Edit Guide

TriKster’s Dragonsong CoC Marksman Build Guide

Posted By TriKster on July 2, 2022
Last updated on January 28, 2023

Overview

?

This is a Dexterity stacking Cinder Strike cast on crit Dragonfire Marksman build focused on Elemental and Cold Damage.

It requires the Dragonsong Bow and Mourningfrost Boots for Dragonsongs‘ proc damage scaling.

The updated Build version also includes Immolator's Oblation for even more flat adaptive dmg scaling & a free frenzy buff.

Added Spell Damage from both uniques applies at 900% effectiveness for Soulfire Shield proc!

This build is viable for all endgame content (T4 Bosses and Empowered Corruption Farming) and can be considered a fast Monolith pusher and boss killer and probably one of the best Marksman builds out there at the moment. I personally reached Corruption 300+ easily with a low death count.

3-4 LP Uniques are NOT required as seen in the Build Planner, i just wanted to showcase the best possible mods. You can check my Level 90 character here while i created the Build Guide and Video, it's catered towards more casual players to make gearing and capping resistances easier. Please read through the Equipment, Idols and Blessings sections for further information. For the veterans, please check the recommendations and gear alternatives down below.

The video to the build guide was made before Immolator's Oblation got added into the game.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Easy Leveling (if you already have Dragonsong)
  • High DPS and Burst Damage early on
  • Very tanky for a Marksman with close combat playstyle
  • No Mana issues
  • SSF friendly (even though Uniques are required, but they are common drops)
  • Requires no endgame gear to perform well
  • Very satisfying playstyle and VFX

Cons

  • Close Combat playstyle because of the small cone from the proc (risky for a Marksman)
  • Requires Unique Items to work
  • Requires good positioning for best damage output
  • Min-Maxing is a bit time consuming and difficult because of Dexterity stacking (Cold and Physical Resistance balancing)

Gameplay / Mechanics

Skill Rotation

Hold left click and Cinder Strike to stutter step. Use Shift and Smoke Bomb to position yourself for additional Shurikens procs. Use Multishot only on high hp enemies and bosses for huge burst damage.

The Build focuses around stacking Dexterity and the crazy 900% effectiveness for every point of flat Added Spell Damage with Mourningfrost Boots. Cinder Strike is there to provide the good amount of Crits and procs. It also provides us with high amounts of increased Elemental Damage and Dodge. Critical Vulnerability is one of the best stats together with attack speed. You reach 100% crit chance within a second.

Gameplay Tips

It’s not a very mechanical build. But good positioning is key for higher damage output. Always try to aim for a group of enemies to make the cone attack more efficient. Do that by using Shift and Smoke Bomb with Escape Tactics node. Otherwise you just perma stutter step while attacking with Cinder Strike to keep your dodge up.

Skills

Passives

Stat Priorities

Equipment

Unique Items and Legendaries:

Dragonsong(required)

Try to get high rolls on Chance to Cast Dragon Fire on Crit, Critical Strike Chance with Fire Skills and increased Attack and Cast Speed with Fire Skills.

Stats you want with Legendary Potential:

  1. Bow Attack Speed
  2. Critical Strike Multiplier
  3. Chance to Chill
  4. Chance to Shred Armour

Mourningfrost(required)

Try to get high rolls on Movement Speed.

Stats you want with Legendary Potential:

  1. Movement Speed
  2. Dexterity
  3. Hybrid Health
  4. Increased Dodge Rating

Immolator's Oblation(recommended)

This unique will give you alot of additional flat adaptive fire spell dmg for Dragonfire. A free Frenzy buff will also boost our attack speed by 20% to proc Dragonfire even faster.

The belt already has the important PrefixWard and Ailment Cleansing on Potion Use affix.

We can sustain the self-inflicted ignite with high amount of health on hit/crit scaling from the passive tree.

Stats you want with Legendary Potential:

  1. Increased Health
  2. Hybrid Health
  3. Cold Damage

Arrowguard(recommended)

Try to get the highest Glancing Blow roll.

Stats you want with Legendary Potential:

  1. Bow Attack Speed
  2. Dexterity
  3. Resistances
  4. Chill / Shred Chance

Throne of Ambition(recommended)

You can farm the idol in the Stolen Lance Monolith Timeline. It’s a rare drop, so it might take some runs to get it. Not a mandatory item, but very strong addition to the build. I recommend you to farm it in Normal Monolith.

Aurora's Time Glass(recommended for Arena)

Try to get high Endurance and Attack Speed rolls

Stats you want with Legendary Potential:

  1. Critical Strike Multiplier
  2. Cold Penetration
  3. Increased Dodge Rating
  4. Health
Slot
Items
Stats
Helmet

Umbral Visage

  • Critical Strike Multiplier

Outcast Hat

  • Increased Bow Attack Speed
Body Armour

Brigandine Armour

  • Physical Resistance

Crimson Garb

  • Increased Dodge Rating
Belt

Check above for preferred LP stats

Boots

Check above for preferred LP stats

Relic

Ancient Coins

  • Critical Strike Chance
  • Health Gain on Crit

Jade Dice

  • Dodge Rating
Main-Hand

Check above for preferred LP stats

Off-Hand

Arrowguard

  • Check above for preferred LP stats

Light Quiver

  • Attack Speed
Ring 1

Gold Ring

  • Elemental Resistance

Silver Ring

  • Movement Speed
Ring 2

Gold Ring

  • Elemental Resistance

Silver Ring

  • Movement Speed
Amulet

Bone Amulet

  • Resistances

Aurora's Time Glass

  • Check above for preferred LP stats

Idols

Until finding the recommended idols you can always add resistance and life idols.

They can help you out to reach capped resistances, especially for cold and physical while stacking Dexterity with Mourningfrost

Idol
Stats

Prefix: Increased Health

Suffix: Elemental Resistance

Prefix: Increased Bow Attack Speed

Suffix: Dodge Rating if Hit Recently

Blessings

Timeline
Blessings
Fall of the Outcasts

Any

The Stolen Lance

Any

Blood, Frost, and Death

Any

Fall of the Empire

Any

The Last Ruin

Any

Build Variants

Leveling

You can check detailed skill and passive leveling progress in the video.

You can start right away leveling this build once you unlock Cinder Strike at level 7. I would recommend to keep Dragonsong Bow ready at level 36. It will make your leveling progress way faster, Cinder Strike alone will not provide you that much amount of damage as the bow does.

Passive leveling order:

Rogue

  1. Swift Assassin 8/8
  2. Steady Hand 8/8
  3. Sapping Strikes 4/4

Marksman

  1. Draining Arrows 8/8
  2. Focus Fire 1/8
  3. Assassin's Quiver 1/5
  4. Wound Maker 10/10
  5. Focus Fire 8/8
  6. Arrow Storm 3/6
  7. Sharpshooter 4/5
  8. Covering Fire 1/10
  9. Barrage of Pain 1/5
  10. Heightened Senses 4/5
  11. Death from Afar 5/5
  12. Perfect Aim 5/5

That’s how I recommend you to level up. After spending those points you can choose whatever you need next.

It's really up to you and you can’t do anything wrong here.

Endgame

Loot Filter

No loot filter is provided for this guide. You can generate a loot filter for this build in the Build Planner or create one using Filter Wizard in the Loot Filters section.

FAQ

Dragonsong vs Reign of Winter

The big advantage for Dragonsong is that Soulfire Shield procs on Crits and not on Bow Hit like with Reign of Winter. Therefore you have way more build freedom and can use a big arsenal of skills from Marksman to proc Soulfire Shield. The disadvantage is that you have to play close combat for high damage because of the small cone. With Reign of Winter you could play at range which is a safer playstyle, but this Dragonsong Build has way better survivability due to some mechanics with Cinder Strike, Arrowguard and Throne of Ambition we can abuse.

3-4LP Uniques? Do I really need this?

NO! I just added those 4LP Uniques to my endgame gear planner to give you an overview of the best possible mods to craft on.

Can this be done with only Fire Damage or are the boots the only way to scale it efficiently?

Soulfire Shield has 180 base Fire Damage, which is quite a lot. But don't forget that only Added Spell Damage will get the 900% effectiveness. So you can get up to 17 added Spell Fire Damage from the bow itself = 153 Fire Damage + 180 base Fire Damage = 333 Fire Damage. Let's pretend we have 80 Dexterity, that means we have 720 added Cold Damage, making it 1053 flat Damage. The majority will come from the boots (Cold Damage). I have to test endgame without the boots, but I think you would miss a lot of potential not playing with Mourningfrost. Thats why I really recommend to play with increased Elemental Damage for this bow.

Is Kelthan Blasting Agent good for this build?

I would rather use a high LP Kelthan Blasting Agent for Amarathy’s Decoy Bomber Build, since his build relies more on this item.

My build is more around Cold Damage and doing as many crits as possible. So only the Fire Penetration will do a bit more damage on my CoC version.

Why A-Tier?

For a Marksman Build, Dragonsong could be S-Tier aswell. I still think that Shadow HoA is more powerful due to the gameplay mechanic. It allows a dodge based class like Marksman to stay at range and not get hit by enemies. Dragonsong allows you to deal damage quicker and makes Monolith farming way more comfortable. But Shadow HoA is imo the real Marksman playstyle.

How to Survive

Offense is your best defense. Go all in with the playstyle and facetank enemies. You have crazy amounts of attacks and procs per second. Use all the passives and relic for Life on Hit and Crit. Your health bar is always up, we don’t use bow leech or any other leech sources. Together with high dodge from Cinder Strike, additional Armour from Shurikens, Throne of Ambition and Arrowguard and almost 100% Glancing Blow we have a really tanky Marksman Build.

Video

Changelog

  • Added Immolator's Oblation (unique) to the build guide. Small changes to Marksman and Bladedancer passive tree. The update added more dmg and survivability for the build.
  • Build guide was published

Discussion

Continue on Forum