I currently have a 28 Elf Scout. My initial plan was to be a Silver Ranger. At 20 I bought a Light Crossbow, and I hated hunting. I could kill super fast but I ran out of MP very quickly, even with the bonus from the Manticore set. I didn't use any skills, just plain shots from the bow, and my MP just disappeared; I had to rest every five or ten minutes. I sold my bow and bought a Mithril Dagger, and so far I love it. I kill just as quickly as I did with the bow (or close enough), and if I suck down health potions I never have to stop to rest.
What I'm looking for advice on is this- do things get better for a bow user at 40? I'm worried mainly about PvE and being able to put in long grinding sessions without having to stop and rest every five minutes. Ranger seems to have obvious PvP benefit for kiting people, but I'm not too worried about PvP except for defending myself from random attacks. Can anyone please help me out with some input? Anyone seen bow and dagger from both sides?
Things improve mana wise after 40-- if they didn't then few people would go SR. When someone rolls a scout at level 20, we at these forums almost always recommend a dagger-- its cheaper to purchase and your mana doesn't get shot.
Although I should wait for an actual SR to comment as to how, exactly, mana issues become easier to handle.
Its a special ability several bows have, its called "cheap shot". With a cheap shot weapon your mp problems are pretty much solved. This is only available in grades C or above.
Cheapshot does help greatly, but don't expect to hunt nonstop ever. You will run out of MP sooner or later unless you moderate your mp usage or have a recharger.
Also keep in mind that a LXB is designed for players nearing 40, not for scouts fresh from NG. Your MP regeneration and max MP pool would be be better at 40 so a LXB might be difficult to use early on. Some archers I see wear robes to make up for the decreased MP pool but I think that's just silly since that doesn't help regen.
From 1-40 I recommend dagger definitely. 40-52 you can still get away with a dagger as an SR, but 52+ is when I really developed an affinity for the bow (thank god, I was about to reroll). Also another thing I noticed...up until your upper 40s, your evasion is terrible so you might even experiment with heavy armor and shield, particularly if you are going to be using a dagger for now.
In the end if you don't really care about PvP, PW will be cheaper and possibly more enjoyable (they have a lot of fun pve skills). However if you want to be pvp viable, SR is your best bet (though they are high maintenance, expensive, and kinda boring).
In most cases: SR is hell boring. Buffs, 20 mins kiting; and using only normal attack.
Saving archers parties you are not very welcome to melee grps.
PW has more funny skills and it's more enjoyable to play.
Note: any character can be very entertaining to play but since you are too new it will take a lot of time to figure it how...
Also being new you might have resource problems so PW might be a better option. Just dont regret you pvp skill will be gimped unless you use bow.
Cheapshot does help greatly, but don't expect to hunt nonstop ever. You will run out of MP sooner or later unless you moderate your mp usage or have a recharger.
That is simply not true. With a prophet (not a recharger!) I can basically go on forever without any downtime at all. All it takes is an occasional heal. And that has been this way since lvl 45 when I got cheap shot. The only way to get my mana down is by using specials or mobs with mana drain. Solo I run low on HP after some time of hunting, but never out of mana.
Training farmers sound fun, right? But only if you find those last few farmers who dont instantly log off, are out of game or use some other cheat to prevent being trained.
And concerning parties, I have never had any problems as an archer. It really makes no difference for a party if they have an archer or a melee as DD. Damage is damage - and if you really dont find a party, you can still solo as an archer, most other classes can't do that at higher levels.
The only reason against archer classes are, that they are really quite boring (actually, grinding is boring with any class...) and bows are crazily expensive compared to other weapons. But at least you are useful in pvp.
Oh yeah, and don't even think about spamming SS as an archer unless you have a 7x warsmith as a main...
>>I have never had any problems as an archer.
Problem is that you stay away and pulling aggro makes the mob(s) run towards you. Annoying, quite annoy for melee (esp. targer too far while chasing).
At higher lvls it's even more annoying. Also if you dont spam SS in melee it's a lot unfair. [As TH I can you use in PvE grps as good (if not better) than archers (higher crit chance/crit power)but I'd never get bow w/ CS as dagger QR is a lot better for spare weapon]
Training farmers sound fun, right? But only if you find those last few farmers who dont instantly log off, are out of game or use some other cheat to prevent being trained.
Hi All,
I own a BH 59lvl and I must agree that farmers/b0ts are logging out when they see the train, but there is a trick about training but the profits are lesser :).
You have to make trains with mobs gratly lower from you so the mobs cant damage you fast, make the train, head to the farmers, stop and wait until they start to hit a mob, then run to them and use the fake death. If they are in fight mostly cant logoff even with their cheat programms.
With the above tactict i am farming 40+lvl farmers till now with cool drops :D
In your 20's you may want to use a Gastraphetes instead of a lxbow. Lxbow does drain mp fast. Very expensive to shoot as well. I went SR at 40, and it is nice. You can solo well up into the high 50's til it starts to become a drag. Eventually either mentally you will become tired of kiting mobs (which by the way every mob in the game you fight will be $myspeed + 50), or just stand there and fire away taking the hits and being healed or popping pots. I had a mithril dagger with me as well, but only used it rarely when i was in the catacombs and my mp was low.
Even with a BoP w/CS you can still run dry on mp. I could fire my bow nonstop in upper areas of EV coupled with haste2 made it drop even faster.
Playing an SR in the 60+'s you will need a good solid tank like a DA who can hold aggro. Properly buffed with like a glass cannon tat setup you will crit often and for very nice damage, easily pulling aggro.
I would honestly go PW. SR is an expensive as hell class to play. Look at the amount of SS used by the lxbow. Arrows will continually cost you money and silver arrows you will need to make or focus on fighting in the catacombs to collect them.
SR's special abilities turn an unbuffed SR from poor to good. You really need prophet/SE buffs to shine and show off your class.
It's good to hear some people sticking up for SR but at this point I'm still thinking PW is the way to go.
I've got a dwarf and some money making schemes so I'm doing great for cash right now, but I'd rather burn money on pots to grind faster than spend it on arrows and extra SS. It also seems that any time I spend running away to kite is time that I'm not spending damaging the mob, therefore less kills per hour.
Will I not be able to solo at all as a 50+ PW though? I have some RL friends that play and I enjoy grouping, but if I log on at some weird hour and nobody I know is on then I'd like to be able to grind out some xp by myself... I don't mind spamming SS and (to a degree) pots; I expect to lose money grinding and make it back later.
Not really no... PW you're a party character, preferably melee-oriented parties. Daggers in general provide one of the best PvE damage outputs available. In PvP you'll "just be a melee" character, it will require thinking and perhaps skill to actually do any good... an SR on the other hand, has no real problem soloing, parties seems to welcome archers normally but perhaps mostly within clans/alliances. In PvP you'll be a great asset (as long as you're buffed anyway)...
...either way, if you're going SR, stick with a dagger until 52, seems like the way to do before the bow masteries start to show and all that other stuff. Soloing an SR in PvE is stupendiously boring! I cannot put words into the boredom if this "grind", so I'm sticking to parties with mine so far.
My personal opinion is... below 60, going dagger means having fun in PvE and being a social party person - while going bow means somewhat having a chance at PvP without much thinking (gets better IF you think though ;) but at the loss of any fun at all grinding for exp... looks like at higher levels when archer parties gets going more frequently and damage output increases negating a classic tank setup, this will change a bit to the better.
And don't stand away from the melees in a party if you pull aggro, get in there in the thick of it, preferably behind the mobs, so if you pull aggro as an archer, the mob doesn't run around the room. Have some guts and tank it! ;)
>>Will I not be able to solo at all as a 50+ PW though? I
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You miss the buffs: focus/dw (haste comes on pots, though). Till 55 you can probably solo but slow. You have elemental heal but it's not so great. As a general rule you should not be using specials in pve So lack of focus/dw buffs (and fire dance) is a real hard kick against dagger. While you can indeed get focus as self buff (SoES + SA)iu I am not sure you'll be able to afford it (you can't use it pre-52 either).
As dagger you should be able to make good money while grinding if you have buffs.
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Solo as SR (not buffs) is actually quite expensive.
One thing that i have not seen mentioned much in this thread is the about the classes in PvP. Dagger classes do very well in PvE, that is why wou see at least one in EVERY bot train. But in PvP, daggers are gimped. Just as an example, my friend has a TH about the same lvl as my SR, and he wasnt even close to killing me, and he has a might mortal. Also, at sieges, archers rock. Playing a PvE class is cool, but once you get up in lvls, and you get more involved in the politics, you will PvP allot more, and you will wish you had went SR. At least that is what i have found to be true.
PW isn't cheap to spam ss and pots though. Your better off Silent Moving around dungeons looking for a group who could use a DD. Later on a PW becomes a tank and dd at the same time with the evasion, decent P.Def, songs/dances and VR. Especially since Lure is a skill all tanks would kill to have.
But if you go PW you won't have fun in PvP unless you get a Mightmortal dagger (impossible for a legit player to get now) or wait until 3rd class.