Issues
- Low damage
- Hard to level
- Lack of utility
- Decoy
- AB
- Melee attack
Low damage
With the recent fix to wizards single target damage, the archers main selling point is now obsolete. The problem is that archer single target damage cannot be increased due to balance. Area skills shouldn't be increased much as that would overlap with wizards role too much. Archers need some sort of damage boost, possibly a bleed/poison/damage over time that can improve the class without creating destroying class balance. Maybe a 'hunters mark' sort of skill to help co-ordanate group hunts and give bonus damage against the target.
Hard to level
Looking at the top 25 lists archer is on par with taos for leveling, but way behind the other 3 class's. It is accepted for taos because of the utility they bring to group pvp and pve, but an archer doesnt have that to fall back on. Archers need some sort of boost to make them more competitive with the other 3 damage class's. I have no doubt that fixing the low damage issue would help to fix this issue.
Lack of utility
Brings nothing unique to group hunting, the slow is same as wizards. Apart from the slow the archer provides no group buff or enemy debuff (SS is unreliable for yellow). Need a new skill or old skills tweeked so they are more wanted in a group hunting situations. The only positive is the effect that static shot creates by delaying the mobs. SS is also good at making ranged mobs target the archer instead of the melee helping to split the damage up. Both of those positives for SS are side effects and not what the skill was made for lol.
Decoy
It is mainly used for teleporting out of trouble, or over walls. It currently spawns with bad max hp and almost no defence, making it unusable for a decoy role. Even against low level mobs the decoy can be killed before you can even teleport to activate its taunt (if the tele fails 1st try). This could be a great group utility skill for crowd control if the decoy had better hp and defence.
AB
Make AB do 15% hp damage per skill level, capped at archers max base hp. Even with 2 archers using level 3 AB at once you cannot kill the target, the max hp cap is mainly for pve. Both the % damage and the hp cap can be balanced as appropriate, as i don't have access to all relevant information. This should ignore the defence of the target.
If the skill is to be continued to be used as a FS style skill for archers then it needs the cooldown/mp cost and the magic evasion removed from it so that it's competitive with FS.
Power shot
Im unsure if this has been fixed yet (as i havent used the skill in 2-3 months), but the skill works 1 level lower then the other 4 class's repulse skills. You need to be 2 levels higher, and even then it repulses only 1 mob and has a cooldown. All 4 of the other class's have no cooldown and can repulse more then 1 mob.
Melee attack
Archers could be given some sort of melee attack, so they can put themselves in harms way with the payoff of extra damage. This shouldnt effect pvp as attacking a melee class with this would be suicide. You could do this attack between shoots which would synergise nicely with rapid fire as you get 1 melee hit per shot with bow while its active.
- Low damage
- Hard to level
- Lack of utility
- Decoy
- AB
- Melee attack
Low damage
With the recent fix to wizards single target damage, the archers main selling point is now obsolete. The problem is that archer single target damage cannot be increased due to balance. Area skills shouldn't be increased much as that would overlap with wizards role too much. Archers need some sort of damage boost, possibly a bleed/poison/damage over time that can improve the class without creating destroying class balance. Maybe a 'hunters mark' sort of skill to help co-ordanate group hunts and give bonus damage against the target.
Hard to level
Looking at the top 25 lists archer is on par with taos for leveling, but way behind the other 3 class's. It is accepted for taos because of the utility they bring to group pvp and pve, but an archer doesnt have that to fall back on. Archers need some sort of boost to make them more competitive with the other 3 damage class's. I have no doubt that fixing the low damage issue would help to fix this issue.
Lack of utility
Brings nothing unique to group hunting, the slow is same as wizards. Apart from the slow the archer provides no group buff or enemy debuff (SS is unreliable for yellow). Need a new skill or old skills tweeked so they are more wanted in a group hunting situations. The only positive is the effect that static shot creates by delaying the mobs. SS is also good at making ranged mobs target the archer instead of the melee helping to split the damage up. Both of those positives for SS are side effects and not what the skill was made for lol.
Decoy
It is mainly used for teleporting out of trouble, or over walls. It currently spawns with bad max hp and almost no defence, making it unusable for a decoy role. Even against low level mobs the decoy can be killed before you can even teleport to activate its taunt (if the tele fails 1st try). This could be a great group utility skill for crowd control if the decoy had better hp and defence.
AB
Make AB do 15% hp damage per skill level, capped at archers max base hp. Even with 2 archers using level 3 AB at once you cannot kill the target, the max hp cap is mainly for pve. Both the % damage and the hp cap can be balanced as appropriate, as i don't have access to all relevant information. This should ignore the defence of the target.
If the skill is to be continued to be used as a FS style skill for archers then it needs the cooldown/mp cost and the magic evasion removed from it so that it's competitive with FS.
Power shot
Im unsure if this has been fixed yet (as i havent used the skill in 2-3 months), but the skill works 1 level lower then the other 4 class's repulse skills. You need to be 2 levels higher, and even then it repulses only 1 mob and has a cooldown. All 4 of the other class's have no cooldown and can repulse more then 1 mob.
Melee attack
Archers could be given some sort of melee attack, so they can put themselves in harms way with the payoff of extra damage. This shouldnt effect pvp as attacking a melee class with this would be suicide. You could do this attack between shoots which would synergise nicely with rapid fire as you get 1 melee hit per shot with bow while its active.
