do in PvE when you’re lazy or new to the class. The more “advanced” rotation for PvE on bosses should always include Uncharged Corrosive Shot to keep the debuff on from the start.

+/ Try your best to maintain Blessing of The Wind + 3 stack of Tunes of March on as much as you can.

+/ Never go out of your way to chase someone down. Stay in the back line, be patient and release your arrow when the time is right. Your job is a sniper/aoe DPS/ single target dps, not an assassin nor tank.

+/ In 5vs5 try to kite around and get as much backshot as possible. Backshot makes your burst insanely high.

+/ Make use of the portal in 5vs5 to kite, and make use of tower in 10vs10 for protection. If you saw a Katar or sub Katar in range and you think they’re going to BLitz you, preemptive use of Domineering Thunder will help you avoid blitz stun (although they will still gapclose to you).

+/ A quick way to stack Tunes of Harp if you lost the 3 stacks is Ballad -> Holy Note -> Ballad.

+/ You can move and shoot your skill without jumpcast but try to jumpcast as much as you can. One auto might be the difference between a kill and not. Also jumpcasting Blessing of the Wind prevent you from being rooted in 1 place while casting and take a long animation. I generally jumpcast blessing -> Pop my mount -> cast ballad -> pop mount again to maintain my buff while on the battlefield.

+/ When you are in Carriage, you are very hard to tab on. This is most likely due to the bug that make people go underground when they use Carriage. Consider getting one of it, though it might not matter that much, sometime you can sneakup with your high MS + mount for a quick kill on their primary DPS.

+/ Always try to charge your skills when possible as the difference between a charged and noncharged skill dmg are insane. Also it maintains Overdraw bonus which is 15% ACC and 15% DMG. Although there are some situation when one skill of your put your opponent to a very low range of HP like 3-5k you can quickly tab Hail of Arrow or Arrow of Light for a quick kills so they cant recover when you’re charging the next skills

That’s the end of my guide. Thanks for reading and hope it helps you building your character.