Dread Bow Spec

[(PSN)IkariWarrior83]

So I finally got Dread, and I really like it.  I put a catalyst in it, but haven't gotten it up to 30 yet.  I suppose my question is: should I bother spec'ing for status at all, or just go for crit?  Crit is the obvious choice, but how much of a straight damage buff should I mod it?  Should I use serration and Heavy Calibur, or is Serration sufficient and put other crit/status/damage mods on there?  Should I put Vile acceleration on it?  I know it already has crazy punch-through, but it doesn't seem to nail multiple enemies standing in a row, or does at most 2.

 

Thanks!

[Neah]

I'd go for Crits and pure Elemental damage ( two 90% elementals ) , Fanged Fusillade is optional. The status is somewhat intermediate so you don't have to bother much with it. It can be useful in certain situations but you wont be firing your bow anywhere fast enough for it to be consistently proc-ing (nor will mobs be alive). This is of course, my personal take on the Dread. If you like to spec it for procs, by all means go ahead (still quite viable).

 

About Dread punch through : 

It will only have punch through when it's fired fully charged (this has a limit of how far it can punch through). But, if you kill the first enemy, it will fly backwards and it (the dead enemy ragdoll) can be treated as a projectile itself, any enemy that it hits will get damaged (original damage of the bow) (this is no limit for punch through).

 

Sample build :

 

Edit : Additional info

 

For crit builds, avoid using Hammer Shot . While it may seem like a good choice, but in actual damage numbers an extra Elemental / Faction damage mod will always outperform Hammer Shot (unless the weapon has crit multiplier of 3.5+).

 

Shred 

Less speed than Speed Trigger , but you gain punch through even on non-charged shots which is useful when in a pinch. This value also adds to Charged Shots.

Edited January 14, 2015 by Neah

[DrBorris]

Crit.. definitely crit. Point Strike and Vital Sense are all that you need in that department. Then of course you need Serration. Either use Speed Trigger or Vial Acceleration, depends on how much you personally want to charge (Vial gives a bit higher DPS I believe however). Heavy Cal is up to you. If you don't want to worry about head shots, go for it. But Head shots start to get difficult with Heavy Cal. Remember, headshots are a 4x multiplier instead of the normal 2x with crits. After that, elementals and Fanged Fuselage may be a nice addition if you have it. It needs a bunch of forma to max, but you can get away with two and have it nearly maxed.

[Tyrian3k]

It kills almost any enemy with one shot, so status is useless on it.

 

Vile acceleration isn't a bad choice since it greatly increases draw speed.

[NaniteCircuit]

Max Crit. It can get up to 150% i believe.
Remember to add the correct elements for each faction so that you can overkill even more effectively.

[Trichouette]

Both :D

[RIOT]

crit build.

heavy cal is not needed unless you're really wanting to push for that hour and a half survival, the accuracy penalty hits the dread pretty hard and makes head shots tough at longer ranges.

 

don't use hammer shot.

 

vile acceleration is nice but speed trigger is more then enough IMO.

 

charged shots have infinite punch through on enemies. I've killed 10+ enemies with one arrow.

however arrows that hit solid objects will slow down quite a bit.

 

source: I've been using dread since the day they buffed bows.

 

 

this is the build I use

Edited January 14, 2015 by RIOTx

[Trichouette]

Both :D

Just adding my build here:

 

And i addapt the elemental mod depending on the kind of enemy.

But of course not a lot of people have all the event mod... so you can just add hammer shot and a mod like "bane of the corpus/grineer/infested" instead of the 2 event mod.

[(PSN)IkariWarrior83]

Great!  Thank you all for your input!  I've been using hammer shot, so I'll take that off.  I have been using Malignant Force and Split Chamber.  I'll favor shred in lieu of Heavy Caliber, or maybe create an alternate build.  I see that I'm going to have to use at least two forma to optimize this thing, but I have no plans to part with it.

[Trichouette]

Shred is 100% useless to me...

If you want attack speed take speed trigger but punch through on a bow is just useless.