Viability of Leather Wearing Archers

Ysold wrote:
My pet's health through this all is 1826. My pet's skills are between 105-107; but I think the main difference is made by Taming Specialization (59 currently). Having this large health pool really makes a difference, since criticals of the higher level mobs really hit hard.
But with this setup I can easily handle the first part of Ulfheim and all of Tanglemire, so I plan to move to Spindleskog soon.

I tried Ulfheim once. I just stayed near the entrance killing obsidian animals. This was before I started hunting with a pet. I did OK until a wyvern showed up. With his AOE attack, I only got him to half before I was forced to run to the zone. Gust was only partially effective.

What type of shield are you using? With all the earth skills you are using, I am assuming you are using a crystal shield and have fairly decent earth attunement? If you are using a crystal shield, could you tell what level you have in that skill and what your earth attunement is? Thanks!

 

The trick with wyverns is to run faster than them. Use Disabling Shot to slow them down and Sprint/Dash to move fast. If you don't have both of those skills then use a potion of wolf speed (you can only have two movement speed buffs).

 

Yes, that AOE attack bites. I stay out of range of that attack when I fight wyverns and reapers and make sure I don't get aggro. Frenzy helps both to give the pet extra aggro and an extra punch. For emergencies I have Escape on my bar.

I haven't got around to training crystal shield yet. Since I avoid contact with mobs, it wasn't necessary. But I need to develop it now that I'm taming higher tier animals.

 

I can only describe my experience. From the get go I wanted to be an air archer. The two schools seem to go together. I do not have a pet, they pull too much focus, and I need all I can get. I use hardened leather armour, gives bonus to basic ranged damage. Add gems of the bandit to chest and bow, you have a decent boost. Air shield is 151; my transfer rate is .5. Also I have just boosted focus items to 140 (inner calm and focus reception). So glyphs cost less and potions are worth more. I carry a swag (literally) of potions in my utility bar to refill the focus pool when needed. Most air skills are 100-120 - boosts attunement. I can survive a lot of things; multiple strong opponents are still a problem.
I also use the light armour skills - dodge at 150, with the 3 day avoidance buff. Also the compassion blessing (+5 combat modification).
If you want to go this way yes it can work, but it does take time.
And I still suck at PVP
Good luck!

 

Asclepius wrote:
If you want to go this way yes it can work, but it does take time.

My air shield and most of the rest of the air tree are all 100. I also use the +15 air attunement buff. Even with th e air shield fully charged, I still cannot break 1.0 transfer rate. Once I get all of the air skills to 100, I will probably un-train my fire spec and re'spec in air. Even then I am not sure if the air shield transfer rate low will be low enough to use it. Which is probably OK. The high air attunement and the better dex buff are still helping with my DPS. But for now I keep using my pet, it provides considerable protection until I can better my air shield.

 

The transfer rate comes from a combination of SoA skill level and dexterity. With SoA at 150 and dex at 205, I get a transfer rate of 0.68. With dex at 319, it's 0.6.

[edit] Also, I have air magic specialization, so I stack SoA to 6.

 

Barugon wrote:
The transfer rate comes from a combination of SoA skill level and dexterity. With SoA at 150 and dex at 205, I get a transfer rate of 0.68. With dex at 319, it's 0.6.

That is impressive! I can see that I have a long ways to go. My air shield is 100. With my current gear, I can get my dex to 125. All of my gear is vendor bought. I bought leather bone armor and concentrated on damage avoidance. My avoidance unbuffed is 28%. The other stats I did not pay that much attention. So far, it has worked OK. But I can see that it will not scale that much as mobs start hitting harder. Using a pet has helped to keep me from getting mobbed. But I will keep driving my dex and air attunement up. Each bump seems to help my DPS. I have also been working on my innate skills. They have added to my dex, str, resistance, and avoidance.

On the advise of Ysold, I tried my hand in Crags Forest. I had fun. Only got into trouble once. I had 6 elven mages and an elven archer attacking me at once. I ended up having to run from the fight and have the pet take one for the team. After I resurrected my pet, they found me again. The new area was more open and made it easier to control the fight so I was able to take them out this time. Pet tanks, I heal pet and DPS. Crags is definitely harder than Kobold Exp Camp. But the experience for time taken is higher in Kobold Exp Camp because the mobs are concentrated in one area and I can kill them non-stop. With Crags, I spent a lot of time running around looking for mobs. Crags also had a higher percentage of archers and mages which made it harder for me to dump the aggro on the pet.

 

@cikken -sounds like you are coming along quite nicely. I don’t know how many weeks/months I spent in Greymark Forest, then Crag Foothills. You’ll know when it’s time to move on to a higher level when you can go through the mobs really easily. Then look for an area where the mobs are yellow ( a bit higher than you) but you can still take them without too much difficulty. Taking 10-15 minutes to kill a mob might be satisfying, but the XP return isn’t worth it.
A tip for the future - you may want to look at bronze enforced leather armour. It has damage resistance and also augments base weapon damage. You may remember the bandit armour - awesome stuff, had a +50% base weapon damage buff. So the devs killed that, down to 20%. A full set of bronze enforced hardened leather gives around a 24% boost; if you can lay your hands on 3 imbued gems of the deadly bandit (rare and expensive) you can have one on the chest and two on the bow. That’s an extra 22.5% bonus, nearly back to the 50%. Food for thought……

 

Asclepius wrote:
@cikken -sounds like you are coming along quite nicely.

Thank you everyone. I had tried a lot of stuff. I just wanted some advice. Everyone has been very helpful.

Thanks,
Cikken