Sir_Pongo

Welcome P.E.R.C.!

Well, in one respect, I'm glad to see the vet rewards continue, but at the same time, I feel a bit underwhelmed that the developers aren't getting at all imaginitive with new rewards. Recycled rewards just isn't getting me excited...Thank you, but meh...

I'll jump on the band wagon about accuracy not being a big enough bonus to offset the rest, BUT I also want to make this statement: Until I got up to SO's I was running 2 accuracy enhancements in all my offensive because I was missing way WAY too much against +1's and +2's. Where was the accuracy bonus there? Now that I have SO's I still keep 1 accuracy enhancement in each power and still miss more often than I would like.

But, I've noticed the wierdest thing lately. I can actually hit +5's and +6's just as well as I can hit +2's. It makes no sense, but I've seen it in multiple groups and on multiple occations. I don't do as much damage as my higher level team mates, but I can pass on the sk because I'm hitting the mobs pretty good, which means mucho xp for me!

So now I begin to wonder if this is the window that archers are meant to excell in. Is hitting purples like they're yellows where our strength lies?

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I don't have an Archer yet, so I can't comment on the effectiveness of the set for heros, but I found out the hard way this weekend that, in the hands of Red Caps, the archery set can be quite devastating. I was defeated this weekend by Red Caps more times (about 8 in total) than the total of all other defeats so far, up to level 33.

I like to think I am a smart blaster, and am careful to work the angles to minimize the number of mobs aggro'ed at once, but the high rate of fire, large mob size, and killer accuracy, combined with the toughness of the Red Caps, meant that I was getting volleyed to death regularly.

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Oh yeah, those Red Caps are tough. I found that, soloing, if you stay in a safe spot and snipe them 1 at a time til the "herd" is thinned out, they're not so bad. But even then, I swear they excell at sneaking up behind you in big mobs when you're busy fighting. I have a tough time with them.

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Just for confirmation, does build-up work with rain of arrows.

Many kinetics defenders want to know.

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No. Rain of Arrows is a rain power and, as such, cannot be affected by aim, build up, or any other buffs. But what I've been doing a lot lately, and to amazing effect, is get within range of my explosive arrow to a large mob (sspeed/stealth running of coarse). Then hit either aim or build up, then Rain of arrows on their location, then explosive arrow. The animation for rain takes a bit, but as soon as its done, the explosive arrow kicks in. The damage from both powers is nearly simultaneous and the buff from the aim or build up lasts long enough to count towards explosive arrow. (note, the buff won't affect rain, but it saves the animation time before explosive goes off) At that point, most everything +1 or less should be dead, just plink off the ones that didn't burn up in the explosion.

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So will there be an archery guide any timem soon? My Arch/NRG is only a 13. I'd love to see a build for this set up to 30 or so.

SirKenneth

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Here's my build so far and its been working well. Hope it helps.

Notes: I fought without stamina til 24 so I could get my ranged shot right away. Conserve power did good for me until I could get stamina slotted.
I plan on continuing with the leaping pool and take acrobatics next, then work more on stealth powers. Not sure yet if I'm gonna take total focus or not (I try to stay far out of melee range), but boost range is a planned power. And I'm not sure what epic I'll take, I won't have much room for an epic, maybe 2 epic powers at most.

Exported from version 1.5B of CoH Planner
http://joechott.com/coh

Name: Kampri Moonshot - Freedom Server
Archetype: Blaster
Primary Powers - Ranged : Archery
Secondary Powers - Support : Energy Manipulation

01 : Power Thrust acc(01)
01 : Aimed Shot acc(01) dam(17) dam(23) dam(29) dam(31) dam(31)
02 : Fistful of Arrows acc(02) dam(3) dam(3) dam(5) dam(5) dam(7)
04 : Build Up recred(04)
06 : Flaming Arrow acc(06) dam(7) dam(9) dam(9) dam(11) dam(11)
08 : Aim recred(08)
10 : Hasten recred(10) recred(31) recred(34)
12 : Explosive Arrow acc(12) dam(13) dam(13) dam(15) dam(15) dam(17)
14 : Super Speed runspd(14)
16 : Conserve Power recred(16)
18 : Ranged Shot acc(18) dam(19) dam(19) dam(21) dam(21) dam(23)
20 : Swift runspd(20)
22 : Health hel(22)
24 : Stamina endrec(24) endrec(25) endrec(25) endrec(27) endrec(27) endrec(29)
26 : Stealth endred(26)
28 : Combat Jumping jmp(28)
30 : Super Jump jmp(30)
32 : Rain of Arrows dam(32) dam(33) dam(33) dam(33) dam(34) dam(34)

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01 : Brawl Empty(01)
01 : Sprint Empty(01)
02 : Rest Empty(02)

Hey all, long time reader, first time poster.

Here's my 2 cents about archery, and this is coming from a veteran blaster (lvl 50 energy, lvl 48 electric, and now lvl 34 archery blaster)

I've done a ton of soloing and I've got to say, if you strategize your attack and stay at range, you'll do very well. Archery has a good pull effect and you can usually avoid pulling the entire mob with your target. As long as you're not fighting robots, clockworks, or red caps, you're pretty good with damage. (those mobs have some insane lethal resistance)

As far as aoe's, this is gonna sound wierd, but I swear to it. It seems that the more targets you hit with your aoe, the more damage it does to each target. Now I doubt that's actually the case, but that's the way it feels. When I group and the tank is herding, I'm the aoe king...er...queen in my archer's case.

And now that I have rain of arrows, I rule the mobs. Just yesterday I was taking out groups of 10 or so +1 mobs with only 2 shots taking out 8 or more of them, then just plinking off the others. Once you're higher level, the combo of aoe is devestating.

I've seen mention of a tracer effect behind your arrows, I think that would be very nice to have, sometimes all you have to go on is to watch their damage bar and see if it says "miss" above them, to determing if your arrow flew true or not.

In general, the damage is just a little below average, but the biggest downfall is no secondary effect. Be prepared to take damage cause you have nothing to stop it.

As many others have said, the animation time is long and redrawing the bow gets annoying, especially after using even a simple power like build up. But the attack chain is extremely quick and everything recharges fast.

Overall, the set is more fun if you're looking for theme than if you're looking for power. But its far from useless.

I've seen a lot of players only make it up to lvl 6 with archery and then come on here and complain about it like they know the whole set. Don't listen to them, its better than most players think.