Bosses on an archer

mrcharlytoo

Running BH, I used to do this:

Let tank/veno pull boss.
Use Sharpened tooth. As soon as I pulled aggro, use Wings of Grace (WoG) and stop attacking. If nobody pulled aggro away from me, use Winged Shell.

WoG has the property of blocking all damage during the casting time.

The trouble with this approach was that sometimes I wouldn't see I'd pulled aggro until a bit late, or the casting of WoG would lag.

Dead archer.


So last night in a team of 7x players in BH59 (BM, seeker, veno, cleric, barb), I tried something else, just for a lark.

Cast WoG. Pull boss with Sharpened Tooth. As WoG starts to run out, cast Winged Shell. Use genie skill to up attack speed. Recast WoG asap.

I held aggro, didn't die, cleric just had to heal me. Charm didn't even tick.

Very quick run though BH, very happy squad.

Ignathas - Sanctuary

let sins spark and take agro wait 2 seconds cast bv or st and thats it

if all sins die everyone dies and boss goes towards cleric take agro use winged shield wog ig pdef mdef charms 79 evasion skill wingspan if demon normal spark also run a bit while doing that dont just stand and tank but let him have intervals between hits, and kite until all rebuff and take agro from you.. archers kite they dont tank

i combine winged shield with wingspan wich gives auto wingshield lvl 5 on every hit, and if both are too slow or in cd i use pdef charms or 79 evasion, and if rly sux use ironguard or ad or run away, can kite for a very long time like that, but 1 mistake and ur dead and boss resets :P

mrcharlyplustwo

If doing a dungeon with a high-level sin then you are probably correct.

I've never seen a sin under level 95 that could tank worth a penny and most of them that try, die, even when they don't have aggro. AOE from the boss kills them.

I've stolen aggro from a lvl99 sin in BH59.

Ignathas - Sanctuary

ah yea i meant like warsong last boss kiting after squadwipe.. didnt do lower lvl bhs in a long time they used to be fun tho.. have a 2nd lvl 59 archer but dont play him atm :P

mrcharlyplustwo

<thumbsup>

If you have tips on how to kite, that would be useful.

soundslegit

BH59 isn't that hard to range tank. Casters can tank it too but no one wants to let them try.

Geckofreak - Sanctuary

Kiting bosses never works. The easiest way to not pull aggro as a low level archer is to let barb hit first and use aggro skills, st, wait like 20 seconds, then turn on a macro of skills that do not consume chi. Make sure take aim and deadly shot are in there. The longer cast skills will do more damage per hit, but less overtime, allowing the barb if you have one to hold aggro.
Without a barb at that level you will pull aggro unless you let a herc punch it for like 60 seconds without you attacking, and the herc needs its bramble on.
However if you do pull aggro, do not run away. Once the boss gets close to you you'll do half damage and others can pull back. Running just makes healing harder, and can frequently cause a squad wipe. One person dying, yourself, is better then everyone, especially if you have a mystic. In bh 100 seat of torment I pull boss almost every run, and before i finished my g16 i would just drop dead if it's skill took effect. However once you die your aggro threat goes alot down, allowing barb to take back, you to be rezzed, and finish the boss.

Being an archer back in old days, you were constantly taking aggro and dying on everything. Sins didn't existb:laugh

Ignathas - Sanctuary

ofc if you have crappy barbs who only know how to take their bow out and kill heads in fcc..
normal barbs can hold agro easy vs archers if concentrated i can hold agro on my tt80 barb vs my archer while he barrages in delta almost with no problem and take agro off him in lunar too.. and if barb is pathetic then i do suggest to run only not too close to cleric and archers can kite easy as well but they cant tank at close range cos will die unless huge pdef.. dont listen to gecko :P
key point is not attacking too early on bosses/mobs if you dont want to tank them.. if sins with huge dd waiting a few seconds is enough, if barb is the main tank wait at least 15 seconds before attacking and if tanks die then u run around kiting until cleric rezzes them, and if you do as gecko says you will die like her ^^ unless have barbs pdef and hp.. ofc if weak bosses and they cant kill you maybe idk

Walpurga - Dreamweaver

uh, why WoG first?

By the time you get to cast invincibility from WoG is gone

Yea don't understand is all

WoP lasts one hit. Period. I would just stop attacking and pot, and hope for people to get aggro back. Didn't work in FC when tanking sin lagged at thunderclaw and got bombed. I ended up tanking it with crabs + divines pots for the last 15% or so

Same thing on runewolf another run, barb/cleric leave mid-boss and I end up with unlimited aggro. Tanked it the whole time but then, slasher doesn't even attack; he hits you once and then slashes

I would arrange with barb to either a) catch boss as it's coming in (30M range on STA, debuff it from that range and it will have to walk) and ream before it gets into range. Or just STA once you see the bleed icon from ream. Ream can hold out against a single STA, esp. if you stop attacking

mrcharlyplustwo

Why cast WoG first? Guaranteed damage reduction is why.

With that damage reduction, I was able to survive with no charm ticks, just using normal pots and heals, not crabmeat.

Barb will only hold aggro if they spam FR and have decent gear. Finding barbs who know to do that (in the 60-80lvl range) is getting rarer and rarer IME.

Ignathas - Sanctuary

actually not only flesh realm.. if you commbine skills like flesh realm + roar + alpha male + flesh realm again etc. (my main not a barb but w.e) it increases agro a lot, compared to spamming just one skill.. also frighten.. using agro skills as combo is easier to hold agro

mrcharlyplustwo

AFAIK aggro from Roar does not stack with FR. It just resets the aggro level.

One single hit from an archer after a barb has roared and the archer will have aggro again.

Roar (and Alpha Male) are best kept for saving Clerics when they pull heal aggro.