Newbie's Guide to Archer-ism!

I find it somewhat hard to agree with this guide.

The first two skills you start out with are very important. Take Aim is THE opener for PvE. Quickshot is also a great skill to cycle with when your other skills are still recovering from delay. Plenty of skills have a high delay factor on them.

Lightning Skills, although Mana costly, pack a hellish punch. It's a good idea to keep them upgraded for PvE and PvP. If you unlock the 2nd lightning strike, you can use it to make the opponent more vulnerable to metal damage, then use your next lightning strike to inflict further damage. Good combo in PvP.

I am surprised you gave Winged Shell a low rating. If you're going full DEX, which I don't agree with also, then you will definitely need Winged Shell to save your behind from taking in serious damage. You are wearing only Light Armor, keep that in mind. If you're wearing other armor, then I don't know what to tell you. Winged Shell should definitely be strengthened whenever possible. It also recovers back some Mana, which helps with your low mp!

I find the poison and bleed shots weak, too. Useful in bosses and parties, only upgrade when there's nothing left. :P

Of course, it is necessary to max all passives - Winged Flight, which I find very useful.

That's all I have to say for now.

Note: Its probably worth maxing for an Archer who chose Sage path. But even then, I wouldn't recommend maxing it until you actually get there.

what is this path of which you speak off ;d b:angry<i just liek that emoticon looks awesome :Db:surrender<that too lol

WaterClaw - Heavens Tear wrote: »

why not level stuff? I mean, if u do many quests u get loads of spirit and money come and go anyway, so what's the problem with leveling skills?

do you get a limit in skill-ing at some point?

on the other hand... if u played once an archer class in any mmorpg looks like you don't need to ask anyone about build XD full dex everywhere

There's no limit to skilling or getting spirit points. The barrier to advancing your skill levels is how much SP (and to a lesser extent, money) you can obtain as you progress through the game. Initially, it might seem that you can easily keep up with your SP spending. When you reach Level 40, you'll start entering the SP drought, and if you've been pumping points into all your skills, you're effectively trying to max out a dozen skills, and you really only have the SP to get three, maybe four. It's only when you get into the high levels that you start getting a surplus of SP, and then you can start levelling the ones you skipped.

That's why some skills are skipped while others are prioritised. Skills get more and more expensive in both SP and coin as you get towards the higher levels, and you won't have enough SP to get all your skills until you get past the mid-game.

You can reset your stats for a small fraction of your cost for a heaven or sage skill level.

Also, I think take aim works great for low level archers, since I can shoot with take aim in less than half of the time I need for a normal attack. I currently use take aim to keep from losing a monster when I am kiting and my damage over time arrow missed (or to finish off that last bit of health). But when I was low level I opened all of my combos with take aim.

And I love my damage over time skills. I have read lots of negative comments about them but most of those complaints seem to be from people that do not understand how they work.

For example, DoT skills are slower than a full speed take aim, but still faster than your normal attack, and their mana cost is much lower than lightning skills. Anyways, my advice would be: ignore advice you read here and think through how you fight and how each skill works. And maybe try them, level 1 will not be very expensive.

Also, DoT skills do their damage frequently. So moderately low level archers with good DoT skills should be in demand for reputation runs in FBs. Being lower leveled than most other people in your party and using good DoT skills means you are increasing your party's chances to get drops from monsters. You can be doing damage almost three times per second, which gives you decent for landing kills. Conversely, you should probably avoid using these skills when you are the highest leveled character in your FB run.

tyvm the quickshot thing was EXTRA helpfull becomes usless later on.. and when i tell other arches this... they dont belive me..
oh well, they'll find out what mistake they did later on hehe b:pleased

GREAT GUIDE

Girofalcon - Sanctuary wrote: »

Oh man I never knew an archer would be so expensive?

Any tips on helping me save money?

By the way you said that the lower-mid levels are the toughest. Am I starting to enter that? b:shocked

well, ya. when i was within the early 20s, i find it hard to kill monsters and they eventually came close to me and cant really do much damg. so its like kill one monster then rest. kinda of time consuming, but it helps to save pots= save money. i usually do not use pots unless my hp is like 100+ or less and spend most of my time resting.

when u get better skills and reach around mid 25s, it wont be much of a problem to kill monster effectively. knockback is always useful. for my type of play, i start with lvl1 take aim, frost arrow, normal att, knockback and normal att(for normal mobs that dont do damg over time(DoT). for dot monster, i will use vicous arrow and other att. lighting is mana consuming so i rarely use it(however it is very effective in damg dealing, i use it for increase hp mobs)

as for money matters, i do not craft items as i can get them from mob kills and usually end up with blue star equip. Collect as much herbs or ores if u can get some n sell them. Also, try not to use pots unless it is necesary to do so. pick up ALL coins u get or seen(i see that most veno do not pick up coins so u can go n pick em up) also, i recommend u to use ur fb19 weapon till lvl 30+ as it is damg efficient. another advice is to sell ur dragon quest items like mystical meat(lvl21) but keep DQ lvl 31 items for ur bank mission. Slowly, but surely, u will definitely save a lot of money. N....DO NOT USE TELEPORT unless very necessary like from plume to arhosaur for instance..

hope that helps b:pleased

A few things I believe are important to note:

1. Aim Low is not a stun. It binds a foe which is very different to a stun.

2. Thunder shock, according to a chinese archer guide only lowers the metal resistance of equipment resistances and not the total resistance of the character. I would suggest leaving this until later on since it's more of a TW/PvP skill. I do not know how this works with monsters since pwdatabase only gives a number on their elemental resistances.

3. Sharpened tooth arrow reduces x% of maximum hp on a foe for y seconds. However once this timer finishes, the HP will not recover making this a deadly fire first shot skill and forget. Also this skill will not reduce x% hp if that target is below that value already. Meaning it is best to fire at something/someone and forget the skill existed. Useful in TWs against cart pullers and useful for bosses - otherwise not much use elsewhere. Also note that exp gain after kill will be penalised if this shot is used (although not by much)

4. Take Aim should be left on lvl 1 until you have the ability to learn demon or sage Take Aim. At 10 mana a shot at level 1 for 15chi, it is quite useful. If you take this any higher then you will lose this advantage because the mana cost goes up. This skill is horrible until very late on imo since deadly shot out does this. I say later on because sage gives 500% more damage and demon gives it a 2.5s charge time according to ecatomb.

Feel free to bash me if I am wrong or because I am on Sanctuary.

Edit: fixed a typo and added a few things to make it more coherent.

Very helpful..!

However, i must ask, have i gimped myself?

I got 62 dex, 26 str, and 17 vit and maq. After reading this, i will not be putting anymotr points into both, but at level 21, am i gimped?

Also, i seemed to have avoided most of the skill pitfalls here too, except the quickshot. I have it at level 5, so does that mean i have gimped my other skill growths at level 21?

Do i need to start over? because i love my archer to death and i do not want a gimp

Legerity - Sanctuary wrote: »

I would remake your character because of the 17 points in magic. You could live with vitality but some may say that everything should be in dex. Besides, lvl 21 isn't that hard to obtain - just about 10hours of playing and you've pretty much broken even.

Also, some like quickshot, some don't - it's a preference but at higher levels those 5 lvls in quickshot makes no difference simply because the spirit and coin invested is like... less than 30k all up (don't know the actual values) and matters little. You really can't destroy your character by leveling the wrong skills because at later levels you'd probably get them up a bit anyway. The only real way you can gimp a character is the stat point allocation. With that being said you have 2 options, only one in which I deem the most logical in your situation.

option 1: Continue playing and forgo the wasted stat points. When you have enough coins, invest in a restat note and bring them back to a base of 5 (they actually go as low as 3, but I'll say 5 for simplicity)

option 2: Remake your archer. This is recommended since you're still a low level and it takes almost minimal time to recover.

yje 5-7 stat points really make that much of a difference..?

You don't want those points in magic. That is the least useful stat for archers. Even if you don't spare those points back into dex they'd be more useful in Vit. Some people have a few points in magic to counter the MP wings eat up but I find it worthwhile to get cash shop wings by the time you're high level enough to get flying mob quests.

Aluarn - Lost City wrote: »

Firstly, thanks a lot for your great guide, i was really surprised about the pure dex./strength build b:shocked , but i remade my archer anyway and i am already noticing the difference. b:thanks

Second, could you find the time to find out how long all the other special weapons you receive should last you for, e.g. the bow you receive for the first quest at the beginning of the game. I am still using mine, but I know you receive one at level 12(?) as well.

VERY CONFUSED!!
b:sadb:sad



I refuse to make a creative signature.

Mmm, I would just suggest using whatever you come across until you get your FB19 (call to duty quest) crossbow reward. This should last you to mid 30s and at 35 you can go hunting for a decent lv35 crossbow. Try save up for a sinister shooter (legendary sling) for lvl 42 and that should sufficiently cover your needs until mid to late 50s. Get a decent 3* lv58 slingshot when you hit 58 and then at lvl 60, get a TT60 swiftwind crossbow.

By this time you should know what you prefer and should do whatever suits your playstyle.

Why shouldent i put points into magic? does it mean I should never put any points? If so how can i do skills? can you expalin please?

What I meant is that if i have a low mana how will I be able to do skills like Quickshot, or Fire arrows, etc?

Anyway, thanks for explaning

In PvE, Archers rely mostly on regular attacks, with the bulk of their damage coming from critical hits. Skill usage is minimal and mainly for utility rather than damage. Don't expect to ever be comfortable with enough mana to spam skills. Investing points into MAG will not solve your energy problems. If you really want to use mana-intensive skills, stock up on potions and considering using Focus Powder when you reach Level 20.