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

[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).

[NoctisUmbra]

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).

I do try to use the buffs on the 1 minute mark on a double shot to get the most squeeze out of them, but many times due to moving about during the boss fights (shifting during Ogre, Skeles and shield light during Batraal) it doesn't end up mattering much anyway.

As far as saving 2 multishots to get a triple shot out, I see no feasibility in it unless you are standing close enough to use close shot as your primary attack while keeping the extra arrow nocked. Haven't tried that personally but heard that it works.

Waiting 15 seconds without shooting is just absurd. Even if you spend 4-5 or even 6 seconds of it buffing it isn't justified. Shouldn't take that long to buff anyway. Only time I end up getting 2x multishot up is when I'm away from the actual boss during batraal hitting lights, thus have the time to prepare the arrows.

We don't use BRs and they will be removed temporarily with 1.19 anyway so Cadence is a no. Murderous Intent, while can be nice, isn't worth a slot on my bar at this time. I can increase my critical hit rate through dexterity - whcih will also have a more profound effect post 1.19 apparently. Either way crit buffed Light Shot does just over 800 as opposed to a regular buffed Light Shot doing mid 700s. Not much compared to the drastic damage increase gained from actual buffs.

[Murugan]

I do try to use the buffs on the 1 minute mark on a double shot to get the most squeeze out of them, but many times due to moving about during the boss fights (shifting during Ogre, Skeles and shield light during Batraal) it doesn't end up mattering much anyway.

As far as saving 2 multishots to get a triple shot out, I see no feasibility in it unless you are standing close enough to use close shot as your primary attack while keeping the extra arrow nocked. Haven't tried that personally but heard that it works.

Waiting 15 seconds without shooting is just absurd. Even if you spend 4-5 or even 6 seconds of it buffing it isn't justified. Shouldn't take that long to buff anyway. Only time I end up getting 2x multishot up is when I'm away from the actual boss during batraal hitting lights, thus have the time to prepare the arrows.

We don't use BRs and they will be removed temporarily with 1.19 anyway so Cadence is a no. Murderous Intent, while can be nice, isn't worth a slot on my bar at this time. I can increase my critical hit rate through dexterity - whcih will also have a more profound effect post 1.19 apparently. Either way crit buffed Light Shot does just over 800 as opposed to a regular buffed Light Shot doing mid 700s. Not much compared to the drastic damage increase gained from actual buffs.

How is it not worth it. Show me a parse of your unbuffed light shots where they = 100+ damage each on the Ogre. That is how much damage you are missing not buffing an extra shot.

Fully buffed 3x shots does ~280-300 dmg each for me (outside of BR's). So 3.33 light shots (15 second multishot timer/4.5 second delay) would have to do 90+ damage each if you could somehow buff ferocity/etc. in 0 seconds. Since you can't buff instantaneously even spamming a macro, and since you can fire off a heavy shot or bloodletter after Multishot without spending it we are really talking about only 1-2 light shots you are missing out on.

So you are missing 300 damage potentially (out of a BR), or 800 damage (if you can BR) all for maybe two light shots? What weapon are you using that gives you that kind of unbuffed light shot?

Also cadence outside of a group BR is worth it, and Murderous intent is worth it because crits give ~10-20% more damage and Murderous Intent lasts well beyond the triple shot.

[Penguin]

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.

You either have an amazing connection to the server or just aren't actually watching you're screen while you are buffing because at no point have i ever seen 5 buffs take 3-4 seconds to apply, go test it yourself and if its 3-4 seconds than if possible post a video.

I have been testing archer rotations for a while now and for me atleast its impossible to get 2 buffs in between lightshot cooldowns, the animation of lightshot + the animation of the buff you are using is around 3-3.5 seconds for me meaning 1 lightshot followed by 1 buff/WS followed by 1 lightshot is the max i can do between cooldowns.

And also @Murugan.

I used to focus my rotation around fully buffing 3 nocked lightshots aswell and although i may have not been doing a perfect rotation at the time and although the damage looks great when your hitting for 250+ on each shot when i switched to a more focused lightshot rotation i actually started doing more damage per second than i was with fully buffing.

Next time you do a non BR ogre with your rotation if possible fraps it and upload it or just record total damage done and length of fight and post what dps you are doing over the entire fight because i would be interested to know what kind of dps you are doing with your rotation.

Edit: Murderous Intent is also 1 of the most powerful buffs currently for archer since the majority of their damage is from lightshots, it lasts a decent amount of time i think 30 seconds with axemanship? and the reduction in tp is very minimal, i have personally seen 3-4 minute fights with 42% crit rating over 70+ lightshots.