Well this guide focuses on the three main mastery paths for the Squig Herder. Each mastery path focuses on one of the main options a squig herder can perform.
—— GUIDE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION! ——
Please wait patiently as I try my best to fill this up!
Big Shootin’
Big Shootin is pretty much the main route that most squig herders will go. This path focuses on main long range DPS and standing far away from your target while your squig distracts it. This relies on sheer damage power, needing you to high a higher damage output then that of your target on your squig.
For PvP, Squig herders should stay far back and remain in the main group while shooting off plinks. Plink will be your main ability that you will use most of the time along with Yer Bleedin’ , Choking Arrer, and What Blocka. Any other spells do interrupt your maximum damage output potential as a big shooter and you will notice a much lower dps.
For the mastery tree, you should ideally put the initial 15 points to get the morale 4 skill. This is highly recommended for any class as it is one of the best morales in the game.
Abilities and Tactics:
Aimin’ Quickly
This is the first unlocked tactic you can get from the big shooting path. It requires 3 points invested in the tree and is an important tactic to use for the big shooting squig herder. With the 1 second plink you are able to quickly kill casters from order. This however comes at a rather large cost of your AP (Action points) going down extremely fast. A tactic worth investing in and does wonders towards both PvE and PvP.
Shrapnel Arrer
This skill does work sometimes to your advantage but if you’re aiming for pur damage, the cast time of this skill might put you off. A great skill to complement Explodin Arrer to your AoE DoT arsenal.
I Feelz yer Pain
This skill works both ways, depending on the amount of crit chance your Squig herder has, this might be a waste of time or a possible method of combating the insane action point leech Plink with aiming quickly is. Only if your’re confident that you can crit once every 3 seconds or so, should you consider this skill. Remember that Shrapnel Arrer and Explodin Arrer crits also effect this skill, so using them on a mob of opponents can aid you to get the crits you need.
Poison Arrer
600 Corp damage might seem tempting but the cast time of this skill is much to long to out damage Plink. I wouldn’t reconmend this skill however useful it might been in certain cases. Plink will easily out damage this skill even with the increase in AP cost.
Clever Shootin’
This is the alternate to I Feelz Yer Pain. Instead on working on crits, it justs reduces the Action Point cost of all Big Shootin’ abilities by 35%. This reduces the 40 AP cost of plink to 26 AP and you will see a large increase of the number of abilities you can dish out using your 250 AP pool. This can also be used in conjuction to I Feelz Yer Pain to further increase the chance of you not hitting the bottom of your AP pool as fast.
Finish ‘em Off
With increased damage when your opponent falls below 20%, this skill works wonders on PvE mobs much more then RvR. This is because a player under the 20% mark will most likely die half a second later, and since this skill has a 2 second cast time, your opponent will be dead before you can complete the cast. Depending on what you enjoy (PvE or PvP) this skill might be usefull or useless to you.
Quick Shootin’
Quick Shootin’ is the PvP focused path for the Squig Herder. It’s abilities granted with the investment of mastery points all involve running while shooting at the cost of reduced range. This means that you can run and kite your enemy while you dish out sneaky bow shots and snares to keep that distance between you and it to be as much as possible, hence the PvP idea.
Abilities and Tactics:
Splinterin’ Arrers
I’m not sure about this skill as when I went full Quick Shootin, I still kept with my Aimin’ Quickly for the Plinks. This skill damaged anyone within 20 ft of your target as well as your target. Its usefull for tight groups but other then that I dont really see much use of this skill at all in a typical scenario or situation in WAR. Mixed opinions on this so if you want to see how its like go ahead before putting this in your regular rotation.
Run Away
This skill is for running away, as the name suggests. It works and you should use it whenever you are in tight spots, keep in mind the 45 second cooldown when planning when to use it, as bad planning may lead to uneccessary deaths. This requires a pet, which is the main weakness of this skill. For me, since I dont use my pet (I stacked the 2 25% damage increase tactics to pack a hell of a punch) this skill was rather worthless unless you have 5 seconds to summon one, which would be redundant to the skills initial purpose. Invest if you use a pet frequently if not all the time.
Da Waaagh Iz Strong
This skill is a must for Quick Shootin’ Herders out there. Not so much for the Yer bleedin’ but mainly for the snare duration increase. With an extra 5 seconds, you might get off 4 Run and Shoot or 4 other instant casts. These 4 shots could reduce the enemies health by alot and along with that reduce the delay time in the middle of a cast to 5 seconds instead of the usual 10. use the extra 5 seconds to strafe while shooting making sure you are 5 seconds running distance away from your target so when he closes in you can repeat this process until he wears out.
Rotten Arrer
This skill is meant to be cast as much as possible, or at least once every 5 or so shots. This shot is not used for damage as much as the 50% healing reduction ‘buff’ it will give to the enemy. Since you are a Quick Shooter, your target should always be Ailing so that shounld’nt be a problem for any of you. Could be even deadlier if you add it with a Choking Arrer.
Shootin’ Wif Da Wind
50% range increase means it would work well with the increased duration tactic. Running further away while still being able to shoot is always good, and it would increase your range to around 90-100 (not sure the exact amount but I’m sure you guys out there know this) ft which will make them have a less likely chance to close in on you.
Behind Ya!
Depending on how you play, this is a hit or a miss. If you enjoy kiting, you might only get to use this skill once (at the pull) and never again after that since your target hopefully now is chasing you. If he isn’t, you’re not kiting him! Other then this you might find this skill more useful to you depending on your play style, experiment with it and if you hardly use it, maybe this point is better spent elsewhere. (Especially if you skip the M4 as well as this)
Arrer O’ Mork
Quick’s answer to Big’s Lot’s O Arrers! Works just as good and does just as much damage, but the amount that can be mitigated is much higher and the chances of this doing that final blow is reduced due to the low initial damage and the dot that follows after instead of the big’s full 1 shot punch. Nonetheless you should get this morale unless you have plans on the other paths to choose. After all, Quick Shootin’ is all DoT based!
Stabbin’
The most under appreciated path of the Squig herder. As it is a ranged DPS, this path doesn’t really benefit much as a main path but does have some useful skills as a secondary path. Taking this path for main will most likely not score you any highest damages and is purely for entertainment. It focuses on you and your squig fighting side by side in the heat of the battle, instead of far away at the back lines shooting arrows. This means that you will most likely be taking more damage thhen usual. For the starter in Squig Herders, I dont suggest this path to be followed until you are familiar with the inner workings of the Squig Herder. Due to the low damage (it is very low compared to thhe ranged counterparts) and lack of skills, this path is best for the challenge seeker or the SH veteran. Since I myself don’t particularly use this path at all, I have no knowedge besides the logical of this path. I will therefore judge them by their tooltips and previous history with them. If you think what I am commenting is wrong, feel free to tell me and I will correct it as soon as possible!
