Any tips for FC'ing as an archer??? :)

Christona - Raging Tide

My archer has reached 80 and I was gonna start fc'ing on him... He is an alt and my main a 100 cleric so it's not like im a newbie. The main reason Im posting this thread is because I like to well informed about my class. (to this day as a 100 r8 cleric I read cleric guides and builds) Yes I have read the archer guides but they don't mention tips for FC. My cleric hasn't healed many archers in FC, I think during the time I ran FC with her she (85-100), I was squadedwith 5 archers. So I couldn't observe what they did and apply it to my archer. As well I did a forum search and found very little on this subject and I think we need tips on FC since we have noobs up the butt. My archer was bh raised to 80. No power leveling. Questing and bh's got him up. So it's not like I can't play an archer. I was just seeing if anyone out there could save me from dieing a few times on my first FC as an archer. Please save ur time posting things like watch aggro and running ahead or things of that nature. I do have some common sence. As i learned with my cleric there are some tips that aren't common knowledge that aren't really shared with the general public I'm looking for those. Tips of the trade if uwill.

Thanks for any tips and ur time

shade911

do what you always did . watch out for harpies , snipe them on sight .
never take agro of several mobs at one time .
always keep yourself healed . barrage when the tank has agro on mullltiple mobs ...
stuff like that , things your probably already know .
I think they say you shouldn't STA in FCC since it drops the exp earn , but i never noticed that.

laloner

Not much to tell someone who has a lvl 100 toon, FC for archers is easy. But here are some tips:


Sometimes you take the agro while barraging, the best thing for this that I've found is taking a Dew of Star Protection apothecary pot. I've never died doing this. It leaves your genie free for a healing skill, doesn't interrupt your shooting and doesn't move the mobs like Earthquake genie skill would.

I keep the arrows on hot keys and switch to the most expensive kind for barraging. Obviously like most archers I use the cheapest arrows for PVE but I use the good stuff for barrage, mostly so I don't die if I take agro.

At the bubble boss I position myself dead center so if one side kills its mob first I can switch to shooting the other mob without moving.

I only use STA on the first couple of bosses. TBH not one squad member has ever cared if I use it or not but I still only use it on the first couple of bosses.

If your doing hands only do hands. If you try to do both you might click on the boss just when a mini-me is spawning. It happened to me once and after that I only do the hands and nothing else.

Always tell the puller your going to give him the 79 speed buff they hate it if you don't. Though I don't think they even care when you do give it.

Your first shot on a bishop should be stun. Always stun the stunners.


The boss right before the big room, people like to pull mobs to him right before he dies. If you barrage those I doubt you will have the sparks to barrage the mobs in the room right before the big room and I think barraging there is more important.

If the pull goes up to a shade use him as the target for your barrage since he will out live the mobs your are pulling and so your barrage won't stop too early. Also, if you draw agro on the mobs they will come at you, leave barrage range and then someone else usually takes the agro off you. But if you target the mobs the whole crowd can come at you and stay on you.

Out of all the things I said I think the most useful is keeping Dew of Star Protection pots for when you take agro while barraging.

boarhunter

The above advice is good. You might include some of the mana & HP pots as well. I've always used the best arrows I could get for my archer and not had too many issues with stealing aggro if you let the tank get involved first. A good cleric and a good squad go a long way to a good FC. You may find hypering just the heads as the way to go unless you have a good squad that runs the instance quickly & then hyper the whole instance thru the heads.

I hope you can still get squads to do complete FC runs.

b:bye

truekossy

1: Don't sharp the bosses past the first two (as well as not sharping mobs in big pulls until after their HP is at 80% or below) as that lowers EXP gain.

2: Carry MP foods and get cloud eruption or chi siphon (I prefer the former for this level range and instance) on your genie. If you're in an at-level squad it will be a rather nice boost so that you can barrage more often when you need to.

3: Thunderous is a good opener when you aren't barraging. The channel time means with a good squad you can start it before the tank gets aggro or the BM(s) stun the mobs. When you do so, it will normally land right after the roar or stun occurs and will be a decently damaging hit. However, if you aren't very good at your archer or don't have very good gear, you're best off waiting for about 20% of mob HP to get knocked off before attacking if you have a weapon that's +4 and above.

4: Try to always stay at 2 sparks so you can barrage or grace at a moment's notice. One way to do this is that once you've started to barrage a bishop, tab to a different mob and when the HP is low enough, drop barrage and use another AoE. For extra chi generation it helps to carry a pair of claws or fists to punch bishops with when the other mobs have been killed. Then once you get back to 2 sparks you can take about 4 steps back to be outside melee range and shoot away with your bow.

5: Sparks + Auto attacks are your highest DPS. Don't burn your MP skill spamming on bosses or burn your sparks barraging/stormraging them. If your tank can't hold aggro and you can't tank the boss for whatever reason, simply don't attack

6: When you have the chance, cast winged shell before barraging. In line with the apoth mentioned above, use the apoth potion before barraging. You won't be able to use any apothocary or non-genie skills during barrage, so doing it before gives you that extra time to react if you take aggro.

7: Do NOT cast wingspan when aggro'd by melee mobs except as a last resort if in a melee focused squad. It will knock the mobs all over the place which makes it tougher on others trying to save you. Even in a caster squad try not to use it too often since doing so would make any AoEs used to save you miss most of the mobs.




That pretty much covers what I can think of for now. The rest should be mostly common sense, knowledge of the instance, and basic knowledge of how to play your class.

Christona - Raging Tide

Thanks for the advice and your time in posting them. I appricate all the advice and will use it all. And a lot of thanks for the boa advice I was wondering a lot about boa and sta when to cast them and such. As well for the apoc pot I will be making for my archer now. Lol

kinmanny

Well currently level 95 archer here, and on FC i just solo the whole thing bring dew of star or Watever is called have healing abilitys on ur genie crabs, an hp charm if u can and some claws maybe the lunar 95 claws or GV fists whichever u want..I'm 2.5 base aps and 3.33 sparked but level 95 to remind u and with claws I have 6k hp 5700 hp with bow so yes I never liked playing the "traditional" roll of archer. Do something new take aggro from sins and barbs tank FC and show them that archers can tank also or even better! But since u have a level 100 cleric I suggest u get ur archer to at least 90 get him r6 interval armor and tt90 gold arm pc and TM 79 interval cape with GV and take ur cleric with u and solo FC dual it with ur archer cleric. Then sell the remaining spots at exp room make money while getting exp best of both worlds!!! Goodluck

_Skai_ - Raging Tide

When barraging and you steal agro, Expel will be one of your best friends in FC.

Vindis - Dreamweaver

Lets see, I FC'd on my archer back when sins were rare so I have alot of tips:

1) Try to pull harpies down to ground level for the melees so that they can kill it. As an archer you will have the ranged aggro guaranteed if you keep your gear up. Stunlocking them with Aim Low and Stun helps too.

2) Watch the cleric, I like to use Wingspan in the event the tank fails at aggro or if there is no barb and the cleric has aggro.

3) Wingspan use tip: If you have aggro from barrage or something and it drops, Walk so that all of the mobs are on 1 side of you and then cast wingspan. It will keep the mobs all grouped together so that AoEs from any class will still hit, and it will also buy your charm a second or two to tick so you don't die. Use judgement when you use it.

4) Fighting harpies: Winged Shell is your friend and will prevent you requiring much attention from the cleric in You vs Harpy situations. Also, be careful not to tab attack through walls to pull/aggro additional mobs (happens commonly around the 3rd boss area).

5) Barrage on pulls: If the pull is primarily physical based mobs (like most FC pulls) and you happen to be one of the only AoE DDs (No Wiz/Psy/Seek) then you will likely get aggro, especially if no barb is present. I recommend using Expel on yourself. It negates all physical damage and if you cast it on yourself while Barrage is already casting then you will not cancel barrage. If your genie is low on energy you can cast Wings of Grace before trying my Wingspan strategy to keep yourself alive longer.

6) MP charm: A possible good investment that will last you at least 10 levels. You won't run into issues involving Barrage dropping either.

7) I personally STA most bosses before Messenger since I have always hypered Messenger and beyond in 2 or 3 activates.

8) Squad Dynamics tip: If you build your archer correctly (Pure dex, Get your attack mastery, skills leveled and keep your gear upgraded) you will generally be the highest DD in squad (even higher than sins). My archer started tanking FC around level 94 and my gear was not excellent by today's standards (Broadland+5, TT90+3, Warsoul Helm+3). Pure Bow archers out DD sins until 99.

9) Boss DPS: For bosses to increase your DPS, I recommend the use of Frenzy genie skill while 3 sparked. I have always valued this skill and if used in tandem with Extreme Poison helps the DD output of the squad considerably. Remember autoattack.

9.5) Bonus aggro management tip: If you are taking aggro too often, take a few steps to the side, Winged Shell and just don't attack the boss. If your squad is having a particularly hard time keeping aggro away from you on bosses you can wait 20 seconds or so and then proceed to go all out.

10) Elven Alacrity (79 speed skill): Tanks will generally appreciate it on Magic Hallway, but besides that it is useful to help keep the cleric up with the rest of the squad or to help a slower AoE (Psy/Wiz) keep up as well.

11) On Hands boss: I generally had to do hands about 90% of the time despite being the highest DD, so after you get the hang of it, clicking Hands becomes first nature and you can avoid clicking the mini-boss by clicking towards the boss' head.

11.5) Big Pull BoA selection: Select one of the captains in the back of big room as my BoA target. They have the highest HP and you always want to BoA on the target with the highest HP. Melees/other DDs are prone to selecting the nearby Caps as a target dropping your barrage early.

12) Go back and read laloner and truekossy's posts. They had some useful tips, particularly relating to apoth, bishops, and thunderous blast.