Archer Post 1.19

[bobumsss]

Why shouldn't arrows have different DPS? Not all arrow tips are the same, nor do they do the same thing.

This is a very good point. Whats interesting is that the archer started as a class that by purchasing different arrows you would be able to do different kinds of damage (originally the build was monsters were weak to different kinds of mele attacks i.e. slashing piercing so on and so forth) but when Yoshi-P took over (not that I am complaining he is doing awesome) the mele damage types went out the window. I would like to see them come back just so I can justify paying 20k+ a stack for arrows. I would craft them but I find crafting tedious and annoying.

[Fraus]

Abauge I'm with you I actually stopped leveling my arc because no one wants it end game right now... I understand the class was alittle OP but now its not even worth having in the party arc or ranger in any mmo always has high dps usually only ever behind mages... I don't understand smh

[Cidolfus]

Haven't really done the ifrit fight, why are archers useless there?

[Coglin]

Haven't really done the ifrit fight, why are archers useless there?

They are not useless. Its just that morons, fools, and idiots, confuss less then optimal with usless.

[Arya]

They are not useless. Its just that morons, fools, and idiots, confuss less then optimal with usless.

By "less than optimal", you mean things along the lines of not having Sentinel...etc... from other melee jobs?

I think it's unfair to expect that only "the best" of a class should only be able to participate in a particular fight. If you're looking to promote people playing together and enjoying gameplay, fights like Ifrit need to be balanced enough to allow the majority of players in all classes to be able to enter. I agree that there are always those that play their chosen class diabolically and are completely lacking insight into this, but even if you can play ARC fairly well, I think it's still a larger challenge to do Ifrit than with other melee classes.

I don't see most melee skills as meshing well with ARC. Those skills are for players up close, and a lot of the time are wasted on ARC. We could do with a separate set of skills that melee don't get that augment what we need to do specifically (and obviously to counterbalance that we would lose access to melee skills and they to ours).

I'm a die-hard Archer and have continued to play since recent changes, but am not convinced in the arguments suggested above.

So, what benefits do we get in return for this damage reduction?

Being able to range? Well, it is true that we can stand further away than melee (losing the "auto-attack" we've been given - why this was ever done if you're trying to keep a ranged class ranged I don't know), but we are still close enough at times to get hit by AoE regularly. If we're going to be proud of our range, it could do with being a little further to make it a true "plus" of being a ranged class (ie: we don't do as much damage and we can be squishy, but seeng as AoE doesn't reach us, we can keep going that little bit longer when other classes get pounded flat up close).

Arrow types? As already discussed, this idea has gone out of the window to date. It would be nice to be able to choose mob-specific arrows to improve damage. It would be nice to have effect arrows like in FFXI (eg: sleep, stun, poison, elemental attributes...etc...) if we're being pushed down the path of support.

Better defense? Nope, ARC only has access to soft armour. We're pretty much still as squishy as before, so that's not changed.

Future planned changes such as BRD? It's hard to justify changes now if the potential reason is months away from being brought in. That just shows SE don't care whether they temporarily kneecap classes as long as their timetable is unaffected. If this was planned because of BRD, these changes could have been made at the time BRD is brought in.

My Questions/Suggestions

1. Why can't ARC's be given the choice as to whether they want to be damage-dealers (in which case they should be given more damaging skills like a decent 3000TP skill to be able to truly compete with the other melee classes), or supporters (in which case you take a hit in the damage stakes in return for support ability access)?

2. When it is brought in, could Musketeer be the flip side to BRD? ie: Aim for ARC being middle ground damage/some support skills, BRD is less damage/more support, and Musketeer is high damage/no support (ie: the "stereotypical" glass cannon everyone always talks about)?

[Rexen]

So my primary class is ARC and I have been fighting Ifrit with it exclusively. I may not do as much damage as say a LNC but I definitely keep up. I don't understand why everyone feels that they have to change classes to something else to be "successful" in these fights. Yes they dropped the dps on ARC but it is no way useless. Being able to not get hit, drop a pretty decent DoT, and assist cure/raise when needed makes it a pretty good support package for the Ifrit fight.

[Ryokyu]

i agree the nerft was way to hard on arc they should do alittle more dmg then other class just because u have different types of arrows but now is almost the worse class to play but lets see what happen what SE is trying to do

[Exn]

So my primary class is ARC and I have been fighting Ifrit with it exclusively. I may not do as much damage as say a LNC but I definitely keep up. I don't understand why everyone feels that they have to change classes to something else to be "successful" in these fights. Yes they dropped the dps on ARC but it is no way useless. Being able to not get hit, drop a pretty decent DoT, and assist cure/raise when needed makes it a pretty good support package for the Ifrit fight.

Your not keeping up with the LNC dps, not even close. And if by some off chance you are, that lnc is doing really terrible dps. I would love for you to be able to back up your claim with a parse, or maybe even a couple screenies with a duo ARC group taking him down.. but I know that's asking too much.

[EcchiMan]

Your not keeping up with the LNC dps, not even close. And if by some off chance you are, that lnc is doing really terrible dps. I would love for you to be able to back up your claim with a parse, or maybe even a couple screenies with a duo ARC group taking him down.. but I know that's asking too much.

Yup, to keep up means to match or do the same damage...so his sentence doesn't make sense. They also made Bloodletter very hard to land on Ifrit; and nerfed it's end damage. Not to mention the Light Shot animation lock. I'd also like to see a 5 ARC dd video...probably run out of time or mana.

[Hartigan_Redsail]

Yeah...I thought people were kinda crying when archer's got changed...decided to lvl one because I plan to play bard. Got 50 today and people aren't kidding. Archer is just so bad..so bad ....so bad