How to make archer stronger?

Personally, I think you should level the skills you use most often, first.

And your passive skills (winged blessing and bow mastery) should be on the top of that list, with blazing arrow coming next. (In other words, I mean "the skills you usefully use most often".)

But I would also have an exception to this rule: some skills have a use which is damaged by leveling. The two skills in this category are take aim and knockback arrow. Those skills lose economy when you level them, and you should save leveling them until you can afford the mana cost.

With take aim, if you hold down its key, you can build about 25 chi every three seconds, where without it you would only build about 15 chi every three seconds. And knockback arrow is for keeping monsters away from you. You have level 2 take aim, which will cost you 20 mana per shot instead of 10 but thats still much better than 100 mana per shot that you will have when you get level 10 take aim.

At that lv I would say lvl take aim,any kind of bow mastery and distance skill.I never had problems with killing mobs at that lvl with my archer and up to present time I still don't.

I usually just use at your lvl take aim,shoot a couple shots then use frost arrow shoot a couple shots then knock back...learn to use common sence at times to kite or so called run and shoot.

I've never used take aim o.o
Only when it was the only skill available to me.
I have maxed out:
Blazing Arrow,
Frost Arrow,
Sharpened Tooth Arrow,
Lightning Strike,
Thunder Shock,
Winged Blessing,
Stunning Arrow,
Barrage is mostly maxed out, only 2 levels to go on it
Winged Shell,
Wingspan,
Bow mastery,
Wings of Protection
and Flight Mastery because I can't get my hands on a good pair of wings xD

Everything else is either level 1 or level 3-4, like Aim Low. While it's a nice skill, I don't ever really use it, so I personally didn't level it up.

Ulicia - Harshlands wrote: »

Sorry my bad. My skills correctly:
Quickshot lvl 4
Ligthening Strike lvl 2
Blazing Arrow lvl 3
Frost Arrow lvl 2
Winged Shell lvl 2
Take Aim lvl 4

and my character window:
http://i52.tinypic.com/9jq6bl.jpg

So i should use Take Aim? Maximize it?

Don't lvl quickshot anymore. waste of money and spirit. one more lvl you get knockback so that'll make your life as an archer a bit easier. really for pve purposes just lvl up frost and blaze. winged shell is a toss up at these low lvls. it can save your life mind you. and don't lvl up take aim either since it takes so long to charge. you should be starting off with frost arrow anyway, save your spirit and money for now.

As for making your archer "stronger" go full dex. don't listen to the "vit" archers. they are foolish. also make sure you have a decent weapon your lvl. when you get lvl 20 you'll get a decent xbow that'll take you to lvl 30. then after that make sure you start using 2 or 3 star weapons.

that bit of info will get you through the low to mid lvls. come back here when you get 60+ and ill give you more info.

Fleuri - Sanctuary wrote: »

With take aim, if you hold down its key, you can build about 25 chi every three seconds, where without it you would only build about 15 chi every three seconds. And knockback arrow is for keeping monsters away from you. You have level 2 take aim, which will cost you 20 mana per shot instead of 10 but thats still much better than 100 mana per shot that you will have when you get level 10 take aim.

in every world but fleuri's, holding down take aim will get you about 15 chi in under 2 seconds, as opposed to the 5 you'd get with a no-aps bow shots.

advice: max out TA for your lvl. max out your dmg and range passive, and your blazing. keep knockback at lvl 1 when you get it. if things move too fast, get frost.

use TA as an opening move, fully charged for the bit of extra dmg. use knockback when the mob is nearing mid-range (when it's crossed half the distance between you and the end of your range, where it should have started.) if it looks like it's going to reach you, slow it down. you'd best realize this soon, and slow it near or at max range (after TA or knockback.) if it comes into close range, shield and gtfo (kite). you can also use your shield to build mana and limit your need for mana pots.

as you could see there are many opinions and game styles, for archer and for any other class. strength in this game is not only made out of lvl, gear or skill lvls.
a large portion of the outcome of a fight is determined by how you play.


to lvl to 19 to do your fb19 to get your fb19 weapon will help, ofcourse.
to wait for better armor will help, yes
to lvl the best skills which suit your game play best will help
to choose the right stat build what suits your game play best too


BUT
you could just go now and do the hard quests with what you have now.
yes it will be harder, yes it will be more challenging
but that will make you an alot better archer compared to many fail idiotic orcale, hyper, always choosing the easy way players.

it will make you experiment more with your class that you find out alot by yourself what you can do with it or what you cannot.
advice is always nice too ofcourse.


i sum up a few opinions here if the people don't mind *already scared to get massacred*

-max out your passive skills, they work when you use skills or normal attack
-use your heaviest hitter as opener (in your case take aim)
-use frost arrow to have more time to dd the mob down before it reaches you (can be also a nice opener)
-kite (aka hit and run hit and run) very nice to utilize frostarrow for that
-when you know you will get hit use winged shell before you attack (it absorbs like 80% damage as long it is up)
-you want to kill the mob before it can damage you? go pure dex
-you want some more surviveability? go more for a vit build
-wait for lvl 19 for the reason:
--to get better gear
--to get knockback skill (very nice skill, i have quite a while in the mid lvl used frost as opener and did after 2 normal shots knockback, mobs barely reached me)
--to have it easier in general because the lvl difference between you and your target goes into damage calulations
-utilize what the game offers to perform better, like apotherey items made out of herbs, free when you farm them (you could add def and attack charms, sharding, refine to this, but your lvl is not in the need of all that and it can be very expensive)
-combine the possibilities above by using common sense to get the best out of a situation lol


the following are now not YET of interest for you but people named it:

-utilize some skills for chi building (gets interesting when you get your first spark with lvl 29)
-wingspan very nice skill (able to learn at lvl 39) it does full damage in close range and knocks the target back, if a mob gets close to do the combo wingspan+knockback are 2 knockbacks in a row)
-since your damage is cut by half in close range i name the skills which do full damage in close combat with a bow: lightning strike, thundershock (lvl 29), winged pledge (lvl 23), wingspan (lvl 39), thunderous blast (lvl 44)
nice to use those to finish off the last hp of a mob that got close to you.
-do NOT lvl the DoT skills (Damage over Time) vicious arrow, serrated arrow, stormrage eagleon. i am sure that is one of the few things all archers will fully agree to. but get them to lvl 1 to get sharpentooth arrow, best opener for boss fights because it reduces the max hp of a mob and when max hp recovers to normal the reduced hp is gone forever. imagine 1 million hp boss, ST lvl 10 reduces hp by 16%=> 160k hp gone with 1 shot
-stunning arrow (lvl 39) lovely skill, you will find out on your own

eerh i better stop here. for a full list of skills, what they do on what lvl => http://ecatomb.net/skillpwi.php


btw no one has asked yet, do you have other higher chars?

ColdAsLife - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Dude, please leave the archers forums. Thank you.

Dude take that brush out of ur *** and let ppl express their opinion! Thank you!
Worked for me on many servers, including this one so why not share it with other ppl? Nobody is forcing you to agree or follow my advice.

NiightmareXz - Harshlands wrote: »

Well... you're gonna suck in TT/BH/Etc if you don't have STA leveled. They will be all WTFing at you. In FC, without barrage leveled it will take longer to kill the groups of mobs, leading to another WTF moment. If you don't level frost arrow, it will make questing a lot more difficult since it reduces their speed, which means more time for you to attack them before they get to you. Lightning strike and thunder shock are essential if you plan on Pvping, and if you want to attack an increased phys def mob; plus Thunder Shock is common courtesy if you have a DDing cleric in the squad. Wingspan is used for those tight moments when you have mobs on you and need them to go back a bit to give you some breathing room, and winged shell is used for those moments when you grab aggro from a boss or have a hard hitting mob(s) on you... so telling a noob at this class that you don't have to level those skills will only hurt him in the end. b:bye

Ok...perhaps i didn't express this correctly.
Thing is that each person has it's own playing style.
I didn't say that he MUSTN'T learn skills. I just said lvling can be done easy without because:
-mobs die easy and if you hyper on them u get enough xp fast.
-in bh most archers i went with only atk with normal hits and use no skills.That doesn't affect the run at all.If they don't want to get agro they can atk from close range and this way they will not take agro and still deal a lot of dmg. Also the mele atkers won't chase the mobs just because archer got agro.
-PQ is easy to do with normal atks only.
Perhaps people will wonder where to get the money for equips and hypers. Answer is simple: donation or marketing.
There are a lot of dq droping from mobs. Some people actually buy them even though they give 5-10 dq points.
Crafting materials drop rather well and can be sold for good prices
AH is a good source of income: buy cheap and resell for more

When frosting starts bombard is needed true but in hh or other place i see no need because u can simply assist in atk.Nobody will have your head for not using skills.

I know that my way of playing is strange for most ppl but it's simple and worked for me so far. People who ask for advices need suggestions even though they are more or less common.
It is our duty to present them with a little bit of our knolige but if all high levels simply say the same thing then the newbies will copy without even thinking at other posibilities. This way the game becomes plain and ppl don't develop new things. From the contrary they become more or less noobish.
As i said ....this thing worked for me rly well so far so if some1 wants to try it go ahead! It's simple and saves a lot of money and time.

VyperionV - Lost City wrote: »

Ok...perhaps i didn't express this correctly.
Thing is that each person has it's own playing style.
I didn't say that he MUSTN'T learn skills. I just said lvling can be done easy without because:
-mobs die easy and if you hyper on them u get enough xp fast.

I stopped reading at that line.
It's quite obvioous that you hyper all your characters and know nothing about this game. I'm sorry that you are so stupid and I wish you luck in the future. b:bye

NiightmareXz - Harshlands wrote: »

I stopped reading at that line.
It's quite obvioous that you hyper all your characters and know nothing about this game. I'm sorry that you are so stupid and I wish you luck in the future. b:bye

What does this have to do with stupidity or intelligence? Draw a line between game and real, my dear! If all the ppl who don't agree with you are stupid then you have a serious problem.
What's the point in lvling slow? Some people can learn a lot about the game by lvling fast. You don't have to take ages to learn how to play unless it's your first MMO.
I am sorry you do not have the proper education when you adress to other people!

VyperionV - Lost City wrote: »

What's the point in lvling slow? Some people can learn a lot about the game by lvling fast. You don't have to take ages to learn how to play unless it's your first MMO.

You have no idea what your skills are for and where and when you can put them to a good use.
You have no idea how to run instances as an archer and what you're supposed to do ( archer =/= sin ).
You have no idea how to act in PvP as an archer ( Oh wait I think that R8/9 fixes that, long live auto-attack b:shutup )
You can kill a mob in a few seconds but when surrounded or have to help someone you are just becoming a piece of meat.
You have no idea how to play your class in general, because there are a few things which you can only learn by spending hours in grinding/running instances.

I`m sure there are tons of other things which I can add but I can't recall anything at the moment. And oh, let me guess - you're a demon clawcher, am I right ?

PS - We really went off-topic, excuse us.

do it how you feel more comfortable with.
i always checked what my "future" gear requirements were and planed to have those when reaching the lvl to use it.

in early lvls you should always look at your "base" stats. that are your raw stats without any extra stats on gear. for example str on a chest armor piece. because in early lvls you change your gear often and you don't want to find out that you miscalculated because you lost a few stats from an item you trashed.

to include stats from gear in your plan comes later when you use it longer and by then you perhaps already used or want to use reset notes to re allocate stats.
you can change stat allocation any time, don't worry about little mistakes.

little noob story from me when i made my barb 2008. the mp regen was so slow so i put a few points in mag in the 10-20 lvl lol. restated at like lvl 60
it is no shame, almost all made a few stating mistakes here and there with their first toons at the first steps.


about frost arrow leveling, many say keep it on lvl 1 in the early lvl's because it uses less mp, that is more an economical reason to save mp pots. so to speak many just see it as a tool for slowing down mobs. but yeah higher lvl give a little more damage. when you do not care much about a few mp points used more? go for it, if you are a "every coin counts" saver, leave it at 1.
same applies to for example knock back

On topic:I personally didn't level Frost Arrow much because I felt the slow at that point in time wouldn't make a big difference.
But,it's really all up to you.More mana cost and longer slow time or less mana cost and slower slow time.

Regarding your armor,putting an extra point or two in a stat at the earlier levels would not hurt and stat points elsewhere
For Light Armour and archers,just make sure your Str=Current level+1.This is assuming you went a 1str 4dex build. which you said you are going now.Don't worry if you don't reach the target.I used to have too little Str after I added too much into Dex.

VyperionV - Lost City wrote: »

...

http://core.perfectworld.com/ach/vyperionvyp?cat=character

Where's your archer over lvl 40?Pics or it didn't happen like I said.Everyone could claim that they have a higher level and post random stuff.
Even then,a higher level may not know his/her stuff thanks to Hyper/Oracle and to a lesser extent,BH.
Therefore,people who have better reuptation(Read:Post constructive,written stickied guides,well-known by the community,not known to be some noob who doesn't know his/her class)would have more impact and credibility than 100random lvl 100s posting.

Max everything but:

Vicious Arrow
Serrated Arrow
Stormrage
Knockback Arrow (unless you are going sage)

ElwinCastor - Dreamweaver wrote: »

I have been trying the pure dex build (just enough str for weapon and rest in dex) and so far Archer has been the most fun class for me. At my current level I don't even need to use skills. I can kill almost all the mobs before they get to me using my sling shot. I just made some apothecary items to help me with defense in tight situations. Like if I get aggro in a BH I just use a tranquilizing orb and the tank can get aggro before it wears off.

I also am getting rank gear along the way though. This helps out a lot I guess with not having the str for the other gear.

I don't know how it will get past 72, but up till now this has been the best for me.

Archer gets better and better as you get higher...Starting out as an Archer sucks (it took me 4 months to get motivated enough to lvl mine past 40's) but an end game Archer is very satisfying to play.