NOTE: Credit to this guide goes to user "Ballercaust" from the forums
Alright, lets talk about Hawkeye, as far as starting effectiveness goes he is probably one of the worst. You start out with only your auto attack and his kick ability which is effectively a useless pile of junk. As you level and have more abilities available to you though he can turn into an extremely effective dps character(With proper use of his mechanics, that is).
In my experience your end game strategy for groups of mobs ends up being drop tear gas arrow, drop shrieking arrow inside the tear gas arrow, and shoot explosive arrow into the tear gas. For elite mobs substitute the use of explosive arrow for taser arrow and triple arrow. With the new addition of his ultimate ability, which could easily be one of the highest damage abilities (given only a single target exists to be targeted by the arrows).
Contents
Abilities
Now lets talk about Hawkeye's abilities.
Archery Skills
Quick Arrow: This is essentially your bread and butter ability until level 10. It's your main source of damage, and your only ability that doesn't cost you any spirit(excluding upgraded versions).
Precise Aim: This one is pretty self explanatory, it's crit for a power point what more could you want? It does hit a point of severe diminishing returns.
Piercing Arrowheads: Gives your arrows a chance to pierce through a target upon impact allowing it to hit an additional target behind it. (Works on all single target arrows, including taser arrow, I have yet to test if it can pierce again after piercing and so on).
Twin Arrow: This is your first upgrade to your auto-attack ability, this effectively doubles the damage you do while auto attacking. The arrows will both hit the target almost at all times, unless the target is at max range then one of the two may miss.
Vibranium Arrowheads: Defense penetration, what's not to love about that. The less damage the target mitigates the more damage you do.
Masterful Archery: This is power is very closely tied in with Piercing Arrowheads. It gives you a chance (Piercing Arrowhead activation chance x 2) to inflict extra direct damage to your target and cause them to bleed for 3 seconds.
Triple Arrow: This is your ultimate auto attack ability, it does effectively triple the damage of quick arrow. Each of the three arrows seems to have its own independent crit chance, Piercing Arrowheads, and Masterful Archery activation chance. Making this a highly effective damage source.
Pinning Arrow: This ability does damage and pins a target to a wall effectively stunning it. I'm very skeptical about the usefulness of this ability. It is very specific ability and you have 2 much better means of controlling enemies that don't require a wall behind them(Taser Arrow and Freezing Arrow).
Wave of Arrows: Frontal cone aoe arrow shot. This ability could use a lot of work. Currently it does extremely mediocre aoe damage, and really isn't worth putting the points in as far as I'm concerned.
Combat Skills
Forceful Kick: Does damage and knocks the target back. This is one of rare cases where an ability that you are forced to always have 1 point in becomes extremely annoying. This ability has no use outside of the first 10 levels. If your letting something get close enough to you that you have to kick it away you're doing something wrong.
Getaway Roll: Allows you to roll a short distance, if you roll through an enemy it is stunned briefly. This is your first mobility and avoidance ability. It allows you to maintain a comfortable gap between you and enemies, while also being quite useful as a travel ability. Pretty much a "1 point wonder".
Elusive Arrow: Shoots an arrow at an enemy while leaping backwards slowing them. This could have some usefulness in solo play but in general I would take a pass on it.
Combat Training: Gives you dodge chance. Putting 1 point in this will always be worth it. 10% dodge for 1 skill point easy choice.
Ronin Lunge: Short range dash that does damage when passing through an enemy and knocks them down. This is basically the better version of Combat Roll. With that in mind it also falls into the "1 point wonder" category.
Ronin Assault: Melee ability that stuns the enemy. This is a complete novelty ability, returning to the fact that an enemy shouldn't be close enough for you to use a melee attack.
Trick Arrows
Taser Arrow: Does damage and knocks down effected targets (Chains to a second target). This is your basic crowd control and spirit dump ability. It also does a rather decent amount of damage.
Freeze Arrow: Freezes and damages the first target it hits. This is your secondary crowd control ability. It is decent when starting out, but falls off in effectiveness later due to it only stunning one target (unless piercing arrowheads activates).
Adamantium Arrow: Charges an arrow that deals increasing damage and penetrates defenses for each second channeled, travels in a straight line damaging all targets hit. This is one of Hawkeye's more interesting abilities; it requires him to be standing in place for 2 seconds to charge it fully which goes against the majority of how you want to be playing him. Very good on bosses provided you don't have to dodge any ground effects or high damage ranged attacks.
Explosive Arrow: Explodes on contact with an enemy dealing damage to all enemies in an area. This is your aoe bread and butter, it is the first ability you get that lets you do damage to a large number of targets in an area. It fills this role extremely well doing very good damage. Now has synergy with Tear Gas Arrow and Shrieking Arrow.
Tear Gas Arrow: Make a gas cloud that persists for 5 seconds and deals damage to targets inside(seems to also leave a dot on them). This is where you become an aoe wrecking machine. This abilities damage is amazing and the aoe radius is reasonably big. Now has synergy with explosive arrow and applies a debuff that reduces damage affected enemies deal.
Nullifier Arrow: Clears the ground around the impact point of negative enemy ground effects. This is an extremely unique ability, and will probably be extremely useful in endgame content. That being said this is also a "1 point wonder".
Shrieking Arrow: Arrow that taunts targets around it's point of impact and then explodes. This is extremely effective when used in combination with Tear Gas Arrow. It also can provide you with another means of escaping from enemies closing in on you. It also does pretty good damage on it's own with the explosion. Now has synergy with explosive arrow.
Ultimate Power
Destructive Volley: Fires a volley of arrows that hit random targets and prevent health regen, and cause them to bleed. Available at level 30 and upgradeable by obtaining Hawkeye as a drop. I never got the chance to play with his ult in beta but it seems amazing for bosses (heals when injured and heals when dealing damage especially).
Skill Build
Alright lets take it from the top here. Starting out on hawkeye is extremely awkward. Your main priorities level 1-9 will be as follows: Skill Quick Arrow when possible
1 Point in getaway roll
Skill Taser Arrow when possible
Skill Precise Aim when possible if gain is > 1%
Skill Piercing Arrowheads when possible. (allows taser arrow to possibly cc 4 targets and makes masterful archery better when we get there).
Now we get into level 10-19:
Skill Twin Arrow when possible
Skill Quick Arrow when possible
Skill Explosive Arrow when possible
Skill Adamantium Arrow when possible (I realllly dislike this ability but it gives you your first much needed source of aoe damage, so it is needed).
Skill Precise Aim if gain is > 1%
Skill Masterful Arcery
Skill Piercing Arrowheads if gain is > 1%
Skill Vibranium Arrowheads
This one is a little weird 20-21:
Skill Triple Arrow when possible
Skill Twin Arrow when possible
Skill Quick Arrow when possible
Skill Explosive Arrow when possible
Skill Adamantium Arrow when possible (I realllly dislike this ability but it gives you your first much needed source of aoe damage, so it is needed).
Skill Precise Aim if gain is > 1%
Skill Masterful Arcery
Skill Piercing Arrowheads if gain is > 1%
Skill Vibranium Arrowheads
You remember that retcon device you got in like chapter 2? This is the point where me and Adamantium Arrow and excessive points in Taser Arrow don't hang anymore. This one also gets alot more specific because this is your end game build so there are some requirements. 22-60:
At least one point in Combat Training
1 Point in Ronin Lunge when possible (getaway roll when not)
1 Point in Taser Arrow for cc purposes
1 Point in Nullifier Arrow when possible
Now with that out of the way back to priorities:
Skill Triple Arrow when possible
Skill Twin Arrow when possible
Skill Quick Arrow when possible
Skill Tear Gas Arrow when possible
Skill Explosive Arrow when possible
Skill Shrieking Arrow when possible
Skill Precise Aim if gain is > 1%
Skill Masterful Arcery
Skill Piercing Arrowheads if gain is > 1%
Skill Vibranium Arrowheads
If at any point you have a few Retcon Devices laying around and you have an item that GRANTS any of the required abilities that is an upgrade feel free to relocate points elsewhere.
Playstyle
In general Hawkeye's play style is pretty much the same solo and in groups. Pretty much roll / lunge are your best friends here for bosses. For trash mobs utilize whatever aoe is available to you at the time. For endgame bosses keep maximum uptime on Tear Gas Arrow while avoiding damage and auto attacking as much as possible. If you hold down your auto attack while rolling/lunging you will maintain your auto attack target when your roll/lunge ends. Not sure if shrieking arrow will taunt bosses or not at the moment, but if it does go nuts(unless it's heals when dealing damage)! Use ultimate on bosses whenever needed(if chain running green or red missions I would recomend saving it in case of heals when injured or heals when dealing damage boss affixis (or both it that abomination is possible)). If you're missing hp med kits on cd (Don't be stingy! They don't cost that much!). Make sure you have enough spirit to roll/lunge at least once at all times, this can be the difference between life and death in many situations.
NOTE: Credit to this guide goes to user "Ballercaust" from the forums
