The "Ideal" Archer thread

Discuss what your "ideal" archer setup would be with the skills/gear we have at this time:
- Points Allocation

- Action Bars setup

- Gear equipped

- Macros, if you have them

- General tactics for certain mobs

- Skills/traits/attributes from other classes that are useful to Archers

- Any info to help Archers doing what they do best.

- Any other info that is not in a category in the previously mentioned items.

- Discuss and elaborate please.

/eaction 1 Light Shot
/eaction 2 Heavy Shot
/eaction 3 Feint
/eaction 4 Multishot
/eaction 5 Raging strike II
/eaction 6 Ferocity II
/eaction 7 Hawk's Eye
/eaction 8 Blindside
/eaction 9 Siphon MP
/eaction 10 Cure III
/eaction 11 Puncture II
/eaction 12 Wide Volley II
/eaction 13 Shrieker
/eaction 14 Bloodletter
/eaction 15 Trifurcate
/eaction 16 Siphon TP
/eaction 21 Chameleon
/eaction 22 Raise
/eaction 23 Chainspell
/eaction 24 Sleep
/eaction 25 Protect II
/eaction 26 Shell II
/eaction 27 Stoneskin

Alt 1
/action Trifurcate me
/action Raging strike
/action Ferocity
/action Hawk's Eye
/action Blindside
/wait 30
/wait 30
/wait 30
/echo Trifurcate stack ready

Alt 2
/action Puncure t
Alt 3
/action Wide volley t
Alt 4
/action Shrieker t
Alt 5
/action Bloodletter t

Stats
STR 86
DEX 86
VIT 80
MND 80
PIE 86
INT 86

Gear:
ACC rings +/- ATT choker
ATT and ACC attributes have priority over primary stats no matter how little in the gear slot.


To do what you do best:
Abuse multishot and use your buff abilities before a fight.
DO use multishot and trifurcated boosts during boss fights and stack all the abilities even if it means a full stamina bar's use. DO use abilities that reduce swings in emnity prior to using raging strike, hawk's eye, etc.
DO NOT wait until you're getting hit to use chameleon and collusion, constantly shed any hate you can.

DO NOT use anything but basic arrows.

basic arrows?

- Points Allocation I maxxed out the STR at 174, put 87 into VIT, and 93 into Dex. I am still working on moving my points around as I am not happy with the results I am getting. So these numbers are current but always changing.

- Gear equipped, I am again going with max STR points
Head - Silver Tricorne
Weapon - Crab Bow +2
Arrow - changes depending on the mob, but for general purpose I use Silver as I help farm mats for my ARC/CARP LS mate who makes us other arrows which we use in NM fights. I will get into arrows in a bit.
Body - Cavalier's Chainmail
Belt - Penance
Hands - Spiked Leather Armguards. I don't like the look and stats on other gear but these give HP +23, so I can live with that. I would use the Venerer's Braces for stats but the STR -2 was not my cup of tea.
Pants - Leather Skirt, again for STR
Shoes - Engineer's Leggings as it gives HP +32 and Vit +2.
Rings - Three Garnet Rings which helps in STR +7 for each.

The gear is also another thing I am constantly changing around, so this is not a final end product.

Macros:
For buffs in fights I use
/ac "Raging Strike II" <t>
/ac "Hawk's Eye" <t>
/ac "Still Precision" <t>
/ac "Ferocity" <t>

This is another work in progress thing since Ferocity is not an archer's best friend and if your tank loses hate, guess who is more than likely the next meat shield?

- My action bars
Bar 1 goes like this: Heavy Shot, Light Shot, Trifurcate, Shrieker, Barrage, Foeseeker, Bloodletter, Multishot, Invigorate, Cure II.
Bar 2 goes like this: Raging Strike II, Hawk's Eye, Still Precision, Ferocity, Refill
Bar 3 goes like this: Chameleon, Feint, Sacrifice II, Second Wind II

- General tactics for certain mobs. We try to implement the shots into the Battle Regimens for maximum effectiveness.

Uraeus - Shrieker to his head using Red Coral Arrows. Stand outside his AoE range in front of him and go to town.
Dodore - Shrieker to his eye using Silver Arrows. Usually I stay back and let the tank (most of the time a THM) and once the minions are about 50%, just take them out using only Heavy Shot until they are gone and then go to town on Dodore.
Elder Mosshorn - Shrieker to his horns using Iron Swallowtail Arrows. We usually go for one of the Billy first and then the Nannygoats. Once those are gone, we stand with the tank in front and do our attacks until the horns break. Since he has no AoE, we are safe there.
Great Buffalo - Stand on right side and using Iron Swallowtail Arrows. Stand to his right side away from his AoE circle and use Bloodletter to his right horn.
Haughtpox Bloatbelly - Red Corral Arrows. Right arm use Barrage, let arm use Foeseeker, and head use Shriker.

- Skills/traits/attributes from other classes that are useful to Archers: As you can see from my action bars, I utilize many classes' skills

I never use shrieker because of the long cool down. Use Skullsunder 2 or Concussive blow 2 they both have much shorter cooldowns and with affinity traits they do just as much as shrieker.

Weapon: Crab bow +2
Ammo: Silver Arrows (best arrows by far)
Head: Silver Tricorne +1
Body: Bucc's shirt (maybe eternal shade for the extra attack)
Hands: Spiked leather (I agree veners really blow)
Waist: Penance
Legs: Tarred Leather Trousers
Feet: Cavalry Sollerets (not for arc but nothing better for str)
Jewelry: mythril choker (for the attack) 2 garnet rings.

With stat conversion traits I'm at 175 Str 120 Vit 144 Dex as Archer.

Raging Strike II, Ferocity II, Hawk's Eye, Blindside 2, Cadence, Bloodletter, Quick Nock, and Wide Volley II are staples, my bar might change depending on what I'm killing.

About the arrows situation, Silver and Red Coral is about the same damage even on earth affinity mobs like buffalo. People have claimed that having a high water affinity affects coral arrow damage, but I haven't tested it to find out.

I notice some of you are boosting STR while others focus on DEX. I realize the debate on whether it is worth investing most points on DEX even though there is a cap.

However, i would like to hear your input on why you focus on STR, DEX or be it any other trait, along with your equipment, skills...etc

My archer is still at rank 26; i will revisit my post again to share my equipment, traits...etc might be helpful for others around my rank.

Peace

My setup (r46 arc)

head: Darksilver Circlet (Aquamarine)
body: Cavalier Chainmail (blue)
hands: Brass Vambraces (black)
belt: Iron Tassets
legs: Velveteen Kecks (black)
feet: Toadskin Leggings (brown)
accessories: Silver rings x2, Sunstone ring, Flourite ring +1

As far as actions go, I typically use arc skills exclusively, along with 2nd wind, cure 2, protect, shell, and stoneskin.
my traits include the tier 1 mag/phys conversions, plus prime conditioning, fleet of foot, and fastcast. (when in a party, I'll swap out fastcast w out of sight)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShinobiHakeem

I notice some of you are boosting STR while others focus on DEX. I realize the debate on whether it is worth investing most points on DEX even though there is a cap.

However, i would like to hear your input on why you focus on STR, DEX or be it any other trait, along with your equipment, skills...etc

My archer is still at rank 26; i will revisit my post again to share my equipment, traits...etc might be helpful for others around my rank.

Peace

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Currently DEX has a lower impact on Archer's actual accuracy than say, Marauder. 100 DEX into Marauder will result in a noticeable difference, where as you can have as low as 50-60 with Archer and not really see much change. Currently, after about (estimated) 100 points into a given stat, it gives diminishing returns and serves no real purpose. -However-, current battle/class/skill/job changes that are upcoming, along with physical level's roll changing/being removed/whatever, stat information as-is will be different by the end of summer... so really, doesn't matter. I've found with the -required- horizontal leveling of this game, it's best to keep a fairly even distribution of points, well-rounded characters have the best survivability for solo play, which will inevitably happen with the lack of a playerbase.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Belial

Currently DEX has a lower impact on Archer's actual accuracy than say, Marauder. 100 DEX into Marauder will result in a noticeable difference, where as you can have as low as 50-60 with Archer and not really see much change. Currently, after about (estimated) 100 points into a given stat, it gives diminishing returns and serves no real purpose. -However-, current battle/class/skill/job changes that are upcoming, along with physical level's roll changing/being removed/whatever, stat information as-is will be different by the end of summer... so really, doesn't matter. I've found with the -required- horizontal leveling of this game, it's best to keep a fairly even distribution of points, well-rounded characters have the best survivability for solo play, which will inevitably happen with the lack of a playerbase.

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Thanks! I thought the DEX cap effect kinda applies to all, but it's good to know that Marauder as you mentioned make use of more DEX. I currently lowered my DEX to 80 as ARC R32, making some space for MND...etc for mages classes.

I look forward to what changes the upcoming update to classes/jobs have that might affect ARC playstyle or abilities.

Thanks again for your reply!