39 réponses à ce sujet

[Paragon Fury]

So I've been wondering; can Seras be a better Archer than Varric can? Seras would be able to use Rare/Epic found and Crafted Bows, and upgrading her weapons might be a little easier.

 

Varric can only use Bianca and upgrades for her, even though there might be crafted/Epic items with better stats and effects to them. But you can customize Bianca more than other bows, meaning their DPS might balance out.

 

The rest of my party currently is:

 

Inquisitor - DW Rogue (trying to get Assassin)

Cassandra (SnS)

Vivienne (Fire)

[Alan Drifter13]

As a general rule, it's easier to upgrade a bow than it is to upgrade Bianca. That being said, if you take some time to change bianca's upgrades every time you get better schematics and higher tier materials, Varric shouldn't be so far behind in DPS. Also, from the very fist moment you get a very good rune (such as a master corrupting rune, for example), you can put it in Bianca since you know you won't change that weapon ever. You can't do this with any of the first bows you get.

[ottffsse]

it also comes down to team composition and roles. with artificer varric you can have better "team" passives which maximize crits for everyone and eventually allow varric to spam leaping / longshot. dps is comparable. both can eventually take down dragons really fast for instance. tempest archers are a bit less team oriented at first sight but have flask of lightning which is both a very good offensive weapon and also basically gives you a free revive as you can hit bullet time and revive any fallen party members. that may help on nightmare in the most challenging fights.  but hey, varric has fallback plan for that too. a case can be made that better bows and upgrades are somewhat easier to find and are more readily available during the game run than the really good bianca upgrades. I would generally make one of them focused on killing things like red templars or humans (vents) depending if you side with mages or templars and the other more of a dragon killing specialist. And bring them along as necessary. 

[capn233]

I don't think there is an actual clear answer to this, it is fairly dependent on the stage of the game and which bows you have picked up.  If I were to generalize, I would say Sera tends to be a little better in the early to mid game if you have picked up a decent bow (like from the Astrarium reward on Storm Coast).  Late game I don't think there is a huge difference, but I would give the nod to Varric just because of party wide buffs.

[Magdalena11]

Varric's artificer tree has some great close quarters stunts, but Sera can really pack on stacked status effects if you give her some unusual masterworks and upgrades.  Different types of fights seem to go better with one or the other.  I'm having a lot of fun crafting upgrades for both bows, and when you start adding crossover mats, there's a gigantic amount of potential there.

 

I'm a bit whimsical with my specializations and give Sera skills that promote misdirection and mobility, while giving Varric precision and wading into battle where he finds it.  I've been watching him, and even in this game, he seems to think Bianca is for melee.

[Duelist]

There's no better choice per set, just two different ones.
Sera provides unparalleled burst damage but needs more micromanaging (AI sucks with using flasks) whereas Varric is far more consistent with his DPS and can be played fairly competently by AI (I just set Long Shot and Explosive Shot to preferred).

Other than that, I'd say Varric is more versatile but Sera excels in boss fights and skirmishes.
Just my two cents.

[deadkai]

Using Cole as an Archer is actually the best choice in terms of dps.

[RedLens37]

Yes, two Seras would be better than one Varric.

[Digger1967]

So I've been wondering; can Seras be a better Archer than Varric can? Seras would be able to use Rare/Epic found and Crafted Bows, and upgrading her weapons might be a little easier.

 

Varric can only use Bianca and upgrades for her, even though there might be crafted/Epic items with better stats and effects to them. But you can customize Bianca more than other bows, meaning their DPS might balance out.

 

The rest of my party currently is:

 

Inquisitor - DW Rogue (trying to get Assassin)

Cassandra (SnS)

Vivienne (Fire)

 

Of the two I prefer Sera.  Early as I can in the game I go for the schematics perks, the Masterwork Ornate Bow schematic puts you way ahead of any upgrades you can find or buy for Bianca for quite a while, and by the time you get to the point where you can get arms for Bianca to put it into that damage range your pretty much ready to head to the Hidden Wastes where you can aqcuire the Masterwork spiked longbow schematic, again giving you even better damage.

 

As a general rule I've found upgrading BIanca to be a royal pain the keester, so much easer to just build a bow and hand it to Sera, plus there are some great longbows available through the course of the game such as the one the Duchess carries at the winter palace, etc.

 

So generally if I need an archer I'll stick with Sera till later in the game, Varric doesn't generally see much field time until after I go through the first couple of tombs in this hissing wastes and get the legion of the dead armor schematic.  Once that happens, well then it's worth bringing Varric along because I can build him some really kick butt armor using that schematic and Silverite, which makes him incredibly survivable.

[Shevy]

Sera Archer vs. Varric Archer? The answer is Cole Archer.

 

I run Sera as DW every time. Flask of Frost is awesome, especially with my 2H warrior.

 

Varric becomes pretty useless the higher your party level gets. Bianca falls behind every crafted bow, especially with the DLC. So, Varric is just a team-buffer. I leave him behind most of the time.

[Bayonet Hipshot]

Archer Varric for trash mobs.

 

Archer Sera for boss fights. 

[ApocAlypsE007]

Archer Varric is better vs dragons: Leap Attack, Longshot, repeat until dragon is dead. Also stack him up with procs.

[Junebug]

DW Tempest Rogue. Interestiiiiing. Tempest is so op as an archer but never thought to do it as a DW rogue. I'm gonna have to try that out. Thanks!

[Kaicel]

There's a lot of great posts in this topic, and while I do prefer Varric, Sera is more flexible IMO in terms of build/loadout since she can use both bows and daggers. That's probably irrelevant since OP is asking about archers, but it's still nice to have the option if you ever feel like switching it up. Also, another advantage with Sera is being able to use crafted bows, allowing you to use masterwork materials, which you can't with Bianca.

[PhroXenGold]

There's a lot of great posts in this topic, and while I do prefer Varric, Sera is more flexible IMO in terms of build/loadout since she can use both bows and daggers. That's probably irrelevant since OP is asking about archers, but it's still nice to have the option if you ever feel like switching it up. Also, another advantage with Sera is being able to use crafted bows, allowing you to use masterwork materials, which you can't with Bianca.

 

Varric can use daggers too if you so desire....

[draken-heart]

Varric can use daggers too if you so desire....

 

but not regular bows, limiting his usefulness as some of the best weapons in the game outside of rare/few drops of Bianca pieces are bows.

[Paragon Fury]

I've heard mention of Cole being a decent Archer. Is this true?

 

Because Sera is kind of on my short list after completing her Red Jenny mission.

[Shevy]

I've heard mention of Cole being a decent Archer. Is this true?

 

Because Sera is kind of on my short list after completing her Red Jenny mission.

For me, Cole is the best Archer. Hidden Blades and Mark of Death are ranged abilities and they are really powerful. The passives are great too and combine well with Stealth. My Cole is a self-governed killing maschine that never dies. After each kill Stealth is resetted and he kills fast. MoD is the boss killer ability nr.1.

Only downside is the useless focus ability of the Assassin, but focus abilites aren't necessary in this game.

 

So my ranking would be: Cole/Inq Archer > Sera > Varric.

[Rolenka]

I have not really come across more than a couple of Bianca upgrade schematics or items in the course of playing normally. As a result, his DPS is about half of Sera's right now. It's a game design problem. I guess I'll start metagaming.

[VilhoDog13]

Yeah, Cole is an amazing archer. Not only is he a fascinating, well written character, but combining Mark with Blades and Leaping shot means a MASSIVE amount of damage taken.

[Bigdawg13]

For banter I prefer Sera but Varric by far provides more dps.  I only say this because I always use my team to support/augment my character.  I could care less if Sera out dps's Varric because the AI is dumb, dies too often, stands in the fire, won't focus fire, blah blah blah.  Varric amplifies my character no matter the spec or class.

 

*EDIT*  And I hate Cole....with a passion.  If I ever play again (waiiting on some sliders from Hendrixx) I am tempted to kick him out of the party.

[draken-heart]

^: While I do agree that Varric does more DPS, I would attribute that to Opportunity Knocks and a high crit party more than Varric himself.

[stop_him]

On the other hand, you'd have to put up with Sera running her mouth if you include her in your party...

 

I went with choice #3 and made Cole an archer. However, Varric and Bianca are perfectly competent. If you don't want to manually control your companions, Varric is a bit smarter making his own decisions than Sera, too.

 

I stopped recruiting Sera altogether and my game has improved 100%.

[Lulupab]

Varric, while lacks in Damage per second, makes up for his huge crit chance and crit damage. The highest in game actually.

 

I had 80% crit chance with 180% crit damage last time I remember. Rogue has some talents that has synergy with scoring crits and Varric uses them perfectly. The most noticeable one is restoring stamina after each crit.

[draken-heart]

Varric, while lacks in Damage per second, makes up for his huge crit chance and crit damage. The highest in game actually.

 

I had 80% crit chance with 180% crit damage last time I remember. Rogue has some talents that has synergy with scoring crits and Varric uses them perfectly. The most noticeable one is restoring stamina after each crit.

 

I would hate to admit this, but Dual Wield has more multiple hit abilities, and would take much better advantage of crits and the abilities that utilize them. This is in general, not with any particular spec/character. I tend to leave Varric and Sera as archers simply because that fits them best.