**CREDITS TO IRMA2 FOR CREATING ORIGINAL GUIDE**
http://www.titanquest.net/tq-forum/threads/41766-Guide-The-Bown-Charmer
(SKIP STRAIGHT TO THE GUIDE? MOVE TO "THE BUILD" SECTION)
Every build has a premise in my view, a raison d'etre, a niche, a purpose, a set of characteristics which define it. So what defines the Bone Charmer? There are many ways to play this build. With Monster Lure as a distraction, it could even be viable for Poinas' Ternion and ...of Harrowing build. However, I like the Bown Charmer style. The name is an awful pun but it reflects two central characteristics of the build:
1) It uses a bow mostly, although not exclusively. It is also a spear melee toon when conditions dictate. And...
2) It owns. Everything.

Now that we have the premise of a bow/spear hybrid established, it's time to discover what each mastery adds to the class. I like to differentiate masteries as Primary and Secondary, depending on what they add to the build. A Thane who uses a staff has Storm as primary, a Thane who dual wields has Warfare as primary. As our Bown Charmer alternates between a spear and bow, and never uses a staff or Ternion, it is obvious that Hunting is the primary, with Spirit as secondary.

Hunting is arguably the game's most self-sufficient primary mastery. With a piercing weapon, Art of the Hunt, Study Prey and Call of the Hunt, it is covered offensively – no further damage boosts are needed. But its defensive characteristics are also well catered for. Wood Lore provides a huge DA boost, Herbal Remedy gives lashings of critical Poison resistance and the Monster Lure offers a tremendous albeit static pet which holds aggro against anything.

So what does Hunting not get – and which Spirit can provide? The list is short but very, very sweet:
1) Energy. With no boost to the blue bar and several energy-hungry skills, Hunters can go through energy pots like addicts. Spirit mitigates that, not only by providing more base energy but by the game's best energy-regen skill, Dark Covenant.

2) Damage mitigation. Archers are phenomenal at range, when they can pepper hapless foes before they get into melee range. But a surrounded archer is a toon in crisis. Spirit Deathchill aura not only provides great slowing, but Ravages of Time also mitigates both physical and piercing damage. (NOTE: Might need fanpatch 1.17 installed)

3) Help with Undeads. They're the most common monster type in the game, you can't leech life from them and they're generally quite painful. There are several bosses as well (Undead Typhon, Dragon Liche, Charon, Toxeus) who are Undeads. Spirit Ward/Bane provides a powerful tool to make fights against Undeads much easier.

4) A traveling pet. Monster Lure is very handy but you don't want to be casting it all the time. Spirit gives you the Liche King, the game's best pet by a country mile. Not only is this ghastly wraith a significant damage dealer in his own right, he also debuffs enemies, saving you from casting Study Prey constantly.

5) Help with Attack Damage Converted to Health. This is a necessity for almost all toons, especially in Legendary. The Necrosis synergy of Deathchill makes it possible to leech life from Undeads, Constructs, even Traps!

6) Boss help. Every toon needs this and Spirit plugs the hole by giving you the Outsider. For one measly point, you get a temporary companion who can shred even the toughest Legendary bosses.

7) Skill point economy. This is an oft-overlooked factor, but any time you can have a modest secondary mastery which requires not many precious skill points, you are saving points for your killer primary mastery skills. The build becomes optimised quicker and there is less need for +skills items.

Many builds have a sweet spot, that magical synergy which propels the build onto a whole new level. Think of the Assassin's Traps boosted by the flat damage bonus of everything in Battle Standard's radius. The Bown Charmer's sweet spot is a doozy. Hunting's Take Down skill is usually ignored, even by spear Hunters. While a single point in it is useful to serve as a rush skill and close the gap to ranged foes, few will max out the skill. Its +% Health Reduction bonus simply isn't worth it against trash mob monsters, and bosses have too much health reduction resistance to make it viable. But the Bone Charmer gets Necrosis to nuke boss Vitality resistance, and the Liche King's Soul Blight special attack to nuke all resistances – including the special boss secondary resistance to health reduction attacks.

The result is a single spear hit that lays waste to bosses. Perhaps a short demonstration will say more than a thousand words. Bown Charmer versus Hydra. And that's without the Outsider...

So, Hydra ownage aside, why do we want a hybrid bow/spear toon? Why not just go all bow or all spear? The reasons are very simple:
1) Sometimes one or the other is preferable. Nobody likes taking on Normal Typhon in melee range, using a bow and dodging his clumsy ranged attacks and short-range breaths is much easier. Yaoguai is also considerably easier at range. On the other hand, staying at range against the Hydra invites it to use its deadly breaths. So it's much easier in melee range, where only Poison resistance is required. Dactyls and Lamians are also quite difficult to hit with a bow due to their high Chance to Avoid Projectiles bonuses. So closing to melee range makes the fight easier. The hybrid build gives you the opportunity to choose your range based on the conditions.

2) You have enough skill points to specialise in both. The only difference between a bow Bone Charmer and the hybrid Bown Charmer is 12 points in Take Down. That is very doable.

The end game build is very simple. This is what you will need by late Legendary.


Of course, this raises questions about which mastery to take first and how to build up towards your end game state. Again, Bown Charmer is extremely simple. As Hunting is your primary, you start with it. Spirit's key skills only get added later.

At game start, you will want a bow. Many of the game's early mini-bosses, such as Polyphemus and Arachne, are best tackled with a bow anyway. While the early going is quite tough until you get the key bow skills up and running, this is actually a blessing. All builds will struggle at some point as they level up their masteries and skills. Bown Charmer gets the heavy lifting out of the way early, while monsters are still doing laughable damage. Let's take it Act by Act.

From game start, you will want to level up the Hunting mastery immediately, stopping only to drop a point or so into some key skills along the way. So, by level 10, we would have this.
The single points in Wood Lore, Art of the Hunt, Marksmanship and Puncture Shot give your arrows just a little bit of zip, but you will likely be progressing slowly at this stage. Don't worry, you are close to getting the killer skills.




After another eight levels, or by the end of Act I Normal, the build is looking like this. Already that is much better. With Wood Lore maxed, your attack speed is now decent.
Volley and Scatter Shot are now both at level 5 and you should be doing great damage, especially against closely packed mobs. Time to make a start in Spirit while gradually maxing out our Hunting skills.






By the end of Act II, at approximately level 27, you will have reached this stage. This is now starting to own. With Volley and Scatter Shot now maxed as well, mobs will be going down almost instantly, especially with mid-level Puncture Shot adding some welcome pass-through damage. Art of the Hunt is adding some more damage, Herbal Remedy gives some Poison resistance and life regen, Study Prey is started to give help against pierce resistant monsters and Call of the Hunt is available for bosses. Spirit now needs some attention, other than mere leveling.







By the end of Act III, at around level 33, you will reach this. As you can see, only a couple of points have gone into Hunting, the rest into leveling up Spirit and getting a start in both Deathchill and Ravages of Time. These skills will be useful in Act IV.






In Act IV, I continue the Spirit leveling mainly. By the end of Act IV, around level 40, I will have reached this point. I have maxed out both masteries, my Hunting skills and Deathchill aura are at good levels and, even though I won't use him in Normal, I have a start in the Liche King, ready to roll when I hit the start of Epic.


For the first part of Epic, my focus will be on getting the Liche King to good levels, while rounding out other important skills – Study Prey for resistance reduction, Outsider for help with bosses, Herbal Remedy for Poison resistance, Necrosis to start leeching life from all and sundry. By level 50, I will want to be here. The build is now nearing completion. Necrosis, Art of the Hunt, the Liche King and Study Prey still need a few points each, so it's time to start pumping Take Down for those Legendary bosses.


By level 58 (approximately the end of Epic), I will have reached this. Et voila, almost everything is maxed, including Take Down. In Legendary, it's just a case of dotting the i's and crossing the t's, putting more points into Art of the Hunt and Find Cover, Call of the Hunt tree, Unearthly Power or whatever else you want.


Of course, if you fancy some extra crowd control in Vision of Death, you can pop a point into there whenever you like – even relatively early in Normal. However, by this point at end of Epic, you're well set. You are fully capable with bow and spear, Take Down and Necrosis are maxed, the Liche King is at a high level (especially with +skills items and a Mastery shrine) to wreak his Soul Blight havoc, and your buffs and debuffs such as Study Prey, Art of the Hunt and Call of the Hunt are all at usable levels.

This is really simple. Both bow and spear users benefit from Dex, not just for the piercing damage and equipment requirement but also for OA and DA. So just go 1:1 Str: Dex throughout. If you are feeling a bit fragile, by all means pop a point or two into Health. But I never found it necessary. Spirit gets no Strength so, even with the preponderance of Hale gear later on, you still need to pump it to get your Str and base damage up to high levels.