6 réponses à ce sujet

[duckley]

What are the pros and cons of each specialization in terms of an archer. I usually play a Mage so I am curious what people have experienced.

[Realyn]

Assassin: Sniper gameplay. I found that it plays roughly the same as pre-specialization, except for higher burst with stealth, full draw, knives and the mark. If you enjoy the standard archer, this is the spec to pick. It feels like it builds on the classic Archer theme instead of changing gameplay. Focus ability is crap.

 

Artificer: Changes gameplay quite a bit by throwing (close to) melee gameplay in the mix. It feels a lot more active. Not nearly as twitchy as a dual dagger rogue, but not nearly as static as a pure ranged spec such as Assassin. Also my personal favorite with Hook and Tackle face kick + elemental mines. And unlike with Assassins, the focus ability is worthwhile. That being said, I feel that this spec does trade in burst dps for support (party buffs) with sustained dps and status effects compared to an Assassin. 

 

Tempest: No idea. Only tried it on my dagger rogue. But I believe the general concensus is that it's the least optimal spec for an archer.

 

Tl;dr: Assassin is the massive burst spec from relative safety of the ass end of the battlefield and the Artificer is a much more active and versatile spec. Depends on what you prefer.

[0rangekun]

This is something I'm a bit curious of as well, as I'll be playing a Rogue (soon) for my next playthrough.

 

I can't decide because I want to be versatile and play a spec that feels good both with daggers and with a bow so I can respec whenever I want. I haven't touched Cole at all, but Varric feels more fun to play at range than Sera, to me at least, and it's entirely due to Opportunity Knocks. As Sera, I always find I'm sitting at max Stamina with everything on cooldown, whereas with Varric my cooldowns are so short I'm Stamina starved at times. On the other hand, Artificer's active abilities aren't as appealing; Spike Trap doesn't feel too satisfying to use, and Elemental Mines is tricky to aim (not to mention you're forced to get up close to use them which gimps Long Shot's damage)

 

My advice as someone in a similar boat is to spec Varric, Sera, and Cole all as archers on a high level save and try out all three specializations that way. 

[Bigdawg13]

Assassin heavily relies on stealth gameplay.  Stealth and big damage abilities like full draw, or long shot.  Think one-shot-one-kill type of gameplay.

 

Tempest is crazy.  Flask of Fire means you can seriously unload some hurt on any enemy and with the new toggle it has tremendous flexibility.  Flask of Fire is a great oh-crap button and flask of lightning is probably the ultimate utility skill, practically freezing time letting you revive a companion, interrupt a rift, etc.  Tempest is my favorite and with the new toggles is just downright amazing with archer.

 

Artificer is the complete opposite of assassin.  They make the most of multi-hit ability.  Where an assassin uses full draw and long shot from long-range, an artificer will hook-n-tackle in an unload with leaping shot and elemental mines, just leveling the field and creating a firework display of epic proportions.  Fallback plan replaces stealth and provides a huge tactical skill with a variety of uses.

[PawsPause]

so how does the new toggle upgrade for Flask of Fire work? Is it better than the original?

[PapaCharlie9]

so how does the new toggle upgrade for Flask of Fire work? Is it better than the original?

I'm not sure it is "better", but it can be fun. You have to cycle through unique skills to reset the timer, so you might do Poison Weapons (free), then Explosive Arrow (free), then Leaping Shot (free), then Long Shot (free), then Stealth (free) or maybe some other Flask. If you repeat a skill, FoF is done and goes on cooldown. It's kind of limited, because you only have 8 active slots and some of those have to go to Flasks. 

[PapaCharlie9]

 

 

Tempest is crazy.  Flask of Fire means you can seriously unload some hurt on any enemy and with the new toggle it has tremendous flexibility.  Flask of Fire is a great oh-crap button and flask of lightning is probably the ultimate utility skill, practically freezing time letting you revive a companion, interrupt a rift, etc.  Tempest is my favorite and with the new toggles is just downright amazing with archer.

 

Agree, but don't forget Thousand Cuts. Nuff said about that.

 

Flask of Lighting is good too. I like to set a target, whack Flask of Lightning on, then switch to another character and watch the machine gun with tracer bullets take out the target. It's extra hilarious with a Hidden Blades proc. You can get a lot of shots in with Pincushion stacking damage in one splash of FoL.

 

Killer's Alchemy also lets you prime for a single massive damage attack. You can use a Flask, then quaff (drink) Mighty Offense, then a Regen potion or some other tonic, and Killer's Alchemy will stack 3 damage buffs, on top of what MO does by itself. Then you do a Leaping Shot or Full Draw or best of all Thousand Cuts for massive damage.