archers underpowered?
 

I have a lvl 16 archer and I'm doing fine, but seeing all the other classes fight, I see warriors or clerics tanking a whole KQ with only 2-3 heal requests, or mages that have unbelievable damage with spells. I feel neglected by the devs. But I think that will all change when Fiesta gets out of Beta.

Archers are most definitely not underpowered.

Warriors and clerics are generally more defensive and have shields, which give a lot of defense extra. Mages are good nukers, but archers can deal A LOT of damage and are more hardy than mages.

Mine is almost 37, and I was tanking things in collapsed prison with one cleric with no problem. Archers are not supposed to tank, they are supposed to be a DPS (damage per second) and they make good pullers of bosses too, since they have nature's protection.

In KQ, the bosses would often lose hate on the tank and come after me all the time, and that's because I out-damaged even the mages in the group. So if you want a tank, make a full end warrior =3

meh, but it might just be me because I have a wierd build of lots of str and dex with only 1+ in Spr. But I think they could atleast give archers some tanking ability besides natures protection for groups and the AOE skills

Then its your build. o_o I've never had a problem with my archer. :x I'm a bit of a hybrid - 15 end, 10 str and going for 25 spr now, then not sure what stat to pump. I shouldn't have put the 10 in str though, haha

I have to agree... I'm re-making an archer in Apoline with a full SPR build for now and I'm pulling aggro all the time. Back in Teva with my Archer it was the same... I had the 25 SPR build and if I spam skills I'd have to run for my life (until I got Nature's Protection).

I don't think pure anything is a good build, unless you're a fighter wanting to be an awesome tank going pure end or something. It seems like a little, but the 15 end I have on my archer has helped me A LOT. In CB I was spr and str, and I would go through a lot of pots and struggle to level because I got the crap beat out of me. XD;

pure Spr is pretty pointless since the crit bonus from it caps out around 25...an archer are NOT an I repeat NOT pure dmg classes. Archers are meant to use D.O.T skills to achieve dmg. Mages are dmg classes and Fighters are dmg classes. The only way for you to outdmg them is by usin your D.O.T an archer will never reg-hit or more then a mage or fighter however.

Actually that 10 str is pretty handy O-mie.

Believe it or not.

Although I seriously hated SPR.

I got 31 in str and 20 or 21 in end with two +11 spr rings. Awesome I know :) Archer. can tank with scrolls and without but better with them and I maxed out Power and aimed shot plus arrow rain in damage. also have some SP consumption in power and aimed shot so it won't run my sp dry fast. I hate pulling aggro but I do it alot but natures protection comes in handy then

I'm still deciding what I want to do once I get spr to 25. I mean, I love my evasion rate even though I haven't even TOUCHED dex yet - but its like, I level on monsters a lot higher than me so even with high evasion they hit me. HRM.... We shall see. Maybe I'll flip a coin. XD

I've been looking through the guides on the wiki in my spare time (no fly day today) and it looks like the archers end up VERY powerful in the later stages of the game. Mages (like me) can dispense the justice also, but their higher level spells seem to be a little less robust than the archer. Especially all the archer spells that are able to damange more than just 1 critter at a time (aoe).

Also, it looks like the archer requires some skill and forethought as to how to play/build him. Mage, fighter and cleric are pretty standard. Nuke, tank and heal.

DEX Build is more of a time build.

It's slow at lower levels, cause of said reasons.

Then what would be a good build for an archer?

Would you suggest going for 25 spr first then adding str or end? Or would you suggest adding end or str first then the 25 spr.

Whenever I'm tanking I always try to make sure the boss is on me. Snearing Kick owns in those kinds of situations.

Usually it's 25 spr first.

Then End/Str etc.

I see. Once I feel that my fighter's good enough I'll start on an archer. Always loved those pointy arrows.

A lot of popular opinion circulates about archers being the weakest class, which is absolutely untrue.

There are, however, some facts that do work against the archer that should be taken into consideration:

Grind Party/PvE Situation:

- Archers are last on the food chain when it comes to party necessity. Clerics are obviously the staple, and are absolutely essential for any party to work. Fighters follow close behind. Of the 2 ranged classes, Mages are just simply preferred. They have the utility ability of removing curses, which can come in handy quite often. This is not to say archers are not useful: heavy damage is always handy in a party. But wheras you can have a successful party without the archer, one without the fighter or cleric will just fail.

Guild War/PvP Situation:

- The issues with Archer DPS in PvP situations is that they center around damage over time. While they eventually may be able to deal a greater raw damage than the mage, the time it takes allows for the poison/bleed to be removed, to be displaced by stones, by heals, etc. Guild Wars require the ability for burst damage, to score the kill faster than the clerics can heal. In this aspect, Archers once again get the short end of the rope. Clerics are required because of the heals once again, Fighters are needed for stuns to opposing clerics (and Axes can easily cut down mages that stray too close, being as they have very low physical defense), and Mages are your main killers in PvP.

If archers come dead last in these situations, then why are they not underpowered? There are several reasons:

- I do believe that over time, Archers do have the ability to outdamage Mages, particularly at the later levels where the skills are looking much better. Combined with being significantly more durable than mages, they likely have an easier time soloing mobs.
- Poisons/bleeds/diseases ignore defense. (correct me if i'm wrong about this, i only suspect it does because all poisons on ME do a consistent amount of damage regardless of my level or mdef.) This may not be a big deal early game, but wheras DPS fighters have an uphill struggle with increasing mob defense, archers more readily retain killing potential when moving to higher leveled mobs.
- Party durability. While mages crumble with one or two hits, archers can hold their own for short while. In crisis situations, this can make or break the party.

All of these point to archers being more of a 'unique' class. They are a good DPS option for parties to use, but don't structure their game around a party situation. Anyway, that's my two cents about the ups and downs of archers, and why they aren't underpowered, but rather just fit into a different role in the game other than the party centered roles of Clerics and Full end tanks.



One thing that hurts the archer image is the vast number of idiotic archers. Don't ask me to explain this phenomenon: but in most of the low level KQs, the biggest idiot is always either the cleric that doesnt heal, or the archer that keeps pulling things. It just happens. This must in some way contribute to the lack of high level archers, and thus an abundance of archer gear on the market. I have certainly seen archers played very well and very effectively, so its definitely not the class. Its the player.

This is basically a general truth of online gaming. Most people start a class and end up switching because of how they have seen a different class played better. If you see enough people of a certain class being complete morons (I.E. over-pullers) then they decide that it is the class that is horrible, not the player. No class is really underpowered in general, its just at which point in the game you are looking at. End-game, some characters end up weaker than in the low-levels, some stronger. I wouldn't even say that Archers are underpowered in the lower levels due to the fact that I haven't gotten past level 14 (I have ADD when it comes to sticking with a class) and I have seen some very powerful Archers KS the hell out of me.

I currently have a really bad Build,
the Str is like 19 and the dex is like 9 or soemting and everything else is either 1 or 2. But from now on im gunna strat adding to my Str until its 20, then my Dex until its 10 then my Spr until its 10

I wouldnt say archers are last on the party food chain. In fact they are the first on my party food chain. As a cleric, I'd rather party an archer than a fighter or mage.

Fighters can tank, but they are slower at killing. Which makes a grinding process slower if there's just 2 in a party.

Mage, dies too quickly. End of story. I hate healing mage who dies in 2-3 hits... or those who use life tap (GRRR!)

Archer, does great dmg, often they can take out at least 1/3 life of the mob before they get to you (depending on wat lvl mob u're killing) and they are much easier to heal than a mage. They can kill quickly, and they dont die easily. What more can a cleric ask for?

You sneaking on from work again? XD Muahah but yeah, arcers are indeed more hardy

HAHA hmm i dunno if i'm "sneaking" anymore.. i'm like permanently on!

so bad... so bad...

Yea, I agree with Hessah's previous post.

I wouldn't mind partying a fighter because there won't be any intense healing session and I get to whack the mobs a bit myself, so fighters and archers have the same preference level for me.

I hardly party with mages of my level much, so I can't say much about them. D:

XD i hope Spirit doesnt see this.. or she'll get pretty upset! XD

SPIRIT! you're not one of "those mage" you're special and exceptional!

In defense of my statement, i'll refer to the fact that the archer steps up to tank only when a fighter is not present. The logic of this just follows that while can archer can be adept at tanking (high evasion, seems possible), they lack the defense/taunt that fighters have.

My assertion is not that archers are useless in parties. That would just be untrue. However, when putting together a successful party, archers are more so the "helpful to have, but optional" rather than "absolutely necessary".


My statements don't extend in the case of duos. I am referring to full parties, 4 or 5. In fact with a duo, you probably want just a cleric and a DPS, fighters will not fare well in these circumstances. I'm not sure of the archer vs. mage situation here, i've personally never had duo grind experience with either. It would seem that archers have the edge because of a higher durability.

Duo grinding with a fighter is actually not as bad as it seems, though still worse than with an archer/mage. The cleric in this scenario steps up to do some damage to compensate while the fighter can tank hits, and its not that bad.

err.. I'm a lvl 19 full str archer, and I outdamage lvl 20+ mages... I keep pulling the aggro in the Mara KQ's. Instead of relying on criticals, I'd rather have a firm damage :D....

Archers aren't underpowered, but sadly underrated.

I'm a fighter and I have multiple cleric duo partners that constantly ask to party with me... At level 26 I can kill mobs in MT in around 5 hits provided I use powerhit once or twice. Build is 10 STR 20 END with 2 +7 END rings. We do better than most cleric/mage/mage parties.

Tier 2 Aim scrolls FTW? I'm mainly Shield/Sword anyways..Only using axe right now because I got a +6 green one in KQ.

Didn't even notice what forums this was in Dx I just use the "New Posts" feature.

No. Archers are not underpowered. They are good in their own way. Every class is good in their own way, people just need to take their time to appreciate the advantages of each class rather than focusing on their disadvantages.

I'm sure archers get better at later levels when they get another poison skill.

If someone out there that reckons that archers are worthless, then I would just ignore them. Seriously, why would the game developers design a class that's useless and worthless? >____>"

I love my archer. But I do have to agree that until you get that Venomous Shot, you feel a tad powerless. Once I got it I know it made a huge difference in the speed I killed things. Now with a good set of scrolls I can solo fine with the help of my criticals I kill mobs well before the DoT skills wear off.