Why do Archers suck so bad against Ifrit?

[Dargoth_Draconia]

I play a R50 Archer and really it is the only class I care to play at the moment til Musketeer comes out. I admit we were pretty OP at one point in time but we have been nerfed so hard that we aren't even usable on the Ifrit fight. I watch all the Lancers in my LS hit Ifrit with TP moves for 700 damage yet the highest mine does fully buffed is 200 something. I just want Archer to be even with the other DD classes also Multishot only gets TP from the first arrow? What gives? Atleast let us get base TP from the first arrow then half of that for each successful nocked arrow that lands. I don't mind the damage nerfs as far as the Raging Strike buff goes and stuff like that. Hopefully these balance changes are coming in 1.20.

[TonyMontana]

Archer got a solid year of being the end all be all DPS be happy with that. Most times when nerfs happen they are not perfect. Usually the class getting nerfed after a long time on top gets nerfed way to hard. It sounds like thats what happened to archer. Will there be a correction? Maybe in time but I dont think many people have the sympathy to whine and cry for archers enough for SE to react sooner than later.

Is this right? No but hey atleast your main isnt cul, the worst class in the game STILL by far.

[Stjevne]

1.20. Class balancing. The game's in beta, don't worry about it.

[Andrien]

perhaps some mobs are just strong against piercing damage

[Kaida]

Mostly because of our poor STR try putting on STR materia on W/E gear you can, and DEX on ya bow. I hear that helps

[Rogue]

from my understanding archers arent wanted in the ifrit fight is because they dont have an auto attack and thus suffer from lots of animation lock- which is deadly when your required to be ready to haul ### at any given moment.

but forgetting that- i think archers have paid for their range and the invulnerability that goes with it, if archers did anywhere near close range DD damage people would still stick with archers since not having to cure anyone other than the tank is a huge benefit to the party.

as it is now- people are willing to take mrd and lnc for the increased dps.

[grandm]

i don't feel sorry for archers. maybe gone are the days of a party being tank 1 healer 1 healer 2 archer 1 archer 2 archer 3 archer 4 archer 5

[AdvancedWind]

i don't feel sorry for archers. maybe gone are the days of a party being tank 1 healer 1 healer 2 archer 1 archer 2 archer 3 archer 4 archer 5

So much different from tank 1 healer 1 healer 2 debuffer 1 lancer 1 lancer 2 lancer 3 lancer 4 right?

[Wynn]

Some of you guys act as if it is ARC players' faults that ARC was OP before. Just because the class was OP doesn't mean it should be weak now. Don't be like that. It's childish.

To address the OP: ARC is not useless in the Ifrit fight. You just have to be better at timing your attacks because of the animation lock and reapply bloodletter just as soon as you can once it wears.

[Keftenk]

They do poorly because they lack a burst WS.

LNC has Doomspike as well as Chaos Thrust.
PUG has Victimize (they need another WS imo as well to keep up with LNC and MRD)
MRD has Maim and Storms Path
ARC's Bloodletter is pathetic and the DoT explosion has been nerfed

Their power prior to 1.19 was in multishot, it was never in WS dmg. Majority of their insane damage came from strictly regular shots.