Good build and skills for PvP archer?

zenwarrior21
zenwarrior21 Posts: 24 Arc User
edited March 2010 in Archer
I heard archers do not do that well, so im thinking about making a hybrid archer or something like that. Would 1str 4dex till 80 be a good idea, or will 1str 7dex 1vit be better? Also what skills are good for pvp? Would wingspan and and winged shell be useful?
Post edited by zenwarrior21 on

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  • Neodaystar - Sanctuary
    Neodaystar - Sanctuary Posts: 1,020 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    zenwarrior21 wrote: »
    I heard archers do not do that well

    No, archers do not suck at pvp if played smartly. You need to know how your skills work, the timing of your skills, and to quickly analyze and adapt to your target's strategies. The archer class is also more equipment dependent than other classes. Unless you spend a lot of money or a lot of time getting godly refined and well sharded gear, you will have great difficulties going up against other classes end game. This is because we have the worst defense of all classes even when fully buffed. Clerics and wizards can have higher long term magic and physical defenses than archers, HA wearers of course have godly physical defense compared to archers, HA refines for more hp and the magic defense doesn't even vary that much with LA. We don't have nuke attacks like other classes, and rely solely on crit hits to kill. Our attacks are dwarfed because of close range damage reduction. Our high evasion doesn't help at all end game. We don't even have a hp regan skill to help with our charm tick. With all these conditions stacked against the archer class, its no wonder why people say we don't fair well in PVP and many reroll as another class end game. You have to play smart and utilize every bit of everything you can to win unlike other classes. Use genie skills, apoth pots, your target's weaknesses, your pvp experience, everything - and even tricks.
    zenwarrior21 wrote: »
    so im thinking about making a hybrid archer or something like that. Would 1str 4dex till 80 be a good idea, or will 1str 7dex 1vit be better?

    A good build for a PVP archer is pure dex 1str and 4 dex every level (typically). Do not waste any points into vit as 1 vit point will only give you 12 hp as an archer. Your best defense is a good offense, either kill first or be killed.
    zenwarrior21 wrote: »
    Also what skills are good for pvp?

    The skills you use for pvp depends on your targets. An archer uses mainly normal attacks to kill (and pray that it's a crit hit :D), because spamming skills waste precious seconds. If your target is a robe wearer, keep your distance to avoid close range damage reduction and use stun and normal attacks. If your target is a heavy armor type, use aim low and stun to keep them away from you and spam your metal skills (mainly thunder shock and lightning strike combo) and kite them, because your normal attacks won't damage them much. For light armor wearers, normal attacks or metal skills are fine. DOT attacks are not worth using (like poison arrow, serrated arrow...). Keep your useful skills maxed level and wear the best gear you can get, refined and shared with citrines. If you do mass group PVP or TW, max out your AoE skills like barrage of arrows skill, thunderous blast and sharpen tooth arrow- is an AoE attack, debuffs hp, and do high damage. If your target is ever a barb with 15k+ hp use sharpen tooth, but for 1 vs 1 wise, its not recommended to use on other classes.
    zenwarrior21 wrote: »
    Would wingspan and and winged shell be useful?

    Wingspan is good for robe wearers that are within melee range or against a Sin because it does physical damage and damage more compared to your other melee skills. But for a HA wearer, I suggest you run if they are within melee range. The Demon version of Wingspan will automatically cast a level 5 winged shell when the hit is successful.

    Good defense skills:
    Winged shell - absorb about 80% damage from an attack or two (best used before you encounter your target)

    Wings of Grace - Becomes invincible for a few secs, reduce damage, and is also an anti stun buff against bms. (use it when your target uses spark eruption, or to avoid certain attacks that can cause great damage or sleep/silence/stun you. If your target is a bm use this instead of winged shell before engaging them to counter their stun skills)
  • Sekzkilla - Raging Tide
    Sekzkilla - Raging Tide Posts: 54 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    I am at level 25 now as an archer and, yes, having high dex is your best bet. I found though that not having anything in mp caused me to run out of mp quickly. So I had to stop and meditate between each encounter. How did you get around this problem?
    Neutrality is a myth!
  • vassilnaiol
    vassilnaiol Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    u r probably using too many powers on said monsters. use take aim and frost arrow only and ur mana will last longer. Also slings are great in PvE because of their RoF more regular shots = less mana spent.
  • Neodaystar - Sanctuary
    Neodaystar - Sanctuary Posts: 1,020 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Sekzkilla - Raging Tide wrote: »
    I am at level 25 now as an archer and, yes, having high dex is your best bet. I found though that not having anything in mp caused me to run out of mp quickly. So I had to stop and meditate between each encounter. How did you get around this problem?

    Whether you spam skills or not to kill, mp will always be an issue for archers. Even at higher levels you only need to use frost arrow, knockback arrow, and normal shots, and sometimes you don't even have to use one skill at all. We kill handful of mobs too fast before our mp can regenerate.

    Solutions: (Least to most practical for LOW LEVELS)
    1) Use a mp charm - most expensive and not cost effective
    2) Use mp pots brought from npc/drops - high accumulative cost
    3) Use mp foods - the low level sesame ones might be hard to obtain for under 1k now

    4) Use winged Shell - not at all effective the lower the level of the skill. However if you choose the demon path at level 89 and get demon winged shell - it recovers 800 mp in 30sec, minus the initial cost to use the skill of 400 mp = 400 mp gained.

    5) Use apothecary pots that gives you mp regan - they work for 10 min, but whether you farm the herbs to make them or buy herbs, you will still waste time and coins as you can sell the herbs for profits.

    6) Ask a cleric to give you mp regan buff
    7) wear an equipment with mp recovery - it helps you recover mp faster as you meditate, but still time consuming.
  • Brutu - Heavens Tear
    Brutu - Heavens Tear Posts: 108 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Forgive me for my archer is only level 53 and I have absolutely no pvp experience at all, so take the following with a grain of salt.

    I have been reading guides and watching videos, and most things about using an archer has been discussed already by neo besides flight....

    If you have good wings flight can be a quite effective means of keeping distance from your opponent especially if he/she is a melee class because such tactics negate things like tigerform speed boost and blademaster speed boost, however it also adds another way to keep distance; if the enemy gets close you simply drop down fire/stun whatever you can then drop down again when he/she gets close again. Note of warning though, this tactic may not work against assassins as they do have a teleport skill that they can simply use to get within range and spam stuns/seals.

    Goodluck on leveling your archer.
  • Neodaystar - Sanctuary
    Neodaystar - Sanctuary Posts: 1,020 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    vassilnaiol wrote: »
    u r probably using too many powers on said monsters. use take aim and frost arrow only and ur mana will last longer. Also slings are great in PvE because of their RoF more regular shots = less mana spent.

    I think he means RoF= rate of fire, but still, that is not entirely true. Using a sling does not mean you will use less skills and spend less mp, nor will you land a whole lot more shots on a mob before it dies.

    The attack rate of a bow and sling doesn't vary by that much, and using a sling like the Winds and Clouds (lvl 69 weap) with - 0.1 sec attack interval (fastest range weapon in existence in pwi currently) will only give you at most 1 extra attack on a mob. It is a highly recommended weapon for PVE mainly because you can usually kill your mobs before they land an attack on you when they die. You are also forgetting that slings have a a lesser weapon attack than bows and crossbows in exchange for a smaller deviation in the attack damage range.
  • Neodaystar - Sanctuary
    Neodaystar - Sanctuary Posts: 1,020 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Brutu - Heavens Tear wrote: »
    Forgive me for my archer is only level 53 and I have absolutely no pvp experience at all, so take the following with a grain of salt.

    I have been reading guides and watching videos, and most things about using an archer has been discussed already by neo besides flight....

    If you have good wings flight can be a quite effective means of keeping distance from your opponent especially if he/she is a melee class because such tactics negate things like tigerform speed boost and blademaster speed boost, however it also adds another way to keep distance; if the enemy gets close you simply drop down fire/stun whatever you can then drop down again when he/she gets close again. Note of warning though, this tactic may not work against assassins as they do have a teleport skill that they can simply use to get within range and spam stuns/seals.

    Goodluck on leveling your archer.

    LOL, you know the saying "a grain of salt/rice can tip the scale" :D Yes, you're right on that Brutu, flight is one of an archers best pvp tactics. This genie skill helps b:quiet:

    Air Strand Level 10
    Range 20 meters
    Requisite Race Untamed, Winged Elf

    Immobilizes the target for 5 seconds. Has a chance to also silence the target for 3 seconds. 50% chance to also immobilize yourself for 4 seconds.
    Strength: Every 4 Genie Strength points increases the silence chance by 1%.
    Strength: Every 100 Genie Strength points increases the silence duration by 1 second.

    This skill also gives a fighting chance against robe wearers, because an archer's Stunning arrow takes 1.5 secs to channel and 0.6 secs to cast, robe wearers having less channel and cast time for effect attacks will more than often sleep or silence archers before they get a chance to stun them. This skill's effect is immediate and can help with silencing and then stunning then before they can to you. But you have to cast it fast after luring robe wearers into the air, as its range is 20 meters. Then you'll have a few precious seconds to kill them or at least try to get through their defense buffs lol. This genie skill is very useful for aerial tactics in 1 vs 1 PVP.

    Another genie skill is Stunning Blast 'on ground' (for archers only) at level 10 it Immobilizes a nearby target for 7.0 seconds. and has a chance to make you immune to stuns for 5 seconds. But the drawback is that its effective range is 5 meters, risky to use.

    Or Occult Ice with a range of 10 meters has a 30% chance to freeze the target for 6.0 seconds and every 2 Genie Strength points increases the success rate by 1%.
  • KageYingZi - Heavens Tear
    KageYingZi - Heavens Tear Posts: 823 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Neodaystar - Sanctuary wrote: »
    I think he means RoF= rate of fire, but still, that is not entirely true. Using a sling does not mean you will use less skills and spend less mp, nor will you land a whole lot more shots on a mob before it dies.

    The attack rate of a bow and sling doesn't vary by that much, and using a sling like the Winds and Clouds (lvl 69 weap) with - 0.1 sec attack interval (fastest range weapon in existence in pwi currently) will only give you at most 1 extra attack on a mob. It is a highly recommended weapon for PVE mainly because you can usually kill your mobs before they land an attack on you when they die. You are also forgetting that slings have a a lesser weapon attack than bows and crossbows in exchange for a smaller deviation in the attack damage range.

    Actually,the damage per second from a slingshot and bow of similar lvls dont differ much.

    Bows are much more used in PvP because what archers want in PvP is really just spike dmg and not constant dmg.

    BTW,that small deviation makes a big diff if u get more -int gear.Even if u don't get -int gear the dmg output will be on par even with less dmg.Try comparing the dps a WatC(69 Legendary Slingshot) with the dps of a Unicorn(TT70 bow) or any slingshot with a bow with a small lvl diff

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