Archers are at a serious disadvantage now with regards to defense

Um..Chris, those changes really HURT archers with regards to defense I prefer to wear leather armor (Both of my earth innate skills are in the mid 70's and my light armor innate skills are in that range too. Heck, my Acrobatics skill is even higher, at 103 ) My damage avoidance has suddenly dropped from 7 to 5 and my damage resistance dropped from 28 to 21 I am taking significantly more damage now, and as an archer/mage, I refuse to wear plate armor (i.e., does not fit character concept and way too much fizzle while in mage mode ).

 

Chris, I like the spirit of what you're doing here. But what happens when someone is backstabbing a guy in plate...sure glancing blows could happen, but shouldn't they be less likely? And in the case of sneak attack, shouldn't a successful sneak attack just about completely ignore all these armor and innate abilities? Otherwise, aren't we just walking mounds of hit points and passive defenses that make strategic and tactical moves like sneak attack pointless?

 

Very pleased to hear that plate will no longer be OP compared to other types of armor, Chris

Really looking forward to that "Subterfuge" tree Hey, archers can be very efficient assassins - with the proper skills Um...any chance of poison-tipped arrows in the near future?

 

It sounds reaaaally great! Poison arrows (or the possiblity to apply stuff to our arrows, for that matter) is also an option i'd love to have... but for now i'd settle with not missing almost everything against high level mobs

 

Chris likes to punish us and see if he can break our will!!!! But a true archer cant be broken!

 

Just so we add a bit of reality when we talk about archers: (yes, that is me in that suit of armor to the left so I have some experience here)
1. they should never need to have to shoot 20 arrows to kill something, unimpeded shots should even rip through plate if they are bodkin points.
2. unless they are behind enemy lines or an obstruction then a mob will mutilate them. Running, shooting, running, shooting... yes, one or two lucky shots, but certain easy death.
3. when running away, all your defense buffs are belong to naught. Translation: you are not avoiding, you are not attuning with the earth... you are running away. Should give attacker a large bonus and high chance of critical.

I both love and hate archers. They are infuriatingly good when protected by others. But solo archers are a thing for the movies. You either run away or snipe from higher/obstructed ground.

 

Archery was good a couple releases back, so they had to nerf it.

 

Agreed. We had one release in 20 that was pretty good.

 

This is the eternal conflict between realism and reality... I shouldn't need 20 arrows to kill a thug... but a two handed mace should smash them clean as well. I should get ripped to shreds if an enemy with a melee weapon manages to get to me... but i want to be able to play my cool archer character solo like in the movies. We have a bonus when being hit from the back... but just to add some "realism" to the game.

I'm not trying to diminish your experience. I can see all your points are valid in the real world, but that's exaclty why i don't want all of them to be accounted for in the game. I'd say that if a game where combat works exactly like real life shows up... it won't be as much fun as a game that takes realism into account but keeps the spirit of the game in. For me, balance matters more than reality for a game.

 

In R21 they nerfed archers by lowering the damage that Aimed Shot does and now we've been nerfed even worse in R22. Mobs outrun me even more easily now, healing is almost useless and the ranged combat specials take twice the focus.

 

Yup, I think these changes in R22 would discourage people from playing archers Well, I 've been playing an archer/mage since R10 and will continue to do so I just hope they make adjustments to fix some of this combat math in R23

 

I'm playing a new character archetype in R23. I've enjoyed these 3 months of archery but its time to test something else!

I'm grateful that Ranged Combat goes up with basic attacks. Nice fix.

Still need feathers in loot. Preferably on birds!

The quad hit of nerfed life (including banish undead), decreased survivability with armor, decreased aimed shot damage and arrows being so expensive has finally taken the spirit out of my archery love.

 

So sad to hear that

 

Glad to hear that armors will be balanced. Glad to hear that skills will be balanced. Glad to hear that we will have new skills.
I just hope that all will be balanced and not forcing players who want to do "high" lvl monsters hunting to wear a unique type of gear.

 

If those final 2 skills come in as @Chris says they will I'll be suckered into doing it all again.

The balancing and rework of all armors in R23 might help and finishing the skill tree will help. As I think these are in the works I'll play test something else for a bit.

Have no fears. I'll be an archer at launch and contiue to give feedback!

Right now archery feels like a "support" character and who wants that?

I know Chris mentions he thinks archery is quite powerful but I believe he means with end stats and not while playing it to get there.

 

Ninja by a Dev!