Archers!

Can I get some heroic music to go with my sidekick? No ranging Archer with a sidekick can't be complete without heroic music to accompany his sidekick.

On another note, I love Archer. I loved Ranger in XI and this was the only class that took off for me when I played beta. Easily one of the funnest classes to play in my opinion. Easy binding is also really convenient, and I love the damage output. I was hoping Archers would get the option to use guns too, but I'm fine with the bow and arrow. Can't deny the stylish crab bow on my back as I foot it around Ul Dah.

That said, I'd really like an R50 bow, one that looks downright awesome.

I'd like to see better gear other than Robin Hood outfits, the animations aren't that great for all weapon skills, useless skills such as Shadow Bind II which only last 2 seconds and far shot which you still have to enter aggro area in order to use it which renders it useless, why do we need Subtle Release when we have quelling strike II and Chameleon, kinda sad that we don't get a rank 50 weapon skill, Better Looking Bows, I love playing Archer and i'd like to see great things for this class I miss status effect arrows.

Arc is pretty sweet as it is, (I do miss having a melee weapon like rng, but I can live without it) but I think it could use a few basic tweaks:
First, why do I keep drawing my weapon everytime I use Quickstride? I wind up wasting about 5 seconds putting my weapon away when I want to run at top speed, and isn't that the point of having this skill? Also, I would give Shrieker an AoE terror effect, at the cost of doing little to no damage, we get so many weaponskills that have an AoE effect, but we stand little chance of surviving unsupported against large groups of enemies, which is a bit of a problem for a DD/Crowd Control class. In addition, the terror effect would only affect enemies that have already attacked the party.

Hopefully when SE makes those changes to the class/battle system they'll put in some new animations for weaponskills. I remember back in XI how much fun I used to have doing/watching the 200+ skills. 230 staff Retribution was always one of my favorites. I'm 46 Archer at the moment and I have to say, I get a little bored and sleepy watching my character do the same few actions :\

Also... I could swear Boo was a hamster >.>~

All they need to do if up the WS animations by 1 tier. Those of you who have it should notice the huge difference between Wide Volley and Wide Volley II. They should just swap out Wide Volley and give it the Wide Volley 2 animation, then give Wide Volley II a Wide Volley III animation (assuming they would make a new one). I'm hoping for new equipment that looks better than the Robin Hood style ones I hate them to be honest. I hope enfeebling arrows come sometime soon, it would add a much more fun side to Archer. Also in dealing with quickstride I hope they just make all job abilities that require no stamina to use no require a weapon to be drawn and then make quickstride not use any anima. New bows will come eventually! Especially when they start raising rank cap and/or releasing new NM's but there is still a ways to go!

Yeah most of the weapon skills Archers have are pretty lackluster. Flashiest skill in game is probably Simian Thrash from pug too bad it blows in most cases.

As for the guy saying Shadow Bind II only lasting two seconds, are you hitting the mob right after you bind it? Bind debuff wears off as soon as the target is hit.

Archer is a sweet job and i'm really enjoying it, great damage output and lots of fun!! Like others have said wish the animations where better but same goes for my LNC they need fixing.

Hi all..
I'm a Noob to FFXIV.. Never played XI.
Though I'm some what of a veteran of many previous MMO's.
One thing that I've always done though is play a Ranged DPS, or Ranged Burst DMG class.

Given Musketeer is in the game, though not as a playable class yet, being quite believably Ranged Burst DMG.
I know what I'm going to experiment with when it's available. (but that's another topic of discussion altogether)
So with bow in hand and quiver full of arrows I'd like to share my brief perception of the class.

Stamina: By The Twelve!! We burn through the stuff like no tomorrow..
Who'd have thought that being an archer consumed Stam faster than a Glad's Heavy Sword?
So, I'd like to see introduced a self buff for Archer/Ranger that reduces Stam consumption (Or increases the rate it regens)
Arrows: Really now? Warped are 2gil each, Bronze are 11gil, and you'd only dare bust out the 'Good' ones for NM's
Even at my level if I'm not careful I can steal agro/hate of the tanks if I equip anything better then Bronze while on Behests/Leve's. Hate to think how bad it gets later on.
Good thing I'm stingy, and buy the cheapest nastiest ones I can find if I have to restock on Consumable items all the time.
Though I can see that once more people rank up trade skills and the market becomes more competitive, Arrow prices will drop.
(A whole 'nother rant about the current game economy becoming overinflated due to lack of Money Sink for LvL Cap players to waste coin on needs not be repeated here)

Just wanted to add something else, since they announced Auto-attack recently, I'm hoping that Archer will be either exempt from it, or if it is given auto attack, it can be turned off. You can't bind a target if you're continously attacking, it'll always break the bind, and it means you have no window to buff up or heal. You also can't stack skills like multishot or Raging Strike, as they will be used and wiped the moment the computer attacks. Right now, the job has a great deal of tactical flexibility, but despite what the people who petitioned for AA say, I still believe that arc will lose that flexibilty when the battle engine is updated.

I agree with the person who said more CC (crowd control) abilities. Maybe some AOE (wide volley) with Shadowbind (that works) or something or a REAL working Shadowbind is good enough for now.

I do like the idea of having elemental arrows but I think it would be cooler to fuse magic (like the animation) to our arrows. I also agree that immobilizing a mob should stop them from throwing or kicking stuff at us, even mobs that don't have range attacks are still hitting.

Quickstride needs to work in passive mode.... and... and... can I smack the mob with my BOW to stun them?!?!?! A great way to run away if needed, lol.

Chanse