[TIP] If you're going to be an Archer

[NZ_Player]

i find that any more than 1 damage buff at a time and things start changing colours
so i pace them out one after the other and everything goes fine with a higher dps consistency over a longer duration

[rhazchan]

This was I who said this. Make a macro to heal your targets target and target lock the mob and hit that button you will always cure the person the mob is currently targeting. Done. It is easy. Learn your damn (CNJ) class.



THM has unlimited MP thanks to astral and umbral switching. SMN has nearly unlimited thanks to Aetherflow and Energy Drain. The two Magic DPS classes have a much more sustained pool to go from than DPS.

came to say that too, but I'm not confident saying that it is easy for ppl who do it with controller since my WHM using Mouse-Over Macros.

Nine times out of ten, an archer is more likely kiting a tank rather than kiting a mob.

Kite the mob TO the tank, and then you can stop kiting because you did your job.

not all tank on fate "understand" their skill, like when they should using provoke and building aggro to take over the mob that are currently attacking the archer. it's safer for archer/brd to kite it to tank that "maybe" will take the aggro and take it from the archer/brd.

[Viridiana]

Learn your damn class. And if you're gonna be ranged dps? Start off as THM or ARC to learn some patience and how to stand still. Before becoming lololkitemaster (because magic classes have to charge attacks and have a smaller magic pool as opposed to Physical classes which draw from the endurance pool of 1000, which recharges steadily and allows you to move while spamming buttons.)

ARC isn't a magic class. I mean, yeah, I prefer to stand still, but this entire thread is about ARC kiting. >_>

[Maku]

came to say that too, but I'm not confident saying that it is easy for ppl who do it with controller since my WHM using Mouse-Over Macros.

I do. A macro is a macro (aside from mo macros which don't work for controllers) <tt> is the same for both.

[AznManDown]

So, I'm going to just toss my two cents into this thread. (And I apologize if I'm repeating things already said.)

For me, kiting is very situational.

In dungeons, I don't kite at all unless the tank dies and I need to do so to keep myself alive and keep the targets off of the casters/healer. And even if I do grab aggro by accident, I run to the tank and the tank runs to me. We meet in the middle.

Some people just don't give a damn about threat. For those people, if they paid attention to the threat meter and pulled their punches (or arrows in this case) just a little when they're reaching the top, everything will turn out fine. And sometimes, it isn't because the tank isn't doing their job properly.. Sometimes you're (or I'm) a little better geared and pump out that much damage.

Kiting keeps me alive in certain situations, especially if there isn't anyone else to back me up. But yeah, even as a ARC/BRD, I think kiting just to kite just isn't necessary.

[Tenkiei]

Um...no...threat does not work that way.
A Tank doesn't just run up to a mob, slap it with a combo, and hold threat forever.
The amount of threat built is somewhat larger than a DPS, but not massively so that it becomes a non-issue.
If a BLM or a Brd choose to go nuts and not make any attempt to manage enmity, then they're probably going to die, and they do deserve to die.
The tank can only do so much regarding threat in this game.
It isn't WoW or RIFT or EQ2 where you can just pop threat builders/finishers and then go grab a beer.

Actually no, Bards have this spell called "Quelling Strikes" that reduces our threat by 70-90% (estimate) for the first 15s of the fight, if we ever pull off the tank it's their fault, they are bad, and they should feel bad, I'm relic +1, I can queue with my friend who has an il55 weapon and have 0 threat problems on boss.

If you mean on trash mobs...not pulling threat on trash mobs would require not dpsing them, why would I do that when the time I spent not dpsing them would have been better spent killing the next mob because they only live for a few seconds either way?

In short, if we're talking about bosses and the tank loses threat then it is 100% on them past L34 (when Bards get Quelling), if we're talking trash mobs....well I haven't come across many people who care about minimizing threat on something with a lifespan of 10-20s.

Edit: one other note, there is an amazing spell called "Cover" many tanks may wish to look into it, very nice for when the tank is so bad at threat generation, and so undergeared that the healer pulls off them just trying to keep them alive.

[Bardo]

Well, the OP was talking about FATES, where an Archer is often first to pull and kite before other people get there.
Because provoke only works on tagged mobs it will inevitably take so long for the tank surpass him in threat, that standing still WILL result in death without heals.

Yet the OP seems to think that continuing to kite as soon as a tank shows up automatically means that you are "doing it wrong".
I'm not 100% sure I agree with him.

If I saw a tank trying to pull aggro and also saw myself getting heals, THEN I would pop a defensive cooldown and stand still so the tank can attempt to pull it off me.
But in FATES, there is no guarantee that a healer is going to even try to heal you.
So in my opinion, just blindly expecting a kiting archer to stand still as soon as a tank shows up is ridiculous.

Throw a couple single target heals on him, even if he's full. THEN if he doesn't stop you can yell at him.