Archery

I have been away for about 3-4+ releases now. Has archery been improved? Can anyone who has spent some time with the archery tree give me their breakdown?

-Is it viable as an early tree?(do i need a bajillion arrows to go hunting)
-Is it a decent damage class?
-Do I need all those crazy special arrows to use skills?
-Do I need a melee tree as well to truly survive?
-Does Light/Medium/Heavy armor matter?

Thanks!

Rez

 

Ranged got some tweaks a couple versions back.

It's not good for a beginner, because it requires an investment in arrows. You get some if you choose to follow the Love path in the tutorial, but it's still rough.

You can do decent damage as an archer, and you do not need to have a backup Melee skill, just be aware that kiting is not easy and you will die a lot until you get used to it.

You do not need to use special arrows to use skills, but like other skills with reagents, it will cost a lot more Focus if you do not.

Armor skill is a personal choice, but I prefer light armor to get skills that improve dodge, run speed, etc. also pick up Earth Innates to improve your combat skills, it's makes a difference.

 

Trying taking the path of Love on the Isle of Storms, so that you begin with a buffed range skill at the start. This will give you a quick introduction to how it has come along, with out the more painful early grind.

-Is it viable as an early tree?(do i need a bajillion arrows to go hunting)

Viable yes, but need arrows, yes.

-Is it a decent damage class?

- I do fine with it now starting as a ranged (Love) skill set. The arrow burn rate vs. gold reserve is the bigger issue. The accuracy factor also matters and improves with level up. If an arrow hits, it does decent damage. Turn off auto-attack if you go ranged.

-Do I need all those crazy special arrows to use skills?

No. Regular arrows work, but rumor has it they require a bit more focus.

-Do I need a melee tree as well to truly survive?

No. I was playing find with just ranged skills. It doesn't hurt to have melee skills in case you run out of arrows and are not ready to go back to town though.

-Does Light/Medium/Heavy armor matter?

Good question. Perhaps in theory dexterity is helping ranged? My actual experience is that heavy armor may be just a tad better for damage mitigation when mobs get on your at melee range, but that neither armor is better than the other (so far) for damage output. The armor does affect other spell casting though, if you plan to do that.

 

I'm going to write a dissertation on Archery later on. Right now it's not viable as a starting skill, it's overpowered once you train it up, and it's frustrating with needing to keep track of ammo and ammo weight as well as weapon maintenance.

 

As a dagger user, I scoff at this particular comment.

But yeah, archery isn't exactly easy.

 

-Is it viable as an early tree?(do i need a bajillion arrows to go hunting)
Well, you don't need the arrows but it will take a long time to kill something without it (mostly because your focus will run out faster without the arrows). Helps if you unlock a few slots and use a lot of combos (pairs, triples, etc.) focus-wise but it still will take a long time. Can collect enough money to do it without any assistance though - no pet required either.

-Is it a decent damage class?
It is so far - rather low leveled archer here. Can't speak much for higher stuff

-Do I need all those crazy special arrows to use skills?
Weirdly enough - no. Mostly if you load up on normal arrows (and it's much cheaper to make them than they used to be), level up Aimed Shot (uses normal also), you can get away with using either charged or even auto attack for the most part with a few combos/single skills thrown in since you save a lot of focus using Aimed combo and/or Charged/Auto. Unless you have fun using those combos and dislike spending money on ammo Thus far have crafted about 500 arrows, bought up most of the skills in archer (think there was one left) as well as a few others in focus, life, tactics and a few others I'm sure I'm forgetting at the moment, 1/2 of the available crafting tables and their accessories, crafted a few other things as well, and all in $45 steam wear.

-Do I need a melee tree as well to truly survive?
No, why would I want to buy additional stuff when this stuff is looking to be expensive enough already.

-Does Light/Medium/Heavy armor matter?
Beginner stuff can be done with what they give steam players. Higher up? I've no idea - I'm always a nub about levels

 

The problem with arrow crafting is the ore, at low levels you"re restricted to the areas where you don't get massacred by mobs - and those are the areas that get farmed by other players the most.

Wood is easy & you can get metal scraps by salvaging rusty weapons but you still need some iron or copper ore for the arrowheads.

 

You could always pop into SPOn and go there or hope to get pulled into an encounter - nice harvesting

 

I play in SPO mode most of the time and that holds true for woods & rusty weapons - but ores remain rare. You need at least one to make a batch of arrows, I"ve been checking the usual sites for a couple of days now.

I did find some copper ore for sale at the vendor right outside the public craftshall at Owl's Nest - I think it worked out to about 1,000 gp per nugget

 

Weird, then? Cuz I do to and that's why I made my suggestion - I was finding those ores that I normally do in South Vale/Kingsroad. Maybe it's the timezone, you think?

 

I struck out repeatedly at Solace bridge (waded through a horde of wolves, spiders and undead) , Kingsport crossroads even at the Ravenswood area which is pretty high for my level. Checking out North Valeway - hopefully I get some ore soon.

Both sides of Solace bridge are excellent sources for wood and Cotton. Of course the more dangerous side has more of those, go figure.

If not I've picked up searing Ray which should do well with charged arrow attacks. There's a limit to the amount of crap I'm willing to go through just to make a bunch of arrows.

Not to give the wrong impression, archery did get a lot better this release - you just won't be able to afford paying for the arrows or consistently find the ore to create one when you're at low levels. The polearm, sword and even magics like searing Ray are still more effective in terms of cost, killing power and time invested.

That's my frank assessment at this point. Do it for love and flair - just don't expect to be Legolas anytime soon.

 

@Numa Just logged in to Kingsroad and found 4 ore nodes to mine

 

I just started playing the first time in the release. I chose the love path early on and with little to no experience I started as an archer and now am living the easy life. while it was challenging to keep up with arrow supply my first day I still did it. Get your archery passives ASAP. Also level up strength. Other than that I went moon magic and the dex boost seemed to really help with accuracy early on.

I also found that if you turn off auto attack you can charge your bow for more damage which conserves a lot of arrows. just hold down left mouse until the charge bar fills up. This should be a tool tip but I had a friend tell me to do this. you use less arrows this way to kill things.

 

I'm beginning to think it's my timezone, my evening is morning for the most of you. Thanks for the tip anyway, no expectations but thank you very much for trying. At the worst I'll just reroll and try a build I'll enjoy more.

 

So, is Archery owning in R23 PvP?

 

I've not tested it in PvP but honestly, looking over the numbers, my archery is level 40 and it kills monsters 3x faster than my blades at level 55, as well as allows for "double shot" snares and rapid fire abilities? Yeah that's terrifying. I'd be willing to be archery, with a small team, would dominate in pvp.

I think we need to stop focusing on pvp though until beta, because trying to balance a game for pvp while still developing skills and mechanics is counter productive to the development of the game. We should be worried about "is archery bugged with this ability" instead of "is archery OP." Rebalance skills after they've been thoroughly tested as working.

 

I thought I'd end my posts here on a positive note. I found a good area for copper ore It's good because the mobs are so tough that hardly anyone ever mines there - there are far easier spots for that. But if you're a nimble ranger with stealth skills , you can pit the mobs against each other (and mine and they're fighting). The area is ideal for this because there's lots of room to run.

Also, F1 (target self) stops autoattack for a while. I prefer not to turn it off because I often switch to polearms when combat becomes hand to hand.