Archer Templates

[Sandro]

You clearly are not following the subject being discussed here.

[DrFaustus]

You clearly are not following the subject being discussed here.

[Mikel123]

That might be the reason most of your matches are going to sudden death.

The reason most of them go to sudden death is because people run from me. I don't know or care what you'd propose a dexer do instead. Maybe just stand still and chuck purple potions at my enemy? Or hope they decide to stop running and voluntarily come up to me and impale themselves on my axe?

I suppose we can move this thread to trash talk; it's no longer productive.

[Panthor the Hated]

Sandro doesnt leave trammel, I doubt he chased you anywhere.

[archaicsubrosa77]

Hiding 70
Anatomy
Magery
Eval Intel 70
Tactics
Swords
Meditation 60
Archery

100/60/65

This would be your oppurtunistic hunter mounted archer. Unless you are working with a mobile covert ambush group or want to play bowhunter PVM trying to find the perfect nook and cranny, stealth is dead weight.

No resist on this...you would be waiting for a ripe time to attack. You can toggle armor as appropriate or wear bits of leather.

[Panthor the Hated]

I'd suggest fencing or macing for that template instead of swords. Use heavy xbow for big hits not a hally.

I don't see how that template overall is better without stealth, it seems a little too gimped for my taste.

[archaicsubrosa77]

Because you are only going to be stealthed until you attack, and if the primary hit doesn't kill it's going to be hard to follow up unless you are mounted. It's totally fine like I said for ambush and covert operations where you have several people moving in unnoticed.

Missile fire, harm, harm, or harm then pre-cast e-bolt for the interrupt and to time your insta hit with the hally.

Where it is gimped is if you get put on the defensive...but being on foot can be even worse. It's made for a dirty fight with uneven odds with the target(s) low on their bars or fewer in number.

[Panthor the Hated]

Everyone screens vs archers, as a result being on foot with gm hiding/stealth is an advantage in survival. You need to stand still to shoot your bow anyways. Chasing on an archer is a terrible idea.

Overcome the instinct to screen every time you get low. Prepare yourself for survival properly and you don't need to run away.

Archery simply isn't a skill that you can use in the same manner magery or melee weapons are used. Creative tactics are required. The template you propose seems to sacrifice many advantages an archer may have without any serious benefit. Sure you might die less, but I'd doubt you'll kill anyone either.

[Sandro]

The reason most of them go to sudden death is because people run from me. I don't know or care what you'd propose a dexer do instead. Maybe just stand still and chuck purple potions at my enemy? Or hope they decide to stop running and voluntarily come up to me and impale themselves on my axe?

I suppose we can move this thread to trash talk; it's no longer productive.

Chasing somebody doesn't yield any swing time, you could in theory chase your opponent the entire match and not swing one time after your initial swing. I don't think its a coincidence Drax has a 94% win ratio. The "click & chase" method doesn't work in T2A..

[Mikel123]

See, when you take the time to explain yourself, you have better conversations. I realize what you're saying, but in practice I find it does somehow advance... my hunch is that it has to do with turns taking up enough time that a tick passes. Could relate to ping, too, I'm not sure. Clearly though, I am chasing people and hitting them, so whatever the reason, it does work.

The reason Drax has a 94% winning percentage, in my eyes, is because (a) people insist on playing tank mages in those tournaments, when dexers have a large advantage, (b) the fact that against a dexer, you'll eventually get a well-timed poison and eliminate a bandage, (c) you have a much better strategy when approaching sudden death. This, actually, is what took me a few tournaments to realize. Most people focus on defense for the 30 seconds before sudden death, and just try to heal themselves up to 90 or even 120 hps. I think you approach it correctly by focusing on offense just before sudden death begins.

And for what it's worth, you'd be bragging about a 95% win ratio if it weren't for this "click & chase" pvper. I don't think it's any coincidence you stopped entering tournaments with Drax after losing. Which brings me to (d): if you competed in these tournaments with Drax right now, I'd bet you would find yourself with a significantly worse winning percentage, due to Octavianna and myself, and potentially some other people who are putting some effort into it now, and/or lucking into some wins with copycat archers. It was a good template for the time, but I don't think it's as effective anymore. Archers can get lucky some portion of the time in sudden death (1/3 of the time, they'll hit you with their first two shots, and 1/6th of the time they'll hit you with their first three), and I'd wager I'm probably 60/40 against you in sudden death due to your poison being useless and my armor damage throughout the match.

[archaicsubrosa77]

That's exactly why you choose your position wisely, and it can set up for a big combo. You aren't relying on archery alone, it's just an uninterruptable first strike you come out of hiding with...it has enough eval to interrupt a g-heal or recall and it can follow up with either Katana or Hally depending on how lucky you feel or how close to death they are.

The only times my stealth mage was successful at killing was when I was polymorphed, and being unexpected I was able to cast toe to toe on the guy, one time you ran that one guy my way (which was a long time ago and I forgot who) by brit graveyard, and one other time when my friend and I had an ambush two on two in deceit where he ran them right into me.

So I mean besides the time I was polymorphed it had to be a group effort thing. In most cases you will find that you will be outnumbered. You might be able to pin one off but it would be an empty kill as you'll need to bail quick, the timer on archery is way too long to be taken seriously as a main weapon.

I have also seen a few combinations of these

Stealth
Hiding
Eval Intel/Healing
Magery/Anatomy
Wrestling/Swords
Tactics
Archery

But what's the common theme? Archery cannot stand alone and it's almost always oppurtunistic.

[Sandro]

I'd wager I'm probably 60/40 against you in sudden death due to your poison being useless and my armor damage throughout the match.

Well I would certainly hope so considering your template is completely geared toward tanking damage and surviving until sudden-death, especially when its 2 dexxers rolling dice for swings.

I am just using the magical tournaments to rank characters that otherwise wouldn't have any chance to rank, simply due to how the mechanics work in T2A. I wanted to rank my archer as well, but it really isn't much fun to play.

[Mikel123]

Actually, the goal was to make sudden death a bit less based on rolling dice. I can't control how often we hit, but I can ensure I'm hitting for much more damage than you by that point because you went from 58 AR to 27 AR. So you're right, by then I'm probably better than 60/40 against your leet 94% character.

Obviously I'd rather it not go that long... especially considering I didn't realize how little time there was to restock between rounds... my character was great for round 1 and pretty bad for subsequent rounds.

I also didn't realize how much running could go on in that little square, and yeah the swing timer makes it especially difficult to hit a moving target.

But to say "obviously you won, your char was designed not to die" is probably not quite the insult you think it is.

[Panthor the Hated]

grudge