Carraway's Guide to the New Archer: 1.18 and Beyond

[Rentahamster]

With battle regimen gone in 1.19, we're not going to be able to do 3k lightshots on ogre anymore.

...or are we????

It'll be fun developing new strategies, I guess.

[carraway]

Murugan, we also look at our damage breakdowns, and in an approximately 3.5 minute ogre fight (probably a bit shorter due to the way parsers have to wait for chat log output from the client), our top archers are typically doing around 6000-6500 damage just from Light Shot, without BRs.

I do believe that we could be a lot faster if we did use BRs, but we've chosen not to practice them on a regular basis since they're being removed shortly. It's not that I disagree with you on your observation of the average maximum damage of Light Shots affecting your fights more than the number of Light Shots, it's simply that I think that this is a unique corollary pertaining to the usage of BRs. I know they're great for cutting down bosses faster right now, but I'm also glad that BRs are going away, because the underlying interface completely sucks, as does the principle of locking people into not doing anything for any amount of time.

Regardless, the core precept is the same: the more Light Shots you do → the tighter your rotation/prioritization is → the more damage you will do.

[Murugan]

I guess I don't understand what you mean by the more light shots you do. The only time I can think of where you wouldn't be using light shot is while you were buffing, and like I said in my post I find that buffing with multishot rather than trifurcate gives me better overall damage (even when I am not doing BR's). Not to mention that you have to use x2 multishot in between trifurcates at least, because trifurcate has a 2 minute cooldown, while all your buffs are 1:05 minute max. I see a lot of Archers when I do pick up groups outside of my LS that only buff trifurcates, and your guide makes no mention of the importance of doing a buffed 2x multishot halfway in between trifurcates.

Self buffing Ferocity/Cadence/Keen Flurry/Murderous/Blindside/Still Precision/Raging Strikes takes ~5-6 seconds even if you put them on a macro and spam it (the fastest way I find to self buff), and they have a 5 second longer timer. It would be less if I cut still precision and keen flurry, but especially if my heavy shot/bloodletter lines up after the multishot for that first 5 seconds I'm not really just sitting there at all during the entire 15 seconds it takes multishot to refresh.

So I have started not using trifurcate for full buffs at all and instead using it for single quelling/raging strike buffs. My playstyle is built around maximizing multishots, so trifurcate is something I just use in between those as a fast x2 (but not something I buff around because it's strength is that it is faster than 2x multishots for the same power so I don't want to waste any time buffing extensively for it and negating that advantage).

I realize that regardless of whether you do BR or not light shot makes up the greatest percentage of your damage, but you should look at your minimum damage on light shot. Mine is only 48 so unbuffed light shots every 4.5 seconds are not what is giving me the bulk of my damage. Skull sunder and Bloodletter DoT damage (and Bloodletter's end damage) are not reported in a parse, both of those are likely much higher than light shot (and skull sunder has a 76 dmg low end for me), and Heavy Shot even gives 54.

If you hit light shot every time in 3.5 minutes unbuffed@ 48 damage it would only give you 2240 damage (so average ~2500?) so most of your damage is still coming from the buffed multishots/trifurcates I think.

My point is doing a fully buffed light shot, with or without BR is always going to be better than trying to get in a few more unbuffed light shots. So doing that twice as much as you are doing now(according to your guide at least) seems like the better thing to focus on.

[Murugan]

1. Always keep all of your AoE WSs on cooldown, prioritizing Leg Sweep against non-flying targets then Wide Volley II then Brandish II/Heavy Trammel/etc.

I used Brandish II for a while, but I find that Arrow Helix actually does better damage (however it has a blindspot close to the archer so you have to step away before using it if you have aggro).

[carraway]

My point is doing a fully buffed light shot, with or without BR is always going to be better than trying to get in a few more unbuffed light shots. So doing that twice as much as you are doing now(according to your guide at least) seems like the better thing to focus on.

1. Always keep Trifurcate on cooldown.
- If Trifurcating, always use at least Raging Strike II, Hawk's Eye, and all other buffs if possible.
2. Always keep Multishot on cooldown.
- If Multishotting, always use at least Raging Strike II.
3. Always keep Light Shot on cooldown.

So, yeah, I actually did state the importance of buffing your 2-arrow shots.

[Murugan]

So, yeah, I actually did state the importance of buffing your 2-arrow shots.

When I say 2x multishot I mean 3 arrow shots as in I use multishot twice when I have all buffs available. Sorry I thought that was clear.

[carraway]

If you're not doing BRs, buffing a 2-arrow Multishot is better than waiting for another Multishot cooldown unless you have enough TP to WS for 15 seconds straight.

[Murugan]

If you're not doing BRs, buffing a 2-arrow Multishot is better than waiting for another Multishot cooldown unless you have enough TP to WS for 15 seconds straight.

How do you buff 6 times in 0 seconds? I broke down exactly what I do in my post above.

Also during Ogre I get 300 max per shot outside of BR when fully buffed, if your 3 unbuffed light shots=300 damage then I want to know what you are doing differently than me.

[NoctisUmbra]

I buff my Trifurcate with Raging2, Blindside2, Ferocity2 and Hawk's Eye. This entire buffing process takes no more than 3-4 seconds as I run a macro for it.

Light Shot CD is 4 seconds on a Crab Bow.

I'd prefer to nick off a second or 2 tops from my Light Shot cooldown due to buffing taking so long rather than give myself a forced 15 second window to get my buffs straight by preferring to buff 2x Multishots.

I hit Multishot on cooldown to nock an arrow and I buff it with Raging every other cycle (MS: 15s, Raging: 30s). The other buffs are primarily on a 1 min timer, and thus I save them for Trifurcates.

This way I am firing off single buffed double shots at each available time, as well as fully buffed triple shots as they become available.

From what I understand, Carraway is trying to say most of Archer's DPS comes from Light Shot as opposed to Weaponskills.

Bloodletter is all about the 500 end damage. The DoT is not something to write home about. It's a bonus. 1-2 Light Shots do more damage than it does total. Weaponskills in general, with their cooldowns and TP requirements, will not outdamage keeping Light Shot firing every cooldown.

Let's also not forget you are typically not alone in a team. If there's another Archer, you can't take sole credit for Bloodletter. Bloodletter is a skill that needs to be managed by all Archers in the party either by selecting a designated user or by coordinated use. Skull Sunder II is spammed like no other by DoW DPS in any competent party. Also not something an Archer takes credit for.

[Murugan]

I buff my Trifurcate with Raging2, Blindside2, Ferocity2 and Hawk's Eye. This entire buffing process takes no more than 3-4 seconds as I run a macro for it.

Light Shot CD is 4 seconds on a Crab Bow.

I'd prefer to nick off a second or 2 tops from my Light Shot cooldown due to buffing taking so long rather than give myself a forced 15 second window to get my buffs straight by preferring to buff 2x Multishots.

I hit Multishot on cooldown to nock an arrow and I buff it with Raging every other cycle (MS: 15s, Raging: 30s). The other buffs are primarily on a 1 min timer, and thus I save them for Trifurcates.

This way I am firing off single buffed double shots at each available time, as well as fully buffed triple shots as they become available.

From what I understand, Carraway is trying to say most of Archer's DPS comes from Light Shot as opposed to Weaponskills.

Bloodletter is all about the 500 end damage. The DoT is not something to write home about. It's a bonus. 1-2 Light Shots do more damage than it does total. Weaponskills in general, with their cooldowns and TP requirements, will not outdamage keeping Light Shot firing every cooldown.

Let's also not forget you are typically not alone in a team. If there's another Archer, you can't take sole credit for Bloodletter. Bloodletter is a skill that needs to be managed by all Archers in the party either by selecting a designated user or by coordinated use. Skull Sunder II is spammed like no other by DoW DPS in any competent party. Also not something an Archer takes credit for.

Trifurcate has a 2 minute timer, so you are just sitting on those buffs for half of that time?

You should just try buffing a double multishot (3x light shot) when ferocity/etc. is up. You should also try (in my opinion) using Cadence and Murderous Intent as they both are pretty effective as well (Cadence may be removed/rendered useless or changed in 1.19). I think you'll find it makes a considerable difference to get twice as many big bursts as you do currently.

Also wondering if anyone else gets absorb attack transferred onto them by a mage for the bursts. It seems to be a pretty good way to boost damage as well (though granted when I do this we are usually using a full BR).