Why Archer?

Farrgo - Dreamweaver

My thoughts on my first few months or so playing PWI as an archer:
I don't realy see it's practicality.

From the PvP section of the archer info page on PWpedia:
"At the low to mid Levels, overall Archers are the best damage dealer due to Their Range, fast attack speed and physical / magical damage. At higher levels, when classes become more balanced, Archers work mostly as robe killers. This means they kill Wizards, Venos and Clerics. However they still work as backup damage to other classes as well. You could say that the Archer is the "sniper" in Perfect World International, as they will sometimes one or two shot a player (due to their high critical percentage) before they are even seen."

Specifically: "as they will sometimes one or two shot a player (due to their high critical percentage) before they are even seen."
.... Isn't that the definition of an Assassin? One may argue that Archers are sort of a ranged Assassin... but if you want to deal massive damage fast from far away, a wizard is much more effective. I don't see any practical application for an Archer in any form of PvP.

For PvE: Any class is fine, and an Archer is balanced: Mag and Phys Defense/Mag and Phys Attack. This makes them pretty easy to play, as long as you're just killing mobs day in and day out. For bosses you'll do about as much damage as any of the other DD's over time, but you have a higher chance of drawing Aggro due to your high DPS and Crit rate. That means that to avoid dying while attacking a boss, (because Archers are so squishy) you have to hold off on attacking until your tank has a firm grip on the enemy. Therefore, you do less total damage because you have to wait to attack.

Simply said - there are better ways to kill stuff, and most people know this, which is why you'll rarely find archers being invited to parties. In a party, everyone has a specific task, and they need to do that task well. The only thing that any archer is guaranteed to be good at is drawing aggro and then dying. Zhening squads will often call for an archer because of they're barrage of arrows continuous AoE. But I don't play this game for the sole purpose of Zhening, and not too many people even Zhen anymore anyway.

So if you're lazy, and looking for some easy fun, or easy money... an archer is good. If you want to do something in the game, and do it well... pick a more specialized class.

Now - Prove me wrong. Or right, I don't care.

Elviron - Dreamweaver

Umm well...if you dont like it...dont play one b:victory

It finally comes down what you wanna do with your char. I do pretty well with my archer and there are many here who feel the same.

Ksir - Raging Tide

i cant really comment on the pvp since ive never really hit endgame.

For the PVE aspect of the game its so easy with an archer. At my level i just frost 2 normals knockback then normal and the mob is dead. I dont even get hit so hp pots are very cheap. Mp pots are cheap as well. Also we have STA i think a lot of squads want that since you can take off a pretty good chunk of the boss' hp with it. On top of that gamma squads need archers, fc squads need archers, when you hit level 100 and do lunar runs half the squad is archers(or so ive heard).

So if you dont find being an archer a "praticality" then just re-roll another class thats more "specialized" and stop trolling.

Farrgo - Dreamweaver

Ksir - Raging Tide wrote: »

Also we have STA i think a lot of squads want that since you can take off a pretty good chunk of the boss' hp with it.

Do you think having STA is so much an advantage that it is worth having slightly less damage by placing an archer in your squad rather than one of the higher DD's?

And I'm sorry if I offended the archer class b:surrender I just want to know other people opinions.

XylolyX - Heavens Tear

If you have a good barb with FR maxxed for his level, an archer has a small chance at stealing aggro-if the barb isn't being lazy.

As a barb I've held aggro while wizzies were critting for 70K, archers were critting 5 and 6 times in succession and so on. The only classes I've had problems holding aggro from are sparked assasins and demon fist BMs with good interval gear.

Bottom line is, at lower levels Barbs aren't holding aggro like they should-either they're being lazy or they haven't developed the touch to do it. I've run into it with squads on my archer. As an archer, my STA is an excellent tool for the squad, not to mention that the dps that I do is higher than the melees (except sins,) and almost comparable to the robes.

But yeah, if you don't like archer mechanics/playstyle- GTFO and see ya later.

bkloes

I am at work...so just bumping this topic so i can find it later. I am new to game but found that I just didn't "feel" the sin skills. I liked archer so I am playing it. I am new to PvP and we got destroyed the other day so I am not even sure if its a fair test of what an archer can do. I would love to continue hearing from the experienced archers "Why play archer" I like it but am seeing why some people say they are not the "ultra powerful' class.....

Sins sorta took away the thunder of archer it would seem, is this fair to say?

NiightmareXz - Harshlands

bkloes wrote: »

Sins sorta took away the thunder of archer it would seem, is this fair to say?

+ 1
Sins kinda took thunder away from every class. I'm sad to say sins were probably the worst thing PWi could have put into the game. The lack of being able to even fight them is hard enough, what with the stun locks and forcing stealth & getting a SPARK out of going invisible. Is that fair? No. What can we do about it? Learn to time our attacks right and learn our class better.

Ksir - Raging Tide

Farrgo - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Do you think having STA is so much an advantage that it is worth having slightly less damage by placing an archer in your squad rather than one of the higher DD's?

And I'm sorry if I offended the archer class b:surrender I just want to know other people opinions.

When you take off about 150k in one hit on a bh59 boss i think thats worth a "higher dd". Lets see any other class try to take that much off in one hit -_-.

Russiee - Raging Tide

Ksir - Raging Tide wrote: »

When you take off about 150k in one hit on a bh59 boss i think thats worth a "higher dd". Lets see any other class try to take that much off in one hit -_-.

Taken pretty much directly from a thread in the Sin forum:

'With 5 attacks per second sins can easily hit 50k DPS and do more damage than the 3m an archer takes off from a world boss with Sharpened Tooth'

/facepalm

gotta love how naive some Sins can be

Quilue - Sanctuary

lmao...yeah i remember that...50k DPH on lvl 150 bosses? ok...

triple sparked i've crit 30k to lvl 150 bosses under amps and debuffs...

ThanosQRt - Dreamweaver

Russiee - Raging Tide wrote: »

Taken pretty much directly from a thread in the Sin forum:

'With 5 attacks per second sins can easily hit 50k DPS and do more damage than the 3m an archer takes off from a world boss with Sharpened Tooth'

/facepalm

gotta love how naive some Sins can be

lol unless STA takes 1min to castb:chuckle

Archalt - Sanctuary

My main is a lvl88 Archer (Sage soon!), and I love her so much!
Note: yes, I will go Sage because I find it better for PVE. I hate PVP, so I dunno about that.

PVE grinding is a joke, because I can kill a mob in a few seconds just with frost, knockback and normal attacks. I have MP regen gear, I almost never use MP potions, not even HP potions because mobs cannot reach me (I hoard potions though I have over 1500 in my bank xD Bad habit...). I have noob armor (dropped by mobs), I don't need good ones, I do not need defence at all. Why? Mobs cannot reach me. Nuff said.

Dungeon runs are easy, I basically never attack first so I never steal aggro. For bosses, I use lower lvl weapon to make sure I never steal aggro. Works perfectly. I've never stolen boss aggro in my life. xD If I accidentally steal mob aggro in dungeons, I pop Winged Shell, use Second wind (genie heal) and run to tank so they can get aggro back as fast as possible. I almost never die in dungeons, even with a noob armor. It happened like 2 times, but it was because I was lagging like hell. I died less than 10 times during my 88 lvls, and 90% was because of lag or disconnection. I'm a pretty good survivor.

Archers are amazing and fun to play, you just gotta know HOW to play.
PVP is another thing, I heard you need uber gear for that, but that's not my problem. =P *hates PVP*

didi

Its an easy class to learn and play, yet alot of fun.

Its a class you can appreciate by having good gears but its also a class you don't have to have good gears.

Its one of the easier class that can get into tw without worry too much about having lack of experience, but i imagine that experience would go along way however.

You don't have to concentrate as much as other class, but make enough effort, you can speed up a squade run much faster by not just dd-ing when you get more experience.

Simply put, its a flexible class.

Mercinary - Heavens Tear

Since archers were an original class and Assassins wern't availiable at the beginning thats one reason I guess?

PVP wise? Only Clerics and Archers can really switch between magic and physical damage (archer mainly physical, cleric mainly magic) I know many archers say that its better to just normal attack to kill regardless of the class, but I still call them crazy. I can deal 2k on a bm or barb with Thundershock vs 300-500 dmg on a normal shot.

PVE is normally easy to handle. Only a Fist BM has been able to keep up damage with me at my level, I easily out-damage wizards, haven't squadded with many psychics, and I still pull agro over Assassins but then again assassins can lower their dps with a skill.

Also you have the longest range in the game (if equipped with the right weapons) so you can lock a cleric, psy, wiz just barely out of their attack range and pew pew

Stayne - Harshlands

Mercinary - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I know many archers say that its better to just normal attack to kill regardless of the class

>.>

I fear for our class' competency.

Esnemyl - Dreamweaver

feeling how proud you are to learn BOA at 59, its jsut a brilliant skill for bosses

hopaqo

Archers are easy class to learn and play?? Since when?
Yes they are easy to learn and play when you are 50+, till then majority have given up. I'm in 20's and I can say with this certainty any other class I would've been easily 30+ with half the time and effort.

Like I said majority give up on archers before Lev30. I know many players who started archers but no longer play them and not even over Lev30. Only 7 archers left in the faction and 2/3 will certainly be giving up. Only one arch 40+ and asked him and said archers will become the best PvE class over 50+, so simply hanging on till archers finally reach their full potential.

So its not an easy class to play at lower levels and will certainly take twice as much time and effort leveling them up. Yes 50+ like I've been reading and told due to range advantage they will become easy class to play. Till then its a murder!!

NightReaper - Lost City

archer = ranged assassin, with a powerfull atak, but lower atak speed.... if u dont like it, dont play.... ;P

Quilue - Sanctuary

for anyone thinking archer is hard at lower levels, try a bm...seriously

you don't know what's bad until you've played physical melee class pre-29

FitHitDShan - Sanctuary

BM the worst at low levels? That can't be right. Wizzy was positively dreadful. But, the worst by far for me was my baby barb. Of course, that was back when the server was relatively young and all the barb starter areas were full of venos who did not know how (or did not care) to keep their pets from KSing to the point of complete mob extinction, It's probably a lot better now. From personal experience, I'd rank low-level ease of play as:

Hardest to Easiest
Barb (damn venos)
Wiz (nothing dies!)
Cleric (heal self, heal self, attack, heal self, blah)
BM (kill-a-mob rest kill-2-mobs rest... when do I become AOE grinder of the year?)
Archer (okay, so I used some cheap swords for close in work at first - sue me)
Sin (the nerfed starter area was a joke, right?)
Psychic (Boom - next mob - Boom - next mob - hmm, can this be too easy?)

Untried
Veno (damn venos - I got issues, I'll admit it)

Elviron - Dreamweaver

From what i've experienced, archers are easy even pre-50 provided you understand that youre not supposed to stand in one place like a tank and expect to survive considering most mobs are melee prior to level 50.

Its not a simple charge in and bam bam bam kill. Thats reserved for barbs, Bms and assassins. Archer, Wizards, Clerics would need to kite a bit.

Reichle - Sanctuary

Elviron - Dreamweaver wrote: »

From what i've experienced, archers are easy even pre-50 provided you understand that youre not supposed to stand in one place like a tank and expect to survive considering most mobs are melee prior to level 50.

Its not a simple charge in and bam bam bam kill. Thats reserved for barbs, Bms and assassins. Archer, Wizards, Clerics would need to kite a bit.

I dont kite as a cleric. O__O self heals rock.
And I did not kno that archers need to kite. Thaz sad.

Quilue - Sanctuary

FitHitDShan - Sanctuary wrote: »

BM the worst at low levels? That can't be right. Wizzy was positively dreadful. But, the worst by far for me was my baby barb. Of course, that was back when the server was relatively young and all the barb starter areas were full of venos who did not know how (or did not care) to keep their pets from KSing to the point of complete mob extinction, It's probably a lot better now. From personal experience, I'd rank low-level ease of play as:

Hardest to Easiest
Barb (damn venos)
Wiz (nothing dies!)
Cleric (heal self, heal self, attack, heal self, blah)
BM (kill-a-mob rest kill-2-mobs rest... when do I become AOE grinder of the year?)
Archer (okay, so I used some cheap swords for close in work at first - sue me)
Sin (the nerfed starter area was a joke, right?)
Psychic (Boom - next mob - Boom - next mob - hmm, can this be too easy?)

Untried
Veno (damn venos - I got issues, I'll admit it)

Wiz was so easy because you could gush kite your way to not getting hit at all and play around with elemental weaknesses. what do you mean nothing dies?

pre-29 cleric is even easier than pre-29 wiz because physical attacks hit harder on mobs.

pre-29 psy is very similar to wiz except they got a knockback and a heal much earlier than wiz do.

bm sucked because of how much you had to sit (see you admit it) and how you had no heal skill pre-29. mobs kiting away and brambling themselves sucked

ease is as follows from easiest to hardest in my opinion:

Veno
Cleric
Psy
Wiz
Archer
Sin
BM

and i've never leveled a barb

post 29 it's a different story.

Distance shrink is a huge plus for wizards past 29 tho. also, wiz's awesome chi gain (as opposed to say, clerics suck chi gain) makes it very efficient in mob quests because you can pretty much spark every other mob and save mana as well as hassle. don't know about psy's chi gain cuz i never had one past 29

Reichle - Sanctuary wrote: »

I dont kite as a cleric. O__O self heals rock.
And I did not kno that archers need to kite. Thaz sad.

and get interrupted every other hit that's cool too

Elviron - Dreamweaver

Reichle - Sanctuary wrote: »

I dont kite as a cleric. O__O self heals rock.
And I did not kno that archers need to kite. Thaz sad.

Well prior to 50, you do have to sometimes (when multiple mobs come after you) kite around a bit or sit and suffer the damage penalty and pot or use winged pledge and wingspan at the cost of mp. The more you get hit, the higher is your armour repair cost and hence i'd like to keep getting hit to a minimum if it can be done.

hopaqo

Elviron - Dreamweaver wrote: »

From what i've experienced, archers are easy even pre-50 provided you understand that youre not supposed to stand in one place like a tank and expect to survive considering most mobs are melee prior to level 50.

Its not a simple charge in and bam bam bam kill. Thats reserved for barbs, Bms and assassins. Archer, Wizards, Clerics would need to kite a bit.

Faster mobs doesn't work, when you kite arch takes a slight pause and that is enough for the mob to be there right in your face. For it to work arch must fire immediatly when it stops, at low levels certainly not happening.

Knockback doesn't work either on faster mobs, or may get one shot and then its on cool down.

I certainly hope its true that arch will blosson at 50+ and I'm still not burning millions of Pots trying to keep my HP up and with a poison becomes even difficult, not to mention the pauses you take to meditate.

Elviron - Dreamweaver

Well all I can say is archers are adequately skilled to take down most type of mobs with least difficulty..provided youre doing the right stuff. This is one thing I like about archers.

I havent seen my difficulty change from before lvl50 to after lvl50 (apart from the reduction in pot usage). All i see is that the mobs have higher hp and i have a higher atk, hp and def. Killing them is as easy as ever.

Relakss - Harshlands

i love my archer in pvp so as pve i am fist archer build and i can solo HH 1-1 till 3-1 solo mode

In pvp you should just learn how to play an archer arcane is mostly 1 or 2 shot barb just use aim low thunder shock n lightning strike and use genie skills like occult ice.

When really wanna suprise someone switch to fists n demon spark with int gear i got 2,5 sec until now demon sparkedb:victory working on getting more need tome and event cape still got rank 6 chest and tt90 gold bracers.

ofc we are squishy against a high lvl wiz or cleric with +12 refines but thats same way around

XylolyX - Heavens Tear

hopaqo wrote: »

Faster mobs doesn't work, when you kite arch takes a slight pause and that is enough for the mob to be there right in your face. For it to work arch must fire immediatly when it stops, at low levels certainly not happening.

A technique I used to kite mobs works very well. Rather than run away from the mobs, run right at and past them. The mob has to pause to redirect itself, thus buying you a tiny bit more time.

Tivas - Archosaur

Buy a charm since lvl 15 problem solved...b:bye