Arch/Ment is an AoE beast. Arch/Nrg is pretty good, decent ranged synergy, moderate blapping capabilities, but suffers from redraw (like all Arch/* combos).
I thoroughly enjoyed leveling my Arch/Ment. Incredible AoE capabilities and one of the few blasters that can actually manage a complete AoE attack string without having to wait until APPs.
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You can minimise redraw issues with Archery/Energy by going fully ranged and not taking the melee attacks (I did take TF, but I slotted it with a stun set so I could use it with Stunning Shot & Power Boost to stun bosses/EBs, if needed).|
Originally Posted by Umbral_NA
Arch/Nrg is pretty good, decent ranged synergy, moderate blapping capabilities, but suffers from redraw (like all Arch/* combos).
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All of the self-buffs from Energy Manipulation can be used before you pull the bow out to attack anyone and they support Archery very well. Just make sure to use Aim last (i.e. after BU) as it draws the bow during its animation, so no time is wasted on redraw.
With RoA + Explosive Arrow + Fistful of Arrows you really don't need any more area attacks, and single target is very good too thanks to Blazing Arrow in particular (almost snipe-level damage), plus Aimed Shot and Snap Shot.
Lethal resists can be a pain sometimes, but I don't find myself noticing them as much as I did on my claw scrapper and axe brute, for some reason. Archery is very light on endurance too: I have stamina, but I don't recall end ever dropping below 80% unless I got sapped - so you won't need to go /MM for DP for the +recov.
It can be a very safe blaster too - I went Force Mastery, so I have PFF and FoN as panic buttons (the latter has let me tank EBs and briefly even some AVs before, unsupported), with Temp Invul backing up decent ranged def from IOs, with Aid Self for if anything gets through - but distance can add extra safety too with easily attained perma Boost Range - and you can even shoot Rain of Arrows from a safe place around a corner or behind cover.
I had a blast playing my Archery/Energy to L50 in I8, IO'd it in I11, purpled it up recently (built for +rchg, and ranged def), and now I play it simply for the enjoyment of watching whole spawns lie down defeated after BU+Aim+RoA every 25-30 seconds or so (such as the nicely lined up spawns on Cimerora's walls) and because attack chains using the bow have such a nice flow to them.
Arch/EM Is just a beast. Boost Range, BU, Aim, Rain of Arrows, Fistful, Explosive, just beautiful. Arch/Mental is a beast as well in teh AoE dept, but lacks the ability to hit hard enough on singe targets in melee like EM can. When stuff gets to close to my Arch Blaster I smacj 'em with Bone Smasher and TF and wait for the stun. Also, with EM and Aid Self, you can use Power Boost to pop big heals on yourself as a 'Just n case'.
@Mazzo Grave
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Energy/Energy Blaster Guide
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Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler
you *******!!!!
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Im a big fan of my arch/NRG, in fact he just hit 50 last night.
Rain of arrows is fantastic on a team that understands (or solo in fact). I have built for a decent chunk of ranged defence. Sat not quite at the soft cap, but close.
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
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Rain of Arrows is fantastic on a team of blind monkeys! |
Originally Posted by Catwhoorg
Im a big fan of my arch/NRG, in fact he just hit 50 last night.
Rain of arrows is fantastic on a team that understands (or solo in fact). I have built for a decent chunk of ranged defence. Sat not quite at the soft cap, but close. |
"How often is your nuke up?"
"Always!"
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
My wife runs an archery/devices and she is very effective on teams with her AoE's and devices. I have an archery/energy which is nice for a kind of "blapper" feel. The big plus for archery is the accuracy increase vs. other powers. The nice thing too is that Rain of Arrows as mentioned before doesn't totally drain you of endurance and comes up relatively quickly compared to other "nova/nuke" powers. Personally, I enjoy the animation of it as well.
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Yeah. The one downside is the time from starting he animation to the first tick of damage. Nothing is worse than a daft tank changing their mind about where they were grouping foes up after you have started.
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Originally Posted by StratoNexus
Rain of Arrows is fantastic on a team of blind monkeys!
"How often is your nuke up?" "Always!" |
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
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lol.|
Originally Posted by Catwhoorg
Yeah. The one downside is the time from starting he animation to the first tick of damage. Nothing is worse than a daft tank changing their mind about where they were grouping foes up after you have started.
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I have wormholed entire spawns out from under my SG mate's Arch/Devices RoA. 
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
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Guide in sig.|
Originally Posted by DSlice
thinking of making an archery blaster, any advice would be great.
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| also, what works well with it? |
I have two Archery blasters, one /Energy and one /Devices. I enjoy them both.
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Lumi,|
Originally Posted by Luminara
Guide in sig.
I've read posts from players touting every possible combination and saying they all work well. It's really going to boil down to what, exactly, you want to do with it and which secondary best fits that goal. I have two Archery blasters, one /Energy and one /Devices. I enjoy them both. |
Your poor little duck is broken
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
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I healed him! |
Originally Posted by Miladys_Knight
Lumi,
Your poor little duck is broken |
And redirected the guide links to ensure that they're pointing to the correct pages.
thank you all very much, i made an Archery/NRG and love it. I really like the shooting and smacking aspects of it. I think it will be my next lvl 50. beating my other 5 toons 
I'm a Mac user, no Mid's for me
I've seen some comments on how to get around the redraw issues, but from what I've read, I'm not sure there are any. I'm pretty sure weapon redraw time is added into the casting time so that attacks execute in the same amount of time regardless of whether your weapon is drawn already or not. This doesn't change the annoyance of seeing your weapon redrawn every time if you switch back and forth a lot between your primary and secondary, but I don't think it actually has an effect on DPS. I could very well be wrong though, maybe someone else can clarify it.
Arc ID#30821, A Clean Break
The only problem with defeating the Tsoo is that an hour later, you want to defeat them again!
"Life is just better boosted!" -- LadyMage
"I'm a big believer in Personal Force Field on a blaster. ... It's your happy place." -- Fulmens
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It didn't affect dps before, it does now.
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Originally Posted by Barata
I've seen some comments on how to get around the redraw issues, but from what I've read, I'm not sure there are any. I'm pretty sure weapon redraw time is added into the casting time so that attacks execute in the same amount of time regardless of whether your weapon is drawn already or not. This doesn't change the annoyance of seeing your weapon redrawn every time if you switch back and forth a lot between your primary and secondary, but I don't think it actually has an effect on DPS. I could very well be wrong though, maybe someone else can clarify it.
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Branching Paragon Police Department Epic Archetype, please!
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Here's a quick rundown of it: redraw does effect activation time by adding a couple clock intervals to the animation time of a power. Before this (rather old) change, the animation time with redraw and without redraw were exactly the same (re: you paid for redraw with the animation time whether you actually drew the weapon or not). BABs then changed it so that redraw was a separate animation, thusly speeding up the weapon sets.|
Originally Posted by Barata
I've seen some comments on how to get around the redraw issues, but from what I've read, I'm not sure there are any. I'm pretty sure weapon redraw time is added into the casting time so that attacks execute in the same amount of time regardless of whether your weapon is drawn already or not. This doesn't change the annoyance of seeing your weapon redrawn every time if you switch back and forth a lot between your primary and secondary, but I don't think it actually has an effect on DPS. I could very well be wrong though, maybe someone else can clarify it.
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The best way to think of it is that, if you use attacks with the same weapon and don't cause any redraw, you get a small reduction in animation time for doing so. If you do generate redraw with your attack string, you're simply not getting the slight reduction and simply using the base animation times (since the attacks were balanced and designed around the animation time incorporating redraw automatically).
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Wow, how did you get the devs to give you healing arrow? |
Originally Posted by Luminara
I healed him!
And redirected the guide links to ensure that they're pointing to the correct pages. |
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
Quote:
I used Aid ASCII. |
Originally Posted by Miladys_Knight
Wow, how did you get the devs to give you healing arrow?
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I run a Archery/Devices blaster. He doesn't quite put out the same damage as an /NRG would, but it is versitile.
One notable accomplishment: I was able to drop Mako on an STF through his Elude.
"Steady as a mountain, attack like fire, still as a wood, swift as the wind.
In heaven and earth I alone am to be revered."
- Motto on the war banner of Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)
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But not enough to matter, unless one is deliberately switching between draw and no-draw attacks (such as Snap Shot/Power Thrust/Aimed Shot/TF/Blazing Arrow/Energy Punch).|
Originally Posted by Cynical_Gamer
It didn't affect dps before, it does now.
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In my experience playing multiple Archery/*, TA/* and */TA characters, redraw is as much or as little of an issue as the individual chooses to make it.
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Having checked theoretical DPS calculations against in-game DPS for an attack string that actually had several steps of redraw in it, I'm pretty sure that redraw is only 1-2 clock intervals (clock interval = ~.132 secs). It's an incredibly tiny loss of dps, approaching maybe 4-5% if you're using only extremely fast attacks and alternating every time.
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Originally Posted by Luminara
But not enough to matter, unless one is deliberately switching between draw and no-draw attacks (such as Snap Shot/Power Thrust/Aimed Shot/TF/Blazing Arrow/Energy Punch).
In my experience playing multiple Archery/*, TA/* and */TA characters, redraw is as much or as little of an issue as the individual chooses to make it. |
Redraw on arch is fairly minimal in that it doesn't have the stupid (ie annoying after the thousandth time) sound of the swords, or worse yet spines/thorny.
I've always found redraw to be a major annoyance if it occurs often (easily minimized on an arch blaster... well compared to a x/thorny dom ) and if it has a horrible sound. So arch isn't too bad.
However, if you hop around a lot (cj+hurdle) you might get sick of it pretty quick. I've switched from my normal combat style to a hover/fly+tp build for my arch/nrg and it is very satisfactory.
I'm casting my vote for one, or both, of the following:
Arch/MM
Arch/Fire
Once fully slotted, both are quite capable of the maximum amount of carnage a Blaster can create. More fun than a barrel full of Sea Monkeys and Midgets with Unusually Large Sombreros(TM).
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BAB said that redraw can be "up to" 2/3rds of a second. He didn't specify which powers or powersets, just that little bit of information, "up to 0.66s delay" after the weapon powers were changed to remove the "baked in" redraw time.|
Originally Posted by Umbral_NA
Having checked theoretical DPS calculations against in-game DPS for an attack string that actually had several steps of redraw in it, I'm pretty sure that redraw is only 1-2 clock intervals (clock interval = ~.132 secs). It's an incredibly tiny loss of dps, approaching maybe 4-5% if you're using only extremely fast attacks and alternating every time.
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I've never bothered timing it, despite having multiple TA/*, */TA and Archery/* characters, because I usually only see redraw once or twice in a fight, and then only if I've done something wrong, like Hovered too close to the ground with my Archery/Energy blaster, or I'm doing something like fighting an EB with my TA/Dark and have to reapply debuffs.
The one time redraw has ever bothered me was when I was trying out Pulse Rifle attacks on my Bots/TA. Didn't much care for having to redraw two weapons, it did feel distinctly slower than I expected. But with a single weapon, I don't even notice it.
thinking of making an archery blaster, any advice would be great. also, what works well with it?
I'm a Mac user, no Mid's for me