Blue Protocol: Star ResonanceMarksman Falconry Spec GuideBest build and how to play the class.

Basic ATK

Bullseye

Skill

Double Arrow

Ultimate

Luminary Bolt

Slot 1 - Mandatory

Arrow Rain

Slot 2 - Mandatory

Focus

Slot 3 - Mandatory

Radiance Barrage

Slot 4 - Flex

Blast Shot

/

Deter Shot

Photon Energy - Our main resource, which regenerates at a rate of 3 per second naturally, but can also be gained via many of our different attacks. Unlike the base Marksman, when Photon Energy reaches its maximum, our Special attack, Double Arrow, temporarily evolves into Quadraflare, and using it consumes all Photon Energy. Because of this, the lower our Photon Energy cap is, the better. Our goal is to use as many Quadraflares as possible.

Note

Some abilities also gain bonuses when at maximum Photon Energy, such as Powerdraw. If using them, cast before consuming energy with Quadraflare.

Fixed Skills

• 

  Bullseye
  - Our basic attack and filler ability we’ll use while waiting for cooldowns. Recovers 2 Photon energy per hit, is fast to use, and has a solid hit count, making it reasonable for triggering Falcon attacks through frequent Crits. Spamming basics gets us to our next Quadraflare faster.
• Double Arrow - Double Arrow replaces
  

  Storm Arrow
  as our Special Attack and fires a 2-hit shot on use, dealing strong damage which has a boosted Crit Rate thanks to talents. Has three charges baseline and a cooldown of 7s, which is reduced by 1% for every 1% haste we have. Becomes Quadraflare when Photon Energy is at max.
• Holding down in a direction when using this ability will cause you to dash while firing.
• Quadraflare: Upgraded version of Double Arrow, which causes us to leap into the sky and fire 4 exploding arrows with double Crit Rate at the cost of consuming all Photon energy. One of our strongest abilities and the focus of our rotation.
• 

  Luminary Bolt
  - Shoots a massive arrow that gathers enemies toward your target while deploying a gravity zone that continually deals damage and applies a 10% increased damage taken to enemies you and your party can benefit from.
• The gravity zone damage cannot Lucky Strike.

Mandatory Skills

• 

  Arrow Rain
  - Our best Photon Energy generator, which hits targets 10 times each, making it a key ability for triggering our falcon and accessing Quadraflare faster.
• This ability cannot Lucky Strike.
• 

  Focus
  - Grants us a large %Haste buff alongside a Flat amount, providing us with increased ability frequency, which in turn means more Falcon Strikes. It can later be improved with talent tree nodes for even more buffing power. Also provides a 50% Special Attack cooldown rate.
• 

  Radiance Barrage
  - Locks us in place with a long cast time in order to fire a barrage of arrows, which hit each target 10 times baseline, making it another strong choice for triggering Falcon attacks. When used while Photon Energy is maxed, it gains 50% increased hit count, resulting in 50% more damage. Save this ability until you have max photon energy.
• This ability cannot Lucky Strike.

Flex Skills

• 

  Blast Shot
  - A quick-to-use pure damage option for our flex spot, which, while a damage increase, requires us to dedicate significant amounts of talent points to make it worth using. Fires a charged arrow at our target, hitting once - after a short delay, the charge explodes, hitting again in a radius.
• 

  Deter Shot
  - Our defensive cooldown deals a small amount of damage but grants us and up to 10 nearby allies full immunity to all attack damage for the next 5s. This ability is an incredibly powerful teamwide utility option that, if you’re ok giving up some damage, can be a useful tool for your group. Holds two charges and has a 25s cooldown.
• While a damage loss to use in most cases, not a major one, as talent points dedicated to enhancing
  

  Blast Shot
  or
  

  Powerdraw
  can be re-allocated to passive damage instead
• 

  Powerdraw
  (Not Recommended)- A slow-to-charge single hit shot that gains 100% Crit Dmg for free, has 2 charges, and a 30-second cooldown. It is significantly faster to use while Photon Energy is maxed. Despite this ability being designed for Falconry with extensive talent support, it’s not currently as competitive as using
  

  Deter Shot
  or
  

  Blast Shot
  .

Skill Priority

Bullseye

> Double Arrow >

Focus

>

Blast Shot

(If Used) >

Radiance Barrage

=

Arrow Rain

=

Luminary Bolt

>

Deter Shot

(If Used)

Ensure all abilities you’re using are levelled to 30 - only advancement requires consideration.

Advance

Bullseye

Focus

Blast Shot

Radiance Barrage

Luminary Bolt

Arrow Rain

Important!

Embedded are two separate trees for Falconry, one for the Blast Shot playstyle and one for the Deter Shot playstyle. Choose the one you prefer.

Gameplay Altering Talents

Most of our talents just help us do what we’re already planning on doing better, but some have a drastic impact on our itemization and rotation. Below is an outline of all the gameplay-altering effects you need to be aware of in the Falconry spec and Base Marksman talents.

Base Marksman Tree

• Photon Limit and Meditation - These talents improve our base Photon Energy generation from 2 to 3 and also reduce the Photon Energy cap from 100 to 80, making Quadraflare far more accessible.

Falconry Tree

• Falconry Spec - Our first talent node grants us access to Double Arrow, Quadraflare, and our Falcon Pet while also granting us 1% cooldown reduction for Double Arrow per 1% haste we have. Also converts Photon Reforge from a burst window into a cooldown (Quadraflare).
• Falcon: The Falcon deals a large amount of our damage, but will only attack when our abilities Crit. Fortunately, every hit of abilities counts, meaning high hit abilities like
  

  Arrow Rain
  and
  

  Radiance Barrage
  offer many opportunities to trigger attacks. The Falcon cannot lucky hit.
• Piercing Shot - Increases Crit Rate of Quadraflare and Double Arrow by +7%. This is especially potent on Quadraflare, which gains double Crit Rate, making this an effective +14%.
• Falcon Raid - Causes the Falcon to launch a hard-hitting Lightning Strike every 3 Crit Hits we deliver with Specials. The lightning Strike scales with other talents, making building Crit Rate even more important.
• Steel Beak - Causes us and our Falcon to apply Steel Beak to targets whenever we Crit. Steel beak is a stackable debuff on enemies that, when applied and has more than five stacks, has a 30% chance to cause an AoE implosion to trigger. Abilities that apply multiple Steel Beak have multiple chances to trigger it.
• Meteor - Every Falcon attack now has a 30% chance to add a stack of Weak Point Aim, with a max cap of 5. When using Quadraflare, the stacks will be used to launch Photon Arrows, one for each stack consumed. A visual indicator indicates the current number of Weak Point Aim stacks.

• Eagle Eye - Reduces the long casting animation of Quadraflare, essentially halving the animation time, which is a significant quality-of-life improvement and a must-have talent.
• Swift - When Lightning Strike triggers, we gain 10% attack speed for 8s, which may stack up to 3 times for a total of 30%. Hard to maintain early, but maintains high uptime with endgame gear, marking an absurd stat increase.
• Radiant Sharpshooter - Decrease Photon Energy limit from 80 to 60, making Quadraflare even more accessible.
• Lightfall - One of our strongest talents, which makes Crit stacking even stronger. Grants 0.3% Crit Dmg per 1% Crit Rate and also causes Double Arrow and Quadraflare to now generate 2 Photon Energy per Crit Hit they deal further boosting Quadraflare access.

Blast Shot Talents

When playing with the

Blast Shot

tree, some passive damage is exchanged for

Blast Shot

specific talents:

• Dual Arrow Mastery - Reduces the cooldown of
  

  Blast Shot
  by 1s when our Special attacks land any Crit Hits.
• Radiant Charge - For each Photon Arrow shot, the next
  

  Blast Shot
  s' damage will increase by 20% up to 100%.
• Chain Explosion -
  

  Blast Shot
  now applies 10 Steel Beak on detonation.

• Blast Shot Tree
• Deter Shot Tree

Recommended Blast Shot Build

Alternate Deter Shot Build

If you want to create your own Talent tree, check our tool:

Talent Planner

Important!

All gear & talent related info is based on extensive in-game testing, parsing, theory crafting and simulations. If you want to learn more about how damage works to understand our decisions, check out our Damage Formula Guide.

Here are the best modules for Marksman - Falconry - listed in priority order:

1. 

   Elite Strike
   - Our best choice, we already gain a large amount of Elemental DMG% and lack Generic DMG% that this set provides.
2. 

   Agility Boost
   - Provides strong base stats and Generic DMG%, which we lack.
3. 

   Attack SPD
   - We already have a large amount of ATK SPD%, but this still ranks above all other remaining options.
4. 

   Crit Focus
   - Provides additional Crit DMG, which, while solid, we already have a huge amount of from our talents. Still worth using, just not a top choice due to stat saturation, and it is missing an offensive stat compared to our best choices.

Important!

Some imagines will not be available to farm until all zones are unlocked - the most vital of these is

Muku Scout

.

Premium/F2P

Muku Scout [A5]

+

Muku Chief [A0]

Top Gold Imagines

1. 

   Muku Chief
   - Muku Chief provides passive +%CRIT DMG alongside a powerful active ability that grants even more +%CRIT DMG as well as +Flat Crit Rate. Furthermore, it has two charges, allowing superior uptime compared to other Imagines. Muku Chief is the best and only Gold Imagine worth using over Advancement 5 Purple Imagines before high-level Gold Advancements.

Top Purple Imagines

1. 

   Muku Scout [A5]
   - Muku Scout gives us a passive 15% ATK, provided we are consistently hitting attacks. Upon activation, it doubles the stacks, giving a very potent and uncommon 30% ATK buff. This is easy to maintain with Falconry Marksman.
2. 

   Brigand Scout Leader [A5]
   - Our Agility% boosting Imagine, offering 10% passively and a further 20% temporarily on use. A strong alternative to Muku Scout if you don’t have him maxed.
3. 

   Great Warhog [A5]
   - Generic Light DMG% Imagine, granting 7.5% passive Light DMG% and a further 16% on use. We gain more Light DMG% than Agility or ATK% in our kit, putting the hog behind our other 2 options.

1. Fancy Ruby - Provides us with Crit Rate %, allowing us to gain more procs and Falcon attacks.

Falconry doesn’t have a traditional burst rotation outside of aligning Imagines and the bonus Haste it gains from

Focus

• 

  Luminary Bolt
  if Available
• Imagines if Available
• 

  Focus
  if Available
• 

  Radiance Barrage
  if available and at 60 Energy
• Aim to use this during
  

  Focus
  to summon the Celestial Eagle from the “Celestial Eagle” talent if possible.
• Quadraflare at 60 Energy
• Use Double Arrow if not cooling down
• 

  Arrow Rain
  if available
• 

  Blast Shot
  if available (Only if you’re using it)
• Use remaining Double Arrow charges
• Basic Attack while waiting for cooldowns

Note

Our 4P set bonus causes our next two Double Arrow casts after Quadraflare to cost no charge. Ensure Double Arrow is always cooling down even after this bonus is active.

Can Falconry be played on auto?

As a ranged class with most abilities wanting to be used on cooldown, Falconry is one of the most auto-friendly specs in the game. You can consider placing Quadraflare and abilities that benefit from being at max Photon Energy on manual alongside your imagines and cooldowns if you want greater control, though.