2 réponses à ce sujet

[Arnold Friend]

How, exactly, is "flank" defined?  I suppose the answer to that question will go some ways toward answering my follow on questions about the Sneak Attack and Flanking Fire passives.

 

The description of Flanking Fire suggests that the flank is determined as the attack originating from behind, whereas the Sneak Attack description suggests that the bonus is applied if the Archer's relative position to the target is from behind or to the left or to the right.  To put it another way, if we imagine a 3 x 3 grid with the target in the center position and facing "up" (orientation of the plane, not z-axis), then the Flanking Fire bonus is only applied if the Archer's attack originated in the bottom row, and the Sneak Attack bonus is applied if the Archer's attack came from either the bottom row or the column to the left of the target or the column to the right of the target.  Is this correct?

 

I've waffled on taking them my last couple promotes, so really I'm just asking whether (in your experience) they apply enough to be "worth it".

 

I'm also curious about whether my less obvious contributions to the group (via passives) are tracked/rewarded in some way.  Yes, of course, a successful mission is its own reward, but what about in terms of earned xp?  Recently I've been playing a bit of the Legionnaire and have come to appreciate the value of crit chance in making the most of Flow of Battle, so I don't need much persuading that taking And Take Them Down on my Archer is the right move if I'm playing perilous with a Legionnaire in the group.

 

What about Tricks of the Trade?  Again, I'm sure an argument could be made that by buffing the damage/duration of my group mates status effects, I'm benefiting from faster enemy clears and a quarter of their earned xp.  You know what I'm asking though; is the passive contribution being tracked/rewarded directly to the Archer's total xp contributed to the pool before the pool is divided at the end of the run.  In short, is Tricks of the Trade a "show-er" or a "grow-er" with respect to, ahem, the length of my xp bar at the end of the match?

 

For the passives I've not asked about, if you've got some insight/experience with any of them that you would like to share, then by all means please do.  For instance, I vaguely recall seeing something in the PBM vs. Griffin thread mentioning the value (or lack thereof) of Looked Like it Hurt.  Depending on whether or not Easy to Miss is skippable, the point in Looked Like it Hurt could perhaps be better spent elsewhere.

 

edit:  clarity of "up"

[Kjubaran]

Well its about this:

 

Sneak is atacking when hidden, something hunters do, but not archers.

 

If you liked Flow of Battle on warriors, you will LOVE Oppurtunity knocks. Its must-to-have. Trick and Trade = +10% dmg for YOU and YOUR COMPANION. Cmon, that just super sweet. And Take them down is not bad, combination with oppurtunity knock => no cooldown with strong party .

Also dont forget Disable, with 40% crit chance (wich is normal, i have much more) + leaping shot = 72% dmg reduce for monster...SWEEET.

 

My reccomendation for actives (all with upgrades):

Explosive Shot - mainly for knockdown effect on most of the monsters, its dmg is not bad.

Leaping shot - the best skills for archer when he have high crit chance, he can spam it non stop. With Longbow of grifon, the triple after shot is wort more than 4K dmg..also sweet.

Long Shot - Just for sweet dmg

4th skill optional...mostly i just dont use it, because passives are so sweet so i spent all skill point into them.

[Arnold Friend]

Thank you for your reply.  If I understand your diagram correctly, it seems like for an Archer it isn't that beneficial to take Sneak Attack (the passive, not the active available to hunters/assassins/alchemists) or Flanking Fire since I'm usually attacking from the lower semi-circle.

 

You are preaching to the choir w.r.t Opportunity Knocks.  I can't imagine a build without it; however, its description/effect was relatively clearer to me than the others I mentioned. 

 

You mentioned the bonus from Tricks of the Trade.  It seems clear from the description that, as a member of your group, you too will receive the bonus.  So I guess my follow-on question is what Archer ability from your suggested actives applies a status effect?  It seems like Explosive, Leaping, and Long Shot all apply instant burst damage.  If burst damage is considered a status effect then I'm sold!  Otherwise, I had considered a status effect something more like the burning effect after an Elementalist casts Immolate, or the DoT ticking from poison.  I usually consider it expected of me to slot Mark of Death as my 4th active, and if the bonus from Tricks of the Trade applied to it then I think that would be a good argument for taking it.

 

And, for anyone else who wants to respond, I guess it may be helpful to mention that the Archer is my favorite and most played character.  These questions are things that I have been wondering about for a while, but they just don't seem to come up or get addressed in anything I've seen or read so far.

 

edit:  -5 for spelling