UO Second Age

So never having had an Archer, I created the following....


gm archery
gm tactics
gm anat
resist
gm healing
gm music
gm peace

I knew right off the bat from doing research here that archers arent very good in pvp but the general consensus I got was that they were fun to pvm with.

So I load up my char with 200 arrows and 100 bandages. Since this is new to me, i decide to go somewhere safe to eagerly test my skills. I hit a rune for a spot in Wrong that has like 6 trolls in a room. While keeping everything peaced, I watched in horror as I let my arrows fly into the first troll. Missing tons of shots (even missed 4 in a row at one point) it was taking me like 18-20 shots to kill a damned troll!! WTF?!? The whole experience was so disappointing that I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong.

I know how archery works, the whole 'needing to stand still till the arrow connects thing' but I still cant believe that in order to collect my 100 gp loot off the corpse, I need to spend 100 gold in arrows LOL

I was using a gm made bow, so then I thought, ok, maybe thats my problem. So I grab a power bow out of my stash and recall back there only to find that the gm bow was actually doing more damage.

So my question to you ppl is.... is this as good as it gets or am I not doing something right?

archery really shines when it comes to undead (using silver) since archery weapons hit the hardest out of any other type in the game. also just have two dexers with archery stacked on top of eachother healing one another and firing at enemies- and watch the glory unfold. I've done this method for a long time, it's like having a dragon turret that you don't have to feed. Be warned though- when reds show up you're gonna lose some archer bots. Another note here: use bows or xbows maybe, Heavy just takes too long to reload the shot to be effective.

If you're missing all the time like that it might be because your bow is worn out.

On the topic of Xbows vs. Regular Bows, I go with regular vanq or power bows. Even though the base damage of xbow is higher, the way I see it, getting more shots in is better because you also get your vanq damage bonuses with each shot. So overall, you're doing more damage over time. Um errr... at least that's how it works in my mind. I haven't actually researched or calculated any of this

The New Lands are a pvm archery paradise. I particularly like the desert north of Papua. There are so many places you can snipe at your targets without getting touched. Learn the lay of the land, and you will even find sweet spots where magic can't target you but you can still fire.

I love archery. I almost never pull out a melee weapon any more. I just run around plucking off arrows at whatever attacks me. Not allowing things to hit you has the obvious advantage of not draining your HPs. But what's also great is that your armor doesn't get damaged, so you can forego all that replacing and repairing.

The bows get damaged, but they last a long time. I'll use the same bow for a week or more. Then when it starts missing a lot like the OPs, I just trash can it. Also I always carry a low end silver bow handy for undead.

Loathed wrote:archery really shines when it comes to undead (using silver) since archery weapons hit the hardest out of any other type in the game. also just have two dexers with archery stacked on top of eachother healing one another and firing at enemies- and watch the glory unfold. I've done this method for a long time, it's like having a dragon turret that you don't have to feed. Be warned though- when reds show up you're gonna lose some archer bots. Another note here: use bows or xbows maybe, Heavy just takes too long to reload the shot to be effective.

Oh man, I'm totally gonna do this. Three archers on a boat all healing each other, all with vanq bows and sucking down blue pots. Then put like barding on one, tracking on another.... You could do some serious pirating with a setup like that.

Thanks for the replys but can someone comment on the amount of arrows im having to use to kill low end spawn? How can you justify pvm with an archer when the cost of arrows is so high?

Did I have that right? 20 arrows from a gm bow to kill a troll? I know that maybe 1/3 or 1/4 of those arrows can be retrieved but geez.....

I would love to kill high end spawn with this archer but shudder at the thought of how much ammo I will need to be carrying around.

The fun of archery on this shard is pretty much finding a deserted place to exploit the terrain and kill stuff or use the skill for more nefarious means (town killing afkers, collecting hued sandals from various npcs)

Don't stick with archery for its farming capabilities. Because despite its apparent safety, it's horribly underpowered and slow.

The cost of arrows ranges between 3 gp per and FREE.

Unless you buy them from other players. I think the rate is 4-5 gp per generally.

If you've got a free day, make a runebook to all the bowyers (don't forget there are 3 in skara, 1 in the guild building NW of the bank and another at the ranger guild on the mainland) Provisioners also sell arrows for 3 gp per, but the restock doesn't work the same so I just use the bowyers. Keep recalling around to the shops and buying out their stocks at server start. By the end of the day you'll have all the arrows you'll need for quite a while. You can also buy up feathers from the bowyer at 2 gp per.

Make a lumberjack/bowyer to gather shafts. Shafts weigh much less than logs or boards, so you can really harvest a lot of them before you get encumbered.

Feathers, either buy the feathers from the bowyer shops or take up tracking and go bird hunting. Hunt with a melee weapon and have the corpse auto-pop up for you. Key a macro to skin nearby corpses, that way the corpse basically just pops up skinned and hands you the feathers. One bird yields 25 feathers (eagles 33) and they are EVERYWHERE. With tracking you will never not be finding a bird nearby, unless you've already hunted out the area. Of course there's also the harpy room in covetous, but there you are limitted by the spawn rate of the harpies. Plus harpies take time to kill, whereas birds drop from one smack of my warfork.

Thanks for the informative post Li, never mind what other ppl say, your ok in my book!!

inkognito wrote:The fun of archery on this shard is pretty much finding a deserted place to exploit the terrain and kill stuff or use the skill for more nefarious means (town killing afkers, collecting hued sandals from various npcs)

Don't stick with archery for its farming capabilities. Because despite its apparent safety, it's horribly underpowered and slow.

Yeah I always see mages and bards farming with far more efficiency than I. But I hunt more for the sport of it.. Well that said, I'm still banking 5k+ gold per hour. It doesn't matter cuz I use fishing to generate income.

But slow... I don't think so. For PVM I'd say archery competes pretty well against melee weapons. In melee you got to run, heal, chase, etc. With full dex, or better yet blue pots, my vanq bow is twanging like a banjo. I can finish off a quarry nearly as fast with it as I can with a one handed melee weapon.

Or so I seem to think. Again, no testing calculation or research of any sort has been conducted to backup anything I'm saying here.

Excretious wrote:Thanks for the informative post Li, never mind what other ppl say, your ok in my book!!

You too. Nevermind if something happened in a flame thread. I have trollish tendecies and get carried away sometimes.

I try to contain myself, but sometimes it's just TOO FUN.

Get gm provoce instead of Peace, thats gona save you alot of arrows

Trolls are all around a bad mob to farm, they take tons of damage from all weapon types for very little pay out. They even resist the hell out of direct damage spells.

Don't farm trolls.

I recommend shooting evil mages, they have no armor so your shots will be more effective. Good payout plus it looks like you still need to GM resist.

Go take some flamestrikes to the chest.

When you get to higher level resist, I would suggest farming lich lords or plain liches with a silver bow or xbow. I used to do this all the time. You'll kill plain liches in maybe 3 shots? Lich lords still take some work, but with only one archer at work you could probably farm about 10k in an hour, maybe less. Plus there is a nice ledge in the lich lord room where you can stand up above and fire down on them -- you'll still take magic damage, but you can step back if needed to heal up. I agree with Rose, don't farm trolls, unless you get some kind of weird kick out of it. Hope this helps.

Yeah, Trolls suck no matter what method you're using to attack them.