Archer - Auto Attack

[Arya]

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You still have Light Shot, you're not wasting anything.

Archer gameplay relies on careful use of multishot, which would get messed up if it had to comply with auto attack.

im pretty sure being up close with archer is actually going to be way less damage than being far away, its just a free damage system for rangers. better than throwing rocks eh?

how does one make use of AA anyway. it just happens, you have no control and you gain no benefit other than not having to press a button as much.

@Rentahamster

True, Light Shot will still exist, but remember it's now going on a timer, so it will not be able to be used that frequently as a "ranged" alternative to auto-attack unless SE make the dmg low enough and the reuse timer short enough (ie: a few seconds) to make it an optional alternative to the bare fist attack. However (and I really hope I'm mistaken about this, though SE haven not got a good track record of proving us wrong), I don't think SE will have thought of this, and Light Shot will probably have a longer reuse timer than needed, making it not very viable.

If ARC aren't using their auto-attack, and the melee's are, that is still continuous low level dmg that will be done "for free" on top of their skills, and in a long fight, that might make a difference. As to how much of a difference.....well, that all comes down to how SE balance the classes in terms of skill dmg and re-use timer adjustments. It might work out ok in comparision, or (at the other end of the spectrum) we may have just been kneecapped as a class.

Regarding Multishot, I don't want us ARC's to start thinking that "Multishot" is the be all and end all. It's a nice buff, but we have (and hopefully will continue to have) a number of other skills that are good. Besides, it also remains to be seen how SE modify Multishot.....we might not be so thrilled with this as well.

@Physic

Well, yes. It'll be a similar system to what they had planned for RNG in FFXI - ie: distance to mob altered accuracy/damage. If they do it by common sense (and for once I'm hoping they don't), standing point blank with a bow and arrow might give you good accuracy, but your dmg will likely be poor. If we want to make ourselves more "cost-effective" per arrow, we will want to be standing further back.

I have a feeling that the auto-attack may as well have been replaced with rock throwing, because SE could easily have made it do the same dmg, but at a distance. And as I just mentioned above, auto-attack is made use of by having something (even if small) to automatically hit the mob and do some (even if small) dmg while you might be waiting for a particular re-use timer to cool down. Else, we might be standing around a lot in-between skills, which to me just seems like a waste of us being there in the first place.

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As a thought, why couldn't they have made a boomerang the auto-attack? It comes back, doesn't require ammo replenishment, could be made to scale with your rank (ie: you buy a more powerful boomerang - because I'm fairly sure melee auto-attack dmg would have been made to be based on rank/weapon equipped), and doesn't look as lame as a rock throw.

Definitely, if they had made auto-attack rely on arrows that we have to purchase/craft, ARC would have potentially shut down overnight except for the rich players. Some might argue that "if you can't afford it, don't play it", but I don't agree. I love ARC (hell, I played RNG main for 3 years in FFXI before I quit), it's my main and will continue to be for as long as I play FFXIV, but a lot of the gil I earn from leves...etc.. goes into levelling my CUL and ALC. I can afford (especially with kind assistance from LS members) to obtain arrows for general use, but if I start having to **** them away with an auto-attack that won't give me decent dmg for its use because it's an auto-attack, I may have to temporarily concentrate on my crafts until they're capped, so I can then funnel extra funds into arrows, in order to account for wastage.