fantasypisces wrote...
Anyway, I have been playing my archer more, and nope, MY OPINION STILL STANDS!
Arrow of Slaying seems to be getting resisted 30-40% of the time on normal difficulty or higher. It and scattershot both have 60second cooldowns. So for 58 seconds I continue to maintain that the archer line is worthless.
AoS does not work on Bosses and Elites. It works exceptionally well against Whites. The damage scaling in AoS is such that it grows by 25*(Level Difference^2). So if the target is a Yellow or Orange, you're not going to do any damage.
fantasypisces wrote...
I just did a test, having my 2h warrior and my archer get to the same fight at the same level (level 12).
It is in the abandoned building in Denerim, there is the room with the long table then a balcony behind it. On that balcony is a narrow stair with a bear trap at the top. Behind it is a Qunari mercenary, a blood mage, and two archers.
Enter my Archer on hard difficulty. He takes down the Qunari mercenary at the top of the stairs. Arrow of slaying the Blood mage... but it gets resisted! Scattershot instead, aggros the other archer. So now the mage, and 2 archers are stunned. He plinks away at the mage, finally killing it. Two archers left, that proceed to deal enough damage that my archer has to drink 3 health poultices and have morrigan heal him 3 times before he kills both of them.
Now switch to my 2H warrior on hard mode.
He kills the Qunari Mercenary from ranged. Sends Sten up to get hit by the trap and die (without dealing any damage himself) to take the trap out of the equation (the trap was not used against my archer). There is a mage, and 2 archers at the top of the ramp now. My 2h warrior charges up, pummel strikes the mage, mighty blow, single hit... mage dead. Sweep (knockdowns) the two archers. Sunder armor, sunder arms, normal hit, one archer down. Auto-attacks the last archer down. Total health poultices used: ZERO, total heals Received: ZERO. And this was done in a spec that many others consider to be bad as well.
Archers are not supposed to be the main aggro threat, well not at least in a party setting. In solo it's tough, but doable because you get other skills sooner. Drawing aggro as an archer is stupid, you're going to have to use potions. If you wanted to avoid damage in a front line position, you need to wear heavier armor, which of course drops attack speed. If not, then let somebody else draw aggro, you plink away. Blaming the archer for not standing up to two opposing archers flies in the face of strategy; they take turns in critting/scattershotting etc. etc.
fantasypisces wrote...
The problem with archery is that it is low damage. Well that's fine, your a support role right? Wrong, the debuffs are bad for the most part, and easily resisted. Not to mention they take a long time to 'cast'. The problem with this long time? If you get stunned, knocked down, frozen, whatever before the ability goes off, then not only does the ability not go off, but you lost all the stamina it took to activate the ability.
And trust me, my archer doesn't get off half of his abilities because of all the scattershots in the game.
Erm, if you had a shorter casting time for Scattershot, then all the opposing Scattershots would stun your party before they had a chance to get their CC/damage spells in. It works both ways. As a player, I encounter SS as an ability more in enemies than have a chance to use it i.e. only if I have an archer.
And regarding your contention that only AoS and SS are the worthwhile abilities, wrong. Critical Shot is a definite crit - use it to shatter any frozen/petrified White enemies for an instant kill. Suppressing Fire applies 7.5 CUMULATIVE penalties to attack for 10 seconds; you can bung down an opponent to at least a -15 attack penalty at all times. Shattering Shot is a good debuff to armor, Crippling Shot as good as stuns enemies on lower levels.
The casting is slow, yes, but that's a balance issue. Archers already have the advantage of range; use traps, grease, blizzard etc. to maximize this. You want the archer to boss the battlefield, but that shouldn't happen, from a roleplaying or a combat perspective.
And obviously, against enemy archers, it's about who draws first. The first thing to do in a high-level fight is disable the archers; scattershot them before they do it to you. And then have your mage keep a CC/DoT.
Finally, archers also get the Elf-Flight arrow: +6 attack, Chance to Stun. If you're a crossbow user, you get knockback bolts etc. No other class gets automatic effect weapons; they need to use runes.
fantasypisces wrote...
Anyway, adding to my rant, I stand by my opinion. Every 58 seconds archer is really good. The rest of the time you are waste of space.
Only if you're not Suppressing Fire/Pinning/Critical Shotting opponents. Only if your archer is not singing Song of Valor or carrying a wolf/bear/spider as a Ranger.
Can't stand up to DW/2H in DPS, or upto a mage in CC/DPS, but not a waste of space.
Modifié par shree420, 02 janvier 2010 - 06:44 .
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Aim for 60+ Dexterity.
