Archery has great damage! You can chain some fast ST damage, and blazing arrow is VERY nice. Fistful, Explosive and Rain of Arrows are a great arsenal of attacks, and you can decimate enemies. Its only faults are- redraw- But it's tiny. Also there are no secondary effects like slows, DoTs, or -res.
However, it's good on end, and it's easy to get a chain. More importantly, it's fun.
so far i must admit its fun to play as its the only blaster set with a physical weapon afaik.
I havent seen many 50 archery blasters about thats all.
Thanks 4 ur advice tho mate.
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so far i must admit its fun to play as its the only blaster set with a physical weapon afaik.
I havent seen many 50 archery blasters about thats all.
Thanks 4 ur advice tho mate.
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You forgot Assault Rifle 
Main reason i think you hardly see 50 Archeries, its mostly SL damage. Something often avoided due it being rather common resisted. However there are quite a few archery 50s, they just lvling other toons now 
50)Sinergy X/(50)Mika.
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Nice little guide by this awesome archer.
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Thanks 4 teh feedback though its appreciated and ive tabbed that guide thankyou spirit 
I have an L50 Archery/Energy - I love builds that do lots of damage (as you can probably tell from my sig) and I just have one word for Archery - wonderful! I play Fire Blast and Ice Blast too, but I love Archery.
Lots of sets give up decent area damage to have good single target damage, or vice versa - with Archery you don't have to make any sacrifices because you'll be great at both single target and area. And once you hit L32 and get Rain of Arrows you'll never look back - that power is so much fun you'll find yourself smiling (and at first perhaps even giggling uncontrollably) every time you use it. Blazing Arrow is great too - does snipe-level damage, but it's part of your single-target attack chain. I took every power in the set and used them all consistently.
If you like the bow animations and don't mind not being as flashy particle-wise as other powersets then you'll probably love Archery too. Sure, some people will gripe about the set being mainly lethal damage, but I only found it noticeable against robots and Malta bosses - but then Carnies are weak to lethal and it's nice to be able to kill them fast
Indeed, Archery itself is a wonderfull set.
My most enjoyable toon is AR, being said the lower damage dealer compared to others. Yet with new defiance, some juicy Procs it makes a wonderfull set. Same goes for Archery, by far the most enjoyable mini-nuke of all sets.
Now just to wait for Devs to put TA secondairy to blasters, then i got myself a new blaster
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Now just to wait for Devs to put TA secondairy to blasters, then i got myself a new blaster
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I think blasters getting a debuff set is somewhat unlikely, but I do think Corruptors will get both Archery and TA (through powerset proliferation) in a forthcoming issue - then I'll have an excuse to play Archery again
If you see how they added Psi set for blasters, could be possible with TA also. Immobilize, a hold, the flash (like grenade of /dev), the glue arrow, oil slick and EMP and maybe the acid arrow (like sonic has -res also or AR -def). Perhaps aim to compensate the lower damage output compared to other sets.
Then again, would be like a Defender but with more damage then
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If you see how they added Psi set for blasters, could be possible with TA also. Immobilize, a hold, the flash (like grenade of /dev), the glue arrow, oil slick and EMP and maybe the acid arrow (like sonic has -res also or AR -def). Perhaps aim to compensate the lower damage output compared to other sets.
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If you mean the Mental Manipulation secondary, then that was made especially for Blasters with some toned-down/changed powers from Mind Control and Psionic Assault plus new stuff. It is also more about controls/attacks than debuffs (like the other Blaster Manipulation sets).
Any bow-based secondary would have to be made especially for blasters too - sure, if such a set were made then some of the TA powers would likely be ported across (Entangling Arrow, maybe Ice Arrow or a toned-down Glue Arrow), but not the powerset as-is, and I don't know how they'd do melee powers without it being a redraw nightmare - unless they made it more of a utility set like Devices.
No buff/debuff/heal/control sets that Defenders get as primary and Corruptors/Controllers/Masterminds get as secondary has ever been ported to Blasters and I feel safe in saying they never will - it would be far too powerful to team that level of debuffing with blaster-level damage, and would totally marginalise some other ATs (Corruptors especially).
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Then again, would be like a Defender but with more damage then
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A Corruptor then, basically Remember Corruptors only have 75% of blaster-level ranged damage to "pay" for getting debuff sets, and those debuffs are 80% as effective as Defender ones, iirc (Defenders having 65% blaster-level ranged damage, but no inherent to boost damage like Corruptors/Blasters get).
I could perhaps see blasters getting a bow-based secondary in the far far distant future (unlikely, but possible), but I doubt it would bear much resemblance to TA. But Archery & Trick Arrows on Corruptors in the near future? Yes I could definitely see that - in fact it's something I'm keenly waiting for
Isn't the redraw a royal pain with an Archery/Mind blaster though?
It's fine with my archery/Energy blaster. And people with all other secondaries can put up with it. It's not a specific problem for Arch/men. In fact, with Arch/mental there's not too much to redraw. There are some long-ish recharge powers.
Ability to cope varies person to person IMO.
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Isn't the redraw a royal pain with an Archery/Mind blaster though?
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Redraw in common is a (imho) plain joke. From the day i made a AR/ice to a merc/TA MM or a axe/fire tanker... it remains an issue that hopefully will be solved somewhere in far far future
Avoiding 'heavy use' secondairy can save up alot on redraw, nrg and dev being best bets (psi depending on the usage). Arch/nrg with a perma boostrange is just lovely to play, even in PvP dispite it being highly SL resisted its a great set since you hardly know where the shots are comming from.
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Play Archery/Dev and I dont put the bow away really at the moment so its not a problem. I also have no accuracy slotted and still have 95% on my last to hit rolls
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
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It's fine with my archery/Energy blaster.
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I had no issues with Arch/En either, but then the only melee power I took from secondary was Total Focus (and I only really use it for stacking stuns on bosses/EBs) - otherwise I took all of my primary and all the buffs from secondary for a full ranged build.
All you have to remember is that if you want to use BU & Aim together (before Rain of Arrows, for instance), then make sure you use BU first, because the Aim in Archery will draw the bow for you during its cast time (but BU puts the bow away). Usually I had the bow out 99% of the time.
If you want to blap (/EM, /Elec) or take a control-heavy secondary (/MM, /Ice) then I'd recommend avoiding Archery (and Assault Rifle for that matter), though only if you care about redraw.
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Isn't the redraw a royal pain with an Archery/Mind blaster though?
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I'm sure there was a Dev post in recent months (probably on the US forums) saying that any effect of redraw was a player myth. The redraw animation play time, IIRC, is factored to not affect activation times for powers. So, redraw, while looking like it makes activation times longer, actually has no effect at all.
Maybe some one with better search-fu than me can track this post down?
Formerly @Crimson Archer, now @CA
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It's fine with my archery/Energy blaster.
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I had no issues with Arch/En either, but then the only melee power I took from secondary was Total Focus (and I only really use it for stacking stuns on bosses/EBs) - otherwise I took all of my primary and all the buffs from secondary for a full ranged build.
[/ QUOTE ] I tried that once, but I really just loved blapping on my arch/energy. Used all four melee moves and loved every second of it. Redraw never really was much of a pain.
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I'm sure there was a Dev post in recent months (probably on the US forums) saying that any effect of redraw was a player myth. The redraw animation play time, IIRC, is factored to not affect activation times for powers. So, redraw, while looking like it makes activation times longer, actually has no effect at all.
Maybe some one with better search-fu than me can track this post down?
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I would, but that post is outdated now. The dev Back Alley Brawler has been going through powersets and trimming out the allowed redraw times in each attack. He's doing this because he noticed that players preferred the better flow of animation in the new Dual Blades powerset, which didn't have the noticeable pauses at the end of each animation (if you already had weapons drawn) that were there to cover redraw in the older weapon sets.
So far he has changed Broadsword, Battle Axe and War Mace, which now flow a lot more smoothly than they used to with weapon drawn (source) and it seems he will do the same to other weapon sets in time for parity's sake. It looks like the reason these 3 sets were prioritised first might be because of integration with the forthcoming Shields powerset, as non-weapon powersets are getting looked at too for animation smoothness (source).
Archery he hasn't mentioned lately, but I didn't find it had noticeable pauses when I played it to 50 (mostly in I11), but I did notice redraw enough to want to minimise it. Maybe ranged sets never had the "redraw allowance" pause added to the end of their animation time, or maybe it's just not as noticeable because you tend to hold the same pose for most attacks (unlike melee sets) /shrug
I like my archery blaster. Only problem with it is the *enormous* activation time for rain of arrows. If you fire it after your team has started a fight, the mobs are dead before your attack does any damage. If you activate it before the team moves in, the mobs react long before they take any damage and you take the alpha strike - I've actually been dead before my arrows have hit the ground on some occasions. Guess that's the penalty for such a powerful AoE attack - it's nearly useless in teams 
Hmm, for me the mobs only attack once they get hit. Maybe you should try distancing more? I guess boost range does give me nuking from spectacularly far away! Or maybe it's stealth that helps.
I have stealth, I'll see what I can do about the range...
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I like my archery blaster. Only problem with it is the *enormous* activation time for rain of arrows. If you fire it after your team has started a fight, the mobs are dead before your attack does any damage. If you activate it before the team moves in, the mobs react long before they take any damage and you take the alpha strike - I've actually been dead before my arrows have hit the ground on some occasions. Guess that's the penalty for such a powerful AoE attack - it's nearly useless in teams
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This^^
Made me laugh, I have said the same thing with my Trick Archer. Its been removed from the build but because it's on a defender and I personally can't always risk the seconds for it. My mate used it from behind walls without the distance and in teams as a timed opener I believe (just as tanks actually had taunt control or scrappers had shown multiple figures on an AoE or controllers actually did their lock down.
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Hmm, for me the mobs only attack once they get hit. Maybe you should try distancing more? I guess boost range does give me nuking from spectacularly far away! Or maybe it's stealth that helps.
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Stealth and boost range help, but even without them the range of Rain of Arrows is sufficient for the archer to stand comfortably outside of boss aggro range while firing.
Something else I do is queue up Explosive Arrow after BU+Aim+RoA - the delay between RoA's cast animation ending and the damage applying ensures that both attacks hit simultaneously - only bosses, some lieuts and the occasional missed minion survive to return fire at me (at which point they get Fistful of Arrows in the face, or my single target attack chain on bosses). I used this tactic continuously on the last LGTF I did and it didn't get me killed once. But sure, on a Defender that won't work out quite so well.
To my mind a team would have to be very AE-heavy to render Rain of Arrows useless, unless the archer in question is waiting too long to use it. It's all about timing - just trust your tanker and fire RoA as he is running in.
I've got a lvl 46 Archery/Energy blaster and I was just wondering how other blasters equip there archers with Enhancements? For instance on Snap Shot I have 2 acc and 3 Damage slotted all plain IO, is it worth having the 2 acc as I'm told Archery has a built in acc boost? Or should I respect out one and replace it with a recharge reduction for a better rate of fire?
Hey Super peeps, i have just created a new archery / mental blaster and i was wondering if any of you have had much experience with archery?
If so what is the damage like compared to other blaster sets? Is it worth leveling to 50 n that?
Thanks in advance