How to avoid attracting aggros?

wallybelly

Hi all, I am a frequent visitor of this forum and I love reading all the archer guides. I have a lvl 65 archer in game myself and the stickied guides have definitely helped me tremendously in my levelling.

However what I find lacking in this archer sub-forum is a thread that teaches one how to be a 'good' archer when in a squad. People always speak of FAIL archers they have met & b**** about it and all but never exactly state what they expect from an archer in a squad.

So here I present a conundrum.

We, archers, are damage-dealers (DD) and we are expected to quicken the death of any enemy, as well as stunning, slowing or immobilising them. We are NOT expected to use Damage over Time (DoT) skills because these skills supposedly lower our Damage per second (DPS).

On the other hand, we are expected NOT to steal aggro, meaning to attract the boss from the tank because this will jeopardise the entire team including the vulnerable cleric. From what I understand, one only attracts aggro when he/she deals decent damage.

So what are we archers expected to do then? Are we to limit our damage and deliver attacks at controlled intervals? Then, doesn't this contradict the very purpose of an archer to deal the highest dps?

Hence, from what I deduce in the above scenario, archers are pretty much useless in a squad. We nerf our damage and jeopardise the entire squad.



I hope the more experienced players can give me some guidance and inputs on how to be a good archer. Mainly:

1. How do archers avoid stealing/attracting aggros? (not that we want to...)

2. What you expect from an archer in a squad when doing BH,FC,TT,FB...

3. What you DON'T want an archer in a squad to do...

4. Step by step explanation on attacking bosses (i.e tank aggros boss, use STA, wait, normal atks...)

5. What should archers watch out for? Like monsters debuffs, cleric?



I hope you guys give me some mini pointers & guidance. I'll be watching this thread and if the replies are good, we can consider making this into a 'HOW TO BE A NON-FAIL ARCHER thread. Thank you b:pleased

Xxdistance - Heavens Tear

wallybelly wrote: »

1. How do archers avoid stealing/attracting aggros? (not that we want to...)
Do not hit a mob/boss before the tank does, obviously. Stay next to the cleric and attack the tank's target only after he has aggro of it. On bosses, I normally Sharpen Tooth Arrow and wait the 30 seconds before attacking.

2. What you expect from an archer in a squad when doing BH,FC,TT,FB...
DD, obviously. Spark on bosses. Protect the cleric if she/he gets healing aggro. Your life is worth less than theirs.

3. What you DON'T want an archer in a squad to do...
Run infront of the tank and attract all the mobs... Or think he's God and can tank everything. *Unless you can tank everything, then all is well.*

4. Step by step explanation on attacking bosses (i.e tank aggros boss, use STA, wait, normal atks...)
STA, wait 30 seconds, attack. If I'm with a good barb/bm that I know I can't steal aggro off of, I put on my spark macro. If i'm not sure, I wait til 2/3 HP to spark, then I spark again at 1/3. Better safe than sorry. If I do steal aggro, I hit Winged Shell and an event pot and stop attacking til the tank gets it back. I NEVER spark if the tank is a Herc, because I seem to steal aggro very easily off of them.

5. What should archers watch out for? Like monsters debuffs, cleric?
Anything that slows our attack rate. Doing .35 aps sucks when you're trying to kill something. Archers should ALWAYS keep an eye on clerics because we are basically their bodyguard, and if they steal aggro with their heals, it will be our job to take it back. (Long range = don't have to run to the mob/cleric)

/10char

Fleuri - Sanctuary

In my experience, archers will pull aggro, that's just a fact of life. You can use that (by trying to control when and how you pull aggro) or it can be a problem for you, depending on how you play.

And your options, when pulling aggro, include:

Dying
Stopping attacking and get next to someone with Roar and let them pull aggro (and probably using your chi based damage reduction skills to try to stay alive)
Kite, or
Run away and reset aggro (if you leave an instance, for example, you will lose aggro on whatever was chasing you, which may or may not leave that aggro on someone else, depending on where they were, but usually if you just get far enough away you will reset aggro).

Which of these options are good options depends on your party. (Do you have a cleric? Does anyone in your party that has the skill "Roar" know what it does? Are they active, or are they away from their keyboard? Do you have enough ranged damage dealers in your squad? And, so on...)

But the most important thing, I think, for an archer, would be: be alert and observant. Watch how things happen, talk with people you play with. Try and learn something from when you fail. When someone criticizes you, see if they have anything worthwhile to say. (And even if they do not have anything worthwhile to say about you, they might have something to say about the difficulties they face, which itself can be very helpful in your quest to be a better archer -- if you understand what they are trying to do, you can maybe do something different to make their life easier.)

And, to answer your original question: if you want to avoid pulling aggro you should not attack. If you wait for the rest of the squad to do half of the damage on a monster (and if you used sharpened tooth arrow make sure to include that some percent of the monster's health will not be relevant when counting damage) before you start attacking then you probably will not pull aggro unless the tank dies before the monster dies. But before you can recognize when waiting for half damage to begin attacking is the right approach, you probably will need to have pulled aggro in a similar fight when you started attacking just before it reached half.

So, I would also add: failing can be a good thing, if you are learning from your mistakes, and if your companions can put up with your lack of experience.

But, if you want a recipe: often enough, if you open with a fully charged "take aim" after someone else attacks, you will not pull aggro. There are situations where this will not work (like when a veno pet is tanking an archer monster) and there are other situations where this is overkill (like when a hercules is tanking something that hits a lot harder than you do). But its a good starting point.

Phoenix_Eye - Heavens Tear

wallybelly wrote: »

1. How do archers avoid stealing/attracting aggros? (not that we want to...)

I remove my Blessing (jones mainly) and my 2 rings , also i use lvl 1 ammo. (i have 2 weapons Winds & Clouds and Unicorn , i use the Unicorn on bosses and W&C on mobs (higher attack per second), however this requires to spend some money for 2 weapons and collect ammo for both but it's my playstyle ). Also at later lvls using Fists helps , but right now i can't use good fists , so i use them only for making chi

2. What you expect from an archer in a squad when doing BH,FC,TT,FB...

As archer , i expect them to protect the cleric and squishies , and if sth goes wrong , try keeping boss aggro on them till rest of squad is ready to go on (providing cleric is alive lol)

As cleric , i expect them to grab any mobs tank didnt aggro , so i can live , If im alive , i can heal them and everybody is happy.

As veno , i always ask them not to attack the same mob as my pet unless they are able to take the dmg ( cause they will certainly steal aggro if they attack too soon)

I have no experience in FF yet

3. What you DON'T want an archer in a squad to do...

Steal aggro from bosses especially AoE one (Farren Sereneti = FB39 , Wyvern = FB 51 , TT 1-x Drum boss (forgot name sorry) , generally AoE bosses are the worst for me , others i can somehow handle = i mostly speak as cleric here

4. Step by step explanation on attacking bosses (i.e tank aggros boss, use STA, wait, normal atks...)

i will leave that to some1 with more experience than me

5. What should archers watch out for? Like monsters debuffs, cleric?

Can't understand what u mean exactly , but personally i see if my cleric is attacked , if yes i rush to save him / her (even if that means my own death).

in green

KageYingZi - Heavens Tear

Technically,you are right.We're supposed to help kill the boss faster as DD.It's more or less the aggro mechanics and how good your barb is.What we can do is to hit the point where we can deal high damage and not steal aggro.

1.To avoid stealing aggro,watch the barb.
If you see the barb using aggro skills as often as he can,it is generally safe to auto attack.
If the barb is much lower level than you,you might want to stop attacking after some attacking.Decrease the time you wait between them and see if you steal aggro.If the barb holds good,you can continue decreasing the interval you wait.If you steal aggro after a while,wait a little longer.
If the barb is around the same level range as you or much higher than you,you can do any of the 2 above as I stated.
Sparking at bosses is not recommended if you suspect your barb cannot hold aggro.Also,if you have a damage increasing proc activate,crit multiple times in a row or both,watch for a bit to see if the boss aggros you.

2.For me,this is what I would do
-Use Stunning Arrow,Aim Low and Frost Arrow if I know the monster is attacking a team mate or if the mob runs to get range for its ranged attacks
-Take aggro away from the clerics or squishies if they happen to aggro mobs,whether intentionally or not.
-In FC,use AoE skills as much as possible in pulls if I lack the 2 sparks to use Barrage but taking care to use STA after the pulled monsters HP is low enough so I don't decrease EXP cause there are some people who actually care about it.
-Use Spark,Winged shell and Wings of Grace if I'm tanking to reduce damage taken and to buy time for whatever situation.(E.g.Dead tank/cleric,cleric rezzing tank,tanking lower level bosses by myself)

3.Generally stupid things and blaming others

4.Let tank get a few hits or Flesh Ream on boss then STA.The HP reduction from STA does not generate aggro but the damage the arrow deals by itself can generate aggro if you hit it before the tank can get it.

Wait for a bit more and attack.Waiting how long is sufficient is up to your judgement of the boss,tank and yourself.

Attacking bosses please refer to part 1.

5.Any debuff from most bosses is deadly to most classes if there's anything that can hit you.I shall talk about general bosses.Special bosses in instances you can look up in the guides in Dungeon and Tactics since most of the more special bosses are discussed there.

If the Boss deals Phy/Mag damage/AoE and has a Phy/Mag debuff or can buff its Attack or Magic Attack and you don't know how much the boss hurts or if you know the boss hurts,take precuationary measures(Wings of Grace,Winged Shell)

If the Boss randomly changes aggro and you cannot tank the boss,do the same as above.If you can tank the boss,wait for the tank to regain aggro.

This is the common threat most of the time.

If you see your cleric in dnager,it is best to save that cleric and even if I die,I don't mind.I feel it is common courtesy and sense.If the cleric dies,they will lose more exp compared to if you die and also if you take aggro away from the cleric,the cleric will be able to heal you while you hit at the monster.

Using Stunning Arrow,Aim Low and Frost Arrow on monsters at the appropriate time will help taking down a monster easier.
STA and Knockback Arrow are more situational.I personally use STA on mini-bosses and Knockback when there isn't anything that I might aggro.

Conclusion:That's all I can think at the moment.

grimreaperhc

wallybelly wrote: »

1. How do archers avoid stealing/attracting aggros? (not that we want to...)

2. What you expect from an archer in a squad when doing BH,FC,TT,FB...

3. What you DON'T want an archer in a squad to do...

4. Step by step explanation on attacking bosses (i.e tank aggros boss, use STA, wait, normal atks...)

5. What should archers watch out for? Like monsters debuffs, cleric?

Hello wally and welcome to the PWI's forums ^^
Good to see that there are still people who like the archers as a class and keep on playing it, even willing to learn more and improve themselves. In the next few lines I`ll share my personal experience. Hope it will come in handy for you.

I have a level 74 archer. TT bow, 5K rep armor, some legendary one and ordinary stuff here and there. I`m pure dex with 4 points in vitality by a mistake but that's another question. At level 74 I have 312 dex points and I`m dealing dmg between 3.4 K to 5.2 K.

1.How do archers avoid stealing/attracting aggros?

What I did is to bring out a damage log in the small window right over the chat window. There I can see what damage I`m dealing on the mob/boss. Usually with normal non-crit attacks I can't steal aggro, but if I crit a few times in the row, in 95% of the cases I have the boss on me. Usually on bosses I`m avoiding to spark too often or when I see that I dealt a few crit shots I`m quitting my attacks for a while, just to make sure that the tank will have enough time to get some aggro. This is indeed a nerf of our own damage, but it should be this way if we want to be a quiet damage dealers instead of why-the-****-did-you-take-my-aggro?!!?.

Usually, with a barb in the squad I`m sparking right after he uses his aggro skill. You can always spark before Heavens Flame for example, but you will have to watch out your damage. It's not a problem for us to take a few hits, it is useful to have skills like Wings of Grace and Winged Shell in such situations. Sometimes the cleric can't react quickly and we just die lol.

2. What you expect from an archer in a squad when doing BH,FC,TT,FB...

We do what we do best - kill things. We are not BMs or Barbs to run ahead like King Artur aggroing everything on us and then QQing because we got our *** kicked. We are usually the last line of defence, standing right next to the clerics. Usually I support the barbs/BMs stun but you should always keep an eye on the mobs around because some of them are group aggroing and if nobody hit them they will get on the cleric. YOU are supposed to stop them in case the barb/BM don't fix his mistake. Just a single arrow will be enough to keep them on you, then you can use Winged Shell or Wings of Grace again and pray that the cleric will notice you. Also a great skill for melee mobs is Wingspan.

3. What you DON'T want an archer in a squad to do...

As usually the last person running in the line ( I mean running after the party members, just because we are ranged ) we should look out for walkers or mobs around. It wont be such a big deal to aggro one mob on you, but sometimes one mob is aggroing 3 more and then it becomes a nightmare.

I don't want an archer in my squad to switch to fists/claws and race with the damn barb to hit the first mob. C'mon guys, we are supposed to be in the back pew pewing the mobs.

I also dislike archers who are BoA'ing the boss instead of double-sparking. When I ask some of them they are saying that BoA is outdamaging double spark. I think this is doubtful.

4. Step by step explanation on attacking bosses (i.e tank aggros boss, use STA, wait, normal atks...)

What you must do first is always STA the boss. After that you can continue normal attacks and double sparks. Usually on wood bosses I`m doing the Thunder Shock > Lightning Strike combo from times to times, but this is just me, some of the rest archers will advise you to avoid such combos. I've tested it however and sometimes you I`m dealing up to 15K crits with Lightning Strike.

5. What should archers watch out for? Like monsters debuffs, cleric?

I think I already answered to that question up there but still - keep an eye on your squad, make sure that you will survive the scene and always try to keep your cleric(s) safe.

Feel free to ask questions, will be glad to help out if I can (:

My i-net went down QQ

Falcondance - Heavens Tear

@Grim's comment about Wingspan's utility on melee mobs: I cannot agree more. This seems to be extremely undervalued in FF, I tend to use it quite a bit, especially in fail squads, simply because the Barb goes and pulls two hallways of mobs (We're talking 30-40 mobs here, for those who haven't FF'ed) and then runs them back to us, and it's chaos if nobody stuns them before the cleric BBs/the cleric BBs too late/people make a concerted effort to fail as hard as they can. At this point I tend to spam Wingspan to the best of my ability, simply for the knockback. This is the part where I get a "DON'T KNOCKBACK DAMMIT" from the dead tank, at which point I tell him that if he didn't die, I wouldn't have to do it to save people. Sometimes I end up tanking 10+ mobs, which usually involves me spamming Winged Shell and Wingspan, and continually knocking the mobs back is the only reason I'm not a stain on the carpet at the end.

How do I avoid attracting aggro? I let the tank get a hit, STA, and then stop. If there's a 5APS'er in the party I just go nuts, because there's no way I'll pull aggro with a bow. If not, I start shooting once the boss loses X amount of HP (Depending on how much total HP it has. Usually 20-25%?) and then autoattack. Depending on the level and ability of the tank (Shoutout to I_Dont_Care from HT, who is the most amazing tank I've ever had the pleasure of squadding with) I'll attack at varying percentages of HP.

What do I expect from a fellow archer? Don't suck. That's all I ask. If I see you using Vicious/Serrated on mobs that die in a few seconds, or if I see you using Aim Low for damage instead of seals, or if I see a STA when the boss has already lost 20% HP... Common sense. I don't demand much. If the cleric gets aggro, I'll take it back, or if I can't I expect other DDs to. Unless that archer can shoot a damn Arrow of Resurrection, I need him to have the cleric's back, like I do.

What DON'T I want an archer to do? Refer to 2)

Step-by-step for bosses? This doesn't really work, it's mostly intuition and is constantly changing with different squads, tanks, and equipment.

What should archers watch out for? Bosses that debuff, or debuffs on the boss. I accidentally hit a 50K crit yesterday because the BM used Heaven's Flame at the same time as I Demon Sparked. Needless to say, I pulled aggro quickly.

TigerLily - Lost City

wallybelly wrote: »

H

1. How do archers avoid stealing/attracting aggros? (not that we want to...)

2. What you expect from an archer in a squad when doing BH,FC,TT,FB...

3. What you DON'T want an archer in a squad to do...

4. Step by step explanation on attacking bosses (i.e tank aggros boss, use STA, wait, normal atks...)

5. What should archers watch out for? Like monsters debuffs, cleric?

1. This is only a problem at lower lvls, before 9X, after that you will never have aggro
If you dont know the tank, start by taking breaks DD-ing every 10-15 sec and let the tank bite and hit it a bit before u do anything.

If the tank is a barb i always watch him closely and adjust my DD-ing to that, like how often does he actually bite, did bite miss, what skills is he using etc. See what refines he has, with +1 axe than u have to control dmg even more. Keep watching for the Bleed icon on top of the boss always, if it hasn't appeared for a while stop shooting lol. Also if the boss suddenly moves a little bit, the barb about to loose aggro, than stop attack and use shield or WoG. Also watch your own dmg, like if you crit 5 times in a row than take a DD-break for a few sec.

2. Same as any other DD. Dont run in and agro ****s you're no suppose to, stay close with your party, DD the bosses, dont attack mobs first unless you can tank them, dont run around in huge circles like a moron going "HELP PLZZ" if you steal aggro at the boss, keep the cleric safe, use your party buff, dont afk for 20 minutes lol

3. Before 90+ a fail archer is someone that constantly runs ahead goes rambo and dies, steals aggro from tank and gets clerics killed from aoe than dies himself and talks trash. Archers acting like tanks at lower lvls is a real nuisance, specially for the clerics.

After 90+ or so a fail archer is someone with horrible dps and no interval, that spams **** skills like Vicious Arrow and Serrated Arrow on bosses instead of auto attack +triple sparking. That never has chi for Barrage in Frost, that doesn't have maxed important skills like STA or even masterys - yes i meet a few of those.

Rest is same for all classes. Not maxing important skills = bad. Running in wrong directions and not paying attention = bad. Not having a genie with x2 Holy path in Frost = very bad. Not having Absolute Domain = very very bad go uninstall.

4. STA or Blood Vow than auto attack and spark when u have chi for it. Same if you're using claws/fists. If the tank cant hold agro than dont spark and take DD-breaks <.<

5. Dont have to watch out for anything special. Archers have low mag def and low phy def, so stay away from anything big and hard hitting until you have decent hp.

ThanosQRt - Dreamweaver

Falcondance - Heavens Tear wrote: »

@Grim's comment about Wingspan's utility on melee mobs: I cannot agree more. This seems to be extremely undervalued in FF, I tend to use it quite a bit, especially in fail squads, simply because the Barb goes and pulls two hallways of mobs (We're talking 30-40 mobs here, for those who haven't FF'ed) and then runs them back to us, and it's chaos if nobody stuns them before the cleric BBs/the cleric BBs too late/people make a concerted effort to fail as hard as they can. At this point I tend to spam Wingspan to the best of my ability, simply for the knockback. This is the part where I get a "DON'T KNOCKBACK DAMMIT" from the dead tank, at which point I tell him that if he didn't die, I wouldn't have to do it to save people. Sometimes I end up tanking 10+ mobs, which usually involves me spamming Winged Shell and Wingspan, and continually knocking the mobs back is the only reason I'm not a stain on the carpet at the end.

while wingspan could save ur life it ruins my aoe; and my aoe involve stuns, freezes and decreased accuracy. while it can save lifes in some problematic situations it can kill in other situations.

scenario: puller gets the mobs, lure them back. i aggro them, psy will (immune to pdmg for 8sec), and start to aoe them (they cant hurt me). archer uses wingspan, mobs dont die, they come back to me when psy will is over and kill me.

mobs should be stunned and then dead without the need of windspan; if u have to use it it's failed pull

Fleuri - Sanctuary

TigerLily - Lost City wrote: »

1. This is only a problem at lower lvls, before 9X, after that you will never have aggro

You experience has been different my experience, but I believe this depends on a lot of factors.

TigerLily - Lost City wrote: »

If the tank is a barb i always watch him closely and adjust my DD-ing to that, like how often does he actually bite, did bite miss, what skills is he using etc. See what refines he has, with +1 axe than u have to control dmg even more. Keep watching for the Bleed icon on top of the boss always, if it hasn't appeared for a while stop shooting lol. Also if the boss suddenly moves a little bit, the barb about to loose aggro, than stop attack and use shield or WoG. Also watch your own dmg, like if you crit 5 times in a row than take a DD-break for a few sec.

This is all good advice. Also, you need to understand how barbarian Roar/Devour works (and veno pets can also get Roar).

Roar does several things:

First, it puts an icon over every monster that is affected by it, which looks like a sword falling down into its head. The barbarian version is an AoE so you will see this over a lot of monsters.

Second, it resets the aggro on monsters.

Finally, it adds a very small bit of aggro from the monster to the attacker.

And Devour works like this:

First, its only really useful on monsters that are attacking the Barbarian.

Second, you get a sort of an orangish "explosion" effect on every monster that is affected by it.

Third, it reduces the physical defense of its target by a lot (high level Devour reduces it by 50%).

Finally, it builds a lot of aggro on the barbarian.

So, if you shoot between Roar and Devour, you are messing up the barbarian's ability to hold aggro. If you see anyone doing that, or if you see someone using Roar on a target where the barbarian already has aggro, you should probably stop and talk to them, and explain the consequences of their actions -- you will save time in the long run. (But its good to be polite when you are explaining things, because people listen better then.)

TigerLily - Lost City

Fleuri - Sanctuary wrote: »

Also, you need to understand how barbarian Roar/Devour works (and veno pets can also get Roar).

Yeah i really agree about Roar. Mostly its clerics that learns early to pay attention to this to avoid heal-aggro, but archers should do it as well and specially in Frost/Rebirth. Venos with Roar on their pets can really mess things up to, you pretty much get auto aggro if you touch a boss after a stupid Herc Roars

Sunder also generates a lot of aggression for barbs and its a skill you can watch for if the barb for some reason doesn't Roar the mobs (might be on cooldown). Its an aoe-skill and you can see the bleed icon clearly on all mobs. Also learn to use assists attack icon if the barb is tanking multiple mobs inside an FB or whatever you're doing. You wanna hit the same mobs as the tank. Its annoying for the barb to if he has to switch target to save you. I guess thats not a problem if you can solo the mob tho

Devour doesn't seem to create as much aggression as Flesh Ream does tho, which is why i dont watch for it as closely but its probably a very good idea b:surrender.

Fleuri - Sanctuary

One other thing you can sometimes do, to avoid pulling aggro, when the barb is holding multiple monsters:

If you switch targets every few shots, you will not build much aggro on each monster. You still need to wait for some aggro to build, however, so make sure when you do this that your currently targeted monster has some damage before you shoot it.

This mostly only works when your squad has their attention split across multiple monsters.

Also, sometimes its better to finish off one of the monsters (like if it's a sacrificial assault, or if it uses AoEs and is not stunned or might not be dead before stun wears off).

Also, sometimes its best to temporarily ignore monsters (like when a cleric has slept one that could cause problems -- everyone should be able to identify the sleepy blanket icon that means that something has been slept and if you do not recognize that icon you should be doing runs through FCC until you can recognize it.)

Falcondance - Heavens Tear

ThanosQRt - Dreamweaver wrote: »

while wingspan could save ur life it ruins my aoe; and my aoe involve stuns, freezes and decreased accuracy. while it can save lifes in some problematic situations it can kill in other situations.

scenario: puller gets the mobs, lure them back. i aggro them, psy will (immune to pdmg for 8sec), and start to aoe them (they cant hurt me). archer uses wingspan, mobs dont die, they come back to me when psy will is over and kill me.

If this were the situation, I agree - wingspan would be harmful to the party.

mobs should be stunned and then dead without the need of windspan; if u have to use it it's failed pull

Agreed. But when the pull fails and I do have to use it, it's the reason I do save lives.

/5char

tehiro

between sixty and seventy i got my first TT weapon, when i started to use it i pulled agro on almost every mob. after that i went questing with it and really got a feel for my increased damage. my advise on avoiding agro is to get to know your damage output in relation to other people and to what it once was, especially if you just got a new weapon, if you see that the people around you are not doing as much damage as you then switch to a weaker weapon. this is especially true if you go with wind and the clouds at level 69

Keliska - Raging Tide

wallybelly wrote: »

1. How do archers avoid stealing/attracting aggros? (not that we want to...)

2. What you expect from an archer in a squad when doing BH,FC,TT,FB...

3. What you DON'T want an archer in a squad to do...

4. Step by step explanation on attacking bosses (i.e tank aggros boss, use STA, wait, normal atks...)

5. What should archers watch out for? Like monsters debuffs, cleric?

1.) remove excess dex, use lvl 1 bow with lvl 1 arrow. pending on level of the barb wait a few to half the boss bar to attack.

2.) protecting the cleric with your life and shorten bosses HP

3.) simply DO NOT AGGRO unless your tanking of course lol

4.) a (lol).) Use Sharpened Tooth Arrow b.) Run behind barb and then some c.) 1.)Stun when it's not on cooldown 2.) BoA? d.) Normal attack

Falcondance - Heavens Tear

Keliska - Raging Tide wrote: »

1.) remove excess dex, use lvl 1 bow with lvl 1 arrow. pending on level of the barb wait a few to half the boss bar to attack.

b:shocked

Fleuri - Sanctuary

Keliska - Raging Tide wrote: »

4.) a (lol).) Use Sharpened Tooth Arrow b.) Run behind barb and then some c.) 1.)Stun when it's not on cooldown 2.) BoA? d.) Normal attack

Stun works on very few bosses, though if you have demon stun that does improve your crit rate, but if you are demon you might also want to be using quickshot.

And I think BoA should only be used on bosses with adds (adds that do not interrupt, ideally).

Xarathox - Dreamweaver

TigerLily - Lost City wrote: »

Yeah i really agree about Roar. Mostly its clerics that learns early to pay attention to this to avoid heal-aggro, but archers should do it as well and specially in Frost/Rebirth. Venos with Roar on their pets can really mess things up to, you pretty much get auto aggro if you touch a boss after a stupid Herc Roars

Sunder also generates a lot of aggression for barbs and its a skill you can watch for if the barb for some reason doesn't Roar the mobs (might be on cooldown). Its an aoe-skill and you can see the bleed icon clearly on all mobs. Also learn to use assists attack icon if the barb is tanking multiple mobs inside an FB or whatever you're doing. You wanna hit the same mobs as the tank. Its annoying for the barb to if he has to switch target to save you. I guess thats not a problem if you can solo the mob tho

Devour doesn't seem to create as much aggression as Flesh Ream does tho, which is why i dont watch for it as closely but its probably a very good idea b:surrender.

Most don't understand the mechanics of Devour. Just like Roar and Alpha Male, it will override primary aggro skills such as Flesh Ream...but not in the same way. It doesn't instantly drop threat level to 0 like those other 2 skills, but it greatly increases it over time respective to who's doing the highest physical damage.

Since archers are one of the hardest hitting physical classes, it's irresponsible for any barb or veno to spam Devour/Armor Break in regular intervals due to your classes ability to generate a higher threat level per hit.

Keliska - Raging Tide

The idea is to continue downwards leading to BoA or just normal attacking.

Tho not 100% endgame, some may go fist.

Sarrafeline - Sanctuary

Keliska - Raging Tide wrote: »

1.) remove excess dex, use lvl 1 bow with lvl 1 arrow. pending on level of the barb wait a few to half the boss bar to attack.

2.) protecting the cleric with your life and shorten bosses HP

3.) simply DO NOT AGGRO unless your tanking of course lol

4.) a (lol).) Use Sharpened Tooth Arrow b.) Run behind barb and then some c.) 1.)Stun when it's not on cooldown 2.) BoA? d.) Normal attack

Sooo... Sell my Soulsphere, and buy a bow for my Psy, and call myself an Archer? b:worried

TPKisaki - Heavens Tear

I'm still fairly new at being an Archer (I'm not new to the game though lol) and this was all VERY helpful! b:victory I'm adding this thread to my favorites for easy access!

ImReallyWhyt - Heavens Tear

whatever u do..do ..not..use..frenzy on a physical boss if u have a weak cleric lolb:laugh