Good Job SE! You ruined the Archer class.

[Neko_Yanagi]

I've lightly read through here and I've noticed that no one has brought this up yet:

Yes, 15 sec recast on Multishot feels gimpy compared to how easy it was before. But if you still feel the need to overpower and steal hate before the tank can voke, LOAD YOUR ARROWS AS YOU RUN TO THE NEXT MOB. For goodness sakes, they fixed it so you don't stop running when you load your arrows, making it super easy to do this. Add in Fleet of Foot and just never put your bow away. EASY FIX.

For those who wish to still complain that they can't effectively use multishot during battle, you should quit. Because by the time you loaded up those arrows, you could have used light shot 3 times.

As a R46 archer, this class balancing (or as some of you call "nerf") made perfect sense to me. In this patch, they have made it so much easier for us by giving us the enmity gauge and taking away stamina. But all of you whiners still want to complain about a 15 sec recast on Multishot??? seriously, GTFO.

[Shikyo]

Archers did far too much damage previously. Being able to burst down a raptor to about 55% health (not even being R50 yet) in one skill is not balanced.

A nerf could be seen coming a mile away, just like Thaumaturges.

its better this way i play archer and its dumb to be able to kill shit as fast as you could befor, adds challenge i like the change

[Chiz]

Exactly, why do a fully buffed Multishot when you can just treat it as a free double attack every 15 seconds. If you use it every 15 seconds you can fire 4 shots in 30 seconds instead of 3 with buffs. This means more TP for ws and you can buff your ws instead of Multishot. In my opinion would create more damage but less burst.

I'd disagree, conservatively estimating only ~50% increase in dmg with only Raging Strike you'd see with base 100 dmg per arrow:

3x(100) = 300 x 1.5 = 450 total, not counting crits.
4x(100) = 400, not counting crits.

With crits, the buffed arrows benefit even more.

Obviously you throw in more buffs and the payoff/penalty for missing also increases, so if you're going to buff you're better off going all out or none at all. Buffing WS is OK too when they're up but for many ARC WS multishot does more damage. Multishot arrows + buffs are going to do more dmg than Barrage + Buffs, the rest of the WS are single-hit and don't benefit as much from the buffs. Plus something like Bloodletter gets a lot of its damage from a bleed element that's completely independent of any buffs.

Also @ Neko_Yanagi: I don't think anyone is overlooking the expectation you already have 3 arrows nocked on your first salvo, we're talking about the cooldown time needed after that to re-nock 3 arrows, which is undoubtedly a nerf since you'd have a full stamina bar to instantly re-nock 3 arrows with the old system and almost another 3rd salvo with 3 arrows, right away. So that is a good bit of burst dmg lost at the start of a fight. Also, Nocking an arrow with multi-shot does stop you from running with the animation, tested and lamented about it about 2 hrs ago.

[Neko_Yanagi]

Also, Nocking an arrow with multi-shot does stop you from running with the animation, tested and lamented about it about 2 hrs ago.

I brought my archer to a dungeon last night and was nocking my arrows between fights, I didn't stop. I didn't walk, I glided, but I didn't stop. Maybe it depends on lag of the area? But that's off point a bit...

It's a waste to keep nocking 3 arrows during a fight. just trifurcate if you need the burst of damage, and buff that up. Yes, Trifurcate has a 120 sec recast, but there is no need for a archer to dish out that kind of damage every 30 sec (raging strikes recast timer). Rely on your WS's instead, and adjust your attacks according to the hate you generate. It's very simple to adjust.

[Victor]

I really don't understand why autoattack with archer is attacking with your fists. That's complete the opposite of what it's supposed to be

[MiNuN]

@mikhei why not offer suggestions and ideas to help develop the game instead of complaining?

[Pyrix]

The only thing they fucked up was giving us a melee auto attack. Seriously what the fuck is that? Why wouldn't you give us an arrow auto attack. If we run out of arrows we run out of arrows but seriously what the fuck?

[Totobi]

Wow, this patch is getting rid of all the idiots

[Chiz]

I brought my archer to a dungeon last night and was nocking my arrows between fights, I didn't stop. I didn't walk, I glided, but I didn't stop. Maybe it depends on lag of the area? But that's off point a bit...

It's a waste to keep nocking 3 arrows during a fight. just trifurcate if you need the burst of damage, and buff that up. Yes, Trifurcate has a 120 sec recast, but there is no need for a archer to dish out that kind of damage every 30 sec (raging strikes recast timer). Rely on your WS's instead, and adjust your attacks according to the hate you generate. It's very simple to adjust.

I don't think lag has anything to do with it, I just tested again and it absolutely stops you from running for a split second, will break auto-run as well. Its nothing like the old combat/passive pause but its definitely there and especially noticeable compared to the new electric slide animation going from active/passive. But ya that's just a minor point.

As for there not being a point to doing as much dmg as possible with Multishot, I'd disagree. This new system is all about doing as many actions as possible and managing your timers to maximize your DPS. If you use Close Shot instead of Light Shot as your default attack on ARC, you really don't lose anything other than a little bit of range and you keep your buffed Multishot fully intact, you just have to nock it every 15s instead of whenever your buffs are about to come up, and you still get all your WS as well.

[LuxLex]

The only thing they___ed up was giving us a melee auto attack. Seriously what the ___ is that? Why wouldn't you give us an arrow auto attack. If we run out of arrows we run out of arrows but seriously what the ___?

Everyone leveled archer to punch things, duh.