My Personal Dread Build

[TenkoTenko]

Hey there. Lately I've been having a lot of fun with my Thunderbolt bow. I rely exclusively on this mod to deal damage, while using unranked Cryo Rounds + Hellfire + Rifle Aptitude to proc Blast explosions, and Arrow Mutation to compensate for the huge amount of arrows spent. Fast Hands increases arrow notching speed so I can fire more arrows faster. I didn't include Speed Trigger and Shred because I don't charge the arrows, only firing as many uncharged ones as I can to proc more explosions. Split Chamber also fires a second arrow so I figured it was a must-have. I don't use core Rifle damage mods, because I use them for my 3-star Deth Machine Rifle.

 

 

It's working well for level 1-20+ enemies so far. Anyone have any ideas on how I can make this build more effective? I'm out of ideas on how to make this better at the moment.

[legionprobatio]

Serrtionwould make it a ton better

[The_Improviser]

Assuming that you are going to forma and max all the mods, you should add serration and use slots ABC for specific faction types

[tharinock]

Just so you are aware, elemental damage mods scale off of your base damage. That is AFTER serration is applied. So serration buffs not just your base damage, but also every single elemental mod that you have. You also probably won't need ammo drum if you already have ammo mutation. I personally find punch through to be awesome on bows, for when thunderbolt doesn't proc. 

[Nijuroku]

I would suggest replacing Thunderbolt for stealth missions, take out rifle aptitude and put vital sense. Once you already have arrow mutation, you no longer need ammo drum. The dread is a crit weapon so I suggest putting a crit build (e.g. Point strike, Vital sense, Hammer shot).

 

Assuming that you are going to forma and max all the mods, you should add serration and use slots ABC for specific faction types

This bow is meant for infested enemies because of it's high slash damage. All the bows are for the 3 different faction types with the Cernos for the Corpus, Paris for the Grineer and Dread for infested. 

[ss4chris]

status chance is horrible in this game. not worth. not sure on thunderbolt either but 

 

serration and  split  chamber are your mandatory mods on any rifle or  bow/ sniper weapon after that you mod according to faction and yes dread is   towards infested so after all your dmg mods ice and fire are you next mods of choice. you can use this bow for other factions though. its not terrible.

[Sweetie_Belle]

To my knowledge, this is the rule of thumb way for Dread:
Fast Hands and Speed Trigger for faster firing, obligatory Split Chamber and Serration for damage, crit mods for good extra damage, Thunderbolt and/or punch-through mods if you need AoE. Dread can do some amazing damage with some crit mods (30k corrupted ancient healer headshot)
Hope it helps with your point allocation.
EDIT: I highly recommend you charge your arrows if you are looking for precision for extra damage. You really shouldn't be relying on your dethcube for the damage either. Unless your dethcube is really really tanky and will survive all opposition (lots of health for anti-toxic ancients! Those guys are sentinel murderers!)

Edited December 9, 2013 by Sweetie_Belle

[s0naux]

I would remove; rifle apt, ammo drum, fast reload and either thunderbolt or arrow mutation and replace it with the following.

Speed trigger allows you to draw your bow faster, fast reload allows you to grab an arrow from your quiver faster.

Beyond that a serration mod like listed above for raw damage and shred for additional draw speed and penetration.

Finally i would choose heavy caliber rank 12, because it adds 105% damage and i believe you lose 36% accuracy.

Instead of the elemental mods, i used point strike and vital sense to exploit its great crit chances

 

In order to do this build i used one forma and i can deal with level 40+ infested. 

 

PS: a side note if you want to hold on to your elemental mods is keeping hellfire and removing cryorounds replacing it with wildfire. The blast damage does +25%, Fire does +50% or 75% i forget...

 

Hope this helps :)

Edited December 9, 2013 by s0naux

[shut]

Ammo Drum and Rifle Aptitude need to go for sure. Rifle Aptitude's effect is far too little to be remotely noticeable and a Max Ammo mod isn't needed if you have a Mutation mod, especially on a slow-firing weapon.

 

What I'd recommend:

- Remove Ammo Drum and Rifle Aptitude. Not optional.

- Get Serration on there, even if it replaces Thunderbolt. Not optional.

- Elemental mods need to be maxed out, or they're a waste of space (as those unranked Hellfire and Cryo Rounds are). The proc chances are far too low to be considered on just about any weapon besides Grakata and Synapse, and even on those two, they're far from reliable. Get some elemental combos when fighting specific factions, and, as a general rule of thumb, have Fire on there as a separate elemental. It's great against all three factions. (Go with Magnetic for Corpus, Corrosive for Grineer, and any dual combo for Infested that doesn't require you to sacrifice Fire damage, preferably Corrosive or Viral. Even Blast, the only anti-Infested combo there is, is out of the question, because you lose fire and have to replace it with less-effective Electric or Poison.)

- Critical builds work well with bows, especially the Dread. Get Point Strike for crit rate, and Hammer Shot & Vital Sense for crit damage. The damage will be far from stable, though, so only do a crit build if you plan on doing DPS with this bow (e.g. taking out those resilient Heavies).

- Thunderbolt scales very, very badly with enemy levels and is unreliable as it is. Elementals, critical mods (if applicable), and attack speed mods should take priority. I'd replace this with Speed Trigger, or with Shred if you want to still retain some mobbing capacity.

Edited December 9, 2013 by SortaRandom

[TenkoTenko]

... Guys I appreciate the feedback and solid strategy and all, but I'm asking for suggestions for a THUNDERBOLT-based build, which I have already mentioned is for level 1-20+ enemies(I use shotguns for anything above 30). I don't use Serration and stuff because I believe I already mentioned that I use them for my Deth Machine Rifle. I'm looking for ideas that can make a Thunderbolt-based build more effective, thanks.

[shut]

... Guys I appreciate the feedback and solid strategy and all, but I'm asking for suggestions for a THUNDERBOLT-based build, which I have already mentioned is for level 1-20+ enemies(I use shotguns for anything above 30). I don't use Serration and stuff because I believe I already mentioned that I use them for my Deth Machine Rifle. I'm looking for ideas that can make a Thunderbolt-based build more effective, thanks.

Just use a different Serration for your bow. You can get them really easily from Appolodorus, Mercury. As long as both weapons aren't using the same specific card, it's fine.

If you want to rely on explosions (which I strongly don't recommend, since its reliability is very, very low), you'll want maxed multishot and attack speed for spamming shots, giving you the highest rate of explosions. Get Speed Trigger on there. Avoid Shred.

Also, since explosion damage isn't affected by whether the bow is charged or not, you'll get the most out of it by spamming uncharged arrows like a madman. Keep that Mutation mod on.

Proc chance is still too low to justify using any mods like Rifle Aptitude. Since a Thunderbolt build takes very little room, you should fill the rest of the space with a regular build to keep its versatility nice and high, especially for those enemies that can't be one-shotted by the explosion. That's where Serration and elemental combos come in.

Edited December 9, 2013 by SortaRandom

[TenkoTenko]

Just use a different Serration for your bow. You can get them really easily from Appolodorus, Mercury. As long as both weapons aren't using the same specific card, it's fine.

nopls, I maxed Hornet Strike and Vitality, working on maxing my own Serration and Redirection... and there's still Blind Rage, Magnum Force and Heavy Caliber to work on. I'm not gonna start on a second Serration anytime soon and if I would I wouldn't be using Dread D=

 

 

If you want to rely on explosions (which I strongly don't recommend, since its reliability is very, very low), you'll want maxed multishot and attack speed for spamming shots, giving you the highest rate of explosions. Get Speed Trigger on there. Avoid Shred.

Also, since explosion damage isn't affected by whether the bow is charged or not, you'll get the most out of it by spamming uncharged arrows like a madman. Keep that Mutation mod on.

Proc chance is still too low to justify using any mods like Rifle Aptitude. Since a Thunderbolt build takes very little room, you should fill the rest of the space with a regular build to keep its versatility nice and high, especially for those enemies that can't be one-shotted by the explosion. That's where Serration and elemental combos come in.

Well I am relying on explosion to deal damage, and it's working out surprisingly fine. But does fire rate affect repeat rate of uncharged arrows? I thought Speed Trigger only affected the drawing(charging) time of arrows, and I don't charge them at all to maximize my arrow output rate.

And well, yeah proc chance really is too low and Rifle Aptitude doesn't work additively(>=(). For enemies that don't drop to the explosion,  that's where I use my secondary or my shotgun. Well thanks though =)

[Brahmastra]

Looks like a fun build to play around with,

[Ventura_Highway]

I have to ask, how was thunderbolt affected by D2.0?

Does it still do a static amount of damage?

[Satsuki]

A) Grineer

Split Chamber, Serration, Stormbringer, Infected Clip, Point Strike, Vital Sense, Bane of Grineer, Speed Trigger

B) Corpus

Swap out Infected Clip for Cryo Rounds. Change Bane mod to Corpus.

C) Infested

Swap out Stormbringer and Infected Clip for Hellfire and Wildfire. Change Bane mod to Infested.

For prolonged engagements and for the Void, you can consider swapping out the Bane mods for Ammo Mutation, Hammer Shot, Thunderbolt, whatever.

Edited December 9, 2013 by Renegade-CIX

[Veemaxt]

This is my Dread Build

 

I used some tips from here, but had it basically set up correct I think.

 

[NotSerious]

Ogris makes it go boom every time instead of half the time (if multishot gives you 2 arrows every time, 30% thunderbolt per arrow gives you a 49/51 split of explosion to not explosion).

[tharinock]

Serration will be much better served on your bow than on your sentinels. Instead it may be worth it to throw corrosive damage and other supporty things onto the sentinel gun.