Shub Summarizes the Play Style of His Build

Shub summarizes the playstyle of his build as following:


“My build is centered around being annoying and preventing my enemy from capturing objectives in GvGs. DPS is certainly a weak area of this build, but the versatility it provides overall outweighs that pitfall.”

# Equipment

Let’s cover the armor and weapon of choice that Shub utilizes in his build
1) Leather Hood (Assassin)
2) Cloth Chest (Mage)
3) Leather Shoes (Assassin)
4) Warbow

With access to a variety of defensive skills as well as the general utility provided by the Warbow, this build is a force to be reckoned with on both defensive and offensive fronts and opens the door for outplay potential.

“Outplaying other builds is the core of this build. With the amount of utility you have, your only weakness is getting out-damaged or out-tanked in a fight,” Shub explains.

# Armor

Let’s go over the skills that we will utilize in this build.

- Assassin Leather Hood Skill: Meditation/Smokebomb

The primary skill we will want to forge on our Leather Hood would be Meditation or Smokebomb. According to Shub, the skill you choose depends on your matchup.

“Personally, I use Meditation for fast combos, primarily in duels. On the other hand, I use Smokebomb in both open world and GvGs for preventing point captures, escaping tough situations and being a nuisance in general.”

Meditation is a skill that provides you with significant cooldown reduction over a period of 1 second. It is certainly an optimal skill for duels, as it gets your various utility skills off of cooldown almost immediately.

On the other hand, Smokebomb provides an area-of-effect (AoE) bomb that detonates under your feet. The skill creates a cloud of smoke, turning you invisible while silencing you, allies and enemies within a 6 meter radius. Smokebomb is an excellent option for open world, with enough utility to get out of tough situations in open world encounters.

Choose wisely!

- Assassin Leather Hood Passive: Increased Move Speed

The main passive we will want to take on our Leather Hood is Increased Move Speed – providing you with a 2.5% movement speed increase across the board. Essentially, you will have a slight edge in mobility over your opponents.

- Mage Cloth Chest Skill: Frost Shield

Shub’s personal preference of chest skill in this build is Frost Shield – increasing your armor and magic resists by a considerable amount for 8 seconds. Any enemies that attack you during the duration of Frost Shield are slowed by 20% and also receive 10% of their damage reflected back to them.

“Frost Shield provides me with much needed defensive utility that the build would otherwise lack when using Cloth Chest,” Shub affirms.

- Mage Cloth Chest Passive: Aggression

The optimal choice of passive here would be Aggression. This will increase your damage by 8%, which is a valuable boost in damage that the Warbow would lack otherwise.

- Assassin Leather Shoes Skill: Dodge Roll/Refreshing Sprint

Shub picks the skill he places on his Leather Shoes depending on circumstances as well.

“For my shoes, the skill I choose depends entirely on my match-up. The options are really between Dodge and Refreshing Sprint.”

Dodge Roll is a skill that provides a short moment of invulnerability while rolling. After the roll is finished, you also receive a 40% movement speed increase for 4 seconds.

Refreshing Sprint will give you a short burst in movement speed, increasing your speed by 96% for 3 seconds. It also slightly reduces the cooldowns of all your skills as well.

According to Shub: “If your playstyle is more defensive, then you’ll definitely want to use Dodge Roll. It is easily one of the best defensive mechanics in the game, and allows you to outplay enemies regardless of what build they use. If you want to play more aggressively, use Refreshing Sprint. The increased movement speed allows you to chase more effectively, and the cooldown reduction is icing on the cake to stick on your enemies.”

- Assassin Leather Shoes Passive: Increased Move Speed

Shub is clearly a huge fan of movement speed, as he also takes Increased Move Speed on his shoes. The bonus 2.5% increase in movement speed guarantees that he will be able to escape or chase his opponents.

# Weapon: Warbow

Finally, let’s cover our choice of weapon.

The Warbow is a rather common choice of weapon in Albion as it is one of the most effective weapons in the open world. It is quite simple to unlock in the Archery branch of the Destiny Board. After mastering a Journeyman Hunter’s weapon of choice, you will be able to unlock the Adept’s Bow. All you have to do at this point is master your Adept’s Bow, and you will be able to get your hands on your very own Warbow.

The Warbow is a weapon that naturally comes with an immense amount of utility for any team composition, or even solo-play. With access to sources of mobility, crowd control and AoE damage, the Warbow is a prime example of a well-rounded weapon.

“In terms of GvGs, this build is mainly focused on the utility of the Warbow, specifically provided by its stun. The build has both quick damage, and quick escapes. The Warbow is a pretty nimble weapon and effective at its job,” Shub states.

Let’s cover the Warbow skills utilized in this build.

Multishot: This is a skill that provides constant AoE damage on a short cooldown. It is quite effective at preventing point captures in GvGs, and also harassing enemies in the open world.

“The main reason I take Multishot is for the constant pressure it can keep on enemies. It forces them to consider their positioning if they are within range of my Multishot.”

Frost Shot: This is the prime source of mobility for the Warbow. It is a crucial skill in just about every form of PvP in Albion Online. Frost Shot causes you to leap backwards 11 meters, while slowing all hit enemies by 40%.

Shub comments: “Quick escapes Kappa.”

Magic Arrow: This is the bread and butter skill of the Warbow, providing exceptional damage as well as a stun that can devastate multiple enemies at once.

According to Shub: “My build is centered around getting in, stunning your enemy and doing some basic damage then getting out of the fray. This sets up the rest of your team to quickly finish off the enemy. Only use Magic Arrow when you can see at least 2 targets that it can land on.”

# Playstyle and Combos

If you haven’t caught it just yet, the playstyle that this build provides is extremely nimble; arguably the most nimble build in the game! Getting in and out of a fight is essential when playing a build similar to this one.

Shub goes into detail on his personal playstyle:

“A personal combo that I like to use that always rocks opponents in duels in the ‘Meditation Q’ trick. You can fire your Multishot and then instantly meditate right after to reset your cooldowns, and instantly cast another Multishot. This can deal a good chunk of damage within a matter of seconds. Chaining this combo with Magic Arrow can be deadly and deal over 1.5k damage.”

# Pros and Cons

The pros of this build are rather apparent: kite, kite and more kiting. Warbow has some of the highest kiting potential that the game has to offer, making it a very strong build against melee opponents.

“When I’m against melee builds, it is very simple to outplay them. You can simply kite and use Frost Shot for constant slows that help you kite. In addition to that, you can use your chest’s Frost Shield, which slows your opponents even further if they get within melee range,” Shub explains.

A con of this build is that it is weaker against ranged opponents with survivability, and sustained damage.

Shub talks in depth about one of his encounters against such an opponent:

“Emiashiro was a personal opponent I faced who gave me a lot of trouble. He was running 1 handed heavy curst staff, along with heavy armor. It was one of my worst matchups. Without access to high DPS, I could simply not do anything to him in a 1v1 scenario. His DPS was low, but it was enough to brute force me away from the objective and his defensive spells further aided him. He could simply out-sustain me because he barely took damage, while slowly peeling away at my health. If against a ranged tank, don’t be afraid to call for backup, as this is a team battle, not solo!”

# Control the battlefield!

Combining the Warbow and armor as detailed above, it will be hard for you to lose against any enemy in your way. Take control over every fight with stuns, slows, and mobility to chase or escape any situation you encounter. Battle awaits!

What do you think of Shub’s Warbow build? And more news in UPAlbion.com