Ranged?

[Roxxout]

Can SF be effective at range only?

[ZodiacLock]

if u wanna play ranged only make yourself an FM...the whole pions of SF is the stance switchingf

[Rashgarroth]

Well,

 

Until april 12, SF will stay really weak only playing force stance.

The whole rotation for force stance damage depends on Snowball and Burning Tundra working together. Once you have a 45 sec CD Burning Tundra, you seriously lacks of dps while its on CD.

 

Once april 12 patch arrives, we'll have the new mystic badges. One of them have a huge effect on Burning Tundra, which is: "Each sucessful RMB will reduce the CD of V in 4 seconds".

 

This means that: Burning Tundra is castable 3 times in a row if you hit enemys in Tundra area four times with RMB.

First Burning Tundra Cast = 4 Snowball = 16 sec CD reduction (plus the normal cd counter that starts on the first Burning tundra cast);

Second Burning Tundra Cast = 4 Snowball = 16 sec CD reduction, for a total 32 sec reduction;

Third Burning Tundra Cast = 4 Snowball = 16 sec CD reduction, for a final 48 sec reduction and a full use of the combo.

 

Its a strong PVE combo, but not really the best. As Zodiac said, the great thing about SF is switching stances during battles, adapting to the right need.

It would be probably much more effective to focus on getting the Mystic Badge to enhance Iron Shoulder damage with 390% bonus. The ice kfm stance build is the main source of dps for SF, and getting an item to "equalize" the build isnt better then getting an item to increase your best combo.

 

[TJXX]

Right now ranged stance is about a 40% dps loss over melee.