even best possible weapon, they are still slow and weak, to a point that they are unuseable. shouldn't they be slightly better than other warriors, since they use up resources to attack? instead its like im shooting with a nerf gun. killing a earth elemental with the valentines day bow takes twice as long as killing it with a normal gm made mace. ....and that is a very hard weapon to come by as it cannot be crafted like other runics.... I fill like fixing this would open up a lot more play styles, and make players more interested in the shard. thoughts?
Ooo @nilmer your not alone, in fact the boat is full 7 forum threads with 100+ player comments should be evidence enough... MAKE CHANGES TO ARCHERY!
I find an archer is a fun secondary character to use for PVM support. I Alt+Click to have the archer follow my main character, and it then it serves as an arrow-flinging turret to dish passive damage while I control my main character. Sometimes I'll also have it run a constant heal macro so I just have to step close for a quick heal. Otherwise, yes, I find that it's a fairly limited skill.
I wouldn't call them unusable. I use one as part of my fishing party and i have a provo archer i use for xmas scrolls, lvl 7s, etc. But at the same time, it's painful when I hit for less than my melee counterparts per hit when using the same modifiers on weapons. The ability to avoid damage from purely melee mobs is nice, but outside of ogre lords and some instance mobs there's not a ton of benefit there.
I have found unique uses for archery but in most cases it deals about 1/2 the damage of other weapon types.
I don't believe archery was ever intended to be used as main weapons skill in UO. Think of archers behind the lines launching arrows - as a support character - that was their intention. However there are clever ways to employ the skill to your advantage. Also, there is a timer on the shoot but it depends on ping and your playskill/familiarity. I think some servers OPd archers to make it as a main. But, we could use a buff on UOR for archers with bleeding/dbl dmg/critical hit - something.
I don't think its just that the damage is significantly less, Its also that the chance to hit is significantly less, unless your are standing next to the target. example: I fought a pk with a +5 Vanq Heavy Xbow.... i shot him 6 times before he killed me. ......only 1 shot hit. Distance reduces accuracy, moving reduces accuracy. GM fencing VS GM fencing = 50% chance to hit GM archery VS GM fencing 4 tiles away = what? 30% accuracy? and if you are chasing/running and a distance apart that becomes 5% accuracy? that maybe a exxageration, but not by much
Also interesting how a +25 bow (which should actually increase hit chance) doesn't seem to really help all that much (anecdotally). I'd like to experiment with this a bit on test center at some point as it seems like something might very well be off.
Very interesting points... What i want to say is: Hey Cris i am investing in 4(maybe 5) archers... so is better you make something about it!
Yeah , outside of provo / archers or tamer / archers .. they're basically useless (except also as tentacle hunters during harrower events). I run an ossy archer , and it's a lot of fun, but I also realize that I could make double the damage with some kind of melee weapon.
Perhaps the distance / accuracy needs to be adjusted based on skill. A GM archer at 10 tiles should have a great hit rate compared to 50 skill for example.
Archery is abysmal here. They don't even have a special blow like axes having concussion, spears having paralyse etc. I think a nice tweak to archery would be cool where you get a chance of a critical strike, much like the others - this could either paralyse or perhaps weaken the target - maybe take their overall HP down by 20-30% meaning the next hit can take a larger chunk of their health. Alternatively implement poisoned arrows, which is completely realistic and wouldn't detract much from the era and overall gameplay. I honestly think Chris and his volunteers should be prioritising fixes for these mechanics over anything else (including CuB). FIX THE REAL ISSUES AND STOP TRAMMELISING THE SHARD FURTHER!!!
I haven’t logged in in almost two years. It always seemed to me that tamers get all the attention and perks. A decent dexxer/archery weapon then was 500k+ and to even take it out was a big risk at losing 500k just in the weapon. Not to mention if you had decent armor. Tamers wear GM leather and a bag of regs and a few bonded dragons or mares and if they lose against a PK or die and get looted they’re out 15k in regs armor and if they’re pet dies a few hours macroing while they sleep. Basically minimal risk. Yes, i have a tamer too. Two of them actually. One disco tamer and a dexxer tamer. They’re quite fun but I also enjoyed my archers and dexxers. I guess after searching threads not much has changed.
after a few archer builds.. lots of arrows in the trash I kept 2 archers, a archer tamer(archery, tactics, anatomy, taming, lore, vet, magery) where I usually use power and vanqs and a mage archer that I really don't know what to do. archer tamer is a very funny build.. strange, not much mana for heals, but the archery is just a bonus damage and you can always be well positioned in the field, not in the middle of the fire... with a orcist bow, very effective against harrowers and cupid champ. With a good slayer, a nice option for some ironman. for me, the best combo for archery I found so far.
I was refreshing my tower today and thinking of coming back to make an archer guild. Only rule is Gm archery. After all these years who needs min/max. We may actually need to rely on each other. Would anyone be for that kind of idea?
I use Archery for a fishing template to fight Sea Serpents and Elementals on a boat, but that's about it. And even then, Magery can do the job better.
