I just finished an all archer play-through. It solidified my opinion that most archer talents are questionable, and that archers damage is nerfed compared to melee damage while also failing to respond to most buffs/runes. Defense is also compromised by not being being able boost resistance with runes. My melee characters quickly got to 100% physical resistance, but my Archers were knocked around all game.
Some thoughts throughout the game stages.
Early on: it was hard going in some instances, a fair bit of switching to backup weapons before I took them away so it stopped happening. The most brutal fights I had were the Brecilian forest/ruins area. Revenants pulling in archers to close quarters where they are weak did them no favors. Revenants are like the ideal Archer killers. The Shadow werewolf attack where you first enter the Werewolf lair was also tougher than on any other play-through.
Middle Game: But after this things started to ease significantly once I had Tier 7 bows for everyone. The ability to concentrate fire could quickly take down many enemies, though getting swarmed was still an issue at times.
End Game: The end game (Final Onslaught) is a joke anyway, mobs are all one hit death, so borderline useless ability like scatterhot, can now kill half dozen or more basic mob. Boss fights are made for archers, so that is easy too. So great in the end game.
Archer Oddities:
Point Blank miss rate, seems excessively high. Not sure if there is an undocumented penalty for point blank.
Occasionally I would see a knockdown effect from arrows. This was unmistakeable since I had an all Archer party with no other knockdown abilities. Still not sure what did this. The only Archer ability I had in tactics was shattering shot. Perhaps shattering shot + crit = knockdown?
Archer Talents: None of them are great IMO. Being absolutely required does not make them great (like Melee archer), they just remove some gimpiness. I am going to skip the talents I found useless.
Early on:
Melee Archer: to not get interrupted. Hardly awesome, just makes you suck less.
Rapid Shot: Improve fire rate, until you get rapid aim gear.
Later, Once you are geared up, and leveled:
Melee Archer: Still need this passive to keep from sucking even worse when melee enemies attack.
Rapid Shot: Should have gear for this, never use it again.
Master Archer: as minor passive buff to other talents. But hardly required unless you want to wear heavy armor, then must have.
Aim: Sustained. Best ability. Get gear to counter penalty. This give small damage boost and nice crit boost to your shots.
Shattering shot: to debuf boss armor, minor usefulness, you are likely kill quickly anyway.
The Controversial "best" talents:
Arrow of Slaying: Can be ok opener if you have the drop on an enemy, and all the time in the world for the long setup( You are in stealth or very long range). Useless in actual heat of battle, when it almost never gets off, even if it did, you could have fired enough regular shots to do the same damage.
Scattershot. Draws vicious retaliation against large groups, very short stun time, and negligible damage against common foes. Like AoS, only really usable from stealth or long range to deal with setup time. I struggle to find any real use.
Bottom line on talents: IMO There is Aim, and some passives. Actives are more minor use items.
Bottom line on archer: Nerfed, but the ability to strike at a distance probably made nerfing necessary, when you concentrate 4 archers, it can be devastating.
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