What's YOUR favorite Archer?

As the title suggests, I'd like to know what your favorite archery based toon is. Is it a true TA/Arch defender? An Arch/* blaster? A */TA controller or a red side archer?

I have an Arch/Elec blaster at 30 or 31 but he doesn't excite me right now. I know if I just devote some time to him I'll hit the RoA goodness but whenever I'm at the selection screen I always end up playing some other toon.

I read on another thread about an Ill/TA controller and it re-raised my archery curiosity. What about Earth/TA? It sounds like it would take 3 years and a day to kill a fly but, is it fun? Is it true that Volcanic Gases can ignite the Oil Slick? That combination sounds like fun to me.


So what's your favorite archery combination? And why?

It's hard to say I love all my Archery toons.

Right now I would say I like my Archery/Pain Dom the best, but my Archery/MM was a blast to play all the way to 50 and I still enjoy playing with that toon to.

My Characters Deviont Art page Currently-reading Me Skydiving

One archer I would strongly recommend AGAINST ever playing if one cares in the slightest about a toon's relative power is an A/TA Corruptor. They just stink. It's a shame, because I like the look and feel of the powers a lot, but I can't come close to pulling my own weight in teams. Playing a TA Corruptor is basically like playing a Blaster with a huge, permanent, damage debuff. TA values are quite poor on a Corruptor, and you don't make up for it in damage - in fact, your RoA comes in at Defender values, for god knows what reason.

It's been speculated on the larger TA thread that a possible reason that the set doesn't get a badly needed buff is the fear of making it too strong for controllers, but even there it's not overpowered or anything - it's just more reasonable because of the far better hold times that Controllers get. It's simply pathetic that it's a secondary for controllers, and yet they get much longer hold times for things like Ice Arrow and EMP Arrow than Defenders do in a primary. And it's not even that great for Controllers! For Corruptors? Miniscule debuffs, holds that should be measured in miliseconds - uggghhhh.

I have a fully slotted and purpled Trick Arrow/Archery and at the moment he's not the value I devoted him to. The debuffs are moderately effective, but with no real superior debuff in the set spammable i.e -recovery; -regen, and the fact that some of the powers don't stack really irritates me. I love TA, but I really wish they would revisit the set. I've heard so many people say TA is great with controllers, but that's because mez/mez is brilliant anyway. TA only debuffs res;def;rec;spd;tohit;dmg and a few awful mezzes: Ice Arrow which doesn't stack (I read this somewhere) and a Tier 9 power that has 300s recharge with a mediocre secondary effect.

Having said that, I can pump those debuffs out like a machine which is why I enjoy him but without a crucial debuff against AV's/EB's it needs assistance which defeats the point of an 'Offender'.

Fury

Wonderful feedback folks. This is the type of information I was looking for. Whether it's positive OR negative.

Keep it coming guys. I may be leaning towards a TA controller but can still be persuaded...

:-)

I can't comment on /TA for controllers, as i've never tried it.

I put the TA/A defender in the same category as a Grav/Kin troller (meaning: both are powerful in the right hands, pure suckage when played by me )

But...i really enjoy my Archery/Fire/Fire blaster, she's a blast to play -pardon the pun- just shy of lvl 44, amazing solo, great on smallish teams and a quasi-perma crashless 'nuke' is usefull for those rare times i join a steamrolling team. ymmv, of course

My only archer is an Archery / Energy Blaster, but it's one of my favorite characters. Perma-Boost Range makes him a great long range Blaster and I love Rain of Arrows. Archery is definitely my favorite of the weapon-based blast sets. (Sorry Dual Pistols, I'll take good damage and a mini-nuke I can use without faceplanting over fancy animations )

Mechanically, TA/Dark defender. Dark Blast's -ToHit shores up TA's weakest point, poor damage mitigation when EMP Arrow isn't available. TT and NF both have relatively fast recharge and animation times, and fit TA's AoE-heavy nature well. And paired with Dark Mastery's Oppressive Gloom, Dark Pit becomes a far more powerful tool for personal and team defense than EMP Arrow.

Thematically, TA/Archery defender or Archery/TA corruptor. I still hate the relatively weak combination of these two powersets, due to Archery offering nothing to supplement or complement TA, but I also still adore my Cherokee huntress.

But for sheer, bloody, nasty fun... Fire/TA corruptor. Glue + Rain of Fire + Scourge = OSA on steroids, with 1/3 the recharge time. Not a build I recommend for solo play without leaning on IO sets or teammates to keep you from signing up for a frequent visitor plan at the hospital, but good heavens, it's got some nice damage output.

I'll be the one to say I like my Trick Archery/Assault Rifle Defender. Yeah, I went there. I've never had a problem with redraw. I always throw out the arrow debuffs first, then use the rifle to finish the job. Nothing like lighting an Oil Slick on fire with a Flamethrower. But the real hidden power in the matchup comes from Ignite. Using that on Glue Arrowed foes or Entangling Arrow-ed/Ice Arrowed foes works wonders. Too bad it doesn't come till level 35, but it's WELL worth the wait.

Sterling Archer

Archery/Kin Corrupter. FS + RoA =

My Plants/TA Controller is a control and debuffing monster. It also gets great control early. By level 12 it had Seeds of Confusion and 2 ST holds. Getting the Fire Epic gave it enough damage, when combined powers in the primary and secondary, to be able to solo pretty darn well, too, though it isn't in the same realm as an Illusion ot Fire controller.

It's a build I don't see often, but I thought it was a whole lot of fun.

I have an Archery/Devices Blaster that I'll give a shout out for. Probably not quite as many other tricks as some other secondary pairings for Blasters, but it's a fun concept. I named him Menelmacar, in honor of the Orion constellation in Tolkien's stories. Devices works great with that for a modern hunter character... concept is king for me.

Lot of fun with it, too. Not usually too necessary, but you can do fun stuff like lay trip mines in a mob, then have the same mobsters set them off when RoA gets them running.

Targeting Drone does make it particularly easy to riddle everything in sight with arrows, too, and Smoke Bomb and Cal Trops up your survivability nicely. Taser + Stunning Shot is nice for taking bosses out of the equation as well: generally quite useful on a soloing Blaster.

I am going to have to say my FF/Archery defender is my favorite (see sig). Although I must say my Earth/TA is quite fun as well.

I think my fav archer by far is archery and mental manip love rain of arrows and psyscream.

So far, I'd say my favorites would be Arch/Storm*, Thugs/TA, and Illusion/TA. Plant/TA is good too.

* This combo hasn't been mentioned yet, I think. Storm debuffs and knockback work well with Archery; keeping me alive, letting me do more damage. Although purple Fortunata bosses still hurt ( some kicked my tail, last I played ). And soon I'll be able to stack Stunning Shot and Thunder Clap to stun bosses ( I understand that should work ). And I have hopes for the effectiveness of Rain of Arrows combined with Freezing Rain.

I only really have two Archery characters. An Archery/Fire blaster, and a TA/Ar defender. While the blaster kicks some *** (Give me your tired, your poor, your undead...), I really enjoy playing the defender, so she'd get the nod if I had to pick one.