Light, always light. For D-grade Manticore is top notch, but they're all ok for DG
Thats not right. At DG your best bet is heavy. You will not see much of any kind of bonus from wearing light armor at that level. Heavy will totally blow light armor away in the pdef category while light armor will have a very small bonus to evasion.
I don't have any faith in anybody who says that an archer should wear heavy armor. You lose MP bonus, you have no heavy armor masteries, you lose evasion, and you can't carry around half of what you need.
Unless you prefer spending more time constantly running back to town to restock soulshots and healing potions then you do being out in a field leveling...
And lets not forget about Ultimate Evasion, which works quite well against p.atk mobs.
But then again I've only got a Saggitarius, and a Ghost Sentinel both up to level 78, so my knowledge of powerleveling and equiping archers is rather lacking... *rolls eyes* lol
I don't have any faith in anybody who says that an archer should wear heavy armor. You lose MP bonus, you have no heavy armor masteries, you lose evasion, and you can't carry around half of what you need.
Unless you prefer spending more time constantly running back to town to restock soulshots and healing potions then you do being out in a field leveling...
And lets not forget about Ultimate Evasion, which works quite well against p.atk mobs.
But then again I've only got a Saggitarius, and a Ghost Sentinel both up to level 78, so my knowledge of powerleveling and equiping archers is rather lacking... *rolls eyes* lol
personally I don't care for your sarcasm.
For D/g Dagger and heavy works fine. If your worried about restocking use greatter compressed D ss. Bows at this lvl aren't effective unless your trying to learn how to kite. which you can learn at non-grade (where you get free non-grade shots). (however the mob dynamic at A/S grade changes some, but normally it's the same)
Have a 58 SE.(sub in WC're) if you got a second acc, or a friend. For lvling your archer in a cata from 20-52. use a dagger and heavy D grade, and light for C grade.
The fact is, that Evasion means very little in D, and the cost of shots on bows is insane for D/g...not to mention arrows, weight etc...
Tho I've done poling with light set in catas at D/g, pop a L2day agility scroll and 58 SE buffs and your set. I can tank a whole room, and hold down 3 rooms for hours!
The same goes for C/g, you could use robes, but they aren't worth it, don't use heavy cause it sucks at this point. and use a dagger cause Emi's cost wayyyyyyy too much for C/g and don't add to your up time at all.
when you hit B/g then switch to a bow, and doom light or PL set.
You can take a PL set all the way to 76. but I'd rather switch to Doom at 52. you crt more, run faster, more evasion, more acc in it. And at 61 I'd switch to maj light.
hmm, evasion doesent mean jack?? o.O
for archers and daggeruser it does, a lot..
I may be misstaken, but doesent a Lightarmor user get less runspeed if he uses heavy? not sure about that but its something that tickles my mind...
thats only tyrant, who get a bonus to run speed with light armor. Evasion does help, but not in pve.. at least at that lvl. When you hit B grade, you will find that heavy armor starts to lose the boost to pdef because your masterys have caught up.
I don't have any faith in anybody who says that an archer should wear heavy armor. You lose MP bonus, you have no heavy armor masteries, you lose evasion, and you can't carry around half of what you need.
Unless you prefer spending more time constantly running back to town to restock soulshots and healing potions then you do being out in a field leveling...
And lets not forget about Ultimate Evasion, which works quite well against p.atk mobs.
But then again I've only got a Saggitarius, and a Ghost Sentinel both up to level 78, so my knowledge of powerleveling and equiping archers is rather lacking... *rolls eyes* lol
Have you been in dgrade since C1? If you had then you would know that in C2 mobs accuracy was increase significantly. This means that you cant really evade much of anything especially in Dgrade.
UE is more of a Oh <insert cuss word here> kind of skill. Have you ever thought that you might need to use UE because you lack pdef?
The fact that you have 2 chars to 78 doesnt mean that you are all knowing about dgrade.
well, i have used heavy a feew times as well for lightarmor users in Dgrade (but I prefer salamander set cuz it looks nice...Im much about the looks ;)
anyway, yea, evasion doesent count for much in Dgrade, and little in Cgrade, but after that its important for any archer/dagger. I can tell you, if they dident evade anything, like you say they dont, then they would not be able to tank anything. and I can tell you, daggers tank just fine.
who uses a "bow" in D grade ?
without a SE behind u sit most time ... and its very expensive :confused:
get heavy + pole (or dagger) till u hit 40+.
and after 40+ lvling is still very expensive with BOW, until u hit B grade and can afford a bop.
then the running to town to restock all 30 minutes stop...
(heavy + polearm / or a dagger is still best choice up to 52)
i just tried this out and its a rip off even with +10 emi bow.. u can drop ur adenas on ground, its the same ...
on the other hand the little HE made good work in FP + OPA, solo or in party ( its a good puller, with use of dash+bow ;) )
the only different for ME between heavy/light gear in lvls 20 - 52 was ... in heavy i made a huge $ and stayed long on spots, in light i was more looking for new shots in town than playing...
who said anyone should use a bow at Dgrade? :S
and I dont realy se how armor type affect shot-usage.
anyway, yes, a polearm is the best way to lvl up to 52.
Im using pole and finish of the last mob(s) with a dagger.
I use plated leather for faster killing tho. I dont care about damage done to me, I care about damage done to mobs.
+5str+4dex+plated leather is nice, even at Cgrade with a pole.
... but I used both SE and PP buffpets, and could afford to spam SS. With buffs, an OE Light Crossbow and Elven Mith Mage set, you one shot everything and get into attack range faster. Think of the time you save by not having to run all the way to the mob, as you would with a sword or dagger. You can fire your first arrow and have your second mob in your crosshairs by the time you hear the first one die. With a sword or dagger, you have to waste time running to both. One of many hidden time sinks in L2.
But using a bow at D grade is not something that I would suggest to the first timer. It is costly. But if you have already made your wealth, have buffpets, and want to get through D grade as quickly as possible (legit), try it out.
As said in other posts, at C grade, naturally, I suggest OE Dark Screamer w/Focus and PL Set.
At B grade, using my HE's old OE BOP and PL Set.
As for the evasion debate, I wouldn't get an armor set just because it had +Evasion. But if I got an augment with +Dodge or +Evasion, I wouldn't be too disgruntled. Every little bit helps, I guess. :)
Have you been in dgrade since C1? If you had then you would know that in C2 mobs accuracy was increase significantly. This means that you cant really evade much of anything especially in Dgrade.
UE is more of a Oh <insert cuss word here> kind of skill. Have you ever thought that you might need to use UE because you lack pdef?
The fact that you have 2 chars to 78 doesnt mean that you are all knowing about dgrade.
The whole point of having UE is for when you bite of more then you can chew you pop it, and it works **** well. For regular attacking, having a high P.Def is nice, but it is far from being the "final word" when it comes to leveling. If P.Def is so important, then why doesn't every high level archer class use Majestic Heavy and IC? Becuase they lack the skills for it, the same applies whether you're level 21 or level 80. If you only look at P.Def, then you have your priorities mixed up.
Any yes, I have been playinf for an extremely long time, and I am a long ways off from knowing everything, but I'll be ****ed if I'm going to tell somebody to wear the incorrect armor for their class and set them up for failure..
And for weapons, if you are going to use your skills, take a bow *and* a dagger. You use the dagger most of the time, but powershot gives good overhit, not to mention it's good for 1-shotting when you have to many mobs on you.
Reason daggers used to out-tank tank classes was because of the efficiency of accuracy buffs at first. The song gave 10 evasion if I remember correctly and agility gave a good amount also.
Then they reduced the numbers on the evasion buffs and introduced VR. Since daggers did good melee damage (high crit rate + vicious stance), they would steal more life back from the mob than tank classes would.
So what makes daggers good tanks now isn't their evasion, it's their damage coupled with VR/dw/focus/haste/crit song/dd dances.
If I would take as many hits as a tank does, I would not be able to tank. But i dont, I evade a lot, and combine that with high damage output and vr, I can tank.
For everyone that thinks evasion is no good (at higher lvl) please reroll and dagger/archer to 70++, after you done that, we can talk again.