how do you fight against ranged mobs?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Nick, Jan 23, 2021.

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  1. Cora Cuz'avich

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    Not sure I deserve any credit here; all I contributed was snark...
     
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  2. DalTXColtsFan

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    I'm following this thread with great interest because I'm having difficulty surviving the Challenge Dungeon level where the mob of hardened skeleton archers starts firing at you, and I've always struggled in the forest siege scene where you get 2 or 3 siege engineers, an ebon cultist marksman and a couple ebon cultist archers. Lots of good advice in this thread, some of it I was already doing some not - going to have to work on it!
     
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  3. Xee

    Xee Bug Hunter

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    Keep in mind there are new changes coming that may change what you are writing the downside to any book on this game is a lot can change month to month :)
     
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  4. Lazlo

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    Pretty much all of the physical damage mitigation stuff is effective vs. ranged, but cover can also prevent a ton of damage if it's available and practical to use. The best cover is stuff like columns and other similar things, because you can just keep shuffling a step this way and that way to keep mobs running around instead of shooting you in the face.

    For melee, engage opponent is pretty important for dealing with range mobs. It's not as good of a skill overall as body slam, but it has well over double the range at high level, so it's really good for closing in on range mobs and getting them dead.
     
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  5. Nick

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    Indeed. But on a good month, I earn a good 5k gold!

    Yeah, it sucks. UI is restrictive, you can only list one book at a time....wrist hurts..... But I think information needs to be easily available to players, not buried deep in forum discussions or some streams. Will try to keep books up to date as much as I can.
     
  6. Nick

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    I've always wondered, do those combat rolls /backflip help?
     
  7. Lazlo

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    I haven't had combat rolls on for a very long time, but as far as I know, they don't really do anything useful. It is fun to back flip off the top of the cliff if Nightshade Pass though.
     
  8. Violet Ronso

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    One thing that I am surprised has very low emphasis here is "Environment". Ranged attacks become extremely weak if you stand behind cover, and you should ALWAYS use this to your advantage.

    Cover is anything that creates some sort of obstacle between your attacker and you : walls, trees, rocks, ruins, etc.

    Very good tactics will include :

    1. Hiding behind cover to charge/stack your attacks, which you can then run out, unleash, rinse and repeat.
    2. Hiding behind cover until your opponent runs to you. Once they have run to you, you can then jump on them and start attacking as fast as possible, which will also usually force them to run away, which as mentioned previously will give you an advantage.
    3. Jumping from cover to cover until you reach your target, using gap closing abilities once you are close enough (body Slam, Engage Opponent, Blink, Shadow step).

    Also, for Heavy Armor users, Body slam is an AMAZING skill against archers, as it will close the gap as well as stun the annoying dart throwers. Use this skill, and charge it when possible. Yes, it does increase damage done to your gear, but I'd rather lose a bit of durability than lose time floating my way to an ankh, spending time recasting my buffs, and using some potions which weren't yet expired.

    Oh and one last thing, for anyone using Berserker stance, do not use Damage Resistance masterworks on your gear, and do not use any damage resistance skills for nothing, Berserker stance kills your damage resistance, invest in damage avoidance instead, it's better anyways.
     
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  9. Barugon

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    They don't do anything useful and can interrupt your own attacks, so they're actually detrimental.
     
  10. Cora Cuz'avich

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    I suppose in theory you could use the left/right roll to move into and out of cover. But I don't know that it offers any advantage to just strafing. And, as Barugon noted, it can interrupt your attacks.
     
  11. Yigg Endimion

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    Gust, Gust, Gust....its your friend, use it.
     
  12. Nick

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    How would gust work? You gust one and you have 3 other archers/mages hitting you all over.
     
  13. Elwyn

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    The easiest thing you can do is rush them and get in melee range. They will be too busy running away from you to have time to attack.
     
  14. Nick

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    How do you fight against ranged mobs?

    by Arkah EMPstrike, Traveller13, Anpu, Vulcanjedi, Barugon and
    Cora Cuz'avich

    Light Armour
    Being in light armor, use dodge with decent dex and fast movment/attack speed to take them out as quickly as possible. Use as much dodge as possible, and that includes the use of blessings of Sacrifice and Elusiveness.

    Heavy Armour
    If you're going for a heavy armor build then strength and earth spells will probably be more beneficial.

    You can use Glancing Blows, and Absorb Impacts on yourself. Also have Heavy Armor innate Deflection skill GM'd.

    With Plate armor and Polearms, you can skewer them to keep them from running, then pound away. I take out the archers first, unless mages are hitting for more damage. In which case I take out the mages first.

    In Plate and Bludgeon, you can Knockback them down and pounded away.

    Damage resistance is good if you stack it high. Avoidance blocks 2/3 damage of any hit when it procs, but folks stacking damage resist are blocking like 80% damage for hits up to like 500 damage 100% of the time. Probably more if they are heavy armor specialized.

    Shields
    Forward face archers, and have a shield and the Deflect skill activated as well as having the shield innates Angles and Redirection trained.

    Block chance provided by shields only works from the front but it works against some magic attacks too, and is extremely effective for tanking, makes you generate more aggro. Shields also give you another gap closing stun that doesn't risk your durability. Have some shield bash combos with fire and earth magic if you wanna tank-mage.

    Removing Slow
    Use knight’s grace to remove Slow. You can also use Berserker's Stance to remove the effects from Disabling Shot. The benefits of Berserker's Stance greatly outweigh the negatives, especially if you are in light armor that has little damage resistance DR.

    Pets
    You can get a pet that grabs the aggro, while you run around with immolation and an ignited 2 hand polearm for example. Seems to work in anything up to a T10 zone.

    High Dexterity

    Get your dexterity as high as you can get. More dex means that enemies crit less often and you crit more. More dex also increases the benefit you get from air spells and light armor skils.

    Food, Potions, Blessings and improved Armour

    Find armour with added damage resistance and avoidance. Avoidance is beats resistance. You take what you can get.

    There are devotionals like Honor ( gives up to +1.5 Combat Focus per Second) and Sacrifice ( gives up to +1.5 Combat Health per Second) that helps keep you alive.

    You can also use healing, focus, restorations potions and of course regenerative food that gives you additional buffs. You can also cast heal on yourself.

    Music

    Use Rhapsody of Recovery and a Harp of Invigoration. They will help improve recovery.

    Earth

    You can cast Shield of crystal that increases your max health. You can also stun them with stonefist so that they stay still.

    Shield of Air

    You can use Shield of Air and focus potions (you can have all all three on your utility bar). If things go south then use passive stance.

    Combat rolls and Backflips

    They don't do anything useful and can interrupt your own attacks, so they're actually detrimental. Do not use them.

    Crowd Control
    Dazzling Rays, Moon Beams and Mezmerizing Melody are all 3 efficient ways to reduce the quantity of mobs attacking you. The issue though is if you attacks do AoE, or if the mob already has some Damage over Time ticking on them, they won't be affected by the mesmerize all that well. Also, generally, Archers and mages do not stack on top of each other, which means they will end up not being affected all of them, possibly using those skills for only 1 at a time.

    Combat Tactics
    Get right on top of them so they spend time trying to back off. This is key right here.

    If you run right up to them then they'll try to run away from you. Not only are they not attacking you while they're running away but you also get back shots for extra damage. This works against mages too!

    If you're engaged with something else and can't take care of the archer first then look for cover. You can hide behind trees for cover.

    Cover can also prevent a ton of damage if it's available and practical to use. The best cover is stuff like columns and other similar things, because you can just keep shuffling a step this way and that way to keep mobs running around instead of shooting you in the face.

    Don't ever let them, or any other mob, hit you from behind.

    For melee, engage opponent is pretty important for dealing with range mobs. It's not as good of a skill overall as body slam, but it has well over double the range at high level, so it's really good for closing in on range mobs and getting them dead. The easiest thing you can do is rush them and get in melee range. They will be too busy running away from you to have time to attack.

    Violet Ronso's Tactics

    1. Hide behind cover to charge/stack your attacks, which you can then run out, unleash, rinse and repeat.
    2. Hide behind cover until your opponent runs to you. Once they have run to you, you can then jump on them and start attacking as fast as possible, which will also usually force them to run away, which as mentioned previously will give you an advantage.
    3. Jump from cover to cover until you reach your target, using gap closing abilities once you are close enough (body Slam, Engage Opponent, Blink, Shadow step).

    Body slam is an AMAZING skill against archers, as it will close the gap as well as stun the annoying dart throwers. Use this skill, and charge it when possible. Yes, it does increase damage done to your gear, but it is better to lose a bit of durability than lose time floating your way to an ankh, spending time recasting buffs, and using some potions which weren't yet expired.

    For anyone using Berserker stance, do not use Damage Resistance masterworks on your gear, and do not use any damage resistance skills for nothing, Berserker stance kills your damage resistance, invest in damage avoidance instead, it's better anyways.
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2021
  15. DalTXColtsFan

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    I'm taking a break from the game for awhile (but not this forum), but between now and then I'd be curious as to the usefulness of Dazzling Rays and Torpor against ranged mobs. Seems like Dazzling Rays could at least temporarily reduce the number of enemies firing at you, and if you have Torpor and an Elemental or other pet, you can heal in protection while the enemies aggro at your elemental or pet.
     
  16. Violet Ronso

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    Those are very good ideas. Actually, Dazzling Rays, Moon Beams and Mezmerizing Melody are all 3 efficient ways to reduce the quantity of mobs attacking you. The issue though is if you attacks do AoE, or if the mob already has some Damage over Time ticking on them, they won't be affected by the mesmerize all that well. Also, generally, Archers and mages do not stack on top of each other, which means they will end up not being affected all of them, possibly using those skills for only 1 at a time.

    As for Torpor, it only reduces aggro by 100, which is way too low, and will lock you in place for 8 seconds, making you a target dummy for those 8 seconds, so I wouldn't consider this as a good option, personally.
     
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  17. DalTXColtsFan

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    So, update: I'm a polearm and shield user, so I have both charge and body slam in my bar, along with deflect, knight's grace, parry and glancing blow (not sure what effect the latter 2 have against archers but I click them anyway, and of course use grace when i've been slowed).

    I've also spent a significant amount of time increasing the level of a lot of the key skills like puncture, skewer, spinning attack, absorb impact and all of those listed above. I'm sure my fire warding skill is at least a couple dozen higher now than before after all the times I've casted water elemental, soothing rain and ice shield.

    I'm also using food buffs (mostly corpion claw potato salad, venison surprise and wolf surprise) more liberally.

    I can now USUALLY clear the siege engineer areas - I still occasionally get killed if I'm careless, but if I'm paying attention I can usually take them all down. 3 weeks ago I basically had no chance to clear those areas - 3 siege engineers, an ebon cultist marksman and 2 ec archers firing at me while a high wizard throws fireballs at me was just not survivable. Body Slam and Charge are both great for when those putzes run away.

    I'm still struggling to clear the level in the compendium where like 10 hardened skeleton archers all gang up on me. I think I got 7 of them once. Putting the water ele in passive mode seems to help, as does staying up on the higher levels so I'm not being attacked from above. I haven't added Dazzling Rays to my deck against that particular mob yet. I also have a slew of potions of restoration imbued which I'm sure will also help (I was just using regular healing potions before). Banish Undead is another that at least in theory should be useful there, but honestly, I think I'd prefer DR if it works, that way fewer arrows are coming my way every second.

    Further bulletins as events warrant (and perhaps a few when they don't!).
     
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  18. Barugon

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    Anything that increases damage avoidance is good against archers, also blocking with a shield is good too, but parry is useless against archers.
     
  19. King Robert

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    I am an air mage with dual wands and light armor. I use chain lighting, discharge and gust to stun mobs. Blink to close the gap. Stun, kill, blink, repeat.
     
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