What is trick arrow/ archery like?

Accepted into teams? Can it solo?

Is damage decent? And is it fast paced?
Thank you.

How would you say it compares to blasters archery espically considering we are forced to take snap shot i hate that attack.

Is this a late blooming set?

I'd say it is. Archery gets much better once you get rain of arrows. Trick arrow never really "blooms".

Well that is dissapointing then. Are you saying that trick arrow is not really a good power set?

Trick arrow is a jack of all trades kinda powerset.

It starts off slow, with entangling arrow, and flash arrow, but glue arrow is nice to keep things slowed down so AoEs take em out from a distance, ice arrow is just a ST hold, and poison gas arrow is kinda meh.

But once you get acid arrow, disruption arrow, and oil slick arrow you'll be able to slow things to a crawl (glue arrow) then debuff them down to really nothing (acid arrow, disruption arrow) then use blazing arrow to light oil slick arrow, and watch things just burn.

Thats without using any of your archery attacks at all

I am a big fan of archery and have two defenders and one blaster. One of the defenders is TA - although he is only level 13, the other is storm.

With a decent bit of recharge you can get a fairly good attack chain going with blazing arrow ----> snap shot ----> aimed shot ----> snap shot and back to blazing so I personally think snap shot is always worth taking. In fact I prefer it over fistfull (which I personally loathe).

Of course the Jewel in Archery's crown (RoA) isnt available until level 38 for defenders so its just a matter of getting there!

Of the two defenders, storm has so far been the easier to play early on because of the relative early access to freezing rain (available at level 8) and the low but noticable defence buff from steamy mist - teamed with hover it can REALLY make a difference.

My TA/A has found levelling the first 10 levels a bit harder mainly due to the fact that his damage output is really low - with just snap shot and aimed shot it can be a real pain - especially in praetoria! However once I picked up Blazing arrow at 10 he speeded up a bit. I am one level off acid arrow at the moment but as others have previously indicated - the defence and resistance debuff should make all the difference.

So personally I think that TA/A is a great set but it wont be the fastest out of the blocks! You need a bit of patience but once you get the resistance and defence debuffs you should find yourself moving on at a better pace.

I recently rolled a TA/A after a long time on the fence about it. One of my favorite toons is an Illusion/TA controller that, while the toon concept itself is great, has taken me forever to really get into and struggling with to the point I was considering re-rolling several times. I then tried Dark/A that I got up to around lvl 20 and just gave up. I wasn't feeling it.

Last week though, I wanted something different and really wanted to try TA/A. The toon was really made just to test costume/character ideas and wasn't expecting much until I started leveling and everything changed for me at that point.

I don't know if its because of my playstyle or because I rely on hover too often but I Love TA/A. The synergy in the set works well and once you get past lvl 20, it really starts becoming comfortable. At level 30 now and though it can be a problematic soloing while your leveling, once you get past that initial hump, the set becomes well worth it.

Whenever Im running with new groups I really enjoy seeing a high lvl TA/Arch. They seem pretty rare over on Virtue (tho im suprised that a concept oriented toon like that isnt more prevalent on the RP server...) The debuffs dished out by a high lvl TA are insane. With the resist debuffing they can do most teams I've seen them on just melt the enemy. I've started lvling one myself and am creeping up to 25 atm. Its been quite a bit of fun and while at the moment its not the most powerful low lvl defender I've played (that honor goes to my Dark/Dark defender who was scary overpowered straight out the box) but it does help out quite a bit. One of the best parts I've noticed is that it is very accurate and endurance friendly. Looking forward to i19 so i wont have to skip any powers early on in favor of fitness pool.

I like it. You get to horribly debuff lots of enemies, and then you douse them in oil and set them on fire. It's the simple things in life that makes it fun.

One thing to note about TA/A is that it's surprisingly light on Endurance. While this advice is obsolete in a week or so, it means that you could postpone or even skip Stamina in exchange for getting the good arrows in your quiver that much earlier. Also, TA is one of the few powersets where your origin can make a noticeable difference. Oil Slick can be lighted with Fire or Energy damage, even a single point is enough. The Magic and Technology Origin powers do energy damage. That and turning Apprentice Charm into a spawn clearing AoE with Oil Slick is just too much fun.

I am looking for that kind of versatility but can you approach a fight in differant ways? I will most deffinatly try it past 30 thanks guys.

Yeah, there are several ways to approach a fight with TA.

The standard is using Glue, Acid, and Oil Slick to melt a spawn away, pretty much literally. Add Disruption Arrow for even more -Res and use the Archery AoEs for cleanup. That's pretty much the bread and butter of TA. You can also use your hold in Ice Arrow to keep annoying minions and lieutenants out of the fight (and doused in burning oil, while frozen) or Glue and Entangling to keep them from running.

Then there are the alternative openings, like Flash Arrow. Got any kind of Stealth and you're invisible to that spawn. Flash doesn't miss in PvE. And when you absolutely, positively has to neutralize a spawn, you have EMP Arrow. Which is one of the best, if not the best ranged AoE Hold in the game. Then you douse them in oil and set them on fire while they spend the next half minute not doing anything.

Basically, TA is awesome for versatility, but you need to think on your feet. Some enemies and groups require Poison Gas Arrow to lower the incoming damage, some don't. Some teams you can't get Disruption Arrow set up before the spawn is dead, some need all the -res they can get. Know your arrows and pick the best one fo the situation and you'll have a lot of fun with TA.

Sadly, there's no boxing glove arrow.

But they are jack of all trades which means they get more tools then the others therefor its a trade off.

My impresions of TA/A:

The Bad:

It doesn't offer a lot of mitigation solo.
The -To Hit is small in Flash Arrow, and you don't get an easily stackable mez. You get Ice Arrow at 6 and Stunning Shot at 35, both with long recharges compared to say Cosmic Burst or Tesla Cage. So its hard to stop a rampaging boss in its tracks - even Entangling Arrow is just a Mag 3 immobilise, so it takes 2 to immobilise a boss.

There's no self heal. That is very useful solo, especially in the absence of any strong defensive debuffs.

If your plan doesn't work out you have little in the way of panic buttons.



The Good:

You get a good long range attack chain. Blazing Arrow is pretty awesome.



It is NOT a fast paced set. Its a pause and think at every mob set. As you approach each group a different set of arrows have recharged, so you get a variety of methods for taking down a group. It often takes several powers to establish your debuffs, like Garent say, whereas other sets do it all in one. (eg Flash Arrow + Posion Gas < Darkest Night in many ways)

And it is a late blooming set.

I think Trick Arrow underperforms as a Defender primary, taking team and solo into account.




Oh, and Stunning Shot is the boxing glove arrow. We just need an alternative animation for it.

If you want a true jack of all trades powerset, look at traps.

-regen, +regen, -def, +def, -tohit, -rech, -res, decent Damage from mines/caltrops

Hmmm traps/archery perhaps?