New Archer having few questions

Hi there,

I' am pretty much a complete newbie in this game - only one lv15 bird. I spent several hours on the forums in order to improve both my game knowledge and skill, but I still have some questions which I could not find answers.

1) Build: I didn't any clear presentations of birds builds. I read that full Dex is a good and basic option, but a forumer said that adding up to 12 Int could advantageous to have 1 ms (btw, what is "ms"?). Could anybody give me precise and exhaustive details about the mains builds for Archer? :)

2) I know there is a way to reassign attributes points. But can I change the way I spent my skills points?

3) Which stats should I focus on (about gear)? Dex is always a good stat, I guess, but is Hit valuable? Is crit better than Dex? According to this thread, what are the best options (e.g., for green items, "of Excitability" or "Scabby's"?)?

4) If anyone could give me a list of the statistics, from the most profitable to the least important for birds, it would be awesome! :)

5) Heavy crossbows, talons, bows,... How many types of weapons exists for birds? Is daggers a valuable options? What should I use, at my level?

6) And if you could give me couple of advices 'bout PvP and my role on dungeon, it would be amazing!


Well, that's a lot of questions... But I think this game has great potential!

Many thanks for reading, and more if you could answer me! :D

-Sorry for my approximative spelling, I'm French and, well, we are not the most gifted in languages.

hi, welcome to the forums. an archer is a great character to start with.

1) full dex is good. having int to have m/s is pointless as there are some items that already give m/s. also, archers learn the skill meditation which restores a lot of mana. m/s is the amount of mana you gain per second. so if you have 10 m/s, you gain 10 mana per second.

2) yes, you can by purchasing respecs by plat. if you use a respec, it will make your attribute points and skills points reset.

3) you should go all dex. hit is valuable but not really useful if it goes over 100%, unless you plan on playing pvp a lot. the more hit% you have, the less dodging enemies do. also, crit is gained by adding dex so you can't really compare the two. dex increases hit%, crit, dodge, damage and a little bit of armour.
for items, the best for white is of evasion, best for orange is burglar's, best for green is pirate's and best for purple is of the eagle. pinks are kind of hard because there are more choices and the best pinks all differ between each level. for lower level, sniper's is probably your best choice and for higher levels, thoth and isis. however, due to ao3 (a new campaign) more items have been released ranging from level 45-50.

4) what do you mean? are you talking about skills, attribute points, items? make that question more specific.

5) well, to be exact there are battle crossbows, heavy crossbows, talons, bows, auto-crossbows and daggers. however, usually just the term 'bows' tend to cover the battle crossbows, heavy crossbows, auto crossbows and bows. daggers usually fail and i suggest you use an auto-crossbow or a talon.

6) for pvp, always buff first and use debuffs and then your attacking skills. if you are playing a bear just try to keep away from him/her. your role in a dungeon is to deal the most damage while staying behind the tanks. don't rush too ahead and ask for a revive because you die. stay with the group.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raxie

hi, welcome to the forums. an archer is a great character to start with.

---

Thanks! The gameplay seems to fit me, as I always pick this kind of class (Rogue in WoW, Spy in TF2, Ghost in CF,... :D). Wasn't a hard choice.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raxie

1) full dex is good. having int to have m/s is pointless as there are some items that already give m/s.

---

So basically, for a PvE pure DPS, I should go for full Dex? I guess STR is good for PvP?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raxie

also, archers learn the skill meditation which restores a lot of mana. m/s is the amount of mana you gain per second. so if you have 10 m/s, you gain 10 mana per second.

---

Oh, it's much clearer with the slash. :p Btw, is meditation a good skill; is it good to invest points in it?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raxie

2) yes, you can by purchasing respecs by plat. if you use a respec, it will make your attribute points and skills points reset.

---

Ok, thanks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raxie

the more hit% you have, the less dodging enemies do.

---

I didn't know that... It's useful, ty.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raxie

also, crit is gained by adding dex so you can't really compare the two. dex increases hit%, crit, dodge, damage and a little bit of armour.

---

Well I guess 1 DEX =! 1 crit? If I had to choose between 1 DEX and 2 crit, what should I take?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raxie

for items, the best for white is of evasion, best for orange is burglar's, best for green is pirate's and best for purple is of the eagle.

---

This is very helpful information.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raxie

4) what do you mean? are you talking about skills, attribute points, items? make that question more specific.

---

Oh, sorry, I was talking about attribute points, e.g. DEX>Crit>STR>...>INT.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raxie

5) well, to be exact there are battle crossbows, heavy crossbows, talons, bows, auto-crossbows and daggers. however, usually just the term 'bows' tend to cover the battle crossbows, heavy crossbows, auto crossbows and bows. daggers usually fail and i suggest you use an auto-crossbow or a talon.

---

Daggers seem indeed very weird to play with a ranged class...

Well, your explanations and advices helped me a lot, lot of thanks!

np. str is not very helpful in pve and pvp but i guess it makes you live a bit longer. however, you won't do as much damage if you put some points in str as you would if you had pure dex.
str increases health (2 points in str increases hp by 1) and a little bit of damage and dps. however, dex increases damage and dps much more than str. also, str gives some h/s but a very minimal amount; about 50 str is needed to gain two h/s.
meditation is a very important skill to have for archers until they get some decent mana regen items, like thoth. if you don't have meditation, you will be spamming mana pots all day long. max meditation and you won't have to worry about mana as much.
i think 2 dex is 1 crit. also, take the 2 crit than 1 dex although i'm not sure if there is even a situation like that.
as i said before, you can't really compare attribute points with stats. for attribute points, dex > str > int. dex is definitely the most important stat for an archer to have.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raxie

if you don't have meditation, you will be spamming mana pots all day long. max meditation and you won't have to worry about mana as much.

---

I saw that, hehe.

Thanks again!