A picture speaks a thousand words, a sequence of pictures speaks more than that (hopefully)

I can still recall a certain blog via FB years ago (apparently, it's either been taken down or set to private). Because I don't want to get into trouble with a bunch of people in the near run, I decided not to name that blog. However, I can give you a hint: The color represented by Archer and Rin below.

A/N: Apart from Archer and Rin, we have another character associated with the color red.

Note to self: The world is a dangerous place to live in where your words can be twisted into a lie. Thanks to Nasu Kinoko and Urobuchi Gen for that most therapeutic video below.

Basically, this post will focus on Arylos (aka the Archer and Kiritsugu of the Six). Just a brief note here: I've finally restored the full Fey set. What this means is that I'll most likely take a hiatus from using him and turn my focus to my other toons after I complete the TCA campaign with him. For now, I'll need to finish the Elemental Evil arc for Sheallyn and Korey while Myrreas is now in the process of getting the Aboleth set. As for Cyrea, I'll most likely have her running Kabal's trial after I restored Myrreas' Aboleth weapons. What this means is that running Bryn Shander, Lonelywood, Cold Run, and Sea of the Moving Ice will have to wait. Thankfully, double refinement will be up during the first week of this year's Summer Festival event where I can just easily upgrade Arylos' Gondhammer to mythic in a single swoop. From that point onwards, splitting my focus will most likely be easier.

Also, I truly doubt Cryptic will give us any new artifact weapons set unless they're out to make the SOMI set redundant. Which is not gonna happen unless the devs decide to remove the entire Storm King's Thunder arc altogether. Just don't ask me what they're gonna do with the gear system with T2 masterwork gear now outed.

Note: Interestingly enough, the mass deflation in the auction house economy may have a role to play in Cryptic's decision to throw in the T2 masterwork gear.

Mounts and Companions

Let's talk about companions first. Due to a few auction house transactions involving a normal Soulforged and normal Holy Avenger (not to mention using a few coalescent wards via invocation coffers), I managed to streamline the epic enchantments used in the form of Negation and Vorpal.

As a result, I was able to upgrade the cat to legendary while the blink dog got upped to epic. As you can see, I've got three companions with combat advantage based active bonuses (5% combat advantage bonus from the blink dog and 2% combat advantage bonus each from Staldorf and intellect devourer). Because I managed to get the death slaad as well during the free reclaim period, it means I've got no problem with the dps when it comes to companion active bonuses. For now, I'm content with this active companions roster (mainly due to a lack of astral diamonds to make any further upgrading count).

On the mount insignia bonuses, I opted for Gladiator's Guile (mainly for movement speed increase), Magistrate's Restraint, Survivor's Blessing, Assassin's Covenant, and Berserker's Rage.

Assassin's Covenant=/=Assassin's Creed

The AC insignia bonus is nice to have, I'll have to admit. However, AC tends to work better with any mid to low dps build (read: any dps build involving CC and buffing). The reason why being that any hdps build tends to be defined via the gear. Boons can only give you this much, even the guild ones.

Ofc this is not to say every hdps build applies to this logic. Great weapon fighter destroyers can benefit from AC due to their decently high armor. Ditto for executioner trickster rogues due to high deflection (in fact, TRs have the highest base deflection out of the rest due to Dexterity and Charisma).

Note: If you want to do an Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, please know that the only way for AC to be maximized is the choice of gear.

Arylos: Le Survivant

["What makes you think Kelemvor knows you better than us?"

Before Volahk's question, Arylos turned his back. It took a few acolytes to restrain the leader of the doomguides stationed in Neverdeath while Vesper Soulhearth stayed his silence.

"Tell him, Arylos. Tell Volahk what you know," said Orran, the second in command standing between his irate friend and the impudent ranger. When Jergal's avatar had announced the unthinkable, not even Vesper could believe it. Here was a ranger, neither a cleric nor paladin. Here was a wood elf, one who would have worshipped the Seldarine had fate dealt a different hand. As it turned out, Kelemvor declared Arylos as a Chosen of his.

"Try being a deviant like me then, old man," replied Arylos, his tone betraying neither arrogance nor joy, "Try surviving the hell known as Wheloon. If you can get out alive after a week, maybe I'll tell you."]

My apologies for the asymmetrical alignment. It's a no-brainer that I'm a tech idiot. Anyway, above images are a show of how I did the gear and moveset. To maximize the usage of Berserker's Rage, I chose Forest Ghost and Disruptive Shot. Class features wise, I opted for Aspect of the Lone Wolf and Seeker's Vengeance (the latter being the off-hand artifact weapon power). Clear the Ground and Split Strike were the at-will powers with Fox's Shift, Plant Growth, and Hawkeye completing the setup. I'll explain this further later on.

Above images are the movesets after I restored the full Fey set (also, please don't mind the cat. Crytt happens to be Arylos' critter). The first image was the prototype version with the only changes being Plant Growth replaced by Hindering Strike and Disruptive Shot replaced by Seismic Shot. Also, I have to replace Split Strike with Aimed Strike due to the main hand artifact weapon power (for now, I'm not interested in spending astral diamonds for the cubes of augmentation).

Then I realized one thing. Not the 6% outgoing heal bonus proc'ed by Fey-Touched, but Rousing Warmth being my choice of final Icewind Dale feat. 

As a melee HR, I'll need to focus on the defensive end for the heroic feats. At the same time, Swift Footwork is a must as using a melee HR without a hefty load stamina means a swift burnout after a brief workout. As for Predatory Action, there's no point for that since Le Survivant mode is for solo/open world PvE. Endless Assault stacks extremely well with Lucky Blades plus the action points gain is a very good bonus to have (plus Berserker's Rage). Overall dps wise, Disciple of Dexterity is a must. Max it out, no matter which HR build you do. Coupled with Fluid Hunter, Piercing Blade, Battle Crazed, and Scything Blades, the dps increment can be a monster to behold (and that's not taking into account Assassin's Covenant).

As for the boons, I opted for a stamina-defensive based setup with critical severity being the only notable exception (due to Vorpal). And that's not to mention Assassin's Cree... erm, I mean Covenant. Rampaging Madness and Elvish Fury are there to add some much needed muscle together with Elven Ferocity. Enraged Regrowth (by right, at least) should proc AC since it will automatically grant 4000 defense post-heal. Abyssal Strikes is good for doing added damage in any demonic heroic encounters/quests, but perhaps I should have chosen Demon Slayer instead...

Displace Fate is that last line of defense, the jailbreak mechanism. Rousing Warmth is a no brainer due to a combination of Survivor's Blessing and Oak Skin.

Ultimately, open world PvE is all about surviving rather than going yolo. Yes, you'll need to have a decent dps game. But top priority still goes to surviving. Hence, Le Survivant.

Up next: It's obvious that this post is taking up too much space for my personal comfort. Next up, the remaining boons and Le Tacticien.