Are Archers / bard hard to play?

Due to some disabilities I have a hard time multitasking mouse/mouse buttons/movement keys and number keys at the same time.
My question is, playing an archer do I have to continuously run in circles every mob I attack? Or can I stand still and do my attacks without dying fast. (Obviously I need to move out of radius or frontal attacks).
This is mostly focused on solo questing. I assume in a dungeon or such I can stand in the rear with the casters and shoot arrows.

for soloing, if you can get your choco fight with you, you can safely fight standing still and pummeling the occasional mob from the distance, so be assured. Some dungeons and primal fights in hard mode require you some movement, but it can be done easily. So basically nup, is not that hard to play.

Compared to other classes in this game, yeah Bard's probably the easiest.

For soloing, I usually just get nom'd in the face without caring much, because the enemy's HP is dropping faster than mine anyway.

Lol Bards/Archers are easy mode turrets.

Thx for input

From what I hear, easiest but their DPS is on the lower end compared to other classes and they don't seem to scale well with gear.

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Originally Posted by savant07

From what I hear, easiest but their DPS is on the lower end compared to other classes and they don't seem to scale well with gear.

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Misconception. Bard has some of the highest dps when not singing.

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Originally Posted by LunarEmerald

Misconception. Bard has some of the highest dps when not singing.

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Isn't that only true for when our item level gear is low? I heard we don't scale well late game

Bards are the easiest class to play and have amazing dps end game.

They can run while shooting and dealing damages which is equal or even greater than blms. Their ability to attack while running makes this class very very easy to play

everyone always claims the top DPS is the easiest... Monks get shown what skill to hit next so do dragoons... Nothing is hard its how you manage it.


Keep in mind less then 1% of the posters have even seen Titan much less killed something in Coil.

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Originally Posted by Eckoh

everyone always claims the top DPS is the easiest... Monks get shown what skill to hit next so do dragoons... Nothing is hard its how you manage it.


Keep in mind less then 1% of the posters have even seen Titan much less killed something in Coil.

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Yeah, would be nice to know people who have done these instances to know what DPS is most sought after

but we all agree monk takes a lot more practice...

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Originally Posted by Kroktar

but we all agree monk takes a lot more practice...

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Strafe left 2 yalms. Press highlighted button. Strafe right 2 yalms. Press highlighted button. Strafe left 2 yalms. Press highlighted button.

Practice? You move 2 yalms then use a skill. There's barely any practice involved. The only thing holding Monks back is GL dropping on heavy movement/add fights.

Bards get a little tricky when you're expected to watch the healers MP and play ballad accordingly. If they're needing ballad then there's a lot of crap to dodge. Archer/Bard also pulls hate the fastest of any dps, so you have to be more careful. Being a good Archer/Bard requires always looking at the hate indicator and know when to stop attacking altogether. We pull aggro very easily, especially against subpar tanks.

Lotta people in here never played Monk, heh.

Yeah, Bard is by far the easiest DPS. It has nothing to do with their actual damage (yeah Eckoh, we're all secretly jealous of you!), it's their base mechanics that are so forgiving that makes them easy to play.

I'd take any easy class as long as they're helpful in many situation.

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Isn't that only true for when our item level gear is low? I heard we don't scale well late game

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No, BRD are pretty strong when they're not singing.

I'd even put them on par with DRG and BLM. Their song is their handicap, if BRD dps were low then those songs would completely ruin them as DPS.

When I started I would run circles around the enemy while firing. I would be jumping and etc which makes it a lot of fun and more engaging! I feel if I stand in one spot then I'm a sitting duck so I keep moving! Just be careful not to run off a cliff while running circles around your target like I have done at times lol!

Besides the awesome ability to move while firing we also have the least rigid rotation, with some variety even (not much, mind you - there's very little variety to combat rotations in general in this game - but at least we're not locked into 1-2-3-4-rinse-repeat like the Monks, thank god). I don't know if it's the easiest class to play but it's the most fun unless your preference is to be bored to tears after you've gained the muscle memory necessary to perform the above mentioned 1-2-3-4-rinse-repeat.

Depends on the situation @ hand... For Titan bard can be allot more fun, DoT's, Songs, Attack Buffs etc. You got to remember BRD can buff/combo most of it's skills to get the high DPS people want but at the same time, you can lower your skills to do more buffs and dots. All on the roll of the fight, Chimera Silence whore, Hydra Rain of death whore, Primal MP whore. but You really just need to set your bars up so you boost the right Actions to most help you in any given fight.

Bard is simple, takes no skill or coordination to play at all, I got bored of it at 40

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Originally Posted by Kasrai

Strafe left 2 yalms. Press highlighted button. Strafe right 2 yalms. Press highlighted button. Strafe left 2 yalms. Press highlighted button.

Practice? You move 2 yalms then use a skill. There's barely any practice involved. The only thing holding Monks back is GL dropping on heavy movement/add fights.

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You must be joking or haven't tried to maximize monk dps @ 50.

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Originally Posted by Kasrai

Strafe left 2 yalms. Press highlighted button. Strafe right 2 yalms. Press highlighted button. Strafe left 2 yalms. Press highlighted button.

Practice? You move 2 yalms then use a skill. There's barely any practice involved. The only thing holding Monks back is GL dropping on heavy movement/add fights.

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1. Twins Snakes buff must always be up.
2. Greased Lightning III must always be up.
3. Dragon Kick debuff must always be up.
4. Demolish must always be up.

Set #1

~ Touch of Death

Cycle #1
1 > Bootshine
2 > Twin Snakes [10% damage buff]
3 > Demolish [Greased Lightning I]

Cycle #2
1 > Dragon Kick [Blunt resistance debuff]
2 > True Strike
3 > Snap Punch [Greased Lightning II]

Cycle #3
1 > Bootshine
2 > Twin Snakes [Refresh 10% damage buff]
3 > Snap Punch

Cycle #4
1 > Bootshine
2 > True Strike
3 > Demolish [Demolish wears off right about here]

Set #2

~ Touch of Death [as stated, 30 second duration]

This is where it gets really stupid...

1 > Dragon Kick
2 > Twin Snakes
3 > Snap Punch
V
1 > Bootshine
2 > True Strike
3 > Snap Punch
V
1 > Bootshine
2 > Twin Snakes
3 > Demolish
V
1 > Dragon Kick
2 > True Strike
3 > Snap Punch


Bootshine and True Strike = Behind
Dragon Kick, Twin Snake and Snap punch = side

You also need to keep Fracture up

source of rotation


Its easier then Bard right? /sarcasm

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Originally Posted by Astralis

Bards are the easiest class to play and have amazing dps end game.

They can run while shooting and dealing damages which is equal or even greater than blms. Their ability to attack while running makes this class very very easy to play

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i wouldn't really say bards are the easiest class to play end game when you have to watch healer mana pools, manage 6 cooldowns on different timers, 3 proc activations (only 1 of which that can be ignored with a macro), and 2 dots that have to have 100% uptime in order to maximize dps. being able to dps while moving is great and all but saying bards are "easy" is a misconception.

oh and bards scale great late game, the only reason people think they do "not so great dps" is because we dont have the 800+ damage on 1 ability thing. what we do have is auto-attacks, 2 dots, and a bunch of skills with an innately high crit chance.

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Originally Posted by ilJumperMT

Its easier then Bard right? /sarcasm

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So basically you strafe side to side and press the highlighted buttons. Gotcha.

Just because your rotation has more abilities that need to be used than other jobs doesn't mean you're doing anything other than strafing side to side and pressing the highlighted buttons. Just people trying to justify their choice to play a certain job over another.

Bard is easy mode. you can just run around dodging everything while doing your full DPS rotation.

The thing what makes bard easy is just the ability to fire while running. It makes dodgin AoE like e.g. Titan plumes rather easy compared to other ranged classes.

Bard is just good, hit and run. The most effective style of fighting. Nothing is difficult to play execution wise, strategy is what is hard, communicating, knowing your enemy and situations, adapting.

Im not saying bards are an easy class but among the other dps, they take the less time to master and by far the easiest to play

Summoners have weak dps and have to manage a lot of dot uptimes and have to manage their pet as well.

Dragoons/monks - theyre melee so its harder than playing range. Also they need to position themselves every now and then, as monk, executing your next skill late will result to a huge dps loss

BLM - You have to manage the thunder uptime, when to use blizzard3 fire3 fire1 flare and have to watch for procs. Also the casting makes you immobile and when aoe targets you, you have to cancel casting which may break your rotation if youre not skillful enough resulting again to a bad mana management and a huge dps loss.


Bard - basically hit and run around watch the mages and healers mana, sing a song, then dps again

Bards may be easiest but their DPS isn't as strong as all the other DPS. They fall behind.

Not true at all. Bards have also the highest dps. I play mage and when we run around because of aoe circles, we stop attacking. Same with mnk and dragoons, they stop attacking because they constantly move.

While bards, they can shoot while running so basically among all the dps class, theyre the only class who can dps on the move and can pretty much keep on attacking the entire boss fight plus not to mention bard's constant crits

What Astralis said. Although, sometimes I tend to make the mistake of thinking that I can avoid an AoE while constantly attacking, and if it didn't have that tiny bit of lag it might be true, but often I'll think I got out while hammering away all the while and still take the hit. So, sadly, as of late I've just been ending my attacks in favor of running from AoEs. It's just slightly faster, but it makes all the difference.